On the Couch Again...(Sing It With Me, Y'all.)

I'm on the couch again, having a bad pain day and kind of bummed about it.

HOWEVER, this does allow me to get y'all all caught up on our pumpkin picking, visitor, Halloween madness. (Click on the pictures to embiggen and appreciate my HTML coding prowess!)

First, we had Fall color.  I do so love the seasons.  

(These photos were taken out my front door.  Isn't it amazing??)

Ana (12) earned her orange belt at Tae Kwon Do.

Then we went pumpkin picking.  In the past when we've done this, we've driven out to the Hamptons and experienced actual, real, picking of the pumpkins off the vine. Hence, when we saw the sign that said, "U-Pick Pumpkins" at a farm near Coop's work, we thought we knew what that was all about.

It turns out that "U-Pick Pumpkins" really means...well, "you select pumpkins after we've picked them and carted them into a large field."  Kind of like choosing from the big box at Home Depot, only you get to pay $0.70 per pound for all of that atmosphere.

Yeah, well. WhatEVER.

Then we had the actual Halloween extravaganza.

Jane is a gummy bear,  Austin is the devil and Ana?  Ana went as her dad, circa 1982. Rush t-shirt, letter jacket, Baylor hat and his very own vintage parachute pants.  (Yes, he still has all of those clothes.  What?)  Could quite possibly be the best costume ever.

Except for Jane's, maybe.  Because people got such a kick out of it.  And the making of it was really fun because my friend Kate (Dr.Kate from the comments) was in town and came over and I promptly covered her in green fuzz.

Here she is constructing the head of Jane's costume.

For which she received a hand-knitted pair of socks, taken off of my very own feet, because I am all classy like that.

Standing in first position for the blog.  Y'all, the woman rocks.

The very best part of Halloween for me, though, came when Jane, dressed in full gummi bear regalia, met up with her new classmates at the town Halloween parade.  They were so glad to see her and wanted her to march with them so much that they started CHANTING for her.  As you know, the switch to the new school has been full of motherly angst for me.  To see her so accepted and so happy and so ...100%-taking-over-the-world JANE was an indescribable blessing for me.



It almost made up for the rude woman poking Ana in the back to get her to "GO! GO!" in the crowd along the parade route. I'm not sure what the woman wanted Ana to do (leapfrog?) but if I had seen it, she'd be missing her rude index finger right about now. Do NOT freaking touch my child. I think we've established how I feel about that.

In other news, one of Jane's goldfish died.  Like her mama, she processes things on paper.  UNlike her mother, she can actually draw.

Must I always, ALWAYS, be the straight man?

The garden is about done for the year, except Jane has found an accidental pumpkin.  I think it will freeze before it ripens but still, it's a wonderful thing.

It's November which means NaNoWriMo, and I am really really far behind in my book.  Which is as usual, for me.  JANE, on the other hand, is well over 8,000 words into hers.  Also as usual.

At least *I* got a sweatshirt out of the deal.

Shown here with Edward the Male Model.  (Rowr.)

It's taken me so long to write this blog post that I'm off the couch, feeling well and heading for yoga, which is my new favorite thing.  No, seriously, on Monday, OF MY OWN VOLITION, I did a little cross training with weights and the exercise bike to make myself stronger.  I know, I know...clearly, I've been body-snatched.

(Here's what happens when I try to do yoga at home.


And this? This is just a gratuitous picture of my gorgeous older daughter.

Have a great day!