An exciting time for my kids.

Well, here it is. Time to bring out the decorations, the costumes, the candy... Yes, I'm talking about Halloween. Halloween is a big time of year for my kids, namely my son. He is a Halloween fool, loves everything about it. This year, he's picked out the costume of a clown. His reason behind being a clown is "To scare sissy"..... our oldest daughter. She really doesn't like clowns at all. Of course, we found him a clown costume at a consignment shop (with three kids, I have to be thrifty), and for two dollars, went home with the intention of scaring his poor sister half to death. Throw in a three dollar wig, and poof, instant "scariness" for his sister all night while they walk for their sugary treats. Of course, his older sister isn't going to tell him that she's only scared of the scary looking clowns, and let's face it.... with a baby face like his, he's no Tim Curry. The oldest has decided to take a cue from one of my previous costumes. This year, she is going as none other than The Crow. I did a fine make up job for me when I went as the comic book character (made famous by actor Brandon Lee, who incidentally died making the film). The middle child is not sure about what she would like to be yet. First it was a something-or-another, then something else, then a ninja.... I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what she'd like to be yet. Me? I'm going as myself. I'm going as a witch. I've got the costume all picked out (I'm sewing my own, so much cheaper than trying to find anything in my size), the material was pretty much given to me. The only thing I need to buy is a hat. I'm sure my family will say it's fitting for me, and there will be some funny jokes passed about the nature of the costume.

I will say, I miss making my kids' costumes. For three years, I made all their costumes. Slaved for days to make them the costumes they longed for. As they've gotten older, they have wanted more and more complex things. Last year, the oldest daughter wanted to be Boba Fett from the movie Star Wars. I looked into buying the costume, it was over 60 dollars.... making it would take about three months with all the materials required. Not to mention the fact that it was her dad's Halloween with her, so by all rights he should have bought her costume (right?)... so she ended up picking out a devil costume.... and was absolutely okay with it. She even poked her dad in the butt a couple of times with her little pitchfork thing. She was thrilled.

I guess there's not really a point to this nonsense. Just rambling.... but we got out the box of Halloween decorations today (Yes only one box compared to the ten of Christmas decorations), and the little man was in seventh heaven. He took out each little decoration and had to look it over, play with it (if it made any sort of sound, we had to listen to the sounds over and over again).... and finally display it. I must have heard the pirate chest open at least 20 times in a ten minute period, oh how I hated that song last year...I can see this year isn't going to be much better. Of course, it's all about how much fun they're having. If they're having fun, that's what makes it bearable. The four foot inflatable spider helped too..... his eyes lit up like he had just seen the best toy on earth. I blew it up in the living room, while his eyes were closed in anticipation.... when his eyes opened, his jaw dropped and he was like "WOW!!" It's now outside, propped up on my bird bath, with it's legs stretched out in all directions like it's waiting to pounce on an unsuspecting victim.

I guess I'll have to get some more Halloween decorations some time, the dollar store has some nice stuff as far as decorations go. Maybe by next year I'll have two boxes of stuff................

Some Family Traditions are fun!

Ok, this blog is going to veer off the beaten path of my nature walk blogs (no pun intended there either).....I'm sure some of you are ecstatic about that. I'm going to talk about .........


Family traditions. Some are great, sitting down at the table for a nice family meal (I am proud to say I'm one of those parents that sit down to a dinner every night with the hubby and kids to a meal). Or every holiday having a get-together....we do that too. A nice barbecue with the family, a nice outing to somewhere fun.


Where this is headed is our favorite family tradition.... It all started with my youngest brother and I. He would always hide his face when we tried to take a picture of him. Well as he got older, the hiding of his face turned into him flipping "the bird". It was like a forest fire, it spread quickly. Now, most of my family are devout Christians, so obviously they don't participate. My grandfather (who is 82 years old) thinks it's funny to see some of the flip off pictures. And the crazy thing is, we keep finding better ways to slip it in the pictures. There's one of me and the hubby dancing, I've got my face buried in his shirt and I'm flipping off the camera somewhat 'discreetly' on his shoulder.... the one taken when we went to the U.P. and were waiting in line at the toll booths (Les was in one car with her camera and we were in our car)....There's been numerous ones. One of these days I'm going to make an album with nothing but flip off pictures and give it as a gift (and Im sure it would be a hit in our family). I realize most of you are sitting here shaking your heads going "what a shame"...... well, our family likes to have fun once in a while. We do realize when it's appropriate and when it's not. For example, we would never do it at a funeral. But if the wedding is some of our wacky family, it'd be kind of funny to see a picture of the wedding party in nice clothes flipping the camera off....... Maybe for our ten year anniversary we'll have a party like that, and we'll encourage the guests to be creative.

