Tooth Fairy under fire!

I'm just gonna get this one off my chest right now.  I now hate it when the Tooth Fairy is due to visit one of my offspring.  I have retired from stealthy tooth-snatching duties as of this minute.  The tooth fairy is now definitely male in our house.  You've probably seen him in that Santa Claus movie with Tim "the Tool Man" Allen, right?  You know, the tooth-collector with notably broad shoulders, a deep voice and tiny little wings?  Well, in our house he has speckled gray hair, a killer smile and a huge crush on little ol' me.

The older the kids get, the more it freaks me out to trade their newest pulled molar with a handful of coins.  I try to sneak under their pillows to retrieve the family tooth box, but lately I either get caught or have to blurt out a good excuse to be fumbling around on the top bunk at midnight.  Even if I get the box out without a child stirring, it is a miracle if I can quietly shove it back just far enough under the pillow so it won't fall off the top bunk.  All this only happens if I actually remember that it's a night that the tooth box is full and waiting under a pillow.  My poor kids are now used to the Tooth Fairy being "really busy" because it takes her a couple (the record is seven) nights to remember there's a tooth waiting to be cashed in.

I really was caught red-handed while trying to trade a tooth several months ago.  Toby lost his 6th tooth and I was so impressed that I remembered on night one!  Hold on, let me preface this with the fact that Toby is a DEEP sleeper.  We can get him up at night to pee and he won't even remember walking to the bathroom, washing his hands or climbing back up into bed the next morning.  The kid talks in his sleep sometimes, and I can't wake him up to get out of his dream without pulling him out of bed.  So, on this fateful night of tooth-nabbing I felt confident I could whip in, switch his tooth, quickly be in bed, and wake to shouts and cheers that the Tooth Fairy came the first night!!!  I slipped my hand under Toby's pillow to find the box when he scared me by bolting upright in bed and staring over the top bunk right at me!  I should have stood there and made up some white lie, but I was so scared that he woke up so fast I just ducked and ran in hopes he wouldn't see me.  LOL!  So lame.  He said, "I caught you, MOM.  You're the Tooth Fairy!"  I came back in and fed him something lame like I was just checking that he was okay and that he had remembered to put his tooth under his pillow.  He still ribs me that I'm the Tooth Fairy while I continue to assure him that I am not for the Little's sake. 

Poor Jessie has got to know by now that Mom and Dad carry on Tooth Fairy duties in our house.  She lost a molar at a friends house last Tuesday which she brought home in a plastic bag.  I forgot to get it that night and then we were out of town from Wednesday to Sunday.  By then it was like the tooth had never come out until Jessie complained yesterday that the Tooth Fairy still hadn't come.  *Sigh*  I should just break down and tell her point blank that her lame Mom can't remember to switch her tooth.  Even if she suspects there isn't a Tooth Fairy, I can't do that to her.  Here it is a week later, and I still haven't switched that darn molar.  I went to do so just now when two things foiled my plan; 1) I couldn't find the silly tooth box.  Heck, I'm not even sure she put it in the tooth box! and 2) she totally woke up while I was trying to gently swipe under her pillow for the dang thing.  It was easy to tell her I was looking for a rice bag to heat up because she currently has a bunch of stuff cluttering her bed.  All that clutter means there is no flippin' way I'm going to locate a small tooth box in the dark while J is still semi-awake.  I gave up until she's gone to school tomorrow to find the dumb tooth for tomorrow night.  Heck, I almost left the quarters I had set aside with a note under her pillow that said, "Please give your tooth to your Mom because your bed was too messy for me to find it.  Your Mom will turn it in to me tomorrow night." 

Ugh.  I'm such a bad Mom when it comes to the Tooth Fairy.  That's why I've decided to put this one off on Dad.  He can get caught with his hand in the fire once or twice for a change.  We'll see how well he dances then.  ;)

Did I mention that Logan has his first loose tooth as of last week...........

Maintenance Monday

We run into some strange people and even stranger circumstances managing an apartment complex.  There was that time when a tenant burned right through the kitchen linoleum and set his drapes on fire with a hot plate that tipped over.  I didn't even witness that aftermath until he moved out months later.  There was another incident when an old lady's pressure cooker exploded on the stove and shot the lid right through the stove hood and up to the ceiling.  The hood and fan were ruined, and there was half-cooked rice on every inch of the kitchen.  She tried to say it was the stove's fault.  Seriously.

Sometimes, my (maintenance) Man and I crack up at the funny ways people try to tell us about things that need attention in their apartments.  I thought it would be fun to share some of those here.

