Frag'n Friday!

I'm a winner! I'm a winner! My weekend is starting out great because I was bestowed the honor of co-Fragment Friday Fun/Fish/Fantastic/ what does the other F stand for? Anyway, Mrs 4444's (the creator of Friday Fragments) thought my frag with Gretel and the grave she dug for me was worthy of an award!!! I'd like to thank the 4444's family, my family, Gretel for being a smart ass of a dog, my stuffed bear.... Go check out Mrs. 4444's Friday Fragments to get a load off your mind before the start of the weekend!

*Halloween is tomorrow. I will admit I am not a big fan of Halloween. Candy yes. Dressing up no. Case in point the perfect meltdown K had last night because our barn is having a Halloween Horse Show today and she is not ready. And, I know I am so mean, I will not take her out of school early today to shop for accessories for her camel/horse.

*Carving pumpkins is fun and cooking the seeds is fun, too. And picking the seeds out of my teeth for a week is REALLY fun. B and I carved the other day while K raked in the bucks at the barn guiding 3 trailrides.

BEFORE

DURING (electric knife tool, very fun!)

MINE AFTER (I took this picture because it looked like it had a boogy hanging from it's nose. I am so mature.)

LIGHTS!

*When I was outside taking the lit pumpkins (yeah, they had had a few too many), I turned around to grab a quick pic of the sunset. We have had some amazing sky color here lately!
*When I was in Maine last weekend for the memorial service, we drove around Ogunquit a little. They were having some sort of a creative pumpkin contest. My dad was driving (yeah, and I was in the back seat) and my mom and I were frustrating him by telling him to pull over every 5 seconds. So, I got 2 pictures before he locked the doors and hit the gas.


Some people are very clever.

*You know when you go to the Drs for a physical you shower, shave and try to smell good? Well I took my car to get inspected yesterday (2 days BEFORE it expired, that's impressive!). First, I cleaned it out, then I wiped 3 inches of dust off the dash, then I even windexed the inside of the windows and lastly I vacumed out a summers worth of sand from the trunk! She was looking sweet! I didn't have to wash the outside, the torrential rainfall took care of that the other day. She passed her test with flying colors and I got a wink from the man who didn't speak much english. I think that might be the same type of appreciative wink your Dr. gives you when you clean up for him/her. Either way, my car and I felt good leaving with a new sticker!

*I am sure I will have a barn party wrap up this weekend and Halloween in general wrap up. Then we can move on looking forward to the next feeding frenzy; Thanksgiving!

HAPPY WEEKEND!

Memorial

My family and I (meaning me, my sister, mom, dad and brother) went to a memorial service on Saturday in Maine. It was for a family friend who once lived in our first neighborhood in Acton, MA and then relocated to Ogunquit, ME where we summered for years. Basically, I have known this family for most of my years. The mom is very artistic and has painted me bowls and knit me and my kids' sweaters and our Christmas stockings. I even got dressed on my wedding day in their house. It was the father that died suddenly, who the service was for. He was the one in the family that I knew the least.

Evidently, he did not want any kind of service or any attention drawn to him. Do you find this a selfish request of the deceased? I just think closure is important in a situation such as death and what provides more closure than a wake and/or service? So 2 weeks after he died, the family had this luncheon, memorial service for him. It was very thoughtful and many aspects of his life were well documented in the speeches that the people chosen gave. I actually learned a lot about him that I never knew. He played football in HS and College. I never saw him out of khakis and loafers. He sent people he loved newspaper articles (he read 6 papers a day!) and he never wanted presents on his birthday or Christmas, just cards.

So my brother writes a Monday question every week to a list of people that has grown into the 100's. It started with just his family and a few friends and has grown over the last 7 or so years to hundreds of "friends". He writes a question, we answer and he gives the results on Tuesday evening. Yesterday he spoke of the memorial service and how he had learned a lot, too. Then he asked,

"There were other things, but the point being, we all do so many things that others don't know about, and instead of hearing about them at your funeral, let's hear about them now.

Ok, gimme one, or two, or heck three things that we don't know about you, or that you think is particularly unique, or that you are over-the-top consistent with."

This has caused me to think (a lot). It eebs me out to think of what people would say at my funeral, but it made me curious to think what would be said. So the things that might be said about me are

"She ate plain M&Ms with a vengence. It's no wonder the girl wasn't 300lbs."

"She definitely did NOT throw like a girl."

