I'm having my Creative Memories Holiday Open House on Saturday. I've partnered with my up-line so that she can "show me the ropes" so to speak. I am grateful that I have someone to work with, but it has proven to be a lot of work. In some ways, I will be really excited to do it all on my own next year, but in other ways, I'll be dreading it because it's, well, a lot of work. Are you sensing a theme here? But this is neither here nor there, and my goal for the next three days is simply to get through them.
So one of my "projects" for the open house was to make this cute little calendar. It's designed to fit into one of our Picfolio albums, and I am really pleased with the way that it turned out -- on my computer at least -- Costco kind-of sabotaged some of the pictures so they are in the process of being reprinted.
So for today's post (far before midnight, I might add), I am sharing my calendar with you.
In some ways I have really enjoyed NaBloPoMo. It's fun to look back over a month and realize that I have posted EVERY SINGLE DAY. Go me!
In other ways, well, I will be very happy when it is over, because I will no longer have to run to the computer in a last ditch effort to get a post in before the clock strikes twelve. Seriously, it's getting a bit ridiculous. And it doesn't make for very good reading either.
It does, however, make for something to read. I mean, before NaBloPoMo I could go a couple of days, or even weeks... or almost months without posting. But WITH NaBloPoMo, I've posted something every day! Isn't that a positive thing? Isn't it? Even if it only says, "HEY! I'M POSTING! AND IT'S NOT MIDNIGHT YET!"? Like this post did?
I'm sure that it must count for something. Somewhere.
First off, let's just say that I'm posting now so that I don't have a repeat of last night's "almost missed it" incident.
Last Wednesday, The King and I took the girls to see the vampires. You know, those blood-lusting fiends at the doctor's office. We had to get the girls checked for lead poisoning. The very short story of what happened there would simply be "Not Fun."
All things considered, the girls handled the blood-letting rather well. The part that killed them was the fact that they each needed to get one shot (one immunization for The Dragon and one flu shot for The Princess) immediately after the blood draw.
Can you imagine the chaos?
It took both of us to hold down one girl at a time. And there were two nurses in the room. And I'm pretty sure that the rooms aren't sound proof.
Well, anyway, the doctor called today. The test results are back. The Princess is fine. The Dragon actually shows some lead in her blood (probably from licking the plates, Dubby!). The levels are low enough that no medication will be required, nor will they require a treatment plan. So I guess that all is well... but, this leads me to the question of what is The Dragon being exposed to that her sister isn't?
It's an interesting question... and I'm just hoping that it's not going to cause too many sleepless nights.
I just glanced at the clock and realized that it's almost midnight and I hadn't posted yet! Can't get this close to the end of the month and blow it!
I realize I haven't posted anything really fantastic lately. I just haven't felt like I have anything fantastic to write about. Life is basically the same old thing day after day. I am overwhelmed and exhausted. The King is tired. The girls, well, they're fine. They are just wearing us out. There are all kinds of things causing various kinds of stress in our lives... life is just not fun for me right now.
All in all, we are OK. That, I suppose, is a good thing.
But the theme that is running through my head is "this is not exactly what I wanted."
To clarify, however, the BIG things are what I want... my husband, my children, my faith. It's just the little things that aren't quite right. So, in a way, all is well. All is well.
Watched "THE" Game today. BYU won. It was a nail-biting ending, and while I didn't really care who won or lost, this win sure made the people we were with VERY happy.
I got a pretty good nights sleep last night. But now that it's almost 11, I'm exhausted again. No surprise, I know.
I think I'll watch the end of "House" and then go to bed.
I shopped for approximately 12-hours today. Or at least, I was gone from home for about 12-hours. It was a very crazy day and I am very tired. This was by far, the most unorganized Black Friday shopping spree I have ever done, and I know I missed a lot of deals. I also didn't get as much sleep as I usually do (30 minutes of sleep compared to 3 or 4 hours), so you can imagine how I feel right now.
