This is the last Halloween post! I promise!

We sure had fun this Halloween Season! Vance gave me the Halloween Bug and we've had a great time this whole month. He was excited to put his costume on and loved trick-or-treating. It took him a couple of houses to warm up, but he turned pro in no time. When we got back home his first choice of candy was a sucker. Next Skittles. Then half of a mini-Butterfinger. (Justin and I stole the two Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from his basket earlier. I'm a firm believer that good candy shouldn't be wasted on 2 year olds!) Soon afterwards his Fast Feet kicked in and he did some dancing. I tried to get some clips, but my memory stick was full.

The first picture is of Vance not wanting to touch the pumpkin guts. The third is his Roar! face.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Halloweenie

Vance can't sit still today.

This photo is proof.

He wouldn't wear his costume at the party, so hopefully he'll still want to wear it tonight.

Instead, I tried taking a picture of him in his spooky mummy shirt.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures of a cute lion to shart tomorrow!

Happy Trick or Treating!

Happy Halloween!

We have a busy day today. Little Gym, a Halloween party, and trick or treating tonight. I know most of you are done with trick or treating, but in our neck of the woods it's only allowed on the 31st. I'll post pictures of a dressed up Mr. Vance from our little party later today.

Have a spooky day!

When our weather guy puts up the chart for the Seven Day Forecast it always starts with tomorrow. It never shows what today's weather is supposed to be. This drives me nuts.

Cookie Counter is off. Way too embarrassing at this point. We're on our second bag of chocolate chip and have added another flavor to the mix. We have told ourselves that when these two bags are gone no more. No more!

Smile!

Cookie Counter:

Justin: 2 last night, 2 this afternoon. Total to Date: 7

Charisa: 2 last night, 2 this afternoon. Total to Date: 8


Today was picture day for us. On the way to our Botanical Gardens it started to rain and was a chilly temp of 51 or so. And windy. The rain stopped and halfway through the session the sun came out, so that was a plus. I have a huge Kelli Kapowski Prom Queen Zit on my chin, so it's great that we got that captured on film. Hopefully it's not to noticeable. Just wish it was warm enough to wear my orange tank dress and black boots.

C is for Cookie

President's Choice brand cookies are back. Remember PC? It was the generic brand for National Grocery Store chains. PC was the company responsible for Dr. Smooth (generic for Dr. Pepper). I loved Dr. Smooth and still have a can somewhere packed away in the basement.

...Awkward Silence...

The cookies are as good as I remember them. The packaging is still the same too. Did they find crates of old cookies somewhere in an abandoned warehouse? Like Dharma for Lost fans? Or is PC making a comeback? Will have to Google this later. Let's see how long it takes us to go through the bag.

Cookie Counter to Date: Justin 3, Charisa 4.

(However, since I'm eating for 2, it should read something like "Charisa 2, Rosie Barcelona 2")

Will keep everyone updated.

Random thought for the day

I love Sandra Lee. Right now she's doing an episode devoted to Creative Cakes - 3 different cakes, one has Kahlua in it, and a martini. I'm thinking this episode is a window into a normal day in the life of Sandra. Cute cakes, COCKtails!, and over-the-top matching decor. Because of these reasons I would like to be Sandra Lee for one day.

My Baby!

My baby, clearly a genius, has won his first art contest. It was sponsored by The Little Gym and I thought it was an "Everyone's a Winner!" type of contest. I'm not comfortable with art contests for children this young. Art isn't about winning or losing at this stage and having to explain to a 2 year old why their scribbles aren't as good as so and so's makes me want to squirm. But, that's a topic for another day. Vance won a backpack ("Like Ryan's?" he asked) and a squirt bottle. Here he is in all his glory, not excited at all.

Memo

Because of confusion, I have taken off the "Word Verification" tool from comments. This means that you no longer have to type in those goofy letters in order to make a comment. I know some of you don't even know what I'm talking about because you were totally ignoring that step to begin with. That is why your comments never appeared.

If the lovely spammers come back and I have to turn the Word Verification back on, I'll take you through step by step.

I'll be expecting more comments for now on.

Thanks,

The Management

Weekend Update

What a weekend! We had friends in from out of town and it was great seeing them all.

Vance attended his first real birthday party on Sunday. He also wore his first pair of rented shoes too. The party was at a bowling alley and I was really surprised that they had shoes that little! I know some are thinking, "Wow, people throw bowling parties for kids that young?" But, the party was for our neighbor who was turning 5, so Vance was the youngest one there. They had bumpers up and ramps for the little guys to push their ball down. He bowled every frame except the last two - Justin had to step in at that point. Vance had a good time.

Because I can't get over the fact that they had bowling shoes that little I took many pictures. None really turned out that well because the wearer was getting a little cranky and didn't want to stand still and look at the camera.

Baby!

The new widget tells no lie. I'm 11 weeks pregnant with baby number two and the tiny thing has been kicking my but since week 5. I'm feeling much better now, so hopefully it's smooth sailing from here. Our due date is May 10, so mark your calendars. We heard the heartbeat yesterday and the Doctor said everything sounded great.

