Happy Halloween!

I have a confession to make. I had a caramel apple for breakfast.

And a caramel apple rolled in pecans for lunch. It feels good to get that off my chest.

So this week kinda got away from me. As of yesterday, I still hadn't made caramel apples or carved our pumpkin. Chris worked late a couple of nights, so I kept putting things off. We had Randy and Danielle over last night to make caramel apples. Caramel apple making is pretty intense, so we didn't think to take any pictures of the process.

Clara and I carved our pumpkin this afternoon. Clara supervised because she was a weenie about the pumpkin goop. This was her reaction when I got the top cut out and asked her to pick it up only to discover that it had goo all haging down, ready to attack and eat her whole.



Oh no, the goo is gonna get her! And to answer your question, no, I never tried to touch her with it. I do have a soul.

She wasn't real happy, but finally obliged to take a picture with the pumpkin and me.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

Aaaaaargh!

This morning, our playgroup went to an assisted living facility to show off their costumes to the residents there. The kids had lots of fun and got lots of candy and I think the residents really enjoyed all the cute kiddos. Here was our feeble attempt to get a group shot of all the kids. I think all that's missing is the kangaroo and another pirate.

We all headed to the park around the corner to play afterwards and I took advantage of a costumed Clara with a field to run around in to get a few pictures. That and I had a bag full of candy in the car to bribe her with. She did much better this year than last.

Perfect Spot

Clara found the most perfect spot to adhere her Kroger sticker. I enjoyed a good five minutes of silence.

Shelfari

You may notice the new addition to my blog. I used to loooove to read. I read all the time growing up. We were part of a Disney book of the month club for many years and also had the Sweet Pickles set which was awesome. I enjoyed Bernstein Bear books and had quite a few of them as well. We were never lacking in the book department. I love, love, LOVED it when the Scholastic book fair came to our school and I got to pick my books.

When I got a little older, I got into R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. (That was before R.L. Stine wrote that lame Goosebumps series. Well, I think it's lame; I probably would've eaten it up if I'd been younger.) I liked most any young adult book with suspense and breezed right through them. When we would go to the mall in Odessa, my favorite store was the bookstore. We didn't have a bookstore in Pecos, so it was a pretty big deal to walk into a store filled with lots of shiny new books. Although I loved to read, I wholeheartedly rebelled in school when I was told to read a book for English class. Cliff Notes all the way, baby. I take that back; I did read (and enjoy) a couple of required readings. I do remember enjoying The Great Gatsby and Crime and Punishment. I don't recall Wuthering Heights being too terrible either, but I could be wrong.

I've had headaches for as long as I can remember and reading and headaches don't mix too well, so I've experienced looong periods of drought over the years when it comes to reading. The last book I read was in the spring of 2007. Before that.....I couldn't even tell you. I finally got on a reading kick back in August. I read 6 books in a month's time and it felt really good. I was actually browsing for grown up books in the library if you can believe it. I had never even ventured out of the children's corner prior to that. I stopped reading again while I was traveling in September, but am trying to get back into it.

Now that no one is forcing me, I enjoy going back and reading the classics. I also don't want to get into a rut where I only read one type of book, so I plan on branching out a bit. Maybe throw some history into the mix. Perhaps a book on childcare. Who knows. Any suggestions of a good read would be welcome at anytime.

Must.....Write.....Something.....

So, I decided I should write a little something since I've received emails and phone calls asking what my deal is and why have I not blogged. Prepare for utter randomness.

- I forgot to mention that Chris went to Rio de Janeiro for a week for work at the end of September. He enjoyed himself, and I was glad to have him back. Especially since I started getting sick the day before he returned, which was the day Clara started feeling better.

- Chris has been sick on and off for over a week now. He'll wake up feeling good enough to go to work but then ends up coming home early because he's so miserable. He's missed 3 days of work now, including today. He's sure it's almost over.

-I've been getting headaches fairly frequently. Last Wednesday, I had a terrible headache and around 5:00, I started feeling sick to my stomach. I ran to get in bed which relieved the nausea somewhat, but I was in so much pain I wanted to cry. I didn't though because crying makes my head hurt and all I needed was more head pain at that point. I was able to get to sleep and only had a dull headache when I woke a couple hours later. I'm guessing I have migraines, but who knows. I've always had headaches, but it wasn't until after I gave birth that I experienced the nausea and sensitivity to light.

- We had a Halloween party last Thursday for our Young Wives group from church. It was lots of fun; our hostesses put so much work into making it a wonderful party. We had a great turnout, everyone dressed up and we played a really fun game. I went as Mrs. Incredible but forgot my camera, so no pictures.

- We had family pictures made on Friday, so that's one more thing checked off my to do list. We got to see a sneak peek and they turned out so good! I can't wait to see the rest of them.

- After church on Sunday, we had lunch at Fuddruckers with other families of preschoolers and then we went as a group to the firestation to drop off some of the stuffed animals that the kids donated at VBS. We got a tour of the station and the kids got to squirt the hose and sit in a truck and drive. Clara loved it and all of the guys at the station were so nice to all the kids.




