Queen of all things Pumpkin

Yeah do not underestimate the power of a women who wants a pumpkin carved no matter what time it is. Perry will love it since he's OBSESSED right now with Nightmare before Christmas. I present to you Jack the Pumpkin King. One of my best. And that mouth is no joke people it was tough to carve. No template used here.....slackers!

Crazy Over-Halloweened

I do believe this is the first year I've had extra Halloween activities before the actual Trick or Treat event. There may have been the occasional Halloween party back in the day, but this has been a first since I've had a kid. Which has been 10 years now......can you believe it's been 10 years? We had the Halloween camping at Hueston Woods, which was a total blast, I'd recommend to anyone who doesn't mind camping when it's slightly cold out....not freezing like the next time we camp....don't remind me......do remind me to smack whoever planned that event. Halloween camping was fairly comfortable with our tent heater we used the first night, it worked quite well. Then we had Spookeree last weekend at Cub World. We took Maddie who'd like to be a "Cub" but she's girl so she only gets to pretend occasionally. There was games, a hayride, and a Haunted Castle. Maddie is down with scary stuff, Perry is not, but since Maddie's a girl I think Perry felt the need to be the protector and he braved the Haunted Castle and not advertised scary hayride.....he was a trooper, and wasn't scared at all. Then they were suppose to dress up for the den meeting tonight but P decided to go as a cub scout, besides I could imagine putting on the costume he wore at the other 2 functions, will wear tomorrow night and not to mention he wore last year. Peter from Narnia is now TIRED......he'll fit in the dang thing till he's 16, but I promise you he won't wear it again. Is it wrong that I have uncarved Pumpkins on my porch, it's 11:30 pm, I could totally carve them now. Perry would only draw the face anyways......do I want to mess with the goo right now? It'll give Ron something to be amused about.....pumpkin carving happening.....right now....bet!

Tagged...10/20/30...

This will be a good one. I suppose. So lets start with the 10. 10 years ago I was a new mom, with a 5 month old baby. Here he is at 4 weeks old. His binky was almost as big as his head. I am pretty sure that shirt still fits him. My entire world changed....and I somehow knew then it would be an exciting ride. I prayed God would give me and extraordinary child and my prayers were answered. He was wonderful then and he's wonderful now I wouldn't change a thing. I worked as a 411 operator, which meant wierd hours and weekends. Often 6 days a week. How I survived that nonsense I'll never know. But I survived and I am stronger person for it and will never in this lifetime work weekends again.

20 years ago. Well that's easy since I just had my 20 year high school reunion. I was a big dork in High School. But I didn't care I had fun. Desperate and dateless if you will it all didn't seem to matter or effect me in any sort of negative way. I have no regrets from my high school years. 20 years ago I was at the beginning of my senior year. We were voting for class titles, class song, ect.....I almost won biggest airhead....lost by a few votes. Darn. I was into making my own clothes. I made these super cool yellow cargo pants before cargo pants were a thing. I led a prayer group every morning in the library without fail. Here is me right before my senior prom, which I went stag to. I was fixed up for my junior prom with some scary dude who drove a muscle car and drank beer while driving me to my my junior prom. For the junior prom I wore heels that I thought was going to kill me if the drunk driver didn't. So I swore my senior prom was going to be everything the junior prom wasn't. I had a blast. Even if my dress was an ugly shade of PEACH. Although it was a rockin dress that quite a few of my friends borrowed for formals after that. Ok so now 30 years ago. Geez I'm suppose to remember that? Lemme see I was 8 years old. I was in 2nd grade and Mrs. Schneider was my teacher. I always got 100% on my spelling tests I missed one word the whole year and that word was where. I was a girl scout and I walked to my girl scout meetings that were at Mt. Healthy Christian Church. My troop leader was Dottie Engelkey who is good friends with my mom to this day. We moved from a small ranch house to a big 2 story house that year. I got to have a slumber party for my birthday and I invited the entire girl scout troop. 15 girls. And they all came. That's me in the picture sitting in the lazyboy with the 3D glass's....even then I had a great sense of style. I was also sporting my carters PJ's. Carters was the place to get your clothes back then. There was a Carters outlet in Monroe, Ohio.

That was a fun trip down memory lane. And for the record the dress Leah's wearing in her 30 year picture.....was mine....she got all my hand-me-downs. My hand-me-downs came from New York from my cousin Michelle. That's when my coolness factor started.....LOL....more like dork factor started. Although the mushroom bellbottom jeans were off the chain back in the day!

