Happy Halloween!

We had the 'hood over for pizza before trick or treating again this year. My kids were all the same characters they were last year; Jacob - Boba Fett, Sarah - Sharpay, Ethan - Darth Vader and Lucas - Yoda. Chase and Connor were there, and new neighbors Ethan (Yoshi) and Phillip (Luke Skywalker). Not pictured - Julie and Zac from across the street.



Dividing, sharing and trading the haul...




This one's for you mom! Julie's dogs - Abe and Zeke - in their costumes!

Dress Up Days

The kids can't celebrate Halloween at school but many of the grades have a dress-up day based on their curriculum the week before Halloween. Sarah and the first graders were studying Egypt and my friend Charisse helped turn this angel costume into something more Egyptian.



Jacob (4th gr.) was studying pirates and was able to wear this costume one last time. He's had it for a couple years but it was finally just the right length and only a little tight in the calves.



Lucas and his class did get to dress up for a Pumpkin Patch Parade. Lucas was Yoda, again, and his friend Dryden was a Cars pit crew member. The headset was hilarious.

Round Top Yo'

Every year, my girlfriends and I make the pilgrimage to Round Top, TX. It's a town of about 78 people until the first weekend in October when it explodes to thousands in a temporary tent city of boutiques, antiques, crafts and all kinds of crazy booths. This trip didn't disappoint. Some of the items up for sale:





The other Shannon (who is also married to a Mark), Roxanne, Charisse and me.



We spent the day shopping and the night in Austin. We planned a grand night out but after dinner our bellies were full, our legs were sore and our eyelids were heavy. Zzzzzzz......until next year!

American Girl Trip - Extra Pics

Just outside the store...



Sarah with her new doll.



Eating at the AG Bistro. All the dolls got their own high chairs and tea cups.



Blowing out the candles on the birthday brownie bites.



Group of giggly girls - Lexie, Ashton, Bella, Sarah and Reese.

Gecko Update

The tiny gecko that scurried into the house last Saturday? Yeah...I caught him running down the hallway towards my bedroom Wednesday night. I was able to scoop him up and deposit him outside. Phew. No dead lizards in my living room or vacuum!!

Charisse's Surprise Party

Charisse and I were driving somewhere about two or three months ago and she turned to me and said very seriously "Is Tim planning surprise party for my 40th birthday?" And at the time, I was able to truthfully say "Not that I know of." She declared that was good news because she HATES surprises and he wouldn't clean the toilets properly and her anxiety would take over and she'd run amok around the neighborhood instead of entering her own house if she even remotely expected something.

So, a few weeks later, I get a call from Tim because he needs help planning the surprise party!! (Tim and Candace)




Jessica and I concocted a plan to get her out of the house last Saturday. Jessica asked her to go to an early happy hour because she had to go out to dinner with her husband and kids, and early was better for me because Mark was out of town and I had to get a babysitter. Every time we talked about it with her, we had to call each other to keep our stories straight. There were so many times when we almost blew it. Jessica and I felt sick the whole week leading up to it. Convinced she was going to:
a) find out
b) not go into the house
c) freak about a dirty toilet
d) start crying hysterically
e) or flat out kill us

And Charisse did suspect, but somehow everything got explained away satisfactorily. Like when we were on the way back to her house and I was furiously (and uncharacteristically) texting her husband which roads we were on so he would know how close we were. And when I asked to come to her house before Jessica dropped me off so I could get a necklace for the babysitter who didn't accept money. And when Jessica said she needed to come in and use the bathroom before driving the short distance home.

We thought we were goners when Charisse applied lip gloss at the gate to her neighborhood. I mean, who applies lip gloss before walking into their own house? But when we pulled up, Tim had dressed in a ratty t-shirt and was digging something out of his truck. No extra cars in sight. With the garage door opened, Charisse led the way into the house (exactly as Tim planned it) and turned the corner into the kitchen. Then the yelling began! "Surprise!" (Joe B. and Jessica)



Here's the cake I made for her. It was yellow cake with chocolate buttercream on the inside.



Here's the place where Naughty Boy took a chunk out of it. After several attempts to fix it, I finally gave up and just signed his name by the loosely-covered destruction.