The King is out for the evening, so I'm in charge of the girls. Ha ha ha. I can barely keep my eyes open. The good news is that they are supposed to go to bed in 15-minutes. At that point, I'm pretty sure it's safe to pass out again. Just as long as I don't sleep through, say, the fire alarm going off, I think we will survive tonight.
Tomorrow is the BYU/UofU football game. Or the UofU/BYU football game. We've been invited to my brother's house to watch the game. It should be a lot of fun. Especially for me, because I will probably root for both teams rather than just picking one. The truth is, I could care less. So, I'll probably just try to have fun trying to annoy everyone else. It should be a fun get together though.
So, I'm guessing that you all have made your Thanksgiving plans by now. Some of you are traveling "over the river and through the woods", while others of you may be staying at your own home sweet home.
We had plans too. Those plans involved going to Grandma's house! We were still in charge of the turkey and one pie, but the "event" was going to be at Grandma's house.
Well, Grandma has the stomach flu.
So Thanksgiving is now going to be at our house. It was confirmed 20 minutes ago.
YIKES!
What this means is: I've gotta run. My house is a mess. And there will be people here in less than 24 hours!
... because I am running a gazillion different directions all at the same time.
I know, I know, The King is always telling me that mice only move one direction at once but they CHANGE direction really fast. Whatever. I still say they can move lots of different directions all at once.
Anyway, the point is this: I AM TIRED. Or, for that matter, I AM STILL TIRED. I think that I might actually get to sleep on Saturday, but I really doubt that I am going to sleep much between now and then.
I'm just busy.
I have a bazillion projects, and I keep on getting more, and more, and more. And I'm neglecting my family. Badly. The Princess had to wear dirty clothes to school yesterday. At least she had clean socks and underwear. SO SAD!
This weekend will hopefully be used to catch up on everything. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
At least I only have to make one pie for Thanksgiving. That's probably the easiest thing on my to-do list right now.
I spent most of today in various training meetings for Creative Memories. It has been a lot of fun, and it has also completely worn me out.
Apparently, I "know my stuff" because I was asked to demo some of my projects at the customer training meeting tonight. ACK! But it was a lot of fun, and not too big of a deal because someone else did the talking for me.
And now, I'm going to go attempt to watch "House" and fall asleep in the middle of it (for the third time this week - yes, the THIRD time trying to watch the SAME episode).
Two quotes that I want to remember, though they probably fall into the "you had to be there" category:
The Princess: "The Dragon and I haven't fighted all day!" (This is after they had been together for a period of 15-minutes - the ONLY 15-minutes they had seen each other ALL DAY)
The Dragon: "I know, Mo-om (two syllables!). I heard (pronounced heer-ed) you when you were on the phone." (Someone has learned how to do a little bit of light eavesdropping!)
The weather's a changin' and if you didn't know it, there's going to be a lot of "George" in our future.
According to The Princess, it's "Georgie Weather" because it's cold enough that you just want to pick up George and snuggle and cuddle because he's oh-so-warm.
Sounds good to me.
And now, for your amusement I have created our very first internet video (and it's even on YouTube! Scary, I know...)! Any complaints as to how boring it is should be directed to George. I tried to explain to him that if he wasn't going to do triple flips people weren't going to want to watch... but he just didn't care. I'm sorry, but I am only human and I can only do so much, and George? Well, he's a cat and you know what that means.
I took my dinner plates in to be tested for lead content, and one of my sets tested positive. The other set was negative... go figure.
Anyway, I've been told to stop using the plates and to have my kids tested for lead poisoning.
I really feel that my kids are OK, but we are going to have them tested anyway. I hate putting them through this, but I talked to several people at our pediatrician's office and they all recommended doing it, even though everyone acknowledges that it's probably not a big deal, and that if it was only trace amounts there isn't really anything they can do other than increase the kids calcium and iron intake. I guess this is just one of those situations where the risks could be bad really bad, so it's better safe than sorry.
