Fall Festival and Slideshow Below!

The girls had a blast celebrating with their friends (pics of their friends are cropped since I wasn't sure their mom would want them on the internet :) The Fall Festival was extremely well organized and there were just enough people there to make it fun, but not so many that it was crowded. They laughed their way through the cake walk, fishing for candy, the bounce house, the string maze, and a variety of other games, all the while collecting handfulls of candy. They came home and went to bed completely exhausted. All in all, I'd say it was a success!

Pumpkin Carving Party with pics above!

Two posts in one day. What is this blog coming to?! :) Well, the pumpkins from the pumpkin patch are officially carved. We draped the table with painter's plastic and proceeded to heap pumpkin guts into the middle of the table. It was disgusting...but so much fun! I even stuck my arm, sans gloves, all the way into my pumpkin. Admit it, you know you're proud of me!!! The girls picked their designs, drew them on their pumpkins with a Sharpie and then Cory and I carved them. Autumn chose shapes, Cayla made a ladybug, Cory designed a traditional spider and I went for a gigantic daisy. Every year we take the pumpkins to my in-laws to greet the candy seeking visitors. And this year that's where we'll be after we enjoy a Fall Festival at our friends' church. I love holidays. Well, really I love any chance to break from the norm, get together with friends, and eat delicious foods that only come around once a year. If only I could figure out a way to make Arbor Day a holiday!!!

Little Boxes of Chocolate Joy

You know one of the things I love about this time of year? Little boxes of candy. They're the perfect size to indulge in without wrecking your caloric intake for the week (well, they are if you only eat one or two boxes). It's also the only time of year when you can find such small sizes in many of the candies. My favorites are Junior Mints and Milky Ways, but pretty much if it's made of chocolate I'm willing to try it.

So if you're celebrating tomorrow evening by going around collecting candy, attending a party, or sharing a meal with friends, enjoy your fabulous mini-sized candies. If you're kicking back at home because you don't celebrate Halloween, at least indulge in a few pieces of candy so the rest of us don't have to get fat all by ourselves :)

A Stitch in Time

So, the patterns have been measured, cut, fitted and pinned. Now all I have to do is sew them together. The girls Halloween costumes that is! Don't get too excited. They're not going as anything too complicated, and providing they turn out halfway normal (the costumes, not the girls), maybe I'll post some pictures. The girls are going to a Fall Festival with some friends at their church. I know they're going to have a great time. I remember getting excited to go trick-or-treating, or to attend a party on Halloween, but it's even better being the mom and getting my kids all dressed up, and watching them have a blast. OK so that's it. Tomorrow I'll be sewing the costumes, so wish me luck. I'm gonna need it!

Shocked!

On Saturday evening a group of us from church were having a discussion when the subject of politics came up (imagine that!). Being a constant wearer of my McCain-Palin 2008 button, someone commented that if everyone came into the church sporting buttons, we'd see a fair amount of the 'other' button as well. I was shocked. Although I personally know of a couple people who are undecided in this election, I figured they were the rare exceptions. I guess I just sort of assumed that Christians were naturally going to vote Republican in this election. I just can't understand how people can be torn when one of the candidates is clearly pro-choice and the other is clearly pro-life. Of course I'm concerned about health care and the economy among other things, but the pro-life issues are generally the deal maker or breaker for me. So this morning in Sunday school while taking prayer requests, a man raised his hand and said that he and his wife would like prayer concerning their votes in the election. Again I was shocked. I guess for me it's a no-brainer and I sort of expected that it would be for others as well. So color me all kinds of surprised!!!!

Pray the Vote

With the future of this nation being decided in only 10 short days, I have decided to change the layout of my blog to represent my feelings. The verse at the top has changed as well as the colors and theme. This election has gotten me on my soap box more times than I can count. I've never had such a vested interest in politics as I have this year. Is it because I'm getting older? I don't think so. I see this as a pivotal election year. I am passionate about this election. I am passionate about my vote, and I am passionate about praying that God will receive the glory in this election no matter the outcome. If celebrities can 'Rock the Vote' then Christians need to 'Pray the Vote'. Are you praying about the election? The country? The future?

