Happy Halloween!

I am glad Halloween is almost over. I'm excited to see all the bleeding skulls and cackling witches put away for another 11 months. I'm not against Halloween per say, but sometimes it's just too much. For a holiday geared towards kids why does it have to be so disgusting and scary? And everywhere. On our evening walk down to the Court House we have to walk Emily in front of our neighbour's house that is decorated with ghosts, a Frankenstein monster and dead witches. She's not old enough to be frightened by them, but I cringe to think of the questions she'll be asking next year. For now, this is the conversation:
Emily -- "what's that?"
Mommy -- "a ghost"
Emily -- "what's that?" (She is apparently unsatisfied with my answer)
Daddy -- "what does a ghost say, Emily?" (try the distraction tactic)
Emily -- "baaaaaaa" (she thinks I said goat, not ghost.)
Mommy and Daddy -- "sure".
And that's where it ends. And perhaps I've never been offended by Halloween until now because of the fact that I now have a daughter old enough to understand. But I think that the fall has enough of God's own beauty that we don't need to try to spice it up. What's wrong with pumpkins, corn stalks, and gorgeous red and yellow leaves?
Don't get me wrong -- we are taking Emily trick or treating tomorrow night. Who doesn't love a cute bunny costume with an even cuter baby inside? And lets not forget about the free candy. But we'll go early to avoid the older (scarier) kids, and only go down Metcalf streets to all the 'posh' houses. Hopefully we'll only run into Superman and Tinkerbell.


Hopefully Emily will tolerate the bunny suit long enough to go out -- if not, we'll throw some face paint and some cat ears on her. Brown coat, brown cords? Done.

Another Not Me Monday!

Emily is always clean when Justin arrives home at the end of the day. When he arrives at 6:00pm she never has chocolate milk, alphagetti, or kraft dinner stains on her. And if she did, I would most certainly put an entirely new outfit on her. Who wants their kid looking like a mess for their father? Not me! After all, changing my daughter into new tights, dress, etc. in order to eat supper and go for a walk just makes perfect sense. And did I mention that I love doing laundry?

This is not what my little girl's room looks like. I mean, who would decorate a toddler's room with war planes and a bottle of whiskey? Not me! And don't you just love the poker room light? But since I'm such and awesome painter, I'll most definitely have it painted by the end of the week.

Whenever I go grocery shopping Emily never grabs something off a shelf and throws it in our cart while I'm busy reading the labels on the soup cans. (I can always find the soup I want upon first glance. I never have to search for it among the thousands of other varieties. Every time.) If she does do this, I always find out before we're at the check out counter and I'm unloading items onto the belt. When I find said item I would never discreetly put it in front of the Martha Stewart Living magazine. Nope, not me. I, of course, either hand it to the grumpy cashier and say "can you put this back? My daughter grabbed it when I wasn't paying attention to her", or I put it back on the shelf myself. Grocery shopping is such a delightful experience that I yearn to prolong it in any way I can.

This is not Emily's favourite place on Earth -- Family Flower's petting zoo. I don't love it because of it's great admission price (free) and the lovely flowers. I am not totally stoked about it being open all winter and walking through the aisles of beautiful poinsettias. I am not already in the Christmas Spirit.

Not Me Monday

I'm following in Taun's footsteps and trying out a NMM post. To find out more, visit http://www.mycharmingkids.net/ .

This week I did not miss my sister. Everyday. I could not tell you that there are 57 days until she comes home for Christmas. I have not already started planning various activities for us to do when she's home and I am not TOTALLY looking forward to making another pitiful looking gingerbread house with her.
I am not majorly bummed that her rotation placements, while still in Canada, are in places too far away to visit. What good does that do me? But I am also not looking on the bright side that Northern Ontario is a whole lot closer than Australia.

Emily did not ask to watch the "elephant jumping" video a million and ten times this week. To not show your kids this funny clip, do not click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK27aknWVI4
Be warned, that viewing this video may also make you want to blog about the number of times your kids did not ask to watch it. Emily did not get addicted to this video while at her cousin's house, and she did not learn that the elephant has a big bum from one of them :)

I did not ask Justin (repeatedly) if we could keep the stray cat. I most certainly did not let it in the house after Justin told me not to. I am too much of a submissive wife to defy my husband. Emily did not scream with delight as she chased it all over the house and we did not feed it the left over turkey from Thanksgiving. Oh, and Justin is aware of this.

This is not my first Not Me Monday post and I did not enjoy it. I definitely do not recommend you try it.

Saying Goodbye to a pair of old friends

I finally decided that it's time to replace my 5 year old, $4.50, Payless shoes. I will never throw them away, and will in fact continue to wear them (but perhaps only in the backyard). These shoes are a part of me. They have multiple war scars on them and I have "broken them in" perfectly. These shoes have the purple paint from my very first apartment on them. They also have the burgundy paint from my very first house. They carried me into the bridal salons to pick out my wedding dress, and carried me into the delivery room the night I had Emily. I wore them on the trip to Ottawa to bury my Grandfather, and wore them on the trip to Australia to visit my sister. They were also the only shoes that could stretch enough to fit me during the last few months of my pregnancy. I love these shoes. And I will probably never find a pair of shoes as comfortable.
I also like my new snazzy shoes that I just purchased yesterday. They are somewhat comfortable but they just aren't the same. I know I'll keep wearing the old ones, but the fact that I have bought new shoes to replace them can almost bring a tear to my eye (almost). But don't worry -- I'm sure you'll see me wearing these old, ratty, shoes - I'm not a fan of change!