Halloween Past

2006

Lynn and Shane

Every Halloween since we moved into our house we host a trick-or-treating hayride…..

It is so fun all the kids love this! And the parents (and grandparents, too)

The men getting the golf carts ready to follow the hayride!

2007

Emily and Sarah

2008

Emily as a princess

Sarah was a beautiful bumble bee!! Everyone getting loaded up and ready to hit the streets!!

I am all linked up this week....my good bloggy buddy Connie is doing a Halloween Fashion Friday. She is going to be doing Fashion Friday weekly, this week is spooky, go check it out!

And I also linked to Kelly's Show Us How You Live Halloween edition.

Make sure to visit both blogs and get some ideas!

Boys will be boys.....

Or will some boys just be bullies??

It is no secret that I am the mother of girls.

Life with girls is different than with boys.

Although I guess I wouldn't know since I have only known life as a mother to girls.

Last weekend my older daughter had some friends, girls and guys, over hanging out. This has turned into a regular weekend occurrence at our house and I LOVE it! A couple of weeks ago when the kids were over one of the neighbor boys wandered over. He is in 7th grade (the age of my younger daughter) the other kids are in 9th. After about an hour the girls came to tell me there was a fight. Turns out an older boy accidentally tripped over younger boys feet and thought he had tripped him intentionally. The older boy punched the younger in the face a couple of times and had to be stopped. There is no difference in size or strength really. But the younger boy had no idea why the older was treating him this way.

The younger boys mom (neighbor) called and wanted the story. I told her what the girls had told me. I decided not to tell the older boys mother. Several of my friends think I should have called the mother so she knows what her son did. I think boys will be boys and life would be harder on the younger boy if someone told on the older boy. Older boy was wrong to do this and will not be welcome at my house again. I feel that he should have apologized to the younger boy and to us, his hosts.

His mother has always told me to let her know if anything happens she needs to know about. My husband is telling me to let it go. Don't talk to any other adults about it. Let them gossip between themselves if they want to, just don't get involved. Boys will be boys and they need to learn to work it out themselves.

All mothers say they want to know, I don't think they mean it. Nobody want to hear their kid is a bully.

What do you think? How should I have handled this situation?

The Best Day

Who is that???

The one and only Taylor Swift!! And let me just tell you, she is adorable. Myself and another mom took 8 girls to the concert then spent the night at Embassy Suites so the girls could get ready together and then spend the evening breaking down the details of the concert. (important stuff)

If you are familiar with Taylor Swift you know she writes all of her own music. She put on a great show. She took the stage at 9:15 and didn’t finish until 11:15. Between songs she did lots of explaining about what each song meant to her. My absolute favorite explaination was when she was saying that if guys didn’t want her to write bad things about them then they shouldn’t do bad things. AMEN sister.

The other thing she said that my group of 14 year old girls needed to hear was, the bad guys don’t start out looking like bad guys. You can’t just spot them in a crowd in a black cape.

Are you my classmate?

How do you know?

In this new age of social networking we are able to connect much more easily than in the past.

My observation is as follows:

92% of the time it is a positive thing

5% of the time it is not

3% of the time it is uncertain.

Blogging is such a great outlet.

The reading and writing of blogs has lead to a great big world of friendships and experiences I might have otherwise missed.

And now for the phony.

We went to high school with Breanna*. Recently Breanna* showed up on facebook masquerading as Parker*. However Parker* aka Breanna* put her email address on her info page. Guess she thought we all got off the boat last night. After some investigation she was emailed straight up and asked, “Are you really Breanna?” She had the nerve to respond with “Darn it, I am supposed to be hiding from an ex.” That's it….no other explanation.

My girlfriends from high school who I have reconnected with on facebook and myself have decided you must really be missing something in your mind to think this is acceptable.

How do you handle a person like this.

To us it seems she just wanted to join facebook see how our life has turned out without letting us in. And I was angry. But mostly, I pity her. I for one would have been happy to see what she was doing. We have been out of high school for 18 years. Most of us left those high school ways behind. I guess not ALL of us.

*not her actual name or alias

I saw, I clicked, I kept!

Miracle of miracles.

I do my shopping clothing online.

I am 5'0".

And not a size 2.

Or any size in the single digits.

Going into a store,

finding clothes that are petite and not polyester is rare.

Over the last couple of years I have done (in my opinion) a good job of knowing what is flattering on my body.

Today was a good day. Not only did I try on 7 pieces that I had received in the mail this week.

I liked them ALL.

Lemmejustellya-this is rare for me.

Almost never happens.

Sometimes I will buy 7 pieces and return them all.

I even bought a pair of adorable little flats that I really like and will keep.

That equals a couple of entire outfits.

After all it is fall, must have cute clothing options!

Summary Saturday

Goodness I have been so neglectful of my blog. I truly enjoy blogging. I enjoy reading about what is going on with all of you. It has taken me a couple of weeks to get caught up on all that I missed over the summer..

Somehow we had a busy summer full of a bunch of nothing. My kids are no longer involved in extracurricular activities other than church or school activities. That is a blessing. It is like recieving the gift of time. I do miss the HOURS spent each week in transit with the girls, those days of taking that time to catch up on their life is gone.

This is leading me to need to live a more purposeful life. My oldest daughter is now one month away from being 15. Every day I am reminded that my time to spend passing on everything I need her to know before sending her to college is getting smaller. Am I teaching her what she needs to know? Does she know how much we love her and how blessed we are to be her parents. She is a teenager, I have no idea how much of what I say gets to her heart. Hopefully, more of the good than the negative.

Any suggestions on what you wish your parents had told you? Taught you? Given you? Shown you?