Friday, October 31, 2008

Doctor Say What?????

*UPDATE*

Please keep Daddy Jimmy in extra prayers. Uncle Charley just called us about two hours ago and said if we wanna see Daddy Jimmy we better come now, as he is not doing well at all. I got Nicole out of school , Chris left work early and we will be on our way to Abilene within the next hour or so.
___________________________________

Ok, I haven't mentioned it this past week on my blog because I didn't know what the heck it was.
I do now...

Seems about a week ago I thought something bit me. On my chest. Like right in the upper cleavage area of my chest. There were some hard raised bumps. They itched. They later hurt. They later spread. I was going crazy.

My loving hubby got me benadryl cream , and pills. I tried hydrocortisone, witch hazel and gold bond medicated powder ( NOT at the same time though...)..

Nothing helped. I was in a bit of agony. Now my chest was starting to hurt as well as under my arm where some of the rash had spread. I'd wake up in the morning and there would be new patches.

I bathed the dogs, changed my bed, went over EVERYTHING I had eaten, drank , or otherwise could have come in contact with that had been causing this.

By yesterday I was completely miserable. My mom came out to my house and took me to the doctor. I made her go in the room with me, since I was going to have to take my shirt and bra off and I just didn't want anything scraping against this rash.

The doctor came in. I dropped the drape. Showed him where it first started and the progressive path it had taken, and where the last breakout had occured.

He asked " Did you ever have Chicken Pox as a child?"

I replied " No, but I had them when I was 26..." ( a whole different story for another time)

My mom yelled out "SHINGLES!!!!"

doctor said " Yup"

Doctor say what? Old people get shingles... at least that is what I thought till yesterday. He said it isn't as common in people my age ( i'm 37) but it does happen.

Great. He also informed me that I am past the stage where any anti-viral meds would help me and all he could do was treat the pain. So he gave me some lidocaine patches that feel really good and cooling going on... and he also gave me some pain meds. Since I'm very sensitive to pain meds he gave me good stuff but not knock me on my butt good stuff. ( one tylenol PM knocks me out , just f.y.i).

So I'm not working today, but am driving the kids to school and picking up my paycheck and going to put it in the bank. Then coming home and crawling back into bed.

Happy Halloween! I will post pictures of Nicole dressed up like a gothic vampire, and maybe some of the cute kiddies that come around here.

Hope everyone stays safe.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

HELP!!!

I know alot of you cruise through blogs looking for new and fun ones to read, so if you have EVER read anything by Kathleen a*k*a Beany of So Grateful To Be Mormon, please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She is missing. This IS NOT a joke. Her family is worried sick about her. She is not answering her home phone or her cell. Her oldest daughter did a post on her blog begging for information. They have notified the authorities and everything.
My friend Lena said she got a call from her like Sunday night but was unable to answer it at that time and she didn't leave a message.

Please keep this family in your thoughts and prayers....

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Devil in Carton

Ok, since my camera is messing with my mind this morning and NOT allowing me to upload the picture of this Devil plagueing me, I will have to try to paint you a mental picture...


This Devil entered my house at approximately 8:00 pm Friday evening. It looked innocent enough at the time. It was supposed to be for Nicole. She had asked for it over two weeks ago.

It entered the house and was put in our freezer. It sat there allll weekend long , not bothering anyone.
Then Monday I had to get something out of the freezer. When I opened the freezer door the Devil struck me.
I got what I needed out of the freezer and slammed the door on the Devil.
It called to me.
It made me imagine it in a small dish, with me slowly taking its yummy, creamy goodness into my mouth.
My stomach was screaming. I gave in to the Devilish temptataion and succombed to this




It is Schwans Cinnamon Ice Cream. They bring it out for the holiday season ONLY. We had never had it before, but Nicole thought it sounded good as she is a big lover of cinnamon. It comes in a small half gallon container and not very expensive at all. We have made bets at the house at just how good it would be with a big scoop on top of Schwans luscious pumpkin pie.

(Since I was unable to upload my photo, the picture is compliments of the Schwans website)

Ok, now that you probably want ice cream for breakfast, I will leave you with that thought.



Tuesday, October 28, 2008

The Great Pumpkin

This is one of my all time favorite non-scary Halloween movies. I found out it is on T.V tonight before Dancing With The Stars. One guess to what Nicole and I will be watching tonight at 7pm?

Enjoy:) ( Be sure to turn the sound off on my music player to enjoy the video.




Update on Daddy Jimmy - we will try calling him later today - they did a minor procedure on him yesterday and we were unable to reach him, Thank you for all your prayers.

Monday, October 27, 2008

My Fifteen MInutes and Prayers Needed...

