The Smith Family Blog

So I get up this morning to none other than rain. The weather man also said that there will be rain for the next 7 days. Everyone at my office has said that it is finally feeling normal with the rain. I don't even own an umbrella, what am I to do? So on the shopping list for today is an umbrella for me and for the girls. I am in a great mood this morning. I think because it is Friday and payday and I get off at noon. The girls got to dress up for school. Kalaree is going as Raggedy Andy. No not Ann but Andy. She actually looks rather cute. Kezri changed last night at the last minute from a gorilla to a mime. Oh well saved me from sewing last night. She saw a mime costume on another blog and wanted to do that instead so we painted her face this morning and out the door she went. See, I am not creative just steal well. Kami doesn't have school, thank goodness after last nights parent teacher conference. Hopefullyl, by time next week rolls around she will have forgo

She has heard absolutely everything that there is to hear. I will get back to this. We had parent teacher conferences tonight for all three girls. Kalaree's was first. She is doing well. I even go her WASL scores from last year, by shear luck and knowing someone in the right place. She passed both math and reading. Her teacher were glad that I got it for them so they didn't have to do a student learning plan. Kalaree is doing fine in school mostly B's. She is social but her teachers said that she wasn't that bad. They really seemed to like her. One even said that a child that Kalaree has been hanging out with has made a ton of improvements because Kalaree makes him be a better person. That really does make me feel like a good mom. They have no concerns with her and feel that she will do fine. Kezri, again is doing well. She loves to write and her teachers (she has a writing teacher and her regular teacher) are amazed at her writing. She is so talented. Math she is lower

For blogging everyday I have some rather long blog posts. You would think I would run out fo things to say. This week is parent teacher conferences, so that means I am busy running around and getting things done. I can't believe how many last minute come to this meeting I am getting. I am truly loving my job though. Today will be my long day. Conferences go till 8 tonight and I plan to stay till the end then I get to leave early on Friday. Who wouldn't want to leave early on Friday? I have a conference starting Sunday. So I will miss church on that day. David will have to pick up my class. not much else going on. I meet with the girls teachers on Thursday so if I don't post between now and then you can plan on at least a Friday post of their outcome.

Jake and Katie came for dinner and pumpkin carving last night. We had such a blast. We will definitely have to make this a regular occurrence. Dinner was great. I just did an easy cheesy potato and ham soup in the crock pot. Also knowing how much Jake loves Hawaiian bread, I made a few loaves of that for him. Kami wanted Jello so of course that became a side dish. We topped it off with apple cake and cream cheese frosting. It was very moist and delicious, but no where near the oatmeal cake in comparison. Pumpkin carving was a blast. Thank goodness for magic eraser because we had quite a bit of changes once the permanent marker drawings were in place. Katie came with this great idea but her doctor apparently had been drinking and her storm trooper ended up having a lobotomy. Kezri went with a princess theme. Kami of course did the bat thing again. SHH don't tell her she had a bat either last year or the year before. Right now she is big into bats. I have no cue why but she really lo

I willbe putting recipes that our family uses on a regular basis on that blog. Everyone of them is something I have actually made. I willnot be posting anything that we did not like to actually eat. For those wanting my salsa recipe it is on there. I am always willing to share a recipe. I think that is what the world go round. No secrets here. It can be found at www.smithtriedandtrue.blogspot.com check it out and don't forget to leave comments on the stuff that you like.

...and almost a week early. I had a goal this month to have one post for every day of the month. I actually got it done. There were days that I was worried I wouldn't and that I had nothing to post. Those were the days where the randowm thoughts would just flow, but then the other day it seemed that I had a ton of things to post. Now lets see how many more I can get this month.

