I did so well holding it together today. Then, just as I pulled into the driveway Roger's favorite song (the Ghostbusters Theme) came on the radio and that was it. I'm curled up on the couch crying my little heart out. A few days of the year I feel like the most awful parent ever and this is one of them. I should be in Michigan, attending their class parties, making them dinner, taking them trick or treating.. but I'm not. I'm in New York, 8 hours away. I would give anything to have spent today with them, but I just couldn't afford to drive there. I miss them so much and it kills me to miss out on parts of their lives. Peter won't take pictures of them in their costumes and he won't have gone to their parties. I guess that's what momma's are for except I'm not there.

To those of you who got to decorate cupcakes or help your babies into their costumes, please know just how blessed you are. I would give anything just to have those simple moments back again.

Ok, now that the aspartame is out of my system (found out that it aggravates and worsens my depression), I actually had a really productive academic day. I got up this morning and :
Posted my discussion question for Self & Self-Esteem
Posted 2 backdated (missed) questions for Self & Self-Esteem
Checked my test score for Self & Self-Esteem (29/30..yay, me!)
Downloaded slides for Close Relationships
Downloaded slides for Biopsychology
Downloaded study guide for Biopsychology's 3rd test (coming next week)
Completed 3 extra credit quizes for Close Relationships
Watched White Christmas and wrote up page 1 of my Close Relationships portfolio
Watched the section of Center Stage needed and wrote up page 2 of my Close Relationships porfolio
Decided on my topic for my Music and Society paper
Looked over my paper assignment and confirmed I had the needed article.

Not bad for one day. I also managed to clean my shower and took a shower. I also went outside 3 times looking for my darn cat that snuck out. Thank goodness I found him. Good day over all as far as getting stuff done. Tomorrow I have 2 classes and then back here..and I have to try not to get too down about missing the boy's Halloween activities. Man, I miss my babies.

I really cannot wait until I'm no longer living here. The fact that my so called friend made up a story about CPS coming to see me was bad enough. This morning, I'm woken up by the sounds of banging and drilling. Turns out that the same guy who in well over a year couldn't fix a doorknob for me or repair the hole he put in my wall has decided to replace both doors on his place. So commences the sounds of demolition right outside my wall and my front door. As if that's not bad enough, they're also tearing out the carpet in their stairwell (we'll see if they do coming down to my door)so the air is full of dust and all sorts of crap. The very stuff that has me sneezing every two seconds. < insert sarcasm >Thanks guys for being good friends, good neighbors and good landlords by letting me know this would be going on today. < /end sarcasm >

I mean seriously..if you're going to disturb everyone, you ought to at least show some consideration and let them know it's going to be happening. Did I mention the doorknob that is still broken?

Wow! I never get tagged or challenged, so this is actually pretty exciting for me. I had a red-eye flight out of Phoenix last night so I'm a little brain fried but let me see what I can come up with.

8 shows I like to watch

1. Murder She Wrote
2. Clean House
3. Law & Order
4. Diners, Drive Ins and Dives
5. How Its Made
6. Survivor
7. Court shows (People's Court, Judge Mathis, etc - people are so funny)
8. Iron Chef America

8 restaurants I like to eat at

1. Ruth's Chris Steak House (fantastic food and memories)
2. BD's Mongolian BBQ
3. Anderson's
4. Subway
5. IHOP (because of my boys)
6. The Olive Garden
7. Pine Ridge Pizza
8. Arby's

8 things that happened today

1. I took a red-eye flight back from Phoenix.
2. A beautiful kiss and promise for the future.
3. A taxi ride back here
4. A nice, long nap
5. Dinner from Pine Ridge Pizza
6. Studying for tomorrow's test
7. Byron mauling me and meowing for constant attention.
8. A lot of daydreaming.

8 things that I am looking forward to

1. Finishing this semester
2. Finishing this degree
3. Moving to Michigan
4. Thanksgiving with one of my yay friends
5. Kloey needing me for another expo (hopefully when I can get away).
6. Being back with my boys.
7. Christmas
8. Special moments with special people

8 things on my wish list...

1. To be thinner
2. to be healthier
3. to have my family together again
4. to get my life totally back under control
5. the Pazzles files from Steph
6. to be able to go to Klo's convention in March
7. a giant amazon gift card
8. For the next 7 months with all their difficulties to fly by

8 peeps I'm tagging..and they'd better do it!
hrmm...this one is tough. The folks I'd usually tag have been tagged..

1. Jim
2. Graham
3. Crafty readers
4. Mommy readers
5. Justin
6. Random readers
7. People who don't read and only look at the pictures
8. People who ignore the pictures and only read the text

Ok, so that's stretching it, but if you do go ahead and consider yourself tagged, please comment so I can see your answers too!

Ok, I confess that I am totally in love with the socks in the photo that I posted yesterday. I am a total lover of warm, fun and funky socks and those in that picture are just mmmmm...i want...

So after coming and drooling over the picture again, I decided to see if I could find out where they came from. For those knitters who read, you might find this a totally fun event to take part in.

It's socktober fest! Yes, a total fest for those who make socks! All you have to do is love socks! I do, but I don't know how to make them. :( Oooh..but if anyone needs a foot model for their fun socks pictures, I volunteer! Send me the socks and I'll wear them for you!

If you'd like any more information, check out Lolly Knitting Around!

These aren't my feet...or my socks, but I sure wish they were! I found this over on My Aim Is True and really just fell in love.

So, what to do when you're sick and curled up on the couch? Scrapbook, of course! So I sat down today and finished my final layouts for Anita. I have never, ever done anything in a landscape layout so this is new for me. On top of that, I made it a 2 page layout!


I love these snowflakes!


I don't know if you can tell from this pic, but the 'o' in snow is a snowflake!


The completed layout!

Now, I just have to get these all envelope'd up and get them sent off to Corinna!

I finally got the time to work and finish the 3rd layout for the lovely Anita. This one is really simple, but I am realllly happy with how it turned out. What do you all think?

Since I started this blog, I'm not sure that I've actually ever posted any layouts. That's probably because I haven't done any serious scrapbooking in about 4 years because of going back to school, my marriage ending and then moving and continuing with school. Well, no more excuses! I decided that the time had come to get back into "the habit" and right at that same time, Corinna came to us girls and told us that she wanted to help make a scrapbook for this lovely woman who is battling cancer. You can read Anita's story over at Corinna's blog. Since I am in school and really rusty at scrapbooking, I only took about 8 pictures to do. Some of the girls are doing way more than me, but it is so very much worth it.

I would love to be able to deliver the album to Anita, but I'm not 100% sure where she lives other than in Ontario. I do live less than an hour from some parts of Ontario, so maybe I will get lucky enough to be able to see her open this.



The pictures aren't great, but I'm hoping that she really enjoys the layouts.

Autumn is seriously my favorite time of the year! I love the crispness to the air, the fact that you can buy honeycrisp apples and the changing of the leaves! It makes me want to start pulling out all those yummy cooler weather recipes. One of them that I will be doing sometime soon is baked squash! I wish I'd remembered to take my regular camera with me the other day, but since I didn't, I had to snap this pic with my phone. Don't they look sooo pretty and autumny? Too pretty to eat, but they'd look so nice as decorations.