It's Friday! Happy Friday! What a week - I spent most of yesterday thinking it was Friday - what a let down when I realized it wasn't!

I did get my pumpkin decorated last night. Not my best pumpkin, personally, but....it's a pumpkin! Rufus was a bit concerned about it, as you can tell. He sniffed all over it - which was fine until he decided to start nibbling on it! I don't know if he was nibbling the spider or the web, but either way was detrimental to my pumpkin (and it doesn't need anymore help!)



I'm off to Susanville/Reno tomorrow to see Mom and Dad. It will be a quick trip again. From here to Reno and back to Susanville on Saturday, and home on Sunday. I need to get home early on Sunday so I can do my weekend chores - just looking around right now tells me I am way behind on the cleaning schedule. Oh well, I had much rather sit at the computer than clean house - any day!

Good news in the Dad saga....he should be released early next week from rehab to go home. He will still be using a walker when he gets home. He is walking further now than when he went in the hospital, but he was already doing that, so he must be improving! Alli and I are headed over this weekend, and, with Mom, will take him out to lunch on Saturday!

On our last trip to Susanville, Mom sent us home with a bag of apples from her tree. So far, Dawn made a pie, and I have made fried apples a couple of times. Yesterday, I decided to try my hand at a little fancier dessert. I dug out my recipe for an apple braid - still not that fancy, but very tasty! As soon as I started moving around in the kitchen, Allison decided there must be food involved, and came to supervise. The apple braid calls for a can of refrigerated crescent rolls - you unroll the whole thing and then use a rolling pin to seal it into one piece. Alli was so excited when I laid out the dough that I thought she must have done something like this in school. I know they cook in class as part of their life skills, and she was ready to help!

I let Alli "help" me use the rolling pin, and then it was time for the apples. I got out my trusty apple peeler, corer, slicer machine, and put Alli to work again. She wasn't a lot of help. She grabbed the apples as soon as they came off the machine! When I shooed her out of my way, she ran over and grabbed one of my waiting apples and started munching on it. I had to get extra apples for her to eat while I finished fixing mine. This is the girl that usually eats apples grudgingly! Grandma's apples are the best!

What a beautiful Fall weekend! Just a little bit cool, just a little bit of cloud cover - beautiful! I worked my shift at Nash's yesterday and.....wasn't rained on, and didn't freeze or sweat to death! Those are the normal circumstances for me. This year, the rain was on a different weekend, so it was muddy, but not too muddy, and the temps were in the mid 70's while I was there. There wasn't a lot of traffic at the corn maze, but we are directly across from the pumpkin patch, and watched the kids scramble all over to find the 'perfect' pumpkin.



As promised, here are pictures of my pumpkin bookmarks. Not too exciting, really! I was just happy with them because I had to make my own pattern for them. I thought about putting jack-o-lantern faces on them, but....with my non-existing artistic talents, would probably ruin them, so I left them 'as is'. Now they will work for all of Fall, not just for Halloween, right?



Here is a picture of Dad's afghan too - made with a simple 'V' stitch and two strand of Homespun.



Rufus never has played with his toy I made him when I had the camera out, so I tossed it up to him on his stand, and caught a couple of pictures of him. He sure turned into a beautiful cat after his fur grew out!

Woohoo! It's Saturday! (and Alli got up at 5:30 - no sleeping in for me!) Just as well, I could use the time to do some housework today. It never ends, does it?? I did get a lot done last night - picked up the house and cleaned the kitchen, etc. At least I have a head start!

I finished some pumpkin bookmarks last night. I will take some pictures when there is a bit more light. I am pretty proud of these - I came up with my own pattern for them. I found one that was 'okay' but then tweaked it to look like I wanted it to. That just about finishes me up for Halloween, all I need is my pumpkin decorated - ready for Thanksgiving??? Not!

I have been working on Christmas stuff though! In between the pumpkins and scarfs, that is. I made a scarf/glove set for Dawn, since she headed up to cold country this week. (Okay - cold compared to here! She took off to spend a week up in Washington State, and then back to N.C. and then Florida on a whirlwind tour.) I have quite a few snowflakes crocheted, but not stiffened, and I have bought several new pairs of gloves to embellish. That is my new plan of attack! I need to get ready for a craft show the first part of December, and I need to build my stash up! If I don't sell everything (I wish!) the rest will be Christmas presents.

I am sooooo glad it is Friday! It is a busy weekend ahead, but still - it's the weekend!

AJ is slowly recovering from his 'cold'. I still don't know what he had - the flu and other assorted diseases are running rampant through the schools now. If it was a touch of the flu, he came through it pretty easy. If it was 'just a cold', it hit him pretty hard! Tonight, he is out at the Pumpkin Patch out at Nash's Ranch, manning the corn maze. He will be going out for that, even if he doesn't go to school today. He will be back out there Saturday morning, and working all day and camping overnight. I have a slot to work from 10:00 to 2:00 myself on Saturday.



These shots of Mt. Shasta were taken on the 'girl's weekend' trip. I didn't make it up there in time to see the sunset - it was full dark by the time I made it there, but Sara Rose took a couple of beautiful pictures! The Mt. Shasta area is so pretty!

I feel like the new lol cat picture - out of lack of interest, today has been canceled! I am ready for the weekend, and it is only Thursday! Even then, I am working at Nash's Ranch this Saturday from 10:00 to 2:00 - bummer. I enjoy it once I am there, but....I'd rather stay home! The scouts (and the parents!) are running the corn maze at the pumpkin patch, so....off I go!

Dad is doing some better. He was moved out of the hospital to a rehab place in Reno yesterday. He isn't ready for the rehab in Susanville yet - kind of a half-way rehab for now. He still needs more medical attention than is standard. He isn't as delusional as he was, but now....he is cranky. At least when he was hallucinating, he was happy!

