Darth Vader, Garden Fairy and Luke Skywalker

Well the rain left early, in time for the street to dry up and kids to go trick or treating. However - it was FREEZING. It was 50 degrees, but with the breeze it felt much colder. Megan was freezing and put her wings on and took her coat off long enough for a quick photo. It's too bad because the wings are huge and cute. The boys have sweats on underneath their costumes. I sure wish I would have thought of a black turtleneck for Trevor's costume.

I wish I would have gotten more photos but I wasn't feeling it this year. - and it was too cold. I did manage to handle the whole night by myself since Mike still isn't back yet. Megan went out with a friend of hers, and the boys kept going around with a big group of friends that they know. It all worked out, but I felt kind of bad not being out there with them. Who knows, they might be at the age that it only adds to the fun to not have mom or dad hanging back while they run house to house.

I still can't get used to trick or treating hours here in Kentucky. It is from 6 - 8. At 7:59 the doorbell stops ringing. There are some die hards that are out sitting in their driveways with fire pits and bowls of candy, but I am happily tucked inside with the heat on.

It rained all last night. I'm not sure what is in store for today. I'm still crossing my fingers!

Happy Halloween! - costume photos later.

Matthew's pumpkin is on the left. That is a total "no mommy involved" job. He cut the top, scooped out the inside, cut the entire face and ears by himself. I think he did a pretty good job!

(click on image to enlarge)

The middle is Trevor's and the one of the far right is Megan's. - with minimal parental help. ;)

Black barns

I hope to get a picture of our completed pumpkins later when the sun goes down. That is if they don't blow away. It is so windy out today! Something big is on it's way and it's threatening RAIN on Halloween. WHAT?!

(click on photo to make it bigger)

I was talking to my sister awhile ago and somehow I started telling her about the black barns. There may be a farm or something with several barns of different colors, but most places seem to always have one black barn. I knew about why most old barns are red.... it was based on using the cheapest material possible to paint them at the time, which was leaded red paint. Personally, I'm glad that now even though there probably is not any lead in the paint... that they are still traditionally red. There is nothing prettier than a bright red barn.

I also learned most dairy barns are white to denote cleanliness and sanitation. Cleanliness...okay. Mucky cow poop. Ew. - But from what I've noticed, this theory in barn colors seems to be true based on the farms near me and on the way to Louisville or Lexington.

(Who knew there was so much to know about barns.)

So the answer to the black barns in Kentucky or any other tobacco growing state: Historically the barns that are black weren't actually "painted" ... they were covered with creosote. The barns are covered with it for two reasons (usually)... to keep the termites and other wood-eating critters away from them -- thereby making them last a lot longer, and (2) ... to make the interior of the barn much hotter to cure tobacco leaves.

Megan and I stopped to get this picture on our way home today. It just makes me so happy that I get to pass stuff like this on my daily drives to do errands. These scenic roads make me happy. I must be a farm girl at heart... except for the fact that I've gotten quite girly and don't like mud, or poop, or chickens, or asthmatic inducing barn dust, harvesting big fields or raising my own food. I like to think that meat comes in rectangular styrofoam from a refrigerated section of the grocery store. - Hey, but I still appreciate a beautiful farm, long fences, rolling hills, patchwork quilts of different crops, hard working farmers who do a job that personally I couldn't do, and cool barns.

PUMPKINS!!

Should I really be letting Matthew wield a knife at a pumpkin? Mike will remember..... he's always had a thing for knives. Remember Uncle Don? haha.

My plan was to start doing one pumpkin per day so that it wouldn't become overwhelming. Sure... but as soon as you get one started, the rest have to do theirs too. Megan and I were out front working on hers (with the turtles) before the boys got home from school. They get out an hour later than her so I thought it would work out perfect. - Until they saw us out there as soon as they got off the bus.

At least this year I wasn't the only scooper. Usually everybody is so grossed out that I have to do the gut scooping.

We still aren't totally done with one of them, so I will post pictures in the next day or two of the finished pumpkins. I did have extra help this year when I thought for sure I was losing my kids who had friends stop by and they ended up playing tag with them in the front yard. Two boys from down the street (11 & 13) helped me finish the carving. The pumpkins became a neighborhood project!

