So with this great Fall Weather ------what are you doing?

[Star*]

FINALLY a break in the 100 degree heat.......isn't it lovely or did you forget? LORD not us.....it's been so miserable here our grass was crunchy. Now I have a lush green carpet of (mostly) grass. Some weeds but the Portulaca is so pretty - I won't let a mower kill it.....It grows wild here -----and its just amazing.

I got up the other morning when it was still misty----and washed the siding on the front of the house, and the windows......Still warm enough out to dry out everything but nice enough to work in.......

SO project ONE is down.....I have decided if Martha Stewart can make a list and write on it - October 8, buy halloween candy.....Well heck so can I..

AND Just to give you all a heads up......I am doing the Christmas card list this year......I hope we get a record response......Because I think we could all use the UPLIFT it gives ......

I'm trying to get more organized.....it's a goal....I'm a hoarder......it's been hard....but little by little things are going to the Goodwill box.......(yeah I know I said I'd never donate) but the dump won't take it...and I .......feel so much better giving back what I got. (wink wink) ......actually they're getting better ----mine comes without attitude.

So I just wondered what you were up to? I'm also going to paint ------as soon as I can figure out WHAT IN THE WORLD the girl at WM did when she mixed my color - because I asked for Grasshopper....and got-----NEON Catydid. It's like BLINDING......and no it's not staying......I was thinking it was a soft bright sage......and it's like -------PA POW in a can....and looks worse on the wall. Put it this way - the four year old I showed a picture too said "I LOVE IT".....ahhhhhhhh good - here's a gallon for YOUR room. (and then her mother said "NO NO.....gosh. hehe thanks we're NOT painting) so be careful how you compliment a wall color......especially wtih a four year old there to look at the picture....(that'll teach her to give FALSE compliments)

SO WHATS UP?????

 

[AnnieO]

LOL Neon katydid... only you, my Starbie, only you.

If you're gonna do the Christmas card list again? Put me on it... I'll PM you my addy now... because I mighthave time to do cards between feedings... And diapers and sleeping... Wait one card a day... Maybe.

I'm trying to get in extra naps with the good weather... When I am not sweating... LOL!

 

[InsaneCdn]

Good weather? what on earth are you talking about?

We've gone from summer to... just about winter. Not sure what happened to fall... leaves aren't down yet, so I guess officially fall isn't over, but... if I need a coat just to walk 10 steps outside to dump a bag of trash in the bin... it ain't fall, sister. There's so much "winter" in the air that I swear there has to be snow around here somewhere.

If we actually had "great fall weather"... well, there's a million things to do and I probably would still be stuck in front of this computer all day every day.

So go enjoy your nice fall weather (naps included) - and wash a few extra windows for me, will ya?

 

[TeDo]

We had Fall weather for a few days last week ....temps in the 70's. The weekend was 80's again and today we hit 97. This is NOT a Minnesota fall. We aren't supposed to have this kind of heat inSeptember. Now they're saying 70's the rest of the week. I can handle that but it's too laate for the grass. This has been a hot, DRY year. Not much snow, few days below zero, and now very little rain. I am doing NOTHING special .... though I have lots of "chores" yelling my name. Yea, I've gone from perfectionist to procrastinator. difficult children will do that (at least to me). I have no energy left for anything else.

Put me on the Christmas list again too. Let me know when you're ready for addys.

 

[Hound dog]

At some point I MUST scan onto the computer a photo that shows how I painted the livingroom of the house we lived in right after the accident........I mean literally, right after........accident in Sept, I painted in October. Wasn't even healed yet.....couldn't figure out why everyone thought I was crazy. (and no one suspected Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)??? lmao) I picked out 2 lovely shades of light pink, one that complimented the other. I didn't get those 2 shades.......I got neon versions.......when I looked into the can I told the guy, it's too bright........oh, no, he assures me it will "lighten" as it dries. No, it just became even more neon. Unfortunately for the family, due to the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), I thought it was lovely. Of course, that could be because I painted the entire room alone with two busted shoulders and a fractured skull. (great therapy by the way, I've got unbelievable range of motion according to the bone doctor omg) I look at those photos now.....and IT HURTS MY EYES. Yet no one was tipped off there might be something wrong with my brain??

Oh, well. Remind me and one day I'll scan them and post them. Just wear dark glasses if you don't want spots before your eyes.

Needless to say, even IF Lowes costs more........I won't be buying anymore paint at wallie world. LOL

We are trying hard to have the mega yard sale of the decade. Rain out date was set for this weekend. I didn't take into account the significance of this week. And I somehow didn't realize easy child would be working 2 of the days of the sale. easy child is our cashier. You know me and numbers.............and well, Nichole is dyslexic and tends to reverse them herself......calculators don't necessarily help. So this evening I've been reconsidering. I'll have to talk to the girls tomorrow. But if we do, easy child doesn't have another weekend off until October........and shoot the way the weather is acting, heaven only knows what the temps will be. Plus I have my Mom planning to "drop in" once my sis from Texas arrives, due this weekend.........and during yard sale weekend my house tends to look like a tornado went through it.