They'll have the blood test on Wednesday.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I'm frustrated. We do so much to try and keep our kids safe, and who would think that dinner plates were the unseen danger? Seriously! A few people have mentioned to me that "the levels were not that high" - but that just begs the questions - what levels are safe? What risk are you willing to take when it comes to your kids? Especially for a stupid set of dinner plates? My situation was not as bad as the families whose experience sparked this investigation -- no where near as bad -- but does that make it less of a concern? I don't think so.
You take away a toy that has lead in/on it because a child might put it in his/her mouth... but dinner plates are OK because kids eat off of those EVERY SINGLE FRIKKIN' DAY. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
We're gonna be OK. I'll get a new set of plates, and the kids will be tested, and they WILL be fine. ('Cause I'm the Mom and I said so!) Plates are replaceable. Kids are not. I'm pulling for a RECALL - with MONEY BACK - 'cause I'm not buying plates from Gibson ever again.
As a side note, the testing that was done did not test how much lead was leeched out of the plates during normal use - only that lead was present. Still... how much is that plate worth to you?
The Princess' teacher sent an e-mail yesterday that informed the parents that there would be a substitute teacher today.
Apparently, when the kids walked into the classroom, there was NO substitute teacher. Chaos ensued.
Eventually, one or two children (they must be the truly gifted ones) decided that they should go to the office and report that there was no teacher for the class.
Shortly thereafter, we (meaning me and one other parent) showed up and had to substitute for the substitute.
This is NOT how I wanted to spend my morning.
Eventually, just barely 2 hours after school had started for the day, a substitute showed up. This substitute was not to blame for the "oops" so we were all very nice to her and there was much rejoicing.
I can't believe I actually wanted to become a teacher. I think I am grateful that it never happened.
I have tried, really tried, to have legitimate posts during this entire blog-writing challenge. I really wanted to avoid the "this is my post because I have to post and I don't have anything to say" post.
But here it is. I'm exhausted and I am going to go to bed. Right now. At 9:30.
Those of you who know me really well are thinking "What's wrong with her? She NEVER goes to bed at 9:30!" Nothing is wrong. I'm just tired. Really. Really tired. And I'm pretty sure that I am NOT pregnant. OK? OK.
Here are the few thoughts that are still circling my brain before I pass out:
NOTE TO SELF: Do not take children to the store. Ever.
NOTE TO SELF: When you are contemplating taking children to the store, and you remember your previous note to self that said "Do not take children to the store. Ever." you should not try to convince yourself that it really wasn't that bad of a thing. Instead, you should simply do what the note says and do not take children to the store. Ever.
NOTE TO MY NEIGHBORS: Why do you hate me? First you fill your entire yard with many, many, TOO many inflatable Christmas 'decor'. Then, you talk to your neighboring neighbors and convince them that they should put up their Christmas tree. Is there no respect for The Rules? Geesh, people! You're ruining my Thanksgiving!
I pointed out a sunbeam to The Princess. We watched in silence for a minute. Her only comment was, "When I see something like that, I just feel like something great is going to happen."
Phew! I barely made it! I just got back from an all-night shopping spree (on a VERY small budget, mind you), and told The King that I had to hurry and post on my blog before it's "tomorrow."
And I made it!
I did A LOT of folding of laundry today. I also gave The Dragon a bath. Beyond that, I'm not sure I accomplished much of anything today.
I stopped at my Mom's house and watched "Get Gephardt" today. I'm sure you are aware of all the toy recalls due to lead recently. Well, apparently, it's not just toys - though there is NOT a recall currently in place for this danger! A little girl in Utah was very sick from lead poisoning - she got it from the breast milk of her mother, who got it from -- get this -- their dinnerware! We're talking PLATES here. The company is "Gibson" and their plates are sold at Wal-Mart and a variety of other places. Under federal law, the amount of lead that comes from these plates meets the regulations currently in place, but obviously, this is a big problem. If we're not supposed to have ANY lead in our bodies, well, getting lead from the very plates we eat off of is NOT OK.
