happy halloween! ... and more pics added....

wow, it's already the first of november! we had a great time trick-or-treating last night. i'm behind in my work this week so i've got to get back to it, but here are georgia and jules campbell. -- presenting: the trans-fat collection.....

learning the art of 'trading out'.....

corn maze, pumpkin patch, and early halloween pictures

no commentary today. too tired!!! hope you enjoy these pictures.

LOOK AT MY BABY!!

...my third (fourth?) baby, that is.

on my way out of town yesterday afternoon, i got in a little wreck. i was hit from behind and i then hit the car in front of me. what a pain. i was on my way to the mountains for a weekend getaway (even if it was a conference, i still had no kids with me!!) .... two of my clients were with me and we had no sooner gotten on the road when this DENT in our plans happened.

one bright spot-- the guy who hit me was SUPER CUTE. turns out he is a grad assistant/football coach at wingate university, and he felt so bad that he offered up his football team to come volunteer with our agency and do some mentoring with our special-needs kids and adults. don't think i won't hold him to it, either.

so, i shipped off my clients with another person who was attending the same conference, and here i sit at my office in the pouring-down rain (which we desperately need...) on a friday, instead of picking apples and halfway listening to speakers up in asheville. boo-hoo.

first dinner party

...well, maybe not the very first one, but it certainly seemed that way. it was my turn to host our neighborhood dinner club last saturday, and it tends to be more formal than i ever could be. there are themes assigned and i have known for a whole year that i was to host in october. (it caused me to stress out from the moment i was assigned as a host!) ...the theme was supposed to be food tv and hosts were to choose their favorite personality and go with that. in the spirit of trying to make my evening as low-key as possible, i chose giada because i figured i could make italian cooking very casual and not have to get out the fine china. here's what i learned i DIDN'T have (and needed) for a dinner party:

cloth napkins. sounds like a simple thing but lo and behold, i don't own any. at my house it's paper napkins or a folded-up paper towel when we actually all sit down together and have a meal. i don't have any real napkins, nor do i think about needing to buy them, but when i discovered this fact the day before my party, i discovered they were EIGHT DOLLARS for two white napkins at wal-mart. forget that. my friend tara suggested making my own (we'll get to that) so i bought two yards of fabric from the salvage shop here in town and waited for my mother to pull into town so i could give her a project.

which brings me to the next thing i don't own: an iron. or ironing board. my mother came and agreed to tackle this project. she asked for my iron and i was not able to produce one!! she insisted on purchasing me one at walmart so i am now the proud owner of both items. i have never needed to iron and it's a ton easier for me to pay 99 cents for dry cleaning (or, in an emergency, throw a wrinkly shirt in the dryer with a damp towel) than spend an evening standing over an ironing board, burning holes into clothes and probably my hands too. do people really do that anymore? people with a full-time job and two kids and a dog and a dinner club to host????

i also don't own any tablecloths. i have a beautiful table that kevin stained black for me last year. why in the world would i want to cover it up with a tablecloth? i was reminded by more than one person that i am clueless when it comes to entertaining. clearly, i am. so i had to buy a tablecloth but i still say my table would be just as attractive without it!

chairs!!!!!!!!! i've been putting off buying them because there have been more important projects to take care of...like, new tires on BOTH cars, a toilet that rocks uncontrollably because as the house settles, it pushes the pipe up from under the house!!.....and all the little things that come up every month. i have two chairs for grown-ups and two painted restaurant high chairs for the kids. so i have to borrow a neighbor's dining room chairs to make room for ten.

the list is endless, really, but i put it all together at the last minute (of course) and it turned out okay. napkins got made, a few plates from target were purchased, and i was in business. my 'giada' recipe really wasn't and noone noticed. it was italian but i refused to try out a new recipe on 9 innocent victims. thank you mom for the recipe (really good baked ziti!) and for staying up half the night sewing napkins WITHOUT A SEWING MACHINE (i am going to use fusion tape on EVERYTHING from now on...).

the bottom line is that NOBODY REALLY CARES. you get all worried but, in the end, it's no big deal. here's a picture of the final product because i want it on record that i actually have these necessities now!

This came across my email today

...and i think i've seen it before, but it still makes me smile to read it. oh, the memories!

