My little Rue had two costumes for Halloween. She wore her little silk Chinese outfit to daycare and she even had the matching shoes. That is Rue and her Grammy in the upper left hand picture. For her evening trick and treating, she was a bear. Gosh she is cute in that outfit...lol. It's those big blue eyes. In the top right hand pic she is with her Daddy and Sugar Bear...and in the bottom right hand picture she is with her Second Cousin Shannon. Since she couldn't trick or treat at her Auntie Nett's house, I sent her some money for her savings account and of course, her costumes. 
Finally! After searching all day, I discovered the purple ribbon that I totally hid from myself. It wasn't even in plain site, so I don't feel so stupid anymore. So, here is my creation....a purple Halloween wreath that even lights up if I want it to, but I like it just as much without the lights. Now I have to store it up in the attic with all the Halloween decorations that I didn't drag out this year. I looooove this holiday and I usually create a scary basement but with all the construction, I couldn't bare to bring myself clutter the house anymore than it already is. I also made a Super Hero cape for Sam....but I didn't get a pic tonight of it. I'll make him model it tomorrow. I only had a days notice and didn't get to the store to buy fabric until well into the afternoon, so it was a quickie job. Everyone seems impressed. I would have liked a longer cape but I would have needed more fabric and I bought all that was left. I made do, so to speak, but you'll see what I mean. I hope everyone had a spooky night. We gave away more candy than we have in years. The weather was so mild that I think it encouraged people to hit the streets. 
I bought a roll of purple wire ribbon this afternoon. I know I brought it home. I saw it before I started working on Sam's Super hero cape. Can I find it now? Hell no. I have looked for the last 30 minutes and I'm starting to get really pissed off. I want to finish off my Halloween wreath. All I need is the ribbon. Grrrr.
Every once in a while I get mail from my Aunt Vickie. I usually say the same thing out loud when I notice the return address. "Oh dear Lord, what is that woman up to now!" Then I say a quick prayer that the package or envelope doesn't contain a boobie trap. Hey, you have to be on your toes in this family. It turns out that Vickie was cleaning out a closet and came across these pictures of my Second Birthday party in May of '72. Vickie has said before that it was a memorable day for her because she'd been out partying the entire night before because it was her High School prom. She forced her boyfriend...later to become her hubby and my Uncle John to attend my birthday party too. Hey, if she had to suffer through a family event on no sleep, poor John was going too. That is me with my Grandma Slater..aka Martha, in the top photo. She's the only Grandparent that I have left, the rest have all passed away and I'm sad to say that Grandma's time is coming to an end. She's confused a lot and her skin is so thin. I know she suffers and that is why I find myself hoping that she passes peacefully in her sleep and then there are times I can't bare to think about it and I just want to hold on for a little longer. Time has a way of marching on though, doesn't it.
Now, I have no idea why I am in a different outfit in the bottom picture. Maybe it was a new outfit, perhaps I was covered in cake and had to change. What do I know, I was two years old. Anyway, Grandma had me standing on the table. I needed this picture the other day when I blogged about grand kids getting away with anything. Ah, I wish my hair was still Strawberry Blonde. Sure I could dye it but then I would have to keep touching up the roots....blah, I don't want to mess with that. Vickie had a few questions about this picture. I'll answer them on my blog. She wanted to know if that was my Dad at the end of the table behind me (just under my hand). The answer is yes...he had hair back then. Looks like they had a card game going....nothing new there, they always had/have a card game going. Then she asked who was sitting by John. I totally know. For everyone else's benefit, I will let you know that my Grandpa Virgil Slater is being blocked by Grandma Slater's arms and Grandpa Kaster is over there too but I only know that because I have seen other pictures of that day and I know they were sitting next to each other. Across the table we have Uncle Jim in the green shirt, Uncle John in the stripped shirt, Aunt Vickie standing over him, keeping him in line, no doubt...and the person on the other side is Uncle Gary. I know this because I remember seeing a picture that my Mom has and Gary is scooping out ice cream at my party. It's the same hairdo. Vickie also wanted to know why there was only one light bulb in the fixture above. Maybe because it was an over watt bulb and one was enough to light the room. Honestly, who wants to really look at family anyway...they can be scary. lol. Of course Mom and Dad were very young parents, not even close to 25 at the time these pictures were taken, so maybe they couldn't afford more bulbs. I DON'T KNOW. I'm sure Mom will comment and give us her incite, or lack of it.
