The Next Survivor Series

I am sure some of you have heard this because it is one of those "forward emails" going around, but I thought it was pretty funny, so I decided to post it on my blog. It is definately worth the read.

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes. There is no fast food. Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time--no Emailing. Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the A & E. He must also make biscuits or cakes for a social function. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times. The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewellery,wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed. During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting. They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them,brush their teeth and comb their hair by 8:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labour, each child's favourite colour, middle name, favourite snack, favourite song, favourite drink, favourite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

All the above must be completed whilst working in either full time (preferably) or part time employment to assist in the financial input for the family. The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called ‘MOM’!

Misty's Note: I think this would be really funny to watch. I think they should add in the requirements that the dad has to stay calm, cool, and collected at all times. I guess according to this list, I'm still trying to earn the right to be called "mom." Pretty Funny though.

Extreme Makeover Car Edidion

So, 2009 has brought along alot of adversity for us. I am not going to bore all of our blog readers with the telling everyone about all of the trials that we have gone through this year, but I can definitely say that 2009 has been the most challenging year for our family since Darin and I have been married. One of those challenges has been with our family mode of transportation. We started out the year with our Ford Excursion, which was a great car except for the gas mileage. When Darin lost his job, we decided to sell the car for what we owed on the loan. We were very lucky that we found a person to take it. We then bought a Saturn (for one day). We got the car home and it had some major problems, so luckily the dealership took it back because they had misrepresented some things when it came to the sale of the car. That could have turned into a court battle, so we are lucky it didn't. We then purchased the 1986 Station Wagon that is pictured from Darin's Uncle for $200.00. We had no car and needed one desperately, so this is what we resorted to. After we got our Tax Return, we did a little car shopping and decided to purchase a 1999 Suburban with our Tax return money because we felt like we couldn't handle a car payment in our current financial situation. We felt really good about our purchase, the Suburban ran well, was clean, etc. Well, we drove it for four months and it started giving us LOTS of problems. After taking it to three different mechanics and having Shane (Heather's husband) look at it and spending way too much money on a car that old, we still don't know what is wrong with the Suburban except for sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it drives and sometimes it doesn't. We were at our wits end with our Car Troubles, so we did some more research and decided that we needed to purchase a used but new to us Toyota Sienna Minivan. Yesterday, we drove down to Utah (they had better prices) and bit the bullet and purchased a minivan with our savings. I think it will be a good car for us and it better last a really long time. At least I don't have people staring at me as I drive down the road now (not that I cared too much when we were driving the station wagon). So here it is in all it's glory. I never thought that I would ever drive a mini van, but I think it fits our family perfect. I would also like to recommend Consumer Reports when it comes to buying almost anything. They gave the ratings for any and all cars made in the past 10 years and the Sienna was #1 for minivans.

Halloween 2009

We started out the day with a special Halloween lunch.

We got dressed for trick-or-treating. Elizabeth - Pumpkin, Emily - Kitty Cat

Before we went trick-or-treating we had to dance to Michael Jackson's thriller. Abigail made a pretty scary witch.

Our first stop. I am so glad it is safe to trick-or-treat in the town we live in. Abigail got to her kindergarten teacher's house and said, "trick-or-treat. I have to go potty!" I felt totally comfortable letting her go inside to use the restroom. We didn't trick-or-treat long because it was cold and windy, but I think it was a sufficient amount of time for three little ones.

Halloween Parties

Abigail's school had a Halloween party and costume parade today. It was so fun going to the school and seeing all of the kids in their costumes. I am glad that Abigail goes to a school that still celebrates holidays. Everyone from the phone company that Darin works for came to the school and went classroom to classroom handing out candy. Darin was a ghostbuster, which the most of the kids had never heard of. Abigail was excited to see her daddy at school.


Emily is testing Abigail's hat out for her.

I told Abigail to make a wicked witch face, and this is what she came up.

One of Abigail's best friends at school was a witch too.

Octo-Mom

Darin's work had a costume party and his office manager dressed up as "octo-mom." When I saw her, I couldn't stop laughing. She definately wins the award for most creative costume in my opinion.

Thanks Katherine

This blog is for Katherine Young. Thanks for the yummy Fall Dip Recipe. Darin's office had a party and I used the the recipe for his party and it was a hit. I carved out a pumpkin and put the dip inside. Everyone said that they loved the dip on the ginger snaps the most but it is yummy on pretty much anything.

Frolic in the Field

My good friend Kristin is a budding photographer. She asked to take some pictures of Abigail last June and of course we accepted. She is quite talented and I was so thrilled to get the pictures.

Puddle Play

When my friend Kristin was taking pictures of Abigail last June, I had to have Abigail's picture taken in her rain coat and rain boots. It had rained the day before. One of Abigail's favorite activities was to splash in the puddles. Such a cutie!!

Boots

These boots have had a lot of fun with Abigail.

Pumpkin Carving Time

We carved pumpkins for our Family Home Evening activity on Friday (yes, we have FHE on Fridays). We have 5 pumpkins, but we only carved two. I was left carving the last one all by myself. Everyone's attention span had gone by then. We had fun. I think this is the first time in seven years that we have carved pumpkins. The twins loved sticking their hands in the "pumpkin guts" and Abigail loved collecting the seeds. Happy Halloween!!!

Abigail's Soccer Pictures

Abigail has had fun playing soccer this year. I am happy that these pictues turned out a little better than her Kindergarten School pictures. It is pretty funny watching 5 year olds play soccer, they always forget who the goalie is and tend to leave the goal un guarded several times a game.

The Twins First Haircut

I took the twins to a cute little childrens salon / boutique called Paislee Punch for their first hair cut. They had these little cars that they could drive while getting a hair cut and they got a sucker and juice box to keep them distracted. I only got the picture of Emily at the salon because my battery ran out on my camera. I am sure no one can really tell the difference on the twins, but I can. No more baby mullett for Emily and no more uneven locks for Elizabeth.

Emily is not sure if she is supposed to be having fun or not. Elizabeth's Cute Little Cut

Emily's hair is a little more even now.

Of course I had to save a lock of hair from each girl.

Pumpkin Patch

We drove 1 1/2 hours to visit a pumpkin patch in Idaho Falls (the closest one I knew about). The pumpkin patch was pretty small and looked very similar to the farm that we live on, but the kids had a blast for the 15 minutes that we were there. They looked at all of the pumpkins, played in the hay bale maze, and ate some homemade candy. It was pretty cold and windy outside, so we didn't stay long, but we had fun as a family.

Our pumpkins on the old timey scale waiting to be weighed and purchased.

NOT YET!!

Isn't it supposed to be Fall? Who ordered this winter weather? Can someone please tell the weather man to predict 75 degree weather for the next month? Okay, I am done with all of my questions.

Camping At Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake (Idaho / Utah) for a camping trip with Heather and Shane this past weekend. It was fun spending time with them and we had a great time with our camper "Betsy." We picked a pretty COLD weekend. We will have to remember to camp in the summer time from now on.