Halloween treat

Our jack-o-lanterns. Made with pumpkins grown in the backyard!
The treat for us tonight was a little guy who came to the door. Hayley gave him a Kit Kat along with a couple other candies, and the kid said, "Wow! Thanks! I love Kit Kats! It's like getting two bars in one!" We had a good laugh.

Happy haunting, everyone!

Chuck or treat

The kids had a trunk or treating opportunity tonight (except Other Jim, who had to work). (I wasn't feeling in tip top shape so I stayed home.)

Hayley was the only one who was prepared with a costume. She had spent hours a few weeks ago in the sewing room. I had no idea what she was doing. I think she was using a pattern, but I'm not sure because I didn't find leftover pattern pieces floating around the sewing room. And all fabric remnants had been disposed of. The sewing room fairy must have cleaned up, because certainly Hayley NEVER would have cleaned up after herself, if her room is any indicator of a tendency (or gross lack thereof) toward picking up.

Apparently, this is what she was working on:

For those of you not familiar with video games, she is an elf. For those of you who ARE familiar with video games, she is Link. (bow and arrow supplied by generous brothers)

As I said before, Hayley was the only one who prepared. Ten minutes before Jim was to leave for the trunk or treat party, Matt was rooting through various drawers for something to turn into a costume. This is what he came up with:He says he is an explosion of Mario. I say he is weird. Whatever he is, it was good enough to score candy. He had a friend along, who you will see in a later picture.

Seven minutes before the leaving of the van, Paul came downstairs and began pawing through the DVD collection. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was looking for a costume idea. I shook my head. Really, is the best time to come up with a costume mere minutes before the trunk or treat event?

But he did come up with something good and something quick and something for which the component costume parts were readily available:

He went as Chuck. It's our favorite TV show.
Paul says most people knew who he was.

And here is a picture of Paul and Matt's friend Hayden, who went as an FBI agent. I took the picture of Paul and Hayden together because of the connection (Chuck is a spy and he works with both the FBI and the CIA).
Tune in tomorrow for my pumpkin.

How low can you go?

Hayley likes to play bass things. First the oon and now.... (bass-oon. get it? har!)

A few weeks ago, Hayley wanted to try out for the middle school jazz band on keyboard. The teacher had another idea in mind for her. She was intrigued.

And yesterday after school, that idea came home with Hayley.
Hayley is going to play bass guitar for jazz band.

Never mind that she has never even twanged a bass gee-tar before (or a regular one). Apparently, she will learn.

Just call her Pauline McCartney.

Paul the inventor

This morning on the way to school, Paul and his friend were extolling the wonders of a hot shower. His friend said that he loves to turn the shower on hot and then lie down for a nap in the shower. (privately, I wondered how he didn't drown) Paul then suggested an idea for a new invention: the shower bed--a bed with shower capabilities. No need for blankets, because you'd apparently be warmed by a continuous hot shower all night long.

The only drawback he mentioned was pruny fingers.

Corn-mazing

Here is what three of the kids and I did today:

Here we are outside the maze, standing by the map.


Paul led the way for about a third of the maze. He never got lost.
This is one of the Viking fun facts posted throughout the maze. We found all but one of them. The last one we skipped because we had found all six of the Victors (which is not shown on the O fact).
The three mazers
Here is Paul in the horn of the Viking's helmet, texting. He texted through most of the maze when he wasn't leading the way. STOP TEXTING WHILE I'M TRYING TO HAVE A FAMILY MOMENT.
Here is one of the Children of the Corn. He's at the very tip of the horn.
After the maze, we spent awhile in the petting zoo. We fed a camel, some llamas, an ostrich, a water buffalo, and much much more. We also saw little kangaroos. They are so soft.

Then Hayley and Matt went into the corn pit and tried to bury themselves in the kernels. Corn maze=fun!

A clutch situation

The corn maze was so awesome that I'm going back tomorrow with the kids, whoever can come. I'm a-taking the camera. I'll hopefully post some pics this weekend.

So this evening, I got home from the field trip all excited to see my kids because I hadn't seen them all day. (I was also curious to see the progress on the driveway replacement--which it looks like is all finished. New driveway! No cracks! No potholes! No dropoffs! No crumbling! Yay!) But I guess the excitement of parental return was only one-sided because when I got home, Matt was gone, and Other Jim was about to leave, as was Paul. And with Paul's leaving, Jim was too because he was driving Paul and a bunch of friends (remember this fact. It is key in the following story). So the four boys/men bailed on me. My poor empty arms.

