BOO

Did I scare you? Let me start by showing you dinner last night. I got this recipe from Abby at a Feathered Nest. Click HERE to read it.

One word people....YUM

And so stinkin' cute! Adrian made me take a picture to prove that I really cooked our dinner in a pumpkin. He says he would not have believed it.

He was trying to call me a liar, I guess.

WHAT. EVAH. Cause I know I baked it in a pumpkin.And now the spooks. Or should I say the Book Characters. Heaven forbid the kids actually celebrate Halloween at school. SHEESH.

First we have Nancy Drew sleuthing her way. Note the magnifying glass. Don't look to close Nancy, you will see evidence of poor housekeeping!Next up is a delightful little girl names Sophie Kringle. She is the main character in a book called Auntie Claus. I snagged the dress off of EBAY last week. Just in time. WHEW!Here is a picture of Molly holding her book with a pic of Sophie Kringle. Spitting image, dontcha think? This is the year we are going to win. Right?And using the Skeleton Key her dad made her this morning. In the book it opens the elevator that shoots up into the sky ala Willy Wonka to take you to the North Pole.

a lot happened today and giveaway winner announced!!!

I have so much to tell all of you! Really, I do. Let me start with this...

On this day, 37 years ago, my mother-in-law gave birth to her smartest, funniest, best looking child.

Just kidding, Gretchen, I know that really describes you!

Today is the birthday of my sweet husband. We had a party for him. The kids hung streamers and balloons and I made him his special birthday dinner. Wait until you hear what he asked for.

Have I mentioned how much I love this man?

Let me preface this by telling you that most years for Father's Day and his birthday I make a long involved meal. Something he loves that I never make because it is a huge hassle.But not this year!


He asked for.....




You are all going to be jealous.....




Here it comes.......



Frozen pizza.




I know, he does rock. He wanted a frozen Pizzeria Uno sausage pizza.


NO PROBLEM!



******************************************************

Part 2 of my many things to tell you.....

One year ago today Harrison had to have an emergency appendectomy. I blogged about it HERE. It was a harrowing week last year at this time. Needless to say Adrian didn't get ANY birthday dinner last year. We stayed at the hospital all week.

Good times!
*******************************************************


NOW there is the little matter of the book giveaway....


I put all the names in a very festive orange bucket and let the birthday boy pick one out. And I took a picture. Good thing, because as soon as he picked one out he threw it back in and said take another picture.

What a funny guy. We let him get away with it since it is his birthday.

I would show you the picture, but my camera died trying to take that last picture, so I have my battery in the charger.

I guess


I will



just tell



you that



it was







The Accidental Housewife!


SO email me at cnhale(at)gmail(dot)com with your address and if you want Jan to sign the book in any special way.

I haven't actually seen Jan since I decided to give her book away in my first ever giveaway. She did not come in on Monday while I was at the library. I may have to call her and go to her house tomorrow after work.

I hope she is excited.

My husband asked me where the accidental housewife lives and I told him she is from Montana. Now he can't stop singing that Marie Osmond song, Meet Me In Montana.


Great, just great, and it is his birthday so I can't complain.

When Pigs Fly

This is a sticky note. It will stay at the top of my blog until next Tuesday. The new posts are below... Jan Shinpaugh lives here in my little town. She comes into the library most Mondays and returns about a dozen mysteries and then checks out a dozen more. This is here first book. I will admit that I have not read it yet. I am planning on buying two copies this week.

One for me.



And one for you. Yes, I am looking right at YOU. I have decided what to do for my big blogiversary giveaway. And yes, I am late. That is one of the traditional ways that I celebrate.

I am going to give away Jan's book. I may even get her to sign it, if that is what the winner wants.

Here is the synopsis from Amazon:

Join Jan and her family as they head to the top of Tennessee’s Cumberland
Plateau for the annual homecoming at the church and cemetery, and try to
discover if Cousin Theodore really does have God locked in his moonshine closet.
Get in line as Cousin Theodore, now a born-again Christian, dispels advice and
little jars of blessed moonshine to visitors who’ve come to see God. And help
the family solve the mystery behind the disappearing items in Cousin Sam and
Cousin Joe’s country store. Join in the humor and fun as Jan and the family
attend the gospel singing and foot-washing ceremony. And generally, have an
all-around good time.

So as you can see, Jan reads mysteries but writes comedies. She told me she is working on two more books. In one of them a woman believes that her bull is a reincarnation of Elvis.

I know, it makes me giggle, too. These books are set in my area, and I'm afraid that makes it even funnier to me. I like to laugh at the locals.

Stop it, I am not a local, I have only lived here for 11 1/2 years. That is hardly enough time to have even become fluent in the local vernacular. Which I am not fluent in. Because I have to learn teen vernacular, also. Learning two languages at once is too much!

So go ahead and comment and tell me about your favorite books. I am dying to read them. Really.

And if you mention this giveaway on your blog, of course you get entered twice!