For Those of us Born 1930-1979

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate bleu cheese dressing, tuna from a can, Oscar Mayer lunch meat, and they didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our bellies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets--not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats , booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were OK.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

...weekend in atlanta....

well, it turned out to be a girls-only weekend. kevin had a massive amount of work to do over the weekend, and my friend clarissa's husband was working as well-- so it was just the three of us riding down I-85 for FIVE HOURS. the travel-to time seemed to fly by: the anticipation of seeing friends, etc., kept everyone lively, but the travel-from time crept by sooooo sloooowwwwlllyyy. we had a great time! we stayed with my friend clarissa and her family. she has three little ones and it's always fun to have low-key friends who don't necessarily want to do STUFF all the time. we just hung out, let the kids play, caught up on gossip-- all the important things! if journey, luke, and levi are reading this, then thank you again for having us! here are some pictures of you guys (sorry that levi didn't make it into any pictures...).

georgia, journey, jules campbell, and luke create dora stories.

never too old for group bathing!

saturday night is movie night, no matter where you are!

playing school-- i just noticed what is written on the papers!!

we spent saturday with one of my oldest (not in age!) friends, kevin, and the kids had a blast at piedmont park playing all morning. no pictures because i forgot the camera. too bad for you. kevin is a hottie! on our way out of town on sunday, we stopped in flowery branch to spend some time with another long-ago teaching friend, jackie, and her brood.

georgia and pete (jackie's little boy)

thanks, everybody! every time we go to georgia it is a reminder of how much fun it was to live there and we always come home a bit sad. but-- we're always up for a road trip so keep on inviting us over.

..hello...september? are you there? ....

is it really october? wow. i detect a lot less heat when i step outside lately, and even though it is not even CLOSE to feeling like fall, it does feel a lot LESS like august, and for that i am thankful. things are going well for all of us.

georgia loves being five and has really started getting into the whole 'chores' thing. she finally figured out how to make her bed without help and has even shown her sister how to do it. both girls are doing great in the morning with their checklist of things to do before we leave the house. they both stand there wanting 'the checks'. get dressed? check! brush your teeth? check! get your hair done? check! get the newspaper? check! make the bed? check! feed the dog? check. does anyone else besides me give out a dum-dum at 7:30 in the morning? i had my moment of guilt but it quickly passed.

georgia is counting the days till kindergarten -- eleven months to go!-- and has 4 ballet classes under her belt, and she (just like her mother before her) has already learned the art of brown-nosing. she brings miss bonita, her teacher, flowers before class, or shows her a special book she's been reading on ballet....you name it. if she can kiss up to earn brownie points, she'll do it. like mother, like daughter. i rode that train my whole school career!

juliet has decided she's sick of her short haircut so we're in that awkward grow-it-out stage. too bad; it took a lot for me to decide to get it cut but i've grown to like the look on her. but she feels adamant that she needs to have braids like georgia and she has concerns that when SHE starts ballet next year (heaven help me), she'll have to put it in a bun and it must be long enough. so-- grow, grow, grow. her little attitude is coming out, and while she never lets it show to her teachers, she's a pretty feisty little thing now...WAAAY more fiesty than georgia, who will crumble into a heap on the bed if you look at her with a scowl on your face. jules has the scowls and pouts and looks of disgust that most of us hold off on showing our parents until the pre-teen years. she flat-out refused to take a shower the other night and went to bed a soaking wet mess-- but a clean mess!! when will she figure out, i wonder, that she's been given a mama who has mastered the art of stubborn-try (is that a word? if not, i like it!) and i have spent my whole life perfecting the art of being hard-headed? poor thing. she doesn't stand a chance. luckily, her moments of toddler-hood don't come out very much.

my own workload is ever-increasing but i'm trying to be better about having to attend so many work things at night and on weekends. it seems like whenever i turn around, there's a different convention i MUST attend or a meeting that has to occur when the rest of the world is off work. it gets old fast so i'm trying to adjust other people's schedules to fit mine. i hope they don't figure out my plan. :) i'm headed to the mountains to a place called lake junaluska in three weeks. -- a conference! of course!! -- and so everyone will need to call and check in on kevin. that will be stressful with me being gone overnight AND during the work week.

kevin stays busy and i'd like to personally thank whomever invented the wireless internet system and laptops. without them, i'd really wonder if i had a husband. he works a 70 hour week and retreats to our bedroom after the kids go down with computer in hand. it's a good excuse for me to turn in early as well, so it's win-win (most nights!)

we're off to atlanta this weekend. it's been over a year since we've been back (i think much longer for kevin) so i'm excited to go visit. i'm sure i'll have cute pictures when we return but i'm hoping for a weekend of hanging out and catching up.

here are some pictures from last night:

...ballerina girl....

though the birthday fairy did indeed find georgia this year, her present from mama and daddy was getting to take ballet classes this year. today was the first day of class. this girl loves some ballet.....here are pictures from the first day of class. too cute!

