A Bunch Of Random Stuff!

This post just has a bunch of random things that didn't really need there own post. Without further ado! 

Here's our new dishwasher. It's a Whirlpool and it was on sale for just a little over $300. My favorite thing is the silverware holder is in the door. It holds SO many more dishes! 

One morning Owen came downstairs and put pillows on the floor. I'm not sure if Charlie willingly laid on them, but I do know that Owen covered him up with his Seahawks blanket! 

One day after staff meeting we went out for lunch. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings. There were having buy one get one free on wings. We ended buying 2 large orders and getting 2 large orders for free. That was 88 wings!!! It's was awesome!!! 

When Michael was going through the Voters Pamphlet he came across the commissioner position for his district. Michael started reading what it said about Russ and then realized that he wrote that biography for the water districts website. Kind of cool that something he wrote ended up in a voters pamphlet!!!

Every year the kindergarten's decorate a turkey in a disguise. I remember Ella decorated hers as Minnie Mouse. I wish I had a picture. Zeke wanted to make his look like a bumble bee! He was so proud. 

Ella loves it when I play with her hair. One night I sprayed it down pretty good and then French braided it. 

The next day her curls were so pretty! 

Last week was conferences at school. The kids are all doing great. I just had to get a picture of Ms. Davidson with all her Martin kids. We love her!!! 

Happy Halloween 2017 AKA The Year They Finally Learned How To Say "Trick Or Treat" In Unison!!!

First off I really don't like it when Halloween falls on a school night. We always go down to Ga-Ga & Pa's for Halloween. It's tradition and we are not going to mess with that, but it really stunk that we were stuck in traffic for 1.5 hrs to get there! Ugh!! 

It was quite a bit chiller on Halloween night so Ella Bean wore a pretty white sweater. She also kept her leggings on under her dress. 

My cute wizard!!! 

At the Fall Festival it was just fine for Owen to wear his helmet, but on Halloween night it was just too dark! He couldn't see anything. That was something that neither of us thought of...oh well! 

Cute cowboy with his imaginary lasso!

All ready to go! 

The kids did so well this year. After coaching them year after year they finally got it. They finally would say in unison "Trick or Treat" really loud when the person answered the door. They even surprised a few people. I'm actually amazed at how many kids don't even say anything....they just open their bag and want candy. Come on parents teach your kids!!! I was so proud of them. I told them they needed to say three things, Trick or Treat, Thank You and Happy Halloween. They were so good at doing that. 

Jack's loot! 

Zeke's haul! 

Owen already dipping into his! 

Ella Bean with all her candy! 

Ella Bean after we took out all the candy with dye in it and after her brother's traded chocolate for her dye candy. 

And...here's the pile of candy with dye in it that Ella can not eat. So sad!!!

Riverview Community Church - Fall Festival!

This year our churches Fall Festival was on a Saturday. We usually have it on a Sunday, but we have a Financial Peace Class that meets on Sunday nights so the church didn't want to mess that up by having the festival at the same time. 

All 3 of the boys got new costumes this year. I found Zeke's & Jack's at the Mill Creek garage sales.  Zeke's Woody costume was only $2 and Jack's Harry Potter costume was only $3. Owen had worn the same Army costume for the last 2 or 3 years so I decided it was time for him to have a brand new one. He had seen this Halo guy at Wal-Mart earlier in the month and he was so happy that I got it for him.  

Logan was here for a visit during that weekend. She was at our house from Friday night to Sunday morning. It was so wonderful. She just fits right in and Ella and her were in heaven! In August when we were visiting Logan she actually gave Ella the Elena dress that she's wearing in this picture. Logan had brought another outfit...I think a Sanderson witch costume, but she decided on Elena instead. Ella was going to wear Elena at first, but then when I went shopping I found this Elsa dress on clearance at Sam's Club. It was missing the headpiece, but I didn't care. Ella had just showed me a book the day before with Elsa in it and she specifically said she wanted that dress. Seeing her face when I gave it to her was just priceless!!!  

That's one strong Halo dude!!! 

Expecto Patronum!!!!

There's a snake in my boot!!! 

It was crazy that it was actually nice enough out that Logan didn't even need to wear a jacket! 

My beautiful princess!!! Ella and Logan did not want to use tradition candy bags instead they opted to use these puzzle bags that I got Ella years ago. 

