:) :(

THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:

~leaves turning
~a chilly house felt from under the warmth of a quilt
~finishing a cross stitch project
~chicken noodle soup
~a free magazine subscription from my Coke points
~God's renewing grace every. single. day.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME SAD:

~raking aforementioned leaves
~potty training

Must. Get. Digital. Camera.

Tonight I had to run out for an errand, and by the time I came back into my neighborhood, the sun (gasp!) was nearing the horizon. As I drove along, I'm sure God was with me. The sun, which hasn't been seen in these parts in eons, it seems, was low enough that I couldn't see it through the houses and trees, but just high enough that it hit the tops of trees, setting the fall colors ablaze. As pulled into my driveway and quickly got my husband, but the sun had lowered too far, too fast before we made it back out to look.

God's reminders of His grace are all around us. I only wish I'd had a working camera to catch this and share it with you through pictures as well as words.

Under Pressure

This blog was started as an outlet - someplace to come and write out the day-to-day happenings (the inner workings, if you will) of my life as a wife, mother, employee, believer, etc. How I could allow it to become a nuisance is beyond me. I don't like feeling pressured to post, and that's exactly how I felt. We took a short trip to Denver a few weeks ago, and I haven't posted since then because I wanted my first post to be the pictures and stories of that trip - now I'm 3 weeks behind because I've been stalling on *one* post! That's just not right.

So, I'm postponing the Denver post so I can continue on with other, less important yet still interesting, things. Rest assured, I will post our Denver Oddessy, Part II.

My garden has sprouted, as have the rabbits. They started after my corn, which I was unsure would germinate anyway (lack of space). Now they've taken to my cantaloupe leaves. So, I googled and found about 1,456,829 solutions to the rabbit problem. What I ended up trying was simple garlic powder sprinkled around the space (I have such an overabundance of garlic powder, it's not even funny). We shall see how the cantaloupe plants look tomorrow morning - the rabbits must be getting them either at night or *way* early in the morning, because I never catch them there during the day, and there's a difference in foliage when I do my morning garden check.

Other than that, I do have some surviving corn. I planted it rather late, so it's smaller than the corn I see in other gardens. Size aside, however, it looks alright so far. I have peas, which the rabbits also got. Every time I'd go out and see new sproutings on the ends of the vines, I'd come back later in the day to find the new shoots gone, bitten away. Ah well - hopefully the garlic will solve that as well. I have no more mini sunflowers, although I can't blame the rabbits. I only had one plant that grew, and I think it may have gotten pulled as a weed by helpful little hands. Honestly, I'd rather have the help than the lone sunflower.

We've got radishes galore, the two hopeful cantaloupe plants, tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, green peppers, and pumpkins. No pumpkins yet, but flowers out the wazoo. All in all, I'd say it's a pretty good fare so far. Everything got put into the ground late, and I didn't have near the room I'd planned (that tiller kicked my butt). At the end of this season, I'll be ready with the newspapers and mulch in order to gain more space - about three times what I've got now.

The kids are C.R.A.Z.Y. The boys have cabin fever...the heat and humidity here have been awful for the past couple weeks. Now it's beautiful out, so hopefully we'll be curing that soon. Gina got another tooth, top left, second from the middle. It may not be a vampire tooth, but she'll still look vampire-ish until those top middles come in. She's crawling, standing with support, and "cruising" against furniture like a madwoman.

This weekend marks the 3rd annual (?) trip to PawPaw's over the summer. I think it's the third, but technically it's the first time going to his house up north. We'll leave early Friday morning, and I'm going to stay for a couple days to get the lay of the land there. Then I'll come back with GinaGina, and head back to pick them up the following weekend. If this doesn't cure their cabin fever, then it's hopeless. After they get back, they'll be attending VBS at a friend's church for a week, which they're excited about.

So much going on, and so little time. Soon it'll be time to start buying school supplies again and sending them off during the day. So I'm trying to make this summer as fun as possible for them. I just can't believe how much they're changing, almost day to day.

The time is upon us.

It's that time again folks!! It's *HOLIDAY* time!! Now this year, I'm not going to post pictures of all the Christmas stuff lining the shelves of my second home, Walgreens, like I did last year. But I will tell you that although we haven't put up our Christmas tree, or hung the stockings with care or anything a little on the weird side like that, we *have* hung up our jingle bell wreath on our front door. Our door needed something anyway.

We're knee deep in preparation for Turkey Day here. This will be the first evah turkey I've cooked...like, in my entire life. But I've watched my dear sweet mother do it about a gazillion times, so I know who to call when I can't figure out which end of the turkey bag to put the turkey in (uhm, that would be the *open* end, silly). Other than that, we'll be having the usual: stuffing (sorry mom, it's from a box...I can't master yours), mashed spuds, green bean casserole, either biscuits or corn muffins, and yup, even PIE!! I can't wait, and although the idea of double pay really appeals to us at this time, I'm secretly hoping BBM doesn't get called in to work.

