Month: October 2011

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Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! I wasn’t able to go trick or treating with the kids and my husband tonight because of my injury.  I made sure my husband took lots of pictures so I wouldn’t miss out.  I really wanted to go but walking around on crutches atgreat length did not sound easy.

I ended up staying home and passing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  I actually really enjoyed myself.  I sat on the porch all evening with a huge supply of candy.  I had my husband bring out all of the bags of candy we had and put them in our giant ice chest so I wouldn’t have to get up to refill the candy bucket every so often.  It worked perfectly because I was able to open the cooler up and just scoop out another bowl full whenever I needed more.

I had a bunch of kids show up to my house this year.  There were spooky costumes and a whole lot of princesses and fairies.  One of my favorites that I saw was a kid that dresses up as a bag of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans.  He had big giant balloons for jelly beans that were in a clear cellophane bag. It looked like he had a bag on the front and back so he could walk and not actually be in the bag.  I thought it was clever and really cute.  I wish we had two cameras because I wanted to take pictures of all of the cute costumes that I saw to share with the kids and my husband.

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Cancer Awareness

This month is breast cancer awareness month. I purchased a few cancer awareness ribbons in order to help support finding a cure. They didn’t cost very much and are really beautiful. I got a few for breast cancer and a few for lung cancer.

I have quite a few friends and family members that have suffered from numerous forms of cancer. I think it’s great that a small purchase can fund an organization that is working to find a cure to help all of those people.

I plan to give a few of the extra pins I purchased to the friends and family of those that I know that have suffered from cancer. My neighbor Susan will get one of each type. Her brother had lung cancer and her mother had breast cancer. I know she appreciates any help towards finding a cure for these terrible diseases. I’ll give one breast cancer pin to Nancy because she is a survivor as well as her sister. I don’t plan to give them all away though. I will definitely be sporting the pins on occasion myself.

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Ouch!

I tripped and fell as I was getting out of my car this morning. It hurt like crazy and I couldn’t move my left foot at all. Luckily, other people were in the parking lot when it happened and were able to help me up and in to my office. I called my husband to come get me to take me to get checked out.

He arrived about 30 minutes later and took me to the emergency room. We ended up waiting awhile before I was seen. The x-rays showed that I broke my leg in a few places. It wasn’t a pretty site. They were able to set the fractures and then stuck me in a cast. I’m not allowed to walk on it for at least two weeks.

What an inopportune time for this to happen, right before Halloween.

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Trip to Canada

I was thinking that it might be fun to take a trip to Canada some time. I’ve never been and was considering ideas of where our family could go for a vacation.   Maybe we could spend some time during the summer there and find a place to rent like some  Edmonton apartments.

All of our recent trips have been here in the states. I think it’s about time we took the girls out of the country, not too far though. I thought Canada would be a nice starting point.  We wouldn’t have to go on those long international flights over the sea.  I couldn’t imagine how tough those flights would be on children, and don’t want to put my kids, or myself for that matter, through the pain and agony.  If we go to Canada the length of any flight would be much shorter.

I need to talk to my husband about his thoughts on the idea.  Who knows, maybe he can come up with some exciting things to do while we are there.

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Tasty Treats

Someone brought in the most divine cake pops I’ve ever had in my life today. They were beautifully decorated to look like little pumpkins and ghosts. I don’t have the skill to do the fine piping work that was done on these or I’d try to make some myself.

These tasty treats were made with a pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting. They were coated in a chocolate candy coating that was smooth and creamy when you bit into it. The cake was exceptionally moist, not one bite was dry. The woman who made them wouldn’t give us the recipe but she did share that much with everyone.

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Cord Blood Banking

I was watching a show on one of those educational channels last night. It was all about saving cord blood and storing it in a cord blood bank. It was pretty fascinating to watch as they showed us the process of storing the blood and keeping it in a ln2Freezer. Who knew liquid nitrogen could be so useful?