I'm going to tag......Heather, Stacie, Jud, Cyndi and any other lurker who has a blog....leave me a comment and tell me you did it. Have fun!

Overblogging....

I think not, but theres a potential there might be 3 in one day. Could be an alltime record. I can't claim to have found this gem on my own. I got it from Stacie's friend's blog.


But I get all those same feelings she speaks of. To me Bono is amazingly spiritual. And to be that girl.....HOLY SHIT....not just because he's Bono, but because of the feeling you get when that song is sung. Sometimes I like to take lyrics out of context, such as "And you give your self away.....and you give and you give, and you give yourself away...." there are times I am so passionate about stuff, or doing what's right, or researching stuff so you know every angle, I often feel like I give myself away. Or I've sacraficed other things in my life to make sure this one aspect is right. Make sense at all. There are other times I feel like I want to feel passionate about too much and then I'm just passionate about nothing and want to go to sleep for a week, in hopes that when I wake up life won't be so damn complicated. Ok that was nice and deep....stay tuned for that crazy Tag I gotta hook up.

16 Years of Marital Bliss

For the record when I was a teenager, I didn't want to get married till I was 35. Which means had I stuck to my plan I'd be married 3 years now. Heck when I was a teenager I was lucky to score a date much less a husband. So when I found one at the ripe old age of 21 I decided I better marry this one cause if I don't no tellin when I'll find me a husband. I mean there was a lot more that went into the "should I marry this one" criteria. The fact that we perfectly compliment each other helps tremendously, and that we were friends first, another bonus. And he's got kissable lips.....hee hee....didn't think I'd go there did ya. Shhhhh who cares that I have nothing to compare them to whatever people!

He's definately gotten better with age, so has our relationship. We basically became grown ups together. We both only spent about 1 year on our own as grown ups and we've been doing it together ever since. Kinda nice to have someone you like to do life with, it'd be lonely not to have someone. I mean I'm sure my friends could fill in those kind of gaps but they are reluctant to spoon me whenever we sleep together. Guess they think it's kind of wierd. LOL............
Happy Anniversary.....to my Home Squeeze!

I am aware I've been tagged hold on to your britches I'll get to it sometime in the next week or so!

Weekend Update

Yes I am aware it is 1am. What the heck, where'd the weekend go? I'll tell you where it went it went to the Cub Scouts. Oh and Nickel Creek. Went and saw Nickel Creek's farewell {for now} concert in covington on Friday night. I don't know what it is but I've been to 4 concerts in the past year and only one of them I was able to sit down if I wanted to the other 3 were in smaller venues and you had to stand the whole time. Aren't you suppose to sit at these things when you get older? Guess I dig the wrong groups. Nickel Creek was amazing. They did a cover of the Jackson 5's I want you Back, it was awesome. The YouTube video of Nickel creek doing the cover is crap, but here is a good one of KT doing it. It's a great song!







This song could very well be my theme song. Although no recent contact with any teenagers so I'm good lately. They're still freakin' Scary though for real!



Almost forgot to mention Ron and I did BALOO training this weekend. BALOO= Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation. It was combine with some other advanced outdoor training that was done by some other folks who stayed the whole weekend. Part of the advanced training was some Orienteering, (good Lord, too many numbers, and maps, they lost me quickly). It's no wonder why I get lost whenever I attempt to find a Geocache on my own. Ron was in heaven loves compass's, maps and all thing that a meant to help you find your way. The couple who did this part of the training were great at it, and they were cute, and very knowledgable of all things compass and mappy. The husband kept losing his compass when he was training, and every few minutes he's say "now where'd a put my compass?" LOL.....imagine a guy training on finding your way in the woods losing his compass, not safe. LOL.....They were fun and I enjoyed all of the training. Who knows Ron and I may someday grow up and be just like them......although it'd need to be something that didn't use numbers.

More Music Love

Ok so over on Stacie's blog she's doing a litte Michael and Amy dissing. Not to mention she had to go down the road of Petra. Heres a little Russ love. I loved him, I even had a green winter coat much like what he's wearing and I even had a medal on my coat. I had a life size poster of Russ Taff in my room. Both these songs were awesome back in the day.



Ok this might be a little bit scary but I tell you what their concert was INTENSE!



It was hard to top Amy Grant from 1985 but I think this might beat that!

You are Loved

Following Stacie's example of music she loved from back in the day I present to you the Altar Boys. Man I love this music my senior year in High School.

