a mummy and a giraffe

so trick or treating went very well tonight!!! last year, clay was totally overstimulated and didn't want to trick or treat AT ALL! what ended up happening was that gerry and i got thoroughly aggravated and practically dragged him house to house. last year's halloween=NO fun!
then there was this year... the boys were so excited and loved every minute of it! since we live in the boonies, we drove into town, parked the cars, and walked around. clay was loving it so much he actually said "this is great! i wasn't thinking with my brain last year!" he is too funny sometimes...

here is his mummy costume... it looked awesome when he went to school today. then he jacked it all up at their "dance party" and took all his cheesecloth wrappings off... and left them in his desk! thank goodness i had bought a bit more yesterday "just in case". so his mummy wrappings are not what they were supposed to be, but oh well... i need to learn to relax a bit.
chippy was a giraffe... a costume my mom made for my nephews a few years ago. he was too funny... he would run up to the houses, get his candy, turn and show me what he got, and exclaim "lookit mom mom!" he would then run back to his stroller, climb in and wave bye to the people who just gave candy. it was so flippin cute!!!grace was a lady bug... too cute! she wasn't a huge fan of trick or treating... she went through spurts of excitement, followed by fits of rage. but she looked so damn cute! can you even stand the pigtails? i LOVE them!

oh yeah, and notice the candy bag? i made it in 13 minutes before we left because i realized that i had never gotten/made them bags! duh!

well, tomorrow night is the night... all i have to do now is find a white button down and figure out how the heck i'm going to get my needle to stick to my chest. oh yeah, my anonymous commenter was right... mrs mia wallace... pulp fiction. :) just wait til you get a load of me tomorrow!!!

why is 97% of everything that happens in my life chaotic???

so eveything started out great... clay and carter were helping dig out the guts of the pumpkin and everyone was loving life.i went to work on our pumpkin... a silly face, a spider and a bat. all was great in the stead household.and then we put the (fake, battery operated) candle in and turned off all the lights... and carter started crying. by no means is he afraid of the dark, if that's what you're thinking. he just took one look at the pumpkin and started crying... hard! i'm not sure what the issue was... and clay must have found it amusing because he kept saying "look at the pumpkin carter! look!" and carter just cried louder and harder. i don't get it...

so here it is... our pumpkin and my crazy (shirtless) kids!

***FYI- an anonymous commenter guessed correctly... i'm rockin the pulp fiction costume. and by the way, i look SO FLIPPIN CREEPY with black hair! good call commenter! nice work! :)

exercise next week???

so i never got the basement cleaned this weekend. BUT the halloween costumes for clay and i are in the process! saturday afternoon clay and i set out to tackle party city in search of a costume for clay. well, there were a TON of people in the store and clay bugged out a little. he didn't want ANY costume, and he just wanted to leave. as we ate lunch, we discussed other options... and came up with a mummy. now, i really wanted to find him a costume that i didn't have to make... carter is wearing a giraffe costume that my mom made for my nephews a few years ago, and i was loving the idea of not having to make clay's this year too. no such luck. so we headed to joann's and then the mall. we got 10 yards of cheesecloth at joann's and a white turtleneck and sweatpants at the mall. now i just need to find a white hat...

as for my own costume... let's see if you can guess. i will wear black capri pants, a white button down shirt, red lipstick, and a black wig cut like a bob with bangs. i will give you 2 clues. 1. it's from a movie and 2. the movie involves a (kind of) famous dance scene. now i know what you're thinking... dancing??? it's not what you think. guess will ya? leave me a comment guessing my costume. you won't win a prize or anything, it will just entertain me! :)
oh yeah, that picture above... that was clay's super cool outfit he wore yesterday to hang out and *watch the bills game. i just found it funny... camo shorts, a maroon sweatshirt, a camo vest (that is reversible orange) and his barn boots... he gets his fashion sense from his dad.
and a little props for my brother in law dave... this is his first year hunting, and he got this button buck with the bow. i'm very proud of him! he says from now on he will only shoot a "trophy buck" :)

*ok, so we didn't really "watch" the game... we ate. bread dip, taco dip, and the most fabulous crab legs ever! :)

some pictures...

so carter has suddenly decided that he no longer needs to sleep at night... especially in his own bed! last night, gerry put him to bed (he was asleep) and a few minutes later he came strolling down the stairs ready to hang out! i was in my room playing on the computer when he came in and said "hey mom!" he then climbed up on my bed and kept yelling "tickle mom! tickle!" like an idiot, i played with him and tickled him for a while... that's when we snapped this picture. then (all fired up) i gave him back to gerry to try to get him to sleep again. yeah... i need to do something about this!every morning, clay goes to my sister in law christiane's house to wait for the bus. he is there 45 minutes or so every morning... so he eats breakfast and brushes his teeth etc there. well lately he has been OBSESSED with making scrambled eggs. he makes them every morning at her house (and at our house on the weekends). i think it's the excitement of cooking on a stove (a no-no for kids) and being like dad (who usually cooks big breakfasts on the weekends). well, this morning i got this picture of clay... he is now teaching grace how to cook eggs!

