Spooky: The Sequel

So ... just when you thought that the spooky creepiness of Halloween was over ... think again. I woke up to this eerie blanket of fog this morning. Loved every minute of it.

I came home from my walk and was greeted by these guys. They are actually my close personal friends and these homes and their orange residents are rampant where I live. My Bug Man assures me that they are not only harmless, but helpful.

Not so much in the creepy category are the Granddogs, all decked out in their Halloween regalia. Asher went as a (very large) pumpkin and ...

Morrissey went as a bumblebee. I sure do love these guys.

Also left over from Halloween? Candy. Since my home is not easily accessible from the street, I only had one group of trick-or-treaters. I was so excited when they came to my door that I am sure they left thinking I was the creepy one.

Anyone for some Mike 'n Ikes??

Mickey knows the answer ...

So ... one more time people: What did the butcher say when he handed the customer the empty frankfurter?

(If you are new here, you should know that I ask my children this question every single year. I can honestly say that they are losing interest in answering. I'm over it, really I am.)

I wish you an evening full of candy, lots of doorbell rings and the best prize of all ...

Permission to start thinking about Christmas with abandon.

The Many Faces of Mr. Gee

So ... The Gees were with me this lovely Memorial Day weekend. L'il Gee was the most fun, let's be honest. (Mom and Dad Gee: you were fun ... you just weren't the most fun.) This top pic is of the l'il guy perfecting his badmitton serve.

Here he is with the Go-To Grin.

This would be the Fake Pouty Face.

Not really sure what to call this one.

I guess he just gets tired of the paparazzi. It's tough to be so popular.

In other weather-related news ...

So ... it rained here a little last week. Uhhhh .... let me rephrase that. It rained buckets here last week. Yard-flooding, Ark-making buckets of rain, accompanied by torrential winds. Rain has always been a bit of a sore spot in this particular home. Drainage issues consumed us for many ... many ... years. About two years ago we attacked those issues with a vengence, but until last week that work had not really been tested.

Well ... it passed the test. Worked like a charm. I might even go so far as to say that my yard likes me, it really, really likes me.

And visa-versa. As you can see in the photo above, the sun is now shining and I am too. I am not quite sure how to segue into this next picture, but let's just say that it's also seasonly related.

Here are the November and December blocks that complete my Block of the Month from Bunny Hill. I actually sewed these one day in December when I was feeling a bit blue and needed a colorful distraction that wasn't on a to-do list. I didn't do the hand work until last week. I have too many projects on the to-do list currently to put these babies together ... but it is a goal for 2010, really it is.

I hope I haven't messed with your head by publishing these holiday has-beens. I also hope the sun is shining where you are. But do tell ...

Did you have storms? Did you weather them? Does your yard like you as much as mine likes me??

Thanks to Renee ... my new boss ... for the shoutout over the weekend. Work was never so much fun!

Stars. Stripes. Streamers.

So ... Happy Fourth.

I hope your day involves bright lights in the sky and a lot of greasy food.

I hope you enjoy these flags from my very first block-exchange quilt from 2002. It was during the construction of this quilt (after poring over every single square and salivating on a few because these women were "real" quilters) that I decided to become a "real" quilter.

Unfortunately, when I got this out of the closet this morning and photographed the squares, I came to the sad realization that styles and fabrics have really dated themselves over the past seven years. Please excuse me while I momentarily panic over the shelf-life of my Stash. Anyone out there want to join me?

Our Fourth will involve a visit from Daughter #1. I'm thinking that we'll get out an old bike and make her put crepe paper streamers through the spokes and find ourselves a parade.

How about you? What's on your agenda? And more importantly ... what's on your menu?

Hop to it

So ... Happy Easter.

From one of your favorite peeps.

I {heart} a lot of people ...

So ... tomorrow is the big Day O'Looooove. The day to celebrate how much you love your loved ones. (Redundant I admit, now that I see it in print.) I have a lot ... I repeat a LOT ... of ones to love. And I want them all to

Be Mine.

I am just that selfish.

First and foremost ... the PDaddy, always the PDaddy. Secondly ... the four childrens. Next ... the adopted-by-marraige childrens. And of course ... of course ... the grandest of all grandchildrens.

If any of you would like to apply to be my Valentine, just give me a good reason. I'm not above the inclusion of anyone, including total strangers.

Love is a Grand Thing indeed. I wish you Joy and Love on the big day.

It IS thicker than water ...

