Good day

Today was a good day. It really was. It's been a while since I've had a truly good day, so this was a welcomed change.

I have taken so many pictures over the last 24 hours or so, so I'm going to let them tell most of the story. Because we all know that I like pictures.

Another moon shot from last night. Or maybe it's the same one that I
already posted. Either way, I still think it's really cool.

Sunrise this morning. The picture doesn't do it justice.

Stupid pole ruined my perfect shot of the sunrise and the cows.
I love cows. I hate poles.

I got the sunrise pictures on the way to
Emily's honor roll assembly. All A's again.
You can't see her full outfit, but today was
Dress Like A Nerd Day.

The sun was up higher when I left the school to come back home.
The sky was an amazing shade of blue.

Now don't lie - I know that the majority of you are reading this so that you can see what The Dude brought to me today. I won't keep you in suspense any longer, but I'll tell you the whole story now.

Today was his day off from work, so we had talked about hanging out today and maybe going out to lunch - alone, just the two of us, no kids. I was up way early this morning (hence the sunrise pictures) and spent all morning either running around or cleaning the house. I started to get a headache so I laid down on the couch and totally crashed.

I awoke to him coming in the front door. And he had this stuff in his hand. 

For no reason at all.

So we went out to lunch. We decided to try a new Italian place here in town (new to us, anyway) and we were not disappointed! The food was amazing, the service was great (might have had something to do with the fact that there was only one other table there), and we just had a great time stuffing ourselves silly.

I even tried fried calamari. And it wasn't nasty.

After that, we went to a used furniture store because he wanted to look for something - they didn't have exactly what he wanted, so we wandered around the store looking at other stuff (and they had some amazing vintage stuff that I really really like) and we stumbled upon a lamp. I've been talking about getting a lamp for my sewing area - since I do most of my sewing at night and the lighting in this house sucks, a floor lamp is a necessity. But we found this one, and it was really cheap, and so he bought it for me.

We went in looking for something for him, and I came out with a lamp. I think he got the short end of the stick on that one, but I love my lamp.

And I really kind of love him too. At least a little bit.

...and it's really bright.

It was such a beautiful day that I drove to pick the boys up with my
windows open. And I gained a friend in the process.

The boys and I walked over to the grocery store to get a few things.

Hard to snap a picture when he's using me
for balance.

Whose brilliant idea was it to walk to the grocery store and come home
with pumpkins? Thank goodness I took the reusable bags with us....

Notice the clash of the holidays there? 

I got moves like a ninja. Or something.

Someone was getting sleepy.

"Mom, can you carve it to look like THIS?"

The finished products. Yes, we only did the two this year.

Then it was time to whip up a triple batch of cookies, because I
volunteered to send in snacks for BOTH classes tomorrow.
I still can't decide if that was a good idea or not.

Oooohhhh.....spooky!

Another moon shot, but from tonight. Can you tell I'm having fun
with a camera that will actually take shots at night?

So now I am running back and forth from the computer to the kitchen while I work on making the cookies - but the good news is that I'm almost done with that project. Then I can figure out what seasonings I want to put on the pumpkin seeds and get those roasted up so that I have something semi-healthy to snack on for the next day or two.

And I need to sew. I have a bazaar coming up on Saturday and I'm not ready for it. And I need to rearrange the girls' bedroom. And do some laundry. And do the dishes.

Guess it's a good thing that I got that nap today!

Halloween came early....

....which thankfully means that it's gone early too.

I really hate Halloween. There are many reasons, but just trust me on it. I don't like to dress up, masks (even on kids) scare the crap out of me, and I hate spending tons of money on crappy costumes that are worn for an hour before they fall apart.

Luckily, we didn't spend a penny on costumes this year. A friend gave us a couple of ninja costumes that we thought that the boys could wear, but Sarah pounced on those. We had to perform some surgery on them, but we were able to pull together a decent looking ninja - but without a hood.

Emily wore my pajamas - totally her idea.

Jared wore the solider costume from last year.

Alex wore his old Optimus Prime one - which is definitely too small, but he wanted to wear it so we made it work one last time.

Daniel - used the police officer one again.

