Frosty Day

Today was a frosty day. I have no idea how cold it was outside, obviously FREEZING!

We had no where to go, so we tried to stay warm inside.

Our trees, however, were wishing for warmth.

The sun was shining, but someone must have turned down it's furnace.

I love it when the frost stays on the trees, telephone wires, fence posts, etc, all day. I

t even makes the barbed wire look nifty.

So, dad, these pictures are for you:

Silly Topher

I have a silly Topher.

"What is a Topher", you ask? Well he is my man. Many people are scared of him. I hear all the time that people are afraid to call our house to talk to him 'cause he is scary. My kids' friends are scared of him, until they get use to him. He is just ever so serious with his manly-man mustache. Whatever!

Last Sunday he was in High Priest Group the teacher gave the men each a pen and and a little yellow notepad to take notes. Instead of notes, my Topher did this:

It says: "I will not speak out of turn" over and over again!

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And because you read this blog, here is a treat for you. A really good recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies my wonderful neighbor gave me. Flora makes the best cookies. I try all the time to get her just to make me some. So the other day she surprised me at work with a plates full of cookies, and the recipe so I could make them myself. Not quite the same!!!

It is all my fault!

I know that title sounds a little like, "What is she talking about?", but it is true.

After a little Face Booking and reading up on friends and such, I realize that everything might just be my fault.

I have children who:
1. Will not wear ponytails because their hair might blow off in the wind. My fault. I hate the wind in my hair.
2. Must have their shoe laces totally even when tied. The loops cannot be too big, and the "dangles" cannot touch the ground or one be longer than the other. My fault.
3. Rylie cannot eat with anything but plastic utensils, and not the throwaway kind. The kind you still have to wash. My fault. I hate metal.
4. They hate socks because they suffocate the toes. Yep, my crazy has rubbed off!
5. They have to put their backpacks in the same place every night. No one can go off to bed until they are put in their place. It is OK to leave toys all over the house, just not the backpacks. My fault. My purse is always in the same place.
6. When showering, there is a washing order: Hair, body, face, feet. What can I say?
7. They love to do things in birth order. Not me, I swear.
8. Dylann has to constantly be touching me. I guess I did not nurse her long enough or something. Whatever!
9. They cannot go upstairs alone. They would rather stand and freeze, then run upstairs alone to get dressed after the bath. I did not cause this!
10. Even though they are in the house all day long, at night it gets all sorts of scary. Monsters are around every corner and under every bed once the sun goes down. So what if I tell them scary stories? It's my job! It is their fault the believe me!
11. They can see a scary show on t.v. and be fine that night. But 3 days later it replays in their mind and they know someone is going to get them. I like scary things. But I have my Topher to save me from the creatures of the night.
12. Rylie has do do things in color order. Long Live 'ROY G BIV'. That was the worst thing I could have learned in school. Don't tell a girl with OCD that there is a color order in the light spectrum. Come on! So now I have Rylie convinced everything has to be in order!
14. Thirteen is unlucky. Especially because Rylie was born on Friday the 13th. And we for sure will not watch that movie. As long as scary movies don't have anything to do with '13', I'm in.
15. Kendall must sleep with her sisters. She has her own room, which she insisted we paint Pirate themed, and now it is too scary to sleep in. The only thing 'Pirate Scary' really is 4 wall decals of Will, Captain Jack Sparrow, Bootstrap Bill & Davy Jones. She wont take them down, so we have to peel their heads down at night. All I had on my wall was Micheal Jackson, and I should have been scared, but I wasn't.
16. They all think the donkey down the street is trying to eat them in the night. I agree with this one. He sounds possessed.
17. If we leave a window open, for sure a bird or a bat will fly in and peck our eyes out. But we will lay out on the trampoline all night in the summer to watch bats. So we have had a few in the house and fly around like they wanted our hair and eyes for dinner. SO WHAT! It is just a bird girls!!
18. They all have blankies and stuffed animals they must sleep with. I had the same blanket and pillow for years that I could not sleep without. Then I started to get all freaked out about dust mites in my pillow and after washing it, I put the pillow in the dryer, it exploded! But that's another story. I still have one blanket that is only mine and I cannot sleep without. It usually travels with me too. But this one is Topher's fault too. He loves his silky :) So lets say that # 18 is all his fault.
19. They all chew on plastic. Not one of my girls can resist a hot-glue stick, pen, etc. This is totally my fault. My mom would yell at me for chewing up all her hot glue gun sticks.
20. They have to touch things. It's almost like that show MONK. If they pass a fence, every rail has to be touched. Totally my fault. I cannot not touch things. I have to kick the ice off peoples cars. (I almost broke my foot doing that.) I have to touch parking meters, what ever is there to touch. Yep, crazy!

