Carving Pumpkins

Before we get Halloween pictures this evening I thought I should post pumpkin carving pictures from last weekend. We had a great time and keeping with tradition Trevor and Jen came down to join in the fun. I think now I will let the pictures say the rest because there are so many cute ones!

Sam mucking out his pumpkin. Each child had a pumpkin, Matt assisted Sam, I assisted Serafina and Jennifer assisted Matteo (he only did stickers on his personal one, but then helped carve Trevors)

The group hard at work.

Serafina mucking out her pumpkin. She was more into then I thought she would be!

Matteo and his sticker pumpkin.



Helping Trevor, this was to much fun for him. He loves to get dirty.


Taking his hand at carving.


Being Darling.




The kids doing the poking of their designs. What concentration, both kids did most of the poking on their pumpkins, I was quite amazed compared to last year!



Serafina got into the craving part of her pumpkin also. That is the difference between my kids though because you wont find a picture of Sam carving he was on to something else by then! They crack me up.




This year not only did we carve but we also bedazzled our pumpkins with a little bling!


The pumpkin carving group.

Matteo enjoying a candy corn shot! (Orange sherbet ice cream and milk, rimmed with yellow sugar)

For dinner Nana prepared Sluge Cups



and Spaghetti and Eyeballs...yummy!!



A close up on the eyeballs.

Hope you all have a great Halloween. I would say I need to go get kids up from their naps to get them in their costumes but my children have been wearing theirs since 7:30 this morning. Starbucks appreciated it!

HOLES!?!

Well....it is done....there are holes in my daughter's ears. After a month of her talking about it and a week of her launching an all out debate with every member of the family her Noni and Karlee took her to claries and pierced her ears.

Her debates with me:
"Mom I want me ears pierced"
"I had mine pierced when I was 4, maybe we will talk about it then."
"Mom, I am 4."
"Lets talk to dad."

Oops, lost that debate.

Debate with Papa:
"I want my ears pierced, because you can't wear clip-ons to school. However if your ears are pierced you can wear earrings. But even if you could wear clip-ons, all of mine are broke, so I still need my ears pierced."

Debate with Nana:
Nana: "You have to discuss it with your mom and dad."
"I talked with mom she said I have to talk with Dad too. I don't know why we have to talk to dad, he is a boy. His ears aren't pierced."

Debate with Noni:
"Lets pierce my ears."
"I cant take you to pierce your ears without your mom's permission."
"Yes you can, once it is done its done, she cant do anything."
"If I took you with out your mom permission she might never let you come over here again."
"Noni, my mom wouldn't do that she would still let me come over."

They call me....I said go for it...so off they went. Karlee insured that the dots they apply before piercing were straight and at the same heights. Then two girls did both ears at the same time (we were a little afraid if we did one at a time the second one would never get done!!) Noni said they counted down and then shot them. Serafina's eyes got really big, but she never cried. When Noni said that they were done she ask if there was blood and then examined them in a mirror. She was so proud of her self that it did hurt much just a little sting and no blood!!

When the lady at the shop asked her why she wanted her ears pierced she told her "because my cousins have pierced ears." Noni asked her what cousins? Her response "Hunter and Madison." For the record they are good friends not cousins...I guess my daughter is a true Italian, if your a friend you must be a cousin! Thanks Long's!!

October Baking

This October my mom and I have attempt two different yummy Halloween treats which both turned out absolutely adorable if you want my opinion. One was our artisan style cookies done in a ghost shape and then bagged with candy corn to give to friends and family. They were a huge success and amazingly was the easiest artisan cookie we have done. We ended up making some where around 100+ ghost when all was said and done. Of course I am writing all this to share the pictures:

All decorated ready for packaging


One packaged


A group of ghosts!

Second I volunteered to make cupcakes for the kids school. Every year they have an Oktoberfest and well baking is my way of helping out. I wanted to try and do a cute Halloween/Oct cupcake and my mom found the cutest idea- dirt cupcakes. We frosted the cupcakes in chocolate frosting, then dipped them in crushed oreo's and topped them off with a gummy worm crawling out of them. Personally I think they are just about the cutest thing. Again pictures:

Close up.

