Super busy!

We are super busy this week and have been since last friday, will do a detailed update when I get a shower, a moment to relax, and my head to stay on one concise thought!

Until then.... Enjoy

I am in love!

I really, truly have fallen in love with Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin body spray and lotion from Bath and Body Works. I saw an ad for it on my facebook and made sure to check it out and picked some up when I went to visit some friends a few weeks ago. I liked it instantly but after a day or so, when we got home, I wasn't so sure that I liked it. But I decided to give it a few days and yeah, I really do like it. In fact, I love it! This is probably the first and only lotion and body spray that I have ever gone through so quickly. Well, okay, I'm not out, but the frequency in which I use it is greater than the others I have. Apparently they also have a creamy pumpkin lotion. But I am heading back soon to check it out. And I have a list of other scents I want to sniff and see if I like. 

A Sunday well spent

Unlike a good majority of my fellow Americans, I do not like foot ball, in fact I detest it. I won't go into the reason why just be satisfied that I hate it. So, I decided that I would find something constructive to do this past Sunday. Of course I had some writing that I could have been doing, library books that need to be read, but I just kind of wanted to play in the kitchen for a bit, move around for as long as my back could stand it. There were also some vegetables and some fruit that needed to be used up. I will be sure to share pictures of all the food I made on my Crafts and Culinary blog after this.

I started out making a beef stew and pumpkin bread. Then I began the work for Kaiser rolls and decided, after all that I did want to try out a recipe I found for pumpkin butter. However, we don't have apple juice but we still have lots of apples. So I decided to make mulled apple cider from scratch since apple cider is supposed to go into the pumpkin butter. So after I got the mulled apple cider done I made the pumpkin butter and since I had the apples from the cider left over and I didn't want to waste them, I just put them in the blender and made apple sauce.

So we now have Kaiser rolls (most of which have been eaten , pumpkin bread, apple sauce, pumpkin butter, mulled apple cider, and a little of the vegetable beef stew (what's left over anyway).

After all was said and done I cleaned up the kitchen and was hurting pretty bad. So I sat down on the sofa, watched Once Upon a Time and 666 Park Avenue. I really like Once Upon a Time and I'm semi-hooked on 666 Park Avenue. I want to see what's going to happen next week and probably give it a couple more episodes before I decide if I really like it or not.

And Vampire Diaries fans, remember this Thursday the 11th is the start of the new season on the CW.

It's smokey!

It's been so long since we've had rain that I can't remember when the last time we actually had it. How sad. And because of that and the forest fires over in Washington State, we are under a "no burn" ban. We're not supposed to have any open flames going because it would just too easy for a fire to start.

That puts a tiny damper on our plans for Halloween, but that's okay. We've found alternatives for light for what we are planning.

Also with the smoke blowing over from WA, it's very hazy here. A lot of people are dealing with the Fall allergies on top of some trouble from the smoke. 

Happy October!!!

Finally! October is here, one of my favorite months of the year! All the leaves up here in the Northwest are turning, Halloween decorations and candy are filling the store shelves, and we have been loading up on apples and pumpkin!

I've been reading a bit about the history of Halloween/Samhain and I've found it really interesting. But I will be saving that for a later blog post because this one is just a short update and I need to get to bed shortly.

So much will be going on this month. Two of my cousins have birthdays this month, a friend has a birthday, my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, and Skoora's cousin's 25th anniversary as well as our 5th. Of course this is Halloween itself. I think we will be having a small party after all!

At some point, when I feel up to it, I need to get out to take some pictures because there are some really beautiful tress and bushes turning.

Can you believe that I bought 4 big cans of pumpkin today?! We'll be having pumpkin bread out the wazoo! I also found a pumpkin spice coco and a pumpkin spice coffee creamer. What I didn't find was more of the sweet harvest pumpkin tea that we picked up last time we went grocery shopping. I will be looking for that online.

Upset and still not quite myself

There are days I really wish there were portal systems that would allow me to go from Idaho to Kansas. I would go see friends and spend time with family. More importantly, today I would have puddle jumped home to strangle my father's sister, my snotty-self-important Auntie M. My parents have been taking care of my Grandmother since she broke her leg and my mom has even been staying over to help. She's done laundry, cooked, done the dishes, cared for my Grandma in the bathroom and helped her get around. She's even helped my Grandpa with his shingles. Grandma was talking to my mom about getting out to see her friends and have some time to herself for a bit since my mom was there and could stay with my Grandpa, who has Alzheimer's.

