Bah Humbug

Oh wait......that's scrooge and he hates Christmas. Not Halloween. I really dislike Halloween. I am not one of those people that thinks it's evil or that you should not take your kids out for candy or celebrate it because it's celebrating the dead. I mean....for me, as a kid, it was never about that and I am sure my parents were not about celebrating the dead either but we did go trick or treating as kids. I don't think I knew the true meaning of Halloween until I was like 30...well maybe I was not that old. Does that make it okay? I have no idea and I really don't care. I think it has evolved into a past time and something for kids to do and so I don't see any harm in it. Well that's not fully true.....I mean if you were invoking spirits and calling out and praying to the dead or bringing out the Ouija board, then yes.....I would have to say that is going to a dark place with it but to each their own right? I don't know.....maybe it is wrong but I don't have time to go off on that tangent. For me it's not about that............but I digress.

So Halloween.......I really dislike this day. I really just prefer my kids to stay home. Call me a downer, or call me lame, it's just a big nuisance to me. You have to find costumes for your kids and spend at least 20 bucks per costume on something that they will probably only wear one time and they wear it for about one hour and then it's never seen again. Then you have to buy all this candy to give out to crazy kids who are already hyper enough and surely don't need more sugar. Then you have to deal with rude little kids who complain when you don't have the cool candy or whine when you don't give them enough (so they stick their grubby hands in the bowl and grab what they see as fit) or when they have some smart aleck comment about the candy or whatever.......I just want to say to them, " Just be thankful I gave you some.....PUNK!" Just kidding. I would never say that to a child.

Then you have to deal with all the CANDY! If there is any left over I usually eat it all up myself because I don't want to throw it away. Then we have to sift through the bags of candy that the girls will bring home and here comes the hard part. Making them pick only a few pieces out that they can keep since they both will have probably eaten about 20 pieces already and telling them the rest is going to go in the trash. Maybe this year we will tell them we have to give it away to all the little kids that did not get to go trick or treating and maybe they will be okay with it since there is so much talk these days about "redistributing"..... you know taking from those that have and giving to those that don't. Oh.....that was tacky wasn't it??? So.........really the "poor kids" or the "trash" in this scenario will end up being Gary and me and again we will eat up all this candy between the two of us until I literally get sick and throw it in the garbage. And I will be 3 pounds heavier.

So I hope I can lighten up by tomorrow and not be such a Debbie Downer about something that maybe should just be fun for the girls. I hope Bella does not get scared of all the costumes out there because she does not like scary things. She gets pretty terrified......hopefully Gary will get out of work early enough to take them before the older kids get out. Since I was so dreading tomorrow I waited until the last minute to get Hannah a costume and everything was picked over but she set her eyes on a monster bride costume and just had to have it! Oh goodness. That child has a natural tendency towards all things her mommy does not like. Why not a cute cat or a princess or a cheerleader? Those don't appeal to her. So against my better judgement I am letting her dress up like a monster bride. People will probably think I let my kids worship the devil. Haha. Bella is going to be Cinderella.....no wait she's going to be Snow White, no wait she's going to be Princess Alexa...........It's changed about 84 times and today at Target she decided she wanted to be a kitty princess after she said she wanted to be Sleeping Beauty. So we shall see. Maybe I should dress up as a Goth Chic Mother of the Monster Bride. Put on really pale makeup and dark black lipstick and line my eyes with the darkest eyeliner I can find and part my hair down the middle and wear it long and straight. I think that would mortify my kids or at least embarass Hannah. Hmmm.... maybe it's not such a bad idea. Anyone dressing up? Your kids?

Jackolanterns

These are the "pumkims"the girls carved this year. Well, they did not carve them they just played with the insides of these monstrous gourds. My talented husband lent his hand for the carving. Good Job Babe!

You know you're tired when.......

You just lay down, where you are,on the carpeted floor and fall right asleep. I was busy doing things for about 2 minutes and this is how I found her. Now that must be TIRED!

"Cat"astrophe

Oh man did I have some craziness going on this morning. While not a real catastrophe, it could have been and I would have been all to blame. I would have had to have been admitted to a mental ward because what "could have happened" would have been something I could not have coped with. Here's what happened and sorry but I can not tell it with few words.