I think this is the third year for the soldier and police officer (there's a firefighter too that didn't get used this time) - I swore that the boys would just rotate those until they either outgrew them or they fell apart, and so far it's working. Although Alex's father spent a small fortune and bought the Optimus Prime one for him last year.

So we went downtown for the trick or treating. Yes, it was tonight. This is the official - "close down Main Street, beg for candy from the businesses, and run around these 4 blocks with your costumes on and not worry about getting hit by a car night". It's always a madhouse, and we end up spending more time standing in line with some obnoxious teenager who is too old to be trick or treating in line behind us the entire time.

I was actually able to have a friend get a group shot.
That doesn't happen very often.

After we got home, the kids went through their loot and I of course, took a few pieces ("Hey, look! Fortune Cookies! You guys don't want them!" *snatch*) and then I made Emily get in the shower to get the orange hairspray out of her hair. They all ate enough candy to get a good sugar buzz and then the boys went to bed. The girls are still "working on cleaning their room" which means that they're sitting in there doing nothing but giggling and getting in trouble.

Tomorrow's plans? Church. That's it. Hopefully we can actually have most of the day to do absolutely nothing - but I'm pretty sure that will change.

Questions and Answers

So every now and then, I get bored lazy inspired and I ask the people on my facebook page to ask me questions, and I'll answer them in the blog. It's a fun way for people to get to know me better and it gives me something to write about when I really can't think of anything interesting.

This is what was asked tonight:

Jennifer asked: If there were only two football teams in the entire world, The Cowboys and The Bears.. Which would you choose?
This one is totally a no-brainer for me. I will always choose whoever is playing against the Cryboys Cowgirls Cowboys. Always. Without a doubt. Well, unless it's Pissburgh Pittsburgh - then I have a really hard time deciding who I hate more, but at that point, I might not complain too much if the Cryboys Cowgirls Cowboys didn't lose.

And yes, I know that The Dude is a diehard fan of that team that I despise - but he has to have a fault. If rooting for the wrong team is the worst one that he has, I'm ok with it. Plus, it gives us something to bicker about from time to time.

Mike asked: I am a stay at home dad and I play dolls with my daughter is it wrong for me to see the cute little dolls naked. Lol
I wouldn't necessarily say that it's wrong, as long as you are not thinking inappropriate thoughts about said dolls. Then you could be considered a freak.

Next!!!

Kristine asked: what chores do your kids do? My two are 9 and almost 11, and I need some ideas!!
You know, this question actually got me to thinking (I hate when that happens). My kids don't really have 'chores'. They have things that I expect them to do, like picking up their toys and keeping their rooms cleaned and basic things like that. But they don't really have a chore list. I just expect them to do what I tell them to do - sometimes that works, and sometimes that doesn't. For instance, I will wash and dry and fold their laundry - but I refuse to put the girls' stuff away. I make them do that, and then when they can't find something, it's their fault and not mine. (I learned that one a long time ago!) Jared and Alex will put their laundry away as well, but I still have to help Daniel because he's too short to reach his top drawers.

It's a little harder for me because the older 3 are only here half of the time - and really less than that now with the sports schedule. So to be completely honest, I try to do as much as I can so that they can focus on family and homework while they're here. As they get older, I do have them do more around the house - when they're here.

Mike asked: I will let my dog or cat play with the naked Barbies on the floor if and only IF they are missing limbs. But if the have all four limbs they get in trouble. Should I let the Barbies become dog toys? I'm afraid dfs is gonna walk in and find a dead Barbie in the dogs mouth.
Oh, Mike, Mike, Mike....first of all, kudos for only allowing the pets to mangle the already-dismembered Barbies. I would hate to think of your kids' reactions should Fluffy get a hold of an intact one. Personally, I despise Barbies so I'm all for allowing them to be chewed up and digested by the 4-legged members of the family, and if any social service agency has a problem with that, then they need to go back and look at their job descriptions again.

