Just because I'm up so early on a Saturday morning

I woke myself up this morning to go to the bathroom (yeah, no wetting the bed) ~ guess I shouldn't drink a soda before going to bed the night before!  Since I was up, I started reading (catching up) on the new blog I'm obsessed with ~ http://www.infarrantlycreative.net/ .  All that does, though, is make me want "stuff".  I want to find good deals on metal things at Goodwill so I can clean them up, glue them together and paint them so they look like really cool new things.  This makes me want to get a Dremel tool with all the attachments so I can clean up the metal things I might find.  I need a Silhouette machine so I can cut out anything I design on my computer and want to "cut".  I would like a bigger, nicer camera so I can magically take better pictures, but without any training because I wouldn't have time for that with all my repurposing being done!  So, it's just a vicious cycle.  The only thing I did see on a blog and tried?  Get a dollar store candlestick, glue a dollar store vase to it with E6000 glue and viola you have a really cool thing to put decorative "stuff" in (think potpourri, but cooler).  Well, I got my pieces all glued together only to realize the bottom piece I used had a crooked top ~ it's not level so my finished piece on top tips.  Just lovely!!

Chris is on a business trip and comes home later this afternoon ~ not sure why I typed that.  See, here's the thing.  When I don't blog like every other day, I get overwhelmed and then I need to send letters to my Grandma (she has been religious about sending them to us) and then I forget what I talked about to whom (see my dilemma??).  Luckily I take pictures and those help me to remember what we did since my last blog and what I want to tell you!

Last Saturday (yes, wayyyy back then) Taite's football team started their tournament play and ended it all in the same day.  I'm glad we got our volunteering done on Saturday (I was there at 7:15 to "man" the gate and Chris and I volunteered in the concession stand after Taite's game).  We went to the USD game after that game and they lost too!  It was just not a good football day for us that day.

Sunday, this is what our living room looked like.  It is also why we will never buy another piece of Lane furniture again.  Our dual reclining couch was making a terrible noise whenever we sat on it ~ no not even flipping out the footrests, just sitting!  Come to find out the reclining mechanisms will make noise after a few years (like 4 or 5), but it's a lifetime warranty on the parts, you just have to pay another $120 for the installation (we'd already spent enough on a crappy couch!) so Chris and I did it ourselves.  It took about an hour and a half, but it "sounds" GREAT now!  Wish we'd have known about the replacement warranty a long time ago!!

Annnnddd, here is the scratches on the floor from when Chris tried to figure out what was wrong with the couch right after we moved in.  He's still sick over that one. 

So, back to the blog I'm in LOVE with.  She had a video on there about how to make Origami Bags (they used theirs for "Booing" their neighbor ~ think May Day baskets, but with a cute little poem).  I bought some Halloween paper and the other night the boys joined in with me and made "Boo" bags!  We set up my laptop on the kitchen counter and watched and re-watched the video to create our very own bags.  I'm such a doof that I forgot to take a picture of each bag when we were done.  I also had some foam stickers for Halloween so the boys used those to decorate their bags and THEN we boo'd the neighbors.  I took a video, but my computer is so slow that uploading it would take all day, plus it was very dark, so most of the time you could only hear our whispers and giggling, but not so much of what was going on ~ hehe!

Just getting started.

 Brayton with his "face hair"

 Taite's face of "I can't figure out how to fold this!"  (Note: that's mine folded on the counter and Taite's doesn't look anything like it)

 The face of "I finally figured it out!"

 I thought the paper was super cute!  It had skeleton heads on it and a little splash of color for the eyes.  (That's obviously in the background ~ hehe ~ just realized Brayton is the primary subject of this picture and his eyes too look like a splash of color)

 Taite was so proud of his bag that he took a picture with his phone!

This past week we were notified that Bray had won an award for Responsibility in the program Character Counts at school.  These students are recognized at an assembly in front of the whole school and parents, grandparents and such are invited.  Chris was on a business trip for the assembly so Jane was my '+1'.  These students are also recognized by getting their picture in the newspaper, they have their name on a ribbon and it's displayed on a pillar with what characteristic they are recognized for and HyVee came and did a little show in the afternoon as well.  Brayton received a tattoo (I think he said) and a $3 gift card from HyVee to spend on whatever he wants (that should be interesting)!  Bray is in the blue & white striped shirt with his back to me in this picture.

 Brayton sitting down after standing up to be recognized

 All the students who were recognized for the various character qualities stood up together at the end and waved to their parent(s).