A Question

I've just finished reading this.


Have any of you read it? I'm not sure how I felt about it. I enjoyed it, but yet it was kind of difficult to read...all the going back and forth made it hard to keep up with where I was. What did you think? Have you seen the movie? I know the movie is never as good as the book, but I wonder if seeing this story played out visually would make it easier to follow.

Fall Festival Fun

It's time for fall festivals! Last Thursday was our school's fall festival, and unfortunately, I didn't get a single picture of Matthew in his costume. He was Venom, the alter-ego (I think) of Spider Man. It's the costume that looks just like Spider Man but it's black instead of blue and red. Luke was supposed to wear the giraffe costume that Matthew had when he was this age. Weeelllll....he would have no part of it! He would love on the giraffe's head, but when it came time to put on the costume, no way!

Tonight was the fall festival at church, and we had a great time! We have all the traditional games, plus two inflatables (a bouncy house and an obstacle course), a hayride, and food....oh the food! Tonight we had hot dogs, Polish sausage, cheese fries, nachos, boiled peanuts, roasted corn, and snow cones. Yum, yum!

This is where Matthew spent most of his time!

Luke tried his hand at the games, too. (with a little extra help!)

Luke LOVED eating the roasted corn,

and wanted to bite it off the cob.

What could be better than hanging out with Granddaddy,

balloons, and just plain fun!

Photo Shoot

This afternoon, I decided to take Luke outside and attempt a little photo shoot. However, there are way too many things to do outside that are lots more fun than standing still and letting Mama take pictures! I was hoping for some "fall" shots on the porch with my mums, but this is all I got.

Most of the time he was just running in the yard, so glad to be free!

One of my red maples has turned, and it is gorgeous. This photo doesn't begin to do it justice. I love this time of year!

Only two more days until fall break!

Finally...

....the bathroom renovation is finished! They finished about 7:30 Wednesday night. It's not photo-ready yet, but hopefully soon and then I'll share with you.

Not much going on around here that's blog-worthy. We are enjoying a nice weekend. Chilly, but nice. We hit the outlet mall yesterday, shopping for winter clothes for Matthew and Luke. After we got home, we just laid around and watched the Auburn game. Today it's been church and then more laziness. In fact, Matthew is in my bed playing New Super Mario Brothers on his DS, and earlier, I was back there with him!

This little fella has decided that he wants to eat his snacks at the regular table, instead of in his high chair. I have a feeling that he won't be in the high chair much longer! Looks rather proud of himself, don't you think?

Christmas in October

I am pleased to announce that for once, I am ahead of the game when it comes to Christmas shopping. I started this weekend, and with the exception of one item, albeit a large one, I've pretty much finished Matthew's stuff. I still have some to do for Luke, but I think his will be easy. I don't have to worry about making sure I have the important things on his list, since he's too little to make one, and he likes everything.

Let me share with you my secret. K-Mart layaway. To be honest, I never even considered layaway as an option until after Matthew was born. I'm ashamed to admit this, but before I was adult, paying my own bills, etc., I thought layaway was just an option for people who couldn't afford to buy anything. I am so ashamed that I thought bad of people who used the layaway option. That was before I realized how much it could cost to buy Christmas presents for kids! A cousin told me about it, and said she puts her kids' stuff on layaway every year. Y'all, it's fantastic! You go to the store two or three months before Christmas, select out your toys before they're picked over, pay 10% up front, and then make payments every two weeks for 8 weeks. They only charge you a couple of dollars as a fee, and you get to pay for your items a little at a time, instead of putting it on a credit card. But the best part of all....you don't have figure out a place to hide the loot for months! I can hide stuff for a couple of weeks, but I can already tell that the older the kids get, the harder it's going to be to hide things from them!

Unfortunately, the only store that still offers layaway is K-Mart. Wal-mart stopped a couple of years ago, and I'm not sure if Toys R Us ever had it or not. I don't regularly shop K-Mart, because it's not that convenient for me, and admittedly, they don't have as good a selection as some of the other stores, but anything I can find there, I'll put it on layaway. We weren't the only ones doing it either. There wasn't a huge amount of traffic there, but there was another couple with a buggy full of toys at the layaway desk in front of us.

And now, I'm sure that I have those hot items that will be hard to find after Thanksgiving!


***I've found out that Toys R Us does offer layaway, but it's only on certain items, and only if that certain item is out of stock in the store. You're actually putting it on layaway with their distribution center.

Friends

Meet our new friend. His name is Buddy, according to Matthew. I think he looks more like a Smoky, but it wasn't worth a fight. (We're not real creative with pet names around here!) This little fella took up at the house a couple of weeks ago. We have no idea where he came from, but we figure someone must have dropped him off, because he's used to people. He's very friendly and loving. Luke really loves him, and he lets Luke drag him around as much as he wants. See....



My mom wants him, and surprisingly, Matthew is okay with letting him go live with her. In the past when we've had kittens, Matthew would say that she could have one, only to decide he couldn't part with it. This time, I'm the one having trouble parting with him! He'll probably wind up at Mama's though, because we have enough cats hanging around here already.

********************

Last week, we got a day off from school. A nearby town hosts a big rodeo every year the first weekend in October, and our school calendar is set up to have that Friday off. (Believe me, it was a much-needed and enjoyed break!) On Thursday, the elementary kids had a pancake breakfast, stick horse races, and other rodeo activities. Here's my little cowboy enjoying his pancakes.

While Matthew enjoyed spending the day off with his granddaddy, Mama, Luke, and I enjoyed a day of shopping! We had a wonderful time! I was mainly looking for winter clothes for Matthew and Luke, but I even scored a new pair of jeans and a new dress! I have been looking for a new dress for months!

That same weekend was my mom's 45th high school class reunion. Her very best friend from high school and her husband drove down on Friday to spend the weekend with Mama and go to the reunion. They were each other's maid/matron of honor in their weddings, and have kept in touch all these years. They don't see each other a lot, but correspond via email and Christmas cards. It was neat for them to get to spend this much time together, and I got a chance to visit with them some too. I hope that my best friends and I are still in contact with each other at our 45th reunion! (By the way, she's probably not going to be too happy with me for telling how old she is!)

Etta (L) & Mama (R)

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend and that your team is winning!

Still....

I'm still here, and we're still in the middle of bathroom renovations! If this guy weren't such a nice fella, and didn't do such good work, I'd have fired him long ago! I wish I had something fun or interesting to post about, but unfortunately, there's not much going on here to talk about!

As far as the bathroom renovation goes, we now have sheetrock up and finished, and the painting is finished. The guy came tonight to work on putting the crown molding back up.(And yes, he's still here....at 10:00 p.m.!) Unfortunately, over the 10 years we've been in the house, the molding has gotten rather brittle, and he's going to have to get new molding to put up instead of being able to use what had been up there. So, that means more time, more money. Ugh! But I want this project to be done "right", so I guess I don't have much choice!

Hope to be back soon with photos of the bathroom, and introduce you to a new friend we've made around here.