Yes folks, it is time.
I have been thinking about taking the ole blog private for a while now, and have recently heard one too many things about things that can happen online. I have decided to be a little more cautious and this is one of the ways I can do it. Have you heard that people will actually go on a blog and copy off pictures of a child and try to sell them on ebay or craigslist? Yikes! I would try to be more cryptic be giving my kids or husband pet names, but I am lucky enough if I can remember their real name on any given day!
If you would like to continue reading about all of the McGhie mis-adventures please email me your email so I can send you an invitation. Even if you don't really know me and like to "lurk" on occasion, please send me an email...believe me, I need all the pats on the back I can get and appreciate any and all comments (especially the ones that tell me how fabulous I am!). My ego loves a good stroking now and then.
My deadline will be Friday, Oct. 30th.
My email is kristwenty7@gmail.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Sh Word
Chad told me that I needed to blog the following event for the sake of posterity, so here goes:
A few weeks ago we were driving in the car on a Saturday and Blake started yelling from the backseat that Trevor had said a bad word. We finally managed to ascertain (that is a funny word!) that Trev had said the "first bad word from Transformers, the sh word"...needless to say, we were shocked and apalled that our five year old would say such a word, but we felt it our duty to punish him and filled the next five minutes with various threats of punishment. We really meant it about the whole punishing thing, but we forgot about it with all the other things we needed to do that day.
Two days later (again in the car, apparently he feels safe saying bad words in the back of the Durango because I can't reach him to slap him in the mouth)...a similar situation occurred while we were on our way to my Mom's house. Chad made the same threats of punishment and this time we were both determined to carry them out. When we walked in the door I asked Mom if she had any jalapenos (specifically, the juice) and got just the answer I was looking for.
We marched Trevor over to the sink and retrieved the bottle of jalapenos. I grabbed a teaspoon of juice and Chad had the honor of putting the juice into Trevor's mouth. He made him hold it in there for a few seconds to make sure that his mouth was nice and spicy, and then "allowed" him to swallow it. Then, to my surprise, Chad told him that since we had forgotten to punish him the first time, he had to do it again. Trevor was not too thrilled with the prospect, but to my surprise he took it like a man without too much complaint, just huge tears in his "puss in boots" eyes.
If you have never seen Trevor upset, you will not understand. But his beautiful green eyes are enormous, and when they are full of tears that have not spilled over yet, it could melt even the hardest of hearts. I actually had to close my eyes to give him that second dose of "bad word medicine".
Fast forward to last week in the car. This time Chad was not with us. Blake started in about how Trevor had said the sh word again, blah blah blah, and so I asked him to clarify which word he was talking about. I gave him a one time pass to say the word so it would be completely clear. He solemnly said, "He said 'shut up', Mom. You know, the first bad word they say on Transformers!"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
I had to call Chad and inform him that we had probably warped poor Trevor for life with the jalapeno juice for such a minor infraction as saying shut up. I feel horrible, and yet at the same time I find it mildly amusing!
So there you have it, we are either terrible parents, or really good parents and just a little overzealous in our punishments. I know this story is going to come back to bite us in the hiney. I will tell you one thing though, we learned a valuable lesson and I am positive Trevor did too...I doubt he'll ever say shut up again!
**Please just don't turn us into Child Protective Services after you read this!
A few weeks ago we were driving in the car on a Saturday and Blake started yelling from the backseat that Trevor had said a bad word. We finally managed to ascertain (that is a funny word!) that Trev had said the "first bad word from Transformers, the sh word"...needless to say, we were shocked and apalled that our five year old would say such a word, but we felt it our duty to punish him and filled the next five minutes with various threats of punishment. We really meant it about the whole punishing thing, but we forgot about it with all the other things we needed to do that day.
Two days later (again in the car, apparently he feels safe saying bad words in the back of the Durango because I can't reach him to slap him in the mouth)...a similar situation occurred while we were on our way to my Mom's house. Chad made the same threats of punishment and this time we were both determined to carry them out. When we walked in the door I asked Mom if she had any jalapenos (specifically, the juice) and got just the answer I was looking for.
