Guess I'll go eat worms

As promised, a picture of Chelsea with her woolly worm. If you click on the picture, it will open in a larger picture for you to get a good look at him; it's pretty cool. Clicking the "Back" button will bring you back to this page after you have finished checking out the bug.

Title: The children's song "Nobody Likes Me" I can't imagine that I'm the only one who knows this song, but if you need a refresher in how it goes (or how it ends with eating worms) let me know the next time you see me!

Happy Holidays!

Well, we've survived almost all of Hallothankmas Eve here at the Melton Point, with just New Years to go (and thanks to J's work schedule lately, I think that will come and go with little notice!). We had a great trip down to western KY to vist our folks and ended up with several 'out of the mouths of babes' moments to share. (Note to all of my sisters-in-law--children have not been left out for any particular reason; we love them all!)

First, I've got to share about J's oldest nephew, who we learned has decided he would like to be a puppy dog. Apparently, he's had enough of this 'human being' thing. Not a bad idea, actually...

Second up, my own nephew, who lived in Kuwait for a year before moving to Georgia this summer. This nephew and his little sister lived in Lexington for a year prior to moving to Kuwait and I used to see them quite a bit. As it has been about a year and a half since I last saw these guys, I was a bit aprehensive. It turned out to be the correct emotion as my dear nephew walked up to me and immediately asked if I was pregnant. (Now, we've discussed kids on this blog before, and I'm sure you all agree with J and I that the world is not ready for mini-meez, so we all know that the response is in the negative--my darling husband and I have just gained, ahem, several pounds since the wedding.) I decided that honesty, being the best policy, would suffice and replied, "No, I'm just fat." (You know, it sounded better when Eva Longoria said it.) Dear nephew responded, "Oh. You used to be skinnier." (No kidding. Thanks for noticing.) Needless to say, I'll be back at the gym this week, and probably calling up Jenny Craig, too.

My neice, who happens to be young enough to not notice such things as her Auntie's weight (or at least is too polite to mention it), gave me her own scare on this vacation. I woke up the second night of our stay to the sound of a little voice calling for "Mommy". After some time of calling with no answer, she got up and walked out of her room (I know this because I listened carefully to the thump of her little bed as she got up, the creak of the door hinges as she opened her door and the pitter-patter of her little feet as she wandered down the hall.). After the sound of her walking around was not joined by the sound of her parents, I began to wonder exactly where she was going. Now, again, we don't spend a lot of nights with little ones around, so I really have no idea what kind of trouble a toddler can get herself into. I do know, though, that the ones who end up on the news generally wander outside to play frogger in busy streets or to fall down open wells. With my anxiety in full-blown effect, I quickly jumped up and stepped into the hallway to 'rescue' my neice, who was standing in full Cindy-Lou Who fashion, hands behind her back, staring at the door to my brother's bedroom. Turns out my intrepid sibling and his wife sleep with earplugs (that's one to put away for future use) and hadn't heard the little one at all.

Last story isn't so much about what one said, but rather what one did. J has a pretty creative neice who ended up being the subject of an oft-told story this Christmas, and I decided it was worth telling one more time. C, who is seven, visited an exhibit of bugs made of sticks, twigs and other lumber earlier this fall at her community's botanical garden. Inspired by the exhibit, and by her art teacher, she made her own bug (a wooly worm) out of recycled materials. The art teacher was so impressed, she entered the bug in a Crayola contest. C's bug went on to win 9th place in this nation-wide contest and will be featured in a book to be published sometime in 2009. If I can get my hands on a picture, I'll be sure to share!

That's it for today, though stay tuned for posts with more pictures! J's folks were kind enough to give me a digital camera for Christmas, which I'll be able to keep on hand to snap as the mood strikes, rather than planning ahead as I have been!

Title: Happy Holidays, by Bing Crosby

This and That, Part 2: People who drive convertibles shouldn't assume they don't need an ice scraper

That should really be enough of an explanation, shouldn't it?

