Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. I mean really love it. I love to decorate the house, I love to dress up, I love scary things and I absolutely love little kids in costumes coming to my front door! Halloween is a reward for the end of summer, in my opinion. And, I got the best Halloween Party Favor in history at a party 7 years ago! The silver candelabra on the table was inherited from my exhusband's grandmother. It was in horrible shape when I got it and although I know I should polish it and have it fixed, alas, it works so well for Halloween. It's extra special, too, because it was purchased with Green Stamps! Remember those??? David is always dressed for the occasion. When we had my brother and sister in law's wedding reception at my house, I made David a veil and he wore pearls. It amuses me, and it's all about me. This is my all time favorite Chloe Halloween costume! It began as a costume for a Christmas play, in which she was cast as the Ghost of Christmas Past and the Music Director and I thought it would be a hoot to dress her as a dead celebrity. She loved it so much that she wore it for the next Halloween. Just lovely! I even have live decorations! Although, Ozzy is too large to fit into that basket this year, he sure gave it a try and he had that same look on his face that I have every spring when I try on my skinny white capri jeans. What the hell happened?!?! My favorite Halloween party was seven years ago at my friend, Angela's house. I was single at the time and a couple of friends were trying to fix me up. Flattering, but scary. My girlfriend Toni told me, "My boyfriend has a friend you just have to meet. He's really nice and very good looking". Another friend said, "I'm bringing a friend who is Italian and a massage therapist." So, I went to Tulsa for the party. I mean, hell...who am I to say no to a man smorgasboard? And...it's extremely flattering to have your friends want to fix you up. Maybe I'm not crazy after all? The party was great. The house was decorated beautifully! Lots of fun people in cool costumes. Mine was admittedly lame. I wore the witch hat that you saw up there on David and a black frothy top and jeans. But hey, I was a single woman with two kids and I didn't think I needed any additional help scaring anyone off! I met the Italian massage boy. Nice, big, muscular. But not a lot goin' on upstairs. He seemed awfully young and the last thing I needed was another child. Not really my type, but a nice guy. I went outside to the picnic table area and was visiting with Angela's husband and some other guys who I thought worked with him. There was one guy that caught my attention. Pretty eyes, great smile...everyone else wandered off but we continued to talk and we laughed at the same things. Hmmm. Eventually we were interrupted as my friend, Toni, joined us. "Oh, I see you two have already met." "Gerald, this is Jana. Jana...Gerald". We both kind of lit up, realizing that we were who we were. He had thought that I was Angela because I had been hanging out with her hubby when he first saw me and although he was enjoying it, thought I was a little flirty for a 'married' woman. We talked and hung out all night and at the end of the evening, Gerald gave me a fireworks-inducing-foot-popping kiss that was unbelievable! I gave him my phone number. He called two days later and every day after that while we long distance dated for almost three years. Admittedly, Gerald did most of the driving. It was about three and a half hours each way and just more feasable since I usually had the kids here for at least one night of the weekend. Our long distance romance ended on August 7th, 2004, when we got married in Tulsa and he moved in with the kids and me and it's blissful, 'close up' romance now. So tonight we will put out the scary stuff in the front yard, blast Ozzy Osbourne music from the house and have a ball! We'll remember the party where we met and be thankful that we both showed up. Happy Halloween to everyone!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Sheryl Crow & Me

OMG - I've gone green!!! I know, I know...how could that be? Don't be alarmed, it's just a little green tint. Yesterday I purchased reusable shopping bags at Whole Foods. They are awesome - designed by Sheryl Crow - they are very large and have handles at the top, like a big paper grocery bag. AND only 99 cents each!!!
I have been trying to find ways to help the environment and this seemed like a no brainer, so I am one of 'those' people now, as my son, the grocery store bag boy, says.
The droning on of 'Going Green' by celebrities really does get on my nerves, tho. (Sorry Sheryl). If I owned ten cars then one of them would be a hybrid, too. Hey,Jennifer Aniston! You're so worried about the environment, yet that designer dress you're wearing could feed an entire African village for a year! (Ok...the dress wouldn't necessarily DO the feeding, you know what I'm saying!)
I have also bought a reusable water bottle from which I drink (free) filtered tap water, instead of bottled water. 37 billion empty water bottles ended up in landfills last year - yikes.
I'm not trying to be all 'greener than thou'. Those of you who know me can rest assured that I'm still more Blahnik than Berkenstock and Al Gore just gets on my nerves. Just a few easy changes. Something to think about.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Disappearing Hoodie Syndrome

Today was the first cool day in Texas and just like every year...the hoodies have magically disappeared. Poor lost hoodies. Discarded by my child on a warm Spring day, never to be found again. Maybe I'll peruse the Lost and Found at school and see what I can come up with.
The phenomenon of 'Disappearing Hoodie Syndrome' reminds me of 'Spring Jean Disease'. By Spring, the kids will have worn huge, gaping holes in the knees of all of their jeans, but if I buy new ones, they only wear them for a couple of weeks until it gets warm and they switch to shorts. Then come Fall, the jeans are three inches too short because those dang kids keep growing!
So, I make them wear the super holey jeans to school and send a note in to the teacher to let her know that no, I haven't lost my job and she doesn't need to take up a collection for our family to get new clothes. On second thought....I could stash that money away and use it in the Fall to buy new hoodies!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

My Fabulous Blog Header

I have had a couple of inquiries regarding my fabulous blog banner. My friend, Dale, created it for me - check out the link to her blog, Sea Dream Studio

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Bake Sale!!

Today we had a Bake Sale to benefit our Mexico student's college fund. The kids got involved and it was a lot of fun. We stayed up late last night baking, frosting, dipping things in caramel and making signs. This morning, we joined forces with our next door neighbors, who were having a garage sale to raise funds for their daughter's High School Band trip to Hawaii (cool!!!!). It was a crisp fall morning, not a cloud in the sky.

The kids were an excellent marketing team, waving signs and attracting huge crowds of hungry people who also wanted to purchase inexpensive gently used clothing!

Some of the goods: M worked the floor and charmed the crowd with his handsome devil-may-care smile. W was a lot of help, manning the Bake Sale table And modeling some of the fashions This nice lady paid us more than we were charging because it was for a good cause. A couple of other people did that too, which I thought was really nice. My ex husband paid $5 for a bag of four cookies. I guess he misses my cooking. ha ha

My friend's daughter dropped by on her way home from taking the PSAT test.
T is sweet selling sweets! C and M work it!
Miss "I'm Going to Hawaii" counts her money.
The Marketing Team eats the leftovers All in all, we raised over $100 and had a great time! Our neighbors are the best and one of my coworkers dropped by, too, and bought some sweets. The kids really enjoyed being involved and now we're all sugared up and happy.



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Some of these entries are vintage travel reports and have been restored from a lost blog. I hope you enjoy them.