We marched Trevor over to the sink and retrieved the bottle of jalapenos. I grabbed a teaspoon of juice and Chad had the honor of putting the juice into Trevor's mouth. He made him hold it in there for a few seconds to make sure that his mouth was nice and spicy, and then "allowed" him to swallow it. Then, to my surprise, Chad told him that since we had forgotten to punish him the first time, he had to do it again. Trevor was not too thrilled with the prospect, but to my surprise he took it like a man without too much complaint, just huge tears in his "puss in boots" eyes.
If you have never seen Trevor upset, you will not understand. But his beautiful green eyes are enormous, and when they are full of tears that have not spilled over yet, it could melt even the hardest of hearts. I actually had to close my eyes to give him that second dose of "bad word medicine".
Fast forward to last week in the car. This time Chad was not with us. Blake started in about how Trevor had said the sh word again, blah blah blah, and so I asked him to clarify which word he was talking about. I gave him a one time pass to say the word so it would be completely clear. He solemnly said, "He said 'shut up', Mom. You know, the first bad word they say on Transformers!"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
I had to call Chad and inform him that we had probably warped poor Trevor for life with the jalapeno juice for such a minor infraction as saying shut up. I feel horrible, and yet at the same time I find it mildly amusing!
So there you have it, we are either terrible parents, or really good parents and just a little overzealous in our punishments. I know this story is going to come back to bite us in the hiney. I will tell you one thing though, we learned a valuable lesson and I am positive Trevor did too...I doubt he'll ever say shut up again!
**Please just don't turn us into Child Protective Services after you read this!
Friday, October 23, 2009
Girl's Weekend (Day 2)
Sunday dawned bright and clear with nary a cloud to be seen. There was a light breeze that made wearing a sweater or light jacket necessary, but it was a pleasant and beautiful day. I never realized how beautiful Kentucky is, but as you can see from the pics of the road we drove down to get to Shakertown, it is practically a little slice of Heaven. It was so pretty I made Jennifer stop in the middle of the road (there was not a lot of traffic on those c
ountry roads) so I could take pictures. I tried to get Mom to play Chinese fire drill with me, but she declined.
The Shakers were very interesting people. Apparently there are still three of them left in Massachusetts or somewhere. They were Millenialists, meaning, they figured that they were living in the Millenium since Christ had already come. They did not believe in procreation, and I had kind of an "aha" moment when one of the guides explained that they weren't really worried about the need for the human race to continue because they figured they were living in the thousand years of peace and well, they just didn't see the need. Not surprisingly, when the Civil War occured it really put their "peace" theory to the test. Also not surprisingly, conversion to their beliefs seriously began to lag and this led to their decline and near extinction.
It was so relaxing to walk through the grounds and tour at our own pace, I would love to go back and stay in one of their guest rooms, kind of like a bed and breakfast. The rooms are in the original buildings and decorated very authentically. 
ountry roads) so I could take pictures. I tried to get Mom to play Chinese fire drill with me, but she declined. The Shakers were very interesting people. Apparently there are still three of them left in Massachusetts or somewhere. They were Millenialists, meaning, they figured that they were living in the Millenium since Christ had already come. They did not believe in procreation, and I had kind of an "aha" moment when one of the guides explained that they weren't really worried about the need for the human race to continue because they figured they were living in the thousand years of peace and well, they just didn't see the need. Not surprisingly, when the Civil War occured it really put their "peace" theory to the test. Also not surprisingly, conversion to their beliefs seriously began to lag and this led to their decline and near extinction.They were peaceful people, aside from their rowdy religious celebrations (which is what gave them the nickname of Shaker...part of their rituals involved dancing and shaking the devil away from their soul). They were master craftsmen, their architecture was very modern for the time and beautiful to look at. Very simple and clean lines that appeal to me in a big way. They were all for modern convenience and improving upon the ideas of the past. A lot of people tend to associate them with the Amish, but they differ quite a bit since they tended to embrace modern advances, rather than shun them.
