all the Halloween feels

It's the Wednesday before Halloween. Two important things of which to take note: 

1) We have not gone to a pumpkin patch yet

2) ^^This means we have not carved a pumpkin yet
although I did cut and scoop a butternut squash last night so I think I've filled my food guts quota for the year. 

Excuse me, three important things:

3) ^^This means that we have not wasted precious pre-Halloween candy eating time with carving pumpkins. More candy = mo' winning at life.

I would say it doesn't feel like Halloween yet, and that's 99% entirely true, and it's not just because of our Jack O' Lantern-less selves. It's because I'm still sweating when I go outside. Remember the terrible, horrible, and sad, depressing story of when I was forced to wear a white turtleneck under my Snow White costume because of the lower temperatures? Yeah well, living in Texas makes me realize that "slutty" versions of Halloween costumes weren't created for the sex appeal as much as they were created by people who live in Texas, and therefore need less clothing coverage on Halloween.

Totally logical, go with me on that. Moving on. 

The reason I say the whole it not feeling like Halloween is only 99% entirely true is because there is that tiny, minuscule, almost invisible 1% of a Halloween feeling lingering around. 

It's lingering in the tiny, minuscule, almost invisible pumpkins on our dining room table.

It's lingering in the burlap-is-where-it's-at Hobby Lobby pumpkin. 

It's lingering around the $1 candy corn banner I snatched up from the Target dollar bins. 

Side bar: snatched definitely equals bought in this and all instance(s). Glad we got that cleared up.

It's lingering with the Fabulous (with a capital F for added important, mmhmm) pumpkins my mom and I glitterified when I was home a couple weeks ago.

And finally, it's definitely lingering in the giant bowl of Reese's Halloween mix. Speaking of, I haven't had my daily fifth serving of Reese's today. The Halloween Horror!

What makes it feel like Halloween to you?

When in Rome...

do as the Romans do. And that is what I did. Granted, I don't think the saying extends to the vicinity of Rome, Georgia; however, for the sake of this post we are going to pretend that it does.

Rome, Georgia. Floyd County. Home of Kay White. What an exciting place. It got even more exciting when a little white Corolla with the letters MLE stuck on the window came rolling on down 53. Funny side story, that is not the only thing that had been rolling down 53 that day. Kay's cell phone that had inadvertently been left on the roof of her car decided to take a little plunge onto 53 prior to my visit. But that's not my story to tell :)

I went to Rome to spend Halloween weekend with Kay and her foster children, a.k.a. R and Z. Our agenda for the weekend: eat lots of goodies, have lots of fun, eat some more goodies, go trick or treating, and maybe sleep a little. First of all, let me just say SUCCESS on that list. Check, check, check, check, and check. We wasted no time getting into the Halloween spirit by carving the pumpkin the first night I got there. Now, I used my pronoun a little loosely in the previous sentence. When I say "we" carved the pumpkin, I really mean Kay carved the pumpkin. "We" were the cheerleaders.   

 

Go Kay! Carve that pumpkin!

Wow, we made great cheerleaders because just look at that pumpkin...perfect. Even Z squealed and squirmed a few cheers for Kay. 

We spent the next day celebrating and eating in Downtown Rome with Jackie (Grammy). After a scrumptious meal at Harvest Moon (gimme more sweet potato chips, puhlease), we went trick or treating down Broad Street with the other 30,000 children in Rome. No really, masses and masses of ducks and vampires and princesses and cowboys and rockets and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Jackie pushing her way through the crowds. You don't mess with Grammy and candy. 

I remember being a little kid and how the anticipation of getting ready to go trick or treating just killing me. My thoughts would be bouncing back and forth from, "I AM GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH CANDY TONIGHT!" to, "IS IT TIME TO GET DRESSED YET?!" to, "CANDY CANDY CANDY!!" to, "WHY IS MOM MAKING ME WEAR A TURTLENECK UNDER MY PRINCESS COSTUME? :(:(" You get the idea. Anyways, I am sure R and Z were having similar thoughts. Kay and I were so mean and took them out to eat before the big night. After flying Vienna sausages and broken chopsticks (all now on the floor), we decided that it was time. DUNDUNDUN. Let's go trick or treating!!

I also click my heels at the thought of Halloween candy.

"Yes, I know I am the cutest dog ever. That does not mean I want you to pet me."

Now, this was interesting because only 3 or 4 houses in Kay's neighborhood decided to give out candy. Whaaaaat?! Where's the Halloween love, y'all? These poor children just wanted to be on a sugar high. Can't you help a poor kid out?! 

This tricky house had their porch lights on, their garage open, their tv on, and a bowl of candy sitting on a table inside. Did they answer the door? Nope.

Don't cry for these kids. Between Trunk or Treats, Girl Scouts, and Grammy there was plenty of candy stashed in the house. (I only stole a liiiiitle bit). 

