Dinning chair covers

I just found some chair slipcovers and they look like a table cloth threw up on my chairs. I'll be taking them back. What's the cheapest best slipcovers?

whatcha got in dat there purse a yours?

I'm walkin' along Costco (yes I'm feeling much better, I had Katelyn mop the floor this morning and I went to Costco this afternoon. Fantastic day.) Anyway I'm goin' down the isle for the sour cream when I realize, dang. I just passed it. So instead of turning the very large shopping cart (with Kennedy in it) around I just leave it there next to the gogurts and get the sour cream. Got the cream. Good. Look up and this couple about my age are staring into my shopping cart NOT at the Halloween treats that are bright orange, but at my purse!!! What the? This is Costco! You can't be tryin' to steal from me in Costco. Physco! They see me and keep walking as if nothing happened. To myself (who's had the swine flu and strep throat this week) I think how odd people have become in just a few days.

Outside I go to put the groceries in the car. Turn the car on to heat them diesel coil thing-ers up, put my purse in my seat, shut the door and open the back to load in all my stuff. As I shut the back of my car I turn to find this old guy staring in my window at MY PURSE! Dude! I'm right here! He quickly, yet slowly walks away. What are you looking for? Do I even look like I have any money?! You wanna know what's in my purse? I'll tell you. A credit card I don't use ATM that has recently been frauded and a hospital bill from when I took Grayson to the ER. You want the bill? Oh wait my water bill is in there too, you can take my bills. But really. What is with people today?

#5

The big wedding. Wedding number five. That's right my parents are done gettin' them kids out the door and into their own homes. My little brother Benjamin is officially a man or at least a grown boy paying his own rent and food bill. He got married in the Fresno temple which translated means, my sisters and I had a long overdue reunion. 5 years since we were all in the same state together.

Me, Khristie, Mom, Ben, Jessica, Rebecca, Julia

We carried our excitement right into the temple with us. Unfortunately for everyone else reverence and "Phillips girls" don't mix.

Here's a redo of an old pose.

I haven't had such a good time laughing in a LONG time! I almost peed my pants many times this past weekend and it felt good (not the pee, the laughing). I think Rebecca put it right when she said there's reason we all have moved to different states click here. Thanks fam for the fun weekend.

Box Car

There's a primary activity tomorrow. It's a "drive-in" movie and everyone has to make a car to watch the movie. MacKenzie's not really in primary, but do you think they'd notice if we left her?

These are my favorite part, the license plates.

We've got a ho down

Well maybe not exactly, but that big pile of dirt is gettin' outta here! This is Brother Fekete, he's in our ward, and owns this sweet litte tractor. And for some reason he wasn't scared about leaving it in the hands of my husband.

After riding on the (whatever that thing is) Justin got a tractor driving lesson and didn't get off until 8pm. He was on cloud nine driving the tractor around. And this morning... my NOT morning husband jumped out of bed, put his shoes on and got to work again.

If only you needed a tractor to:

Lift up the toilet seat

Make the bed

and do the laundry

Curtains before and after

Before

After my trip to Ikea and Ross.

Not to mention phone call of panic to my sister Rebecca when I realized I loved 4 completely different curtains. Which should I pick. I loved these better in the store, but I don't know. It's a lot of dark, but I still kind of like them now that they're up on the wall.

MacKenzie's new favorite song

Kennedy knows who Hannah Montana is, but MacKenzie's all about her brother Trace.

my NOT rug

This is the pic of a rug for sale on craigslist. 5'x7' for $50. Okay it's not $5 Khristie (click here and here), but it's brand new so it was a pretty good price. I went to check it out today... I didn't love it. I've noticed in my rug shopping that there are patterns that are "out of focus" and "in focus". The fuzzy ones are lame. I don't like them. The crisp ones are SO much prettier and way more expensive. This one was out of focus. Dang.

The up side? The lady I didn't buy the rug from lives down the street from Home Goods! So I went to see what I could find. No clocks I needed. No pics for the walls. Almost bought that cute little Santa. But look at my little turkey salt and pepper shakers! Finally got a 4 cup measuring cup. The 2 cup business is driving me nuts. And Khrisite... you need this sister. Your frying pan is all scratched up and I'm pretty sure that teflon is part of your diet. And look, it's avocado greenish!

Luau

The YW President before me was WAY more organized. She always had cute handouts, brought treats on Sundays, never forgot birthdays, knew who was getting ready to come into YW... blah, blah you get the point. Then there's me.

I STINK at being the President of anything! I have yet to make a handout, brought treats once and forgot we were getting a new YW until primary came to get us to get her.