If not, the next line would be that I 'scraped' my car windows with a credit card and sentd up many thanks for buying a car with a rear-window defrost, as it had melted the ice on the back glass by the time I brushed off the two inches of snow. The windshield and windows went a bit more slowly, but after 20 minutes, I was in the car toasting my cold, red hands!

And now I'm going in search of my ice scraper, which I am sure I didn't give away with my old car!

Little bit of this, little bit of that

First, I hadn't realizd just how my the blog had become a part of my everyday thinking until I discovered I was blogging in my head. Unfortunately, the computer issues kept me from getting each 'post-in-my-head" to the computer in time to share before another came along. As a result, now that I have time to enjoy my half-snow day, I've got lots of pieces of blog posts to share. That's right, I said 'half-snow day". The snow and ice that blanketed our region closed my office for the morning. I have to report at noon, but get to wait until the salt has had a chance to work. J, of course, slipped and slid off to work at the usual hour this morning.

We had a similar experience a little over a week ago with the slippery weather, too. J and I headed out last Saturday morning (he for a haircut, me to the gym) in clear, cool weather. By the time we had finished our respective errands and had breakfast, we were in the midst of wuite a little snow storm that took us, and the city road department, quite by surprise! It took an hour to get home from the east side of town (usually a 25 minute drive), and we dodged folks sliding all over the place. We learned the next day that more than 200 wrecks had been reported that Saturday, and, thanks to the observance of one driver at the four-way stop we slid through, were thankful we weren't one of them.

Given the crazy weather, and J's busier work schedule, I've spent lots of time at home getting ready for Christmas. I hosted my annual Cookie Swap last night, and finally took time to take a few pictures. Of course, I forgot to take picturs before the swap, so please just imagine how the tables looked with trays full of cookies/food!

I'll start with the mantel. I've seen many of these ornament trees in the stores this year, and as the intrepid crafter I seem to be, felt confident I could make one myself. It isn't great, but for a first try, I'm pretty pleased that I covered most of the foam base and even snuck in a pattern of matte vs. shiny balls. If anyone wants one, I'm happy to oblige for $25, and I'm fairly certain a second attempt would look even better!

Also handmade on the mantel (or rather, hanging from the mantel) are two stockings. The one on the right was made by my mom for me many years ago. When J and I married, she packed it up with my ornaments and sent it to live with me. J didn't bring his own stocking to our marriage, so I offered to make one. He requested 'blue' and 'classy' so I set off to the fabric store in search of navy (UK blue does not qualify as 'classy' in my mind.) velvet. I made a pattern using my stocking as a model and cut out the fabric. Then I set it aside for a couple of weeks, waiting for the right time to tackle actually sewing it together. Last week, in the midst of a sick day, I decided to whip the stocking up (as well as the second stocking I bought fabric for--we can't have clashing stockings on the mantel now, can we?). Two days, phone calls to my mother and both of my grandmothers (apologies to Mur for implying she should understand the problem since my machine is from her 'era'), re-threading the entire machine, replacing a broken needle, reading through the instruction manual three times... Well, you get the picture. I ended up with one, mis-shapen stocking. My darling husband has assured me this is okay as "it will hold candy!" When the bobbin ran out, I called it quits, and hung my mis-matched stockings on the mantel. I'll try to sew the other stocking when I have thoroughly forgotten this experience.

Other craftiness I've been up to--a non-traditional wreath on our front door and my favorite part of the holidays--wrapping the gifts! I'm going with a red and gold theme this year, but when I found wide red velvet ribbon on sale at Michaels, I had to pull out my trusty kraft paper. I'm particularly proud of the package wrapped to look like a hand-bag for my neice Elizabeth!

The red and gold theme spilled over to our kitchen, where a centerpiece of antique glass ornaments looked great, I though, my my silver and china last night. They sparkled just as much as the 'sugared' apple ornaments I bought last summer for my kitchen cabinets!