This morning my mom arrived at my house and 2 cute dogs followed her to my front door. They were friendly, they were cute and I pet one of them and just shut the door thinking they would be on their merry way. Well my cat pongo saw them and was glued to the window starring at them and they starring at him as well. Awww.....cute. Pongo hissed at them.....you know he did his cat thing and they just looked at him like he was the cutest thing they ever saw. Never did I think the dogs were thinking.....kill, kill, kill. I honestly thought it was cute and sweet.....then I was on my merry way. Well then it was time for my sister to leave......and the dogs were still there at my window. I figured they had gotten out of their yard and probably just wanted to be at home and they saw people and just decided we would know what to do with them. I noticed they had tags so surely I could just get the number and call their owners. Before I opened the door I decided I should put the cat in the laundry room so he would not freak out about the dogs. Great........cat is put up nothing can go wrong...right? My sister walks out to her car to put her son in his seat and I pet the dogs and try to get the number off the tags....but I'm not having any luck because the dog gets excited and want to play I guess. So I figure I'll just put them in my back yard until I can get the number and the owners can come get them. Someone did that for me one time when our dog Sophie got out so in my mind I feel like I am doing a nice thing here. So............ la di da........here goes sweet kind hearted me(in retrospect I now see it was stupid me) I bring these 2 dogs in my house, BIG MISTAKE, and they immediately go berserk! I mean they just went nuts. They started running around my living room and kitchen in circles over and over and over and one was running one way and the other was running the other way so I just quickly tried to open the back door and hoped I could get them to run outside. I finally get one of them out there meanwhile the other one is just running around like a mad dog inside and my mom is yelling at it I'm just trying to keep the other dog from coming back in and keeping the door open hoping that the lunatic one inside might still run outside. It was chaos! Finally I said forget this, get these freak dogs out of here, to heck with trying to do a nice thing. So the other one runs back in and meets up with his partner in crime and I look over and THE LAUNDRY ROOM DOOR IS OPENED!. Bella has opened the laundry room door in all this chaos and Pongo is in there and that is exactly where both dogs run to. I ran in there because I just could see this turning from bad to worse and my immediate reaction is just to grab Bella because she is standing in there when the dogs ran in there and started trying to kill the cat. I mean thank God She was not holding the cat because those dogs would have been all over her as well as Pongo probably clawing her to death. Of course I would not have those thoughts until it was all said and done. So I grabbed Bella and just ran out of there with her all the while knowing those dogs were just going to tear my cat to shreds! I mean it was honestly horrific. I put Bella down and ran back to try to get the dogs away from my cat and at this point they had chased him into our guest bedroom. I go in there and these 2 dogs are chasing the cat all around the room. You know those silly kid cartoons where a dog is chasing a cat and it's just running and running and running in circles all over a room. It was like that......but scarier. The cat tries to escape these monstrosities by clawing up the blinds....no luck. He was literally trying to climb up the walls....of course to no avail. He tries to climb up this tree I have in there. Not happening. He finally just runs under the bed but so do these dogs and they are all under there and you can just hear the cat crying, pleading for help. My Brave mother tries to jump in there and grab the cat and my sister and I are yelling at her to not do that because she might get bit or scratched......which she does. But bless her heart.....she was trying to rescue my poor cat. She's brave....those dogs turned vicious! Also thank GOD for my sister she came back in to try to help us and managed to get one of the dogs under her foot and against the wall near the bed and was able to hold him down while I worked on the other one. I was finally able to grab one by the collar and was trying to get him out but he was so strong he pulled his head out of his collar and it slipped off. So then I go get a broom.....and just start poking at this dog until it finally gets out of there and outside of my house and then I really forgot how the second one finally gets out. Talk about traumatic. And this all happened so fast. All 3 of us were literally left shaking. Pongo, I'm not even sure if he's alive because at one point I know they had him by the neck and several times had taken bites at him. Chunks of fur were laying everywhere. One of the dogs had blood all on his leg and one dog had pooped on my carpet because my sister was standing so hard on him to keep him pinned down. I have to say she was brave too.

After this was all finally over and done I was just trying to put it all together. What happened? What went so wrong. I really beat myself up because ultimately it was my fault. I should have never let 2 dogs in my house no matter how sweet they looked. And not only that my mind wanders to what could have happened. Just thinking about how Bella could so easily have been hurt with those 2 wild dogs and scared cat running all around her. There is just no way I could live with myself if a poor choice of mine resulted in her injury. I just have to thank GOD that she was not attacked and all though it was upsetting to see my cat get attacked like that.....at least it was not her. We are all okay. And so is Pongo. He is severely shaken up. Understandably so.....he was a bit bloody but I think he bit the dog on his leg and that is where the blood came from. I don't see any lacerations or puncture wounds. He does have a bunch of matted fur that was left crisp by the dogs saliva. He is a bit languid but I guess that's to be expected after being bullied by two ferocious dogs. He is scared and reluctant but I hope he is not permanently traumatized and maybe when he wakes from his nap he will have thought it was all a bad dream.