So ... I can officially say that the work (by others) is done on the house (for now.) I am sweeping (floors) and hanging (pics and plates) and rearranging (furniture.) I have blog posts up the wazoo, but really ... who cares ... 'cause I have pictures of these two and that is much more entertaining.

These cousins really thrived on their (short) time together over the Holidays. They wore hats together and drove cars together and played together.

Sigh.

How is it that everything is done just when the biggest somethings are missing??

Sigh.

Martha, Me and Miss Dub

So ... it still feels a little like fall and I am relishing it. So much so that I decided to bake a pumpkin pie. Now PDaddy loooooves him some pumpkin pie and although he won't be able to eat the crust (do you remember the part about PDaddy not having much of a stomach anymore?) he will truly enjoy the filling.

And I will truly enjoy watching him truly enjoy the filling.

And then I will promptly eat his crust.

I even went so far as to add some fall touches with the left over crust. Very Martha. Except she probably would have put hers on the pie sooner than I did, because I'm not sure mine got totally cooked.

And because I am an EON (Equal-Opportunity-Nanny) I wanted to show off this very fall-ish picture of Miss Dub during a trip to the apple orchard. Is she not soooo beautiful?

Oh yes ... continuing in my Martha ways I will give you a very Helpful Hint about preparing a flaky pie crust. After you have rolled it out and put it in the pie plate and crimped it like a pro ... stick in in your (self-defrosting) freezer while you prepare the filling. The very purpose of such a freezer is to suck moisture out of the air. Because it sucks some moisture out of your crust, you can add a little more water while preparing it and make it much easier to roll out.

Because ... I love patchwork quilts, but I really hate a patchwork crust.

How about you?

from sea to shining sea ...

So ... we saw fireworks all right. Forty solid minutes of fabulous, frenetic fireworks. We actually made a whole day of it. (Hot dogs for lunch [at Ted's in Tempe ... originally from Buffalo, NY] but ... alas ... no apple pie.) It was hotter than ... HOT, but once the show started it was as pleasant as can be. This particular show draws the biggest crowds in the Phoenix metropolitan area, but it was the first time we had seen them there.

However ... for forty minutes as I gazed at this spectacle, I took a mental journey over 35 years worth of Fourths. Thirty five years of rockets glaring and bombs bursting. Thirty-five years worth of ... awe.

We have seen fireworks from coast to coast. At Padre's stadium in San Diego. At a high school stadium in Perris CA (where an 18 month old Sonny Boy threw up all over the place.) At the Rose Bowl where we were also treated to a show that involved Wilson-Phillips. (I was no doubt wearing shoulder pads.) We have also seen fireworks over a lake in Gaithersburg, Maryland., we have seen them on the "mall" between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and from a parking lot in Virginia where we viewed 3 or 4 different shows over our nation's capital.

In our home here we have seen them drenched in sweat. Always, always drenched in sweat. Never, never has it mattered. We have seen them over mall parking lots (and once on the grass across the street where the sprinklers promptly went off) and on the top of parking garages. We have seen them at "Rawhide" and "Westworld". We have seen them at the Diamondbacks game. We have seen them from Dad's high rise office building and from a patch of dirt road up the street from our house. We have seen them with babies and with teenagers and we hope to see them with the grandkids for many years to come.

And I am pretty certain that every single time ... drenched in throw-up or sweat or the awe-inspiring glow from the sky ... I had the presence of mind to think about, and be grateful for ... America.

And to be grateful to Neil for singing about it.

freedom rings

So ... Happy 3rd of July. And Fourth. Hope yours is full of fireworks and baseball and scrumptious food and family and weather that is below 110 degrees. At our house we are hoping to go with four out of five.

As long as the food is scrumptious.

I dug this little quilt out of the closet to help me celebrate. I made it as part of a "Jo's Little Women's Club" over a year ago. We were all supposed to make six little quilts over the course of the year ... just like the ones in the patterns we were given.

Except that I just cannot do that for some reason. I physically cannot do that. Is it rebellion? Am I just cranky? What the heck is the deal?

For this one I added the top and bottom borders. I had a ball. So sue me.

But I am really excited about the aforementioned holiday. Yet another child is coming to visit. We are going to see fireworks. A good time will be had by all.

But ... I won't be sewing. Because my little red friend is away for some spa treatments. Come back soon, my little red friend.

So do tell. What are your plans? Will you see fireworks?

Can you follow a pattern without breaking out into hives?

So Egg-Citing!

So ... having not much to report on this Memorial Day*, I offer forth the following ... life changing ... beauty tip.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Ped Egg.