The group

Pumpkin Patch

What a pumpkin patch!! Trevor and Jen sent us to a new pumpkin patch this year (instead of the traditional Avila Valley Barn)and we were definitely not disappointed. The pumpkin patch is called Nipomo Pumpkin Patch. They are a family grown patch and have been around for about 3yrs. They have the biggest pumpkins I have ever seen for sale. We ended up bringing home a pumpkin about 150lbs for $12 (did I mention their prices are incredible!) Last Thursday we went to downtown SLO to look at the giant pumpkins. The kids were sad they couldn't get very close or touch...well today were they excited. Not only were they able to get up close but they could touch the pumpkins also!! We were allowed to walk through the giant pumpkin fields and they even had a pumpkin all set up for pictures. We had a great time and the kids took their time picking out each one of their pumpkins. They were allowed one little one they could carry and then a bigger one to carve next weekend. It was fun getting to see what shape, size, stem, etc excited each one. They made great choices. So if you live on the central coast and want a fun family pumpkin patch, huge pumpkins and not the craziness of the barn head out to Nipomo Pumpkin Patch.

Heading out into the patch.


Picture time!


Sam and his carving pumpkin.


Serafina and her carving pumpkin.


Sorry Matteo you can't carry that one!


That's better!

Last Chemo - written by Lynn

A Major Milestone was passed today – my LAST chemo treatment! I know the next four days may not be much fun, but it is all uphill from there! Hurray! Actually, the entire process seemed to go quickly and though I don’t suggest this is the best way to spend six months (two for surgeries, four for chemo), it wasn’t as bad as I expected. I give a lot of the credit to my wonderful oncologist, Dr. Palchak, and his fantastic staff –this office goes above and beyond to make certain you are getting the best of the best in treatments and care. They are not just caregivers; they are family and treat you as such. The sweetest moment was today - just as the last of my chemo cocktail was dripping out of the IV I heard voices coming down the hall singing “congratulations to you…..” and I thought “how sweet, someone in one of the other chemo rooms is celebrating a birthday or something,” but it was Dr. Palchak and his entire staff coming into my room with a cake! It was all I could do not to cry (those of you that REALLY know me know that is not that unusual – but this was an incredibly sweet gesture and meant a lot to me).

So on we go – I will still have monthly infusions of the biophosphates, (the clinical trial I am a part of) through January, then every four months for the next 2 ½ years. They can be administered through an IV or using my port. The doc said that the highest percentage of cancer relapses occur within the first year so he wants me to keep my port until I am cancer free for a year. I wanted to say, “take it out, I’ve been there, done that with the cancer thing and there will be no relapses,” but I am glad that I won’t have to face another surgery before returning to the classroom in January. So I will wait and beg for them to remove it during my summer break.

In another week I go in for another PET scan and the radiologist will give me tattoos that will serve as the “targets” for delivering the radiation treatments. Those treatments will begin in three weeks (they want you recovered from chemo first).

I know that the side effects of radiation are different than chemo. The toughest chemo side effect for me has been weight gain. In the course of four months I gained30 pounds! This is harder on me than the hair loss, the good news is I can use my “skinny blouses” as head scarves. I was warned that most women gain weight on this drug regime, but I think I have been a bit of an overachiever in this arena. The problem was created by the combination of the drugs, my being too tired work out (six months ago I was doing intense boot camp workouts 3 to 4 times a week), and that I am one of those folks that eat when feeling down or bored. So now I must give my energy to fighting the side effects of radiation and fat cells so that come January I will have the energy necessary to challenge 29 second graders!

Sick

Our house is sick. Ok, I am sick. The kids might have a slight cold but the real thing decide to hit me. Hard. 5 days and counting. The hard part as a SAHM is the kids still want breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also still get in arguments and need directions on what to do. Oh yes and Matteo still needs his diaper change, poopy ones. Also, the little nut still needs growing energy. All I want to do is curl up in a little ball and sleep all day. My kids think I am really boring. My husbands says I DO NOT have the swine flu....I am not conviced.

The Pit bull

*Warning Pit bull lovers - this post is not in favor of said dogs*

Today our family was having a lovely quite Saturday. Let me emphasis the quite part as I am fighting a cold, my mom is fighting a cold and I am pretty sure Matteo is fighting said cold. Basically everyone was laying low. Matt need to tend to the goats so he took Serafina down the hill to do so. (Sam was working on homework) After about 30mins or so I began to wonder what was taking them so long, I called Matt's cell phone. To my shock he said there was pit bull down there attacking the goat and he couldn't stop him from attacking. Then the phone went dead.

My heart stopped, mom said you should go down and help. All I was thinking was that my 4yr old was down there too!

I ran down the hill to find Matt had found some cable and tied the dog to the car. He was now working as fast as he could to get the goats feed and back in their pen.

*side note our goats are very well trained/socialized that we are their family so they wont wander further then a few feet from us. When we are doing any yard work, cleaning of their pens we just let them wander around.

