radom things

i saw a lady carving the pittsburgh skyline out of cheese today on my lunchbreak

my arm is killing me from my flu shot. (*ouch*)

red robin is really YUM (gratuitous lottie shot at red robin)

it was a dark and stormy night....

So yesterday we took the baby over to gammy and pappy spec's neighborhood to trick or treat... I was a bit aprehensive (for sure) about how this would go down. In my mind, I was thinking we'd float from house to house and maybe she'd skip? (which, she kinda did!- that's us skipping in the one picture)

Well, right when we were leaving, I was like, "ok, where's her sack?!" "I don't know, don't you have it?" so back to get the sack. As craig went into the house, I noticed that his neighbor had on a devil mask and was making children cry. AWESOME!!! I thought that should be our first house.

So captain sack comes back and we head over to the first house. Their neighbor whose porch had caught on fire, and as she was going over details of the fire, "umm hmmm. Oh my, the tv caught the whole place on fire?... Oh wow. Wow WOW WOW." secretly, in my head I was thinking, this whole trick or treat thing is not going to go down well. Lottie was squirming and flipping out, wanting to be held. And I wanted to just have a great time. The time in my head I had pictured with my little sweetie opening her bag and then cooing, "BYE BYE!" as we walked away. Hm.

Enter, the 2nd house. Still not too sure about all this, and the guy didn't even have his DEVIL MASK ON. I was all, "where's the DEVIL mask?!" and he said he was scaring kids... Um, YEAH. That's the POINT. Oh well.

So literally around the 4th house, our little genius catches on that they are giving out CANDY. And it's for HER. To put in her SACK. That is on her ARM. And then, it was all gravy baby. We even heard a few, "BYE BYE's!" and "TANK YOUUUUU's" - my halloween dream come true.

I think I love this mom stuff.

the patch

we took lottie to her first pumpkin patch (or, "punkin") and she liked it i think! aside from the insanely priced punkins.... and food, it was fun. we even did a hayride and watched how cider was made. the pony ride was NOT a hit, so 5 points deducted from my report card. which leaves me with about a B- lately. although, i did clean up the poop water from her small blue bathtub AND the corn that was stuck in the drain. (girl you need the CHEW your food.) so, add 5 points and we're back to where we started.

Here's a picture that makes me smile.. I need to smile lately.
Aside from wrecking my husbands car, october depresses me. I know a lot of people love fall, and I am more "in like" with fall. Like, if fall called me, I'd let it come over for dinner, but I wouldn't let it be my boyfriend.

punkin' patch

so, craig thinks it's funny that i say "punkin" - he thinks people will think i'm dumb.

HOWEVER, i think saying, "PUNKIN'" instead of "PUMPKIN" is adorable.

here's our punkin's. i don't swear on this blog, but we f*ckin' rocked it this year.

we've been devastated.

craig's aunt, eileen, has passed away after a long battle with numerous ailments.

i think that it's most shocking because there have been so many ups... but the downs went fast and furious.

she was such a trooper. this woman made our day, and in many ways i think we took her for granted. she visited our new home when we bought it back in 06' and brought a columbia fleece blanket that i sleep with. i don't sleep with it covering me, like a regular cover, but i hold it in my arms and in a way, it's kind of my "blankie." it means that much more to me now that she's passed.

when lottie was born, she was right there, by my side, literally in the room where i gave birth with blood still on the floor! (i was so embarrassed by that!) minutes after lottie was born, she got to hold her. she brought her a blanket that is the softest blanket ever, and i still have it folded in lottie's cupboard, not sure i want her to get her sticky fingers all over it, that's how beautiful it is.

even when she was sick, she was always thinking of others, and how they would feel..back in april, she called our home phone on the day we celebrated lottie's birthday -(wishing me a happy birthday too! us april babies always stuck together) telling me she was too sick to come and was that ok? ugh.... she should've known it was ok. i was more concerned about her.

my one regret is that when we went to see her in the cleveland clinic that i was too overcome by emotion to whisper into her ear all of this, how she always made me feel comfortable and loved. accepted even.

i will always remember her for the following reasons:

-being a mom of 3 boys and still being able to relate to us girlies

-being a strong woman who never compromised her beliefs or opinions

-sticking up for her mother in times when her mother felt pulled in 2 directions

-her awesome, perfectly manicured toenails (she always had them done!) i'm way to lazy for that.

always ALWAYS thinking of us, from silly emails we'd share (yes i still have them all!) to things for "princess lottie" as she called her. :)

eileen, you were an amazing woman, loved by so many it's evident. the best are needed in heaven, this is proof.

(the pic is from last xmas and lottie "opening" the presents from eileen)

...get your motor runnin...

...head out up the driveway....

oh my...

you never know what is floating around there, on the internet. lol.