Nature Walk.

This is the magnificant scene taken on our nature walk yesterday. We actually started out in the woods. It was a beautiful day out, a little on the cool side, but gorgeous nonetheless..... We "hiked" 1.29 miles to see this, to walk on the beach after coming straight out of the woods. We had first seen (pictured below) the ruins of a lighthouse. It was interesting to see the ruins of what was a great structure at one time (the lighthouse obviously has been moved), there was a board with some information on it. The kids had a great time walking, and it was nice to get out of the house. For those of you that have not read my previous blogs, I am a very outdoors type person most of the time. I work from home, so I don't get to leave my house very often. The 2.58 (total distance) hike was a nice refreshing way to relax. I do have to say that I did notice that there was no birds singing at all though. The woods were very quiet, the only sounds were the dogs we had with us (My dog Fred and my mom's three dogs Josie, Rommy, and Dottie) and the kids tromping back and forth on the trail. It was so peaceful, it was almost surreal. I cannot wait until tax time. I have plans for new comfortable shoes, a nice pack, and maybe a nice walking stick. Lol. I have to start somewhere, small is the best way to go. I am glad that I have started to want to hike, gives me an excellent way to lose the unwanted pounds I have. I am thinking about borrowing snowshoes from my mom so that I can go for "walks" in the winter as well. As I've said in my previous blogs, I can't wait for sledding, and I think outdoor walking would be fun too. Not quite hiking, but just for some exercise. I've sat too long in this wretched house, and desperately need time out and about.

I guess the best part about the hiking and the sledding is that it's free, other than the fuel you spend to get from point A to point B (which is cost enough!! lol). I do have one more place I would like to try hiking at this year yet. It's supposed to be an excellent spot for all types of outdoor activities; camping, hiking, using ATV's, biking, etc. I also found a list of campgrounds we will be staying at next year in the Ottawa National Park in the Upper Penninsula. I didn't realize there was such a gem of a place in the U.P. to go for camping and hiking. There is a trail list and it is HUGE. I'm talking many many miles of trails in the middle of nowhere....where if you get lost you use a compass or find your way back.... to me that's something that I would love. Not to get lost, but get far enough from highways and stuff that all you hear is nature. I have an affinity to nature. I love the way the sounds make me feel, almost at peace in a hectic world. It's my drug, since I don't indulge in actual drugs lol.... I love to feel the breeze caress my face as I'm walking along the wooded trail, the slices of sunlight penetrating the little gaps between the trees...the sounds of birds, leaves rustling, squirrels, water rushing, and anything else that I may hear. I sometimes just close my eyes and listen. That's important. I do that at the beach too. Just to listen to the waves flop lazily on the sand.... such a relaxing sound. Maybe I'll start biking some time in this life, but that would actually require a bike.....lol.

Dang writer's block! And other rants.

Ugh, nothing like Writer's block. I'm so used to being able to blog, and every time lately when I sit down, there's no words. There's nothing to flow from the recesses of my brain, nothing. It's empty. Not my brain (Thanks for the votes of confidence there guys!), but the ideas I have in there somewhere are just gone. They flew away while I was sleeping...... maybe it was a blog goblin, coming to steal the writings of a freak like me. Even now as I sit blogging about not blogging, it's taken me some time to write a paragraph.

