The week in review

Finally, our internet is back up!  And we didn't get such a bad deal for the inconvenience...we were without service for a week, but Verizon is giving us a month's credit on our account.  I can deal with that!  But now that I am a "blogger" (sounds so nerdy), it was a pain not being able to update my little site.  I had so much to talk about.  I'll give the quick rundown....potential titles only; the content can be up to your imagination:

* Underwear shopping with Nolan, or, "Mommy, you're fat! Hahahahahahaha!!!!"

* Why do old people think they just rule the world

* There's a fine line between "chic" and "1st grade arts & crafts project", and I'm teetering on the edge

* Choco-NOT-a-lotta

* I have more clients now than I did when I was actually working

 * The Makeover

I'm so excited about the makeover one, I'll give you a hint!

Friends & Coffee

To do: call people about cakes, clean floors, Big Lots (?), get stamps

Not an exciting to-do list, but I'm not bored by it.  I'm so thankful that I'm able to be home and get these kinds of things done. And the fact that Abby has a day off today makes it even better!  I love having my little drop-out wannabe home for a change.  Parent-teacher conference tonight - whoa.  It's hard to believe that I have a school-age kid.  That's so "old"!!! 

Yesterday was such an emotionally "full" day.  It started with a nice little tiff with DH in the morning - over coffee.  Ahhh.  Gotta love the Sunday morning tiff.  Nothing like it to really prepare me to go worship God at church, right?   (We're buddies again, fyi.)  But it was difficult, because he was on his way to more training in Monroeville, and stayed overnight last night...so that was the last real interaction we had before he left...which stinks. 

After church, it was just the kids & I...I was using my Sunday afternoon to be totally lazy - we were all very tired.  Well I picked the wrong day not to vaccuum, because I got an unexpected (but pleasantly so!) visit from a friend bearing chocolate.  After a little small talk, she really hit me with some heavy stuff.  Our little afternoon social call turned into a major heart to heart, which I am so glad I could be there for. 

Then it was my turn...during AWANA Sunday nights, I've taken to going to everyone's favorite over-priced coffeeshop and relaxing with an engrossing book for an hour or so.  I really love that time that I have all to myself.  But I love it even more now, that some of my friends have started to join me!  I've had more amazing, uplifting, satisfying talks over the last month than I may have had all year.  That could be an exaggeration, but not by much!  I hope they continue...and that I can be as good of a listener & friend that my 3 dear friends were to me last night.  Thanks girls - I love each one of you!!!

Halloween...check.

Whew...whew.  I like to be festive, but I am so glad Halloween is finally over.  I'm just TIRED!  I think we did way more holiday-related activities than a day like Halloween deserves.  But it is what it is.

The whole Halloween-fest '09 started Tuesday, when the kids & I ventured downtown via the much-begged-to-go-on Johnstown Inclined Plane.  Truth be told, that was pretty much our favorite part of the outing.  The kids got to give the man their tickets themselves, which was just adorable.  Then I got to hide my own terror/nausea/panic and pretend that it was great fun to ride down the world's steepest incline from Westmont to downtown. Actually, seeing the kids' faces, and their total fascination with the whole experience, made it really cool.  The parade itself was fine, but we left a little early because frankly, I think even the kids were bored, and miffed that the candy thrown at them from the floats was mostly just those gross, fake-tootsie roll-flavored chewy things.  Seriously, people.  Give them something that won't sit in the bottom of the Halloween candy bowl for months and months until I finally throw it away.  Also, it was raining pretty steadily, and we were wet, tired, and cold!!!  But the kids were troopers and we had a good time.

Then it was on to Thursday, with each of the kids' Halloween parades at school, and to a pumpkin farm that evening.  By then it had stopped raining - yay! - and it was a really fun day, although packed full.  First was Nolan's preschool parade.  I sewed him a pumpkin costume that I was sure was 100% unique.  So when the kid came out the door wearing NOLAN'S COSTUME, I thought, "oh no!  they got the costumes switched...what is Nolan going to come out as???"  I put his name on the bag, but not in the costume itself.  Darn it!!! But then, another kid came out in the same costume....then Nolan came out in his costume!  I guess Simplicity 2788 is a lot more popular than I realized.  :)  Next was Abby's parade, which was too cute...it's so strange, she's such a "big girl" all of the sudden.  There she was, walking through the school's parking lot with a bunch of "big" elementary school kids - and looking like one of them.  Hard to believe.

 

THEN it was on to a local farm with a corn maze, hayride, and all kinds of fall fun.  I was so glad it didn't rain, because I'd already told the kids we were going.  We went with some of my MOPS friends and kids, and if that was the only thing we did all fall, it would have been perfectly great.  Moms & kids alike had such a great time.  And I learned that picking out your own pumpkin from a pumpkin patch is really overrated.  YUCK!  Our shoes got encrusted with mud, and we really had to pick through the pumpkins to find a decent one that didn't have "goo" on it (as Nolan liked to say).  But everything else about the little farm trip was great.

I'm getting tired just trying to recall all this.  The rest is short and sweet: we went trick-or-treating with Tyler & Uncle Mo on a VERY chilly night with two not-in-the-greatest-of-moods kids.  You do the math.   But you can't say they weren't the cutest little trick-or-treaters out there...