I was so proud of myself. I actually went to something without David or a friend to force me to go. I tried a new Chicken Chili recipe and it was so good. Basically, you put your chicken in the bottom of the crock pot, pour a jar of Salsa over top, which of course was my last jar of homemade stuff, then add Chili, Cumin and salt and pepper. Can of beans and a can of corn. Let cook 6-8 hours and then shred chicken. Super easy. I didn't win top prize, but I think that was because tradition is hard to break since the same one for the last three years has won. I did however get a runner up prize, again I am not sure how accurate that was since they gave like 7 of those. I did have a bunch of people tell me they were voting for me. I made some caramel corn for Kalaree's party last night and then Kami and Kezri wanted some so I made a bunch for them. Now I have a ton of Caramel corn coming out my ears. I wonder if Jake will take some home with hi. We are having Jake and Katie over fo

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results! "You are intelligent, strong willed and patient. A peaceful lifestyle and helping others is very important to you. You’re not a take charge kind of guy and sometimes rely too much on your feelings when you make decisions, but you always mean well and try your best to do what’s right." I always thought I would make a good doctors wife.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results! "You are observant, diplomatic and often aim to please. You are unaware of your attractiveness and despite being uncomfortable with any form of attention, people enjoy your company. You can be impatient, stubborn and headstrong, but you are true to your word and mature for your age, often taking care of your family and enjoying a good book over chatting with girlfriends on the phone." Okay this was a surprise to me. I was sure I would be a Victoria or something like that. Who knew?

Okay so this has been weighing on my mind for some time now. It is kind of a rant and it is political so I am sure it will generate some emotions from others. I truly hope I don't offend anyone, but as you know discussing politics and religion is always the worst thing to do. This being a major election year and the economy being in the shape it is makes this hit me even more. Why does anyone have the right to vote on civil liberty type of issues? I understand that Prop 8 in California is about defining marriage. I truly believe that marriage is ordain between a man and a women and that is my belief but do I really have the right to tell someone else that they must believe that? I would hate for the for the many and sometimes majority of people that disagree with my religion to join forces and make it illegal for me to worship the way I choose or to make marriage be only legal between a women and a women and a man and a man. Now don't get me wrong. I am not saying that it shoul

My grandma is rather sick right now. It has been ages since I was able to see her. More out of me not making the time and effort to go than anything. She lost her 3rd Husband almost a year ago and at the same time found out that she had cancer. She did one round of Chemo and radiation adn was feeling better but ended up back in the er about a month ago. The cancer was back and this time it was in her liver and lymphnoids. They decided not to do anymore treatment and gave her 6 months. My Aunt called yesterday and Grandma has quit eaing and driking and is sleeping a lot. They really feel that it is days not months at this point. She is almost 84. I love her dearly and she has had such a rough life. She truly is a saint and has earned her spot with our Lord. She lost one Husband when she was young and raising two young boys. She remarried and was married for quite some time since this was the grandpa that I grew up knowing. Grandpa Loftis was sick for the majority of his li

Rules are: First state who tagged you. Then answer your 7 weirdest/quirkiest things about yourself Tag 7 people Leave a message on those that you tag blog so they know they are tagged. Okay so this one is my 7 weirdest/quirky things. 1. I can not eat cooked peas. I love them fresh and will eat then all day long as long as they are not cooked. 2. As a young child I wanted to be a singer when I grew up. I would sing all the time. I started my first choir when I was in the thrid grade and was in it till high school. We had a horrible teacher then and I dropped choir to do plays. 3. I am not organized at all. I stash things so I looked organized and get lucky to find them again. It is not unusual for me to have to go and redo something because I can't find the original. 4. I am a shopoholic. I could spend all day going from store to store. However, I very rarely shop for clothes for me. It is usually for the girls or for the house. I have to embarrassingly admit that it is

6 TV shows I like to watch: 1. ER (however I am glad it is in its final season because all the good doctors are gone.) 2. Criminal Minds 3. House 4. Army Wives 5. Americans Next Top Model 6. Starter Wife 6 Restaurants I like to eat at: 1. HuHot (though I gave this one up with the move.) 2. Olive Garden 3. Applebees 4. Red Lobster 5. I love mexican food but haven't tried any around here so I don't have one yet here. 6. Cheesecake Factory 6 things that happened today: 1.Found my cell phone (it wasn't really lost I just didn't remember where I placed it.) 2. Sat in a meeting 3. Talked to a student about proper bus behavior before he went on the field trip and prayed that he would do it so I don't have to go to the pumpkin patch in my work clothes. 4. Blogging 5. Figured a way for a child with behavior issue to go on a field trip. 6. Answered emails and wrote reports. After this I have to test a student. Pretty boring day this morning which means this afternoon will p