My last day in Roma was just as packed as the others. I spent most of the morning finishing the touches on teaching Z to say, "Go Jackets!" Super success there. We now have our newest Yellow Jackets fan! Jim was excited about that one. I spent most of the trip trying to get Z to say my name. Here is how that went:

K: Say Emily

Z: Daaawg

E: Em-a-lee

Z: Dawwwwwg

R:Emily

Z: No ::furiously shakes head::

E: EMILYYYY

Z: Jackets!

So, I just want to give a quick thanks for Russ and Mary Caroline for picking out a name too hard for babies to say. I have been called Elily, Emma-ee, and Honey. I can now add Dawwwg to that list. Oh well, at least Z had no hang ups about showing his Georgia Tech lurve. 

It was a great Halloween weekend! Kay went from being a part time mommy to the Moore kids, to a full time mommy to R and Z with no time to think. She may have lost a few brain cells in this process (Hello, old phone smashed to pieces on the side of 53), but it's all worth it. Mommy Kay is a great mommy. And Jim and Jackie are a great Grandpa and Grammy. (Or, as they were once called, Grandma (Jim) and Jackie). Thanks for letting me come in for a few days! No worries, I haven't stolen the kids...yet...

P.S.- This is how one looks after spending a full weekend with MLE. We party hard. We sleep hard

"Is this the Grand Canyon?"

As a preface to this posting, I must talk about my current obsession. It is not really my "current" obsession---I have always and will always love this. However, this time of year only feeds my obsession (literally), making it worse. HALLOWEEN CANDY. Chocolate Halloween candy to be exact. One of the girls I babysit pronounces it, "chau-let." So I have been eating SO much chaulet lately. It is everywhere I go. It is everything about which I talk. I love me some chaulet Halloween candy. Let's get together and eat some chaulet.

This blog should really be entitled, Things My Family Hasn't Been Able To Do In 11 Years Because Of Nutcracker Rehearsals. I know that that blog sounds fascinating to all of you. I hate to break it to y'all, buuuut that is kind of what y'all are reading about. Phew, I feel so much better having let that secret out.

Today's adventure was... a trip to the mountains! Cloudland Canyon to be exact. It was beautiful (and I don't even like being outdoors...).

As per usual, we left late. Between 8-9 am was the decided departure time. Ann and Dad were slowly rolling out of bed around 7:55 am. Just in time to throw on an old pair of clothes and hit the road! Right? Wrong. Just in time to take a shower, and scramble some eggs, and post a few rantings on Facebook....I mean, check some e-mails. 3(ish) hours later we arrive at Cloudland Canyon State Park, pinic in hand. By picnic I mean Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fruit, and.....can you guess?? Some chaulet! I had to fuel up before descending and promptly ascending 600+ steps. After some yummy sugar we were off on the Waterfalls Trail.

Here are a few samples of the talk on the way down...

After 10 stairs:
    A: This is so fun!!!! So pretty!!! (she clicks away taking pictures) p.s.-Ann is taking photography class now so a camera is constantly attached to her hip.

After 150 stairs:
    Dad: Woo hoo! These stairs are nice. Who built these? They had to like...design them. I wonder when they were built? How did they design them this way? Mary Caroline, were they here when we were younger? Can I think of some more questions?

After 322 stairs:
    Mom: I just twisted my ankle. Oh well, I'll just keep walking!
    A: MY LEGS ARE SHAKING. I AM NOT KIDDING. CAN I WAIT HERE FOR Y'ALL? NO REALLY, THEY ARE SHAKING.

After 515 stairs:
    Dad: Wooeee this is gonna be fun on the climb back up!

After 600 stairs:
    A: Were we really all the way up there?! I hear water. Where is it? Ow ow ow ow ow ow my legs. Ow.

Now, nothing is more inspiring on a 600 step descend then knowing that you'll see a beautiful, tall waterfall at the bottom, right? Wrong, yet again. There was no beautiful, luscious, tall, free-flowing waterfall anywhere. There was a dribble. A leaky faucet. A light drip of water. Whatever "it" was, "it" could not qualify as a waterfall. I can climb down 6 stairs to my kitchen to see flowing water like that. In all seriousness, well...in all seriousness that really is what we saw; however, it was so beautiful outside and we had lots of fun exercising in the fresh air :) (And picking on Ann's...I mean each other's out of shape-ness). Thankfully the engineers who designed the "fascinating to Russ Moore stairs" put in lots of benches.  There were lots of much needed sitting stops on the way up. Hello, quads! We meet again. Please be nice to me.

Here are a few pictures!

