Tuesday Ten

Twas the Tuesday before Halloween, and I said to my spouse I hate Halloween, as much as I hate... I'll stop before things get cheesey. ;o) Truth be told, I really do not care for Halloween. I love fall, and I love fall decorating. Pine cones, earthy wreaths, bittersweet entwined here and there. Halloween? Nope. Not my favorite. So, this Tuesday, I will enlighten you with the Top Ten Things I Hate About Halloween.

1. Cheesey Halloween Decorations. Come on, we've all seen them in the WalMart seasonal aisle. The blow up ghosts and Halloween Tigger and Winnie the Pooh (I still don't get THAT connection to Halloween) that look... okay while inflated, then during the daytime when they are unplugged they lay on the lawn like a used condom. Sorry - that is what I think of when I see the sad, deflated piles. And I'm sure I've pissed off some person is looking out their window right now at their blow up ghost thinking "Cheesey? How can that be cheesey?". I apologize in advance for offending any blow-up condom owners. ;o)

2. Costumes. I loved little baby Halloween costumes. Cute little peas in the pod or bumble bees. Then the little buggers grow up and want to be the horrid scary caped blood running down the mask creature that scared the ever living bejezus out of them when they were in preschool. Sigh.

3. Making costumes. Once I've talked some sense into my kids (that blood running down the mask creatures really won't happen in this house) then we have to think of and make costumes. This year I get an easy button - Dylan wants to be the Army dude on Call of Duty 4 (and he's well stocked on all things camo) and Morgan wants to be a hippie chick. The great Mother that I am sent Morgan with a pair of jeans and some markers into school knowing it was a rainy indoor recess day and let her and her friends decorate her jeans. She came back emlazoned with peace and love and upside down peace signs (lol) and hearts.... had fun... and Mom didn't have to do that part. Yeah!

4. Making costumes ahead of time. Today is October 28th. We've known for a while that Morgan wants to be hippie chick, but we just started working on her costume today. You would think I would have learned from Dylan's pre-picture haircut not to wait until the day before, but I tend to put off things that I really don't want to do.

5. Halloween parades at school. I live in Sparta, NJ. Home of Lake Mohawk, NJ. Anyone who lives here doesn't need to hear another word. For those who don't... Lake Mohawk is the place of all things beautiful, including Mom's. Most of the Lake Mohawk kids go to the other school in town, but we have our small share. So... the parade is not about the kids (really), it's snickering over which Mom actually showed up in sweat pants. GASP. Did I mention I hate Halloween parades? You should see the PTO meetings. They are still talking about the Mom who ate the brownies they put out. It wasn't me, I had my grapes I brought with me. ;o)

6. Trick or Treating. I preferred to stay home and answer the door and oooh and ahh over the little tinker bells and pirates. I don't mind walking, but hate the grownups who haven't grown up and hide in the bushes and scare people. OH WAIT> I live with one of them. Who resorted to hiding on the roof and dangling spiders over the little tinkerbelles and watching them scream for their mother. But I digress. This year - another easy button for me. We team up with friends of ours in their neighborhood. Loads of houses, not much hills. One wagon full of beer, hot rum spiced cider and.. oh yeah, hot chocolate for our little ones. Maybe this one isn't on my much hated list anymore.

7. Did I mention decorating? I always feel compelled to decorate for Halloween, or the kids will be traumatized because their house was the only one who didn't have fake headstones in the front yard. One year I actually came up with a really cool decoration - a witch stirring a cauldron. It was really cool - there were red lights under the logs for "fire" and green lights in the giant "cauldron" and a broom stick and a cape and a hat for the witch bent over stirring. BUT. It's in attic somewhere and didn't come out this year. Again.

8. Scary things. Maybe I don't like Halloween so much because I don't like scary things. Like my husband on Halloween. I don't watch scary movies. At all. I actually like to sleep at night and not wake up screaming for dear life. Thank you. Maybe it's god getting back at me for scaring my mother in the kitchen when she first woke up. She took a LONG time to wake up, and we'd stalk her in the kitchen and scream boo and watch her scream. Yup, I think I'm onto something there.

9. Keeping the candy away from the kids. I decided that maybe I should just let Morgan have candy - and not be the veggie and fruit nazi for one year. Yup - I let her have at it with her giant bag of loot from last year. And, by January, she earned the nickname "budda belly". Candy is NOT Morgan's best friend, and I will return to being the fruit and veggie nazi this year.