I will stop at 20, for any of you who even cared to read this post. But I could go on, and on, and on, and on . . .

Their behaviors are all my fault, BUT MINE ARE MY MOTHER'S FAULT!!!!!

Why can't we have school on Friday????

Friday is fun day here in Rich County. No, really it is travel 2 to 10 hours to play sports day for our High School kids. So the kids only have to go to school Monday throughThursday.

SO - if I have to go in to work on Friday, Rylie is left to babysit. Yep, she is only 11 1/2, but I work 1 block from my house all you people who want to call DCFS on me. j/k. (I might could use the break!)

I came home for lunch, fed them, made them clean up a little. We clean so the next round of messes do not look so big when I get home at 5:00. Smart mom!

So tonight I get home to this:

This is a "FORT" . Chairs and blankets piled up in front of the fireplace for an evening of warding off the wild animals here in Randolph. They can't clean it up, because it is where they are sleeping tonight. Yea for adventures.

After the explanation on the fort, I went in to make dinner. Cashew Chicken and Rice. Rylie walked in, saw the "stuff" in the pan, and informed me that she was having soup. What a kid. She eats more soup than anything else. I guess when the soup is gone, she will have to eat what I fix her!

Some nights when I put dinner on the table, she asks if I am "trying to kill her"??? She told me once she was going to call the cops and tell them I was starving her to death. I told her that the Sheriff's (cause we have a Sheriff in our town) conversation with me might go like this:

Sheriff: "Do you have food in the house?"

Shelly: "Yep."

Sheriff: "Do you make meals?"
Shelly: "Yes. At least once a day."

Sheriff: "Is it nutritious and delicious?"

Shelly: "Totally! Duhhh!"

Sheriff: "Sorry Rylie. Learn to not be so damn picky!"

So I went to visit with a friend of mine and decided to spice up my hair a little.

January at the Zoo!

So maybe it is not so fun to head out to the zoo in January. It is a tad bit chilly, even for those of us use to freezing temperatures. We had to go see Ryann's Sloth. (Now I know it is not really hers to keep. Duhh! But she is in love with Hoffman's Sloth (His real name). So we have to visit when we can.) He is usually sleeping his exhausting life away in his sling, but this time, he was AWAKE!! ( Which meant hours (really 1/2 an hour) standing at his window hoping for a smile.)

Mr. Sloth, which is pronounced by Ryann: Mr. Sloss, was chomping on his basket of veggies and scratching himself with great intent. Who knew all that moss growing on him would itch??

Ryann laughed and laughed. And danced around at his window. She was so excited to see him eating. Then we had to watch the 5 inch journey he took back to his sling to nap that took 25 minutes.

Here are some pics of 'Mr. Sloss' living it up at the zoo.

Ryann thought the Zoo was too loud. She spent much of her time covering her ears. She is not NORMAL!

And here are a few other animals ( and a freaky lizard) we had to take pictures of:

One strange man kept seeing us take pictures and commented that my girls might be a new zoo exhibit. If only he knew just how true that could be. "Some see the Wild Hillbilly Children who hate to brush their hair. Hate to wear shoes. Hate to wear normal looking clothes. Love to hang out in the woods."

HOOOOOOT!

