Sweatshirts and Socks and Halloween Rocks!

I don't know what's with that title - I just wanted it to rhyme.

What can I say? I lost my bet. Larry's b'day passed uneventfully, and I still owe him a cake (I didn't bother making one, I was so sure he'd be sick). We're not out of the woods here, yet; but it sure is nice to get a little break. I'm sure everyone reading this thinks so too.

Fall blew in with a blast here - we went from hot humid weather to wearing sweatshirts and jeans in less than 24 hours. And we're loving it. Well, except Susie, who of course has no memory of wearing anything but sandals on her cute little feet; it took quite a bit of strong-arming her (okay, actually, I used candy) to get her socks and sneakers on.

To add a little excitement to our day, we emptied out Larry's sock drawer of all the change he dumps in it and took the money to the coin-sorting machine (free!) at our credit union. Then we placed bets on what the total would be. We also watched the TV there (Over the Hedge was playing) and picked up some lollipops (green). A good time was had by all. Hard to believe that other people pay money to amuse their children.

Halloween looms on the horizon, and Brian wants to be a tornado and David wants to be a robot. I have 3 perfectly good pirate capes and no one wants to wear them. I guess making the boys be pirates 2 or 3 years in a row sort of burned them out on a life of nautical skulduggery. But they're such great capes! I'll save them for Rachel and Susie. The girls will cooperate, as long as they can twirl around and make the capes swirl prettily.

Anna made apple pie again today, apparently in an attempt to make me fat. I told you she has it in for me. She also got up early (for her). I don't know what's going on. She didn't even try yelling at me or muttering "I hate you" at me without moving her lips, as is her wont. Was the past year all a dream? Or is this the dream? Maybe it's all just shadows on a cave wall.....

Fall and Apples, Hallelujah!

The gentleman who bought our old house has finally given up on trying to use all the apples that the apple-tree-formerly-known-as-ours bears. He turned it over to us. I immediately sent out my crack team of apple-pickers (plus Susie, who I think thought she was helping in some capacity) to harvest what they could. Turns out that was a lot. I had to beg them to stop. We made apple crisp (and gave some to our generous neighbor, of course); I always enjoy making apple crisp, but this year was made even more enjoyable watching Anna sulk the entire time she was cutting up the apples. Now that we're used to her moods, they are almost entertaining. And it's cheaper than cable.

We woke up to sweatshirt weather today, finally. I am so happy to be breathing air that has less than 90 percent humidity. Now if I could just find the kids' sweatshirts, things would be perfect.

We're on our 7th jigsaw puzzle here, and I think we'll declare jigsaw-puzzle season officially over when we're done with this one. We've done so many, we're seeing the world as a collection of little pieces - through jigsaw-colored glasses, if you will. It's time to go outside and play in the leaves and drink cider and....and....do whatever else it is that we do in the fall. I've forgotten. Also, I need to reclaim my dining room table. My neighborhood Bunco club didn't enjoy rolling the dice on top of the half-done puzzle the other night.

Can any of you type with a toddler hanging off your forearms? I didn't think so. I'd better sign off.

Finally Fall

I don't think I have ever been this glad to turn the calendar page to September. August was a slow month. There are only so many popsicles one can eat (and feed to the kids - I do share sometimes) before the novelty wears off. Although we did have a bit of excitement with this last box - the wrappers were blank, so we didn't know what flavor we were getting until we had unwrapped each one. Quite suspenseful.

Rachel (3) is still squeezing Susie (3 months) a lot, but Susie doesn't seem to mind. Susie doesn't seem to mind anything, actually. Not even the fact that she is slowly going bald. Or that she has very fat knees. She is very pleasant about everything. And she never, ever complains about her food. Unlike everyone else in this house. David refuses all meat and eggs and assiduously inspects the remainder of his meal for bugs. (Let's not talk about the morning Theo slipped a plastic spider into David's oatmeal.) Brian eats only meat (with an occasional side of potatoes) and spends mealtimes grossing out Anna. Twelve-year-old girls have very low gross-out thresholds, I must say. Rachel yells for whatever she can't have. And everyone participates in baby-carrot-bashing - "This one tastes/smells/looks funny." So Larry and I are thinking of instituting a new mealtime rule. It would be called, "Shut up and eat." No stimulating dinnertime conversations which would keep our teenagers abstinent and drug-free. No lively discussion of current events and world affairs. Just shut up and eat. Please.

We are headed to the beach for a couple of days (we decided to save our vacation time until gas went over $3 a gallon). Both Rachel and Brian have forgotten what the ocean looks like, so we figured it is time to refresh their memories. Larry plans to leave at 7 AM. This should be interesting.