Hayley and I heated up the sad little dinner for two that had been planned for six and no sooner had we sat down and opened our mouths when the phone rang. It was Hayley's friend, inviting her to go bowling.

Sigh. My empty arms just got emptier.

I decided to sacrifice time with my remaining child so she could do what she wanted. The friend said that Hayley needed a ride to the house, but they would bring her home. OK. Hayley and I quickly finished our dinner, I grabbed my purse and we went outside to get in the van.

Except the van wasn't there.

Oh crap.

I forgot. Jim had taken the van so that he could give rides to more than one teenager. All that was left (because OJ was gone) was Little Red Rider. You remember her, don't you? She and I are not on speaking terms. I don't touch her and she doesn't run over me.

What to do?

Hayley went back in the house to call her friend because she knows I don't drive the truck (in fact last January when SOMEONE--namely the driver of Little Red--decided to have a fainting fit and the paramedics needed the truck moved, I refused and one of the EMTs had to do it).

But I figured it was time to face up to the little she-devil. I rummaged around for the spare key, called Jim and told him what the deal was (and also to ask if one is supposed to engage the clutch when one starts the truck), and took several deep calming breaths.

And everything went just fine. Hayley got where she needed to go and I didn't stall the truck once (except when I tried to reverse the car out of the friend's driveway, but that doesn't count, does it?).

There is one teensy little problem though. I can't get the spare key out of the ignition. Sigh. Little Red still harbors some unfathomable resentment toward me.

Random thoughts continued from yesterday

Another field trip today, this time to a corn maze. I am very excited! I hope I don't get too lost.

Our driveway is getting replaced today. It has deteriorated this summer into an undulating puzzle made out of asphalt chunks. If we let it go another winter, we'll have a black gravel driveway.

I forgot to thaw out the roast overnight. No roast in the crockpot for us today. It'll have to be hot dogs for dinner because I'll be working all day.

Three random thoughts

It's field trip today with my job. I get paid to watch "Toy Story 3" and eat free pizza. Life is hard! Boo hoo for me! (yeah, I know. Not really. I'm looking forward to it. The only downside is that Hayley and Matt can't come with)

People in hospitals are on my mind today. Jim (not my husband) and Larry, we are thinking of you and hoping for good things.

Staying in a motel three blocks from an ocean beach sounds wonderful--I might actually get to do it for three days next month.

Unpause

OK I'm back from busy-land. Temporarily. I won't bore you with details from my calendar for tomorrow and Thursday, let it suffice to say that I am excited and at the same time exhausted already.

I am happy this Halloween season. This makes me happy:


Yes, it looks sort of creepy and probably not altogether tastefully or pleasingly arranged, but it represents something that I have craved for years....

A coffee table (not that I drink coffee...I don't. But what else can I call it so that you would instantly know what I was talking about?) on which I can put seasonal displays without fear of some little preschool-age kid getting into it.

After 20+ years of raising children and 7 years babysitting, FINALLY there are NO MORE preschool-age kids who regularly frequent this house.

So my coffee table can do what I want it to do: exist horizontally for the sole purpose of displaying items.

In the future, the table will probably display items like homework, dirty dishes, iPods, phone chargers, cats, cat hair, wadded up tissues, Rubik's cubes, homeless Legos, candy wrappers, wadded up tape, to mention just a few things. But for now, it is Skull-city.

Squirrelly boy

The cake:


The boy and the cake
The boy when I made him laugh
He is now twelve.

Matt decorated most of the cake. I did the squirrel, but he colored the rest of the fondant and cut out the leaves with little cookie cutters that we happened to have on hand (!).

And yes, Matt likes squirrels, which is why there is one on his cake. (He does NOT like seeing dead squirrels on the side of the road, or stuffed squirrels in the guest bedroom at his Uncle Mike's house)

Twelve

The first step in celebrating Matt's birthday:

Make the green rectangleWhen asked what kind of birthday cake he wanted, he replied, "Fondant!" (If I were on camera, I'd break the fourth wall and stare directly into it with an exasperated look on my face and roll my eyes ever so slightly).

I had to explain that fondant was a medium and not an actual style. He looked perplexed. Dangit, he's watched a multitude of episodes of Ace of Cakes; he has seen Duff, Geoff, Katherine, Sophia, etc. work with fondant to make shapes, sculptures and elements, not to mention to cover cakes.

