Trick or Treat!

Oh holidays, how I love you and the traditions we come up with carrying on year after year. Some people may "outgrow" the magic of holidays, not I. The anticipation, the planning, the holiday hype in every department store and catalog, the children's  wonder and excitement, the joy of it all... I thrive on it. I move from one holiday to the next ready to soak in and capture these precious fleeting moments. Because they are, my friends, fleeting. Time passes much too quickly, I have to enjoy it all. And, when no holiday is in sight... I make them up. Yes, why not? Life is just too short to not celebrate it.

The candy wrappers wadded in a ball stuffed in my pants pockets, Halloween decorations collected in piles in my dining room waiting to be stored back in the attic, and the remains of a sugar high wearing off... are evidence of a good time.

Halloween preparation started Friday night with a tasty homemade shrimp cocktail with blue corn tortilla chips and spicy pepperjack cheese to snack on, and pulling together last minute costume items.

Saturday we stuffed our annual candy bags to give out to our neighborhood trick or treaters. Middle Little had much fun putting together the candy bags and put them together perfectly with just the right balance of chocolate and fruity candies. (Last year, she was helping stuff candy bags and I caught her hiding a bag of fun sized M&Ms under her shirt...lol.)

Saturday evening we carved the annual pumpkin (this year Dad opted out... said he couldnt top the one he did last year, it was pretty cool). Check it out... easiest pumpkin to carve ever... the vomiting pumpkin. Actually, I kind of felt like this after stuffing all the candy bags earlier in the day. Dude, its called too many fun sized candy bars.

Sunday, Halloween morning I was up ready to try my hand at baking "from scratch" pumpkin pies. I scrubbed that little pumpkin and prepped it with great care in hopes that Id have the bestest pumpkin pies ever in my house.... the smell of fresh pumpkin pies all infused with spices and sweetness, was divine.

Delish. I was proud. So proud I ate about a quarter of the pie....AFTER we handed out candy and I had already eaten about as much candy as I handed out. Okay, not really, but I sure ate more of it than I should have. Can we say "hopped up" on sugar?

Before the whole candy eating frenzy and pie, Daddy cooked some mouth watering and just right seasoned chicken breasts on the grill for shredded chicken tacos. YUM. See, it wasnt all sugar... we did manage to eat something healthy.

After dinner, we climbed into the attic to see what we could drag out quickly to spook up the yard. A few "bloody sheets", some plastic skulls/body parts, lazer light, fog machine, a few random objects and we were good to go!

Daddy setting up the fog machine looking spooky in his tophat/wig.

And yes, now that I have overloaded your senses with all of this... I saved the best for last.

Middle Little decided she wanted to be "Jem" from the old 80's cartoon, Jem and the Holograms.

{Theme Song}
Jem...
Jem is excitement!
Oouu Jem...
Jem is adventure!
Ooouu...
Glamour and glitter,
Fashion and fame!
Jem...
Jem is truly outrageous
Truly, truly, truly outrageous
Woo ooo Jem...
Jem
the music's contagious (outrageous)
Jem is my name
No one else is the same
Jem is my name!

Oh how I love this girl. So here she is folks...

I bring you, the comeback tour... for one night only... "Jem"

Featuring D.J. Josh.0

If I hadnt taken such a long video Id post it, of Abbie dancing in the front yard to The Monster Mash & The Adams Family theme songs... lol.  Abbie is a dancing machine. The Littles had much fun trick or treating, handing out candy, eating candy and greeting people!

I am patiently waiting for Thanksgiving now. Oh the crafts and baking we can do! I can smell the turkey roasting, hear the football game in the background and see the kids running around! Someone pass me the gravy boat for my mashed potatoes.

Whether you observed Halloween or not this past weekend, I hope whatever you did, you had a good one! Now go celebrate something.   ;-)

A Very Special Visitor

I love the weekends. You never know what is in store, even when it is planned. Meant to post sooner, but sometimes things get so gogogogo, that its difficult to find the time to just sit in one place for a few minutes.

Saturday, we all piled into the car for a small shopping excursion. It was time to buy Littlest Little some cooler weather clothes. Bless his little bones, he has grown out of quite a few of his clothes, the little ball of masculinity he is. He scored several shirts (plaid of course... this Momma thinks he looks oh so handsome in plaid), a couple sweaters, some jeans, shorts, and he and Middle Little both scored Red Wing hockey team windbreakers. Daddy was proud of those. Middle Little scored a few items as well as another Halloween costume, because she "needed" another one. On our shopping journey, Daddy spied a church yard sale type event in a shopping center parking lot. So we stopped to see if there were any treasures we couldnt live without. Well, Joshua scored. We had planned on buying him a swing like Abbie's as a Christmas gift, but could not pass up the oppurtunity to purchase same said swing for 5 bucks! Dude... 5 bucks! And who knew that five dollar swing would cause such a chortle to come from such a little body. I swear if he smiled any bigger, he would have swallowed his own face. We spent a lazy Saturday swinging and crafting.