I think that's it for this post, which I'm sure you appreciate since it's gone entirely too long! The rest of this week holds an RMH dinner for me, dinner with my folks on Thursday when they come to town for their annual Christmas trip to Lexington, J and I are going to see the TransSiberian Orchestra Friday night (yay!!) and then hitting the cookie room, I mean, visiting with Carter and Michelle at her parents' open house on Saturday night. It's definitely the holidays at the Melton Point!!

Title: Little Bit of this, Little Bit of that, by Carolyn Dawn Johnson

Where, oh where, can we be?

We've fallen off the blogging wagon again, and I do apologize for that--this computer screen issue has really cut into my time on the computer!

In the mean time, we've been busy working, getting ready for Christmas (well, I have been making Christmas decorations and gifts...haven't made it to the actual decorating phase yet), and trying to stay warm!

We hope that you are all staying warm as well and enjoying the spirit of the season!

Title: Oh Where has my little dog gone?, a children's song with no readily apparent author, twisted a bit for the purposes of my title!

I can see for miles and miles

Sincere apologies for the delay in posting about the end of our trip--I couldn't find a wi fi signal last night and opted to sleep this morning rather than blogging the minute we got home! Also, my laptop screen, which has been ill for months, decided to choose this afternoon to die, so blogging may be infrequent for a bit (though J just figured out how to feed my laptop through the amazing Tv--too cool!).

Anyhow, on to Day Three of our great Chicago adventure!

J and I started Day Three with our leftovers from Geno’s East Pizza (the best deep dish in Chicago, we hear) and a walk to Millennium Park, the most recent addition to Chicago’s Park District, and a visit to the kidney bean sculpture, which J promptly renamed ‘the Vain Exhibit’ as it serves little purpose but to look at yourself. We, of course, did just that and took pictures, too! We continued on our walk through the park and the city, enjoying the amazing architecture Chicago has to offer, before hopping on a Gray Line trolley to see more new places, including the Chicago Water Tower and Pump Station, two of the only buildings that remained in that part of Chicago after the Fire of 1871; the John Hancock Building; the Magnificent Mile high end shopping district; and Chicago’s financial district. In the heart of the financial district, we hopped off the trolley and headed up 103 floors to the Sears Tower observation deck, where we delighted in finding bird’s eye views of our hotel and the Dunkin Donuts we visited Thursday morning! After our visit to the Sears Tower, we finally took a ride on the El, took another visit to the Christkindl Market, and stopped for a late lunch in a Greek Pub near our hotel. We then collected our luggage and headed for Union Station, where we are now waiting on our train. Unfortunately, Union Station does not appear to have wi-fi, so I’ll have to save and post this message from somewhere along the way home! Be sure and check back tomorrow for a witty wrap-up of our trip!

Title: "I can see for miles", by The Who

Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana

Day Two in Chicago: More walking than I can imagine, trips to Macy's (formerly Marshall Fields flagship on State Street), the Field Museum (Sue the T. Rex got our attention), Shedd Aquarium (underwhelming until we were almost eaten by a sawtooth shark), an architectural cruise of the Chicago River (one word--Wow!), Cheeseborgers at the World Famous Billy Goat Tavern (think Chicago Cubs curse and SNL skit), a trip to the largest Stained Glass museum in North America (well, the only one, but it was awfully big!) and a trip around the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel. In all, a long day, and we've still got some deep dish Chicago pizza to finish off the night.

Enjoy some pictures!

Bronze markers in the floor at the foot of the escalators in Macy's, letting you know your floor and which street you're facing!

J and JE have some fun with the dinosaurs at the Field Museum.

J and JE contemplate taking a shortcut to Navy Pier.

