Cleveland Rocks II

I am in love with this city.  I don't know why- it just has charm, and it isn't crazy crowded.
I like it.
So we took another trip to experience more of the city that is Cleveland, Ohio.
You can see our other trip here.
This trip brought along a few surprises.
Including our chance to meet Carlisle Cullen.   (He has a real name but lets face it, it was hard enough for me to remember what his movie name was....)
We were heading to the terminal tower that overlooks the city when low and behold in the same mall was an autograph and picture taking experience with Dr. Carlisle Cullen himself.

Myers was super excited about it.  He's a huge twilight fan- I mean what almost 2 year old isn't?

There he is!

And here he is closer.

And signing autographs.

We didn't get to actually shake his hand or get our picture with him (that would have cost $40) but we were among the admirers, though technically we aren't admirers...  But we posed as such.  I enjoy myself some twilight but not enough to pay for a picture and an autograph...
And then we got sufficiently bored and headed to the terminal tower...

It was awesome!  It just recently reopened after it was closed because of some scares from September 11.

We all had fun taking turns pressing the buttons in the multiple elevators we had to take to get all the way up there.  It reminded me of when we went up the Empire State Building- though less supervised, less money, and definitely less people.  But both were awesome in their own right...

 All the way up to the 42nd floor!  Myers looks super impressed.

 Part of the view...

 I like this picture- she looks super cute.  We were trying to point out a limo that we could see by a church down there- she couldn't find it.  You know how hard it is to have a child find something that is only 2 feet from them- well imagine a tiny little limo that is who knows how for from her.  We eventually took a picture of it and then pointed it out in the picture and then had her find it in real life.  To this day I don't know if she found it...

 The crooked river.

 Even Scrooge, E. signed the register.  Who knew he was from Germany?  You can thank Justin for that!

 Next stop was a childhood dream come true.  The actual house that A Christmas Story was filmed in.  You know- 'You'll shoot your eye out!' or ' Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra, Ra Ra Ra Ra'.  And if you don't know then you should...

 My family will love the picture below.  That is the actual 'I can't put my arms down' snow suit.  I thought it was brown!

 There it is- the house!  Ruby was really excited to be there- though she hasn't seen the movie.... yet!

 The LEG LAMP!

 Hiding in the cupboard!

 Serving the turkey!

Randy's hat. 

 The Red Rider BB Gun.  I never would have shot MY eye out with that thing.  I'm pretty much a BB gun shooting genius!

 Justin's just plain awesome.

Careful or Ruby will shoot YOUR eye out!

 Token Leg Lamp Picture.  If I had endless amounts of money AND liked really ugly things I would have bought one....

 It was really a fun day.  Lots of memories and lots of dreams come true....

Who needs Disney World when you have Cleveland?

HEAD

In Justin's adult life I have only known him to be truly afraid of one thing.

Styrofoam heads.

I can only blame his sisters for the lack of Styrofoam head decoration in our home.

(Everyone has Styrofoam heads adorning their halls right?  I feel totally left out of the Styrofoam head craze...)

On All Hallows Eve we received a 'guest' in the mail.

In the form of a Styrofoam head.

It looked like this:

And it creeped us all out.

I did not expect the amount of creepage that I felt.  

I thought it was all just a simple joke that would be funny and then the styrofoam head would go away and we would all laugh and that would be it.

But that head has a way of haunting a person and finding its way back into your life.

The creepiest part is the fact that it has 'I FOUND YOU' written on its head. 

That creeps everyone else out too, right?

I will admit I am a bonified 'scaredy'.  There is no other way to describe it.

Justin showed a little bit of fear whether fake or real suppressed 'I was terrorized with this head by my sisters in my youth' fear it doesn't matter.  I jumped right on that band wagon.

We quickly threw it down the stairs (into the basement that we NEVER enter, not under ANY circumstances- because of said fear) and quickly close the door.

We discussed what we would do with it- I wanted to get rid of it so Justin said he would run down and get it and then we could get rid of it. So he opened the door- and about 4 steps down- there was the head.

It had landed right side up on its neck and was looking at us through those opaque white eyes- just willing us to come closer.

SO.... we shut the door again.

And laughed nervously....  (the kids were around and we don't want them to have unnecessary fear of the head)

We did eventually get the head and now it has a dwelling in our garage.

We just can't seem to let it go.

Where do you find a styrofoam head anyway?  What if we needed it some day?

I know you are laughing at us right now- but beware!!!

Maybe one day the head will find you.

Yes I am mostly speaking to you Aymie DAVIS!!!!

Lessons Learned

I learn something new every place I live.
Not just one thing, mind you, but many.  Most lessons I learn are based around service.  Things people have done for me or service they have offered me.  Sometimes the harder lessons are learned- things I really wish someone would have done for me but didn't. I then learn to give that service when I am able.  I become more aware of what people in my situation may need, so when I come across it I do my best to offer that service. In fact I more fervently seek out those opportunities to serve.  I really believe it is important to serve others and to find opportunities to serve.