I guess I could blog about what happened today, although it's not a very good story, and it's definitely not filled with colorful words (unless you count cussing....lol). It started last night. I found that a slipper shoe had been thrown at my dog. He's a big bloodhound, and when people come on our property he barks. Well today, he barked one time, and the punk skateboard kids from next door started harassing him, making him bark even more. They then started screaming "Shut the f'ck up!!" to my dog! I went outside to get the dog. He went inside.... well a few hours later they were nowhere around, so I decided to let him out again since his "process" was interrupted the first time. He went out, did his thing..... I came outside and played fetch with him for a few minutes, until he just sat with the stick and happily munched on it. Until the kids came out. The one had a dog, and decided to walk through our property with it. I am so ticked off that I could spit nails right now. What gives these kids the right to sit there and throw items at my dog, swear at him and come onto our property?!?! I'm going to go out tomorrow and promptly buy some "No trespassing" signs, and if they come onto my property again I will be calling the police. My dog can't go outside and go to the bathroom without these kids harassing him. The first picture here is him as a puppy. He was so cute. He loved to sleep and cuddle. The second picture is him now.....he's a mammoth. He's the best dog we've ever had though, except for the barking he's generally good natured. There was an article in the paper here a while back about his brother, who sadly had to be put to sleep because of the owner's stupidity. The article said how bloodhounds were horrible family pets, and they're vicious. They'll attack children, other pets, and they are "not good family pets at all!". Well let me tell you something, you pompous assholes..... we've had this dog since he was 5 weeks old. Yes, 5 weeks! He has been great with our children, has never once tried to bite them or anything like that. He is very protective of us, that's just his nature. Yes, he is kind of skeptical of people, some jerk teased him when he was a puppy and he has trust issues with adults. He's getting better about barking, he's learning slowly that he can't bark whenever he wants to. Just because the other person tied theirs with a tow chain out in the back yard and made them mean by treating them badly does not make the rest of the breed a bad dog. Oh don't get me wrong, if you come on our property he's not friendly at all, but as I said that's just his protective nature. All in all he's a good hearted dog. He just doesn't like being harassed is all.

Snow.

There are many things I'm proud of in my life.. How well adjusted my three children are, the fact that I'm able to work from home and still pay bills, the new truck we just got because we found a heck of a deal, and the talents that I have. I have an aptitude in writing, photography, sewing, singing, playing musical instruments by ear, crafts.......... I was blessed with many talents. Take for instance, the photo to the left. That was taken in our front yard. The way the snow weighed down the branches of the bush just screamed for me to take a picture of it.....it was a nice crisp winter day that day, the heavy snowfall had occurred overnight. I went outside for the mail and noticed the bush sagging from the weight. I decided to go back inside for my camera, and I am glad I did. This beautiful picture is the result. I love snow almost as much as rain. If you've read my previous blogs, you know what I mean. The quietness of the world when it snows is phenomenal here. We tend to get a lot of snow at once (which is great for sledding by the way), and it muffles the noises of traffic, loud people, etc.

I guess the best thing about all the snow is the way it makes me feel. My favorite thing when I was a kid was sneaking downstairs at night around Christmas time. I would open the blind, there was a streetlamp a little ways away from the window so I could see the snow in the darkness..... I would turn the tree lights on and sit in peaceful quiet watching the snow fall to the earth in the background...... Still to this day one of the most peaceful memories I can remember from a time that was filled with grief, hate, violence, and loneliness. Life throws some aweful punches sometimes, but that's not what this blog is about. It's about peacefully watching the glistening snow fall on a cold winter's day while sitting inside by the warm fire. It's about going sledding with the kids when it's snowing and seeing their reactions when they go down the hill. It's seeing all the trees heavy with the night's two feet of snow that snuck up on us (lol) and thinking of how beautiful and surreal it all looks. My grandmother lives in a densely wooded area, and I love to look at the trees there when there's tons of snow on them.....

Well I think I'm about done with this blog for now. Until next time!

Maybe I'm off track with this....

Ok. So I'm reading other blogs on here, and I realize "my blogs suck compared to the professional quality of these other blogs!"..... I didn't realize my blogs weren't supposed to be about me, but about important things like elections and what shoes to wear to that wedding.... hehe. I just want a spot where I can rant about nothing and be happy about it. I love to write little quips about nothing and chuckle to myself when I'm the only one that can possibly know the meaning of them......

