Happy Halloweenie

So, friends and foes, it's been quite awhile. But oh my god we're back again, like the Backstreet Boys, except we're not original, yeah......oh brother.
What have I been doing, you ask? I have been hosting a relay-type family reunion at our house! Fun! First Mom came for a week, as duly posted below, and then Amber & Steven & co. came for about 2 weeks, and lastly Nikki's here, finishing up her 2 week vacation! Good times. We've done the El Paso rounds for the rellies, with the highlights being Old Messilla & the world's best breakfast buffet they have there in the haunted "Double Eagle" old-world restaurant...shopping expeditions with Amber & Mom, Starbucks, Scrabble games, movies, etc. FUN!
We took Noah & Dillon our churchs' "Trunk or Treat", which has been a fun, wholesome Halloween gathering in the past, but this time was more trunk than treat...there were so many people there that you couldn't make the rounds of people's trunks to get any candy! Thank God Jeff brought, like, a garbage bag full of candy home from work, or we would've missed out on the requisite "Halloween 10lb Weight Gain" that comes the morning after the "Halloween Trip to the Emergency Room for the Stomach Ache & Diarrhoea From Hell" which, in turn, comes after the "Halloween Candy Pig Out Because They're Really Just These Little Fun Sized Candies So I'll Have Another".
The kids were SO CUTE! Look at the pics & see for yourself.

Our house

So if you've never seen our house, my Mom took some pictures that I'll post here. Enjoy.

The front of our house. The tree is a pecan tree.
Our lovely driveway
The backyard
Backyard & patio with swing set (aka the Dillon Sleep Machine)
Our living room. Windows overlook backyard.

Amber

Happy belated birthday Amber! I sure love you my dear! I feel that every year I get to know you better, and we get closer. That's a wonderful thing. Thanks for all the advice & listening ears that you've lent me the past year. I appreciate your take on things, as you always have something to say that's worth listening to. Also, I never knew this about you, but you're a very nice, sweet person. That came out wrong. I always knew you were very nice & sweet, but recently, since you've come to visit us for about a month every year & I see you in action, I see that you're much sweeter & nicer than I've ever given you credit for. You have an incredible patience with your kids & are so much more "motherly" than I'll ever be.
Happy Birthday & may your year ahead be terrific.

Mom's Visit & Pics

So Mom visited us last week. We hadn't seen her for about a year and a half, so it was very special & nice to have that time with her. Thanks for coming, Mom! Jeff couldn't get any time off work, unfortunately, and so she pretty much just hung out with me & the kids....well, mostly with Noah, who monopolized her something dreadful. He is a very bossy child....can't think where he gets it. But Mom just played with him and colored and in general did "Grandmotherly" things till she was blue in the face, I'm sure. But Noah ADORES her & had such a great time. Dilly was just kind of there, like the blobular child he is. And Mom & I talked pretty much non-stop for the 4 days she was here & caught up on everything. It was pretty great.
We also went to the park for a picnic, had a "girls night" shopping extravaganza wherein nothing was bought (thanks, Jeff, for watching the kids!), went to dinner a few times, had a hair-straightening fest that Mom emerged from looking like a million bucks, and ended everything up by going out to Fabens to the working ranch they have out there & seeing the "anmeals" & eating dinner. It's really a great place....when any and all of you come out here we'll take you there, if you haven't already been. There are quite a few animal pens, almost like a mini zoo, a huge wooden fort & play set big enough to keep kids busy for hours, an indian corn maze, and a very nice steak house. After we wandered around the grounds for about an hour we had some great food & margaritas...and Mom even took the kids for a jaunt while Jeff & I ate our food, which was the 1st time in a while that we had been able to eat together. So that was very nice.
And now she's gone....sniff. We miss you, Momma.

Noah on the slide in the play area

Dillon looking dorky

Noah concentrating on driving the tractor

Mom & Noah in the hay wagon

Noah on the little old bouncy horses we found

I joined in

The tooth shot. Notice the new bottom teeth.

Dilly blue eyes

Handsome daddy and grumpy Dilly

Ostriches
Is your Mama a Lama?
The lama poopeth. Mom thought this was terrific material for a photo.
This guy is straight out of Dr. Seuss. I think the good old Dr. hit the crack pipe & looked at photos of lamas for inspiration, personally.

Weighty Matters

So last week, I hit a 10 lb weight loss, the first real "celebration station" since consciously deciding to modify my Ms. Piggy status & diet for real. This is as opposed to wishing & hoping that you'll be like all those people who told you, "Oh, honey, don't worry, you'll just lose all sorts of weight when you nurse...you can eat anything you want! I just horked anything down when I was nursing and STILL lost so much weight they had to hospitalize me! Giggle!" ....and then you go and eat your weight in chocolate & wonder why you can't pull your fat jeans over your dimpled thighs. I'm not bitter.
So...anyway, rejoice with me, I have lost the pounds that I had found. Some of them anyway. It's a good start. I've been exercising at least 1/2 an hour every day on our precore machine &, you know, just trying to do the salad thing & stay away from the Evil Sweets of Satan.
On a related note...it's funny, but I'm feeling better and better about myself and my body as it begins to look worse & worse. When I was in my early 20s and just about as beautiful as I'll ever be, I was INCREDIBLY self-conscious & had all sorts of self-loathing. And now I look back at those pics & say, WHAT WAS I THINKING? It's sad, really. There was so much mileage there that I never used. And now that I'm wrinkled and sagged and completely unrecognizable to my old friends, I feel quite good about myself. Ha. I think I still look hot sometimes. Not because anybody but my husband tells me this, I just believe it. I think this is actually a step in the right direction for a Rudow girl.
And no, I will not post a before and after picture. I'm not THAT confident.

Greens, greens, the magical fruit

I'll tell you what, you haven't lived until you've pretended to be salad.

The following conversation occured during my simultaneous viewing of Grey's Anatomy, listening for the baby, who, of course would not stay asleep because Grey's Anatomy was on, and trying to "tune in" to my 3 year old son:

Dis is my Magit Stick! RAAHHHH!
(He brandishes a small green plastic drumstick, broken in the middle.)

I will turn you into....

A LION!!

I dutifully roar and look fierce while following Meredith's love life.

Now I will turn you into a....

SHARK!!!

Does this phase me? Not at all. My shark impersonations are well rehearsed. I snap and flip my fins.

And now you will be.....

Salad!

Hmmm. That was unexpected. I sort of contort myself and strike a pose, not unlike a petrified person in the last stages of muscle spasm, very salad-like.

He laughs delightedly.

There

That should be easier on the eyes, to read. I like the bling, too.

Word, homies.

Whatever.