Where the wild things are

I happened to notice the wild Zeke in his natural habitat.

shh- dont make a sound

Something has caught his interest-

a bottom dwelling book

this requires a closer look

Natural Habitat

Stalking his prey- an elusive ball

Requires aggressive stalking techniques

(note the green prey)

Maybe not so wild after all

Trunk or Treat

We had a very busy weekend.

Friday morning Zeke and I went to Baby Time in Hickory, where the babies dressed up in costume. It was really cute to see!

Friday afternoon we went to the downtown Trick or Treat. Most of the stores had someone sitting outside their store handing out candy. We got there a bit late due to Zekes nap (started at 3 and we were there at 3:30) and the lines were LONG!

We were dressed as a Princess and a Frog.

Zeke seemed to like his costume. Well at least he wasnt pulling at the hood trying to get it off.

Saturday Zeke and I went trick or treating to our friends houses. We only made it to 3 friends (one wasnt home, another one sleeping) before we were invited in to play.

Zeke loved playing with the Bast's 4 children so much that we stayed an hour!

That was it for trick or treating that night!

That brings us to Sunday- Halloween!

I had seen a sign advertising a Trunk or Treat at the nearby church. I had to ask someone what that was.

It is a location where cars come, open their trunk and give candy out there. The benefits are great for a parent. There are no cars moving where the kids are treating and you get quite a few in one stop.

Dave came with us to this and I think it wasnt horrible for him. This might be something to get involved in since we get less than 10 people to our house for Halloween and I really like dressing up and handing out candy.

adopted

Dave and I debated over who would post this.

I decided to let him since he is a much better writer. This is his blog post:

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sergeant Fuzzyboots

Sgt. Fuzzyboots.

Apparently we have been adopted by a cat!

A few weeks ago we noticed an orange tabby cat hanging around the neighbourhood. We did not think much of it, and went on our merry way. Little did we know we were being investigated. Last week I was loading Zeke into the car, and the same cat came out of nowhere and jumped into the car (on the floor in the back seat, not on Zeke). Ever since then he has been hanging around our side door and greeting us when we go outside.

I can haz family?

This cat is incredibly friendly. We can pick him up easily, doesn't get spooked with loud noises, and has a sweet disposition. Even the presence of Bailey The Wonder Puppy doesn't phase him a great deal. Either he has a home and has roaming tendencies, or he was a house cat and was abandoned. Given the frequency with which he is outside our door (aka constantly) I am guessing its the latter.

Since winter is coming on... eventually - we northerners still have not gotten used to the concept that Halloween does not mean snow is imminent - and the cat does not seem to have a home, we (ok, ok: I) started feeding it, gave it a box to sleep in, and of course I gave him a name: Sergeant Fuzzyboots.

Note the dogs in the background thinking either "are
we being replaced?" and/or "what is it? It looks tasty."

"Why a sergeant", you may ask, probably not overly interested, but you are nice folk so you smile politely and hope I won't give a long answer, "instead of a Colonel or General?" Rest assured that I am almost done with this post, thank you for your question, and answer thusly: We have not adopted him officially so he can not be an officer in my pet army, but he deserves to be more than a common foot soldier, so I drafted him as a non-commissioned officer into the Pet Corps - Special Forces: Mouser Division.

He really seems to be the type of cat, if one was so inclined to be a cat person, that one would adopt. If I was not allergic to our feline companions it is quite possible that I would adopt him. Since I can not have cats in the house, he will have to remain an outdoor cat. As it stands we are feeding him, and I am going to get him fixed, but he is still free to roam as his kitty heart desires. Hopefully he will pay us back with kitty snuggles, and do some mouse and mole hunting.

He makes me laugh

This is cross posted from Daves blog about our Halloween - so if you read that already then you dont need to read this.

This post made me laugh so hard that I had tears :)

thanks dear- I love you!

The Princess And The Frog

~o~ BOO! ~o~

A few months ago my wife found a cute little frog costume for Zeke to wear for his first real halloween (he was around for last year, but at 2 weeks old, I don't count it as his "first").