Here's a poor soul whose electrical outlet in the living room is shorting out and needs rewiring.  He said it like this;  "The electric line in the living room has problem.  I open the light, but it turn off quickly every time.  I can hear sound like Ka Ka Ka."

Here's one that we never quite figured out.  "Moth built sand house inside one of the cabinet."  I didn't know moths were such accomplished carpenters.

The overly dramatic, "my heater is just not working please hurry before we freeze to death."  It was the end of November and I'm pretty sure the temperature wasn't below mid-40's that year.

"The toilet paper holder is unglued old got dried out."  Besides some editing problems, this tenants complaint described a new TP holder being mysteriously ripped out despite the careful use of her 4 kids.

Property management has proved to not only be a huge learning experience, but very entertaining as well.  

Kibble and Bits

At the dinner table on Sunday night we were talking about dog food.  Delicious, right?  Daddy referred to dog food as kibble; Kibble & Bits.

Toby asked, "What is Kibble & Bits?"

Jessie pipes up, "I know, me and Toby are the Kibble and Logan and Syd are the Bits."

My Man and I busted up laughing, and J was a little embarrassed until we assured her she made a funny joke.  The kids are used to us calling the younger ones Littles and the two older kids are the Bigs.  So naturally, Jess thought it was a term of endearment for our kids.☺  Now we have another term of endearment to call our different aged kids.  They are all still chillies, and we now have the Littles/Bits (5 and under) and the Bigs/Kibble (7 and up).  Gotta make this crazy zoo fun and interesting, right?  When we are running errands or deciding who takes kids to what event or family members house to stay, it's much easier to split up the Littles with an older kid.  My Man and I communicate faster calling them by their nicknames.

Isn't it fun to get a glimpse into the mind of a child?  I still laugh about Kibbles & Bits.......

Costumes and Candy Weekend

With bringing home Ruby late Friday night, our Halloween weekend was set up to be a little chaotic.  The Mister pretty much took charge of all things Ruby, so I had time to sew on last minute things to various costumes, whip together my Man's costume needs, and get cupcakes baked for the church Halloween party Saturday night.

Our ward activities committee puts on a sweet Halloween bash every year, and this year didn't disappoint.  We got there a little late because Ruby needed to go potty before we could leave and painting everyone's face took a little longer than I expected.  Once we arrived though the whole family had a great time.  There were lots of carnival games, cotton candy and popcorn, Jessie and the other girls her age ran a face-painting booth, the ever-popular bounce house, and trick-or-treating upstairs rounded out the night.  I was so impressed with the huge spread of cupcakes that members brought for the cupcake contest.

This huge table was full of such cool cupcake creations!

I ran out of time to really decorate my cupcakes like this for the party, but the ones I took won best tasting.  Thank you Better Homes and Garden's sweet potato cupcake recipe for that one.  They are so divine; fresh sweet potatoes, cream cheese frosting, and a little orange zest on top, the perfect autumn treat!  Never mind the calorie count and number of fat grams per cupcake.  I made the mistake of reading the nutritional info at the bottom of the recipe.  You ready for this?  17 grams of fat in one cupcake!  Today I ate the last three that were staring at me on the counter.  I couldn't resist those chocolate eyes staring at me.  I probably shouldn't eat until Wednesday to balance things out.

I went easier on myself this year with making less costumes than usual.  Syd, Mr. Cooper, Jessie's, and my costume were mostly store and thrift store finds.  My Man's voodoo man costume is a thrift store suit, a dress shirt altered into a vest, and some store bought accessories.  Toby's costume was my main creation.  Toby was not onboard with our skeleton theme this year (he insisted on being a "skeleton ninja"?), so the only way he agreed is if he could be Skeletor.  His costume started with this women's light blue sweatshirt from the thrift store, dyed purple here.

After a couple baths in purple dye and lots of puzzle-piece altering, I transformed said sweatshirt into this.

It turned out well for 1 1/2 days work and Toby loves it.  At first Tob didn't want to have his face painted yellow.  After explaining that no one would know he was Skeletor without his signature yellow face he agreed to let me try it out.  He left it on the entire day and didn't want to wash it off for bed.  ;)  Toby won scariest costume at the church party too.

After a non-spooky morning at church on Sunday, with sugared-up kids, we came home to spend the day with family.  The kids carved pumpkins while Grammy Evie and I prepped pizza toppings.  Home made pizza has become a weekly ritual that we missed out on while traveling to pick up Ruby on Friday, so a family Halloween dinner was the perfect excuse to make pizzas.  Afterward, we threw costumes on the kids (no time for face paint) and met some good friends up at the in-laws for a quick visit.  We caught up on life, the boys kept an eye on the baseball game, and we walked a few streets to trick-or-treat with them.  Funny, we could tell right away what neighbors were watching the Giants play in the World Series because the game was blaring from the open door, or the resident would shout out the score to all the adults standing on the sidewalk.  It was nice to touch base with friends that we don't see often enough, even though they live ten minutes away.  I need to be better about extending myself that way.

