Halloween

I saw on BelleNoelle's blog a post about Halloween costumes. She rocks and makes all her son's costumes. I, on the other hand, am totally lame and buy all my kid's costumes (although, if you can guess the size your child will be next year, you can save a bundle by buying costumes on clearance a few days after Halloween)

If you have a desire to make costumes but no real ability (I can't sew a button on so making a costume is totally out of the question). You should check out Family Fun Magazine for some really great ideas. I haven't checked all of them on the website, but this month's magazine has some super ones that I could totally handle. The egg is great and if I hadn't already bought this year's costumes, I would seriously consider making that one for one of the kids.

Even though I buy my kid's stuff, I make my own. A few years ago, I went as a tree (no one got it and several asked if I was supposed to be mother nature). The next year, I went as mother nature and again, no one got :( Both years, I took grey sweats (shirt and pants) and dyed them brown (same set both years) and then hot glued on fake fall leaves. I also clipped the leaves in my hair to simulate a tree that was starting to lose it's leaves. For the mother nature costume, I wore a baby doll in a sling with my tree costume. With both costumes, I wore my brown Birks.

Last year, I went as an orange crayon. Grey sweats, dyed orange (love me some Rit dye) a piece of orange construction paper rolled into a cone and then stapled to an orange piece of paper made into a headband. Then I glued together 4 pieces of black construction paper and cut a big oval out of it. I wrote Crayola on it and was good to go! :) This year, I found some really cute animal faces/ears. It is a head band with ears and fur on it and has a little piece that goes down the face and has a nose on the end. I bought the lion ($3) even though Lizzie wanted "baby jaguar" (merow merow LOL). I'm going to rip the leaves off the tree costume and use the brown sweats with the lion face and I will be a lion for Halloween :)

A few points that my costumes must meet. They have to be comfortable. I have to be able to move and play and everything with the kids. They can't be scary or sleazy (I used to have a devil costume that won me more than a few costume contests because I looked like a whore in it) and they have to be CHEAP! I've wanted the Tigger costume from the Disney store for years, but it is at least $50 and I won't spend that on something like jeans that I would wear everyday so I certainly won't spend it on a once a year halloween costume.

Shake it baby

Watch all the way to the end.

Applebee's nurse in video

This is freaking AWESOME!!

DSS first to slide show

books this year

I found a community on live journal back around the first of the year that was a 50 book a year challenge. I read all the stupid time and I have a fair amount of time to read so I figured I would have a go at it. This is a copy of the list so far. Obviously, 50 books a year was no sweat for me since it is just the end of Sept and I already have 55 books. I'd have a lot more if I could count all the fan fiction I've read over the last year (yes, I am a dork) but I don't think it really counts so I'll stick with published books

Living Large Various Authors
Candy Dipped Death Sammi Carter
Dead and Loving it MaryJanice Davidson
Derik's Bane MaryJanice Davidson
Undead and unappreciated MaryJanice Davidson
Undead and unemployed MaryJanice Davidson
Undead and unpopular MaryJanice Davidson
Undead and unreturnable MaryJanice Davidson
Undead and unwed MaryJanice Davidson
Full Blast Janet Evanovich
Full Bloom Janet Evanovich
Full House Janet Evanovich
Full Scoop Janet Evanovich
Full Speed Janet Evanovich
Full Tilt Janet Evanovich
Lean Mean 13 Janet Evanovich
Motor Mouth Janet Evanovich
Plum Lovin' Janet Evanovich
Twelve Sharp Janet Evanovich
A is for Alibi Sue Grafton
B is for Burgler Sue Grafton
C is for Corpse Sue Grafton
D is for Deadbeat Sue Grafton
E is for Evidence Sue Grafton
F is for Fugitive Sue Grafton
G is for Gumshoe Sue Grafton
H is for homicide Sue Grafton
I is for innocent Sue Grafton
J is for Judgement Sue Grafton
K is for Killer Sue Grafton
L is for Lawless Sue Grafton
M is for Malice Sue Grafton
N is for Noose Sue Grafton
O is for Outlaw Sue Grafton
P is for Peril Sue Grafton
Q is for Quarry Sue Grafton
R is for Ricochet Sue Grafton
S is for Silence Sue Grafton
Bite Laurell Hamilton
Cravings Laurell Hamilton
Super Mom Saves the World Melanie Lynn Hauser
Baby Laughs Jenny McCarthy
Confessions of a slacker mom Muffy Mead-Ferro
Confessions of a slacker wife Muffy Mead-Ferro
Double Shot Diane Mott Davidson
Born in Death JD Robb
Innocent in Death JD Robb
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets JK Rowlings
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows JK Rowlings
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire JK Rowlings
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azikban JK Rowlings
Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone JK Rowlings
Hundred Dollar Baby Robert Spenser
Big Hair and Flying Cows Delores Wilson
Bridge to Terabithia Kathleen

Lost pictures, not as much

I'm so excited!! I didn't lose all my Santa Claus pictures! I just found some on my dektop that I had copied to a diffrent folder so I could upload them to my digital picture frame. The disk I was trying to use wouldn't work so I gave up, but never did anything with the folder. I don't have a lot of the pictures (only 5) but they were 5 really good ones and 5 is better than none! Yay!!

Making friends as an adult

I've noticed that I have a rather hard time making friends. I'm too much of a hippy for normal people and I'm too normal for hippy people. Some of you remember my post about leaving my playgroup because I felt like I wasn't alternative enough to be a part of that group anymore. It was nothing that anyone said, just a general feeling from some of the members of the group :( I joined a new play group and I'm not terribly happy with them either. First problem, they almost exclusively have young children. Most of the kids in the group are between birth and maybe 2. As far as I know, C is the oldest kid in the group and Liz is even a little old for most of the kids. In my old playgroup, the kids ranged in age from newborn (because someone was always having a baby LOL) to 15 (although she didn't really come to playgroups so the typical age was around 8 or 10) so there was always someone to play with. There were also like 8 babies born between May and Sept 2005 so there were TONS of kids Lizzie's age. The other problem is that while they have a boat load of meetings, I can't go to most of them because of timing. The ones I do get to go to, I see the same 5-10 people so it isn't really expanding my social circle to any great degree. There is also the issue of paying to be in a playgroup just kills me. I was hoping to meet more moms through the kids but that isn't working so well right now either.

Obviously, I'm not a typical mom. I'm sort of a free spirit (hence the blue hair) and I don't fit conventional SAHM standards. I wear camoflage shorts and Spongebob t-shirts and I have little girl who wears blue t-shirts and has short hair and generally doesn't look like a little girl. All the girls in Lizzie's classes are skirts and done hair and pink pink pink and their moms are the same way.

I've met a couple of cool moms through C's class so that is good, but Lizzie's stuff has been mainly a bust. There are a couple of people that I chat with (and one I would like to know better since she has a girl Lizzie's age and a 1st grader, which would be great and she seems vaguely hippy) but not anybody that I would consider a friend. Maybe the few that I chat with will develop into better friends as we take more of these classes. That would be cool.

One of the mom's in C's class suggested mothers and more. She is a member and she said that most of the members have kindergarteners and younger siblings, so perfect age group. Again, the idea of paying for a playgroup chaps me. She said the database and local referalls are worth it so I might have to check it out.