Sick Ladybug

Amelia is still under the weather, so she missed her daycare party yesterday, and we didn't take her trick-or-treating tonight. I couldn't resist dressing her up in her ladybug costume, though.

How pitiful is this ladybug?

On top of having a cold, she still has a black eye from falling into a bookcase at daycare.

Anyway, she started smiling a little bit, so we took a rare picture of the three of us.

And check out my first ever jack-o-lantern!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Making lemonade

I'm home this morning with Amelia, who is sick with a sore throat and fever (but her test for strep came back negative, thank goodness). I was planning to be off today anyway, but not for this reason...

Darryl and I have had our house up for sale for almost a year now. This past Sunday, a couple looked at the house, seemed to fall in love with it, and made an offer. They arranged to come by Wednesday to sign a contract on it. I took off today so that Darryl and I could look at houses with a realtor while Amelia was at daycare.

Yesterday, around noon, the daycare called to tell me that Amelia had a fever. I called Darryl to see if he could pick her up, and we agreed that we'd just have to take Amelia with us to look at houses. Then about 30 minutes later, Darryl emailed to say the couple backed out of buying the house. Huge bummer.

We had already told ourselves a million times that the couple could back out, but we were still excited about the possibility of moving to a new house. It was impossible not to be.

Even though we are really bummed out about it, though, I realize this is all for the best. I remember that when we first moved to Atlanta, before I had found a job, we would ride around different neighborhoods, scoping out places we'd want to live once we were a two-income family again. We fell absolutely in love with a particular subdivision, and the lots were selling like hotcakes. I prayed earnestly that I would get a job in time to for us to buy our own lot there, but it didn't happen. After I got a job several months later and we found our current house, we went back to look at that subdivision. More and more houses were popping up there as people were building, and we realized just how crowded that neighborhood was. The houses were practically on top of one another. Some of the houses built first were already showing some signs of wear. We were really grateful that we ended up not buying a house there.

So we're keeping that experience in mind. As we looked at houses in the MLS listings, we didn't find anything that we were absolutely in love with, nothing that we feel like we're really missing out on.

In the meantime, I think I'll just make some lemonade out of my lemons and enjoy my day at home with Amelia. It beats teaching The Sc@rlet Letter any day. :)

(And cross your fingers Amelia is well enough to go to her Halloween party tomorrow at daycare. Because what is cuter than little kids in their Halloween costumes? Um, nothing.)

Happy Birthday, Darryl!!

I just want to wish a happy birthday to Darryl! We love you oodles and oodles!!

(And birthday wishes go out to Tim, too! Have a good one!)

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Yesterday we finally made our trek to the pumpkin patch. Burt's Pumpkin Patch, to be exact. I thought we would go the more low-key route by trying another, lesser-known pumpkin patch that a couple of people had recommended, but when we got to the "low-key" pumpkin patch, we realized it didn't really look like a pumpkin patch at all but rather a produce stand that had some pumpkins. (Seriously, we could have gotten just as good of pictures in front of the pumpkins at Publix.) We decided that we might as well join the masses at Burt's so we could get the must-take pumpkin patch photos.

We arrived at Amelia's naptime, and while she was a little ornery, she was a pretty good sport most of the time, especially when she was in a wheelbarrow. Anyway, here are a few of my faves:

On a mission...

I love this picture of Amelia and Darryl.

I love this pumpkin!

Fun times!!

Too cute! This is her mischievous expression.

I love this pic, too!
(I'm not sure why, but the colors in the photos are not as vibrant once I upload them to the blog.)

Anyway, we had a good time. I love fall!!

Gout and The Sc@rlet Letter--Both cause pain and suffering

I think I'm in a bit of a blogging funk. Is anyone even really reading this anymore? I think that most people have gone the way of Facebook, a fact that makes me a little sad because I miss reading new info on other people's blogs and don't feel very inspired to write much on my own. Instead, I know what people are doing through status updates like, "Just ate a pumpkin muffin. Now going to bed." It just ain't the same as reading a blog.

Anyway, as far as school goes, after the two-week craziness known as Midterm Week (with a wacky schedule) and Homecoming Week (another wacky schedule that also included two half-days), we're finally back to normal at school. All my juniors are reading The Sc@rlet Letter, and Lord, help me...we're only in Day 2 and I want to leave so I can work at McDonald's. I really do see a personal leave day in my near future.

On the home front...Darryl has gout. It's been fun for us both. He's in terrible pain (although yesterday he was feeling better and then even better today), and I've pretty much been his maidservant since Friday. I hate gout.

I'm leaving you with a pic of Amelia that I just downloaded from the camera. (It's from last Monday, my fall holiday that I spent cleaning our house for someone to look at. Of course the person isn't interested, so it was pretty much a wasted effort. I hate selling a house.) Anyway, Amelia enjoyed rummaging in my closet and wearing my shoes. Enjoy!

Weekend with Family

So I mentioned that I was going to be a weekend blogger, and then I skipped last weekend. Oops. But hey, I wrote three separate blog posts tonight!

Life always seems busy, but this time of year seems even busier. School plays, homecoming floats that need teacher supervision, midterms, PSATs. Graduation Writing Tests add to the usual busy-ness of work, and then on the home front, we are entering the time of year filled with birthdays for all three of us, Halloween, pumpkin patch and apple orchard visits, and so forth. I love it, though. :)

Anyway, this weekend was a holiday weekend for me, so the three of us went to Florida to see our family. We just hung out, ate good food, watched football (it was not a good football weekend for Darryl and me), and so forth. Late Saturday afternoon, my dad and I took Amelia to a local park to meet up with Darryl's sister, Ashley, and my two nieces, Madison and Avery. Here are a few cute pics:


The pic below of Amelia and Avery makes me laugh. Love the facial expressions!

Madison gets ready to slide...

Amelia also loved the little merry-go-round. (I thought about cropping this pic, but I like it the way it is.)

We even fed some little goats.


We had lots of fun!!

A Fall Afternoon

These were taken a couple of weeks ago on a crisp fall afternoon. Darryl was grilling steaks, and Amelia and I kept him company on the back patio. I snapped a few pics of Amelia because...well, just because.

A little Fall, y'all

I love fall. It is my favorite time of year by far. Here are a few things I love...


My little snack mix of candy corn and dry roasted peanuts--an awesome combination of salty and sweet.


My fall wreath on the door. (I'm not a big wreath person, but I do put one out for fall and Christmas.)


My little yellow mum hanging by the entry way.


My Pumpkin Pie Yankee Candle.

All I need is a Starbuck Caramel Apple Spice and a Paula Deen pumkin gooey cake...