Finally, I made him understand that I will use fondant to make a design of his choosing. But he didn't know what he wanted. He just knew he wanted it out of fondant. So I'm making a fall tableau.

But I've run out of fondant and I have to go to work. At least the canvas for the tableau is ready to go.

More pics later.

Serious poetry is hard

But cheesy verse is easy.

As in I couldn't write awesome poetry last night because my brain was constipated with this:

Naptime
I sleep when I get up too early
I sleep when I wake up too late
I sleep when my personality's surly
I sleep when I clean off my plate.

Sleep is the ultimate remedy
I use it to cure most of my ills
Sleep turns tragic to comedy
But alas, it won't pay the bills.


My brain utterly refuses to settle down and act serious when I tell it to.

Today in the car

...the topic was the quality and rating of various sneezes. I did not know that sneezing was such a hot-button issue with the teen crowd.

Matt could put them all to shame though. He traffics heavily in nasal explosives. He's loud, he thrashes, and for crying out loud, HE. DOES. NOT. STOP. I've had to issue limitations on the number of times I'm required to "bless" him after he sneezes. He gets two geshundheits and THAT'S IT. Frequently, I'll even physically remove him to another room so he can sneeze his little heart out without covering me with his nasal discharge (his nostrils are a bottomless pit of goo).

Of course

Ten things on the day of Ten. (I got a little kick out of writing 10-10-10 on a letter today and thought I have to blog something to celebrate the convergence of the number ten. If only I hadn't had to get ready for church, I could have done it at 10:10 this morning. But alas)

So I'm going to list ten things about me. Most of which you'll probably know already. Or maybe you don't. Pay attention, there might be a quiz in November.

1. I don't like wearing shoes (or socks for that matter) in the house. I'll wear shoes (and socks) in other people's houses, but in my own, I prefer that my feet go au naturel. Not that I think my feet are good-looking, but because I use them as information gatherers. Is the floor clean? Bare feet can tell. Wearing shoes hinders that process, plus it makes me feel like I'm not in contact with the ground.
2. I like making up bingo cards. I have a set for Halloween, and one for birthdays. I am currently working on a set for seminary focused on scripture mastery. I don't necessarily like to PLAY bingo (because I never win), but I do like making the cards up.
3. My bracelet stash was increased by three this weekend when I got the finished products in the mail. I bought the beads, put them in the order I wanted them, then sent them to my personal bracelet finisher (she does all the heavy lifting for me). Now I have a bracelet to go with my awesome pinkish/purplish ruffled shirt.
4. I'd prefer a base 12 numbering system. I much prefer thinking of things in dozens than in groups of ten (sorry ten. I know this is your day, but I gotta be honest).
5. I threw out my wedding dress. Yep. Commence the lectures if you must, but I figured that if and when my daughters got married, they'd want their own dresses, not one that has been sitting around in a closet for x years getting musty and mildewed, and which would have been sadly out-of-date style-wise. I haven't ever had the occasion to wish I could wear it again. Plus it was water-stained from a miserable few weeks in an apartment with a leaky roof.
6. I got blisters in my nose from so much nose-blowing this week.
7. I will be getting paid to go to the zoo this Friday! I have to go for work. Do I have a fabulous job or what?
8. I still haven't tried driving Little Red Riding Hood (aka Jim's truck). I am afraid of it.
9. I'm getting comfortable enough with Paul driving that I can almost fall asleep in the morning on the way to seminary.
10. Yellow. It's the bomb.

Stay at home Saturday

Today was the first day in a week that I felt capable of doing housework for an extended period of time. I was a madwoman in the basement...mostly because certain people don't pick up their clean socks and put them away, nor do people move the dumbbells to vacuum. We are just generally a bunch of lazy pigs in this house.

We still had all the detritus from the recent computer switch sitting on the two-couch. I had to clean all that off and sort it out. I cleaned off the computer desk.

I had noticed earlier in the day when I went to take a picture with my camera that my battery charger was missing! I panicked for a while. How was I to photograph the cats without a battery??? How was I to document the Halloween decoration set up? How was I to record further installments in the never-ending parade of pictures of band concerts and running meets?

In my dedication to cleaning the two-couch, I was rewarded because I found the battery charger while I was cleaning up the computer-switch mess. I don't know how the charger got there. Perhaps the cats squirreled it away so I couldn't take their pictures anymore.

