September Acres

Here are a few shots of our Halloween weekend. We had some friends over for pumpkin carving on Friday night. I wanted to make a fun dessert for the girls and happen to catch Sandra Lee on Good Morning America with her semi-homemade ideas. The graveyard below is crushed chocolate cookies (I used the outside of the oreo- just tossed the cream inside), Swiss rolls (or hoho's) on the top of the 'dirt', chocolate frosting spread on the rolls to hold more 'dirt' in place. Graham crackers make the headstone. No sugar overload here! Little Miss getting the 'guts' out of her pumpkin. The finished product. LM on her way out to trick or treat. Complete with 'glow' jewelry. It's all the rage here. She went as Alex from 'Wizards of Waverly Place'. LM and her friend Sarah @ Sarah's church's 'trunk or treat'. They had a bouncy house & cotton candy there. Because we didn't have enough sugar in the little plastic pumpkin. A fun...

Little Miss & I made these little treats for her classmates. Who am I kidding? She made about 3 and I made the other 24. That's okay. She had fun and things definitely went quicker when I was on my own. They have small peppermint patties in between 2 scallop cardstock punches. I made the spider's legs with a photo corner punch. The nose is just some small red scrap paper. The eyes are the jiggly ones you buy at the craft store - round white cardstock w/ the black colored in works just as well. Below you can kind of see the peppermint patty in between the paper. This is not an original idea - I copied it from a friend. Tomorrow night we are carving pumpkins at our house with some friends. Should be fun. And I always love to roast the pumpkin seeds after we cut the pumpkin. Saturday we will trick or treat at our church like we always do. Happy Halloween!

I called the hospital today to negotiate the payment for my husband's ER visit in September. When the young lady answered she said: "Billing, Skeeter speaking." Skeeter?? She had the most pleasant sounding voice, sounded fairly young & female. She sounded like a Jessica or Kelly or something like that. Skeeter sounds like a 12 year old boy. Or a dog (we have friends who have a Yorkie named Skeeter). That's a rural hospital for you, I guess. By the way, no luck negotiating a lower payment...

Yesterday my mom came over and we spent most of the day cleaning Little Miss' playroom. It's really clean & clutter free now. Hope it stays that way for a good long while (a girl can hope, right?) While cleaning we came across the coloring books and crayons. Oh, there were soooo many crayons. There had to be thousands. Where did they come from, I wonder? All those crayons. I ended up giving the ones above to LM's old preschool. Come to find out they have alot , too. But I didn't take them back. The school will eventually go through them - quicker than we will. We still have a pencil box full plus a box of 64 (with the pencil sharpener in the back) plus the ones she keeps in her homework box. Is there ever too much of a good thing? I think there was here. We love crayons for sure. But we don't need THAT many...

The weather in my neck of the woods: Sunny, supposed to be about 79 today :) One of my simple pleasures: A day @ home with not much to do. On my bedside table: About half way through 'Finding it' by Valerie Bertinelli - so far so good! On my TV: nothing right now but am looking forward to CBS sitcoms tonight. On the menu for tonight: Probably soup and sandwiches since it is our first night of hockey. On my to do list: Jazzercise, clean (really clean) and purge LM's playroom, change/wash sheets New recipe I tried last week: none In the Craft basket: little treats for LM's classmates for Friday. Will post a picture when I have a few completed. Looking forward to: Halloween weekend. Carving pumpkins w/ friends on Friday night. Then the oh-so-fun trick or treating (can you hear the sarcasm? It's my husband & daughter's holiday - I go along for the good pictures I get to take which make good scrapbook pages.) Homemaking tip of the week: Not mine,...

it's time to start Christmas shopping. I can't believe it is October 22 nd already. Every year I say it, but 'where does the time go?' I have always been an early Christmas shopper. I am done with all shopping before Thanksgiving. Except for the Secret Santa gifts on my husband's side since names don't get picked until Thanksgiving day. I don't do well with that system at all but what can I do?? I have already started my shopping. Of course. We're not sure what we're getting LM for her 'big' gift this year. Either a trampoline (this would pretty much be family gift since I would enjoy it just as much as she would) OR a Barbie camper. It's pretty snazzy. Nothing like the one I had as a young girl. I remember no toilet in mine. No TV either. Times, they are a-changing. Anyway, I think the logistics of Santa putting the trampoline together on Christmas Eve, presumably in the dark, would be a nightmare. So, I am thinking camper for C...

Elisabeth Hasselbeck returned to The View on Monday after an all too long (at least to me) maternity leave. I tivo'd it so I watched it at night while my husband was out at the hockey rink. She seemed kind of out of it - in a funny, new mom who's lacking sleep way - we've all been there. Best of all she indicated that this baby would be the last. Yippee! No more maternity leave and having to endure guest hosts like Kate Gosselin and Heidi Montag. Actually I didn't watch it when Kate was on and I turned it off the day Heidi was on. One guest host I did enjoy in Elisabeth's absence was Rachel Campos-Duffy. I had never heard of her before (never watched 'The Real World'). I thought she was so similar to Elisabeth in her political views - which I liked, although I know everyone doesn't. Plus she has written a book, 'Stay home, Stay happy' which I am looking forward to reading. I worked at my husband's office today so I am looking forwa...