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!

Exhausting

Being Spencer is so exhausting. He fell asleep doing his homework.
Big ol' puddle of drool on his worksheet. Perhaps my little buddy needs to go to sleep when he goes to bed instead of goofing off and making mommy yell 15 times to GO TO SLEEP!!

PSA

Even little boys who know you can't put foil/metal in the microwave, might have no idea that the outside wrappers on pop tarts are metallic. I guess the shiny silver stuff wasn't a big enough clue.
He learned his lesson about 6 seconds into heating up his treat....

Hell to the No

Tonight was Spencer's first baseball game of the fall season. We had team pictures and as we hit the field to get ready for the game, my dad saw a mound of fire ants, then another, then another, then another, then another..... Right field was covered in fire ant mounds. There were several mounds along the fence. I ran and told the YMCA field manager and he had them put a tarp over right field so the kids could still play....but then we found out that the coach had reported the fire ants three weeks ago and no one had done anything about it. Seriously? Is it too much to ask for a field and a dugout safe from biting, stinging fire ants? Did I mention that this facility does not have first aid available?

Other than the fire ants, the game was good and the boys had a great time. Spencer really likes playing catcher!

Lunch Bag Art

Last year (1st grade) Spencer got to bring a snack each day to school. I would put his snack in a brown, lunch bag and draw something goofy on the bag just to give him a little smile. Now, Mr. Big Second Grader doesn't get snack breaks at school. He needs his insulated (Star Wars!) lunchbox so I can use a cold pack. But, he told me he missed my silly drawings.
So...I found freezer, quart size baggies that have a little white area on the front (for labeling) that holds his sandwich and provides a nice little canvas for some goofy lunch time art!
As you can tell, I still can't draw and my jokes and puns are awful--but Spencer loves it. I figure I have maybe one more year until stuff like this embarrasses him so I better enjoy it while it lasts!

Put it on my Tab

I delivered Mobile Meals today and normally, my route goes fairly well, but today we had several unfortunate events. We had three incidents to report to Senior Resources by the end of the route - the worst of which being what appeared to be one of our little clients having a stroke. It upset us terribly. I haven't been able to shake it all day and I keep wondering how she is doing.

My mobile meals route is in a very old neighborhood. I realized just how old it is today-- I found a pull tab in the driveway of one of our deliveries! I took it home to show Spencer since it is now an ancient artifact. I think they stopped making them when I was a baby so those things are REALLY old! I explained to him what it was and pantomimed how it would have worked on an empty can from our recycling bin and Spencer said, "Cool! Old cans came with little knives!"

Fierce with the Force!

My buddy Amy (who lives right outside of our nation's capital) sent Mr. Spencer a surprise gift today. She must have Jedi sense or something and knew my little guy needed a pick-me-up. He was up all night, had a fever, was sore and sick. We had just came home from the pediatrician when this WONDERFUL package was delivered. It was ironic how this little guy who was so pitifully sick that he could barely sip his fresh lemon slush from Sonic was all of a sudden well enough to unleash a fury of light saber antics.

Okay-- he just made a liar out of me. Just as I went in there to get the memory card out of the camera, he was passed out on the couch, light saber in the floor and puddle of drool on the pillow. I guess that codeine cough syrup kicked in, huh?

Thanks Amy! You are so sweet!

And to all my other readers-- yes, Spencer is sick again. Same thing as before (ear infection/sinus infection). My little guy has my wonderful gift for antibiotic resistance. We are doubling up on meds for the next three weeks, hopefully we can get him well!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

You will never believe what I did today. I went Christmas shopping.
What did that crazy heifer say?
You heard me. I went Christmas shopping. I went to Old World Pottery and they had out all of their Christmas decorations. I strolled through the Winter Wonderland for about an hour and then I picked up an ornament. Then another. Then wrapping paper. Then I found a couple of gifts. Then I went to lunch and made my "list" and shopped a little more and came home with all my treasures! Cool huh?
I found this cute "Reindeer Crossing" sign. That's cute as a Christmas decoration-- but it is funny for us, because we have deer constantly running down our driveway (we live in the country and have a l o n g driveway...)

I have to say, I never thought Spencer would be one of those kids obsessed with video games. Over the last couple of weeks, I have noticed he is choosing video games over other toys more and more. When he comes into the house he goes straight for the wii or the playstation--- he didn't used to do that. Guess I need to start watching his game time and balance it with other things, huh?

It was a Prell of a good day

Today was our first soccer game this season. It was a crisp, sunny morning--perfect weather! Spencer and IV played well, but the team still lost. Our guys just don't get aggressive at the goal. Hopefully, we can get a win next week!
After soccer we ran a few errands- couldn't find the new Star Wars Wii game (Unleashed)- shame on me for waiting too long. I'm sure my brother will find a copy-- he always seems to "know a guy"....
We visited a friend in the hospital, did our shopping and then visited Nana and Boppa for pizza and some laughs. While shopping at a salvage/junk store today, I found a bottle of Prell shampoo. Do you remember that? I opened it and took a big whiff-- I looked like a junkie sniffing like that and grinning my fool head off. I told Spencer to smell it and I explained that my grandma (Nana's Mom who has been gone 14 years now) always smelled of Prell and Oil of Olay. A few minutes later I went back to the aisle and sniffed it again. What the hell, it was only $1.95, I bought it. Nuts? Maybe. But it made me happy.

An evening at the local fair

We went to the Greensboro Fair last night- Spencer and IV had a great time! We had perfect weather and ended up staying a little longer than we had planned. The all you can ride armband for $15.00 was the way to go!

