Homemade guitar and sick kids

 On Tuesday Charlotte read a story for a school assignment on her iPad that included some kids making homemade guitars and drums to make a band. So Charlotte decided she really wanted to make her own guitar. I kept telling her she had to wait until she got her other school work done. It wasn't until after dinner that she got to work finding materials to build one. She found an empty Ramen Noodle box with the plastic still covering most of it and used that for her base with red construction paper taped on it. I was busy compiling a new playlist for some Christmas music on my phone so she just decided to do it herself. It wasn't until she was cutting out pieces for the neck that I started to help because her hands were getting tired of cutting through the thick cardboard. She basically designed it herself and I just helped with a few ideas for the string. We were out of box tape and clear scotch tape so we used duct tape, which is stronger anyway! We didn't get to bed until after 10pm that night but since she didn't have school the next day it was just fine. It was fun to watch her build this and to see how much she could do on her own. Sometimes I get a little too involved and sometimes take over too much so it was good that I was busy doing something else for awhile so that she could build her own crafting skills.

We used fishing line for the strings so they're really hard to see but there's four of them.

 She has since added more tape because the red construction paper kept tearing. Then I was having her practice some sight words yesterday and she started writing sight words on her guitar. Funny girl! Hopefully it helps her learn them!

Well, our van is still at the shop and it's been a big blessing to be able to use my in laws truck. They don't use it a lot. We're expecting the van to be done today but it's about an hour from closing and I have no idea how close they are to finishing. Crossing my fingers.

Jack had stayed home from school on Tuesday because he had the sniffles and a little cough. He was starting to feel better Tuesday evening and Wednesday but then he started playing around too much and started coughing and making it worse again. So today he stayed home again along with Nikki and Charlotte. Nikki had thrown up on Monday after getting home from school but she only did it once and slowly felt better. Tuesday she felt great and even went to work but then yesterday (Wednesday) she started getting the sniffles as well. Her friend Logan had come over and they made some chocolate mug cakes to eat. I told her that probably wasn't the best thing to be eating when she had the sniffles because of all the sugar in it but she didn't care. They also went on a walk afterwards in the cold air. I also warned her that she shouldn't be out very long because she has the sniffles (really shouldn't be outside at all). She slowly started feeling worse after that and when she woke up this morning she had a sinus headache. I've been giving her sinus congestion/headache medicine regularly today and let her sleep most of the day. That seemed to help since her headache is gone and she's feeling better. Hopefully she'll learn from this. There's reasons moms tell their kids not to do things, lol.

As for Charlotte, I debated on whether to send her to school or not. Last night Charlotte, Alice and I decided to go play in the garage after dinner to get some exercise since I had just swept it out earlier today. It was cold but not as cold as being outside and I did bring the heater out and turned it on full blast. Unfortunately the heater is one that is slow to heat up so it didn't do a lot of good but some. I rode Jack's scooter around while the girls switched from skates to scooters to bikes. We brought our radio out and listened to The Polar Express. It was a great time but I think maybe we overdid it a little because when we were putting the girls to bed Charlotte started coughing. This morning she was a little stuffy at first and coughed a little. I kept asking her how she felt and she said she felt like coughing but I think she was just saying that so that she could stay home. After breakfast I didn't hear her cough or even sniffle all day long but I figure it's better to be safe than sorry. Usually her asthma flares up when she gets a cough from a cold. She's been fine all day and acting totally normal, thankfully.  I was able to get her work from school that her teacher sent to the front office so she wouldn't be too far behind when she went back to school again, which will be Monday. 

Garrett was the only one that went to school today. He's one that would prefer going to school every day because band is so much more fun at school and I think he learns more when he's there. I think it also helps that he's in two band classes this year, concert band and jazz band. He has steadily improved on his drumming skills. I love listening to him play! 

Since Charlotte was doing some homework papers for school today I got a preschool workbook out for Alice to do a few pages in. I think I've had this workbook since Jack was in preschool. It just hardly gets used because most of the time the kids would not be interested, so I seized the opportunity while I could. Alice is loving preschool and I can see the difference. She's speaking more words and can count to 4 by herself. She'll even color more with crayons. She's also learning to memorize my phone number. Thankfully she has had no signs of sickness and hopefully it stays that way!

Kitty Success!

