Over The Weekend. The Great Gnome Prank Begins.

Over the weekend I didn't:

finish painting Tayler and Cali's bunkbed
study for my math test that's tomorrow
do any math homework at all
find my missing iPod
paint the doorframe of the upstairs laundry room

But what I did get done:

the yard is (mostly) decorated for Halloween (it still needs my favorite witch curtains on the porch)
got rid of a bunch of Halloween decorations (I've been in a simplify/declutter mode and have been getting rid of all sorts of things)
we finally started our great gnome prank with this guy:

We have neighbors with garden gnomes in their front yard.  She loves them.  He hates them.  Our plan?  To quietly add a holiday themed gnome every holiday in their garden and see how long it takes for them to notice and react.  So this guy has been placed.  The gnome we bought before (here) will be for Thanksgiving.  We're going to bloody his axe and give him a headless rubber chicken.  And we'll have to keep our eyes open for a Christmas themed gnome.  I'll post pics tomorrow of their garden and our gnome placement.

And also, General Conference... even a session in person with B.

We emphasized to the Young Women in church that if they had a question or a struggle that they wanted to find help or answers to, that they should pray about it and somehow one or more of the speakers would touch them and help them find what they're looking for.

Generally I try to take what we tell the Young Women into my own life, because, come on, we give some pretty good advice to them :).

And I did.

Not that I really had a specific question in mind, but rather two general thoughts that I was hoping for a little direction or confirmation with.

And it did come.

And the spirit touched my heart.

The thing I love about the gospel is how absolutely happy it makes me feel.  It doesn't matter what stress I'm feeling, or what burden I'm facing, I feel in all things an underlying happiness that makes me certain that all things will come out for the good.  A happiness that makes me want to be kind and do what I can in this life to make the world a better place than I found it.

Quietly placing gnomes in a neighbors garden is a good start, don't you think?

Insta Friday (Introducing The Gnome). Friday Brain dump (We're Spur of the Moment People). And Weekend Plans (Learning How to Lip Sync).

Welcome to Insta Friday, where I'm linking up and telling the stories behind my instagram pics.

(I'm thecircus6 on instagram if you want to follow).

And then, just as a warning, you get a brain dump of the tidbits that I haven't blogged about yet.

Totally worth it.

On our bi-weekly grocery shopping trip we found the most awesome gnome.

We bought it for pranking purposes.

The first day of school happened.

In the middle of August.

I swear it gets earlier every year.  But this is so the kids can have more time off during the school year, which used to stress me out when I was a working mom of young children.  Like, stress me out.  But now that they're older it's just like, just keep the house clean, yo.  And don't leave Cali alone.  Word.

Speaking of getting older... I already shared these pics but I'm sharing them again because I love them.

You all can officially stop growing right now.  I didn't want to pause them as babies or toddlers, but right here would be a good place to pause them.

I hear a lot that Brynn is my mini-me.  I don't usually hear it with the other three.

But when I posted this picture of Casidee people thought it was me at first, which makes me happy because I kind of  wish my daughters did look like me.

That random plant growing in our yard that we didn't plant, but let grow out of curiosity sake, and I really wanted it to be a pumpkin in my front yard? (here)

So is. (Eek, shriek, and jumping for joy).

But it only has one pumpkin on the entire vine.

I ran to the store to get Brynn a specific notebook that her teacher was requesting.  The ones we'd already bought weren't the "right" kind.

The Man sent me a text to grab something for him while I was there, only to have my phone go off right next to him on the couch.

I'd forgotten it.

When I got home, my background was The Gnome.

We're getting our money's worth with it already.

A new semester started for me this week too.

If I have to get up and take a math class before work, at least I get to be greeted with a sunrise like this.

The first day of school is for moms too.

Here we go again.  But I graduate this spring from the community college and will head up to the U of U to finally work on the fun classes for my bachelor's.

My first day of school selfie.

Mornings wouldn't so bad if it weren't for the waking up part.

They were really pretty this week.

I was clearing of Pioneer Day photos from my phone to (finally) blog about it when I found this one that one of The Circus had taken.

My cutest friend Jen found this picture frame and bought it for me.

I printed off one of the pictures from our family photoshoot that just happened a couple of weeks ago and set it up on my desk.

I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures.  This was just one she sent me as a preview, to tease me and get me all excited for the rest.

It worked.

And, Jen, I love the frame, thank you!

Now for my friday brain dump:

I had Chick-fil-A for lunch because I received an email inviting me to apply to be on a panel of mom's for them.

Which I really want to do.

So if I eat Chick-fil-A right after filling out that application then it's like bonus karma points, right?

And also, the Chick-fil-A by my work serves breakfast.

Shut the front door!

Also, we are a very spur of the moment family, but it occurred to me why this week.  I've been making plans with friends to head up to the Fairy Forest and see all the wonders there, and in so doing have changed the day of our outing twice.  And now we have it set up for another day, except The Man just planned a camping/riding trip for that weekend and booked our spot and all so... I get to change my Fairy Forest day again.

We're spur of the moment people because even when we make plans, other things come up spur of the moment and I have to change plans.  I don't like planning, it's a lot of work to coordinate and be annoying and change the plans, again.  I don't even want to tell my friends that I need to change the Fairy Forest date, I feel slightly embarrassed.  I'd rather just send out texts a day in advance, or a couple hours, and say, hey, we're going, come if you can.  And then if they can, they can.

Because, you know, people should be waiting around for my spur of the moment invite...

Dear friends, I'm sorry.  I know I have issues.

Also, life just feels so full and so exciting right now.  It's like I'm walking on super charged cloud nine.  Everything is so beautiful and perfect and full of promise.

I don't know how I got on this ride, but I don't want to get off anytime soon.

Weekend plans:

Make a lip sync video with The Circus.  I want to learn how.  They're my guinea pigs.  Anyone have any tips?

Church carnival where I get to help with both the cake walk and the face painting.

Possibly the Fairy Forest?  But Jayme will be with her mom so probably not because we want her to go too.

And that's all I have.  I guess we'll have to make this weekend up as we go along, you know, spur of the moment.

What are your weekend plans?