Cakes is almost 3 months old, if you can believe that!! At her two month appointment, she'd grown longer, but not heavier (if you can believe that too!). Now, The Boys were chunks at this stage of the game. Their clothes were somewhere between "fit just right" and "not quite big enough around the middle". Cakes has plenty of wiggle room round her belly. She's also babbling now...I can't really describe it, but it's a hoot to listen to. She's a smiley little bugger too, especially if you catch her just waking up in the morning, before she realizes that no one is paying attention to her.

The Boys are incredibly excited for the holiday season to begin. There is only one thing on our television every Saturday and Sunday, then Monday night, and (at least in November) Thursday nights as well: football!!! Some college, some NFL...it doesn't matter to Little Linebacker. And he's still as score/record/statistic oriented this year as he was in years past - he can remember scores from games taking place 2 years ago. I can't imagine who he got that gene from. The OB didn't tell me, but I'm pretty sure he had a football cradled in his arms when he was born!

Beanpole is still doing wonderfully on the cello. He's learned pizzicato as well as bowing, and is practicing songs for his first concert! I'm trying to be supportive without being pushy. I would love to play the cello, so while I want to live vicariously through him, I also want him to enjoy what he's doing! He is so musically inclined, so it comes very easy to him. We have music playing almost constantly in the house, and a wide variety at that.

I just spoke with my mom, who has made plans to come over here tomorrow after church and help me try to finish getting Angel's room switched over. I'll admit it, I haven't done much of anything to it since moving the bunker downstairs. However, a few days ago I finally moved the file cabinets down into the basement. There are tons of loose papers, books, drawings, etc. left up there though, and I want to go through it all instead of just tossing it. Once that's done, a good dusting a vacuuming is in order, and then patching the nail holes in the walls. Then, finally, painting and putting up chair rail. I can't wait for it to be all finished! I've got before pictures, and I'll post them and the afters once we're completely done!

And now it's time for me to throw another load of laundry in while I wait for BBM to get home from work. If I don't get a chance to post again before Thanksgiving, have a wonderful holiday!! Be safe, be happy, and be thankful!

Laugh at me if you will...

...but don't call me stupid. This is what we experienced in the past 8 hours (remember, it was 78 degrees here yesterday):

Now some of these were taken by either Big Boss Man or Beanpole, so I'm not quite sure what they are:





And then there are some that really give the feel of how much snow we got (but not really because the camera just doesn't do it justice...a total of 10 inches here):





Now imagine us outside, wading through the snow on what we think is our sidewalk, trying to find the snow shovel that one of our blessed children left out there...somewhere...

And no, we never found it, but the truck was actually parked in the road (I couldn't see where the street ended and our yard began, so I'd rather stay in the street), so we had to do something. So, being the ever-prepared, always inventive and imaginative woman that I am, I grab the next best thing. My weapon of choice?



Yeah, that's right, a dustpan. Because when you've got to shovel, you've got shovel. So I shovel. Freakin' back-breaking work, or so I thought. I figured I'd get inside and warm up, and then all of a sudden, not be able to move due to my back seizing up and refusing to move. Even Big Boss Man came out, and with the assistance of our trusty leaf rake, "shoveled" the lower end of the driveway. The results of our efforts?



(And no, there are no plants in those planters).







A meager prize for all our hard work...but keep in mind, most of it was done with a dustpan.

So now, I sit. I've made dinner and have a steaming bowl of LaChoy Chicken Chow Mein sitting in front of me (my pregnancy craving of choice). And my arms feel like they may actually fall off my body. Really, I think if they fell off, it would be less painful than what they feel like when I try to move them. In fact, my arms are physically shaking just from the weight of the spoon I'm trying feably to feed myself with.

The kicker in all of this? Our neighbors. Our nice, friendly neighbors...3 of which I saw, and I'm sure they saw us (or heard us, as a few colorful explitives were muttered when standing up straight after 10 minutes of bending over). There driveways were actually shoveled already, some of them out into the street (since our 'hood is one of the last to get plowed, if it ever does). And not one of them offered their shovels...probably (as I told Little Linebacker and Beanpole) because they'd seen ours sitting in our front yard for the past two weeks, and they thought to themselves "Who leaves their snow shovel out in the yard when we're expecting 10 inches of snow?!?! MORONS."

Yeah??? Well I happen to think the rake and the dustpan did a mighty fine job, even if I can't move tomorrow morning.

And another?

So, yesterday I felt just a tad braggy after posting about my rocking the house-ness and winning my first award. Well color me speechless if Ness didn't make (yeah, she made this) another one for me and some other deserving bloggers!!

It seems sort of ridiculous to say that she's a close friend when I've never even met her, but she simply oozes caring, kindness, love, compassion, and understanding...all the merits of a tremendous friend. I hope I can meet her someday. Go on over the her website and check her out. She's even funny too! Bonus!

And now, I get to go make myself ready for the world according to Walgreens. Tonight is my late night (well, my latest night, since my "late night" is only until 9pm if I get out on time). I'm scared to look at the weather channel, because I heard nasty ugly rumors yesterday of snow on its way again. I guess I should check, just so I'll be prepared. But I really don't wanna.

