"Tink" or Treat...Meowww!

Here are the girls in their costumes tonight. What troopers! We got lots of candy and Daddy had fun scaring all the neighbors in his "haunted garage". You can't tell from the picture but he was playing scary music with four strobe lights, four fog machines and him dressed in a black costume with a Jason mask. We had a great night!

And, it's not too late...if you carved/painted/colored your pumpkins tonight, make sure you enter in the Blog-O-Lantern contest below using Mr. Linky. The winner will be announced at the end of the week. Happy Halloween!



UPDATED TO ADD: If you like this contest head on over to Jennifer's at The Wilson Six to win some free toile stationary! (I'm a sucker for contests...hee hee!)

Blog-O-Lantern contest begins today!

Are you ready? I'm so excited because it's finally time for the contest to officially start today! Our family pumpkin is below...would you have thought it would be anything different with TWO little princesses running around the house? I actually wanted to carve Ariel because of the big DVD release and all, but "slacker mama" was not on the ball this year. Okay, okay "sick mama" was unable to get it done this year. :-)

So, for the first Blog-O-Lantern Contest I bring you Disney's very own Cinderella!

To participate in the Blog-O-Lantern contest please use Mr. Linky below and add your name. I can't wait to see what you've done. Happy Halloween and happy carving!!

Are you a pumpkin?

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff -- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.

This was passed on to me from another pumpkin. Now, it is your turn to pass it to a pumpkin. I liked this enough to send it to all the pumpkins in my patch.

Happy Fall Y'all!

Cell phones, realtors, jets and pumpkins

Here I am! Thanks everyone for your recommendations on the coffee makers.

The sad thing is I haven't bought one yet. I know I know.

But here's the thing. The day after I posted that, Sugar dropped my cell phone on the hardwood floor and you know what happened next? Yes, it came apart in TWO pieces. And, I'm not talking about a separated battery pack!

So this weekend's shopping was for a new cell phone instead of the coffee maker. So for now I'm using my current coffee maker since it's technically still working.

Onto other news...
We had a super BIG weekend. A couple of showings, the Goodyear Balloon and Air Spectacular, a trip to Schnepf Farms and the best part... my SIL and nephew were in town.

So Friday night was spent doing some massive house cleaning in preparation for the showings and then Saturday we went to see the Blue Angels fly at the air show. The girls absolutely loved all the planes and the big jets. We had perfect seats in the shade. We got the last spot right under one of the wings of a parked plane that was displayed for the show. And, you know that's a big thing in Arizona...finding shade! The girls also enjoyed some pony rides and jumping in big bounce houses.

Finally on Sunday we headed to the pumpkin patch to meet up with my nephew and SIL. We had a super time...

We spent the day going on the carousel, a hay ride, pony rides, bounce houses, slide shoots, a train ride, visiting the petting zoo and giant playground. We also enjoyed it sipping homemade lemonade and snacking on old-fashioned kettle corn.


We rounded out the day going to the pumpkin patch and picking out our pumpkins for the this week's Blog-O-Lantern contest!










Oh yes folks it's time. I will go ahead and set up Mr. Linky starting this Friday. And, if all goes well this week I plan on posting the first carving (mine) to officially kick off the contest so be on the lookout!

*I would have posted pictures from Schnepf Farms but Mommy left the digital camera on the chair at home! (I'm still kicking myself) Luckily, SIL had a diposable with her so I can post some pictures when we get them developed.

Calling all coffee drinkers

Thanks to BM - The Blawg for reminding me that I need to ask for some advice from all my blogging buddies about an important purchase I'm about to make.

My poor old Mr. Coffee pot is dying a slow death. First, my house doesn't smell like coffee anymore in the morning when it's brewing, the hot plate paint has peeled off in three different places and most importantly, it doesn't match my kitchen. ;-)

I was hoping all you die-hard coffee drinkers can help me select my new coffee maker. I make coffee almost every morning and I grind my own beans of Serena Organic Blend by Starbucks. So to help with the decision, here are a few things I would like for my new toy to have:

1. 12 - cup (at least)
2. Use round coffee filters (I get twitches from the cone shaped kind)
3. Programmable (so it's brewing when I wake up at 5:45am with my 4-year old)
4. Preferably in black or stainless steel
5. Easy to clean

And for pete's sake...I want to smell it brewing in the morning like my old one used to!

So am I a "coffee snob" yet? Well join the crowd, and tell me what you recommend in my comments section.

Oh, and as far as price goes, I'm totally open. I just want a good cup of joe!

Thanks y'all!

Friday's Random Thoughts

1. My Grey's addiction continues with only six more episodes to watch.

2. Back to the doctor today because my incision decided to open back up and bleed. No worries though, the doctor got it taken care of and I'm back home.

3. I've been ebaying a lot this last month and finally found two lp's from my childhood that I've been looking for over three years now.

4. Also, I recently purchased on Ebay a train that used to go around our Christmas tree when we were little. It's a Vintage Marx Electrical Train Set with an engine that smokes.

