Happy Halloween!

Its been a rather "bewitching" week. I'm quite certain that "possessions" are at an all time high this year! You just have to turn on the TV to see them... Oh, that's right... Nov. 4th is just a few days away. Ok, so maybe they're not at an all time high. And as for work, we'll let's just say that if I'd have dressed up today, I would have gone like her !

Normally I'm more into the "Wonder Woman" look but someone stole my invisible jet, I've worn out my magic lasso trying contain all the drama (male drama mind you, not female) and its making me a little cranky!

On a lighter note, My friend Carla sent this to me today, so I'll share 'cuz it made me "cackle"

Two brooms were hanging in the closet and after a while they got to know each other so well, they decided to get married. One broom was, of course, the bride broom, the other the groom broom. The bride broom looked very beautiful in her white dress. The groom broom was handsome and suave in his tuxedo. The wedding was lovely. After the wedding, at the wedding dinner, the bride-broom leaned over and said to the groom-broom, 'I think I am going to have a little whisk broom!' 'IMPOSSIBLE !' said the groom broom. 'WE HAVEN'T EVEN SWEPT TOGETHER!'

Sounds to me like she's been sweeping around!!! Trick or Treat~

Weekend Warrior

Do you ever get to Sunday night and think, I'm exhausted! I need another weekend? Well, that's how this past week and weekend were here in our little corner of the world. The week went something like this:
Monday night - Soccer game boy #3
Tuesday - up at 4:00 a.m. to be at work by 5 for the go live of our hospital electronic medical record. Home around 6pm, something else happened but can't remember what and I fell into bed.
Wednesday- up early again, another soccer game for boy #3. Home cook 3 lbs of pasta for football team dinner on Thursday afternoon.
Thursday - work, run home, drop off boy #2 at field to watch girls soccer game. Run back home, change clothes, pick up boy#2 and drive to the football field for our Homecoming game (yes, weird... homecoming on a Thursday night) game was a blow out. Tides ahead 57 to 0 by half time. Final score 64 to 0 with everyone who was eligible to play getting to play.
Friday - work and then home. Drive to WalMart in Port Orchard to buy fabric to make costume for Boy #1 to wear to the homecoming dance on Saturday night.

For those who may not have the opportunity for this particular type of "adventure", let me share. When you walk in to WalMart on Friday night its like taking a trip to a whole other country - as in 3rd world trailer park country. I wandered around the store for a bit trying to see if I could put together a costume that would not require sewing (Homecoming theme was "Rome-coming" and Boy#1 wanted to go dressed as a Gladiator. Of course, the costume we found three weeks earlier while buying new football cleats wouldn't do). No such luck but I did find a t-shirt that said, "If the broom fits, ride it!" I was tempted but pumpkin orange isn't in my color palette. I tried not to stare at the multitude of families while I pondered, "how on earth did you find the time to have all those children in such a short period of time? And then it dawned on me - dad actually has two wives and they are sisters! How nice to have a family tree that goes straight up. Makes keeping track of things so much easier. Anyway, I digress. I did find a pattern and fabric (leather imprint vinyl). While waiting at the fabric cutting counter I was then treated to conversation that I can only describe as amazing. (Older woman doing the cutting -we had to repeat how much of each bolt of fabric we needed cut like three times. I know, she was just being thorough. Young girl/woman- old enough to apparently be married and joining the military but I'm quite certain not old enough to buy beer) were having the most fascinating discussion with "Joe" from the WalMart Oil change mart. Joe was complaining about how people just don't understand how hard their job is (while leaning on the fabric cutting counter in all his greasiness) and then explaining to Young Girl/Woman how he was going to help her get ready for boot camp including automatic weapons training. Then towards the end of my turn in line, Young Girl belches (and I do mean belch) to the mild chagrin of Older Woman who says, she always knows where to find Young Girl in the store. To which Young Girl responds, "Well I'm not going to hold it in and get a tummy ache!" Thankfully I only had to have three things cut and was able to leave before they shared any more with the lucky fabric crowd. On Saturday morning when Boy#1 arrived home and I showed him the pattern we had the following conversation:

T: "Do I get the cape too?"
Me: Yes

T: "YES! Sweet!"

