This is Halloween

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, halloween, halloween...

Anybody know that movie? Alright, moving on

This is our pumpkin for hallween

This is our halloween dinner


Just in case you couldn't see - we had mummy dogs, deviled eggs, spooky pudding, and vampire blood punch

Morgan is an eyeball - pretty clever huh? Hannah is a rag doll, and Cerah is a Chinese Dragon Miss. They are standing in the doorway of our house that Rob decorated for the trick or treaters



This is the girls after trick or treating. We only spent an hour going to houses but they got a pretty big haul. The smoke is from the fog machine that made the entryway scary for the kids.

I took the girls this year and Rob stayed home and passed out candy. He got lots of "cools" and "neats" and "that was awesome" from the trick or treaters. Morgan also got a lot of comments about her costume. All of the adults at the houses we went to loved it and one of them even had to take a picture of it. She got quite a few comments from kids too but mostly they just exclaimed over it after we had passed them. There was one boy who was not very nice and actually hit her in the head and laughed about it. I didn't see it and the girls didn't tell me about it until later. That boy is lucky.

But, all's well that ends well or so they say. All in all we had a good time and now they are watching halloween specials on t.v. and eating all the candy. It should be fun getting them to bed tonight. Maybe I'll just go join them

Last cake for now

Cerah has finished her 1st cake decorating class. This is her last class for this course. And this was her final cake that she decorated. I almost didn't eat this one but thank goodness my common sense took over. I remembered that I still had quite a ways to go to accomplish a grandma lap. I would really hate to fail in my goal - I am not a quitter!

Way to go Cerah. I love your cakes

The faces of my world

These are the faces of my world. The faces that make me want to get up every day. The ones that keep me calm when I want to be angry; happy when I can't find anything to be happy about; and loving when the last thing I want to show is kindness. I am so thankful that God gave me these faces for my very own. I am in awe of His wisdom in knowing that no other faces would do for me what these faces can do. Like this one here whose smile lets me know he's happy to be spending time with his children while he's making a halloween costume.

And this one who still wants to give me hugs even though she's a teenager. That smile tells me she's having fun with me although I am no longer cool. That smile is her "mom made a joke that isn't funny but I will humor her" smile.

And this face that says I really am still funny to her. The same face that says she still loves being with me.

And this one. My baby who can still make me laugh over goofy faces and silly jokes. My youngest who still needs mom to tuck her in at night and wake her up slowly in the morning.

Yes, my life is blessed with these faces and every time I see them I am reminded that there is nowhere else I'd rather be than wherever they are.

Fall is here

WARNING: this is not for the faint of heart, tree huggers, or those of you who have recently planted trees! Fall has officially come to our neck of the woods. How do I know? It's not the cold weather, darkness falling at 3:00 p.m, or pumpkins that are everywhere I look. No, it's these pictures right here that have convinced me. My yard was a beautiful, green, empty place just two days ago. And now it looks like this:

Yep, it is now covered in orange things that looked much prettier hanging from the trees. I tried to convince them of that. I told them I would come out every day and admire them from afar while they were way up there in the sky (where they belong). But, alas, they like tormenting me. Kinda like the kids...o.k. I'm back. Yes that is a flamingo in our yard. That shocked look on his face is the realization that he's not in Florida anymore.

Now this is better. Not so many leaves. Wait, that's just the front yard which happens to have only one oak tree and is the smallest part of the yard.

Oh, look, even the branches wanted to follow the leaves. Naughty leaves setting such a bad example.


Here it is again. I'm so traumatized I had to see it twice to believe it.

They're even invading the garage! Can you see those little buggers hanging out in the gutters just waiting for us to relax our vigil so they can fly in and take up residence inside?

Another WARNING: If you don't like yard work, or leaves, or acorns, or squirrels, or ducks, or rabbits, or deer, or weeds, or even shocked pink flamingos then NEVER, EVER, EVER buy a house whose listing description has these words: park like setting.

just clownin around

This is Cerah's newest cake creation. I know I should be gushing over it. After all, she did a pretty dang good job on it. But....

there's something creepy about this picture

can you see it? can you guess what it is?

clowns aren't natural. they really aren't.

So I did the only thing I could think of. I ate it. And in case you're wondering I did get satisfaction out of that act of creepy desperation. There, that's better. I can sleep now