Heather asked: What's your favorite thing about Kerry?
Oh boy....how much time do you have? Seriously, there is so much about this guy - but I'll try to keep it short. Probably the best thing about him is that he gets me. I don't know how he does it, but he just knows what makes me tick. He and I were just chatting back and forth on facebook and he said something that made me smile - and I told him that I thought that it was cool "that even after this long, you can send me a message like that, and I sit here with this dumbass smile on my face" - and it's true. No matter what is going on in our lives, he can always make me smile. Our relationship is special in that we don't have to do anything amazing and exciting and exhilarating and whatever in order to enjoy the time that we have together - we are content to hang out with the kids, watch movies, chat on facebook if we're not together, run errands - it doesn't matter what we do, as long as we are together. It sounds cliche, but it's true.

Heather asked: If, given the chance, you had ONE WHOLE WEEK kid free, what would you do?
Oh boy. A week? Really?

I'd probably sleep for the first day. And if I wasn't sleeping, I'd be wandering around the house, eating random junk food and watching movies in my raunchy slept-in clothes and unbrushed teeth - just because I could.

That would only last about a day, because I'd get bored. Then I'd probably start cleaning the house. Like, really cleaning. Tearing stuff apart and organizing because I could do it without being interrupted or without having to stop to feed kids or break up fights or whatever.

And then I would sew. I would pull out all of my unfinished projects, spread them out all over the house to figure out what needed to be done, and then I'd sew and sew and sew until I got them all done.

Of course, spending as much time as possible with The Dude would also be worked in there too. Maybe we could arrange for him to have a week off from work at the same time - and we could win the lottery - and then he and I could go away for a few days, alone. Or skip the lottery part and we could just go pitch the tent out at the lake and hide away from humanity for a few days.

Heather asked: Do you still wear those boots?
(3 questions in a row, Heather? Really?)
Yes. I do.

The story of my boots...... Picture it. Sicily Pennsylvania, December 1993. I was preparing to start my final semester at Penn State, which consisted of my student teaching outside of Philadelphia (Norristown, to be exact). I had gone Christmas/school shopping with my mother, and I needed some new winter boots and a winter coat. Now, we've already established many times throughout this blog that I am not a girly-girl by any stretch of the imagination, so finding winter boots became a challenge. We finally went over to the men's department in some store and I found this pair. Yes, they are men's boots. I don't remember how much we paid for them or anything, but it wasn't an outrageous amount - because you know, men don't have to pay as much for functional boots as women do. Anyway, we bought them and a full length winter coat (that's actually a women's one though) and we left.

I have worn these boots every winter since then - and if my math is right, that means that this winter will be my 19th one with them. I love my big old ugly boots, and when they finally die I will be very sad, and I will never find a pair that is as wonderful as they are.

You can't see it in this picture, but the profile picture on facebook and on the one at the top of the blog itself - if you look at the right boot, there's black goo on them. That is tar from when I wore them to help build a Habitat for Humanity house when I worked in Wichita. I've worn them to do yardwork and to garden. I've trudged through snow and mud and all sorts of crap in them. And they are worn, and they are ugly, but I love them.

And, they are actually what started this blog.

Jennifer came back and asked: What's your favorite scary Halloween movie?
First off, I don't really "do" Halloween. I mean, I take the kids trick or treating and stuff, but I don't really like the "holiday" or "season" or whatever you want to call it.

But, give me a good horror movie any day of the week and I am happy. Seriously. I love a good horror movie. And I am just weird enough that I will sit here alone and watch them late at night. I love them all. Horror, blood and guts, you name it - I'll watch it.

Funny story - right after I moved into this house, I was watching "Pet Sematary" late one night. I had gotten it from Redbox and had forgotten just how scary it was. So I was a little edgy (best part of watching a scary movie) and all of a sudden, the front door of the house blew open with a bang, complete with leaves blowing in and swirling around on the floor. After I peeled myself off of the ceiling, I closed the door, and remembered to deadbolt it against the powerful Kansas wind - apparently I had gone out to smoke earlier that evening and didn't close the door tightly. Oops.

Angela asked: What are your favorite and most disliked parts of blogging?
That's a good one!

