Halloween Costumes 2009

Here are 3 of the 4 of us who decided to dress up for Halloween.
Jordan as Sherlock Holmes

The Wizard and the witch

Jordan trying to solve the mystery, who killed the scarecrow.

The Witch

The Wizard

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!
So glad the sun is out for the little goblins.

Halloween Eve

Every Halloween Eve we carve pumpkins. This year Todd and I decided to take the year off from carving and let the young men of the house have at it.
Here are some pics of them carving. More pics posted tomorrow of the finished products and costume pics too.
Jordan Carving:

Ethan Carving:

Your never to old to carve pumpkins:

One Week From Today

I can't wait!!!
But I will have to wait until Sunday November 9th so see it.
That's ok still seeing it opening weekend!

Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space

The premiere of a new Halloween Special tonight; Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space. I am watching it as I type this. So far it is pretty good, a few funny lines here and there and the animation is pretty darn good. I like sequels that use the original voice actors. This specail makes me wonder if they are going to put out a Monsters vs Aliens: Christmas Special.

It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown

Not the whole episode, but an almost 8 minute teaser. What a classic, who doesn't like It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown? The full episode will be on ABC tomorrow night.
To hear this video, pause the music on my blog page on the left hand column by clicking the II. Enjoy!

Home Sweet Home

I spent this weekend with my sister at a scrapbooking retreat at a Bed and Breakfast in Sycamore IL called the Paper Doll House. The house we stayed at is 117 years old and the mayor of Sycamore grew up in the house. The house had all the noises, sounds and character of an old house. I love old houses.
We left Friday afternoon and returned around 1:30pm on Sunday. I had a very enjoyable weekend with my sister and thank her so much for taking me. The innkeeper was very hospitiable and very pleasant; but was somewhat unorganized. She really did a good job on the Bed and Breakfast portion but we felt she was rather laxed when it came to the scrapbooking area of the house. When we 1st arrived on Friday, the innkeeper wasn't even there, we had to basically figure out what to do on our own and was told by the young person who greeted us that when she returned she would take us on a tour and explain everything to us. That never happened. We had to ask to see a few areas of the house and that was around 11:00pm on Friday. Nothing was ever specified as to what could and couldn't be used in the scrapbooking area and the room was very disorganized, almost messy.
I did though have a good time, and the whole time I was there my sister and I kept thinking of how we would improve the B&B if it were ours. lol
Below are some pics from the weekend.
The Paper Doll House Bed and Breakfast:

Friday evenings dessert Chocolate Mousse:

It was Sycamore's Pumpkin Festival weekend, this I think was my favorite decorated pumpkin:

A pumpkin dessert serve on Saturday evening:

Sunday Brunch the Paper Doll version of Eggs Benedict:

Once Brunch was served the innkeeper came around and placed hats on everyone. The innkeeper is in the background in the door frame:

Little College Update

Our son Ethan is in his 2nd year of college. His major is Animation with a degree in Fine Arts.
Anyway, one of his classes this semester is Camera & Sound. He has been bringing home a sound box to record his brother doing different animation voices (His brother should be a voice actor, but that's another story), he has been also spending extra hours at the school recording background noises.
This week he stayed late and worked on timing. Timing is when they take the movement of the animation and time the sounds with it. He asked his instuctor to look at his work so far and his instructor was very impressed as how well he coordinated his movement with his sound considering it was his 1st time.

Proud moment I had to share. I think that this might be his forte.

A Girls Weekend Away

My sister was an angel a few months ago and booked a weekend of scrapbooking for her and I to the Paper Doll House in Sycamore, Illinois for this weekend.
I feel that I am not prepared to do any type of scrapbooking because I haven't had the time to get things ready due to all that has been going on this last few months.
Basically I will work on Christmas Cards, Halloween treats for my co-workers and I did throw anything and everything into a large suitcase in hopes that maybe I will find something to scrapbook when I get there.
BUT, I am looking forward to getting away from things for a little while and not try and think of anything this whole weekend.

Back to normal? Almost

I am typing this in hopes that things around here are getting back to normal. (If there is such a thing. lol)
Todd had his 2 week visit to the surgeon today to see how his recovery is going.
The doctor said he is going to recommend some minor physical therapy, he can return to work on Monday (5 steps down to our basement) and he can drive if he feels up to it. Hurrah!
So now we are all hoping to take a deep sigh and pray for some normalness for a while.

Card 43 of 52 for 2009

Weekend Sketch Challenge #102
This will be one of the cards that we will be making at my annual Christmas Card Camp in November. Not sure if you can see but there are Dazzling Diamonds on the antlers.

Sleepy Hollow

A while back we set the DVR to record Sleepy Hollow. (Gosh I like that DVR)
I saved it to watch around Halloween time and tonight was a non-eventful evening to be able to watch it.



Based on the book the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Tim Burton directed this suspenseful story starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
How do you kill a ghost on a mission? You will have to watch the movie and find out. The blood and gore is numerous but the story keeps you intrigued.

