They have set in, my husband is back at work, my son's friends aren't home and I'm sitting on my new exercise ball.  Perhaps it's just because the chocolate has nearly run out, perhaps it's because my pile of laundry is almost as tall as the house.  Perhaps it's because I'm ready to do more school and my blessed son is enjoying his time off. 

We did get out last night and roamed around Target trying to figure out how to spend my gift card.  We're probably going back tonight.  I suffer from SI (Shopping indecision).  I can never make a choice while there.  I thought I had it all planned out,  I made a list from my online decision, but they didn't have my online items in the store.  Normally they do, but the threadbare racks just showed that they hadn't restocked yet.  I've already done one order from Target and it's supposed to arrive today.  I hear the UPS truck in the neighborhood or perhaps it's just wishful thinking.    So I shopped online again today and discovered the items I want cost 8.00 in shipping. These are items I did see in the store last night, so no thanks, I'll go back to the store. 

We did get in a few items today, a couple of logic pages.  Those are fun.  My son is naturally logical, he might have vulcan blood.   Now he has asked to go play with the dog.  So off we go, PE time. 

I haven't posted much this month.  We are kind in that lull of our school year.  You know the one where you have the groove figured out and you feel as if you are moving along, but nothing real exciting.  We've had some great moments of hilarity and spontanaiety (sp?)  this month as well.  Those are sometimes hard to describe and sometimes best kept between mother and son. 

 I mean do you really want to know that to avoid going over the edge I break into song?  The other day my ds(that's darling with a smirk, today) told me he hates math. He was basically stating that he refused to do math.  Instead of my usual reaction I broke into song.  I came up with an "I hate math" song in several genres, tied it into our composer study, sang about the marriage of music and math and kept going until we were both laughing so hard it hurt.  Seriously, how would I know a waltz was a waltz without math?  What about a 1/2 note? Would it be a partial note? Would a whole note be a circle note or a pie note?  It just wouldn't be right. 

Okay, okay back to my little reality.  What is a nanowrimo?  It is a yearly contest where writers and would be writers compete with themselves.  We strive to reach 50k words in some form of a story between Nov 1 and Nov 30.  I'm currently close to 32k words and going strong.  I've been sucked into this alternate reality I've created with story.  My story has bits of my life throughout it.  Some of the characters and events are based upon real life, just not any of it is real, except the three legged cat (you'll have to wait to see what I mean).  So if you are interested to see what  it's all about, check out nanowrimo.org.  The only real prize is a certificate with your name on it, oh and you get to print it yourself.  You also get the deep satisfaction that goes with delving into undiscovered portions of your brain. You also get a glimpse of what carpal tunnel syndrome might feel like after typing over 3k words in one sitting. 

So I'll be back after November, before if I can slam out the remaining 28k words in the next ten days.  Or if my brain liquifies while trying to type as fast as my thoughts, or if I have to make up songs about anything besides math and music.  Oh, please, I need more coffee.

Where we live it has just cooled off.  I'm sure it won't stay that way for long, but the humidity is down, the windows are open and the a/c is off.  It's the middle of October and I'm just now starting to think about long pants.  I think I'm starting to like winter.

My hubby and I both grew up in a state where ice, snow, and freezing temps were just a part of the norm.  While I liked snow as a kid, as an adult I could so do without it.  I take no pleasure in being cold.  My hubby hates to wear too many layers of clothes and getting my son to wear a shirt to school is a major feat. 

Last year,  our first in the south, my mind kept waiting for that day to come.  You know the one where you pack up the flip flops, you resign yourself to no longer wear capris because your ankles are freezing.  It never really happened.  While I did move onto jeans, I proudly wore my flip flops while Christmas shopping.  I even wore them in February!

Today we woke up with the windows open.  But instead of dreading the impending cold, I know I won't have to pack away the flip flops anytime soon.  That's great because besides boots and workout tennies I have one pair of closed toe shoes. 