Here's the thing....

My niece Clare knows I love a quiz, questionnaire, or opportunity to blab on and on about myself, good or bad! So, she 'tagged' me with the task of telling 6 interesting things about myself, so here goes, although I'm not sure how interesting they are! 1) A normal thing: I hate sad movies. I refuse to watch a movie that has a sad ending, and will make me cry. Sometimes these movies sneak up on me, like "Steel Magnolias" which was touted as a comedy, but really wasn't. If I know beforehand that they're sad, I avoid them like the plague. 2) A reminiscent thing: When I was a kid I loved it when we went to the gas station because I secretly enjoyed the smell of gasoline. Mmmmm, petrol! Maybe that explains the loss of brain cells?! 3) A silly thing: I am the only person I know who can fold their tongue in half like a taco, and flip it over from side to side. Most people can do one, but not the other. I know, it's amazing! Don't hate me because I'm talented. I'd post pictures, but um....No! 4) A crazy thing: I have an unnatural obsession with acquiring bits of knowledge on every subject that I come across. I've even dubbed myself "the queen of useless trivia" because I always tend to know weird facts that most people could care less about. I have always admired people who speak with intelligence on any and every subject and I really want to be counted among their ranks. 5) A serious thing: Every night I pray with the girls, and many nights I audibly give praise to God for qualities like their beautiful spirits, sweet personalities, and the blessing I receive by being their mom and it ALWAYS makes my eyes sting with tears; everytime, without fail! 6) A sweet thing: I love it when Cory, the girls and I play dog pile on the living room floor. It usually results in me yelling that I can't breathe, or need to go to the bathroom....any ploy I can use to break free. I just seriously enjoy family time that gets us all together and lets us act silly. So, for those of you with a blog, 'tag' you're it, tell me about yourselves, and for those who don't blog, I'd love an e-mail filling me in all the details.

Candy Corn

In keeping with my love of Halloween I created a big candy corn pillow. I made the small one last year, so this year I gave him a big brother! I don't know what it is about candy corns, but I really think they're fantastic. Maybe it's because they're overtly symbolic of Halloween without being evil like witches and ghosts. In fact, I think I'll go upstairs and have some. I can.......I walked on the treadmill today. That makes it justifiable right?!

Priceless

Tonight was one of those low key, family oriented evenings that I love so much. Cory wanted some chocolate chip cookies so the girls and I baked some. But instead of using chocolate chips, we had a bag of these teeny tiny Hershey bars, so we made chocolate chunk cookies. They were delicious! If you stop by I'll give you some, with milk :)

Afterwards we lit the orange candles on the table for ambiance, pulled out the construction paper, scissors and glue and made Halloween crafts 'til our hearts content. We've all got our own paper chains, smiley spiders, pumpkins, and Pac-Man ghosts. The photo is a sampling of our work. We're pretty talented aren't we?!

The best part of course was just being together spending quality time with each other. I love a homemade evening!

Construction Paper: $2.00 at Wal-Mart

Glue Sticks: $.49 cents at Target

Safety Scissors: $.96 cents at Wal-Mart

An evening with my family: PRICELESS

A Perfect Pumpkin Patch!

Each year we excitedly await a favorite family tradition of visiting the pumpkin patch. We pick a beautiful day in October and head up to Walter's to take in everything the farm has to offer. This year the girls rode the Tractorpillar, slid down the huge slide, fed the baby goats, petted the overgrown farm dogs roaming the grounds, laughed at the chickens as they clucked their way to to the pond for a drink, and then road in the cart to go pick out their pumpkins. We found a big one for each of us to carve, and I had to have one of the little sugar pumpkins because well, they're cute! The owner was really sweet too because Autumn was holding the baby pumpkin while we stood in line to pay and he told her she could have it for free! We shared a big dish of huckleberry ice cream and purchased some flavored honey sticks before heading home. It was the perfect day and we can't wait to do it again next year!

