Sparkly Halloween

Okay, I know just yesterday I wrote that I'm thinking about ditching the blog because I've lost my creativity...but I'll tell you who's found it...

Miss Sassy-pants! Last week her class held a pumpkin decorating contest- there were no rules, just be creative and have fun. Miss C and I spent an hour walking around Michael's looking for ideas...at one point we had in our hands a pair of googly eyes, a doll's wig, and a pack of stickers...then we decided maybe we liked the rainbow pipe cleaners and sequins better...then it was a Mr. Potato Head that caught our attention...in the end, the item that caught Miss C's eye the most was a container of glitter.

"What about a sparkly pumpkin, Mommy?" her eyes got wider, "A sparkly PRINCESS pumpkin!!"

That settled it. We bought a tube of glue, picked the best looking collection of glitter colors and made our way home. We had the most fun decorating our pumpkin, and Sassy-Pants loved getting to choose which color went where. She made sure we used every color.

We made a mess of the kitchen and got some silly looks from Daddy when he walked in the door...but Miss C was ecstatic to bring her finished product to school. She got "oohs and ahs" as soon as she walked in the door.



Everyone brought fun and interesting pumpkins to share. They all sat together in a row for all the kids to look at. Then last Monday, another class came in to vote. Each child got to pick their favorite- Miss C's got 7 votes! She was the grand prize winner and was so proud that everyone "clapped at her pumpkin". It was displayed at the front desk and she received a special prize from her teacher.

Here she is, tickled to show off her prizes:


Way to go Sassy-Pants!


We're taking our sparkly princess pumpkin with us to Nana & Poppa's for Halloween, it will go perfectly with the very special pink princess dress that Nana is making for her!

I got nothin'

You know what I'm talking about...scroll down this page and read the dates on my blog posts if you're not sure. Pretty sure the last entry ON THE CURRENT PAGE was posted shortly after the arrival of Spring. As in April.

Every time I sit down to blog, I stare at the computer for a while, look through my recent photos, spend some time stalking my friends blogs....then decide I have nothing exciting to write about, so I log off. This has been going on for quite some time now, so I've started to wonder...

Why do I have a blog?

I do not know. I started this to keep friends and family informed on all the happenings in our corner of the world, but it seems like lately, not much has been going on. And of the handful of things that have been happening, I can't seem to use my creative juices to make an interesting enough blog post to share with everyone.

That being said...I'm thinkin' about ditching the blog scene. I just think it's kind of silly to keep pretending that I have a blog, when I never update it (except for the background that I just changed...I thought maybe a new background would spark new posts? It did not.)

Anyway, I'm going to think about it for a little while longer, but I think it might be time to give up. If anyone has any suggestions on how to build your creativity or thoughts on how you determine what to blog about (and how the heck to make it interesting!), I am all ears...

On the way home today...

This is the conversation that Sassy-pants and I had:

Mom: "I missed you today, baby girl."
Sassy-pants: "Yuck."

Um, okay...not quite the response I was looking for...I'll try again in a few minutes.

Mom: "I missed you today..."
Sassy-pants: "I know."

Wow, shut down again. I'll give her another minute...

Mom: "Hey honey? I missed you..."
Sassy-pants: "Yeah. Can I have a pretzel?"

Man, I cannot win today! Let's try this ONE...MORE...TIME.

Mom: "I MISSED you today baby girl!"
Sassy-pants: "I missed you too, Mommy!"
Mom: "It's about time!"
Sassy-pants, in her sassiest voice: "Heehee, you betcha! I'm funny!"

Oh yeah, you are HILARIOUS, kiddo...

See ya, suckers!

We're off for 4 nights and 5 days of this:



And this:


And some of this:

Be jealous.

Absurd.