This entire weekend ended up being so crazy! 

Friday: 

Michael came home early from work. I tried to do the dishes and noticed that the dishwasher did drain. Michael ends up spending the time he took off work early to try to fix the dishwasher. Michael realizes that our dishwasher is so old (we got in 2001 from a friend and it was used then) that he can't find anything online for that model. He tries his hardest, but can not get the part off that he needs to...we think it was corroded. He decides we need a new dishwasher. Logan comes to our house for the weekend. I leave to go out with my girlfriends for a night out on the town. I get home around 11:30pm. 

Saturday: 

I wake up with my neck all out of whack. I have no time for this since our weekend is so busy. I call around to at least 5 chiropractors because mine isn't open on the weekend. Michael orders a new dishwasher online that's at Lowe's. I finally get ahold of a chiropractor that will take me. I shower quickly and head to my appointment. Michael takes 5 children up to Lowe's to pick up the new dishwasher. I get my neck fixed and come home. I sit down and ice my neck and watch Ant Man with the kids while Michael installs the new dishwasher. Michael gets a call asking him to come help set up the big tent for the Fall Festival that night. While he's gone I noticed that the kitchen looks like the clouds have parted and the light from heaven is shining down. I turn off the kitchen lights only to find out that our kitchen lights are able to be controlled by 3 light switches. Michael gets home I tell him the issue and he gets to work figuring it out. An hour or so later and it's time to go to the Fall Festival. Michael is supposed to man a game out of our trunk while I'm supposed to help out at registration. On the way to the church Michael expresses that he's honestly worried our house might burn down and it makes him nervous that Charlie is in the house. He drops me and the kids off and goes back home to work on the electrical issues some more. I end up running the game for Michael and thankfully Micah and Kim came to the Fall Festival with their kids and they take my 4 kids plus Logan around to all the trunks and games. Michael comes and picks us up. We stop at MCD's for dinner...by this time I had only eaten a bowl of Rice Krispy's and 1 pancake and I'm so light-headed I just need food!!! We eat dinner and finish watching Ant Man. Michael gets back to work on the electrical. I stay up until 11:30pm with him. Michael ends up staying up until 3:30am!!!

Sunday: 

Michael gets up when I do and runs to the hardware store. I get all ready for church. Richard comes to pick up Logan. I take the kids to church while Michael stays home to continue working on the electrical. I usher for him at both services. During the second service I get a text saying he finally fixed the issue and he was going to take a nap and he'd meet us at church later. Michael gets to church prior to the second service ending. After church we leave Michael's car at the church and drive together to a friend's house for a farewell party for Brandon and Elaine....they were leaving our church and going into ministry at another one in the area. After that party we head back to church for our FPU class. I taught the K-6th graders class while Michael led our table at the adult class. Once class was over we went home and that was the end of our crazy, crazy weekend. 

If you read all that you are amazing! It's definitely one of those things in life where you look back on it and think....how in the world did we get through that? God...is the only answer to that question!

Girls Weekend!

Whenever Ga-Ga & Pa go on vacation I always try to schedule a girls weekend while they are gone. This particular girls weekend ended up being a little different. For one it was only Kim and I most of the time. Starr & Mackenzie had just gotten back from their 2 week trip to Europe. Secondly we ended up coming down on Friday morning and leaving on Saturday night. It was so awesome to be able to leave on Friday. Yay for having all 4 kids in school and an amazing neighbor that will watch them after school until Michael gets home!!! We did end up going out to dinner with Starr & Mackenzie on Friday night. We ate at Café Mia's in Puyallup and the funniest thing was we all had the exact same dinner. We were all about the Caesar salad and Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti.  

On Saturday Kim and I slept in and then we got down to business...she was knitting socks while I was....

was working on the 2018 calendar. Usually I'm so on top of it, but this year I hadn't even started and it was mid-October. I ended up getting all caught up so now I just have to do the last 3 months of the year. 

On top of that Kim had another mission....to introduce me to the joy of Anne of Green Gables. I'm almost ashamed to say it, but I had never ever seen it. Not once, not even a little bit. Honestly I had never had a desire to. What was wrong with me??? Oh my word....I loved every bit of it and I can't wait to watch the next two.