Remember when I wrote this post? Well before I had written that I had e-mailed the magazine directly thanking them for writing about online gaming and such and how much I enjoyed the article, being a big fan of online gaming myself. Well when I received my new Quest magazine this month my comment was in it, with my full name and city! I've e-mailed comments before to magazines but never have had one published. Yay me:)

Our weekend was relatively quiet. Nicole spent the night with her friend Carson because it was her brothers birthday party and Hot Chica went all out and they had a SURVIVOR party. When I dropped Nicole off I noticed all the tiki torches in the back and what appeard to be stuff to divide them into teams and whatnot. When I picked her up Saturday morning she was TIRED! Chica said that Nicole was the first one to crash after all the sugar she had eaten. I don't doubt it. Nicole said that the sugar rush came back though and her and Carson were up like at 6:30am playing again.

The rest of the weekend I did the norm of tons of laundry, grocery shopping , and spending time with Chris and Nicole.

And prayers are needed for Chris' grandfather a*k*a Daddy Jimmy. If you don't remember me writing about him in a previous post, read it here. Notice the nice picture I got of him? well after that weekend he came down with pneumonia and has been in the hospital ever since. He has lost like 10 percent of his body weight and has no use of his legs because he is so weak at this point. He also has prostate cancer, but so far they have not found proof that it has spread. Please say a small prayer for this sweet man that is soooo well loved.

Hope ya'll have a great day! I'm not scheduled to work much this week - just Friday - on Halloween - subbing a class of 2nd graders - yeah thats going to be fun. They are going to LOVE me and want to do their work, and NOT want to tell me about how much they want to trick or treat and what costumes they are going to wear.

On a quick side note the 5th grade class that I watched for like 2 hrs last wednesday? they got in trouble because they would not stay focused and do their work... Friday when I was there, their teacher brought me APOLOGY letters that they had written me!!!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Just a Quick Post

Morning! I'm sitting here eating a slice of toast covered in peanut butter and drinking hot chocolate with hazel nut, wearing my pajama pants and a heavey sweatshirt. My hair is brushed but still sticking up every which way, lol. This is how I'm taking Nicole and William to school, lol. I don't have to be to work till noon today so I am NOT rushing to get ready.

Who is William? some of you asked.. NO he is not a child of mine that I do not talk about , lol he is the son of a very good friend of mine who also attends the same school as Nicole. We take turns weekly driving and picking up the kids...since I am now able to be mobile its my week. Nan ( his mom) is the wonderful, kindhearted, sweetest person because since our van died a slow death just before school started and we had no car, she drove the kids EVERY DAY since school started. She even picked us up early on the days I had to work, and would just pick me up while going thru the line to get the kids at the end of the day...Give her two thumbs up for being such a sweet friend!

Jojo commented yesterday that she loved how I manipulated the car parts guy into putting my license plates on - but blonds don't always 'get it', as shown in the following blond joke:

Once there was a blonde who really needed some money. She saw an ad in the newspaper for a job at an Elmo factory. She went down and applied, but the manager told her that she wouldn't want the job because it was so boring. The blonde begged him and told him she would do anything because she needed the money really bad. After long consideration the manager hired her. After a few hours the manager looked at the video-monitor showing the factory floor and saw that the conveyer belt was backed up. The manager went downstairs to find out what the problem was. When he arived there the blonde was sewing to marbles into the crotch of every Elmo. The manager said, "I said to give each Elmo two test tickles; not two testicles!"

HAHAHAH, that cracked me up something fierce when I read it!

You can check out more of those kinds of jokes here...

Well I gotta go make Nicoles school lunch and off I go! Have a great day!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Whew What A Week So Far

Goodness! This week has been nuts! You know when you don' t have a car and you want one really bad so you don't have to mooch rides from friends? then you get a car and you can't stop running? That is what is has been like for me this week...

Monday I go to the County Tax office to get the title transfer and new plates for our car and the lady informs me that she can't do it without Chris being there since he signed the title. Crap. So she gave me the paperwork and told me he could sign it and have me bring it back. Well they close at 430 and having to sub the next two days was going to be difficult. Also had to pick NIcole up early from school to go to a recheck doc appointment for her allergies.

Tuesday I subbed in the morning for 5th grade and then did 1st grade in the afternoon. Hmm, not much difference if maturity there. My first two 5th grade period classes were fine, the third period were the ones that were totally insane and would not SHUT UP!!! then had to rush out of there after school was done to take Nicole to the dentist - didn't make it back for the car title...

Wednesday I was the ARD meeting sub. (ARD meetings are held for kids who have difficulty in school, this could be emotionally, mentally or learning.) I was to cover the teachers class while she was in the ARD meeting. I had to go to 5 different classes thru out the day so they kept me hopping. Then I got asked to sub a half day on Friday. Finallyl did make it to get the new title and license plates for the car, but blond that I am I didn't know how to put them on so I took them to a car parts store and batted my tired eyelashes at them and explained that my husband didn't get home till after dark and was gone before the light of day and couldn't help me, lol so they were nice enough to put my license plates on my car! ( oh yeah, and it turned butt-freezing cold here too - an cold front blew in late this afternoon and brought rain with it.

