Can I Get a Hotdog with That?...

One, Two, Three, but What Are They Doing?...

In the car the other day, the nuggets had some serious fun. Hadley was in the very, very back reading. You can barely see one little part of her head behind Layton's peace sign.

I'm not entirely sure what is going on in this picture. Ella has a green colored pencil in one hand and a baseball in the other. Layton is sticking out his tongue while giving a peace sign...with a giant bruise in the middle of his forehead from an unexpected accident while playing horse on Hadley's back.

Better...

This picture looks better in black and white.

I think.

Sweet Boy Resting...

Layton is "Mommer's boy baby." That's what he calls himself. Yes, he calls me Mommers. Not sure why, but I'm gonna go with it.

He was so sleepy at the storytelling festival that he had to rest on my shoulder for a while. I love holding him. So sweet.

Pucker Up...

I Think I Am A Liberservativecrat...

Election day was yesterday. It was a wild ride for our local community. As predicted the Republicans swept every position except the ones where Democrats were running unopposed.

I went downtown for the election results. The whole square was alive with anticipation, and the court house lawn was littered with supporters. All the candidates were shaking hands with locals. It was a truly awesome sight to see.

Until the results started coming in...

and I realized that some of the people I had supported the most were no longer in office. David Seibert has been one of the biggest advocates of Spirit of Athens. His support and belief in our organization made a lot of things possible over the last few years. Now, we have a commissioner who cares nothing for downtown and wants to relocate our municipal facilities to the land of the strip mall. Not that there's anything wrong with strip malls. It just isn't what has always made our small town so lovely.

I'm going to admit it. I cried. On the court house lawn. In public.

I do not consider myself to be a Republican or a Democrat. I probably look most like a Libertarian on paper, but I don't even consider my core beliefs to line up with the ideals of the Libertarian. I have NEVER voted a straight ticket, and I do NOT foresee myself ever voting a straight ticket. I believe in picking the right people for a job. Without the right assets in place, an official is useless.

I was saddened to see that instead of thinking about who to vote for and who would do the best job, people in my community voted straight Republican tickets. The word on the lawn last night was that at one point 60% of all the ballots counted were straight Republican tickets.

Come on, Man. I know Alabama still uses the 30 foot scantron thing that has to be bubbled in one at a time, but how lazy do you have to be to only fill in one bubble at the top?

Dance...Just Dance...It'll Be Okay...

Layton is a dancing machine.

He dances every where we go.

Even on side walks in public, the boy hears music and cuts loose.

What am I ever going to do with him?

Just Waiting on a Table...

Trick or Treat...

This year was an interesting Halloween for us. I always get the children to pick out costumes way in advance, so that everything is ready before the stores get picked over. Hadley picked out a gorgeous green duchess costume from Cracker Barrel. Ella picked out a princess outfit, and Layton chose to be spider man.

Fast forward to Halloween. Hadley decided to be a majorette at the last possible minute. Thank goodness I have scads of uniforms for her to pick from!! We got my batons out of storage and polished a few rhinestones, and she was good to go!
Ella decided to ditch half of her costume because she wanted to wear her North Face jacket.
But Layton. Oh, my sweet Layton actually wore his whole costume as intended!

I'll Tell You a Story...

My hometown is beautiful and small. Every fall there is a storytelling festival in downtown. It was this past weekend and was awesome. Hadley brought two friends with her this year. They all seemed to have a ton of fun!

I apologize for the funny appearance of the pictures. Everything had a very RED hue. The tent was red and white striped. I edited as much of the color as possible, so these are a lot better than straight from the camera but still a little off.

This is the girls' favorite storyteller. Her name is Carmen Deedy.

I cannot for the life of me remember this man's name, but he can whistle for about half an hour straight. HA!

Overall, the children loved every minute of the event. We walked across the street to Village Pizza for lunch and were able to get autographed books and schedules!!
I love my town.

Preview....

Here is a preview of Layton's costume for Trick or Treating...

What Are They Doing?...

Got any guesses?

Where is Pumpkin?...