A quick explanation about the title of this post. While on a tour bus today, we learned that is you look south from the Chicago lakefront, you can see the skyline of Gary, Indiana. Now, JE immediately thought of "The Music Man" and promptly started singing Gary, Indiana, Gary... J, on the other hand, thought of the Jackson family, as in Michael. His tribute to the King of Pop is at left. Gary is the skyline in the background.

J at Billy Goat and the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel where JE faced her fear of heights/fear of not being in control again.

Check back tomorrow for Day three!

Title: "Gary, Indiana" in The Music Man

Still Counting...

If you're just now sitting down to read about our Thanksgiving adventure, you'll want to scroll down to the post titled "Counting our blessings" and start there. We'll wait...

Our morning aboard Amtrack continued with a "Gobble, Gobble" wake up call from the conducter at 7:30, and shortly after, we were priviliged to view a beautiful sunrise as we traveled through the bread basket of our great country. (Actually, after some debate, I've decided to rename this part of Indiana the Corn Flakes Box of our country--we passed miles of corn fields today!)








We arrived in Chicago shortly after the end of the 75th McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which made the drive from the train station to the hotel interesting (the parade route was between the two and was blocked all morning). We did get checked into our room in time for me to watch the last hour of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC, a tradition in our house when I was growing up. I am committed to respecting the turkey, but when Santa enters Herald Square in the goose/sleigh, I'm ready to start celebrating the Christmas season!

J and I were famished, so set out to grab lunch. Turns out, there isn't much open in Chicago on Thanksgiving, so we settled for Dunkin Donuts. I don't believe I'll ever forget my Thanksgiving pizza and donut! We also walked around the city a bit, taking pictures and visiting the ChristKindl Market, which is a great array of (mostly) German craftsman and food booths.

In a bit, we're heading out to a restaurant the concierge downstairs found for us, then it is an early night, as I've got quite the itinerary for us tomorrow!

Counting our blessings

Happy Thanksgiving! We hope that you are all well and have many blessings to count this Thanksgiving; we are so very grateful for the many blessings in our lives.

J and I are off on our next Great Adventure--a belated anniversary trip to Chicago (by train!) to celebrate Thanksgiving this year. As of this writing, it is just before six in the morning, and I have been awake most of the night, so please forgive any typos or unclear references to time and place!

Before we left home Wednesday, we were thrilled to find that our copy of the brick I purchased at the Indianapolis Colts new stadium had arrived. As you recall, I purchased a brick in the new Indianapolis Colts Lucas Oil Stadium to commemorate our wedding. I gave Jonathon a certificate announcing this purchase on our first anniversary back in September. I was very surprised to learn that we would receive a copy of the brick, as well! This is the brick that arrived yesterday, and we were very excited to open it! J was even more excited to take the brick to his office for display. He was less excited when I shared that I already have the ‘picture in my head’ of where the brick will be placed in our family room!

Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start (J closed the trunk on my head, we arrived at the train station in Maysville two hours early, then discovered that the train was delayed by an additional hour), and I’ve discovered that my inability to sleep in the car translates to an inability to sleep on a train (thus defeating the purpose of an overnight rail trip). But, we’re now in Indianapolis for a brief stop, and J got to see Lucas Oil Stadium (Where our brick may already be resting in the Colts Walk of Fame!) and the old RCA Dome. My apologies for the poor picture quality; pictures taken from inside the train don’t seem to come out well, even with the flash turned off…
On a side note, I am watching two Amtrak conductors outside my window, and they actually wear the boxy little conductor hats like on Shining Time Station/Thomas the Train. Huh!

Well, I’m going to try to catch a quick nap before the train starts to move again, but please check back regularly this weekend as we plan to take and post many pictures! Have a wonderful day and eat lots of turkey for us!

Title: "Counting My Blessings", by Irving Berlin

I never meant to be so cold. . . .