After getting the number off the dogs collar, I called the owner who wasn't home and left them a message. Then I quickly start to help Matt along with Serafina, who is giving me a play by play of the pit bull attack, get the goats in and safe. Meanwhile the dog is barking and trying to get at the goats. We had just got one goat in the pen when all of a sudden the dog manages to snap the cable and in a matter of a blink of an eye he has the other goat by the neck and flings him to the ground and is just attacking it. I grab Serafina and am screaming thinking I will frighten the dog. Matt tries to pull the dog off the goat to no avail and instead just starts kicking its head with his steal toe boot and finally the dog lets go. Thank God our goat jumps up and runs over to where I was and jumps on a hay bail.

Matt manages to secure the dog inside his car this time, as we had no other option. Our goat was so scared Matt had to pick her up and carry her into the cage. He looked her over and luckily she was just short some hair, the dog never broke the skin.

At that point I wanted that animal off my property. I have 3 young kids and he was not a nice dog. Serafina and I walked up the hill as the car was no longer a safe place and I called animal shelter to come get him.

Matt tied the dog up with Hershey's (our dog) leash and pinch collar. That calmed him down a bit and I kept the kids locked inside. When animal control came they were very happy at how we handled the situation and thanked Matt for tieing him up the way he did. He also look at the dog and found it was an un-neutered male, which didn't make him happy. He told Matt he would locate the owner and give them a little lecture. I was just happy he was no longer on our property.

Hopefully the 30min or so adrenile rush this afternoon doesn't ruin my chance of fighting this cold. And for the record we will never own a pit bull. Oh yes and the picture is not the exact dog that was on our property but is a pretty close match. Matt has accutly pictures on his face book.

10 1/2 Weeks

Today I had another OB visit, and yes he about died when I told him about my intelligender test. He definitely thought it was pretty funny and can not wait to see if it is true or not!! The world is waiting with baited breath. My mom and my mother-in-law went along with me. We had a great time and got a long look at the little nut. She (he) was swimming around quite active but my OB manged to get one good picture to print (which is pretty good considering how small the little guy is). He also tried to take a peek at the gender but it is to early, at one point he pointed to a white line on the screen and said that could be a boy part or just the umbilical cord, ha!

My next appointment is in 6wk and he promised to try and get a good look at the gender then! It cracks me up, I really thought with this one I would wait and find on the gender at birth but no. Now it is all we talk about. Promise the next post will be about something other than the little nut.

Looking at the picture the head is on the left and can make out the profile of the baby (pretty big nose huh?!?)

Predictions

Around our house we are into predicting the babies sex. With Serafina, I knew it was a boy because I wanted a boy (but secretly I suspected it was a girl). Every time I went to the OB I would ask him the heart (which was always in the 140 range) suggesting a girl. Which of course everyone was predicting a girl. (at which my OB just rolled his eyes)

With Matteo we decide to take it a step further and do the wedding ring on a string above your belly. I cant remember now but if it spun in a circle it meant one sex and if it swayed back and forth it was the other. Well my wedding ring did both at the same time so I thought for sure that meant fraternal twins...duh. Enter in the world Matteo; one boy!


So with this baby I though what experiment could we do this time. At the first ultrasound the heart beat was 140, Girl. (OB rolled his eye) But that didn't seem good enough that is when I found this:The Intelligender test!! For mere $29 at amazon.com you can find out your babies sex as early as 10wks. The accuracy is claimed to be 82% in really world testing and 90% in lab testing. OH baby who could pass up this fun way of predicting the babies sex before the 16wk (or so) ultrasound...Not me. So this morning I peed in cup, swirled around 10 minutes later discovered...

IT'S A GIRL!!!

To be honest it was not as easy to read as I thought because of the murky green color at the bottom so I went to the web site and compared sample results that they have up and it definitely is a girl prediction.

Needles to say I am hoping that I am not part of the 18% that get a false result (yes Jeanette we know you would probably fall in that category). I would love another girl. (Don't worry I will be happy with a boy too, a healthy baby is what we pray for) We are going to find out the babies sex, hopefully my OB will get a good look in about 5-6wk. I cant wait to tell him about my inteligender test, he is going to think I have truly gone off the deep end.

So there you have it. I will leave you now with my favorite FAQ from their web site:

Can I paint the baby’s room after the test results?
IntelliGender does not recommend test users to make any financial, emotional or family planning decisions based on the test results. This includes painting a nursery!

Another Aerospace Man?!?

As we preparing dinner this evening Matteo decided to entertain himself by reading the current issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology. The kid sat there for a good 10 minutes or more (obviously long enough for me to locate the camera and snap a picture). It was cracking the whole family up at how intent he was studying the pages (it was like he was reading the words.)

So between the train interest (or obsession) and now the interest in aerospace....I think he has been spending to much time with his Papa!!


And no the picture was not posed at all he was holding the magazine like that and reading it. I caught him totally of guard when the flash went off.