Anyways, I just wanted to see how many people A.) Read this blog and B.) How many comment on how horrible or great it is that I've got my own little "style".... I am who I am, and I like to blog about my boring little life. I love the outdoors, and I tend to talk about it alot. I talk about what happened in my day, how the family is doing (even if you don't know me, I still talk about the family, they're what makes my world go round...), music I love, gripes I have about life in general, and sometimes just complete nonsense. I have a saying. I was always the fat kid in school, and didn't have many friends until I dropped 75 pounds in a summer....then everyone wanted to be my friend. I wouldn't submit to that, they couldn't be my friend when I was overweight, so why would I be their friend now?? So my saying is now "Life isn't a popularity contest. I wasn't popular in school, and I don't care if I am now." I do have friends, don't get me wrong, but they're the friends that have stuck by me in my overweight days, my skinny days, my pregnant days, and all the other days in between.

I don't really know where this blog is headed, I just wanted to blog tonight for some reason. I felt the urge to let my fingers do the walking and type something, anything. I've had a very long day, and need to unwind. For me it's writing that helps.

Random thoughts of mine.

This is a scene that takes my breath away. It was a gorgeous day out, had rained that morning, but then it cleared up, the sun came out and it was warm again. We went hiking in the woods two miles to see this, and to me it was worth it. The tree in that picture was in the middle of a lake, as was the little patch of grass next to it. I think a lot of nature is beautiful. A cousin watched me one time just before it rained (I didn't know he was watching)... I tilted my head slightly toward the sky, and when the fat drops of rain started falling, I closed my eyes and let them fall on my face. He told me "You see the rain how I see it. I saw how you looked at the clouds, you see more than just some clouds and stupid rain." He gets me, he understands. Most people look at me like I'm crazy when I just close my eyes and take in the sounds and smells of nature. I also believe every season has a particular smell to it, and you can tell when it's coming. Fall has a crisp, dead leaves smell...... when snow is coming the air here smells so cold and fresh. Summer has a variety of smells, the warmness in the air, around here there's a sort of "fish" type smell because we're so close to the water..... and spring...ahh spring. The smell of spring is like everything in the ground being "reborn". It's got a newness to it.

I know that all sounds weird. I really do. But frankly, I really don't care how it sounds. My kids know the difference too.....right before it rains, Kelsey will say "It smells like wet cardboard, it's gonna rain"...she has put the smell right before the rain to an image of wet cardboard..... not exactly what I would say, but it's a good analogy.

The strange part is that nature isn't the only thing that stirs up this array of emotions in me. Music makes me the same way. If I hear lyrics in a song that strike a chord in me, I will listen to more songs by the artist to get a "feel" for their music. Some musicians stick with me. Some don't. It just depends on their other songs....there's some musicians that have one or two songs I absolutely love.....but I listen to their other songs and there's just not the heart into those...If they don't have their heart into their music, I can't listen to it. I suppose that's why I like older music too (like 1950's type music). They put so much into their music...and it wasn't that screaming or "growling" crap either. It was real "put my heart into my music, sing it like it's my last song" type music. They loved what they did......and usually didn't start out doing it for money.

Money is a powerful and evil thing. lol. Most people now don't know what it's like to live in poverty. Three children and three mortgages are harsh to the pocketbook. We try the best we can, it's all anyone can do anymore with today's economy the way it is. Especially in Michigan. I wouldn't have to be in the line of work I'm in if there were any jobs around here that pay more than 7.40 an hour. And I have college education in small business management. I will eventually go back and get into another field, I eventually would like to be a zoologist or do advertising. It would be very nice to live in an area that had zoos or advertising companies for either of those jobs though lol. Another great job would be some sort of design thing....as I like to play around with backgrounds and making pages of all sorts. I know I've gotten way off-base here, but there are so many random thoughts running through my head right now, and I'm trying to get some of them down so I don't forget them. I tend to have a horrible memory, and love to write down events when they happen to keep them fresh in my memory. Or when I have a random bunch of thoughts, I blog about them lol.

I guess this is all for now...I'm sure I'll be blogging on here quite a bit, I love to write.