Home, Jack-o-lanterns, My Possum and Other Things.....

 I seemed to have let time slip away from me so tonight's journal entry is a 'catch up' of several days....

We enjoyed Sunday night with Chandy and the family toasting our visit with a late night glass of wine!

Her best friend called to say they were home safe and asked what Chandy was doing.

She said, "Drinking with the grandparents!" We all laughed!

Earlier that evening Piercyn had helped me carve Pumpkin #2 and I waited until dark to place him.

Kaitlyn got home from work and she took me to their water well - located two miles down a dirt road from their home. You can see the lights from the wind turbines in the background. 

They are everywhere!

Pumpkin Prayer Dear God, As I carve my pumpkin, help me say this prayer: Open my mind so I can learn about You; (Cut the top of the pumpkin) Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do; (Clean out the inside) Open my eyes so Your Love I will see; (Cut eyes shaped like hearts) I'm sorry for turning up my nose to all You've given me; (Cut a nose in the shape of the cross) Open my ears so Your Word I will hear; (Cut ears shaped like the Bible) Open my mouth so I can tell others You're near; (Cut mouth in the shape of a fish) Let Your Light shine in all I say and do! Amen. (Place a candle and light

My fiends Jean and Sheila sent this prayer to me.

Thank Y'all!!!

I'm not the best photographer and am a primitive pumpkin carver.....

but I'm still taking the shots!

We drove straight home on Monday morning nibbling off the huge Goody Bag Chandy gave us.

It was FULL of nuts, cookies, Pub Mix, a meat/cheese/cracker tray, a fruit bowl....so many goodies!!

Thank you, Chandy! For the goodies and for your hospitality!

Thank you, Kaitlyn for the drive down the spooky country road and thank Chris for all the things he did to make for such a good weekend!

We loved spending time with each and every one of y'all - tell Piercyn, Bella and Jaxon we love you all!

We meant to drive straight over to the Bells to help out after Logan had a little bit of minor surgery -

but Amber had things well in hand so we arrived home at 4:00 and spent the next few hours doing what I call 'Get Even.' That means unloading, unpacking, putting everything away where it belongs, start the laundry and generally tidy up. 

Pretty soon it was time to crave Pumpkin #3.

Louis Dean is saving the seeds and I'm feeding the rest of the pumpkin innards to my possum!

I don't have carving tools and am using different knives to carve.

Louis Dean is offering to use his saw and I may take him up on that!

It was dark by the time we went to place this little fellow.

Since he has heart eyes, I decided he must love children so he ended up under a tree on O'Connor in front of the high school. I'm hoping he brought a few smiles to some of the students even though he wasn't in the dark by the time they arrived at school the next morning.

I came home to the art table and Louis Dean went in his music room and that's where we stayed until nearly midnight!

It's going to be a time crunch getting Santa painted in time to dry, glaze, get photos made (I'm asking Mike to take the photo to use for my Christmas card since he has the latest in a cell phone with THREE cameras!) and then order, receive, address and mail them!

I'd love to send one to YOU so make sure I have your address!

As I was turning off the lights and shutting up the house......

just look who was at the buffet line out by the kitchen pond!

Bed sure felt good Monday night!

Tuesday was a good day - except that Louis Dean lost his phone - again.

This time when I called it - it rang - but we couldn't hear it so it's not anywhere here on our property, in our house or in either one of our vehicles. 

The last time I saw him with it was in Chris and Chandy's living room.

Louis Dean searched and searched until I insisted we had to GO!

We were taking dinner over to the Bells.

I started it earlier in the afternoon and when I took  this pic of the recipe, I said, "OOPS!"

Then I ran over and fished out the cream cheese that I had put in at the beginning instead of the end!

I made pepper poppers - of course - and Amber says she only eats the ones I make.

Normally she doesn't like them!

Roasted veggies was the side and Amber had diced up cantaloupe and a salad to add to the meal.

