Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! We didn't have many trick o' treaters this year, but these are a few of the one we did have!
Now, we wish we had doubled and tripled their candy!
I guess there weren't too many houses handing out treats this year - has the economy problems hit Halloween? I was happy to fill up my gas tank for under $20 today.

Rebecca's friend canceled her party, so Hunter came over to help us celebrate here. Rebecca had to dress him up.....

All the kids decorated luminaries for our driveway. Of course, a scary theme.

Rebecca in her pumpkin shirt and black lipstick. She helped the others roast marshmallows over a little grill and make smores.


Tony greeted everyone at the porch. I told him not to scare the little kids too much - they would be afraid of Santa come Christmas time!! The porch had a rug with bubblewrap under it that popped when they walked across. We also had scary music/sounds playing. Damien handed out candy - he was inside the door and didnt wear a costume. He had dressed up as someone from the "70s" for school that day.

We had our usual Spooky dinner! Here are our bloody fingers! (White asparagus with a little ketchup).

Here we have bloody worms! (Spaghetti).

And here bloody eyeballs... (meatballs with olives).
A new treat this year was "mummies" (Weiners wrapped in dinner rolls).

We also had "ghosts" (Meringue cookies - they didnt get dry enough and were rather sticky).

And that was our nice, scary dinner with a few extras. Wish you were here to enjoy all our left over candy!

Goodbye to Family Pet- Tribute to Teddy

Our black male cat, Theodore Bear Keating, was hit and killed by a car last week. He was only 7 months old, but big - 8 1/2 lbs. He would have been a big cat at full grown. We all took it hard - the first time the kids can remember losing a pet - but especially me because he had picked me to be his person and went everywhere I went. He was the only male cat out of four in our house (he does have a big brother who lives outside). He was bundle of love and I've never had a cat like him. I hope that some day we will be lucky enough to have a cat with his personality.

Here he is with Rich at about 4 weeks - just after we found him and his sisters in the woods behind our house.

This is how he liked to sleep - tucked in the corner of my chair in my lap. He was maybe 3 months old here. Already big!

Another baby picture - before his eyes turned YELLOW!

Here he is with his sister, Tiger Lilly. She loved Teddy, as you can see. She misses him too.

Teddy had the shiniest hair - hard to capture in a picture. I said it looked like Elvis' hair.

Below is a picture of Lilly and Teddy, drinking together. She wanted to drink, eat, sleep, potty only when he did. She is finally getting in the habit of making her own schedule without him and starting to eat a little more.

This was the last picture we took of him just two days before he died. I had come upstairs to do a little reading and he decided to take a nap on my magazine. He is sleeping with his own little "Teddy Bear". We buried it and his toys and a snack with him. We also put in a dozen dried roses. Teddy loved roses and tried to eat them every time I received or bought some. I had a bowl of dried roses on display and he would steal one and carry it around. They all went with him. The boys helped Rich bury him in the back yard near the woods.

Everyone should have the pleasure and enjoyment of a loving pet. May each of you be blessed with the unconditional love of a pet in your lifetime!

Happy Birthday Damien!

Our youngest, Damien, turned 13! Wow, how time flies! Seems like yesterday he was crawling around in diapers. They grow up so fast!

Since his birthday is in October and relatively near Halloween, he usually has a Halloween cake. This year it was a black cat! Everyone wanted the candy corn around the edge.



Blowing out 13 candles takes effort!

He was excited about his presents! Big brother, in the background, can't wait until his birthday in December!

More Fall Decorations

The kids are wondering 'why all the decorations?" Since I've had to slow my pace because of my knee injury, I've had more time for the crafts and art I used to do pre-kids. I've re-purposed some of the things I have to decorate for Fall. It is so nice to have some "Fall-ish" weather! I'm talking mid 70s instead of 90s! Cool nights instead of it never getting below 80! The leaves haven't turned. There's no nip in the air, but it is getting closer to Fall! I took a jar that Damien won a few years ago in a race and filled it with cheese popcorn (the jar had been filled with M&Ms. The kids ate 2 bags of the cheese corn and are eye-ing this!) Do you recognize the two little pitchers I bought recently at a yard sale? We filled these with un-popped corn and added an Indian corn pick in each one. The candle was on sale at Target for $1. The leaves are silk.