My girls have the weirdest sleeping habits. They love to sleep with books. I will find at a minimum of 3 books in their beds at any one time. Kalaree rearrange her room so that she could be by the light switch so she could read at night. I love that my girls love to read. Kami included. She is probably the biggest reader of them all. She is right at that point that with a little bit of work she will just fly. With David working I get to read with her each night and I love it. She has four Biscuit books that are primer A books and she loves to "read" them to me and then I read one to her. She then talks Kezri into reading her a bedtime book right before bed. I was never a reader. I would read a book here and there but these girls love to read. They love bookstores and libraries and they would prefer to get a book over candy any day. Not that they don't like candy. When we moved we moved at least 2 boxes of books per each girls so we have a ton of books in our house. I can&

David worked his first full shift last night. He said it went well. He did find drug paraphernalia while doing his rounds and he had to paint accent walls in the bathrooms in the pool house. Not exactly what he wanted to do for a living but hey right now it is a job. This is a great way for him to get back into the work force. Plus the hours are perfect for our family. It went well with the girls too. They came home and had their homework done before I even got home. David was so sweet and put some soup in the crock pot before he left for work so that was ready when I got home. Made for an easy night for me. The girls played for a bit. We ate dinner, cleaned up from dinner, read some books and then off to bed. I was able to sit and crochet uninterrupted for almost three full hours before David got home. I am currently working on a baby dress for a baby shower. It should be done here today or tomorrow at the latest, especially when I can work uninterrupted for a period of time. I love t

A resource room teacher at my school was sick Friday and I was kidding him about it well Karma has struck again. It started Saturday night. Adrenalin for the party must of held it off, because right after the last guest left and the house was picked up my sinuses started to burn. So I drugged myself and went to bed. Yesterday was running nose and congestion and then today it is the same. I hate that I am down sick. I am actually at work since silly me doesn't dare stay home, since we all know that the school can't function without me. It is amazing how much we miss those times of being well when we are sick.

I sometimes think of things that I would like to tel everyone about but they aren't really attached to anything or I have already posted about and forgot to mention so this is my Randomness post to just drop a bunch of stuff that really doesn't connect together. The first is the other day we order Mickey D's for lunch. The big M here offers a 4 for $4 special. It is 4 small fries, 4 cheeseburgers and 4 small drinks for $4.44. We have been ordering that for the girls rather than kids meals and this is so much better in my opinion. No dumb plastic toy to deal with. Well the girls like to "share fries" and they had piled them all into a big plate in the middle of the table and they were calling it Mt. Fry. So I proceeded to pour ketchup on it and way now it is Mt. Fry exploding. I am sure you all want to know why I felt I needed to share such a silly thing. Well, the girls have been begging me to put it on the blog and Kalaree even offered to post it if I woul

It was such a hit. I however forgot to get pictures of everyone that came. We had four of the five couples invited show. One couple came and a karate guy and a Kimono lady. One couple was the Geek Squad, one couple was from woodstock (this one was the greatest, no one recognized the guy till they saw the wife), and one couple came as a pioneer women and a pysch ward patient. We had a ton of food. I ended up not serving the pumpkin bread because when i cut into it the bread was dense and not fluffy at all. It did still taste fine but I was not going to put it out for others to see. We played I have never. We then played Halloween Scare-itories. Thanks to Mikaela we were able to come up with three lists. We played using the Double point rule and a couple of men in the group ran with that and so we had some really funny answers like: S word with the term of Weapon, answer given: Super Shiny Silver Saw. My jaw actually hurts from all the laughing and other were complaining of the same thin

Okay so prep is in full swing. The bat wings are in the fridge marinating, the pumpkin bread is baked. The house is some what decorated with the exception of a few final touches today. The ice hand is in the freezer for the punch bowl. Today I need to make the caramelized chex and the spider web munch. Both super simple easy recipes. The punch is easy to. Open bottle and pour, hehehehe!!!! I still need to print off the Halloween Scattegories (thanks Mikaela for helping me with that one.) The last minute trip to the store is this morning. My costume snot is done but I still need to make the tail. Yes I will post pictures of both David as a pig farmer and me as a pig. The girls have their movie for tonight. So this one is falling together real nicely. Have a great day and check back for party pictures tomorrow.

