Pumpkin Posse 2008

Jack O'Lantern time!!

This picture cracks me up - the chef's knife poised, ready to strike the unsuspecting gourd; Garrett pulling out pumpkin guts and Trent holding back Sadie - who looks truly horrified by such goings-on. (Honest - this wasn't posed! Sadie is actually mad because she wanted to be first to rip out pumpkin guts and Trent was pulling her off Garrett's pumpkin. Matt with the knife was just a bonus photo element!)



Soon, Sadie gives in to the dark side and begins scooping out pumpkin guts also. The look on her face is priceless!




As you can see, the kids had their work cut out for them These pumpkins produced a lot of seeds and pumpkin pulp!



Trent was a reluctant participant - preferring his tome to de-pulping pumpkins. Adam tried to get him involved in the activity.

Adam: "Here Trent, have a pumpkin!"

Trent: "Uhhhhhhh, thanks?"



Trent was not the only one who felt this activity was disgusting and refused to engage.

Nathan: "Ewwwwwwwwwwww!"



However, scribbling on a small gourd with crayons is always fun . . . helps you to forget the fact you just dribbled chocolate milk all down the front of your shirt.


"Hmmmmmmmm; Garrett is wrong - these do NOT taste like Chicken!"


Jessi seemed to be enjoying herself. Perhaps she has a bit of a sadistic streak regarding squash or she just knew I was taking her picture at the moment!


The artiste at work . . .



Adam was another participant who refused to get his hands "dirty", preferring instead to inspect the work of everyone else to make sure it was done to code.


Adam:"It's a thankless job, but someone has to do it! Nobody mention the word union!"

(Garrett: "Union??")


The Gourd Group and their completed works of art. (Yes, that would be 3 kitty pumpkins there and one melting face.)

Happy Halloween!

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day

n June 0f 1995, I joined the millions of women affected by pregnancy and infant loss. Since that time I have endured 6 more losses - and while so very early on in pregnancy, were no less devastating due to their brevity.

In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan signed his name to a proclamation stating the month of October to be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. Following suit in 2005, Congress passed a bill proclaiming the 15th of October to be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. In current years this day and month are marked by Remembrance Walks, Prayer Ceremonies and many other rituals meant to help healing, spread awareness and engender compassion.

Anyone touched by the tragedy of losing a child - whether in infancy, at birth, beyond or before knows how life altering and devastating the experience is. They would have been sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, grandparents and friends - that we did not get to know them more fully in this life is truly a loss.

Always Remembered . . .

~i~

Rain, Rain, Go Away . . .

Sunday morning we awoke to this:







This is the field directly behind our house. You can see our chainlink fence and playset in some of the pictures. We figured the water was about 12-13 inches deep. The wind was blowing and created "waves" across this expanse of water. It did not come up into our yard however (we have a significant rise up from the lower portion of the yard to where the house actually sits) and later that afternoon had run mostly off. The storm drains and creeks nearby were just completely overwhelmed with several inches of rain in a very short period of time. The rain stopped about noon on Sunday and the drains had a chance to catch up a bit.

A Sweet Little Birthday Bash Giveaway

Found this and thought it was kind of fun. Enjoy!

Mother Regrets

I planned on reading you many books

I never planned on yelling so much

I was going to be the coolest mom ever

You would remember days spent at the park, the zoo, the library

I was never going to be too tired

If I had made half the outfits I planned on sewing you - there wouldn't have been enough days in the year to wear them all

You would always know how smart and amazing you are

There were going to be many days we made cookies together

I was never going to be impatient

I would listen twice as much as I talked

I was never going to be cross

There were always going to be crayons and playdough

There were going to be lots of games

I never thought there would be days I didn't know the right thing to do, or say

Everything you drew would be a masterpiece and carefully preserved

I would never be too busy

Music and laughter would always fill the air

I would dry your tears, not be the cause of them

I would never forget how precious you are

I would never forget to thank God every day for you

I would never wish you would just grow up

You would never doubt how much I love you

Wow! That went by fast!