We went from heat stroke to omg CHILLY. Fall in august. No joke. I haven't run a fan in 3 days about........temps in the low 50's at night and 60's most of the day. I'm not complaining. It's gorgeous weather and I'm loving every darn single minute and making sure easy child's boys are too. But it's making me wonder what this whacky weather is going to do next. We have had some rain.......but I call it someone turning on a faucet. Doesn't act like rain, it's like someone turned on the faucet full blast and forgets to turn it off for hours. lol Now I have to mow again. Oh goody. Saves on my water bill, I should stop complaining. They just doubled our sewage rate AGAIN. I now pay 3/4's more for sewage than I do for water, cuz I'm using as little water as humanly possible.......and my bill is still like 60.00 last month. omg Ridiculous.

Harvested some green peppers, cherry tomatoes, tomatoes, broccoli, and a cabbage. Grandsons are gonna love me. They think I grow the cherry tomatoes just for them to eat......and they're right, I do. LOL Darrin's pumpkins are doing wonderfully with no signs so far of squash bugs easy child had kill hers. (fingers crossed) Experimental garden with the late green beans and carrots.....wow that turned out wonderful! I'm about to harvest quite a huge amount of green beans and the carrots are growing like mad. I guess dogs in the yard discourage rabbits, cats too for that matter.

I am trying to teach Darrin to ride without training wheels. Almost 9 and still with those darn training wheels! A shame. I'm also trying to teach Brandon how to pedal his new bike with training wheels (Nana and her yard sales lol ) But hey, he's finally potty trained!!! So he'll get this too. Taught the boys that outside is a wonderful place. Used to be all they wanted to do was park in front of the tv and video game. Now they nag me to go outside.

Oh, I tried to do a cartwheel the other day..........to show Darrin how. I forgot I broke those shoulders all those years ago, and that I'm not 20.......and I think I made a fool out of myself in front of the neighbors. But one dude (the one who asked if I would like to borrow his gas mower for the yard) sure got a kick out of it. But at least I didn't fall for the request to show him how to stand on his head. I can, or could, dunno if I can now it's been years since I tried. Trying to teach him to whistle and snap his fingers. He needs to learn cuz he's helping me train Maggie. How on earth can he be 8 and not know this stuff??? Of course easy child can neither whistle or snap her fingers. She gave up to easily and never learned.

I'm still trying to get the hoard out of here too. Much of it is in the yard sale. Unfortunately not all of it. ugh

I'm still iffy about the xmas list at this point. The desire is there, just need to see if I can swing it.

 

[AnnieO]

Lisa, Jett could not ride without training wheels until age 10, due to there being nowhere to ride (and no bike) at bio's and then no one to ride with here. Onyxx finally taught him, then he would go with my Dad... Till he ran over my Dad... because he wasn't paying attention... And refused to get back on the bike till it was way too small. Now... Much as I love my Dad, he's just too wobbly for a bike anymore. husband and I had matching ones - the kid next door borrowed husband's and wrecked it and then mine vanished. I give.

It's been awesome at night, which is good because I get SO hot. But it's supposed to be 85 here today. Fortunately the extreme differences are due to it being dry so the humidity isn't killing me and Bean.

 

[Hound dog]

Step, I didn't learn until I was right about Darrin's age. It was a major source of embarrassment for me as a child. The desire was there, just no one bothered to teach me. Also spent the vast majority of time with grandma and she had no place to keep a bike if I had one. One summer, at Darrin's age I got stubborn, and sick of being tormented by my sibs and every other child in the neighborhood. After nearly killing myself a million times.......and every kid within a 2 block radius trying to show me how......I eventually taught myself.

easy child's house is on a side street with no sidewalk. Riding in the road is normally an option on a street such as hers except idiots tend to come down that street at 50 mph. At prime learning age, they were renting her mother in law's house and there was no where Darrin could learn at all. They're now back to their own house with the no sidewalk. BUT less than a half block away is an unused enormous parking lot where Darrin could learn to ride. I pointed this out to them about 10 times in the spring. Finally, due to lack of interest on their part, I had Darrin bring his bike here. He needs to build up his leg muscles for a while anyway. Although he's reached the age where fear is shadowing desire......... I've threatened to make those training wheels disappear. He's not using them as much as he thinks he is anyway. But I'm still in the process of teaching him that falling down isn't the end of the world. ugh Darrin has the desire to learn, fear is now getting in his way. Plus, sister in law is big on motorcycles, dirt bikes and the like......and I know Darrin would love to ride a dirt bike. Well you can't do that if you can't balance a two wheeler on your own.

