We just finished carving pumpkins last night and will hopefully have a few more Halloween decorations up this evening. The girls carved their very own pumpkins without any help. I also managed to get Ted to carve a pumpkin as well, it's like pulling teeth to get this guy away from his computer for so long. I dare ya to try and guess who carved what!
I was going crazy not being able to carve myself due to a very bad cut on my right thumb last Friday along with a minor cut on the other hand. Ted and the kids have been entirely in charge of cooking and cleaning all weekend. It wasn't so serious that I went to the doctor (didn't want to pay the emergency room visit) but it was bad enough I couldn't sleep for two night because of pain. Had this happened before the weekend I would have gone to my regular doctor but things never seem to work that way.
Sunday was supposed to be Isi's birthday party which had to be canceled due to vomiting the night before by Isi. Of course this is the night that Ted went out with some friends to a football game and I can barely take care of Isi because of my fingers. My amazing girls came to the rescue helping me clean Isi up all evening along with whatever else ended up in her path including myself. This led to the fact we were going to be awake along time that night and maybe the kids and I can watch a scary movie. The kids are getting older, what could be the harm? Well I came across a movie that I had never watched in it's entirety and thought it being something a little older maybe the kids wouldn't be as scared of it. We all watched "IT". It's still just as scary as ever! Hera refused to even look at the 'Clown' Jack-O-Lantern pattern when we were carving pumpkins.
To back it up a little more, Tuesday we went to court to try and 'Mediate', with the neighbors after tragically losing our dog. The good news is we settled and I think everyone left satisfied. Ted made me a proud woman standing up to three lawyers. Yes, that's right, they had three lawyers. I wish I could say more however I have signed a confidentiality agreement and am supposed to keep my mouth shut. I feel we can mover forward but I don't know if I'll ever be able to find any forgiveness for them.
I am ending with pictures from 'Crazy Hair Day' at school. I used wood skewers in Hera's hair to hold it up. These photos were taken after school, but before school, both Hera's braids stood straight up. They also have streaks of black in their hair which I learned would be much better to spray outside. That hairspray crap has a way of ending up all over the bathroom including up your nose from breathing it. Athena is getting too cool to do anything too crazy so hers is just messy with black streaks.



Stay in touch,
Hugs and Kisses,
The Sfikas Family

Arizona Sunset

I am finally back! We are getting back into old routines after having an awesome visit with my Mom and Terry. We went to Sedona to site see and visit the art show, we went to the Grand Canyon overnight where we saw the Canyon for 30 seconds before being caught in a downpour with hail which made us spend the rest of the evening drying off in the hotel. Thank goodness the next day was good and we saw a deer, a coyote (6 feet from the car), a raven, drove by a freshly killed skunk which stunk up the car for an hour, then on the way home we were stuck in an extra two hours worth of traffic due to an earlier accident. We made visits to the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo then ended with a Sunset Jeep Tour just north of where we live. Here are some of the pictures from it.

We all took turns shooting a 22 caliber gun.

We each had six shots and I hit my target, woohoo! Ted was aloud an extra six shots with a larger gun but it still never helped him hit the target, na, na, na, na, na, na. Woman rule!

Mom are Terry also tried out their gun shootin' skills and apparently Terry has a really amazing shot. When I told Athena about this she asked, 'Has Terry ever killed someone ?' I couldn't stop laughing.

Everything else is going great here. Isi is officially saying too many words for me to keep up with. Our 'Biometrics' are done, just finger prints and a photo. I don't know if we are now done or if we might have an interview to do also. As for me, I have been on a cleaning marathon and am driving the whole house mad. Even so I think they are all catching the cleaning bug because I even managed to get the kids to start going through all their things without my help. Yup, I see a fantastic garage sale in April.

Arizona sunset.

This is the hat I designed for Hera. The ribbing wasn't very strong so I made this daisy chain with stretchy cord to help give it a nice fit. The yarn if soft and has just a hint of sparkle. I have already started a different one for Athena and can't wait to see how it turns out.

Till next time,

Charmaine