notice he holds down her other arm so she doesn't stick her arm in the fire! someone needs to tell him he's 6 (and a half) and not 36!!! such an old man...

well, i have a lot to do this weekend... clay needs a costume, i have some halloween bags to make, and i am cleaning out my basement so that christiane and i have some place to exercise... these 5:15 am walks are getting VERY COLD!!! :)

hope this isn't too graphic for you...

so here's just a little shout out for gerry... he got his first deer of the season! saturday morning started bow season, and he got this doe sunday morning. i'm not sure who was more excited, gerry or clay! carter seemed a little confused... he just kept staring at it in the back of gerry's truck. well, this is good news... the pressure of getting a deer is now gone. now we will have to see how many more he gets this year!

mmm... candy!

so i'm not really a big fan of your typical "holiday" material... but then i found this. it's nice and subtle. the orange and white stripes on the black fabric... then i found the ribbon. the black with silver sparkly spider webs, and the white trick or treat ribbon with the candy corn. i think they are pretty cute.
so i made these trick or treat bags... i cut out 7 of them. now let's just hope people want to buy them! :)

can you tell i'm tired? i can't even be witty and clever (you're probably thinking, "uh, hello? you're never witty and clever!"). i apologize... i need to go to sleep now.

neighbors...

so, my neighbors rock. on both sides. to our left is our crazy neighbor murph who clay pretty much thinks is his best friend (even though murph is a 51 year old man). murph (as well as clay) has NO IDEA that he isn't 6 1/2 like clay is. they hang out, shoot hoops, stack fire wood etc together. if we are eating dinner and clay sees murph going through the back yard to do fire wood, clay will jump up from the table and yell out the window, and assure him that he will be out to help as soon as he is done with dinner! on our right side is carol and tom. typically, carol and tom leave mid october to travel down south. so far, they are still in town... i don't think they can get enough of us! ha!
anyhoo, my boys have realized in the past few months, that if they go over to carol and tom's and knock on the door, someone will open the door and give them ice cream! originally clay would go over, knock, be let in, and whoever was there would promptly get the ice cream, and put it in a styrofoam cup with a plastic spoon, and then he would be on his way back home. well carter quickly caught on to this neat trick. soon afterward, you would see them both disappear from our yard and head next door... they would stand at the door, knock, and be let in. now they have a whole system down... carter gets the spoons, clay gets the cups, while carol or tom gets the ice cream. once they have their treats, they say thank you and come back home. carter must REALLY love the ice cream though... he must say thank you to them at least (no exaggeration) 13 times on his way back to our yard. he takes a bite, walks a few steps, turns and waves and says thank you... takes another bite, walks a few more steps, turns and waves and says thank you... it continues on. it's too cute! well this picture is them with their ice cream yesterday... i was raking the leaves that clay was supposed to help with... thanks a lot clay! :)

i think fall is my favorite season

so don't get me wrong, i LOVE the summer... tanning, boating, beaching, bonfiring, beering etc. there is just something about the fall that i adore. what do i love about the fall you may wonder? the colors, the smells, bonfiring, beering... ok so it's not too much different i guess! i just love the look of fall. here is our pond at the land...
well this past weekend was chock full of excitement... not only was it our 7th anniversary, but it was also fall fest in ellicottville. my girl jen and i went into e-ville saturday afternoon to do a little "crafting". well it just so happens that this is our first year without having to drag either of my children with us... let's just say we somehow ended up in the ellicottville brewing company's beer tent. weird how that happens! :) all i know, is that even though our "shortcuts" to and from e-ville didn't work out all that well, we DID find the BEST parking!!! (right jen?) as for our anniversary, we spent sunday night at the black dog lodge in ellicottville. it was great! we went into town that evening and ate at tips up cafe... it was delish! i highly recommend both places... the black dog lodge was an awesome bed and breakfast...

this is phillips road, where our land is located...

and this is our creek... by the way, do you say creek (rhyming with week) or creek (rhyming with sick)? just curious... i know for myself it all depends on the size. for example, growing up we walked past a crick every day on our way to and from school. it was a crick because it was never deeper than our mid calf, and only about 3 feet wide. at the land, i consider this a creek. although it doesn't look very deep or wide in this picture, it actually is... looks can be deceiving.
then there is the house my in laws are building... it's still a work in progress. good gravy is it going to be sweet! the window at the upper left is our family's bedroom... the one on the other side is christiane and her family's. we have our own sweet bathroom up there too. i'm thinking that camping is going to take on a WHOLE new meaning next year when we are staying in there as opposed to our rotting out camper!

now fast forward to today. i actually had to stay home today with carter who has been sick since saturday. when the medicine kicks in, he's fine. when it wears off, he is a BEAST!!! i'm afraid clay is coming down with it too...

but anyhoo, we went outside for a bit today... the boys LOVED the leaves... clay was kind enough to pose for me.
carter on the other hand wouldn't stop running and jumping... hence the action shot!