The past week slowed down a bit but was still busy enough. Last Tuesday was election day and Curtis got off early so he could avoid the long evening voting line. I had tried to go in that morning around 9:30 but the parking lot was packed! I drove right back home. I went back later with Curtis and it was nice to wait and vote together for a change. The parking lot was still really full around 3:45pm but fortunately it only took about 40 min total. The line was a lot longer by the time we finished. Although, we almost got stuck in the parking lot because people were parking along the curb that wasn't marked as parking and Curtis drove his big truck. He kept having to inch back and forth a little at a time while I was outside directing him until fortunately he was able to squeeze out. Whew!  

We have been having fun with our new kitten, Cocoa. One day the girls put a crown on Cocoa and then on Sage. The crown was small because it came from Charlotte's Rapunzel doll.

She doesn't looked amused.

Charlotte had tied a string on to the crown so it would stay better on both cats. I can't believe they kept it on longer than a minute. So funny!

The bathroom door was open so Cocoa decided to look around. Apparently the sink looked comfortable. It was so tempting to turn the water on with her in there but we didn't, ha ha.

Cuddling up on Sunday after church.

I did Charlotte's hair a little different one day and Charlotte liked it and wanted a picture. I'm slowly getting her to let me do her hair more often. She still prefers it down with nothing in it. I think I might try to get some headbands and see what she thinks of those.

Last Thursday evening I went over to grandma's house with Jack and the two little girls. Grandma had some yard work that she needed help with and she knew Jack was wanting to earn some money so she asked if he wanted to do it. He said yes and so we went over. Although, with the recent time change it was getting dark faster so I didn't think he'd be working very long since they were running out of daylight soon so I stayed. The girls tagged along so they could get out of the house. I watched for a bit at first but eventually I had to jump in there and help. I found grandma's electric trimmer in her tool room and trimmed a few bushes for her. It's the first time I ever used one of those and it was fun. Jack started out working a little slow but he picked up the pace after a bit of grandma and I encouraging him. I'm glad that he is getting these opportunities to learn how to work. I want that for all of my kids.

Saturday morning Curtis woke up early and drove to work so that he could do some studying and a practice test for his engineering license test he'll be taking in the spring. He was gone for about 6 hours. He didn't do too well and can now see why they recommend 6 months of studying before taking the actual test. When he got home I was in the middle of mowing up the leaves in our backyard. He ate some salad and then changed his clothes and came out to help me. I had started with the backyard and moved to the front. It felt good to get the yard cleaned up but then a little later the wind picked up and knocked more leaves off, making it look like we hadn't done a thing. Sheesh! But it was a good thing we still did it because we would've had double the amount of leaves on our grass and that evening and night it rained and then snowed! 

It was our first snow of the season and it got everyone excited for Christmas and we started listening to Christmas music on Sunday. It made us all feel happier. It was kind of a difficult and stressful week what with school for the kids, studying for Curtis, the election, and now some of us are getting the sniffles. I kept Jack home from church yesterday and school today because he's sniffling and coughing a little. At least it's easier for him to miss school with things being posted online for him to work on stuff at home. I too have had a little of the sniffles. I think he and I both got it from doing yard work at grandma's. It just kicked up our allergies. I'm feeling pretty good right now though. 

We actually had to take our van in to the auto shop this morning because it's been leaking a lot of coolant and making lots of noises when we ride on bumpy roads. Looks like we'll be getting a new radiator, water pump and getting the front shocks and strutts replaced. It's going to cost more than we'd like to spend on repairs right now but with our trip to Utah next month we want to make sure we're not going to have problems. It also looks like I'll be driving this van even longer than predicted. There will be a few more things to get fixed in a few months (that weren't as important to get done yet) then it will be in pretty good shape....again. I'm so thankful that my in laws had their truck that I can borrow while our van gets fixed. Hopefully, I'll have it back by tomorrow.

One more thing to add to this post before I'm done. So I've been separating Cocoa from our other two cats most of the time. Their was once last week where Stardust and Cocoa accidentally saw each other and we decided to watch and see what happened. They sniffed each other's noses and actually did really well. I think after a few minutes of Cocoa following Star she got a little annoyed and finally growled a little. Sage on the other hand hisses any time Cocoa accidentally gets close to her. Well, all of the cats really like when they get wet food from a can to eat. Two nights ago I had the bowls right up to the family room door when they were eating (Cocoa on one side of the door and Star and Sage on the other side). When we first got Cocoa, Sage wouldn't want to go near that door to eat. We started at about 3 feet on both sides of the door (6 feet apart total) and slowly moved the bowls closer and closer. We learned this technique from a youtube video a year ago when we got Stardust and had to introduce her and Sage. They are now buddies since Star will sometimes bring Sage some mice.