While the meal was cooking, the kids and I carved Pumpkin #4.

They had a good idea!

Make it a KITTY pumpkin!

I had thought I would put this one down on the greenbelt behind their house......

but there was a lot of poison ivy, and no good place to put it but on the ground - on top of the poison ivy. There is a bench and a table down there that would have been perfect except they were covered in poison ivy and I stopped myself from pulling it all away just in time.

Instead we took it down the street where there is a wooded area across the streets from the homes.

One house in particular was all dressed up for Halloween so we placed it catty corner to it.

I didn't tell the kids exactly where it was but told them to look for it on their way to school Wednesday morning. They did! They saw it and Amber said an old man walking his dog was looking at it too.

Our cats are back and I do believe we are going to be keeping them home with us for the rest of the year. I wonder what they are thinking sometimes - with all the going back and forth to the Bells and then down to the ranch. 

We just didn't feel it was safe to haul them to Mountain View with us or take them to Chandy's. But they are BACK and I am having to remind Louis Dean - and myself - 

to WATCH OUT FOR THE CATS!!!

This sign is inside the foyer.

This one is outside on the porch.

They WILL go out if the door is held open long enough!

Ask me how I know!

Louis Dean always has a project and today he has been helping me on mine.

I have two different places to store my bed sheets.

The top shelves in the hall closet holds all my flannel sheet sets.

We have three different bed sizes - Queen in our room - Double on the bottom bed  in the guest room and twin on the top bunk.

Today he sorted, folded and rolled all of the sets to fit on one shelf!

Maybe I can get him to help me do that with the other sheets.

We use regular ones May-September and flannel ones October - April.

We got a lot done today at home and it was late afternoon before we went to Home Depot with a list of things to get - the most important one was a light under the cabinet where we keep our glasses.

Got that and other things plus some plants and we even came home and planted nearly everything we bought!

I was about to sit down and sew on another baby boy quilt - this one being for a Baby Bell whose shower is next Saturday so I am in a bit of a hurry!

That's when I remembered it was time to carve Pumpkin #5!

This one was fun!

It was all but dark when I drove us down to a nearby park meaning to sit it on a picnic table and be done. NOT! SO many people were walking and out and about so we got it back in the car and drove to another park - which was just as busy. Next we went to the exit of a drainage ditch that starts across the street from us. Alas, it was fenced off so we couldn't get to the inside to put our pumpkin.

That's when I thought of the tree across the street from us!

Two sweet young boys live there and that proved to be my best drop yet!

The tree had been damaged in a storm and there was a perfect shelf between the two main trunks to hold tonight's Jack-o-lantern!

I carved this sitting at the table on my driveway and this is my view!

Win! WIN!!!

Today has been a pretty good day but it's because I am praying more than usual and trusting God to MAKE it a good day. 

Louis Dean's dementia continues to pose new challenges.

The phone is one. It was the third time in a week that he's lost it.

I was chatting with Chandy this morning asking her to check their house for it when she asked if we had a landline. No, but that's a very good idea!

I got out of bed, walked in to the sewing room and got on my laptop to order a Voice line to our Spectrum Internet and TV provider. Bam! DONE!!

Then silly me realized that I now needed to buy a phone!

I did that and it was delivered this afternoon while we were at Home Depot!

I'm so proud of myself for hooking it up!

Of course, all it involved was plugging into the outlet and the 'jack' plugged into the phone thing and the other end into the Voice slot on our modem. Or router. I forget which is what.

It's still charging so tomorrow I will see if it works. It would be nice to be able to do all this myself without asking for help. But I will if it doesn't work!

So now it's after 11:00 and I grilled Louis Dean a T-bone steak, baked potatoes and fixed a salad for our late supper. Then we watched a Quantum Leap.

I plan to sew two strips for the quilt and paint half an hour on a special Christmas painting I want to give to the Bells at Thanksgiving.

I put fresh sheets on the bed this morning and I am SO looking forward to sliding in between them!