Quote of the Day:

Scene: Luke is sitting at the table feeding himself and Alyssa a bowl of cereal meanwhile also holding Evan and feeding him raisins.  When he looks away to feed Evan a raisin Alyssa takes the discarded plastic milk tab from the newly opened milk carton and dipps it into the milk in Luke’s cereal.

Luke (annoyed): “Alyssa stop sticking stuff in my cereal!”

Sabrina sits across the table watching and laughing.

We’re coming up on the 1 year anniversary of my Island Living blog post.  I’m sure you won’t need to reference it as you have all my old blogs memorized. ;) 

Quick summary:

It rained

We found a cute little pond in our backyard

The pond came into our bedroom, not so cute anymore

New Carpet

Begun the adventures of LANDSCAPING

Thus bringing you current…we’re still on the landscaping part.  Here are some recap pictures. I’ll try to make it entertaining. ;)

Once upon a time in a far off place…I mean, it all began a long long time ago.

NOVEMBER 2008

Excavator…………………………..french drain……………………………Easter dirt hill

Boring pictures of the yard…humor me this is for my parents. It gets better…

Random man standing on 22 Tons of rock…wait is that my husband? Who’s that midget in the purple?  22Tons really? How much did that cost?  A Ton! lol, I crack myself up, I know Carrie is laughing at least, she likes “corny” jokes.

 

APRIL 2009

Excavator man (AKA our awesome neighbor!)

May 2009

Deer in our backyard (yes, I did have to include the deer)

On to Luke’s favorite part of the landscaping….Rock Raking!

He’s like, I hate rock raking…I wish Alyssa was older.

Take notice of the picture below it’s going to look so different in a a few scrolls…

Such cuties.  This is how girls rake rocks, with their leg tilted out and arm extended.

I have a rake!  It’s plastic and is absolutely useless, but it’s awesome!

 

SEPTEMBER 2009

This is Luke right before he made a “dirt angel” in that pile of mulch.  It was awesome.  I think we have it on video.

 

Luke attempting to make wheel barrowing rocks fun….good job honey, doing good.

 

 

Awwwww, look how nice that looks. :) Rakes and mulch can do wonders huh? :) lol

Okay here comes the grass…….

Day 7 after planting seed:

Day 8 - We were surprised how much it grew in just a couple of hours.

Day 15

 

 

OCTOBER 2009

Day 18…and we’re done. :)

There are a few holes, but we’ll patch them up with seed and they’ll be like new. :)

Thanks for sticking in there, good job, it wasn’t that boring was it?  Parents, see we can grow pretty children and pretty grass!  Same amount of effort, nice results. :)

I SO want a Kirby vacuum cleaner.  But sheesh, do they have to be so expensive?!

I heard through the Microsoft employee Duvall email list that the Kirby sales team was in town.  I was so excited!  Since I heard this news, it’s been about 2 months.  I was beginning to think they had skipped over our house…but then he arrived. And boy was it an experience.

My friend Stepfanie, a Kirby owner, happened to be over at my house hanging out when he arrived.  Stepfanie and I opened the door to the beginning of the sales pitch and when he said something about Kirby I interrupted with,

“OH! I’ve been waiting for you to arrive!  I totally want a Kirby, but I can’t get one right now.  But definitely come back in 2 years and then I think I can totally buy one from you!”

 

I’m not sure if it was my interruptive comment that freaked him out or the fact that Luke had just arrived home from work and given him the “Who is this man in my driveway” look. Luke said the guy had this surprised look in his eye when he realized the man who had just stared him down lived in the very house he was approaching with his sales pitch. I have to give him credit for still going ahead with his sales pitch.

But with all the commotion he started to stutter and my SLP radar went off. 

He started 3-4 times to tell me about this trip he was trying to earn and that this was his first day, yada, yada, yada.  I started to feel really bad, but with Luke home there was no way he would be allowed in to do a demonstration.  Sorry guy, you just chose the wrong time to come.  Husbands & Kirby’s don’t get along, it’s the whole small loan thing for a vacuum cleaner.  But give me a couple of years and I think I can save enough money to get one! I almost wanted to see if he would trade a few speech therapy sessions for one!  That would have been awesome.  If he had only come a half hour sooner, my friend and I would have been suckers for his demonstration! hehe

How much do you never want to hear those words come from a cashier making eye contact with you?!

I was at Old Navy returning something…yes Grandma, I know big surprise. haha

The cashier asked me if I would like my return in cash or back on my debit card.  I chose debit card because I didn’t need the cash.  He ran my card then looked straight into my eyes and said those frightful words, “I’m sorry your card has been declined.”  An earlier conversation popped into my head:

When I told Luke I was going shopping to buy a gift for $100 he said jokingly said, “Oh bummer, we only have $98 in our checking account.”  I smiled and said “I’ll just use our American Express card then.”  “Oh, bummer, we only have $98 left on our credit too.” 

