Halloween

Cough. Cough.

Sniffle. Sniffle.

Sneeze.

That pretty much sums up life in our house right now.

The other big news in our little house on our little street...for the first time in TWENTY years, we were not out trick or treating with one of our shrubs.

TWENTY YEARS.

Somehow when I wasn't looking they all grew up.

Sigh.

But then there is the fun of it all...as demonstrated by my youngest son, who is 12.

Our neighbor threw together this costume in 5 minutes flat and when Brian came home, even his own dad didn't recognize him.

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The oldest and the youngest...the middle was at a party down the street.

Matthew brought home all his roommates for dinner and then even more students showed up trick or treating, so we ended up with a houseful.

Fun.

I am off work tomorrow but the boys have school...wish they had off, too.

Oh well...it'll just be me at home. Alone. Me and their candy bags.

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Insomnia

I was so looking forward to sleeping in this morning after a week of extremely early morning calls...and then I woke up at 5:00am to the sound of rain falling.

FIVE o'clock AM.

Sigh.

Gotta love insomnia.

And no, my cat...you cannot go out until the sun wakes up.

I decided to work on my Bible study and then spent some time just praying over some things that needed praying over.

(1 Peter 1:3-5...grace in a nutshell.)

Next up...pumpkin bread. There's nothing better than waking up to the smell of something baking in the oven...especially on a rainy morning.

And then the day began as the not so little guys in my life began to roll out of bed in search of food.

Errands were run...Costco, the post office and Trader Joe's.

Boys off to various places...one to a friends and then a party tonight, another to the skateboard park for the afternoon with friends and his new skateboard (courtesy of all his birthday money from the Grandparents) and one is always away at college, but never out of my mind.

So if you are doing the math...that leaves an afternoon with just me and that guy that I like so much.

And college football.

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(so long rain...hello sunshine!)

Supper tonight will be a spicy shrimp scampi with linguini and a big salad on the side, followed by a visit to a haunted house around the corner.

And then we'll watch Hocus Pocus while I sneak all the Take 5's out of the candy stash.

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This Week...So Far

A snail on the family room window.

All together now....ewwwww.

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He's still there, by the way. Two days later. Someone (meaning one of the males...and there are a few...that live in my little house) needs to go and knock it down with a broom.

Please.

Last night was Irvine's Band Spectacular, where all the high school bands gather and perform for each other (there are 4 high schools in our town) and they invite all the middle schools to come and play a piece with them at the end.

It was exciting because our home high school band just returned from Washington DC where they not only performed at the White House, but they won 1st place in the nation. Very cool.

Anyway, Brian was excited to go...but mainly because they were selling funnel cakes beforehand.

He's easy to please.

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(Brian's out there...really, he is!)

This morning came early and I had to be out and about working in the field evaluating crossing guards.

Yawn.

After, I took a little detour into Corner Bakery because let's face it, have you ever tried their oatmeal?

Seriously...have you?

HAVE YOU?

Please do...ok? Better yet, call me when you do and I will join you.

OK?

Then I came home and showered and hammered and went to the eye DR (again) and hammered and made supper (roast pork with caramelized onions...the house smells soooo good!) and hammered and thought about making something chocolaty for dessert but we only have one egg so I didn't and hammered and fed snacks to all of Brian's friends.

And now I am going to see what is on Netflix, cuz I am pooped.

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How is your week going?

Homecoming

I was given permission to post this.

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(Alex and Rachel before the Homecoming football game...the dance is tonight)

Life...

...in my little house on my little street has been jam packed lately.

It's been rainy and cold and dreary and all around lovely outside, but we still got funkins...funky pumpkins.

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Our electric bill was $200 higher than last month, higher than when we turn into the Griswalds at Christmas and light up our house so that it is visible from space. Higher than I am interested in paying. (pray the meter was just read wrong...is it possible to have an electricity leak??)

I went to the gym 3 times. No joke. (Hi Sam...sorry I talked your ear off! Consider it repayment for telling me about the pumpkin whoopie pies at Corner Bakery...haha) I only stopped at Starbucks on the way home two of those times, too.

Shipped 41 jewelry orders this week. Gotta love e-parties!! You should host one too (so easy and you get FREE jewelry!)...Christmas is coming!

A little bubbly, which seems so much happier when poured into a really cute pitcher. Made a regular Thursday seem like a special Thursday.

A rare supper out with all my boys.

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I just asked for one nice picture.

Sigh.

We had Matthew drive Brian and Alex home on his way back to school and that guy that I like so much and I went on a date to Trader Joe's.

It's the little things.

Gotta grab the time when you can.

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And then I almost wept....brussel sprouts. The real kind.

Turned into this...fingerlings and sprouts, oh my.

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Crisis.

Brian's well loved shoes were soaked and he had to wear the new pair.

BIG crisis.