The rain is here again (but just for a short time!) It is so nice to listen to it - as long as I don't have to go out in it!

Busy weekend! I went up to the Mt. Shasta Friday night for an evening with the girls, and had a blast watching movies, eating popcorn and chips, drinking wine....fun! Unfortunately, I woke up with a migraine that hung around all weekend after that! Those migraine just suck the fun right out of everything! It was all I could do to force myself to do what had to be done. I got the shopping done, I got the house cleaned, and....I even made a toy for Rufus!

Think Pink! Today is Think Pink day - which means I can wear jeans and a pink shirt to work! (for a $5 donation, that is!) Dawn and I are going to try to go to the Sundial Bridge tonight. It is supposed to be lit with pink lights. We may not make it to the ceremony, but it would be cool to see the bridge in pink!



I did get some shots of AJ with the ball in the same picture frame - not as easy as it sounds with a digital camera - the shutter delay is tough in a game as fast as soccer!

What a storm! Our weather has been a bit extreme lately - from 109 one weekend to 50 the next, and then nice fall days to a winter storm blowing through, all in a matter of two weeks. We got 1.87 inches of rain so far, and lots of wind! Luckily, I don't think we lost any big branches, but our yard is full of smaller branches.

Dad got a bit better, but then took a turn for the worse yesterday. They moved him out of ICU Monday morning, but he is still hallucinating, and got out of bed, and fell. X-Rays showed a fractured hip, according to Mom, but I don't know how much damage was done. They were going to do a CT scan of his head to see if they could figure out why he was hallucinating so much.

Dawn and I had a nice visit in Susanville - beautiful fall weather while we were there. Mom sent us home with a bag of apples from her tree, and Dawn made an apple pie on Monday. Mom's tree is full of apples! (Her peach tree was full too, but the wind blew off all but literally about 4 peaches!)



David was watering the lawn while we were there, and the birds were getting their last bath by choice for the season I think! Mom said they had almost an inch of rain yesterday with this storm.

(close up of the bird on the fence)

It's raining! So far, we have 0.35 inches of rain! Not a lot, but - it is raining! I'm so happy for the changing seasons - I know I will get tired of the rain, but the first fall/winter storm is so nice! I even built a fire yesterday, but hadn't turned off the swamp cooler, so it kicked on! Dawn made us an apple pie, and house smelt heavenly! I made a big pot of chili for dinner too!

AJ had a soccer game yesterday, and us parents spent most of the game bemoaning the fact that they have a game today, too! Soccer isn't canceled for rain unless the field is sloppy and dangerous (or they don't want it torn up by cleats). Our field is artificial turf, so we won't cancel because of that. Bummer! I think I have to work late today! (The game starts at 4:00 and is over around 5:30!)



Dawn and I stopped by Dollar Tree the other day, and picked up a couple of toys for the dogs/ Koori loves her bear!

I'm glad it's Friday! Busy week around here! They all seem to be busy anymore! Added to our normal activities, Dawn, AJ and I stuffed 'Think Pink" bags Wednesday evening after work (and after haircuts for AJ and I!) This is the third year for me, and second for AJ. It is a boring, but satisfying time. This year, I didn't stuff very many bags - I ended up supervising! (Not a bad job, if I say so myself!) There was a Girl Scout Troop in to stuff bags, and when they got started, one of the leaders told me that they were all really good girls, but they all had one type of problem or another, their troop was for developmentally disabled girls, and might need a little help. I told "no problem - my daughter is autistic, we'll get along just fine!" Alli was invited to join their troop! The girls were great and stuffed plenty of bags! (For those of you 'not in the know', each year, about 40,000 bags of cancer awareness information and freebies are handed out on October 15th. We were stuffing some of those 40,000 bags with calendars, handouts, pens, etc.)

AJ actually survived a soccer game with no major injuries! They played Tule Lake yesterday (an away game, so I didn't go see!) They lost the game 3-2, but AJ said he played well - no one scored while he was in the game. I'm glad he is finally getting some playing time, and isn't injured!

Dawn, Alli and I are off tomorrow to Susanville/Reno. We are going over in the morning, stop and pick up Mom and head in to Reno to see Dad. Dawn and I hope to catch up with some people we know while we are in town as well. Another full weekend! Ralph is taking Dawn in to the Big Bike Weekend today, too! He has the day off, so I think the plan is for us to get together for lunch - fun!

Willey is camouflaged, sleeping on the couch!

I'm glad this week is winding up! I have Monday off (woohoo!) so it is a three-day weekend for me. The kids have school, so Monday is a 'free day' for me! Dawn and I have already planned a shopping day, so it should be fun!

I'm off to Susanville/Reno this weekend. Dad is still int he hospital, so I am going over there for a visit, and hope to catch up with some other friends while I am there too.



I actually made almost all of this doily on Sunday, sitting around watching the Food network! The pattern was written badly - it cupped so badly I thought I was going to have to make it a bowl!

Well, the worst day of the week is over, so onward and upward! Monday was a looong day, but I don't know why. It wasn't a bad day, just long. Maybe it is because AJ is back on regular soccer schedule, which includes practice at 6:15 a.m.! That means I am up not long after 5:00. Which means that I am tired by 10:00 a.m.! It doesn't help that we have actually slowed down at work (just a little bit!), and I am working on all the projects and problems that I had put aside when we were so busy.

Dad is still in the hospital - but now in Reno. They flew him out of Susanville Tuesday night (I think!) They are treating him for a lung infection. Any time Mom has been at the hospital, he has been sleeping, which the nurses say he is doing most of the time.

Last weekend, I stopped at the overlook above Hat Creek/Old Station and took pictures of the burned area. The fire burned up through the little park/picnic area at the lookout.