Jack-O-Lanterns 2010

Saturday night we carved our jack-o-lanterns so we could make our front porch more festive!
Gross!!!
The kids cleaned out most of the goop, but Jon and I helped some. Then we spent forever google-ing images that the kids would like for their faces. Lawson wanted a scary face. Jordan wanted a 'pretty' face. Do you know how hard it is to find a jack-o-lantern face that is pretty?

Well, we brought them out to the front yard and made them close their eyes while Jon lit them...
And here they are...
Those are some pretty proud kiddos!

My Best Friend's Wedding

I was so excited to be able to travel to Michigan at a time that coincided with my friend Joann's wedding! All through high school Joann and I were best friends. We hung out all the time, and even after I moved away I always made it a point to swing by her house and catch up. Until Facebook came along, she was the only high school friend I had kept up with at all.
We have so many funny stories and shared memories. One of the ones that Jon thinks is so funny is one I told him about when she and I had gone on a bike ride. Up north, every road has sidewalks, and this particular day I was in front. I was going pretty fast, and before I ever had the chance to stop, slow down or turn, I noticed that the utility company had broken out one square of the sidewalk (I guess to work on a pipe). Well, the hole they left was just the size of my front wheel, so my front wheel sunk right into that hole, lodged itself, and the rest of my bike (and subseuently, me) saw fit to continue moving in an arch over said lodged front wheel. The final picture was me on the sidewalk with my bike laying on top of me, with Joann (who had seen the whole ordeal) running up yelling, "Stac! Stac! Stac! Are you okay?" She was genuinely concerned about me...but as soon as I told her that I was okay she BURST out laughing and said, "Thank goodness!! That looked awful, but it was SOOOOO funny!!!"

Another memory is when we went to eat dinner at a restaurant/bar called Roger's Roost. We went into the bathroom at the end of our meal. In the bathroom there was a huge (6-foot-ish) Indian statue with a loin cloth over his 'stuff'. There was a sign that said "Do not, under any circumstances, look under this cloth." Well, of course my friends dared me to lift the cloth. Just because. And because I was young and immature and didn't like to turn down a dare, I looked. I figured, "Who would ever even know?" Well, the second I lifted the cloth, I didn't even think to look to see what was under there because sirens started blaring and red strobe lights started flashing. I panicked and ran out of the bathroom. As soon as I stepped out a manager started approaching me, so I turned and ran out of the restaurant and the manger chased me out to the parking lot. My friends were dying laughing and I thought for sure that I was in some big trouble...but the manager just said, "Ma'am, I just wanted to give you this..." I looked down and he handed me a pin-on button that said 'Peek-a-boo Club'.

So many memories!

I truly have been blessed by having her as a friend. I am so thankful I was able to see her get married and start the next stage in her life.

Joann is such a kind-hearted person. She is genuine and loving. She loves her family more than anything, and is so loyal to them. I always loved visiting her, and I love her parents too.

Her dad scared me a lot at first, but eventually he grew to love me and soon whenever I came by his face brightened up and he spread his arms for a big hug. Being Italy-born, he would proclaim with a thick Italian accent, "Ohhhh EhhStacy!! Joannnna will beeee sooo glaaaad to seeee youuuu!!" Then I would go in and Joann's mom would go downstairs to the extra freezer to bring up some of the home-made anise-flavored freezer cookies that I love. Such fond memories they helped make for me!
Jason and Joann at their reception
Me and my sweetie at the reception
It was a wonderful evening and Jon and I really enjoyed ourselves while we celebrated with Joann and her family!

Blast from the past

This may be one of the coolest stories of my life. Well, there have been a few more exciting things, but seriously, I just love this!!

There's going to have to be some background information for this to appear as cool as it is, so here goes. Growing up, my family lived in the same yard all of my life. Our first house burned down when I was in 3rd grade, but we build another house in the same yard. I lived there until I went away to college. My parents, then just my mom lived there until a couple summers ago when they sold it during my parents' divorce. It was kind of sad to not have that house to come 'home' to, especially after growing up on the block--knowing the neighbors, being familiar with the area, etc. Well, that next fall my brother ended up buying the house that was next door to our old house. Is that crazy or what? Not many people buy the house next door to the house they grew up in, do they?