So how does your gentle hero find himself at Papa Johns Stadium in Louisville at around 12:00 p.m. on a Saturday, when it is, as they say, colder than a Wiccan's secondary sexual characteristics?  Contrary to your likely first assumption, it did not involve me losing a bet.   But other than that, I really can't explain how I got there other than to say, I guess I'll try anything for a friend (in this case, Dan Hitchcock, a fellow attorney and a Louisville alum who happened to have an extra ticket and needed some back up).

So, in the spirit of friendship, your humble narrator left the warmth of his home to trek to Louisville to sit outside in one of the coldest days of the new winter season to watch two teams contest a football game in which he had no rooting interest . . . and I've got to say, it was okay.  For Dan's sake, I wish Louisville would have won (While I could have needled Dan about Louisville losing on the drive home, having recently felt the sting of the UK men's basketball team's losses myself, I figured my own knife might be turned back on me).  Nonetheless, it was fun to hang out, to observe drunk West Virginia fans (our seats were in the West Virginia section) and to watch two teams play some football.

Add that to my going undefeated in my FNM draft last night, and I've got to say, I've had a pretty good day . . . well, you know, except for the hypothermia.

Title: Cold, by Crossfade

In the lane, snow is glistening

We had snow last weekend, but it was brief, light and didn't really last. Tonight, the snow started around 5:00 and is still peppering down. Thought I'd share a picture from our first real snow of the winter! This is actually the house across the street. It's a little cold for me to actually go all the way outside to take a picture looking back at our house... :)

Title: Winter Wonderland, by Dick Smith and Felix Bernard

Working in the craft room, cleaning up, up, up...

For those of you appalled by the picture I posted of my office/ craft room yesterday (Mom, I know you are!), I wanted to give a quick update with more pictures. Six hours and another bag of trash later, the room is now usable. There is obviously still work to do, and it isn't close to being a 'finished' room, but once I started, I just couldn't stop. Hope you like these pictures better!!

Title: My own twisted version of "Working in the Coal Mine" by Allen Toussaint

Baby, it's cold outside!

And what do we do on a cold, wet Saturday in November? We stay in the warm, dry house and do a little updating. And by 'we', I mean me--J had to work today, so I enjoyed the quiet and tackled some things I've been thinking about.

First, I want to tell you all about the awesome table we bought yesterday. Last month, J and I visited the Athens Schoolhouse Antique Show, a once a month antique show just outside of town (I blogged about it here). Now, it helps to understand that J, like many men of his generation (and probably women, too, but I was entirely too girly for this) is enthralled with transformers. As an adult, that interest extends to housewares and furniture (I swear, the only items he got excited about when we were registering were those multi-purpose items!). Well, since we were only at the show to look around last month, we weren't prepared to purchase the coolest item we saw: a living room cabinet that transforms into a dining table for as few or as many as you'd like to serve. I thought it was beautiful and was pretty excited at the prospect of turning our living room into a part-time dining room. J was pretty excited, as well. I think he called it being "cautiously optimistic."

After a month of debate, we crossed our fingers, withdrew the amount of money we were willing to spend on the table, and I headed over before work yesterday to see if the seller was there with 'our' table. Lucky for me, he was and he barely hesitated at our offer--$200 below his asking price! So we loaded up the cabinet in my car (picture the TV in the back of my car, except that the top just barely covered the cabinet--good thing, too; I had to take the interstate to make it to the office and was afraid to go over 45 with the top down!) and I proceeded to drive all over creation with it for the next 12 hours, as I needed J's help to get it out and didn't see him at home until after dinner at about 9:30.

As you can see in the pictures, the table is now at home in our living room awaiting seven of our closest friends and family to come dine with us. We're now taking reservations!

In addition to rearranging a little furniture in the living room, I also put up hooks in the laundry room to hold wreaths and hangers. Then I tackled my office/craft room. When we packed up my apartment, many of my boxes ended up in the office and I've been slow to unpack them. After a few hours and a big bag of trash later, I barely made a dent, but I'm starting to get a mental picture of how it is going to look.

