An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

A.K.A. if I'd just post these things every day or so, you wouldn't have to take a day off work to read them.

Wonder what I was up to last week (other than not losing any weight?)

There was much baking and decorating to be had:



These were done during It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown! Anna Marie was supposed to be "helping," and I guess she did, if by "helping" you mean "putting sprinkles on the three cookies destined for her mouth."

(And yes, I had one(ish). It's a slippery slope, and the next thing you know, you haven't lost any weight for the week.)

But how can you possibly be sad at the number on the scale, when you have these precious pumpkins smiling back at you?



Orange-tinted cupcakes + chocolate frosting + pumpkin PEEPS = happy first graders at their Halloween party.

And, inspired by my too-cute-for-words friend Brooke (who spelled out her infant daughter's name in pumpkins last year - good thing it's "AVA" and not "GERTRUDE" because that would be an awful lot of pumpkins) I did this on my lunch break on last Monday.



Yay for Sharpies and tracing letters printed off the computer!

That picture (as well as the cookie picture) were on my camera, and it's taken me this long to find the adapter for my microSD card so I could upload them. While I was there, I also found these gems:






You didn't know Jason was a famous animal wrangler, did you? This was at a Sears appliance store back in the spring, while we were in the Jeep waiting for my dad to buy a grill (and we somehow walked out with a new lawnmower for ourselves). The duck came right up to him, and he fed it Teddy Grahams out of my mom's purse.

He reprised his role on Mother's Day, when a snapping turtle found itself snared in Anna Marie's soccer goal.





And yes, that is Jason fussing at the turtle. It had tried to reach it's long neck around and bite him, when all he was trying to do was free it.

(Don't tell PETA, but he actually hit the turtle on the shell. I'm sure the turtle didn't feel a thing.)

And finally, here are our Halloween pictures. Anna Marie staged a bit of a mutiny after I got home from work on Friday (and a mere HOUR before the festival at my mom's church started) and refused to wear the Indian dress she'd successfully worn at both her dance class and as a Warrior (the school's mascot) on Warrior Day. We finally compromised on Biker Chick, and she even designed two tattoos (using her Magnadoodle) for me to draw on her arms.





(I don't know what that one is supposed to be. I just copied what she drew - and the words say "COOL KIDS CLUB.")



All tats were approved by this guy, my brother, a.k.a. The Man Who Look Like He Fell Through A Tackle Box And A Vat Of Ink Pens.




(Yes, that's a costume, folks. He's not NEARLY so redneck in real life. Who knew that a fake rat-tail could look so real?)

I hope everyone has recovered from their sugar comas, and is ready, willing, and able to get out and do their civic duty tomorrow!

GET OUT AND VOTE!