Sadly, we are expected to get rain on Halloween. I can't say I've ever seen rain on Halloween. If it does, that sure will be strange. I'm crossing my fingers that it rains later in the evening, even though the storm is supposed to come in tomorrow. Maybe we'll get a couple hour break. *crossing fingers.*

more photos below. Now, I'm off to find tights so Megan can wear her costume to school tomorrow.

pumpkins continued -

It's coming! Halloween!

Plus, two weeks - 4 days. For real this time. :)

Boys.

You think I like the Gap? LOL. Believe it or not, the stuff in all the photos lately is all from the real store even and not the outlet. I think I may have a bit of a problem. In fairness, that red jacket Matthew is wearing was once Trevor's. And someday that orange Tshirt will be Matthew's too!

So...

I'm waiting for the Ambien to kick in. I seem to be headed towards another bout of insomnia. I'm also feeling kind of melancholy tonight. Tonight was supposed to be the night I was going to the airport to pick Mike up to come home, but things have been delayed once again. :*(

But tonight it hit me as I was sitting there after the kids had gone to sleep, and I was putting together a Lego set that Matthew had picked out earlier tonight at Target. The last of the birthdays are over for the year. I always feel in August for Trevor's birthday that there are still more left...so I don't think about it much, and feel like his gets extra attention. Unless it's on the first day of school like it was last year. Even this year it was in the first week of school, and that alone brings it's own kind of crazy.

Then when when October hits it's like a race to the finish. There is literally a birthday every week, and then Halloween to top it all off. It was just like a heavy sigh tonight. I think it almost goes by so fast that I don't feel like I really had a chance to let them sink in. I want to remember every detail, and make sure each one feels special. This was also kind of a weird one for Megan since I was so sick on her birthday that she ended up taking care of me.

So in a way, I'm sad that it's all over until June (Mike's birthday) but also glad that October has been busy enough to go by quickly so we can start the countdown for him coming home again. I hope that the next few weeks go by fast.

Peace out. I think the ambien is working. ;)

Start the Star Wars music.....A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away....... you were born.

Another birthday this month! Matthew.... is SEVEN. For some reason he's stuck in my head forever as being under 5 years old. I don't know why. Even throughout the last year I would catch myself and look at him and ask, "You're SIX?" I guess he can't be in 1st or 2nd grade and still be five, but there's something about the youngest. I always felt like he helped to halt time. As long as one of my babies was under 5, it felt like time wasn't going by as fast as it really was.

So here he is. Seven years old: In second grade, has friends that he has made on his own and not organized playdates because of me, he runs down the street by himself to one of his friend's houses after school, and comes back when they are done.

He likes to try his independence by his stubbornness to listen sometimes... but it's not always a bad thing. He has an idea in his mind of the way things should be done and he's going to try it. He is fearless. But, that's also the way he is learning and I guarantee you this is one tough little boy who doesn't' take crap from anybody. His teachers in each grade from kindergarten on up have said that he'll get into a fight, but he is never one to start it. He will certainly share, but if you take away something he is playing with.... there are consequences! He's never been in trouble because of this, the teachers have always said that he's just doing what he should be. This boy is a leader. Not a follower. Which frustrating as it can be when he is a child, will be a great quality when he's a man.

This independence is also in small things like the desire to make his own sandwiches and cereal.

He loves Star Wars. Oh my gosh.... he even walks around humming the theme or Darth Vader's theme. (I bought him a musical birthday card that I'm sure I will regret, but I can't wait to see him open it and have it play!) He loves Legos (Yep...all of them, but especially Star Wars ones.) Even if it's a regular Lego City set.... it still has a Stormtrooper or somebody in it.

His favorite word right now is "awesome." but the way it is said makes me laugh. It's totally with

a surfer dude sound to it. Now I think he's been to a beach probably 10 times in his life, but you'd think he was born and raised in SoCal. Everything from a good belch to something cool is

"awesome!!!"

These photos were taken at the crack of dawn while it was still dark out. Hence the orange glow of the lighting and bed head. New Lego Agents:

New Lego Space Police:

I caved and gave him one of his presents the night before. It was a Star Wars Lego set. At first I told him he could have the people out of it and then he had to go to bed, but then I ended up putting the ship together. I've gotten good at following the directions.... lol.

