October

Fall is now upon us, and we have managed to pack a lot of activities in this year.  It is only the beginning of November, and I’m already exhausted.

A month or so ago, we moved our fire pit closer to the house, and we have been able to enjoy it more.  I have the mandatory mums on my front and back porches.  In August, I helped with a yard sale for my cousin-friend, Cristine, she had some homemade Halloween lanterns that didn’t sell.  Instead of taking them to the Goodwill, I kept them, and I have enjoyed them immensely while hanging out in my front porch swing these last few weeks.

Will had a birthday on September 26.  He turned twelve.  On his birthday, he wanted nothing more than for me to make some apple brickle dip and have his cousins come over for a campfire, so that is what we did.  Matt and Luke were gone to Weebalo Weekend with the Boy Scouts.  My Dad had a birthday on October 6.  That same weekend, we threw a bridal shower for Matt’s cousin who is getting married in November. 

Luke in his Weebalos uniform with his dog, Sailor

Papa's birthday

Happy 12th birthday Will!

Matt and I often take a short trip to the mountains in the fall.  We didn’t go last year, and it almost looked like we weren’t going to get to go this year, but we managed to find the time.  My Dad took Will, Luke, and Rosemary to the Wings over North Georgia air show while we were gone, and my Mom took Bonnie shopping for “band merch”.  Matt and I rented a huge cabin on Lake Nantahala, close to Andrews, NC.  We got there on Friday evening and did not do anything at all between that time and when we left on Sunday morning.  We left the cabin for a while on Saturday, but we just drove around aimlessly.  We went back to the cabin to watch the Georgia game.  We grilled steaks, drank alcohol, and enjoyed the hot tub.  Our neighbors were a few dozen frat boys on a “brotherhood weekend”.  They would have really annoyed me except that two really nice guys came over to our cabin when we were arriving on Friday and explained the situation and asked us to yell at them or come knock on the door if they got too loud instead of calling the cops.  It’s like they were apologizing in advance for their terrible friends.  They really weren’t too bad though. 

Lake Nantahala

So on Sunday afternoon, we got home and picked up our kids from Matt’s parents.  We normally eat with my parents on Sunday evening.  Matt was tired, so he stayed home, but I took the kids over and we enjoyed their company until 7:30 or so.  I was exhausted because Matt and I had stayed up until 3:00 in the morning, and we had to get up by 8:00 AM to be out of the cabin by 10:00.   On the way up the driveway I declared that I was going to bed at 9:00.  We got in the house, and I flipped on my iPod to check messages.  I had a message from a coworker that read, “Where are you??? You are supposed to be at work!”  That was the abrupt end of my relaxing weekend!!!  It was 7:45 when I got that message.  I called to let them know I was on my way while I was throwing my scrubs on.  I made it to work at 8:30, and I hit the ground running.  It was a ROUGH night.  I stayed incredibly busy until about 3:00 AM, and then once I settled down and started charting, I could hardly keep my eyes open.  My head pounded all night.  I have never been so ready to crawl into my soft, warm bed and go to sleep!

Since the schedule started that Sunday night and did not get put out until Friday, I was operating under the assumption that a mistake had been made.  I would have never signed up to work that night knowing I was going out of town.  None of my coworkers had their pencil copy to look at.  I was really angry about it, but I didn’t want to ask my supervisor on the outside chance that I really had signed up to work.  Later in the week, someone working did have their pencil copy, and it turns out that I really did sign up to work.  Dumb ole me!  I guess since it was a fresh schedule, I just didn’t connect that weekend with the one I had scheduled our trip for.  At the last minute, I had added some overtime days, and that was one of them.  It sure made for a rough week!

I finally got to catch up on my sleep on Thursday.  On Friday I had a class in the morning.  I had won some Lake WinnepaSPOOKah tickets on the radio, so I took the kids while Matt entertained Rosemary.  Bonnie has helped Lisa set up for Chiaha, so we picked her up on the way.  As usual, we had a blast.  Everything was decorated.  Halloween music was playing.  I painted my hair purple and wore sparkly fake eyelashes.  The kids experienced their first haunted house.  We stayed until closing time.  Perfect.

Eyelashes are fun

This is my obilgatory "arrival pic".  I take it so that if any of my kids go missing, I can pull out my iPod and show someone what they looked like, clothes and all.  My kids HATE it. It takes 20 seconds of time off their fun.

 And this weekend was Halloween.  Will, Luke, and Rosemary were all zombies.  Bonnie painted a nose and whiskers on her face and went along for the ride.  We stopped by all the grandparents’ houses and ended the night at Jonathan and Lisa’s.  It was relaxing and fun.  Halloween is usually so busy.

So now for November… more birthdays, Thanksgiving, and the start of Christmas shopping!!!

On the way to my Granny's, we saw Carey, Cristine, ans C.O. in the driveway, so we stopped to say hello. 

ending the evening at Jonathan and Lisa's.  These were the dressed up people, minus Will, who was in the bathroom..