Ahhhhhh....Run for your Life!

*If you click on the photo you can enjoy more pictures of the same freaky monster as well as other scary creatures we came in contact with this weekend.

From Halloween Cam...

Too flippin tired to discuss. I love Halloween, this would be one of many reasons!

Silent Cancer

That's what one would call prostate cancer. Not to be confused with Silent Killer, as my dad would refer to it as. The man rarely gets names right. I've never been Jodi to him always Sugar. My niece, whose name is Kylie, has always been Karly. Perry's name is Old man, and my brother he's Charlie Brown. So I was eager to correct him when he called Prostate Cancer the "silent Killer....", Um that's "Silent CANCER" not killer cause you ain't gonna die from it. Bone scan and CAT scan came back clean no cancer has spread it's confined to the prostate. It will be treated with hormone therapy, which is a shot every 4 months. Ahhhhh....the advancement of modern medicine. Just a few years ago it would have been radiation treatment, which brings on a world of other crazy side effects, which you could potentially die from or be super uncomfortable. With hormone therapy, only side effect is hot flashes.....and impotence, which apparently shouldn't be a problem....(: Oh quit, you guys it's my dad.....geez! My parents have been divorced over 20 years ain't nothing going on for either of them. So theres the health update thanks for the kind words and prayers. Life back to normal, for now!

Cute Little Houses

Poptab collecting is way more fun when you have a cute little house to put them into. Except he calls it his soda can tab collection. Like he's from New York or something. Picked up little houses for Cub Scouts to collect their poptabs in so we can then donate them to the Ronald McDonald House. I got a few really big ones too. The child is enamored with anything house like. Something tells me when it comes time to turn in the poptabs he won't be turning in the house.
*Notice the bracelet on his right arm. Yeah that's from Summer Camp, it was once blue, but the blue peeled off. He won't take it off. Someone told me to cut it off while he's sleeping. Why? He wants to keep it on, and what's it hurting anyways? Reminds me of when I was in college I'd make a hemp bracelet every summer and wear it until I had to dress up and be fancy. There were some summers I'd make it the whole summer and not have to take it off. As I got older there were more and more fancy occasions, it was always a dramatic ritual. He must be just like his mama, and luckily he doesn't have any fancy occasions.

Concerts....

I love them. Ok I am definately going to see Switchfoot again, cause Connie is now an official fan like myself so we are gonna do it. Although.......David Crowder Band is going to be at BOGARTS......I've been wanting to see David Crowder in concert for years. Problem is I know NO ONE who would appreciate him the way he should be appreciated. There are a few friends a I could persuade to go with me out of pitty, but I want to enjoy it with someone who'd actually like it. And at Bogarts, man that's perfection, my old stomping grounds. So if you are reading this and wanna go, and would be willing to absorb all that is David Crowder before then (unless you are all ready into him), and could help me convince my husband to let me go to a concert 2 weekends in a row. E-mail me....or leave me some love here. If you do this you would rank as a BFF for sure! Oh the date of the concert is Nov. 7th. I tried to put a picture of him up, thinking it'd help my cause, but Bloggers not cooperating.

Is it Autumn??

Nothing says fall like red heads and pumpkins. Seriously, it's as though their hair was meant to go with pumpkins....Oh and I didn't plan Perry's shirt but it totally works. Hit the Barn and Bunk today to snag us some pumpkins, run through a corn maze and get lost in the hay barn. Did I mention it was like 95 degrees. Yeah funny thing someone said once if you don't like the weather in Cincinnati, wait about 10 min. and it'll change. I'd say 10 min is a bit of an exageration, how about a week. Since next weekend we'll have fall like tempuratures. Just in time for us to freeze our tails off while camping. Nice!

Funny thing Joe said while speaking at church (the new teaching pastor at my church)....funny and very true. Not sure you'll get it unless you hear his talk....he said "Get out of your Heaven Huddle and Go to Hell....!" Nice, but oh how flippin true. If I might get on my soapbox for one moment. Christians (I am one of those if you didn't know) like to surround themselves with other christians, and many rarely leave that circle. Cause it's safe. And then will talk trash about those who are not yet Christians as though that's going to help christians not look like hypocrits. What better way to share the love of God than to leave your "Heaven Huddle" and join folks in Hell. Reach out to people. Even if it's just to smile at someone at the grocery store. Or let them get in front of you even if they have $200 dollars worth of groceries in their cart. Or how about not walking around all self absorbed for a day, and notice those who may just need someone to listen. It's hard living in this "me" world and not be self absorbed, but if just a few folks did, well it'd be a step in the right direction. Check out Joe's talk (I know I know....I am always saying that and no one ever does, but I'm still gonna say it.) It was good stuff they even had the gates of hell as a visual and everything.

