A man was being chased...

A man is walking home alone late on Halloween night.
It's dark, and the streetlights are out. Suddenly, he hears
BUMP!
BUMP!
BUMP!
Behind him. He walks faster, but the sound keeps coming.
BUMP!
BUMP!
BUMP!
Worried he is being followed, he glances behind him and through the darkness, and he can just see an upright coffin.
No one seems to be holding the coffin; it's just bumping down the street behind him.
The man is scared. He's sure it's following him! In an effort to shake it off, her turns a corner. To his relief, the sound stops. He keeps walking but before a minute has passed, he hears the familiar sound behind him again:
BUMP!
BUMP!
BUMP!
He is terrified! He starts to run towards his home, but the faster he runs, the faster the coffin bounces along behind him!
Bumpity BUMP!
Bumpity BUMP!
Bumpity BUMP!
He pushes open his front gate, and runs up the path, fumbling for his keys. The coffin reaches the gate and effortlessly pushes it open. It's right behind him!!!
Finally his shaking hands manage to unlock his front door. He has no time to slam it behind him; the coffin is right on his heels! He rushes up the stairs, praying the coffin cannot climb after him.
BUMP!
BUMP!
BUMP!
The coffin pauses at the bottom of the stairs. The man breathes a sigh of relief but ...
clappity BUMP...
clappity BUMP...
clappity BUMP...
The coffin is now climbing the stairs behind him. He runs to the bathroom perhaps he can lock himself in there! His heart pounds and his lungs hurt with the exertion of running for his life! He has only just latched the bathroom door when ...
CRASH!!!
The coffin breaks through the bathroom door!
What can he do? The coffin is nearly upon him! He reaches out for something heavy that he can throw at the coffin, and his hand comes to rest on a large bottle of cough syrup.
Desperately, he throws the cough syrup as hard as he can at the coffin and
...........
...........

...........
(Wait for it)
...........

...........
...........
..........finally the coffin stops!!

Firsts

Today J and I were coloring and he drew his first picture of a person (usually they are just unidentifiable scribbles). It's so fun when they do something new. I love watching him learn and grow. It makes motherhood that much more rewarding. Kids are amazing!

It's that time again

Some of you know that I am an Usborne Book consultant. I strongly believe in reading good books to children which is why I signed up to sell these books. They are wonderful! Tonight I counted the Usborne books that were on J shelf (there are some in various other places too...under the bed, in backpack's, etc...you know how it is!) and I counted 65. Usborne books make up about 80% of our children's books. I just can't get enough of them!

The stores started reminding us that the Christmas season is almost upon us. It is a very busy season for the books so I wanted to get a bit of a head start. The closer to Christmas it gets, the more likely it is that the best books are on back order so I will be doing my big book order in the middle of November.

They have books for all ages and all reading levels. These are some of my favorites:

If you have young children, they'll love all their

touchy-feely books (they have TONS of them!).

This book is called "That's Not My Fairy". It's so cute

I had to buy it even though I don't have any girls!

(I would recommend all of the fairy books...my sis has a bunch of them and they are VERY cute!)

"Diggers" is an Ultimate Touchy-Feely book that the boys love. It's very cute too.

"Goose on the lose" is a Preschool/kindergarten, phonics reader book. They have a lot like this one and J LOVES them. They have a lot of rhyming words which has helped J learn to rhyme already.

This book is so cute too. The "monsters" have flaps over them that they can lift up and see what the monster really is. There's even a cute little surprise at the end.








I think "the Dinosaur who lost his Roar" is one of my all time very favorite books. This is one I think everyone should have. (In the First Reading category they have levels 1-4...this book is a level three which encourages young readers to develop reading "stamina"). It's one of J's favorites too.

The "Big Bug Search" is a little like Where's Waldo but with bugs instead. They have various types like this. My 9 year old Nephew really likes this one.

I bought "True Escape

Stories" for Hubby .

I haven't seen it, but he said he liked it.

They also have a lot of "informational" books like these on various topics.

I thought this one was appropriate for Halloween. It has some cute little stories in it that are supposed to be "spooky"!

