Home Grown

Archive for the ‘Steven’ Category

The weekend began with making for the spooky but that sort of went awry due to not only the rain but winds. Wind + rain = no luminaries and no candles and that just isn’t fun and did not play into my decorating ideas so the front porch was a bust.

I set out my tried and true carved foam pumpkins and plugged them in and made the best of it.

The kids were excited. Gracie was meeting up with some of her friends from school and Steve was taking Steven out. Getting everyone in costume was a bit rushed but fun and filled with giggles.

Steven wouldn’t call Steve “Robin” or “The Boy Wonder”. He had somehow decided that Steve was in fact dressed as Barnacle Boy from Sponge Boy. So, in the delighted mind of a three year old he went out trick or treating dressed as a super hero with Barnacle Boy at his side. Gotta love it!

Steven only walked about 40 minutes or just long enough to get about half of his bag filled with candy then he was ready to come home. Done. Completely finished. He and Steve then took over handing out candy.

Gracie was as gorgeous as ever in her pink poodle skirt. She skipped along excited to meet her friends. She was also delighted by all the older people who told her they once wore a skirt just like hers. She was also thrilled with her candy haul.

This is the only photo of me from Saturday night. Believe me the photo makes me look like I am thinner than I really am. There must have been a spooky spell on the camera. Yes, the low carb is working, but it isn’t working that fast! I wish I was already as thin as this photo suggests!

We ran out of candy at about 8:30. We cleaned up the porch quickly, closed the door and turned off the light.

And kids kept coming.

All we had was some junky candy Steve had forgotten to mix in with the good candy so they got a handful of suckers. After unlocking the door for the fourth time and trying to find something for kids knocking we shut down all the lights in the front of the house and didn’t go back to the door.

I know we suck. But what do you do when you run out of candy?

I think everyone had a great night.

Do you get very many kids trick or treating?

Did you dress up?

Tomorrow I’ll tell you what we did with our ‘extra’ hour and show you the cookies Gracie baked.

We were headed out the other day and Steven was side tracked by a bug in the driveway. He wouldn’t go to the truck and climb in as usual. He was fixated on “a bug!”. Which was causing me to be a bit irritated. While I lock up the house and turn everything off the kids are supposed to head off to the truck, get Steven fastened into his car seat and wait for me to be right behind them so we can go. It’s a plan!

As I stepped out the door and sternly told him to ‘get in the truck now!’ he kept insisting that he needed his shovel. To move ‘the bug!’.

I did a double take and all thoughts of getting in the truck flew out of my head for the moment, too.

Here is his ‘bug’.

Actually it is a beetle. I don’t know what kind of beetle. Any beetle experts out there?

Not just any beetle. A very big beetle. Here it is beside my Blackberry. Still not enough size comparison to really give you an idea of its actual size because many people don’t know how big a Blackberry is based on the general very small size of cell phones these days.

This beetle is almost the size of a credit card/shopping card/gift card.

Huge!

Something had gotten a hold of it during the night as it was squished but I can’t imagine what as the bug wasn’t on the driveway the evening before but it was that morning.

So we took our photos. Steven used his shovel and moved the ‘bug’ to a proper place in the grass. We then climbed aboard the excursion train and headed to Target.

Uneventful trip really. Picked up one potty seat replacement as Steven is still too small and sort of hangs into the toilet thus needing a potty seat to support his skinny self and the old one totally just fell apart one day earlier in the week. A few school supplies went into the buggy as school starts in just a few weeks so we may as well start gathering some supplies along the way. Rain boots, a lip gloss, juice boxes, a fresh bag of popcorn and a wireless mouse rounded out the shopping spree.

As we made our way through the checkout and to the parking lot Gracie pointed out a duck.

This is a wild mallard hen. She was wandering around the parking lot begging for food. Several drivers nearly ran her over in their too-busy-to-look-where-they-are-going cell-phone-talking-while-driving obliviousness to the world around them. I shouted and stopped one free wheeling older woman as plowed right up to where we were sitting trying to get the duck out of the road way. The duck was very friendly and would approach you just out of arms reach. Steven donated a good size handful of his popcorn and she greedily gobbled it up. I am very sure she was starving. Had she not been within a few hundred yards of a water source I would been very tempted to move her.

Take a note – wild ducks and geese fall under a migratory bird protection law. It is illegal to relocate them to a better place unless one is injured and at that point you should locate a wildlife rehabber. Since you can’t legally do anything to make their lives better I ask that when you see these ducks and geese in a parking lot take note they are most likely very hungry. Please feed them. It is the least we can do to protect them.

Speaking of ducks – someone swallow Donald Duck and he is trying to get out.

Hahahahahahaha!

That’s all I have in me this morning, folks. Unless you would care for a dose of a reoccurring ear infection that is about to make me insane. Doctor’s office opens in T minus 29 minutes and counting.

Yesterday was our fifth wedding anniversary. It seems odd that it is only five. I feel like I have always been married to him. The past is so distant and everything is so far removed that it is almost like my first marriage was a bad dream and Steve has always been here at my side. It seems like we should be celebrating our 20th anniversary if you know what I mean?

With an anniversary, as with most occassions, the need arises for a gift. Traditionally that gift should be wood. A more modern gift would be silverware. Umm. No. I am very traditional and I will get something wood for myself when I find it but we jumped the shark, melted down the silverware and got Steve something he has been wanting.

A skeet thrower.

Not a rinky dink one. He would have been happy with a cheap one but I was not happy for him to have a cheap one.

We went out to Gander Mountain Saturday in search of his gift. While he would have been happy with a lesser priced model I still wasn’t happy with the cheaper item and when his back was turned and he was zipping down another isle Colby and I switched boxes and upgraded him to a better model. I don’t think he knows. Is that deceitful? Oh, well, if it is then it is. I just wasn’t happy with him ‘settling’ for something based mostly on the price and what he thought was fair to spend for his shooting hobby.

For his gift he got the said better upgraded skeet thrower, six cases of clay targets and two cases of Remington Bird shot shotgun shells.

Steven’s rifle is a single shot .22 Crickett.

Then he had a little get together with the boys and had a blast. Literally.

Happy Anniversary, Honey. I love you. XXXOOO

I almost forgot –

We also had a cookout. I did chicken on the grill, macaroni salad, string beans, sliced tomatoes and corn on the cobb. A friend brought a great potato salad with bacon that was crazy good and a huge chocolate cake – the All American Chocolate Cake from Costco. Those are awesome cakes and a little piece goes a very long way.

Steven is better and the virus has run its course.

I think all is well again and we are getting back on track this week.

Hopefully we will have our day at the beach Thursday or Friday.