We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant that used to be one of the buildings used by the Ministry (male and female Elders). The food that was served was grown right there in a large garden; fresh sauteed squash and zucchini, tomato casserole, etc.
We had a lovely lunch in a restaurant that used to be one of the buildings used by the Ministry (male and female Elders). The food that was served was grown right there in a large garden; fresh sauteed squash and zucchini, tomato casserole, etc. They had various presentations in the old Meeting House throughout the day that we attended. The first lady we went to talked about their worship practices and customs, and the second one talked about their music and did demonstrations of the types of dancing they did as well as some of the songs they sang. These ladies were dressed like Shaker women and were master storytellers, they were so entertaining to listen to and watch! They reminded me of an awesome lady in our Ward who is a storyteller and professor. We took a hayride tour around the village and were very impressed with the wagon driver. He was a local farmer who also tends the grounds at Shakertown and knew so much about the history of the area and the Shakers. The stone fences that stretched through and around the village were built by an Irishman, not the Shakers themselves, although they did assist him. He was paid $1000 for every mile of fence that he put in...not bad money in those days, although can you imagine how long it would have taken to put in a mile of fence when you have to find all those stones?
It was so relaxing to walk through the grounds and tour at our own pace, I would love to go back and stay in one of their guest rooms, kind of like a bed and breakfast. The rooms are in the original buildings and decorated very authentically. 
Mom and Jennifer and Miss Ashleigh and I had a great time, I hadn't laug
hed so hard or so much for a long time! It was nice just to be able to wander around without a rigid schedule or little ones pulling on my leg for attention. It was also nice to just sit and hold little Ashleigh and try to coax her to smile, she is such a cutie! She turned heads wherever we went.
hed so hard or so much for a long time! It was nice just to be able to wander around without a rigid schedule or little ones pulling on my leg for attention. It was also nice to just sit and hold little Ashleigh and try to coax her to smile, she is such a cutie! She turned heads wherever we went.I just have to say a huge "Thank You!" to my dad for the hotel and gas, and for taking my boys to Church and watching them while Chad did his bishopric stuff. Also, to my sister Karen for feeding my guys several times while I was away, quaranteeing they didn't eat McDonalds for every meal. It is awesome to have such great family support...but next time Karen is coming with us, even if we have to hogtie her to the top of Mom's van!
Sorry for the super long post...there is sooo much I had to leave out!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Girl's Weekend (Saturday)
Since I am a "Sicky McSickerton" today and have vowed not to do anything strenuous or taxing to my already fragile voicebox, I am finally taking the time to sit down and blog about the fabulous Girl's Weekend my mom and sister, Jennifer, and I had a few weeks ago.
Jennifer and I graciously allowed our husbands to go white water rafting with the Elder's Quorum in August, and in exchange they allowed us to take advantage of some free hotel nights and free gas, courtesy of our wonderful pops. We left around 8pm Friday night, the 26th of Sept. and headed up to Frankfurt, KY (where our hotel was). We have been itching to get up to Louisville to see the Shaker village for ages, and this was a golden opportunity to go without whiny kids. We did have little Miss Ashleigh with us, but the only time she whined was when she was hungry, the rest of the time she was just a ten pound weight to heft around during our various activities.
Saturday was super rainy and wet, so we decided to save Shakertown for Sunday and knocked around Louisville a little bit.
In the morning we went to the Mary Todd Lincoln House and used free vouchers to get in, courtesy of National Smithsonian Museum Day. It was a pretty good tour, very informational about President and Mrs. Lincoln. After that, we hit up a sale at JCPenney to find me a shirt to replace the white one I spilled Diet Coke on. Jennifer found a couple of shirts and I found a nice teal one for $10, and then I found a great beaded necklace for $10 that I have since been able to wear many times because it matches so many things! I have been on a quest lately to be more "What Not to Wear" and channel my inner Mom-on-the-go look with more accessories and less frump (today is an exception because I feel like I have been hit by a truck and, since it is Pajama Day at school I am just following their theme).