Ironically, I own plates made by this company. We're not sick (or at least, not obviously sick), but, it's still rather disconcerting. We're going to try to get our plates tested through "Get Gephardt" but nothing is definite yet.
Oooh, I am having so much fun with my new StoryBook Creator Plus program. I'm having a Creative Memories Open House in a couple of weeks, so I've been doing some "outside the box" designs with this new program, just to show that it is so much more than just "StoryBooks" - though, I have to say that the StoryBooks should be more than enough reason to buy it.
Anyway, I thought I'd show you what I came up with today... they are all "photo cards", so they are definitely 'stand alone' but there is no reason why you couldn't mount them onto cardstock and turn them into actual cards. The graduation one is 5x6 which is apparently the new "cool" size for photo cards as that is all that Costco is offering this year in their "personalized Christmas card" section. The other two are the standard 4x6 size. Enjoy!
Today I woke up feeling very overwhelmed. I think I've mentioned this before. So, I decided that I needed to do something about it, so I let The King tell me what to do. Basically, he had to give me a job to work on for 15 minutes. There is still TONS of stuff to do, but I do feel good about what was accomplished today - though it wasn't much.
The King worked hard in the garden. He is getting it ready to be tilled, and is also taking some steps towards expanding it for next year. I think we need to be a little more cautious about how many zucchini plants make it into our garden, and perhaps not quite as many tomato plants either -- though I do LOVE tomatoes. Yum.
George has been very obnoxious and has drawn blood from my hand three times today. I really think that he's just trying to play - but gosh it hurts! The King clipped his claws today, but that's not keeping him from biting. I thought he was getting better, but apparently he had a relapse today. His teeth are sharp!
My business seems to be doing well. I really do love my job - and I'm trying to take steps to grow my business. The opportunities are really limitless - but it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I really could take this to a whole new level, and go, for example, on a completely paid for (BY Creative Memories) Mediterranean Cruise with visits to Rome like my up-line did earlier this year. That would just be, well, awesome beyond years.
The weather was absolutely beautiful today - I don't know what the high was, but the girls were running around outside in short-sleeved shirts and shorts! In November! That's is just crazy for Utah. CRAZY!
Thanks for all your wonderful comments! I sure love hearing from my friends. You make me happy!
It's getting close to midnight and I'm at a crop. Thankfully, I found someone's wireless internet service up and running so I am able to post.
I'm feeling very overwhelmed with life right now - a feeling that is becoming more and more common as the days go on. I wonder why I could not be blessed with organizational skills, or at least, some kind of speed factor so that I could simply accomplish everything that needs to be accomplished in one day.
I find myself grateful for household products that can, for the most part, accomplish the job by themselves. It's true that I have to load the laundry and start the washing machine, but once I've done that, I have an hour of freedom to do as I please. The dishwasher is another one of those miraculous machines. Some of us act as though it's so hard to load the dishwasher or washing machine, but really, we have it easy. I am grateful that I get to live "NOW" rather than 50, or even 60 years ago.
[Remember my post from last night? You don't? Oh, that's right! It never posted. You know why? It's because I was SOOOO tired, I ended up hitting the "Save Now" button instead of the "Publish Post" button. Oh Bother. So, I'm posting this, and then I'll go in to my saved post from last night and post that one too. By the way, as an update to my post, you should know that I never even finished the laundry. I made The King do it. THAT, my friends, is how tired I was.]
When we initially purchased "Cassie" (my laptop), The King and I were convinced that it was a good thing. It would be nice to get me out of the dark and dreary basement, it would be nice to have a computer that I can take places with me, it would be nice just to have a computer that works!
Now I think it would just be nice to have a computer that wasn't attached to me. Seriously.
Unfortunately, a lot of my business is on my computer, so even if I sit down just to "work" I end up doing a lot of other things that aren't related. Also, because it's so convenient, I can now check my e-mail 50 times a day instead of only 10.
