You knew these were coming

Happy Halloween!

Behold The Pumpkin and The Fairy


We had a great and not-so-great weekend.
Saturday we ventured over to Pioneer Farms for a Fall Festival filled with farm animals, live music, crafts, and of course the pioneer village to explore. Sophie enjoyed apple bobbing, making animal sounds at the farm animals, and even sewed her own bean bag. That was part of the great part.


The not-so-great part was me being sick and feeling like doggy doo-doo. And Dwayne had a hockey tournament which meant he was pretty much gone the entire weekend. I'm glad he had fun (ok, not really) but it certainly sucked for me!

Let me tell you the other sucky part before I try to think of something else that would fit into the great part of the weekend.
This blasted time change!
My children are getting up at 6am and are cranky, whiny, and tired the whole day because they need to go to bed, but I'm trying to keep them up a little longer so they'll go to bed on time and not wake up even earlier than they are.
Why don't they get that you're supposed to GAIN an hour? Go back to sleep!!!

Ok so the other great parts of the weekend. Hmmmmmm...
Yeah, I got one!

I got some good pictures. Check them out here if you wanna see! (you've seen some of them already but I added the new ones to the end)
Now go eat lots of candy!

Guess who's back?

They didn't name me Percy the Persistent Spider for nothin.
I was on a brief leave of absence as I had an unexplanable urge to leave... like something bad was going to happen, something involving a boot and me being squashed to bits.
Anyway, I did get a little shopping done for Halloween. And now I'm back just in time for the festivities to begin this weekend.

I have also relocated for the fourth time in just a few weeks. I do hope I can keep this new place a bit longer than the last few.


Now if this lady and her clamoring daughter would just leave me alone!
Every morning... at the window, waving, pointing, and calling my name repeatedly.
And what's with the lady sticking that big silver thing with the bright light in my face all the time?!? I have to run away when I see her coming.

Your friendly spider,
Percy

P.S. Any of you amateur entomologists care to take a stab at identifying me?
If you guess correctly, I'll send you a special treat!

Way Back Wednesday: Halloween!

We start with Princess Jackie,

I didn't really even need a costume to be a princess.
I was still in college but interning at an elementary school this year.
For some reason I look a little lost in the picture...

"Look at me I'm Sandra Dee!"

Here I am as Sandy from Grease with one of the Pink Ladies, my dear friend Renee.
I remember one of the bars playing "Grease Lightening" so all 5 Pink Ladies, Danny, and Sandy(me) got up on stage and rocked the place!
good times.

And this was my freshman year in college (that's first year for the Canadians playing along).

Not really sure what the heck I was supposed to be (I'm on the left), but we wanted to dress up and party on Sixth Street the way all college students should.
And we did!
In this picture we hadn't even gotten to 6th street yet and we are obviously already on some other playing field...

And as for the rest of those party pictures...
well, my family does read this and I did not want to shatter their images of me as sweet little Jackie.
Although I'm sure it's much too late for that.

How can someone so cute be so horrible at night?

This little man kept us up alllll last night! Poor guy had some painful gas/tummy ache and has a snotty cold on top of it.
We got maybe 3 hours of sleep the whole night.
Not a happy camper today.

But damn if he isn't just so cute!

It was picture day at school. But he was so tired he cried through all his pictures.
That's ok though because I got about 33 great shots of him at home!

In Search of the Great Pumpkin

I had big plans take the kids to a pumpkin patch this weekend.
"We're going to the pumpkin patch, we're going to the pumpkin patch, we're going to the pumpkin patch..." Sophie and I sang as we headed out on Saturday morning.
On directions from Mama Duck, we went out Hwy 290 in search of the pumpkin field/patch/farm thingy so the kids could pick out pumpkins and we could take some really cute pictures.
Driving...driving...driving...looking for the pumpkin place...driving...still driving...
No pumpkin place in sight.
So a very grumpy, hungry, and frustrated Mom said we should just turn around and go back home.