Where was I? Hmmm. Oh yes. Saturday.
So we then went in search of a Celtic store in old town Louisville, and in the meantime ran into all the wonderful traffic and crowds that were hitting the UK verses the University of FL football game. That's right folks, the little English man on Jennifer's GPS didn't know it was a big game day and ran us right through the middle of the UK campus. An hour and a half later, we found the place we were looking for and spent a few minutes before it closed browsing. We were starving, and just happened to be right down the street from a resteraunt I read about in one of the hotel pamphlets, Joe Baloney's. We decided to take a chance and oh how glad we were. It was a great place in an old church building (the bar ironically was placed where the pulpit used to be) with tasty homemade bread sticks and garlic butter.
To round out our nice, relaxing day we ended up at one of our favorite haunts, Target, where we got a new blanket for Miss Ashleigh, who had, in a most unladylike fashion, managed to poop or spit up on all the blankets that Jennifer had brought with her!
Thus ends Saturday, unfortunately no pictures because my wonderful hubster was "fixing" the computer recently by adding a new external hard drive to store things on and removed all of the pics off our computer without a tutorial for me on how to access them. [Fist shaking] Why do men always have the urge to fix things and either a). break them worse...or b). never finish fixing them??? I needs me some medicine...ttfn. ***If anyone can tell me what that stands for they will win a special treat from yours truly!
***Update: I asked Chad how to access the pictures and they are way more accessible than I thought, so apparently he didn't "fix" the computer too bad.
Jennifer and I graciously allowed our husbands to go white water rafting with the Elder's Quorum in August, and in exchange they allowed us to take advantage of some free hotel nights and free gas, courtesy of our wonderful pops. We left around 8pm Friday night, the 26th of Sept. and headed up to Frankfurt, KY (where our hotel was). We have been itching to get up to Louisville to see the Shaker village for ages, and this was a golden opportunity to go without whiny kids. We did have little Miss Ashleigh with us, but the only time she whined was when she was hungry, the rest of the time she was just a ten pound weight to heft around during our various activities.
Saturday was super rainy and wet, so we decided to save Shakertown for Sunday and knocked around Louisville a little bit.
In the morning we went to the Mary Todd Lincoln House and used free vouchers to get in, courtesy of National Smithsonian Museum Day. It was a pretty good tour, very informational about President and Mrs. Lincoln. After that, we hit up a sale at JCPenney to find me a shirt to replace the white one I spilled Diet Coke on. Jennifer found a couple of shirts and I found a nice teal one for $10, and then I found a great beaded necklace for $10 that I have since been able to wear many times because it matches so many things! I have been on a quest lately to be more "What Not to Wear" and channel my inner Mom-on-the-go look with more accessories and less frump (today is an exception because I feel like I have been hit by a truck and, since it is Pajama Day at school I am just following their theme).
Where was I? Hmmm. Oh yes. Saturday.
So we then went in search of a Celtic store in old town Louisville, and in the meantime ran into all the wonderful traffic and crowds that were hitting the UK verses the University of FL football game. That's right folks, the little English man on Jennifer's GPS didn't know it was a big game day and ran us right through the middle of the UK campus. An hour and a half later, we found the place we were looking for and spent a few minutes before it closed browsing. We were starving, and just happened to be right down the street from a resteraunt I read about in one of the hotel pamphlets, Joe Baloney's. We decided to take a chance and oh how glad we were. It was a great place in an old church building (the bar ironically was placed where the pulpit used to be) with tasty homemade bread sticks and garlic butter.
To round out our nice, relaxing day we ended up at one of our favorite haunts, Target, where we got a new blanket for Miss Ashleigh, who had, in a most unladylike fashion, managed to poop or spit up on all the blankets that Jennifer had brought with her!
Thus ends Saturday, unfortunately no pictures because my wonderful hubster was "fixing" the computer recently by adding a new external hard drive to store things on and removed all of the pics off our computer without a tutorial for me on how to access them. [Fist shaking] Why do men always have the urge to fix things and either a). break them worse...or b). never finish fixing them??? I needs me some medicine...ttfn. ***If anyone can tell me what that stands for they will win a special treat from yours truly!