Some people may enjoy the beauty of snow the briskness of the cool air, not us.  Yes,  the summers are hot, but not anymore than where we used to live.  So now my years feel complete.  There is no longer a winter in which I prefer to hibernate.  By moving south we've added an extra three to four months of life to each year for our family.  Gotta go, I'm going to open more windows!

Okay with dh and ds out of town I now prove to my family that our house can be clean.  We are in the midst of painting my son's room, so it took me two days to get it this way.

Our Homeschool/dining room.  Normally there are piles of books here.  I even got my next two weeks of scheduling done.

While the floors are still a work in progress the red walls are done.  The "ketchup" walls as my son likes to refer to them.  No toys on the floor,  ah!, enjoy the moment.

A clean desk.  Hopefully the command center I set up will inspire cleanliness.

A clean playroom.  Check out the floor, you can see the rug!

And these last and most prestigious photos go to my honey.  Remember, a clean kitchen only means that I'm not cooking anything.

Please ignore the avacado green counters.  We are living a little retro while we do a long term flip. Drum Roll please  A CLEAN KITCHEN SINK!!

Thank your for sharing in this glorious moment with me.  Remember to everything there is a season.  This cleanliness is but for a season, even if it's the shortest season on record. :)

Well, the first official hurricane to hit the Gulf coast in 2007 lands right in my area.  Fancy that, we didn't even know there was a hurricane coming! Since it wasn't declared a hurricane until the middle of the night and it was only declared a tropical storm yesterday.  If I sound a little bitter well I am.  Humberto is standing in the way of some very big plans we had for this weekend.   

Besides the inconvienience we are experiencing we are currently just getting rain.  They have called off school for most of the area and are prediciting localized flooding.  My hubby is supposed to be finishing a roof today.  It may be getting draped in a lovely blue tarp today instead. 

I plan on taking some pictures once it is daylight.  While our house doesn't flood, our ditch in our front yard does.  If we get enough rain it creates a nice lake effect and our street has flooded before. 

Please pray that this storms dissaptes quickly and let the rain head out to where others need it.  We certainley don't. 

While I don't have the pictures yet I wanted to share this creepy story.  Yesterday my hubby saw a snake sitting in the rafters of our carport that is attached to our shed.  He just uses it to store his work stuff so I don't have to go back there.  It was a little 3ft snake, according to his estimates.  I was curious, but not overly curious.  Hubby's trailer was also parked under there so I either had to get super close, or on the other side of the trailer.  I opted for the further part, not knowing the snakes intent.  Hubby said it looked like he/she had just had dinner.  I would assume that meant a bump in it belly. 

I got out the digital camera and snapped a few shaky shots.  One turned out and you can even see the reflection of it's eyes! I couldn't even see it's eyes from my vantage point.  My son was very excited about that point but didn't want to get super close either.

So today I went out there and again the snake is up there.  I had checked earlier and didn't see it, so I either missed it or the snake now has a great hideway from the daily rains we've been having.  I was a little creeped out by the whole thing, but I'd rather know where the snakes are than not see them at all.  We seen at least 4 different kinds in our yard, that's one reason we quit trying to explore our overgrown acerage. 

So I quit watching the snakes and enjoyed a nice display from the green anole lizards who were lunching on a bunch of ants crawling all over the carport.  They are fun to watch in comparison with the snake, who didn't move at all. 

So now I'm off to research the internet to see if I can determine what kind of snake it actually is.  I'll post pictures when I get them uploaded.  In the meantime I'm not going outside with shoes anymore. 

My hubby and I both grew up in the Midwest.  Funny thing is, we can't stand cold, snow, or ice.  We prayed for years to move to a place where we wanted to be outside in February.  Finally, last year God released us, not to Florida as we had hoped, but to Louisiana.  We've been blessed to stand on many great beaches of the US and Costa Rica.  Even from the midwest we managed to get to a real beach, real ocean every couple of years.  If not, the withdrawl sets in.

I was excited moving to someplace where we would be less than an hour from the ocean.  Granted, the beaches were washed away in a hurricane, but the ocean would still be there.  Have I been in the last year? NO! With one car and crazy work hours for my honey, we've never made it. 