But Daddy thought since we were halfway there already we could go into Wimberely and look around.
Oh that Daddy's so smart some times!
We drove into Wimberely and after a potty break and a nice lunch at the Cypress Creek Cafe, I felt better.
We walked around and looked at all the cute little art and antique shops. There were lots of fun Halloween/Fall decorations, many uniquely decorated scarecrows, and lots and lots of pumpkin displays. (here's a short slideshow to see pictures from our little trip)
The kids liked being outside and looking around. I also enjoyed watching the elderly folks admire, oooo, and aaaahhhh over our darling children.
It turned out to be a great day!
And alas, we found a place to pick out pumpkins.

Now granted this wasn't quite the big pumpkin patch I had in mind, but it did the job. And I knew we weren't going to venture out again looking all over Austin for another pumpkin patch.

Angel in Disguise

Angel in Disguise
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

So Long Percy

Percy must have read the blogsite because he did the skedaddle last night.

The assassination was planned for last night in the evening before it got too dark. But of course Dwayne did not get home on time and I was left to fend for myself and tend to the two beastly children. And it got too dark and I was scared to kill Percy in the dark for fear I might miss and he would attack me!
So the plan was rescheduled for the next day (today) when the children were napping.

When I woke up in the morning and brought Sophie downstairs we followed our usual morning ritual of looking out the window for deer and squirrels, and lately a peak and brief conversation with Percy.
But Percy wasn't there. I thought he might just be out for a his morning walk. But NO, he and his web had hit the road!
Hooray!! Now all you spider lovers will not hate me because I didn't have to slaughter Charlotte's evil cousin Percy.

I however will not be surprised if we see Percy again. For we know that he is Percy, the persistent spider.

Meet Percy

This is Percy the Persisitent Spider.

Percy is big, way too big for my liking. Although the pictures do not clearly reveal his true size, when Percy is all spred out he is bigger than an Oreo.
I do not like Percy or any of his kin folk.
Percy was a very busy spider and built an enormous web on our deck.
It was so big that I was even too scared to go outside for a few days.

I made my move yesterday while Percy was away. With big broom in hand and covered shoes on my feet, I had my bases covered in case Percy decided to attack while I was destroying his home.
Gone in less than 10 seconds.
whew! I'm glad that's over with.

Until today...

Yes, that is Percy. Percy is persistent. He again has built himself a big big web on my deck. This time on the other side of the table.

Damn! Today after I take two shots of whiskey and get my courage up I am going to kill Percy. So long sucka!!

I was let out of my cage

Saturday I got to escape the Lum household for a night of fun with the girls!

We started out the night at Carmelo's, a scrumptious and fancy Italian restaurant downtown.
All dressed up, cocktails, many appetizers, delicious pasta dinner, bottle of wine, decadent deserts, and my friends treated me for my birthday. And get this- conversation. Real conversation. Without screaming, whining children. That was the best treat! Of course there was a good twenty minutes we had to talk about our kids.

A little tipsy and very full, we meandered down to 6th street to check out many bars. Laid back college student ridden, beer drinking joints; upscale trendy dance clubs; gay half-naked men club, swinging outdoor funk music gin joint.
What a blast!
I found myself pleasantly drunk throughout the night. A good buzz to get a little wild and have a good time, but not so much I was dizzy falling down on my face. I'm learning how to do it right (finally) now that I don't do it so often.
What I couldn't believe is that I stayed out until I heard the infamous "LAST CALL!" line. What? How could I, mother of two small children stay out so late that I'm hearing "last call?"
Oh well, if you're gonna do it. Do it right I say.
Got home around 3am. Got naked and fell asleep.
Missed the children waking up. THANK YOU DWAYNE!
Stumbled out of bed about 9am. Immediately drank copious amounts of water and took two advil. Laid down for most of the morning trying to decide what I was hungry for and retold all the fun bar stories to Dwayne.
Felt just like the good old days...
Surprisingly the children were well behaved and I recovered from my hangover pretty quickly.

