Election-be done....

You know it's time for this election to be over when your 7 1/2 year old starts to singing
(to the tune of "where is thumbkin") Barack Obama, Barack Obama, John McCain, John McCain, Barrraack Obama, Barrraccckkk Obama, John McCain.
(The number of times a name is mentioned means nothing!)

For the girls (or "the gils" as Jacob would say)

Just something to make you smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTC4qkb8Ppk

Oops...too late.

I'm horrible about getting frustrated with my kids and threatening them with a consequence that I know is too severe. For example: I received a note home from Jacob's teacher that he was "play fighting" at recess and continued to do it after being asked not too. We had an incident the previous week (nothing big...kindergarten stuff) so I was pretty aggravated to receive the note. So after talking with him (calmly) I told him that if I received another note home, that he wouldn't be going trick or treating this year. Now what kind of mother is actually going to keep their 6 year old home on Halloween because he was play fighting at school. It was one of those times where it slipped out and I instantly regretted it. I was telling Jacob's teacher yesterday what I had threatened jacob with and she responded "You said WHAT?" Just reaffirming the horrible parent feeling I was having. I hope i'm not the only one who does this...So I want to hear your stories (if you have any) What is the worst "punishment" you threated your child with, and instantly regretted.....
Or you could just threaten your child with this punishment...

Best cobbler recipe ever!

I had some apples to use up the other day and decided to make an apple cobbler. I have made peach, blueberry, and blackberry cobbler, but never apple. I got this recipe from my mom (thanks mom!) and it is amazing. It's a strange recipe. I was a little skeptical that it would turn out, but it was one of the best cobbler's i've ever had. You could use this recipe with any fruit.

1 2/3 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
-mix together and add:
1 1/3 c. milk
1 cube butter, melted (not low cal..)
-pour mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Put fruit over top.
(I just sliced apples and put them on top and sprinkled sugar/cinnamon over the apples)

In a saucepan mix 1 c. water, 1 c. sugar and 3 tbsp butter, bring to a boil. Pour over
the top of fruit. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. Yum!

My computer is not letting me load pictures, so it will be another picture-less post until Brent can solve the problem. We had a nice weekend. The weather was beautiful, so we took the kids over to a cool park about 30 minutes from our house. It's a huge park with a sand hill and all sorts of unique play equipment. The kids had a great time. We came home and watched "The water horse" with the kids. It was a cute movie. (Brent and I also watched "vantage point" this weekend. Not my favorite. Every other person in the movie gets killed...) Sunday was one of those horrible church days where you spend the whole time out in the hallways. I will spare you all of the details. When we got home from church we got a call from someone wanting to see the house. When I asked when they would like to see it they said, "well, we are sitting in front of your house right now) The house was a mess! So luckily they agreed to come back in an hour. We were crazy people trying to clean up, but we did it and everything went well. They seemed to love the house, but really wanted a 5 bdrm...so i'm not getting my hopes up. It's only our second showing in 5 weeks. Slow......
I started a fun project this weekend. I decided to paint our drab old kitchen table. It's the table we bought after we got married (9 years ago) and it was in bad shape. It was one of those generic light oak tables. So I sanded, primed and painted it black. I still need to apply a clear coat over the top and do the chairs. I'll post pics when it's all done. But I love it already! I can't wait to get it all finished.
The kids are counting down to Halloween. Malia wants to be a princess, Jacob...undecided and Cole wanted to be batman until today. He found Jacob's old peter pan costume and put it on and now he wants to be peter pan (hooray!) I love when they want to wear something we already have. So the countdown continues.....

I love this stuff!

I always appreciate a good cleaning tip...or any tip that is useful really. But I thought I would pass along my favorite carpet cleaner. It's called Folex instant carpet spot remover. This stuff has done miracles on my carpet. Honestly there has not been a stain that it has not gotten out. I buy it at home depot, but i've seen it other places as well. It's not expensive..and it works. (I used it on the mats in the van the other day and was amazed!) So there you go folex...a bit of free advertising!

Update....

So how great was conference this weekend! I loved it and felt so uplifted! What amazing leaders we have!
I just haven't had anything exciting to post lately...I still don't, but here's an update anyway. No news on the house. We haven't had a single phone call since our last showing. We've dropped the price 23,000 to under $300k This is the lowest we will be going. If we can't sell at this price, it won't be worth it to us. We met with an agent last week and afterwards decided the $20,000 commission is just not worth it to us. So we will continue to try and sell on our own. We are trying to decide if we should pay a flat fee and be put on the mls or just advertise on craigslist and the newspaper. A funny story about craiglist. I had no idea you could only post every 48 hours. So I was posting every day, until one day I was banned! I haven't been able to post anything for a week. It finally let me this morning and you know i'll be sticking to the 48 hour rule! I've had people ask me if i'm stressed trying to do this and honestly I was for the first few weeks. But i've come to realize that it's not worth it. We are in a great house, in a great ward, in a great neighborhood and I should just enjoy that....and I am.
The kids are loving school. They just had their school fundraiser which is a jog-a-thon. Jacob ran the most laps out of his class and was pretty proud of himself. Of course Malia cried when she heard this because SHE wanted to run more than Jacob and she didn't. They are SO competitive. Cole gets a little bored in the mornings with just me. He often asks "are we going anywhere today or is anyone coming over?" He's looking foward to being in school next year. :)
Not much else to report....just the usual stuff....Adios!