Case and point- One such lesson was learned very recently.
We have a pretty big yard which we love to bits.  It is full of lots of amazing trees and it is a great place to hang out.  The kids and I spent almost every day out there in the summer and the weather has been great lately so we have been spending every second that we can out there now.
That being said- all of those beautiful trees lose their beautiful leaves.
And we decided that we would teach our children work ethic and we would rake the leaves by ourselves instead of having our lawn service do it for us.
Plus it saved us $50.  Now before you ask the question- it was totally NOT worth it.  If you are ever faced with this decision in your future- just pay the money and save yourself a lot of heart ache and hand ache and back ache (from landscaping duty)....
We had a very short window to get the raking done- the city has a program where if you leave your huge pile of leaves in the gutter they will come and pick them up- they were starting this on friday so we needed to have the leaves in the gutter by then.  Because of other commitments (trick or treating and the library) we were left with wednesday and thursday as our only days to do this.  Justin got Wednesday afternoon off so we thought that would be a great time to do it.  But we are great procrastinators and 'find something better to do-ers' that we filled up that half a day pretty quickly so we were left with Justin pulling landscaping duty solo for about 40 minutes.  He did what he could but was more focused on getting a big pile for the kids to play in.  Which they loved- but it didn't get the leaves to the front gutter.  He also sustained some pretty wicked blisters.
So this left thursday.  I knew I had to take matters into my own hands and the kids and I got out there and raked half the yard and it took us about 2.5 hours.  Well it took ME 2.5 hours.  Lets just say they weren't getting the whole 'work ethic teaching' thing.
But they entertained themselves so it meant I could get to work.
Here comes the service learning part.  While I was laboriously working I saw that across the street my neighbor was out on his yard too.  With a leaf blower.  This guy keeps an impeccable yard.   Beautiful.  He is always working out there and I wouldn't be surprised if I looked out one day and saw him cutting his grass with scissors and a magnifying glass.  But today, this day, he was using a much coveted leaf blower.  I kid you not when I say that he had a total of about 3 leaves on his lawn.  I swear he was doing it just to rub it in.  You know, 'I have a leaf blower, na na na na boo boo...'  I know he wasn't intentionally doing it.  But in that moment when my hands were aching like they have never ached before, and my back was killing me and my kids were running through the leaves the WRONG way (away from the street), and the trees were shedding their leaves just as fast as I could rake them, the last thing I needed was my across the street neighbor using his leaf blower to blow the 3 leaves out of his yard and the first thing I needed was a leaf blower.
So lesson learned that day:  Buy a leaf blower, when we have money, and seek out any woman raking her leaves whilst watching children.  I guess the important lesson learned is to SEEK out opportunities to serve.  They are everywhere and if we don't look for them we won't find them.  I know he didn't intentionally decide to blow his 3 leaves right then (and I'll be the first to say it- I am being a little hard on him).  But a valuable lesson was learned (the hard way).
We did eventually get our whole lawn raked - we went out there right after supper when Justin got home to finish it and we raked until way after dark (about 9).  I had to give each of the kids a glow stick just so we would know where they were in the yard.
And the worst part of it all- if you looked in our yard you would NEVER know.  NEVER.  I just don't know if I can do it again.  I need my dad to come for a visit- with his rake- or better yet- a leaf blower!
(Turns out I can do it again because I had to a few days later- in total I raked about 8 hours and Justin raked about 6)
Noni loved the leaves so much- he would just dive into them like they were water and then I would cover him with leaves and try not to think of all the bugs that may or may not be in those leaves....

Another lesson learned though- it feels good to work hard.  It feels good to do it yourself.  To accomplish something.  Even though I joke about the leaf blower it really was good to be out there as a family and working.  I don't think we get enough opportunities like that as 'city dwellers' and I think it is a very important thing for children to learn.  So despite my dislike for raking we will continue to do so, with our kids.  And we will continue to seek out service opportunities as well.

In other hard working news-
I also forgot to mention that I ran my second ever 5k race on the 29th of October and I did awesome!  I beat my last time by 7 minutes (In my defense that last race was my first and I had done no training prior).  I ran it in 27:20 which I was pretty happy with.  I know I am not fast- I never have been but I know I can do better so I am looking forward to the next one.  Maybe I can train myself to be fast... I am actually considering a half marathon in May!!  Any one want to join me?  I have no pictures of the day it was too cold and rainy (and a tid bit snowy) for Justin to bring the kids- he still has yet to see me race...  Next time he needs to do it with me- we just need to find someone to watch the kids!

Also I am happy to report that, with the exception of a little bit of snow on race day, we have not received any lasting snow.  The weather has been incredibly pleasant.  Even the other day when we were at the temple I was debating whether or not I needed a coat.  I like that feeling in November.  Despite other opinions (specifically Ruby) I am NOT looking forward to snow.  I am NEVER looking forward to snow.  But I suppose if it is going to be cold anyway it may as well snow...  I guess the more appropriate statement is that I am not looking forward to COLD.  I am NEVER looking forward to cold.  It could be warm everyday for the rest of my life and I would be happy....

Oh, Mail- How we love you!

There has been a high influx of mail in these parts lately and we LOVE IT!

It is probably our favorite thing! 

Right now we have been getting Christmas gifts so sadly we have not been able to open them.

