Happy Halloween!

It's been a fun Halloween for us today!

I dressed up all in black with my fancy hat and black cape and skull scarf.

What did Louis Dean wear?

His overalls and cowboy boots and hat!

As soon as I had that first cup of coffee this morning, I was in the kitchen frosting the butter pecan cupcakes I made last night. I made brown sugar frosting just like my mother made back in the day.

No real recipe and yet it has never failed to turn out great!

Melt butter, brown sugar and some milk (Mother used Carnation evaporated milk in a can) and bring to a boil. Cook it a few minutes, remove from heat, add vanilla and powdered sugar plus a little more milk until it's the right consistency. Sometimes I've made candy but most of the time it turns out to be frosting......that occasionally  hardens up a bit like candy. It always tastes good, though!

This frosting and peach cobbler are the only two recipes I remember from Mother's cooking and I make both of them with fond memories.

Louis Dean and I drove to Fort Worth and it poured down heavy rain the entire 40 miles from our house to the nursing home. And I forgot the umbrella! It wasn't raining when we pulled out of the driveway but I knew it would be and I still forgot the umbrella!

I stopped at the nurses station and handed out cupcakes before going down to see all our friends on the way to Mother's room - giving out cupcakes as I went.

Mother and I had a wonderful visit.

She loved my outfit and acted scared when I said 'BOO!' and then laughed out loud!

I told her about the frosting and put a bit in her mouth and she liked it!

As nice as the visit was - when I asked Louis Dean to take our picture - she got so animated and happy! It was just like old times when I would take a selfie of us and she would want to see them and point to which one she liked best. There was no pointing today but she smiled and nodded when I showed them to her. It was a good day.

There's no getting around the fact that Mother is not the way she used to be but she still knows us and was happy to see us and she 'talked' away. I couldn't understand her but I could tell she was not upset or complaining so I smiled and nodded.

I met Priscilla, the lady who gives out the medicine.

She wanted me to take our pic together and then put her # in my phone so I can send it to her.

Oops! I better do that right now!

We decided to go to IHOP for an afternoon breakfast before braving the roads in the rain again on our way home.

Even the waitress wanted a picture of us together!

I should dress up more often!

Although I betcha if I did that on a normal day - no one would be asking for a photo with me!

It took a long time to get home.

In the gloom and the gray with the lights reflecting and the rain heavy -

these driving glasses Summer got me were a life saver!

They make all the difference!

It was after 5:00 when we got home I turned the lights on outside and set ourselves up on the porch in anticipation of the trick or treaters!

Isn't he cute??

We sipped wine I had been saving just for Halloween night!

Sweet Bloody Red!!!

There was a lull in the rain and sure enough!

The trick or treaters came!

This guy is so much fun!!!

He lives around the corner from us and comes every year!

Our next door neighbors!

Sweetest girls ever!!

Cute! CUTE!!!

These kids were so sweet!

I loved this little guy!

Beyond precious!

Our neighbor, Tamara, sent them over to us!

Then here came some more of our favorite people!

Tim and his family.

Brittany is 22 years old now and has been coming to our house on Halloween night since she was 13!

Her baby sister is Nicole and she's 8.

We love this family!

Nicole noticed I didn't have the Banjo playing skeleton outside this year so I invited her to come in and visit him!

Isn't she adorable??

The night didn't last very long and Louis Dean asked, "Are we done now?"

I guess we are.

Now I'm going to blow all my candles out and put the house to bed.

We will follow shortly!

I hope.

Louis Dean's in his room playing music and every once in awhile he calls to me saying,

"Linda!!! Come in and listen to THIS one!!"

Goodnight, Folks!!

The Wedding and Our Trip Home

The Wedding was in Chino Valley at The Windmill House which was simply beautiful.

It was an outdoor wedding and the most perfect day.

The golden leaves were falling under a blue October sky.

Such a lovely place and it was decorated perfectly.

We were seated at Tables 10 and 11.

The menu was prime rib, chicken Alfredo, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad and rolls and every single thing was delicious!

I have Deanie to thank for most of the photos.

I deleted the ones I took and am using hers because they are so much better.

She has a gift for getting that perfect shot.

Here is Nita - grandmother of the groom beautiful in burgundy - and Lily - great grandmother of the groom right behind her.

Father of the groom.

Taylor watching for his bride to be.

Deanie caught this most precious of all the pictures.....

tears of pure joy......

Mr. and Mrs.

It was such a happy reception.

Toasts, champagne, music, dancing, laughter and so much love!

The groom and his mother dancing together was one of the most touching scenes of the entire reception.

The groom and his great grandmother.

Nita was glowing with happiness the entire weekend.