Kim also brought all the ingredients to make a brookie. It's a brownie/cookie in a skillet that you top with ice cream and it was amazing! We may or may not have only had that and popcorn for dinner that night. We ended our girls weekend with me introducing Kim to izombie....I don't think she was as enthralled with that as I was with Anne...you can't win 'em all. We also watched a bunch of funny Michael McIntyre videos just prior to coming home. I love that me and my girlfriends benefit from my parents going on vacation.  

Final Mother's Day Gift For 2017!

For Mother's Day Jackson made me a bouquet of paper flowers with different gifts written on them. The gifts were A hug and a kiss, a car wash, a movie and candy and ice cream. I had actually used all of them up except the ice cream. 

Jackson really had his heart set on taking me to ice cream on Saturday October 14th. I had just spent the day cleaning and organizing the house and I didn't even get a shower until 5 or 6pm!! I did not want to go out, but I wasn't going to disappoint my boy! 

I didn't even have make-up on! I can't even tell you the last time I left the house without make-up on. Maybe the night I went into labor with Owen.

We went to the Baskin Robbins in Federal Way. It was really slow so we didn't have to wait at all. Jackson got rainbow sherbet and I got Daiquiri Ice. I've loved that flavor since I was Jack's age. The funny thing is I actually read the description and it had rum flavoring in it....I hate rum! I had such a nice time being treated to ice cream by my sweet 9 year old boy! 

My Office!

Just for fun I thought I'd share pictures of my office. 

It's funny because I have actually moved more things around since this picture was taken. The black printer on the left wasn't hooked up and I really didn't care for it to be so I took it out. I'm connected to the big printer/copier so I just use that instead. I found a really nice file organizer so I put that in the place where the printer was. I love my window and keep the curtains open all the time. There is a huge tree right outside my window and it's been so fun watching the leaves change colors. 

The first picture and the picture above are taken right when you walk into my office. I had to bring in some decorations from home. I love sunflowers...they make me happy! I also love the word Joy so I brought in my Joy craft that I made for MOPS last year. This cabinet is the same one we have in our home office. I'm still trying to make the best use of it. Some of the stuff in the boxes isn't even stuff I use. Soon I'm going to be doing a major overhaul of the storage room in the office so I'm sure even more stuff will get moved around then. 

This is the view I see when turn around while I'm sitting at my desk. I was so excited to see that night big wall. I had been wanting to print out my favorite picture of the kids on canvas, but I didn't really have room for it at home. I love that I get to turn around and see my babies. It really is a big picture 16 X 20, but that wall is big too so it doesn't look as big as I thought it would. I really would like Michael to build me a barn wood frame to go around the picture and that will help bulk it up a bit.

On a side note: I had never used Mac products before and was quite nervous when I found out that was what was in the church office. Pastor Andy assured me that I would catch on quickly and end up loving them. He was absolutely right!!! I love my Mac computer at work! I'm not going to rush out and purchase one or get myself an iphone, but it nice to not feel completely inept. I'm still learning for sure, but I definitely feel more confident in my abilities now. 

Date Day!

Michael gets banker holidays! He gets more holidays off than the kids do...hence Columbus Day! I normally work on Monday's, but since he was off I asked if I could switch my hours around so I could have Monday off and work Friday instead. It worked out perfect for us to have a date day courtesy of the Federal Way Public School System. 

The weather could not have been more beautiful!

It was a perfect day to go golfing! 

We went down to the par 3 / 9 hole golf course in Kent. 

It was only $20 for us both to go golfing. 

Michael had just recently gone with his co-worker Andre, but I hadn't been in years. 

It took me a couple holes to get in the swing (pun intended) of things. 

We only had to wait at a couple holes, but for the most part it was just us. When we were finished we looked over at the first hole and there was a line waiting to start. 

After golfing we headed up to Value Village to donate a bunch of stuff. For lunch we used my birthday gift certificate to go to Mama Stortini's and then we hit up See's Candy for dessert. I used the rest of my gift card and bought some dark chocolate molasses chips. Oh my word! I did not know that I needed these in my life, but I SO needed those in my life. Amazing!!! 

Once we got home we still had some time to ourselves. Michael ended up working on my computer and I ran a bunch of errands. The kids were jealous when we told them we were going to have a date day so we decided to surprise them and have a date night with them. We picked them up from the bus stop and headed straight to the cheap theater to watch Cars 3! It was such a fun day!!!