Wordful Wednesday – Halloween

I know, I know, I’m late. But, just like Angie, I can’t upload pics fast enough!

If you’ve been reading, you’ll know that we have been planning a birthday party for Beans on Halloween. It was the first Halloween Party ANY of our family members have ever thrown and it was a doozy! It wasn’t as I expected, but hey, those Halloween decorations could add up!

I wanted to decorate my parents’ house with one room all pumpkin-patchy like and another more dark and haunted, but, kids…I didn’t want to scare the kids too much NOR could we afford to go all out with decorations.

Anyway, decorated to the nines or not, it was a success! Exhausting, but successful nonetheless We had BEAUTIFUL 70 degree weather during the day and the rain held off for the most part until night. We had kiddies/adults dressed as the White Ninja (Strom Shadow from GI Joe), Cats, Wondergirls, Groovy 60s girl, Simba, Pumpkins, Fairies, Batman, Pregnant Nun, Priest, Dead guy, Superwoman, Tinkerbell, Snow White, a Knight, Pocahantas/Native Americans, etc…I’m not going to post all their pics on Flickr b/c I didn’t ask their permission. Trust me though, it was awesome and fun to see almost everyone in costume.

The following are pictures from Halloween…aka Beans’ 4th Birthday Costume Party…aka Pumpkin Picking Just like Angie said, better late than never (To see more participants for Wordful Wednesday, check out Angie’s blog).
Beans was Cinderella and would be a Diva w/a costume change later on.

Razz was Minnie Mouse.

pDaddy was a Clone Trooper while I was a Pirate, Wench or “Deck Hand Darling” (as the costume description said).

Here are the 3 of us – minus Razz because she decided she didn’t care too much about the party and wanted to nap for 3 hours instead!

Cake was made by my MUM especially for Beans. Cinderella and a Pirate theme all-in-one – talk about custom made.

Here’s a pic of Me & Little Me after her costume change My eyes are closed, but it’s the only picture of the 2 of us in our matching attire. It was around 8pm already. Her party started at 1pm and she had NO nap.

We didn’t get pictures of the goodie bags, but we did them like Razz’ – brown paper lunch bags w/die-cuts on them. This time, instead of apples, we had die-cuts of pumpkins, ghosts and skulls.

To see a few more – check out my Halloween 2009 set over @ Flickr.

Eleven-Eleven

Today is Veterans Day. We should all take a moment in our day to thank and pray for our troops out there fighting for our Freedom and those who have fought for our freedom.

It’s sad to say, that sometimes, when they come back from the War, they have not much to start with, are disabled, etc. Can you imagine coming back “home” with no one or nothing to care for you? Where your hospital and regular bills just pile up b/c the government is trying to find money to pay you?

I always get calls soliciting for donations whether it be to support some organziation dealing with cancer, the police, the firefighters and of course veterans. A few weeks ago, I posted about these solicitors and I was a bit on the angry side of things. I just don’t like getting calls starting at 8am all the way until almost 9pm. Send me something in the mail, you’ll have higher chances of me donating instead of calling me everyday.

Thanks to Miss Zoot, I am donating online to Eleven-Eleven.org. All they ask is that you donate $11. If you can’t, just pass it along so others may…Let’s support our brave men and women who have given, and are giving, so much to protect our right of Freedom!

NaBloPo-WHAT?

Well, I guess I totally fell off the wagon and can no longer participate in NaBloPoMo. This is the second time I’ve tried it (in November) and with the same result. I was able to accomplish this back in July/August though.

This time of the year is just WAY too crazy with work being nutso. This? This is insane, but a glimpse of what my work hours have been like, give or take a few hours:

Yes, my time wasn’t even complete as of Friday when I already put in 62 hours. That week, I totalled 68. ONE week = 68 hours. Damn I wish I got paid OT. That would make my Target runs much more fun.

Speaking of Target. I am banning myself from there. I’ve been there 3x in the past week and didn’t leave without spending less than $120 each time – sometimes WAY more than that, but that’s a story for another day. Just know that Target has been bumped up to the #1 spot of my LOVE/HATE relationships.

But I digress…

Where was I? Oh yes, work, shopping, birthdays, parties, Halloween, TKD and cleaning – yes, hardcore cleaning/organizing – has been consuming my time and therefore, lack of blogs, picture uploads and visiting others’ blogs. Work is showing some signs of slowing down, so I hope I can get back in the swing of things. However, I’m still on a cleaning rampage (yes, it is/was thaaaaaaaat bad). I actually took some BEFORE shots of the mess and will definitely take some AFTER shots, though I don’t know how I feel about sharing the mess and our slovenly ways of yesterdays…teehee…

Sick Day

Called out sick today…now, what to do, what to do? I should rest and fully recover already. Being sick for over 3 weeks sucks, but it’s hard to rest when I’m watching these 2 girls all day AND I have loads of laundry and lots of cleaning to do. Where do I begin?

I think I’ll start w/putting my Avon orders together to clear up a box I can use for storage and take it from there…Hopefully, I get a nap in today while the girls nap too. Hey, one can hope.

BornDay…Seeing ORANGE!

I should have titled this “Beans’ Birthday-day Wrap-Up…lol…

More pics from Beans’ Birthday Dinner @ home…We always have a get together with the fam on our real birthdays and, maybe, a bigger birthday party too w/more friends and the rest of the fam.

Her FAVE present - Handy Manny “Puh-Pair” shop from Lolo & Mum. We got her a camera (so she stops trying to use ours!):

Pics of Mama & Papa’s presents came out blurry, but she loved her clothes too! And here she is being silly w/her card from them – eye all peeking out :

Ever since Beans was born 4 years ago – 3 days before my birthday – my birthday has been put on the back burner. I knew that was going to happen when I was initially told her due date was my birthday. I’ve gotten used to it and actually don’t mind it. I don’t really need a reminder to tell me I’m getting older! I’m happy w/the birthday greets from family/friends via email, phone, text message and even FB. Friends keep telling me we should go out to celebrate anyway and I would love to, if my birthday didn’t fall during the busiest sesason of our work year and I wasn’t so exhausted or sick!

So anyway, for my bday, I was surprised to still score a few presents. One of the best presents? Beans passed her TKD test and got her ORANGE belt! So proud of my little bugger This time, she had to break the board using her arm/elbow (I forgot what that “punch” was called). For her yellow belt, she had to break the board w/a “hammer” punch using her fist.

Here she is w/that elbow/arm punch breaking the board! Took her a couple of tries, but she did it

My little TKD superstar

How terrible that this is the only pic of me on my bday – so haggard looking…That would be the direct result of working and running around doing errands for Beans’ Halloween Bday Party.

The rest of my birthday was spent @ my parents’ house decorating and prepping for Beans’ Birthday Party with the help of my siblings, nieces and nephews…Halloween was extra exhausting this year! That entry, coming up tomorrow, I hope.