Oh my goodness. I am simply exhausted. I have been racking my brain to figure out why I cannot keep my eyes open, and just can't come up with a really clear reason for my exhaustion.
I took The Dragon to her computer class today and brought my laptop to work on while I waited. I hardly got anything done because I kept dozing off every few minutes!
"Can I go to bed yet?" is the thought that is continually running through my head.
All I need to do is finish the laundry, and then sleep can be mine...
Yahoo! Election Day is over! Now maybe I can get my life back, meaning that maybe I won't be quite as attached to my computer as I have been for the past week. Those voucher debates were addictive!
I was worried that I might not make it to the polls, but I got there at about 11:15 this morning and missed the lines. Perfect-o! They even let me vote. Um, there's a story there, but um, well, let's just say I got to vote! YAY!
As I type this, it looks like the voucher bill has been defeated. It also looks like Ralph Becker will be the new Mayor. I hope this is a good thing. I keep telling myself that anybody would be better than Rocky. I'll be honest, I wasn't overly impressed with either candidate this year.
One funny from the election (though I'm betting the article will be corrected in time) is that KSL reported at 10 PM that "167 of the 158 Precincts" had reported. Hm. If our math is really that bad, maybe we need vouchers after all!
OK, so you know how somebody (or maybe that's plural) works in your family and brings home a paycheck every couple of weeks? And you know how you try really hard to create a budget and stick to it so that you might actually have three cents left in your bank account when the next blessed paycheck arrives?
Today was payday (though our deposit actually went in on Saturday - go figure)! OH HAPPY DAY! We LOVE payday around here. Is it a holiday at your house too? (BTW, there are no "rules" regarding the celebrations of paydays around here.)
As planned, half of our mortgage payment was automatically deposited into our special mortgage only checking account. If we did not take steps like this, we probably would not have a house to live in unless we built it out of my granola bar and instant oatmeal boxes that are currently our food storage. Anyway, I digress!
So, the mortgage has, in effect, been paid, and the rest of the money, well, the rest of the money has been almost entirely and completely spent in less than 48 hours. Impressive, no?
On Saturday our furnace broke. In addition to paying the "after-hours" fee, we also had to pay $250 to fix the "ignitor" or something like that. It had to be replaced. It apparently is not cheap, but without it, you cannot heat your house. At all.
Today I took my car in to get inspected. It should've been inspected in October, but I was a little busy and overlooked it. Well, the car COMPLETELY failed the safety test. In fact, I was told to "take the car home and park it and DO NOT DRIVE IT until it is fixed." It was that bad. I don't think the guy would've told me to take it home if he had realized that home was 15 miles or so, down the road.
Basically, we had problems with the tie rod on the passengers side, the ball joints on the drivers side, and the emergency brake required a new cable. $700 later, well, we have a working car. I shall find out tomorrow if it will pass the safety inspection now -- let me tell you, this is the most expensive "sticker" I have ever bought in my entire life.
So, I was pondering on what the third bad thing would be. The King reminded me that my eyeglasses broke on October 20th while I was riding "Wicked" at Lagoon. They need to be replaced, and that's not exactly a cheap fix. I'm just wondering if that's bad enough to count for our three things. Please say yes?
OK, my rules are not being followed again. My neighbor who covers their entire lawn with every kind of inflatable decoration ever imaginable for Halloween (if you think lawn gnomes or plastic deer are tacky, you ain't seen nothin' yet!), has COMPLETELY IGNORED my rules. The Halloween decorations are gone, but instead of pulling out the giant inflatable turkey, Indians and Pilgrims, their lawn is now covered in Christmas inflatables. For the last time, NO CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS UNTIL THE DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING.
Moving on...
How about a "George" update? Last Tuesday he was neutered and dewormed and vaccinated and we discovered that he did indeed have a bladder infection. He is on medication for the bladder infection, and I think we are seeing some improvement in the "peeing everywhere" department. He has also learned, for the most part, not to use his claws when playing with us. Now if he could only learn the "no biting" lesson. Any ideas?
