Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Family Photo, Halloween 2007

Presenting Geoffry Sarboxely

Jeff's costume this Halloween was a laugh riot!




Found the Poem!

As Death Approaches

I can't believe I'm laughing!
I'd have sworn I'd be
shaking or sniveling.
And I sure didn't expect
a limousine.
I've never been in a limousine.
No biggy.
I've had better than fame.
Who needs the pressure?
As for fortune, I'm filthy.
That's why I'm laughing.
I've had so much love:
the giving, the getting.
It's shameful.
It's embarrassing.
And it's too late.
No one can take it away!
And I've had the pain
to help me appreciate it.
Thank God for the pain!
Easy for me to say
now that I'm going!
But no, seriously,
the kicks in the teeth,
the gut, the rugs
pulled out, slammed doors,
setbacks, snubs.
Without them, I'd
never have recognized
Love, bedraggled,
plain eyes shining,
happy to see me.
Do I want more?
Of course I want more!
I always want more
of everything: money, hugs,
lovemaking, art, butter,
woods, flowers, the sea,
M&Ms, chips, tops, bottoms,
trips — I did give up drinking —
time, sure, and yes,
I'd like to see
my grandchildren,
if there are any.
I'd like to see my books
but more has never
been good for me anyway.
Enough — that's what I've
always needed to learn,
and is there a better way?
So this laughter
I had to work up to
through so many tears,
it just keeps coming
like a fountain, a spray.
Let it light on you
refreshment, benediction,
as I'm driven away.

Susan Deborah King, from One-Breasted Woman. © Holy Cow! Press, 2007


Buy the book!

Boo!

Happy Halloween...

Maggie is terrified of going trick or treating, no interest whatsoever. Too scary, she says. I think I will stay home with her and we can answer the door together. She can still get into costume, she can run if things get too scary, etc. I just hope we finally get a few folks this year! (but not too many, thank you.)

I heard a poem on "The Writers Almanac" last night while working in my sewing room. It was so great, reminded me so much of my Dad. I'll try to find it and post it here later...

Monday, October 29, 2007

Fall Outside our front door




Nicole and Eli

Who knew carving pumpkins could be so fun?

Whoo boy did they have a great party at the farm this Saturday. My goodness. The premise for the party was to carve pumpkins, but due to the weather being less than ideal, the carving was done in the farm's nightclub, and so everything ended up taking on this special groovy dance time carv-o-rific vibe that was just so, so much fun. The most fun I've had carving pumpkins, ever. Many thanks to our wonderful hosts. I hope they do it again real soon!

We invited a couple of friends, a husband and wife and their daughter. I have a real good feeling about all members of this family, and I am especially looking forward to getting my Sew on with the Mrs. Both Mr. and Mrs. appear to be fundamentally great people and their kid is a charmer, too. They seemed to have a great time at the farm party too, fitting in seamlessly with all the other guests. Hopefully we will be seeing a lot more of them!

And yesterday was a terrific day, too. I'd cracked the whip on Saturday before the party to get the house in shape, so Sunday was a total lay about day. I blissed out at my sewing machine for hours before taking a nap and then going out to dinner and target with the family. not too shabby, eh?

I have a bunch of pictures I need to post, and I have that effort planned for during dinner prep. So check back later today and see if I ever got around to it!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Halloween Parties

Today is the Halloween parade and party for Maggie at her preschool/daycare situation. At 10:30 they will all be marching down main street, and then return back for a party. Maggie is VERY excited as you can imagine. Henry's after school group is having a party (but no parade) after school, and he is ready to go as well.

Last night was a real second shift! The moment I got home it was work work work. I had brownies to make (for Henry's party), cold veggies to chop for Maggie's party, take out dinner to call in (thanks for the pick up Jeff!) and then the minor adjustments and costume tweakery that come with the night before the Halloween party. Henry's jeans needed to be hemmed, a gold band of fabric sewed to his sweater, and a closing device for his Quidditch robe devised. And in between all that I cleaned the kitchen (well, sort of.) and Jeff got the kids bathed and put to bed.

I scored a bunch of copy paper boxes from work and have also begun creating a mini fabric store within these boxes. I'm taking food boxes and folding them flat and then wrapping the fabric around them, pinning it and then filing it in the box. This way I can see exactly what I have without pulling it all apart. I just need more food boxes (the Triscuit gods are smiling on me!) to wrap the fabric around. I sure have accumulated a lot of fabric since this whole thing started!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Brace Yourselves.