I really have no clue what I am gong to do for games at my Halloween party. I was thinking of making my own Halloween Scattegories like I did for a baby shower a while ago. I also wanted to do some sort of get to know you game but really isn't two truth and a lie just about over done. So that is the one that is hanging me up. Maybe I should make up some sort of "if this was you" sort of game to see where everyone stands, sort of like Scruples but without the game board. I really want it to be casual, like I could do anything but, but somewhat structured. I really bad at that sort of planning. On a side note, I can't get the pilot light on the fireplace to light. I am really disappointed because I was hoping to have it going during the party, but no I am incapable of lighting that thing. ARGH!!!! I have read the directions and followed them to a T, but nothing happens when I push the little button. Darn machines. Why do they have to be so opinionated and refuse to do w

David ended up working last night. He was just going in to sign papers and they ended up keeping him till almost 5:30. Which was fine. I got home to find Kalaree and Kezri at the kitchen counter and Kalaree was helping Kezri wiht her homework. I started dinner, while they continued to work. Then we ate and the girls headed out to play. Lately though I have really enjoyed their little snipits. So I figured I would share those here. On our way home from the car accident. Of course once everything had calmed down. Kezri says, "I was shaking so hard my eyes were watering." UUMM your eyes were watering because you were crying. Got to love kids. Last night I thanked Kalaree for helping Kezri with her homework. Kezri replies, "I had to force her to do it." Oh the power of younger siblings. Kami is really afraid of Halloween. She is really trying this year. However, the other night a commercial for Scream at the Beach , a local haunted house came on and she had to hide her

and it is about to get crazier. David got a job. It is doing maintenance at Staybridge suites in Portland. Actually, at the airport so about 20 minutes away. He will be working Tuesday through Saturday and he will work 1 pm till 9 pm. That means no babysitter needed for Kami. It isn't the prefect job but right now it is a job. And with the way the economy is right now a job is better than nothing. I will be making dinner and handling bedtimes and David will be doing the morning shift with the girls. We won't have a ton of time together but for now this will work. Kalaree got called as the Beehive president so that means more meetings and responsibilities for her. She is ready for this, but again more running around. David also got a second calling. He is not only the young men's secretary but now he is also the Scout Committee Chair. I haven't heard from the adjuster in the last couple of days. Last I heard he was still trying to track down the driver. He had left a few

David took the van into the the claims center this morning. They do a quick once over and then they give you the estimate. The damage at just looking at it is $2815. $980 is for the lift gate alone. They also said that once the body shop gets it in then there is probably about another $1000-2000 worth of damage that is unseen. We are waiting till the insurance company accepts claim before we begin the work. Then it is absolutely no out of pocket expense to us. Hopefully that will happen here real soon. Right now they are having to track down everyone fromt he scene since it is too difficult to read the crash report. I swear the officer needs hadnwriting lessons. I stayed home today to relax and I am feeling better. Kalaree is too. She is still sore and asked for an excuse from PE which I gave her. She actually only asked to be excusd from crunches and she was going to do the rest. Silly girl take it easy. Well I have some stuff to get done since I got nothing done this w

