~Carved~

I was up to my eyeballs in things to do all weekend (the house was overflowing with teenage boys and even a visiting friend from Belgium), so I was unable to respond directly, but Thank You all for your hurrahs and encouragements on my last post. It was much appreciated- and yes, the cake was delicious, thank goodness! :)

After all the birthday and visitor hoopala, we ended last weekend with some pumpkin carving. I have to say I'm not big on Halloween (for lots of reasons), but I do enjoy pumpkin carving now that the boys are old enough to do it for themselves AND help clean up afterwards (I do not enjoy the aftermath . . .)

The Husband's creation
I think he looks like Frankenstein :)

The Youngest's:
that is suppose to be a cigarette sticking out of it's mouth (no idea) and if you look closely you'll see he wrote 'karen' on it's side- a reference to the movie 'The Watcher in the Woods'- a family favorite

The Oldest's pumpkin:
I was guessing Picasso, but he says it has to do with an anime show he watches

My cat'o lantern
(I was too tired to think of anything more creative)

Twister decided Cat o'Lantern made a good companion- no fleas

Anyway- our creations found their way to the front porch and tonight I will light them up to greet anyone who may come to the door.

I also have these darling tattoos I found at Target to hand out. I picked these up a month ago- I prefer to not hand out candy simply because having it around the house is dangerous for me and my lack of control where sweets are concerned.

  In fact, I already have quite the stash of chocolate of my own- all the way from Belgium, courtesy of our Belgium visitor. I think this may be the first year I will not be raiding the kids' trick or treat loot!!

~He's Fifteen and I'm Still Playing Mom~

It's been a REALLY long day. 
It started early this morning: get up and have a family birthday breakfast to celebrate The Oldest turning 15. Let him open a few cards and gifts. Send him and his brother off to school. 
Drink Coffee. 
Get showered, dressed and do some light picking up. 
Drink More Coffee. 
Prepare Ebay packages to be shipped out, as well as a birthday package for a far away friend, and a package for my mother (which happened to be 3lbs of coffee). Eat lunch. 
Somewhere in there, The Husband comes home from work unexpectedly because the internet connection at the office isn't working and he needs to work from home. 
We have a cuppa coffee. 
The kids get home from school (two hour early release) and I take The Oldest to his birthday gift: a 2:30 pm. ear piercing appointment. So we fill out lots of paper work and a young gal plunges a needle into each lobe and off we go. 
We stop at the drug store for the recommended cleaning solution. They don't have it even though the paperwork we have says you can find it just about anywhere. But we don't have time to go anywhere else because we have a picture appointment to get to. 
So we go to our 4:00 pm scheduled picture appointment, walking in at exactly 3:50. Early for once!! But they are 'having technical difficulties' and we don't start our photo session for another 45 min. So when it's finally done and they say we can wait about ten minutes until they should have our photos ready for viewing, I'm pretty much like, 'Yeah, right'! And can you guess what I need at this point? 
Yup- More Coffee. 
And something to eat because I'm starving! Thirty mins and some coffee talk later,  Oldest and I go back and sure enough, our pictures are "almost done". I call The Husband (who is suppose to make dinner) and tell him he's got plenty of time. And when everything is bought and paid for we walk out of there at 6:30 pm- 2 1/2 hours after our scheduled appointment.
Oh! But we still have to find that dang cleaning solution for his ears. We stop at a nearby Target. No such luck. I grab the least recommended thing they have and we go. 
Home at 7pm. Dinner nearly done! 
We dine on Baked Ravioli, Garlic Toast and Salad with Ranch Dressing- all at the specific request of the birthday boy. It tastes amazing because I didn't have to make it!! 
But I DO still have to make a birthday cake for his party tomorrow. And it's 7:30 pm, but no problem, right? 
Oh- but I'm making an icecream cake that requires layers to be frozen one at a time, starting with the crust. The crust is made, popped in the freezer and we spend the next hour looking over old photos of The Oldest as a baby. 
The Husband and I ooh and awhh, The Youngest does a remarkable job of allowing all the attention to be on big brother and The Oldest looks bored and rolls his eyes impatiently. 
Layer One is done!! 
Layer two is vanilla icecream. Cool- literally. Ha! This layer takes a quick 20 mins. to freeze and we are half way. 
Then comes the hot fudge layer. No problem, right? 
Thirty mins. go by- not even close to frozen. 
An hour goes by- nope, still runny. 
An hour and a half . . . ? 
I give up and go blog.  
And now at 12:29 am, here I am- still waiting. And we are SO. NEARLY. THERE! And then? One Last Layer to go . . . and then it's suppose to freeze overnight- though at this rate I'm not sure we'll get the full 'overnight' in. 
So everyone's been long ago to bed and sound asleep, but me. Because I'm waiting for hot fudge to freeze. 
And no- this time I do not want any coffee.