...things i've learned about cooking....

this weekend. first of all, just because it is an easy recipe doesn't mean it looks anything like the picture in the magazine. since i don't believe in annual birthday parties for my girls, i feel like the LEAST i can do is make a homemade (for real homemade, not just made by me from a box which i still say is homemade) birthday cake AND frosting for my child. here's the picture from the magazine that georgia, with a little guidance, chose:



and it looked like a simple, lovely cake.

it literally took me all afternoon to get it done. how my mother can stand to be in a kitchen all day long and put together three hot meals seven days a week is WAY beyond me. nothing else got done on saturday afternoon. of course, i had two little helpers with me wanting to taste every four seconds!


then, i discovered that (probably because i only make real cakes every so often) i certainly didn't have THREE cake pans to make a three-layer cake. so i decided that it would look just as good with two layers (nope).

another lesson learned is that i lack the skills to look into a mixing bowl and tell which ingredients are lacking to make the cake more moist. had i those skills, the cake wouldn't have tasted like an unsweetened pound cake left out on the counter for a few days.

here was my version of the cake, which the children (most importantly!) found beautiful:



last lesson-- i need to invest in a cake pedestal! i think that must make a world of difference.



here are some birthday pictures from yesterday. we are all on the mend for the most part and were able to have a nice, low-key afternoon celebrating the big 0-5.









at the end of the day, happy girls, tired mama and daddy, and lots of magazine-worthy cake left. delilah is going to get a real treat tonight with her dog food!

i have the flu....

and it stinks! some little bug has been buzzing all around our house in the last week or so, and i thought i was going to escape it. hopefully it will be short-lived and by tomorrow i'll be feeling better.

georgia has a birthday on sunday so i'm still taking suggestions for what to get a five-year-old! anyone who knows me knows i am the WORST present-picker in america. seriously. it's pretty bad. she believes in the birthday fairy (all my fault) and has spoken to her twice in the last week. she found a quiet spot in the aisle at target or wherever and said: 'hey birthday fairy, i hope you see me and you are listening. i think i'd like a SURPRISE this year instead of me giving you an idea.' GREAT. the birthday fairy just LOVES having to come up with ideas!

how much longer till the weekend? in my feverish state, i seem to be losing all track of time. i must be hallucinating because my computer clock says 9:34 and i am CERTAIN i've been here six hours at least!

happy labor day weekend!

last time we can wear bathing suits and head to the pool. we intend to do just that tomorrow-- it will be our last chance to see if georgia will actually put her face in the water.

special note: bathing suits are on close-out at target. each of these was $4.48 last weekend. do what you will with that information! my intent was to buy suits for next year but clearly i did a bad job. they both fit now!

the girls loved them so much we have been literally bathing in them this week.

see for yourself:





have a great long weekend....

monkey joe's has moved into town!

nope, not overstimulating AT ALL.

rainbow row

we had three goals this summer for home projects. i am happy to say that we've completed two of them. (for us, that's really good, so we'll just write off the third project until we are re-energized!) ....

we have just finished painting two more rooms. the living room is now bright parsley-ish green. (see how good i am with colors? everything has to be '-ish'!) we think it's fabulous. the girls' room was lavender and baby lime green with three -- yes, three-- layers of wallpaper borders. it took forever to get that bad boy off the wall. wallpaper is not my friend and i was more than happy to see it go. now, we've got a nicer shade of purple going on in there.

it's finally starting to come together! after all, it's been a whole year. it's time we had the house in the colors we like. here are some pictures since today it's actually clean.

...it's gettin' hot in here...

so it is probably idiotic that we are choosing to paint rooms in the house when there's not even enough air flow to dry the paint! but we've spent the last week painting the last two rooms of the house that needed a major color overhaul. i may not have lots of good stuff on the walls, but hopefully the bright colors will offset that fact and noone will notice! i'll post some pictures as soon as the furniture is back in place.

jake

thank you to those people who are always asking how jake is doing. it's been close to two years ago that he moved to north carolina and became a permanent part of our family. we have tremendous support from his mom and dad in our efforts to get him working and living independently. jake moved into a group home fifteen minutes from our house about five months ago. he adjusted beautifully and is happy there, and in our new house we are close enough to him to see him on a regular basis. we are in the process of finding competitive employment in monroe for him. he's been working full-time at a sheltered workshop since he arrived here, but is ready for a bigger challenge. here's a picture of jake and his nieces around his birthday in april.

...to keep me inspired today...

i ran across this passage this morning, written by mother theresa, and i thought it was lovely.

ANYWAY

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

be kind anyway.

If you are successful you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

build it anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

do good anyway.

Give the world your best, and it may never be enough;

give the world your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

it was never between you and them anyway.

our favorite knucklehead

we rescued delilah exactly a year ago today. she is still terrified of most noises, quick movements, and anything that resembles a man! she's finally stopped running away and mostly follows me around when she's otherwise unoccupied. happy gotcha day, knucklehead!

last ones for today: i promise!

another lakefront view...they call this part
the biddy pool....


juliet: you didn't see me do that,
did you?????

georgia: turn your attention to me
and forget what you just saw!


i ain't afraid of no lake!!!!


i'm staying where i don't have
to get my hair or face (or bathing
suit) wet!