I guess capes fall into the category of things that you are never to old for. Four and a half hours later and....

My gladiator!

Sunday began with a trip into Tacoma to pick up the rest of the tux for Boy#2 to wear to his musical concert on Tuesday night (apparently one was supposed to have brought at check with oneself to school on Friday - yeah, communication not so good on this one). I get to the store only to find they are CLOSED! I counted to ten and headed into Costco where I managed to spend several hundred dollars on food items (how does this happen?) then dashed home for Boy#3's fourth soccer game of the week. Back home and now, its time to cook (Sunday are my cooking days). First I threw all the fixings for a turkey noodle soup into a pot - Yum, perfect fall dinner food. Then I mixed up a double batch of Halloween M&M cookies (did you know that Halloween M&M's are like purple and orange and black and brown? Not the most appetizing look in a cookie). And then because I'd had a craving all week for it, I made two apple pies. I had picked up about 6 or 7 Honeycrisp apples from the fruit stand up the road, so I peeled and sliced them...

To which I then added: (double this if you are making 2 pies): 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 c. sugar, 1/2 c. brown sugar, 2 tbsp. flour, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/8 tsp. ginger, 1/8 tsp. ground cloves (I didn't have allspice), juice of one lemon. I stirred this all up (Yummy, could have eaten just that right out of the bowl) and poured the apple mixture into a deep dish pie shell. And no, I did not make my own pie crust. I see no reason to go all the trouble when Marie C. does such a great job for less than $3. Then because I wanted a crumbly top I topped the pies with a generous amount of low-fat honey granola I had. Then I baked them at 425 for 10 minutes, turned down the heat to 350 and baked them for another 40 minutes and....

Lord have mercy! These had to be the world's best apple pies! Boy #1 ate an entire half all by himself. (one tip, if you use granola, I would hold off putting it on top until you turn the oven down to 350. Some of my bigger chunks got a little too brown at the 425 heat).

It just can't be

It just can't be - rather he just can't be. Son #1 turned 18 on October 9th. I started the week by going to the Hallmark store to secure the perfect card for the boy-turned man's 18th birthday. Between the corny "you're 18 " cards (which I'm fairly certain were just the you're "8" cards that they added a "1" to) and all the Son, its your birthday and blah, blah, blah dumb humor cards, I was feeling a little despondent. So I moved into the "E-mo" section (as the kids would say). That was a quick trip because Hallmark in all its gushy glory came raging down on me and in a matter of minutes I had tears in my eyes and had to flee the store before I embarrassed myself. I ended up spending 2 hours on Wednesday night making my own card (It took awhile because all my crafting stuff was still in boxes... that and I kept getting teary-eyed). Here was my final result

It says, " Love the boy you were... Love the man you are..."

Inside: Love having you for a son. I may not be able to hold you

in my arms like I did when you were small but I will always

be able to hold you in my heart.

It's just amazing that the baby on the left became the boy/man on the right... and lest you think it was all sniffles on my part, there was a bit of humor to the whole event. Before I went to bed on the 8th we had the following text exchange:

Me: In less than 4 hours you will be 18!

T: Ha Ha, thanks mom!

Me: Yea we can laugh now but 18 years ago you were 2 weeks overdue and I'd been in labor for 12 hours and wasn't thinking it was too funny. Except that the epidural made my right leg so numb it kept falling off the bed and I couldn't move it back!

T: Thanks for the essay on my birth. Me being late is where I get my procrastination from - ha!

Me: You're welcome, you know me always trying to help! I think its where you get your drive and determination... You worked hard to get here!

Moving Out, Moving In, Part II - aka the Ex-orcism

I know, I know! This moving thing is taking me forever - at least to blog about it! Everything is moved and last weekend I got nearly all of the boxes at the new house emptied and put away. Now for the garage, which is currently housing some rather large (and unattractive) left behind furniture items that are going bye-bye as soon as I can get someone with a truck and strong back to move them.

