Happy Halloween!

We had a great time tonight at the Fall Festival: games, cake walk, hot dog supper, hay rides, and Trunk or Treat! Spencer won a homemade red velvet cake at the cake walk and got more than enough candy and toys. (Shhh! I ate his Bit-O-Honeys and Twizzlers!)
Nana fixed Spencer and IV special treat bags with all their favorite goodies PLUS Bakugans! The boys were lovin' it! Plus they got to hang out with a bunch of their friends at the festival. I think all of us adults had a pretty good time hanging out together as well!

click on collage to enlarge



P.S. The scariest thing this Halloween? Hansbrough out indefinitely:

North Carolina’s preseason No. 1 ranking took a Psycho-T-sized hit Thursday night. Senior forward Tyler Hansbrough, a three-time first team All-America, is out indefinitely with a stress reaction in his right shin.

Tell me this is only a nightmare!!

Ending soccer on a cold note

Tonight was our last soccer game of the fall season. Spencer had an awesome game- his first words as he came off the field were "I bet I am in the newspaper again this week!"... good and humble I tell ya!
It was SO COLD out there tonight! The fields are wide open and that wind just cuts right through you. I didn't come out from under my coat/blanket to take any pictures until we were celebrating our win at the end of the game, and then I only got a couple of pics of Spencer and IV celebrating with cupcakes and team T-shirts.
Check out the team T-shirts Melissa had made up for the kids. You can click on the picture to make it larger if you need to. I hated to tell her that it looked perverted with that bee humping the soccer ball with his stinger out. Yikes! Thankfully, the kids don't notice stuff like that. Only us adults with 7th grade senses of humor....
We ended the soccer season with 1 loss, 2 ties and the rest wins. Spencer and IV were pretty proud of that record; Melissa was ECSTATIC!

Pumpkin Party

Yesterday was our annual carving party at my brother's house. Jimmy and Melissa got each of us a pumpkin and were nice enough to "gut" each pumpkin and have it ready to carve! Jimmy made his traditional chicken fajitas and Melissa made her witches brew (punch) and graveyard (chocolate & Oreo dirt) cake. Yum!

Our pumpkins turned out pretty good this year! Mom's owl and Spencer's crazy frog has plastic eyes that pop into the design-- they look really cool! The rest of us picked fairly easy designs this year. We wussed out. haha!

Mummy Dearest

For dinner tonight, Spencer and I made Mummy hot dogs! We gave them little mustard eyes...and then, because we know how to party on a Friday night, we slathered up the ketchup and had a bloody mummy hot dog mess. But I will spare you the bloody, decapitated mummy pictures...

And guess who bought their first pomegranate of the season today? Did he save me ANY? Nope.

Headbanger's Ball

I guess Spencer couldn't be outdone by IV-- I got the call today that Spencer had fallen at recess and hit his head. I went straight to the school in time for the nurse to complete the incident report and give me my little man--with a big ol' icepack. Fortunately, his head wasn't nearly as bad as IV's but he does have a pretty good size knot on the back! Just like in the old Bugs Bunny cartoons the knot is just straight up....poor baby! And it is sore, too!

I got him home and was putting ice on his head again and watching him, as the nurse instructed. I was going to put him on the couch to read or watch TV while I finished up a meeting. On the way in, we picked up the mail and my friend Melinda sent Spencer a Halloween gift pack! Is that perfect timing or what? Spencer sat (calmly!) at the table and did his Halloween crafts while I finished up work. And I didn't have to worry about him horsing around and hitting his head again while I was busy!
That Melinda is a little bit of alright .....for a State fan!

Suh-weet!

My grandma used to tell me that I would get worms if I ate cake or cookie batter. I guess because of the raw egg in it. But now that we have excellent over the counter products like Pepto and Imodium, why shouldn't I let Spencer lick the cake batter bowl?

MMMmmmmm. Butter cupcakes with whipped chocolate frosting. They might not be the "prettiest" cupcakes but friends, neighbors and family line up when I make these!

I love to bake and as part of helping Spencer with math, I am encouraging him to help me with the measurements: cups, teaspoons, oven temp and even setting the kitchen timer. He hasn't gotten the hang of doubling fractions yet (ex. 3/4 cup + 3/4 cup) but then again, my Mom still doesn't either; she just measures 3/4 twice!

Crafty Gals

Woohoo! Saturday night with the girls!

