Doing my Duty

Because it is the sworn duty of all parents to completely humiliate their children whenever humanly possible:
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9596216292


And kudos to Pepco...our local electric company. A squirrel committed suicide on the transformer in front of the church this morning, blowing our power and the church's and who knows who else's. They came within the hour and had it back on, despite our never actually speaking to a human when we called. Guess they listen to their messages, eh? Wondering when it would come back on made me appreciate a warm house on a cold morning.

And because I don't want 2 posts in a row without a picture, here's the amazing herb garden Todd bought me last month. I've wanted one for forever and he surprised me with this one. It was so beautiful...and handy. I say "was" because I killed it. I'm not sure how. I did what I was supposed to but it turned brown and died. Sigh. The rosemary lived. I guess that counts for something.

Thanksgiving 2007

We had a great day yesterday! Everything turned out beautifully. And even though there are no shots of the full table, Todd was so inspired that he made a short video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diSmZo0gLuA

You'll see me dressed up, pearls and all. I was channeling my inner June Cleaver...it worked! Everything was yummy, everyone was happy and the guests left with food in hand...and none of them had to help with dishes.

(Only the Chihuahua is ours. The other two dogs are visiting for the week. They keep us on our toes, let me tell you.)

Today we did a little shopping. Mostly because we promised the boys we'd trim the tree today and we didn't have one. Slight oversight on our part. We went after lunch so the crowds were much thinned and we all survived. We came home and busted out the new tree. Again, Todd was inspired to make a video. Hopefully that one will be posted soon.

Enjoy! And "You're Welcome" for getting the song stuck in your head. :-)

Autumn Leaves

Walk with me, will you? Across the street and down the block to pick the boys up from school.


These were taken about a week ago. The colors are even more intense right now.


This yellow/green is my favorite! This week it is just screaming yellow. I'll try to get another pic for you as soon as I get batteries for my camera.


This is a side street I detoured down to get a picture of the leaf-strewn road. "Streets of gold."


So amazing! I was expecting muted golds and browns and maybe some rust-type colors. I was not expecting the crimsons and brilliant yellows mixed with the still-bright greens.

Of all of God's wonders, I think steady rain ruffling through color-drenched trees is one of the most peaceful. Good stuff!

Our Cat

Our neighbor dropped in for a visit yesterday. She had come by to deliver a belated "welcome to the neighborhood" gift and stayed (with her standard-sized poodle) for a chat. She's a very nice lady who has a cat almost identical to ours (only male). She informed me that Su Chen is not a Burmese (they are short-haired) but is a Maine Coon. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and sure enough she is! Pretty cool. They are an American breed, very smart, very sweet and very large (Ours is bigger than our dog and the largest ever recorded was 4 feet long!). They are considered the easiest to train of the cat breeds and ours is supposedly more likely to play fetch than our Chihuahua....not hard, since he's pretty unlikely to play fetch. It's something I'll have to try soon.
Yay for having official documentation that our cat rocks!

Post-Halloween Carnage

So, a day late and a dollar short, here is the aftermath of Halloween.....

Actually all of these pics are from the day itself. Those punkins didn't last long. They were pretty scary, eh?

This is our utterly mortified dog in his costume. K-9 unit indeed.

Ike as a blue ninja. He originally wanted to be Boba Fett until he learned that there were going to be at least 3 others in his class.

They all lined up in a row for the parade, it was awesome.

So the real carnage was all the candy laid out on the floor. I'll spare you the horror of that particular scene. The boys really enjoyed their first real trick-or-treating experience and the sleep-over was a hit. Fun, fun, fun.

And now on toward Thanksgiving! We'll be hosting a small group from church. Whaddya think? Should we have the Thomas family traditional Thanksgiving feast? (and by "Thomas family" I mean Todd's grandparents) Frito Pie! hmmmmm....I'm thinking probably not. Though we might go with my side of the family and have gumbo. YUM!

Viva la Holidays!

We made the paper!

In a good way.

http://www.gazette.net/stories/103107/bethnew60310_32371.shtml