Yesterday, my Grandmother called to tell me something I already knew. “Your mom is sick.” Then she asked me what I was doing Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. So, I gave her the low down on my evenings. Monday, parade. Tuesday, nothing, Wednesday, Trick or Treat with the kids. “No, I meant during the day.”

“Oh,” I say. That’s easy, I think. “I’m writing.”

I love her, don’t get me wrong, but man is she sucking the life right out of me.

“Well, I need to have my hearing aids cleaned and I need to get batteries before I leave.”

She’s going to Alabama on November 5th and honestly, it can’t come soon enough for me. I finally stuck up for me and laid down the law for today. I will take her to get her hearing aids cleaned, which she assured me would only take ten minutes and that was it. Nothing and I mean NOTHING only takes HER ten minutes. Ever.

I explained that my writing has suffered the last couple of weeks and she never caught on that it was because of her. Her endless trips to doctors, for prescriptions, for this, for that. Two trips to Macy’s for clothes that she should have/ could have tried on.

So, wish me luck that this whole ordeal from the time I pick her up until the time where I drop her off will at maximum take me a half hour so that I can get back to Callie.

Callie has been a hard nut to crack.
Callie: I heard that.
Seriously, she’s not the easiest character to work with. She’s stubborn, and that isn’t even the right adjective for her. She’s had a lot of false starts and has morphed and evolved over the years since I first started this series several years ago. I always knew she’d be a hard-ass, but I had no idea what I was going to do with her once it was time to give her her own story.
Here’s the conversation I had with her as I pulled up her notes this morning:
Me: I hope you’re ready for this.
Callie: There’s nothing you can do to me. There’s no way in hell I’m going to fall in love like Grace and Tory.
Me:Oh, you will.
Callie: Anyone you give me, I’ll make them suffer.
Me:I’m aware of that, however, everyone has one man that brings them to their knees.
Callie: If he’s lucky, he’ll still have his knees. Seriously, Rae. Give it up.
Me: *rubbing hands together* I found the perfect man for you.
Callie: You thought that before and then I chewed him up and spit him out for breakfast. I hope you prepared him for his funeral.
Me: I knew I had to come up with someone better than an accountant. So I did.
Callie: I’m shaking in my boots.
Me: Mock me all you want.
Callie: What did you do?
Me: :happy0194: What is the worst thing I could do to you?
Callie: You wouldn’t.
Me: I already did.
Callie: :finger:

My guy and I went to a Halloween party. Can you guess who we were? We came in 2nd place for funniest costume.

 

 

 

Thank you for the nice comments about the pictures I’ve been putting up. It’s been a crazy couple of days here and I don’t believe I’ll get a break until Sunday.

So, Wednesday was “Take The Grandma To Macy’s Day”. She had to ‘return’ things she bought on Sunday. When you put my Grandmother in a place like Macy’s, you know you’re going to be gone for most of the day. The majority of your time there will be spent looking for the woman you have to help get into the store because her legs are bothering her. Macy’s is the cure-all-be-all-end-all for my Grandma. It’s like the television show LOST. Her Fountain of Youth. She gets a pep in her step, moving fast through the aisles and racks of clothes, magnifying glass in hand. Macy’s also gives her the ability to turn invisible. Because I swear I’ve looked high and low for her in one spot, leave it and come back and I find her in the spot that she wasn’t in five minutes before and because she refuses to try clothes on, I never look in the Dressing Rooms.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening when she discovers the sales clerk handed her the wrong sized pants. “We need to go back. I’ll run in, return the pants and the tops I got because they look like shit on me, grab the right sized pants and we can come home.” :shock:

“You’re serious?”

Now, she’s going to Alabama to visit my Uncle. She leaves on the 5th of November. My other Uncle is coming to get her on Saturday. But I had to take her back for “just a minute”.  I did it, because I’m a glutten like that. Forty-five minutes later and forcing her to try on the various brown pants, we left.

