A little of this, a little of that....

Lest you think my life is ALL about gloom, despair, and agony (remember that song from the 70s? What, you're not that old??? sigh) ... you should take a peak into this craziness I call motherhood...

Guess who left the crib this week? I mean, left it COLD TURKEY and never looked back. My other kids would crawl out of the crib once or twice, then stay in for a week or two, then sporadically get out until we finally gave in and took the crib down. Not this princess (with a tilted crown), she figured out how to get out and there was no keeping her in. She woke up every morning and popped right now, period, end of story. Sniff, sniff, I'm taking the crib down tomorrow for most likely the last time in my life. For the first time in ten years, I do not have a child in a crib, nor any prospects of anyone to fill it. Oh, the cold hard sound of a door slamming on my heart, sounds something like a jail cell.... sniff, sniff, sigh.

Look very closely, yes, the cat is indeed licking the cup while Connor drinks from it. When you have a leaky sippy cup of milk, turns out it's very handy to have a cat in the house!

Have you ever read the book, Amelia Bedelia? Meg has... she was "dusting" the furniture. And, um, her face, and the carpet, and her clothing, and ....

... mostly just her face though....

And she's just a gorgeous to me in the photo above as this precious one below.... here she is all ready for a day at school. Which she loves, by the way. Even on the days when she doesn't go, she asks to go. And all that worry and angst beforehand on my part was completely fruitless, as usual.
And after taking ALL FOUR kids to hubs office today for flu vaccinations, I was lauded by the staff as a brave woman. I can honestly say that it wasn't that bad, but it must have seemed like a bad idea to the folks there who all pretty much have fewer children than us. They all commented about how brave I was to bring four kids to an OFFICE in the middle of the afternoon to get vaccinated (hey, it was there idea to offer it in the office, not mine!) I was thinking of how brave my kids had been, but apparently, I seemed like some sort of hero in the eyes of these two-kid parents, so hey, I'm going with it. Some days you take it where you can get it, right? Just check out the sparkly band-aids though!

I had to run by Gwen's to pick up some stuff and precious Anna snapped this photo of us in our super duper soft shirts (which you should own if you don't already).... Seriously, this may be the softest shirt I've EVER owned. "It's like butta" folks! Gwen's shirt also has the 147 Million Orphan flower on it, but it's very subtle and distressed, so it's a cool shirt with a cause, but not quite so "in your face" so you could wear it for dressier occasions. And FINALLY the weather is getting cool enough for me to wear it without sweating. I've been wearing it anyway, but today there was the slightest little crisp in the air and it was fantastic.

The following photos are for Kristine. I took some inspiration from her and decided to make the house a little more festive. I thought maybe people would be so busy staring at my rockin' fall decor that they wouldn't notice all the animal hair and dirt on the floor. Sort of like black makes you look thinner, maybe orange Halloween lights make the house look straight? No, you say? Well, a girl can always hope! :)

Entry Hall

(The photo is of my great grandfather, I love it!)

This is the mantel in our den. I love the way it turned out, but realize I will have to get some dried flowers for those vases (which Gwen GAVE me at her yard sale because she thought they were junk... they were sherbert orange and I spray painted them and added the bows, then filled them with crepe myrtle clippings.) The little sign says "Boo Y'all."

The scarecrow family... I love this antique sugar mold. My friend, Keleah, does the cutest centerpieces with these things so I bought one not long ago. This usually sits on my table, but I put it up on the wine rack tonight to keep the cat out of the raffia. There are four little boy scarecrows and two girls, just like in our family! :)

One of my sweet friends hosted a fall wedding reception at her house (which happens to be on the historic registry) and she decorated all around the outside with white pumpkins. Her pumpkins were professionally monogrammed for the occasion, mine were just monogrammed with a Sharpie, but I like the way they turned out. Just ignore that green crayon! :) These orange lights are actually on most all the time, it looks really cute, but there was no good way to capture the lights on the fly, and I didn't feel like getting out the tripod so you're stuck using your imagination.

Thanks, Kristine, for the inspiration! We're getting out all the ghosts and ghouls on Thursday.... can't believe it's almost October.

Toodles!