Halloween

(I couldn't get many pictures. After a quick dinner of mummy hot dogs, these guys were ready to scatter and get the night started.)

Today started out with some rain, which concerned me for a minute because I didn't even realize it was supposed to rain at all today. I was hoping it wasn't going to be one of those days where it was cloudy, cold and raining off and on. That isn't good Halloween weather! - BUT rain has moved on, and it is sunny outside. It's a pretty day today. Chilly and fall like, but pretty.

This Halloween has a weirdness to it. Mike is overseas, Megan went to a Halloween party at a friend's house where the girls had pizza and then headed out to the neighborhood to trick or treat. Matthew went with his friend that he went with last year, (and made sure to stop at an old teacher's house who lives on Main Street who gives out cans of soda. Trust me, daily when we pass her house, somebody always says, "She gives out soda on Halloween!" and Trevor ended up going with a friend of his to our old neighborhood in Union. His friend's mom knows somebody out there (in the BIG houses with the full size candy bars!) So it was just me and the house. It feels strange...I love Halloween. I'm usually more into it than I have been this year. (I just pulled out the decorations yesterday!) This year though, with the kids all having plans, I don't need to be the mom walking around with them. Which I kind of miss. Although somebody needs to be here to hand out candy too.

No matter what, it was fun to see the kids all come home with their buckets full of stuff and all the excitement that happens when you dump it all on the floor and start trading. Trevor had a friend who couldn't go out tonight, so he has a huge gallon size freezer bag full of candy for him. (The less around here the better so I don't get into it!)

Wanted to add, because the differences in tastes is interesting:

Favorite candy

Megan: chocolate. She dumped out her bucket at the party she was at and picked through to get all of the chocolate stuff out. Another girl there didn't like chocolate, so they traded chocolate for fruity candy. Her favorites (especially judging by the wrappers thrown back in after eating) peanut butter cups, butterfinger, snickers, twix and hershey's.

Trevor: scored huge with full size candy bars, and is pretty protective of the several snickers ones that he got. He's pretty equal opportunity candy lover, but he really loves anything gummy, fruity and sour.

Matthew: Still is in the habit of picking out anything with peanut butter or peanuts and gives it away. Poor guy. He asked me what a snickers tasted like and I told him the closest I could think of was a milky way, without nuts. I think he's always been afraid of milky way because he ate his first one this year. - AND loved it. He loves twix, kit kat, starburst (no skittles...lol.) and suckers. Plus the one can of soda that he purposely went to the teacher's house to get.



I have been painting today. Nothing like company coming to motivate with something I have been wanting to do anyway. I have been working on the stairwell, which means that the ladder has come out. I noticed it the other day when it was out too....that this ladder is kind of a scrapbook in it's own way. We've had it for a long time. There are remnants of paint from so many places that we have moved to and tried to improve in our own little way. I always like painting. It makes things feel clean and like my own. - Plus I love tan. I know, right? Thrilling color. - But I love tan. There....I own it.

So I notice all these different colors on the ladder. There is a bit of pink and lime green from Megan's old rooms. One pink is from the house on Bosal, and the other with the green is from Spur. Along with other Spur house colors.....red from Trevor's room, Blue from Matthew's room, Orange from the bathroom. Chocolate (the prettiest color I haven't been able to duplicate) from the living room and dining room in the same house. Along with several different shades of tan from several different houses.

You know what though? I love it. In a way, it is the portable version of people charting the growth of their children on a door jamb. I can see the growth of my family in the colors that are left. I'll purposely have to paint a swatch of the new tan to add to it now.

I wish I could get a picture of how pretty the backyard looked today. At one point the contrasts were so vivid, it was gorgeous. The sky was layered with a pretty red sunset underneath a layer of dark ominous looking clouds, with kind of lighter blue on top of that. - And the trees were bright yellow, orange and red. The grass was such a pretty bright yellow green. Man, hard to describe and get in a photo, but I'll never forget it.

Today was airport day. Never one of my favorite days. Mike is on his way to Johannesburg. Every time I say that in my head, I hear Bono talking about a line in Silver & Gold from Rattle And Hum. Plus I think of U2 playing there.

Megan and Trevor had a halloween dance after school today, and much to my surprise Trevor asked about going. I guess he did go last year, but I hadn't heard him talking about it at all the past couple of weeks, so I figured he wasn't really interested in going. He was meeting some friends, and Megan had her usual group that was going to be there.

Random

I love this time of year. I have no idea why I have put off decorating for Halloween. I saw this picture with the ghosts online, and just had to post it because it makes me smile.

The leaves are so bright lately. I took a drive down one of my favorite roads the other day and there is a long row of bright red trees. They were so beautiful.




I'm feeling crafty too. I don't know what it is....but for some reason I'm feeling a bit of domestic crafting is something I need to get into. I have a cool idea for a big subway sign that I would like to do for my stairwell. I also came across this dog thing, that I thought would be kind of neat to paint and do my own version for my kitchen. Maybe more along the lines of coffee....instead of maple syrup though. Who knows, in my mind it's only in design stage. Seeing as how I still have to finish painting the rest of my chairs for my dining room set, who knows when I'll actually get to this....but the planning IS fun right?

It is cold tonight, and I plan on putting on some jammie pants, and getting out the horse blanket....and sitting down and watching The Soup.

Happy birthday Matthew!