Woke up and it was 39 - BRRRRR...Today I dropped Nicole and William off at school and took off to Walmart to buy a birthday present for the brother of one of Nicoles friends - his SURVIVOR birthday party is tomorrow night. Then spent almost an hour wandering around , enjoying myself, picked up a few things I'm sure I could have lived without but I had fun.

I will get the necessary housework done today before I have to go back to school and pick the kiddos up but I'm going to end this post and go log into EQII:)

Hope ya'll have a great day!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Costume? What Costume?




You Should Be a Ghost



You are seen as shy and introverted. You like to blend in... or disappear.

You see Halloween as the day you can sit back and enjoy what other people are doing.



You don't scare all that easily on Halloween. If anything, you tend to scare people.

You don't try to be scary, but you do tend to lurk around and catch people by surprise.

Monday, October 20, 2008

My Weekend

Hiyas! Hope everyone had a great weekend. I sure did. Saturday morning Nicole and I went to run some errands and it was sooo nice to be able to do them in our own car! ( sorry new car excitement hasn't QUITE worn off yet). We came home, ate some lunch then decided to go to the library because we hadn't been able to go in awhile. We wound up spending over an hour there!

Nicole couldn't figure out what kind of book(s) she wanted, so finally she decided on some sort of history book. We looked those up , found them and she got four of them to start. There seemed to be 12 in the series, she said she will just start with the first four. As we were walking to the checkout counter she decided she wanted a scary book for Halloween so we searched for that and she came away with two ghost story books. I only got one book that I am currently enjoying.

I'm very excited to announce that without any coaxing on mine or the teachers part Nicole decided to enter the UIL Oral Reading competition at school and she got picked! She was given a poem she has to read out loud. The first part of the competition is Nov 6, and the final is Nov 8.
She is supposed to practice reading her poem out loud at least once a day but she didn't do it this weekend. I'm so happy that she decided to enter that, and she is also very excited about it.

Nicole's bday is coming up and we are trying to finalize what we are going to do . Whatever we decide she wants her friends Carson and Carlie to go with us. Then I have to start figuring out t whats going to happen for Thanksgiving, start writing Christmas cards ( I"m already gathering my list), think of presents ( although I already have my moms...) and in between all that still find time to do my annual baking. My friends and neighbors love me this time of year since I ALWAYS give them plates of homemade yummies. I usually spend a whole weekend baking and sorting who gets what. Thinking since I'm a sub this year I will put a big plate of goodies in the teahers lounge. I'm sure they will appreciate that.

Well hope everyone has a great day!

Friday, October 17, 2008

Pictures

that make you go HUH?!? These were some more that were e-mailed to me... I tried to pick the best ones:)



Scary Baby

um, ok

Oh yeah baby, I've had those days...


hehehhe

this DOES NOT show my political standing...


just too freaking funny

why daddy should NOT dress the baby




T.M I.

another reason daddy shouldn't dress the baby...



Hope at least one of these made you laugh out loud!

Have a great day!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

CATCH UP

Hmmm, lets see now...I need to update on some things I'd mentioned previously, and other things I've noticed lately in the blogosphere:

--I finally got my leg braces fixed yet again, to where they aren't rubbing ginormous blisters on my heel:) ( YAY!)

--However, the orthotist that fixed my braces helped me to come to the conclusion that part of the reason my foot was rubbing up and down in my brace is because I was not tying my shoe tight enough. oh joy. So he put a thicker pad on the ankle strap that will help hold my foot in there. Although he is NOT my neurologist , he said my hands are probably a tad bit weaker and I can't actually tie the laces as tight as I used to. Maybe I should finally embrace velcro.

--our car is doing great! I'm enjoying it so much, I am off work today and not planning to go anywhere but it is nice to know that I can if I got the urge to.

--Head on over to visit my BFF Nikki, and give her son Nathan and his football team a huge CONGRATS because if memory serves me they haven't lost a game yet this season!

--remember Sunday I posted about handbagplanet.com? where you could register to win one of the purses they were giving away every hour??? well crapola, I didn't win, but PEACH did!! ( &^%$$# %^^&*** grrrrrr) I've been banned from buying a new purse, but I was hoping I could win one, lol that way I would not have been put into exile:)) CONGRATULATIONS LAURA!!

--I've mentioned previously that I've been a guest of the Lancaster Shakespeare Club, thru my friend Jackie. Well after enjoying several afternoons and outings with this wonderful group of ladies, I was formally invited to join! I accepted and am now an official member! I'm sooo excited!! Unfortunately I am unable to attend the November meeting, but will make the December one and have a wonderful time! I've also been invited to attend the Lancaster Book Review Club. One member of the Shakespeare Club is also in this book review club and she heard me talking to another member about reading, and so she invited me to that meeting, which is the last Thursday of the month. Will let you know how that goes.

