Hacked

I know, kind of a creepy little graphic, huh? I haven't been online very much over the past week or so. I guess you could say I've been a little gun shy. Last week (was it really only last week??!) my email was hacked into and every single person in my contact list (a ton of people from my church, family, friends, old contacts I hadn't deleted, old employers, current employer...everyone) was sent an email in which I said I was asking for money. I was mortified! And I feel like someone stole something from me. It's like they came into my house and stole my bike or wallet or something. Luckily, the hacker included a little tidbit that said I was in England, and anyone who knows me would know that isn't true. But it's definitely opened my eyes to the realities of the internet. I set my blog to private just until we could get it worked out. I was finally able to gain access to my hotmail account a few days later and found the hacker had deleted all of my contacts, changed all my info, and made it pretty useless. That's fine, because I am done with that account. Deleted. I'm just grateful nobody sent any money to the Western Union account this person was providing once someone made contact with him.

What will I do differently in the future? Well, first off, I won't have the same password for all my accounts anymore. I spent hours going through online accounts and changing passwords. I was so nervous Mr. Hackerman would reek havoc there! Second, I will change the passwords often. I hadn't changed the password to my email in 7 years. Third, I realize now it can happen to anyone. Really, who am I? I'm no one important. I don't have money. So I never even thought I'd be at risk. But we all are. In doing research on this I've found that this happens so often. Identity theft is so real. And apparently it's not that hard to do. When searching for a graphic to put to the blog I found out that there are websites out there that tell you how to hack!

Anyway, so we are back. Cautious, but back.

Days 23-25: Field trips and birthdays

This weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday, Cade went on his first field trip. I was excited that I was able to attend. We walked to the park as a group.

We observed nature.
The kids drew pictures of the ducks they saw on the lake.Then they were set free to play on the playground.

Unstoppable

Friday was my birthday, and it's also my Mom Webb's birthday! The kids and I went over to take her some cake and sing her happy birthday.

The birthday girls.

Kevin really surprised me this year. I just have to brag about him for a minute. Look at this! Can you tell what it is? It's a bouquet made out of tracings of the kids hands. In the middle of each flower is written a special thing the kids will do for me. The poem is so sweet. The flowers are stuck into Junior Mint dirt (one of my favorite candies). Oh, and the spatulas are just what I needed. My other ones rotted. Yes, they rotted. :)

I don't know if you can read the poem he wrote. Here it is:

Mommy dear we love you so

And think you are so sweet.

You are so nice and kind to us

And everyone you meet.

We wanted to say thank you

For everything you do.

And want to give you a helping hand

So this is what we'll do.

Just pull a flower from the vase

And tell us what it reads.

our little hands will jump to the task

To help you when you need.

So sweet. My birthday was a fun day! Later that night we went over to Nicki's house and rocked out to some Rock Band. I love Rock Band! On the way home Kevin gave me his other gifts which are a new iron and a new ironing board cover. I am so excited! I know, it's weird I'm getting excited about an iron. But a good iron makes such a difference in sewing and my old iron was pretty bad. It had a crack down it. And my ironing board cover is all stained and has a huge hole in it. So I was pretty happy! A big thanks to my friends and family who made it so special for me.

Days 18-22

Pathetic, I know. I only have one picture to show you. But it's cute, right? This is Spooky Shepherds pie that I made for dinner swap. I got the idea from Gourmet Mom, but I used Maren's shepherds pie recipe. I piped the mashed potato ghosts using a disposable frosting bag and cutting a big tip. Then I used peppercorns as the eyes. Just warn your kids about not chewing up the peppercorn. It just may ruin the whole dinner for them. Not that I know from experience or anything...

Day 14-17 - Life Goes On!

This week has been fun! We got a little off track with my plan. But that's life...right?? I've learned to be flexible. :)

Some fun Halloween-y things we've done:
* Read Halloween books
* Attempted to create a Jack-o-lantern pizza out of Hungry Howie pizzas. Later I learned that Papa Murphy's is selling Jack-o-lantern pizzas right now for $6.99! Papa Murphy's is always good.
* Played outside A LOT. Yay for cooler weather!
* Made a pumpkin cheesecake that turned out pretty good. It was my first cheesecake, so I was a little nervous. I found the recipe here, but made a few changes using the readers' comments. So if you are in the mood for some pumpkin cheesecake try this recipe. It was pretty easy.