Here's all 3 of them looking cute. It's hard to get a good picture of the 3 of them in a corn maze standing still.

Heres the same three 2 years ago. My how they've changed.

Popcorn Anyone?

Ok it's Cub Scout Popcorn time. And oddly enough we got our tin of chocolate popcorn on Tuesday and it's almost already gone, IT WASN'T ME.....just saying. Perry won't eat it either. Hummmm.....it's weight watcher friendly if you only eat a handful a day. Ok so hook yourself up. If you go online to http://www.orderpopcorn.com/ yeah I know catchy.....once you go there the code you need to put in for Perry to get credit is TEEBYMQ (you'll want to highlight that and right click and click copy, then go to orderpopcorn.com), and order away. If I could give you some advice, get the 30 pack if you like microwave popcorn, it's deal online not to mention free shipping. If you want Chocolatey Carmel Crunch e-mail me, if you are local, I know someone. If you not local may I suggest ordering a case. You won't be sorry!

Nothing to See Here.....

Oddly it was kind of hard to hunt down a decent picture of my dad. Decent is the operative word there, he's usually making a goofy face. And this one was him at the Pinewood Derby last year and I had to Zoom in to crop out other people looking crazy. Notice no socks....it's January, this is a common trait for him. He's been known to mow the grass in flip flops, heck he's shoveled snow in flip flops before. I think he has issues with footwear.

Anyways I know more about the prostate than I'd care to have inside my head. I do not have one, guess that's good news since it's prone to the "C" word. Doesn't seem to have much use really why not get rid of it? Although I think it controls peeing or something and that's a good thing to be able to control when you are a grown man. They examine it through......I can't even say it....it starts with an "R"......UGH......ouch, glad I don't have one.

My dad has a catscan, and a bonescan on Monday. It'd be a good idea for my peace of mind that they find nothing there. That'd be great. Other than my brother dying of Leukemia 37 years ago, I've not had to deal with cancer this close. I was only 11 months old back then so I obviously don't remember. I'm dealing with it the best I know how I suppose researching. Dad is fine, he's a bit of a minimalist, any sort of ailment is nothing really, his philosophy is suck it up and move on. This one seems like a little more than that, considering radiation may be involved. Praying for God to help him deal properly and for him to not worry about other people and worry about taking care of himself. It'd be great if those of you in blogland would do the same. Nothing amusing to see here really I'd say go check out Layni's blog she's talking about Boobs and Poo.....2 of my most favorite topics........

I got Nothing....

Well except my dad has prostate cancer. Had a moment of freakoutedness and then remembered who I was. So rather than assume my father has just recieved a death sentence cause anytime you hear the word CANCER....you assume that person will be dead in a week. And I knew there was some form of cancer that you could pretty much just have for the rest of your life and not die from it. I was desperately hoping that sort of cancer would be the one in the prostate. So my brother tells me, and I'm like ahhh dag that's kind of crappy, wasn't exactly trying to hear that. So got off the phone with him before he did some sort of freak out, he tends to get very serious and dramatic about pretty much anything. We are polar opposites about life that's for sure. He gets all serious and dramatic and I use humor and make a joke so it doesn't seem as bad as it could be. So then I jumped on Webmd....dang that is your best friend for all things health related. And come to find out I was right....go me. No reason to freak the heck out, eat some brocolli, drink some pomogranite juice and you have a 80-90% chance you won't even know you got the cancer. He has to hear from the doctor before he knows what the next steps are, gotta check out to see if it spread to any other area, that's where the concern comes in. We'll freak out then, for now the old geezer has a good 20 years or more so relax people. Oh and my laidbackedness.....from my dad.....he called and was happy I wasn't freaking the heck out because he sure wasn't. Although I hear he'll be having a healthy diet of brocolli, pom juice, grapes and red wine. STAY AWAY FROM THE RED MEAT, that shit will kill ya! According to Webmd anyways.

Time to Gimme Some Love

You know there are tons of you who read everyday. I've respected your annonymity for long enough. You've got 2 days to come up with some love and leave me a comment. Or say quiet, and I'll continue to respect you privacy, but secretly think you are a little wierd!