Here she is dancing with Chloe. Nita was everywhere.

On the dance floor, feeding and holding Baby Olivia (her first great grandchild) , talking with absolutely every one and getting to know the bride's family as well as visiting with all the groom's.

It was a fun wedding for all!

There was a neat photo booth set up in a tiny camper trailer.

The four of us!

So many came from so far to be a part of this special day and the bride and groom made sure everyone knew how much they appreciated them being there.

Sunday morning we checked out of the hotel and began our road trip home.

It was such an amazing historical hotel.

Lonnie is in a lot of pain all the time what with a bad back, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis among other ailments, riding in a car for a long time is truly hard for him and we have been so concerned for him. Deanie told him as we were driving, "Do we need to take you to the airport and put you on a flight home?" Lonnie said, "Why? I'd just have to sit there and wait for y'all to get there and pick me up??"

We were packed in there tighter than a drum!!!

But we were having fun!

We drove through Sedona on our way to Four Corners National Monument and saw so many beautiful scenes!

I definitely want to go back to this area!

We arrived at the Four Corners Monument!

Alas, it was closed!

We knew it would be cutting it close to get there in time but we thought we could at least walk around the area.

Not!!

It was fenced off with barbed wire and lots of No Trespassing signs.

So we stretched our legs and took pictures and had a good time anyway!

I loved getting to spend some time with Andie and Trish.

Andie is a great gal to travel with because she kept us all in stitches with her antics!

More photos of Arizona from Deanie.....

She sure takes good pictures!

*Andie's photo*

The moon was up and we were still in the mountains with no cell phone reception or Internet to use our navigational systems. We made a group decision to go on instead of back tracking.

This seemed like a good idea until we crossed over into Colorado.

No worries!

 It turned out we had gone the right way after all and arrived at out hotel back in Albuquerque before midnight. I'm telling you - that hot shower and soft bed never felt better!!!

Monday morning we headed out on the last half of our trip home. 

We saw Toby Keith's stage truck on I40.

There's always something to see along the way.

We stopped plenty of times for potty breaks and to walk around.

We would all climb out of the car and stagger around until we got the kinks out.

Then we would get back in the car and start all over.

We had been eating fast food and snacks for the most part on the road both coming and going but once we rolled into Amarillo Trish suggested we eat a nice meal at Jason's Deli and that's just what we did. Oh, it was all so good!!

Our sweet Andie!

She and Trish were the extra special blessings on this trip!

With every rest area we were getting closer and closer to home.

Pretty soon we were sailing into Fort Worth......

until all of a sudden we weren't!

Construction was the culprit.

Just about all the driving was done by Trish and Lonnie and Trish was at the wheel here.

She kept her cool and we all kept our sense of humor and we eventually ran out of the bumper to bumper and sometimes stand still traffic.

They dropped me off at Nita's to pick up my car before making the rounds of taking Lonnie home and finally Trish and Andie who live just a few blocks from Deanie.

By this time we were all exhausted and ready to get home and in bed.

I called Louis Dean who was getting anxious for me to get home.

I had been calling him to let him know where we were and our estimated ETA.

Well, shortly after I got on I20 - with cars on either side of me so I could not get over - I ran over a cardboard box. It was stuck underneath the car and after driving a few miles, I figured it must be stuck good and was going to stay there. I pulled off and parked at a fast food place and then put the car in reverse where at last the box came loose!

I was so glad to get home!

Louis Dean was sitting on the porch waiting for me.

He had a bouquet of roses to greet me when I walked in the house.

I think he missed me.

He had been a good boy and stayed off the roof while I was gone.

He worked on his music mostly and did some cooking.

He went over to Amber's on Friday for Popcorn, Movie and Cokes and spent the night.

He watched the quads at hockey practice on Saturday.

He went to church on Sunday.

We were both happy to be back together again.

I was so tired last night and it was so late that I didn't even look around to see how much damage control there would be.

This morning I saw that most of it was the kitchen.

The rest of the house looked pretty good.

It took about an hour and a half in there and then it was back to normal routine.

I was in the guest room taking things off one wall that I intend to paint in the next few days when I hurt my already painful finger.

That blue vein marks the spot that hurts the worse.

It's all centered in that arthritic joint.

In spite of it, I managed to bake 2 dozen cupcakes which I will frost in the morning.

Louis Dean and I are going to the nursing home before lunch so we can get back in time to set up for the trick or treaters. 100% chance of significant rain is in the forecast for the entire day tomorrow.

We plan to dress up and sit out on the porch to hand out candy to the trick or treaters as is our tradition. However, I'm thinking it may be a lonely Halloween for us.

PS....I had some trouble with Blogger getting my pictures uploaded so I hope they all show up!