Popeyes Halloween

Here is another Halloween cartoon I found, Popeyes Halloween.
To hear the video, pause the music on my blog by clicking on the double lines found in the left column of my blog.
2 funny things to watch for in this video: Bluto's breath is helium? and Olive jumping into an ashtray to hide. Kind of an elaborate ashtray. LOL
This video is dated 1954. Enjoy!

Wish Lists

With the holiday's approaching and both of my childrens birthday around this holidays, they have both given me their birthday/christmas wish lists; with the intention that they will send me future e-mails that will have items added to it.
The reason I am blogging this is the difference in the 2 wish lists.
Jordan who turns 18 soon has over 35 items on his wish list. He will in no way received that many gifts. He did BOLD the ones that he really wants.
Ethan on the other had turns 20 in about a month. His list consisted of 14 items he also BOLDED the items he really wants.
Comparing the 2 totally cracks me up!

Broomstick Bunny

I love this episode around Halloween time.
To watch pause my music on my blog by pressing the double lines, then play the video.

Ride for Autism

Today was the Ride for Autism.
Back in July Todd and I registerd to participate in the Ride for Autism. We had every intention to do this ride but then we found out Todd needed back surgery. Todd surgery was Thursday; the ride was Sunday (today)
Since we paid the registration and both raised money, we decided that I would take a ride to the Harley Davidson store where the ride was going to start and inform them that we were not able to participate. They were so understanding and gave both of us the registration packet which included a t-shirt, bandana and pin. How nice was that.
When they asked for our names they had 4 pages full of people that were going to ride for the cause and there were bikers there that were signing up for the ride. I can wait to see how much money the Chapter raised today for Autism.
What incredible people, for a great cause.

The patient is coming home today!

The patient is coming home today!
Hurrah! We need him to be home and get better here with all of us.
Healing to happening and he will have to go see the doctor in 2 weeks.
Yeah!!

Back Surgery Update

Todd had back surgery yesterday on L4 and L5. He is doing well, the L4 disc was very herniated, he said you could actually see the nerve vibrating. They cleaned out the scar tissue around it and fixed the right side of the disc, once that was done the buldge on left side relaxed. Todd now has plenty of room so that nothing is touching the nerve. L5 was also pressing against the nerve. I think the surgeon said all they had to do is get rid of scar tissue around that disc and it relaxed and wasn't touching the nerve anymore. The surgeon said we probably won't have to do this ever again. GOD I hope, twice is enough.
He still has pain in his legs but that will subside once the nerve damage heals. He is actually doing quit well, he was even able to order a light meal last night. The surgeon mentioned if the incision looks good they will send him home today. I begged the surgeon if they could wait until Saturday and he said he will probably grant my wish and release him on saturday, boy that would be a relief!!!

A little Halloween flair

I had to have a little Halloween flair to my blog
Enjoy the season!

Cards

I am a little behind posting cards due to events going on around my home life. I do have quite a bit of cards ready and waiting to be scanned to share. Just bare with me and I will bombard this blog with at least 14 cards to share.

The Shakiest Gun in the West

Cleaning out our DVR this is a movie we recorded almost a year ago. Liking Don Knotts I thought it might be a fun movie.
Plot curtesy of Wikipedia
Jesse W. Haywood (Don Knotts) graduates from dental school in Philadelphia in 1870 and goes west to become a frontier dentist. As a "city slicker", he finds himself bungling in an odd new environment. On his way west the stagecoach he is travelling on is held up and robbed by two masked bandits. A posse sets out to capture the bandits and catches one of them, Penelope "Bad Penny" Cushing (Barbara Rhoades).
Held by the sheriff and facing prison as a convicted stagecoach robber, Penelope is offered a pardon if she will track down a ring of gun smugglers that also involves a local Indian tribe. She tricks Haywood into a sham marriage as a disguise.
Haywood unintentionally and inadvertently becomes the legendary "Doc the Haywood" after he guns down "Arnold the Kid" and performs other exploits (all with covert assistance from Penny).
The film is a remake of The Paleface, a 1948 movie starring Bob Hope and Jane Russell.

Maybe this will be the end of this journey

We have had quite a year medically between Todd and I. More me then Todd though, but in the end he wins or loses depending how you look at it.
About 3 weeks ago I thought I was going to be the one to undergo surgery for Thyroid cancer. Thank goodness the results of my lump was benign.
Todd has been suffering with back problems since July. He has been seeing a chiropractor for 2 months and hardly getting any relief. He went to our family doctor to ask him to order an MRI. The MRI results show L4 having a bulging disc. This is the same disc that he had surgery on 8 years ago. L5 seems to be bulging a little also, not as bad as L4.
Our family doctor suggested going to see a neurosurgeon and the surgeon suggested surgery. He said that it is very rare that the disc that was operated on 8 years ago could be bulging again. He suggested surgery to fix the disc on L4 and they will look at L5 and decide if they will fix that one also.
Todd's surgery will be next Thursday. He is not happy with having to have his back operated on again but knows that the pain he has been feeling for the last 4 months will be gone.
Maybe this will be the end of our medical journey for awhile.