my anniversary

so i guess it's not MY anniversary, it's OUR anniversary... we will be celebrating by going out to dinner, and spending a night at a bed and breakfast. i'm so excited to actually sleep a night without one of my kids coming in and asking me a million questions. more importantly, i will be so happy to not be woken up at 6 am with a dirt bike on my face! so anyhoo, i got this really cute turquoise shirt and matching necklace to wear to dinner. of course this meant that i needed to make myself a new purse to match!

so here it is... a cute cotton floral on the outside, with a quilted cotton lining. i'm really diggin this fabric!
then, for my inside pockets, i made 3. a big one on one side, a smaller one on the other side, and a cute little pen pocket. i decided to start making a pen pocket in there because i am sick of searching in my purse for the pen that sits at the bottom of my purse. i have to say, i love this new bag.

now i REALLY need to start making purses and bags for OTHER PEOPLE!!! ugh! i will try to work on it this weekend! :) happy fall fest ya'll!

try not to laugh...

so i have gotten really fat. i mean it. i currently weigh more than i did when i was 9 months pregnant. people say "oh, you just had a baby!" yeah, too bad i had a baby 2 years ago! and i already lost that weight... i just happened to find it again, and more!

anyway, my point is, my sister in law and i have decided that we need to start exercising. she actually DID just have a baby 8 weeks ago. so anyhoo, we are going to make a workout area in my basement for when it gets really cold outside... we have a treadmill, an exercise bike, and an ab chair thing that my brother in law bought off an infomercial to make us skinny. but gerry won't move any of the equipment into my basement until it is clean... he lectured us as if we were children. i'm getting off point again... anyway, so we have started walking in the mornings. when i say mornings, i mean 5:15 in the morning! it's really damn early! but it's the only time we have to do anything... i blame having kids on this!


so, suffice it to say, that it is REALLY dark outside at 5:15... especially out where i live! i never noticed before the lack of street lights we have until we started walking at the crack of dawn! it is also interesting to see how many other people on our street are up at such an awful time of day... must be all those farmers! once again, i'm off topic! so christiane decided to bring her dog with us for "protection". her dog is a sweet little girl who is pitch black and not all that "protective"! we are constantly tripping over her leash because she blends right in with the dark! also, chris decided to bring a light with us. this ghost lantern in the picture is the light she decided to bring so cars could see us. yeah, it's about as bright as a tea light candle... and the batteries aren't all that great! she also has one with a pumpkin that we occasionally use... it also is not the best light source ever!
then there is the fashionable outfits we sport... yesterday i couldn't stop laughing at chris... she was rocking the black capris, black socks, and white sneakers. it was so cold this morning that i was wearing a tank top, t shirt, long sleeve t shirt, hooded sweatshirt, and fleece vest... and i was still cold! we really don't have to worry about getting kidnapped, that's for sure... the sight of us would scare off anyone!

well, we are going to keep it up... it's not only exercise, it's also a nosy person's dream! we are getting good scoop on the doings of our neighbors... not to mention the fashion show. ha! we thoroughly amuse ourselves...

laptop bag!!!

so i'm super excited about the bag i made last night! all day long at school, i go from class to class with my students. i have no classroom of my own, or even a desk to call my own... therefore i carry all of my crap with me everywhere i go. i don't know about anyone else, but i don't travel lightly... i carry a TON of stuff with me, just in case i need it. crap in my bag includes my (school provided) laptop. the school also provides a (horrendously ugly and boring) carrying case for this laptop. the case does not provide ample room for my other stuff (like my snickers bars, baby wipes, multi-colored pens, and notebooks) so i have been struggling. and ps, i work in a high school... just picture me with my heavy, awkward bags trying to get from class to class down the hallways, which are full of children who are 2-3 times my size! it's not pretty! well i will struggle no longer!
now i have a sweet new bag! it's lined with a thicker, quilted cotton... the shoulder straps are padded (to comfort my delicate little shoulders), and it has 2 nice, big pockets to store my candy bars... i mean pens :)
a magnetic snap keeps it closed... by the way, i have had this fabric for quite a while now. i have been hemming and hawing over what to make out of it... because i love it. i think this was a good choice!

on another note... clay lost ANOTHER tooth last night! if his teeth don't start staying in his mouth, i'm going to be broke!
and here is how weird my kid is(he gets it from his dad i think!)... he decided that he didn't want to put his tooth under his pillow for the tooth fairy last night. so he dumped out what was left of the mouthwash, "cleaned" the bottle out, put his tooth in, and filled it with some water so his tooth wouldn't "dry out". yeah, i have no idea why... i asked him a few times for his reasoning, and he really had none. so i went with it. he was amazed this morning when the tooth was gone from the bottle and there was $1 under the bottle for him. i'm kind of afraid of what he will come up with next!

well folks, (and by folks, i mean tina and vicki... because i'm pretty sure those are the only people that read this blog) i am happy to report that i have finally listed 2 bags on etsy... we will see how it goes. for now, i have some serious sewing to do... i'm hoping to do 5 bags a week. christmas is coming and hopefully someone out there will like my stuff enough to give it away to someone (and not someone they dislike!) ta ta for now! :)