Pumpkin carving on Halloween

Before the mess was made.
Getting our tops cut off and faces designed.
Can my pumpkin look as grumpy as me??

YUMMY!!!

UCKY DAD!! We could not get him to touch the inside of the pumpkin.

Whatta spooky bunch of faces...and the pumpkins look scary too.

Which one is your favorite?? I like them all.

Finished off the night with cupcakes and popcorn!

Heard said

Heard said yesterday by Stephen:

"Mom, guess what? The day after tomorrow we are going to cut the tree into little pieces and you can work on our saint's costumes without us bothering you. Well maybe you will have to get a bandaid if we cut ourselves really bad, but that's it."

He's already told me today that he is bored and has nothing to do. He's been following me around. So much for no one bothering me. :)

Tis the Season...

Its that time of the year again, trail camera time.

Here's what Mom likes to see:

Here's what Dad likes to see:

And finally...what the boys like to see:

That's one momma bear plus two babies. They enjoy Darren's corn pile often. Fun...

Just another day...right?

Those of you who are on Facebook have already been updated on this, but I thought I'd put it up for the few of you who aren't.

I had another ER visit last week. This time for vomiting blood. After blood tests and one very uncomfortable stool test they determined they did not know why I had puked blood. They sent me home with instructions to watch for internal bleeding. Lucky for us there have been no more signs of bleeding anywhere. One of the blood tests showed that my bilirubin is elevated even higher than it was in August. No explanation for that one as well. It was not "life threatening" so they are leaving it up to my OB if I will be tested again. Always something huh? Drama...

This week I am working on saint costumes for All Saints Day. I am very glad that two little boys decided to pick their saints from last year so I won't have to sew them new costumes. That being said they are complaining that everyone else has the nicest costumes and they have nothing. Honestly, its the other way around at this point. The new costumes are still laying in a nice pile of uncut fabric. It is washed and ironed though. I WILL post pictures of this year's saints next week sometime.

I am getting geared up for the Christmas season. Presents are being planned and purchased as we will not be going to South Dakota for the Christmas. That means anything that goes out there will need to be ready to go by our trip back at Thanksgiving. I have a few more things to prepare and a handful of presents to order. Its hard to believe its already that time of year again. Where did 2010 go? Wasn't it just 2009 a few short months ago???? To be a kid again, when time past at a slow pace and life was full of fun.

Wardrobe Woes

My wonderful husband has informed me that I could update my wardrobe with some new things. This sounds like a blessing right?? Its not. I have the hardest time finding clothes. Now that doesn't mean I'm picky in a bad way. I have certain requirements that need to be meant before I buy something.

First - it has to be modest. About 5 years ago I started wearing skirts roughly 90% of the time. I also started wearing my shirts either long sleeve or 3/4 length. I have found that, while "modern" women will give me looks of disgust, I receive more respect while out in public. I have had people carry my groceries out, put my carts away and even offer to stow my luggage. Those things were not the norm for me before my skirt transformation. Now finding long, modest, loose fitting skirts is a hard task. There are plenty of choices out there, but they always have something wrong. Maybe there is a slit up the back (or front - eegads!) or maybe its so tight you can't walk or genuflect. OH and don't get me started on colors!! What I think is toned down and what designers think are two very different color patterns.

Second - it has to be wearable. I do not like dry clean only or line dry clothes. I barely have time to fold my clothes let alone line dry special or dry clean! Those days are long gone. I also like the material to be durable so I can wear it working outside or to church 50 times before it wears out. This is a problem as most nice, modest skirts are made with lovely material that doesn't work with my expectations.

Third - it has to be long and have room to grow. I don't like my skirts to be calf length or higher. I feel almost naked when I walk out with a skirt that exposes any of my leg. Granted I am almost always wearing long socks in the winter (or long underwear) so no one would see a thing then. As for my shirts, I prefer them with extra long sleeves if they are long-sleeved and of course a high neck line. I can't stand to see a women bend over and expose her God-given gifts for all to see. Also, I like a little room to grow. Sometimes shirts of today hug your belly to the point that everyone knows you put on 5 pounds over Thanksgiving. I like to have breathing room for expanding baby bellies. Makes me feel like I'm not THAT fat that soon if I can get away with wearing my regular clothes.

Fourth - it has to be cheap. Ohhh, this is by far the hardest thing I have to deal with. Now to be fair to my wonderful husband, money has never been an issue. We buy nice, once, so we don't have to buy again in a few months when it wears out. That being said I can't bring myself to spend more than $20 on a skirt and $10 on a shirt. I am cheap, cheap, cheap. I love shopping at Goodwill for their $3.99 skirts or great sales, but finding anything worth buying there is hit or miss (heavy on the miss).

My closet is lined with quite a few clothes. Most of them I found at Goodwill. The skirts are waiting for a matching shirt (I will find one I know I will!) while the shirts are waiting for a non-patterned skirt. So here is a perfect example of when I should have just spent the money to buy nice, once, and called it good. And I shouldn't even tell you about my everyday skirts. Imagine holes and stains and most wouldn't cut it as rags for cleaning. EEEEGADS!!!!!!