Title: Baby, It's Cold Outside, by Frank Loesser

P.S.

I just realized that you might wonder why I made a "Give Thanks" banner for the mantel when I made that cool "Happy Thanksgiving" garland back in October. "Happy Thanksgiving" went to live with J's sister, who, you might remember, was to be rewarded for being our first commenter. Now, aren't you jealous?

O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way

No, I've not gotten completely wrapped up in Christmas like the rest of the known world (I passed a Salvation Army bell ringer at Kroger yesterday--already? Really?). I read somewhere this week that Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song, and since there aren't nearly enough of those to pick from, I'm taking Jingle Bells back.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, and to get to the point of this post, I've written before that this is J's and my favorite holiday (so favorite, that we celebrate twice--both Canada and the U.S. versions). This weekend, I finally got around to taking down the Halloween-specific decorations and replaced them with Thanksgiving-specific decor instead.
Lucky me, I put shopping for the Thanksgiving items off until yesterday, so I got some great deals at Michael's and TJ Maxx, including some great scrapbook paper that I used to whip up a couple of banners.

For the more observant of you, you'll notice the mirror above the mantel is gone and replaced by a Paul Sawyier print (okay, only the really observant will know it's a Paul Sawyier--I'll forgive you for just noticing the mirror was replaced by a painting). It turns out my mirror was just too small for the scale of the mantel, so we moved it to another wall. I'm awfully sad about losing the mirror, as it was a big part of the picture in my head, but I'm thrilled to have a place for the print in this room, too.

Hope you all have a great week, and don't forget to fly your flags and thank a veteran on Tuesday!!

Title: Jingle Bells, by James Lord Pierpont

I'm a big kid now!

J and I are planners; those of you who know us at all know that. Being planners, we have decided to put a great deal of thought into the decision to have children. Now, we're both the youngest child in our families, so we don't exactly have lots of experience with small children. In an effort to supplement our thought process with practical experience, we've taken to 'borrowing' the children of our friends on occasion (J prefers these children to be sick, tired and/or hungry when we borrow them--I can't imagine why!).

Today, our friend Kourtney called and asked if we would keep her daughter for a couple of hours while she played a tennis match in the park next to our house. We jumped at the chance, and, of course, I was even more thrilled when Kourt dropped off L with a clean diaper and relatively empty belly. J and I entertained L with our Halloween pumpkins, the Rock Band drum kit and, finally, sticks out of the backyard (L's choice, not mine). While L played with her sticks and I worked on a stick art project to send home with her, I started to notice an interesting odor coming from my little charge. Turns out L's stomach wasn't quite empty enough.

Unfortunately for us, Kourtney hadn't dropped off a diaper bag with L, so J offered to run to Kroger for back-up. I checked the back of L's pull-ups and determined that they were a size 6 (or that they were decorated with a random squiggle on the back...still not sure which) and sent J off in search of Dora pull-ups. He quickly returned with pull-ups in a size 5, but assured me "They have Dora on the front". I grabbed the package and, as I tore it open, noticed that they actually had Diego, Dora's male counterpart, on the front. Those of you with kids will know that means J bought pull-ups for little boys, not little girls (convenient of Pampers to gender code their products that way...I later noticed that the package was blue with a little boy on the front...these may also have been clues for the clueless shopper).

Needless to say, L was cleaned up, dropped into her new pull-ups, and put back together just in time for Kourtney to show up. And now Kourtney has little boy pull-ups should she try for a little brother for L--we didn't feel the need to hang on to them!

Title: Pull-Ups Jingle

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

In our living room, at least! In our continuing efforts to be a bit more frugal, J and I decided to make our Christmas list and start shopping now so as to avoid a more expensive all-out shopping blast in December (our standard method, which throws budgets out the window). We kicked off the list today when the Toys R Us toy book came in our Sunday paper. After a quick trip to Harry's (it's Football Day, after all), I dropped J at work for a couple of hours and set out on our shopping challenge adventure. So now we have gifts for almost all of our nieces/nephews and all of our co-workers stacked in the living room (and I'm coming in under budget, too!).

