Monday, November 2, 2009

The Week Ahead - November 2

Outside my window...Cool - 44 degrees.

I am thinking...about tomorrow's lunch. The new Commanding Officer's wife has started a spouses group and has a lot of activities planned. A monthly lunch gathering is one - will it be fun or a hopeless drag as these things can often be? I'm not being negative or pessimistic - it's just that you often find that military wives wear their husband's rank on their foreheads and can be impossibly snobbish. I know the CO's wife is very down-to-earth and friendly; I'm just not too sure about some of the others who might be there. Oh, well, keep an open mind, Pamela!

I am thankful for...Daylight Savings Time in the fall - when Vic and Sophia leave the house for work and school, it's light outside.

From the kitchen...roast beef, potatoes, carrots, gravy, a real fall kind of dinner.

I am going...to school - missed two days last week as both Sophia and I were ill but I don't think I've fallen too far behind.

I am hearing...the washer and the ticking of the clock.

Around the house...a quick whiz with the Swiffer should take care of most of what needs to be done, laundry as usual and Sophia needs to clean the bathroom this afternoon.

One of my favorite things...cute little kids on Halloween - I love their adorable costumes and the way they lisp "thank you" when you hand out candy. That's what Halloween is all about.

I am reading...Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon - for about the tenth time!

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week...for Sophia - school, youth group (Tuesday), voice lesson and end of the first quarter at school (Wednesday), Teacher Planning Day so no school on Friday, presentation at a prospective new 4-H Club (Friday evening) and our 4-H Club meeting (Saturday). Work and schoolwork for Vic - he starts his next two classes this week - only four more to go after these two. I have school today, Wednesday and Friday.

Here's a photo of our church's Jamaica Mission Team 2009. Sophia has applied to be a member of the 2010 Team and should know by the end of this week if she has been accepted.


Saturday, October 31, 2009

Memories of Halloweens Gone By


The mischievous kitty - 1995 (Nana made a tail and sewed it to the black unitard)


Pocahontas - 1996 (bought the dress on sale at the Disney Store and beaded the fringe myself)


Dorothy - 1996


Po, the Red Teletubby - 1998

Happy Halloween

I'm not sure what we have planned for Halloween. We were supposed to make an in-costume visit to a nursing home with our 4-H Club this morning, then Sophia was having some friends over for a party, and then they were all moving on to the house of one of the friends to go trick or treating. She lives in a neighborhood with better sidewalks and better street lights!

However, Sophia just went back to school yesterday after three days off and I heard her coughing in the night so I've cancelled the nursing home visit and the rest of the day is a bit up in the air. I'm letting her sleep as long as she can and I'll see what she feels like when she wakes up.

Meanwhile, let's chat about Halloween. Do you celebrate or, I should say, observe? Halloween was a big part of my childhood. Let's face it, it was safe back then. You didn't have to worry about random acts of senseless violence, idiots who lace candy with drugs, or pedophiles who no doubt view Halloween as a shopping day. Wow, little children and costumes, what fun! Sick.

Halloween was all about wearing innocent cartoon character costumes and going from door to door with our plastic pumpkins crying "Trick or Treat" while adults oohed and aahed over how cute we were. No eating candy while we were out; it all had to be brought home and dumped on the dining room table whereupon all homemade items were promptly discarded. How sad is that? Someone probably worked for hours on those cookies, candied apples, popcorn balls, etc. and they ended up in the trashcan. Even then, according to my Mum, you can't be too careful. Not sure what she thought some octogenarian might have put in her popcorn ball!

My Halloween memories include wearing your costume to school and trick or treating down the school hallway where all the teachers had goodies to hand out. Good grief, does anyone still do that? You'd have to have a peanut-free hallway, or a gluten-free hallway, or whatever else to accommodate the myriad of allergies kids have these days.

Anyway, fast forward to Sophia's era. The first few years were ok - they still did the costume thing at school but the neighborhood trick or treating became less desirable. Too many teenagers in scary costumes guaranteed to give a five year old nightmares. Along came the trick or treating at the mall idea. Sort of reminded me of the school hallway idea. We did that for a few years.

Then we started going to church regularly and replaced the Halloween idea with a Harvest theme. We'd never really had any scary decorations - lots of angelic looking witches and devils was more our speed but we tossed them out in favor of equally-angelic looking scarecrows and pumpkins and wheat sheaves. No wearing costumes at the Christian school Sophia attended and Halloween was pretty much put to bed.

Not that I didn't miss it. I had such great memories of the Halloweens of my childhood that I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated. So here we are, after years of not observing Halloween, planning to have a party and let Sophia go trick or treating. I'm not even sure you can consider the get-together of her girlfriends as a Halloween party. Yes, they are supposed to come dressed in costume, but I don't have any decorations. The whole thing was thrown together at the last minute and I'll be darned if I'm going to spend money and run around like a madwoman to decorate! They will sing and dance and probably watch a scary movie or two (although their idea of a scary movie usually has a hot-bodied teenage boy as the hero - how scary can that be?) and then devour pizza and french fries. Then they will head off to go trick or treating. Do you think I can get away with following along at a discreet distance? I'm still not 100% in favor of the whole idea.

