Happy Halloween!

Halloween outfits from G&G

Wendell's preschool party

this boy loves dresses, I thought about dressing him in this for Halloween but he chose his train costume (same as last year)

awww... aren't they cute? : )

time to carve pumpkins, I love this part!

all done, as of about 4:30pm today.. just in the nick of time

Grandpa (my dad) came to visit 

Let's go!

Grandpa made a good assistant since dad was at work.

Hope everyone had a good Halloween, it sure was fun for us!

update: as of Friday afternoon

one roll would have been enough : )

two random thoughts

I just want to share a  few random thoughts...

I try to make our grocery budget based on a one or two week allowance (depending on the week/schedules).  This past week I only needed enough groceries to last one week. So being frugal I noticed that we were in the middle of a roll of toilet paper (well maybe more toward the end but it wasn't empty, yet)  and we had one more to go.  In my defense, our rolls are a little on the higher count side as I don't like changing t.p. very often.  Anyways, Phil commented something about me being pretty risky by assuming we would get by on one extra roll of toilet paper (there was another comment as well but I'm not sure he'd want me to share : ) .  So I did buy some extra at Walmart the other day but I just had to share... as it was a comical moment in our house hold. 

For fun: 1. do you think we will make it on one full roll of t.p. for one week? 2. Would your family make it?  3. Did you ever have older family members set a limit on how much t.p. you were supposed to use?  4. If yes, then how much? 

I had a family friend (we called Aunt B) who said my limit was 2 squares.. now who can get buy on two squares?  maybe Harlie on a #1, maybe.

And a tip for you:  when you break something consider replacement parts before buying the whole thing.  Maybe I'm just lucky but the last two times I looked into replacement parts then I was sent the new part for free.   Usually the replacement part is much less expensive then the whole thing and it saves on how much we send to the landfill.

Let me know if you have any tips for saving!

new round of books

Last week I started on my last of a pile of books I had gotten from the library.  About two chapters in I decided I didn't really like it and was not happy to go the weekend without a good book.  I didn't have the time, or freedom, to go get a new batch until Monday, making Monday a very happy day.  Sometimes I don't realize how important reading is to me until I don't have a good book to sit down with when I need it. 

I would say reading a good book, exercising, spending time with God and cooking new things are some of my top stress reliever type activities.  What are yours?  Are you taking enough time for yourself? 

Well here are the latest three reads, the last one not included as it doesn't make the list.

1. Still Alice by Kim Geneva - a great book!  It's about a woman who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and you walk through her experience of how her mind works.  I recommend it!

2. Goodnight Beautiful by Dorothy Koomson - very confusing and I was surprised it got such great remarks on Amazon.  The story was good but reading was tough.. and frustrating.

3. The Violets of March by Sarah Jio - good start, ended as a soap opera, quite ridiculous in my opinion  but I finished it out so it makes the list.

My mom has told me that when she finds a good book she goes to Amazon to see what other books they recommend, and it also gives ratings so it's fun sometimes to look up those ratings or to get ideas.  I haven't gotten addicted to looking at Amazon but after book #2 I had to see what others said about it.  Almost everyone liked it.. one or two were like me and were frustrated with it. 

Anyways, have you read any good books lately?  (Sarah - what was the name of the one you recommended, I don't remember.)

art work

Wendell and I have been doing some late night artwork lately.  We put Harlie to bed and then Wendell and I pull out the real paints.  One fun thing is that for now we are using up my old paint so I don't always have the colors we want, so we've mixing and experimenting. 

The reason I post though is to ask, who's paintings are creepier, mine or Wendell's? : )

The rainbow is the most normal but uncreative of the bunch. 

Anyways, I love that we both have a vision and then we try and draw the same thing.  Most of you probably don't know that I love doing art.  I love to paint and draw.. or at least I used too.  Anyways, I'm excited to do this again as I've really enjoyed the painting.  I just hope next time I plan it out a little better so we have something to aim for, instead of creepy old lady mushroom hats.

experimenting with mixing paint colors

pumpkins : )

rainbows, with crayon

scroll down and you'll see who wrote this : )

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leaf pictures

We all had our favorite leaf pictures.. here are two of mine. 

I hope that we can get some nature hikes or bike rides in before all the leaves fall and it turns too cold.

bird nest

Just makes me chuckle.

one week off

Phil and I just took one entire week off from working out.  We have not done this in almost 4 years when we started our journey.  It was so wonderful sleeping in, not rushing in the mornings and just laying around the house this weekend.  But it also threw our routine off and we were a bit lost.. well maybe I was more than Phil.  Anyways, I was back at it today, ran a little over 3 miles this morning.  I could tell I was tired, squeaky and creaky from not working the legs in a while but it also felt good when I was done.  I think this winter I'm going to take up some weight lifting... and possibly try to do some more walking.   Maybe keep swimming, hmm... not sure on that one.  Anyways, winter will be here before we know it so I want to plan now.  Any ideas out there for what I can do this winter?  Any good work out tapes video's you can recommend?    : )