October!!!

I am so excited for tomorrow. I love everything about October. I have been busy collecting new Halloween decorations as well as making some new crafts. I love the fall air (hate the cold and snow that comes after it but oh well) and the yummy food (I HEART pumpkin anything!). I have been checking out Halloween books from the library for a few weeks already. Today we picked up the movies Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I love the ages my kids are at because they are equally excited and whenever they see anything Halloween related they get all excited to get my attention and show me. We have their Costumes and I plan on putting out our decorations tonight. Tomorrow to celebrate the month we'll probably watch one of our movies we checked out and eat Maple Bars and Hot Cocoa.
The Halloween Costumes I remember
E.T. & Wonder Woman The costumes back then were the plastic mask held on with the elastic string and then the plastic body suit that tied on over your clothes. I'm not sure why I remember those two. It may have been that they were the ones that were out so we played dress up in them. I wish I still had them oh what fun I could have.
I'm still trying to decide whether I am going to dress up this year or not. I have the perfect Belle (Beauty and the Beast) dress. Maybe I can talk the Mr. into being Gaston or the Beast.
What are your favorite costumes from your childhood? Do you love Halloween as much as I do? Are you dressing up this year? and if so as what?

Nie Nie

I have been one of the many, many followers of Nienie Dialogues. As the silent auctions have been going on I have been again frustrated with my lack of talent in the creative, craft sense. All these wonderfully talented people that can give so much to help a family in need. I finally got over feeling sorry for myself and decided to find something that was one of my favorite things (yeah, like Oprah) to auction off. I have many favorite things so narrowing down was hard but I finally decided on Modbe True Rise Denim.
I have not been the same since these jeans made thier appearance. I no longer have to hold my shirt down when I bend over or sit down. I no longer have to pull my pants back up when I stand back up. I have all the benifits and cut of a low rise jean but with a higher back (that is "tatooed" oh so cute by the way) so they stay put. Modbe just relelased their Denim cutt offs with a new wash that is so fun.
If you are interested on bidding on a pair to help out Nie Nie go here. Thanks Leslie! Leslie obviously gets quite a bit more blog traffic than I do so I decided to put them up for bid on her site. She has raised over $3000 since the beginning of September and she's still going strong.
As I've read on many other blogs doing auctions don't think of it as buying something for more than you would at the store. Think of it as one of those memberships places that for your donation that will help so much you get a free pair of awsome shorts (or the car catch-all I'm currently bidding on.)

Hair

Okay I am setting up a hair appointment finally (it needs it REALLY bad) but I am at a loss of what I should do. I love dark like on Audrina from The Hills and it is my fall go to but I am loving the color's in J. Lo's photo below.
I'm also trying to decide what to do about bangs. Keep growing them out, cut them, trim them a bit. Any advice? I need all the hair photo's you gals can come up with.

Prayers and Auctions

I know a lot of us are following Nie Nie. I was having a really sorry for my self day today and was concentrating on the things I didn't have instead of the MANY blessings I do have. I immediately said a little prayer for my heart to change. I came online to check my blogs and emails and saw a link to this website.
http://sccsdecker.blogspot.com/2008/06/synopsis.html

I have never been so grateful in all my life for just the little things in my life. This poor mother went into have her baby and next thing she knows she's had 3 limbs amputated and is fighting for her life. My prayers have been turned to this little family today.

There are auctions going on here
http://auctionforcarol.blogspot.com/

Cloning

Do you ever wish there was more than one of you? It always seems that everything I want to do falls on the same day at the same time. The kids have somewhere they need to be, there is class, homework, house cleaning, friends it all becomes quite the juggling act. I have to say I feel I am much better at this task now than I was even just a year ago. I'm not quite sure what happened to change how I view my priorities and what I feel important but letting go of the "small" stuff sure has made my life a little simpler. It's become easier to tell people no and not feel guilty about it. I don't know if it's my older, wiser self or if it's from experience, or if I'm just gaining the I don't care attitude but it's so nice to know I have enough on my plate and not feel bad for telling someone I can't babysit or won't be able to teach a lesson on Sunday. I have been happier and everyone knows that a Happy mom= Happy Family!

Survival

Do you ever just feel like you are in survival mode. Not being proactive or setting new goals but just living moment to moment just to get by. I fell like that's how my past two weeks have been. It has been a crazy roller coaster since we arrived home from our summer in NY.
At some point in time when I bought our tickets to fly home I thought it would be a great idea to fly home the day classes started for me and just a week before preschool started for I.
Yeah well between grabbing my books from the bookstore and hitting classes as soon as we rolled into town plus getting two children switched to a new time zone, house cleaned from being empty for 3 months, laundry, friends and family to visit, pantry and fridge to restock. Let's just say I've been running and sitting down right now is the first time since we've been home that I feel like I might be getting a handle on everything. I guess we will see. I have the kids on somewhat of a routine (G's stomach flu this past weekend has thrown that off a bit) I have caught up in classes and my house is starting to feel like a home again. The only thing that's missing is the Mister.
It won't feel like home until he is home and I am counting down the days. He keeps me sane and puts up with all my crap. I love him dearly and am so thankful for all he does for our little family.
Hopefully now that we are home and life is starting to become more normal I will be able to not neglect this blog as bad as I have.