Black light zumba halloween party...awesome!!

I did Rob's zombie face for him, he's kind of melted right now...but he still looked really dead.

Zumba-ing in the Centralia Halloween Parade

Flash mob at the Centralia Fall Festival, by our zumba group

I wish I could post the video, but it was uploaded strictly to facebook by Rob Bachman, so now way I can put it here.  Anyway, we did the flash mob thing in the streets of Centralia Saturday afternoon.  We all just wandered around until Rob started the music by PSY for Gangnam Style.  We danced and we had a huge crowd around us.  You can't see by the pictures, but there were lots of people and kids dancing along with us..what fun!   I've always wanted to do that, so now I can mark that off of my bucket list.  Anyway, here are a couple of still photos.

Richard Gooch, book signing at Salem Library

Many of us grew up with Richard Gooch.  He has since lost all of the weight of his youth, and has published two books of photos.  The first one was of barns around Missouri and Illinois, his second book "Things gone bye: Holy and Hallowed ground is a book of interesting tombstones from around the same area as the barns.  It is really fascinating to read about the different symbols on the stones as well as the history of the people buried there...it is very interesting in an historical aspect as well.  I ran into some old friends while there also, so it made the book signing even more interesting.  It was good to see "Gooch" as we used to call him back in the day.  Here are some pictures from Saturday morning.

Yet another use for a Swiffer..

So, you all remember my story about chasing the squirrel around my mom's yard with a swiffer? Well, same squirrel came and ATE my mom's jack-o-lantern I made for her last week!! Mom's neighbor knocked on her door and told her she saw the squirrel take the lid off of the pumpkin and was inside eating it. So mom gave her the broom this time and the neighbor chased it away...pumpkin was ruined though.. :-(. I'm gonna get that squirrel one of these days. :/ Trick or treat, little squirrel....

South Carolina Grand kids halloween picture

Just another little adventure with BIll

What a gorgeous day today! We went to Vandalia to do some errands and have lunch. While we were there, we went to the old state capitol cemetery. Lots of civil war heroes buried there, Colonels, Generals. Abraham Lincoln walked in this very cemetery as many statesmen were buried there. It was really interesting, I've always loved history. Then we drove through the country and the fall leaves were just stunning! The sun was getting low in the sky, so the colors were magnified, just beautiful! We sang along with some oldies and got home just as the sun went behind the clouds that were on the horizon! So, we didn't waste a moment of sunshine...I hope you all enjoyed you day too.

We spent some time by the fire pit late this afternoon, so decided to just cook supper out there. We had pork chops, with garlic, basil and oregano, red beans and rice and sliced tomatoes. For dessert, brownie in a mug! We stayed outside

until the moon and stars came out, such a beautiful, relaxing night. It seemed like there were a lot of "things" running through the leaves after dark. I put my hoodie up and Bill asked me why and I told him I didn't want to be attacked by bats...he thought that was so funny..but seriously we got buzzed by them last time we were outside late in the evening, so I was just taking precautions..  :-)

To the pumpkin patch with Dona

just got back from the pumpkin patch near Flora, IL. My mother-in-law, Dona, went with me. A great little place to take the kids too, all kinds of "pumpkin patch" related fun. Mother in law bought some bright yellow mums and I got two pumpkins, one regular and one gray-blue..so pretty and different. Then we had lunch at Grandma's Kitchen and here I am. It's a cool, cloudy fall day and Bill just went to build a fire in the pit, so think I will take my coffee and journey outside. I hope you are all enjoying your Saturday. To my zumba buddies all going to see the Dirty Mugs tonight in St. Louis: have a wonderful time!

Lucas in his Halloween costume, so CUTE!

Went camping last night. While Bill went metal detecting, I stayed back at camp and made a jack-o-lantern. The wind started blowing and never stopped. We made supper on the tail gate of the truck...no fire, due to high winds. Then we got

in our tent, jack-o-lantern and all and played Scrabble for hours with just the pumpkin and a small lantern lighting the board. The wind, still blowing....so we listened to the pres. debate on the radio, and every time they said the word "jobs", we had to take a drink of beer...we missed the last two questions for some reason...lol..it was great fun though, all around. Oh, and when we played Scabble, it was a tie!!! I have never had that happen, ever! Made a fire this morning and ate breakfast outside anyway...had a wonderful time..now we are home, the wind stopped blowing as soon as we got here :-(.

 

 

Let the wood burning projects begin

I made my first wood burning project today, it was really fun and wasn't as time consuming as I thought it would be. It's amateur-ish looking, but I will post a pic anyway, because I liked it well enough to hang on my kitchen wall. Spent most of the day outside, it was a gorgeous fall day, wow! I love this time of year. I also made this birdhouse.  It was a little more difficult, the gourd is so hard, but it turned out ok too.

Face painting / Kierstin Williams birthday party