when all through the house and back Not a creature was stirring, or a rat on a rubber sack; The Jack-o-lanterns were sitting on the porch with care, In hopes that the Great Pumpkin soon would be there;
The little kids were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions witches flew in their heads; And lil' sister in mother's 'kerchief, and me in my cap, Had just settled down for a long midnight's nap,
When out on the street there arose such a racket, I sprang from the bed and put on my warm jacket. Away to the window I flew like the Flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen leaves Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my eyes should see and what came, But a thin man with a cape and a strange name,
With a lively smile, if not so full of sin, I knew in a moment it must be Great Pumpkin. More rapid than eagles his comrades they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
"Come, Vampire! Come, Werewolf! Mummy, and Creeper! Frankenstein! Scarecrow dude! Zombie and Grim Reaper! To the top of the house! To the top of the roof! Let us hurry! And pray that my suit is fireproof"
The dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an old rope, mount to the sky, So up to the housetop the monsters they climbed, With a bag full of treats, as the midnight clock chimed.
And then, in a thud, I heard on the roof The shuffling of each heavy foot- then poof! As I drew in my hand, and was turning around, Down the chimney Great Pumpkin came with a bound.
He was dressed all in black, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; As I wipe away the dust from my face, He got up gracefully from the fireplace.
His eyes -- how they twinkled! His eyes, how scary! His cheeks were like oranges, his nose like a berry! His pointy big mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the pumpkin head is hollow;
He was thin and lanky, a mysterious creature, And I screamed when I saw him, at his ghastly feature; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread;
He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the bags with the treats; what a jerk! And opened his mouth and whispered "Adieu", And giving a nod, up the chimney he flew;
He sprang up his arms, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew away, away in a hustle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he flew out of sight, "Happy Halloween to all, and to all a good night!"
I am up to my eyeballs in work and Halloween PARTY stuff. I miss you! Be back soon! xoxo
THE MONSTER WHO WAS MISUNDERSTOOD This is a tale of poor old Frank -- Frank the monster, not Tom, Rich, or Hank. He was created by a scientist in a great house. A house on a mountain, much too big for a mouse. There in the basement, the docter toiled night and day, with the help of his friend Igor, who had little to say. Finally when all was assembled like a bike, a bolt of lightning gave dear Frank his new life. He sat up from the table where he laid for months, scratched his square head, and said "I'm ready for lunch!" He crashed through the door, and went into town, where he arrived at the diner and tried to sit down. But everyone screamed , and left their plates hot. Even the cooks ran away without their prized pots. So Frank could have nothing to quell his belly's rumble, not a burger, or fries, or even Apple Pie Crumble. He was almost in tears, and very, very sad, and walked into the streets where everyone went mad, and screamed in horror at Frank's sight. No one had seen such a thing in their life. Frank tried to explain, "I'm just hungry, that's all. I mean you no harm, even though I am tall." A little girl saw him where she sat on the corner, and thought, he's not so scary, infact he might be an orphan. So she walked up to Frank and tugged at his sleeve, and said, "My name is Cinthia, Cindy if you please." He said, "I'm just a little hungry, and don't know where I am." "That's O.K.," Cindy answered, and pulled out some ham-- ham for a sandwich she was waiting to make, and she pulled out two slices of bread freshly baked. They sat on the corner to a half sandwich each, both happy, and smiling as a sunny day peach.
What do you say? When you read a blog like this, what do you say? Do you think about your consumer driven lifestyle? The Groom's Cake ice cream you and your daughters had for desert last night? The fact that you were laying on your couch watching The Big Bang Theory AND shopping on ebay for macbooks after you ate that ice cream? It makes my insides scream. It makes me want to forsake everything that I am and start over because there are children out there who are DYING because their parents can't feed them. And I don't help. Nope... I sit in my ten by ten office and shuffle paperwork while I listen to music and occasionally blog. I don't contribute to saving lives like the amazing people who work at these places where almost dead children are brought in. These are BABIES. Babies that die every day because there isn't enough food. How is that okay? How is that acceptable? I can't get my head around it. I don't have the words.