Not only did they go over the methods used for storage, but they also explained the benefits and uses that the preserved cord blood could serve. They said that cord blood could be used in the treatment of some cancers, blood disorders, and even some genetic diseases. They showed us how cord blood might have advantages over traditional bone marrow transplants when a matching donor cannot be found in that very critical time frame.

This program made me wish I would have looked more into the benefits of saving the cord blood from our kids. We donated it because we couldn’t afford it. It would have been nice to have as a back up and just in case.  Nevertheless, someone may get some benefit from it.

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Pumpkin Carving

Today we carved the pumpkins we brought home from the pumpkin patch.  We decided to not do anything scary this year.  Instead we went with nontraditional cute pumpkins.
 
One pumpkin we carved into a penguin.  The girls have been obsessed with Happy Feet and can’t wait to see Happy Feet 2 so a penguin was an obvious choice.  The second pumpkin we carved into a cute kitty cat.  It was very detailed and had lots of fine lines to cut out.  I was worried that part of the pumpkin was going to cave in around the eyes because there was very little flesh left in that spot once it was finished.
 
Both pumpkins turned out great.  If I can find my camera I might even be able to upload some pictures of them.

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Home Business Advertising

One of the gals at work mentioned that she thinks her son needs to find a new Advertising Agency for his home business.  She said he has a great product and service but no one really knows about it.  She thinks that if he hired someone to advertise for him his business could really take off.  Right now his business is struggling to stay afloat.  He’s barely able to pay most of his bills.  He needs to start making a decent amount of money so he can pay off his loans and get in the black again and not have any debt left.

He needs a company that will create social media, viral videos, and eye catching advertisements for him.  She’s convinced that hiring someone can deliver all of these necessary components for a successful business.  If he were able to just add five more clients a month his profits would dramatically multiply.

I told her to do some research online to find some reputable companies.  He doesn’t need someone taking advantage of him.  His business is already struggling, that would only make matters worse.  It would be nice to find a company that has an impressive portfolio to look over and browse through to see how successful they have been with helping other customers.  Reading satisfied customer testimonials is always helpful.  But, it’s also important to read those reviews from customers about the companies when they weren’t happy with the results.  Reading both sides about each company can give you a great impression of what you might actually receive from an advertising company.

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Pumpkin Patch Trip

Today we took the kids to the local pumpkin patch.  We rode the hay ride and ran through the corn maze.  We all got our faces painted too.  The girls got cute little black cats painted on their cheeks.  My hubby’s face was turned into a skeleton.  The girls thought he looked really spooky.  I got a friendly jack-o-lantern painted on my cheek.

It was a blast roving through all of the pumpkins trying to find the perfect one.  There were pumpkins of all shapes and sizes.  They had some award winning pumpkins that were bigger than the kids.  I can’t imagine how long it would take to carve some of those giant pumpkins, let alone clean out all of the pumpkin guts and seeds.

After a while of wandering around and inspecting pumpkins we finally found the perfect ones.  We brought them home and plan to carve them out soon.  We don’t want to do it too early for fear of them going bad. There is nothing worse than rotten pumpkins sitting in your living room and on your front porch.

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Clothes Shopping

My hubby needs some new clothes.  He really likes an easy casual look when he’s not at the office. I think shopping for clothes for guys is a lot easier than it is to shop for women.  I mean there really isn’t much to it.

He likes polo shirts, graphic tees, jeans and the occasional sweatshirt with a hood.  He has a really easy to fit body.  I swear his body type is copied from a mannequin.  I wish I had that problem.  He has a perfect 32 inch waistline.  Pants and shorts come in all different colors and styles in that size.  He never has to have anything taken in either.

Anyway, I’m going to drop by the mall on my way home from work tomorrow and pick up a few outfits for him.  He hates shopping himself so I usually do it for him.  I pick up a couple things, bring them home, and he tries them on.  Whatever he likes we keep, and what ever he doesn’t like I take back and exchange.  I would like him to come with me to save time occasionally but this way I get to pick what I like and try to get him into some color.  If he had his way the only colors he would wear would be black, white, and gray.