Holidays

We had a really great Halloween this year.  It's not a holiday that we've celebrated much over the years.  Of course I LOVED Halloween  as a kid back in Chicago but once my family moved to a very rural area of Virginia, the Halloween fun stopped. 

When I got married, Halloween was more inconvenience than fun - trying to keep dogs in and kids out.  Jasper never really enjoyed Halloween.  It was too much commotion for a puppy with issues and he never understood why so many people were showing up at our front door and not one of them was delivering pizza!

When we moved to California we were out in the boonies on a gated property with a long, dark, uphill driveway.  No parent with a brain would have let their kid walk up that driveway especially since the house was buried back in the woods, not even visible from the gate so we just locked our gate each October 31 and ate all the candy ourselves forgot all about Halloween.

We moved to our present house in 2007 and I got all excited about being able to enjoy Halloween again.  We were finally living in town, in a neighborhood with short driveways and SIDEWALKS!  We even had the cutest little front yard with a white picket fence, the perfect setting for a spooky graveyard.  I bought a few decorations and spent October turning my house into the scariest on the block.  Then Halloween night came and we discovered we had a problem because we couldn't keep our porch light on. It's a motion sensor light and kept going off so parents and kids probably weren't sure we were home. I kept opening the front door to turn it back on but we only had 5 kids stop by. So for the next few years, we just gave up on Halloween and tried to be away from home on that night.

This year I was determined to enjoy Halloween once again.  If everything in my life is different this year -some of it because of questionable decisions, some of it out of my control - it became very important to me to have at least one of the differences be something good.


I gave T the task of figuring out how to keep the light on all the time. There were 2 little buttons on the light fixture itself and he figured out what combination to push. He also found the switch in the garage that worked the lights at the end of our driveway.  I'd been looking for that switch for 4 years. :-/

Once the light was fixed, I got busy decorating the yard with all the decorations from 2007.  I had  big plans to buy even more things, tombstones and bones, but all the good stuff was gone by the time the light was fixed so I guess that'll have to wait for next year.



I love the bloody hands!

 


Pooh didn't go with the graveyard theme but he was too cute to pass up.


At first it got dark and nobody stopped by, a little disappointing, but then the kids started coming. I was happy with 10...but they kept coming. I actually stopped counting around 25 but I estimate we ended up with over 40. I wasn't worried about running out of candy but they did go through most of it. We kept the light on till 8:30 but we had our last kids around 8:15. It was so much fun, can't wait for next year; we've got big plans for graveyard expansion.

As much as we enjoyed Halloween, we're not really celebrating the other two big holidays this year.  We don't plan to be home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We don't want to be "home" in Florida either, too many memories of our perfect Christmas there last year.  We're going to be moving targets, on the road both days - off for adventure and a little denial.  I will go celebrate early with my mother but I don't plan on doing anything traditional on December 25.

Happy Howloween!



Trick or Treat!  Got any pizza?



Home Alone

For most of the 25 years of my married life my husband has traveled...a lot.  Because a lot of his traveling has been halfway around the world, he would often be gone for 2 weeks at a time just to maximize his time there.  My mother, projecting her own feelings on me, would often try to commiserate with me over my loneliness but, as I always told her, I was never lonely.

As an introvert I get my energy recharged from being alone so I have to admit that I kind of looked forward to the trips.  I really need to have time by myself or I become exhausted and overwhelmed.  I love being in the house by myself, being in charge of my own schedule, eating whatever and whenever I want.  I like watching sappy movies at night without someone making comments or rolling his eyes whenever someone on screen bursts out into song.  I really am a loner at heart and although I do enjoy being part of a pair, I need my space, man!

Besides, I was never really alone...before.

You see, that's the secret of how to be a loner without turning into a hermit - get a dog.  Whenever T was on one of his trips, I had the best company in the world to keep me from getting lonely.  When I ate junk food, Jasper was there to save me from eating too much.  When I burst into song along with the sappy movie, Jasper was there to howl in sympathy.  When I wanted to run out to the store at 2 in the afternoon just to get out of the house, Jasper was either ready to come along or waiting to joyfully welcome me back home.  Who could be lonely with the perfect companion around?

So, as the time got closer for T to take his first trip since July I wondered how I would do, being really and truly on my own for the first time.  I admit I haven't done so well when T has been gone for day trips the past couple of months so I figured I'd really lose it when the first overnight trip came along.

Surprisingly, I'm 3 days into it and still doing fine.  I really figured I'd spend the whole first day in tears, letting out all the feelings I keep bottled up (as much as possible) when I'm not alone.  I also figured the first night I walked down the hall by myself would be awful and that I'd toss and turn all night but that hasn't been the case at all.  In fact, I think I've slept better this week than I have in 3 months. 