(yes, i know these people and i vaguely remember what is was for...)

come to jesus

i've been following stephanie nielson for a few years now. she is an amazing woman.

she loves her family. she loved her life... please, check her out. she's a lady worth watching.

she's suffered burns on 80% of her body... well i got a dumb burn tonight, from a glue gun, and it was probably less than 1% of my THUMB.

she was recently on oprah! me and several other people actually wrote to oprah, and guess what? it WORKED. her story got told. and i could not have been happier. i guess.... life is funny. or, cruel. but her husband christian worked through broken ribs and a broken back to save her from her airplane. i could only hope that my "mr nielson" would do the same for me.

this is a true love story. these 2 people truly love each other. even though i think that later day saints are not quite the people i'd like to model my life after... after learning from these 2, i'm not quite so sure i'm right in my way of thinking.

i cannot begin to understand what this family has gone through, but love to watch their love grow.

i thought it would be easy

but it isn't! making a salad for 50+ people, i can only imagine what my mom is going through.

you see, my sister's wedding reception is at my mother's house. i asked what i could help with, and somehow, we came upon agreement of a salad... well, this is an extensive program. cutting, washing, seasoning, wow. lol. and i wanted to make sure i had the best salad EVER. since this is my only sister.

so, this is from almost start, to the finish. i includes dried dates... i love dried dates in my salad don't you?

now i'm nervous.

my sis is married...

neato! a little wedding in the freezing rain. and afterwards, i realized i do NOT like lamb. next time i'm stickin' with chickin'.

tomorrow is the reception and i'm a little freaked out abt making a salad for 50+ people!

i have to decorate my "bride and groom" scarecrows tonight... i hope my glue gun has glue!

mother's necklace

i've finally got my arse in gear and made some beautiful pendants for purchase.

if you've got an inkling to purchase a necklace pendant for a mommy to be ,or your mom, this is a great present. very heartfelt and loving. well then please copy and paste this link, my blogger HTML is not working: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270462360556&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

but somehow i got sucked into the the "shoeclip" business for about a minute. this included me buying vintage earrings and making shoeclips from them. this means, that these awesome thing attach with a clip, to your shoe. either from the side, or fromt. (i made sure they were made that way)

anywho, i am not marketing these wares very well, and i know etsy is at a standstill these days, etc... but the sense of making them is satisfactory enough.

RUN don't WALK

if you have kids and read this blog...

to the children's place sale. i got many items on sale for clearance prices plus 30 percent off, PLUS if you enter the code HA99, you get an extra 15% off your total order!

look at this halter for 59 cents! insane.


(you have to be smart about children's clothing and i know you all are)

i know that i'm the luckiest

because of these three things that happened today:

- craig's friend gave me a buttload of homegrown brussel sprouts and habenero peppers (how cool is that.) this seals the deal. next year, i am having a garden.

- craig's friends wife made baklava. and it is the best i've ever had.

- craig reading to our baby girl before bed. (this is after the big screen LCD metallica "concert" - which she LOVED.) i think she has a thing for kurt.

my husband is AWESOME. *edit* and he's HOT. :)

i love

yes i do....


today we had to break out the winter coat and long sleeves and pants. yucko, here comes snow!

i am not ready

to have another kid. not just yet. i thought i was, but then this happened... and it wasn't pretty. :) maybe once lottie is older. i think this is the first time i witnessed my daughter's newest emotion: jealousy.

i babysat my nephew wyatt, while lottie gave him the stinkeye. (i cut out my gorgeous school marm hairdo, so you can appreciate what is really going on here)

we are now the proud owners...

of a flat screen. yeah, it took us awhile to get into this century, but we're here!

honestly i think we were just looking for the best deal. my sister told me tonight they paid 500+ for the same 32" tv. this one was 350 from costco, with free shipping. we can swing that. i mean, the person inside me that just took a loan out from clearview credit union is screaming "DON'T DO IT UNTIL YOUR LOAN IS PAID OFF." but the other materialistic side of me is saying, "you deserve it, you both work hard and aren't frivolous" - but then there's a side of me saying, "CHILDREN IN INDIA IN MUMBAI ARE SLEEPING IN HUTS WITH RATS." (notice how the one side in all caps is winning....)

what do you think? frivolous or ok investment?

what i won't do for non frizzy hair.

it's raining cats and dogs here in steel city on the first day that autumn begins.

imagine my frustration when i realized that

a: i don't own an umbrella

b: my daughter owns an umbrella which happened to be in my car.

it totally did not match my outfit but i sprinted to the building with it anyway.

in these hard economic times...

little treats to myself are few and far between (ok, who am i kidding...)
but i had an idea to hammer a nickel, and have c. drill a hole into it, attach some jump clasps, decorate and modge podge and VOILA! instant necklace pendant.
i had a bird theme going on here...