Halloween

We got ourselves a Cowgirl, a ninja, a dementor and a ring wraith.

Toothless

She lost these two teeth on a Sunday morning pretty much within 10 minutes of each other.  

It was quite a Hilarious thing.

The very next SUNDAY morning...  

Now she has the one dangling tooth in the middle of her smile.

But being quite unprotected by it's neighboring chickletts...

The lone tooth was knocked out completely by accident by a best friend's elbow at school.

The tooth went flying and though the whole class spent valuable instruction time searching for the little nugget, (don't bother asking that class how to subtract - they spent the initial lesson looking for a tooth!)

they were unsuccessful.  She came home toothless with nothing for the fairy.  

My toothless wonder.

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what happened?

Pinterest happened.

Sorry 'bout that.

And right now I would love for someone to come make me all that crazy wonderful food I see pinned there today.  Like the buffalo chicken grilled cheese maybe.

But on a side note...

It's Erin's 7th birthday today!  My baby is growin' up!

And just kidding about the "side note" bit.  She is NO side note.  Really.  I totally gave her sugar cereal for breakfast and had a banner up AND sent Lofthouse cookies in with her to school.  ('cause I'm not allowed to do homemade or I totally would have.)  I also would have taken them in myself but she's growing up and wanted to do it on her own.
Then, when she was safely settled in her class with the teacher she LOVES and her best bud Ireland, I sighed, dabbed my eye, drove home and pinned a few AWESOME prints I found to my ART board.

Oh!  and Nash turned 12 last month!  Woo Hoo!  My big boy.  Love that guy.  Sure do.  He doesn't like butter.  (Is that not the BIGGEST tub of margarine you've ever seen?  Blows my mind.  My mom set this out for his dinner as a joke.  He's a good sport.)

So.  You're all caught up.  Except...oh yeah.  It's getting cold here.  Well, in the mornings it's cold.  Brrrr.  Makes for a more difficult time talking myself into heading out doors for a run.  But, it's gotta be done.  I've got a couple 1/2 marathons coming up this winter.

I don't know why.
It's just...I'd rather eat donuts.



I guess that's why.



*um.  I really am punctuation/grammar inept.  I have no clue where things go.  Hopefully it's not too painful to get through.  Sorry Heidi.*

shame on me

No picture.  I just want to tell you about it but you don't have to actually see my shame.


We went to the beach this weekend and I didn't put sunscreen on the kids.
I KNOW!  I didn't think we would really be out there very long because we were just passing time until Dad got back from his Triathlon thing.  


But the beach sun is brutal.


My poor kids are burnt up.


I feel the worst about Carter.  He had a swim shirt on so his shoulders are fine but his adorable face is red red red.  I prayed it would fade to tan by Monday so his teachers wouldn't see how neglectful I was.  


Then, this is a sad part, I got an email reminding us that Picture Day is tomorrow.


Sunburned faced Carter to be immortalized in 5th grade photo form.
My shame, captured for all time.  


Erin said I was a "good mom in a bad way.  No, I mean a bad mom in a good way.  I mean..."


sigh.


We had a blast though.  The sunburns didn't really set in till the drive home.  So while we were at the beach we had SO MUCH FUN!


I hope they remember that part.
Other than the 5th grade school picture evidence I might be able to brain wash them by just showing the fun pictures to them year after year and swiftly changing the subject if "sunburn" is mentioned.  
"Don't be silly.  We had a BLAST!"


Maybe if we went to the beach more often I would have practice on beach sun care.
That is the key I think.


Back to the beach!


After they heal.


Shame on me.

bounty

Call me Farmer Corrie!

I planted a garden.

Brian helped.  Actually, Brian did everything to get it started.

But I kept it going!  I watered faithfully and harvested the goods.

Something I had NOTHING to do with however was the 7 blackberry bushes at the top of our lot.

I knew there were some berries there, but we had only seen a handful at a time the years previous.

This year was something out of a dream.

We went up one day to see quite a trove of blackberries.

We could go up everyday and fill a large bowl.  And they were so sweet!  

It was awesome.

This was just one day of gathering.

Ohh the cantaloupe was so yummy.  I couldn't believe we actually grew one.  

It was real live cantaloupe!

It was fun.  I think we learned some things for next year.  

Like an irrigation system that isn't me holding a hose every day.  

I got stung by some angry looking red scary wasps.

Man.  That hurt.

Yes sir.

Farmer Corrie.

"You've got dirt on your nose. Did you know? Just there."

Ahhh.  The fancy new tricks a friend can teach you.

Thanks E!  That was a good one!

ruins

This is at the Colosseum which wasn't even called the Colosseum when it was being used for what it was being used for.  It was called...uh...something else.  

Anyway.  I do remember that people started calling it the Colosseum because of the HUGE statue that was moved next to it of Nero? I think.  The statue was called the Collosus.  I think... 

Well...never mind.  No history lesson for you.  

The sun was in my eyes and super bright so it was a kind of "I'm going to look down and hurry take the picture when I look up and open my eyes for the second of time I can possibly keep them open" type picture.  And I'm standing in front of...uh...ruins.  

Crumb.

Palentine Hill?  Hmmm...

Oh Wait!  This was on Palentine hill where all the leaders and rich people lived and that is actually the Colosseum behind us which wasn't called the Colossem at the time it was being used for horrid stuff.  But I already told you that part.

Those trees are super cool though, eh?

Trevi Fountain.  Awesome.

I know something about this fountain that is cool but it just isn't coming to me...

Did you know I am getting pretty old.  I even make moaning noises when I stand up and stuff.  

I think I even need reading glasses.  gasp!

Do you recognize that place below?  Can you remind me what it is?

JUST KIDDING!  

I know this one.  It's at St. Peter's bascillica.  (right?)  

We're at the top of the dome.  It's windy.

Check out his feet.  He just finished putting those bad boys on.  

Zoom Zoom.

THIS BAKERY!  Was right outside our B&B.  It is in a little basement thing and my sister's rooms window opened to a courtyard that their back door opened onto and she smelled baked goods all the time.  YUM!

Our room had a bad toilet problem and smelled of sewer all the time.  But I kept the door closed and sprayed OUST all over and it was tolerable, I suppose.  

SO!

Have I convinced you to visit Rome?  I bet your interest is piqued.  

You'd like to learn all the cool stuff I alluded to, wouldn't you?

Well, that was on purpose.  If I told you all about it then you would have no reason to go.

What a disservice I would have done to you and the Rome tourism market.

You can thank me later.

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