Today is my youngests Halloween party at school, so I made about 40 homemade Popcorn Balls. Why? Because he saw them on Paula Deen on the Food Network and I suggested making Popcorn hands with gloves and candy corn, but he wanted Popcorn balls and because My Guy challenged me on it, I made them and they’re freaking awesome. So, this afternoon I’m headed out to the school with Popcorn balls and I’ll be staying there for the :fest:.

Tomorrow is a complete Rat Race. Youngest to a Halloween Party at one. Nephew’s birthday party starts at six. Adult Halloween party starts at 6, but we’ll be going closer to 8 or 9. My Guy and I are going as…..nope, you’re going to have to wait. I will say we’re going as a partnership of sorts. ;) Are you dressing up for Halloween and going out?

 

It’s raining here and I actually got some writing done–yay me! I’m not putting up a word count yet because I want to write some more once the house calms down. But, I thought I’d entertain you with some more pictures from our drive. Sorry, in my other life I think I wanted to be or was a photographer.

 The oldest told us to look in either direction and for some reason, I really like this picture. I have absolutely no makeup on and my hair is windblown and yet I love it.

These next two, I think are hilarious. The first one is of both my boys. The oldest one is behind the tree with the little ones head sticking out and the last one for today is of my daughter and I. My big butt and her head.

 

Can you see us?

My Guys message to us in the sand. :love:

Playing on the beach

 

My Guy can be very spontaneous. Yesterday was no exception. We took a drive up into the Laurel Mountains to see the leaves. Next weekend will probably be prettier–leaves wise, but we had a blast and ended up at a State Park called Yellowcreek and I went crazy with my camera.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll need some help putting up this word meter on my sidebar as I spent the last couple of minutes tryan’ to figure it out. Until then, it’s going in this post.

0 / 60,000 (0.0%)

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do in the next 70 days. :chair:

He asked. I made. I conquered. 

I saw this in Wilton’s Cupcake Fun Book at Walmart. I went to their website and of course this particular one wasn’t on there, so I had to do it by memory. I was sorta nervous because most of the time, things like this I’m not so great at. The goal posts in the book were made of icing. These goal posts were made from melted white chocolate and I made them, so they’re not perfectly all the same size or anything, but they work and they’re close. The footballs are candy and the grass was made by me using a special tip. My son wanted to add the sprinkles.

  

Two dozen homemade Football Cupcakes and one smiling birthday boy.

 

“These are the best ever, mom!”

Somtimes, I’m very proud of myself and my accomplishments and today is one of them. I think these are awesome, but most importantly, my kids think I am the bomb. :cheer:

We had a lot to do this weekend, mainly things that involved our children. The youngest had his last game and the oldest went to his first Homecoming Dance. My neighbor, bless her soul has mentioned that any time we’d like to go out that she’d watch our kids. They’re pretty easy to watch, I just don’t trust my oldest to watch them for long periods of time. My kids fight a lot as well. We took our neighbor up on her offer because it’s been a long time since My Guy and I have had some adult fun. Besides, we weren’t that far from home.

The firehall that my family has always belonged to has had Oldie dances over the years. My mom chairs them and makes food for them. We used to have so much crazy fun down there, but just like everything else, things come and go and change. JoJo had sent me a text message reminding me about it and said they were changing the format. I adore the one DJ but he’d strictly play Oldies. As in songs I have no desire to dance too, nor does anyone else I know. :cuckoo: We decided to give it a go.

We had a blast. :720:

Yesterday, we weren’t feeling so hot. I didn’t quite so much over indulge in the alcohol department as My Guy. I watched the Steeler game through half-closed eyelids and we shut out the Seahawks. :cheer:

So, what does this post have to do with flames?

Our refrigerator decided that it was going to be on the fritz. My guy cleaned all the lint and fuzz from underneath it and he had to use a little water. He plugged it back in when he was done and a flame shot out from underneath it. He stayed home from work today and hopes he can fix it. It’s nice to have a Jack-of-all-trades. So, while he’s doing that, I’m going to attempt to write. Wish me luck.