Little House on the Prairie From Hell


So wholesome. Such a family show. Not really. Behind the scenes things were quite snarky and not in a good or interesting way. I have kind of lost the joy of what was the "Little House Experience". Let me preface everything by saying that I truly hate celebrity memoirs. Yet like a fool I read them and get sucked in and I always end up hating the celebrity...with only one exception...Julia Child and the book My Life in France. I loved that book and Julia even more.

This particular hellish spiral of celebrity trash all began with the reading of this book:

What a large mistake. I have always been intrigued by the Melissa Gilbert and Rob Lowe pairing. They never seemed like a good match to me. During my teen years I would occasionally read in a gossip magazine about the couple and would think "How in the world did Melissa Gilbert get Rob Lowe?" So as I read the Rob Lowe autobiography for the purpose of behind the scenes information on the filming of movie "The Outsiders"; Melissa Gilbert began to crop up here and there. Never in detail and only occasionally. But I knew that they had dated for several years so I knew there must be more to the story. That was my first mistake. Curiosity. They say it killed the cat. How about several days out of my life and my already too short summer. I soon found out that Melissa had written her own tell-all and it was full of Rob references. So like a sucker I read it...and thus began my downward spiral into Little House on the Prairie Hell.

Are you a fan of the Little House books? Are you a fan of the TV series? If so, and you would like to continue to be one; do not read this book. Laura Ingalls Wilder she is not!! It sort of ruined the series for me...just when my kids had discovered it and were enjoying watching all the old episodes. Shoot.

From Goodreads.com:

"To fans of the hugely successful television series Little House on the Prairie, Melissa Gilbert grew up in a fantasy world with a larger-than-life father, friends and family she could count on, and plenty of animals to play with. Children across the country dreamed of the Ingalls’ idyllic life—and so did Melissa...Women everywhere may have idolized her charming life on Little House on the Prairie, but Melissa’s own unexpectedly honest, imperfect, and down-to-earth story is an inspiration."

What I have come away with is that Melissa Gilbert is/was an over-privileged, narcissistic bore. I thought that Melissa would talk about the making of the television series, and give us insights into the people who portrayed its characters, she does, but most of it is her airing her dirty laundry IE (her affairs,marital woes, family issues) and name dropping. It was highly disappointing and unsatisfying. Clearly she and Rob Lowe (the whole point of me reading this book) have MUCH different ideas about their past relationship. Neither one of their perspectives is flattering to either themselves nor to each other. The other issue that kept arising was Melissa Gilbert's dislike of her co-star Melissa Sue Anderson. Apparently they never got along and, according to Melissa Gilbert, Melissa Sue was a snotty brat. I was surprised to find out that her on-screen nemesis Nelly Oleson (Alison Arngrim) was actually one of her best friends. So what did that lead me to do...read Alison Anrgrim's book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch. Oh dear.

My Rating: Annoying, self-absorbed drivel.

This book was a bit more interesting. Alison Arngrim is a much better writer and funny to boot. Her book was full of interesting back stories and tales from the set. I really enjoyed those parts of the book. Her life story however was so dark and sad...and although I feel bad writing this...there are parts of her life that I wish I never knew. I can't look at poor evil Nellie Oleson anymore and feel anything but pity for the poor, abused, little girl portraying her. That said...I found the book to be entertaining and I enjoyed reading it while traveling this summer. She corroborates Melissa Gilbert's claims that she and Melissa were good friends. There are several funny pictures in the book of "Laura and Nellie" having a great time together. She also backs up Melissa Gilbert's assertion that Melissa Sue Anderson was a nightmare. But Alison Arngrim cuts her a little bit more slack than Melissa Gilbert. So, of course, I then had to read Melissa Sue Anderson's book The Way I See It.

My Review: Okay. The best of the bunch.


This may be the worst one of all. It is the most unemotional and cold account of Melissa Sue Anderson's time on Little House On the Prairie. It was so unbelievably dull. At the time I read it my life was extremely stressful and this book certainly didn't tax my brain and it enabled me to fall asleep each night with ease.

I have to wonder what the point of this book was? To relive a cherished time in America's golden age of wholesome TV? Um no. To put to rest the rumors that she was unfriendly and difficult? Or even to tell her side of the story? Um no. This book contains very little depth and the bulk of it consists of Melissa Sue (she doesn't care to be called that BTW) sitting watching the DVDs...hitting pause...writing down the blow-by-blow account of her more memorable episodes with very little commentary. Bizarre. Equally bizarre is when describing something that might actually be interesting she writes it in a screen play format...Lest you try to ferret out any emotion from her whatsoever.

This was such a strange book. Even some of her pictures where copies of newspaper clippings etc. The very few family pictures she included were years old and there were absolutely zero photos of her parents. In fact, there is hardly any biographical information from her life prior to Little House. It is strange to read a "memoir" with such little personal content. There is a bit more at the end of the book about meeting her husband and having her children. But it still lacks any depth and is so detached and bland that who cares by this point anyway.