I finally broke down and went in to see the doctor. I have whiplash which is exactly what I thought I had. I went in because it isn't the typical whiplash. Usually, it is the muscle in the back of the neck that are pulled but I ended up pulling the muscles in the front of my neck. So it hurts to swallow because guess what muscle are used for that. It hurts to lay down or sit up but once I am set in a position I am pretty okay. But I walk around like a stiff board. They gave me a c collar to wear, which I immediately took off once I got outside. They did say I didn't have to wear it but it will help with the pain. I don't considering driving me crazy with something wrapped around my neck as helping. They also gave me some pain medication. I was a little insulted when the nurse acted like I was there just to get some money out of the deal. I know that they don't know me and most people are out just for the money. I was just worried when it hurt to swallow tha

The new kitten, Emmett, is fitting in quite nicely around here. Melvin has a new playmate. This one doesn't hold on to his tail but instead grabs his head and holds on for dear life. Emmett and Cassie are even good friends. It is not odd to find them sleeping together under the bed and on top of me at night. Last night they were even playing around. Now those that know Cassie, she is rather anti-social and to allow someone else in her territory is quite unusual. He is a very playful kitty. I bought a pie stand to use during my party and he has decided that it is a cat toy and will not leave it alone to save his life. He is always on it. I had to hide it to keep him away. I have attached some pictures/videos so you get an idea of what he is doing to it all the time. He also loves to sleep with someone. He will curl up on you and go to sleep. He falls asleep almost as fast and Kami does. The other day he was playing with this mouse toy on me and then this is what I found: Isn't h

I cheated today. Kalaree had a Beehive party at her leaders house tonight and it was bring a desert to share. Well With me hurting as bad as I was I totally cheated. She took with her mini blueberry cheesecakes. I bought nilla wafers at Walmart and had her put those in the bottom of cupcake papers and then filled with the premade cheesecake that you buy then topped with blueberry pie filling. I am so rotten to not of actually done something nice. At least I could of made the cheesecake filling but no I totally cheated. I also cheated and made David the key lime pie one that you can also buy premade. I did make the graham cracker crust. But then it was just a dump and spread thing. I also topped it with a fancy swirl of lime. Just to make it look like I did some work on it. I can't believe that I have resolved myself to snop so low and to cheat for deserts. Those are my favorite things to make and here I am making do rather than doing what I should. OH the horror. Now

This is the worst pain that I have ever felt. My neck hurts so bad. I had so many big plans for this weekend and instead I am stuck taking it easy. I haven't gone in to the doctor because we all know that I will be told to take it easy and take Tylenol. Which is what I am doing. But I have a box of tomatoes going bad in my garage that needs to be canned here real quick and I wanted to get the Halloween decorations up today but I didn't. I can barely move my head. It is fine if I find a spot and leave it there but if I turn it or sit or lay down or stand it kills. Hopefully by tomorrow I am feeling better. If I am not by Monday I will go in and see if I can get a massage or something to help work out the ache. I did get some stuff done today. We headed over to JoAnns and Walmart. JoAnns had a 50% off coupon that was good this weekend only. But I raked it in without that. Kezri picked her costume. She is going to be a Gorilla. I am crocheting her a nose. Then she is wearing black

We ventured into Portland today. I was hoping to finally get my first look at a DI. I wanted to look for a few more home decor items and then some Halloween stuff. Well we had just crossed over the river into Portland and was almost to the city center exit when we were in a car accident. We had all three girls with us. There was congestions and we had slowed to stop for it when a Corsica behind us was hit from behind by a Peterbuilt and she hit us. We were really lucky. We didn't end up hitting someone in front of us. David and I are both stiff and sore. Kalaree is stiff in the neck, she was in the back seat and the closest to the impact but both Kezri and Kami are totally unhurt. They were shaken up quite a bit. Kezri didn't want to even drive home. But now they are fine and doing well. It was really a fender bender for us but the girl inbetween was not as lucky. No one was transported by ambulance. It was called for her but when they got there she refused to be transported. T

Lately it seems that around my house it is all about what did you do when you were younger mom? Last night as we put together my bed, Kami was there to be our big help. She handed us all the hardware and tools that we needed and held the small boards that we screwed to the wood boards for support while David screwed the screws in. I told her that I use to do that when I was a little girl for my dad and she was so excited to be just like mom. We then later were talking about the bed that my parent's had and how I use to climb over the foot board to get on the bed. She immediately had to climb over the foot board just like mom did. She even went and got sisters to show them the same. Also the other day we were out and about and I had to turn around in someone else's driveway and guess what I said, "Get your pants on George we have visitors." To some reading this blog that won't mean much to those that ever sat in a car that my dad was driving and turning around in s

