Christmas in July

I haven't really talked about the weather in an out and out 'talking about the weather' kind of way for a while, so I'm going to talk about the weather in this here, short little post.

Disclaimer:  I am FULLY aware that the rest of the country is experiencing sweltering, unbearable, and evenly deadly heat.  I feel awful for them and hope it passes soon.

I, on the other hand, am experiencing the coldest, grayest summer of my life.  Granted, I lived in Southern California for the first 18 years of said life, and summers there are pretty fabulous as a rule.  But, as long as I've lived in the Pacific Northwest the summers have been pretty good.  Occasional rainy periods but always long bouts of sun with temps exceeding 80 degrees for extended periods of time.  Perfect really.  This summer on the other hand, went AWOL.  I'm freezing most of the time.  I have a space heater aimed at myself every morning and evening.  Yesterday it was 83 degrees, the pool was filled and we spent the whole day on the deck basking in what would be a fluke, cuz we are back to the northwest gloom today.  I awoke to booms of thunder and gray skies.  Ack.  It's killing me.  I have SAD (seasonal affective disorder) so I NEED the summer more than anyone else in the whole entire world.  I wait and wait, I anticipate the sun's glorious rays shooing away the darkness in my head.  Not good.  I can't wait to get out of this God-forsaken place in August and head towards warmth, desert, dryness.   If things don't improve soon around here I'm just going to get the Halloween decorations out and call it a lost cause.  Ho-ho-ho.

A milestone and a couple crappy things...

My oldest has flown the nest...again.  We moved Samantha out on Sunday and we only broke one window in the process.  Mike was trying to strap Sam's boxspring onto the top of the Yukon and the bungee snapped and hit the rear window like a gunshot.  Shattered.  Oh well, it's already back to good and Sam is out.  I'm excited for her, she is doing a great job decorating on a dime.  I'm going to start working on turning that basement into a cute Liv's/guest/video game/t.v. room when I have an extra second.  Which I won't anytime soon on account of the third paragraph.

We also scrubbed the front steps so that the little trick or treaters wouldn't slide off our previously treacherously slippery stairs.  We had about four groups of kids, mostly under 6.  Which also means I'm about to gain another 5 pounds finishing off the Halloween candy, why am I not smart enough to buy the gross stuff, like black licorice.  Ack.  Hey, maybe I should keep a pictorial blog of my growing ass...you wish.

Lastly, I woke up this morning to the depressing sound of water dripping.  Extra depressing as it was dripping inside my house.  The roof over my bedroom is done doing what it's supposed to do and we are now going to be doing a major tear down of most of the drywall in my room.  We will also be re-roofing as soon as it stops raining.  We live in Seattle so that may be a while.  Oh, and we don't really know how to re-roof, so yeah.  It's grandpa Steve to the rescue, again.  We are trying to figure out if homeowner's insurance will cover this, but I'm not an optimistic person.  *heavy sigh*  I would now like to officially request to the universe that I win the lotto cuz I need it more than ANYONE else in the world.  Seriously.  Sometimes life is a real bitchosaurus rex.

Jack o' Lanterns

The only thing I like less than carving pumpkins is dying Easter eggs.  Although, this year was less awful than most.  The pumpkins seemed to have less guts than usual, and more seeds? 

Obviously, Jack and Grace are a little too young to handle the butcher knife part of the event, so I end with the job.  Mike was texting Gawd knows who and watching baseball all evening, so...of no help whatsoever.



   

     We ended up with these beauties

Another view...

And with dog... 



I forgot my camera...again.

Yesterday we went to the pumpkin farm.  I determined that this was my 22nd annual visit to a pumpkin farm as a mom.  I don't think we ever went as children but I also don't think that pumpkin farming was a thing in So. Cal.  We got our pumpkins at the grocery store, same place we got our Christmas Trees.  My kids would pass out at the mere suggestion.  I do love our traditions, I'm not complaining, it's just a lot of pumpkin farming.  We went to a huge farm in Clearview called "Bob's Corn".  The pumpkins were not stellar, not enough sunshine this year, they were all a little green and some had already passed over to the other side.  Our rule is that the little ones (Jack and Grace) can not get a pumpkin any bigger than they can carry around.  Jack really pushed that rule this year, I thought the poor guy was going to pop a hemi, lots of straining and groaning.  He finally ended up rolling his pumpkin down the hill on the way to the parking lot, I overlooked the fact that he was cheating because caring would take effort and some sort of action on my part.  I forgot my camera, bummer because Jack looked hysterical.  We actually did get lost in a corn maze.  And we paid $20 to do so.  We ended up getting out of there less $50. and up two large squash.  Tradition, ahhh.  The slaughter commences tonight and I will try to get some pics.



Speaking of squash, tonight I'm making baby back ribs and butternut squash risotto.  A perfect fall dinner.  On Monday I'm going to start of little pre-Halloween diet and then I'll start my pre-Thanksgiving diet the day after Halloween.  Another tradition.

Too Much?

It's Halloween at the house.  A little early maybe, but when summer is over I'm ready to immerse myself in Autumn.  I hate winter in Seattle, drippy, slippery and mildewy.  Ick.  This house is useless when the temperature drops below 40 degrees, you can usually find me beneath a pile of blankets on the couch or cooking something just for the warmth the stove offers.  Both of these activities tend to result on an extra 10 pounds of flab that comes to visit most every year.  Hate winter.  I really don't know what I'd do without my heated car seats, not to mention how amazing they are when I have cramps...worth it for that alone.  Liv may find me at her doorstep more than she thought.

 But, I do love the fall.  Halloween and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays

We threw about every Halloween decoration we had at the mantle and called it good.  It's hard to see the spiderwebs strung all over the place, but there's a lot.  Apparently the bird's name is Kevin.  Yeah, I don't know.



The ladies are back!

                          Oh, Gawd, I just spotted my twisted reflection in the glass, I'm the fourth witch.

  But ya'll already knew that.

Fall also brings us to soccer season and so far every game has been sunny and warm.  That's usually how it goes.  The beginning of the season we are in t-shirts and flip-flops and at the end I'm hiding in the car snuggled up to the afore-mentioned heated seats.

 Too cute!

P.S...Gillbert is still alive and blowing a crazy looking bubble nest. 
P.P.S...I love how google ads pulls content from your posts and tailors then to their ads.  This morning I was a Mormon who loved to throw birthday parties, Ha!  Oh crap, I said "mormon" again.  I'm gonna have to spice this thing up.