Trick or ......bah humbug!

I've never hidden from you my deep seated loathing of Halloween. I really do NOT like it one bit. However, I really enjoyed that website up there. Fun. Mindless. Clever. Check it out. I bought a TON of candy this year. I know.. I buy a ton ever year.. and I always run out. This year though.. I bought a TON. I'm determined not to run out. The Boy says if I gave just one piece to all the kids I'd be all set every year. But.. I dunno. I like to give them 2. Go figure. It's not the kids or the giving out of candy that I don't like.. so I figure why not.. it's Halloween after all. Besides, I know 89% of them from school.

Happy Haunting!

A Hodge Podge of Subjects

It's been a little crazy around here lately, hence the lack of blogging going on. Also, I have something kind of big that I'm having to deal with.. serious and maybe a little scary.. and I haven't much felt like blogging. I'll share when I have more information to share, but until then maybe you could send some good karma my way.

My cats however, are starting to get along. (like how I changed the topic?) I think that eventually they might be friends, but for now I'll settle for "sleeping near each other". Winter is coming soon (gasp, I still haven't bought the kids winter coats.. I'm getting no parenting points this year) and Bella isn't much a fan of the snow, so it will force her inside and she'll just have to deal with Bailey.

Musing on a Friday Evening

Ya'll still out there? This week has been crazy. Busy. Hectic. Exhausting. I am. So. Glad. It's. Over. It never fails to amaze me how some parts of the year drag on and on and on.. yet other parts of the year fly by in a quick blink of the eye. In regards to this craziness, I give you some random things to tide you over until a more normal blog post shows up.

Fall TV: I am so glad Men in Trees is back on. I didn't watch this show last year, except for maybe twice. I did however start watching during summer reruns, and I got hooked!

Letters on a Monday.. a Monday.. a Monday.....

Dear Red Sox,
I know that making it into the post season is a huge thing for you. It is a lot of stress, and hard work. I get that. But c'mon. Seriously?!? How about a win? For me? For the kids? For the hell of it? It's not too much to hope that if your team makes it into the playoffs that they will keep up the momentum and do a kick ass job and win some games. I know you can do it. I have faith in you. Besides, baseball is much better than football. I'm not ready to give it up yet. Ok, Rest up.... Thanks! One Believing Fan

To The Boy,
When you offered to make brownies with Ms. Thang for school tomorrow, I was relieved. I had to leave and go out. I had stuff to do when I got back. It was brownies for gawd sake, any monkey can follow directions and make brownies.

Random iPod

When you look into my eyes
And you see the crazy gypsy in my soul
It always comes as a surprise
When I feel my withered roots begin to grow
Well, I never had a place that I could call my very own
But that's alright, my love, 'cause you're my home
When you touch my weary head
And you tell me ev'rything will be alright
You say, use my body for your bed
And my love will keep you warm throughout the night

In Which We Find.....

The latest day EVER that we've turned on the heat.

I know.. I post about this every year.. but I'm just amazed! We started living on our own in 1997. During the first 7 years.. October 1st was "turn on the heat day". Some years, it was a stretch to make it to October 1st. One year, it was so miserably cold I had to turn it on the 3rd week in September. In 2005, the heat didn't go on until October 12th, and I was grateful. It was the first year we didn't run out wood stove (it's older than me, and in bad shape) and I wasn't looking forward to how cold the house would be. We had some heating work done that year, and some new radiators installed in rooms that didn't previously have some.. and it wasn't too bad.

An Apple a Day....

Saturday, after I took the kids pictures, we went apple picking. Each year we wait a little longer to go, so that it can "cool off".. and each of the past 3 years.. it has been unseasonably warm the day that we pick apples. Saturday was no different. It was in the low 80s still at 4pm when we headed off to the orchard.

This is our second year with this orchard (our old favorite orchard shut down operations a few years ago) and we enjoyed our trip. We picked a peck of apples and on Sunday I put my first batch of cinnamon applesauce into the Crockpot. Nothing says fall like the smell of applesauce simmering all day long.

This week has definitely been cooler than last, and I have a feeling there will be more apple baking going on this weekend. If I can just get through this week.....

Weekend Wrap Up

* Isn't that a fabulous photo? I love it. I took the camera outside yesterday and did an impromptu photo shoot with my kids. I decided I wasn't shelling out $$ for school pics this year, and did my own. I am very pleased with how they turned out, and I like that I can just order the sizes I want. For MUCH cheaper. My favorite little 3 year old came outside when I was finishing up, and I took 2 photos of her with Ms. Thang.. and a gorgeous one of her by herself. So I order a few of her for her mom as well. The light was perfect for photos, and I just love how the sun shines down through this tree in late afternoon. Gorgeous. This is the maple tree that sits next to my driveway on the inside of the fence. It dumps a TON of leaves on the driveway and into the yard, but I don't care. It's worth it in my opinion. It hasn't been lost on me that we will have less leaves to rake this year since the loss of our tree over the summer. Speaking of that, I put down grass seed last weekend, and it's rained once since. Figures huh? but we have a chance of rain every day this week, so I guess that's alright. Hopefully some grass will grow somewhere.

I'm A Lousy Blogger

So I meant to come and blog about this Sunday. Then again on Monday, and then I was busy, and it seemed silly to blog about something so far away from when it happened. But I finally uploaded my photos onto my laptop today.. and I thought.. what the hell. So, here we go.

Sunday was one of those kind of days that just falls into place unexpectedly and leaves you feeling happy and content at the end of the day. The Boy said good morning to me after we woke up, and I said good morning back... and sound came out of my mouth! This was huge.. as I woke up Tuesday and had no voice. Typically when I lose my voice, it's for a day, day and a half tops. Never 4 full days. So I was a tad nervous, and also feeling quite lousy with the cold moving into my chest.. and it was very hard to work with a voice that would go no higher than a whisper.

In Which We Find.. A Contest, and a Plea

Dear lovely blog readers,

My knitting-romance-writing friend Rachael has an urgent plea which I have pasted below. Please make her LIFE for her by voting for her, and if you enjoy it, please pass this along! (she's a pretty darn good writer BTW.... if nothing else it's good reading).