A Halloween Spooktacular Event

Living Locurto does Halloween up big every year. I think it might just be her most favorite holiday!

While I don't have little kids anymore, my kids are still somewhat into this holiday. Sadly, they have a school function they must attend on Halloween night and are very bummed that they cannot go trick or treating.

However, I am very happily staying at home and manning the distribution of candy and enjoying the decor I have around my home.

Here is our Jacko from last year. Not very intricate but it was still fun to do.




So go and visit LivingLocurto's blog and get in on all of the fun!


My sister-in-law and her hubby live in Tampa so during this World Series we had a friendly competition going on. Last evening, when the results were known, she sent me a photo that we received from her quite a few years ago. It's a photo of her and husband along with Tug McGraw, the Phillies relief pitcher who pitched that final strike in the 1980 World Series. They had the wonderful opportunity of meeting Tug and have this photo to remember him by. I'm sure Tug was looking down from heaven last night and saying "ya gotta believe" and we really did!

Local Folklore

Philadelphia has not won a championship of any kind ever since Liberty Place I was erected. Local legend has it that there was a gentleman's agreement many, many years ago that no building in our city would be erected to stand any taller than the top of William Penn's hat on a statue that sits atop our City Hall. Liberty Place I, followed by Liberty Place II, both stand taller than poor old B. Penn.

Comcast erected a tower in Philadelphia last year and out of courtesy to Mr. Penn, they took a small statue of him and when construction was all but completed, they built that statue into the very top of their tower. So, Billy Penn now stands above all of Philadelphia. Here's hoping that he's happy enough to help our Phillies win tonight!!

GO PHILLIES!

PS As I was typing this entry, the sports announcer gave a brief summary of just this topic during the game, but I was typing this first!!!


CURSE OF BILLY PENN BE GONE!

Not So Happy 93rd Birthday

It's now almost 9:30 PM and I fully intended to post a short cheerful blog about my day with my soon to be 1 year old nephew, and also post a short tribute to my mother-in-law on her 93rd birthday. While we took her out on Saturday to celebrate, today was the actual day.

At about 11:30 this morning, I called to give her my best wishes but I only got her voice mail. I assumed that the assisted living facility maybe was having some kind of event or activity at the time I called her. I left my message and wished her a wonderful day. Apparently, my husband did the same thing from his office about 10 minutes later and he too got her voice mail.

Well, it seems that my mother-in-law had just gotten out of the shower and walked into her bedroom and promptly fell - at about 11:00 AM and remained on the floor until 5:00 PM when my sister-in-law came to take her out to dinner. Right now, she's in the hospital being x-rayed (her right shoulder is painful) and my sweet mother-in-law spent her birthday laying on the floor because she couldn't reach the call bell strings (one in living room and one in bathroom) and she couldn't reach the telephone to call anyone and unlike Saturday, we were not there to catch her. Something needs to be done about the placement of emergency call buttons in the bedrooms of the residents...

Here are a few pictures of my husband's mom through the years. I love this woman and I hope that nothing was broken today.






One day of babysitting under my belt and one to go. He is a sweetie. I'll have to post pictures tomorrow. Until then, I will wait to hear about Gmom Reets....


UPDATE: Severely dislocated shoulder. They were unable to pop it into place due to swelling and pain. They gave her general anesthesia and were able to re-locate it, although doctor stated that he's seen about 100 of these this year and hers was the most difficult. She spent the night in ICU only because they had a bed readily available.

A Full Weekend

The weekend was a busy one, with lunch with Grandmom on Saturday and then the homecoming football game and all of the ceremony that goes with today. As ugly as the weather was yesterday, today was gorgeous with bright dazzling sunshine.

My kids love each other and I am very fortunate to get to observe their interactions and even more fortunate to capture a few photos..





"1,2,3, 4, I declare a thumb war"




Car ride fun




and marching side by side in band.









The dictionary defines cadence as "a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds in language b: the beat, time, or measure of rhythmical motion or activity"

Both of my kids went through grade school feeling like they didn't really fit in there. I spent a lot of years feeling very sad for them but also knew that it would eventually pass. Then came high school and immediately they found their niche, and a certain flow to their school life and to a new-found social life.

I believe they have both found their "cadence" both in the high school marching band but also in their day-to-day lives in high school.

Oh My Goodness!

I've been nominated to receive a blogger award!! Angie, you made my day start off very happy and as soon as I can figure out how to do the link thing, I will then show my nominations with their links. Since a lot of this stuff is relatively new to me, I need to walk through it slowly to get it right.

Thank you so much. It makes me feel like I am a real blogger now!

I tried to link my nominees but they didn't work. I will try again later but below are my nominations!