In other news, I'm headed to Indy this week with twelve Girl Scouts to the Girl Scout Leadership Institute to attend workshops on healthy living and advocacy and to help open the 51st National Convention. Wish me luck on this adventure!

Title: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas, by Johnny Mathis

It's a beautiful day...

...for many reasons, but among the reasons for today's greatness is that I spent the day with two minor celebrities (I know, you're jealous already). Toyota holds a conference in Lexington (and Louisville, but I'm not worried about that one) every year with the theme "in the interest of women". This year, the Girl Scouts were recognized for our Leadership Academy program that Toyota funds, and we were invited to set up a booth in the resource area. Seeing as one part of my job is to find former Girl Scouts, hanging out all day with 600 women was a no-brainer. The day also included addresses by Doris Roberts (Ray's mom on Everyone Loves Raymond) and journalist, and former Girl Scout, Lisa Ling (the under 30 set may remember her from Channel One; the older may know her from The View or National Geographic). Of course, we got Lisa to sign our copy of GS Leader Magazine and to pose for a picture with us! (Pardon the poor quality; I only had my cell phone.)

Also, a promised update--Thelma and Louise made it to Oklahoma and are having a good time. I think they have one more day at the school before heading to Branson.

Title: Beautiful Day, by U2

Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel

Another Sunday, another chance to report on a great weekend adventure. This weekend was the fifth annual Turkey Kick/Beer Olympics, a chance for my college friends and I to get together and forget (and all too quickly remember) that we're too old to be drinking the way we used to. Unfortunately for me, I mis-read my calendar and scheduled a meeting for this afternoon that made the drive to Missouri and back impossible (well, possible, but I wouldn't have been a pretty sight, so best to ackowledge the improbability of it all). No worries though, J and I managed to survive a fairly boring weekend (see "Happy Thanksgiving" garland at left for proof of that. Oh, and about the garland--I only put it on the mantel to take the picture and show how it might look during the Thanksgiving holiday. I'm not starting to celebrate Hallothankmas Eve or anything.

So where is the promised 'great adventure weekend' then? Ah, for that we go to my mom. Mom and a friend signed up for a bus trip to Oklahoma this week to visit one of the DAR schools. They set off this morning from western KY toward the I-64 interchange north of Evansville to meet the bus and were about 30 minutes out when they learned that, through another scheduling mishap, there was no bus. Not ones to balk at inconvenience (these ladies are descended from American Revolutionists, after all), the tour group decided to perservere and road trip to Oklahoma. As I write this, the ladies are about an hour from Joplin, MO, their stopping point for the night, and about 400 miles from home. They have visited Lamberts, Home of the Thrown Rolls in Sikeston, MO (didn't go in, as the line was too long), passed countless fields of corn and cotton, and have seen two buggies of Amish families (did I mention they decided to take US 60, a four- and sometimes two-laned road across Missouri?). I encouraged them to take pictures and keep me posted; expect updates!

One last note--many of you were lucky enough in the last several years to meet Miss Molly, the 2008 NSDAR Junior Doll. Miss Molly brought in $7,000 for the DAR schools this year, and we were lucky enough to have a Kentucky Daughter win her in the drawing. J and I delivered Miss Molly and all of her accessories, including her trunk, a miniature replica of Duncan Tavern, to her new home (the full size Duncan Tavern Historic Center and Museum) on Saturday. The room where she has been placed will be turned into a child's room this winter, but I thought I'd post a picture of her as it looks now. (Miss Molly is in the chair on the right.)

Title: Roadhouse Blues, by the Doors

Who are you?

