The Holidays and Things

Thanksgiving is almost here and Christmas shortly following. The hardest part is being so far away from family. But right now I'm enjoying myself. Cuca (Paul's Grandma) is here visiting this week. It feels like I haven't eaten so good since I don't know when. My favorite is potatoes and eggs with beans and home made tortillas.

Doesn't this look good

She even made some Oreo balls. MMMM, so good. And of course Carson is loving it. Her and
Carson will just sit and have a conversation. They talk about anything. Its so cute.

Tuckered out from having fun with Cuca

Its cold here. To cold for me. I would give anything just to go outside and have the Arizona sun warm me up. Since its just me and Grandma at home I decided to go check out some puzzles from the library. She talks, sings and tells stories while we do them. We finished a 500 piece and now we are working on a 1000 piece one.

The sky was really hard to do on this one.

Since the shopping season is coming up I have an issue that I would like to discuss. I am so sick of commercials. They portray these "most willing" people to help you out if you want to go eat or shop at a certain store. Well I'm here to tell you its bunk. Ya I would probably have a better time buying a car if the sales person actually looked like they wanted to help you out. And the disappointment I have is never ending. When I order food and it never looks like it does on tv. The worst is when you go to Taco Bell and the beans suck. And one of the worst is the people at the oil Change place. And I love Walmart just as much as the next person but seriously the check out lines are always long and not everyone looks like the like their job. If you don't like your job then quit. I love the one-stop shopping but I can't go to Walmart without being there for at least an hour. They really suck you in.

Questionable Candy

In light of recent events that have occurred, namely Halloween, Daneen and I got to looking through Carson's treasure (aka candy) and came across some very interesting and questionable items. Here are some of the more interesting gems we found:

mmm......jason popsicle.....

My favorite part of the witch....

eyeballs? yeah just dying for some....

Can't beat those healthy treats.
(although I am pretty sure Carson liked this one better than the apple he got)

Our favorite (and grossest) one of all.......the fake brain!!!! We are still building up the courage to try this one.....

So, did anyone come across any interesting treats last week? Let's hear about it.

-paul

BOO!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

You knew it was coming, a post on Halloween!!!! Our Halloween celebrating started last weekend. Some friends from church invited us over for a Halloween party. Carson had a blast. We roasted hot dogs and played a bunch of games. We forgot our camera so we are waiting for a friend to get us some copies. So you might see a second post on Halloween later....

But for now this will have to do. Of course we had to carve a pumpkin. Carson thought it was cool when mom pulled out the pumpkins brains (aka the seeds and stuff). We didn't use any kit or pattern but we thought it turned out alright. And it looks pretty scary too.


We thought we would do something different for Carson's costume this year so we dressed him up as a surgeon.....again. This time he wasn't weighed down by that giant splint he had on after he broke his arm last October. He really didn't care what he was dressed up as. Maybe next year he will be a brain surgeon instead of a heart surgeon....


After making quick work of Halloween on the Square, the brave little surgeon returned home with his spoils..... (one of our neighbors did give him an apple Andi....hehe)


We tried going to a haunted house with the little man. He was real excited the day before and he told his teachers he was going to a spooky house. So I drove him over there, got out of the car, and we didn't quite make it to the front door when Carson gave my leg a death grip and was already "freaked out" as he said. We donated some cans to get in but once he heard the music inside and saw some of the scary characters he didn't want anything to do with that place. He kept saying "Dad I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE!!!!" He thought I was going to drag him through the spooky house or something because he wouldn't even let me hold him. Funny stuff. Don't worry I didn't make him go in.

But we had a great Halloween. I am sure Carson will be eating candy for quite a while. Don't worry we will make an extra effort to brush his teeth twice as good!

Carson's Big Day

Last Tuesday was Carson's first day of basketball practice, that's what we told him it was. It is the same type of league he did for baseball called "smart start". They told us the intent of the program was for the kids to develop their motor skills.

But if you ask Carson it was basketball practice.....hehe. He got all dressed up in his basketball shoes and basketball shorts and he was ready to hit the hardwood. We showed up to the gym and Carson was grinning ear to ear. And to make things even better one of his little buddies from school was on the "team". Carson thought that was so cool!

They had five different stations set up: shooting, jumping, dribbling, dribbling while walking/running, and passing. They rotated through each station, spending like ten minutes at each one. Here are some pics of the big day.

All in all he really enjoyed his first day of basketball practice. He thought it was cool that he got to take home two basketballs and some cones. And he really liked the orange vest. We had to tuck it in or else he looked like he was wearing a mesh skirt....hehe. Once he figures out how to dribble.....you all better lookout!!!!! Hope you enjoy the pics.

-paul

Top 10 Reasons....

Okay, I couldn't resist any longer. I know top ten lists can be pretty lame but after this weekend I decided I couldn't resist. We went to a parade in town over the weekend kicking off one of many fall festivals and that is where I decided I was going to put together this list. So, without further ado.......

Top 10 Reasons you know you are living in the South!!!!

10. More Churches per square mile than people. Okay, maybe not that many but the whole bible belt thing could not be more accurate. And Andrea, you beat me to the punch with the church marquee thing you did.....dirty!!