Sooooo...
who wants to go out with me next time?

yesterday was a hell of a day

hmmm, maybe because Mommy's not nearly as much fun as having Grammy and Daddy around all day.
Mommy doesn't give in to every whine or whimper, Mommy cannot entertain you for hours on end, Mommy can't hold you all day long, Mommy doesn't have as much patience as others, Mommy has 200 loads of laundry to do, Mommy has groceries to buy so we can eat, Mommy DOES NOT want to hear anymore whining or crying!!
At one point in the car I couldn't take it anymore- the constant whining, crying, and "I want Daddy" everytime something wasn't perfect- I cranked the volume on the radio and enjoyed the blissful feeling of not having kids for about 5 minutes.

So today was better. The kids went to their preschool for a few hours and I got to regain a smidgen of my sanity. And now here are pictures to share!

Back to the humdrum

There's so much to do when you get back. And the kids are never cooperative.
Finally I have a moment of peace as they are napping.

I know ya'll are dying to hear about our trip so here's the scoop:

Thursday: Arrived in STL, nice and cool weather. Left the kids with my parents and headed to the Blues game. Freeeee at last! Watched good hockey even though they lost. But I didn't recognize hardly any of the players cus they were all traded around, and they went and changed the NHL rules too. Oh well, the beer hadn't changed!
Got back to parents house and Holden was up screaming and crying. Talk about a major buzz killer. just go to sleep would ya!!

Friday: Very tired and a hanging a bit from the all the beers and crying baby. Went to the zoo with Grammy. What a terrific zoo they have in St Louis! If you ever get the chance, I highly reccommend going. Sophie had a blast and was enthralled with seeing all the zoo animals in real life.

Saturday: Ran errands and got ready to look gorgeous for the big reunion night. Grammy and Pawpaw got the priveledge of watching the angel children again. I told my mom if I came home and Holden was crying again, we were going to sleep in the basement.

Went to the reunion at a taproom downtown. What a blast!! It was so fun to see old friends! Everyone was grown up but most the people looked exactly the same. Dwayne was a great sport, made friends and chatted with everyone while I ran around trying to see everyone and get their story. It surprised me that we were one of the few people married and I think only one other couple had kids besides us! Man did I feel old!
But we had an open bar for three hours and I tried to drink my $77 dollars worth the best I could. Needless to say I was schnuckered up a bit and don't quite remember all the conversations of where/what everyone was up to now. Oh well, it was a fun night!

Sunday: tired. Had open house visiting day with family and friends at the house. Had a nice time seeing and catching up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and good friends. Too bad we don't get to see them but once a year.

Monday: Relaxed and hung out with the fam. Sophie and Holden soaked up all the extra attention for one last day!

We left on Tuesday. The kids were good on the plane.
A terrific trip! But as always, it felt good to be back home.
(will post more pictures soon)

A little something to leave you with

Since I didn't have time to dig out pictures for Way Back Wednesday, I thought I'd leave you with some shots of my darling children.

Feast your eyes!

If you knew how she likes to eat her pb&j snadwiches, you'd understand why she looks like this afterward.

And Holden seems to be following in her messy footsteps.


Ahhh, the love!

In two days...

It will be Thursday.
And Thursday means we will be sooooo outta here!
Going to visit my family up in St Louis, Mizery.
Should be a fun trip! We haven't seen my mom in about 6 months and my dad hasn't even met Holden yet. I wish they lived closer.

Thursday night we're going to the Blues game (that's hockey for you slow folks), opening night against Detroit. That was Dwayne's bday present from my mom. Can't wait! Beer, hockey, no children = great fun!

And it will be my birthday too. I'll be 10,592 days old. Damn that's a lot of spankings!

Saturday night will be my 10 year high school reunion. I can't wait for that!
I actually couldn't wait to get out of that place and graduated a year early (making it 11 years really, but whose counting?). But now, I'm so curious as to what everyone looks like, what they have done with themselves, are the cute guys bald & ugly or still gorgeous, are the geeks techie millionaries, are the pretty cheerleaders fat and pregnant, and how much beer can I drink without making a total ass of myself???

Will take many pictures of our trip and share when we return...