it's that time, once again

first, today I think (although it may sully my blog) that it should be mentioned for Erica and Timothy. today marks 2 years since their last 'visit'.
then last night, when Tim got home from work, I was working on supper and the big kids were in the kitchen with me. Tim called us into the living room and said he had a present for us - Me, Erica, and Timothy. I thought "what did he buy?" he positioned us around his computer, my thoughts are frantically trying to figure out what he would have ordered online for the three of us...
it was Christmas come early! he pulled up the screen of the county jail roster. Erica and I screamed from shock or joy or I'm not sure what... but I guess I just hate being right all the time.
I really wish I could be wrong about the ex. but in the big picture, this is best. it shoots him in the foot for ever demanding Erica and Timothy to have to visit him. it gives them more motive to deny him and more purpose for the 'justice' system to take the kids at their word. in one stupid move on his part, he has given these kids more power.




on a sweeter note
I've been listening to Christmas music for a couple of weeks now. it's only the beginning of November, but I just couldn't wait any longer ~ I needed it. I almost always listen to lighter, calmer music all the time anyway, but there is something about Christmas music that is just nourishing.

I usually wait for a while to type up this post, and I might do it again next month, but it is time, once again for the List.
this is the list of my busiest time of year.

we are still trying to make a decision on Thanksgiving. we might stay home, we might go see gramma, (but after last year that's one place I can cross off my list for both Thanksgiving and Christmas)

then it begins and most of it is yet to be scheduled
however, we already have some of it on the calendar
Craft Sale on Dec. 2nd
Camper Cabin :D perhaps on the same night, but maybe not until the next weekend...

Erica's birthday and this year it will be shared with the
Gingerbread party.
Timothy's birthday

Grandma Lynn's house for Christmas eve

what is not on the calendar yet
grandma Doreen's for a Christmas get-together
Erica's school music concerts, there will be two of them I'm sure
music concert for Emma and Connor

I know that there will be more to come and it is going to drive me bonkers!
but on an up note... I have all the Christmas presents and Birthday presents bought and here already. I just have to wrap them up and that is much more time consuming than you would think. but at least I can get an early start on them.
but I feel like I should take that claim back... I don't have every present ready. I am still working on Erica's Christmas blanket. I am barely halfway done with it. I have been putting it off . I'm terrible. I guess that's where my next 6 weeks are going to be frantic. I have got to get that thing finished, especially since I started working on it in March! wait, maybe February

pumpkins!

a couple of days ago Grandma and Grand-pa brought pumpkins for carving.

Erica and Timothy get a little more into it than the little kids because they have a little more patience to follow through with a plan.

guess which ones they did...

and because Emma's pumpkin was so huge I took a few moments to do a little carving myself.

there will be No pictures

because it's against my law.

but I dyed my hair. it was supposed to be a bit more subtle and it would have been if I had rinsed it 10 minutes early, but I am now a red head. at least a darkish auburn...

when my kids got home from school that day, Timothy noticed and mentioned it right away. Erica was still trying to put her finger on what was different for a little while.
I told Timothy 'good job!' he'll do well in a relationship when he's older.
I also said that Daddy had better notice right away so we'll see how long it takes or he's in trouble...
Tim passes with flying colors! and we will stay married ;)

but now that I think about it, did he notice it good or did he notice it bad?
what ever, we're staying married anyway. because if he thought my hair was a bad choice, he didn't say. Good man.

age is starting to show it's self in my hair

I don't exactly feel devastated by this, but I feel like I want to do something about it.

when i was much younger I had blond hair. as I've gotten older and more exactly after pregnancy hormones messed with me 5 times my hair has turned more of a brown. it's still kind of blond, but it's more really dirty dish water blond. so I've noticed that I have some silver hairs. not gray. not white, but silver. if more of my hair was silver I would wear it with pride. but it just looks drab like the rest of me. I'm wondering what color I should dye my hair to look more not awful. I love red hair, but I think it would look terrible on my complexion. I don't want to try to go blond and end up with even worse hair. I already hate to be seen in public so I don't want to color my hair to something that is going to draw more attention. but I want it to be something natural enough that I won't have a shockingly obvious color line as my hair grows out.
ugh. I never thought this day would come

Happy Birthday, Emma girl!

her last year in single digits.

(neighbor's cat in the picture. our outside cat is black)

more to come - today or tomorrow

Emma is about to be 9!

in just a couple of days Emma is going to be turning 9 years old.

at the end of last year I noticed that Emma's finger nails were really brittle, grooved and there were purple streaks at the half lunar base of her fingernails. This totally freaked me out because all my college anatomy and med terms classes started flashing before my eyes. this kind of thing usually means liver disease or heart disease, but I made myself take a deep breath and think rationally. vitamin and iron deficiency can cause these symptoms. so we got back in the habit of a vitamin + iron every night with her and the rest of the kids. 9 months of this did not have enough of a result for me to be content with that being the cause so we went to her pediatrician and she wasn't sure what it could be so she consulted with a pediatric dermatologist. she came back with a probable answer and sent us to the dermatologist to confirm. the diagnosis is commonly known as 20 nail dystrophy.

why jabber on about this after mentioning her birthday coming up? well...

Emma wrote a list for Christmas for me a couple of months ago. one of the items on the list was a set of nail polish. I don't know about a set, but I can get you some nail polish. but I thought I would rather she have her nail polish before Christmas so she could have fun with it before she has to go back to the dermatologist in January.

She needs something to keep it in so I made a bag for her.
this is not my original design... if you want to read more about the bag itself, follow this link. :)

A beautiful Fall day

a few days ago I stepped out my door and looked at my wonderful trees. I love my trees! when we move from here those trees are going to be one of the most missed things about this place. I have three awesome oak trees and a very imposing basswood tree. Oaks are by far my favorite tree, but in my yard the basswood is our favorite. it's branches are wonderful! the lowest ones all bow down to the ground making a lovely 'room' that the kids love to play in.

I looked at those beloved trees and admired the leaves that are changing color. they all go brown and yellow. some day I'm going to have to have a maple or something that turns orange and red, but I still love my trees.

now this short story is becoming long...

I was thinking that I would have to find a good angle to take a picture of my trees and their leaves, but it's a bit tricky, and at this point it's kind of moot anyway since the very next day the wind blew through here so hard - I actually made Ronan stay as far away from the living room window as possible for fear that something might just blow through the window - most of the leaves are out of the basswood now. the oaks usually hang on really tight to their leaves for a while yet.

but while this is a ho-hum moment for me, the kids have a great time! and it's the only time I can get them to do any yard work without any complaining :D

since I've taken these pictures, this leaf pile has grown about twice it's size. pretty good considering our rake is broken.