Everyone gets to play with my Rue...everyone but me. That is my second cousin Roxanne (she's actually my Dad's cousin but she's a year younger than me.) making MY Rue happy at the big Lade Family reunion earlier this month. Dang it. Dang it. Dang it. No, its OK, I have dibs on Christmas vacation, so I will be getting my Rue-Rue time. See Rue's horns? Her bangs were so long they were getting in her eyes and bugging her so my Sister but the little pony tails in her hair. She had a hair cut last week and they trimmed up her bangs. When Janice was trimming her hair she said that Rue sat still better than most 5 or 6 year olds....actual, she sat still better than her Grandpa. My Dad thought that comment was a hoot.
Grandchildren have it easy. I know for a fact that my Mother never would have allowed me to stand on her piano bench....never ever....EVER. To prove it, i'm going to try it when I go home for Christmas....I bet she yells at me. On top of that, she never would have let us bang on random keys for enjoyment purposes. Rue sure gets to. Yep, that is what its all about, torment your children and let your Grandchildren do any darn thing they want to do. It's OK. I know, I had Grandparents too. Shoot, that is why we used to love going to Grandma Kaster's house. She'd let us do about anything we wanted to do. You want a half a container of cool whip on your slice of pie...you got it. Another soda, sure, it didn't matter that you had already had 4. You wanted to eat dill pickles and ice cream, sure, whatever strikes your fancy. Plus you always went home with a pocket full of pennies and a sugar high that almost took signing into a detox clinic to come down off of. Grandma Slater was a little more strict but she still let you get away with stuff too. She had wind chimes hanging in each door frame on the first floor of the house and she'd let you run in circles through the house, smacking those chimes, so that they were always making noise. (Though secretly, I think she let us do that so we would crash early and she would have some peace and quiet.) You could sit under the table while the grown ups played cards and try to tie Great Uncle Rays shoe laces together. Ahhh, yes, those were the days. 
Thank good I didn't wear leather shoes. It could have been so much worse. At this point, I can't imagine that, but I'm sure its true. As it is, I'm going to be wearing flip flops for at least a week. It better not get much colder or I'm going to be pissed. Stupid frigging blisters. That is what happens when its raining like crazy and your Nike sneakers get wet, then your socks start to slip around and before long, you start walking like you are 100 years old. Yep, those are juicy blusters too. Thank goodness they didn't pop or I would be very very unhappy as apposed to just mildly unhappy. Believe me, there is a difference. The worst part of the whole deal is that I wanted to go on a haunted walking tour with Raine and Chris. Oy Friggin Vey....it put a damper on my fun, that is for darn sure. I did have a good time at lunch and during the Frankenstein the Musical. I got to see the Monsters moobs. For those of you not in the know...moobs are man boobs. Raine pointed them out to me....not that you could miss them. I also enjoyed watching the monster spray everywhere. He was spitting up a storm while he sang. Somehow, I found it entertaining. They had just enough back lighting to make it stand out perfectly. The best part is when he was at the end of the stage and belted out a few notes, and the spray went out into the audience because the ladies in front of me jumped or flinched, depending on how you looked at it. They were in the second row, so they were safe...but it made me laugh. That and the fact that I knew I was safe if the spit did set a world record for travel because they were blocking the slobber with their big melon heads. Yeah, so besides the blisters, I had a good day, but I always have a good time with Raine...and Chris, I can't leave him out or he will get upset. 
Jim Leach, that is. Jim has been hard at work putting in raised garden beds. I have been helping him cut the cedar for the beds and let me tell you, he has some large planks that he is cutting. Raine said she wanted to see a picture of Jim, with his wild hair and dirt on his face. Jim's always a good sport so he played along.
I had some Indian corn and some fall artificial leaves that someone had given me some years ago so I decided instead of letting them sit around collecting dust, it was time to spice them up. Hence, my wall hangings. I like the baby corn bunch the best but the other one is fine and dandy too. I had another large one that I used red leaves on and different ribbon but I sent it to someone before I was remembered to take a picture of it. Once it was all packaged up, I wasn't about to tear open the box.
