Day 212 - October 30th

Shhhhhh!!! Don't tell Ginger! I'm "borrowing" the antenna from her butterfly costume and wearing them to work today! I know I would get "the look" if she knew I was wearing them. But they were just sitting there all lonely when I saw them on my way out the door this morning. I'm doing them a favor. A Quality Control, if you will. I sure wouldn't want my baby wearing a defective head ornament. So far so good.

This afternoon a friend/nurse/building landlord came to the office and shot most of us with the flu vaccine. It's the Swine Flu vaccine, it's the regular plain 'ol flu vaccine. This is a picture of my Daddy getting his flu shot. He's so brave. I just basically gave her a hard time. I know, shocking right?

Day 211 - October 29th

Ginger got her glasses today! She says she looks like a 4th grader. I think she's just too stinkin' adorable. She can't wait to go to school and show her friends tomorrow. She kept saying, "I didn't know you could see that!"

Day 210 - October 28th

Tonight was the church Fall Festival! What fun! So many kids! So much candy! And so much noise! I loved watching all the little ones in their costumes! Their alter egos came out in full force tonight! Little transformer bots running around! A plethora of princesses! And my little butterfly. Nope, not Hannah Montana, a butterfly. Her mind was changed several thousand times at the Halloween store. She thought that too many kids were going to be Hannah Montana so she wanted to be something else and be Hannah next year. I think she just liked the butterfly wings that left glitter EVERYWHERE!!! Here is another Picture of the Day turned PictureS of the Day!

Ginger fishing the Sea of Galilee with Larry, our friend since I was Ginger's age!




Ginger making some hoops in a basketball game. She made all 3 shots perfectly! Most of the games where entailed her throwing a ball in some sort of hole or pumpkin mouth, she made it! Russell is seeing a sport's star in our future.



Here's Laurie's little cutie, Ty golfing like Daddy! He was so fun to watch!



Here's little Pink Poodle Ava having the time of her life! She knew how to work the crowd! She had Trick-or-Treat down perfectly..."Treat Treat". The girl raked in the goods!



After the games and the Trunk-or-Treat, we all went on a hayride and got hay in our britches. It was a great night! YAY for sugar rushes!!




And just for fun...I'm adding this in my POTD. It's an art work by myself using Joy's collection of pooping toys. It may not be suitable for all viewers. I wonder why poop and tooting gets talked about so much in my family. I have no idea where it comes from.

Day 209 - October 27th

It's the 3rd grade field trip today! I got to go this year for the field trip and be a chaperone!! HAHAHA!! They think I'm old enough to be a chaparone!! I had 4 girls in my group, one little monkey named Ginger, and three other little monkeys. And not only that, I had another dad to help with the group. Talk about easy! But they sure wore us out! I think the girls had a good time, I sure did. There was a lot of laughing and oooooooing and ahhhhhhing and we were all exhausted by the end of the day. Here's a little photo collection from our day!



Look!! Monkeys are the same size as 3rd graders!







The girls loved the elephant show! Elephants are really smart and really huge! One of the elephants picked up mud and threw it at the trainer when she was busy answering questions...she wanted more treats. The elephant in the back on the far left is Gunda. She will be 59 years old in January!



The girls also loved the momma pig and her babies. I felt for the momma pig, she laid their so patiently as the piglets nursed. What else was she going to do? These little baby pigs were stepping on each other heads trying to get their fair share of milk.



I found a huge tortoise that loved watching the monkeys on the other side of that fence. Those monkeys kept me laughing all day long!




These girls had a great time and didn't mind one bit posing for me over and over all day long!





This is my favorite picture of the day! And it's of my very own kid! She is in front of the zoo's brand new giraffe. She/He was beautiful! Very colorful and still a little skittish around people. She kept her distance. The kid's were asked to come up with a name for the giraffe. Ginger wants to name it "Brown Spots". I told her maybe I should have named her "Red Hair". I got a look. I think we should name it, Chester.

Day 208 - October 26th

Today is officially my baby sister's birthday.

HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY JOY!!!

I spent the afternoon at the doctor's office. I had a regularly scheduled appointment, but I had a feeling I was sitting among those that were not scheduled and hoping to get in today. There were people everywhere! There were people standing in the halls and even sitting on the floors in the halls. There were plenty of seats available, but it was every other person, no one wanted to sit next to anyone else. Some were wearing rubber gloves and some even had masks on. Lots of hacking and coughing going on too. Oh and by the way, President Obama declared a National Emergency because of the Swine (H1N1) flu. It's pretty bad right now and it's very contagious. Just gives more comfort to be at the doctor's office. I was not sick and didn't really like sitting there among the sickly. When I finally went back to the next "waiting room" the nurses were glad to see someone for some other reason than the flu. I wonder how they are staying healthy? I was just having more blood work done to keep up with my numbers for Fibromyalgia and Rheumatoid Arthritis, they are keeping a super duper close eye on me....especially since we are trying for a baby now. :o) I'm all good and still have the "ok" to keep on trying! Whooo Hooo!! I just have to stay away from those sickies!

