Thursday, November 1, 2007

Halloween leads to Nov 1.

My daughter was frightened by Halloween last year - she refused to trick or treat even though she was excited to be dressed up. She was "The Dread Pirate Sally" the name she'd be using when she would take off with something and hide with it.

This year - Oh Tessa was delighted so delighted to be Cinderella. The camera lost battery at the last moment - so we have the following images as taken by Daddy's cell phone camera.



Princess Tessarella arrives to the great hunt for Tricks or Treats.


A giddy Princess in her (faux) Fur coat plays to the camera


Princess Tessarella mentally prepares for the rigors of Trick or Treating


Princess Tessarella with Lady (bug) Elyse

She started off tentative about trick or treating and I didn't think it would happen. Really didn't.

Then in costume she went with me to go pick up Daisy. They gave Daisy a Trick or Treat pumpkin shaped pressed rawhide. This was what it took for her - if Daisy could get goodies in Tessa's Candy Bucket, then Tessa decided she could do so herself.

So - we came home, gave Daisy her treat (after showing Tessa that we examine all Halloween treats even if we know where they come from) and then headed down the hill with Garret while Daddy got ready to come with us.

The new neighbors down stairs are a couple with a baby on the way. They got candy hoping Tessa would Trick or Treat - fully expecting that we wouldn't have trick or treaters at our house. Living on a sharp curve on a hill without sidewalks we don't see a lot of foot traffic.

She stunned me - she was tentative but could not resist the pull of the Candy Dish. I expected screaming fits of "NO NO NO NO" but there she was, being a novice with potential at the Trick or Treating business.

5 mini Chocolate bars later she was ready to go. We loaded up into the car and went to my mother in law's neighborhood.
She walked the block. Knocked on doors, and had a blast.

And when we came home? She came up to me and said "Trick or Treat was really fun Mommy!"

Pics of Garret later - I promise.

So - I woke up this morning feeling pretty decent although Coast to Coast AM had "Ghost to Ghost" on and Ghosthunters had their Halloween special on too. I was up Way too late. As were Gaelon and Tessa.





I got up, got the crock pot going (I'd come home last night and aside from getting some spinning time I soaked a 13 bean soup mix) with a bean soup combo.


I promised I'd share recipes so here's todays







13 Bean Soup



  • 1 bag Red Mill 13 bean soup beans. Soak beans overnight first.

  • 15 ounce can of diced tomato's

  • 2 envelopes of Lipton Onion Soup mix

  • 3/4 pound of Pork Cutlets (can be tossed in straight from freezer if thinly sliced enough.)

  • 2.5 Qts of water


Combine all ingredients in crock pot at about 7am. Turn on low and walk away. kick yourself for not putting bread in breadmaker for timed start so at 6PM there is fresh bread to go with dinner.


Come home and enjoy dinner at about 6ish. Watch your family be wow'ed over the meal and your 3 year old actually ask for more.


Add on's -

  • Canned Biscuits that are tossed in at 5 and the crock pot turned up to high.



Small side salad - a bagged salad picked up at the grocery store on the way home works and will make everyone happy.


Getting out the door was pretty easy this morning. I discovered Daisy has an alternate to "Sit" which is "Plant your Butt" one of the gals at Camp Canine said this to her yesterday and she sat instantly. Considering the success of this, I tried it myself this morning. It worked, Daisy sat pretty fast and was pretty well behaved.

This is her first day in actual Daycare. She's actually been in boarding for the past 2.5 weeks by day as she wasn't fixed yet. She now gets to go play with the other dogs and hopefully she'll come home exhausted.

I got into the office and discovered that I had a meeting painfully early. The good news is that the project I'm test lead on is starting to make sense to me. My boss laughed and told me I was 'grokking' it much earlier than he'd expected and far earlier than others do and have done. I told hime I wasn't near an expert yet but I had my "Rosetta stone moment" and that hopefully the rest would start to translate for me now.

I like it here. I worry that I won't succeed, that I'll be percieved as a slacker or a poser, but the truth is I've paid my dues and I know what I'm doing. And I'm good at it. I just need to remember that.

Hard to believe it's the first of November. Hard to believe it's NoJoMo already - and it's hard to believe that I'm functioning without a cuppa coffee, so on that note I'll close off this edit and go get me some JavaJuice.

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