"She was a sucker when it came to buying pens: permanent, ball point, colored, markers, paint pens and pencils. She had QUITE a collection!"

Anyway, it is/was weird to think about my mortality and I really don't want to be revisiting this topic for at least 50 more years. However, I will now turn the question on you.

Ok, gimme one, or two, or heck three things that we don't know about you, or that you think is particularly unique, or that you are over-the-top consistent with."

Frag'n Friday!

Welcome to Friday Fragments where it is the easiest day of the week to blog because all I have in my head these days are fragments. Thanks Mrs. 4444's for keeping me on my toes.

*First, let me thank you all for your kind words last week. I appreciate them and felt like I had little virtual hugs every time a comment popped up.

*I need to have a proud mom moment. B sang a solo at church on Sunday, well the rest of the chorus sang too, but you will see that I cut them off. Not on purpose, I just wanted it to be a quick video so I could download it easily. A few jaws hit the floor in church. I guess I have been hiding her talent in the house.

*I had to put Gretel out in the backyard yesterday while the Comcast man was fixing my internet. I don't think she was too happy with this because when I went to get her she told me to get into the grave she had dug.

*Our church is selling pumpkins this month and someone had taken the time to line them up all along the walkway. They looked so pretty!


* A friend of mine from HS posted this story on her facebook page yesterday and I just had to share. She gave me the OK, so I just posted it in her words. Just classic!!!!

So for anyone who misses NH ......today some guy without all his teeth managed to bag a bull moose. He had it in the back of his truck and while he was driving down Main St in Antrim it fell out of the truck in front of the Bar...aptly named Redneck...s (no kidding) So he and some other finely dressed gentlemen drag the moose down Main St and into the parking lot of the Grocery Store.

A crowd gathers, including the chief of police and a group of folks who appear to be Amish. They all stand around and look at this poor animal and wonder how to get it back into the 1982 baby blue Dodge with the plywood bed and the duct tape muffler. Sooooo somebody comes by with a bucket loader (but of course) and they tie a chain to the moose ... and hoist it up so it is dangling above the truck blocking the door to the grocery store. Finally the brain trust gets it in the truck. Classic NH entertainment.

*I saw The Proposal this week on DVD. It is a very cute story with some sweet views of Alaska!

Have a super weekend! :)

Frag'n Friday!

Time for Friday Fragments sponsored by the ever delightful Mrs. 4444's way over there in Wisconsin. If it's snowing in Mass today, I can only imagine what it is doing out there! Maybe Mrs. 4444's is fragmenting from underneath her down comforter today?!

*B wore socks to bed the other night. (something she doesn't usually do) When she woke up in the morning she said, " Socks are great to sleep in! They are like little blankets for your feet."

*What is up with the guy that was arrested this week for hitting on the nurse as she was trying to help his wife(?) deliver their kid?

*Did you know that bunnies can give birth and then get pregnant immediately after? Really? Does the male bunny think the female bunny looks all hot after delivering a litter? Is she really into it or does this constitute as rape in the animal kingdom? The thought of having sex after delivering one kid took about 2 months and then the actual act took another month. Ha ha.

*Have you ever wondered if a movie or a book is appropriate for your child? There is a great website out there that rates the latest movies/books and gives you a heads up on what to expect.
www.commonsensemedia.org

*Balloons can entertain my girls for (hours) minutes. Yeah it doesn't take much. Evidently, Gretel likes them too....



*You know your day is going to be a good one when a friend drops off homemade whoopie pies at 7:00 in the morning!

*If you are on the Cape this weekend, the Wellfleet Oyster Festival is the place to be! Just be sure to bundle up!

The Past 2 Weeks..

While I have been missing from blog-ville and missing all of you, I have

*seen 2 new bunnies at our farm

*celebrated my parent's 45th wedding anniversary

*cleaned a floor on my hands and knees (happily?)

*let B fulfill her life long dream of seeing a snow machine up close and personal.

*got the girls and I set up to have a kick ass winter skiing and snowboarding at a ski swap at Wachussett Mountain.

*watched B fully enjoy the snow machines.

*made K laugh so hard she almost peed.

*picked some pretty fall leaves.

*got to snuggle with a very cute bebe.

*hung out with my sister and brother and our friend Jill on a beautiful fall day.

*brought my camera into a farm market because everything looked so beautiful!

*And moved.

*Oh yeah, and separated from my husband.

*Yup, it was a pretty busy 2 weeks.