Sometimes I get totally ridiculous, absurd ideas in my head. And once they're in there, I can't get them out again. Take this week, for instance. Tommorrow, Handsome's sister arrives for a four day visit. On Tuesday, my cousin "The Dish" arrives for nearly two weeks. Wednesday we're leaving for a 5 day camping trip in Washington. What would one be doing the week prior to such events? Probably lightly cleaning house, doing some laundry, planning menus and grocery shopping? Sounds doable, right?

Well this girl had other plans. I decided it was a good time to completely spring clean the entire house (I realize it's July, let's pretend I did this months ago), clean the fish tank, go through each of our closets and thin out wardrobes, weed the entire yard, detail the cars, wash and wax the kitchen floor, clean out the garage, wash windows, and my latest and greatest idea...PAINT.

I was in the middle of tossing my kitchen upside down yesterday when I got to thinking about how gross our bathroom is, and then I got the urge to paint it. I looked at my "to do" list. I considered how far behind I was. My eye caught the Lowe's ad on the dining room table. Aha- paint is on sale! It's a sign, I must paint! Hmm, where will I find time to get that done? Well I suppose I could skip "organize DVD's by genre"...and maybe I could alphabetize our cd collection another time. I bet if I clean the guest bathroom after Sassy-pants goes to bed tonight (yeah right) and I get up an hour earlier tommorrow (hahaha) I could do it. Oh yeah, totally doable. Nevermind the fact that I'll probably waste at least an hour walking around Lowe's, paint in hand...

Now here it is, Friday at noon and I have yet to clean the fish tank, vacuum and clean bathrooms, take clothes to Goodwill, finish weeding, wash rugs and sheets, tape the bathrooom, and oh yeah- PAINT it. And I suppose we should set up the tent to make sure our air mattress fits in it...and I need to pick up Sassy-pants from daycare. And we're supposed to have pork tenderloin and au gratin potatoes for dinner. And here I sit, blogging. I love how my reasoning works.

And I wish I could say I don't always operate this way, but that's not true...last Thanksgiving the house still smelled like paint when our guests arrived, and I had to ask them not to touch the hallway walls, as they were still wet (what is it with me and paint??). And I am almost always washing the guest bed sheets when my parents walk in the door for a weekend visit. Me and organization, logic, and time management need to sit down and have a chat.

Stupid absurd ideas of mine. Stupid to do lists. Stupid to do lists full of absurd ideas. I need help.

Fireworks on the 4th

Just thought I'd share a quick clip of the fantastic fireworks we saw on the 4th...Sassy-pants LOVED them, and you can hear her very enthusiastic responses in the background :-)

And have you ever heard fireworks as strange as the ones in this next clip? They appear at about the 35 second mark. WEIRD!!

Happy Belated 4th!!

She's Baaaaaack!!!!

Just when you thought I'd abandoned the blogging world forever, here I am again! My very serious case of writer's block is starting to fade away and I'm finally feeling the urge to blog again. Sorry for the unexplained 3 month hiatus!

We've been keeping plenty busy here in Oregon (I'm on my 3 week summer vacation!!), and the next two weeks will be the busiest of the summer. We're counting the days until a visit from Handsome's sister and her husband, followed immediately by a 5 day camping trip along Bumping River in SE Washington with my bestest friend in the whole wide world...then another couple days of fun at the beach and a little exploring in downtown Portland. Needless to say, I am VERY excited and will have plenty to blog about!

Other news on the home front...Miss Sassy-pants is finally potty trained! What a difference it has made for us. She is more independent and VERY proud of herself, and we are enjoying the small pay raise now that we don't have to buy diapers anymore!

Handsome is doing very well at work, his branch just finished third in the state last month! He has been working very hard lately and is counting the days until his week long vacation. I am currently on summer break, which I am LOVING. It will be hard to go back to work on the 22nd, but nice to get back into a regular schedule.

That's about all I can think of for now, but I PROMISE I will stick around this time...really! Okay, I know you don't believe me...I suppose I deserve it after 3 months of silence. I will do my very best to win you all back!

Until I blog again...