Poor me

I was sitting here at the computer this evening eating peanut m&m's and holding a heating pad on my hip when it struck me how funny it all was. So even though this is a blog about the kids I thought I'd share. It was either that or have a meltdown and cry. As I posted before I took my gray hairs quite hard. I still haven't gotten over them but now I just ignore them and pretend they aren't even there. I have even stopped looking in the mirror because the "laugh" lines are showing up everywhere. Why do they call them laugh lines anyway? Laughing is the last thing on my mind when I see them. So now I have to depend on the kids to tell me if I have any black hairs sticking out of my chin. This is a job that they, of course, find hilarious. Ha ha. And then earlier today Morgan talked me into playing a game of twister with her. I said yes after thinking about how much fun I used to have playing it. Pretty soon I'm all stretched out with one foot on one side and the other way over on the other side and squatting down so I could put my hands on the dots too. Right about then Morgan decides to fall over right onto my leg. My hip then decided to take offense at that and let me know it's displeasure by having a huge cramping fit. It felt like it was coming right out of the socket and I'm hopping around saying sorry to it over and over. It sure is hard to please too. I don't know how many sorry's it took before it forgave me. Which brings me to the pitiful shape I find myself in tonight. What do m&m's have to do with it you ask? Well, I figure that since I can no longer hold onto youth as evidenced by gray hair, wrinkles, chin hair, and brittle bones I should begin to embrace aging. Since the best thing to come from aging is grandchildren I am starting the planning now. The best grandma's are the ones that are soft and have plenty of padding when you want to sit on their laps or rest your head on their chest. I, of course, want to be the bestest best grandma. So I am eating my chocolate now to ensure I have a soft lap and plenty of padding. No, no it's not flawed thinking. It's just preferable to a meltdown. Now if you'll excuse me I still have half a bag to force down.

Where's the great pumpkin?

I couldn't find the real ones so I used substitutes


Ready, set, race.....or don't

I love my teenager. I really, really do.

I just need to remind myself sometimes

Giddy up

Warning: this ride will put hay in places you never knew you had

The Sweetest 12 Commandments

Sometimes I just need a reminder. Today is one of those days so I thought I'd share with everyone.

A rose by any other name...

Should not be called a rose. I don't care what anyone says. Let's get honest here people and call 'em as you see 'em. Here's my example:
This is Cerah's rose that she made while practicing her icing in preparation for her next cake decorating session. Very classy and reserved. Probably not something you'd see on a cake that was ordered for, say, a bikers club reunion. Or, getting in the spirit, a halloween costume party. No ma'am, this is something you'd see at a tea party for high society ladies who want to compare outfits and manicures.





This, on the other hand, is not a rose----------->
I'm not even sure it could technically be called a flower. This is a kid playing with play-doh trying to stick the pieces back together and hoping they stay there so they can trick their little sister into eating it and then rolling around on the floor laughing at the look on her face. And this attempt at flower making belongs to me. I have this weird feeling that should Cerah ever make it onto a food network cake challenge she will not ask me to be her assistant. Unless I guilt her into it. And with that thought I am signing off. I have an appointment with my play-doh.

Cake

Cerah went to her second cake decorating class tonight. Last week, her first one, she practiced on a cake there and learned different ways of making designs. Tonight she had to bring her own cake along with a bunch of frosting which all had to be made at home. She didn't tell me until last night about all the frosting she had to bring (don't you love kids?) and so today I had to rush to get it all made before her class. Why didn't she make it herself you ask? Well, between school work and her babysitting job (12 to 5 pm) she didn't have time. This morning in between school subjects she tried to make the cake only to find out we didn't have enough eggs. I finally finished it this afternoon after a trip to the store and the cake decorating store for more supplies. When I went to make the frosting I remembered that our mixer had broke so off I went to the store again to buy a new mixer. Can I just say never buy a cheap mixer. I wish I had read this advice myself before I went and bought a new one. Trying to be frugal and save money (cheap) I decided to buy the most inexpensive one the store had. Making the frosting this afternoon Morgan and I had a cloud of powdered sugar floating around the kitchen. The lowest setting on my new mixer is higher than the highest setting on my old one. It does not work well! Anyway, we finally got everything ready, Cerah went to her class and here is the result.

Somewhere over the rainbow.....

Who wants the first piece?

Hannah's room revealed

Hannah's room is finally done!

Still messy but done. And if you know Hannah at all you know that she is like a tornado passing through every time she enters a room.

We found the bedspread and pillows at a thrift store for $18. The new lamp shades were $4 each. We found the picture on the wall at a thrift store too. Then we painted the frame white and for $1.50 we had a cute picture to put up on the wall.

The picture frame here was $1 and all we had to do was paint it white. We bought the little decorations on it for $.10 each. The shelf was made by Rob from scrap wood laying around. I posted about them earlier.

This other picture on the wall was also a thrift store find. I think we paid $2.00 or $2.50 for it and we didn't have to do anything to it. The second shelf Rob made is also displayed.

This was a fun project for the girls and I to do together and Hannah loves it. It's much more kid friendly and cheerful than before. We tried to incorporate colors that were already in the room in order to finish on a budget. Originally this room was the same light blue on the top but it had ugly blue wallpaper on the bottom half and around the top of the walls. The border wallpaper had ducks on it. Ugh. When we first moved in I mentioned the ugly border and wallpaper and said that I didn't know how anyone could like that. Turns out Robbie did. Good thing he works during the day and doesn't know what I'm doing at home while he's not there. If I work fast enough I can have a whole room stripped before he gets home.

Something to talk about

There are some days when there is just nothing to talk about. I realized I need something to talk about so I am going to start posting funny or inspirational sayings that are favorites of mine. The first one is going to be a comic strip about homeschooling that is pretty funny. At least to those of us who homeschool - we can relate to this. It would help me if you would send some sayings or quotes that you like too. Then I can have a large collection of them for days like today, and yesterday, and the day before, and the day before....well, you get the idea. I can't wait to see what you send.