Voting Day

Yep, I did...

I dropped my ballot off at the Elections office on Monday. 

Too bad there wasn't any parking. I had to circle around and fight off the other cars wanting the same spot that I was going to get come Hell or High Water.  Having to share parking with all the courthouse people isn't fun. It would of been really nice to have a  worker out there letting you just drive up and deposit the ballot. Kind of like Tax day at midnight, at the post office, when you drive up and a postal employee takes your envelope, and you watch him/her put it in the box. Having a worker out there would be so much easier to drop off your ballot.  Frantic drivers aren't fun to do the parking dance with. 

Now I know why I never go to the Mall at Christmas time. I don't like crazy parkers.

Than I started thinking how crowded and crazy it will be on Tuesday, Election Day, trying to find a parking spot. Glad that I already got my vote in. But also glad that we don't have to go to the polling booth to cast our vote. At least mail in and drop off, is easier than standing in the voting booth.

I wish we could vote electronically from the computer. 

How do you vote? 

Tea for Two and Two for Tea

The Victorian Rose Tea House

The Tea House is our favorite place to have lunch. It is our special place for taking family when they come to visit. Or to take my granddaughters Ashlyn and Mackenzie to have a tea party. We went to the tea house on Sunday with my niece Kelly and her mom Patty, both visiting from Santa Ana Ca. Jennifer, Ashlyn and my mom went too. 

Here is sweet Kelly and her grandma. 

One of the many decorated Christmas trees

The place is all decorated for Christmas with a little bit of Thanksgiving tossed in. 

The Thanksgiving Tree?

The dining area

Sisters!  Um, I mean my daughter Jennifer and me.

My mom wanted a shirt from the color of the napkins.

The cute little sugar and creamer set. 

Ashlyn's yummy chocolate cake.

My creamy chocolate pie

and Jennifer's cinnamon syrup bread pudding.

Oh, and we also had sandwiches, soup and salads. We ate them before the photo, so just trust me that they were good. Especially the potato soup....

Tell me where you like to take your visitors. 

Fa La La La La ~ La La La La

Today, mom and I went to Walmart to get some groceries. As soon as we walked in to the store, I noticed the music. They were playing Christmas Music...What? Really? Good Grief. I'm still laughing at all the Halloween costumes on Facebook. I really wasn't prepared to hear Jingle Bells while I was picking out toothpaste, dish soap, and soup today. Than I started stressing out about Xmas gifts, doing Xmas cards, my yearly calendar, and Xmas cookies that I never make. 

I haven't even given any thought to Thanksgiving yet. I wish they would spread out these holidays more. Or at least warn me that Christmas music is playing on November 1st. If I see a Xmas tree on top of someone's car this week, you will hear me singing something not so nice. Wasn't it just the 4th of July? 

Have you heard any Xmas music yet?

Fall Back

This weekend we turn our clocks back. I didn't realize it until I heard it on the news. We get an extra hour. We fall back. We repeat the hour. Ok, I think I have it. It always takes me a few weeks to adjust to the new time change. 

What are you going to do with your extra hour? I think most of you will probably say "sleep". Mine will probably be an extra hour of reading my book. 

BOO!!

When I was a kid, I used to go trick or treating with my sister and a few of my brothers, (the older brothers took off with friends). We would dress up with whatever we could find, usually as a Hobo, Aunt Jemima  or a Gypsy. We always used pillowcases to put the candy in. We would cover a lot of blocks and come home around 10-11 pm exhausted. So when I had kids of my own, we did the same thing with them. I think they enjoyed it. Or was it just us still having fun and telling them that they still have 3 whole blocks to cover? Than we did the same thing with a few of the grand kids too. 

Here are a bunch of Halloween photos of my kids over the years, with a few others thrown in. 

The Unhappy Bride

They were so cute!

From the looks of what she is holding, I think she was in charge of cups for her school party.

 Holly Hobby and my little garbage man!

Little policeman and my big baby Jennifer

They were KOOKY SPOOKS that year. How cool were they?

Can you tell that even their dad loves Halloween?

When your dad is a mailman, you become Mailman Jr. 

My lovely little lady and again we have an Indian. 

My little girl was growing up..or out?

and out again!

Their cousins Michael and Cherie

The last time I dressed up for Halloween. Left, me, the pretty one. Center, Jennifer, not sure, and on the right, well I'm not sure again. Deck of cards maybe? But there was a lot of hair going on. 