Now I'm off to buy cupcakes for the classroom, and then later he has asked about going to Cici's Pizza for dinner. (Of all places... but it's HIS pick.)

Happy birthday Matthew!

Updates...and a BIRTHDAY!

From this: To this:

And then to this:

Ugh, it's been a week. We've had a nasty flu running throughout our house for the past three weeks. It started with Trevor, then Matthew and Megan at the same time, and then finally me. It kicked my butt hard. It is the worst that I have been sick in years.... high fever, aches, sleeping all day and the works. The worst is, one of my worst high fever days fell on Megan's 11th birthday. The poor thing, she's been looking so forward to her birthday and with every reason. You only turn 11 once. We had big plans since they also had the day off of school for part of fall break. Sadly, she spent the day taking care of me. She's such an amazing girl and did so much without me having to ask. Including cooking and making sure her brothers were fed. I owe her big time.... thank you sweetheart.

She's always a reminder of how much richer my life is because of her. Honestly, the world is a better place because of her. She is an amazing little thing.

Today we were driving down Richwood and Megan said, "I can't remember a prettier fall." In one way I thought it was funny because as far as a real fall goes and living where it does look like fall we really don't have a lot of years to compare it to. But there is something about this one.... this one especially is beautiful. I can't tell you why or what makes it different. The trees are insanely beautiful and look like they are on fire. Especially on days like today where the sun shows through them, and the roads are sun dappled and the leaves are falling and swirling. You can't help but stop breathing at the beauty of this place this time of year. (Until some rogue piece of falling fruit falls on the hood of your car jolting a car full of people wide awake wondering if you hit a deer or something. But there was some sort of fruit smushy sauce on the hood...whatever it was.)

There are beautiful multi color trees, mums everywhere, trees with bright red berries on them, bright green grass before the snow comes, and the contrasts are just gorgeous. - And the horses and cows are getting fuzzy. They look so cute!

So today I took everybody to Toys R Us since Matthew already has a birthday check to spend. (Thank you Aunt Kim! He picked out a Star Wars Lego set - go figure. Pictures soon!) and Trevor is telling me about his PowerPoint project he had to do in class this week. He had to do a report on the West. I asked him if that was kind of cool since he was born in the West...you know, Arizona. He looks at me confused and says, "Mom, Arizona is NOT the West, Arizona is the Midwest."

Huh? We live in the Midwest dude. Smack in it. I'm pretty sure of that. Plus I grew up in Arizona and spent 30 + years there.... I'm pretty sure I know that Arizona is part of the West.

"No, where we live now is the NORTHEAST. Arizona is not in the West."

OK, so I have to find out what sort of funkified books that boy is learning from. He can tell you what 4,398 and 1/2 is, divided by 3.5 without having to think about it.... but he still believes that Arizona is not located in the West. And that we don't live in the Midwest. Hmmm.

He says, "My teacher took a class in college about geography, so she should know."

"OK, well I still grew up there, and took lots of classes on Arizona history so we'll see." If you want to get technical, I'm sure it is the Southwest but that seemed to throw him off even more.
My jaw dropped. He's really arguing with me about this. So we have a wager, which I cannot wait to collect on. If I'm wrong, I will clean his room top to bottom. If I am right, he cleans the entire house top to bottom. I have an email into his teacher to settle it.

And what sort of grade did you get on your "PowerPoint report on the WEST???" An A. Hmm.

Mike is coming home Mid November. This time for real. Long story short. But we are really looking forward to it, and seeing what happens from there!

First day of school. Well, kind of. At least a do-over for the scrapbook.

On the first day of school, I managed to forget to put the card back in my camera the night before. So as I'm out in the front getting pictures of Megan on her first day of middle school.... I didn't realize the photo card was still in the computer. D'oh moment for sure. So since then we had planned on going over to her school to take some pictures instead. It seemed like everyday we planned on doing it something came up or it was raining. Today though - we did it! The weather was even cooperating since it's been pretty cold this week.

(I took the name of her school out of the sign for privacy reasons.)

This one is my favorite. :) This one makes me laugh because I swear the background looks like one of those tacky fake wilderness scenes at Sears Photography or something. The beauty of Kentucky? Those are real trees!!

Of course the deal is - if I get pictures of her - she has to get one of me. Here I am. In my LOVE shirt that Megan and I each got one of at American Eagle this week. I think we are supposed to coordinate with each other on who wears theirs on which day so we don't get matchy matchy.