~On the Porch~

Last weekend: I had fun getting the front porch all decked out for Fall- even though we were having summer-like temperatures. Pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, mums from the local garden center and a corn-husk-covered rope light to festoon the front door. Talk about a pain to make (literally- did you know dried corn husks are covered in little prickley things that stick all-over your skin? I know this intimately now!), but I love how it gives off a warm, inviting glow on these now dark evenings. :)

This weekend: Cooler temps, but I am sniffling and sneezing and generally feeling rotten due to a cold or some such thing. So not much getting done around here other than some feltie stitching and a few 'sit down' computer things in-between naps. Happily there's a Seahawks football game to enjoy tomorrow...

Have a lovely weekend!

~At the Patch~

Last Sunday the men and I braved the pushing-ninety-degrees-heat to uphold one of our very favorite family traditions- a trip to the pumpkin patch on Sauvie Island. Never, in the 14 years we've done this, has it been that miserable hot. What is it about the October sun that makes heat waves so much more uncomfortable than in July? Is it just because we know that it's suppose to be about 65 instead? Is it the lower angle of the sun? I'm not sure, but whatever it is, it makes pumpkin patch picking preposterous! (say that 5 times fast) ;)

The Husband found his right off.

And The Oldest wasn't far behind.

The Youngest took some time . . .

but he found just the right one in the end.

And after a quick pose by the corn maze . . .

it was caramel apple time. :)

I wouldn't have been surprised if they had melted before we could finish.

At this point we were pretty much dripping with sweat, so we decided to call it a day (or as it was, about 45 min) and headed back to the car.

I did poke my head into the barn on the way out and was rewarded by this mama on her brood . . .

and Sleeping Beauty below. Her name was Matilda. Doesn't she look happy as she's laying there dreaming? I think she has the sweetest face. I hate to think of what the future may hold for her, poor dear. 

And after that brief pause, we were in the car- windows rolled down and cool air blasting our faces.

The hottest- and shortest- visit we've ever made. Now I'm hoping our pumpkins will actually make it through the month!

~September Summed Up~

September. I blinked and it's gone. Another one for the history books- Another full month of living life. And here, a few captured moments to remember it by before we run full-speed-ahead into October.

There was lots and lots of sanding and staining- more baby steps toward a longed for dream . . . (more on that in another post)

There was a bit of antiquing and finding fall inspiration . . . don't you just LOVE these books turned pumpkins? I'm dying to make some, but how on earth did they cut books into that shape? If anyone out there knows, please tune me in!

There was lots of clothes shopping. More sweaters and layers for the coming cold weather. And new jeans to make way for my ever-expanding waist line. (there's no pictures, but that would be due to the baking I've also been doing)

A new, badly needed haircut. (and in case you were wondering, I'm not smiling in this picture because I've come to realize that no matter how hard I try, my left eye always ends up half shut when I smile causing me to look either intoxicated or mildly disfigured. I'm just accepting that some people are photogenic and I am not one of them!)

There have been daily drives to and from cross country practice for the Youngest- and to weekly meets as well. Last week he came in 2nd place for 7th grade boys and we were very excited for him- he pushed himself so hard, and he found success!

I've been stitching felties again. Makes me happy, happy, happy- and keeps me calm! (looks like 'franken-kitty' with all the pins, poor thing!)

And I've also done a little book-cover making for a birthday present.

And not to forget the kids, they've done lots of growing, growing, growing . . .

(and eating, eating, eating!!) This was the month that the Oldest surpassed me in height!!

I spent a day freshening up the laundry/mudroom with new shelf paper, art, and a rake hanger.

And I celebrated the first day of fall with my favorite fall coffee mug and some straw flowers. 

The 'fall' curtains also found their way into the kitchen . . .

September's weather was really warm and lovely nearly all month.We rambled just about everywhere-

from a graveyard . . .

To a waterfall. And everywhere in between. We took lots of walks in the neighborhood, along the river, in the arboretum and out into The Gorge . . .

And, of course, there were many, many more moments . . . lots of gardening, chats with friends, school papers to fill out a mile high, long and boring teacher presentations, doctor appts, ebay work, a week of miserable allergies, a couple dates with the Husband, soups simmering and new tires for my car (!!!!) As always, a patchwork of life being lived . . .
and, all in all, a lovely September.