Being the grown up at Halloween

Halloween is tomorrow and it makes me think about how Halloween isn’t the same anymore and will never be the same again.  Not only because now we have a child and probably in the next couple of years the holiday will become more active but the fact that now WE HAVE TO BE GROWN UP……

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday.  What holiday can you be anybody you want to be and get away with it?  As a child it was all about how much candy could I get.  I remember the last couple of years of trick or treating, my brother and I would sorta compete about who would collect the most candy.  He’d always win because he would venture deep into the neighborhood and hit as many houses as he could (probably some twice).  And back in those days it was fairly safe to let your children go by themselves.  I would never do that these days and is probably why so many schools and churches have “Trunk or Treat”so that children wouldn’t roam off by themselves.  It is much safer but is it really fun?

After high school Halloween was about the parties.  I would always have a couple of different Halloween parties to go to and we’d take lots of pictures.  Those were the days.  The days when I was skinny and could actually wear sexy costumes and get away with it.  I would even dress up (not the sexy ones) at work too and no one seemed to mind.  I lived in apartments in those days so trick or treaters weren’t an issue.

When I met my husband and as I started to get older, parties were still a big part of the holiday but I was now living in a house so I would still get to enjoy the trick or treaters. My costume choices changed as I got older too…anything to hide the figure……much to my husbands dismay…no more sexy….I opted for a clown suit or a witch.

Now we have a child and the holiday will continue to change for us.  Last year we dressed little boy up but he was only 9 months old so the only place he went was to his nana’s.  We were invited to a party but the baby was still too young to leave overnight so we did the family thing and gave out candy to trick or treaters.

This year little boy will dress up for daycare.  They will celebrate Harvest Day (it’s a church so they don’t call it Halloween) and they’ll dress up and go from classroom to classroom getting candy.  We’ll probably take him to a few houses near by and that will be it.  We got no party invites this year………..I guess we are settling in to the “couple with a child role” like many of our friends have already.  I may or may not dress up for work.  My position is a little more professional these days and I’ll bet money that if I did dress up…someone would call a meeting and here I’d be dressed as a clown….my luck.

Oh well…we’ll still enjoy Halloween I’m sure and we’ll eat lots of candy even if we didn’t go all over the neighborhood to get it……we have a few more years before we can do that with our child….Let’s just hope the world doesn’t get so bad that we can’t even do that or they cancel the tradition all together.

Dog Training Class #4

Technically I’m really on class 3 since I missed it a week ago but who’s counting.  As you may know every Thursday night at 6:00 I am taking my new dog Rusty to Petsmart’s Beginning class. First class was okay..very stressful and tiring (for me), second class okay but I didn’t do my homework.  Third class I missed because it had rained all day and they talked about more rain and storms and I didn’t want a wet dog in my car nor did I want to drive in it.

So last Thursday I say to my husband “Please will you pick little boy up from daycare because when I get home I want to walk the dog so maybe he’ll do better at class”.  After much hem-hawing around he agreed. So when I got off work I came home, changed clothes, then mentally prepared myself for this walk.  Last walk he decided half way through that he was done and I had to carry him part way.  This time I put the harness on him and we walked and walked and he did great.  But I think we were out too long because a couple of blocks from the house and after seeing a couple of children he’d rather be playing with….he stopped and would not go forward.  Finally after much coaxing and me running he made it home. Husband had arrived home with little boy so me and Rusty went into the house where I let him roam free for the few minutes it took me to potty and grab my keys.  When we went outside (And I was feeling great about going to dog training), I literally had to pull Rusty and drag him to the car and put him in. I don’t know why he doesn’t want to get in the car.  I wish I could get inside this dogs mind because this is very frustrating and I thought I might have to skip class or forget it all together.  Finally I got him in and we were on our way.

Only three other dogs showed up for class so the teacher was able to show me what they did the week before.  She could tell we did not do our homework…..”evil grin” and told me that the program won’t work unless you do….”okay I know this” but who has the time!  Plus I have those other two dogs (will get into that later) who are always wanting attention too.  We did real well at class.  We did the COME HERE command which he did really well at.  I didn’t try the LEAVE IT, TAKE IT but may try later.  About the last 15 minutes of class I swear I think my dog was wanting to sleep.  The others made comments about how tired he looked….guess we did too much walking.