 Yes, those are pizza toppings hanging out right next to the pumpkin guts.  We're daring like that.

The Great Pumpkin pulled off his annual visit despite not being prepared at all.  He, she in this case, whipped up some change holders to give the kids in exchange for most of their candy.  They got to pick a handful of their favorites to keep, and the rest went away.  Now if only I could get rid of the Costco-sized bag of chocolate on my closet floor that we didn't give out we would be in great shape.......

Niece Maddie (5 months old) getting to know the new pup, Ruby (9 weeks old).  

Software upgrade

A few entries ago I mentioned how the Mister and I have been talking in code around the house to keep a certain surprise on the down low for weeks.  It didn't take us long to code name said surprise as "software."  We could almost freely discuss plans for a software upgrade, different kinds of software, extras that go with the software, etc.  The kids had no clue what we were talking about and time marched on. 

About the same time, the Mister decided to tell the kids that we were having a special visitor come to the house soon.  We decluttered rooms, cleaned up the back yard junk, moved furniture around, and tried to train the kids to keep their toys put away and stuff off the floor, so that our visitor could be comfortable when they came.  A couple weeks ago we told the kids that it was almost time to go pick up our visitor.  They didn't mind too much that we would be gone on the Friday before Halloween for all their parties at school because the mystery visitor that the Mister was talking up for weeks would be coming home with us.

We decided to take the whole family on the road trip down to southern California to pick up our "visitor," so we could split up the 15 hour drive into two days.  I thought it was a great excuse to sleep in a Marriott bed again, and I knew the kids would love another night in a hotel after our summer trip to Oregon.  We left on Thursday night and got to the hotel in Bakersfield a little after midnight.  After a disappointing nights sleep, ( I woke up at 5 AM and couldn't get back to sleep even on that wonderful Marriott bed!) we ate an early breakfast in the hotel and went for an hour swim before getting on the road again.  The kids loved the nice pool and spa surprise which I was banking on.

Here's where the story of what really happened and what I wanted to happen differ.  Sorry babe, we should have done it my way.  ;)

You know those Disneyland commercials where Mom and Dad videotape their kids reaction to the news that they are soon going on a trip to the Magic Kingdom?  The kids reactions are priceless as they scream, jump up and down, or just stand their with a mystified look of happiness on their face.  That's kind of the scenario I wanted to set up with our chillies when we told them that our "visitor" was actually this little beauty that was staying with us for keeps.

 They would have flipped out and been so surprised.  The anticipation and excitement would have built to a tangible level on the 3 hour drive down to pick her up, so that by the time we rolled up to the breeder's house the kids would have jumped out of their seats.  I was curious to hear all the things they would talk about that they wanted to do with their new puppy, what they wanted to name her, what she would look like, etc.  It would have been awesome!

Instead, the whole situation went like my Man planned except, unfortunately, it backfired big time.  The kids were thinking someone like Aunt Tori, or their cousins, or some other relative was coming to stay with us.  We did say "visitor" remember?  We still made that 3 hour drive, but the kids were totally in the dark and a little short-tempered by that time.  When we finally rolled through the breeder's front gate in the middle of the barren desert ALL the kids were asleep.  The Mister wanted to go in, get the puppy, and walk out, puppy in hand, to be met with shouts of surprise and cheers of delight. 

Well, after waking up all the kids, laying out a blanket quick so we could sit, and being surprised myself with how quick my Man came out with her, we all just kinda stood there.  The kids had no clue what to think.  They didn't get it and were probably too out of it to understand Daddy was bringing out our new puppy, not just a visitor.  Sadly, it was a very anticlimactic introduction.  Mr. Cooper asked, even after we explained that she was ours, if we were going to bring her back to that place.  We should have done it my way.  ;)

Aren't those wrinkly puppy haunches and faces adorable?  They have so much extra skin waiting to be filled out.  And just in case you were wondering how big she will get, notice the considerable size of those 8 week-old paws.

Our house is now filled with chew toys, a big old crate, dog food (weird), and oh yes, poop bags.  We named her Ruby and she is a Red/Rust Doberman.  She's 8 1/2 weeks old in these pictures, but she's going to grow so fast.  I'm kinda sad that she won't be tiny for long, but no peeing at a moments notice is a favorable trade-off!