A View of Lisa's World

tales from the swamp...

I spent the morning at Kindergarten Halloween-a-palooza. It started with a rained out costume parade that got moved into the multi-use room. Then there was a party with 3 kinder classes and I got to paint skeletons, hearts and monsters on several dozen little cheeks! It was really cute and the kids all had a blast. (As if you can't tell, I fooled around with some actions on this first shot...something about those school doors in the background made me do it)

I couldn't resist the Pledge of Allegiance photo again either...especially with that monster hand over his heart. Kills me.

Trick or Treating had to start like it does every year with the first stop at the Great-Grandparents. I have a thing about getting a picture of the boys at their front door. Now that I think of it, I know I have one from a few years ago and maybe even before that. Got to find those photos and put them together in a layout don't I?

Here are a few more shots of my little monster.

Something fun....

I was recently asked to do a little guest design gig for Fiskars which was really fun. Today I got the link to my project up on the Fiskars Site. Way cool!

Speaking of cool...tomorrow is the big Kindergarten halloween parade...and a party too. It was cupcake-a-palooza over here today, but I think we are ready to roll.

Stay tuned for photos of my little swamp monster tomorrow! I just wish I had my lens back to take them with. I'm really missing it.

Meet Jack

We carved tonight and I had picked up a kit that had patterns and eyes. I asked Todd if he wanted to try one of the patterned faces and he said "no thanks, I want to use my imagination".

So he came up with a cute little face on his pumpkin...but his pumpkin eyes were a little to small for the plastic eyes we bought. He played with them for about 2 seconds and came up with this....the greatest pumpkin face ever if you ask me!

After the carving fest he went for a sleep over at my Mom's. The house is way to quiet...even though he would be asleep right now, just not having him breathing in the next room is way too weird.

He packed himself all up and gathered some favorite toys....and left with a monkey on his back...

man, I love this kid!

Hoping for Mr. Right

So it has been several months since I broke up with my housekeeper. I went back and forth between missing her and not missing her. For a while Moriah and I would joke about which one of us was going to blink first.

Finally a couple of months ago I caved and called a new service. They were more expensive but seemed more professional. I had them come once but I was less than thrilled with the outcome. They did everything I asked and even came back when I wasn't happy and did everything else I asked. But it just didn't feel "right".

I swear between my lack of a good hairdresser and housekeeper it is worse than dating.

I want what I want dangnabit. I want that brief moment each month of knowing that everything is clean...top to bottom, sparkly, non guilt inducing clean. The kind of clean that wasn't interrupted four hundred times to the point that the first thing I cleaned is now dirty again...and that the things I didn't clean are mocking me as I try to work on other things.

Clearly, I have issues with this whole break up.

So tonight I met with someone new...and I have high hopes. I'm crossing my fingers that I've kissed the last frog and this is my Mr. Right!

I'm still in denial that I am going to need a new hairdresser when the stripes on my head start growing out.

Do blondes really have more fun?

I might be finding out. My hair is decidedly lighter and shorter than planned. It is actually many colors...ok, well 3 colors but it feels like more. I said to my mom that I looked like a piece of striped patterned paper (had to get a scrapbooking reference in somewhere). I think I'll let it grow on me for a while (pardon the pun) but I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it.

I don't have a photo from today, but I'll see if I can muster one up tomorrow.

Ready for the week....

I'm blogging about this to remind myself how good it feels to have my "to do " list organized. It has been a pretty productive weekend (at least the lines crossing things off of my list says so) and that makes me feel good heading into Monday.

Like everyone else, I'm constantly multi-tasking and even though I know that writing things down is important, I go in and out of keeping my list updated. Even though the list is long, I am reminding myself that it is less overwhelming when I'm not counting on my swiss cheese brain to remember everything.

As of right now I am written down and ready for the week...which starts tomorrow morning with a walk, and my son's very first "performance" at school, followed by getting my hair cut at a new salon.

I'm ready! Bring on the week!

movie night

and a double Queen Latifah feature at that! Todd is having a sleep over at my mom's....so Matt and I took advantage and ran out to a quick movie. We saw the Secret Life of Bees which was really great. It was my turn to pick the movie...and there was nothing Matt wanted to see bad enough to fight me on it. He ended up liking the movie too.

Now we are home and watching What Happens in Vegas that we had on Tivo...I have to say, I never realized just how hot Ashton Kutcher is....I mean, I knew he was cute, but Wow...Demi is no dummy huh?

Just when I thought everything had changed....

Today my Mom and I were stopped at a red light on the El Camino in Redwood City when we could hear some loud music. We looked over and there was a cheerleading team on the football field of the high school nearby. The kids in the stands were going wild. I recognized a couple of the moves they were doing...iconic moves...because the music was also familiar. The original Michael Jackson Thriller.

It totally gave me flashbacks to when my best friend Suzie and I were cheering and wanted to do a routine to that. 1983-1984 I think. I remember she and I watching MTV for hours and trying to learn a few more moves every time Thriller came on (which was often then). We had no Tivo...no video recorder....we had to watch it live and try to learn the dance moves.

It was a brief moment on the time space continuum but it totally cracked me up.

More pumpkins...

Well we do live in the pumpkin capital of the world after all. Today was the Kindergarten field trip to the patch. Wow...60 kindergartners together is an experience, let me tell you. The kids (especially mine) were most excited about going on the school bus..."a REAL school bus"!

The kids had a great time running and climbing all over the hay pyramid...but unfortunately for Todd he had a little issue when half of the haystack ended up in his pants. This was a pretty big distraction for a while...but we finally dealt with it enough for him to enjoy the rest of the day.

Other than that, it was a pretty typical trip to the patch including a hay ride, corn maze, pumpkins and caterpillars!

just when I was wondering what I was going to blog about tonight...

It is usually around 8pm when I start wondering to myself what I'm going to blog about. Todd was getting ready for bed and asked if he could draw me a haunted house. I said sure. So he grabbed my to do list notebook and pen and set about drawing.

My favorite part about his drawing is when he says what he is drawing as he does it.

"...now I'm going to draw some steps"
"...and some eyes looking out from under the steps"
"...and I need to put some cobwebs in the windows"
"...oh and one on the roof"
"...and on the door...the door is squeaky"
"...and some ghosts...this one is floating"
"...and a spooky moon"
"...and some clouds"
"...and a skeleton on the road...he's jumping up and down"

"...and a porta-potty over here, because haunted houses don't have bathrooms on the inside"

and when I finished laughing I realized I didn't have to wonder what to blog about any more.