Sunday rolled around and we got up extra early and ventured out to skip over a few cities for a visit with great Grandma at the nursing home. Everyone dolled up looking good - check, camera packed - check, bags packed with extra clothes - check... which was a good thing because poor Middle Little didnt even make it there in her sweet little baby pink eyelet dress before vomiting up all the lemonade Daddy had given her before we left the house. Just heartbreaking to see her angelic little face upset like that. Daddy pulled over and in a flash I had her cleaned up, fresh new dress, a hug and a kiss, an "are you okay?" and an "I love you", and we were good to go. Yes, thats what Mothers do... we come prepared (If not, we make due... think MacGyver... give me a plastic bag and a piece of rope and I can whip up a fantastic replacement outfit worthy of any runway in Paris.)

This day, the nursing home was blessed with a very special visitor... Abbie. In all the sadness of seeing these people confined to their wheelchairs, beds and their own bodily prisons... here came this perfect little ray of sunshine. The way she electrified the place was breathtaking. One woman, whom I thought was almost catatonic, who sat in a wheelchair in the hallway slumped over staring straight ahead with no sign of life... came absolutely alive when Abbie walked up to her and grabbed her arm. This woman sat straight up and started laughing and smiling ear to ear and exclaimed "I love her!" Abbie stomped down the hallway popping her head in each door exclaiming to each member of the nursing home...

Abbie: "Hi, I'm Abbie! I'm 14!"

Me: No you're not 14."

Abbie: "I'm 16!"

Me: "No you are not 16 silly goose."

Abbie: " I'm Abbie, I'm 2. What are you doing? Do you want to play with me? Do you want to play ball with me?"

Me: Trying hard to control the giggles and huge smile on my face.

I know everyone at the nursing home enjoyed her as much as she enjoyed visiting with everyone. One man that was standing outside enjoying the fresh air stopped me as I was walking to the car to feed Littlest Little. He grabbed Josh's little arm and stared at him and said, "Would you look at how beautiful. You know what the sad thing is? I'll never see him again." I wanted to crawl under a rock and hide, it was so heartbreaking. It was truly a depressing sight to see some of these once vivacious people in the state they were in... they were just "there"... just existing. It made me want to scoop them all up and bring them all home so we could sit around and listen to all the life stories I am sure they have bottled up inside willing to share.

And Gran? Well, she likes her stay at her new home and seems happy there. It was good to see her doing so well. I know she was glad to see us all, especially the Littles.

Lots of hugs/kisses/smiles/laughs and much love going around....

Nice to see that in your 80's you can still have awesome-ly fast reflexes....

Oh the babies these hands have rocked and soothed, the meals they have prepared, the love they have shown, the life of work they have done.

Our sweet sweet Grandma Patsy....

We spent some time with Great Grandmother, then left for a bit to grab some lunch.... or in my case, breakfast.

Now these are pancakes.


What's on the menu Josh-mo?

Because wearing heels in the country is a good idea? (At the end of the day, after taking off my shoes, I had "dirt sandals".) Lesson learned.



We headed back after lunch and visited with Gran some more before heading to visit a bit more with Grandma Patsy at her house. We kissed and hugged Gran and said goodbyes/I love yous. (She has an 88th birthday coming soon in December!) I took home a lovely plastic bead necklace she gave me that she scored from winning a round at bingo. Apparently Gran had a collection of these going... some kind of Bingo shark she is! It was so good to see Gran.

Daddy & Littlest Little talking with Grandma Patsy...

Hanging on Grandma's porch exploring... (a porch that Daddy and his Dad built).



After visiting for awhile, it was time to pack up and get ready to head home.

Abbie, our little helper, made sure Josh buckled up for safety.

After a wonderful day of visiting with loved ones, and for me, reality hitting home about what lies behind nursing home doors and the precious souls that inhabit these places.... it was time to hit the road and leave the beautiful country skies behind and make our way back home. It was a very good day.



Some days are just like that...

Yes, not everyday is all rainbows, unicorns and butterflies, no, some days are just "one of those days".  We all have them.  It's up to us to turn those kind of days into sun shiny happy to be alive kind of days. No matter how bad the day, it is possible my friend, to turn the day into something good. Perhaps not instantly, but it is possible to find something to be thankful for during a stressful day. Meantime, this might help at least bring a smile if your having a less than terrific day. Sing with me now...

{Today's post tune: "I'm about to whip somebody's ass" ~ what else? }