This is my friend Dee:



Dee is an awesome crafter, beader, etc. Here are the candy bar wrappers she made for us. I loved the Frankenstein one so much that we ran an assembly line and made up a bunch for Spencer's class Halloween party.



After a fun evening of swapping crafts (I did gift bags, Dee did the candy bar wrappers and Mom and Julie did cards) we went out for dinner and drinks to cap off a great evening!

Perfect Fall Saturday

Other than being a bit chilly, today was darn near perfect. Spencer had a 10:30 soccer game. I got to sleep in on a Saturday and we still got up and out in time to not feel like we wasted half the day. The soccer game was fun and furious-- the final score was 1-0. Spencer scored the winning goal, and boy was he happy about it! My little guy was so proud that he insisted on wearing his soccer uniform the entire day!
After the game, the ref asked about Spencer and if I was his Mom (uh oh! what did he do now?) He told me he was impressed with Spencer's "natural" skills. He said he never sees kids his age punt nearly the length of the field. No one has EVER told me that Spencer had skills before-- I was so proud! I probably looked dumbfounded, but I did manage to thank him for taking the time to give me feedback.

After the soccer game, we went to a local church's fall festival. We had barbecue, let the kids play games and goof off. The boys all got together for a pick up game of football right at the church cemetery. You gotta love rough and tumble little boys!

More Blue

Blue seems to be a theme with us this week.

Tonight was skate night for Spencer and IV's school. I found some hair gel that colors their hair -- so they got to skate with spikey, blue hair. Yeah, they thought they were cool. It was raining pretty hard so I left my camera at home, but the blue looked electric on IV's white hair!

"Pore" me!

One of the advantages of having a home office:
facial mask during a conference call.

Disadvantage:
Stoopid UPS coming to the house while said mask is on my face!!! I didn't want to answer the door. Who keeps sending me stuff with "signature required"??? YIKES!
Even worse-- he asks if I am trying out my Halloween costume. UGHHHHH! Yeah, this is exactly what the world needs....another smartass in brown shorts. Oh well, I hope "smurf face girl" was the highlight of his day.

Who am I voting for?

It's all clear now. Check it out!

Got his jug thumped

Poor IV. While running on the playground at school, he tripped over another kid's feet and busted his head on the asphalt. It wasn't the kid's fault. It wasn't IV's fault. It was the asphalt.
They called Melissa and she took him straight to the pediatrician--just in time for him to deck the waiting room with the oh-so-familiar symptoms of a concussion: vomit. He was evaluated and even though the knot has grown even bigger since these pictures were taken, the doctor said that since he is swelling outwards and the blood is coming up under the surface of his skin, he is actually okay, for a concussion....

My face hurt

Seriously. I laughed so hard during our evening with David Sedaris that my face hurt. The worst part is that I can't explain what was so damn funny-- unless you can hear him tell it or hear the entire humor crescendo of his essay, you just can't do it justice to repeat what had us rolling in tears during the reading. I tried to explain it to my brother-- but all I could get out was Costco, anal sex and shortcake-- I cracked myself up thinking about the story--my brother, on the other hand, thought I had lost it. I wish we could have fought the crowds and stuck around for the book signing afterwards, but neither Kim nor I were in a "deal with crowds" mood. We were tired---perhaps it was the big birthday meal for Kim at Pewter Rose before the concert, the drinks, or maybe it was when the two little gay guys mistakenly assumed we were a lesbian couple.. damn it! We BOTH had on lipstick! That's it. I gotta lose weight and Kim has to get new frames for her glasses. Something. Anything! {{ sigh }} Oh well, despite that, it actually was a great dinner and evening out to celebrate Kim's birthday!

The evening downtown just further reminded me that although I truly LOVE a nice dinner and a fun evening with the arts.... but I'm such a spazz when it comes to going downtown. I hate to drive. Directions give me some sort of palsy where I shake and curse at pedestrians. Oh and then, by the grace of God (and Garmin) I found a parking deck, but the cash only $15.00 parking fee threw me for a bit. Cash?? who uses cash any more? Cash is full of germs, cocaine and feces...don't you people watch 20/20??? I dug around in my wallet and found my "emergency" $20 and parked the car. Walking to the theater was odd-- we were the only people downtown NOT barhopping for a bachelorette party...Hmmpf! Thank God Kim's lesbian glasses are like lo jack and we found our way to the theater and back! It was then that I realized that thanks to grunge wear and blue tooth, you can't differentiate homeless psychotics from the twenty-something crowd that think dirty hair and layered ugly clothes are hip as they murmur incohesively into the earpiece hidden under the mop of shampoo-denied hair. Oh well. I guess I have to get out of Trinity every now and then, if nothing else, just to have something different to post about on my blog!