***Update: I asked Chad how to access the pictures and they are way more accessible than I thought, so apparently he didn't "fix" the computer too bad.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sushi Anyone?
Last Friday night I was feeling very sorry for myself and in need of a break. Not only was last week Fall Break for the kids, but Chad was out of town from Sunday to late Wednesday night, and then did Home Teaching Thursday night. To top it off, it rained several days last week so we were stuck indoors a lot.
So we sat and ate sushi while the boys played the Wii before bedtime and in wanders Kade. He was really intrigued by the chopsticks and wanted to use them to try the sushi.
We had plenty so we let him, and he was so cute scewering that raw fish! He tried several pieces and then he begged for some of the ginger that they always put in. To our extreme surpris
e, he devoured 
several big pieces of the ginger! We have come to the conclusion that he must not have active taste buds. It sure made for some
good laughs after a stressful week!
I thought about escaping by myself for a few hours, but then I realized that what I really needed was some time with Chad. I called him at about 5:30pm and he was not even on his way home yet, but I asked if he would stop and pick up sushi on his way home and I'd feed the kids leftovers. He suggested we rent a movie from iTunes also.
So we sat and ate sushi while the boys played the Wii before bedtime and in wanders Kade. He was really intrigued by the chopsticks and wanted to use them to try the sushi.
We had plenty so we let him, and he was so cute scewering that raw fish! He tried several pieces and then he begged for some of the ginger that they always put in. To our extreme surpris
e, he devoured 
several big pieces of the ginger! We have come to the conclusion that he must not have active taste buds. It sure made for some
good laughs after a stressful week!We need to do "at home date night" more often, it's cheaper and you can wear sweats!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
My New Bliss
I have a new guilty pleasure. A hobby, one might call it. I have always been a thrifty sort of gal, reveling in the skirt I got at Target for two dollars, combing the racks of the children's consignment stores till my back and feet were in agony...but this brings thrifty to a whole new level.
I have discovered that there is a world more thrilling than clearance racks, and it is right inside the Sunday paper. My sister has been doing it for a while, but she has made it her mission to include me, to indoctrinate me, if you will. And now I am hooked.
COUPONS!!!
This is how we do it (well, to be honest, Jennifer does most of the work and I willingly let her because her brain is much more like a computer than mine): we buy five Sunday papers Monday morning when they are $0.99 at our local supermarket. We spend a few hours combing through the ads to find coupons that appeal or that our handy couponing blogs tell us to look for. We cut them and sort them into a binder separated into different sections and filled with baseball card holders that hold the coupons. Then we check out the website http://www.southernsavers.com/ and plan our grocery shopping for the week based on the deals that the local supermarkets are running combined with our coupons. It is a little more complicated, but it would take all night to type out.
The key is the fact that when you know what is on sale, and you combine that sale price with a coupon, it sometimes makes things dirt cheap(like bags of Chex Mix for $.16). Yesterday I bought $333.80 worth of groceries for $84.79!
This picture doesn't show everything I got because I couldn't fit it all on my table, (and I have a pretty big table!) but you get the idea. I believe I got something like 19 boxes of cereal, 10 bags of Chex Mix, six + lbs of hamburger, six boxes of Hamburger Helper, the list goes on and on.
Tonight Jennifer told me of a deal where, if you have a coupon for $3.00 off a box of Snuggle dryer sheets, and you go to Food Lion where Snuggle dryer sheets are on sale 2 for $6...yes folks, you can get them for FREE. Say what girlfren? Oh yes, and by the time I got there they were all out, and the sale was only for today...I asked for a rain check so I can go back tomorrow or the next day when they have restocked and get my free Snuggles!
