What's really scary?

Around our house, Halloween is a big holiday. My husband's birthday is the 30th, and when he was growing up, his birthday decorations were always black and orange. Over the years, we have collected an impressive array of 'scary' things, and this year we actually dug a lot of them out and put them up for Halloween.

We went to the local Spirit of Halloween store but were sadly disappointed. Everything was cheap-looking, sleazy, and over-priced. So we didn't buy anything new. In fact, we went to Walmart to get Tim's costume (vampire cape and matching teeth). So here are some pictures of the Halloween decorations we had in our living room. If you look carefully you'll see some of last year's Christmas decorations that never got taken down - including the Christmas tree!

However, I don't think anything we used to decorate the house is quite as scary as my daughter, Miranda, dying her hair blue. I think it looks really, really cool - although I'm not sure I'd have the nerve to do it - even though blue is my favorite color.

I thought about including a picture of our kitchen sink, but I don't think the world is ready for that!

Twilight - the Movie

OK - like a large majority of women in this country, I have read the vampire books about Edward and Bella - relishing every vicarious moment of their romance. In fact, I am now reading them to my husband, who is enjoying them almost as much as I have. I find it hard to believe that he could actually be enjoying them AS much, as Edward is much more captivating than the ever-clumsy and terribly insecure Bella.

So - I am looking forward to the movie that is coming out. At first I was afraid that they would 'telescope' more than one book together, but I read that the author has not yet sold the rights to the other books. This got me to thinking.

Edward and his family are vampires. In fact, Vampires who are several hundred years old (in some cases). But they never age. Edward will perpetually be 17. However, the actor portraying Edward in this film is going to keep getting older (unless he really IS a vampire- which I doubt). So . . . if they don't get cracking on the sequels ASAP, they better have some very, very good make-up artists in the wings to keep everybody looking young. The Harry Potter movies are stretching it a bit, but at least those kids are SUPPOSED to keep getting older.

However, what are movies for but to entertain us and to make us use our imaginations? So, if we can imagine Jabba the Hutt, or a Vulcan and find ourselves believing in them - what's a few years on a vampire? By the way, do they look like the Edward and Bella that you mentally pictured when you read the books?

I LOVE BEING A MOMMY (GRANDMOTHER)

My daughter posted this on her blog for her three children, so I thought I'd do the same. The answers are from (in order) my oldest daughter (32), my younger daughter (29), and my grandson who is also my adopted son (11 - almost 12). It is amazing how close they are on some of the answers!

1. What does mom say to you?
a. I love you
b. I love you
c. Whaaaaaaaat? (in an irritated voice)

2. What makes mom happy?
a. Having the house to herself
b. Having her checkbook balanced and in the positive, and having time to herself
c. When I unload the dishwasher.

3. What makes mom sad?
a. Having to do too many dishes
b. When Dad and Tim fight, or Miranda has problems
c. When Grandpa and me argue, or I misbehave.

4. What does mom do that makes me laugh?
a. She uses funny voices for the different characters when she reads to me
b. She's hilarious all the time
c. She tickles me

5. How old is mom?
a. I have no idea
b. (long pause while calculating) 58
c. 58?

6. How tall is mom?
a. Small like me
b. 5' 1/2" ? 1"?
c. Just as tall as me, about 5 feet tall or less

7. What does mom like to do? (notice that the number of items keeps going down!)
a. Read, cross-stitch, and do puzzles on the computer
b. Read & cross-stitch
c. Cross-stitch

8. What is mom's job? (obviously this isn't a secret)
a. Supervisor in a microbiology laboratory for Quest Diagnostics
b. Microbiologist
c. Microbiologist

9. What is mom's favorite food (they sure nailed this one!)
a. Chocolate?
b. Chocolate?
c. Chocolate!

10. How do you know that mom loves you?
a. She does so much for me - a ton of stuff.
b. She thinks about me a lot
c. She lets me do stuff that Grandpa wouldn't let me do.

This was a very illuminating little exercise - and I would say that all three of my 'kids' know me pretty well.

Mix 'er up

Although plastic mixing bowls are all very well in their place - I happen to like the heavier bowls that are ceramic, glass, Corning Ware, etc. I particularly like that I can bake casseroles in them. However, the drawback is that if they get dropped - they break.

Thanks to the fumbling fingers of my family (how's that for alliteration!), we were getting a bit low on mixing bowls, so I made that a birthday request. My daughter, Maleen, got me an enchanting set of three purple mixing bowls. She said they were pretty pricey, but she wanted to make sure I got the best.