Summer, that is.

This morning we got up bright and early (6:15 am anyone?) and off to school we went. Trent left earliest for Marching Band Practice. I'm not sure he was entirely awake as you can see by the picture below.



Since it was Sadie's very first, first day of school, I made her a special first day of school outfit. I only had to stay up until midnight to finish it. She is my skirt girl - for years she refused to wear pants of any kind, saying "Princesses do not wear pants!" We finally convinced her that some Princesses do and she will condescend to wear a pair now and then. Of course, for her very first day of school she had to have a skirt - and not just any skirt. Oh no! That would not do for my Sadie. She had to have a very special skirt - cupcakes and polka dots and lots of pink. You can't see it because it is under her jacket, the part that had me up really late was actually the t-shirt. I got one of those jeweled iron-ons in the shape of a cupcake to match, because it was supposed to be easy. Yeah, right. It took almost 45 minutes of alternately pressing, cooling, waiting and trying to peel off the cover and repeating this process to get all the little sparkly jewel things to finally stick to her shirt. Yeesh - I think I could have glued them all individually faster . . . but eventually they all finally stuck, save one, and I called it good and went to bed.


School lunches went up considerably this year and with four of them in school, seemed a bit excessive. So we decided to 'brown bag" it. Given it has been many years since we have needed to purchase a lunch box, I was a bit shocked by how much they all cost and how small most of them are! Ten dollars for Care Bears with a cheap plastic zipper that is going to break the first week? I found a few lock down type storage boxes on clearance for $1.50 each (wahoo!) that were the perfect size and with a few of my smallest storage containers we made our own Bento style lunch boxes. When I packed them this morning, I was rather impressed with how nicely everything goes in - neat and protected from squashing. They didn't have handles though and so with some fabric, webbing, and a thermal insulating drape, I made them lunch bags to carry their boxes in. The kids were really excited about them - though, I am guessing Trent won't bother to use his much being in Jr. High and all, lunch bag made by mom - not so 'cool' you know. I found what is called an "ice blanket" that fit well into the bottom of the box and didn't take up too much space. That coupled with the insulating liner out of the drape should keep things quite nicely for the kids. You can see the bags in the picture - Sadie and Garrett are both holding theirs.


Does it make me a bad mommy if I say it was rather nice to put 2/3 of my children on a bus this morning and send them off to school?

I did get teary eyed after the last kid rode away; perhaps that will improve your opinion. So now what do I do with myself? Given that Nathan is currently poking my sewing machine cord into a cereal bar, I am pretty confident I am not going to have to wonder for too long.

Four down, two in four more years to go . . . !



P.S. This last picture made me weepy. ***sigh***

If my Digital Camera worked, you'd have a picture

Yes, it's broken.

I can't talk about it right now.

I will tell you what I wanted to take a picture of.

For months I have gone on about Sadie and her 'spearamints. Yes, she is at it again. I am telling you - this child is going to be a billionaire chemist one day.

Today she made a fly catcher - one that is neither sticky nor smelly. In fact, her fly catcher smelled a lot like my Bath and Body Works Coconut Lime Verbena Sanitizing Hand Gel - which I love and which, since I do not not have a B&B Works close by, is hard to come by.

She dumped the entire 3 oz bottle of hand sanitizer into a bowl. She added equal parts water. This must have been right before lunch when I was otherwise distracted. After lunch we discover why she smells so nice.

Usually if there is "spearaminting" going on - it happens in the bathroom or her bedroom closet.

This time it was the bathroom.

In approximately one hour - she caught two flies.

So, if my digital camera were working - you would be looking at a picture of a storage bowl filled with hand sanitizer with antibacterial microbeads mixed with water and two dead flies floating in it - right at this very moment!

I hope you can bear the disappointment.