Check out the center picture in the collage. The boys were tall enough to ride the big drop zone looking ride--and even though the picture is blurry because of the digital zoom-- you can see the panic on their faces. That was the only ride they didn't want to get back on! They cracked us up! Other than the drop zone, the kids loved everything and was able to stay on most of the rides without having to go get back in line- it wasn't crowded at all!

click on the collage to enlarge

Thanks Patti!

Spencer received an AWESOME Magic kit yesterday from my Canadian friend, Patti. He was SO excited and "abracadabra-ed" everything all evening. He can't wait to master all of the tricks! Thanks again Patti-- Spencer LOVED it! (and I loved my card and luggage tag!)

We are the bomb dot com

We had an all scrapbooking weekend! And unlike the last couple of "crops" I have been to, we ACTUALLY scrapbooked at this one. All the boys went to the beach house for "Manly Man" weekend which left the entire house to us girls. Everyone trickled in starting Friday morning (for those that had Friday off) and then by the time everyone was there and set up, we left for dinner and a card class.

Dinner was a hoot. For years, it has been a joke with my family that whenever anyone asks where the restroom is, we point to the kitchen and say "Just go through there. It looks like the kitchen, but if you go on in you will see it on the left." Most people know we are full of crap and no one has ever fallen for it...until this weekend! Poor Julie got up from the table last night and asked where the restroom was and (in unison even!) Mom and I said the "it just looks like the kitchen" blurb and a couple of the other girls pointed to the back of the restaurant (where the actual restrooms were.) Well....the next thing we know we hear Julie squeal "Sorry! They told me it was in here!" and was pointing to our table-- we turned just in time to see her red-face escorted from the kitchen and the nice waitress pointed the way to the REAL restrooms. Yeah, she wanted to smack us. But we ALL appreciated her starting the evening out with a great laugh for us!

After card class Friday night, all day Saturday and up until all hours of the night, we all worked on our projects. I finished 8 of the 9 circle journals I owe some of my friends, I did a ton cards and about 12 pages in my cruise album.
It was a very calm, relaxing weekend-- we all did what we wanted, ate when we wanted, napped/went to bed when we wanted- an ideal scrapbook weekend. Most of the time we watched Hurricane Ike on the TV and wondered about our friends and family out in that area of the US. And then on Sunday, of course, we watched football (How about those Panthers?)
Sunday, everyone was tired from all the long crop hours, and Jen had a long drive back home. So we took some pictures- we are missing Brenda M- she didn't come back on Sunday. But even though we all look tired, you can tell we had a blast.
P.S. That is my Mom's cat, Stinky, playing with the tape runner trash!

What's that smell?

Today was one of those days where I stopped and asked myself several times, "Is that *my* kid?"
First of all, during his (ahem) daily constitutional, he sang Leona Lewis' Bleeding Love at the top of his lungs. Even though the bathroom door was shut, you could hear him all through the house. Seriously. I need to check his Ipod. Shouldn't he be singing something by the Chipmunks?
Then later, he took his shoes off and declared, "Whew! My feet smell like the play area at Chuck E. Cheese! It really does Mom! Come smell my feet!"
Uhmmm. No thanks Spencer. How about a bath?

Then we ended the evening with a large debate about how many people in the world know North Carolina exists. I am sure this is my fault because I just bought him a new globe and I was explaining the differences between continents and countries. Then he asked about states and I told him I didn't know about states in other countries or provinces, etc. I even (gasp!) admitted I don't even know most of the countries. If we haven't had a war there or it isn't a cruise destination then I probably can't find it on a map with ease. This bothered my son. Stupid globe revealed my idiot card!

Speaking of idiots and cards (hee hee I crack myself up sometimes)..... guess what I'm doing this weekend??? Here's a hint:

Totally Nuts

Val thinks she's funny. Yeah a total riot. For the past week I have had a problem with a crazy squirrel in my attic--driving me insane, eluding the trap, doing an Irish jig when I am trying to sleep, creeping me out....
So today, the hot FedEx guy brings me a box. In the box, something wrapped in white with a note that says "Feed me and put me somewhere so I can play"-- I was almost scared to unwrap it! Low and behold--a frickin squirrel. And somewhere in Florida there is a goofball, watching the FedEx tracking website and laughing like a little hyena when she knew I was pwn'd.

Val the Jokester:

Some posts should come with a warning label

The family all met up at Red Lobster after work tonight. Most of you know, my brother is a dork. I should expect it right? I have been around him for 31 years, I really should be better prepared...

Well just as I bit into a sauce coated coconut shrimp, my brother cracked a (rather obnoxious, can't be repeated) joke and it took me by surprise. Shrimp and the lovely Parrot Bay dipping sauce came flying out my nose. Too much information? Oh stick around....it gets worse. Ever had hunks of coconut and pineapple stuck up your nose? It's not good. Of course I excused myself to the restroom-- but the damage was done. Something was stuck. Yuck! yuck! Oh yuck. Nope, vomiting did not help. But I thought it was a natural reflex to the breading/throat/nose roadblock. Panic! I had a coconut shrimp to nostril injury and there was blood. I thought it was taken care of, then I got home-- more nose bleeds, more gagging. I still feel like SOMETHING is up in my sinus cavity- but that is insane right? Okay so maybe this entire post is insane. But it is Jimmy's fault.

We found out that the kids can't be the LIGHTENING for their soccer team-- another team had already claimed that team name so now we are THE STING. Whatever.


When we came home tonight, a pretty butterfly was in the house. Where did he come from? Oh well, a brightly colored butterfly flying around the house is the kitty cat equivalent to Saturday Night Cinemax. I hadn't seen Inez this excited and busting out such moves since she was a kitten!