trick or treat

We bought pumpkins on Saturday and the hubby and kids carved them yesterday. As soon as the sun set, we had to light them and see how they looked. As always, they are fantastic. I will take a photo and post it.

The end of October is here! Halloween is upon us!

Speaking of trick or treat, watching the coverage of Hurricane Sandy and the anticipated weather has been interesting and a bit scary. I've been thinking of my oldest daughter's best friend who is away at school in NYC.

Off to bundle up for the morning walk. It is about 41 outside, but we are going. As my brother says, there is no bad weather, just bad gear. Now that they've moved from the gulf hurricane zone to what I guess is the Atlantic hurricane zone, I hope he has good gear for the days ahead.

college part two

The acceptance letters are starting to roll in for the middle kid. It is rather weird to be doing this again. Our life is in a senior year loop. I sort of think, however, that this daughter will make her decision sooner than the oldest one did. She is already leaning heavily towards one university - not the one her sister attends.

Now that soccer is over, the only event we have left is the banquet. Then our days with that group of folks will come to an end. We've been involved with that program for five years. Sort of odd to think that we are now finished and moving on to other things.

The holidays are approaching and while I was in Target yesterday buying some cards I noticed the Christmas stuff is being stocked, staged and highlighted. Last year at work, the holidays were sort of a non-event for me as a department of one. This year I will be part of a larger group and it should be more fun.

Off into Thursday I go and on the way home from work I get to stop and pick up the latest from Justin Cronin. Looking forward to reading "The Twelve" over the weekend!

soccer is over

Our girls lost last night 2-1. After a season that had many of the sideline coaches scratching their heads and wondering just what exactly the coaching staff was trying to do, or not do, the team lost in double overtime on a golden goal with only 20 seconds left before PKs would have begun.

This opponent was beaten at the beginning of the season 4-0.

I didn't go to the game last night. I stayed home with the boy and helped him with his confirmation essays. I thought it would be an easy win.

I was wrong.

We are all devastated. It is the hardest thing to watch your child cry and know that you can't fix it or make it better. No words will take away the hurt and the disappointment.

Time will lend perspective and will allow her to see the lessons to be gleaned from this season. We've always told our kids that you can learn things from any situation. Sometimes you learn what to do. Sometimes you learn what not to do.

Life goes on, even for soccer girls and their soccer moms and dads.

XOXO to our Ladies.

zippity do da

Ran out of time this morning before I left the house and didn't have a change to even think about composing any sort of blog post. Before I lose myself in the world of lynda.com and the take a tutorial on google+, I thought I'd jot a few things down.

Nothing is better, clothing wise, than a brand new white shirt. What is it about white shirts? I just adore them.  I found one on super sale at Land's End a few weeks back and decided to wear it today. Perfect!

Our Dukie-dog had his annual visit to the vet yesterday for his wellness exam. He is now a 'senior' dog according to the report we received after his exam. He was still a bit off his game last night at bed time. They have to sedate him to trim his nails and it takes several hours for that to wear off. But, his overall health is good and he doesn't have to go back for a year.

The soccer girl has a match tonight and most likely a match on Thursday night. I'm savoring these last few nights of sitting in the bleachers. Our days are numbered. My soccer mom status is rapidly coming to an end. I need a new 'identity' and I guess with the boy arriving at the high school next year, I will become a 'band mom'! Not sure they are as sassy/feisty as the soccer moms, but I will find out.

Off to listen and watch this tutorial. Our national meeting work is complete and I can hear the pallets of stuff being wrapped, taped and readied for shipment to the convention center.

Happy Tuesday.

slipping away

October is slipping away. At work our list of things to do for the national meeting is basically complete. At home, with the flower beds back under control, the outside chores are winding down as cold weather begins to move into the region. Inside the house, I was able to buy two pie pumpkins yesterday and prepared and froze enough pumpkin for both Thanksgiving and Christmas pies.

I also made braciole yesterday! Delicious. I only did 6 of the meat rolls as the store didn't have that much tenderized round steak. It was so good and so nice to enjoy a real Sunday dinner.  I also put away some extra boiled potatoes for potato corn chowder later in the week.

The soccer girl will have another game on Tuesday night. This will be a 'must win' situation as well.

I've been reading quite a bit of late. I have found a cozy mystery series featuring a pizza restaurant and the two sisters who run it. Very light and easy to read.  Our library has them for download, so my Nook is being used daily.

And that is about it! Happy Monday...the week is about to begin.

the rare friday post

I sort of gave up on posting this week. The mornings went by fast and Friday arrived in short order. I'm not complaining. We had a good week.

The soccer girls managed to win their first game in their march to the state championships. Whoop! The middle daughter saw a decent amount of playing time and did a fantastic job.

The oldest daughter seems to have survived her first trip to the student health center at her university. She walked away with two prescriptions, one for a z-pack and one for tamiflu. While her flu test was negative, she was exhibiting the classic flu signs and the doctor went ahead and made a preemptive strike. Dr. Mom approves. Now, if she will just get healthy and stay that way for a while so she doesn't catch every creeping crud bug that crawls her way.

Both the 'at home' kids did well with their first quarter grades. Straight A's all around. Whoop!

Hubby's car finally went kaput, but it at least got him home from the job site he was visiting and is now being repaired. He should have his wheels back tomorrow.

Work was steady and quite entertaining this week. My coworker is drafting her statement of purpose for the PhD program at the local university and that letter along with her regular papers gave me my dose of what it would be like to be finishing up a Masters degree in English and getting ready for a PhD program. Yikes. I will continue to live vicariously through her and enjoy learning and relearning things about Shakespeare and the British Early Modern period. Love it!

I put the second Justin Cronin book on hold at the Library and am anxiously awaiting my turn to read "The Twelve."

Happy Friday, enjoy the weekend and see you next week!

the reclaiming of my flower beds

Back in the early spring, before the oldest's graduation party, we had made a big push to clean the flower beds and spread down some mulch.

Then the next thing I knew, it was October. Yes, I don't believe I did a darn thing to those beds all summer long. The bed on the east side of our house was so overgrown, I was embarrassed. I love to garden and putz around with the landscaping, but when I went back to work full time, I just didn't have enough hours on the weekend to spend that sort of time digging in the dirt.

Hubby graciously offered to help and I accepted, knowing I would be advising him all day long on what was a weed and what was a perennial. It took us 3 hours, but we managed to weed, trim, and reclaim all of the flower beds and shrubs. It actually looks nice again!

We still have a few things to do once the grass goes dormant. The liriope needs to be cut down along with the irises, the mexican petunias and the sedum.

This gardening effort was just one item on our to do list for the weekend. I'm happy to report we checked off all the other items as well.

Happy Monday!