Do You Smell Pumpkin Spice?

It is Fall here in the Mid-South.  The calendar says it is anyway and though the weather still feels eerily similar to August and my youngest is still confused as to why we can’t go to the pool anymore because it still feels like summer – folks around town are trying their hardest to celebrate the season.  The porches in our neighborhood are looking fantastic and festive (our neighbors across the street and over a touch have this incredible, giant spider with a glowing egg sac that my kids are fascinated with because the egg sac kind of looks like it’s swarming.  I am not a fan of spiders, especially not the kind that take up a third of the front of your house, but I will definitely give this family props for their simple yet mind-blowing decor.  I found Reese in his room peeking through the window slats the other night, when he was supposed to be in bed, just staring at it.  I have a feeling one of these nights I will find him out in the street….gawking.)

Lila and I took Mumsey and Cybill to the little Pumpkin Patch down the street before she had to leave last Monday. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Cyb did this year, compared to last.  Last year, she tried to walk all over the little tiny pie pumpkins and sent an avalanche of them rolling through the parking lot.  There was also a lot of carrying them around in her mouth that I’m pretty sure isn’t encouraged.  The sweet ladies that were supervising the pumpkins never actually told us to leave, but I’m pretty sure that they were thinking it.  This year, no avalanche, just some very intent sniffing……and she dragged me all over the place because every pumpkin needed to be investigated.  We also went before they were technically open so I didn’t feel the scrutiny of the Pumpkin People.  I give it another 2 years and then Cybill will also be able to pose nicely with the pumpkins and take perfect Labrador Retriever Calendar worthy pictures.  Lila and Mumsey have it down pretty good already though:

We have also made our trip to The Big Red Barn to pick our own front porch pumpkins.  When I was a little girl, the front porch pumpkin was a lone soldier who we selected from a giant, cardboard bin at the grocery store.  In high school, I remember there being a paper pumpkin posted up on my bulletin board in the Yearbook office where I worked.  In college, I think one of those tiny little pie pumpkins lived in my dorm room through the month of October and when Brandon and I were first married, I think we just ate a pumpkin pie at Marie Callender’s and called it good.  I’m not sure where between 2002 and now, front porch pumpkins got so elaborate, but now there are like 50 different types of pumpkins available and the solitary orange gourd on the front stoop has been replaced by these huge, arrangements.  I am kind of hoping that one of my daughters will decide to get married in the fall so that we can just decorate with the pumpkins that I am already buying every year for my front porch. Pumpkin purchasing is a serious task too because if you are like us, you like to stack your pumpkins.  This involves making a lot of little pumpkin alters around the Big Red Barn to make sure that you get two towers that are somewhat symmetrical to flank the front door.  Again, this seems like it would be fairly easy, but you would be surprised.  And we aren’t even going to talk about how difficult it can be to maneuver those carts through the narrow aisles and out to your car after you finally make your pumpkin selections.  I’m pretty sure I took out $500 worth of giant mums and a cornstalk or two.  My apologies Big Red Barn! In an attempt to make up for my horrible wagon driving, I bought this probably over-priced pre-decorated and beautiful Razorback pumpkin.

I think I was also feeling a little sad because this is the last year that I will be taking Lila with me for this annual autumn geometry lesson.  *This is not an activity that would be the least bit productive should I wait to do it when I had all my children with me.  Maybe when they are over 18 and coming back from college to visit, but until then………their visits with have to be for picture-taking purposes only.

A funny little side note while we are on the subject of Fall and pumpkins, so the other day friend Steph texted me this little guy:

I’m sure she thought it would get a chuckle out of me, but I found it absolutely hilarious because this is what Lila was wearing at the exact moment that her meme came through:

 

You aren’t really celebrating until you sport themed clothing with your monogram on them!  At least that’s how we live our lives here in the south.