--If you haven't checked out Dawn's blog lately, at Because I Said So..., please do so. She has redone her site, which looks totally awesome, and you can now pre-order her book ( by the same name) from Amazon.com. All you have to do is click on the book cover in her sidebar and it will automatically take you to the order site! I think it is due for release around Mothers Day 2009.

--Go over and give Hallie a cyberhug today if you can... she and her family are struggling with some tough decisions right now , which she can't discuss atm, but at least needs to know her blog family is here for support if she needs us!

--If you haven't ever checked out Broken Man, please go do so...I visited his blog after he visited mine one day, and now I am a regular reader. He is totally anonymous in identity, but he writes carefree. He lives in England, is currently in seminary,and he is freaking out a bit over impending first -time-fatherhood, so please go give him a thumbs up that everything will eventually work out ok!

--Head on over to visit Allison and give her a thumbs up! She is on her 5th day as smoke-free! She has had some cravings, but her friends have helped her through them. Quitting smoking is hard, so please go giver her some more encouragement!

--My friend Eden, who lives in Montana sent me these pictures Sunday morning. She had mentioned Saturday evening that it was snowing in the mountains, but she didn't think they were going to get any. Guess she was wrong... ( I can't remember her cute dogs name that is in the picture):




She said by mid-afternoon most of it had melted though...
Well I plan to have a great day working a bit on my afghan, reading, and getting off my butt and doing some sort of exercise. Maybe since it is only supposed to only get in the mid 60s here I will go for a nice outdoors walk.

Have a great day!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Musicals

Having just recently seen TOMMY at the Dallas Theater, I started thinking back to other muscicals I have seen. They include Phantom of the Opera; Les Miserables; and Riverdance.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I love dancing, all types of dancing. I wish I could still dance like I did in my late teens and early 20s, but that will never happen again.

I have to describe , briefly , what it was like seeing Riverdance. Chris and I went with his aunt, we had pretty decent seats but they were far back from the stage, still on ground level though. We could feel the floor vibrate. Of course the stage was miked to hear their dancing, and seeing part of it in this video is incredible, but seeing it in person is WOW.



Michael Flatley is not the guy dancing the lead in this version. He wasn't dancing by the time we saw him either, but Jean Butler was still dancing the female lead. This video was of one of my many favorite parts of the whole musical.

So, what musicals have you seen?

Have a great day!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Halloween Facts

Found this on the web while searching for interesting Halloween Trivia. The link I got it from is right here , if you want to see some more...

Halloween Holiday Trivia

Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is associated with the Fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death.

Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green. Great for unique monster carvings!

Halloween was brought to North America by immigrants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share ghost stories, sing, dance and tell fortunes.

Tootsie Rolls were the first wrapped penny candy in America.

The ancient Celts thought that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night. They began wearing masks and costumes to avoid being recognized as human.

Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.

Chocolate candy bars top the list as the most popular candy for trick-or-treaters with Snickers #1.

Halloween is the 2nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas being the first.

Bobbing for apples is thought to have originated from the roman harvest festival that honors Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.

Black cats were once believed to be witch's familiars who protected their powers.


Monster Trivia & Folklore

Signs of a werewolf are a unibrow, hair palms, tattoos, and a long middle finger.

Vampires are mythical beings who defy death by sucking the blood of humans.

In 1962, the Count Dracula Society was founded.

To this day, there are vampire clubs and societies with people claiming to be real vampires.

There really are so-called vampire bats, but they're not from Transylvania. They live in Central and South America and feed on the blood of cattle, horses and birds.

Many people still believe that gargoyles were created by medieval architects and stone carvers to ward off evil spirits.

Creepy Snippets

If you see a spider on Halloween, it is the spirit of a loved on watching over you.

Worldwide, bats are vital natural enemies of night-flying insects.

The common little brown bat of North America has the longest life span for a mammal it's size, with a life span averaging 32 years.

In about 1 in 4 autopsies, a major disease is discovered that was previously undetected.

The Ouija Board ended up outselling the game of Monopoly in its first full year at Salem. Over two million copies of the Ouija Board were shipped.


Halloween Movie Details

'Halloween" was made in only 21 days in 1978 on a very limited budget.

The movie was shot in the Spring and used fake autumn leaves.

The mask used by Michael Meyers in the movie "Halloween" was actually William Shatner's mask painted white.

The character Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis was named after John Carpenter's first girlfriend.

While the setting for the story is in Illinois, the license plates on the vehicles have California plates.

Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Holloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.