In Utah, the "discussion" is all about school vouchers. We finally get to vote on Tuesday. I am against vouchers for a variety of reasons. While I hope that the final outcome will reflect the way I am planning on voting, I think that I will be relieved when it is over. It's getting old.
The Princess says that a little kid would probably think that "exit" is spelled "eggsit". The Dragon says that the opposite of "fence" is "no fence."
The local news wonders "Why Bill Clinton, our former President, was visiting Utah?" I think they should be asking "Why were so many people lined up to see Bill Clinton visiting Utah?" I guess I'm just not a fan.
Despite the extra hour of sleep that was granted to me this morning, I am still tired. Good night!
Today I did a considerable amount of "catching up" - primarily on my Creative Memories business. I am glad that I finally buckled down and took care of many loose ends, even though there are still many more to deal with. I think the steps that I took today will save me a lot of time in the long run because I have taken some steps to help streamline orders and other business tasks.
I've realized that a lot of problems I face in my life are because of a lack of self-discipline. I've always disliked routines, and I seem to have a talent for procrastinating. I am planning on taking some steps to remedy this by first reading a book called "Eat That Frog" by Brian Tracy . It has been recommended to me by my Creative Memories up-line. I have to be honest, I'm a little doubtful that it will work (because you can't teach an old dog new tricks), but I am going to give it a shot (because Flylady says you can learn new habits by doing your new habit consistently for 30 days). So maybe there is hope for me after all!
Remember to set your clocks back an hour tonight. Most everyone I have talked to is very excited about the time change because they get to sleep an extra hour. The only way I can figure out how to get an extra hour of sleep is to go to bed an hour earlier - because heaven knows that my kids will rely on their body clocks to wake up which means they will be up at 6:30 in the morning instead of 7:30. Oi!
I have rules. One rule is that Halloween decorations are forbidden before October 1st - with the exception of stores - they are allowed after Labor Day.
As I wrote previously, my holiday rules are not being followed. This does not make me happy.
However, once the holiday season has begun, anything goes! Let the fun begin!
Therefore, in the spirit of fun, I bring you our "Halloween" which lasted roughly, oh, the entire month of October.
The first "trick" was a kitten who was discovered on our porch in the wee morning hours of October 11th. He's still here, and so I guess we now consider him a bit of a "treat." What a way to kick-off the holiday season!
On October 13th, we went and visited the witches of Gardner Village. My favorite witch was found perched on a roof top.
I also got a pretty good laugh from this world famous choir:
But I think we had the most fun when we went on a wagon ride with a witch! It cost $2 a person, but I think that was well worth it. They could've charged so much more, but I am grateful that they kept the price relatively low so that more families could enjoy it. Our witch sang songs, rhymes, and told us stories. She also cursed The King, but I made her undo it. :)
On the 19th of October we harvested our pumpkin patch. None of them were overly large, but the girls were thrilled with our bumper crop! They each picked out a favorite to carve for Halloween.
The 24th was my birthday so it was time for another trick. In the past, my Mom has almost always reused birthday candles. Year after year, stump after little tiny ball of wax stump, those candles get reused until they are so small they are almost glowing IN the cake, rather than on top of it. I bought my Mom a big box of candles at the Dollar Store. She was surprised. Well, I guess she decided to surprise me, and when she brought me my birthday cake, the cake was COVERED in candles. Oh yes, an exact count of my age. The tradition in our family has been to "short cut" on the candles - you know, five blue candles to represent fifty, and four white candles to represent four. Fifty-four. This tradition apparently doesn't exist anymore. I've told my Mom that she had better watch out on her next birthday!
On Friday the 26th, we were invited to a neighborhood Halloween party... but not in OUR neighborhood. My Mom's next-door neighbor invited us to attend as we used to live in the neighborhood, and quite possibly because she likes us just a little bit. The girls were thrilled to see their old friends again - this picture is of the four of them with their glow-in-the-dark vampire teeth. It is also your first glimpse of the girls' Halloween costumes. The Dragon is a black cat and The Princess is a witch. Don't forget - the witch is the black cat's owner.
