A Little Light...

It has been a rough week around here--honestly--it has been a rough month! I cannot wait for the clock to strike 12 tonight so October can be over already. But this week has been particularly depressing, at least I've been feeling down in the dumps. My downer has been primarily caused by hormones but definitely fueled by piles of laundry, piles of papers, piles of dishes and piles of library books. I needed a pick-me-up and boy, oh boy did I ever get one.

Lorien and Clare went down to get the mail on Thursday and there was a package! Getting a package in the mail is exciting stuff for anyone, anytime. It just makes you feel good all over--even if it is something you ordered online and were expecting. This package was a surprise for me from my sister, Jennifer. My three sisters (and Mom) live in Maine about 30 miles from each other. It is the pits to be over 2,000 miles away. Not only are all of my sisters (and my Mom) basking in each other's glorious company--they are also soaking up autumn in New England (the lucky-ducks).

Thoughtfully, Jennifer packed a box with six Macintosh apples, some chocolates, a warm sweater and shirt, a milk weed pod (that hadn't opened yet) a little pumpkin, a cinnamon scented candle and a bunch of fall leaves.

It was heaven in a card board box.

It made me cry--tears of joy. (Especially seeing all those leaves.)

There I was, with my kids crowding around, tears streaming down my face pulling out happy fall item after happy fall item. The kids couldn't figure out why I was crying so much.

I tore into one of the apples and only let my kids have one bite each--telling them: "This is the best apple you'll ever eat." No other state can touch a Mackintosh apple. Maine might like to think their potatoes are pretty good but who cares about potatoes when you can grow Mackintosh apples? And these apples came straight from the orchard--not a numbered produce sticker in sight.

I lit the candle for the kids and proceeded to pour over the news paper Jennifer had used to stuff around the leaves and pumpkin. It was just the sports page but it warmed my heart to read about University Maine Women's Basketball coach, Cindy Blodgett and see an advertisement for Dunkin Donuts, I cried a little bit more.

Later that night while I was cleaning up I found one of the paper towels the apples had been wrapped in. My nose was running so I wiped up the snot but had to stop blowing my nose because the paper towel smelled like the apples. I just stood there--huffing apple scent--and cried a little bit more.

Thanks Jennifer! I miss you, Camie, Lesley and Mom heaps and piles and loads. Thanks for making my day a little lighter!

Fun In The Fall...

We did all those usual Fall/Halloween things last week. Just wanted to let you know we were still American.

We carved Jack-O-Lanterns (or is it Jack'O Lanterns?). This was the first year I let the kids design their own pumpkins and let the big kids carve their own pumpkins. We only lost three or four fingers to the attempt! (Kidding, not even a scratch...)

It is harder than you think to keep a curious 11 month-old away from open flame or from crawling off a dining table.

Just so you know.

The kids had their Halloween Parade and parties at school. They were excited to march around the field and I was happy it wasn't raining.

And last, but certainly not least--we had our church Halloween Party. We ate chili, corn bread and pumpkin pie. We roamed around a few of the in door activities. Most importantly of all--the Trunk-or-Treat! Lorien was allowed to go trunk to trunk with her friend while Will took the younger kids around. As a result, Lorien was free to hit every car two or three times while Wyatt and Clare had to stop at "once around the parking lot".

You can imagine the tummy aches that followed.

Happy Fall!

Patch-O-Pumpkins...

I just--I mean just upgraded to Blogger's new post drafting settings. I know this has been a spiffy feature of Blogger for a while but when I first tried it out I couldn't find the spell check. Which is to say--the new editing software did not have spell check. And not only do I have pretty bad spelling, I have a heightened paranoia about people seeing my spelling errors. Seriously, if I type up a paragraph and none of the words have red squiggly lines under them, I type the word "blerg" just to make sure spell check is properly picking up my spelling errors. So a post editor that did not have spell check was not for me.

Thankfully, Blogger added spell check and I can join the New Age.

On to those pumpkins mentioned in the title...