So when this happened I was thinking?  Was he serious?!

Then reality hit me and although this was impossible for my card to be declined I gave the cashier a funny look, said “really?! for a return?  Is that possible?”  He shrugged and didn’t say much. I handed him my American Express card and asked him to put it on that card instead.  He swiped it and said “I’m sorry this card has also been declined.” 

Seriously?!  He just stood there looking at me straight in the face. 

I was trying to keep my cool, but there was another customer standing by and I’m pretty sure all he heard was that my card was being declined.  I took off my coat to cool my recent flash sweat that swept over me.  Then I asked him to get a manager.

The manager arrived and said, “Oh, this happened a few weeks ago too, just give her cash.”  What does that mean?! 

There was no remorse for embarrassing me or stating clearly that it was their machines that were messing up.  All the while my kids were in the cart making a ruckus so I just promptly took my cash and left.

 

I go home and tell my neighbor, Melissa 2, this story.  She responds with an equally crazy story.  It goes something like this.

She is out to dinner at a local sit down restaurant with her family and an older couple that they are acquaintances with. They get to the end of the meal and the waiter brings her card and the check back and says those frightful words, “I’m sorry your card has been declined.”  She is of course flabbergasted, but is also quick on her feet so she attempts to laugh it off and say that she’s sure she has another card that will work.  MEANWHILE this acquaintance couple offers to pay for their meal.  So now she is really feeling embarrassed.  A few more seconds go by and THEN the waiter hands her her check and card and says, “Oh, I was just kidding.”  WHAT?! Just kidding?  Seriously?  She said that they were so busy talking with that other couple that they hadn’t even made small talk with the waiter, so this joke was just out of the blue.  That is so not funny. 

 

Do you have a similar story?  Do share!

We did it again. 

We waited until the last week to venture to the pumpkin patch.

We had good intentions of getting pumpkins a few weeks ago when we were at the corn maze, but you heard how that turned out.

This was one of the first non-rainy day since, so we jumped on the chance to go.

We walked and walked (sound familiar?) until we finally found a pumpkin big enough for the kids to sit on that was NOT moldy! lol

Evan was by far the most photogenic.  He wins the Foust family photo award today!  These are the first few pictures we have of him that has him smiling WITHOUT his tongue hanging out of his mouth.  He’s sporting 4 teeth now…Luke enduringly calls him “my little molerat.”  And what a cute one at that.

Here’s our attempt at a picture of the both of them!  LOL, so funny, ah well.

Alyssa’s hair is so crazy because it was in pigtails, but she pulled them out right before we arrived.

 

Can you see all of the moldy pieces of pumpkins in the background?! hehe

On the ride home Luke gave Evan an apple to gnaw on to keep him entertained.  This is his new thing, he loves to eat apples!  When we got home Luke was carrying him in and talking about his apple.  Then Evan started to say “Apple!”  He has actually said apple before, but he hasn’t said it in a while and now it sounds totally different than the way he used to say it.  Here’s the video: (Oh and near the end you can actually hear him saying it and not Alyssa!)

 

 

 

 

My lovely friend Christa, an avid reader and writer of young adult literature, recently started a blog of book reviews for young readers.

I love the purpose of her website:

"To give reading recommendations and appropriate caution for readers who desire to honor God with what they put before their eyes." 

She's done a fabulous job with the reviews and I highly recommend you add her to your bookmarks or blogroll…especially if you have young readers in your household and don’t have time to pre-read books your kids want to read.

I know the Twilight Series are VERY popular and she has great reviews of them, her newest review is of Breaking Dawn.

Her site is called: YA For The Wise

http://yaforthewise.blogspot.com/

 

What you will find on her site:

1. A accurate rating of the book (remember the ratings are targeted for young adult readers)

2. Summary & breakdown of specific questionable details about the book

Luke and Alyssa watching a movie:

Alyssa: Woah! It’s a muffin!

Luke: No, it’s actually a jellyfish

Alyssa: Oh Jelly…fish

I was reading Cinderella to Alyssa…once again.

We got to the end of the book and I said, “Then the prince married Cinderella…”

Alyssa: Who’s Mary?!  Where’s the Married? 

Our friends invited us to go with them to pick pumpkins and go through a corn maze.  We thought it sounded like a fun adventure…and an adventure it was!

We actually got lost in the corn maze for 2 hours!  It was a bitter/sweet memory.

We were super excited when we first got there and decided to take a few pictures with a huge pile of pumpkins.  Alyssa had just woken up and so was in a terrible mood and didn’t want her picture taken.  Evan, however, as usual was happy-go-lucky for pictures. 

 

 

Take a look at the DROOL on the picture below!

Now that is talent! 

