Movie night

Last Tuesday we took our kiddo out for a impromptu date night to see Puss in Boots.

Got to love $5 dollar movie nights when kids under 3 are free and they give you free popcorn refills and your cheapskate mom smuggles in Halloween candy for you because she refuses to buy $10 candy at the concession stand.

We had a great time, and the movie was pretty cute too.

The Harvest Festival 2011

Once again, I left my Nikon behind. It wasn't on purpose this time, I was actually pretty ticked off at myself. I had to borrow my sisters camera to get what I did and then hound her for weeks to get the pictures to me. (Thanks sis!)

Before Halloween we all headed over to the Harvest Festival at Underwood Farms with my family. We hit it up a second time two weeks later with my mother-in-law, and again, I had no camera.

Argh. I swear my brain doesn't work the same after having a kid.

Sully had a great time feeding the animals, watching the Pig Races, eating snow cones and going down the tractor slide with his Papa. He got to pick out his own pumpkin. The second time around we hit up the corn stand, the sandbox area, the petting zoo and the tractor pull ride.

It was a fun way to kick off fall.

My lovey

Sisters

Pig races

Papa & Sully

Wearing Papa's hat & watching the Pig Races. Go Team Blue!

Mama's boy

Being silly with Yaya

My sister & my dad

I like to be a creeper and sneak up on people taking pictures of themselves

Uncreepified

Tunnels

The house that pumpkins built

The bigguns (It weighed 500lbs!)

Going down the slide with Papa

Cool, right?

Here comes kid #1

Woo hoo!

And here comes kid #2

Choosing his pumpkin

Alright, lets go

Its a keeper

One last honkey tonk to the music and thats our cue to two step on outta there

To the hills

With everything we had going on the past couple months, we decided to take off for a last minute camping trip with my sister and her fiance to clear our heads and get the hell out of dodge for a few days.

And despite one of the hottest weekends on record for the beginning of October, it was still just what we needed. I literally turned my phone off Friday and chucked it in my truck and didn't turn it on again until Sunday afternoon when we were heading back home.

And it was nice. It was real nice.

The first thing Sully did was run for the grassy fields and find a nice big dirt pile to play in with his cars. He made fast friends with the local chipmunks once again and roasted his marshmallows like a pro.

The nights were painfully cold, but there is just something about waking up in your tent, huddled under mounds of sleeping bags with your sticky, dirty kid wedged against you and the smell of last nights campfire drifting through the air. Making pancakes and bacon over an open flame while the mist still lifts up over the hills and the sun starts to peek out.

There is just something about seeing my kid caked in dirt and smelling like grass and bark and sweat that makes me smile ear to ear. About ditching the makeup and pairing ugly ass sweatpants with boots and getting away with it. About shit talking each other over a open flame and wishing somebody knew how to play the guitar because you're one smore away from singing Kumbaya.

I think we all felt a little calmer after the weekend.

Like I said - it was nice. It was real nice.

Rock climbers. What you don't see is the large wall of rock to the right that somebody actually fell off while we were there trying to rappel down. Rescue workers and firefighters ended up on scene after an hour to get the guy out by boat. There was even a rescue helicopter flying above us. Sully was in awe.

(The majority of the pictures are courtesy of Sully, my mini-me photographer. I ditched the Nikon this weekend opting to pack extremely light, so all I had was my 6 year old point and clicker, which Sully commandeered almost immediately after we arrived. With the exception of a few photos, most of these were taken by him.)

Sully taking pictures of himself.

Doesn't Yaya look like she's wearing a tube top? She wasn't. Or was she ...

Sully & Daddy on top of the rock

Climbing up the rock

Climbing up a tree

My little lovey

Hiking is hard work (This kid hiked 3-4 miles, mostly on his own two feet.)

Trees

The stream

The rock pond

The rock pond

Hiking back out we found some pretty cool trucks after the dude fell

Crossing over the bridge

Sully documenting his death march in the 90 degree heat

The hike back

Sully's picture of Yaya

Sully's picture of the camp fire

Getting his smore on

The dirtier they are - the more fun it is.

Just keep swimming

I'm sitting here eating the last Baskin Robbins ice cream mini cake

because, well -

its just been that kind of week.

Last Sunday Shaun got a call from his dad with some very

unexpected news.

Without going into detail right now,

it wasn't good news.

My father-in-law is pretty sick and

hopefully

we'll get more news on the situation

in the weeks to come.

But in the meantime,

please,

keep him and Shaun in your thoughts.

Its been a really rough week for Shaun,

especially being so far away from his Dad

right now.

Four days after we received the news about my FIL,

I went to the doctor for a routine

followup on some tests I had done

from being sick last month.

On a whim, the doctor decided to do a

breast exam ...

and found a lump

in my left breast.

I'm waiting for the referral to go

get some additional tests and an

ultrasound of my boober

done.

And while I'm sure that its

nothing,

my brain hasn't been able but to help going

to that place where it could possibly be

something.

We went out Thursday night

because hell,

if there is any reason to celebrate NOT

having to cook dinner,

and gorging on ice cream -

finding a bump in your boob is

definitely one of them.

My first thought, when she said it -

was Sully.

And not just because he was in the exam

room with me chanting

"Checking Mommy's Boobies" -

hey I said the checkup was on a whim -

but because I'll be damned if

I waited this long to get my

hands on this kid finally,

to end up going anywhere.

I'm not.

End of story.

My wonderful husband has

been amazing, as always -

and let me cry the first night.

Then he slapped my ass and told me

to get my head back into the game.

Done and done.

We found out awhile ago that Shaun would be

losing his job in November.

He was actually suppose to lose it in July,

but he was extremely fortunate to be

offered a contract extension until November.

Five weeks.

And its going by fast.

He's had a couple interviews this past week

and will be going in for a second interview

for one of the jobs.

So cross your fingers and wish him luck.

Or Santa's going to be riding the bus

to our house this year and leasing out

that sled.

They say life is what happens when

you're busy making other plans.

How true that is.

Despite everything that is going on,

we've chosen to look at all of the

positives,

and laugh about the

shit that sucks.

Because thats just how we roll.

And even when you have a

gimpy fin -

just keep swimming ...

Cell phone dump

Our past month of happenings according to my cell phone.