After reading this book it doesn't appear that she had any friends on the set or that she keeps in touch with anyone. From information gleaned from reading both Melissa Gilbert's book and Alison Arngrim's book she doesn't come to any Little House reunions. Things like this only lend credence to the claims of her former costars about her onset behavior.

There is no reason to read this book. Watch the DVDs and imagine her voice describing everything. "Mary walks in...Adam smiles. Ma says...blah blah blah." That's what this book is...blah, bland, detached and a total bore.

My Review: Boring with a capital B.

Here are my final thoughts after knowing way too much now about Little House on the Prairie. Don't read any of the memoirs. They will ruin the show for you. Watch the wholesome DVDs with the kiddos and enjoy them for what they are.

That said...if Jonathon Gilbert aka Willie (who has apparently disappeared from off the face of the earth and is estranged from his family) or the guy who played Albert (who wasn't mentioned in any of the books...except that his character existed on the show) wrote books I might be inclined to read them. They remain shrouded in mystery. And as you know...I am curious...and like the cat was killed...so was my summer and some brain cells by giving any of these books any thought whatsoever.

Birthday Bowling Bonanza


This weekend to celebrate the kids birthdays we went bowling as a family. We have a great place near us called Hugo's which the kids describe as a "fancy bowling alley". It is. They love having a waitress that brings them all kinds of appetizers and drinks while they bowl to great music, all under neon and black lights. We love it!! We all had a great time. It also helped to boost my mood as snow was falling outside. Boo.

The Birthday Girl and The Birthday Boy

Bryn bowled too. She was NOT going to be left out!!

Ahhh...Tyler and I love showing off our sweet BYU bowling skills. Dare to dream children...Dare to dream.

Hugo's has great food. This was our THIRD enormous plate of food.

They even brought out birthday sundaes for the kids.

Oh yeah. That's the face of fun.

Then we had the *pleasure* of stepping out into a wintry *wonderland* and making our way home on icy roads. Oh winter I DO NOT enjoy you.

This also helped a lot with my winter gloom...


My wonderful friend, Judy, just opened the most fabulous and chic bake shop in downtown Spokane called Sweet Frostings. Her creations are beyond delicious. Our family has been enjoying her treats for awhile. We are big fans!! Now everyone can have them. She had her business partner, Sally, had their grand opening on Saturday. All you locals need to go there ASAP!! We had a great time eating pretty much everything. Wow. We might just survive another gloomy winter with this cozy bakery nearby. You can read more about my visit to Sweet Frostings (on 1st Ave and Washington) here. It was decorated by two of my other talented friends, Gladys and Cel (Junebug Furniture and Design) and I just want to move in and live there. It is so darling and delicious.

The Golden Birthday Boy

Kameron turned 11 on 11/11...and he made a birthday wish at 11:11pm. How cool is that?
So what is Kameron like at eleven? Here is a glimpse into his personality. He and his friends have just discovered Weird Al Yankovic. They can be entertained for HOURS watching his videos on YouTube. He was blown away that we had Weird Al in the "olden days". Kameron's particular favorite right now is this...

There you have it!! Kameron at eleven.

Happy Birthday You Studly Stud!!
We love you very much!!

15 Years Old

How is it that the baby that caused blood vessels to burst on my forehead while giving birth to her is now a 15 year old causing blood vessels to burst on my forehead with her teenager-iness? (New word) 15 years in the blink of an eye.

Life with a 15 year old. One picture says it all. :)

Next year...driving...dating. Yeah 15 looks pretty darn good.

Happy Birthday Reilly!!

WE LOVE YOU!!

October Sucked...BIG!!

Well I can no longer take looking at the picture of my mom, me and Stacey in our Mad Hatter costumes. 5 weeks is long enough. So why the long absence you might ask? Don't ask. You will hear more than you ever wanted to along with copious amounts of swearing. If you are perusing the photos on this post you might surmise that we had somewhat of a good time this month not counting Reilly's hospitalization. You would be...oh so wrong. The entire month sucked...with one brief respite from the suckage...which is when the majority of these photos were taken. The fact that I did not keel over from the stress...have a stroke or a heart attack... is a frigging miracle. But I did lose 10 lbs and not even that was worth the sucking suckage that was October!!

October began so innocently with our Mad Hatter Sale. On the day of set-up for this sale all kinds of horrors were in the making. First, our house has been up for sale since the end of August. What? I had no idea you might be saying. Yes, there was a reason. No need to mention it until there was something to mention. Well...on the day of our set up for Mad Hatter our house sold...and Reilly came home from school crying and limping with a red, swollen, hot to the touch ankle.

Reilly's ankle issues ended up in one urgent care visit, one ER visit, two doctor office visits and a weeks stay in the hospital with exploratory surgery do to complications to her stomach caused by the medication given to her for the frigging ankle. Good times.

