Snow and your inner child

Last night while Marshy and I were eating dinner we heard some kids outside of our house playing in the giant snow storm. So Marshall decides he is going to throw snow balls at them. Our front door is kind of hidden between our front bay window and our garage so you are not super visible unless you are looking directly at the door. So he starts throwing them and they don't notice until one of them hits the ground right at one of the kids feet and the snow bounces up and hits his leg. He looks around and Marsh and I were giggling so it got his attention and he started throwing them back. I shut the door and went in so snow didn't get in the house but Marshall stayed out there and had a snowball fight until he could no longer feel his fingers. I have a picture of when Marsh came in the house all covered in snow, I will post it later. Good old Marshall, making a great impression on all the kids in the neighborhood. It makes me smile.

Chiropractor part II

So I went back to the Chiropractor today for the rest of my adjustment and to go over my x-rays. So what did we find out? My hips are twisted, not only a little but a lot and this is a major part of why my back constantly hurts and I also have minor minor Spina bifida, meaning my backbone and spinal canal did not close before birth. It is only present on my bottom vertebrae and cannot be fixed but it is only a small part of the problem. It was very interesting to get a lesson on the back bone via my x-rays. Unfortunately, in order for the doc to fix what he can of the problem it will cost around $1000. I am going to try to stretch more and do Pilates or Yoga religiously and see if I can begin correcting the problem naturally, my own way before going and getting yanked, cracked and twisted around. Here goes nothin'.

Bonding

I was bored on Sunday so I decided to try out my new cookie cutter set. I made sugar cookies and 4 colors of frosting. Marshall told me he wanted to help frost but when we still had about 25% left he said it sucked. When I asked him why he wanted to help he told me "because we are bonding". Okay then. His process was quite interesting. First he would dip the cookie face down into the frosting, then spread, then repeat with 2 more cookies then sprinkle all three. Hey, whatever floats your boat!

Dip...
Then spread...
Then sprinkle
Marshall's tray of cookies.
Don't remember this being taken. Sorry for my "snow day" apparel. I cleaned, did laundry and made cookies. No reason to get all fancy.
My tray

Decorating... Decorating... Decorating...

This seems to be a never ending process. Trying to fill our home with things that make us happy, display who we are and look jazzy all at the same time. Marshall is just as into it as I am which makes our home even better, now you get his style and mine combined which makes it truly unique.

Above our coat closet in the front room there was an empty ledge. We never really knew what we wanted up there but we knew we wanted something because it was bare and boring. The other day Marshall said he figured it out and he was going to the garage. This is what he came up with...A beautiful homemade planter box filled with plants we had around that needed a home!
The best part was watching him get it up there. Apparently it was SUPER heavy.

And Vwala!
Besides looking a little lopsided because the 4th plant is small and cannot be seen it turned out pretty darn awesome. And when that little guy grows in it will look even better!

Giving

Marshall and I have talked a lot about Christmas recently and how sad it is that the majority of people we talk to are not excited for the holiday because of money. The idea of Christmas and the season for giving is almost lost and it is actually really sucky. We have decided to try and bring that back to our family and the first step was making beenies for the homeless. Last year my mom decided that she wanted to give back and she started buying a thing of yarn every time she was at the store and she would crochet, crochet, crochet until her fingers were sore. She did this all year, anytime you saw her she had her crochet bag, just in case she would have a spare minute to get some stitches in. She ended up donating over 500 beenies to a homeless shelter in Salt Lake. It was truly amazing, especially seeing how gratifying it was and apparently it is rubbing off on Marsh and I.His school is making stockings for the homeless and Marshall volunteered to make beenies for it. So, I taught him the basics, like how to chain, single crochet and double crochet and although he struggled and was frustrated he got the hang of it... slowly...My mother came up later that day and showed us how to make the beenies. I loved to see Marsh working so hard at it, he was determined to do it correctly and learn it, even though his fingers constantly kept getting in the way. He really stepped out of his comfort zone on this project and I think it is amazing!

My trip to.... the Chiropractor

So, I am not a huge "believer" in Chiropractor practice. I have my reasons. But for the past 7-8 years I have started having serious problems with my back. Some days it was all I could do to get through the day at work but once I got home it was OVER. I was useless. I wobbled around like a penguin and getting up from sitting down... pshaw... it took FOR EVER. Usually the pain would go away and I would be fine the next day and I would do it all over again. Like I said, some days were worse than others. Well last night I was fine during the day but we went to a play of our cousins that evening and it was miserable! About 20 minutes in Marshall and I both started doing the wiggle worm in our seats, making it appear we are super board and cant sit still but in fact we were just trying to reposition so we could watch the play without all the agony and pain. By intermission it took every bone in my body to get up out of that chair and walk around to stretch but the worst part was right when I sat back down. It was awful! Well, this morning I woke up still in pain and this has never happened before so I was a little freaked out. After all, your back is kind of important! So I went to work and started talking to my boss about it because I know she has had some back problems in the past. She basically pushed me out the door and started my car for me and sent me on my way to see a dreaded Chiropractor. I cannot stand the sound of people cracking their fingers and the thought of doing it to myself is appalling so thinking of someone doing it to my SPINE really freaked me out. My boss told me it would be super simple, 15 minutes tops, they would adjust me and send me on my way feeling better than ever. Wrong.

First thing is a giant questioner with the assistant about my pain. Then homeboy tells me to get totally undressed and put on a robe thingy for x-rays. Okay fine. Then the doctor comes... dun dun dun... he lays me face down on this table and says this exact thing "alright, I am just going to feel around for WHOA, theres one" There is one what?!