Anyway, during the day I give the cats dry food. The last meal of the day I give them wet food and since we were able to get the cats to eat right by the door and because Sage and Star were really anxious to eat the wet food, I last minute decide to experiment with all 3 cats eating together in the kitchen. It worked! And we had Cocoa right in the middle of the other two cats. They ate for several minutes with no problems. The only time Sage hissed was at the end when Sage was still finishing a few little pieces of food that fell off her plate onto the floor and Cocoa tried to come over and eat it. Star ate the quickest and got out of there as fast as she could. 

There also was one other incident a few days ago when all 3 cats accidentally ended up in the kitchen together. Stardust and Cocoa sniffed each other again but Star never growled or hissed. Sage did hiss several times but Nikki sprayed her with water and she'd run and hide. It was so funny because the first time she ran over by Stardust over by the sliding door and hid behind the curtain. She poked her head down toward the floor but didn't see Cocoa sitting nearby watching her. She came out from under the curtain and as soon as she turned her head and saw Cocoa she hissed but then Nikki sprayed her. We actually got it on video too and it's quite entertaining to watch. Stardust just acts like she's not part of this and takes off as soon as Sage came by her.

Stardust, Cocoa and Sage

I'm going to try feeding them together again tonight except this time make sure the kids aren't crowding around them. That's probably one reason Star took off so fast is because the girls kept getting close and Charlotte was petting them sometimes. Animals don't typically like to be touched while eating and want their space. But I'm happy! I feel like we're making faster progress than I thought we would. 

Halloween 2020

We started our Halloween celebrating with a primary trunk or treat in our church parking lot Thursday evening. Since I'm a leader of the activity day boys the primary presidency asked if I would help. They were just having leaders pass out goodies to the kids instead of the whole ward. It was open house style. People would bring their kids around to each car and then they could go home. At first when they asked me to help I was told they were just going to set up tables for each station so I wasn't going to bring anything. I also wasn't feeling like dressing up since I didn't really get to look for a new costume this year. However, at the last minute I decided to wear my old pirate costume and grabbed some decorations just in case. I'm glad I did! It was much more fun and I saw that other leaders dressed up and brought decorations also. The primary had me hand out Halloween pencils and I also brought my own candy. So they got a treat and a pencil at my station. It was fun! Since I was a leader and had to be there the whole time Curtis had to bring the 3 younger kids after they ate dinner. 

With her mask on.

And now without the mask.

Alice wasn't too happy because she had just woken up from a nap. She didn't want to wear her princess crown either. Or maybe it was that she couldn't find it. I don't remember.

Curtis just threw on a wig with his Aussie hat and his sunglasses.

Friday night Nikki had some friends come over for a simple Halloween party. She knew for over a month that she was going to do this but she didn't really plan anything for it until last minute. I had to give her some suggestions for food and activities. She knew they were going to watch a movie but I mentioned the idea of pumpkin carving and she liked that idea. So they started out with pumpkin carving. Then ate some food and watched "I Am Legend". Because they started so early they were done with the party just before 9pm, kind of surprising for a teenager party.

Saturday, the day of Halloween, it was nice to sleep in. We didn't really know what our plans were but Curtis was off helping a guy from work with some plumbing stuff so we couldn't discuss it. My dad called and asked if we could bring the kids over around 2pm to do some grandparent trick or treating and I knew my friends Monica and Seth were going to come over in the evening. We also needed to carve our pumpkins still. Curtis got home around 11:30 and we finally made our plans. We just ate lunch and then relaxed a bit before going over to my dad's. I had texted my grandma earlier to let her know that we were going over so she was there also. That saved us another stop and gave us more time. Tamara was there with her 3 little kids and my step brother Scott and his wife Jill and two youngest kids were there also. The crazy thing is that Garrett and Jill dressed up as the same character, Marty McFly from Back to the Future. We didn't have time to finish finding the jean jacket and vest for Garrett though before Halloween. Honestly, he could also be Steve Irkle from Family Matters if he threw on some glasses, lol. After getting pictures and treats we went to see Curtis's parents.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz, Minnie Mouse, a princess, a guy with a mustache and knife, Marty McFly and then I said Curtis and I could be muggles (non magic people from Harry Potter). I just didn't feel like dressing up again but I wish I had put my pirate costume on again when I saw Tamara, Scott and Jill dressed up. Oh well, maybe next year.