- I tried with all of my might to make Clara a panda costume for Halloween. We stopped at the costume store today and she's going to be a pirate instead.

- We're phasing out naptime here at the Judd house. Boo hoo :( It's just becoming harder and harder to get Clara down at nap and bedtime. She's just not tired and it's a battle that I'm done fighting. She obviously doesn't need the nap anymore. At least not every day. I think I was holding onto it more for myself and my nap. She's stayed up til about 10:00 on more than one night and hasn't gone into meltdown, and then falls right to sleep without a fight. She's also been sleeping a little later in the mornings, so I think the no nap is going to work great. For her at least.

- We're hosting a small group from church at our house this fall and it's going well. I love that my downstairs is completely clean for at least one day each week.

- We played the Cootie game tonight and Clara won.

Just a Quick Funny

This afternoon, Clara came downstairs for the bazillionth time with some excuse for not going to sleep. This particular time she said she needed a new pull-up because she had pooped in hers. I told her to go tell her Daddy, who was on the other couch.

About that time, Max walks past her and pauses to give her behind a little sniff. Clara whips around real fast, wags her finger at him and says "Nuh-uh. Dat's MY poop!"

Date Night

Chris and I had a date night tonight courtesy of the church. We were able to drop Clara off at church and enjoy an evening out on the town. We decided to hit a movie theater nearby that shows second run movies.

We saw Hancock because it was the only movie that fit our time constraints since we needed to pick Clara up by 9:00. It cost only $1.50 per person; gotta love that. The snacks were comprable in price to regular theaters, but I didn't mind so much since I didn't just pay $8 bucks or more to get in. Also, no previews! I love this place. That and the guy that got our popcorn actually made conversation with us and was pleasant and professional! It just made my day.

The movie didn't get very good reviews, so I wasn't expecting much going in. I ended up really liking it though. There was quite a bit of swearing in the beginning, but I thought the story was good. Plus, I'm a big Will Smith fan. There's not much he's done that I don't like.

Clara had a blast playing with all of her friends tonight, but she's gone to bed late two nights in a row now and has been a bear both nights. She just came out crying for her pumpkin, so I let her take her mini pumpkin to bed with her. I've resorted to letting my child sleep with a gourd so I don't have to listen to her. I'm officially ashamed of myself.

Exotic Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch this morning and had a wonderful time. I found a different place this year and wasn't sure what to expect, but it was great! They only charged $3 per kid and parents got in free. It's at an exotic animal farm, so there was a baby kangaroo hopping around, kids running right behind it. There were llamas you could walk right up to as well as ponies. The llamas were a little skittish because of all the people though, so we weren't able to get close enough to pet them. I saw a group of kids chasing a group of goats through a field, too.

There was also a pen with a baby pig and a kind of baby deer. The rest of their exotic animals were not available to look at during October, but they have sloths, a tiger, lemurs, a hyena and lots of other various animals.

The owners and workers were all so nice and friendly and one guy kind of walked us around a bit telling us all about the place. They did face painting for $3, pumpkin painting was $1, and all of the pumpkins had prices written on them, so you didn't have to guess how much it might be. Kids got to take home a free mini pumkin as well.

Clara wasn't at all interested in the pumpkins though, which makes for poor pumpkin patch photos. She threw a fit everytime I asked her to go stand by the big pumpkins. I was able to convince her to play leap frog over the pumpkins and she liked the little ones, so she ended up just picking out a small one to take home.

"Manastics"

Leah had a free pass to gymnastics for a friend, so we went and did "manastics" last night with her. It was an hour of free play and Clara had a blast. I didn't get any pics, but I'm sure I can swipe one or two from Becky and eventually get them up here.

She hung from the high bar and dropped down into the foam pit, she did the bear crawl on the parallel bars, and Leah taught her some uneven bar techniques. At the end everyone played with the huge parachute. At one point, the adults were supposed to take over and the kids would run underneath. Well, Clara didn't let go of the parachute and when all of the adults lifted, she went right up with it. She was a good two to three feet off the ground! It was awesome!

Leah was very excited about Clara coming with her because between being out of town and being sick this last month, they haven't gotten to play with each other much. She called Clara several times this week, first to invite her and then to make sure she was still coming. We've just put them both on speaker phone and let 'em talk away. It's pretty funny to listen to.

After gymnastics, we had some mexican food and hung out for awhile at Glenn and Becky's, getting in some good conversation and of course a little Rock Band II.

Hmmmm

Pretty sure I'm not the one that taught her to spy on the neighbors in her underwear.

New 'Do

I tried to take a picture of Clara's new haircut a little while ago, but she wasn't interested in posing for pictures.

I mean she really, really wasn't interested. That pout is impressive to say the least.

More Pictures

Linsey got to go home today finally and she posted a few more pictures of little Brody on her blog, so go check them out! Sorry I haven't blogged much. Clara's been sick for two weeks now and then I woke up with a itchy, sore throat and runny nose today. Ughh. I didn't think it through before I took a benadryl this morning and ended up sacked out on the couch until 1:00 while Clara watched tv.

Last night was the first night she hasn't woken up coughing for an hour straight, so hopefully we're on the tail end of this thing.