Happy Halloween

The Witches Caldron
"Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog"
"Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing"

"For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and babble"

"Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn, and caldron bubble"

~*~*~*William Shakespeare~*~*~*

Wordless Wednesday

She just melts my heart!

TGIF and there is no place like home...

Oh Dorothy, there really is no place like home...I have clicked my red heel's and began moving into the new house last night. Check that, I began cleaning the new house in preparation for moving in over the weekend. It is exciting and frustrating. I have a new project, but I am leaving for Miami on Sunday and San Diego on Thursday. Typical "long way" to go about things.

I adore the new house and it has uber amounts of potenial. I will be able to paint and make it "home" over the next couple of weeks; and that will be the best part. I have no idea what the new yellow brick road on this field trip will hold, but as long as I dodge the flaming fireballs, I won't complain.

Wordless Wednesday

My life in boxes...

You never realize how much "stuff" or how many "things" that you have until you have to completley pack it all up.
The box of things and pictures from High School, the same box I went through the last time I moved, and haven't looked at in (6) years, made me giggle for a good (2 )hours. It is a great purging process. Even photo's from a few years ago remind me of what was and the great things that will be. The drunken pictures from my Chicago trip with Nancy reminded me that Taxi's are your friend, and good drinks with good friends are fabulous. (Ugh turtle soup) The card my sister gave me when I moved away to school. My Muppet glass collection that my mother decided to keep for me...
As much as I sput and sputter about my dislike of change, it is exciting to have the project of making this new house an actual home. Fresh paint, some new furniture, a big back yard, new earth to plant things in...I should have started packing weeks ago!

Manic Monday: Frost

I love the electricity in the air on a crisp frost covered morning. There is something magical in that stillness. When all you can hear is the crunch of the grass and the occasional honk of the geese running late for warmer regions. The smell of the air is so different after the first frost, it smells “clean”. No matter how old I get, I still find myself doodling in the frost on my house windows, etching patterns with my fingernails. . Mother Nature is putting some of her children to rest (at least in the Midwest) and the time of fires and snuggling inside has arrived. Frost is the door creaking shut on another year.

The "Ah hah" of the day...

I was once given a book titled “Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Over thinking and Reclaim Your Life” by Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
Michael gave me this book after many discussions regarding my ability to fret, worry and over think absolutely everything in my daily life. As much as I leap without looking, right after the leap, I am going through a mind game of “what if” scenarios. I never analyze prior to doing something, it is always during the fall, seconds before the “SPLAT”
I asked a dear friend of mine yesterday (who knows all my truths and loves me anyway) why I was never content. Constantly restless. Searching for “something”. Her response was that I am a “wandering soul” I rather enjoy that description.
I like to think that I am strong enough to keep wandering and searching for true happiness, then to just give up and give in. I have more battle scars for that course of action, but the stories and lessons are priceless. I may not have always gone about my life in what some might say is the “right way” but I have always gone about it “my way”.
And really, how do you stop over thinking? Just the fact that I think so much about how not to over think seems to defeat the purpose? Maybe I should just sell the book on Ebay? 

Thursday Thirteen

13 Things I want to do before the end of the field trip

1) Pet a Giraffe
2) Visit Stonehenge
3) Horseback riding through the Mountains
4) Get my pilots license
5) Publish a book
6) Master the piano
7) Sit on a dock at the Loch looking for Nessie
8) Visit the Mayan temples
9) Swim with dolphins
10) Deep sea dive
11) Swim with Sharks
12) Tour Scotland
13) Tour Australia

Wordless Wednesday

Thursday's Child...

There is an old rhyme which predicts the personality of an individual based on the day they were born.


Monday's child is fair of face;
Tuesday's child is full of grace;
Wednesday's child is full of woe;
Thursday's child has far to go;
Friday's child is loving and giving;
Saturday's child works hard for a living.
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
is fair and wise, good and gay

Whom ever came up with that little diddy has me pegged. I think I might request that phrase to be on my headstone. "She had far to go"...

Happy Birthday Benji!

Happy Birthday Benji!!!!!!!!!

My amazing friend Ben will be having a birthday tommorow. If Tracy is my Turk, Ben is my Elliott. He is one of the rare people on this planet who completley understand,know my whole story,knows the good and the uber bad and still loves me anyway.
He is the one person who would sit with me on the dock on the Loch, fishing for Nessie with Bologna and drinking pints.

Becky "This time Benji, no one has tried bologna before..."