I again had to drag Rusty to the car and we headed home.  He does real well in the car so I’m not sure what his deal is.  When we get home I take him out through the garage so hopefully my female dog Tina would not KILL him.  She gets so mad and literally sounds like she is really hurting him.  She has him down on the ground growling at him.  Another one of my dog frustrations………..I wish the Dog Whisperer lived in Alabama!  LOL

Friday’s Cat

This is one of the new ones.  We call him Bubba.  Bubba is also something very easy for little boy to say so it’s funny to hear him call for “Bubba”.  Bubba has also decided he is husband’s cat.  He and Dixie both pile up on husband at night to sleep.  I think that’s pretty funny since husband threw such a fit about me bringing more pets home.

I had planned on taking the little buggers to the vet today for their first check up but I think I’ll wait and do next week. It’s about that time for them since they are about 8 weeks old now. I love having kittens in the house. Only thing is they tear up stuff and climb everywhere. When I left the house last night to go to dog class I looked back into the front window and there was a kitten sitting on top of the lamp shade. Also having a litter box in the house is not fun especially since the big cats come in from outside and use it! I will be glad when the kittens can go outside so I can get rid of that!

Recipe Scrapbooking

It’s my off day and frankly I’m not in the mood to do much of anything. I have started some laundry and picked up the 100’s of toys that little boy has scattered around the house. I’m hoping to get inspired to do a little scrapping today. After my scrapbook class last week I got back in to my recipe scrapbook.  There is another class on the 6th so I’ll probably take that one too. This first layout is one we did in class.  I got a litle carried away with the inking/distressing but in person I think it’s really cute.  I loved the orange.

This is one I finished last night on my own. I wasn’t please with the font I used but the papers were pretty. I decided that some of my previous layouts didn’t have enough bling (buttons, ribbons, flowers) so I may alter some this morning.

My recipe book is getting rather full. The dividers was what I was having trouble figuring out. I asked the scrapbook teacher at the class would she be doing more dividers and she said they would be starting a new book for 2008 so yes they would be doing dividers. yeah!

Addicted to Scrapbook Supply Shopping? Uh yeah….

Just finished my recipe scrapbook class and am longing to have more time to scrapbook.  I wish I had the time to be creative as say the teachers of the class.  I think part of the problem is I’m cheap.  Sure I have spent tons of money on scrapbook stuff but some of it is cheaper quality.  Not to mention sometimes I buy it just because it’s on sale….may never even use it (like stickers).  But you live and learn when you become addicted to this hobby.  When my sister bought me that kit as a wedding gift, she had no idea I would become obsessed with not only scrapbooking but the “buying” of scrapbook stuff.

After the scrapbook class (pictures to come later) we were able to shop in the scrapbook store and got a 15% discount.  Ya know actually 15% isn’t very much but I picked up several items not even really looking at the price (hey it was on sale).  I even went back today and got some ribbon like we used in the class and when I stopped at the Sam’s club to pick up a prescription I lingered over this big nice scrapbook bag filled with scrapbook goodies that cost $45.  Sure I didn’t need all the stuff in the bag but it was a nice bag (need something for next scrapbook class) so I thought….”stop slobbering all over the darn bag and buy it!  So I did.  My husband laughed when I got home and said “Like you needed more scrapbook stuff?!”  Well of course I did.

As I sat in the scrapbook class last night I was glad to hear the other ladies were just as much “scrappy shopaholics” as I was.

Oh how I did enjoy my scrapping time but unfortunately I was rather quick in my scrapping and got finished an hour before class was scheduled to end.  Next time I will either be slower or bring something else to work on.  Those 3 hours ahould have been more precious since I don’t always get that time while at home.  But alas I did get to see my baby before he went to bed so that was nice.

So now I think I have enough scrapbook supplies to last me a little while or at least till I find a new item I think I have to have (like these little little “sprites 2″ flower embellishments my scrapbook teacher used….I bought the red ones today but will eventually have to get more colors)…..”evil laugh”

Rainy Tuesday and Staying Home Sick

I stayed home from work again today. This time because I really did feel sick and not because I wanted to put up wallpaper. I don’t know what was wrong with me but last night I felt dizzy and light-headed so I went to bed early. Husband said I looked flushed too. It may have been that I took some ibuprofen yesterday afternoon and that reacted with by other meds but who know. All I know is I woke up with a bad headache and said the heck with going to work (I’m bad).  I did check my blood pressure this morning and it’s great.  I looked online and taking ibuprofen is not good with Micardis HCT although I only took one dose.  Maybe that one dose made my blood pressure shoot up Temporarily who knows.  I’m feeling a little better thankfully and am at least out of the bed. As I did lay there in bed though, husband jokingly said if I thought I was “leaving this earth” (because I was whining) to be sure and give him a call and let him know. I told him yeah I’ll guess I’ll know when its about to happen (yeah right). I told him yeah I’d be like Judy and do all my favorite things before I go (scrapbook, computer etc) then I’d give him a call. As I joked about this it brought up memories of my Judy and the day she died (and I started to cry). Husband couldn’t believe I would still cry over my cats but I do.

