NOW I Feel Like I Live In The Country, And It's Doing Weird Things To My Psyche

We're sort of skipping Halloween this year.

No one really has the desire, the energy, the motivation and on top of it all; Mercutio is terrified of the thought.

He can't even hear you mention the "Palloween store" without going into hysterics. 

I don't know how it started, we have never had a "scary" Halloween at home and last year at ZomBcon he was perfectly fine - but we are respecting his fear until it passes. 

{Which I hope is by next year. Though I have little want for Halloween right now, I do so love the holiday.}

Instead we are going to harness our energies to the ones upcoming. Thanksgiving with my family, hosted by my Titi S. Christmas Eve across the road with my Moms, and hosting the in laws for Christmas {we hope}.

In the meantime though, there's this Halloween rut we need to scoop our way out of.

Caesar, in a remarkable expression of solidarity, was quick to stand beside his brother and give up both costume and trick or treating this year without lamenting. {My pride is through the roof!}

But that doesn't mean he should be without some celebration.

So this weekend, there were pumpkins.

We had not intended to end up picking our own like this; we were standing in the supermarket with a cart full of pumpkins, when a wonderful woman stopped us and told us about nearby Eddydale Farm and their "All you can carry for $5.00" deal.

Sounded way more exciting than what we were doing, and cheaper, so we hopped back in the car.

One of the things we don't do ever, is shop locally.

I realize the trend of thrifting, shopping handmade American, and organic and all that jazz is important and meaningful.

But I'm really not that into it, and I will not pretend to be.

I don't care how "humanely killed" or "free range" the chicken on my plate is. I refuse to learn to crochet so I can make my toddler ugly pants instead of going to Baby Gap to buy him jeans. I will never, ever, put in my mouth, "raw" milk. And we only go into thrift stores for kitschy stuff, art, the bumper pool table we bought the other day, and unique pieces of glass to hold my mothers' candles in.

Though, admittedly, I do rather adore the consignment shop where I picked up Severus' ring sling. And I also very much care that my children don't ingest lead, or pesticides, or BPA or anything else really gross and bad for them.

But the "natural, green, organic" way is just... not me, and even less Christian. We should be better about it.

Anyway. I digress.

I fell in love with Eddydale Farm's selection of unbelievable looking fruits and veggies.

The $5 deal would have been great, if we weren't already so close to Halloween, but as it were the remaining pumpkins were squashy and not so pretty looking so we ended up buying the "better" pumpkins in their pumpkin house. {But still spending about $10 less than we would have at the supermarket.}

We each had our first taste of a Honeycrisp apple {I want to marry Honeycrisp apples}, and picked our perfect pumpkins in the Autumnal cold.

I watched our boys goof off in the pumpkin house, they laughed hard, they got hay stuck to their butts and entangled in their already wild hair.

And I felt... weird.

For the first time I wasn't comparing the experience to a better one I had in Seattle, or whining about not being there at all.

I was happy to be where I was in that moment. And then it got weirder...

I started to look forward to the snow, the bitter cold.

Thoughts of sipping hot chocolate in our purple living room, stringing Christmas lights through the house, baking cookies, trimming a motherfuckin' Christmas tree and shit!

I felt the warm fuzzies creep into my icy crevices and damn it if I didn't smile that cheesy smile that makes my face hurt and right eye go wonky.

Today, right now, I know Christian and I can do this.

Our missing Seattle won't always consume us to the point where we don't want to do anything in Ithaca.

We can create new memories here, and experience bliss.

Or, at the very least, we can tweak pumpkin nipples and laugh about how immature we are.

One Minute And Forty-Five Seconds With Severus Danger

But first, some disclaimers:

Yes, my floor is supposed to look like that. It's "distressed" a term I loathe, but I really don't want to change it because I like the "rustic" feel. Plus, it will look great when we finally get the kitchen done. And also, the kids stepped on the face paint sticks and I've yet to scrape them up.

Pardon the bag of trash on the side - we finally threw out the boxes from Sevie's birthday presents - and my annoying, exhausted laugh.

No, my house is not always this clean. I was napping, Christian did it. <3

The candle is not lit, but it's in a very decorative holder, so it interested him.

I don't know why it's sideways.

Okay? And now...

If you are unable to see the video above, clicketh here.

Stream Of Consciousness Sunday

The party's over.

Finally.

Severus had a lovely time, even if he did sort of cry because I stole his chicken so he could eat his cake. 

Cake which was hideous, by the way. I'm still really pissed about it. They hadn't finished it on time for pick up {which Christian was 40 minutes late for, because we decided to wait it out} so they had to half ass it and rush. It showed. 

Delicious, yes. But ugly. 

I'm ridiculously proud of the goody bags that Christian and I put together, though he did put an extra piece of candy in each, tsk, tsk. I made sure all of the goody bags had stuff that was differently textured, or that the little ones could do with their parents, despite my husband pressuring me to put yo yos and whoopee cushions in them. :)

I loved it too, though I was bummed that my Titi S. wasn't there {that's okay, because I'm going to stick my foot in her mashed potatoes} I was so grateful for all of the birthday wishes from EVERYONE and for all who came to the party. 

The kid's loved, for sure, and that's the most wonderful feeling.

I hate Caesar's school. 

My mother said it's going to give me a heart attack before he reaches the first grade and she's probably right.

They're forcing us to get the MMR vaccine, which he's missing because I don't want him to have it. Without it, he can't attend school.

We could have applied for religious exemption, but that had to be filed at a time when we weren't even living here. And we're obviously, not religious, as if that would have stopped me.

So. That sucks.

Plus, they won't let them dress up for Halloween, which I think is bullshit. Apparently they're not allowing it because other children don't celebrate Halloween, or are unable to dress up.

When I was in school, we dressed up despite the children who didn't. They were always ushered off to other activities that WE couldn't participate in because we had dressed up. And we never celebrated Hanukkah, but we got to color in Dreidels!

Apparently they're doing some dance thing after school, the kids will be chaperoned and allowed to dress up then. Ugh.

Caesar hasn't asked, so right now, we're not going.

In fact, and I realize just how unlike me this is, I'd rather skip Halloween altogether this year and go straight to Christmas.

November is going to be busy too. In good ways though, filled with family, which doesn't suck at all.

I can't believe I said that.

I wish I could stop hating it here. Look at how close it puts us to the people we love.

Our living room is purple, finally!

Now we can work on finding THE couch.

We even bought frames for some of our pictures, including the fucking awesome Magneto print I won from The Modern Stylographer on the Girl Gone Geek blog.

We're settling in for sure, but my heart still wishes it was in Seattle.

We took the TV out of the living room and moved it into ours, to allow for more space during the party, and I love the openness and quiet of the living room now.

Usually I am totally against TVs in the bedroom, but this set up kind of rocks.

Here are some crappy pictures from the party. I forgot to change the ISO settings and they are noisy as hell, except - ironically - for the ones taken with the camera in auto mode for my Mom.

More here.

Sleepy time yet? :\