Here we have Maggie's Halloween costume for 2007 thank you for all your help and support marcia! This is the dress rehearsal, she still needs her hair done and the ribbons up her legs. Too cute. Like candy.



And here we have the first born. So handsome and healthy and glowing and thriving. Good stuff. Here is Henrys first grade picture:



And here he is for second grade.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Pictures from Marcia's Visit


Here is a link to snapfish.com where, once you sign in (or up, depending) you can view the slideshow of pictures taken during Marcia's visit! We dropped the ball on getting the kids in a halloween dress rehearsal, but there are some good ones. Worth checking out, for sure.

Marcia's Visit October 2007

One eared Kerm in the woods

On Sunday Marcia and Maggie and Kermit and I went into the woods in search of twigs to finish Henry's broomstick for Halloween. I have more pictures I intend to put up, because Maggie just looked so beautiful. something about the beautiful weather and being under the golden tree canopy makes for real purty pictures. I wanted to post this one right away so I could access it at work for my desktop picture.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Peak!

Holy Calzonies did things peak out here over the weekend! Here are three pictures from Saturday morning, when Marcia and I went yard sailing over in Milford. The greatest find of the day for me was a collection of sewing machine attachments that work seemlessly (pun intended!) on my machine. I can make ruffles, pleats, I can hem to varying degrees with ease, I can do zippers, enclose cord inside fabric, you name it. And the attachments themselves are just crazy beautiful pieces of machinery. Must be seen to be believed.

But how about those trees!



Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Save Your Mamma from The Drama!

That's my new saying to the kids when they're feeding off each other with sibling related hijinks. "Save the drama for your mamma" always comes to mind, but I, as you know, am the children's mamma so that wouldn't do.

Well kids, it's another day in blogland. My excitement is reaching a fever pitch in relation to my sister Marcia's upcoming visit. Marcia is SO MUCH FUN to hang out with, I simply can't wait to see her! We were going to go out for dinner and drinks on Friday night, but I have adjusted those plans and now, with Marcia's help, we will be having a small dinner party at the house instead.

Jeff's aunt Rozanne and her beau are going to be in town and I have a couple few new friends I've been wanting to have over and so this party on Friday night will be the perfect solution. I'm taking Friday off work, so there should be plenty of time to make ready. Trying to keep things on the small, mellowish side. (Don't want to alarm my new friends and auntie Ro-beau with a big gigizo house party quite yet!)

Anyway, I have just one more day of work and then I'm off for the weekend. Yay! Tonight Jeff has a planning board meeting and tomorrow night we have an ice cream social and book fair at Henry's school, then soccer practice Friday late afternoon, then dinner at the house. On Saturday I want to go yard sailing with Marcia and Henry, there's a fall festival on Main Street, a soccer game Saturday afternoon, and then we're heading in to Keene for their pumpkin festival. Sunday I hope to lay around and relax. (and by 'relax' I mean work feverishly on Henry's halloween costume.)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Crafty! Yardsale Patchwork Crazyquilt!





Here's that quilt I mentioned a few posts back. I am in the process of stitching everyone's name onto a square. I plan to add our town and the month and year, too. I really like this quilt. The size of it is sort of the length of a twin bed, but not the whole width of it. Like a long, sort of narrow rectangle. It's pretty fun and very satisfying to work on it a bit at a time. I ought to bind it up though, then I can call it finished whenever I want. It's not finished until it's bound, as any quilter will tell you.

The new soccer fields




This is the first year for soccer at Carnival Hill here in our little town. It's so beautiful, and the weather has been just top notch at every practice and game so far. They call it Carnival Hill because, back in the day, local townfolk would throw a winter carnival here, with sledding and other wintertime festivities. I can personally assure you that the sledding here can't be beat.

You park your car down below and walk up the little hill to where the soccer fields are, and the whole scene unfolds in this beautiful mellow good-clean-family-fun sort of way. I like how as you crest the hill from the parking lot, and you make your way to your kids field, you get sort of absorbed and enveloped in the crowds of other folks whose kids are practicing and horsing around. You see folks you haven't seen all week, catch up with friends, enjoy being outside. it's great.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

It really is getting gorgeous out here

We finally got our yard cleaned up last weekend, I took these a day or two ago.


This is a new favorite tree. It's right across the street from the house and greets me every day as I come up the road.