BORED.

Warhol Matthew:

It's Thursday night... but feels like Friday because the kids are off from school for a four day weekend. We've watched Survivor together on the couch, and I'm saving some of my other shows to watch after they go to bed. If I have to clean the kitchen one more time, I am going to scream. Same with picking up Legos. What do I do? Sit on the computer and play with photofunia.com.

Today - a perfect fall day.

Not a whole lot going on, but I got tired of seeing my face every time I'd log on to look at the radar for the weather. Believe it or not, that thing is pretty accurate so I'm always checking.
Yesterday was a weird, windy, cold and gray ominous day. Today was gorgeous again. Pretty blue sky, puffy clouds..... a little chilly, but perfect sweater weather unless you just found a cozy spot in the sun. Sometimes I take advantage of this weather and sit on the front steps with the kids and talk about the day at school. - Also take advantage of the sun to get the torts out. (For some reason I swear they are potty trained, and I'd rather have them poop out in the yard than in the terrarium!) I love to watch them right now anyway... the sun is so warm they stretch their necks out and bask. I'd like to be a tort for a day. :)


Really, do only scrapbookers raised on 2Peas photograph food? I don't know what made me take a picture of dinner tonight, but it was as good as it looked. The best thing about this time of year? Easy dinner, warm comfort food. Baked potato soup and turkey and cheese croissants. I was trying a new turkey this time and got sun dried tomato. It is goooood!

- and while having the camera out front with me getting a picture of T after school today, I might as well get one of a tortoise right? Since our lives are so exciting right now! But this does remind me that while I go for walks I am always looking out for dandelions since they are like the crack of the tort world. They love these things, and I am the crazy tortoise lady who collects weeds out of people's yards and then sits out front watching them roam the yard. I'm not terribly worried until I get a leash for them and actually take them on the walk with me.

Megan and Matthew have been home sick all week. It has been their turn after Trevor was home all of last week. Also, the countdown to Mike coming home is on. :) That makes for a very happy Kerry.

birthday.

I think I have made more appearances on my blog in the past month than I have over the past several years. Three reasons:

First: my little girl is interested in photography and is turning the camera around on me after the past 10 years of living with one in her face. I guess that is only fair. She's doing pretty good though. She comes from a very long line of family who has always enjoyed photography.

second: requests from my overseas man and family so they can remember what I look like.

third: I have lost 30 pounds and am back in my old jeans! Like PRE - Trevor. I'm still working on the pre-Megan jeans, but I'm getting there. It's all part of feeling better and not hiding as much as I did before.

fourth: (I know, I just remembered this one) I was looking through old photos of Mike and I back when we were dating and just married and holy cow I realized how much time has gone by. We've known each other forever. It was interesting seeing the changes over the years, so I really do need to be better about being in photos so my kids can see someday too.

So today is my birthday. The big THREE - NINER.

Right now: Megan is making me a birthday cake all on her own. I'm not allowed to help. Trevor is playing with Legos, Matthew is on the couch sick (it's his turn after Trevor was sick all last week.) and Mike is asleep in Yemen. I did get to talk to him today (I do daily.) but it was nice to hear from him on today of all days. I have also heard from family and friends. Thank you to everybody for the birthday wishes!

It is 54 degrees outside. Which made me very happy to be able to put on a coat for a few outdoor photos. I love coats. I always have, and collected them. It was hard in Arizona since I never got to wear them to their full potential there (But that is where I found most of them since they go on wicked clearance when it's 110 degrees!) Here though, they get worn all the time. I'll have to count how many I have someday. Some women buy shoes like crazy, and I've always been a coat girl.

I mentioned to my mom last year how much I love winter here when I was sitting at P.F. Changs with Mike one day for lunch. Business people were coming in from a light snow, with long coats and men with hats. It must be something that reminds me of the 40s, a time that I love. Men should always wear hats. It's awesome. I remember going back to the restroom and needing to walk through the coat room. A real, honest to goodness room dedicated to nothing but hanging coats and hats. SO COOL. It was heaven. I love coats.

There's even something cozy about breaking out the boots and feeling warm. If I could skip in those heels, you bet I would. It's the best time of the year!