All Hallow's Eve 2014

I kept telling everybody I put the Halloween pictures on the blog.... but I had them confused with the Halloween party pictures. 

We've already met Caroline as Annabeth Chase, and there I am with my Day of the Dead makeup (of course, one of my top 3 fave color combos: red/white/black), and Caroline did the makeup for John Sam as Frankstein. They both took pillowcases for candy collection.  I ran out of candy four times, so I raided leftover candy from the party, and two different times, the kids came back here to trade a little candy and "donate" the candy they didn't like to the cause, and I was back in the candy bid-ness. I finally put a sign out front that the candy was gone. 

However, I do know where John Sam hid his huge ziploc bag of candy. I did not take anything that he only had one of. Good thing there were more than a couple Butterfingers--

Hallo-tweenie Party

Caroline had a big time with her friends Summer and MacKenzie at her Halloween party.

Caroline is "Annabeth Chase," who is the main character of the book series, "The Heroes Of Olympus."  She freehanded the design on the front and the back of her shirt (thank you Google images!), hand sewed a sheath for her dagger, and altered the dagger with paint and nail polish to get the correct color combo.  Owl pendant, shorts, tennis shoes, and ponytail to the side, and she was ret-to-go.

MacKenzie is into geography and history, so she was "Denmark."  Summer was a hippie groovy girl. Charlee and her boyfriend Chris kept the activities running smoothly so the grownups could take video and pix.

Soda. Candy. Pizza. Candy. Crafts. Candy. Fire pit. Candy. Marshmallows. Candy. Balloons. Candy.

Did I mention candy?

Tomorrow night:  "Real" Halloween!

Another batch of yellow

My yellow violets. Yes, I baby the you-know-what out of them, and they reward me with beautiful blooms.  Enjoy--

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Yellow is the color of prosperity ~

Dressed down by the Queen of England

Elizabeth II is not happy, and His Royal Highness is even less so.  I am hereby officially scheduled to be publicly flogged for not posting a photograph of His Royal Highness Zing on his 7th birthday and 3rd anniversary with the Baumgardners.  It was yesterday - October 23.  He did chow down on a peanut butter Frosty Paws, and was more spoiled than normal for the entire day.  Watching him eat the Frosty Paws was hilarious.  His tongue would get too cold, then he'd step back and lick air to try to warm his tongue up.  I'm guessing that's why Kismet always ate his in only one bite and Beamer, only two bites.

Tomorrow there will be pictures of:
1) My gorgeous yellow violets;
2) His Excellency / HRH / His Majesty; and
3) Caroline's Halloween party.  At least 5 girls, possibly 6, and hopefully one of John Sam's friends, too.  Tweenies & teenagers in costume, pizza & soda, plus about a ton of sugar each........ What's that, you say?  "Go with God, mi amiga?"

I'll take those good vibes, thankyouverymuch.

I told Caroline ahead of time that there WILL be pictures, and I didn't want any lip about it, but they'll be so busy with activities, I can sneak around and get candid shots--those are the best anyway.

It's going to be a busy but happy Saturday.  Looking forward to watching the kids have a great time.

xoxo

P.S. for 10.22.2014

I like my temperature when it's 97.9.  NOT 101.4.  I am seriously kicking myself for sending John Sam to school yesterday and today.  If he felt as bad as I feel now, my mom card should be put on probation. 

I have good pictures of my yellow violet to post, but I can't breathe long enough to plug in the USB and turn on the camera.

Glass of water, Tylenol, bed.

Schedule change

My schedule for today has changed.  Seems I'll be in and out of bed between coughing and trying to breathe without coughing instead of all the fun chores I had on the list today.

I used to get sick all.the.time.  After I got laid off, I stopped getting sick because I wasn't exposed to germs from people who think the world will stop turning if they don't come to work and spread germs.  Since I haven't had to deal with colds/flu/whatever for so long, when I do get sick, all it does is piss me off.

