MY FIRST HALLOWEEN

My first Halloween was "ruff"! Trick-or-Treat!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY TREAT DAY TO ALL!

LADIES WHO LUNCH

Yrsa enjoying her salad.

Yrsa, me, Linda, and Kay toasting to friendship.

Every once in awhile I have my friends up for lunch. I love to entertain and it is fun to share with girls who appreciate what you do to make it special. Yrsa, Kay and I have been friends for more than over 40 years. Linda is new to the group and such a nice friend.

Here is today's menu:

Sparkling red grape juice

Mini lemon, banana or blueberry muffins with cream cheese

Baby greens with toasted walnuts, cranberries, and apples with pecan peach dressing

Quiche with red peppers, onions, colby jack and swiss cheese, and brocolli

Apple crisp with whipped topping

Why don't they just start in July?

Here it comes!

I couldn't resist just one more picture of the snow this morning. It is soooo pretty!

It SNOWED!

Here is a closeup of the tassel.

This is how it looked outside my back door when I got up this morning.

Here are a couple more pictures of the curtains. The one on the left is where I was trying out the idea of using just one tassel. Below that curtain you can see the fabric that will be the new tier curtain.

Curtains

Last night I went to Olean to pick up some liner material for my curtains. I also got these great tassels. The curtains aren't made yet, I just have them up to the window to get the idea of how they will look.

Almost halloween

Believe it or not I know two women who turn off their lights at Halloween and pretend they are not home so they don't have to buy candy for the kids. Granted, they live on a busy street with lots of Halloween traffic, but it only comes once a year. And it's for the kids. Where's their Halloween spirit?

Ryan and Jenny are settled in their new home on 216 Westmoreland Court, Seymore,Tennessee now. They are still unpacking boxes. This will make such a nice home for them.

What are you wearing?

Remember when you were small and trick-or-treating was such a big deal? It was a lot of fun to go from house to house with a bag and get all those candy bars. One Halloween when my boys were small my oldest son, Chris, wanted to be a robot. I remember making his costume from a cardboard box painted silver. We put all kinds of gadgets from the garage on the box to look like a machine. I made a car for Ryan that year out of a box too. Often in Bradford the weather is cold October 31st and sometimes we would walk around the neighborhood with our winter coats on. Now there are no young children left in our small block and we only had one trick-or-treater last year. Don and I had to eat all the candy ourselves. LOL

ARE YOU CONFUSED YET?

Sarah Palin's rare attempts to speak outside of prepared speeches sound like what would happen if you ran some Republican talking points through Babelfish from English-to-Japanese-back-to-English a few times.
Individually, the words all make sense. But when you try to string them together you end up just scratching your head in bemusement.


On Russia:"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."

All about a Monday

What do you do on a cold, sunless Monday? I'm waiting for Don to come back from Tennessee where he went to help Ryan move in. Unfortunately, he ended up in the ER with a UTI and wasn't much help at all. But after a fever of 104 he finally felt a little better and is on his way home today. I've sure missed him. I'm still working on my photo reorganization. I didn't realize I had so many photos. They are all in albums now, but I have to put them on the top shelf in the closet. My sister, who is the queen of getting things organized, says that you need to put all the like things together. Not only does that make sense in finding something, it makes things neater too. So I am putting all my photo albums, scrapbooks, and souvenirs together. Little by little I am making headway on getting things organized. My goal is to know where things are and weed out what I really don't want anymore. Simplify, Eclarrizez, Let it go...my new motto.

Did you buy your candy yet?

Have you ever lost something that you were not sure you had in the first place? That's the dilemma that I'm in. I'm looking for a picture of the heart in the snow to add to my Valentine's story. Don remember that I showed it to him and said, "Remember when you did this?" I can't remember the picture. So I've been combing through all my past photos...what a job! A few years ago I put them all in albums (well, I thought I had all of them only to discover that there was a whole box full in the attic. So this week I've been putting them in albums too. But I haven't come across that particular picture and it's driving me crazy! But at least I'm getting my albums done. Now I wonder where that picture could be....

Halloween's Getting Closer

EXCITING NEWS!

I am so excited I can hardly type! I got an email from Victoria magazine that they are going to publish a story I wrote. I had submitted a romantic story about how Don trampled a heart out in the snow that said I love you. They are going to publish it in the Jan/Feb issue and they want a picture to go with the story. I can't believe it! I am on Cloud Nine! Me, in one of my very favorite magazines! This is so wonderful!

Here is the essay that will be printed...

It was so cold that winter. In our little town in rural western Pennsylvania the snow comes early and often. My husband gets stuck with all the outdoor chores like shoveling the large and high snowdrifts to clear a path to our door and pushing the knee deep accumulation from the driveway. One morning after a particularly long snowy night I kept looking out the window at Don heaving snow to the side of the driveway. It was Valentine's Day and he never forgot. The red roses and candy had already made an appearance. But what really warmed my heart that day wasn't anything that you could purchase at a store. He tapped on the window for me to look out. In the backyard he had tramped a large heart out of the snow with an arrow through it. Inside it said, "I love you". Just looking at him, with his youthful grin, made my heart shine like the August sun. It may have been cold outside, but his romantic gesture warmed my heart forever. ( by the way, we'll be celebrating 43 years of marriage in January).

Red Hat Day

Today our Red Hat group, the Kinzua Kuties, met at the Emery Espresso Bar for lunch. The speaker for the day was Pat Cercone, a local journalist. Pat and her father had their time of fame when nationally known news moderator Tim Russert chose Pat's essay for his book about fathers. Pat's father had raised her and became both a father and mother to her. Pat never failed to send him a Mother's day card. Tim talked about their relationship on national tv with Larry King and Tom Brokow.

Just sharing a laugh today.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Make a Smilebox photobook

HAPPY SECOND ANNIVERSARY TO RYAN AND JENNY!

It's about that time

It's time for some Halloween humor. Next Friday will be Halloween already. These months are passing rather quickly these days. I think today is going to be a turn-on-the-loud-music, light-the-candles, and get-everything-sparkly day. It's amazing how just a dusting and little Windex can make things shine. Don has gone fishing for the day dispite the threat of snow this afternoon. He doesn't mind. He's the happiest when he has his line dipped in the water.

ALONG THE PITT TRAIL

This is a computerized painting of the creek that runs along the path that I walk every other day. It is beautiful up here in the fall. Unfortunately, the leaves are almost completely gone now and there was frost on my van windshield this morning.

On a Monday

I chose this picture because last week I went around the sunroom and washed all my windows. The better to see out, my dear.

Today bright and early I visited my favorite dentist, Dr. Volpe, to get a molar capped (ouch!). Even though I'm dentalphobic from a lot of bad experiences in the past, cute young Dr. Volpe, with his wild shoulder length locks and his scraggly beard, always puts me at ease. (or as at ease as you can get when someone has a drill in your mouth).