My favorite would just be 'doing it'. Whether it's getting something off my mind, keeping track of what the kids and I do on a daily basis, venting about something idiotic, or working through some issue that I didn't really realize that I had, I love being able to just sit here and type it out. I have no idea where I want to go with it - I don't think that I'm the type of person to turn it into a book or anything, but maybe someday I'll get it all printed up and save it for the kids or something. What I put out here is really ME - I don't sugarcoat, I don't make things up, I don't lie - it's totally a snippet of my life. I'm just amazed that people actually read it.

Oh, and the people! I love the people who I have "met" by doing this - both online and in real life. It's an amazing community and I am thrilled to be a part of it.

My most disliked parts....... There have been times when I've taken some pretty harsh criticism of something that I've done or said - and that's never fun. But at the same time, it's what I get for putting myself out there for the world to see so I can't really complain about it too much. There will always be haters and there will always be people who don't approve of what I do - but I'm really ok with that.

Honestly, my least favorite part at this point is Blogger's "new and improved" interface. You readers don't see it, but those of us who use it for our blogs do, and quite frankly, it sucks. It's another example of a company thinking that they need to improve upon something that is perfectly fine to start with - and in the process of "improving" it, they screw it up instead.

Laura asked: Can you keep what happend. On American Horror Story a secret for another hour or so????? I just started it!
Sure, I can do that. Mainly because I have no idea what you're talking about..... LOL

Pam asked: Why did you decide to keep secret what happened a couple weeks ago?
Ah yes, the incident. There are a number of reasons why I won't go into specifics about that one.

I do put a lot of us out there for the world to see. Had I known when I started this blog that so many people were going to read it, I never would have used our names or our pictures - but I did and I can't take it back now. So all I can do is try to protect ourselves from the scariness that is the real world.

I won't use our specific location. I won't use our last names. I do my best to blur out identifying details in pictures that I post. I have filters in place on my facebook page so that comments that contain certain words are automatically hidden. I do what I can to protect myself and my family online.

However, what happened a couple of weeks ago was not something that I could control. I was not able to be the protector in that situation, and to put it bluntly it scared the hell out of me. It was not a "blog thing" - it was a "real world thing". Luckily, everyone is fine. Given the situation, it could have been ugly and horrible and awful. But it wasn't. It's ok.

At the same time, there is a police investigation that is still continuing - and that is a big factor as to why I won't say anything about it just yet. Once I know that everything is resolved and that all of the loose ends are tied, I may divulge some of it - but I might not. I just have to wait and see how it plays out in the end.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
So there you have it - the answers to your questions (for tonight). I always tell people - if you have a question for me, just ask. You can comment here or on facebook, or you can send me a message on facebook or an email. I'll answer it - or if it's something that I can't answer, I'll tell you that too.

Finally done with Halloween

It's over. Yay! The costumes are all packed away, and will not be seen again until next year. The candy will most likely disappear very quickly - into a safe hiding place (much like the Easter candy, which I just found about a week ago).

Alex had his Halloween parade at school this morning....

Even the teachers got into it and did a dance number....

I spent the afternoon in the glorious weather and finished up cleaning the corner of my yard.

Took all of the stuff to the landfill....

Got Alex from school....

And then Daniel and I hung out and watched movies and folded/put away laundry while Alex went trick-or-treating with his father for a few hours.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of gloating about our glorious weather today, and I think it's already coming back to haunt me - my head is pounding, my stomach is crampy, I'm freezing cold....I've been fighting it for days, but I think it's got me this time. So I think that maybe if I go to bed now, I might be able to sleep off enough of it to at least get up and get Alex to school in the morning.

So, you get nothing fun and witty from me tonight - just a recap of the day. Hopefully I will feel human tomorrow.

Trick or Treat is done!

This afternoon was Newton's Halloween Safe Walk - basically they shut down about 3 blocks of the main drag through town and representatives from area businesses hand out candy to the kids. It's always a zoo (putting it mildly) and really just makes me dislike Halloween even more than I already do - but at the same time, it gets all of the trick-or-treating out of the way and we don't have to get in and out and in and out and in and out of the van to go door-to-door.