Then here comes Auntie M, who has wanted to shove Grandpa into a nursing home ever since she knew he had Alzheimer's. In fact she treats my Grandpa so condescendingly, like a five year old. It's awful, never mind that she's always treated my parents and many times even me like we were nothing more than trailer trash putting a black mark on her because we aren't as trendy, wealthy, or Democratic as she and her family are. And aside from the way she and her husband have treated my parents and I, it's taken her 3 weeks to up to a couple of months to return a phone call to my Grandma. Not to mention that she only deigns to visit the rest of the family when it's a holiday and sometimes not even then.

So what did she do this time? She somehow coned or perhaps even bullied Grandma into moving into a nursing home not 12 hours after being at her house. Granted I know my Grandparents are probably set for the rest of their lives but nursing homes are so expensive. Now if this was something that Grandma really wanted to do, I would support her all the way. She is 84 after all and eventually she won't be able to take care of Grandpa on her own or do a lot of things that she likes too. She is very independent. But Grandma wasn't even talking about it until Auntie M came around.

It's like this. My Aunt can't be bothered to come down and help and when she does come down they down help out at all, and they can't be bothered to return phone calls. My parents and I, when I am living in Ks, go over and help out all the time, go over for weekly Sunday dinners, and go over to spend time with my Grandparents. I call my Grandma at least once a week if not more. Do you think either of Auntie M's kids do that? Nope. So it really pisses me off when Auntie M thinks she knows better than anyone else and starts pushing her agenda on people. She just wants Grandma and Grandpa in a nursing home and probably wants to sell their stuff and their house to be done with it so she can go back to her happy, perfect, more important little life in Nebraska ad not be bothered with them again until they die. It's sickening.

On the other side of the family, my mom's twin decided that she wasn't getting enough attention from my mom since my mom has been helping my Grandma out. So when my mom called her this afternoon to check up on one of my cousins she ripped my mom a new one for it. Disgusting. Could she be any more selfish?

I talked to the doctor's nurse yesterday or so, I don't remember what day it was. Apparently my back is fucked and will continue to become more fucked but it's not in need of surgery yet so I am screwed. Oh joy! Her recemndation is to A) lose weight (no shit, I've been working on that). B) pain block shots (As if I could afford those), and C) more physical therapy (They are only going to show me the same crap again, which I will do but grr!). Conclusion, you're screwed but not screwed enough. How maddening.

I spent a good hour this morning trying not to feel frustrated and focused on Yoda, who was sleeping beside me in bed. He certainly was a happy kitty.

I've read most of the books that I borrowed from the library and took them back and managed to pick up a few more. These were on drawing. I think I will end up taking two of them back tomorrow. They just aren't what I am looking for.

All in all I am feeling a little better, at least a little more grounded in myself and not so damned apathetic and listless as I was. But I still don't really feel like myself. I'm writing a little bit again, just some little blog posts, most are post dated for my craft blog. Today I started reading about Halloween/Samhain, the roots of it and customs all around. I have two books on it and wish the library had more. They might, I will check. I don't like to just look at one or two sources for information, I like to have three or more and see what the consensus is.

I need to start working on the Halloween party plans. I really wanted Skoora to look at some stuff with me but I think it would help if I have some ground work covered so she can just jump in from there.       

Forcing myself to write something

Today did not go as I wanted but then it rarely does. We did have a good time with Skoora's Aunt. We went to Burger King for a small lunch after which we all headed to the park to walk around. My back didn't really appreciate it but I pretty much told it to shove it.

We took her aunt home after awhile then headed up to the library because I had some books there on hold to pick up. While there I ended up picking up more books than I had intended as well as some DVDs. Kind of hoping I can get all the movies and books read in the last part of the week because I think, aside from a few blog posts, I am going to take a small break from writing, just long enough to immerse myself in some reading.

Of the books I picked up today:

Fullmetal Alchemist V1- the Manga
Rurouni Kenshin V1, V2, & V3- Manga
The Art of Fullmetal Alchemist The Anime
Halloween From Pagan Ritual to Party Night
Halloween: Customs, Spells, and Rituals by Silver Raven Wolf.

Of the Movies:
The Artist
Coraline
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionare (Which I have seen but loved and wanted to see again)
Secrets of the Dead: Witch Curse

Haven't heard anything from the doctor about my MRI and I guess I am supposed to call them tomorrow if I don't. But I did ask for a copy of the report to be sent to me. So, maybe one way or the other, I will have some news tomorrow and won't have to fight that damned phone VRU.

Well, time for a movie because I am getting tired and really don't want to think very much. Kind of in the mood to get lost in something.