So anyway, hope that keeps you in the Halloween know:)

I have some running around to do today. I subbed yesterday and had 8th grade and up in science, biology and chemistry. The classes were small and relatively quiet for the most part. I like those kinds of subbing days. I sub again tomorrow for 7th grade and up math - yay, lol.
I always leave reports on EVERY class that I am subbing for. Guess the teachers are learning that I am honest - and the kids too.
Last week when I subbed half a day for a 7th grade math teacher I left my last class of the day a bad report. After repeated warnings they weren't quiet, they were loud and obnoxious. I had some of these same kids yesterday and they told me that the teacher told their coaches and they had to run track due to my report. They admitted they had no one to blame but themselves!! Imagine that...

Hope everyone has a great day! The car is running great and I'm having so much fun driving it!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

I Love purses

don't you? If so , click here to win a free one!
Chris can't say anything to me if I WIN one, now if I went shopping and bought one thats a whole different situation. He would try to disown me.

Hope ya'll are having a great weekend! Will post picture of the new car later.



OK, IT'S LATER:



Here is a picture of our new car:) Chris and I have a bit of a debate going though, is it seafoam green, light green or teal? ( I think its lt-seafoam green...)

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Real Haunted Houses

Keeping with the Halloween theme , I thought I'd introduce you to two very creepy houses. In fact, I saw them on the Travel Channels Top 10 Creepiest Places to visit - these were numbers 1 and 2...

The first is the Winchester House. Here is the picture of it, but here is the link to read the story behind the house. It was voted #2 in the show.



The one that won first place was the Lizzie Borden B & B. Do you remember the story from childhood? I don't remember the first time I heard it but never forgot


'Elizabeth Borden took and axe and gave her mother 40 whacks, and when the job was nicely done, she gave her father 41'


This happened in Fall River , Massachusetts. Lizzie was tried but never convicted of the crimes and to this day the murders go unsolved. She died in 1927. Here is the link to the Inn.


You can even stay in the room where she murdered her mother - no freakin' thank you very much -
Anyway, hope ya'll are having a great weekend. We got our new (used) car today - YIPPEE- I will post a picture of it tomorrow. I'm so excited I get to drive myself to work Monday morning!


Friday, October 10, 2008

bippity...boppity...BOO

(wow, after a totally nutty day yesterday and a busy morning today I can finally sit down and tell you a frightening Halloween experience that I had back in high school...)

It was Halloween night my senior year in high school. If I remember right it was a Thursday night so my parents had taken my grandmother along and they all went to play bingo. My friend Lisa was coming over, we were going to order in a pizza and then my boyfriend was going to pick us up and we were going to go to a haunted house.

Let me digress a bit here and say that a truly good haunted house will scare the crap out of me ( figuritively speaking - not literally). I grew up watching a bunch of sci-fi/supernatural stuff with my dad. It didn't bother me, it kind of fascinated me, but never enough that I went whacko and started doing weird occult things....I liked to read up on it, research it , that kind of thing.. and of course watch truly scary movies.

Anyway, Lisa came over and we got our pizza and sat down to watch TV for the hour or so before my boyfriend picked us up. We settled on watching the Halloween episode of Friday the 13th. NOT THE MOVIE. Maybe you remember a series by the same name - it dealt with an antiques shop owner who sold his soul to the Devil and in turn all the stuff in his shop was cursed. When he died his niece and nephew inherited the shop and spent the time trying to recover the cursed antiques.

This particular episode dealt with a coin. Not just any coin. A Rams Head coin. ( I had recently done a research paper for Sociology on cults of all kinds, and knew from my research that a Rams head plays a big part in satanic cults...) A cult had gotten possesion of the coin and it was rumored to be able to bring back the dead. This cult was going to use it to bring back one of their most powerful members who had recetly passed. They were going to do this on Halloween night since that is the time when it is rumored that the veil between the living and the dead is the thinnest...

So we watch this show and it sufficiently creeped us out. Two teenage girls alone in a house on Halloween night had their imaginations running wild and couldn't wait for a guy to come rescue us and then take us to a haunted house to get even more creeped out.

Nothing could have prepared Lisa and I for the fright we would get ...

We get to this haunted house, laugh at all the decorations and fake body parts, fake blood and rubber creepy crawlies. We were having a blast until we went to enter the haunted house. We were laughing as we went up the stairs , then Lisa looked up, screamed a bit and grabbed my arm. I too stopped and looked up and lo and behold, above the door was a rams head. I did not proceed into that particular haunted house. In fact it took a few years before I would go back into ANY haunted house...

I can stand scary stuff for the most part, but I don't go for gore...I REALLY don't go for anything that might even hint at being tied to anything satanic...

I was reminded of this story and thought it would make a good post because while eating my breakfast I was channel surfing and found out that on the sci-fi channel they are rerunning the Friday the 13th series for the month of October....

So what creepy Halloween stories do you have? I'd love to hear them...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Hey There PUNKIN'!

