Happy day!

Elle decided to organize her trunk or treat loot. She looks pretty happy in her rainbow of candy!
I'm VERY happy too because today we have blue sky!! Yea! I can breathe again!

Trunk or treat

Elle dresed us as a little witch for our trunk or treat party on Sat. Oct 27.
I wore my flapper dress that Kristen made me so I could get good use out of it and I made Chris wear 20's guy style stuf to compliment me. Notice that his tie is the same color as my dress. Oh yes, I planned these details, people! He made sure to tell everoyne at the party that I was the one who MADE him dress up and I picked out everything for him. When he took his hat off, he had a total flat top. It was great. I didn't think to take a picture of that though.
After soup at the Church, I painted Elle's face Wicked style.
Her cat was our trunk. Chris and I did it together. I did the eyes and nose and he did the ears and teeth. Then, he threw in our pink bean bag for the tongue which added a nice touch. He also assembled it when we got to the Church. It was a big hit!
Elle counted and said she got a total of 66 pieces of candy. (although she was hard pressed to count the raisenetts since she hates raisins)
We stopped by our old building afterward to see our friends there.
We had quite a day!

A "Fairy" fun day

Yesterday, Chris and I went with Elle to a birthday party. We started out by going on a "Faery" hunt. They used "fairy" a lot like I did in the title. Elle and all the other little girls were supposed to gather natural gifts for the fairies they might see.
The White fairy is the queen of the fairies and they told us she "looks timeless." You can also see the purple and pink fairies whose names I forget at the moment.
The "hunt" was actually just a play with adults dressed in costumes. They just did different pats of the play as we walked along in the forest. You can get a taste for the thing by watching this clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq_ynaaUqL8
At the end, the fairies signed the girls' "certificates" which were really just a printed paper with pictures of the cast on it. Oh well. I'm just glad we didn't have to pay for it!
I think Elle liked it and that's all that counts.

ALL IS WELL!

As my leg says, "yes" all is well with me. Thanks for everyone who prayed and called and emailed!

I woke up at 4:30 am on Thursday and got to the hospital at 5:00. Then, I waited a bit and was escorted upstairs where I waited a bit more and then checked in. Then, I waited a half hour and they called me to pre-op. I donned my Semore Butts attire and answered more questions, and then my anesthesiologist came. The first thing he said was, "Where are you from?" Then, of course, "Are you Mormon?" he said he had a friend who was Mormon and so he's been looking into our Church. I set him straight about polygamy and the RLDS church and told him to go to Mormon.org. or lds.org.
Then, I got my IV about 6:30 and started to feel woosy. They wheeled me into the procedure room or whatever and told me to get on an uncomfortable table, which I did and promptly went to sleep.
I woke up in the room where patients wait to go home (I got to skip the recovery room :) No pain and no holes. So, I'll just let you think about how they inserted a stent into my urethra. Ya. SO glad I was under.
I just felt groggy and a little weak, but NOTHING compared to the last time I had this done! (yea! yea!). I watched Home Improvement until I got to go home at 10 am. They said just to take it easy and not to drive or bathe for a day.
Chris stayed with me until I told him to go have lunch. He went out with some friends while I napped.
I'm great now (besides a cold I have which has nothing to do with the "procedure")
It must have been all your prayers that made this so easy! So another big THANK YOU!! for you.
They'll do some blood work in 1 week to see if the stent is doing its job. If it is, it'll come out in 6 weeks. If not, we go back to square one.
That is probably WAY more than you ever wanted to know about the internal workings of Nanette.

Bad news and good things

So, for all my faithful readers out there, I just want you to know I'm having a "procedure" done on Thursday, October 25th. They're checking for scar tissue on my urethra since my kidney isn't draining well. If there is scar tissue, they'll put in another stent. (the same day, I think) My doctor scheduled it for Thursday morning since he'll be leaving on vacation Thursday afternoon.
Chris will be taking the day off for Elle and me.

Now the good things: a lot of little miracles happened today. One thing, our new insurance information wouldn't come until Nov. 1., so we've been paying cash and saving receipts. The Dr. office told me the surgery would cost $3,000 +. Chris said we'd just transfer money and get reimbursed. I was all stressed about that and when I got home from my appointment, lo and behold, our new cards were in the mail! I called them and they're billing today's appointment plus my surgery to our insurance. Yea! (BIG headache removed)
Another thing: I have to have a pre-op from my nephrologist. Well, I called and he couldn't do it, so they were scrambling at that office trying to get me in with another doctor. "how long have you known about this surgery?!" The receptionist asked me "About two minutes" I told her. Then, 20 minutes later, I called the office back and guess what? My doctor happened to have a cancellation and now he can see me for my pre-op!
Then: I'm so stressed, but I can't call anyone since I'm waiting for calls on both phones, so I turn on gmail and there is Kristen ready and willing to chat and comfort!
And: I'm so tired from all that stress and the little cold I have, I don't want to make dinner, so I look in the freezer and there is some chicken noodle soup I saved for just such a day! yea!
It hasn't been a fun day, but things have clicked into place for me even thought it seemed impossible that they could.

