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!

Busy is good

 The last two days were so busy I think the most time I spent home during those days were a couple 90 minute stretches.  For the amount of work I'm supposed to be doing in the next week that's not good odds.  I really felt like the stereotypical Mom-taxi all Wednesday and Thursday.  Actually it was more like a personal escort because I walked most of the time.

Wednesdays have turned into back and forth madness to school and such.  Jess has running club early in the morning, then boys to school, then me to Logan's class and home with him, then back to get Jessie since it's an early day, then back to pick up Toby, and finally Jess to and from sewing. 

Thursday was more of the same with Syd and I making two extra trips to the boys school to watch them run in the annual fundraiser.  Add in some plumbing problems at the apartments, juggling that schedule with meeting the plumber, and it made for one hectic day.  

Thank goodness for Fridays!  The pressure is off and I can relax a little bit to concentrate on my list and relaxing with the kids.  Wait, it's really Friday already?  I suppose that's one good reason to be actively engaged.  Time zooms right by.

I know this isn't a record for me, but check out how fast these pictures made it to cyber-space.  This was yesterday folks.  Talk about an update!

Below are all 3 school-aged kids running at the Fall Stampede.  We don't really care about how much money we raise (if any), but how many laps were run.  The kids like to try to outdo their laps ran from last year.  Mr. Cooper ran 14, Toby ran 18, and Jess ran a much longer 20 laps.  There's so much difference in personality between these three.  Logan was just going along with the flow, and was ready to quit half way through.  Toby was out there dancing, hopping and playing for the duration.  I noticed he ran with the same cute girl the whole time, and would speed up every time he came our way.  Jessie is a fierce competitor already, so she took this lap running stuff seriously.  I've learned she just needs a lot of encouragement and support.  There is usually no need to motivate her because she drives herself pretty hard as it is.

In other news, Halloween costumes are coming along slowly, and if I can reproduce what I imagine them to be it will be a great year!  It IS proving harder to do a family theme every Halloween as the chillies get older.  This year was definitely a compromise.  One week left until the big church party.  It's gonna be spooktacular!