David and I had a date night at the mall this last weekend. Hey didn't want to spend too much money and window shopping is always a lot of fun and I had a few things I did want to get. One of the things on my list was a fall fragance oil to put into my oil warmer for my party. (Yes, I am even considering the fragance I wish to have out there when the house is crowded with people.) So a new fragance means a trip to Bath and Body Works. Now I like this store for their room fragances and their lotions, but I am not really a lotion, body bath, shower gel kind of girl. I will occasionally buy a small jar of lotion, but it usually last a very long time. I never buy perfume or body spray because well I just don't. But I do love the room fragances so we went in to pick out another oil. I start by smelling the displays right by the front entrance and there was some that were nice. But they were out of the one I really wanted, Creamy Caramel. They had the candle but not the ro

Okay so last year for my birthday David bought me a bed. It is a four poster canopy bed. I posted pictures last year but they were in my small apartment and we ended up taking the footboard off and just using the headboard. Well we moved here and I finally have the room to put the bed together but not the right type of bed frame. We had a hollywood bed frame which allowed the head board to be bolted to it but not the foot board. I jumped on line to see if I could order some and they were $157 at the cheapest place. Anyways, David surprised me yesterday and bought the frame at a second hand furniture store for get this $15. It was missing the supports for the matress that runs between the side rails, but the smart sales lady told him to go buy wood board cut to the correct length and he could use those. I should of thought of that. Oh well, who cares who thought of it. So 4 boards, a set of side rails and 35 minutes worth of work I have my complete bed put together. I love it

... it is the day we clean the house, go to the farm and get pumpkins, hang out around the house, and make invitations to the Halloween party. That is all we did today. We slept in, everyone was up around 8:30 today. We then cleaned the house. Once that was done we ate lunch and then headed out to the farm to get our pumpkins. Everyone picked out a pumpkin and then we got a box of tomatoes (I have to make more salsa, the last batch went very quick.) Then we stopped at Goodwill to see if they had overalls for David for his Halloween costume. We came home and had a relaxing afternoon and evening after that. While at Goodwill we found some Tinkertoy and the girls spent almost two full hours building with them. It was very interesting to watch and to see the imagination come out as they played. Then after dinner David and I made the invitations to our party. I can't wait to deliver them tomorrow. I am so excited. So it was a rather relaxing day. With conference tomorrow I plan to put

So I went back to try and find the bathroom post. I was sure that I would of posted the first fully decorated and completed room but obviously I didn't. So I am now posting the pink bathroom. Now for you men out there that read this blog, please remember that this is a two and a half bath house. There is also only one man that lives here. So this one bathroom is the girls bathroom and it is very fitting that they got a girly room. I try very hard not to make the house to girly in the areas that David uses and the downstairs bath, while it is feminine is not totally girly and David does have the master bath which is a chocolate brown with white and not a single thing, except my razor, that is girly in that bath. So here is the girl's brown and pink bathroom.

I have started to do stuff with the house and it is starting to feel kind of homey to me now. I have been at a total loss as to what I should do in the downstairs bathroom. It is small and the paint is rather dramatic. So the other day while cruising around the internet I came across an idea that made me want to do it for my bathroom. Here is the kicker. I had everything I needed to do it with the exception of the picture frames and those I bought at Goodwill for $1.99 a peice. Then I have needed lighting in my living room since there is not an overhead lamp. I have been using the kitchen light to make it bright at night but that was driving me crazy. So we finally went to Wal Mart (yes, I broke down and went to Wal Mart. Target just didn't have anything and Ikea's was too expensive formy taste.) I bought a lamp package that had both the table lamp and the floor lamp in it. Then last night when I waas at Goodwill, buying the picture frames, I found a comforter for Kam