Standing on a bus stop Feeling your head pop Out in the night On the kind of night Where you want to be out On the street, on the street Crawling up the walls Like a cat in heat
And the air is thin And it blows through your skin And you feel like something Is about to begin But you don't know what And you don't know when So you tear at your hair And you scratch at your skin [best lines in a song]
You wanna run away, run away Just get on the fucking train and leave today And it doesn't matter where you spend the night You just might end up somewhere in a fight, in a fight Or caught in your room on a concrete shelf Fighting all alone, with yourself, with yourself And you just wanna feel like a coin that's been tossed In a wishing well, a wishing well A wishing well, a wishing well Well, you're tossed in the air And you fell and you fell Through the dark blue waters Where you cast your spell Like you were just a wish that could turn out well
So you stand on the corner Where the angels sit And you think to yourself, "This is it, this is it, This is all that I have All I can stand Is this air in my lungs And this coin in my hand That you tossed in the air And I fell, and I fell All the way to the bottom Of the well, of the well Like those soft little secrets That you tell, that you tell To yourself, when you think No one's listening to, well"
And the walls spin And you're paper-thin From the haze of the smoke And the mescaline The threat of your brow Under unmade sheets In your ear with the noise From the darkest streets We ran far and wide You screamed, you cried You thought suicide was an alibi But you were always a mess You were always aloof Yeah, it's awful, I guess But it's the awful truth It was truth from the first To the last words that she read
And she emerged from the dark Like a ghost in my head She said, "I haven't forgot Any words that you said I just stare at the clocks And I cry in my sleep And I tear up your letters And I burn them in heaps And I gather the ashes In that hole in the ground Where we fell"
A recipe review for ya :) I made four things this weekend and can highly recommend three of them :)
Chicken Enchilada Soup (I found it here, on Tasty Kitchen) Let me tell you what made me want to make this: HOW EASY IT LOOKED And it was. Super easy! But, I did change a few things: First of all, I made it on the stove in about an hour and secondly, no red peppers because I effing hate them and last, no cheese. The soup? Good!
Pumpkin Bourbon Bread (also on Tasty Kitchen) So I don't know what bourbon is. I went to the liquor store on my way home on Friday knowing I wanted to make this. Because I am not afraid to, I asked the sales girl where the bourbon was and she motioned over by the whiskey. [An aside: I hate whiskey. The first time I ever got shitfaced drunk it was on whiskey and I threw up for days. Mr. Jack Daniels and I hung out a few years ago and had to forget about ever being friends. Most recently, I bought whiskey last year to make our homemade eggnog with and realized finally that I just don't like the stuff. Hey! Guess what bourbon is? I toyed with getting spiced rum instead. I [heart] spiced rum. I use it for my eggnog now too. BUT because I wanted to give the recipe a fair shot, I got the bourbon instead and... I really like this. I made two loaves and they are gone. I didn't put the pecans in there because I hate nuts. And I really hate nuts in my bread. They smelled FABULOUS while cooking and I will probably make again this week when the temperature goes back down. And I will probably try and make it with the spiced rum.
If someone out there has a recipe for these with the cinnamon swirl awesomness, PLEASE EMAIL ME IMMEDIATELY. Especially if your recipe is fat and calorie free ;) So freaking good.
Do you know how much it bums me out that the thing I was looking forward to making THE LEAST this weekend had the best pictures? Ugh! Deep Dish Pecan Pie I don't like nuts. I especially don't like pecans. But I do like the dudes with whom I work and when their birthdays roll around, I try and always make them a cake or pie or whatever as my gift to them. So when Crazy Boy at work wanted a pecan pie I was like FINE! FINE! I'll freaking do it. And I did. The crust is a cream cheese crust... Check out how the sunlight kissed my cooking pics... It KILLS ME that I am posting this many pics of freaking PECAN PIE. Anyway, it is currently in the fridge at my job and I won't know how good it turned out until tomorrow when OTHER PEOPLE tell me. Because I won't be eating it. Yuck.
What I am making for dinner tonight - Stuffed Shells
I know, exciting right? I thought I would post so you could see how I improvise dinner more often than plan it :) I knew when I went to the store I wanted to make stuffed shells sometime in the two week period following my shopping trip so I bought two boxes of shells and some alfredo sauce... that was all. Why? Because I always have chicken breasts frozen in my freezer (or ground beef/turkey if you aren't into chicken quite like we are) and I figured I could just wing the rest. I started by putting about four cups of water onto boil with one tablet of Knorr's Caldo de Pollo (otherwise known as chicken bouillon but from the Mexican Food section of our local Wal-mart....I know I should be using all natural chicken stock but I haven't quite gotten there).
