Cold Rain

I hope the weather on Halloween is slightly more temperate, for Abbie's sake. What would be the point of being dressed as a ballerina if you are then required to be in a heavy coat and mittens? Well, maybe she will keep it on to help pass out candy. And I hope Grant's giraffe costume will still fit over a thick sweatshirt. I think it will....

Brother comes this weekend. I've decided, due to this very inspirational weather, to make a stew and another apple cake. Doesn't that sound about right? Hope it goes over well. Currently, we are living off the jambalaya I made Sunday evening. Still great. I love that recipe.

Abbie can count to 29, using her fingers as a visual aid. (You know, first putting them all up, then putting them all down, then all up again.) As usual, she just did it one day, and didn't let on if she'd been practicing. At lunch today, she looked up at me and said, "H is for hotdog." Correct. Grant, lately, has been involved with memorizing the names of places and animals. Cahen, you will be amused that he is particularly interested in Oregon. And I hear things like, "Mommy, is Jake a mammal?" "Mommy, is a stingray a mammal?" "Mommy, a snake is a reptile."

Something is wrong with Jake. He has a sore on his cheek. It's close enough to his nose that it could even be an infected whisker or something. I was worried enough to consider taking him to Rolla Monday. But it looked better, so I didn't do anything. I'm not trying to, but I keep getting flashes to the cat of my childhood and the open sore on his head when he started to show signs of feline leukemia. (About 8 months later, they developed a vaccine for it, of course.) I don't want to worry. God knows I have enough to worry about this month. I can't help it. He may not be Dexter, but he's definitely the sweetest dog I've ever met. I don't want anything to be wrong.

I need to schedule a few days to visit my grandmother. We said November. Already I have to work around Grant's dentist appointment and a visit from Miss Penny and some taiko. I think. Have to update all that.

I took the kids to the mall yesterday. I had a gift card to Borders, and just needed to go. I bought a cute book, which I've already finished. I found another old Borders gift card while changing purses and it magically had ten dollars still, so I really only used 3 on the other card. I have another spree in my future! I also bought a canister for my favorite jasmine tea. I have three favorite teas, and now two have canisters. More on that in a sec. I also took the kid's ice cream money that my grandmother gave them over the summer. They each had four dollars. They bought a giant pretzel from Auntie Annie's, and Japanese gummy snacks from the tea shop, and shared both.

When I came home, I found out that my other favorite tea is discontinued. This is the one I can drink at any time, because it doesn't have caffine. I'm rediculously sad about this. Plus, if I had known 12 hours sooner, I could have bought some more. One last batch. And with my canister, who knows but it could have lasted me a year. But I've already squandered my free day and extra gas. So tragic.

Oh, and while I was performing last weekend, Josh bought a DVD. "Wallace and Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death." Cute. Not cute enough to watch 4 times a day, but that's kids for you.

Hope your day is a good one.