Goodbye October

I have a love/hate relationship with the month of October.... or October has a death wish for me... one or the other. Either way, I survived it once again, though just barely.

First of all, the boy turned 11. Eleven. I have an eleven-year-old, my how time flies.

But before that... the two weeks before that... was no fun at all, in fact, he almost missed his birthday altogether, it was a very close thing. He was sick for two weeks beforehand, 8 days flat out on the couch with the flu. It was lovely. He pulled it together just in time, and I never caught it. A miracle. A first, because he always seems to get sick around his birthday and then I always catch it. Or Frank does. Remember the year Swine Flu was going around. Yeaaaahhhhh. That was great.....

But, this year! A better than slight improvement!

His party was a great success, crazy and way too many boys in one loud place, playing soccer and raising money for PAWS. He and his friend (birthday party co-host) raised $410, $361 of which got matched by company matching funds, so $771 raise for PAWS. Wonderful, and very proud of Luke and his friend Cole.

That done, it was a race to get the Halloween costumes done. Luke's grand idea, now that he's convinced that home-made costumes are way-better! than store bought.... was to be a pumpkin head. A pumpkin head.

So we got started. With a beach ball... and newspaper... and modpodge.

many many layers later:

and with some holes cut out:

and some paint:

paired with a scarecrow costume:

and there you have it. Don't mind the mess, remember how I said I survived the month? That's because I gave up on getting it all done at one point. Creativity is messy, you know?

And so is carving pumpkins... real pumpkins... but so worth it.

Mine is that one holding it's face and getting ready to scream. Yes, it's a self portrait.

And finally, that invite to the Halloween party - the one that said, please wear a costume. Um, ok, but I wasn't planning on one for me, what to do??? $1.99 later, here I am:

Cute, huh? Occupy Halloween, Share the Candy! Even better, Frank dressed up like Mr. Moneybags, the 1%, Fat Cat Banker. "I'm the 1%, Give me all your candy!" Best of all, it was really easy, and I got to wear my new Payton Jett Nightmare Before Christmas bead. Don't you just love it?

And there it is, the month I just barely survived, once again. See you next year, October, I hope you play a little more fair!

A No-Beads Update

I know, no beads, does that make you as sad as it does me? Oh well... lots of life getting in the way of that.

Luke turned ten this year. Ten! Where does the time go? I can still see him all hooked up to everything in the NICU. He sure has come a long way. The kid is pure joy, when he's not driving me crazy. This year he requested a lobster dinner for his family party - and he helped me get everything ready - he's actually quite the project planner. I couldn't have pulled it off without him, but still, no more indoor lobster parties, no matter how cute the requester is.



Homeschool is swimming along - now that we are in a groove, it's not so scary and it's surprising how easy it is, most days. We are splitting our time with classes at the local homeschool resource center (which is kind of like college for little kids - we choose what classes to take and make our own schedule) and home work. We both agree, the home work is a bit on the boring side, and Luke informed me yesterday that I need to be better about the field trips. Apparently the zoo, Ikea, the Seattle Underground Tour and the Children's Theatre is not enough for him. It's not really enough for me either, I had planned more, but life has a way of getting in the way.

Like Frank's surgery - I guess Luke doesn't consider the days in the hospital a field trip. Oh well, we both learned a lot from that, I say it counts.

And we may be off on a very big trip soon, as his grandfather, my father-in-law, is failing fast and suddenly, after a long slow journey through Alzheimer's Disease. This, I'd have to agree, is also not a field trip. Though there are lots of life lessons to be had with a family trip like that - something we've been lucky enough not to have to learn yet. Sigh.

So... if my store closes down for a bit - you'll know why. No beads, no time. But maybe in a bit.