Happy birthday Charisse! You may be 40 but you're still FABULOUS!

It's been a tough week...

It started last Thursday during set up for the Jennifer Massey Designs jewelry market. Jennifer's style is routinely copied and this market was no exception. During the summer, we met this lady, Stephanie, who made a little bit of her own jewelry but her forte were these molded clay pendants that she hand-paints and embellishes with rhinestones of all colors. Jennifer loved them and bought several to sell with her own necklaces. Jenn and Stephanie got to talking about how much they hate it when people copy their designs and Stephanie was especially critical of the copycats. We'll you can guess what happened...

During set up on Thursday, Jennifer noticed that Stephanie had copied a few pieces almost bead for bead but didn't say anything. When Jenn showed up for the first day of the show and Stephanie unveiled her entire booth, Jenn saw she had copied nearly everything we had in stock.

During the ensuing confrontation, Stephanie said she didn't copy Jennifer, but someone else (who had obviously copied Jennifer) and that she was competing in Dallas and said that we were in SA. But, there she was - in SA in person - and knowing full well that we go to Dallas Market too.

Jenn was in tears and ready to pack up the whole booth. But luckily, our loyal customers came through and bought from her. And some went so far as to walk through the copycats booth and say rather loudly "This stuff looks just like Jennifer Massey!" So, Jenn is resigned to keep designing new stuff and keep things under wraps for as long as possible. **Sigh**

I worked a bead party on Saturday night, which wasn't difficult, but the follow up seems to be...one lady forgot her checkbook so I spent several days waiting to see if she'd mail the money. One said her bracelet is too small. Didn't she try it on at the party?!? Now I have to fix that. And bring a donation for an event they are having at church.

Monday through Friday was a Box Tops collection at Hardy Oak. Not difficult either, but the extra work is just one more reason why I can't seem to get to the gym except on days when I have an appointment with the trainer. I also spent last week finding volunteers to organize a class basket for our auction in October. It was painful to find, ask, beg, coerce, comfort, answer and hand-hold enough women to make 50-some baskets.

Lucas has been a terror. Sprayed his own eyes with sunscreen. Sprayed hairspray all over my room. Shook eye-makeup remover all through the house. Has spread fake plant moss from the fake tree in the living room all behind the chair and couch. Keeps opening the door and just walking outside. Woke me up this morning by handing me a bag of marshmallows. Terrible twos got nothin' on the threes!

And then Friday...the weekend! Beautiful, hot day. The kids want to play outside. We go out for about an hour and Sarah crashes hard off her bike.




Yes, she had her helmet on, but I think it was too loose. Broke the little visor right off the front. Maybe my pain and suffering isn't so bad.

UPDATE: Five minutes after this post, Jacob opened the front door to bring in the paper and a tiny gecko scurried in. Now he is under either the couch or chair in the living room and I hesitate to vacuum up the fake moss because I don't want a "frog in a blender" scene in my Dyson.

American Girl Trip - Day 1

Sarah decided not to have a birthday party at home this year and instead, we drove up to Dallas to visit the American Girl store with some girlfriends; Charisse, Bella and Lexie. It was Bella's birthday the day before Sarah's. The American Girl store a two-story free-standing building near the Galleria. Little Girl Heaven.




Just picked out her doll. We got one with brown hair and brown eyes but had to get a medium skin tone instead of light.



We met Charisse's friend Sarah and her two daughters, Ashton and Reece, for dinner at the American Girl Bistro. The girls all got an appetizer of fruit, muffins and yogurt dipping sauce. Sarah got the Tic-Tac-Toe pizza and a had to promptly remove the green pepper strip Xs from her plate. The dolls got their own little high chairs that attached to the table and a tea cup and saucer at their place-setting.



After dinner, the girls all got a brownie bite. It was a fudgy brownie coated in a chocolate shell with pink sprinkles on a stick. They came three to a sundae dish filled with sugar to hold the sticks and a candle for Sarah and Bella to each blow out.



We closed down the store Saturday night but the staff was so nice and patient. They asked us if we wanted to shop after dessert even though the store was already closed. They would have pulled items for us too had we asked them to. Service was excellent! I highly recommend the experience and look forward to visiting the store at the Mall of America someday!