One fun thing about being home alone is that I can leave my shoes wherever I want.  I haven't been able to leave shoes out for 15 years.  Jasper was an excellent retriever and he loved to nose around our bedroom to find things to bring to me.  He especially loved bringing out shoes so they always had to be locked behind a closet door or else I'd end up with a big pile of shoes in the living room.  Actually, come to think of it, this week I'm creating my own pile of shoes in the living room all by myself.  I'd like to think it's an homage to Jasper but I suspect it's just because I'm too lazy to put things away.

Saturday Stuff - Thank you!

Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Saturday.  I'm a little behind but I didn't want to wait till next week to give a big, public thank you to my friend Laura!

A couple of weeks ago I received a little package in the mail from Michigan.  You'll never guess what it was - an apron!  Now I have an official collection, I'm so thrilled.  And this isn't just any apron, it's a PARTY apron! 

Aprons are really hot right now, I've been seeing them in the stores all over town and my favorites are the little half aprons that you would wear if you were having a dinner party in your home.  You know the type, they only cover the bottom half of you and they look too pretty to ever want to spill anything on them.  They're usually frilly and girly and I love them and now I have one of my very own!

It's sheer pale pinky lilac with white rick-rack all around the edges, even around the cute little pocket. It makes me want to throw a dinner party right away.

Laura is a dear friend that I met through our mutual interest in Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She and her husband, Jim, live in Michigan and make the best maple syrup every year.  We were lucky enough to share a dorm suite at Laurapalooza last year and are looking forward to hanging out in Minnesota again next year.  I wish she lived closer, I think we'd have a lot of fun running around town together.

Be sure to read her blog, A Simple Happy Life.  Her dog, Duke, posts on Saturdays and he's had lots of adventures.

Thank you Laura, your sweet gift made my summer.

Saturday Stuff: Chuck It!





I throw like a girl.

 

Actually, that's insulting to girls.

 

I throw badly.  I used to take Jasper out in the backyard and try to throw the tennis ball.  Ever the optimist, he would stand on the far side of the yard and wait for the ball to come hurtling towards him, ready to catch it.  You can only imagine the mixed pity and disgust on his face when I would let go of the ball and it would fall mere inches from my own feet.  No wonder he would head back to the house after only a few attempts.

 

Then I found The Chuck It and it changed everything; it's like having a bionic arm!  Suddenly I could throw and the ball goes FAR.  The first few times it went further than Jasper could anticipate so he had to go running into the trees.  His look of surprise was everything I could have hoped for.

 

Not only did the Chuck It revolutionize our games of fetch, I never had to touch a slimy tennis ball again.  That alone was worth the purchase price.  It's a good value too, we used ours for many years including several fetch sessions just earlier this year.   If you love a dog, you need one of these!

correction

I stand corrected - I do not just have 1 reader, I think I have at least 3 and their names are  Laurie, Laura and Lauri.  And my favorite author is Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Coincidence or not?

I just need to find a Lori and I'll be all set.

New Beginnings

Well hello!  Here it is, September 1st already.  Bet you were wondering where I disappeared in the last half of August, didn't you?  Actually, you probably didn't since I think only 1 person is still reading this blog...hi Laurie!

I had to take a little break from writing because I was having trouble maintaining a sunny outlook.  They say there are 5 stages of grief:

1.  Denial & Isolation
2.  Anger
3.  Bargaining
4.  Depression
5.  Acceptance

I've not really experienced bargaining (what the heck would I bargain for, it's not like the situation is going to change.) but I think I'm going through numbers 1, 2 and 4 simultaneously.  Or at least I bounce from one to the other on any given day.

I've truly never experienced anything like this.  I've never been so sad for so long.  I've lost dogs before and I've lost people that I loved dearly before and yet this experience is knocking all the wind out of my sails like NEVER before.  Not that you'd know if you saw me in person, I'm good at hiding my feelings.  My own mother hasn't even noticed that anything is wrong with me...but maybe that's not the best example. ;-)

It's been almost 2 months now and last week I really believed I was sailing into the harbor of acceptance.  I finally stopped crying every single day and I was starting to look forward to future plans.  I suppose it helped a lot that another situation in our lives looked like it was finally going to change.  This week, however, the situation still hasn't been resolved and I'm slipping back out to sea.

I think I'll stop wallowing, however, and not post about it anymore.  I'm usually a stiff upper lip sort, not the kind to moan to others about my difficulties and I find I'm annoying even myself.  I wouldn't want to do that to my readers Laurie.  September has always been about new beginnings for me and I'm ready to make one.  September is going to be a happy posting month...after today, of course.  It's not like I've been sitting around staring at the walls for the last few weeks.  I've traveled, learned how to make preserves and spent time exploring new places and I've got pictures to share so watch this space!