Here we are looking west, towards Curtis Farm.


The house. I hope to doll it up with some autumnal spirit when Marcia gets out here (next week! can't wait can't wait can't wait). Right now it's a style I call "Pre-Reveal"...


And here we are looking east, towards Milford.

Aren't you glad I shared? Interestingly, as you can see, we are not at peak fall color yet. As of October 10th or something. Marcia will be in for quite a leaf peep!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANIE!


Today is my dear sister in law's birthday. Happy Birthday Lanie. We all love you so much!

What's Happening? Nothing much.

Yesterday I caught up with three different people, and they all asked me what was up, what was happening, what was going on. And all three times I was like, "oh, nothing much really." I can't figure out if I'm in a rut, or just living life or feeling less than 100% or what. But nothing much is going on this week and I felt a little like a loser having nothing exciting to offer up to my three askers. So thanks for making me feel bad Papa! Dian! Jonboy! ;-)

Today is Wednesday. I feel a little tiny bit like crap. Nothing major, just bleh. Making my way through the week. I am excited for next week, however, as my sister Marcia is coming for a visit and we will be having a very good time. the Keene Pumpkin festival is on the 20th, so we will be going to that. Marcia needs to see that. And we will be going out for drinks with my new friend/co-worker, who reminds me so much of Marcia in so many ways that I feel they have to meet. I feel a little like I unearthed a treasure in this new friend of mine, so I am really looking forward to connecting with her on a social level outside of the office.

Maggie has picture day today at her preschool/daycare. I dressed her in a shirt that will make her blue eyes POP, and even added, at her request, a little blue ribbon for her hair. It will be a real moment for me to have TWO 8x10 school photos to frame and put up (Henry's school photo and hers). I will figure out how to post both photos online when they come in and if you happen to share the genes of my children, you will mostlikely receive an actual picture via snailmail at some point down the road! Lucky you, kin of my children.

Okedoke. You take care now. Oh! My friend Mike updated his blog finally, so go check it out and catch up... It's over there on the right, under "Blogs of Loved Ones". The Mustard Bun has been updated! Yahoo! And Katie, Mom and Matt, time to get cracking!

Have a good day.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Weekend Update

This weekend I went yard sailing. I struck such gold that I went home after just two stops! The first sale was at the local funeral home, which I thought would be cool. Not sure what I was expecting to find there, but I managed to spend $15 on books and a toy for Maggie.

What I got for Maggie was one of those stuffed toy dogs that comes with it's own fancy doggie carrying bag - complete with rhinestones and other adorable accessories! Maggie was so thrilled. The dog was named Collery at first, but now she's Jenny. If I had a dollar for each time this weekend I clipped and/or unclipped the leash to Jenny's collar, I'd be up about twenty five bucks.

Next place I went to was a big old painted lady (Victorian house) across the block from Henry's school. They had their sale inside, and what a beautiful house it was. My goodness. And so big! Anyway. Somebody's momma had just passed, and momma was a quilter... You can imagine the rest!

For five bucks I got a big box of vintage fabric. Much of it was already cut up into seven inch squares! So as soon as I could I brought it all home and began stitching a patchwork quilt out of all the squares. The lady clearly had a plan when she cut the squares up, so I went for it. Got the whole quilt pieced and added a denim border on Saturday, then, using an old blue blanket for the batting, quilted it up!

The quilting part was a real bear. I see these fancy shmancy long arm quilting machines and they make me start to want one. Very slow going and rather tiresome. Luckily I went grocery shopping in the middle of it because I picked up a quilting magazine that had a big article on crazy quilts and was sufficiently inspired.

See, I love to embroider, but I never really get far enough along in a project to have anything worthwhile at the end. I like to doodle, is more like it. So now I'm going to see my patchwork quilt as a doodle pad of a sort, stitching around the borders with colorful floss and experimenting in the middle of some/many squares with various designs and stitches. It's already quite satisfying, as each stitch now has value! it won't be thrown away or forgotten about when I get bored with it! I am pleased. At some point I'll post a picture.

On Saturday night I went out to dinner with my friend Christine, it was great to hang out with her. We went to the farm and visited with the baby (and his parents, of course) and in general had a real good time.

In a never ending quest to match his clothing, on Saturday Henry went out on errands wearing a hawaiian shirt and some shorts that are actually pajamas. We called him Henry Hotpants all day. HAR HAR!