Ben *drinking the pint* "Absolutley, The greeks invented fishing with bologna"

Oscar "I am the Loch Ness Monster"

Bebe "I invented bologna in the lab, hug me"

Prue "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Salem "When I take over the world, Nessie will be spared, unlike the rest of you"

(He is also going to be a wee bit upset he is in my blog again)
Kind, generous, smart and witty to a fault, and as much as it irks me at the time, he can always get me to laugh, even on the worst day. He also gave me one of the best gifts ever, my newest puppy "Prudence Lilly McPruderton" or "El Chupacabra"
Here is to many more and meet me at the Loch in 15...
(and bears to do not have prehencil tails)

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen songs that would be on the "Soundtrack of Boo's Life" Volume 1

1) Small Town –John Mellencamp
2) Long Way-Dixie Chicks
3) Mama Told Me Not to Come-Three Dog Night
4) Good Life-Francis Dunnery
5) Hallelujah-John Cale
6) Coconut-Harry Nilsson
7) If You Ever did Believe-Stevie Nicks
8) Come Pick me Up-Ryan Adams
9) Let it all Hang Out-Hombres
10) Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes-Beck
11) You are my Sunshine-Box Care Willie
12) Daughters-John Mayer
13) Faith, Courage and Wisdom-India Arie

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday's and Houses

Call it being cursed or “self-fulfilling” prophecy, but Tuesday’s in the office are always bad. *Please see blog titled “working in a coal mine” * Not bad in the hectic work sense, but bad in the “nothing goes right for any of us” sense. Badges lost, traffic for no reason, laptop malfunctions and those were just before 8 A.M. Tuesday’s are the kind of day when Murphy’s’ law rules our universe. Whilst typing this, Tracy pulled one thread from her cami, and it all unraveled…
In the silver lining however; the requested repairs on my offer for the house are complete. There is a light at the end of the new home tunnel. Ironically, the requested repairs had to be triple bid. I am a Senior Buyer for a living and I am generally the one giving that news to unhappy customers.
I am ready for a new change of scenery. What say’s fresh start better than new paint and flooring? I also have a bigger better canvas for my gardening. (Minus the area I already have designated for a pool which, is my dream come true). Okay, one of my dreams, but I am fairly certain Ty Pennington isn’t going to move in and be my pool boy…I will take what dreams I can get. As a rule, I abhor change, but this seems more like an adventure. It should help teach me patience. It is slowly killing me that everything I would like done, isn’t going to instantly be completed upon arrival. I am counting on that "self gratification of a job well done" I keep seeing on HGTV will kick in.

Madison

Manic Monday: Track

I am always wondering if my life is on the right track. The times that I feel like I took a left instead of right always make me ponder if I am who I am suppose to be. There was a time that I envisioned myself with the white picket fence, 2.5 kids; living a happily ever after that Cinderella would envy. I switched tracks on that life a long time ago, and I much better off for the track I took instead. It makes me happy that I had insight as to where the track was headed and what bumpy detours I would take. What would I have changed? I think I would much rather travel the same track again, then to take the gamble of not having the people in my life now that I love and adore. Maybe there is no right track or wrong track, just our own track? Every bump on the track has steered me to someone or something that I needed. The track is part of the field trip. I am glad I wasn't given a map of where I am headed, it is most likely for the best, I find out along the way.

Think Pink!

Save the Ta Ta's! There are no amount of words to express how important it is to encourage the women in your life to be pro-active as possible regarding this diease. Think pink! Please do whatever you can do to benefit research and find a cure for this evil. Donate to someone involved in a walk, buy anything that gives funds to Susan G Komen Foundation, say prayers for those who are affected and those who fought but lost.

The more people who become involved with the fight, the closer we are all to realizing a cure.

The best laid plans

As I have mentioned before, I wait all year for fall and esp the month of October. However, due to the recent 88 degree weather, my plans for the day of enjoying the cider mill have been placed on hold. I have issue with going on a hayride to pick pumpkins wearing shorts.
I love summer, when it is summer. How is it possible that I had to turn the air conditoner back on?! I shall forgo the cider and placing of the scare crow until next weekend...

Working in a coal mine...going down down down...

As much as I complain about my job, I am lucky enough to work with a few individuals who have become dear friends that I adore. It makes it easier to get through the day to have people around who "get you". I really do work in an episode of "Scrubs". Actually, if you melded "The Office" and "Scrubs" that is 60 hours of my week.
It is nice to be able to discuss not only the latest work frustration, but having a few people around the know my whole story is a nice comfort. *insert shout out to Claudia* And when one of us retires, it is like we suffered a loss.

"yep, that is what Claudia would have said"
"She isn't dead, she retired"

Do I like being called out by someone who is like my sister?

