Four Generations of Ropers

From left to right: my Dad, ElRay Merrell Roper (age: 57); my paternal grandmother, Reva Merrell Roper (age: 84); my daughter, Tess Madsen (age: 6 months); me, Maren Roper Madsen (age: 33)

We foolishly considered trying to take a big family picture.  Then we saw the look in this kid's eyes and figured our time would be better spent doing something else.

Where were the other two goons?  Glued to grandma Susie's iPhone. 

Look at how none of them can tear their eyes away.  Well, except for Spencer, but he looks drunk.  Drunk on iPhone happiness.

At least Tess is still too young for iPhones.  For now.  But isn't she dang cute with my dang handsome (and beardless - have you noticed?) husband?

Seventh Annual Donut Party!

Last Saturday was the seventh annual Madsen Halloween Donut Party!

This year we had some very special guests: Grandpa ElRay (my father), Grandma Susie (my step-mother), and Great Grandma Roper (my grandmother)!  It was very exciting and very handy to have these extra-special guests.  They helped out sooooo much!  Plus, I really just like having them around.

(Side note: while Susie, Dad, and Grandma are as dedicated to this event as anyone, please know that they did not come out just for it.  Susie was lucky enough to have a conference in Indy the next week, and Dad and Grandma came along for fun.)

Once again I failed to take any pictures of the event.  I have decided that this is just the way it is with donut parties.  Perhaps I'll have to hire a real photographer some year to document the event.  Do you think I could pay them in donuts?  Fortunately, my dad was around to take a bunch of pictures.

Here I am, making a batch of donuts with my perfected, ultra-secret recipe.  No, you may not have a copy.  Do we have to go through this every year?  Apparently so.  Every girl has to have one awesome secret recipe: this one's mine.

Not to toot my own horn, but I think this year's batch was extra-super-delicioso.  Seriously, they were good.  I think I'm getting better at my batter making skills.  The secret?  Don't pay so much attention to what you're doing.  No really - I kept getting distracted by all the grandparents and this cutie.  I plan on passing down the secret recipe to Tess some day, should she prove worthy.

Grandma Roper helped me cut out the donuts.  (Actually, they're spudnuts because they have potatoes in them.  But whatever.)  Grandma is an excellent cutter, probably because she has so many years of experience!  (That's a compliment, Grandma, not a joke about your age!)

A random action shot of some of the donut eaters.  Apparently Addi (the curly-haired cutie held by Misty) was obsessed with the donuts and kept escaping back to them to steal more.  Who can blame her?

The Culver kiddos take a break from running around to eat. Yum.  (The donuts, not the kids.)

Grandma Susie, the fry cook.  This is the first year I didn't fry a single donut. It felt weird.  And great!  (Thank you thank you thank you, Susie!)

Grandma Roper, the fry cook.  Did you know that my Grandpa, Voit Roper (grandma's husband), owned a spudnut shop in Vernal, UT way back in the day?  True story.  Making donuts must be in the genes.  (Thank you thank you thank you, Grandma Roper!)

See Don and Heidi Fry in the middle there?  This will probably be their last donut party with us.  *sob!!*  But don't worry, Fry family - you will always be fondly remembered as the family who was so excited for the donut party that they came an entire day early one year.  Now that's dedication, people.

As you could see from the invite, the theme was witches this year.   In this game you had to name as many of the witches pictured as you could.  I thought it would be the easier of the games, but I was wrong.

In this game you had to match the spell to what the spell did.  I think someone got every single one of them right, which amazes me!  (I guess you could do it through process of elimination, but still...)  Yes, that's a lot of spells.  But at the Madsen home you have to really work for it.  (Remember, our theme for the year is "I can do hard things".)

Here I am giving out the answers and awarding our super-awesome Dollar Store prizes.  Don't you wish you had won?

It was a great year, and I'm glad I got to spend time with so many of my friends.  Maybe next year we won't be wicked and hold it on the same night as the adult session of stake conference.  I'm pretty sure that's why we ran out of donuts.  (That, or those Polmateer boys who were eating them by the plate full!)

Sweet Corn

Isn't this the cutest little ear of Indiana Sweet Corn you've ever seen?

I decided to sneak a few shots of Tess before the wild rumpus that is this weekend begins.  (Busy busy fun weekend!)

I figured most pictures of her would look like this, since she's not a big fan of large groups or wild rumpusses.  (Rumpusi?  Rumpussies?  Rumpai?)

This ridiculously cute costume is courtesy of my ridiculously talented friend, Gigi.  Can you believe she made this costume without a pattern?  Madness. Gigi is awesome; I wish I could be more like her.  I've been wanting to put a baby of my own in it ever since I saw it on Gigi's daughter, and Tess finally gave me the chance.  Gigi's the best ever for letting me borrow it!

Oh mercy, I just want to eat her up!

 

You'll have to excuse the billion and one photos I took of her.  But she's a baby.  Wearing a corn costume.  Billions of pictures must be taken.

 

 

Nom. Nom. Nom.

I wanted to take pictures of her outside with the pumpkins, but it was a bit chilly out for little ears of corn.  I knew I should have done it last week!  Oh well.

Sweet corn!

Money Pit

Have you ever seen the movie The Money Pit, with Tom Hanks and Shelley Long?  If you own a home it's a must-see.  It's about this newly married couple who buy this big old house that they think will be wonderful and an investment and instead turns out to need a million repairs.  So they make all of these repairs, resulting in many hilarious situations and the end of their marriage.