C'mon, even if you are not a reader, I bet you know someone that is, and Jan's book would make an excellent gift. Remember, I am going to beg her to write a little something inside for the recipient. So you could have it inscribed to Great Aunt Myrtle or Cousin Ezekiel.

Oh, People outside of Tennessee don't have relatives with names like those?

You have until Tuesday October 21 at 9:00 pm central time.

And then Wednesday is Adrian's birthday, so maybe I will have to give away something for that.

Like a chicken!


Oooohhhh, I almost forgot. If you leave a comment and you click up there on the right corner of my blog and become a "follower" that will buy you another entry. If you already are a follower I will enter you a second time if you leave a comment.

Did that make any sense at all?

All they do is camp

What is up with my husband and sons? They act like a bunch of Boy Scouts. Every month it is the same thing.

CAMP

CAMP

CAMP

It must be a terrible burden! Look at how unhappy Harrison is.... And William....
And to make the utter desolation of emotion complete(What did I just say?!?) They went and played laser tag the next morning.

For two hours!

My poor pitiful boys.

amazing....

I found the most amazing site. Look at how cool these are!







You can get anything you want. Your name, a saying, your family name. I see the first thing I am going to put on my Christmas list!

Quilt giveaway

Head over to Pigtails and Snails for an amazing quilt giveaway!

Barrel Full o' Monkeys

At the library I meet lots of different people. There is one fellow that comes in that I really like. He is a tattoo artist.

Yup. He is covered in tattoos. Yet he somehow does not have a creepy factor.

Go figure.

So he came in last week, looked something up on the Internet and then printed off 2 pages.

They were pictures of a barrel full o' monkeys and a close-up of a monkey. The plastic toy kind. Remember them from when you were a kid? But here is the kicker. He said he was printing them off because someone wanted a barrel full 'o monkeys tattoo.


And the tattoo artist guy thought it was a stupid tattoo.

He is covered with seemingly stupid tattoos, but thinks the barrel full o' monkeys is stupid.

That cracked me up.

Now, I am NOT a tattoo advocate but it seemed ironic to me that a man covered with tattoo would judge anothers tattoo. It may have been very sentimental or appropriate to the monkey person.

On the other hand how stupid would you think your tattoo was if the tattoo guy was making fun of it?

Rain

It is raining.



RAINING




I think June was the last time we had any rain of significance.

I'M Watching the VP debate right now.

****Edit**** I wrote this last night while I was watching the debate but my battery died and I was too exhausted to move my body to get the cord, so I am posting this morning. None of this drivel really makes any sense, but it makes me go to the happy spot where I have beautiful hair. Please comment and tell me who you think you are voting for or what you thought of the debate. Most of you probably have much more constructive thought than I do.

Did I mention that a was distracted by Sarah's hair?

I will get ugly comments from people if the first thing that I mention is Sarah's hair.



But Dang, Heather, will my hair do that? Will you stop by and put it up for me everyday?





Adrian does not think that there has been a clear winner so far. Since everyone thought Sarah was going to tank it, that seems pretty good to me.





I do not understand some of the rules of this thing. Joe Biden calls John McCain " John" but calls Sarah Palin "Governor Palin" It kinda bugs me.



Did you hear Joe Biden say marriage when talking about gay couples? He called it a marriage and then said that he Does Not support Gay marriage.



Umm, I think you do.



I want to make more comments, but I am so dizzy and distracted by that fabulous hair.



I went to a Time Out For Women in Nashville several years ago and there was a lady there who works for the government. She was in Afghanistan working with the women. She told so many wonderful stories of the improvement in their lives since the US invaded and took out the Taliban. It was so great. I think we need to increase the troops there.



And then there is that little annoyance called Osama Bin Laden.



I love how she just said that she is a Washington outsider and how politicians support something until they don't.



I agree, I think John McCain does know how to win a war.



Did you know that something like 50 Delawares would fit in Alaska. Or maybe it is 500. I don't remember.

A little assistance, please

Hello peeps...

Could you help me out please? See that little place to the right that says come follow me? Yeah, that's it. Please click on it and choose to follow me. See, I have a plan. I would like to rid my blog of that terribly long blog roll down the side. I can fit all of you in a very smallish spot.

It won't hurt.

Or cost you a dime.


Puhleeese. Help a sister out. It is like spring cleaning. I want to gussy the place up a little. Oh, and Jennifer R. my friend who lives in Washington and who went to HKIS with me.

LEAVE A COMMENT GIRLFRIEND!!! you have been lurking for a year now! :)

Just so everyone knows I am following all of you that are there on my blog roll, so if you add following to your site, I will automatically be sitting there. Waiting. Like an obedient puppy that loves you no matter what.

MMMMM... I smell the meatloaf in the oven. Dinner, my favorite! (right after lunch and breakfast and second breakfast and fourth meal...)

October 6 is my anniversary

Okay, not really my anniversary but my blogiversary. So I need a really great contest/giveaway.

Something that screams Cynthia.

Books?

Aprons?

Kittens?

Dessert?


Give me some ideas. What kind of giveaway reminds you of me?