T "You shouldn't buy those shoes, you should stick to your budget"
B "But they are preeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeety and I need them"
T "You do not need 85 pairs of black shoes"
B "Shut up and I hate you"

Not always, but I would miss it.

"Ben, I am going to kill myself and I am fat"
"Don't do it before lunch, they have Hanni's, and you are not fat"

"We could negotiate a 3 year deal and then just evalute on a yearly basis?"
"That could work. How great would it be to have a pet pig?"
"oh! A pet pig that had its own Hampster Ball?"
"I love it!!!!"

*looking right at Tracy* "Tracy isn't at her desk right now,she is in meetings all day, but I will leave her a message to call you?"

"Is that a voodoo doll hanging on your wall?"

"Can we trade Mom's for the weekend?"

"Turtle wedding?"

"Did you take notes in that meeting?"

"I tried, but I do have my grocery list and a nice drawing of unicorn and a rainbow"

"I am calling from Audi of Escanaba, we actually sold a car"

"if you go into labor right now, we could skip the staff meeting?"

"I will give you $25 if you break your water on his chair"

"She has been married like 10 times"

"She is little, but she is mean"


As much as I never see the silver lining, I was given great friends who make my days much less miserable and more fun, and that is gift. TGIF! The below quotations are from Scrubs, but they are almost replica's of our life here. Life wouldn't be the same without Tracy and Ben. Though, someday Ben's optimism could get him punched.

"Things could be worse"
"Shut up Ben"
"I am just saying"
"Am I being overly emotional?"
"I am too scared to answer that"
"So, that is yes then?"




Carla: Elliot... Have you been in the supply closet, crying?
Elliot: [scoffs] Carla, I don't do that anymore! [Carla holds up the back of her metallic clipboard to Elliot so that she can see the trails her heavy black eye makeup has made down her cheeks] Elliot: Oh, my God! I look like Alice Cooper!


J.D.: [voice over] I guess what they say is true the people you work with really do become your family. Like your brother, and your sister in law, [shot of Turk and Carla]
J.D.: or that cousin you have funny feelings for [shot of Elliot]
J.D.: , and the crazy angry uncle everyone sort of hopes isn't coming this year.
J.D.: Dr. Cox, If you want you can come down here and hang out with...
Dr. Cox: Nobody talk, just drink.
J.D.: Ah uncomfortable silences and alcohol... just like Thanksgiving at home.


Elliot: Oh, Dr. Cox, does this lipstick make me look like a clown?
Dr. Cox: No, Barbie, no... it makes you look like a prostitute who caters exclusively *to* clowns. Elliot: I'm sorry, that was my mistake, I keep forgetting that you're a horrible, horrible person. Dr. Cox: Ooh, Backbone Barbie.

Dr. Cox: You are, in fact, a perfectly healthy 26-year-old doctor who keeps whining about how horrible his father was.
J.D.: Well, he did some considerable emotional damage, so...
Dr. Cox: Every one of our parents does considerable emotional damage, and from what I've heard, it just might be the best part of being a parent. Now, if some guy ever does put a ring on your finger and you're lucky enough to pop out a youngster, I'm sure you'll understand. But for now, believe me when I tell you I wouldn't care if this was the first time you ever met your daddy. Because, in reality... well, he could have done a much, much worse job.



Dr. Cox: They hate you Bob. They hate from the bottom of your hooves to the top of your pitchfork. They hate you. By God, they hate you good.
Dr. Kelso: [threateningly, to Nurse Roberts, who is chuckling] What is so funny?
Nurse Roberts: Oh just the hooves and pitchfork part. [much more threateningly]
Nurse Roberts: Why?
Dr. Kelso: [Frightened] Uh, no reason.

Thursday Thirteen

13 Scary Movies that I uber love
1) Exorcist
2) Night of the Living Dead
3) Halloween
4) Abandoned
5) Grave Dancers
6) Rosemary’s Baby
7) Dead Silence
8) Poltergeist (Their heeeeeeeeere)
9) Halloween II
10) Blood and Chocolate (Scary AND romantic)
11) Needful Things
12) The Shining
13) The Fog (Go ahead and laugh, but it scares me)