I've been thinking about this movie a lot today.

Not that our house (or my marriage) is falling apart.  But all of our appliances seem to be dying off, one by one.  Let's review what we've replaced in the last few months:

1. Washing machine (although, in all fairness, we brought that to the house)
2. Sewer pump
3. Water softener

And now we get to add a number four: Water heater.

Yes, we were informed today that our water heater is slowly dying.  While I appreciate the fact that we still have hot water, I do not appreciate the timing.  Sheesh.  The plumber (who now recognizes my name and number - is that a bad thing?) was impressed with our current water heater.  But not in a good way.  Apparently the last homeowners put in the cheapest, worst water heater ever.  The plumber was impressed that it had lasted as long as it did.

This kills me.  It makes me mad at the last homeowners.  I know it's not really their fault, but come on!  When Lance and I buy stuff like that we try to get a good deal, but we also don't buy junk.  We try to get quality that will actually last. We are slowly learning that this last couple did not share this same concept.  The basement appliances were all cheap and stupid; the plumbing was done in an odd way; and the paint on the walls?  Don't get me started.  (It's all builder's grade and needs to be redone.  Yesterday.)  Oh, and the kitchen counters?  Awful.  I keep dreaming of getting them replaced, but all of my counter money is going to boring things like water heaters.

Oh, and the appliances that all seem to be really nice and they probably paid a lot of money for?  I hate them.  The fridge looks fine, but is terrible inside; it barely holds anything.  And anytime you put anything on the stove it leaves a black mark.  (Even when just boiling water!)  And the dishwasher?  Not so great. It's noisy and Cole keeps picking the buttons off.  Why couldn't those have been the appliances that died?  They'll probably be the ones that last forever and I'll never have an excuse to replace them.

Well, regardless of how much I dislike my kitchen appliance, I am calling a moratorium on all appliance deaths.  No more!  Our budget cannot handle it!  We would like at least three months inbetween major unexpected expenses!  No more, I say!  No more.

Nose Full of Kryptonite

My Kryptonite Cold Virus

You know how most super heroes have some sort of fatal weakness?  Like Superman and Kryptonite, and... er... Harry Potter and, uh, Potions class... and Spiderman... and his bad puns?  The Wicked Witch didn't like water, so that kinda counts... Wait.

Okay, forget that first part.  You know how Superman is impervious to everything but Kryptonite?  You get just a little bit around him and he loses all of his super strength and powers?

Not to compare myself to Superman (even though all moms are Superman in some way or another), but I have found my Kryptonite for the season: the common cold virus.

In the past I have dealt just fine with colds.  They come, I'm miserable for a day or two, and then they go away.  But I've noticed over the past few years (and as I add more children to the home... hmmm...) that my colds have become worse and worse and last longer and longer.  I tried all sorts of stuff: Mucinex, zinc, essential oils, none really seemed to help.  In fact, the best thing I could do is try to rest and get lots of sleep.  With all my kids at home.  Ha!

Last week I came down with a cold, hard and strong.  I couldn't breathe.  I couldn't sleep.  I was miserable for a long time. 

Then it started to get better.  Then Sunday night it got worse.  A lot worse.  Like, "Just Kill Me Now" worse.  Oh man, this cold is flattening me.  Cough cough cough all day long.  Hack hack hack.  And then yesterday my nose started to run.  And run and run and run.  It was literally like a faucet!  I gave up and just walked around with tissues up my nose.  Lance wisely kept his comments to himself.  (Poor Lance - he probably wonders what happened to his super-wife every time he gets into bed, as I snort and snore and cough the night away.)

I broke down and bought some super-strength antihistamines today.  (They usually knock me out and I have too much stuff to do, but desperate times and all...)  I practically had to sign Tess away at the pharmacy to get the drugs.  In fact, I bargained with them and said they could have Cole instead, which they agreed to until he started running around like the looney bedlamite that he is.  So instead they just took my driver's license number.  (Because, you know, I so fit the profile of a meth addict.)

Anywho, drugs.  Powerful drugs.  Nothin'.  I've been waiting two hours and my nose is STILL running.  I decided to see if a little caffeine would help (it being a diuretic and all), but one Diet Dr. Pepper later and I have a little buzz going on but still have the runny nose.

Curse you, freakishly-drug resistant Kryptonite germ virus!! 

I have a huge weekend coming up.  Family coming into town, parties to throw and go to.  Trick or treating, for Pete's sake!  Too much to do, and not easily done with tissue up my nose. (Maybe I can make it part of a costume?)  Let's just hope I can get rid of this Kryptonite over the next few days.

Random P.S.: I don't care what anyone says - Gene Hackman was the best Lex Luthor ever.

Have You Ever Been So Tired...

...that you fell asleep while your daddy was pushing you in the swing?

 

 

And then stayed asleep during a diaper change?

Cole has.

Lava Mess

Somehow Josh knew that it was Lance's and my dream to clean up a broken lava lamp.  On a Sunday morning. In our church clothes.  Ten minutes before we're supposed to leave before church.

There was glass and blue water and lava gunk all over the place.  What a mess.

We still haven't figured out how to clean the blue out of the grout.

Cole kept trying to walk on the glass and play in the blue water.  Tess kept fussing on the couch.  Josh hid.  Spencer kept talking incessantly about something completely unrelated.  Lance and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned.

Kids get us into interesting situations, don't they?

We still made it to church on time.  Lance and I rock.