I enjoy the colors blue, brown, green and tan. Sometimes I branch out to gray and black, but not often. That leaves me with 4 hues of brown shirts (which match maybe 2 skirts total), a couple of green shirts that match very little and a lovely collection of every darker blue I love. Still a problem matching them to skirts...arrrr!

So, my solution to this problem has always been to buy material and make skirts. Simple, elastic waist skirts that are long, roomy and usually priced right. I am cheap after all...I even work cheap. I did buy over $70 worth of material once. Nice, lovely designs that would match most of my shirts. I cut out the patterns, sewed them nicely and tried them on only to find out - my hips grew since the last time I used the pattern. THEY REALLY GREW! Ok...plan B...give skirts away and find more material. I managed to give the skirts away, but never bought more material.

Now that Darren wants me to update my wardrobe I am full of frustration and worry. I would like to dress to please him. He tells me to wear whatever I want, yet will point out that sometimes my clothes are mismatched (yah I know!). He says he doesn't mind that I wear skirts, but I know that he likes it when I wear my one pair of jeans as well. Oh double arrr...arrr.

My style of clothes is an interesting mix. Think Edwardian plus out west way back when plus a little bit of modern and you have a pretty good idea why I have trouble finding clothes. I have a feeling I will just buy material, sew like crazy (using a pattern that fits!) and continue to skirt by the problem for the time being.

Have I Forgotten?

You are all such dear family and friends that I knew I could "forget" my blog and you wouldn't mind too much. It has been a long, long couple of months, but I think we have finally gotten past the rough stage. If I can keep my food down all of today and tomorrow it will be one week since my children had to yell "She's gonna blow!" That was my requirement to be back to normal - I had to go a full week without getting sick.

Juliana did a great job of helping us through all of September. I have some pictures to post of our fun times with her. I will get to those, as well as a bunch from around the here from before I was so sick. When Juliana went home, my brother Andrew came out for two weeks. He was also a good help, although he doesn't do bathrooms. I have to say though, he did mow the lawn twice for us and that was a great help. You should have seen his face when he had most of the leaves mowed up and it looked great - pride! Then the next morning we woke up and it appeared as though he hadn't done a thing - defeat! I told him that it was ok...its just fall in the U.P. of Michigan. As I peek out my window I see the lawn is covered again. Now that my helpers are gone I just might get a chance on the lawnmower. I do enjoy those moments with my i-Pod and me, bouncing along, singing a song, not a care in the world.

Darren, Blase, Andrew and one of Darren's friends from work, Joe, are in South Dakota doing some much anticipated pheasant hunting. Darren and Joe were suppose to go last year, but if you recall we had H1N1 that week. They are probably getting geared up and formulating a plan as I type. Blase was excited to go along this year. I am sure he will grow into a fine hunter someday. All our boys are showing signs of following in their Dad's footsteps - wherever they may lead. I am also convinced that over half the reason Andrew came out was so that he could go hunting with Darren too. I am glad. It fills my heart with happiness to see my younger brothers and sisters learning from Darren and being part of his life as well. You see...in our family there is no such thing as in-laws. We are all Mom and Dad's children, whether we were born into the family or married into it. I know that is hard for the "in-laws" to understand, but its true.

School is coming along nicely. We still have to add our Africa study back into the mix. The boys are going to finish some of their classes well before the end of the school year. I am already wondering how I will fill their time. I think it will be a great time to do some hands on learning, but that means more thinking and planning on my part. I honestly don't mind too much, its just that being behind in other areas (like cleaning) makes adding research to my list a very exhausting idea.

Speaking of cleaning - I think I will start some fall cleaning in the next week or two. I have started what Darren calls an "official honey do list" for each room. My goal is to tackle one or two rooms a month this winter. I explained to Darren that we buy a house and live in it the way it is. We don't do too much to make it "our house". I want to paint a few rooms and move a few pictures around as well as the little fixer uppers here and there. The house looks great on the outside, now its time to spruce up the inside.

I have another batch of zucchini jam (cherry this time) to make and apple pie filling and then I'm DONE with canning. Darren and Juliana, with a little help from me, managed to can a lot of things. We did spaghetti sauce, chili sauce, tomatoes, pickled carrots and cauliflower, dilly beans, strawberry zucchini jam, orange zucchini jam, pickles and and and I know I'm missing something. I'd also like to try canning pumpkin pie filling, but I don't have a recipe. SEND ME ONE if you have one that works. THANKS! I got to the point with the garden that I told them to just pull the plants and call it good. I was so sick of them picking vegetables and me not being able to do a thing about it. Darren says we are changing our planting plan next year. We are going to be very picky about what we plant. I like that idea!

I hope you have enjoyed the update from our home. I will try to get to the pictures and other posts in the near future. I still have a few things to do to catch up and as of late my energy level does not cooperate. You'd think I was growing a baby or something. ;) I am on Week 15 now. Next month I will have ultrasound pictures to post. So exciting!!

Now I'm off to clean the basement with the boys so they can exchange their tractors and plastic trucks for the Mr. Potato Head toys and dress up boxes. I see pirates in my future! Arrr yee maties - time to swab the deck!