Pudge Peel

Members of my family had to make the hard choice to have their beloved dog, Pudge, put to rest. He was suffering from an auto-immune disorder that left him constantly in pain,with sores that would not heal and there was no hope of it ever getting better. None of the many treatments that they tried over the last year were able to help. He was one of the most sweet and loving companions there ever could be. My nephews are devestated and heartbroken having to say goodbye to their friend.
Along with his medical conditions, Pudge was discrimanated against by families in the subdivision and others because he was a Pit Bull Terrier.
*Animal loving rant about to insue, if you don't want to deal with it, click the nice X in the upper corner*
It is unfair to blame a breed for the mistakes of malicious and cruel owners and breeders. Pitbulls have gotten a bad reputation because they have been used for all the wrong reasons and the punishment for those crimes has generally fallen upon them. My sister was told that she should beware, Pudge was going to eat all the neighborhood kids. Really?! I have seen Chihuahua's that were nastier then Pudge ever would have been. Could Pudge have been trained to attack and kill? Absoltuley, but so could a Golden Retriever. As my nephew said "Hate the deed, not the breed" Pudges only crime was trying to be a lap dog at 80lbs. :)
On behalf of Pudge, My dog Willow who is half Lab and half Rottwieler; and all the Pits and Rotties that bear the blame and shame for the cruel humans that have abused them, please see a dog for who they are, not the media labels put on them. The below links are great resources for information on the breed, and what you can do to help.
http://www.animalfarmfoundation.org/
http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/links.php
Pudge, we will miss you horribly. We should all be so lucky to be as loyal and loving as you.

Wordless Wednesday

29 Days and Counting

My favorite holiday is a mere 29 days away. For as long as I can recall I have loved everything about Halloween. The minute the air turns crisp and hay bales appear, I feel an excitement that most people reserve for Christmas. My mother never really decorated for this particular holiday, so I think that is why I go all out, full steam ahead for this one. This year I will actually be moving mid-October and decided to just put up the outside décor at house #1 and transplant it to house #2. In my book, it is absolutely worth the effort.
My uncle had a huge garden when I was younger and even though they had (5) children of their own, I always got the biggest pumpkin. I saw decorations at the store the other night that are identical to the ones that aunt and uncle had up every year, and all the happy childhood memories made me smile.
It is sometimes hard explaining the love of this holiday. Husband #1 said “aren’t you a little old for pumpkin carving?” Husband #2 was amazed at the effort I put forth to decorate the interior/exterior of our home for the event. I also follow an old tradition of lighting candles for those loved ones who have passed on. That was a little tougher to explain “You DIDN’T just blow out that candle!!!”
Regardless, it is here, my favorite month that plays host to my favorite holiday!!!!

~ HALLOWEEN ~

by Myra Cohen Livingston Green

cats eye shine midnight gloom

fly with the witch on her ragged broom

over dark hills

where bonfires loom

A Wee bit of Halloween History

Some history on my favorite holiday, compliments of the History Channel


Ancient Origins
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713

Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important.

Sally Owens: All I want is a normal life.

Aunt Frances Owens: My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not necessarily a virtue? It rather denotes a lack of courage!

Sally Owens: What would you do, Gilly?

Gillian Owens: What wouldn't I do... for the right guy?

Zora Neale Hurston:
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.


I am very protective of my siblings. Protective of those I love in general, but my siblings are half friend, half like a child to me. Not because our parents were not there, just because of the age difference. My oldest youngest brother is 7.5 years younger than me. I find myself wanting to lecture them and give them the ol’ “Don’t make the same mistakes that I did” speech. For now, I am biting my lip. Plus, they have enough dirt on me that it could take awhile to live down the retort. But it is KILLING ME.
Relationships and emotions are just plain messy. You cannot map them out. They cannot be placed into a nice box. Love is messy, buy a helmet. J Lust, love, heartbreak, joy and everything in between has hit them, and will hit them again, and I have realized that no matter how much I preach, or examples from me they have seen, nothing I do or say will stop them. Nor, would it do them any good. The victory and defeat of love are battle stories we have to write on our own.
If they take anything away from my big sister lectures and concern, I want it to be that they should have courage. Love takes courage. The reward for true emotional and soulful connections is always worth the fear. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be special. Courage to always work through the hard stuff and courage to freely love without letting fear guide them astray.

Blaise Pascal:
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.

Manic Monday: Orange

Manic Monday: Orange

The color orange encompasses countless things that I adore.
One of the new paint colors I just chose for the kitchen of my new home is “Spiced Pumpkin”.
Fall is my favorite time of year, it never fails that something or someone comes into my life at that time for the better.
Halloween is my favorite holiday. I wait for it all year.
There is something purely magical sitting around a campfire/fireplace/fire-pit and staring into the flames, the yellow to amber to orange of the light is welcoming. As a child my grandmother would tell me you could get lost looking into the flames.
Tiger Lilies are one of the most beautiful flowers ever created.
My first feline companion ever, Oscar, is (3) shades of orange.
Orange is warmth and home and comfort.