Then I took the rest of the parsley I had in the fridge which was getting dried out and threw it in there. I took four cloves of garlic and minced those into the boiling water. I cut up about a half of a large yellow onion, chopped into very small pieces and chopped up three green onions and put those in as well. And then, just for giggles, I threw a sprig of thyme in because I happen to have thyme and I try to use things before they go bad. [I have no freaking clue what flavor thyme adds to my food, but I had to buy it for a recipe a week or so ago so I am putting it into everything...] I also added a few sprinkles of crushed red peppers. I let that all cook for about ten minutes and then, because I am a breaker of the rules, I dropped three frozen chicken breasts in. While that was cooking, I started boiling the water for the shells. Once the water for the shells is boiling I removed the chicken stuff from the heat and allowed it to begin cooling on a back burner. It smelled freaking good. I have a whole bunch of fresh spinach in my fridge because I buy fresh spinach every time I go to the store. I took the stems off, rinsed it and cut it up. Then I put it on top of the chicken mixture so it can cook a little AND get the flavor of the chicken and veggies. When the shells were done, I drained them and set aside. Then I strained the chicken mixture reserving the broth because (1) you will need some later and (2) you should save it for another recipe later in the week so you don't have to use preservative packed bouillon cubes. So I've heard. Run the chicken mixture through the food processor adding a little of the broth to help it mix well. You don't want it soupy, just juicy. Salt and pepper to taste. Now do you have some mozerella? This would be a good time to throw about a cup in. I don't have any so I am using the remaining parmesan I have to give it a little extra FLAVOR. I use this stuff more than anything else in the world. (shhhh) Last, I pour an entire jar of alfredo sauce into an 9/13 glass casserole dish and stuff the shells, setting them into the alfredo sauce. I cover them and bake them at 350ish until they are hot, then sprinkle the tops with parmesan and serve. [no after picture because I actually wrapped these up and put them in the fridge so we could eat them the next day which was The Busiest Day of our week... and once they came out of the oven, well there was no way the girls were giving me a chance to take a few shots...] My kids LOVE stuffed shells and I always make them with whatever I have available so they are always different. And if I can make stuff from scratch and without a recipe, so can you :)
Oh no I just keep on falling (Back to the same old…) Where’s hope when misery comes crawling? (Oh my way, Ay…) With your faith you’ll trigger a landslide (victory) Kill off this common sense of mind
It takes acquired minds to taste, to taste, to taste this wine You can’t down it with your eyes So we don’t need the headlines We don’t need the headlines We just want…
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Right now you’re the only reason (I’m not letting go, oh…) Time out if everyone’s worth pleasing (Well ha-ha!) You’ll trigger a landslide (Victory) to kill off their finite state of mind
It takes acquired minds to taste, to taste, to taste this wine You can’t down it with your eyes So we don’t need the headlines No, we don’t want your headlines We just want…
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now? Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure now?
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing Tell me, tell me, do you feel the pressure? [repeat x2]
Alright, so you think you’re ready? Ok, then you say this with me Go! We were born for this We were born for this Alright, so you think you’re ready? OK, then you say this with me Go! We were born for this We were born for this We were born for this We were born for this
We were born for We were born for
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure? Everybody live like it’s the last day you will ever see Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure now?
Everybody sing like it’s the last song you will ever sing Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure? Tell me, tell me, can you feel the pressure?
We were born for this We were born for this We were born for this
Do you ever wake up and just have that inherent feeling of loneliness?
This morning, on my way to work, The Fray's 'Never Say Never' came on the radio and I had one of those Evaluate Your Life Moments. I've been having a lot of those lately. I'm starting to make plans for after Amanda and Emilee are gone and those are THEM. You know? Those are THE PLANS. Because it's going to be one step away from me doing whatever it is that I am going to do for the rest of my life. It's not a Mom Choice or a Family Choice or a Desperate Choice... it's a ME Choice. I am choosing for me and me alone. It's scary. And it's a little sad because I keep thinking: THAT IS IT? That is what I am going to do? That is where I am going to be? That is ALL I want? I feel futuristically unfulfilled. Say that three times real fast.
This was part of an email I sent this morning but I decided I wanted to post it here as well...
Amanda had an appointment with her Brendan Fraiser orthodontist on Monday. Monday was the fourth day in my four day weekend so I didn't interview her because I was trying to cram all of the things I wanted to get done into that last day and my stress level was a good seven. In fact, I had all of my girls at this appointment which I don't usually do. Amanda likes the whole alone time with Mommy thing when we go see Brendan Fraiser. :) Since I had the girls, I stayed out in the lobby and Amanda went back on her own. *gasp* She has NEVER went into a dentist/doctor/orthodontist office alone. Ever. In fact, I am pretty sure the first time she goes to the gynecologist, she will want me there holding her hand. Seriously. I hold her hand when she gets her teeth cleaned. Anyway, she goes back and is done in like ten minutes with her happy Halloween colored rubber bands. Check it.
So, here are the pics to show Amanda's progress with her braces...
Before the braces went on...
The day the braces were put on...
One Month appointment...
Before her two month appt. Look at how much straighter they are! That snaggley tooth is finally getting pulled back into place.
This is my sister, Blue. This is my sister and her daughters Emily and Jamie. Emily is named after my Emilee. Go ahead and try not to want a baby when you are looking at this doll. I miss my sister something fierce.