It took me forever to find a suitable costume for Sophia to wear. When did Halloween become so sexy? A trip to the local costume shop left me positively blushing. I think Costume Shop is the wrong name, "Sluts 'R Us" would be more appropriate. I could chose from the sexy nurse, the sexy tavern wench, the sexy devil, witch, you name it...even Target's packaging for its costumes had the 38DDD model busting out of her outfit. What's with the necklines down to here and the hemlines up to here? I finally settled on a flapper at Wal Mart (and I loathe shopping at Wal Mart). At least the neckline and hemline are modest.

I can't close this post without including a couple of my most cherished memories of Halloween. Number one has to be "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". I LOVE this movie. I have actually just purchased, from a secondhand dealer, a copy of the Peanuts Cookbook that I bought back in 1970. It was on one of those Scholastic Book Order Forms that the kids bring home from school - I was in the fourth grade. The book has the recipe for Charlie Brown's Great Pumpkin Cookies and they are so delicious. So, at some point today, I'll be curled up with the Peanuts gang and one of the yummy cookies while I take a wander down memory lane.


My other memory has to be anything to do with Disney, especially Winnie the Pooh. I planned a Disney Halloween party for my Brownie Troop one year and it was a great success. The Disney Store really does have the coolest Halloween stuff - costumes and decorations - if you're willing to take out a second mortgage. We were on a tight budget back then so I think I must have shopped the sales for a couple of years until I had gathered enough stuff to throw a party. We had Winnie and Piglet beanies that you had to throw into a plastic pumpkin, all Seven Dwarf beanies that you had to name, international Mickey and Minnie beanies whose country of origin had to be identified, and some other Winnie the Pooh matching game. Vic dressed up as Grumpy and Sophia and I were Mom and Me Maleficents! It was a blast!


So whatever you plan to do today and tonight, have fun and be safe!

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Week Ahead - October 26

Outside my window...Sunny and cool - 50 degrees.

I am thinking...about a jumble of things - how I'd really like to get the basement organized, how soon Vic's textbooks will arrive so he can start his next course, how I can find a piano - cheap, how I'm going to scrape together enough money to buy tickets to see "Wicked" in New York - see I told you it was jumble.

I am thankful for...Provencal Bakery - I can't believe I have lived on this island for two years and I just now found it.

From the kitchen...leftovers - story of our lives lately.

I am going...to fix lunch and watch an episode of Rosemary and Thyme on DVD - gardening sleuths - I love them!

I am hearing...the washer, the ticking of the clock and the clicking of the keyboard, and my neighbor mowing his lawn.

Around the house...the usual...and I don't feel like doing any of it!

One of my favorite things...Sophia's good grades - any doubts I had about her coping with high school are gone.

I am STILL reading...The Rose of Sebastopol by Katharine McMahon - although I'm about ready to throttle the heroine - she's such a flake!

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week...for Sophia - school, choir rehearsal or youth group (she hasn't decide which one) (Tuesday), voice lesson (Wednesday), nursing home visit in costume in the morning and Halloween party in the evening (Saturday), and game night with another youth group (Sunday). Work and schoolwork for Vic and he has duty on Saturday. I have school Wednesday and Friday.

Here are a couple of shots from the Jack - o' - Lantern Spectacular we went to last Friday - it was incredible!



The amazing detail of the Big Bird pumpkin


Sophia's favorite - the peacock

My favorite - a tribute to Paul Newman

Sophia sings "Legacy" in church

I tried forever to get this video clip uploaded to Facebook yesterday but something kept going wrong and I'm not computer-savvy enough to figure out what. So, I resorted to the next best thing...upload it to You Tube and post a link. I hope you enjoy it - sorry it's sideways, but I didn't know you can't rotate a video like you can rotate a picture (or if you can, please tell me how!). This is Sophia's first solo performance and she was a bit nervous, hence the lack of eye contact, but I think she did a great job (I would, though, wouldn't I, since I'm her Mother!!).

Enjoy!

Weekend Homecoming Activities and Festivities

It was a fun-filled weekend with the rain holding off just long enough for the parade to make its way around town and for the football game to kick off. Here are the cheerleaders at the head of the parade:


followed by the award-winning high school Marching Band:


Even a little drizzle didn't stop our boys - a Homecoming Game victory 27-6! (That's the opposing team in the white and gold)


And to round out a great day and week, Saturday night was the Homecoming Dance and here is Sophia, ready to dance the night away!


Friday, October 23, 2009

Spirit Week - Day Five


Friday is Red, White and Blue Day - the school colors - Portsmouth Patriots. There is a Pep Rally scheduled for 1:00pm although I have been instructed NOT to attend - what happened to the days when my daughter wanted me to go to school with her? I will whiz by the school this morning to check out the gymnasium decorations. Last night, each class decorated one quarter of the gymnasium with their class theme.