For some reason, my digital camera tends to turn purples into blues, so you'll have to take my word for it that they are actually much more purple than they look in the picture. I use them constantly, although I haven't quite gotten up the nerve to use one of them in the oven yet. It's not that I don't think they could take the heat (ha, ha) - I just don't feel right about it yet. They're still too new.

Much to my surprise, when I went visiting teaching last month, my companion had a late birthday present for me - a set of six ceramic mixing bowls. You would think that would cost a fortune, but not in this case. The are the tiniest, cutest mixing bowls I have ever seen! She said that she couldn't resist getting them for me, and that they are handy when you want to measure out ingredients ahead of time, and then add them one by one. You can see their size compared to the one's that Maleen gave me.

Now the biggest problem I'm going to have is keeping my husband's hands off of them. He is always on the lookout for small little bowls to mix his noxious herbs and supplements in. And just for your information, one of these little bowls is exactly the right size to hold four egg yolks.

Fete Day and Falling

Because there is no official holiday in August, my enterprising daughter has created "Fete Day". Every year it has a different color, and you celebrate by wearing that color and giving gifts of that color. Last year it was blue, and we had a wonderful time celebrating with my brother and his family down in California.

This year, Fete day was scheduled for August 16th, and the color was purple. I had fully intended to try to celebrate this holiday, but unfortunately for my plans, my workplace scheduled an extremely exhausting week to overhaul our department. Between Monday and Friday I put in over 50 hours of work - so Fete day was pretty much ignored.

However, let us not forget the purple theme. In the middle of the week I tripped over my own feet while walking across a parking lot, and fell heavily on my left knee. Naturally, although there was a lot of pain involved, there was nothing to see for the first day or two. However, by Saturday, I can honestly say that I was 'wearing purple'. Well - purple, yellow, pale green, red, pink, etc.

I can honestly say that this is NOT how I planned to celebrate Fete Day, but life is full of little surprises. I am happy to report that although the knee still looks horrible, it is healing and not nearly as painful as it was. Heaven help me if next year the Fete Day color is black!

Legolas

My daughter insisted that I put my latest cross-stitch on my blog. For all of you Orlando Bloom and Lord of the Ring fans - may I suggest that you NOT try to do this cross-stitch. It took me three years and was the hardest thing I've ever cross-stitched. I have, however, had several people who have requested that I gift this picture to them. They are, I am afraid, doomed to disappointment. This is one cross-stitch that I will be keeping. My heirs can fight over it later!

Pictures!

I just finished spending a week in Utah visiting my daughter and my grandchildren - including the latest gem who is (as of today) a little over 2 weeks old. My daughter blogs regularly, so she showed me how to put pictures on my blog - something I have never been able to do before. So don't be surprised at all of the pictures I may start putting in my blogs. Let's start with this one.

The picture up above is my granddaughter - Daisy Grace Cazier. There was a lot of confusion over what her middle name was going to be - but she born on Tuesday, so Grace fits perfectly. Remember the old rhyme?
Monday's child is fair of face
Tuesday's child is full of grace
Wednesday's child is full of woe
Thursday's child has far to go
Friday's child is loving and giving
Saturday's child has to work for a living
But the child that's born on the Sabbath Day
Is bonny and bright and good and gay.
Of course, both I and both my daughters were born on Mondays - and our grandson was born on Tuesday (and a less graceful person I have yet to see!) My husband was (most appropriately) born on Wednesday.

The other picture shows how I am sure my daughter must have felt on occasion, before she had this latest baby. There is no doubt that babies are often a bit cramped, especially shortly before birth, and this one obviously needed to stretch a bit!

This has got to be one of the funniest pictures I have ever had emailed to me. My first thought was "Who would take a cat out on a rafting trip?" I have to wonder if this is a genuine picture, or something cleverly concocted with the graphic marvels we have available these days.

By the way, you'll notice that the cat is the only one NOT wearing a life jacket.

Hmmm - it seems that whenever I load a new picture, it goes to the top of my blog. I have tried the old cut-and-paste routine, but it doesn't seem to be working. Does this mean I have to plan my blogs in reverse if I'm putting pictures in?

Anyway, this is one of my favorite cross-stitches. It actually looks much better in person. It received an honorable mention when I entered it at the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup. With one exception, I think this is the one picture I would keep if I could only have one of my cross-stitches.

That's it for now. When I get around to putting my latest set of pictures on my hard drive, I can blog a few more pictures that I particularly like. And maybe I can figure out a way to put in pictures so I don't have to do plan my blogs in reverse!