Jackolanterns

Cash is making the same face as his pumpkin. West wanted his pumpkin to look just like his big brother's.

Sunday Salon: October 18-October 24

Our 11 year old cat Leo died on Sunday. We planted a tree to remember him by and buried him in the same hole. I'm working on a blog post with a photo retrospective of his life for later in the week.

Travis turned 35 this week. Happy Birthday sweetie!

On Wednesday we had our final meeting with the social worker writing our home study for our foster care license. Things are moving along – we could have our license within the next couple of weeks.

Friday I left for a scrapbooking retreat with my friends and stayed until late Saturday night. I scrapbooked, ran on the hotel treadmill, got a heavenly 30 minute massage and ate a ton of great food.

It's been a busy week so I didn't get much reading or reviewing done. The only book I finished was Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter.

Library Loot – October 23

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Marge that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

I made it to the library again this week. I checked out The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson because I've heard so many good things about it lately.

I checked out ghost by Alan Lightman because it was on the Halloween display and looks interesting. I won't have time to actually read it before Halloween though.

On A Very Special Blossom…

Fancy Nancy

Travis's birthday was Sunday. Cash was insistent that he was going to get Daddy some "fancy clothes" for his birthday. He wanted to get him a fancy shirt, fancy tie and fancy vest (meaning sweater vest) and he could not be talked out of it. You should know that Travis doesn't have to wear a tie to work – ever.

So I took the boys to Dillards, one of the few stores with a Big and Tall
department, and Cash picked out a shirt and tie with just a bit of guidance from Mommy.
Luckily, he forgot about the sweater vest. Travis is a good sport but that would have been pushing it. Travis is SUCH a good sport that he wore the shirt and tie to work the very next day!

The boys also decorated Travis's birthday cake all by themselves. He turned 35 but they found that 30 candle in a drawer and wanted to use it.

Happy Birthday Travis!

Third Tooth

Cash lost his third tooth this morning. It's been loose for months and he finally decided to devote some time and energy to wiggling it. 

Cash spent a good deal of time tonight cross-examining Travis about the
whole tooth fairy thing. He's getting pretty suspicious of the concept.
His last question was, "What would the tooth fairy do if she left the
screen off the window and had to come back during the day to put it
back on and someone came upstairs and saw her doing it?"

It's the one on the bottom – here's the close-up:

Then West told me he wanted me to take a picture of his Halloween smile:

Summer Photo Shoot Outtakes

As promised, here are the outtakes from the boys summer photo shoot:

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Eggheads love the words, so the more you jam in there, the better. Think of it as a verb sausage."

-p. 125 I Am America (And So Can You!) by Stephen Colbert

Sunday Salon: October 11-17

Highlights of the week:

We left for Indiana Wednesday and spent Wednesday night at an Embassy Suites in St. Louis. The boys had a blast playing in the hotel pool and hot tub.

We arrived in Seymour Thursday evening. Somehow it took us seven hours to drive there from St. Louis. I've blocked out the drive – it was too traumatic.

Friday was Travis and my 10th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by leaving the boys with Granddad and MaMaw and spending the night at the Conrad hotel in Indianapolis and having a wonderful dinner at the Palamino. The boys loved having Granddad and MaMaw all to themselves. Before we left Friday morning, they kept impatiently asking us, "When are you going bye-bye and letting Granddad and MaMaw take care of us?"

Reading completed for the week: 

This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper

The Skystone by Jack Whyte

One For The Money by Janet Evanovich

Pretty In Plaid by Jen Lancaster

Being sick the first part of the week and on vacation for the second part was a great way to get a lot of reading done.

Respect Your Elders

We're in Indiana visiting Granddad and MaMaw. We had an extended family dinner tonight in honor of Travis's birthday. When MaMaw Ann arrived (MaMaw's mother – essentially the boys' great-grandma), Cash led her to the rocking chair, brought over a bean bag for her to rest her feet on and covered up her lower half with a blanket. All of this without any prompting from anyone. Then he brought her his stuffed bunny to cuddle, a picture book to look at and a pillow for her back. He came over and asked me what else he could do for MaMaw Ann. I told him he could get her a glass of water and then I remarked that I was very proud of how helpful and nice he was being to her. Well within earshot of MaMaw Ann he replied, "Well, she's an old lady so she needs my help." Luckily, everyone including MaMaw Ann laughed. Except Mommy – she was preoccupied being mortified.