Cute clothes

Elle got some new school clothes and she looked so darn cute in them the other day, I had to take a picture.

And. . .Chris bought me a cute skirt yesterday, so I'm including myself in the usual "Sunday Dress" post today.

Elle and I have the best Dad and Husband in the whole world!

Spiky Orange Carrots

I looked in my fridge the other day to see that my carrots had spikes! I was inspired to write a children's book just like the Fuzzy Yellow Duckling book. It'd go something like this: Spiky Orange Carrots, Bumpy Black mushrooms, Fuzzy Green bread, slimy yellow milk etc. Then Chris came up with "Crackly, yellow cheese" and "Oozy brown meatloaf." Guess it's time to clean out the fridge, huh? Just kidding. We only have the "Spiky Orange Carrots" in there at the moment, but we've had other interesting textures at other times. What pages would you add to my book?

Good times, I tell you. . .

Kristen, Fletcher, Mason and Connor
Elle, Connor, Ashlyn
Mackenzie, Elle, Connor

Good times past

Here are some of my friends way back when-- forever ago it seems. Our kids are so cute and so young! Remember?! Chris copied an old Cd of pictures onto our computer and we had fun looking at the pictures and video from 2003/2004. It brought back some good memories! Thank goodness for camera's, huh?
I hope that when we get to Heaven we get time to watch old movies. :)

Sunday Dress 10-14-07

Here's the weekly picture, as usual. This week, Elle is donning her new dress that Grandma and Grandpa Hales got her for her sixth birthday. What a princess!

Pumpkin seed season

Every year, my little pumpkin and I pick out a pumpkin to transform into a jack-o-lantern. Then, we roast the seeds. I bet you do this too--or at least wish you did. So, I thought I'd post the recipe. I don't even remember where I got it, but it works.


1.Scoop out the seeds and pulp and place in a colander. (It takes longer than you think it should)
2.Under cold running water, remove the seeds from the pulp and strings. (this is a lot harder than it sounds. And messier too--that's why little Elle is in her daddy's shirt and the table is well covered.)
3.Pat dry with a clean kitchen towel. ( I used a paper towel one year and it didn't work out very well.)
4.Preheat oven to 300. (no brainer)
5. Combine 1 Tablespoon oil or melted butter (I've done both and I can't decide which is better) WITH 1/2 teaspoon salt per cup of seeds (I don't use that much salt, but that's just me). If you want, add other stuff (we never do) like paprika or garlic or pepper.
6. Toss seeds with oil/salt mixture until well coated. ( I do this by hand in one of my nice glass mixing bowls and it's very therapeutic)
7. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet. (good luck with that)
8. Bake until golden, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (again, easier said than done. They don't exaclty stir very well. We test a few until we have the desired crunchiness. Chris cools the tester seeds by tossing them from hand to hand. It hurts, but it works)
9. Let cool on paper towels. (we never do this step either,but just eat them right out of the cookie sheet)

Enjoy!
Happy October!

Front or back?

The other night when our friends were over we started talking about toilet paper. It became a lively discussion about which way it should hang. In front as shown above (the CORRECT way), or down the back? OR are you one of those people who say, "I don't even think about it, I just put it on."? You tell me. Front, Back or Whatever?
And while we're at it, do you think it's o.k. to hang your clothes the wrong way with the hangy part looking at you? Chris does it and I even saw Elle reach in back of the closet hanging her hanger back to front! We'll have to take care of that later.
But today's discussion is FRONT; BACK; WHATEVER

Elle's 6th birthday!!

When Elle came home from school yesterday, she entered Fairyland. When she walked in, I had Grandma place the flower fairy crown I made on her head and give her the new fairy wings and we all told her "Welcome home Fairy princess!" (sorry for any males with weak stomachs who may be reading this, but she is a 6 year old girl, after all.)



Grandma and Grandpa Hales and I spent half of Tuesday and all of Wednesday making tissue paper flowers and coloring fairies to create this world.
I tried to post the birthday pictures in reverse order, so you can just scroll down and see the whole day. I messed up a little bit, but you'll get the general idea. I totally went overboard. I know.

Fairy games

Since Elle is so into fairies, I had to think of some fairy games to play. We played "Fairy may I?" (like mother may I)



Hide the fairy


Fairy, Fairy, toad (like duck, duck, goose)

pin the wings on the fairy

Grandma and Grandpa Hales were very nice to play.

The great berry battle

Another "fairy" game was the great berry battle. One of the Disney Fairy books is called Beck and the Great Berry Battle, so I decided to make it one of our party games. We had tons of fun playing it with Grandma and Grandpa.
Then Connor and Fletcher came over and Elle got to play AGAIN!!
Yea for friends. Check out the berries in motion!

Gifts!

A dress from Grandma and Grandpa Hales















Two aprons from mom.




































Head bands from the chic Target



a feather boa from Mom and Dad. (this was a long-hoped for gift)