I have never in my life been in a position where something that crazy has happened and I guess adrenaline kicks in and you just do what you gotta do but afterwards I was in tears and exhausted. More mentally so than physically. I will never again in my life trust another animal that is not my own.

Poor Pongo.

The nerd in me

I have been watching the Presidential biographies as they have aired on PBS. Thank God for the DVR! I love this stuff....and can't get enough. I just finished Ronald Reagan's and I have to say I completely admire him (and his wife) and I will probably regret saying this but I really think in time that President Bush's time in the white house might be looked back on a bit more favorably than we think. I know I know nobody wants to hear about politics and especially what a lowly housewife has to say on the matter but all this History and politics fascinates me. Next up is the Life and Presidency of Jimmy Carter. I don't much care for him but I am still going to watch it and after his will be Nixon! I can't wait to watch that one. So I will just throw this out there now......Sisters, mom, dad, Gary......if you are just scratching your minds this year with wonder of what to get me for Christmas, you can't go wrong getting me books about History or Politics or for that matter C.S Lewis, all though I realize his writings are completely unrelated to politics. So there......the nerd in me just had to get that out. I don't care that it's known now because I am sure it's not all that surprising....I've pretty much been a nerd my whole life. It does make me wonder what other peoples nerdy indulgences are? Or am I the only nerd in existence? Before you answer that, realize it's a rhetorical question.

I'm off to early vote.

A word from Dave Ramsey

YOU Fix You:

What it takes for us all to overcome the crazy economy
By and large, 70% to 90% of you wanted something to be done to calm the economy, but you didn't want $700 billion in new debt to bail out Wall Street. The stock market has had record declines since then. What's going on?

You need to remember that you need to take control of your life.

It's disturbing that people in government totally disregard what their constituents tell them to do. It's disturbing that the market goes down and the media panics about this. It's disturbing that greedy banks made horrible, high-interest loans to people who couldn't afford to repay, and broke people signed up for the loan and cried when they couldn't afford it - like someone did something to them. It's disturbing that arrogant people in Washington ignore their constituents and takes huge strides toward socialism.

All of these things are disturbing, but none will cause this great nation to cease to function. None of these things are the seeds to the beginning of the end. You're okay. We're going to be fine.

But the most disturbing thing is some people's reactions.

Don't react based on fear or panic. Another negative reaction is that you are looking to Washington to fix your problems. Why would you do that? They have never fixed your problems, and you want Obama or McCain to fix things. That's ridiculous; there has never been a president who can fix your problems. They always say they can and they never can.

At what point did Bill Clinton fix any of your problems? At what point did he cause you to prosper? At what point did George Bush end your career or cause you to prosper? When did Ronald Reagan fix your problems?

When you look to Washington to solve your problems, we've got the seeds to destroy this country. It's time for YOU to change YOUR life.

There was a sweet 43-year-old lady making $15,000 a year who called me asking what Congress was going to do to help her. My answer to her was "Nothing. It's not their job. It's your job to read a book or take a class to get better so you can make more. Why have you accepted this as your lot in life? Why are you sitting around waiting on Congress or president to fix your life?"

It's not Washington's job to fix what's going on with you. If you are waiting on Washington to change something, you've got a long freakin' wait! It is YOUR job to take care of you. Don't sit around and watch TV and panic and think you can't do anything. I've made and lost money, and every bit of that had to do with me being smart and diligent or stupid.

Quit blaming Congress or looking to them to fix you. YOU have to fix you! When you wait on the government to fix your life and wait for money to be taken from others and given to you, that's a spirit of envy, and it's wrong. The only system that works is capitalism functioning under moral restraint.

Get some moral restraint, become a capitalist, and go be somebody!

That thing we call LOVE

Is love a feeling an emotion, or action? Webster defines love as (Noun) (1): strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties (2): attraction based on sexual desire : affection and tenderness felt by lovers (3): affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests b: an assurance of love . Yet also as a Verb - 1: to hold dear : cherish. The Latin word for love is lubēre or libēre which means to please. To please is an action. For me the word Love has changed meaning over the course of my life time. I use the word too loosely sometimes....I say I love shoes, I love mexican food. But does that really make sense? How do you love Mexican food?? I now believe Love is something you do, not something you feel but there are many people out there that would argue that point. Some people say that love is only a feeling, actions and words are just refection of how you feel. Could make sense right?? Or does it? Could a successful marriage survive on how you feel? Feelings are not always reliable and they do and will change from day to day. Love can't change. Love is what it is. So then Love becomes a choice. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is 1 Corinthians 13. You know, the one about Love, Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant....etc. All those descriptions of love are actions. Even more interesting to me is that the word LOVE in that passage used to be the word Charity in The King James Version. Charity. So Charity is also Love. Again an action. I don't know....what do you think?? Can we tell people we Love them? Or do we just have to do it? I don't know....what do you think?