It's been so crazy around this house, its not even funny anymore. The kitchen is almost back together and we don't have boxes littering the living room anymore. The only problem now is the driveway is torn up and waiting to be resurfaced. The problem with that is all the sand and crap people are dragging in on their feet. I like to go barefoot around the house, but I feel like I'm at the beach, no matter how many times I sweep. It's getting old. #E0FFFF |
Your dominant hues are green and blue. You're smart and you know it, and want to use your power to help people and relate to others. Even though you tend to battle with yourself, you solve other people's conflicts well. Your saturation level is very low - you have better things to do than jump headfirst into every little project. You make sure your actions are going to really accomplish something before you start because you hate wasting energy making everyone else think you're working. Your outlook on life is very bright. You are sunny and optimistic about life and others find it very encouraging, but remember to tone it down if you sense irritation. |
Remember a while back I blogged about Kashi letting you trade in your normal snack for a Kashi semi-healthy snack. Well I got my cookie in the mail the other day and let me tell you. It was yummy. It was the high point to my day. Sad, isn't it. Yeah well...I'm in contractor hell here, so don't judge me. Some day, things will be normal around here. Some day we won't have a bajillon boxes of kitchen crap sitting around the house. Oh yes, some day....
Nancy was away last week...Cliff was away for two days. He came home early actually, which is nice but the following morning I found this message on the dry-erase board. This was his subtle way of saying..."Annette, what did you do with my keys that were supposed to be on the fridge." Trust me, I know how he operates. He even came down stairs in the morning...around 6 AM, flipped on the office light and sighed loudly in an attempt to wake me up. I'd put money on it. I had left my bedroom door slightly ajar when I went to bed the night before but I was no dumby, I played possom and didn't move. I know that 6AM is way to early for me to deal with Cliff. He shut the light back off and went upstairs. I heard him stomping around the house and finally he left at 6:30. I got up, threw on some clothes and went outside to drag the garbage to the curb. The van was gone and the Honda was still in the driveway. They always take the Honda to the train station. Hmmmmm. I found the note on the fridge and started laughing. I knew exactly what happened. 
It sure wasn't Mary Poppins or a farm house from Kansas. We had a bad storm blow in off the ocean last Thursday. There were two rotating cells that straddled us and therefore we were in a tornado warning. Sam was bugging out but I told him, "Listen, I grew up in tornado alley. You don't need to worry until I tell you to haul ass to the basement." It wasn't that bad out. I was cooking while I was watching the weather unfold and I was watching the track of the closest rotating cell that was tracking right next to us across Point Lookout and heading to Bay Colony, which is in our backyard out on the bay. The wind was fierce, the waves high, the lightening was flashing, the sky dark...but alas no tornado formed. At one point, just after it had passed, I went outside to see how the ropes on the boat were doing. The new weigh system that holds the boat away from the dock worked great but I was worried that one of the ropes would break because it was a little bit older than the other ropes. I opened the patio door on to the deck and suddenly heard this loud "WHAM", then again..."WHAM"...then again. I booked it down to the bulkhead to discover one of the large 5 mile per hour buoys broke loose from its chain and was slamming with each wave into our neighbors bulkhead. The waves were large and those buoys are heavy. I leaned over the edge and discovered that the thing was leaving huge marks....not good. Now, bulkheads are expensive to repair, our neighbors were not home and I knew I had to do something. I ran in the house and told Emily that I needed her to come outside in the rain with me...in case I fell in the water or something while I was dinking around with the damn marker. 
I got a summons to do Jury Duty this last week. I had to call in everyday after 5PM to see if I had to go in the following day. Lucky me...I had a large Juror number and they never got to me. I was dismissed and now I'm free from it for another four years. Oh yeah, life is good. I swear the summons could not have arrived at a worse time. We had guys schedualed for lots of work around this house. Especially the floor instilation which I cancelled once already. Well, I lucked out and got away without fulfilling my civic duty. I'm sure they will catch me the next time around.
Rue had a blast at the County Fair. She wasn't to sure about the merry-go-round at first but after a little while, she was having a blast. Actually, we are not sure who had more fun, Rue or her PaPa. I'm sure it was a pretty tight race. I've been waiting for these pics for a month! A month.....sigh.
Rue Rue is going to be a teddy bear. Her Auntie Nett went shopping for her costume over the weekend and after much deliberating, the bear won out over the kitten and the bunny outfit. Let's face it, Sugar Bear, needs a big Sister and since Rue adores her Sugar Bear so much, who better to fill the fur. Sure she is to small to eat any of the treats...but she still has to go trick or treating at her Great Aunt and Uncles homes. She has to hit her Grammy and PaPa's house, her friend Taryn's house across the street, and her many admireors too. She's mighty popular these days. Aunt Nett has a fun care package for her, since she can't go trick or treating at my house. OK, seriously, how cute is she going to be in that costume?! 