Anyway, in addition to cleaning up some of the basement embarrassment, I am scanning a photo album. It's my oldest album, dating back to before I was married.

Wanna see a few pictures? No? Well, I do. Even if it makes me face just how much weight I've gained since I was a young lady. Oh well. Cake is good.

This is Jenni, Jessie, and me back in the late spring of 1988.
This was taken at my cousin Annie's wedding in 1988. Back row, Jessica and Jenni. Front row, me and Sam (Sandy). I sewed the dress I was wearing. I'd love to have that dress (and fit into it).
Ha! I still loved to play dress-up and pose, even at age 20. This was a dress my mother wore as a bridesmaid back in the early 60s.

My husband before he was my husband. At this point, he was my fiance of two days.
My favorite Twins player. Dan the Man Gladden. While visiting Jim during the summer of 1988 (and on the day after he proposed--we didn't have a ring yet, so nobody knew but the two of us), he took me to my first outdoor major league baseball game. The Twins played the A's in a double header and trounced them both games. I think Jim almost broke up with me right then and there (not really) because I was so enamored of Dan and because I was such a "sore" winner. I was not quiet about my affiliation. Jim's two friends who came along didn't like me much after I rubbed both wins in their faces with much annoying superiority.
PS. Dan Gladden is still a cutie-patootie.

Working sick

I worked myself up into a lather last night because I was still coughing hard enough to pop my lungs out through my mouth (my back aches from all the coughing and I practically unhinged my jaw too), and I was still producing enough mucus in my nose to choke a horse. I haven't been sick enough to convince myself to call in and skip work (or seminary) but I pay for it in the evening. Luckily it's Friday and the piano teacher will be recovering from jet lag so I have NO plans to go ANYWHERE this weekend. I am going to stay home and lie flat on my back and stare at the ceiling until this cold goes away. I'm going to chase it away with boredom.

Yeah, I'll let you know if a) that actually works, and b) if I actually manage not to do anything/go anywhere this weekend. Stuff always comes up, doesn't it? And colds probably love being bored.

Things I did not get done this weekend

1. I did not get the Halloween decorations out, much less get them arranged in tasteful and intriguing arrangements (you should know that I don't have any kind of decorating sense so any kind of artsy display of any of the crap I shovel out onto the horizontal--and vertical--spaces of my house is purely by accident).

2. I did not make a dinner menu for this week. I am lost without my menu. I resort to serving pizza or I pretend to be so busy that I let the children fix ramen for themselves. Despite what my children think about it, this is BAD.

3. Corollary to #2, no menu=no grocery list. No grocery list=no grocery shopping. No grocery shopping=no decent food in the house. No decent food in the house=pizza or ramen for dinner. Which you already know=bad.

4. I did not study poetry. I've been putting off taking the midterm and I vowed to study this weekend so I can take the test. But alas. I did not.

5. I did not write up my seminary lessons for this week either. I will probably be up late doing my lesson for tomorrow tonight. This is not good. I need to sleep.

6. I did not clean my side of the bedroom. It's getting pretty cluttered and it seems that even the laundry baskets want me to clean. They are congregating on my side of the room begging me to put dirty clothes in them. (I hate it when laundry baskets beg)

7. I did not sew anything this weekend. I should have.

8. I did not clean off the two-couch downstairs so the cats can have somewhere to sleep other than the floor and the couch that is supposed to be only for human beings to sit on.

9. I did not blog. Acres of bloggable space went unused when I didn't post! No old random pictures were uploaded and captioned and/or labeled with curious thoughts and forced upon you.

10. What did I do then if I didn't do all that stuff I had intended to do? I got nice and sick this weekend. It wasn't on my to-do list, but I did it and I feel like I should at least cross something off the list. So, check! I got good and feverish, hacked up many a phlegm wad, lit a fire inside BOTH eyeballs, commandeered all the good blankets downstairs, and slept fitfully in an upright sitting position. And like the good and charitable person that I am striving to become, I shared whatever virus I had with those around me.

And that was my weekend. How was yours?

I'm gonna buy stock in Kleenex

This recent lack of blogging activity is brought to you by a cold virus, lack of sleep, and too many projects that needed my attention.

But now two of the three are over. The cold and I are still inseparable though.

Here are some random pictures to peruse whilst I tend to my runny nose.
You'll have to caption the pictures yourself. I am headed for bed again.