Fallin' back, baby!!

Aahhhh. I love fall. Have I mentioned that in previous posts? If not, I love fall. But I especially love the fact that I can stay up late one night, reading a book called High Spirits by Peter Funk (an excellent read), and then wake up the next morning, having completely forgotten to fall back. What a wondrous feeling, that although your clock is trying really hard to convince you it's one time, it's really a whole hour earlier than that.

I feel like I could swim an entire ocean...or ride a bull named Hell Breaketh Loose for a full 8 seconds...or move a mountain. Unfortunately, the third and final choice is the one that will be happening today. Plural, actually. How could we have mountains and mountains of laundry, just sitting there, waiting for me to do something with it? I'd take pictures of it to share, but I just can't. It's that embarrassing. And although I say this every week, I'll say it again now: I will get it done today. It's my own little mantra, like the Little Engine That Could. I will get it done today.

I am all SMILES

Yes, I know...I've gone on already about how much I love the upcoming time of year. I don't care. I'm going to do it again. And you're going to deal with it, because you love me and want me to be happy.


I walked into work this morning, expecting the same ol', same ol when it comes to Fridays...long day, but okee dokee because, well, it's Friday. But today was going to be different...oh so different.

I was suddenly all smiles. Overnight, literally, my store had become a Christmas wonderland! We're talking permanent smileage here folks. I couldn't get over it. I actually took my camera out and grabbed a few shots of a few of the many wonderful things available for purchase to make our home all Christmasy.

Heaven in a box.

I'm fairly certain I could live on coffee and Almond Rocha. I might not be able to fit through any doors, or sit still for any period of time, but I'd be livin', baby!

Disregard the glare...it was on a top shelf. These are just the cutest oversized Christmas bulbs ever...they are for the yard.

Finally...bulbs for Big Boss Man...he believes that ALL Christmas lights should be those old colored bulbs...the huge ones. Well, here ya go hon!

And these...giant ornaments...I don't know where I'd put them, but I'd find a spot to watch them sparkle.

The camera doesn't near do these justice. They were simply sparkling.

Gorgeous for year-round use, but lovely in a Christmasy way too.

Hard to tell, but they glow...they actually change color. Nothing like a color-changing snowman. Cheesy? Maybe. But I like 'em anyway.

Ahhh...more cheese.

Lots of happy snowmen, snowwomen, and snowchildren.

Jingling snowmen, snowwomen, and snowchildren.

As you can see, I'm totally psyched about Christmas. I had people staring at me like I was a true freak (and not just the one I play on TV). I'm the first to admit: I don't do decorating. I don't really have a style (well, unless you consider "clutter" a style). But Christmas decorations are just neat. How can you not smile when walking into a room filled with deep greens, bright reds, sparkling silvers and crisp whites? It speaks of winter and Christmas. It exudes comfort and family. It almost pukes warmth and happiness. And I'm all for it!

Happy Hallowe'en!!!

Ahhhh...'tis that time of year. Children running around, carrying on like the tiny freaks that they usually are...dressed as miniature Luke Skywalkers, Lightening McQueens, or Hannah Montanas. Leaves are just terrifical; all the colors starting to form, changing from bright summer green to even brighter fall oranges, yellows, reds, browns, and purples. Weather? Perfect! Cool (heck, downright chilly) at night, and sunny, breezy, and cool during the day. Excellent jeans and a sweatshirt weather. It's FALL, people!! Wake up and smell the leaf fires!

Soon, it will be Turkey time...my second favorite time of year (clearly, I love to eat...how could that not be one of my favorite holidays???). My first favorite, winter, is right around the corner. Granted, we've had Christmas stuff up in my store for a good 1½ months already, but still...we're early risers! Hopefully, snow will soon be falling, trees glistening with ice, trucks driving down the streets with Christmas trees in tow. I've already made my first batch of "Let It Snocoa" for the year (yummy white hot chocolate). I really love winter and Christmas, but this year, for some reason, it's especially exciting for me. I don't know why.

This brings me to my next point. 2 easy words....Gingerbread House. Do you make them? It's a tradition in my family, and one of the few things that all three kids and their families get together for anymore. My mom bakes the gingerbread the night before, so it's cooled and cut into the forms before we arrive at her house. She's had the same paper patterns for the house for as long as I can remember, and they fit perfectly into one of her cookie sheets, with just enough gingerbread leftover to form the makeshift fence around the house. Candy galore, and the kids have an absolute blast. Some of my most vivid memories are of cookie house night. We have a special silver platter for it, and it stays at mom's house. We all pick little sneaks of candy off it every time we're there, until the candy is too hard to eat anymore. I don't even know how it gets tossed every year. It's probably something my mom does without our knowledge, so we don't have to see it go.

We're going to mom's house tonight to trick or treat for awhile, then off to a parade near her house with friends. The kids will be candy-stuffed and wiped out, but it will be a great night. A great fall night.