Halloween!!!

BOO!!!

Did I scare ya??

Sydney made a pumpkin flower arrangement at school - so cute.!!



Let's take a closer look, shall we?




It says "To mom and daddy from Syd"

But, wait - there's something smeared there...What does it say?


It actually said "To mom, daddy and Livie"

But Livie made her mad.



So she rubbed her name off...

*SIGH*

But at least they could stand together for 30 seconds so I could snap some pictures.



I present to you, Olivia the "Dark Fairy" and Sydney as "Dorothy"

I see a theme here, and frankly, it scares me.....



Rocking the purple and black...



Is it wrong that I think my daughter is gorgeous and that sometimes, she takes my breath away when I look at her?




Sweet little baby girl - Toto and all!!

She's so stinking cute I simply can't stand it!

The crew - getting ready to head out!

We didn't last long - it was cold, and windy, and everyone was tired, and once the buckets were full of candy, the girls told me that they wished Sydney could be like the real Dorothy and click her heels together three times so they could be home in their beds.

This one's for you Ted & Judi.....

Late afternoon today at work I received a phone call.

I recognized the number, and answered the phone slighty panicked.

It was Judi.

If you recall, they are like family to us, and we bought our house from them.



My first words (after "Hello?") were - "Is everything OK?????"

We usually talk on the phone in the evenings, so for her to call me at work?

Uh -oh....

Um, they are retired and living it up a few hours away, so my panic at receiving a call between 9 to 5 was completely unfounded. (D'uh Debbie.)

They are lucky enough to worry about tee times, bridge times, tennis times, and happy hour. Followed by a fabulous dinner. (*jealous*)

"Whoops, are you at work?" Judi says.

But I just know what she and Ted were thinking is...

"Ha -work! Been there. DONE that. SUCKERS!!!!!"

And then they high five each other.

ANYWAY....

Ted had read my recent post. You know, the one where I wished for my very own paint sprayer?

"Deb, there's paint sprayer at the house. We left it for you."

"Um, what?"

"Yup. In the basement. In the workshop."

""Really?"

"It's only been used once!"

"How did I miss it?"

I came home this evening and told Brian. He swore he hadn't seen it either.

I decided that I would look around. I spend A LOT of time in the workshop, and I know I hadn't seen it.

But if Ted said it was there?

It probably was.

But where? Did it get moved into a dark corner somewhere that neither Brian nor I had seen?

It couldn't possibly be down there.

I mean, it would make sense if it was near the paint....



But it wasn't there.

Oh, wait - what's that?





Up on the top shelf?

IN PLAIN SIGHT?????



Right.

I burst out laughing.

Brian's response? "Huh. Well, look at that!"

Color me stupid.

But extremely happy that I have a paint sprayer!!!

You guys were right of course.

And I already have plans for it.

(insert evil laugh here...)

I can't believe I didn't see it.

Love you guys!!

All I want for Christmas is my own paint sprayer.

This weekend was Olivia's last game.




Can I get a "HALLELUJAH"?????

It was also Breast Cancer Awareness weekend for the football league.

The boys wore their pink shirts under their jerseys.



No, Liv's cheeks aren't usually hot pink.



The cheerleaders got their pink on too!

Liv's glad to see the season come to an end.

Now they can concentrate on competition in November, which is the main reason she cheers.

On Sunday I decided to paint the wicker set I got. Remember what it looked like before?



It didn't weather well. I didn't even take any pictures before I scrubbed it.

GR-OSS.

Off to Wal-mart I went.





That little sprayer was the best $2.50 I have EVER spent. Seriously.

But it still took hours - and 10 cans of spray paint - and two trips to Wal-mart

- and copious amounts of this...



To finish all four pieces.



They look fabulous. But I'll have to do them again in the spring no doubt....



They are going to go here for the winter.

Tucked away back in the corners, where they'll be somewhat protected from the weather.




And because Brian rarely makes an appearance on the blog......

This is him tormenting the girls.



He usually does this right at bed time.

Naturally.




So now you know the reason my kids don't get to bed on time.

Oh Yeah. Thaaat's gonna leave a mark.

So excuse me while I step upon my soapbox and lecture all of my faithful readers.