Ok, I'm starting to get into the Halloween mood. I can't wait to get a pumpkin and carve it out. We do it everyyear, even though its a pretty messy ordeal. We just make sure to have plenty of newspaper and a big scooper type spoon.

I haven't gotten productive enough to save the pumpkin seeds, or the scooped pumpkin to make bread or a pie or anything creative like that - although I used to like eating pumpkin seeds, and they were one of my Uncle Daves favorite snacks.

I found some interesting pumpkin facts on the 'net, thought you might enjoy:)

Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Pumpkins But Were Afraid To Ask...

- Pumpkins are fruits. A pumpkin is a type of squash and is a member of the gourd family (Cucurbitacae), which also includes squash, cucumbers, gherkins, and melons.

- The largest pumpkin pie ever baked was in 2005 and weighed 2,020 pounds.

- Pumpkins have been grown in North America for five thousand years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere.

- In 1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier explored the St. Lawrence region of North America, he reported finding "gros melons." The name was translated into English as "pompions," which has since evolved into the modern "pumpkin."

- Pumpkins are low in calories, fat, and sodium and high in fiber. They are good sources of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, potassium, protein, and iron.

- The largest pumpkin ever grown was 1,689 pounds. It was grown by Joe Jutras of North Scituate, Rhode Island.

- Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year.


Ever wanted to know why we call pumkins Jack O'Lanterns? Well , here is a fairly good story on why - hope enjoy this too:))

Pumpkin carving is a popular part of modern America's Halloween celebration. Come October, pumpkins can be found everywhere in the country from doorsteps to dinner tables. Despite the widespread carving that goes on in this country every autumn, few Americans really know why or when the jack o'lantern tradition began. Or, for that matter, whether the pumpkin is a fruit or a vegetable. Read on to find out!

People have been making jack o'lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack o'lanterns.

Hope you enjoyed this little bit of pumpkin info! I might just come back tomorrow to discuss my views on superstitions.


BTW,I happened to find all this info on History.com:)

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

/SIGH...

Well, two weeks ago Nicole battled Strept throat. Now after the weekend at the lake and the cool front that blew in during that time, she is battling a raging sinus infection. She has a doctor's appointment at 3:45p.

She only has a limited amount of days per semester that she can miss - so tomorrow its off she goes , drugged up , but shes going. Since flu season is coming, I don't want to waste all of her 9 semester days, so far this is the fourth.

I on the other hand am doing hunky dory. Of course with the coming of fall, and cool air hits warm air we get thunderstorms. We had storms popping all around us yesterday evening and lastnight. Tornadoes were spotted southeast of us. Yippee.

If you don' tknow by now I am petrified of tornados....so spring and fall are not always calm times for me in tornado alley.

Other than that, not much is going on this week so far. I am sceduled to sub only one day this week, actually ony a half day on Thursday , but in the morning I will be copy mom for Nicoles morning teacher. Then I'm scheduled for another half day on the 15th, and will be copy mom that morning for her other teacher,lol. Then I will have my volunteer time in, and get my parent observation over with all in one day. I'm also scheduled to sub 2 other full days, so they are surely keeping me busy.

Please stop by and visit JoJo , she is going through a very difficult time at the moment and needs a little love and hugs thrown her way.

I'm going to go get out of my jammies, and watch a movie with my sick little girl.

Since I love Halloween and haven't done many halloween related posts - I will have one tomorrow since I have been researching stuff on the internet and found some pretty interesting facts:)

Have a great day!

Monday, October 6, 2008

FuN aT tHe LaKe

Saturday afternoon Chris' Uncle Charley came to pick us up (since we are still having transportation issues....) and bring us down to the lake house at Cedar Creek Lake. We were looking forward to this because Chris' cousin Heather and her daughter Berkley were going to be there too, along with Chris' grandfather. We hadn't seen Heather and Berkley since Berkley was about 2mos old!!! ( needless to say she's grown, lol)
Here are the pics:

This is Heather with Nicole ( some of these were taken while everyone was getting ready to go yesterday, the rest of the time we were scattered...)
This Uncle Charley and Tammy ( cute couple, aren't they?) They live in Lakewood , Colorado and this is who Nicole stayed with for a week and a half of the three weeks she was in Colorado this past summer.
This is Charley with Berkley, his granddaughter. Isn't she a cutie?

It was a long day for Chris and Berkley. He picked her up to hug her goodbye and she passed out , so he decided to nap a bit too...
Me and Heather
I don't like this pic of me, as it makes me look heavier than I am... but the moment was fun, and good memories. Chris called this one the three muskateers - or shopaholics - whichever you choose. After the men and kids came back from fishing yesterday, Tammy, Heather and I decided to hit the local fleamarket and had a blast. We found some really fun stuff. Tammy got Nicole a birthday present that she has no clue about, and I got my moms Christmas present. No I didn't just buy my mom something at the fleamarket to save money - I saw it tucked behind someother stuff and it was very unusual, but screamed my moms name. Since she reads my blog though I can't show you....but I promise I will once she gets it...

