Candlelight on Halloween Night

Well, I'm sitting here on the couch (like the loser that I am) in my candlelit living room waiting for my favorite Halloween movie to download... Young Frankenstein. It's taking awhile to download, so it gave me a chance to think about how quickly October has completely flown by! Thanksgiving is LESS than a month away! Can you believe it?

October has been filled with its ups and downs... I think enough ups to carry me through the downs. Last week, some hooligan through a boulder through my front driver side car window and stole my iPod. Gotta love city life, huh? So, until I had a spare moment to contact my insurance, I covered the window with clear plastic. As my luck would have it, the next two days brought rain, and I had to meet my boss the next day for a Trivia Night meeting in Chesterfield. On my way to meet her, the wind took hold of my plastic and my shield from the rain was gone. Luckily, I was able to park in the parking garage at St. John's Hospital at our meeting place. 

More trouble occurred on the next day, which was last Friday. I made a quick stop to the DSA office before I was on my way to my boss Julie's house for her kids Matthew and Natalie's birthday party. When I came back to my car to leave, it wouldn't start. Apparently, my anti-theft system had kicked in. Crap. So, I called the tower and my car was hauled away... no party for me.

After hanging around the office for a couple more hours, I decided to walk the 2 1/2 miles home. Again, as my luck would have it, it began to rain when I still had at least a mile to go. When I finally had gotten home, Michelle felt sorry for me and was awesome enough to let me borrow her car for the birthday party. (I had spent about 3 hours the night before carving "Happy Birthday Natalie" and "Happy Birthday Matthew" pumpkins, so I was super bummed). The Friday night traffic SUCKED getting to the party, but I'm glad I got to go.

From Friday until Wednesday, I was stranded without a car. Aside from Michelle letting me borrow her car again on Saturday for work at the salon, I had to miss one shift at the salon and walk that 2 1/2 miles to work at the DSA on Monday and Tuesday. 

My series of unfortunate events was topped off with a black eye that knocked its way onto my face Tuesday morning. I had decided that my backpack would be more conducive for my long walk to work.. and of course it was on the tip-top shelf of my closet. Typical me was too lazy to get a chair to stand on to retrieve it, and the jump-and-reach caused my massive tote of purses to come tumbling down... and my reflexes were too slow to perform a successful duck and cover. Julie promptly gave me a "P" to pin on my shirt to turn me into a "Black Eyed P."

Since the last few days had brought some hard knocks in the Ashley world, my mom knew just the thing to cheer me up: a trip to the pumpkin patch! She drove out of her way to pick me up to go to the Eckert's Fun Farm in Millstadt with herself, Peyton, and Alex for a fun-filled fall day and a delicious dinner at Cracker Barrel (mmm, Chicken n' Dumplings!) Peyton had and absolute BLAST and it was great to see Alex since I never, ever see her anymore. We went on a hayride (Peyton's favorite part) to pick some apples and some pumpkins.

We also bought Peyton's Halloween costume... and of course, I wouldn't let him leave without trying it on. We chose a black cat because he does a super adorable cat sound... what a studmuffin.

And of course, me being the Republican that I am, I decided to carve my pumpkins accordingly. Needless to say, I'm quite proud of them. (Pardon some visible wires on the Palin pumpkin... there were some tedious areas that ended up requiring some minor facial reconstructive surgery.)

Speaking of the election, I have come to the decision that I have become to emotionally invested in this whole thing. Anyone who knows me knows that I wholeheartedly love Sarah Palin, and all of the media crapping on her has really started to upset me for the past few weeks. I seem to be watching Fox News 24/7 these days, and I'm remaining hopeful that America will make the right decision for our country and vote McCain/Palin. Osama- er, Obama- just has waaaaay too many links to some really shady people... not to mention the lack of experience to run our country in a time of trouble.  Why is everyone so blinded by his charisma? Oh well, hopefully my stress and emotional turmoil will end on Tuesday. The polls are tightening up... so hopefully things will go well.

The remainder of the weekend brings me working tomorrow evening (unfortunately), but hopefully plans will work out and Dad and Alex will pay me a visit. I haven't seen my dad in about 2 months... so hopefully I can enjoy a nice free dinner :) and visit with him.

Busy Beaver

Well, I guess the last time I wrote was when my computer was on the fritz. Thankfully, the Apple rockstars were able to back my stuff up... and didn't charge me the $150 fee! What what!

Anywho, all of August and September has passed by, and a lot has happened. For one, I moved to St. Louis, and I am really enjoying myself so far. I'm only about 1-2 miles from the Down Syndrome Association, so it takes very little time and gas. I've been keeping busy there... since July, we've had the annual Walk in the Park (which was a big hit), I've successfully completed the design of the 2009 calendar, and we just had our Harvest Moon Wine & Cheese tasting event. I'll be really bummed when I have to leave there, but I guess I need to make those dollaz somehow.

Also, probably one of the main things that happened since I last posted is that I am now another year older... which means that my buddy Peytie Pie is also another year older. What a studmuffin. Just the other day, he took his first unassisted step! His therapist thinks that he'll probably be taking a couple steps by Halloween, so we'll see. Every time I see him, he always has a new "trick." The latest is that he can sneeze on command. It is one of the funniest things I have ever seen! We will fake a sneeze, he concentrates, and then actually sneezes! He's really become quite the pro at mimicking... anything from an action, to a sound, to an expression. He's a smart little guy, and he's starting to catch on to life. Now that I live closer I get to see him about once a week, and he continues to amaze me every time.

Well, anywho, I'm off to pack for Carbondale! I can't wait to see my loves and have a splendid time! I love Carbondale in the fall!

Oh, and Shannon, since you're probably the only person who ever reads my blog, I miss you most of all. I can't wait.