BOO!

Our Friendly Jack O Lantern - This is probably the best Jack-o-lantern I've ever carved. I've never had much success, but I bought a handy dandy pumpkin carving tool so we were able to put a "little" more detail (which means this year he got eyebrowns). It was fun, so watch out next year, I'm thinking of moving up to dremel's power tool for carving.



Howdy, y'all!


Yes, I know I'm a princess!


RIBBIT!







First learn stand, then learn fly. Nature rule, Daniel-san, not mine.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Tacky Day & 50's Day!

Sweet Sockhop Girl



I think they live all year for this one day.

Midweek Funnies

No wordless Wednesday around here and it's been awhile since I posted some "things heard 'round the house," so how about a few funnies.

Corey was memorizing Psalm 23 today and repeated, "The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want him," and "He leads me in paths of righteousness for Pete's sake."

Allie gave me a dollar and told me, "Now you're a little bit rich."

And a few from the past few months.

Me: Son, why didn't you eat your orange?
Corey: I couldn't get it open, so I just skipped ahead to cookies.

Allie, obviously from playing with her brother: Know what, when I grow up, I wanna be Joker's Wife.

Corey, at random: When I grow up will you pay my bills?
Me: No, Son, that's why you get a job.
Corey: But, I want to keep my money.

I'm starting to worry about these kids.

The Magnolia Leaf Fight

Today is the 13th anniversary of the great magnolia leaf fight. Now you might be thinking that it must have been some fight for me to remember the date. It was, in fact, the day before our wedding. Donnie and I had left Charleston and headed to Walterboro Friday morning. I led him to the motel where he and his family were staying and went by my house to drop off some things. Since we did a lot of things ourselves we were supposed to clip magnolia leaves to use as greenery at my grandparent's house. I went back by the motel to get Donnie so he could help and he was NOWHERE to be found. I thought it was a little odd, but I went on to my grandparents and Granddaddy and I went to work. Granddaddy was at times a quiet man, but get him by himself and he was a really funny guy. We joked and talked as we worked, although I can't for the life of me remembered what we talked about. We loaded the back of his little Ford Ranger "slap full" with these leaves and started for the church, me riding in the back of the truck to make sure they were okay. (Yes, I am aware that is not smart and most likely, illegal) We dropped by to see if Donnie had returned. Still no Donnie. We unloaded, went back to the hotel to check again, and still could not find my future groom. I should have known this would be a precursor of things to come because Donnie will still go for rides and not return before I am irate in a timely manner. My temper was rising each time we stopped by and could not find him, and the madder I got, the more tickled my granddaddy got. Another load was clipped, taken to the church and you guessed it, Donnie was still missing. Finally a third load was being clipped and I was so mad I could have spit nails. Granddaddy was all out laughing by this point. After our final load, we went back by to find that Donnie, his family and all of his groomsmen were hanging out, watching TV and totally oblivious to the pack that I was about to blow my stack. He answered the door, ever so casually, "Hey, Babe, what's up?" Well, I told him what was up - my blood pressure! After listening to me rant and rave a few minutes and apologizing profusely (there again, a glimpse into the future), all was well. Looking back it is probably to only fight I actually remember, but here is why I remember it. If Donnie had shown up, I would have missed out on that time with my grandfather and now that he is gone, I would trade that for anything. That and the fact that it is one of my funniest wedding stories.

Randomness Ramble

With the kids out of school, consignment season, and our trip to Gatlinburg, I haven't had time to ramble much, so here goes.

THE DENTIST
I got up this morning to take the kids to their 9:15 dental appointment, and we were actually ahead of schedule. If you know me well, you know being on time isn't my thing, much less being early. I was brushing my teeth and walking around in my bedroom (because I am too ADD to stand still and brush my teeth) when I heard something fall (not a kid, just a something)in the bathroom where I'd left Jon Tyler. That can't be good, I thought. I went in the bathroom to this...


(the yellow thing is a plant that used to sit on the back of the toilet)

I realized that my chances of being early on time were vanishing. I now have a new nickname for Jon Tyler - Termite - it destroys everything in its path. His Indian name is "He who snatches defeat from the jaws of victory." A quick vacuum job, dusting the multitudes of books/magazines that make their way to the bathroom and we were back on our way.

We arrived (5 minutes late) and found out even more fun things. Hannah will have two teeth pulled on Monday because her adult teeth are coming in behind her baby teeth. The dentist also said I could go ahead and schedule an appointment with the orthodontist for Corey, age 7, "whenever I wanted to" because he is "going to have issues." Lovely. The receptionist advised me to wait 8 weeks however since the orthodontist they refer kids to is building a new office and moving. I guess they need my help paying for it! Ha!


A TALE OF TWO PILLOWS
I've been meaning to post these two pictures for weeks. The first one is a pillow I made for Hannah at her very first Vacation Bible School. It was made from a t shirt and said, "God is with Hannah" prior to the gaping hole that has been worn in it. Some time back she began sleeping with it every night to ease her nighttime anxiety (and boy, does she have some!). When it began disentegrating, her father told her she had to throw it away, which brought on the drama. So we made a plan to redo the pillow. After many weeks of procrastination not getting around to it, I finally whipped out my sewing machine and made her a new one. Yes, I can sew in a straight line. She wanted her old one put into her new one, which I thought made it extra special and the stuffing put around it, so we did and she did her own decorating this time. It was really fun to do together.






CAN I BE TRANSPARENT FOR A MOMENT?
Transparency is not my thing, even more than being on time is not my thing, but here goes. I am finally motivated to do something about my "baby fat." I weigh as much now as I did when I came home from the hospital with Jon Tyler so I have set for myself attainable (I hope) goals. My first is to lose 18 pounds by Christmas. I have a little less than three months. I have lost 2 of those so far. I have eaten lots of rabbit food this week. I am trying my own plan which includes portion control and where I pretty much do low carbs/no sugar for two weeks and then add back only good carbs, whole grains, stuff like that. I'll let you know how it goes. Feel free to ask. Maybe that will kick me in the butt if I need it. As of now, I've had no sugar since Monday which could be some sort of record for me. I have now quit having "the shakes from withdrawl" LOL. As far as an exercise routine, I open to suggestions. What worked for you? I am thinking walking and pilates.

HELLO FALL! WE'VE MISSED YOU!
This is my favorite 3 week break because it has the nicest weather. We have spent lots of time outside the past few days. On Tuesday, the kids and I developed a trampoline routine that we did til we laughed so hard we fell down. Too bad I have no pictures of THAT to post. I decided that if I get hurt on that thing, I can file workmans comp. After all, part of my job is to interact with my children. My employer would probably balk at this claim. However, he was impressed with our routine. (I think he was impressed that my 34 year old, *** pound butt could do the same thing my children could do. Just not for long.)

THE CHANGE
Of seasons (gotcha!) always brings out the change in clothes. So I must get off of the computer now, because this is what awaits me. I have exhausted the two pair of pants I had stashed back and since it will be around 40 degrees tomorrow, I have to wash some for the kiddies.



If you've gotten through all this without nodding off to sleep, I applaude you. Thanks for reading, my loyal followers (all 5 of you)!