Debate This.....

Once again, I couldn't catch the debate live, so I TiVo'd it. It wasn't nearly as fun as the VP debate, but that's because Sarah wasn't there and as you know, I am just so enamored with Sarah Palin. Anyhow, it occurred to me that while McCain may not do great things if elected, he's not going to bring us down. Obama is going to bring us down, and frankly, the ventriloquist's dummy (seriously, he looks like a ventriloquist's dummy) scares me. Did you ever notice when you were in school receiving letter grades that a bad grade hurt you more than a good grade helped you? Obama is the bad grade. That's it. No political tirade tonight.....I slipped off my soapbox!

Short! The post, not me

I'm only posting because it's been a week and I feel I need to say something, anything! I've had a lot on my mind. Besides my day to day responsibilities, I'm obsessed with the election and that's kind of been sucking up any leftover space in my brain. So, that's it! Say something witty in the comments section - I could use a laugh!

Last Summer

I didn't really mean to post the slideshow of the girls this past summer at the park. I was just playing around in photobucket, trying to figure out how to get my photos onto my blog and voila! Here's the problem with that. The next time I WANT to post pictures, I won't for the life of me be able to figure out what I did. Anyhow, I think I'll leave it because the girls with the bumper boats are just so dang cute!

This 'n That

Yes, I've been playing around with backgrounds again. I think this one is nice because you can read the text. I liked several other options, but the text was difficult to see. OK the colors are a bit odd for autumn, but it's pretty cute none the less! ----------------------------- Be sure to check out my new poll. Pretty much everyone knows I am terrified of leaving the country, but I was curious to see where other people might go if they had a chance to travel. It's on most people's list of things to do before they die. ----------------------------- Unlike my niece, I feel no need to limit my posts to once a day. I do well to post once a day, but don't be surprised if one day I feel wordy and I write multiple posts. ----------------------------- You know what I love? Pictures like this one. I want to be on that road. It looks peaceful and inviting. It's the stereotypical photo of a road in the fall. Beautiful! It's the type of road that invites a lengthy walk after a morning cup of coffee. Afterward I'm sure I'd want to go home and bake something. Yeah, it's that kind of road. ----------------------------- My right thumb has always popped out of place but it's never bothered me until now. Lately it's been very stiff and sore, so I asked the family Doc what the deal was with it and after explaining something really gross, he told me that I probably damaged it as a child, and now it's arthritic. As if I didn't feel old enough, now I find out I have arthritis! If there's any way I can milk this for all it's worth, I'm going to.

Politics as Usual

It's official! I'm old! I couldn't wait to see the VP debate, but knew I wouldn't be able to catch it live, so I Tivo'd it! It was delicious! Did you see it? There is just so much I'd like to say, but I will refrain because it's no secret what political party I align myself with. I will say this though....In MY experience Republicans are quite loyal to the party, while Democrats tend to be fickle. So I'm wondering, if heaven forbid, Obama becomes president, how long will it take before all of his supporters start to turn on him?! --------------------- Sarah Palin really does bear an uncanny resemblance to Tina Fey :)

Busy = Lazy :)

First things first.....I added a new poll to the blog, but this time I only allowed 3 days to vote. The last one seemed to drag on and on. We didn't go to the fair this year, but we typically go and have a pretty good time. I love the way it smells! Sometimes when we're out and about in town I'll catch that smell in the air and I'll announce, "it smells like the fair." Of course I mean the food court not the cow barn :) You've probably noticed that I did not change my background. Well, I've got a good excuse. I've been uh, ah, well, I've been busy.....yeah, that's it, busy!

Ugly Blog!

Ok I know, the background is totally ugly, but after trying 900 of them I was ready to go to bed so I just picked this one. Expect changes SOON! My favorite one has a pumpkin and says 'happy haunting' on the side. I love it, except for that phrase. Grrrrr!