Clowning around! I use to wear that blouse and thought I needed the make up to match it?

Tommy before his makeover 

and Tommy after the makeover, plus a black eye. 

Hoping everyone going trick or treating and has a lot of fun. Grab those pillow cases and get going. You still have 10 blocks to cover. 

Do you have a favorite costume from years ago? 

  

The Big Storm

How many hours did you spend watching the once in a lifetime storm on the east coast today?  I put in 12 hours of CNN, FOX and the Weather Channel today. I was glued to all the networks. I couldn't get enough of the news people risking their lives standing in waist deep water, winds knocking them over, and rain flying sideways on to their faces. The whole time they were yelling about other people that were out and about in the hurricane. Well, those people that are sightseeing, probably saw the news people playing in the storm. Of course they want to come out now too.

The news people seem to get more extreme for each storm. I did laugh at the news guy who was showing that the water was ankle deep on the boardwalk, and got his foot stuck between the boards.

It was very windy here today too and it was odd to watch the hurricane on TV and listen to the wind outside. Sound effects I guess. 

I suppose tomorrow I'll be glued to the news again. I need to know that everyone is safe and dry. 

Hopefully, I will be able to get the dishes done too. 

Remember Way Back When?

I was looking at a few items from way back when. There are a lot of memories when you see so many things that you can't buy anymore. Well, I suppose you can buy them somewhere, but not something you'd see in the stores. 

I always thought these were fun to play with. There was also a flat wiggly that you could pet and it would move as you petted it. I can't remember the name of those though. It was in the late 60's or early 70's. Actually, it was just a piece of fuzzy fabric that had a name and was all the rage.  

And why was this called Mr Bubbles? Mrs Bubbles sounds more appropriate, doesn't it? 

Who ever thought that these would go out of style one day?

I think you can still buy these at specialty store. I was always undecided if I really liked these or not. 

We sure got a lot of use out of these as kids. We would fill them up with kool-aid and wait all day for them to freeze. 

Remember the Mood rings? The stone in the ring would change colors depending on your mood. 

And everything was Groovy!!

What item do you remember from way back when?

Peace Out

Peas

As I was making dinner tonight, and putting the peas in a saucepan, I wondered why I always have to have peas with my chicken and dumplings. They just make the meal complete. I can hear a certain someone gag on that comment. I even went to the store, just to get the peas for dinner.  

So that got me to thinking about what other foods people eat together. I think the top of the list would probably be cranberry sauce with their turkey dinner. It kind of ruins the dinner without it. 

I have to have tarter sauce with any fish I eat. Except tuna fish for sandwiches. But come to think of it, it might actually be better than mayo. The sample lady at Costco this week was giving out samples of tuna mixed with mayo and hot sauce...I passed on that one. I always have to have dill pickles on my sandwiches, and hamburger. It wouldn't be the same without pickles. None of those icky sweet pickles either. I can't eat an egg without ketchup. Or popcorn without salt. I find any steak or prime rib is boring without A-1 sauce. Hotdogs have to have mustard. It just isn't a hotdog without it.  

My mom is the only person I know that has to put salt in her Campbell's chicken noodle soup. Whoa, too much sodium there mom. She said no, salt is good for you..lol

So what foods do you have to have together? 

Lost in Town

Went for a 3 hour drive with my mom. Figured I'd find some pretty Fall colors. Took the big camera and had it ready for quick shots. I decided to go to the other side of town that is more rural, hoping to see lots of changing leaves. I was about 10 miles out in nowhere land, and the trees were mostly evergreens and no color changing trees. I decided to turn around and go back to town. But which way is town? I'm not sure which way is which. I'm not lost, am I?

And this is what I saw on that little road I turned on to. Wow, just beautiful. I think it was worth getting lost for. 

And I was still lost. I had to pull over and use my GPS on my cell phone. But we had no connection so far out in "where the Hell are we land". Than my mom starts getting nervous and saying things like "I don't want to sleep out here tonight" or "do we have enough gas"? So I had to reassure her that we would find Port Orchard again soon. As I'm looking at the gas gauge and wondering if we have 2 blankets in the trunk for sleeping with tonight. 

Thought this was a neat looking tree we found on our travels. We kept going left and we finally found our way back to town. We really needed ice cream after our adventure. Reminder to myself to put crackers and water in the trunk for getting lost next time. And jammies, a few pillows and a bedtime snack. 

And here is my favorite photo from driving around. No Fall colors, but that water was like a mirror. Pretty as a picture!