The lovely sale of our home gave us the funds to purchase a much larger and highly desirable home as well. Or so we thought. We packed up our house, signed our closing papers, bid our ward adios, changed our address and all utilities, scheduled our family to help us move...only to have the buyer of our home back out at the last minute. As in he didn't show up to close. As in...last minute change of mind. As in...no one buying our house equals us not buying our new house. As in...we aren't going anywhere. As in...hysterical kids. As in...I get to fully unpack all our crap. As in...so ticked off we need a few months to recover. As in...our house is back off the market until we can gear up for this process all over again. Which by the way may be never. It was horrible...open houses, showings every day, dealing with realtors, mortgage people, title people, banks, complications, delays, repairs, inspections, blah blah blah) So yeah...we may live here forever!!

Add to that our suburban was in the repair shop 4 times for an expensive problem that couldn't seem to be repaired. Our kids had so many activities that we truly couldn't attend or give our full attention to. Tyler had tons of work that he couldn't miss. Reilly has been working all month to try to catch up on her school work because you just can't miss a week of high school and recover easily. Not to mention about 500 other crappy things that came up...such as everyone getting sick. So if you saw us this past month and we looked either totally scared, totally stressed, or totally pissed now you know why.

There was no need for Halloween costumes for me and Ty this year. We wore them all month "Crone and Curmudgeon". We are still wearing them.

Also...Reilly sang beautifully in a choir concert and Kameron earned his Arrow of Light and finished his season of Cross Country (he ran with his school's program and with a city team). Ailey started piano. Don't ask to see any documentation...just take our word for it.

So...now for the respite from the suckage. My little sister Jordin and her family came to town.

Jordin, RJ, Granny, Jaylah and Ramon

Guess what we did? We shut the damn door on our house full...and I mean full of boxes...why do I have to be so organized?...locked it up and headed out of town to spend time at my mom's and the lake and hang out with family. It was so needed.

We laughed. We cried. We ate. We partied Halloween Style. We put on Prom dresses. We mocked and pummeled one another. I am sporting a large and I do mean large bruise on my knee from when I was about to reveal where Jordin liked to eat pot pie (not your usual pot pie eating location) and she flew and I mean flew across the room...tackled me to the floor...and tried to pin me. Silly girl. She was no match for my needle like elbows though. Yes, people these lovely ladies in the photo above are nasty, scrappy, down and dirty fighters. Don't piss us off.

Especially her. :)

Or her. And by her...I mean Reilly. Doesn't she looked thrilled. Teenagers.

I pretty much tried to do this as much as possible. Look how much RJ loves his Aunt Kristin!! When I could get him away from...

her...and...

her...and most especially...

her!!

And when you can't hold that sweet baby and you are recovering from a hideous month you put on these...

and party like it's 1989 or 90 or whatever the case may be.

And you force them to pose like this...

and this...

and then you tag them on facebook because they have been doing this...

Then you get the kids all dressed up and hopped up on sugar and try your hardest to get a decent picture.

And then your heart will melt when you see them all like this.

So Halloween week and Jordin and Ramon's visit came and went. But it truly saved our sanity.

Here are the costumes for this year. We have:

Cleopatra

A Skeleton Ninja

A peacock

and Cinderella.

So long October...You Sucked ROYALLY.

Why are we dressed like this? You can read about it here.

In the Thick of Things

First Day of School Ice Cream Celebration

School is back in session along with all the extracurricular activities. Needless to say things are still a bit crazy as we attempt to get back onto some sort of schedule.

This year we have...early morning seminary, piano, ballet, jazz, hip hop (Tyler finally caved and is allowing Reilly to take this class), cross country through the elementary school and cross country-SYSA, swim team, trumpet...not to mention scouts and YW. Every day is packed but our kids really like it this way and thrive being busy. Not to mention, they are learning some great time management skills and I am enjoying zero TV and Wii time at our house.

On a high note...on the first day of high school Reilly came home very excited and eager to chat...about ACADEMICS!! Can you fathom my joy? No cute boys were even mentioned. Sweet.

We had a busy weekend...or should I say Saturday. Here are some pictures to prove it.

Two bored sisters waiting for Kameron's Cross Country Meet to begin. Reilly lucked out and headed to the lake early with Aunt Kelley and Elle. Ailey had stinking ballet. (Ballet on Saturday for little girls is ridiculous..in my jaded opinion.)

Still waiting....for Kam to run

And waiting...in 90 heat...with the lake calling to us.

Finally the boy runs!! He is in the blue shirt.

FINALLY around 3:30pm we made it to the lake!! Woohoo. Time for some boating fun. Ailey and Dane mere moments before they capsized and caused three adults to leap into the water and race to their aid only to find them...LAUGHING!!

After that Aunt Kelley went with them!!

Even Bryn went. SHE LOVED IT!! She was waving and saying "Whee!!" the entire time. The girl is fearless just like her big sister Reilly. They are two of a kind. Frightening.

After that the adults got some wake boarding time. Sweet!! The water was fabulous. I wish summer could stay all year long!! We had a great dinner with everyone. Stacey's in laws were in town as well. The kids got to fish and play with their cousins. Reilly, Kam and A all caught fish to their great delight. Thank goodness for Uncle John Sykes who is a champ for assisting them all with their fishing activities.

Bryn in all her lakey glory

It was a perfectly delightful day. We've got to squeeze all the summer fun in that we can because I can feel winter breathing down my neck and I don't like it!!