The First Craft Fair.....

was a total bomb. We sold next to nothing!! I think at the end of the day K-Tina and I each made $30, which didn't even cover the booth space cost. I feel more hopeful about the next show but it was so discouraging to sit on a hard plastic chair all day, starving and neausous, and try to defend our stuff to people who just didn't get it. It was a bust. AND they served SLOPPY JOES for lunch!! Sick!!

Helloween...

I know its a horrible holiday trying to trick little kids into associating candy with the devil.

However, I choose to focus on the fun of dressing up and getting candy, the most important parts for me when I was growing up. The costumes I remember were: being a crayon, a cheerleader (that one came out of left field) and a vet. I know I participated for 18 years, but those are the only costumes I remember.
Mom? want to fill in some missing years?

Anyways this year started with the daycare trick or treating at all the businesses in town this afternoon.
Chubzie went as a lion:
The costume came from a second hand store and looks like someone's loving grandma sewed it. I think his little face is so adorable!
LB was harder. I looked through WalMart and didn't like anything, and looked through second hand stores which all had WalMart's selection from last year. The costumes are so uninspiring and gross. Who wants to see a 3 year old dressed like a vampire/ weird ninja/ blood sucking ghoul? So I was feeling very strapped for time when all of a sudden I found this hooded shirt that looked exactly like chainmail and it all came together:
It was super cheap to buy an old belt, a sweatshirt, and a shield from the second hand store. A little heraldric work with a marker on the sweatshirt, and we have a knight! Super cute. Super cheap. Loving it!
On Saturday, the Mormons put on a "trunk or treat" where everyone parks there car in the parking lot and loads the trunks with treats. Then the kids walk around to all the cars and trick or treat. It felt a little weird last year, almost like I was doing a black market deal (You want a nice radio, lady?) but I really appreciate how simple and fun it is for my kids, and the big kids with the really obnoxious costumes usually don't come.
Last year's run in with Freddy Krueger didn't seem to make a lasting impression on LB, but still- I didn't like seeing his face as he took that particular costume in.

Can't.....stop......posting....

At the Denver zoo.

Yesterday

Yesterday was down right hot!I was going to take the puppies on a walk (we're leash training) when Ron suggested we load everything up and head to the reservoir. The reservoir is the closest thing we have to a lake- no sandy beaches, but plenty of cold, turquoise water. The hills rumple and bunch up into foothills, and in the distance is a crisp ring of Rockies.
We unloaded the whole crew and the dogs were off like a shot, ears flapping, hunting up old bones bleached by the sun. The boys, Ron, and I made our way down the shale embankment, landslide by landslide. By the time we got down the 90 degree sun had baked its way through our clothes and I was HOT!
We had just returned from Denver, Co, where we had fought monstrous crowds to go see Estes Park and the surrounding mountains. We were chastised for standing on a planting bed to get a picture I later deleted. Two rock chucks had made an appearance at the picnic area and you would have thought Pegasus was landing with all the excitement and picture taking.
But here, in one of my favorite places in the world, there were no sounds. Peace lay like a blanket and there wasn't a house or person in sight. Just a hawk cruising high in the powder blue sky.
I stripped down to my undershorts and tank top and got in the water. COLD! My blood turned to "rootbeer in my veins" as I tread down the scummy rocks to sand.
After cooling off, I sat on some sandstone rocks to let the sun warm and dry me. The boys were happy to throw rocks endlessly into the water. They had tried a bit of swimming, but didn't like the freezing effect on their nether regions.
Eventually life called. We loaded the boys, wet and sandy, into the car, then called the dogs, wet and sandy, to load themselves into the car. We then loaded ourselves and went home, a good place to go.

(pic is the reservoir in winter. We didn't chop ice to go swimming!)

So here's some post Labor Day action....

Kickin' it Meeteetse style!