So I'm sure some of you are wondering about the "Ex-orcism" part... well, let's just say that I'm back living in the same house that shared with "past life" (which I moved out of 3 1/2 years ago. Past Life is not living here) In that time there are have been other shall we say "occupants" (see how nice I'm being). My initial thought was to buy the largest sage bush I could find and set fire to it in the living room... while I generally have some pretty great ideas, that was not probably the all- around best one. My good friends A & N came up with this little gem of an "Ex-orcism kit" (and I want you to know that it worked very nicely, especially the red stuff in the bottles... though I believe for the ex-orcism to remain effective one needs to "re-exorcise" on a regular basis!)For those who can't tell (and yes, I know the picture says 1/07 - Taylor's camera again!) The kit contained, Renuzit Super Odor Neutralizer (though I'm not quite sure there is a true neutralizer for the linger scent of 20 years worth of moth balls), some Febreeze spray, Glade scented oil candles in my favorite scent "Clean Linen" (why is something relating to laundry my fav? I have this laundry thing - but that's a whole other post) and then my new favorite scent "angel wings" for the little Glade warmer (I'm cracking up here - angel and exorism in the same thought!) and finally, two bottles of red wine, Smoking Loon and Mad Housewife~ This part borders on hysterical, especially if you know anything about the "spirits" I was exorcising... (one of them is the airline/scissors story for those who are joining us late in the program!)

Moving Out, Moving In - Part 1

Ok, so I do realize that its been a rather long time since I last posted. To borrow Sis Amy's line... "I've been in a bit of a vortex." Actually, I think I might still be in said vortex but knowing how my life goes it could last awhile. And just so you all don't think that I actually have been just sitting in my "vortex" and doing nothing but eating bonbons and drinking Mad Housewife (its a wine) we'll start with a few of the things I did before Moving Out, Moving In and Moving On began:
September 7th - Neighbor's birthday (actually I think it might be the 6th but I thought it was the 7th or maybe it is the 7th and I got mixed up) anyway I was a day LATE! (the shame). Neighbor is a hard person to shop for because she has spent most of the past year fixing up her house and yard and so they are all cute and decorated now and so I was like Hmm, what do I get Neighbor? And then it struck me - Neighbor is going to be a mommy soon and every house needs a cookie jar! So I bought her a cookie jar and filled it with all our favorite cookie recipes. Then I wrapped it up to look like a cupcake (use your imagination a little people) I even found a card with dancing cupcakes on it!

Other things that I did before moving out came...

I took this,

Did this.... (Ack! Hide your eyes! Naked Zucchini!)

and made this!

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread!

Yummy and Healthy!

I mean after all, it did come from a vegetable!

I also made sure our cookie jar was kept full along with doing a fabulous job packing(yea, didn't do so well with that one), clean the house we were moving in to... did ok with that however moving out seemed to be more difficult than I remembered. First off, it rained on moving day - OF COURSE! While I was not at all entertained I'm quite sure that God, my neighbors and any one else watching me haul all of my outdoor plants (and I had an entire 14 ft truck load) up the metal ramp of the moving truck in the pouring rain (with the cart weighing in at more than I do) had quite a show. For the most part I did refrain from large outbursts of curse words, though had I been able to find my witches hat and magic wand I would have put more than a hex on the weather man! So much for the 20+ days of above 70 degree weather - I think the only day it rained the entire month was on the day I moved.


We interupt this comedy show to bring you this important announcement: Ashton Sage Evershed arrived safely (though late despite big sister telling her mother, "She needs to hurry up and get here, I've been waiting very patiently for a long time!" Aren't they cute!

I got picked to paint this new little chickie's bedroom and it came out well if I do say so myself. Court, you'll have to send me a pic to post when its all decorated.

And lastly, poor Libby was rather undone by all the company that came to visit (her mom's family) the moving boxes and just general chaos. She decided that she no longer liked Bo-Bo's house and frequently I'd find her waiting on the porch for her mommy to come home!

Poor little orphan Libby! Well, I hate to leave you all hanging in suspense but Moving Out, Moving In and Moving On will have to be continued. The internet is in tortoise mode and its taking 3-4 minutes to upload a picture and given that my patience rapidly diminished after 9 pm I'm heading off to my bed which is all nice and warm thanks to my heated mattress pad! (What can I say, apparently Prince Charming has decided to take a trip or two or three around the world before coming to rescue me!)