The RESULTS: My whole shiz is crooked! Yeah, that is right. Starting at the top of my lower back the bone starts shifting to the right and as you get further down it gets worse. He did the first 1/2 of the adjustment but because it was so bad he said that he could only do half today because it was going to make the pain worse and my muscles needed time to heal before he could do the other half. GREAT. So he popped a bunch of crap and it sucked and I left feeling like an owl and all I could do was move my eyes because it hurt so FREAKING bad! He also told me that my right leg was off balance by a 1/2 inch. Back problems are a domino effect I have decided.

Oh yay for me, I get to go back on Monday for more fun with Mr. Chiropractor of death! Maybe he knew I had mixed emotions so he is putting me through hell on purpose.
Here I am, 26 going on 90!

Next time my back hurts I am just going to go get a massage.

Date Night

The ONLY thing we miss about not having cable is not being able to watch the Jazz games. It especially hurts when we hear about them and how freaking amazing they are doing this year. We decided that it was time to go to a game, it was time that we see our new team rocking the new uniforms and why not make a date out of it. No more dinner and a movie for us, no no my friends, it is now dinner and a Jazz game!! So... alas... we did... And we saw them from the 22nd row need I mind you. It was awesome, all the way until they lost at the VERY end. Oh well, ya win some ya lose some. Go Jazz!

RC

This weekend Marshall and his brother went to pick up our new couch (yay). Afterwords we took Nathan (Marshall's brother) and Logan (our nephew) to lunch for helping us. Whenever we need a truck Nathan is always there willing to help so we thought it would be the least we could do. Anyways, so after lunch we were headed back to Nathan's house to pick up Marshall's car and we decided to stop and play with Nathan's new RC car for a little bit. It was way fun and Logan totally digs it! Marshall was getting INTO it! If the battery hadn't died I have a feeling we would have been there for quite some time. It is pretty tricky to steer and it goes insanely fast so it easily gets your interest and makes you want to be able to get power over the thing and be able to show it who is boss. Only 2 of our nephews live around here so whenever we get the chance to hang out we love to take advantage of it. Marshall bounced the car off the curb once and it did a couple flips and brushed Logan so he was pretty timid after that. As you can see in the second picture, he still wants to be part of the action but only if he is behind someone thus they can take the hit if Driver Marshall can't get his act together.

Can't you get a tarp or something?

I was driving home from work last week sometime, la de da de da and I noticed this truck next to me...Okay, no big deal, la de da de da. But look closer...Yeah, there was a dead deer, on its back, with its legs just floppin' around. Instead of wrapping it in the tarp they laid it ON the tarp. Stupid idiots! I am not timid when it comes to these kinds of things but geez laweeze I don't exactly want to see dead deer legs floppin' around on my way home from work just before I cook dinner. Cover that up man!

Fifel round 2

On Monday when Marshall and I got home from work we both quickly ran to the 4 mouse traps to see if we had caught Fifel and this is what we found...
That little butt cheek at the cheese off of EVERY trap! So not only do we have a mouse but we have a SMART mouse. So we decide to put peanut butter on all of the traps because maybe it will be harder for him to get it off.

Yesterday when I get home I quickly do my rounds only to find... another trap, licked clean! He left the other 3 so maybe he is on to us. Marshall thinks he is full so hopefully he will work up an appetite tonight because I took Amandah's advice and went to the Home Depot and got 2 of these...
Hopefully tonight the little green light is blinking to assure victory!!!

Trick or Treaters and our unwelcomed house guest

I was amazed this year that Marshall actually got into Halloween. He always says that he just wants to turn off all the lights and pretend that no one is home but this year he was more than happy to take part in the tradition. We got lots of candy because there are lots of little kids in our neighborhood and we had to be prepared. It was fun... at first... but then we truly realized just how many kids were in our neighborhood and it got annoying. We started taking turns answering the door. Well, my turn came about and as I was going up the stairs I saw a dark spot about the size of a golf ball move across the floor, I turned around and told Marshall "I seriously think I just saw a mouse" He stared at me waiting for me to say "Bazinga" (it means just kidding in our house) and I said "No seriously Marshall, I am not playing, do I look like I am playing?" Meanwhile the doorbell rang again so I turned around to go up the stairs and I saw him again just sitting on the kitchen floor. I screamed bloody murder and started jumping up and down as Marshall came running but by the time he got there the pesky varmint was gone. I proceeded to answer the door and apologize for the loud scream. Marshall was searching for a mouse trap that we saw when we moved in (shoulda' got the hint then I suppose) and the freaking dare devil ran across again. This time he was in plain sight and we got a complete profile look and although he was super small he was freaking CREEPY! So we set the one mouse trap that we had and Marshall assured me that we would have him caught in the morning and I had nothing to worry about because mice couldn't climb stairs, and our bedroom is at the top of about 10 stairs. I told him that if he was not gone in the morning I was evacuating! The rest of the night I tiptoed past the kitchen trying to avoid it at all causes and I noticed that even Marshall was a little timid, he was getting water about 3 feet away from the fridge, just leaned with his upper body, thus to avoid getting his toes nibbled by our little friend. Whom Marshall named Fifel. Next morning came and no Fifel! I insisted that we go to the store and get more traps. I wanted to set up a perimeter around the entire kitchen but Harmons didn't have enough traps! Boo! We strategically set 4 traps up and took a survey to see what kind of food to bate them with. Grandpa Fred said hands down cheese, Uncle Terry was adamant about Peanut Butter so we did a combination. In fact one trap has both! Oh, and Uncle Terry also informed me that mice CAN go up stairs and they CAN get into your bed! Yeah, I am not okay with all of this. When we got in bed last night I asked Marshall what he would do if Fifel crawled across his chest during the night and he told me he would cry. Turns out Marshall is super scared of mice! Oh great, that makes 2 of us.