I received this tip from a strange woman (It's just that I didn't know her ... she actually seemed quite normal to me) in the salon while I was getting chastised by the woman giving me a pedicure, (who was strange ... as in odd) because of my dry feet. Yes, yes, they have been a problem to me my entire adult life, but particularly since moving to AZ. Let's just say I have put a small fortune into "foot creams" that only really help if I spend my life with my feet slathered in such creams ... while wearing socks. Makes the whole flip-flop/sandal issue in the summer a tad hard. But, I digress.

So the pedicur-er was really railing on me, when this woman walks by and recognizes my dual agony: I am being humiliated in public and I have very dry feet. She sweetly and casually mentions that the aforementioned Ped Egg was a life saver for both her and her mother. Her mother ... who was with her ... appeared to possibly have even dryer feet than mine, so I went to my local Walgreens and layed myself a Ped Egg for a mere $9.99.

The secret apparently lies in the many ... very sharp ... very fine ... ridges on this cheese-grating like object. The grater snaps into one half of the egg to very conveniently collect the ... DNA ... that is shaved off of your foot and resembles talcum powder. My heels were immediately smooth with nary a drop of blood in sight.

Thank you strange woman at the nail salon. Thank you.

Oh ... and as for *Memorial Day. Both my father and PDaddy's father served in World War II and I pay tribute to them both. As for Holiday fun? We ate lunch "al fresco" and saw Iron Man this afternoon. Loved, loved the movie. Ditto for my Greek style pizza.

How was your Memorial Day? And seriously ... how dry are your feet?

And So It ... Begins

So ... yesterday afternoon as I was anticipating a flurry of the li'l tricksters at my door, it began to dawn on me that with Halloween almost over, I could ... yes, I really could ... put my heart and soul into Christmas. (Now, don't get me wrong, I have not forgotten Thanksgiving ... I love it dearly ... but I need more than 4 weeks to squeeze all the scrumptious goodness out of Christmas.) I went upstairs and found last years magazines (combined with the new, new Victoria that I received just before our trip) and set them aside on the couch to peruse in between jumps up and down for the little ones (and the too-old-to-be-trick-or-treating teenagers and the parents with 3 month old babies whom I suspect will be dipping into their candy ... but I digress ...)

Then I went to get the mail.

To my absolute delight (and a little bit of shock, I cannot lie) I found among my various pieces of junk mail ... two new Christmas editions. Two pristine, never-before-opened, magical books of joy. (If you are a magazine-aholic as I am, you know exactly what I am talking about.) I put them on the top of the pile and spent a most delicious evening inhaling their goodness. I had more time than I thought I would, because trick-or-treaters were a little scant this year at our house. What was with that?

Oh ... one last peek at Halloween. Here's a pic of li'l Gee with his trusty sidekick, Asher. I have an incredible picture of Asher proudly showing off his super-statis, but I'm saving it for the perfect blog-op in the future. I do not have a picture of Miss Dub because her mother forgot to take her camera to the party. In time I will forgive her. In the meantime, enjoy the grin and please answer the following questions:

Are you ready to think about Christmas?

Do you feel the same way about a new magazine or is it just me?

Happy Boo-Day to You!!

So ... every Halloween I do the same lame thing for my children who ... I may have previously mentioned ... do not live close to me. I send them an email with a secret riddle (oh yes ... the same secret riddle year after year after year) and tempt them to answer it. I offer a prize to the first one, and that prize is usually my leftover candy which no one is particularly jumping up and down to receive, so ... it saves me alot of postage. (Also ... why bother to mail it when most of it is still here when they come at Thanksgiving or Christmas.)

This year I am hoping to lure them with my blog instead of an email. I am hoping they will be so excited to answer it that they will arrive on my doorstep (in costume of course) and tell me the answer in person while I dole out candy into their Halloween bucket and/or pillow case ... once again saving me postage.

So ... the infamous riddle is this:

What did the butcher say when he handed the customer the empty frankfurter?

For the rest of you out there in bloggo-land, feel free to answer also. If you are not going to come to my doorstep to retrieve your prize, the least you can do is tell me what your costume would be, so I can anticipate your arrival ... in my head. (As I have previously explained, there are alot of conversations going on in there that do not neccessarily involve other human beings.)That costume instruction goes double for you ... offspring. Just throw me a bone, here.

Happy Halloween to One and All! Now, please excuse me while I open the big bag of candy from Costco and test it out for you ... it's really the right thing to do.