Me and Berkley
Nicole


Oh , and who can forget two of the most important creatures at the lake house this weekend ( or so they seemed to think) - Hannah and Pepe. Charley and Tammy's two huge black labs.
These dogs are very , very friendly. Hannah is Charley's hunting companion, while Pepe is the guard dog. Not sure what he'd do if an intruder came, but if he knows you, you can guarantee you will be covered in dog slobber. Saturday night, Pepe decided to sleep with Chris and I - yeah that was fun. I woke in the middle of the night to see Chris half off the bed, and Pepe stretched out like it was HIS bed only,lol.


This was taken just after we got there. Berkley was sooo excited to meet her cousin Nicole . She wanted to have a slumber party with her. By 11pm Saturday night, they had been playing for several hours and watching movies. Well the adults had settled down to watch a really good movie too, and NIcole came to me and told me how exhausted she was. I told her to go to bed then. her answer? ( in a whiney voice ) but she won't letttt meeeeee.... Berkley was wide awake after Grandpa Charley gave her ice cream at 10pm!!!! I think they were finally settling down a bit after midnight, when our movie was over...

Chris and Berkley again. Get the idea that she realllly liked her uncle Chris??

This was Chris carrying Berkley back to the house after she caught her first fish and then got an itchy skeeter bite that she wanted mommy to fix. She was also getting hot and of course was a bit tired, so she was cranky too. We had all just been about to leave to go shopping, so that got delayed by about half an hour. After they got in the house, here came Charley, daddy Jimmy, and Nicole too. So after we got them all settled THEN we left the guys to feed the kiddos and off we went.

This is the current Patriarch of the Able Family - James Able *aka* Daddy Jimmy to us. When he's in the mood to talk watch out... he has led a very interesting life. He was part of the Red Devils paratroopers in WWII - he was one of the ones that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. He is very patriotic. About 7 or so years ago they opened the Special Ops and Airforce museum in North Carolina, and he got a special invitation to attend the ceremonies. He wore his Red Devils jacket with pride. We all got to go and it was awesome to say the least. When Chris was younger, Daddy Jimmy used to come lecture his history classes when they were studying WWII. He was also called upon by several others to lecture too. He is a fascinating man.


Hope ya'll enjoyed looking at those, and can imagine how much fun we had taking them, and all the laughter behind the scenes.

Have a great Monday!


Saturday, October 4, 2008

Crazy Headlines

Thought for todays post I'd share another one of those funny e-mails I receive every now and then. I keep them in my jokes archive. Again I didn't write this and I don't know who did, but it was sent to me from a relative in Minnesota.

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I hope these will make you smile!

Man Kills Self Before Shooting Wife and Daughter

This one I caught in the SGV Tribune the other day and called the Editorial Room and asked who wrote this. It took two or three readings before the editor realized that what he was reading was impossible!!! They put in a correction the next day.


Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

No, really?


Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Now that's taking things a bit far!



Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

What a guy!


Miners Refuse to Work after Death

No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-so's!


Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

See if that works any better than a fair trial!



War Dims Hope for Peace

I can see where it might have that effect!


If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile

Ya think?!


Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Who would have thought!


Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

They may be on to something!


Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?!

Oklahoma's construction program!



Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge

He probably IS the battery charge


Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

That's what he gets for eating those beans!



Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Do they taste like chicken?

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

Chainsaw Massacre all over again!

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

Boy, are they tall!



And the winner is....

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Did I read that right?

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Well I hope you got a good chuckle out of that one:)
We might be gong to the lakehouse later today when Chris gets off work. His uncle Charlie will be there along with his grandfather, and his cousin who we haven't seen in a several years.
Only if I can get someone to dogsit....

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****NOTE ******
If any of you have a comment with my picture on it , but it says its from SEX GODDESS instead of MABUNNY, I left the comment, but didn't realize what my husband had done. He thought it would be funny and wanted to see how long it would take me to realize it....grrrrrrrrr.........

Friday, October 3, 2008

Meet My Braces:)

Good morning:) I would like you to meet something that is my constant companion. Sometimes I'm really happy with them, and other times I'd like to throw them through the nearest window.

These are my tennis shoes. Not that I can play tennis in them. Notice how wide the area is that you would normally put your foot in?



These are my braces. Technically they are known as AFOs or Ankle/Foot Orthotics. When I have them on, they stop just before the ball of my foot. They help me walk better, and have better balance then I would normally have.

This is what my braces look like while in my shoes. Yes in case you are wondering, I have , or rather had big feet. Although my feet have gone down at least a whole shoe size, I need bigger shoes to fit the braces, therefore making me feel like bigfoot.

