Last night while I was asleep I dreamt I walked out to the kitchen and looked out the kitchen window and there was snow covering the driveway. When I woke up it seemed so real--- I was actually confused for a minute when there was no snow. Now that Thanksgiving has passed I would love to see a little snow cover the ground. Just enough to make it pretty, not too much that makes life chaotic. Don't you agree? Is there anything better to help get into the Christmas spirit? I can't think of anything better.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo courtesy of Lucky Oliver as I had no turkey available to hang a sign on

More to come I just wanted to pass along well wishes to you! Now I must go bake !

The following comments are being written by Megan:

I am thankful for... fuzzy socks, my family, pigs, chocolate, and my best friend Madison!!!

Trevor says he is thankful for...people. (not sure what he means, I think he was not into the tell me something you are thankful for game. )

I told them to come up with a few things that maybe are out of the ordinary. I have to say I am thankful for all those things too! I would add my morning espresso, pillows, washing machines, dishwashers, and Christmas vacation! You may also notice that there is nothing from Elise. She is not ungrateful just very hard to pin down on anything other then "to be alive".  While I certainly am happy she is alive, it just did not have the punch of fuzzy socks?!

Irony...

We recently undertook a complete fall cleaning since we had skipped the spring cleaning for well...several years at least. Anyhow it went something like this ---> empty all the treasures out of the kids rooms into my hallway. Clean and thoroughly vacuum the carpets. Then rearrange the room and pray, plead and beg that it remains nice and neat. Well what did we end up with...besides some asthma and very full garbage cans, a brief glimmer of tidiness. They all love the "idea" of a clean room. Just not much interest in keeping it that way.

Image my surprise when I was looking at the hallway mess and spotted this... look at the bottom left corner of the following picture. I will then give you a close up of what you are seeing. I am embarrassed to show you, please do not think less of me. :) All this junk came out of the girls bedroom.

IRONY: the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning

I truly wish I could report that it was successful and I now have neat and tidy little children. But as I sit here typing I hear a box being dumped on the floor in Trevor's room. Wanna bet it is still there long after they move onto something else to do.

I did get a response when in frustration I told them I was going to put daily pictures of their rooms on this blog so that all could see how they live. I might have to explore this option. I think I will go start the documentation. If you do start seeing dreadful photos here of messy rooms. Please ignore and know that I am working on a experiment at home. As Ren and Stimpy used to say "maybe something good, maybe something bad".

Birthday Etiquette

Cousin Avery has a birthday coming. She will be having a birthday party this coming weekend. I happened to be talking to her and asked if I was invited to her party. She took a moment to respond. I started to wonder if dear sweet Auntie had not made the cut in her nearly 4 year old mind. Then she quietly said "You will need to bring a present though". So sweet of her to remind me of proper birthday etiquette.

Now I wonder if I could get away with that. Please someone ask if they can come visit me so I can quietly remind you it would be nice if you brought a gift...

Learning to tie...

Trevor and Elise are 7 years old now. It seems like Elise learned to tie in one evening and has never looked back. Trevor...well that is a different story. We were starting to think we may have to tie his shoes before he goes off to college everyday. He just had no interest in doing it himself. I think Michael had finally tied his last shoe when he told Trev..."No more video games till you figure out how to tie your shoes". Guess what happened...yep you got it.

The thought of loosing his Nintendo time made this a mission of utmost importance. Mastered in one afternoon. Hmmm...what else do we need to have him learn to do?

Not Red States and Blue States...The United States of America

“As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, ‘We are not enemies, but friends – though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices, I need your help and I will be your president too.”
~ Barack Obama

Trick-or-Treat...

TWO YEARS IN A ROW! Two years in a row I have totally biffed to pictures of Halloween costumes. So let me describe them to you...

Trevor... Black full body suit with a black cape and a mask. Any guesses? I told him he needed to learn to say "Luke, I am your Father" in a voice like the guy that does telephone commercials. Yep, you got it. Darth Vader. I think he wanted to be him because his light saber was broken and that way he could get me to buy another one. Hard to believe a movie that came out when I was a child his age is still such a huge influence. In his 2nd grade class were 4 Darth Vaders and a Storm Trooper!

Elise... cowboy boots, brown long leather jacket, cowgirl hat, pig tails, and bucket that said "pony food" on it for collecting her goodies. That was way easy. She is our "little Cowgirl".

Megan... for a hint Megan's initials are M M. She had on green and black striped tights, black go-go style boots, and a huge Green circle with a giant M on it. She was an adorable green M&M candy.

They were all adorable... we went trick or treating with cousins Caleb (scarey scream guy) and Avery (a pretty peacock) since they live in suburbia and have lots of options for a great looting. They got so much candy that towards the end of the night Megan's bag broke wide open on someones front porch as she was getting more candy. How lucky it was there and not in the middle of the street. Oy Vay! Lucky for her they lady that answered the door gave her a new bag to hold all her junk!

I am hoping someone else got some pictures. If I can come up with photos I will post them here to be viewed by all!
Grandma to the rescue...got a few photo's hopefully my sister got a couple good ones too~

On Hallowe'en the thing you must do
Is pretend that nothing can frighten you
And if somethin' scares you and you want to run
Just let on like it's Hallowe'en fun.
~19th Century Halloween postcard