Day 207 - October 25th

I went to a ladies party today. Kinda like a Tupperware party, but it was not Tupperware. This is the only picture I was allowed to take, it's blurry because we were all laughing so hard. So that's probably all I'll say about this party. If you don't understand, it's ok, you don't need too. It was fun and I'm glad I went and I met some pretty cool new friends too! All names are being withheld to protect the innocent.

Day 206 - October 24th

WOOOO WEEEEE!!! I feel better! Amazing what 2 1/2 days of sleep will do for you! I popped up this morning and had a fabulous photo shoot with an adorable family, then went to Purple Glaze for my baby sister's birthday festivities! We giggled and painted and laughed some more. It was nice to be among the land of living again. After that, I did go home to rest a bit and then we headed to her 30th birthday blow-out! Adults only! That was fun! It was Joy's 30th birthday princess party! And we had to wear pink or black. So many people and so much pink and black!!



Joy made her own cake! Isn't it beeee-uuuutifullll? Totally impressed.




These are three of the men that were there. My awesomely handsome hubby, Russell.





Our Big Bang friend and just plain 'ol Best Friend, Chuck!!





And Tim, Joy's hubby who made this whole shin-dig happen!

Happy 30th Birthday to my baby sister!!

Day 205 - October 23rd

Friday. My usual day off of work, and I'm still not up to par. I am feeling much better and got some laundry done, but found myself back on the couch and asleep after a couple of hours being upright this morning. I woke up to some people sitting at my feet on the couch. They were quietly goofing off to themselves trying not to disturb me. But I still wondered why they were on "my" couch. I guess they missed me, I miss them. It was good to see them cuddling and comparing their feet. I love my family.

Day 204 - October 22nd

Still sick. I woke up this morning, I slowly did a mosey over to the couch and fell asleep again before even turning on the TV. I woke up about noon, managed to eat a bagel, feel my people on the Facebook restaurant game, and went right back to sleep. I woke up again to Ginger reading a story to Russell about an elephant she lost because she tried to give it a bath. I fell back to sleep before I learned if she ever found that lost elephant. I woke up once more to find my family on the chaise lounge watching TV and Ginger playing her restaurant game. They had already had dinner and ready for bed. I went back to sleep and little later Russ woke me up to move back to bed. That was a fast day and I still feel like poo-poo.

Day 203 - October 21st

It's Wednesday, Hump Day...and I went home sick. I am just not feeling well at all. I left early from work and went home and collapsed on the couch with coat and shoes still on and fell asleep. I'm pretty sure it's sinus junk. I'm a weenie when it comes to headaches. On my way home I noticed this amazingly beautiful tree across the street from us. What a gorgeous tree! Our fall is turning out to be so colorful because of all the rain we got this summer. I love it. See...told you I was God's favorite. He knows I love fall and he's giving me gift after beautiful gift to enjoy this fall. Back to sleep now. Night.

Day 202 - October 20th

Is it just any wonder why I love my family so much? These wonderful goof-balls light up my days and more than likely we are always just laughing as much as we can. This is our nightly process as Ginger goes to bed. The nightly balancing on one foot and falling as she tries to take off her shoes and her uncontrolable laughing that makes her collapse on her bed. It's just a bunch of monkeys in this house and I absolutely love it!!

Day 201 - October 19th

It's Monday and it's the last day of our Anniversary Staycation Weekend! What a wonderful day! This weekend went way too fast! Today we shopping at Sam's and bought more baby carrots than we'll ever eat, but we're hopeful. Russell took me to lunch at one of his favorite restaurants. Thai Siam! He loves Thai food and I've never had it before. I put aside the fact that I had never tried Thai food the whole time we were dating or our first year of marriage. I'm not a big fan of trying new things, but this guy has a way of getting me to do it. Remember the mushrooms?!?!? But guess what? I LOVED it!! Sooooo Yummy!!! Mommy would be so proud of me. I tried Spring Rolls without making a face, and guess what? I liked them! A lot!!

After school Ginger, Mom, and Chuck came home for Monday Night Big Bang night! As soon as Ginger ran in the door, Russ hopped up off the couch I was on and grabbed that little girl and they snuggled all night... on the other couch! Ginger tackled Russ and they were inseparable until bedtime. She just couldn't let go of him and he didn't mind at all. They really missed each other.

Day 200 - October 18th! OUR 1st ANNIVERSARY!!!

I couldn't have done this if I tried! Day 200 is our 1st Anniversary!!!!! This year flew by faster than any year of my life so far. I'm pretty sure I've skipped over 5 or 6 months this past year. It just can't be possible to be married to this fabulous man for a whole year now. This has been the most amazingly and happiest year of my life. I have never laughed so much, loved so deep, and had so much fun. God is amazing, absolutely amazing! I didn't know a love like this could be possible. Thank you Lord for blessing me with this wonderful man, I pray I can bless him as much as he blesses me.