The town I live in held a trick or treat event on Friday where all the stores down town gave out candy to the kids from 3-5 in the afternoon. My wife took Zeke dressed in his frog outfit. At the last moment she came across the awesome idea of dressing herself up as a princess. So a quick dig into her costume box (a result of years spent working in the recreation department of an old age home, and Debbie simply being fun - Sometimes she seems like the daughter of Mr. Dressup) and *poof* she became a princess. The results are what you see before you. My wife and kid, the Princess and the Frog.

Note: For those curious, my wife kissed the frog and he did not turn into a prince, so my status as her prince still stands. Zeke will remain our amphibious cohort for the next few days :)


So you may be wondering: What did Yours Truly dress up as? We I tend to frequently have this natural and unintentional Indiana Jones look about me (see pic below), so lets pretend I dressed up as him intentionally this year.

Regular everyday Dave-wear.

~o~ Happy Halloween! ~o~

My musical son

Dave and I were thinking about getting Zeke some musical toys lately.

We did buy him 2 maracas from Cracker Barrel when we went to the Nascar race.

We were talking about getting him an xylophone and other musical toys when I came across a bag of toys given to us by Emily months ago. I totally forgot about them (and also found clothes from someone else too ~I think I better go though my closets more often~)

I got these toys out before bed last night (bad idea.) Zeke stayed up an extra 30 minutes playing :)

The place I volunteer at has a player piano that Zeke just discovered last week. He found it again this week. he enjoyed plinking the keys so I sat him on the bench and let him play. After getting the video I found out that the piano is not for kids to play on (opps) so next time I will have to close the lid before he sees it again.

Speaking of volunteering- its getting harder to keep Zeke happy in his play pen and he really gets around when he is not in it. I am going to have to rethink this volunteering thing or get a babysitter. Its hard to think about paying someone to go to a place where I'm not getting paid.

My friend Deborah and I have talked in the past of switching kids so we can each volunteer and not have to worry about our kids. This would be an awesome swap. She isn't currently volunteering so she would have to set that up first.

anyway- back to my musical son- here is a video I put together.

I like how gentle he is with the piano. He was banging on the table a lot more and in rhythm before I got the camera out. I also didn't get him playing the xylophone

or you can find it here

embrace your brokeness

This is a post from my friend Kendra over at Southern Disposition

She has an awesome blog that I enjoy reading a lot. You should go over and visit her there (and even leave her a comment!)

Here she talks about embracing her brokeness

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2010

10 Reasons Why I Embrace My Broke-ness

I like to think that Eric and I are (usually) ok at life. Thank goodness for good luck. Part of that is owed to our parents who were conscientious enough to realize that we would need to be decent, productive humans one day. Part of it was the God's unfailing grace - He knows what we need even when He has to drag us through it kicking and screaming. The rest, my friend, we owe to being broke. You were taught wrong: Necessity is not the mother of invention...poverty is.

Things I would have never learned with well-lined pockets:

1. You can buy GREAT movies for $5. We own a LOT of $5 movies. A lot, a lot. That's because $5 movies are how we "go on a date." We go to Blockbuster, pick out something we've never seen before, and have a date-on-the-sofa night. It's awesome.

2. You can have a fantastic date night on a shoestring.Even simple "nice" date nights can cost over a hundred dollars:

• a nice dinner out for 2: $60
• movie tickets at the fancy theater: $30
• popcorn and drinks: $20

Instead we do this and save ourselves some funds:

• $5 movie: $5
• Takeout Dinner: $20
• Wine: $15

3. Sewing is therapeutic. I learned to sew because it satisfied my need to create as well as my need to patch clothing and make curtains without having to pay someone.

4. Children don't have to be picky eaters................

read the rest here

decision made

I have finished another quilt.

This was the quilt I asked people for the opinions about which way to put it together. The main answers were the first one pictured and the all in a row one.

I decided to go with the all mixed up one (I really like order in my quilts) to try something different.

I also talked about the fabric here.

Here are the finishing pictures:

The top put together and the border added

The back, batting and embroidery thread for putting it together

All put together. Im glad the backing I bought matched. I bought it a number of months later.

I tied this quilt every length and every other width (if that makes sense)

I wanted to use the fabric in large pieces so I could show the whole pattern in the one piece that has the alphabet letters on it