Trick or treating at Dad's next door neighbors. 

Getting a picture with Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony.

This was at Grandma and Grandpa Butterfield's.

Now it was back home to get Nikki to work and to do our pumpkin carving. We watched movies on the laptop while we carved. Thankfully Nikki had already carved her pumpkin yesterday with her friends so she wasn't missing out.

Charlotte was excited to carve pumpkins and was happy when she could scoop out a bunch of seeds in her little spoon. We save the seeds and bake them with butter, worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt. One of our favorite Fall snacks!

Charlotte actually designed and carved her pumpkin by herself this year. I was really impressed!

Keeping it simple.

She poked her name in the back of the pumpkin and tried to carve it but I finally told her she didn't need to do that. She wanted people to know it was her pumpkin.

Curtis helped Alice with carving. I cleaned it out.

Doing a little trick or treating with the girls after eating taco soup for dinner. We didn't go too far and thankfully they were fine with that. We were gone for maybe half an hour.

It was finally dark enough to light them up. Pumpkins in order left to right - Deedra (mine), Garrett, Alice, Charlotte, Nikki, Curtis. Jack didn't want to carve one this year. We have a couple extra pumpkins we'll just have to save for Thanksgiving decoration. Then cut them open for the seeds.

We weren't sure Monica and Seth were going to show up but just as we were getting ready to start a Harry Potter movie they showed up at the door. The kids were trick or treating to us and I didn't even recognize them at first until Monica came behind them. They hung out for a little bit and then left to go see her brother. I learned tonight that Monica is not a Harry Potter fan and doesn't like dark movies. I have to say I was surprised. We love the Harry Potter series! We got them to watch about 10 min of the beginning of the 6th movie. Then they left to go visit her brother.

Considering the covid situation this year we didn't get as many trick or treaters as usual but we did get some. The boys were in charge of handing out candy this year. And even with covid it was still a fun Halloween!

We stayed up to finish watching the movie and didn't get to bed until nearly midnight. I was not looking forward to waking up for 9 am church after staying up that late. Why do we do this to ourselves?! Thankfully when I woke up I saw that my radio clock said it was almost 7:30 but my phone said 6:30 which is what time my alarm was set to go off. Hallelujah!! We got an extra hour of sleep because daylight savings happened to be that night and we didn't know it.

Getting Ready for Halloween and Our New Kitten

Wow, the last two weeks have been busy! There have been lots of fun things going on to help us get ready for Halloween and in the spirit of the kicking off to the holiday season. Lets start with some pumpkin baking!

Last Sunday Nikki and I baked up a newly acquired recipe of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I got the recipe from a friend at church. They turned out good except we decided next time we'll put in less chocolate chips. They were a little over powering.

Nikki and her friend Angie have been needing to dye a jacket for Angie's costume and they were running out of time and chances to do it since both of them have after school jobs. They had to do it last Sunday evening. They started in the garage using my grandma's hot plate but we had several issues with power and then it just wouldn't heat the pot of water up to boiling. Reluctantly we had to move it inside to the kitchen.

I didn't want to get splashes of black on everything so we covered the floor and counters with brown paper bags and black plastic bags.  When they were done boiling the jacket in the dye we got another black bag and cut the other end open so we could poor it through the kitchen drain without splashing dye.

Unfortunately the next day I did discovered some tiny black spots on our microwave. I used acetone to wipe most of it off but I had to be careful because it was taking the white paint of the microwave off also.

Angie's jacket started out white like Nikki's. They wanted it to be black but this was as close as we were going to get. They were a character from a TV show called Phineas and Ferb, Dr. Doofenshmirtz (two different versions of him)

We also went and picked out pumpkins for carving from Walmart. Unfortunately we didn't get around to carving them until the day of Halloween.