My biggest worry in all this was how the clerks would treat me, I have always been more worried than I should be about what people think of me. But I have now realized a few things, (1. this money doesn't come out of their paychecks, the manufacturers reimburse the store for the money on the coupon (2. they are stupid to look down their nose at me when they could easily take advantage of their own sales (3. all of the clerks I have dealt with in the past few days were sooo sweet and even excited to see me get such great deals! I always feel bad though, plunking down a huge wad of coupons, but the key to that is to stay organized and make sure that the coupons that you are using together for one product (like a manufacturers coupon + the store coupon) are bundled together. I plan out what I will get before I go to the store and put each little bundle in their own little baseball card pouch. I tell you what, it is an OCD girl's dream come true! I also try to go at non peak times like early morning and later in the evening so there isn't a line of forty people behind me gnashing their teeth.
My sister told me that her husband and my husband were talking about our new obsession and Chad was quoted as saying, "This is a hobby I can really be supportive of!" Ya ya, he still remembers our Webkinz stint of '08. They were so cute though! You could dress them up and "buy" things to go in their little online houses and make fake money by doing online games and...oops. Right. Coupons.
Well, that's enough out of me for tonight...I still need to find those Snuggle coupons in my newspapers.
I have discovered that there is a world more thrilling than clearance racks, and it is right inside the Sunday paper. My sister has been doing it for a while, but she has made it her mission to include me, to indoctrinate me, if you will. And now I am hooked.
COUPONS!!!
This is how we do it (well, to be honest, Jennifer does most of the work and I willingly let her because her brain is much more like a computer than mine): we buy five Sunday papers Monday morning when they are $0.99 at our local supermarket. We spend a few hours combing through the ads to find coupons that appeal or that our handy couponing blogs tell us to look for. We cut them and sort them into a binder separated into different sections and filled with baseball card holders that hold the coupons. Then we check out the website http://www.southernsavers.com/ and plan our grocery shopping for the week based on the deals that the local supermarkets are running combined with our coupons. It is a little more complicated, but it would take all night to type out.
The key is the fact that when you know what is on sale, and you combine that sale price with a coupon, it sometimes makes things dirt cheap(like bags of Chex Mix for $.16). Yesterday I bought $333.80 worth of groceries for $84.79!
This picture doesn't show everything I got because I couldn't fit it all on my table, (and I have a pretty big table!) but you get the idea. I believe I got something like 19 boxes of cereal, 10 bags of Chex Mix, six + lbs of hamburger, six boxes of Hamburger Helper, the list goes on and on.Tonight Jennifer told me of a deal where, if you have a coupon for $3.00 off a box of Snuggle dryer sheets, and you go to Food Lion where Snuggle dryer sheets are on sale 2 for $6...yes folks, you can get them for FREE. Say what girlfren? Oh yes, and by the time I got there they were all out, and the sale was only for today...I asked for a rain check so I can go back tomorrow or the next day when they have restocked and get my free Snuggles!
My biggest worry in all this was how the clerks would treat me, I have always been more worried than I should be about what people think of me. But I have now realized a few things, (1. this money doesn't come out of their paychecks, the manufacturers reimburse the store for the money on the coupon (2. they are stupid to look down their nose at me when they could easily take advantage of their own sales (3. all of the clerks I have dealt with in the past few days were sooo sweet and even excited to see me get such great deals! I always feel bad though, plunking down a huge wad of coupons, but the key to that is to stay organized and make sure that the coupons that you are using together for one product (like a manufacturers coupon + the store coupon) are bundled together. I plan out what I will get before I go to the store and put each little bundle in their own little baseball card pouch. I tell you what, it is an OCD girl's dream come true! I also try to go at non peak times like early morning and later in the evening so there isn't a line of forty people behind me gnashing their teeth.
My sister told me that her husband and my husband were talking about our new obsession and Chad was quoted as saying, "This is a hobby I can really be supportive of!" Ya ya, he still remembers our Webkinz stint of '08. They were so cute though! You could dress them up and "buy" things to go in their little online houses and make fake money by doing online games and...oops. Right. Coupons.
Well, that's enough out of me for tonight...I still need to find those Snuggle coupons in my newspapers.
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