Aubrey finally has somewhere she can both learn and ride. So far she's lacking the desire, but then she doesn't have a bike that fits her anymore either. I did warn Nichole that the older the child gets the harder it is to teach because of the fear factor. But I somehow see me making this a competition between Aubrey and Darrin next summer to see who can learn to ride first to get both of them motivated. I know it seems like a no big deal skill to have. Yet look at gas prices. It's a darn good skill to have. Not to mention good exercise and good clean childhood fun. I did tell Darrin that once he learns he can ride down the alley and then ride in front of my house instead of his own. He loves his bike, he's just scared to death to get those training wheels off.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Lisa... learning to ride a bike isn't so much about the physical skills, as it is a critical step in learning to be a good driver. On a bike is where we all learned the rules of the road. Friends of ours had a kid who couldn't master driving - no amount of drivers ed was working. Went back and taught him how to ride a bike, because he needed some form of transportation and... once he mastered that and rode for a bit, he went back and got his drivers. So... tell easy child that learning to ride a bike is prep for getting a drivers license.

 

[Mom2oddson]

I bought a nice pastel green for my bathroom. husband, who hates to paint, painted the room and it was a Neon Highlighter green..... Now I'm stuck with it until I can get around to repainting it.

Fall??? I'm still waiting for summer! Oh we did have 30 days where we were in the 70's this year. But I miss HOT days! I still want some. And now, it feels like winter again. The lows this morning were in the very low 40's. I'm not ready to turn on the heat.

I need to get my jelly/jams going. I picked all the pears on Sunday for a spiced Pear/pineapple jam. I need to get out in the yard and pick blackberries for jam - but we still have a lot of green blackberries. Like I said, still waiting for summer.

If I'm going to make christmas gifts, other than jellies/jams, I need to start planning now! OH...and I want to be on the Christmas Card List!!! That is my high point of Christmas!

 

[recoveringenabler]

The weather where we live is pretty consistently nice, warm days, no humidity, cool nights. We get a rainy season which usually starts in Oct. or Nov. We weren't impacted by the heat waves and rain.

The Fall brings my birthday and this year a whole lot of energy which had formerly been utilized surviving my daughter's crazy life. I have been jamming through projects with gusto! When my mother and granddaughter were both living with me, I had to rearrange my world to include theirs so everything was moved around and stuffed into spaces to accommodate them. Now that Mom has moved, I spent 2 weeks clearing out my bedroom and going through files and drawers in the office, getting rid of a lot, donating a lot, clearing out a lot. It feels good to do that. We've had all the carpets cleaned and we've gone through closets and removed everything that isn't used. I've gotten back to my more minimalistic environment, which I prefer. Little by little we're clearing out our 'stuff'. I always have a list of things to do and for the first time in a long time that list is getting done!

I feel as if I am now surrounded by healthy people, all of the mentally ill ones in my family are no longer in my direct sphere, they are all in their own orbits. I'm not sure that's ever happened before so I am truly enjoying this time! Getting a lot done, having a lot of time, feeling relaxed and peaceful, enjoying the moments and feeling very, very grateful!

I'm not sure what the Christmas card list is, but count me in.

 

[InsaneCdn]

RE? The rules for the xmas card list include a requirement that you have been active on the board for more than a set period of time (I think it's a year). So... you might have to wait for next year.

 

[witzend]

Star, have them add a few squirts of black to the paint can, and you'll come out with something more sage-ish. I am enjoying the cooler weather. We just had the exterior wall of our garage insulated and drywalled - you "don't do that here" why? - and we need to prime and paint so that it won't mildew out there. I think that a light grey will be just fine - no green.

At some point we will put a raised bed in the back, but that's just a pipe dream for now. We'll need soil, and drainage for the creek that runs through the yard whenever it rains...

 

[recoveringenabler]

Thanks Insane, I appreciate you letting me know!

 

[hearts and roses]

Our pool collapsed this year so no pool...of course, we had one of the hottest summers in a long time. While I saved money on electric by not running the pool filter, I really missed hanging out there poolside and chilling after work. I am enjoying the cooler weather and so excited to try on my jeans now that I am 16 lbs lighter than I was in the spring!

H and I haven't really had any vacation time or alone time or down time at all this summer. I kept hoping we could run away for a weekend, but that hasn't happened. I spent 10 of my vaca days entertaining his mother and blah blah blah...hey! This isn't supposed to be a vent!

What is lined up for fall? We have a lot of yard work and tree trimming to do in preparation of fall/winter storms. We haven't decided what to do with the pool, if we should fix it or ditch it. I have birthday season coming up so money may be the deciding factor there.