My perfect day

I am so ready to get my house the way I want it to look. We have been in it for 8 months now and we have yet to do any remodelling that we had talked about when we bought the house, except for the painting and carpet. All that stands in my way is that thing we call money and since we don't buy anything we don't have the money at hand for.....this is seriously delaying my gratification. HUMPH! Oh maybe this is the time of year I get to pine for something I want and can't have or I should say that I can't have yet! Patience. Patience. Patience. If I had the means, this is how I would be spending my day.

1. Installing new light fixtures in the entrance, dining room, breakfast room and all bathrooms and hanging new ceiling fans.
2. Redoing the cabinets, back splash,counter tops and tile in the kitchen.
3. Replacing ALL the door handles in the house.
4. Tiling the entrance, dining room and part of the living room.
5. Re tiling ALL bathrooms.
6. Replacing all the faucets and shower heads in the entire house.
7. Adding some major shelves and cabinets in the laundry room and making it a sort of mud room type room.
8. Custom building an entire wall entertainment system for our living room.

Then I would finish my day with a trip to Wimberly, Pottery Barn, Crate&Barrel, Hobby Lobby,Pier One, and some fabric stores to buy all the finishing touches to decorate the entire place to my liking.


A girl can dream right?

Take me to another Place

Gary and I are in the beginning stages of planning a little mini vacation. ALONE! We figure the girls are more than happy to go hang out at Grandmamas for a few days and they should be fine.....Bella is a big girl know ya know. Since they live pretty close to the TX - AR border we figured it would be nice to take a little road trip somewhere. Drive through a few states. TN is sounding pretty nice.....we could visit the home of Elvis even though neither one of us are really a fan, but do you have to be a fanatic to want to visit Graceland? I know..."Love me tender, love me blue" and "You ain't nothing but a hound dog". Plus I bet TN is brilliant in the Fall and there's nothing more romantic to me than October. Oh wait....this will be in November... Oh well whatever we can make November romantic too. Gary and I have always had such fantastic travels together and I am getting so excited just thinking about it. Yeah I think TN is sounding rather nice. Anyone ever been there?

Oh Dear

Let the egging begin. I am so afraid that if we put McCain/Palin signs in our yard or stickers on our cars that we might be subjected to some seething hatred. I kid you not, it's almost better to be a terrorist these days than it is to be a Republican. At least people want the terrorists to be treated fairly and their rights need to be respected. Gary ordered these signs and stickers right after the VP was announced and I was kind of glad it was taking a long time for them to get here.....but they came and there he is......proudly displaying his candidate of choice. I give it a day before that sign disappears.

Sunday "whine"

My head hurts really bad and I have not felt like myself for the last week or so. I have this constant jitter about my body and so mama saw the doctor and the doctor said it's all in my head and to quit taking the 2 medicines that keep me functioning day to day because that's probably causing the shakes and so now not only are my allergies bugging me and my head pounds but I am dangerously tired AND I'm still jittery! It makes no sense to me and I am loosing my confidence in the medical profession and also did not realize that a process of elimination on top of a waiting game is a diagnosis. So needless to say I am no happy camper with jitters and a shake blended with a headache and I am sure you would like to offer me a little cheese with my "whine" and yes I realize there are starving kids in Africa who just wish they had some bread and my uncomfortablness pales in comparrison to them but I am still going to whine with everything anyway and blame it all on George Bush. Okay there....now I will fix my attitude!

Mothers day and Madonna

First day at Mothers day out didn't go as planned. Bella cried, I got a shot of guilt, she sat and pouted on her lady bug carpet. As I watched through the window 30 minutes went by and she still refused to participate in class and sat there with her long face hanging down while little frogs in ballerina slippers hopped around her. It took all the strength I had to leave because what I really wanted to do was go scoop her up in my arms and take her home to play candy land....which by the way she cheats at. But all is well that ends well. She ended up having a fun day and she loved her gymnastics class and claims she can't wait to go back. The last "Baby" strings have been cut.
AND
On a completely different note, this morning in the car on the way to school my morning am station was at commercial so I turned on the fm radio. I rarely have on FM radio....I don't care for their morning shows and commercials but anyway HOLIDAY by Madonna was on and so I listened to it for a few seconds. I glance back at Hannah and say, "Don't you like Madonna's old music?" She gave me a slightly confused look and said, " Who's Madonna?"
I thought that was hilarious. I sometimes forget Hannah was not around back in the day.