*AHEM*

I recently turned......dear God.....40.

I know, I know, it can't possible be true. How can that vibrant, full of life, young looking woman POSSIBLY be 40? And TWO kids? The hell you say....

But, yes, my friends, it's true. My mind says I'm 25.

My body is CLEARLY telling me otherwise.

And the older I get, the more I regress emotionally.

I say things to myself like ....

"That young guy that held open the door for me was totally checking me out. I've still got it baby!!"

The reality is...

That guy holding the door for me was thinking......

"Wow, she looks like my mom."

Anyway, as many of you know, my best friend Beth was diagnosed earlier this year with breast cancer. She's only a year older than me (which I will NEVER let her forget) and it was a huge wake up call.

I am a mom. I am a wife. I am a daughter, sister and friend.

I knew that tons of people in my family had been diagnosed with different forms of cancer. Some had died. But they were old.

Right?

Yeah.

Ever heard of that River in Egypt?

I realized that I needed to be more proactive about my own health.

Off to the doctor I went for a physical. She put me through the ringer and immediately sent me to a gastroenterologist for a consult given my family history of colon cancer and the fact that my stomach appeared to be undertaking some sort of revolt over the past few months.

Oh, yeah and the fact that I was 40. (DAMMIT!)

After meeting with the gastro doctor - who I love - he scheduled me for my very first colonoscopy this week.

And then came the comments.

"That test is awful"

"The prep is the WORST"

"Be prepared to spend the night in the bathroom"

"Good luck with THAT!"

And, my all time favorite:

"EW."

I was a bit nervous - I certainly wasn't looking forward to it - but I was prepared.

Nesting spot set up in the family room? Check.

Fruit punch gatorade to mix that giant bottle of miralax with? Check.

(*note - do NOT use red colored gatorade as a mixer. Unless you want to panic about 3 hours later. Ask me how I know)

Some nice soft TP and a good book? Check.

I was set.

I soon realized that the anticipation was TOTALLY worse than the actual prep.

I couldn't eat, so Brian had to make dinner for the girls.

No one bothered me, because frankly, they didn't want to be around me.

I read almost an entire book. Granted I was in the bathroom during most of my reading, but still....

All in all, it was actually a little break from responsibility.

(My only complaint was the liquid diet the day before. Because I eat at least every three hours. And I love food. That was hard)

Brian and I went in bright and early in the morning and they got me all prepped. I was fine. I wasn't cranky (quite a feat - no food and no coffee? I should get a medal)

They decided to put my IV in my hand (I HATE that. I'm not squeamish, but I don't like IVs in my hand. Seriously. I get all crazy about it and immediately begin to ask when it can come out. Now? Now? NOW?????)

As soon as she stuck me I heard "Uh - oh."

When someone has a needle in your vein, that's not what you want to hear.

Nurse: "I blew a valve."

Me: "That's gonna leave a mark."


The next thing I remember is waking up.

I was home by 10:30, the kids were at school, Brian went back to work, and I spent the entire day lounging on the couch, dozing, eating and watching reruns of "Charmed".

It was a wonderful day.

In a few hours my tummy no longer sounded like Mt. Vesuvius and I was back to normal.

As women and mothers, we often put our own health on the back burner. The kids get regular check-ups. Hell, even the dogs go to the vet once a year.

But we have to be on our death bed to go to the doctor.

We don't have time for regular check ups.

We're invincible.

But, we actually aren't.

And we owe it to our families to take care of ourselves and get regular check ups.

Since I had several polyps removed, I realize how lucky I am that I had this test done when I did.

A few more years of waiting could have had disastrous results.

And now I know that I need to keep an eye on this issue.

My biopsy results will be back next week, but the doc is pretty confident that I'm good to go.

I'll have to do it all over again in three years, but now that I know what to expect, it won't be anywhere near as anxiety producing.

Don't ignore your health because you're afraid of what you'll find.

Be proactive so you can be around to see your babies grow up. And your grandbabies someday.

Oh, and yes, it definitely left a mark. But if that's the worst that happened, I can totally deal with it.






Lecture over. Carry on.

Weird Science

Tonight was the Science Fair at the girls school.



