my very political post

I guess it is the cross we must bear living in a 'swing' state, BUT STOP CALLING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Mr. Obama, sir. (yes, all calls are from the Obama Camp.)

I've even had young children from Texas call me to ask if I'm voting for Obama.

* I keep telling them I voted a month ago.

* I was telling the pollers that I don't have to tell them who I voted for since we live in a country that has secret ballots.

*Now I just pick up, say I already voted for McCain and hang up.

Wednesday will not come fast enough!

Layne is in Japan right now. That is why I keep picking up the phone when I see strange numbers. Just in case it is something to do with him. That and Judd answers the phone 90% of time before I can even get to it to look at the caller I.D.

Before Layne left, he told me that if Obama wins that he will just stay there and wait for me to get the kids passports ready and we'll join up with him later. Seems a little extreme, I think. He could at least come help me pack. He's only kidding, of course. Although the idea of living in a socialist country does make me want to pack up and go.

Yesterday a friend of ours gave us a number to register our names as a 'do not call' list for political campaign calls, but it is a little too late for that now. Although, I'll keep it on hand for another year.

Sorry. Just had to blow off some steam. Maybe in 2012 I will like my options better and not have such a bad attitude.

8 is Enough

8 Shows I Love to Watch...
1. The Biggest Looser

2. Burn Notice

3. 30 Minute Meals

4. Mobil Home Disasters

5. Designed to Sell

6. Sell This House

7. Most anything on Food Network.

8. Most anything on HGTV.

8 Favorite Restaurants...
1. Noodles

2. Doc Hendersons

3. Penn Station

4. PF Chang's

5. Quizno's

6. Taco Bell (because I LOVE their sodas the best)

7. Rothschild Farm Cafe

8. Black Tie Cafe

8 Things That Happened Yesterday...
1. Ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast because Layne made it for me.

2. Made cinnamon rolls.

3. BYU, Ohio State, & Texas all won their games (my boys just came to tell me this very important information).

4. Caught up on blog reading & even posted a new one myself.

5. Laundry

6. Dishes

7. Went to a youth dance in Dayton.

8. Almost hit a deer on the way home from Dayton (missed her by an inch!).

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To...
1. Layne's 40th birthday (Layne's not!)

2. Becky's 40th birthday.

3. Going to Idaho for Christmas.

4. A hard freeze (no more allergies...till next year).

5. Thanksgiving dinner.

6. Sending Christmas cards.

7. Receiving Christmas cards! (The best thing ever!!)

8. A trip to WI next June.

My life may be pathetic.

8 Things On My Wish List...
1. A maid.

2. My fall/winter clothes fit again this year....here's hopen.

3. Going to bed on time for a whole week.

4. Not having to remind everyone to practice the piano.

5. Having as much fun loosing weight as I did putting it on.

6. I was better organized.

7. Those people would stop calling me about my credit card interest rate.

8. Obama doesn't win President.

8 People I Tag...
1. Geri Annie

2. B.J. (I haven't even thought to call you that for YEARS so I did just now.)

3. Audrey Fernie (didn't want to leave you out Aud, so I thought I'd say your name weird too.)

4. Rachel

5. Chris

6. Kristi

7. Mitzi

8. Shelly H.

It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year.

It is October in Ohio!

This is my favorite time of year in Ohio. The weather is perfect with cool nights and warm days. I find myself taking the long way to places so I can see the new colors that seem to change every day. The only problem is that it goes too fast. Autumn doesn't seem to last as long as the rest of the seasons. So I'll just take a few extra drives, keep my camera in my purse, and enjoy life in Ohio.

Last month was just too much fun. We had our little 'extra' girls here for a little over two weeks and then the day after they left we picked up Layne's sisters Jill & Holly from the airport. They got to stay for a week. We had such a great time. Found great places to eat, shop, and play. They knew that I was so tired after doing the seven kid thing and we didn't get to do much for our anniversary, so they sent us away for the night. We went to Columbus and had a fabulous meal at PF Chang's...and then....at 8:30 I passed out in the hotel and slept and slept and slept. I think Layne found some ballgame and a movie to flip between to keep him company.