Of course we had dinner at our favorite restaurant. Chipotle!! It's the same place we went after our wedding for dinner a year ago! Then we went home to snuggle and eat the top layer of our wedding cake. That was pretty much disgusting. I don't know why the tradition or where it started, but we got down a bite anyway.

Day 199 - October 17th

It's the 2nd day of our Anniversary Staycation Weekend. We slept in again, enjoyed a wonderful yummyful lunch at Cheddar's and went to the movies to see, The Invention of Lying. Meh...(there's that word again...It's better than Blah, but not great) It was cute I guess. Then we went to church to see the new remodel of the sanctuary and it's beautiful! Very nice but still smells strongly of new paint. Sorry God, but I got a headache from church. Ok, I got a headache from the strong paint fumes, not from church. Then we went across town to a McDonald's decorated like the 50s. We sat in booths that looked like cars. Why McDonald's when we're kid-free you ask? We're addicted to the dumb Monopoly game going on there now. That's the only reason I can choke down McD's. A fun fun fun night! I love my hubby!

Day 198 - October 16th

Just look at that handsome man!! Man he is good-looooookin'!!! It's Friday and the first day of our Anniversary Staycation Weekend! We took off today and Monday for a long weekend together at home. This morning we slept in and loved every sleepy second of it. Then off to L Salon for a haircut for Russ. His fabulous sister, Shay works there now and she gave him his birthday trim! Then we had lunch at Olive Garden with Shay and the waitress caught me stealing coasters (I use them to scrapbook) but she just laughed and said I wasn't the first one and she gave me some more. We went and checked out the new Hard Rock Casino, not all that exciting. Then we headed home for a quiet evening at home with just us and some movies. Ohhhh so relaxing!

Day 197 - October 15th

Ginger got to go to work with me today. Fall Break!! We celebrated October birthdays at work today with yummy Merritt's Snowball cake and cookies! In that celebration was my baby sister, her 30th birthday is next week!! She's flippin' old!! Ginger devoured that cake and a cookie and a root beer! Lots of sugar! That's ok, because right after work she headed over to Baga's for the weekend. Sorry Baga.

Day 196 - October 14th

It's the last night of my class! I've graduated!! Well, I've graduated in my own mind. What a great class! I learned so much! I'm looking so forward to putting all of this into practice! I'm going to make my teacher oh so proud of me! I highly recommend this class to anyone considering starting a business! Let me know if you want more details on it. Or I'm sure you could find it on their website www.tcc.com

Day 195 - October 13th

I love my family so much! Ginger got a puzzle and loves working on it! Over and over and over. She quickly dumped it out on the floor as soon as we got home tonight while I shuffled around to find dinner. As soon as Russell walked in the door Ginger said, "I was thinking you could work on this with me." She said it in that sweet little voice that reminds Daddy that he's wrapped around her little finger. He dropped everything he was carrying and sat right down in the floor, work clothes with shoes and all, and started worked on that puzzle with her. I love these moments.

Day 194 - October 12th

This picture is of me at the dentist. you thought I was in some high-tech training facility for aeronautics didn't you? I knew it. Nope, just a couple of fillings on the bottom left. I had my phone in my hand trying to sneak a picture without moving at all. I'm fond of the drill staying on course. I guess my doctor saw me and asked, "Do you want a picture? A lot of people want pictures for their Facebooks." I'm glad he understood.

Day 193 - October 11th

Who knew that picking out a Halloween costume was such an ordeal. I miss the years where I could say, "Here, you're going to be ____". Not this year. Ginger has an opinion...about everything!! I vetoed the princesses. I know, not a mother-of-the-year thing to do, but she's been a princess just about every year of her life since she discovered princesses. The first year, she was a Honey Pot. Her second year, an adorable lady bug. The third, fourth, and fifth year...Princess. The sixth year an angel. The seventh year...Princess. This year...drum roll please...Hannah Montana! You thought I was going to say Princess didn't you?

Day 192 - October 10th

Today is Saturday and Uncle David's funeral. Oh my, what a difficult day. Our family got together again to celebrate David's life, we were together not long enough ago for my Uncle Mike's funeral. Our family really could use your prayers. We shared story after story and I enjoyed so many hugs from Aunts and Uncles that I don't hug near enough.

For some reason this week, pictures have become more important to me than ever. I've watched 7 video montages in the past 6 months at funerals. Attention people, take pictures of your loved ones and cherish them. Make sure you are in those pictures too. Document everything. Make it so there are too many great pictures to choose from, not the heartache of not finding enough pictures, or any at all.

This picture is of Ginger and Papa, my handsome Daddy. He can still make him smile. I think that little girl will always be able to bring a smile to his face.

Ginger had the best time playing hide and seek and chasing her cousins all around the church. It reminded me so much of me and my cousins running around everywhere. It wasn't that long ago that we were the little whipper-snappers running around. The girls found an interesting caterpillar outside on our way out. It was so cute. But it seemed as interested in those silly girls as they were of him. Look how he stood up to look at them.