Sarah and Emily opted to stay with the church group and hand out candy, rather than walk to get candy - this made me happy in many ways. I'm glad to see them starting to want to be more involved with our church, since they go to their father's and not mine on a regular basis. The youth group was in charge of handing out candy, and although my girls are still a little young to be a part of it, they're a great group of kids for them to get to know.

It also meant that I only had to keep track of 3 kids in the crowd, and that there would be 40% less candy to take home. Win!

Wasn't even going to attempt to get them all to smile. Sometimes, it's just not worth it.

It was a beautiful - but windy - afternoon.

He can look so darned cute at times...

Just a small sampling of the crowd

Like I said, gorgeous day...

Crowd...

Crowd...

Oh holy crap, it just gets worse....

The truck, in full superhero costume.

The haul

Of course, I also had my Policy Council meeting to contend with today - it was supposed to be from 10:00am until 3:00pm - but of course, there are always those people who don't believe in following an agenda, and so we didn't get out of there until almost 3:30. And I got elected to be the secretary again. Yay me. Actually, I don't mind it that much, because it forces me to pay attention and to stay awake during the meetings. Of course, I was paying so much attention today that I wrote down the date and time of the next meeting on the minutes, but forgot to write it down in my datebook. Crap.

After we got home tonight and got supper out of the way (thank you, Wendy's) Emily decided to do some laundry. I was helping her to get it started, and something in the laundry room just didn't smell right.

I looked behind the dryer, and sure enough, the vent duct had pulled off of the back of the dryer. Gee, wonder when that happened - judging by the layer of lint and filth behind the dryer, I would say that it's only been a few days, but still.....

I really wasn't in the mood to clean back there, but since I was there anyway I took care of the worst of the grime after I got the duct reattached (really wish I could find my duct tape) and then got everything put back into place. Now I can do even more laundry. Oh, yay me.

But for now, I think I'm just going to work on straightening things up around the house and then try to get to bed at a reasonable hour. I'm not feeling so incredibly hot tonight and I think a shower and some sleep will work wonders....

Frantic Friday Fun

The older 3 kids didn't have school today, but the younger two did - so it was nice to spend the day with the older ones doing stuff that we don't usually get to do.

The day started with Daniel's Halloween parade at playschool this morning. One of the teachers asked my kids if they'd like to hand out the candy, so Daniel thought that it was pretty cool that his big brother was handing out some of the treats.

We went out for lunch after we took Daniel to preschool this afternoon.

Then we went shopping to get the girls some new jeans, which they so desperately needed. I wasn't really thrilled about spending the money, but they really did *need* them. We found some good sales, so that helped, but dang they're expensive!

After we got done shopping, we went back and picked the boys up from their schools and then came home. We had dinner, and then we had to go back out again to go to a Family Fall Fun Night or something like that for Boy Scouts - now that Jared is in that, it just adds to the hectic schedule that we already have.

Anyway, the kids had fun playing silly games and winning even sillier prizes.

On the way home, we were greeted by another incredible sunset.

Then when we got home, I was called to the bathroom and told to look down the drain in the sink, where I saw this lovely sight. *sigh* So off I went to get a pair of pliers and a bucket to perform surgery on the plumbing.

I was not impressed by the treasures that I found in the murky water of the trap. *barf*











The final (for now) project of the evening was to work on a Halloween costume for a truck for tomorrow. I might have procrastinated a bit on this one...but I'm not the only one. But it's about as done as it's going to be. It's a cape (because every superhero truck needs a cape) and it's huge - I didn't make the cape part, but I was assigned the "S" and the crosses, which were made out of this horrible shiny gold faux-sequined stretchy stuff, and it was awful to work with, but it'll do at this point.

Tomorrow, we have a meeting to go to from 10:00am until 3:00pm - it's a Policy Council thing, and I have no desire to go, but I'm obligated. Luckily they're providing childcare...

But as soon as we get out of that meeting, we have to get ready for trick-or-treat and meet everyone from the church to get the costume on the truck, and then deal with all of the chaos of the Safe Walk....and I know that there was something else that we were supposed to do tomorrow but for the life of me I can't remember what it was.

All I know is that I ran out of Diet Pepsi today. Tomorrow's looking ugly already.