Clare's preschool had a trip to the pumpkin patch a week ago. Her preschool teacher thoughtfully scheduled the filed trip for the late afternoon so older siblings could come along. This timing also meant our arrival at the pumpkin patch coincided perfectly with the arrival of "The Fog". "The Fog" in this part of California does not mess around. It is not a soft whisper of mist clinging to the tops of trees or skirting far off fields...no, no. "The Fog" is more like rain--except it doesn't fall from the sky--it just sits all around you: on your skin, head, car, stroller and any other surface foolish enough to be out in "The Fog".

We had a great time. The Pumpkin Patch was decked out in a Mythology theme. Wyatt liked seeing the big metal statue of the Minotaur--we are listening to the first Percy Jackson book and had just heard about Percy's run in with the Minotaur.

Wyatt raced around the hay bale maze and Clare rode the little train around and around and around--while I stood (with a forced smile) getting sopping wet with each passing second. Finally--about the time my clothes were drenched with mist and I was a standing puddle--it was time to go. We hastily picked out pumpkins and the kids raced to the car. With chattering teeth I started the car and thought: "I'll never do that again, at least not with out hip waders and a rain slicker."

Believe it or not, it was a good day.

Playing Hookie...

Sorry, no witty writing in this post...just a run-down of events and a whole-lotta pictures. They are great pictures...

Will had a business meeting down in Monterey last Monday. The night before we decided to pull the kids out of school and make the trip a little family get-away. While Will was in his meeting the kids and I played at the Dennis the Menace Park.

After Will's meeting we had a late breakfast/early lunch and then headed to the beach.

We spent the afternoon exploring the sand dunes, running in and out of the waves and having a great time. I could have stayed all day. I took about a thousand pictures...the day was so beautiful! Hopefully we'll make it back down again soon for another full day.

(From Will) "The caption for that one should be: 'Will contemplating which one to sacrifice to Poseidon.'"

My Only Pair of Capri's Just Took One For The Environment...

I promise not to climb up on a soap box or any thing here. I'll just say, I am a big fan of recycling and I do recycle. It is pretty easy and it makes me feel self-righteous.

But my good intentions for the environment might take a back seat because I also really love my clothes.

Today Adell tipped our recycling bin over and pulled out a can of chili from lunch. While dodging the "sliced-fingers-on-an-open-tin-can" bullet I got slammed by the "baby-covered-in-saucy-chili" bullet.

I've been soaking my pants in Oxyclean for an hour--no luck.

Rest in peace white capri pants, rest in peace.

I Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty...

A few weeks ago I finally got the last few boxes in our house unpacked. At last I could get down to the business of making our house pretty. You know, hanging stuff on the walls and making crafty decorations.

It has been satisfying.

Here is the story of my favorite project: new dining room chairs.

I picked these ugly duckings up for free via craigslist. They only cost me a nerve-wracking drive up to San Francisco and being yelled at by a cranky pedestrian for stopping 1/2 way through the cross walk instead of running the red light.

The chairs needed some work, you don't get glamorously finished furniture "free" on craigslist. I particularly loved the curves on these chairs and particularly loathed the vomit-pink, Naugahyde the seats were covered in.

After a couple coats of dark brown spray paint they were already starting to turn into swans.

The transformation story hits a delay here...the first fabric I picked was cute but I neglected to take into account the reality of my children's dining habits. On the very first day one chair got a forkful of spaghetti dropped on it and in the second week of new life another chair was sloshed by a tsunami of chocolate-crispy cereal milk.

After six weeks, if you were looking for a paint color that best matched my new seat cushions you would have had to look in the: Over-cast-sky-preceding-a-wicked-downer-of-a-weather-week-gray section.

(photo too depressing to post)

Now the story can get back on the "crafty-cute" track. When it comes to crafting, my friend Liz has mafia type connections--her husband is Italian. I kid. Liz does have a friend who has access to adorable fabric not found here in California. So I promised Liz a Don Corleone favor and she let me check out her fabric supply.

AND NOW...

Liz also listened to me prattle on about messy kids and how I was too classy to protect my chairs with tacky plastic. Then she wisely told me to get over myself and cover the chairs in plastic.

I am so glad I listened--two days in and each chair has successfully survived Macaroni & Cheese, cold cereal and peanut butter!