This is a little scarecrow wreath I got at Eckerd's a few years ago. I miss Eckerd's! They were owned by Penny's and had great decorating items for a drug store! We did nothing but hang this on the back door.


I made these little cone shaped decorations from Dollar Tree items. A roll of brown wrapping paper with little gold stars (you can use brown paper bags too) and a fall pick with a bit of twine tied around. I hung these on the shutters on the front of the house.

Finally, my last Fall wreath! This one is made of pumpkins and a crow plus more of the stinky leaves I bought and a feather pick. It is hanging by the front door of the house on the porch. My front door has a full glass screen door so it is difficult to hang things on the actual door. I have a wreath of red berries hanging there. It is small, flat and matches the color of the door, so it stays up year round and I decorate the wall next to the door. Guess I am done for a while with decorating. We'll bring out some of our Halloween stuff in a week or so. The kids love to do this decorating. Then we'll trade out for Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Last year I let Becca do all the Christmas decorating. She enjoys picking through all our stuff and deciding what to put out and what to use on the tiny tree we put up!

Homecoming 2008

Collins Hill High School had their annual Homecoming this week. The football game was Friday night and Homecoming Dance was Saturday night. Here is Becca and her date, Hunter.

This was Becca's 3rd year for Homecoming. She was looking forward to a good time dancing! Hunter just moved here from Ohio. They both had a great time!

This was Tony's first Homecoming Dance. He invited his friend, Tatiana. It was also her first dance. They are both Freshmen. They have been friends since 4th grade.

They had a great time too! They said the dance was a lot of fun. I had a wonderful time chauffeuring. Damien accompanied me for the drive. He was checking out just what you did when you went to Homecoming, in anticipation for his first one in a couple of years!

Fall Decorating

I've been in the mood for fall - all the summer heat is getting pretty tiring! So, when fall decorations started appearing in the stores, I thought I'd re-purpose a couple of things into a new fall wreath. My brother made some grapevine wreaths a few years ago. Mom gave me two. I had decorated this one with silk magnolias and some blue flower and ribbon that was navy with gold suns and moons on it. It went well with our country blue house. Here, Lily and Teddy are supervising as I start taking it all apart and cleaning the vines of all the dust and cobwebs.
I also had a HUGE vase of grapevines (silk) and fall foliage -pussy willows, sea grass, etc. It sat on one side of the mantel. I decided to use some of this for the wreath. I moved it to the kitchen so I could get the dust off (it's been a while since it had a good dusting!) Rich and all 3 kids came in that afternoon and asked where it had came from! Three years it has sat in the living room on the mantel! Guess it is time to change some things around!

Here's the vine with the grape leaves added. It's looking better!

After studying it for a while, I decided it needed a little more "fall" stuff. So on a visit to Michael's craft store, I picked up some fall colored leaves and a few picks of fall gourds, etc. and added it to the wreath. Here it is on the front door inside. Problem is, the leaves were sprayed with something and they smell! Musty!!! I let them air out overnight. I sprayed them with Lysol! They STILL smell! Right now, the wreath is airing on the back porch carport. If they don't improve, I guess this will become an outdoor wreath!! I have one more vine wreath - maybe I can make it with some foliage that dosent smell!

Gwinnett Braves Mascot Name

Our new Baseball team and local paper, Gwinnett Post held a contest to name the new Mascot for the Gwinnett Braves.
The name was announced at a press release at Lawrenceville Elementary School on Monday.
Rich was one of three finalists for the naming of the new Mascot for the Gwinnett Braves.
The new mascot is a Groundhog.

The winning name was "Chopper". Rich's entry was "Pop-up". Still, it was good to be in the top three names out of over 4,000 entries!
Well, here is the mascot again - I put it in twice and can't get the little rodent off the screen! We had a good time and Rich got an official Gwinnett Braves baseball cap and tee-shirt.