Now, on to the next part of the story. One year our school did a time capsule where we put special things away and sealed it for future generations to open and see what we thought was important at that time. My brother and I thought that was pretty cool, so we came home and decided to make our own time capsule. That's nothing spectacular--tons of kids make time capsules, I suppose. It was interesting, though, that we didn't bury the time capsule in our own back yard. Nope. We buried it in our next door neighbor's yard.

The yard my brother now owns.

Is that not crazy?

Well, the kids and I drove up to Michigan this week planning on attending my dad's wedding, as well as my high school best friend's wedding. My brother, Eric, and I were talking one afternoon about our time capsule and telling Jon, my dad, stepmom, stepsister and aunt about it and my dad chimes in that he has a metal detector--did we want to try to find it?

Well, yes, yes we did! I was almost giddy with excitement...

My brother with the metal detector. We both thought we had put it right by that brick wall. (The other side of that chain link fence is the yard that belongs to the house we grew up in.)
Beep beep beep beep beep!!! Right where we thought it was!!!Trying to get it open...we both remembered that we had put it in an old lunch box, and had wrapped up every thing in foil and plastic. Too bad we didn't realize how rusty and gross and deteriorated that would cause our time capsule to become!
How exciting!
A little clay clown that I had made in art class...
We couldn't remember what kind of lunch box we had used, but luckily there was just enough paint left that we could see. When we first saw the colors and rainbows we thought it was Rainbow Brite, or My Little Pony, but the winner was....Care Bears!
Close up of a few of the things we had put in--we think it must have been 1990 because of the Nintendo World Championship guide! So funny that my brother put that in there! He also put the Madball, the motorcycle and the deck of cards in.
Here is the whole loot--the big foil on the top left and the paper near it was a class picture but it was hard to see who was on it or what year it was...Also included was a bouncy ball, a coin, a school picture of Eric's best friend, a plastic doll fork and, because I've apparently always been an uber-nerd, I also included a math test on which I had received 100%. I know. Poke fun, I can take it! :)
I mean, how many people make a time capsule? On top of that, how many remember they made a time capsule, and remember where they put it? Even more, how many have access to the place where they buried it and actually go back to find it? Twenty years later?

I'm telling you. That's a cool story!

We finally did what everyone else was doing...

Since we moved here, all I hear about every fall is how all our friends are going to Tate Farms and how many times a year they go and how many years in a row they've gone. Well, up until this year, we had never been.

Last year, our home school program had a field trip scheduled, but we were rained out 3 different times, then they didn't have any more dates to postpone us to. I was sad that I thought we'd get to go but ended up not going. This year we had another field trip scheduled, we decided to finally go and we had a great morning! The weather was beautiful and the kids had a wonderful time!

Cotton-pickin' kids!

Jordan and her cute little pumpkin she found herself!
Lawson picked a huge pumpkin he could barely carry.
Corn crib
The big slide
Sweet girl
Climbing the tire mountain
How tall this fall?
Best I could get...
We had such a wonderful day at the pumpkin patch, then we jumped right in the car and drove to Michigan to spend some time visiting friends and family. It's a busy fall, but we wouldn't have it any other way! :)

Jordan's Nail

When we first moved into our house, we painted Jordan's room to match her crib bedding then I painted a sign that matched and glued wooden letters on to spell her name. It hung over her crib, and then later over her big bed, even though it didn't match anymore. One day I walked in to find that she had stood up, taken the sign off the nail, then pulled each letter off the canvas backing. I put the sign up in her closet, and for some reason I left the nail in the wall, not thinking anymore about it.Well, over the last couple years, Jordan has caused Jon and me to laugh so many times by the things she's hung on her nail 'just for a little decoration'. We have walked in to find pictures she's drawn and letters she's written stabbed on the nail, and a stuffed bear hung by it's ribbon collar. I thought I had more pictures of them, but just can't find any more...The one picture I do have, though, is probably of our favorite 'decoration':
I really need to paint that girl another sign! :)