I saw these cookies online. They made me think of Matthew....who's birthday is TODAY. Nine years old. Plus, he loves zombies AND according to the updated version of the last date of the zombie apocalypse.....when nothing happened.....the new date was supposedly today. Here I am in Kentucky, without my little zombie killer. (He loves to play some Nazi zombie game on the Xbox.) Once again this dooms day date has come and gone. Whew. We did think it was funny since the last supposed one that the new date was on Matthew's birthday.
*

He is in Phoenix today. I'm not used to not having the kids with me on their birthdays. Aside from when I had surgery on Trevor's birthday last year....I've always had them at home with me. Mike had to go to Phoenix for a funeral, and took Matthew with him since he is usually the one who misses birthdays because of work and being overseas. This was a nice opportunity for them to spend some time together and for Matthew to take a trip.

It sounds like he has had a ton of fun. I couldn't let the day go by without posting a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my little guy. Pictures soon. I love you buddy!

13.

For a few years now, both Megan and Trevor's requests for birthday cake have been a bit nontraditional. That's ok. Trevor wanted pumpkin pie, and Megan asked for Paula Deen's Gooey butter pumpkin cake. It's not the prettiest thing in the world, but anybody who had had it knows how good this thing is. Hello? Two sticks of butter? Cream cheese? Powdered sugar? Pumpkin filling and a cake mix? It is goooood. I made two, and we had one on standby that wouldn't come out of the pan....so this is the one that made it for candles and singing. (ha, and I just noticed how similar my photo is to hers on her site. My little pumpkins really do sit on this kitchen island this time of year....they just happened to be there.)

Most of the day I was getting things ready for tonight. Getting patties ready for grilling, blowing the leaves off of the deck so we could eat outside, cleaning, etc. Megan spent a lot of time sitting on the couch, drawing in a new sketchbook. I took a short break to land airplanes on my phone. (A mind numbing game that I am addicted to at the moment!)





At the moment there are several girls upstairs (being pretty quiet....) and so far they are all doing so well. This is a good group of girls that do everything together. No drama. They have all eaten, taken tv breaks, run outside breaks, and more eating breaks. Having a birthday fall during fall break is the best.

Last day of 12

Did I really just type that out?!? 13? My baby girl turns 13 tomorrow. An official teenager. I can't be the mother of a teenager. In my mind, she's still little Meggie Boom. - Today though, a few pictures of the last hours of 12 years old....

A few weeks ago Mike and I went out to find Megan a new bike. The one that she had (it was actually the one that she had won back in Phoenix, in 4th grade.) was getting too small. This girl is full size adult tall, and the girl's bike was not working out anymore. The brakes were difficult to adjust and it was time for it to be retired.

We started out with a super cute 7 cream, white and dark leather seat and handlebar, cruiser bike. Complete with cool chrome fenders. It was pretty. However, with the hills around here, 3 speeds were not enough. So we ended up taking it back.

We stopped at Dick's where she tried out a few bikes. She loved this one, and decided against the cruiser style. Honestly, with the hills and the few outdoorsy areas you have to ride through here occasionally, this one really is a perfect fit. Now she has the freedom of riding her bike to the library, friend's houses, and to the ice cream place on Main. Hopefully she'll get a lot of riding out of it before the weather starts to get too cold.

Below - We always need to get one photo like this....we like to make fun of the ridiculousness of that pose. - and can you tell that fall is in full swing here? Those leaves are really stressing me out. The driveway has already been cleaned of them already, and these are just from today.



I also think it's funny when I load my pictures onto the computer to find out that the boys have borrowed my camera. Sometimes there are some interesting Lego pictures on there. Below: Clone skateboarding.

Did I scare you?

lol. That one square just hurts to look at.


Yeah, I have been a bad blogger again. Life gets in the way. When it's just me I always think, "When Mike leaves again for a bit I'll catch up on blogging." Only to not, and then think, "When Mike gets home I'll have extra time to catch up on blogging." It never works out. It seems that every day is in full steam. That's not always a bad thing, but that's the way it goes. Peppered in with some down days where the only thing I wanted to do was take numerous naps on the couch and think about things, wonder how I got here, or go to work, or whatever....

Seasons are already changing around here. My driveway is a mess of leaves that makes it's own little alarm system when you hear somebody or something coming up to the house. I'll hear crunching noises. Sometimes it is a child, sometimes it is a squirrel, and mostly it seems to be deer walking around. There's nothing like having windows open (backing up to a cornfield too) and hearing sticks breaking in the dark. I wave thinking that if it is a person they think I see them. Then I close my blinds! It gets dark fast, sometimes I forget.

A million things I could write about, but every time I think I need to recap I just end up ignoring this project and before I know it another day has passed.

So I'll just jump in with today.

I have two boys. Two super cool, awesome boys. (Yes, I have a great daughter too, but she wasn't around during time the camera was out.)




Matthew and Trevor were out playing Call Of Duty with squirt guns. They hide from each other, but hiding places are starting to lose thier leaves. And let's be honest that if you are hiding up in a tree overlooking the backyard and there is a mom standing beneath it pointing a camera towards the top....your hiding place has been blown. I have to say Matthew's place is pretty creative. He has a branch he can also balance his gun out on.


And there is this one. The camera is not always their friend during this phase of 'tween-dom. But he loves me anyway and lets me get one once in awhile.