I love a good owl here and there. We have giant pine trees on each side of our house that are homes to an owl in each. During 'Owl Mating Season' the trees get a little animated. The branches rustle and you can hear some pretty strange noises. Rylie is afraid to sleep with her window open in the summer for fear a giant owl will fly in to her room and "HOOT" all over her.

Our trees are pretty dense, so we have never been able to get a good picture of our neighbors. So lucky for me, I get to walk underneath a giant owl every time I head in to my office. We all try to avoid the section of sidewalk splattered in owl poop and dead animal carcasses.

One night when my dad was driving up to our house, he hit a ginormous owl. The wingspan was as wide as my dad's Ford F259 grill. It just swooped out of the fog and - SPLAT! Big ol' hole in the grill. The owl waddled off into the night.

Isn't living in the wilderness awesome.

Info Tag

I got this email earlier from some friends. I emailed a few others and cannot wait to see their answers. For the others of you who I like to spy on in the blog world, this is for you. Hopefully you will post your anwsers.

"Welcome to the new 2009 edition of getting to know your family andfriends. Here is what you are supposed to do, and try not to be lameand spoil the fun. Change all the answers so that they apply to you.Then send this to a bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person whosent it to you. Some of you may get this several times; that meansyou have lots of friends. The easiest way to do it is to hit 'forward'so you can change the answers or copy and paste. Have fun and betruthful!"

1. What is your occupation right now? Mom / Rich County Deputy Treasurer.
2. What color are your socks right now? Black.
3. What are you listening to right now? Katy Parry CD.
4. What was the last thing that you ate? Cheeseburger.
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes.
6. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My husband.
7. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Totally!
8. How old are you today? 34 years & 8 months.
9. What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Soccer.
10. What is your favorite drink? COKE*A*COLA
11. Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, but not for a very long time. I dig my color.
12. Favorite food? Pizza.
13. What is the last movie you watched? ‘Paul Blart – Mall Cop’
14. Favorite day of the year? The First Day of School for my kids! Yee Haw!!!
15. How do you vent anger? Scream at everyone!
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Snoopy Snowcone Machine.
17. What is your favorite season? Fall.
18. Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries.
19. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Yes.
20. Who is the most likely to respond? Good question!
21. Who is least likely to respond? Don’t know?
22. Living arrangements? In a house with my husband and 4 kids.
23. When was the last time you cried? I wanted to last night. But I screamed instead!
24. What is on the floor of your closet? An old computer and 2 bolts of fabric.
25. Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? Back to Em & Kris.
26. What did you do last night? Screamed and cleaned the kitchen floor. Then relaxed with my Topher.
27. What are you most afraid of? Having to live without the ones I love.
28. Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? American Cheese.
29. Favorite dog breed? Labs -just take a look at my giant dog!
30. Favorite day of the week? Saturday.
31. How many states have you lived in? 1, but I grocery shop in another.
32. Diamonds or pearls? Pearls.
33. What is your favorite flower? Daffodil.
34. Your favorite book? The “Odd Thomas” Series by Dean Koontz
35. If you won the lotto, what would be the first three things you would do?? Pay everything off. Build a house. Help my family.
36. Do you wrap the 'Santa' gifts or just display them under the tree? Display.
37. If you could be anything in the world you wanted, what would you be? A saver of children.
38. If you could have any superpower what would it be? Chameleon.

As I sit here at my parent's with a sick Ryann, while they take my 3 older girls to Trenton's birthday party, I have found so many cute pictures of my kids on my dad's computer. So here are a few of my favorites:

Rylie & Dylann

Kendall

Kendall - the first of my girls to try their own haircut!

Another shot of Pickles! She was so cute! Still is a little fasion lover!

Rylie with a smile - how rare!

And finally Ryann with hair. it seems so strange that she once had enough hair to put in a tiny ponytail. Oh the good old days!

Is almost twelve the new 66*?

Rylie was so cute at 3:

And now:

She is still cute. BUT. . .

I am not so excited for this tween thing. Rylie is pressing her luck every day with me. I find every day is a challenge. I am sure more for her than me. I never though I would have kids that yelled, "I hate you!", "You are ruining my life!", "I am never going to school. I will never graduate. I will have a crappy job. And never move out!' All this at the age of 11 & 1/2!