9. All of the wildlife......lying dead on the side of the road. We have seen more opossums, squirrels, raccoons, ground hogs, deer, dogs, cats...........lying on the side of the road than we have alive (maybe not the dogs and cats). It's kind of disturbing. Here's a joke Andrew told us: Q: Where are opossums born? A: On the side of the road dead! I actually think there is some truth to that!

8. You can't go a whole day without getting bit by something! Whether it's mosquitoes, chiggers, yellow jackets, wasps, ticks, fire ants, or any other creepy crawly critter, I don't think any of us have come home unscathed from the little monsters. Carson stepped on a fire ant hill and got tore up pretty good. I've been stung by a yellow jacket. And Daneen has had critters crawl on her at night. And we all come home with the mosquito bites. Gotta love it!!!

7. One of the biggest events of the year is the annual Sorghum Festival at Fort Sorghum! My first thought was "What the heck is sorghum?". Just in case your curious......

6. Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee’s Birthday are paid state holidays. I didn’t know this till I tried to go get a shot at the county health clinic and they were closed in observance of Confederate Memorial Day. Good stuff!!

5. The "what did you say?" accents! I thought I was starting to get the hang of interpreting most peoples accents but today I found out that I still don't have a clue. I asked a gas station attendant where the Flying J was. He told me it was at the "recycling fed ex".......at least that's what I understood him to say. He actually said the Resaca-LaFayette Exit!!!! Where is The Yankee's Guide to Southern Accents when you need it?

4. One of your co-workers tells you about the time when he was asked to join the clan (yes, that clan) as a young man! Had to try hard to keep my eyes from bulging out of my head when he told me that!! Don’t worry, he told them no and he is a great guy to work with.

3. When your church holds a fish fry in place of a church thanksgiving dinner. Don't ask!!! But your all welcome to come and have thanksgiving fish with us.

2. The biggest response at the parade we went to was for this float. Long live the bars and stars!!!!!

Gotta Love those Sons of Confederate Veterans!!

1. When a business proudly displays something like this!

Hope you enjoyed!

-paul

Fun Filled Free Saturday!!!

We had an awesome Saturday!! The Home Depot was putting on a kids workshop and having a Fire and Safety Day for kids. We got up early on Saturday thinking we needed to be there at 9:00 for the workshop. Carson wasn't the happiest of campers to be rushed out the door to get there. But when he saw that he would get to build a fire truck/crayon holder he didn't mind so much. And the best part (at least for me and Daneen) was that everything was free!!!! We built the little fire truck and then Carson heard someone say that there was hot dogs and beans. Of course that was what he wanted to do but we figured since it was still not even 10:00 in the morning he would have to wait.

This Boy Can Hammer!!!

So we went and looked at all the cool rescue trucks and police cars. He thought it was pretty cool. And they had a clown there as well doing the whole balloon animal thing. He got fingerprinted by a police man, got to sit on the front of one of the fire trucks, and got to sit in a helicopter too. One of the helicopter pilots showed him that the helicopter had a horn. When he got out he said to me "Dad, that freaked me out when he honked the horn". I thought that was funny.

Comparing His to the Real Deal

Not Shy at All....

The local electric company was there as well showing the kids the dangers of electricity on this little model of a house, power lines, and a transformer. That was my favorite part. They showed what happened if you got too close to one of those green boxes (a transformer). Lets put it this way, I don't think any of us want all that voltage melting us like it melted the little plastic figurine the guy was using.......hehe


After we had looked at all the neat vehicles and displays Carson reminded us that he wanted a hot dog and some beans. So we hurried up and ate a very early lunch and headed over to the movie theater. Every Saturday morning they show a free movie for kids. We figured we would keep with the free theme of the day so far. They were showing the old animated version of Charlotte's Web. Carson really enjoyed it and who cares if I was bored......it was free!
The best part was we spent all morning hanging out and part of the afternoon too. And we got home in time to watch part of the first session of conference and all of the second. And then I got to drive to the church for the priesthood session at 8:00pm. So it was a full day, a free day, and most importantly a fun day.

-paul

Food for the Soul

"Please bless that we can go to Wendy's, Taco Bell, Domino's and Old Mc Donalds." These are words of a four year old saying his prayers. Namely our four year old. Carson is so hilarious. Today he told me that at school he picked his nose and tried to feed his booger to an ant. Then he went ahead and killed in anyway, with his shoe. Now thats funny. Anyway back to the prayers. I can't believe what we are teaching our kid. We don't eat out that much, maybe once a week and its usually Wendy's because they have such great value meals. I'm sure its all a bunch of cancer causing, artery clogging, eventual heart attack food, but its good.

"...mmmmmmm Wendys!!!"

I guess I'll have to start cracking down on the whole eating out thing. We are a little lucky since Carson dosen't like meat or french fries. But most of all I'm concerned that Carson will think that his prayers have been answered when we go out to eat at one of his special requested food places. But really we should all be eating more fish. (Low in mercury off course). Can I just mention that this fish looks like some of these fast food workers.