our holiday weekend--a visual

I'd planned to try to jump back into the blogging world today with some mini book babble and whatnot, but life (or at least this damn virus, which technically isn't living) had other plans. I seem to have gotten the flu. :(  I honestly can't remember the last time I actually had the flu...but I'm pretty sure that's what this is...fever of over 102, alternating between uncontrollable shivering and being thoroughly drenched in sweat, feeling as if my body was hit by an eighteen-wheeler and one of those wheels is still resting squarely atop my head, wheezing that reminds me of Annie in the midst of an asthma attack. Put simply, I feel like crap. But as mothers everywhere know, there's no such thing as a "sick day." Just figures that the boys don't have school today and tomorrow, huh?

Okay, okay...enough bitching and whining. Brain is not up to thinking. But hopefully I can handle uploading a few pictures from our long holiday weekend. It was a bit subdued this year...missing a dear friend and worrying about another...but we still managed to have a lot of family fun.

Cooking, and crafting, and wrapping. Oh my. (Started making Christmas cards, but yikes, I've got a long way to go. And I got my Book Blogger Holiday Swap gifts wrapped and ready to mail, but I'm thinking a trip to the post office is not going to happen for me today.)

The trees, big and small, went up. (The kids each have their own small tree in their bedrooms.)

Oh, how I love that sweet, angelic face to the right...despite the fact that "angelic" is quite misleading. ;)















And to this mom's eyes, this girl's beauty far outshines the tree itself. 

Our "big" tree is decorated solely in ornaments made by family and friends. :D It's such fun chatting every year about who made each one. Even the pipe cleaner garland was created by Gray a few years back. And which I have to admit I thoroughly love...and not just because I adore its creator.

And tree decorating wouldn't be tree decorating without eggnog and Christmas music.

Baker singing along. This dog freakin' loves Christmas! (Especially opening presents.)

But he's not the only one who has been caught under the tree.

The cats, thus far, have stayed out of the tree. However, thanks to Lucky, we have had our first holiday mishap of the year, as evidenced in the before and after shots above.

And I managed to get a lot of other decorating done, too. Though I'm far from finished.

 Here's to a happy holiday season for all.

our spook day in photos

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope everyone had a howlingly, hauntingly happy Halloween!

snapshots of fall

I have to admit that I've had a major case of the "blahs" lately. I'm sorry...I don't mean to whine. And I hate making excuses, but that's why I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I can't seem to keep up with my blog reading at all, and I really haven't been posting much either. There's certainly nothing wrong in my life, and I've actually been quite busy. Actually maybe that's part of the problem--maybe I've been too busy. So many things to do for so many people. Not the least of which is school stuff. Sorry again. Seems like I complain about school all the time. And I shouldn't. Because I know how very lucky we are to be in a position to give Annie the education she needs and just can't get at the local public school. But it is so draining...  Anyway. I need to snap out of this funk!!!

And Susan unwittingly gave me a little boost this morning. When I read her post loaded with fall photos, I was inspired to grab my camera and head out into the yard. The funny thing is is that this is a yearly tradition with me. Every year I spend a morning taking fall photos in our yard. But it had never entered my mind this year. That's what the blahs will do to you, I guess.Anyway, thank you, Susan!

Okay, I admit I'm no photographer, but what the heck, it's never stopped me from posting pictures before. ;) Here's a look at autumn in our tiny little patch of upstate New York:

Very few flowers about now. These sedum seem to be the only thing blooming in our yard. And yes, I love flowers, but...

I actually tend to enjoy even more when they're dead.

 

 

And what's fall without changing leaves, huh?

 

 

 

And berries...

 And fruit...

Okay, I apologize for the rotting apple picture, but I thought the lady bug eating away in there was just too cool. We have an awesome pear crop this year...we've been stocking our fruit bowl for the past couple weeks and still have tons. Going to make a pear crisp today. Big baking day around here actually--need to make brownies for this week's lunches and make banana bread as we've got some bananas going to the dark side.
And :D. I was so thrilled that I caught a shot (albeit a blurry one) of a couple of stragglers. So very fall.

And speaking of fall...I'm very excited about Dewey's Read-a-Thon. And if that doesn't snap me out this funk, nothing will. :D

I give up

I tried to post about all the books that I dragged home with me from vacation. Actually I did post, but I deleted it. Because no matter how hard I tried, I could not get things spaced right. And photos kept disappearing. And well, I just got too frustrated to fight with Blogger any longer. Life's too short and all that.

So here's a much abbreviated version of that horrendous post.

Points go to:
*2 to Chris (for The Photographer and for Miejong)
*2 to Nymeth (for The Wizard of Earthsea and for East)
*1 to Kailana (for East)
*1 to DesLily (for Igraine the Brave)
Sorry for no explanations. And no links. I'm still fuming at Blogger. And yes, I do realize it's probably just me, not Blogger...but I've had so many problems with Blogger lately that I just feel like blaming them. ;)

I will try again with their back-to-school pics:

The morning the boys went back to school. Somehow it just didn't seem like a good sign. Foggy. Slightly, or not so slightly, eerie. But I'm happy to report that all went well.


















The one and only "sort of" smiling photo I managed of them that morning. But that's okay...they cooperated for that one so I gave them free reign to have their own version of a photo shoot for the rest of the 100 pictures I took.

Which is why I ended up with photos like this. :D

And I certainly don't want to leave my sweet girlie out. This is Miss Annie arriving home from her first day of school. (She already loves her Children's Lit class...like there was any doubt she would.)

vacation photos, part IV

Okay, you'll be grateful to know this post should be the last. No, I don't promise to stop posting our goofy faces altogether...but at least this will be the end of the vacation pics, so you should get a break for a while.

Vacation: Day 9

Spent mostly in the car, on our way north again. But we did detour off the highway, onto the Natchez Trace Parkway (one of Rich and my favorite national parks) for a bit. We really wanted to take the kids to Cypress Swamp, which is just north of Jackson, MS. Arrived in Memphis, TN late afternoon.

























































































































Vacation: Day 10

Memphis Zoo. One of the big reasons this entire vacation came to be was because of the YaYa and LeLe, the pandas at the Memphis Zoo. Gray loves bears, all bears. But pandas...wow. After the zoo, we met Renay!!!! Sorry, she asked me not to post any photos, but I can tell you that, yes, this incredible woman really does exist. And she's as sweet and adorable as can be! Thanks again, Renay!!! You have no idea how much it meant to have you drove over and spent time with me!!!







































Gray petting a skink.





















Komodo Dragon.




















One of Maxidoodle's favorites. Surprise, surprise. ;)





















































Max began channeling his chimp cousins. He kept this up all day. Just ask poor Renay. ;)




























Awwwwww.

Vacation: Day 11

Spent the morning at Shiloh National Battlefield. Then drove up through TN and most of KY.






































































Vacation: Days 12-13

Drove to Cleveland OH. Morning/early afternoon of day 13 were spent at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We love this museum!!! Then drove to PA to my parents, where we spent the night.























































































































































































Vacation: Day 14

After spending the morning and early afternoon with my wonderful parents, we head home to NY.




















Thanks again, for Bacon-sitting, Mom and Dad!

The end.