Just Janet
Donna
Kim
Heather
Kimba
Pam

The nominees are asked to show the "I Heart Your Blog" somewhere on their blogs and then pass the award on to at least seven of their choices or they can just post it on their blogs and enjoy looking at it!

Your Inner Voice

Did you ever have a moment where you just did something spontaneously and after you did whatever it was you were glad you did it, and then wondered what made you do it? I read in recent months that we all have "guides" with throughout our lives and that one of the ways they can communicate with us is through that "gut feeling" - just like when you're taking a test in school and you circle your first choice for an answer, then go back, second guess yourself, erase your first choice, circle your next - and then find out that was wrong and the first choice was in fact the correct one. Always go with your gut, usually it will lead you the right way.

Today, my "gut" came through for me.

The hubby, kids and I went up to the assisted living facility where my mother-in-law resides to pick her up to take her to Applebees for lunch to celebrate her 93rd birthday. We pulled up in front of the entrance and I got out of the passenger seat to move around to sit in the back seat to make it easier for Gmom to get into our van. For some reason, instead of getting out and going around to the back of the car, I hurried towards her coming out of her building. Just as I got within 2 feet of her, the automatic doors began to close on her and her walker. I grabbed her by the arm and held on to her, my husband ran over, and both kids got there. Mom ended up falling, but ever so slowly (it was like she was suspended in air) and by the grace of God, when she hit bottom she didn't really hit it. In fact, she told me afterwards that she didn't feel herself hit the floor at all, yet she was on the floor holding nothing but my hand and my husband's hand. Nothing banged, nothing hurt, and she was fine.

Always listen to that inner voice - it does usually produce a good ending....something like this











or this









or this

Yearbook Us

Thanks to PW, I had a little fun with the YearbookYourself website. Here is my family! I am laughing out loud here....








Speaking of yearbooks, here's my mother-in-law's 8th grade graduation photo from circa 1928, Corpus Christi Elementary School.

Phillies Phever

I used to be huge Phillies fan back when I was in high school. Growing up, marrying, and having a family sort of knocked them out of my list of "priorities". However, for the next couple weeks, I will be renewing my passion for them.

First game of the World Series tonight! It's probably a good time to strike up a friendly rivalry with my sister-in-law and her husband - they live in Tampa.....

What Do These Have In Common?

Look at these two photos. They do have something in common. Look closely, can you see it?





Have you figured out yet? No? Well, the answer is you can never have too many M&Ms and you can never have too many beagles. We went to our first Beaglefest on Sunday. It was fun, and yet a bit sad. There were three or four beagles (wearing yellow kerchiefs around their necks) looking for their forever homes.




One in particular was drawn to my kids... he was awfully cute and oh so sweet.



I'm not quite ready to take the "plunge" with another rescue just yet - don't know if I will ever be - sort of gun shy I guess but I still want to be a part of a wonderful organization. They're doing great work with these poor dogs.

Oh, and we discovered just how antisocial our beagle, Freckles, is. He didn't bother with anybody. He just walked around the perimeter of the pen, away from the action most of the time, until he just exhausted himself.

It was a good day.

Colorful and Fun Day

After putting off taking a few photos of the morning glories that seem to be taking over the flowerbed on one side of our house, I finally took some pics today since the temperatures tonight will not be too far from freezing and they may not be quite so "perky" tomorrow. My original morning glory plant began as a few seeds that my son gave me when he was just a tiger cub scout (almost 10 years ago) and each year they come back, they multiply and spread. The colors are magnificent.






Speaking of my son, he went to a Halloween party tonight dressed as the Monopoly Man. I think it turned out rather good.


My daughter also went but I didn't get to see her costume as she and her friends made their costumes at together at another friend's house. Since my husband and I were chaperoning the second half of the party tonight, I thought it might be fun to go in costume too..... So, in trying to come up with something quick and easy, I decided to go to the party as my daughter - dressed her school uniform and wearing her school ID! She was a really great sport about it. I think she was shocked at first but I figured I created another "memory" for the kids and lets be honest now, how many of us parents don't get a little charge out of embarrassing our kids now and then...

More Treasures to Enjoy

I went to visit my parents on Saturday. It was my mom's 84th birthday. We enjoyed lunch and a nice visit. I'm fortunate to still have both of my parents, although my dad's health is slowly declining. Anyway, after my dad went for his second of his three daily naps, my mom started giving me some things that she no longer needed, i.e. shoes. I noticed that she still had in its box in her closet the digital frame we gave them for their 60th anniversary this past January. She said it wasn't running right so I offered to bring it home and try to figure it out. I found out that some of the photos were saved in the wrong (TIF) format that the SD card couldn't read. So, I have now redone all of the photos in JPEG format and boy did I ever enjoy looking at thos pictures! Treasures from years ago, photos of a grandfather I never met, and so much more.