Poor John Sam--he feels pissy like I do because he gets rarely sick, either.

Feel the drowsy coming back on.  Will check back in when I cough myself awake.

Coughing, coughing, coughing

Not rollin' rollin' rollin' - like the Chuck Wagon? Purina?

John Sam's had a cold for the 3rd day in a row, which doesn't sound too bad until I remind everybody that when he gets sick, he has it for about one day, a day and a half MAX.  Stuffy nose alternating with runny nose isn't too bad, it's fairly standard.  Coughing so hard you can't even inhale to cough again, though, isn't bad.  It is awful.  He's more worried about ruining his healthy streak than being sick, and is majorly annoyed that it's lasted longer than most of his other colds.

Since he's had it three days, that's given me plenty of time to incubate these special magic germs, and I cough on every exhale.  I'm tired from lack of sleep because I kept waking up and waking up last night.  Why is it that when you wake up at 4:00 something, you can't go right back to sleep, but you can sure do it when the alarm goes off?

Taking my box of Puffs Plus to bed with me.  *sniff*  *cough*  *wheeze*  *cough again*

Repeat...

Poet understudy

I've never considered myself a poet.
I've never aspired to be a poet.
I've never thought I could make the leap from fiction to poetry.
But . . .
I've never focused and tried to do it
Because . . .
I've never thought it would be good enough to be categorized as real poetry.

So . . .

I've decided I can write fiction AND attempt to craft poetry.
I've decided I don't have to be a poet to be a good writer.
I've decided to find examples of poetry I like, and model mine after them.

I found it!  It's called tanka poetry--similar to haiku.  Tanka has a total of 31 syllables in five lines, arranged in the pattern 5, 7, 5, 7, 7.  I 've written some haiku in the past, so I thought there is no reason in the world I shouldn't try this different format.

So far I've written three tanka poems.  When I re-read them, I think, "Not bad for my first few tries."

I've decided I seriously like that feeling.

The plan is to write 10-12 and then start sharing them here.  At that time, I will also engage in a li'l self promotion because I'll tweet them, too.  Maybe.

*Happy Saturday*

xoxoxo

Fourteen (14) is this year's number

JSB is 14 years old!  Un-freaking-believable to think that on this day 14 years ago, at 8:45 pm I was pregnant, and by 8:57 pm, I was a mommy.

His idea of being a year older means a larger quantity of candy and, of course, money!!  Here's the birthday schedule we ended up with.

1. Before school: getting a one pound bag of mini Starburst.
2. After school: hanging with "AC" and Christina.
3. After work: opening cards & presents: a light box and tracing paper for his drawing obsession, and cold hard cash.  Birthday love from Zing.
4. From 5-9 pm: going to the fall festival with carnival rides and loud music, and every candy, baked good, soda, and fast food imaginable.
5. On the way to dad's after the festival: talking to Granny & Aunt Laura & family, then getting additional Nintendo time because it's his birthday.

He was so excited about the festival, he let me take a couple of pictures.

 

Happy Birthday to my main man.  Love you!

Job requirements

The bad news:  only ten posts in September.  The good news:   it's now the month with the most posts.

On the job search.  Again.  *dejected sigh here*  In an effort to look at the bright side, I'm sharing some of the requirements people are asking for.

“Applicant must be able to work well under pressure and have common sense, be organized and have a good work ethic.”

Damn, I was all set to apply until I read that requirement.  Everybody knows I don’t have any common sense.  ;-)

“Please do not apply if your financial needs greatly outweigh the starting salary rate.”

Can't weigh it if I don't know what the starting salary is.  Do I have to apply to find out?  

“Please submit your cover letter (why should we hire you), resume, references and a writing sample in order to be considered for this position.”

They should hire me for help with creating clear sentences—would that count as my writing sample?

Somewhere in the midst of all this (first world) tragedy and humor, there is a job for me. It's highly possible that I'm close to earning the professional interview degree I've always wanted.  :)