These are my feet. They look relatively normal, right? ( please pardon the peeling polish...) Notice how my right foot is slightly smaller than my left? that is due to my weakest side being my right. or it could be my photography skills... either way, you get the idea.

Notice in this one how my big toe drops? That is part of the reason why I trip and fall if I'm not careful. I cannot bring my toe back up to be with the others. Therefore when I go to walk, if I'm barefoot, that tricky little toe likes to bend under and hence I smoosh it , trip and fall. Usually cuss a bit too because it hurts like the devil.

Right now I don't want to wear my braces because my left one is rubbing a huge blister on the back of my heel. I don't have a choice however if I am subbing. I'm on my feet so much that I probably would not be able to walk by the end of the day, also trying to keep up with able legged kids trying to all rush at once into the lunchroom, I need all the help I can get:)

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Nicole is off school today. It is their fair day. The State Fair of Texas , held in Dallas Fair Park usually runs the last week of September thru mid October. We go every year, however usually we can't go on her fair day. They always give the kids one free ticket, but its always on a weekday and Chris is working. He would have been able to take the day off and go , but with the expenses incured last week at the musical and dinner, we will have to wait till next week to go. I will try to take some pics though and introduce you to Big Tex.

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Favorite Book Contest

Hiyas! I'm a little late entering this contest by Michelle at SoS , but no biggy.

Since she is a writer and illustrator of children's books , she is currently holding a contest about YOUR favorite childrens book. It can be something you read as a child or one that you now read to your child. You have to include a cover photo of the book and link it back to Amazon.com, then go put a comment HERE telling her you've entered so she can come check it out. You pretty much have to have a blog to do this, so sorry to non-bloggers.

The prize is a drawing by her, ( she is fantastic!), if someone has chosen one of her three favorite kids books ( known only to her at this point in time).

The contest ends this Friday (tomorrow) so if you want to enter DO IT NOW!!!!

Heres my entry. Its called "Where Do Balloons Go?" it is written by Jamie Lee Curtis and my BFF Nikki gave this to Nicole as a birthday present - we have treasured it ever since. It has very bright coloring ( always a good thing), has a bit of a mystery to it ( where DO the balloons go?), is a rhyming book and is just plain fun to read.


Here it is.


You can check it out at Amazon.com HERE.

So there is my pick. I know there are many, mnay wonderful childrens books out there. Reading to your kids is very important. We always looked at it as boo-bear and mommy or daddy time. Nowadays Nicole is reading on her own ( she got a commended score on her TAKS test last year in reading earning her a silver medal), and as always I have at least one book I'm reading. Sometimes I read two, and I always have a magazine to back me up - either my Better Homes and Garden, or my Glamour. Between those, my crochet, blogging and gaming, and occasionally subbing I'm a busy girl!



Have a great day!

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

WOOHOO IT'S HALLOWEEN TIME!!

I love October! To me it officially kicks off the fall season. I know the first official day of fall was a week ago or something, I personally don't celebrate it till October 1st! This morning it was 52 here in Dallas, so that even added to the sense of fall.

To me, Fall brings with it the promise of family, friends, good food and SHOPPING!
I don't get to see my MIL as often as I would like, and she always comes up here for Thanksgiving. Usually my mom comes here too, and sometimes Chris' cousin Brett and his family. Since Chris and his mom are both diabetic, we don't have the traditionally laden table of mashed and/or sweet potatoes, and all those rich heavy foods. Instead we get very creative and wind up with scalloped eggplant, mixed veggies, a small turkey breast, wheat rolls and the like.
Usually my mom will bring a healthy dish to fit in with our odd Thanksgiving dinner and we top it all off with a sugar free pumpkin cheese cake!

There always seems to be more than enough food, and if Brett and his family come, then there are little kids running around ( well - his 3 yr old is running around, the baby isn't old enough to walk yet, lol). We always get in plenty of catch up gossip and news and watch the parade and the football game.

As for October, it also brings Nicoles birthday that much closer - on November 5. Every year for the past 4-5 yrs, she has wanted a Halloween birthday party. For me to accomplish this, it is getting a bit old - I am running out of ideas. Soon we will have to have that conversation about what she wants to do. As she is getting older, her presents are getting a bit more expensive and since we still have stuff around the house that needs doing, we have to split birthday and Christmas since they are close together. That way we can spread it out paycheck wise over a few checks instead of all of them coming out of one.

Still haven't figured out what to be for Halloween yet. I used to love to dress up for halloween, now I enjoy getting a cauldron full of candy and looking at all the little kiddies running around in their costumes. Nicole still likes trick or treating, so we will probably do that this year. Maybe by next year she will out grow it, lol.

Well time for me to get ready, since my mom will be here soon. Have a great day!

Let me know what kind of Thanksgiving traditions you have!
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