Still running around trying to get ready for weekend guests, so that's all for now. Have a great weekend!

HO! HO! HO!

My plans backfired yesterday - Vance did not take a nap. However, I did try to post but Blogger was down, so everything was working against me.

So, last year I started to make a stocking for Vance. "Won't take any time at all! And will be fun too!" This was my attitude when I purchased the kit. Christmas came and went and no stocking. I pulled it out and dusted her off a couple of nights ago. I HAVE to get it done by this Christmas. Here's what it's supposed to look like:



Here's what I have done. On the list of instructions I'm not even half way done. I guess I didn't realize that each little piece could require up to 4 steps. Embroider! Sequin! Applique! Stuff! Repeat!



Sporty Santa might be missing a few pieces of his sports equipment, might not look so damn jolly, and his puffy little blue hand might accidentally appear to be flipping the bird. But by Christmas he'll be hanging from the mantle. And Vance will love it.

Blah

It's been an uneventful week so far.

Preparing for our weekend guests.

Playing with my new phone.

Re-starting an overdue project.

We're off to Little Gym this morning, running a few more errands, and possibly lunch with Justin.

Hopefully that will tire Vance out, he'll take a good nap, and I can post more later.

Until then!

Attention Baseball Fans:

There's a Pennant Quiz over at my sister's blog. It deals with a common thread between the teams in the running for the pennant and sleepovers at the parent's house. Go check it out.

iPhone Day

Vance and Fiss

Vance has a new friend. He calls him Fiss, but he's more commonly known as Big Mouth Billy Bass.

(Truthfully, around here he's referred to as, "that effing fish" and usually ends with "err, I forgot to hide him while Vance was asleep!")

Vance found Fiss while playing in the basement, crammed in an unpacked box. He secretly brought Fiss upstairs and demanded New Batts! for his quiet new friend.

Vance pets him. Vance has hit him, then gave him a hug and said, "Sorry, Fiss". Yesterday he ate breakfast and lunch right beside him.

Here's a little clip of Vance and Fiss. Enjoy.

I have showered, am dressed and ready to go. So is Vance. A load of sheets are in the dryer, towels in the wash. Two loaves of banana bread are in the oven and the kitchen is cleaned up. Dishwasher is running too. And it's only 8:50 AM. I know this is no big deal to most, but for me, it's a rarity. Wonder if I can keep this motivation up for the whole day. Imagine what all I could get done! Will I keep it up or fizzle out? I'll let you know.

Of Cars and Stink

Have a mentioned how Vance likes to line up all his cars? Here's a random shot of when he lined some of them up on the arm of our couch. A first for him, he usually prefers the carpet.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about it he doesn't do to much lining up anymore. He does groups, what he calls "parking lots", and they've been confined to the rug under the dining room table. I'm enjoying this, because now I have less groupings of cars to hop over all around the house.

So, the rug in the dining room. Not a cheap rug, not an expensive rug, your standard 8x10 Pottery Barn rug. If anyone needs such a rug go ahead and drive by our house, there's a good chance it could be on the front lawn today.

It smells.

Next time you're in Pottery Barn stop by the area rug display and breathe deeply. I thought it would go away once in our house, but no. The problem is that it's a wool rug. Wool + Moisture = Stink. Moisture you ask? Yes, when we have the windows open I guess the moisture in the air makes it worse. We've had our windows open for a few days and we've gotten rain, so it's bad again right now. And driving me nuts.

I've Googled this and found no real answer. I've tried sprinkling smelly stuff and vacuuming it, but nothing. And I'm sure no one else can really smell it. I'm sure Justin can't smell it - he only knows about because I keep asking him about it. "Do you smell that?!? Do you? Come over here and smell. How can you not smell that?!?" I've always had a strong sense of smell and this is just the curse I live with. Woe is me...

Friday Freebies, A Little Late

I forgot last week. Here's the link to last Friday's Freebies.

Apple Picking! New Haircut! Enjoy!

Weekend Update: Nothing to Tell

As always, nothing too exciting to report about our weekend.

We took Vance apple picking on Saturday. He was more into eating the apples, not picking them. The mosquitoes were awful that day, so we stayed 15 minutes or so. Still plenty of time to get enough apples for caramel and chocolate apples - to be made hopefully today.

Justin and I finished painting the upstairs hallway last night. So glad that's done! The bedrooms are the only rooms now that have not been painted. Not sure when we'll get to those. Hopefully soon, the "Builder Beige" is driving me nuts! I can't take too much credit for the work. I was down with a bad cold all weekend, so he did the majority of the work.

It's raining here right now. I heard STL was supposed to get rain, too. I know how everybody has been wanting rain there, hope it happens for you guys!

Sold another tea towel over the weekend, so must go mail that today. My dad called to inform me that my "inventory is low". I know, I know. I've been slacking and quite lazy lately. Must get started on more.

Hopefully I can get some pictures from apple picking downloaded later today.