But then he switched out some laces and made them different, so all was well.

Slightly.

(have you met Brian?)

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As for today...it's Friday.

I need to order sterling silver and buy toilet paper, dishwasher detergent and pellegrino (in glass bottles, cuz there IS a difference...really, there is) or it is going to be a slightly miserable weekend, in one way or another.

Other than that...there's not much going on.

What are your Friday plans?

It's Raining, It's...

It's raining.

And thundering.

And lightning-ing.

Which in southern California is quite an event.

A wonderful event.

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Today...Bible study followed by a 2 hour long lunch at Macaroni Grill with my best girlfriends followed by coming home in time to greet a soaking wet child who walked home without an umbrella or jacket (I like walking in the rain, too...) followed by homemade witches hats.

(white frosting colored orange, kisses and fudge stripe cookies...put a blob of frosting on an unwrapped kiss and stick it on the chocolate side of a cookie. ta-dah! witches hats!)

Followed by...gobble, gobble gobble.

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Have you bought your Halloween candy yet?

I thought about it this morning, but resisted the urge...

Weekend Eats

Supper last night...grilled (over wood chips) pork chops on top of tuscan white beans, with a simple green salad on the side.

Yum.

Yum.

Yum.

We're developing a new routine this school year in regards to church. Brian has to be there 1 1/2 hours before the rest of us, so I've been driving him up (our church is 30 minutes away), dropping him off and then planting myself at Corner Bakery, where I get a good chunk of time to work on my weekly bible study.

The rest of the family then drives up and we all go to church (and then lunch out) together.

And then drive a bunch of cars home.

I'm sure we'll switch it up a bit as we go, but for now this is working pretty well.

Supper tonight is a béchamel lasagne copied (sort of) from my other love, Tyler Florence...he is soooo dreamy.

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What's for supper in your house?

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Halloween Decorations

I love the punkin patch and while this was a quick pick up a cornstalk and a bale of hay trip...I will be dragging the whole family here for the annual photo op.

It's just the way it goes, boys.

And remember, if the mama is happy....everyone is happy.

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Once we got home (we also hit up the Italian market and Costco) that guy that I like so much hopped on the fence...

...and put up the pumpkins.

(though he did ignore my request to put lit pumpkins all along the whole roof line...)

Brian came home from school and threw his arms in the air (like only Brian can do) and exclaimed, "why does our house have to always look so happy? Normal people have scary Halloween houses!!!"

So we bought the spider of doom for the front.

See? Scary!

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Today is cold and overcast and perfectly dreary...aside from recovering from a very lovely late night dinner party last night, this is what my day is all about:

(the never ending piles of laundry....)

Picture Catch Up

Last night I made one of those dinners that kind of makes me cringe...mainly because it is one of those same color meals.

And I like color when I cook...so there's usually some sort of bright vegetable there.

But last night I made meatloaf and homemade macaroni and cheese (which isn't really macaroni and cheese...it's macaroni baked with a bechemel sauce, no cheese, but don't tell my children) and succotash.

Yep, succotash. I've got a family of lima bean lovers.

Weirdos.

The youngest shrub in our family is pickier than the rest but I am one of those meanie moms that makes them sit at the table and be polite and not complain...you don't have to eat it, but you have to sit and be polite.

(and eat a bowl of cereal later, if you want.)

Well, last night Brian discovered (by way of an older brother) that tabasco sauce is awesome.

(I disagree, by the way.)

And suddenly, he likes meatloaf.

(sigh.)

That guy that I like so much is on Fall Break (basically just a 4 day weekend) so today we went on a little adventure while the boys were in school.

But first, there was the mother of all spiders. See if you can see him building his web near the tree...

Nasty. And big. Like...WAY big.

But that guy that I like so much got him and saved the day....which is a good thing because if he had missed, all would not have been well in our little world.

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Anyway, today is sort of chilly and overcast and totally called for a food truck.

Or ten.

All in a parking lot, just waiting for us.

And fresh from The Great American Food Truck Race...Crepes Bonaparte.

(totally thought of you, Joanna!)

Their food looked yummy, but I wasn't hungry enough to eat from two trucks so I skipped it. This time.

Instead we went Greek and ate from the Louks truck. M had a lamb burger that looked amazing and I had a gyro.

Mmmmm....so yummy!

(anyone want to food truck hop with me next week?)

Then a quick trip to Pier 1...

(he is a recliner)

...followed by a pumpkin spice latte from Peets.

And then home to finish jewelry orders...Christmas is a'comin!

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And for those that asked...here is the best of the pictures that I got from the ball the other night.

Blurry and no flash. The funny part is that I had left the camera on our table and when I went to download them, there were tons of pictures of people I don't even know.

I loved, loved, loved my dress..a long black skirt and a black lacy top and really pretty sparkly dangly earrings.

Can you tell?

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