View from one of the Outlooks

The beginning of the stairs...dun dun dun

We were all the way up there looking down here, now we are all the way down here looking up there

Carry me back up, pleeeeeeeease :(

As far as the title of this post....yes, a child did ask his parents this question as he ran down the stairs. Also for some more exciting news for today, congratulations to Bridget and Randy on the birth of Evelyn Sophia!! The newest member of Studio Dance Theatre :) Now, I wonder what exciting, blog worthy adventures will happen next weekend...

Christmas Is Coming...

I decided to dedicate this post to Christmas. This decision was based on many reasons.... 1) Christmas is my most favorite favorite favorite favorite thing ever. Our family has a lot of silly cute traditions. And I love them all. ("Them" can refer to the traditions AND my family, of course.)  2) My sister, who is also in love with Christmas, has been talking about it on a daily basis and making me yearn for it more and moore. And finally, 3)The weather is getting cooler. Now that it's officially fall the Christmas countdown just has to begin. Cooler weather is Georgia means it is 80 degrees. But hey, we'll take that. Anything but 90, please.

On a side note, I am really excited for the season in general. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Cooler weather...(FINALLY.) Crunchy leaves. Hot chocolate. Christmas cookies (!!!) and on, and on, and on....


So, here are my top 3 reasons as to why I think Christmastime is the best time of year. Excuse me, the most WONDERFUL time of year. 

BTW, it's 91 days away in case you were wondering ;)

1) As I said earlier, my family has a lot of traditions that we've been doing for as long as I remember. Actually, even before I was born (what a sad time that was....) We spend Christmas day at my grandparents house, Miss Momma and Mr. Diddy's house to be exact. We all squeeze into their tiny living room. Between the tree, the 7 or 8 of us, the other decorations, and the furniture, we usually have our piles of presents stacked up onto our laps. Now, a lot of families I know get up, run downstairs, and rip open their presents so quickly it is like they know the world will be ending in 3 minutes and they have to get them all opened before the world is over. This is how our Christmas day plays out: 
7 am: A and I wake up to see what Mr. Claus has brought. I go back to sleep.
9 am: Russ and MC get out of bed. We eventually get around to eating breakfast.
11 am: After showers, we pack (yes, PACK) up our presents and take them down to Diddy's house. We also bring along lots of cookies and goodies. 
noon/1pm: After the presents have been unpacked and put under the tree, and everyone has come and settled down, and Diddy has repeatedly said he would much rather eat before opening presents, and I have whined and whined about everyone taking so long, we finally start opening presents. This process begins by looking in our stockings to see the goodies Santa gave us. We all hang our stockings at Diddy's house and Santa just conveniently knows that all of ours are there. What a smart man. He's great, really. Now, we open presents in order of age. One at a time. I mean really, how great is it to draaaw the process out as loooong as possible?! We totally win that award. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's great.
4-5ish pm: Cooking the Christmas dinner begins. We eat. We are full. We keep eating.
9 pm: The Moore's head home.
midnight: Ann and I cry because we have to wait a whole year for Christmas to come again. 

2) Christmas lights and decorations. I mean, seriously. How fun is it when everyone and their mom puts out Christmas decorations?! You don't even want to know how much gas I/my family waste driving around and looking at house after house of beautifully, lit up, sparkling, flashing, some trashy, some classy Christmas decorations. We have our usual spots we hit up regualrly, but we are always on the search for two story Christmas trees. And more lit up wreaths. And more "drive through our property and see the acres and acres of Christmas decorations" places. And more places that try to look (and fail) as beautiful as Downtown Newnan looks at Christmastime. 

3) Christmas music. I don't even know where to begin with this topic. We pull out the Christmas cds as soon as the Thanksgiving dinner has been cleaned up. We have made play list after play list after play list. (Want a copy of them? Yes, you do.) You should all do the same because it will make you happy and giddy and sooo Christmasy and then next year you'll be writing a Christmas blog.

This is getting me way too excited. Is it too early to go ahead and pull out the CDs? christmascookingfamilytimechristmasshoppingchristmascarolswinterclothessantastorieschristmasbooks. I promise to stop with these 3 reasons so that I don't create the world's longest blog post. It is possible, but I'm not ready to hold that winning title quite yet. However, I will leave y'all with some pictures of my Christmas' past. Enjoy!

P.S.- Happy fall/91 days until Christmas!!!

Did I mention MC makes us take pictures with Santa every year and we have all 24 of them lined up in our house during Christmastime?

"And the stockings were hung by the chimney with care..."

tree at Diddy's

The Moore family Christmas tree. 12 ft in years past. Only about 8-9 now. How sad! ;)

Matching Christmas shirts!

Disney likes Christmas as much as me.

Christmas countdown!

One of those "come drive through our property" places. I only wish we could do this. Ohh lawd.

A family in our neighborhood puts this on their house. It is not officially considered Christmastime until the Grinch is up.