Instead of going to a big pumpkin patch this year, I took the children to a local orchard. They have rows and rows of pumpkins lined up for you to pick from. I was disappointed that I didn't make it to a real pumpkin patch this year, but hey, at least I bought them each a pumpkin! Ha!

Sleepy Little Gals...

Charsy spent the night with us recently. The girls stayed up late watching Netflix instant movies. This is how Charsy and Ella fell asleep.

Too cute!!

What Did He Get?...

I almost forgot to show you what we gave Layton for his birthday!

Yes, he finally got his own TV!!!

Layton Had a Birthday...

Layton had a birthday earlier this month. He was so excited to eat cake! We didn't have a party for him this year. There just wasn't enough time to plan a party and squeeze it in with the way our month had been going. He loved the candles he picked out for his cake though!

Homecoming...Burn It...

Every year the local high school has a bonfire to kick off the Homecoming festivities. For some reason, I felt compelled to take the children to the bonfire. It had been a long day, and I really didn't feel like going. I had promised the children though, so I loaded them up and off we went.

The fire was pretty big this year. The band plays, and the cheerleaders all stand around the fire for the cheering. Layton had the best time out of the three little ones. He danced and danced and danced to the music! It was adorable!

There's Just Too Much...

Overwhelmed. That's how I feel a lot of days. Between packing school lunches, navigating car lines, making sure bathes and homework are done, managing tax returns, doing laundry, attending parent/teacher conferences, making sure medicine is taken, loving on my husband, and explaining why it is not okay to call people fat to their faces, I have a lot going on. Being a parent is hard work. I find myself ten minutes late for everything. Did I turn on the dishwasher before I sat down to blog? I have no idea. I'll check on that later.

The phone rings almost every day at the same time. Dinner. It is usually some politician's network. They want to know if I have a few minutes to answer a few questions. I have said yes a time or two and found that I am not a good person to survey for a political questionnaire. There are some topics that I am liberal about. Others, I am a total conservative. I have never voted a straight ticket. Ever.

Then, later the phone rings again. It's some charity wanting to know if they can count on my monetary support again this year. Breast cancer, children's cancer, fraternal order of police, domestic violence relief...and at the end of the day, am I really supposed to be worried about Lindsay Lohan going to jail? Well, it's all over the news like it is something I should be concerned about. Honestly, throw her blow snorting butt in jail already; I'm sick of hearing about it.

It seems that we are all bombarded every day to care about everything. EVERYTHING. The prayer list never ends. Every time one disaster is cleaned up and the survivors are patched back together, something else happens that captivates the world's attention. When it comes to caring, I feel like I am treading water and barely keeping my head above water. I want to help. I do. BUT, how can I adequately help anyone when the laundry is overflowing at my house and Layton is covered in some goo that cannot be identified?

I am envious of those who have one cause for which they are champions. Take Jerry Lewis for example. He is all about the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Or Marlo Thomas who is the voice for St. Jude Children's Hospital. I am a champion of none and a small contributor to many.

How are we supposed to choose who to give to? How are we supposed to choose who to support and rally for?

Overwhelmed. That's how I feel a lot of days.

A Quote...Courtesy of Dewey...

"That's the way life goes. First your money. Then your clothes."

My grandfather Dewey said this a lot when I was young. I didn't figure out what it meant until I was much older and repeated this in public. My mother promptly scolded me and said not to mention prostitution so flippantly. Yes, that was the light bulb moment for me. Ohhhhhhh. Ewwwww. Why the heck would my grandfather say this??

He also used to quote Shakespeare. Except it wasn't really. Imagine my surprise when a middle school teacher asked the class about Shakespeare...and I realized that Dewey had just been teaching us dirty limericks and calling it Shakespeare.

Oh, he was so much fun!!

Pumpkins...Where Are They?....

Last year Jay and I took the little ones to Tate Farms. It was a great day. Here are some of the pictures from my blog post about it a year ago.

The thing is that it took forever to get there!! It was in the middle of nowhere and took us a good hour to get there. We had been to other pumpkin patches in the past, but they weren't close by either. My dilemma is this. I want to take the children to the pumpkin patch, but I don't want to have to spend two hours in the car (round trip) just to get there. Does anyone know of a place closer to town?