Today we have a family dinner at my grandma's house. We are having soup in pumpkin-shaped bread bowls (pictures to come later...these breadbowls are adorable!) and will play some good ol' Halloween bingo.

Day 13 - Candy Corn Mania

Everything is so much better when candy corn is involved. Agree? (I hear a resounding "YES" from all of you!) Today was a fun-filled candy-corn-filled day. We went to the library this morning to check out some Halloween books. (Yes, we were supposed to go yesterday, but we didn't even get out of our jammies yesterday.) I looked for the book Julius's Candy Corn but they didn't have it. We did get some other fun Halloween books though. We stopped by Walmart to grab some candy corn and headed home for our activity. I printed off some candy corn worksheets here and we got started.
First, we counted candy corn as we put it the bowl. Then we talked about the colors of candy corn and which colors were in the top, middle, and bottom.

Then we colored our sheets and practiced the letter "C".

And, of course, ate candy corn as we worked.

Myla decided to put all the candy corn on the candy corn she colored. She was quite proud.

And Cade wanted to make a funny face for the camera. Funny kid!

Check out these other yummy candy corn treats:

Candy Corn Cookies We made these last year and they are adorable! I am thinking about making some today.

Candy Corn Cookie Bark

Candy Corn White Chocolate Popcorn

Candy Corn Rice Krispie Treats

Days 8-12 - Family, Fireworks, Pumpkin Carving and New Mexico

This weekend we went to New Mexico to visit Uncle Jay and his girlfriend Anna, and meet up there with Grandma Pat and Aunt Wendy. We had a great time. We carved pumpkins, saw fireworks at the Hot Air Balloon Festival, visited, laughed, ate good food and had so much fun!

Carving pumpkins:

Myla said her favorite part of the trip was carving a 'pider pumpkin with Uncle Jay.

Watching fireworks:

Gavin wasn't very happy about the loud bangs.

The drive home:

Oreo-face Gav

Some Halloween theme activities we did on the trip: color Halloween pictures, carve pumpkins, eat lots and lots and LOTS of Halloween Oreos.

Day 7 - Let Them Eat Pumpkin!

On the schedule today we were supposed to make Halloween Jello Jigglers. It didn't happen. But we did have a very Halloween/Fall themed dinner: pumpkin chili, pumpkin cornbread with pumpkin fudge for dessert. Um, YUM! I got the chili and cornbread recipes from The Recipe Girl.

You can find the pumpkin chili recipe here. I added cinnamon to the chili, which I think made the pumpkin flavor pop a little and a little more salt.

You can find the pumkin cornbread here. These complement each other very well. If you make one you have to make the other.

The pumpkin fudge was very tasty. I followed this recipe. I doubled spices and added a little more pumpkin because I really wanted it to be flavorful. It was a little dry, but I suspect it was because I didn't have a candy thermometer so I followed my gut feeling, which isn't very accurate. I'm in the market for a new candy thermometer. My last one exploded. There were no casualties, except for the divinity candy I was trying to make. Oh well. I can never get that one right even when I have a candy thermometer.

Tomorrow we will be making milk jug jack-o-lanterns. I've been saving my milk jugs for this. It should be fun!

Day 6 - Pumpkin Candy Necklaces

Today we created cool pumpkin candy necklaces. I grabbed this kit from Walmart. It makes 8 necklaces.

Day 5 - Caramel Apple Monsters

Today we made caramel apple monsters. It was so much fun! Kevin got off of school early today and was here to do this with us. Even Gavin got in on the action.

Here are the apples, already "carameled" and the candy patiently waiting to be turned into monsters.
There goes Cade! He really got into it.

Kevin, Myla and Cade going to town. Cade's finished product.

Gavin enjoying the stickiness. I put candy on his tray and he knew right where to put it. Child genius. :)

My finished product. Like the sprinkle hair?

A most attractive picture of Myla. Nothing says glamour like a mouth full of candy corns.

Kevin striking a cheesy pose.

The hard part was eating it.

This one was a winner. They taste awesome and were so fun to do!