Happy Fall Y’all

I May Have Disappeared There For a Bit

So it’s October now – I’m pretty sure that when I left you all for my unintentional sabbatical it was just the first of September. For any of you wondering how Reese’s school pictures went, well from what I understand the photographer got my special instructions and loved them so much that they hung them up on the bulletin board at the Lifetouch headquarters here in town.  However, by the looks of the proof that came home with my boy, they didn’t actually follow my requests.  Also, I am very curious as to what exactly happened between my front door and picture taking because his hair was absolutely gigantic! I know he has been in desperate need of a haircut, but it was wet when he left and should have been curled up fairly tight. Instead, its probably bigger than I have ever seen it and even has a few right angles and corners where it seems to be reaching to go as high as possible.

It’s tempting to buy a sheet just because they look so bad.  Actually, now that I’m staring at them, he looks just like my First Grade school pictures!!!! I bet I have a copy of that here somewhere because its definitely one of my worst.  I’m going to have to hunt around……

Mattie’s picture was neither good nor bad, which for a school picture is usually considered a win. But Reese will definitely have a date for retakes.

I’ve been busy since September, and this blog isn’t the only thing that has been neglected.  Obviously, Reese’s hair hasn’t had a hair cut since sometime early this summer (I fixed that though last Tuesday and we are all feeling more comfortable these days.) and every morning when I brush my teeth and see what has become of my eyebrows, I shake my finger at myself and feel momentarily shamed. But there has just been way too much on my plate to take the time to crawl into my sink and pull tiny hairs out of my face.  One has to be in a special state of mind for such a task and I have been far too busy tackling other things as of late.

So since September, we have had company every single weekend except for that one weekend when we were the company somewhere else. We’ve had soccer on Sundays and what feels like every day in between, I’ve orchestrated the kids’ school’s annual garage sale, planned and executed a Fall Festival and even had a birthday in there.  It might not seem like a whole lot to people who have real careers, but you would be surprised at how stressful it can be trying to find a local craftsman to make you a custom corn hole game on a deadline during festival season.

I still have birthday messages on my phone that I haven’t had a chance to listen to.  I know they are there, but they came in during a super busy time and I want to be able to actually savor them.  Today just might be the day!

So here are a few pictures of our events from the last month:

Uncle Loren and Aunt Brandi came to visit us from Alabama.  They had promised Reese they would come and watch a soccer game last spring, but when last spring got turned sideways those plans didn’t really work out.  But they made it this year and as Reese stated, “I’ve gotten better this year so it was probably a more exciting game for them to watch.” I’m pretty sure they weren’t coming for athleticism, but that’s great if he feels like they got the biggest bang from their buck.

Getting tickles

Lila and I have been to Target ALOT! And the other day we had such a good time with these wolf masks that we decided they should just come home with us.  Lila sports hers as often as possible.

Lila and Layla had Parent’s Day at Dance Class….they are in the blue class now and its way more exciting than the Pink Class.

So excited to get to their class!

I had that birthday I mentioned earlier.  My favorite ladies took me to see Beauty and the Beast.  Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannie were able to make it for the weekend (per our arrangements when they decided they needed to move away, they are required by law to come back for my birthday every year) and we met their precious new baby, Hank.

He’s only 3 months old!!!!

We love the new baby, but the old man is still her favorite!

 

Turns out I had a themed birthday, Tennessee inspired string art

Reese did a Hero presentation at school and picked his Papa as his notable character.  At first, I understood the project to be someone from history or literature that they were to select.  However, the boy seemed set on his Papa and let me know that since Papa had been written about in the newspaper, that counted as literature and history.  How am I supposed to argue with that?  He decorated his poster himself – primarily because he was supposed to, but also because I was up to my eyeballs in a stress headache trying to figure out if we would have food for the Filipino booth at the festival or not.  I thought he did a pretty great job for someone who finds arts and crafts to be very complicated.  Definitely not in his wheelhouse.  He dressed as Papa – navy pants, a white polo with official Nashville Fire Department badges on the sleeves and a flashlight and radio hooked in his belt.  I’m pretty sure Papa doesn’t wear velcro Adidas sneakers, but we also had an official badge and a real turnout helmet that has scratches and dents all in it from seeing real “live-action” so no one really paid attention to the footwear.