So it was quite the treat when Ruby go this money in the mail from Grammie Ruby.

She was pretty excited!

 We hopped on the bike as soon as we could and headed to our favorite ice cream shop!  I don't know if she was more excited for the ice cream or the bike ride!

 We got them their favorite baby cones!!  They are so cute and just enough for the kids!

 And we actually ran into some friends their coincidentally and so we were able to get an actual family picture!

If we are lucky that won't be the last bike ride of the season....

(For those of you asking how you can make it on the blog- all you need do is send us some mail- we REALLY love mail...)

Fall Fun

This girl loves crafts.

Every day when Noni naps she asks to make a craft so I am constantly thinking of fun, quick and inexpensive things that we can make.

Fall has been a great season for crafts!

We started out with a book that taught Ruby (and us) all of the chemicals that make the leaves change color.

Chlorophyll is green

Xanthophyll is yellow

Annin is brown

Anthocyanin is purple/red

Carotene is orange.

(in case you were all wondering)

She was so interested in the colors and the chemicals that we thought we needed to go out and collect all the colors and shapes of leaves that we could find.

So we headed out for FHE one day and collected TONS of leaves.  

 So what to do with them?

Well I brought out the wax paper first and thought that we could iron the leaves in between them and then hang them.  Well that was an epic fail- it didn't work and just looked terrible.  So I pulled out the trusty mod podge and we went to work.

Ruby mod podged some onto a duotang....

 And with the rest we just modpodged them separately and hung them to dry.  I had gotten to packages of clothes pins from a lady at church and was glad to find a use for them!

We decided that we would hang them in our window as garland and decoration.  Ruby liked to hit them with a ruler- she thought it was fun- and of course Myers wanted to join in on the fun too!

 That did not satisfy Ruby's craving however, so we moved onto the next craft the next FHE.  Painting glass pumpkins.  It was really fun.  Look at how serious Ruby's face is- isn't that just precious?  I love her.

 Myers even got to paint his own- 

 Until he decided to eat it.  He was so fast there was no way to even stop him!

 They turned out great and we put a candle in each of them and lit them up for halloween...

The far left is Noni's- we gave him a second chance with the paint- that also did not last very long.  Then there is Justin's- he calls him chompers.  Then our carved pumpkin (it has a mustache and a round mouth...  I know it doesn't look quite right, Justin did it for me...).  Then there is mine- I like to call him evil chompers (I have a small obsession with mustache crafts.  I think they are cool but they never turn out quite right... If I am going to be honest then I must tell you that I painted another face on the back of my jar and on the back of Justin's, all with mustaches, ALL UGLY.  I thought maybe I would be lucky enough to inherit some of my mom's painting skills- turns out I didn't...)  and then Ruby's- she was doing great but then got carried away with the black- painting is just too much fun!  I still think it is great and it looks a little bit like a spider...

And now for our last fall craft of the season- for it will now be thanksgiving and Christmas oriented crafts- an acorn covered hanging ball.

As well as the mustache obsession I have a decorative ball obsession.  I think they look cool.  So when we were out walking one day and we came across a gold mine of acorns I just knew I could find a use for them!  Ruby, Myers and I gathered up as many as we could and filled our pockets and then headed home.  A couple days later I got a Styrofoam ball and my trusty glue gun and the acorn ball was born.  Ruby even got in on the fun.  I still haven't decided if I am going to spray paint it or not- but a part of me really loves it.  Another part of me- not so much.  I'm still torn.

Fall has been good to us.  I love the falls out here they just seem more real....slower.  You can really take the time to enjoy the weather and the leaves and the smells.  I fear winter is coming too soon....

Halloweening!

It may be a little late for this post but I worked too hard on these costumes not to grace you all with their presence.

I now present to you-
The Tangled Family.

We have the King and Queen as well as Rapunzel and Pascal (the chameleon).  You can barely see Justin's cape- or mine for that matter.  I made them both without a pattern and they turned out pretty good I think!  I put the tangled sun on the back so people would know without a doubt that we were from tangled.  The kids at the party we went to had no problem knowing who we were!!

Noni wasn't the hugest fan of his costume but we got him to wear it.  Coincidentally the day after Halloween I put the costume on him and he loved it so much he wouldn't let me take it off....

Ruby loved her costume and the hair!

We were able to go to a halloween costume and then we headed out to Columbiana for some trick or treating.  I went early and just met Justin there.  He missed most of it.  It was raining the whole time and that face Ruby has in the below picture- that is pretty much the face she had the whole time.  She told me later that her head was cold that was why her face looked like that.  But she assured me that she had a good time.  Myers got REALLY heavy to carry but I had some good friends who traded off with me- thankfully!

 Here are a few more pics for you to enjoy.  Because I know you are enjoying this!

I had to bribe them with their Halloween candy to get some of these pictures.  And that didn't even really help....

We did have a great Halloween and I was really happy with our costumes- it was fun to have a theme!  Ruby really dictates our themes now a days.  She decides what she wants to be for Halloween and then I work everyone else's costumes around hers.  So poor noni gets the reptile.  I thought he was pretty darn cute though!