They have SO many great books and they are competitively priced. The most expensive book I posted is about $15. They put out catalogs twice a year and I have lot's of the Jan-June ones left so if you are interested in placing an order I will send you one of those ones for free (a $4 value!! :o). Let me know ASAP so you can get in on this holiday order.

"insert scream here"

Q) What do you get if you cross a spider with an elephant?

A) I'm not sure, but I think you're about to find out!

A few days ago J and I went to the park for a picnic. J very anxiously stood at the door to the garage while I finished making our lunch. He was babbling on and on about a spider in the garage while I only half listened. It's not unusual for us to have spiders around our house - usually they are just daddy-long-legs which I can handle without too much panic. After several minutes of this, I finally paid enough attention to what he was saying to know that I better go check on this spider. I almost wish I hadn't! It was HUGE...and no, I'm not just saying that because I'm terrified of spiders. You'd have thought it was too!


It was like the size of several quarters lying in a circle (I hope that makes "cents" haha!).

Of course Hubby wasn't home to kill it. I could have just ignored it and went on our walk, but I know that I never would have been able to go in our garage knowing that that monster was in there somewhere. I eventually worked up enough courage to spray it with some sort of bug killer. It got VERY angry and fell on a stool which I pulled out of the garage....and to make a long story short...it crawled off the stool and into the bushes where it died a very painful death (I know I sound harsh). At least I tell myself it's dead. Otherwise I don't think I could have any sort of sanity while outside my garage!

I would love to know what kind it was, so if you have any ideas, please feel free to fill me in! ...Did I mention that I HATE spiders?

P.S. The real answer to the joke at the top is "I'm not sure, but if you see one walking across the ceiling then run before it collapses."

Target

Today I went to Target to buy some long pants for J. I hate it when I go into a store and buy stuff I wasn't even looking for. We happened to walk by the clearance section that had big 75% off signs posted everywhere and I thought it couldn't hurt to take a look. I ended up buying a decorative throw that is really nice (I don't really need a throw, but it's big enough to turn into something or many somethings. It's like getting 4 yards of NICE fabric for $4). I also bought 3 twin SETS of sheets for $3.24 each. What a killer deal! They were only 200 thread count but I know James doesn't mind, in fact, he hates "smooth" pillow cases. Whenever I put a higher thread count on his pillow he cries and says he wants a "bumpy" pillowcase. He's so funny. I love getting great deals. I don't find them very often so I get excited when actually do!

Conference

Chad had to work all day today so I didn't know how much of conference I would actually get to watch since James' idea of fun isn't sitting around watching TV (unless it's cartoons!). There are lots of conference activities for older kids, but I wasn't sure how to entertain a 3 year old.

James loves this movie. Not only did it teach him to recognize the names and faces of the first presidency, but also a littler tidbit about who they are. I know I posted it before, but it was conference appropriate so I'm doing it again! If you haven't watched it before, you should. It's cute.

I did a Google search and found these printable cards with the apostles and their information. So we've been playing a game where when someone speaks he goes through the pile and finds their card and then we talk about who it is. So far it's working very well. He gets so excited to see them on the card and on TV.

There have been a lot of great talks and I noticed many of them were about missionary work. Having been recently called as a ward missionary, I find them very valuable. My favorite talk though, was the one from Pres. Uchtdorf on hope. There is a particular personal trial I think I
Unintentionally lost hope about. I know that the things we want in life aren't always given to us for a purpose that sometimes only Heavenly Father knows. I also know that even if it isn't "in the cards" for me, that I must have faith and hope always. I think he wrote that talk just for me! It's so comforting to know that our Heavenly Father is aware of us and teaches us all things that we need to know.

Halloween Snacks

There is a store down the road from us that offers free kids cooking classes on Tuesdays that we walk down to. It's really mostly an opportunity to get together with some moms (and their kids) in the neighborhood. I love getting some new ideas for some healthy (mostly) snack foods.

This last Tuesday we made "monster mouths" with green apple wedges (for the lips), peanut butter, and candy corn (for teeth). The kids LOVED it!

James and I made them tonight for his bedtime snack. We decided to substitute the candy corn with white chips for the teeth, which worked out well. I was a little hesitant to eat the white chocolate with the peanut butter but it was surprisingly good. :0)

It's a very fun Halloween snack food. You should give it a try...your kids will love it too!