Life's Like a Box of Caramels

I get to spend the weekend with Kim! As of today, she will be convalescing at home--and what better way to start healing than for me to show up with a hug, a weekend full of laughs and a box of Mama Laura's caramels! I got my mom a box of caramels, too--but shhhh! one accidentally "slipped" out on the way over to her house! Damn that Mama Laura!

Thank you to all my friends and family with the notes, calls, emails and prayers of support. Kim is MUCH better and on a path to healing.

I got a call from tomorrow

I want to say thanks to everyone for all the calls, messages, prayers and support for Kim. Keep the thoughts and prayers going and hopefully we will get good news soon. Although I appreciate (as does Kim) every call, one stood out today. Paula, our friend from Australia, called at 5:30 today. It was already 8:30 in the morning for her. Weird huh? She called from tomorrow. That makes things seem better-- if today is bad, just think, it is already tomorrow in Australia. Paula has the cutest accent. She is 100% Aussie.

I spent my lunch hour yesterday helping out for a class party at Spencer's school. One of the other class Moms (my friend Laura) and I actually had fun with it. I tell ya-- little kids will say the strangest things. One little kid confessed that he can't eat the candy he gets at school because he has to bring it home and put it in a bowl for Halloween so his Mom doesn't have to buy candy. I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for him. I'm lying-- I laughed.

Laura and I are still doing the exercise/dance class. It isn't as hard on us as it was a month ago. We actually enjoy it now (except for the crunches). But as a valuable lesson--- do NOT eat dinner before dance class-- you will spend the first half of the class with severe indigestion and the last half of class holding in a fart. Or so we have heard...

Lastly, let me tell you what I did yesterday for the first time since I moved into my house 13 years ago....I checked my mail at my driveway. Yeah, no big deal for you normal people. But for the past 13 years, this has been a private road and the mailboxes had to be put up on a main road 1/2 mile from my house where they were routinely vandalized by idiots. Now, I have my mailbox at my driveway and sadly, yeah, I am excited about it.

Bitter Sweet

My weekend was both good and bad.

First the good: We had a couple of soccer games, a couple of baseball games, pictures, and several things to celebrate: IV scored a goal, Spencer had a couple of assists, Spencer had a triple and caught a pop-up for the first time ever in a game, etc. They boys had a fun evening out including their favorite dinner and they chose to go see Beverly Hills Chihuahua. They enjoyed it. me?...meh! not so much.



Tonight, I made shrimp scampi and cheese biscuits for dinner. Spencer tasted the shrimp and asked, "Is there wine in here?"
and I said, "Yes, you use a white wine to make the scampi sauce."
then he thought about it...
then he asked, "Is that how the shrimp died?"
Where does he get this stuff?


And now for the bad. My best friend, Kim, had an accident (while out in California) and is REALLY REALLY sick. It may be a while before she can come home. I didn't know I had this many tears left in me. Please say a prayer for Kim. Please say a prayer for her doctors and nurses and all of us trying to help her get well and get home. I love her like a sister... I can't imagine the pain she is going through right now- but I wish there was some way I could help. I am so used to talking with her every night, IMing every day, going for dinner/shopping, etc. We had tickets to see David Sedaris in Charlotte this coming weekend.... I miss her so much already.... I hope she knows how much I care about her and want to see her...

Happy Birthday to my doofis brother

Jimmy turned the big 32 today! For his birthday celebration, he wanted to go to his favorite hot wing joint--and he wanted to drive the Mustangs. The Stangs will eventually be Spencer's and IV's cars--but right now they are just for show and the occasional birthday dinner where Dad and Jimmy roar the engines down Main Street, take off like the hounds of hell are behind them and general redneck antics.

My Dad was in a minor fender bender this morning (at an awful blind hill turn)--everyone was okay, just the front bumper/grill of his truck was damaged. Dad said when he gunned the mustang engine Spencer yelled, "Don't drive fast Boppa! I saw what you did to the truck!" That kid.....geez!