Happenings

I went to see the Yarn Harlot speak a few weeks ago. First, she didn't sound like I had imagined her in my head, haha. I think I had a heard a brief recording of her in the past but forgot that recorded voices don't always match reality. Second, she was absolutely hysterical. And it was truly lovely to hang out with a bunch of people, knitting in public. I am a solitary knitter. I join knitting groups online, but I don't go out and knit with them. It's not because I am ashamed of knitting, really, I am just a solitary person.

Something I feel bad about, because I feel like I've made my family pretty solitary too :( I'm now trying to push my teenage daughter to go out and have fun, be with people. I told her today that she needed to start planning for Halloween with her friends because Mom & Dad aren't being dragged along now that she's in high school. Even if I do loooove Halloween. But I can't punish my kiddo by making her spend time with her parents anymore, lol. Or at least not until she deserves it.

Instead, I am going to support my love of Halloween by decorating the house to the max and becoming known as "that Crazy Family that Lives Across the Street."

We have two Halloween wreathes, both featuring skulls. This one was on the door, He's called Joe. The rest of him is actually now part of Steve. He's been moved to the window, with a flock of bats and a spooky red eyed owl.

This one is now on the door instead. He's Steve. Because we rebuilt him. We had the technology, or at least a lot of glue sticks.
Sadly, my daughter doesn't understand the joke.

I have a witch silhouette on my sliding glass door, she's feeding a bone to a vulture. Another window has my ravens and black cat stalking each other.

Isabel has decorated her room with some old window clings we had stashed away too, as well as a lighted jack-o-lantern.

We're getting there. Not quite totally crazy yet, but closer :D

Could've sworn...

That I'd posted more recently. Oops.

Let's see, what's happened since last September...

It's been a year since the big flood, people are recovering.

The kiddo started high school last month. I feel old.

We've moved. Just down the street really, but a pain in the arse anyway. But I like it here, we have tons of windows, which means we have a lot of natural light. And the neighborhood rules aren't nearly as strict. Plus, the week we moved in, they had a neighborhood BBQ with food from one of my favorite restaurants, yum. We have a wee little yard too, mostly rock with some shrubbery. And the evergreen tree in the yard already has Christmas lights on it, thanks to the previous tenants, haha.

Still working the same job, and it feels more dead end every day, even though I actually like my job. I just can't see myself there for too much longer. Now that the husband is settled in a decent job, I think I need to start looking.

Oh yeah, G's "temp" job turned into a full time "real" job, after 7 months of working there. And they encourage him to work over time, rather than yell (like my employer does). He worked 30 hours of OT one week, while the kiddo and I went to visit my mom in Iowa.

It was unseasonably cool in Iowa in August. Thank goodness. But I was sad that I didn't get homegrown tomatoes with every meal, haha.

And speaking of tomatoes, next summer I am going to grow them on our deck. We get much more sun on the deck than we did at the old place, and I think they will do well. I didn't get any flowers or plants of any sort this year, it seemed like just one more thing to move in June. Oh wait, I lie. I got two little geraniums to go in the pots that hold my old geraniums and fill things out a bit. But they live indoors, not on the deck.

Now that things are a bit more settled it's time to start checking a few things off my wish list. I want to go big for Halloween. Because I love Halloween. And we have sooo many windows. The old witch silhouette will go in the sliding glass door like last year, but I think the front windows are going to be cats and bats. Maybe a smaller witch in the side windows, for the people across the way. They're cheap enough. I want a black wreath for the door, or maybe I can find some more fake bones and actually make a wreath out of them this time. Like this:

Nothing too expensive, since the one thing on my wishlist that I really, really want is a new mattress! Soon, hopefully.

Anyhoo. I need to go nag the kiddo into the shower (and in 20 minutes I will have to nag her to get out, haha).