Can someone please make it to where I get one dollar every time one of my daughters declare that they hate: 1. Each other 2. Their mom 3. School 4. Doing chores 5. THE WORLD
Amanda is like the biggest Owl City fan EVER. She really liked them before I started listening to them. *dabs eyes* My baby is getting me into new music, I'm so proud.
Breathe and I'll carry you away into the velvet sky And we'll stir the stars around and watch them fall away Into the Hudson Bay and plummet out of sight and sound The open summer breeze will sweep you through the hills Where I live in the Alpine heights Below the northern lights I spend my coldest nights alone awake And thinking of the weekend we were in love (The weekend we were in love)
Home among these mountain tops can be so awfully dull A thousand miles from the tide Put photos on the walls of New York shopping malls Distract me so I stay inside I wish the rocket stayed over the promenade 'cuz I would make a hook And I fish them from the sky My darling she and I were hanging on so take us high To sing the world goodbye
I am floating away lost in a silent ballet I'm dreaming you're out in the blue and I am right beside you
Awake to take in the view Late nights and early parades Still photos and noisy arcades My darling we're both on the wing Look down and keep on singing and we can go anywhere
Are you there (Are you there) (Are you there) (Are you there)
Are you there (Are you there) (Are you there) (Are you there)
Or are you just a decoy dream in my head Am I home or am I simply tumbling out alone
I am floating away (Floating away) Lost in a silent ballet (Silent ballet) I'm dreaming you're out in the blue and I am right beside you Awake to take in the view
Late nights and early parades (Early parades) Still photos and noisy arcades (Noisy arcades) My darling we're both on the wing look down and keep on singing And we can go anywhere
Are you there (Are you there) (Are you there) (Are you there)
Are you there (Are you there) (Are you there) (Are you there)
You know you missed the song of the day posts. Admit it.
You came with the season, As the first swallow song A brown headed stranger, With a five-letter name dooodoodoo
We planted our kisses Where the wild berries grow My feet sprouted wings And I flew all the way home dooodoodoo
My cheeks red like fire engines racing Straight to the heat of your skin And I know our days are numbered, Early bird of the summer you'll fly south Just as the fall begins
The leaves changed their colors And the schoolyards were filled My coat with the patches Barely keeps out the chill, dooodoodoo
You sent me a postcard From a town out of state I wish it were warmer And I hope you're the same dooodoodoo
The fields where we wandered were golden Now only muddy my boots And I know I should recover, You're a bird of the summer, I was wrong to try and capture you
(instrumental)
Flight.. Flight.. Flight.. Flight..
I met someone walking Out on the park by the lake They don't fly any greater But they don't fly away dooodoodoo
Gone is the pale hand of water Here is the first flush of May And soon I will discover whether Birds of the summer Fly in circles or Just fly away
My older sister lives in a small town called Rimouski in Quebec.
It is a pretty small town as far as towns go... When Jiffinner and I spoke on the phone last night and I told her I was really starting to plan moving in a few years, she said, "to a beach huh?" While Rimouski is a beach town, I don't think that was what she was thinking... It's no secret that my plan is to live near a body of water. I need water. It makes me feel whole. But water in Canada? Where it is cold? And they have this white stuff that falls from the sky? But there are also trees. Many glorious trees. And a beach. Not the kind of beach I will likely be swimming laps in but a beautiful, straight out of Anne of Green Gables beach. And while all of the picturesque town near the beach stuff is lovely, the fact is that I miss my sister. I want to be near her and my neices and the fact that they live in a beach town is just a plus. A really, really big plus that almost completely makes up for the fact that I may freeze the death my first winter there...
Who: katehopeeden Where: San Antonio, Texas
Yeah, so I am all that you see here.
I am friendly and kind, crazy and bitchy, playful and flirty...
sometimes I am funny but mostly I just write the first thing that comes to mind and then stop when it ends.
I love life and I am lucky to be living the one that I am.
Want to know more? Click here!
"The most wasted day is one in which we have not laughed"
"Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you might miss it."
"Guys are like stars, there's a million of them out there but only one of them can make your dreams come true."
"Don't spend your life with someone you can live with, spend it with someone you can't live without."
"Reach for the moon, even if you miss you will still land among the stars"
These are a work in progress.
They are in the right order, but more will fill in the blank spaces in time as I write them.
"I just got done reading the history lessons on your blog (yes, I've been lurking on your blog).
All the respect I had for you...has increased, like, tenfold.
I don't think I could have done it.
To go through what you have and not only still be able to discuss it with such wit and poise,
but also to raise those three gorgeous girls. You are truly an inspiration.
You are honestly one of the strongest people I have ever known, either online or IRL.
Thank you so much." -Stef
"There are some of us out here who are living vicariously through you, okay?!
So for god's sake, let us have some fun and excitement!" -Educated Liberal