It occurred to me after my last post that I am a horrible mother because I neglected to acknowledge that SYDNEY also did a science fair project.

She's in second grade.

It wasn't a requirement.

And she got it done two weeks earlier than her sister.

Sydney's project was on the aerodynamics of paper airplanes.



I'm so proud of her - she thought of it on her own and she and Brian worked on it together.

I figured if I had to make a volcano, he could make some paper airplanes.

She was so excited and so very, very proud.



Unfortunately, the pictures are crap. The gym has these ugly crazy green lights and they make picture taking difficult - at best.

Olivia's volcano was one of many.

But frankly, they were puny or made with paper bags (Really?)



Hers was most definitely the BEST volcano there.

Even if she wouldn't stop making goofy faces because she was embarrassed that her MOTHER was taking pictures of her in front of everyone.

Look out - she's going to blow!!

Olivia's school this year has a requirement that all of the older kids create an entry into the annual science fair.

Liv and her friend Lauren decided they wanted to make a volcano.

What?

I've never made a volcano.

I have no idea what I am doing.

The paper mache' took FOR-EV-ER to dry!

Finally the girls were able to paint it this weekend...

Have you ever smelled burnt Styrofoam?

It stinks.

How do I know this??

I had to stick the volcano in the oven to dry it. All was well when the over door was cracked a bit at 200 degrees.

Things went wrong when the door accidentally shut for 2 minutes.

Whoops!

Luckily, the volcano was fine - the base, however? Not so much. *sigh*

The girls did an awesome job painting it....

I set them up on the deck and they went to town.

Then we sprayed it with red glitter spray paint to make lava....

Then I sprayed the whole thing with polyurethane.

The whole on the top is where the "lava" will come out, through the PVC pipe that goes all the way through to the bottom.

Liv and Lauren with the finished product.

Today is the day for the final experiment and creation of their poster.

The girls are undecided about whether or not they will let me help with the project next year...

Fall.....

We're in a bit of a funk over here at the Henry household.

Fall is awesome - my favorite time of year - but SO MUCH goes on in the months of September through November.

We've got fall sports - Cheerleading and Cheer competition for Liv - which sucks up not only three evenings a week, but all day on Saturdays too.

Sydney is in gymnastics which is only one evening a week but it happens to be one of the same evenings that Liv has practice. This means I fly like a banshee from one end of town to the other twice in order to get everyone where they need to go on time and then pick Liv up before practice is over and she is the only one left standing in the middle of a darkened football field at 8:00 at night wearing leggings and T-shirt and sneakers and trying to explain to her coach that her mom couldn't possibly have forgotten her - again. *sigh*

Needless to say my plans of decorating and doing some projects around the house, plan for several parties we are hosting and keeping up with the laundry is NOT going well - ha! I did manage to scrounge a few things up for outside though....

I switched out my spring door arrangement for my fall door arrangement. This is the same thing I used last year - I just added a few yellow leaves and flowers to make it stand out a bit more.

I bought two red mums (the purple ones are from Brian for our anniversary). I LOVE mums.

TANGENT ALERT!

When we got married, we had mums everywhere (it was September) and we brought them all home and planted them in our old yard. As you can imagine - after 10 years, they were big and gorgeous and I was determined NOT to leave them at the house when we moved. Brian felt differently and didn't feel like digging up a ton of 10 year old, rather large mums to bring to the new house.

I cried.

I had finally resigned myself to the fact that the young family that moved in would enjoy them, so it was meant to be. Imagine my surprise when my old neighbor called to tell me that they had pulled out Every.Single.One. and taken them to the dump.

I cried even harder.

Brian has since seen the error of his ways and buys me two mums for every anniversary which get planted in the yard.

We inherited Pumpkinhead from Judi & Ted - He lights up!




I bought the crow this year at Michael's and plopped him on top.

And of course, our scary light up pumpkin greets everyone from the window.

I actually decorated a little around the house too this weekend. But, really, not much.

If we had a ton of trick or treaters I'd go all out like we used to at the old house, but since we actually LEAVE the neighborhood to trick or treat, it's not really worth it.

Come Christmas? Look. Out.