Then there's my 1st counselor, she can do things like:

Throw together a luau

feed 10,000 people who show up

decorate everything

teach the girls to dance

have a cousin who can teach the RS to dance

get other YW to participate to get their personal progress done too

So who's really in charge here? Umm I helped vacuum. Does that count? Either way we had SO much fun at our luau. It was on a school night (mutual night) and the YW danced the night away. They were all fantastic and so entertaining. I think this might turn into an annual ward activity.

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, UT on the way home from our big vacation. Oh. I love Temple Square. For those of you who don't know it's where I served a mission for the Church for 18 months. BEST thing I've ever done!

Here are some sweet sister missionaries I got to stop and pose with Kennedy. I'm trying to train my girls young to serve a mission.

I miss seeing the temple everyday... oh wait. I just got my new picture and I do see it everyday. Not the same. How amazing it was to talk to people about the church on dedicated grounds? It was unlike anything I could've hoped for in serving a mission. They say (while you're training to be a missionary for a whole 4 weeks) you have 18 months to serve your mission and the rest of your life to think about it. It's true. Every. Day.

We went up on the observation deck @ the Church Office Building. The temple grounds look perfect from up here too. I need my yard to look like this!

And I wish I had more time to jump into this building. It's new! And totally hands on, but not so much for kids.

I walked and was met by this sign. It gave me goose bumps. I've been keeping a steady journal since I was in jr. high. A lot of it is pretty dumb, but if my parents had journals of the "dumb" stuff I know I'd be fascinated by it today.

We spent all day visiting and will most likely do it again, but not any time soon. The kids traveled well the whole trip, but 10 hours is a long time to be stuck in the car.

We've been robbed!

Some criminal has taken our money! Justin and I have not lost our debit cards, but Justin's has been duplicated. Pin number and all. Our bank stopped them from taking ALL our money when Chase decided Justin couldn't physically buy gas here AND take out a large some of money 60 miles away, within 10 minutes. Thanks Chase. But what gives?! How can they use Justin's debit card with pin? When I asked the lady on the phone how I could prevent something like this from happening again she replied, "you can't". Surely I will sleep better tonight with such words of comfort.

Ode to Facebook

This is one of many reunions we've had thanks to that sweet little website. Justin thinks it's "lame", but not when his old high school buddies contact me. This is Sarah, Justin's old high school buddy. I LOVE Sarah! Wish she was around Clovis instead of Taft so many years ago. While we were near her home town we went for a visit.

While visiting we went to this pick your own fruit area of Washington called Green Bluff. They have animals and toys and produce. Except we went while everything was "getting ripe", so nothing to pick.

Justin accidently let out the goat from the caged area though. Ha!

The goat was ticked. Kept head butting him;)

There were some cute little shops. I mean every little boy needs a tractor.

And I had to take some pics of these clocks for my sister Rebecca, click here. You like?

This one made me think of "Simply Lemonade".

Sarah invited us over for some AMAZING BBQ. So tastey. She's got 3 little girls (and a hubby). Kennedy asked a few days later when we were gonna go back to our "new friends" house. Our kids blended together, good times. Thanks Sarah (and Travis)!

Painted front door

Well I painted the inside of the front doors. Here's a little move in ready pic. Isn't that light inviting?

Here's earlier today. Not bad, not exciting.

Now don't be makin' fun of my mis-matched door knobs or the lock on top. The real plan is to yank these doors completely out and get a fun door (singular) with little side thingies. Until then I really like the black. Thanks sister.

My little corner of shame

What color should this bookshelf and side table be? I have that dark couch, but I don't want ALL my furniture in the house to be black. And it's not, but it very well could be. I look at this corner everyday and think "lame".

Spokane Fair

Air Force

Uncle Jordan is in the Air Force.  The kids were excited to go to work and see the "airport".   That is, the airport with planes that don't fly any more.

There were old yet sleek planes.

Some of the planes were just BIG. 

Justin read all the plaques out loud.  

Toward the end of our "tour" Grayson joined in.  He reads brail.

The girls just ran around on the grass.

Then there were some trains.  I guess in the 50's (I might get all the facts to this story wrong) jet fuel was way expensive.  Air Force right... they do that refuel in the air thing.  To practice this technic minus the price of jet fuel, they used trains.  Check out the sign on the trains though.

After the base we went to downtown Spokane.  Check out this slide.

Can I get one of these in my backyard?

What's a park without ducks?

A waste of money little gondola ride.

Carousal ride.

And some large blocks.