When she yells at me I wait for her head to spin around and pea soup to spit out of her mouth!

My mom just laughs! Thanks Mom!

If anyone has advice - let me have it! Rylie is #1, only 3 tween girls to go after her!!

A Brand New Year - HOLY CRAP!

I cannot believe it is 2009. What the heck happened to 2008?

And yes - It really was -23*F Sunday morning. By the time we left for church at 11:30am it was -12*. I think it warmed up to 2*. The cold is COLD. Luckily we don't have cows to feed. The poor ranchers who have to get out there and feed the beef, I admire their dedication.

We had a great holiday - hope you all did as well. Christmas came and went in a flash of wrapping paper and batteries.

It all started with the SRE Christmas Program. It was so cute. Kendall was all dressed up as a cowgirl and really hammed it up for her performance. She was decked out with a big belt, pink hat and spurs. Dylann had to dance with a boy - yuck. She hurried and deleted the cute pictures of her and the boy holding hands. Drama Queen!

The girls all got the one thing they really wanted. Rylie got her Nintendo DS. She got the Brainage game, so I do not feel as bad when she plays her games all night long. At least she is using her brain! But she spent more of Christmas break reading. She is obsessed with reading. And they are good books too. No more 'Captain Underpants' for her:)

Dylann was the most pleased. All she wanted for Christmas was night vision goggles. Since Thanksgiving Topher and I bugged her about wanting goggles. What kind of 9 year old girl wants those? Dylann Pickles does! And she is stoked. She cannot wait for summer to sleep out on the trampoline and watch the bats fly all night. And to see the potty at night when we are camping. Such fun things to do with NIGHT VISION!

Kendall got a laptop. It is a spy edition V-Tech, with a ton of educational games to play and other languages to learn. She thinks she is a spy and likes to collect spy gear.

Ryann was the only one who did not get exactly what she wanted. She really wanted a sloth. She will have to settle for tips to the Hogle Zoo to visit her sloth ( she thinks he is hers anyway. We spend forever at his window just watching him sleep). I could not even find a stuffed sloth. I might have to figure out how to make her one. She also wanted a 'bird suit' and a hippopotamus. The bird suit did not arrive, but I found little hippo containers and gave those to her. She was cool with that.

Grandpa & Grandma Russell came up Christmas Day in a blizzard, and left in one too. The next day we headed to Grandma Stapel's for a sleep over and to Grandma Salt's Christmas Pizza Party at the "Senior Community". I love Grandma Salt! She crocheted(?) all of the kids little hats and gave them these wild socks. I always will remember my Grandma Salt and her crochet gifts for holidays. She has made everything from crazy clown dolls, candlestick lifesaver covers that looked more like wiener warmers to pooping chickens for Easter. She made horses for Cabbage Patch kids, aprons, quilts and much more. I think that is why I appreciate and try to make homemade gifts.

The girls spent 4 days with Aunt Liz, Uncle Jeff and the boys. Ryann stayed with me and followed me everywhere. Tater was here off and on. It was very strange only having 1 kid. Ryann missed her sisters very much. but the girls had a blast with the boys. Liz is so relaxed and calm - traits I admire. She even got them to eat Pesto, now they are bugging me to make it.

New Years has left us wondering what fun and exciting adventures 2009 will bring. Christopher is saying no to any big vacation, unless it is a cruise. I am voting for some adventure to take the girls on. A trek across to Navoo or Mount Rushmore sounds fun. He can stay home if that is too boring.

Ryann is a Sunbeam now. My baby is officially big. No more nursery. Rylie will go to Young Women's in June. Crazy! I cannot believe I am old enough to have a 12 year old. I am not sure I am ready for all the drama that is about to hit our world. 4 teenage girls is going to be a mess of emotions and tampax! Topher thinks he is going to leave all the drama for me to deal with - NO WAY!!!!! He made the girls, he will deal with the girls!

I hope all you out there in blogging land have a super 2009!