THANK YOU HOLLY & JILL!!

Layne is NOT going to love that I put this picture on here because I took it just a few hours after his nose got hit with an elbow in a backyard football game with the neighborhood kids. It is quite swollen. He won't let me take any more pictures of it now, but I'll just say that he has two pretty good black eyes and the doctor told him today that the bone is just cracked and it should all heal up okay. Right when it happened it had a huge bulge and was the wrong color. If he took his contacts out and put his glasses on, the lenses would have been up on his forehead. I would have paid money to see what he looked like in his safety glasses at work the next day. But it is getting better. We just need to get the old guy a helmet.

Today is a perfect autumn day so I decided to make a couple of yummy things I'd been wanting to eat.

I have been wanting to make my own sliders. If you aren't from the Midwest you may not know what they are. (Although, I think they are also found in the Northeast and South.) They are tiny little hamburgers. They are about the size of a silver dollar. I bought a caramelized onion and balsamic spread to put on them with a tiny piece of provolone cheese. Can you say YUMMY!?! So that made lunch extra great today and then I just had to use the rest of the dough for cinnamon rolls.

I guess I've caught you up on everything. Now I need to get ready to go to a youth dance. I always drag my feet getting there, but after we are there I always end up having a fun time. Have a great weekend!!

Finally Four!

How fun is this for your birthday?

Not only is he not feeling well, but I didn't get one good picture of him opening his gifts this morning and we haven't even gotten close to singing and eating cake.....so for now here is our tribute to Juddy.

J - Joy

U - Unique

S - Silly
T - Teaser
I - Intelligent
N - Nonstop


Since March he has been asking for a scooter for his birthday. We figured if he stuck to his guns on that request for six months we should try to get him one. So we'll get some pictures of him on his Spiderman Scooter soon.

(BTW-he didn't get to invite his five girl friends over, although he did tell us who they were last night, and there were five of them. YIKES)

Cake & Girlfriends

What would you do for a gallon of milk and a few containers of Stage 1 baby food?

I guess I decided that I'd do most anything because I took the 4 youngest kids to Wally's to do a little shopping.

In our store they place a cart of day old bakery stuff that is on sale over by the milk and egg area. Mauri saw a cake on the cart. She yelled out that she wanted cake. Before I could respond Justin yells right back, "NO! We are having cake on Sunday when I invite my 5 girlfriends over for my birthday."

About then my eyeballs rolled back in my head wondering where he gets this stuff and if he could have said it any louder. Then I hear a lady behind us rolling in laughter. I looked around and she came up to me and asked if he just said that he has five girl friends. I was so happy to find someone that was willing to smile at me and told her she heard right. We saw her a couple isles later and she was still laughing.

So thank you nice, older lady. I'm glad that we were able to make someone smile at Wal-Mart.

Fun Times

We've been so busy around here doing such fun stuff I thought I'd share some of it with you.

A couple weeks ago we went up to Sandusky, Ohio to Cedar Point. What a fun amusement park. My mom would L.O.V.E. love it because they have "Planet Snoopy" for the little kids.


Layne took Josie & Todd to the bigger rides so nearly all the pictures I have are of Mitch & Justin.

Here is the Kite Eating Tree. It was funny to see it drop and the eye balls of all those little kids pop open. Mitch was more afraid than Justin. He's always been scared of heights.Here is proof that these are Aunt Geri's blood relatives. Yummmy drinks. (refer to Geri's Sept. 10th post)







We visited Lake Erie. We needed a whole week here. Maybe next year.

And right now we are happy to have three cute additions to our family.

Scott & Mitzi went to China for a couple of weeks and we got to keep their three youngest little girls. Mauri (3), Maymi (2), and Mylei (7mts). What a fun time we are having.

So what are my thoughts about having seven children?

1. You really should try to have them one at a time.

2. Scheduling can get hairy sometimes.

3. Someone is always hungry or thirsty.

4. Everything that happens is an 'accident'.

5. I get tired much faster than I used to.

6. We have missed having a baby in the house.

7. It is F-U-N!!