Even though she could bearly walk she dragged herself outside to lay under her favorite chair, stayed outside enjoying the cool day then came inside got in her basket and fell asleep for the last time. I cry now just thinking about it. My poor Judy’s kidneys were failing and she was very old. I still think about her and eddie, the two I lost last year. I only pray I don’t have to experience that again anytime soon.

Here is Judy relaxing on the couch.

Even though I stayed home sick I did make the mistake of calling and checking my messages and did some followup calls.  No matter how I feel tomorrow I will need to go in but I think I like staying home more days while everyone else is at work.  It’s nice….whether I feel bad or not.

Wallpaper Hanging

I had to take a break.  Hanging wallpaper (when you’ve never done before) is hard work and I totally under-estimated how much of this wallpaper I would need…..especially since I picked out a higher costing one! Here is a picture of my handy work.  This paper is not as red in real life and is very muted.

I’m not a big fan of wallpaper….actually I hate wallpaper but since the sheet-rock under the old wallpaper was smooth and not rough like most sheet rock and was also damaged in some places I opted for wallpaper.  I would have never gotten this room done if I had for husband to replace the sheet rock.  I will also be replacing the lamp in this room which will lead into the whole Italian/Tuscan theme I’m going to be going for in my kitchen whener I start that. 

Anyway, this is the new wallpaper and I’ll post a picture of the old and new on the Adventures in Home Improvement page.

Things I Haven’t Shared

Jolene has tagged me with this meme.  This is a hard one….but here goes.  Here are five things about myself that I have never shared before.  I’m digging deep for this one…..dark secrets…LOL

 (okay so at least on here or at least I don’t remember sharing)

1.  Years ago I actually moved in to a rent house because it was one street over from an ex-boyfriend.  It wasn’t like I was stalking him and I had actually truly been looking for a place in that area but when I found out he lived there I had to take this place.  I ended up sending him a letter when I had lived there awhile claiming I thought I saw his car as I was walking through my neighborhood and wondered if he stilled in town.  Sick I know….I can be obsessive.

2.  I slept with my husband on the first night we met.  I wasn’t even sure I liked him but alcohol was involved.  It all turned out good though.

3.  I broke up with a very good friend of mine because she was not cool or fun to be around and I wanted to hang around my other group of friends because they were more fun.  (I did this in a letter) I also felt like she was making me fat because in order to hang with her we were always eating bad food and just hanging out.  She was a great friend most of the time and I can’t believe I did that.  I had hoped years later that she would forgive me but she didn’t.

4.  I joined a dating service back in the late 1990’s.  I was home cooking one night and the telemarketer called and said women could join free or for like $20 bucks or so and how they really needed women so I said sure.  I was at a place where I was having trouble meeting new men so why not.  When I met my first guy I fell head over heals.  I actually liked him before I met him.  I didn’t take anymore dates after him until we broke up a year later.  When I started dating again all the other guys were nerds and yucky.  I got back with the original guy for a little while after those dates but it sadly ended eventually.  He was a total jerk after all.  I never told my mom I met him through a dating service either.  Actually very few people knew that one.

5.  I’m not sure I’ve shared this on here before but  when I do share it I feel bad because it’s misconstrued.  When we found out that little boy was a boy I cried.  I always tell people that and I probably shouldn’t.  The story doesn’t end there because I cried not particularly because I kinda wanted a girl but you have to understand that I had to go to a high risk pregnancy doctor due to my age.  We had to have all sorts of tests to make sure the baby didn’t have anything genetically wrong and believe me that doctor was not very sensitive.  That appointment was very stressful especially when he started telling us all the odds etc.  When they told me he was a boy, all my emotions came to head that day.  Also it almost made the whole thing real that he’d gotten far enough along to tell his sex (had had two miscarriages).  I guess I feel guilty when I tell the story about how I cried especially if I don’t get to finish the story.  Sure it kinda sounds like a funny story in a way to say “yeah I wanted a girl..yada yada yada and I cried when we found out it was a boy…” when the fact is I was just glad he was anything   I actually laughed when I got home and called my mom to tell her the sex.  She’d told me it would be a boy and I sorta knew myself.  And ya know what…….I wouldn’t have him any other way than being a boy!

Tag amongst yourselves…………..