HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!

These are from last year as you can tell!

Can you say wired for sound? Exhausted and sugared up all at once but loving the stash:
More pics tomorrow!

Happy Birthday to.........

Me!
Yep another year older and not much wiser wider!

Thanks in no small part to the worlds best neighbors! Yup! The cake masters have struck again!
The Hakes and my kids teamed up and the result is spectacular!

AND IT'S ALL EDIBLE!!!!!! EVERY SINGLE PIECE AND PART! The big pumpkin on top is Rice Krispie treat!!! I love Rice Krispie treats!

AND IT HAS THE WEDDING CAKE ICING ON IT!

FROM THE OTHER CAKE I LOVED SO MUCH!

(See it here along with Popstar's birthday cake that they made: http://whatdoesntkillus.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-love-being-guinea-pig.html )

My sister and her crew came over after dinner to share the wealth as it were. I only got a couple of shots before I put the camera down. But I did get to send them home with some cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is my niece...We'll call her Barbie!

And here's something I was the last to know:

The top of the pumpkin came off and had candy in it! The kind they know the kids like. We named it pumpkin brains! We are just sick like that!

Sorry I have been busy....

For more info on why I have been so busy go to http://www.cleanupjaspercounty.blogspot.com/. Go ahead...I'll wait.

Welcome back. Yep Mom and Aunt D. and I are taking on the school board. Saving the world from one a$$hat at a time! In the mean time I have been looking into homeschooling and different alternative programs to edumacate them until we can get this guy gone. I am pretty sure we found our answer today. One of Pie's friends attends an open campus type school around the corner so to speak as nothing is really around the corner from here. But I only have to go down once a week and they will keep all the attendance and academic records so the school board can't touch me. In the mean time we have been proofing the letter to the editor and climbing up the food chain in an attempt to speed up the process. I also have to run down to the magistrate court and file a warrant today (or god help me can I do it tomorrow?) since they won't discipline her I will have to press charges. I have also found out I can file a complaint with the GA Professional Standards Commission so that will be next. *Sigh*

I am dreaming of rushing rivers and snow capped mountains.

Quiet fireside chats with friends and leaves turning for fall. I am getting forms and phone calls and questions with very few answers. Just stress, lots of stress.

Shoot- who do I think I'm kidding.............................

None of my friends are quiet.......

Cooking Pumpkin with the Punkin'

Hubby went and bought pumpkins to carve into Jack 'o Lanterns. Little did he know Popstar and I had other ideas. And everyone we know and a few people we don't would pay for it. So we popped open the pumpkins and roasted the seeds (yum!) Then we decided to experiment. So with the first pumpkin we baked most of it and boiled some of it. Both types were then run thru the blender as the food processor is out of commission temporarily.

Mommy's Little Chef

(and top rated taste tester)

Then we made pumpkin bread:

And pumpkin pie:

Then we ate them and they were good. Really. So the next day we had a bunch of leftover cooked pumpkin so we made more bread. Then Pie said he wanted more seeds. It sounded like a good idea so we sacrificed another of Hubby's pumpkins to the cause. That one we baked all of and for future reference:

If your going to make pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin...boil it. Like potatos. It comes out smoother and makes for a better texture in the pie. The baked pumpkin pies were good but had a grainy spagetti squash kind of texture. They tasted fine and I am actually the only one who thought this but they were also the two pies that did not get eaten......Also if anyone has an idiot simple pie crust recipe send it my way please. And don't just say it's easy...mean it. I'm looking for something you just can't mess up.

So by this point we were over run with pumpkin bread. And that's when Pie- our super eater- informs me he doesn't really like pumpkin...well except for the seeds. Now bananas on the other hand......Well why not.....So I pack a bunch of pumpkin bread up and send it with Hubby to work and drop some off at my parents house and send some to my sister.... by his time pumpkin and banana breads both...in a vain attempt to make room in my fridge for real food. And there is still no room in the fridge. So what do we do next? Pie and Smooch decide to invade the neighbors house one day and come home with about 500 cookies of assorted types.

Mean while back at the ranch....Popstar and I got bored and made peanut butter cookies....doh. (Get it DoH...as in cookie??? Yeah too much sugar....sorry) So out come the zip-loc bags and back into distribution we go. At this point I have stopped taking pictures and gained 5 lbs.

Folks I need a hobby! That does not involve food......

But a good time was had by all...except the victims of the distribution process some of whom now see orange around the edges and waddle away if they see Hubby with a cooler.

At least I am in good shape for Thanksgiving desserts and Christmas breakfast.

I have been so slack.......

Please bear with me as I go through my slack ass stage that I can't seem to shake. I actually have some stuff I need to get up here but multiple little demons have jumped on my keyboard preventing me from doing it. It seems every time I get a chance to sit down at the computer I have 8 other things to do and only enough time for 3. So those of you who I regularly read know I am not lost.....simply misplaced for the moment.

I do however want to leave you with this inspiring thought my sister was kind enough to share with me today:

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon.

Makes you proud to be an American, huh?

Another Gem From The Desk of Dad......

Financial Advice we can all get behind........

Retirement Plan Investment Tip:

If you had purchased $1000.00 of AIG stock one year ago, it would now be worth $56.91.

With Washington Mutual, you would have $4.58 left of the original $1000.

With 'Fannie Mae'(FNM), you would have $11.34 left.

If you had purchased $1000.00 of Lehman Bros one year ago it would now be almost worthless; less than $0.86.

But, if you had purchased $1000.00 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the cans for the aluminum recycling refund you would have $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment advice is to drink heavily and recycle.

This is called the 401-Keg Plan

I am so retiring in style...................

I need your help........

I have been calling schools all day. Public and Private, day cares and churches. And the one thing they all have in common is that my 3 yr old cannot attend any of them unless I receive public assistance. Even the one INSIDE the local primary school. So I can pay the taxes that heat and cool the school, buy gas for the buses bought with those taxes, and pay the teachers salaries. But unless I am on or qualify for public assistance I cannot avail myself of these programs. I have to pay - on average- $105.00 a week to educate my child. And you want the kicker.....it's not actually a K-3 program. It's daycare that "follows" the K-3 curriculum. So for $105.00 a week they can teach her to pick her nose, or finger paint with pudding all day. And I am the only person who will care. And not in the school I already pay for, nor can I use the buses my taxes provide.....nope. No such luck...at least not for me. I have to pony up for gas and insurance and maintenance on my personal conveyance to get her to the relatively expensive K-3 type program and back. So I have to get a job. So I can pay more taxes. So they can put in more of these programs I can't use. So more kids on public assistance that I am already feeding, providing shelter for, and paying for medical care on can go to school for free. That is where y'all come in:

You are members of the public!!! Will you assist me?

If in nothing else then in understanding why we voted for the a$$hats that came up with this lame brain idea..........................Thank you......Thank you very much.

**Update 11:31**

I finally found a daycare that has actual K-3 and is not State, Federal, or lottery funded. It is private so I do have to pay but they have a half day program from 8 to noon that is only $55 a week and includes all supplies, breakfast, and lunch. Plus a certified physical education teacher comes in on Wed. So I still feel f***ed but at least I get a meal or two for my money.

Well Popstar does. I get a part time job...heh.