5. I've been spending a lot of time doing crossword puzzles and word searches. I think I'm an expert at them now.

6. My mother-in-law has been a total life saver during this whole surgery thing. She cleans my house, does the laundry, feeds my girls, takes them to the park and bathes them. I'm going to be so sad when she leaves us on Sunday.

7. The temperatures here in Phoenix have been dropping pretty good. In the mornings it is actually cool outside and you can open the windows.

8. Due to number seven, my allergies have spiked quite a bit. But during my stay in the hospital my doctor gave me a prescription for an inhaler and it seems to be helping a lot! Thank you Dr. S.

9. The girls are growing so fast. Claire went 'tee tee' on the potty today and Victoria is figuring out that 10 minutes is longer than 2 minutes. She also learned how to read some new words this week.

10. Don't forget the Blog-O-Lantern contest is coming up in two weeks. I can't wait to see the pictures and carvings y'all have done. Also, it doesn't have to be anything fancy just take a picture of whatever you carve and make sure you post it.

Well that's all for now. I have to get to Grey's Anatomy...Mere just got thrown to the floor from a bomb going off...oh my! This is good stuff!

The Great Physician

I went to the doctor's today and the staples are officially out. I'm still taking quite a few meds but I'm feeling much better. I can get up and down the stairs now, but I still can't drive or pick up the girls.

But by far the best news today was that the mass they tested is benign! Thanks so much for all your prayers.

I must admit I was a little shocked today when the doctor admitted that he was SO relieved it wasn't cancer. He was practically throwing his hands up in the air and cheering. He said when they see a "solid mass" they get very worried (now he tells me.) Anyways, he said that he has seen two solid mass cases so far this year (me and another gal) and the other girl's came back as cancer. I know I will need to pray for her because this so easily could have been turned around.

So again, thanks everyone for all your thoughts and prayers. I know a lot of you have emailed me directly asking for an update and to see how I was doing, so I thought I would just write a quick post about my status.

Once again, The Great Physician comes through. He never fails to amaze me.

How do you know when Grey's Anatomy becomes an addiction?

1. When you watch episodes on DVD from your computer until you go in reserve power with your battery...and then it goes dead.

2. When you sleep in your daughter's cinderella canopy bed with MacBook in hand so you don't disturb others in the house while watching.

3. When your hubby goes out and buys you a brand new DVD player for your bedroom JUST so you can watch episode after episode without running down the battery on your computer. Oh yes he did!

4. When you let out a loud screeching noise at your 19-month old daughter who almost touched the buttons on the DVD player.

5. When you pause the show every. single. time. someone comes in your room so you don't miss a thing.

6. When you rewind at any time to hear something over, because you're not quite sure what was said behind those little gas masks.

7. When you laugh out loud and look around to see if any else is laughing? Then, realize you're the only one in the room.

8. When you turn up the volume because the air conditioner kicked on or the dog's snore gets a little too loud.

9. When you start dreaming about McDreamy and dream the rest of the cast are actually your friends.

10. When you've watched 16 episodes in four days . . . seriously!

Thanks Addie, Julie, Robin and all you other die hard fans! You've turned me into a Grey's Monster!

Home at last

Can you believe it? Since the last update things got a little worse. My EKG was normal but my chest x-ray showed I had pneumonia. My worst nightmare...more days in the hospital - ugh! Just as my doctor was saying, "I'll check the x-ray, but I've never had a patient get pneumonia after open surgery".

Leave it to me to change that little statistic.

I'm trying to recover now with somewhere between 15 - 20 staples in my stomach, sore arms from all the IV's and blood level checks and enough prescriptions to open my own pharmacy.

I'll probably be living in my bedroom for the next two weeks but there are some good things to look forward to...

I'm home now, in my own bedroom, with hubby, my girls, TiVo, the MacBook and DVD player at my disposal. Plus, I have two family members in town taking care of me, the house, and my children. And ya know what? That's whole lot better than where I was yesterday!

So what was suppose to be a same day out patient surgery, turned into a six day hospital day with open surgery. But, I am thankful to all my friends and family (and yes YOU if you're reading this) for all the prayers and love that were sent my way.

Some say blogging is just a hobby but y'all were the ones that help me through that last hump in the hospital when I thought things couldn't get any worse. Oh, and thank you Lord for inventing this crazy thing we call technology - especially PDA's! :-)

I'll right more when my big, bruised belly can handle sitting up more than 15 minutes at a time.

update

i'll do the best I can from hubby's pda.

I'm still in the hospital. They had to remove my right ovary. I started to have internal bleeding so I went back to have open surgery to stop the bleeding. I ended up having my fallopian tube removed on the same side and needing a blood transfusion. Right now my blood pressure levels will not remain stable and I still need oxygen. I've had a few fainting spells and shortness of breath. I'm going this am to have an EKG and a chest xray. I'll let you know what we find. Thanks for all your prayers that's all I can do for now. T-Lo