H has been working on the upper addition and it's almost ready for us to paint the trim. The plumber who did the initial work messed things up so we have to have another guy come in and finish it. The electric will be hooked up sometime next month. I'm hoping we can at least move up there before the holidays - that would be VERY cool!

I would love to rent a small dumpster and just go into our storage room downstairs and the shed and toss things away!!! If I mull over things too long, sentimentality kicks in and then I find myself saving it. ugh. Best to just heave it all in one shot!

difficult child, E, H and I are supposed to sit down soon and go over the wedding plans together to make some decisions. And I'm planning on getting back to my crocheting once the new fall tv season begins.

 

[witzend]

i am enjoying the cooler weather and so excited to try on my jeans now that i am 16 lbs lighter than i was in the spring!

Way To Go, h&r!

 

[Californiablonde]

Still waiting for the fall weather. It's still hot here and VERY humid. We've had rain and thunder storms for the last several days. I'm done with the heat. I'm battling insomnia right now and it's even harder to sleep with the temperature being the way it is. It's so hot that difficult child 1 is sleeping on the living room floor right in front of the wall air conditioner. The heat bothers her more than anybody. It's supposed to get even hotter this weekend. I am ready for it to end. I'm so ready for sweater weather. I envy you.

 

[Star*]

Girls ?????? You are all so phenominal!!!!!!! R/A - The Card list is something we've been doing for a few years to BOOST Christmas spirit because we all (ALL) suffer from our kids fallout in one way or another.....

It started the year after my worst depression....and had it not been for Witz telling us about HER bad Christmas and kicking a manger donkey across the room ? Well maybe I'd still be in bed, and have no love for donkeys....The wasy she wrote with such passion and honesty about what she had done? Made me laugh for the first time in days.....Then when I decided I could DO Christmas....I had nothing - and only ONE card was sent to me....from my Mom (she's on the list too) ------why not I've been on "HER LIST" for years......lol.

So anyway to garner Yuletide spriit? WE exchange cards.....and our tradition was always to tape them to the back of our Front door as a kid growing up I used to LOVE to see the different pictures and who liked what to send....I think it's a reflection of yourself.....and Last year money was so tight for me I sent cards that I had from years past....so a few people may have gotten the same card from me the year before? But I enjoy doing it and have for I think around 7 years.

As with any rule? There are exceptions. I leave that to the powers that be.....inasmuch as -----HAS she been actively posting for more than six months-----and do you think it's okay for the rest of us to send our addresses ? I DO NOT.....WILL NOT.....HAVE NEVER .....sent the list via EMAIL......because of hackers. I don't even keep the list in my computer once the names are sent BECAUSE ---of hackers. I just never know and....I want this to be as safe as possible for everyone to have fun. There have been a few in the years past that due to their active participation? Have been exceptioned...some have not...and while I feel for the people that don't make it? Only the moderators know if you have been here, posting, actively participating.....et al. It's for safety. Plain and simple. It hurts when someone just joins and hasn't gotten more than a few postings and NEEDS a card...but Janet does soemthing that doesn't cost in the cyber elf world - and I've never done that.....so if one doesn't work at least you get christmas email cards.


AND Hound and Wendy....I'm envious but proud of your gardener skilss =I have no idea what happened to my garden this year.....FUnky bugs...(I watered I loved I talked) and I got a few beans. My pumpkins I was trying to grow for Addison.....Well It's too hot here....and hnr? 16 pounds?????? OMG you are the new lifestyle QUEEN!!!! Congratulations.....(also envious of your loss)

Insane....(I'm bagging up some of this bloody sunshine that shines here all.year.long and sending it to you!!!!!_) enjoy -

Cali - insomnia? GOOGLE - breathing and exhaling exercises.....I'm telling you all it's like a miracle in a lung...your own....and VERY VERY relaxing......hope that helps you.

Hugs everyone.....

 

[Hound dog]

Congrats on the weight loss H&R!!

I'm dropping weight like crazy. Not sure how, I stopped "trying" a few months back. Maybe it's all the cleaning and yard work. I certainly hope that doesn't meant I'm going to put it back on over the winter.....ugh I know I'm going to try hard not to.

 

[AnnieO]

And as I am reading about how our Starbie came up with the card idea, my mp3 player starts in with Gene Autry - Frosty the Snowman.

HOW?! WHAT?! I wiped all my Christmas music off in January!!! And I'd swear it has not played.

 

[InsaneCdn]

Thanks for the thought, Star... but we DO have lots of sunshine. Really. We're in one of the sunniest parts of the continent. We just don't get HEAT to go with it, other than a brief "summer". Can't you send me some canned HEAT?