On Saturday morning we headed up to Utah's Hogle Zoo for their annual "Boo at the Zoo" event. It was fun, but more crowded then we've ever seen it (in all of our ONE years of attending!). The girls got some candy and we got to visit a few of the animals. I would NEVER pay for this event, in the sense of buying your tickets at the gate. But seeing as we have an annual pass to the zoo, I thought it was worth it.
Saturday evening it was time for our church's annual Halloween party and "Trunk-or-Treat". I am grateful that they provide this activity for us, and more grateful that they choose to do this on a night other than Halloween. Our family is still a big fan of the traditional trick or treating. I didn't know that there was going to be a costume contest, but I won the "Best Witch" category hands down.
Are you getting tired yet? In case you've lost track of what day we are on, I'm here to tell you that it is now Monday, October 29th. We've still got two more days before the actual holiday! OI!
So, on Monday, a friend gave us tickets to go up to the University of Utah and attend "Magic in the Garden" at Red Butte Gardens. We had no idea what to expect, but it was a lot of fun. Face painting, crafts, fortune tellers, spooky places to walk through (the kids LOVED the strobe lights and "Glow Alley"), and collecting "punches" on their map in order to get a prize at the end (daffodil bulbs). We really had a great time.
I was grateful that we did not have an activity to attend on Tuesday night. Finally, a night at home! However, it was not all fun and relaxation. No, no, it was more like fun and pumpkin carving! Usually we carve pumpkins about a week before Halloween but for some unknown reason (an overbooked calendar) we didn't get those started until the night before Halloween. The Princess dove right in, she's a pumpkin carving expert by now!
The Dragon, however, took a while before she was willing to stick her hand into that ooey-goooey mess.
The Princess' Pumpkin (She drew it, Daddy carved it!):
The Dragon's Pumpkin (She drew it, Daddy carved it!):
The King's Pumpkin (He carved it, but he didn't draw it! Think K-I-T!):
And my pumpkin? Well, um, I was trying to Martha Stewart it, and let's just say the results weren't quite what I anticipated. It was fun trying though.
So, we've made it! It's finally Halloween! The Dragon wore her pajamas to preschool in the morning because they didn't celebrate Halloween - instead they had a Pajama Party! However, her computer class in the afternoon encouraged costumes so I got this cute picture of her with her computer teacher just clownin' (HA!) around.
The Princess had the traditional Halloween Parade at her school, so I was sure to attend and got this cute picture of her and her wonderful teacher, Miss Dawn. One might think that they got together and planned their outfits - but no, it was only a coincidence.
After school we went trick or treating at Foothill Village, a local shopping center. Then we went to visit my Grandpa, my Mom, and Miss Dawn at her home. After that, we raced home stopping only at Sonic to get a bite to eat, and finally made it there around 7:15 PM. After we finished eating, we bundled up and headed out for a night of traditional trick or treating! So much fun, and I think you can tell by this final picture that the girls were quite happy.
Well, I did it. I joined the throngs of people who are pledging to post on their blog every day during the month of November. Wish me luck.
Halloween is over and as you are probably aware, the next holiday is Christmas! What? It's NOT Christmas? What do you mean there's ANOTHER holiday before then? Thanksgiving? OH YEAH. THANKSGIVING!
Well, you could've fooled me. I climbed into my car this morning and started listening to my new favorite radio station only to discover that they are now playing Christmas music 24/7. I'm sorry, but I'm just not quite ready for it. The day after Thanksgiving you can blast "Jingle Bells" from the rooftops, but I just can't listen to Christmas music right now. The ONLY exception is if The Princess chooses to learn a Christmas song to play on the piano. That I can deal with because, let's face it, it's going to take her two months to perfect it. But other than that, do you think you could possibly serve me my holidays IN ORDER?
