Happy Halloween, from Winnie the Pooh

We did our first, Lord willing, of many "reverse trick-or-treating" outings! I like how Mark termed it - I didn't know what to call it.

These are pictures of our first stop at our pastor's house - his wife, Brenda is so gracious, I really appreciate her. And that's her granddaughter, Maya.

But anyway, we handed out treats instead of getting them (except for Rachel - who was so persuasive :o) ). Matthew was interested at the first couple of places - after that -as expected - getting in and out of the car seat was not pleasant.

Halloween in the South is something to consider - it was probably a little warm to have that fleece outfit on - it was around 70, I'm guessing. Mark and I had fun with it, anway. I had put a few of the Nutter Butter ghosts in their treat bags from Matthew along with some microwave popcorn.

Not the way to start the week

Yes, that is a bandage over my thumb - put on in the ER this morning. Matthew was out of carrots - so, being the "good mom", it was time to cook some more. Being in a hurry, as I usually am on a Monday morning with my agenda set out for the day, I was chopping the carrots(with my wonderful big Cutco knife) - not paying attention.........

I'll spare you the details, suffice it to say, I have just one stitch. The other stitches would have had to involve the remaining nail and the ER doc thought that would have ended up being a lot more involved and painful - I think I would have to agree. I'm thankful that Mark hadn't left for work, yet.

Thankfully, it hasn't been painful at all today. I think that's due to the pressure from the dressing. Tomorrow is another day - I won't be able to put off the dressing change. :o(

It's hard to type with a thumb bandaged up! I'm very thankful that it didn't involve my dominant thumb. Right now, I'm just aggravated at myslef!

BOO!

A shout out goes to June, whom I worked with in Indiana. She brought these yummy little ghosts to work one year. They're Nutter Butter cookies covered with Almond Bark. The eyes are mini chocolate chips. (June's were much prettier than these!)
Instead of getting treats on Halloween, we're going to give treats to the few homes we take Matthew to this year :o)

Festival time

We went to a festival about 20 minutes from here yesterday. It turned out to be nice and warm - cool in the shade.

No alligator on a stick this year (we went two years ago and I had alligator). Not that I would have gotten any. We had an unfortunate mishap with our bloomin' onion. It was yummy - while it lasted. It somehow ended up on the ground, ahem. I probably waited in the two different lines to get it longer than we had it in our possession. Oh, well. We certainly didn't need it. We also got a yummy funnel cake. I only get them once a year - at the most - and my stomach paid for it - we just don't eat a lot of fried food.

Matthew enjoyed the petting zoo as much as a ten month old can. He enjoyed the big fish in the tank much more!

Ten months old

I'm ten months old today!! How time flies! It's been another busy month for me. Grandma and Grandpa left yesterday - I had so much fun with them. They are great!

I'm eating all kinds of food. My new favorite is cheese - yummmm. I'm not fond of my sippy cup - Mommy and Daddy keep trying them - but, it just doesn't have the feel of my bottle! I love my Cheerios and puffs, too.

I'm a fast crawler. I don't see the point of lifting up my belly and using my hands instead of my elbows - cause then I couldn't carry stuff around with me on my journeys around the apartment. I like to "chase" the cats. They are funny.

I'm down to two naps. Mommy and Daddy still wish I would sleep later than 6AM. I go to bed around 8PM. Mommy is still trying to figure out the best time for my afternoon nap - I can't really figure that out myself, either.

I'll pull up to Mommy - but that's really the only person/thing that I'll pull up to. Standing is okay. I do it more often, but, I'm in no big hurry on that one.

I had my first public meltdown on Saturday at Whole Foods. I was pretty tired :o(

I like to "sing" and dance. I like to turn pages on my books when I'm read to. I had a sore throat this past month - that wasn't much fun.

I also like to make Mommy and Daddy laugh. I'll give them my cheesy grin and they just start laughing. I love peek-a-boo, too.

It's the cheesiest!

Pecans 101

I was(and still am) quite a pecan novice when we moved down here two years ago. So, for all of you other novices, here is what's going on with pecans.

In the first picture - you can see how pecans look on the tree. They eventually "ripen" and turn dark brown. As they mature, either the pecan inside gets bigger or the outside shell dries out or both - I really don't know - or care. As that happens, it looks like it's blossoming and opening up to reveal the pecan inside.

The nut will fall out when it's ready - leaving behind the "petals". Their quite pretty - especially when there are a lot of them still on the tree. The pecans aren't ready for consumption right now. I tried to open up a pecan - and they're not ready.

Two years ago when we gathered ours - it was around Thanksgiving. Last year, we still had pecans left over - and I was 9 months pregnant - I don't that I could have bent down very often :o) I can't wait! Ahhhh, I'm soooo glad that it's this year and not last year - but, I digress - just thinking out loud, there :o)

I took these pictures up at the lake during our walk. There are lots of big old tall pecan trees out there. It's actually going to be a bit trecharous pretty soon. I don't know how many pecans I could hear falling to the ground while we were there. I'll at least have to put the top up on Matthew's stroller to protect him. That would be quite a blow. Did I mention how TALL some of those trees are??

One happy Northeasterner

We have a new Italian restaurant in town. Mark said that their Napoli pizza reminded him of pizza back home! That is saying a lot!!

Wild Hogs

As you can tell by this story --- I'm still adjusting to living in the rural South.....

Friday night in the ER, a three year old busted his lip and I went in with the physician to stitch him up. In order to help distract him from what was going on, the mom was talking with her son, asking, "Do you remember seeing wild hogs?" I chimed in, "Oh, I saw that movie". She quickly told me, "No, these are real wild hogs. We saw them earlier and we're going to go back and see them after we leave here."

Ohhhhhhhhh

Time to do some laundry

You'd never know it by this picture - but Matthew is getting over a sore throat. No fun for anyone!

Breakfast with Daddy

Our cute little marsupial in the morning :o)

Crankenstein

in keeping with the Halloween season....

Yes, that is a "C" for cranky :o) That's what Sundays are around our home these days. Poor guy! He misses that good morning nap.

His cute preppy outfit is from Grandma E. It has crocodiles all over the polo shirt. He looks like he's ready for Yale!

Spiderman

The jammies fit perfectly, Grandma. In the last pic, I think that Matthew mistakenly thinks he has The Hulk jammies on :o)

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!!

Lots of jammies that fit now - and ready for winter! :o)

Sorry for the bad lighting - it's my fault - recently, I've started to put my finger partially over the flash so it's not so harsh.

Fill 'er up!

I finally shelled the rest of the pecans that were in this tin. We gathered them two Novembers ago. I'v got about 7 cups of pecans in the freezer now! Shelling is sometimes tedious - but it's a very small price to pay considering how much pecans cost in the store.

I'm ready for another pecan season!! :o)