10. The timing of Halloween. Okay, so I procrastinate and put all things Halloween off until the last moment. Then completely panic that I only have 3 weeks to train for the Turkey Trot, where once again Kristin will say she's 38 when she enters and beat the pants off of me, even though we train together. Which means once I get the pants beat off of me in the Thanksgiving morning 5k, I only have 4 or so weeks until Christmas. AAARRRGGGHHHH>>>>

I couldn't be prouder...

Dylan really grew as a football player this year. Things just "clicked" and he's had an amazing year. He was awesome on the line. Probably not a surprise because he's such a big kid, but he really "got" it and did a fabulous job of blocking and then on defense got through the line and had his share of "sacks". Today's game was fairly miserable - chilly and rainy. I think we were spoiled by so many nice sunny Saturday games this year!

This one is slightly blurry - but a good action shot of Dylan. And yes, for you observant ones, the other team has a girl...


One of my favorite pix of the year. You can see how focused and determined (and pissed off) he was. The other team couldn't block him, so the kids resorted to holding onto his jersey for dear life. The ref's really don't call holding in flag.... and Dylan was getting MAD.
After last Monday nights game, Dylan the linebacker has his head on his pillow and says "Mom... I really want to run the ball". We talk about how good he is on the line - how he had 3 key plays where he stopped the other team when they were near the end zone and scoring... how they probably wouldn't have won without those key plays. And he just says but Mom, I want to run the ball. So we agree to talk to coach Mike G. about letting him run the ball. They let Dylan run the ball for the extra point in this play - and did he run. He got the extra point - you can see the ref with his hands up.

New Hampshire!

I think we've been back about a week. Its been a blur of back to work and sports and Misty and oh my gosh. My head is still spinning. Blue flag remains undefeated after our GAME OF THE YEAR vs. gold on Saturday. The coaches on gold are so serious - running up and down the field like a bunch of JERKS yelling at the kids for bad plays. For goodness sakes, they are in 1st and 2nd grade. Rumors flew around school that they were "going to take our QB out". Again - give me a break. It was a tense game - you could just feel it. Coaches from the game before hand stayed a bit to watch ours. And I'm proud to say we kicked their jerky coach butts 19-0. Dylan is friends with the QB from the gold team - he was so upset by the end of the game he left crying. Mike (who is asst coach for our team) actually called their house and left a message and told him he played a great game. Oh wait - how did our NH trip turn into a football recap? Because I'm blond and that's how my conversations usually go - jumping from one thing to another.


Here is one of my favorite pix from the trip - there is a really fun place in Conway where they cook the pizza right in front of you in a wood-fired oven. It's amazing pizza. Don't ask about the salads with seaweed on top. Blech.

A pix of Grandma, Grandpa and the kiddies on one of the covered bridges.
Our last covered bridge stop was the nicest. Thanks - Di - for looking at the map and suggesting the ride. Even more amazing was the tent camping area - just like the "owl loop" in Lake George.
Campground pix. Taken on one of our rare sunny moments ;o)
Grandpa, Mike and kids on the fall foliage train ride. Did I mention we walked to the train in a squall of rain and snow? Brrrrr. And it's 70 and sunny and gorgeous this weekend. Oh well. At least we weren't in a tent and had heat in our trailers! :o)

Fireplace Update

Sorry - this is most likely only interesting to my family. Mike and I got the hang of drawing outlines of rocks that "worked" and then we could move on to the next one. And - after losing a layout that was on the floor - we now number the backs of them and also the outline on the wall. So... we actually have progress from today! :o)

It is starting to look like a real fireplace! The only "bad" news with the project is that the log we hauled over there had some rot inside and the mill said it wasn't worth cutting. The mill does sell rough cut mantles, and we also wanted to check out the guy who does chain saw carvings - he may be less expensive than the mill. Stay tuned!

In honor of Misty

Damn it. This has been such a hard year. Mike got run over by a truck. Casey died in the spring. And Morgan's horse Misty got suddenly sick last weekend and died. While we technically didn't own her yet - we were waiting for Mike to get back to work and our paychecks to get back to work - we still considered her "ours". They aren't sure what happened as of yet - they are still waiting on tests to come back from the lab. In less than 48 hours her entire body shut down and she died. It's so hard to comprehend because she was only 3. +Harder than hearing the news from the barn was telling Morgan. I know she'll be lost for a while without her "purple princess". Here are 2 of my favorite pix from their show season. Not of Morgan riding around in her show outfit trying to do her best for the judges - but of what it's really all about: a little girl and her horse.