Today I was watching "Pirates of the Caribbean" and once I started looking at the scenery I knew I was in trouble.  The withdrawl kicked into high gear.  It's one thing when you live 1000 miles from the nearest ocean, but to be a hour away and not go, UGH!  It's was further aggravated knowing we have a short trip planned for later this summer to a Texas beach.  My impatience is kicking in.

It rained all day today and I had a river flowing through my front yard, at least that's sort of waterfront property.  I could go look at my coastal living magazine and get further frustrated.  Instead I pouted.  When honey got home I told him we needed to live closer to the beach if we were only going to have one car, he agreed.  But God has us here for now, "Bloom where you are planted", he's(that's God not my hubby)  told me before. 

Oh well, the vacation is coming up soon, I can sort of see the tiny palm trees in my backyard if I look through the brush.  And I do live somewhere that I can wear flip-flops in February without freezing.  Tomorrow I'll gaze at my sand collection and check out some oceanfront vacation homes online.  I'll probably play my "Pirates of the Caribbean" soundtrack at least once.  At least I can go to bed tonight without sand in between my toes.

You know how you have those projects that you will get to someday?  Well yesterday was our someday, at least partially.  My hubby is a contractor so my honey do list reflects that and well, the list could be laminated as long as some projects take. 

Our house is a fixer upper. It's set on a wooded lot and the layout is great.  The decor is mostly 30 years old plus.  We've slowly been working on it and my hubby's words, "It's all cosmetic" just ring in my ears. 

As a contractor my honey is sometimes gifted with items that are totally reusable.  A couple of years ago a friend of our was redoing her kitchen and he came home with a beautiful swanstone double kitchen sink and a tall long handled faucet attached.  It was supposed to go in my previous home.  It never made it there and after having the kitchen sink laying around for almost 2 years, it's finally in my house working.  That "someday we'll put that in" finally happened.  I'm truly leary of using it, it so wonderful.  It's so deep I had to reach down to wash the dishes.

I've also been without a car for several months.  We've been waiting for the right deal.  While waiting my honey's fairly new truck blew a motor. Right now it is an extrememly expensive lawn ornament.  He borrowed a truck for a while, but gave up and finally purchased a "new" SUV.  It's GMC Jimmy that was top of the line brand new.  Technically, it's my car.  But of course he has to drive it to work.  It's so nice to drive.  Normally for me, we buy cars cheap and they never have had less than 100k miles.  This one isn't even there yet.  It has a CD player that cranks really loud.  That is so nice. It really is the nicest car that  I've almost owned.  He has kept telling me "someday I'll get you a nice car", he never did say I would get to drive it right away LOL.

Part of our cosmetic redo in our home include redoing a harvest gold bathroom and an avacado green one.  Tub, toilet, sink all in the classic colors.  Finally that someday came.  My parents had sent a gift card for my birthday and what did I buy with it? A toilet.  We almost got it in, at least it's in the garage.  The harvest gold is gone and the new floor is halfway down.

I almost didn't recognize my "someday".  It was plauged with distractions.  First my son accidently had the new SUV hatch bonk him on the head in the Lowe's parking lot.  My hubby felt awful but said son was okay after some tlc.  Then while removing carpet tacks (my project for the day) I smashed my hand with the hammer.  The ensuing blood blister only hurt until the pain went away.  Finally, while cutting vinyl tile my hubby sliced his thumb with a new razor knife.  years of experience have taught him to be careful, but....As he was laying on the floor with a washcloth trying to stop the blood, I was wiping blood off the new tile.  We dug out the first aid kit and consulted our nurse neighbor who said it could use stitches.  We'll see today. 

In all of those distractions I almost missed that things are getting done.  I almost missed the beauty of long held promises being fufilled. I know God has been working on my patience lately, perhaps this is just one little glimpse into the rewards of it.  I used to think life was like a roller coaster, ups then downs, totally seperated.  As I get older I realize that the good is sometimes mixed in with the bad. You just have to decide which one to truly taste.