I injured my neck in a tragic car dancing accident and have been going to physical therapy with my new Best Friend Richard over the last few weeks. *Let me take a second here to do a quick public service announcement – do not underestimate the importance of sleeping on a decent mattress on a bed designed for someone who is not 8.  Every since Cybill decided to relieve herself on our bed, Brandon and I had been sleeping all over the place in our house.  Mainly, he slept on the guest bed downstairs, but I would bounce from kid to kid and even the couch, because I can’t hear anything in the downstairs guest room.I love my children, but I have not invested in decent mattresses for them.  They each have a very healthy college fund and two of them will be requiring weddings, so I think its reasonable to scrimp here and there. Also as a side note, we have been auditioning mattresses that we’ve heard about on Facebook and NPR.  They have arrived on our front porch in either really large purple body bags or in really small boxes that in no way looked large enough for a queen size mattress.

All of our guests have also had the chance to do blind sleep tests. Its been very exciting and we are almost ready to publish our findings.  Anyway, all that just to say that I think my neck was already on the verge of disaster before I finished it off.  This was not the ideal time for a neck injury and I am probably doing all kinds of damage to my liver with the large doses of Tylenol.  But I seem to be on the mend…..as long as I keep doing my therapeutic exercises.  Lila has had to come to PT with me a few times and neither she nor Richard are comfortable with it.  On these rare occasions I have fallen to the cheap parenting method called “Bribery”.  If she could sit on her little seat, watching her movie and not come over and ask me anything or touch anything (I enjoy 20 minutes of having my neck gently shocked while wrapped in layers of heating pads) – then we would go to the pink cookie store and she could pick out anything.

She selected the football…..because we are strong believers in fall and the SEC.

We have also been to visit Papa and Nene on our annual Pumpkin Patch visit.  Every year, I wonder if this is going to be the year when the kids seem a little “over it”.  They are creatures of habit and tradition and love to look forward to things that they have enjoyed in the past, but you just wonder when that year is going to be that pig races and corn, lots and lots of corn, no longer hold their attention.  Well, it certainly wasn’t this year! Reese decided to join his sister on the rock wall and was super proud of himself.

Lila had a blast on the mini zipline and the kids loved having Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannie come and play with us, too.

 

Every year, there is some new, fantastic slide and this year’s was incredible fast!

Lila and Uncle Chris

Swinging, any kind of swinging is a must!

And they had carnival throwing games that even Nene got in on.

The petting zoo is always a favorite, my girls love them some donkeys!

And who is going to pass up a chance to ride in a barrel cow train?

She had to sit in the “Birdie” barrel!

We had a fantastic time and I love this tradition that we have created.

Mattie leaves for Florida in a few hours.  Yet another one of those things that I have been scrambling to get ready for.  She is going with her Pathfinder club to a camporee with hundreds of other clubs and her leader requested that they bring their packed suitcases to their meeting last week.  This was a bit premature for the procrastinators that are Mattie’s parents, but I can definitely see the reasoning behind it.  But that just meant that last night I didn’t have any rushing around distractions to focus on rather than the fact that my child is traveling to the edge of the country without me.  I obviously can’t go and Brandon has this whole work thing, but I am sending the largest Dad friend that we have to be her parent in our absence.  Technically, I guess he is going to parent his own child, but I feel much better knowing that “Uncle Robert” will be within arms reach of her at all times. I’m not sure when she got old enough to do things like this.  Because all I see is a girl who didn’t want to wash her face Sunday night because she wanted to look like this forever:

I hope you feel all caught up now and I’ll see ya next month.  Just kidding……Maybe…….