My Son's Lost Lunch

My son was asked to be a member of his school's cross country team for a race today. They were short one runner to qualify. My son graciously accepted their request, we borrowed a pair of running sneaks, as he had outgrown his, and off he went to run what is a pretty grueling course. I was going to send one of our point and shoot cameras with him to give to one of the moms (I had to work today and couldn't attend the race) so that she could capture a photo of him crossing the finish line.

I'm glad the camera didn't go. He ran a great race with a good time and then promptly threw up as he crossed the finish.

I don't think I could have, in good conscience, posted that photo on my blog..... But, I am proud of him for helping out the cross-country team.

Bokeh and Furry Friend

My husband brought me flowers yesterday and I was thrilled. They are beautiful! But what is even more thrilling is getting those flowers just when PW and Miz Booshay are teaching us how to photograph flowers. I think my first attempt, while not that great, is still okay.

As far as the furry friend, there is no room for improvement for that guy - he's perfect just as he is. I took the opportunity to pose with him today since my husband was home to take the picture.

Who could say "no" to a fuzzy face like his?

Scenes of Halloween - Part Un

I've pulled most of the Halloween decor out but I still seem to be missing some things. Thankfully, my husband is off tomorrow so bringing up the rest of the decorations will be on his "honey dew" list.

I was thinking about how Halloween, at times, can seem a little bit more enjoyable than the Christmas holidays which really shouldn't make sense because at Christmas we are getting ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus - what could be better? I then realized that, except for getting the kids costumed when they are little, Halloween is sort of a no-strings-attached holiday. You decorate your home with lots of brightly-colored "scary" things, fill a basket with candy to give out to the neighborhood goblins, and that's it!

So, go ahead and enjoy decorating for Halloween. It's about the most difficult part of the holiday and actually the most fun part too!!!

The picture of our dog,Ceili, well that was taken last year while the kids were carving the pumpkins (I hadn't seen it until tonight when I was going through pictures) and it's just nice to look at that little face and remember how pretty she really was. Oh how much I miss her. Today was the first day since she passed that I didn't get teary-eyed at some point.

Comforting thoughts/Comfort food

I was just getting dinner ready - making oatmeal pancakes since we're out of more "dinnery" foods right now - and I got to thinking it would be so much fun right now to whip up a batch of my homemade oatmeal cookies. For a moment I felt my heart leap, but then I remembered where all of those calories will end up if I actually eat the cookies. Then I sadly realized that the little things in life, like baking up a fresh batch of warm oatmeal cookies for the family, are now overshadowed by thoughts of all of the fattening and harmful things those cookies contain, and the fact that we can't just enjoy eating for the pure joy of tasting deliciously sweet cookies like we did many years ago, before we were forced to think about calories, arteriosclerosis, and high cholesterol.

I won't be baking those cookies tonight......sigh

A Stupendous Halloween Giveaway

Go on over to Little Ant Design (see link to the right) and check out the really ghoulish prize she's giving away. It is really, really awesome!!!

Hitting on a Gold Mine - Amazing Scenes from the Past

My mother-in-law will turn 93 on October 28. She's one of the sweetest people I have ever known and our family is blessed to have her in our lives. I never knew my father-in-law as he passed away two years before I met my husband.

For my mother-in-law's birthday, we are giving her a digital picture frame filled with all of her family photos. My husband is scanning them all and I'm in charge of the cropping and repairing of damaged pictures. What pure joy I am getting out of looking at them all. Here's a sampling...my mother law in her teens and my father-in-law as a very young man.

Now, the first photo I found very amusing. My father-in-law is a baby and he's shown with his sister, his dad, and a CARDBOARD German Shepherd. Tell me, why would somebody insert a cardboard dog!!! The photo is circa 1915.

I hope to share more. I could use some guidance from P-Dub on repairing some of these pictures.

Young Pilot-In-Training??

No, just my son playing Xbox - he's a very willing subject for my photos when he's engaged in his Xbox Live with some of his school friends. I'll take any opportunity I can get to photograph him or my daughter. While I can't go back in time with my digital to when they were both little, I can be sure to take lots of pics from here on in....at any time, at only a moment's notice.

Pondering the Great Mysteries

During the week that God spent creating the world, on exactly which day did he say "and let there be dentists"....


How is it that the person who eats the last bit of Tostitos or the last of the Saltines doesn't notice that the bag/box is empty and leaves it in the pantry....or uses the last Kleenex in the box but leaves the empty box where it is...

How can it be that I had a full set of sixteen teaspoons but mysteriously I am now down to ten and nobody knows what happened to the other six.....