My friend Whitney recently discovered some kittens and a mother cat that were living in bad conditions and took it upon herself to find homes for them. Since I knew we are going to be giving Stardust back to my brother Colby in a couple months after he gets married I started to think about maybe taking one of the kittens. Nikki had already told me that she would like to get a kitten after Star leaves. There were two black females, 1 white female and 1 male tabby. The mother was white. These poor cats have been locked in a crate and not getting fed.  I showed Nikki the pictures of the kittens and of course she started begging me to get one. I then told Whitney that I was thinking about taking one and she said I could come look at them. 

We scheduled to go look at them Wednesday afternoon but then right before taking the girls to preschool/PE I got a call from Whitney and she said I better come right away because the gal who owned the cats was going to get rid of them (dump them somewhere). So I dropped the girls off and the older kids and I drove over to Whitney's place to look at the kittens. I originally liked the look of the black kittens when looking at the pictures. Then on the way over the kids and I were thinking we would probably take the white one because Whitney said she liked that one. So we started thinking of names for a white cat. 

The room that these cats were being kept in smelled terrible! Not only did this lady and her daughter keep these cats in a crate but they also had dogs. There was poop on the floor. It was disgusting! We started looking at the cats and Whitney let them out so they could eat the dog food. One of the black kittens seemed a little more interested in us and seemed lovey too as we held her. We decided she was the one for us and got out of there as quick as we could. After getting her home I went to the store and bought some cat shampoo. After what she was living in even though she looked pretty clean there were a few greasy looking spots. I gave her a bath which was actually the first time I've given any of our cats a bath. I think it was a little easier with her being a kitten. She still didn't want to get bathed and I even got a couple scratches from her but she did pretty well for a cat.

We originally named her Poppy because we wanted to pick a food related name to go along with Sage. We didn't like Rosemary or Thyme though (to go with the Simon and Garfunkel song). Even before we went to see the kittens and I was thinking of getting a black one I was looking through the cupboard at our herbs and spices to see what might work as a name. I saw poppy seeds and since they are black I thought that would be a cute name, Poppy. However, after we got her home I wasn't so sure I liked that name for her even though the kids were all calling her that. Then after Curtis got home he said Poppy sounded like poopy. He didn't like the name and since I wasn't totally sold on it either I decided we needed to change the name. So I looked at black cat name possibilities online and Nikki and I decided we liked Cocoa and hey, it goes along with our food names too, lol! We asked everyone in the family if they liked that name and yes they did, even Curtis. So we named her Cocoa. She's about 6 months old and so fun and lovey.

She fits perfectly in the bed that came with Stardust (which Star never uses).

She's so cute and we love her!

She loves to cuddle in our laps. (She's cuddling with me right now as I type this. I'm sitting on the couch.)

As for animals, one day Charlotte got crafty and built herself a saddle for her stuffed horse out of paper. She still really wants a real horse. It gets tiring sometimes but cute at the same time.

Sage is not too happy with having a new kitten around. She has been spending more time outside because of it. Stardust hasn't really been around long enough to know what she thinks of the kitten. We did show the kitten to her once and the kitten was the one who growled and hissed. Star and Sage were the same way when Star first came to us but now they are friends. Star will be out all day hunting and bring back mice for Sage, sometimes dead, sometimes alive. If she brings a dead one home I usually throw it away as quick as I can but sometimes I don't know about it and she gets to it first and eats it. Yuck! Any time she eats a mouse and I know about it she then gets to stay outside for a few hours to make sure she doesn't puke it out later, since it happened once (thankfully outside).  

While Sage was playing with the mouse that Star brought back Star was kicking back relaxing and watching Sage. I think she feels proud about helping Sage.

Kittens definitely have more energy and are a lot more fun. The kids were getting Cocoa to jump up on the cat scratcher by chasing a toy.

Last year we had to go through the process of keeping Stardust and Sage separated until they got used to each other, starting with getting used to their scent. Now we have to do the same thing with the new kitten. It gets a little tricky sometimes with having 3 cats but Star is gone most of the time anyway. We had to force Sage to have specific meal times again instead of free feeding. When we feed the cats it's usually Sage and Cocoa. I close our family room door and put one on each side, their food bowls about 3 feet from the door. Then slowly we'll move them closer. It's a slow process introducing cats but it will be worth it. After all, Sage and Star eventually became friends.