 

 

He was so busy looking at the pumpkins, this was the only picture he would look up for. I decided after looking at this picture, that his bangs are too long, so I trimmed them yesterday. :)

 

We then attempted a few pictures with the farm animal cut outs.  We wanted to get one of all the kids sticking their heads through…it didn’t happen BUT Alyssa finally decided to be in a better mood and actually stuck her head through.

 

Hehe, I like this one.  Where are all the other kids?!

Then we hopped on the tractor and got a ride over to “THE MAZE.”  

Alyssa was pretty hesitant to walk around in the corn maze, but finally decided it would be fun to run around with the boys. 

 

Austin’s dad chased the kids (Ryley, Austin & Alyssa) around and they had a blast running and chasing each other through the maze. 

At one point they even found strange looking bug to examine.

We walked and walked and walked…in circles…but we were still smiling.

Well after probably a good 1/2 hour of walking around the maze we came to a clearing with a bunch of hay bales and a place to take pictures.  It was exciting to finally feel we had accomplished most of the maze……Ha, more about that to come!

Aw…to quote my friend Carrie.  “So corny!” :)

 

These next few pictures are hilarious.  We tried to get the 2 yr old kids together to take a picture…it didn’t work out so great, but that’s okay!  Alyssa wanted to put her arm around Ryley and he wasn’t having it! And Austin was having such a good time that he didn’t want to sit down. :)

To the left is a picture of my friend Stepfanie, her husband Tim and their 2 kids Ryley and Ruthie.

Below is a picture of Tim’s brother David, his wife Vanessa and their son Austin.

After we took all these fun pictures I was getting tired of holding Evan because he was so squirmy.  I wish I would have thought to bring my Moby Wrap, it might have made things a little easier.  Evan was jealous of all the other kids running around and he was tired of being held.

So at this point there was some sort of “cheater exit” that Vanessa, Austin, me and Evan decided to take.  We had to walk around the entire outside of the maze and through a field of pumpkins to get to the front, but we thought it MIGHT be quicker than finishing the maze…boy did that turn out to be an understatement.

We got to the front of the maze and camped out at some picnic tables to wait for the rest of the gang to join us.  Vanessa and I made conversations with a few other people entering the maze and with some workers that showed up.  After a while Vanessa called Dave to see where they were.  They had NO idea if they were close or not.  They even tried picking a piece of corn and throwing it to see if they we could see it! So funny, nope we didn’t.

After the people we had talked to started AND FINISHED the maze in a 1/2 hour we were beside ourselves with boredom.  We asked one of the worker boys to go in and find our friends/family and guide them out.  He agreed and entered the maze.

Another 1/2 hour goes by and nothing!  So we call them again.  Apparently the worker boy found them and just said “keep going straight through the mountains.”  Then he kept on walking…some help he was.

Meanwhile Evan was starving because it was an hour past his dinner time and I had brought zero food.  Thankfully Vanessa was well prepared and I entertained Evan with a couple of packages of fruit snacks.

The sun began to set and still nothing.

It started to get cold…still nothing. I have Alyssa’s jacket and Luke has Evan’s.  So pink jacket for Evan it was…for his sake there are no pictures. :)

They did all eventually make it out of the maze...AND with smiles on their faces.  Let me just tell you I’m glad I didn’t keep going on with them because I would not have had a smile on my face at the finish line!  I was a little cranky from just trying to entertain Evan for a couple of hours on top of a picnic table, but was able to muster up enough excitement to clap for them when they arrived.  I think the maze took us about 2 hours to complete.  WAY longer than I had anticipated.  But now we have a fun story to tell. :) 

Oh and Alyssa was so tired after a while of running around that Luke ended up carrying her for a little more than an hour inside the maze…so I think he deserves a happy daddy award for that!

Good job daddy, way to keep our family smiling!

So we accidentally celebrated Alyssa’s 1/2 birthday a month early…oops.  But “OH MY!” did she have a great time!

It was more awesome than we thought it was going to be.  It was a fun excuse to bake her a little cake and wrap up a couple of gifts her Aunt Jerene had sent in a recent package.

She was really jazzed about the cake AND that we sung Happy Birthday AND that she got to blow out a candle.

Here we are singing the first of 3 times!

As you can see Evan really enjoyed the celebration as well!  Here is Alyssa about to blow out the candle.

I used one of her Little People to decorate the top, it looked cute with the heart candle that was left over from her “real” birthday.

Then of course she followed in the Foust kid tradition (that Evan started) and plunged into her cake.  As you can tell she thoroughly enjoyed her cake…and we let her because I had cupcakes waiting in reserves for Luke and me. :)  

The next morning I was slow to wake up when Alyssa came in to tell me she was awake.  Sometimes I feel like a little kid, I’m like “Just 5 more minutes!”  She usually crawls up on the bed and jumps all over me until I get up, but not this particular morning.  I laid in bed for a few minutes and then realized it was WAY too quiet.  When I got up and checked on her this is what I found.

MMMmmmmmmm  cake for breakfast! :)