Saturday, October 31, 2009

Firsts: Trick-or-Treating for Halloween!


This year, a friend saved me from having to scrap Halloween altogether. I've been so overwhelmed with all the change going on in my life, exacerbated by the lingering creeping crud, that I left Halloween costume planning until 9:15 last night. At which point I grabbed this great green jumpsuit out of my "to finish" pile and whipped some snaps on it and called it done.

You see, my friend works for a pattern company and they had apparently sewn up one of their patterns as a sample. My friend snatched it up and gave it to me. It fit our guy perfectly, and he looked exactly like a mechanic (dontcha think?). The only thing missing is a little patch with his name on it. Unfortunately, at 9:15 last night, that added detail was not in the cards. And given that tonight it was 30 degrees out for Trick-or-Treating, the patch would have unfortunately been hidden under his heavy winter coat, anyway.

We started the evening at a friend's place with pizza and tricked up and down their block a bit. Wee one got the gist of the candy right away, although the houses with the scary stuff out front were not his cup of tea. We headed back to our friend's place pretty quickly and helped them hand out candy to other kids. The best quote of the night was when one mom asked her 2 or 3 year old son, "Now what do you say?" to which he replied, with hand outstretched "I want more!" It was a really great parenting first for me, and the cold weather didn't seem to be keeping people home. Next year I hope I have more time to prepare (mentally and literally)!

So here's to friend's thoughtfulness making my life so much easier this year! Cheers, and happy Halloween!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Whiny Whinerson


Fair warning: this post is a big whiney-whinefest. I am just getting a bit of complaining out of my system at your expense. But you can just click away onto some other blog, something more uplifting, positive and interesting. Because right now I'm self-obsessed. I've been sick with a cold for two weeks, and frankly, I'm done with it. Today I went into a place, we'll call it Speedy Clinic, to see if I could get to the bottom of the mess. Here's how it went:
Doc: "So, what seems to be the problem?"
Me: "Um, my face hurts, I can't bend over without feeling like I'm going to die, I am exhausted and as you can tell, I sound like Elmer Fudd on 6 packs of cigarettes"
Doc: "Hmm. Let's check your temp."
[Doc checks temp and blood pressure. Exclaims "Beautiful blood pressure!"]
Doc: "Do you take any medications, vitamins?"
Me: "You mean aside from the 6 beers I drink per night? No. Just a multi-vitamin"
Doc: "Do you have allergies?"
Me: "Sure, in August I get hayfever."
[Doc checks inside nose and ears.]
Doc: "Well, you have allergies. I see classic 'allergy shiners' under your eyes.
Me: "Are you sure those aren't just bags under my eyes because there's 10 tons of snot in my sinuses?"
Doc: "Just take some Claritin and some Afrin and you'll clear up nicely."
Me: "But I haven't had allergies since August. That makes no sense."

But, in the doctor's infinite wisdom, she continued to assure me that the allergy meds and Afrin would solve world hunger, bring peace to the Middle East and make me look 10 pounds slimmer. So I tried it. And it failed miserably. That's my whine. And now off to bed! Ha-choooo!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wordless Wednesday


I know it's wordless Wednesday, but I feel as though my absence needs an explanation. Here are a few:
--Getting a new job
--Wrapping up an old job
--A cold lasting 2 weeks (sniff sniff)
--Trying to sell a house
--Trying to buy a house in a different state (we did it! we're moving!)
--Trying to rent a house because no one is buying the house I'm trying to sell
--Trying to keep up with a toddler
--Trying to "stage" and pack a house
--Trying to fit sleep in, occasionally

Happy Wednesday! Hopefully I'll be back to regular blogging soon!

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

My Parents Were Awesome (Still Are)






I'm newly addicted to My Parents Were Awesome, the blog that features photos sent in by readers of their parents looking their awesomest. A few years ago, my mom supplied me with some totally awesome photos of she and my dad back in their youth. Today I submitted a few to the good people at My Parents Were Awesome. I hope they make it on!!

Were your parents awesome? I would love to see some photos!!! Blog them, or send them to myparentswereawesome@gmail.com.

Monday, October 05, 2009

Choo Choo Applique



I have been having so much fun using clip art to make craft projects lately. A month or so ago I printed out a horse and embroidered it on a shirt for my niece. Now, I printed out a train and used it to create an applique for a cute little red hooded sweatshirt for my Wee Pumpkin. I'm really not that great at applique, so this one looks a little "fuzzy" around the edges, but hopefully with some more practice, I'll perfect the technique. I think my big fault with this one was that the pieces are a bit too small to applique with a machine. I really should have done it by hand.

I can't wait to try this on the Wee One and see how it looks. I was happy that when I showed him the work in progress, he at least knew it was supposed to be a train.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Get Your Buns in Here



Have you ever visited somewhere and felt like it called out to you? Or have you ever wanted to have a place call out to you and it didn't? This weekend I took a little road trip to a place I wanted to have overwhelm me with an intense feeling of "you should stay" or "this is your place" but I have to say, I was a little underwhelmed. I'm not sure what I was exactly expecting. Geesh, no welcoming committee? No parade? No red carpet?

It was a chilly, gray weekend, and after our road trip, we snuggled up at home and made some excellent vegetarian chili and corn bread. It was the perfect day for it, too. Now, back to the grind! Ugh!

I've been doing a little crafting lately. Photos to come!