When posting comments, there are several options to pick from when identifying yourself. One of these options is "anonymous" which is a great option to pick from if you are not a regular reader or are playing a silly game with us (always an option--we like games). Signing your comment "anonymous" is not the best option, however, when you ask questions that you really want a response to. Case in point--our curious corn commenter. J and I thought we knew who asked the questions about the corn maze and were all prepared to send him the answer. Until we found out we were wrong. So now we've got the answer (not a great answer, but an answer just the same) and no one to tell.

So, if you've been considering leaving a comment, here is Lesson Two--Choosing Your Identity--

Note: If you need remedial help, please see Lesson One in "I don't want to work..." below.

After clicking on the comment button and typing your post, you'll see four push buttons listed under the heading "Choose an identity". If you aren't an avid blogger (and let's face it, you wouldn't be reading my lessons on how to comment if you were an avid blogger) you can skip the first two choices. The third choice is "Name/URL". Click that button and two boxes show up. The first is for your name (first name is fine--really, we aren't picky) and the second is for a URL (which is completely optional and fine to leave blank). So type in your name and click the button labeled "Publish Your Comment". It's that easy. Well, I think it's easy. I've been wrong before.

Anyhow, Class dismissed!

Title: Who are you? by The Who

I'm dreaming of the great pumpkin...

Yes, the title is a stretch, so I'll address that first. It seems there aren't many halloween songs, so I'd like to save the few decent ones out there until closer to the actual holiday. This one, as I'm sure you've guessed, is sung to the tune of "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas", with many apologies to Mr. Crosby.

That said, check out our latest decorations for fall! The mums I purchased for early fall dcor have finally given out (I'm sure it had nothing to do with being neglected for the first two months we had them...), so they were moved to the back porch in exchange for this "great" pumpkin from the pumpkin patch we visited yesterday. Also added are a new wreath, with Indian corn, a shock of dried corn stalks and mini-pumpkins.

I dug out my other fall/halloween decor from years past, as well, and added leaves and scarecrows to the rest of my decorations, too. Enjoy the pictures!

Title: "I'm dreaming of the great pumpkin", by someone with more time on their hands than I have to turn Christmas Carols into Halloween Howls.

Cel-e-brate Good Times!

We've got so much to celebrate today that I just had to share! First, we're celebrating our first official blog comment--W00t! Congrats and thanks to J's sister Samantha for being our first commenter. A special prize will be in the mail this week! Also, Honorable Mention to JE's mom for trying to be our first commenter! Keep those comments coming--you never know when we're going to decide to reward a comment with goodies!

As for the rest of the celebrating--

Regular readers will remember that I posted last month about how Autumn is my favorite season. Well, it is also J's favorite season (though I think football and the approaching basketball season might have more to do with that than, say, the beautiful weather and great decorating opportunities...), so he's usually willing to play along when I feel the call to celebrate the season. Today's adventure took us to a local pumpkin farm and corn maze. We had a great time and sucessfully completed both mazes (seriously, follow the link to check out the maze--it's really impressive) in close to record time (much faster than the families with young children we buzzed right by and the group of college students who couldn't find the right path even when we showed them) and still had time for JE to scale a straw pyramid (no children were harmed in her ascent, either). Check back tomorrow to see pics of the fall accecssories we picked up for the front porch!

After conquering the corn maze, we headed over to the Athens Antiques Show. Like the antique show where we found our mantel last month, this one only comes around once a month. The Athens show is in the old Athens Elementary School and there are different folks set up in the old classrooms, gymnasium, library, hallways, etc. J and I found a couple of cool cabinets that transform into dining tables, and plan to check out their credentials before the next show. We also found several fireplace screens (my great plan for hiding the fact that we don't actually have a fireplace) and neat vintage textiles (I'll write more about why I care about vintage textiles another time!) Many thanks to JE's mom and dad for the antiques book--it is already serving its purpose!

I hope you are all having a great weekend! We will be celebrating another successful week on the $100 Challenge at Harry's tomorrow afternoon!

Title: Celebration, by Kool and the Gang