Horror Shows

I've been watching a horror show these last few days. I don't usually go for horror, but trust me when I say that this show seriously gives me the Heebie Jeebies. Cleaning queens Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie go into people's homes with boa laced plastic gloves, clean it, while simultaneously educating the family (or bachelor) on basic cleaning techniques.

They also send samples from around the house to a lab to let the family know what muck/grime/bugs/creepy crawlies and fungal spores are truly lurking in their home. It is morbidly fascinating to see the level to which some people let their homes go to pot. These two don't let the offender's off without a talking to, "At least you have to good sense to blush Luv, this is truly awful, you know..."

The most common thread that I can pull out of these episodes is that each person takes on an attitude of, "It's YOUR job, not MY job," until they are literally knee deep in old ketchup bottles,dirty clothes, opened cat food tins, and rotting grease. When quizzed about how it got this bad, they usually respond, "Well, it just got so out of hand that I didn't know where to start..., and then I just learned to not see it.."

It's been great to watch with the kids and comment, "Look at THAT! That's what happens when you don't tidy or change your sheets; do you want 20 million bug mites on your bed?" I think that the lab results are really what shock people into getting their act together. They do a microscope slide shot of the bacteria multiplying and going all over the place then WIGGLING! EEW! Oh! Well, at least it has horrified me!

And entertained me too: I love the British accents and jargon, "Yer a big boy now, Dearie, and you must stop mucking in like this in codswallop!" Aaaaah, nothing like a good ole foreign horror show for the holiday.

Happy Halloween!

Meredith's Tag

Tagged by Meredith The Incredible, I lay open to you some fascinating facts about me, - hope it's worth the read!

Four jobs I have had:
1. Weighing Gravel in Trucks
2. Dental Lab Janitor
3. Camp Counselor to 10 Jewish 10 yr-olds at Lake Bryn Mawr
4. Hardees

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Wives and Daughters
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Anne of Green Gables
4. 27 Dresses - thanks Em!

Four places I have lived:
1. Azores
2. Pennsylvania
3. North Carolina
4. Ohio

Four TV show I watch:
1. Dancing with the Stars
2. The Office
3. Ace of Cakes
4. America's Most Smartest Model

Four places I have been:
1. Nigara Falls, Canadian Side
2. Charleston, South Carolina
3. Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota
4. Nauvoo, Illinois

Four Celebrity's you have met:
1. Steve Young - Friday temple clothing desk. He was a 34'x34'slacks back then. Not very tall. Had no opinion about his tie. Not the guy for me...
2. Mary Ellen Edmunds - I'm taking her institute class.
3. Brian Crane - Cartoonist for the nationally syndicated cartoon "Pickles." We're like [x] THIS!
4. Howard Stern's daughter. Funny, she didn't want to talk about her dad much...

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Scones with Honeybutter from Rocky Mt. Drive in.
2. Cheesecake Factory's "Chicken Madeira." Ohhhhh SO yum!
3. "The Great Wall of Chocolate" from PF Changs
4. Hot fries from McDonalds or Wendy's

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Scotland
2. Alaska
3. South Africa
4. Italy

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. My parents coming home from their mission
2. Paying off/down debt
3. Making a yellow and white quilt
4. Snow for Christmas?

Four friends I am tagging:
1. Bagel
2. Reesa
3. Danika
4. Juuuuuulia
5. Anyone else who wants to!

Family Pictures a la Cousin Faye!

As with laundry and family pictures, every worthwhile goal has an undesirable element to it that keeps people from doing it too frequently. Here are some of our attempts at a Family/Benjamin's 4th/Baby Sam's 6 mos/Halloween/Christmas Card photo shoot. It was an early, and very cold morning out at Gardner Village.

It went really well in my mind; get family pics and Halloween pics, all in one shot, with good early morning light, and a pre-decorated background. In reality, we had to fight runny noses, kids playing with the hay (PUT THAT DOWN!), costume changes with stuff that was ever "back at the car," and the irresistible roar of the river that kept Sam from facing forward. AAAARRGGFG! But what's done is done, and I'm glad to be on this side of it. Who knows how long it'll take for us to recover though, enough to do it again. Thanks to my Cousin Faye Wilson for being so patient! And freezing her fingers off... we are ever so grateful!!

Stupid Brownie

Sometimes when you move, you get to start fresh; leave bad habits or just bad stuff behind. While mostly true, at least in this instance, I have not been so lucky. There is a brownie that lives with our family; a mischeivious elf, rat-of-a-nusisance, that I have never seen, but who lives solely to take my stuff! Not just any ole stuff, but the SAME #$%*&@! stuff! Every time I have to re-buy my stuff, I curse his name. I don't know his name, but it would get a good cussing out if I did.

My brownie likes to take/hide two things: my tweezers and the only hairbrush that will get through curly hair. Essential elements for someone who is staving off a full on beard as well as trying to get through long tangled masses of hair every morning. ARERRGGG! Every once in a while, I'll find these items left at someone's house, or stashed behind a cushion, but mostly, they just disappear and I have to buy them again. I have done just about everything I can think of to keep these items attached to something, or properly stored and hidden somewhere, but just when I go to reach for them in times of particular need... they are gone.

My hope was that I had left this awful brownie behind, but lo and behold, I found myself buying a brush for Abigail's hair AND a set of tweezers last night at the Wal Mart. The brush is hot pink and orange so that it will be easier to find, but the tweezers, not even OUT of the package - are missing!!! I checked my slip, yep, there they are, I paid for them! Line item 24, right next to the brush. I searched through all of my packaging; nope. Maybe they got dropped in the car? Nope. Maybe dropped somewhere along the way? Nope. "Matthew, did you take the tweezers I just bought?!" Nope, with the incredulous look that I knew was coming. What does he need tweezers for? Well, that's another post, anyway...

*stomps foot furiously* SO, I am left to assume the mischievous brownie has taken them. Perhaps as a little show that he is still here, trying to make life more difficult than need be. Maybe if I get some tomato sauce and salt, I can blow me up a brownie! Spiderwick Chronicals style. Oh YES! I can only hope....

Hope This Works!

I have some nieces that would look simply adorable in this costume... my chances are about 1/700. But that's still a chance!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Snow Way!

After the major drama of choosing a job, then turning about face and accepting a new job in a completely different state, there was yet another little nugget of humor to be had. Snow.

We arrived to our new place on Thursday, and woke up on Saturday to snow. All over. It is like a colossal joke on us; after surviving the worst of Arizona summer we get dumped straight into Utah winter. UGH! Are you kidding me? I am feeling SO picked on right now...

We teased Abigail after she came running in: "Mom! Dad! There's snow out there!"

"Oh, I don't see anything..."

"No it is! Right out there! And it is SO COLD!"

"Maybe it's just on your side of the yard,"

"NO LOOK! IT's RIGHT THERE! LOOK! ALL OVER!!!"

Indeed it is. We must photograph this occasion as our children have not seen snow since they last visited the grandparents up in Reno. They say that you look back on these things and laugh, but they fail to mention that you are doing it in a white jacket in a very soft room.