Last weekend, Roger was here and we had a wonderful time together. Like any mom, I did manage to get a few pictures taken of the things we did and I wanted to share them with you. Now, over on Sunday Shutterbugs, the theme for this week was squares. As you can see, I guess I was hoping that it would be circles. For me, this time of year is all about circles. There are apples and pumpkins and ok, well that's all that's coming to mind but I'm sure there are other things too. *grins*

So, here are our weekend activities. I just love that he loves doing this kind of thing with me.

This is the bird feeder that we made together. It's now hanging outside on our trellice thing a ma bob (yes that's the technical term.) filled with homemade bird food.

And here are our pumpkins. I did the one on the bottom and Roger did the one on the top. We call his Mr Scary Pumpkin Man. His shirt says I love Candy and I think he's saying something like Give me candy. Mine is just carrying a candy basket. I can't wait until Ben and I do his this coming weekend.

It's been a bit since I've had a great tip for everyone, but I thought/came up with one last night and I just had to share.

Did y'all know that your refrigerator is one of the biggest energy hogs of your whole house? I suppose that makes sense since it's on all the time, working hard at keeping your food fresh and all, huh?

Now, my next question is did you know that the seals on your fridge can wear out? I honestly never thought about it until last night when I put my hand along one of them and felt the air leaking out! What? How much harder is that fridge working? Which means how much is our power bill going up? How much more wear and tear is happening on an already old fridge? Well, I don't know the answers to that, but I do know how to double check to see if your fridge seals need to be replaced and it's super easy! Ready?

Open up your fridge/freezer door and then take a dollar bill and place it right along where the door closes and close the door. Now, take hold of that dollar bill and tug on it. If it pulls out really easily, guess what? Your fridge seals are leaking air and ought to be replaced. I checked ours last night and ugh, total fail on both the fridge and the freezer! I've already added replacing those seals to my household to do list.

So, how do your fridge seals stack up? Today's challenge is to go check them out!

Happy Tuesday all! Hopefully you're having a nice warm sunny day unlike here. I love Autumn, but has anyone else noticed that the dreary days just seem colder even if they're not?

So I'm a little sad to say that a few of my regular commenters seem to have vanished. I'm going to have to head over to their blogs and give them some pokes..loving pokes, of course. Kath and nickle, where the heck are you girls? Kath could be entirely busy with prepping for her new radio show that's on TrainREK on Sunday nights. I haven't had the chance to listen to it yet, but I bet it's great. As soon as I get a link to their website, I'll be sure to post it. I believe it's of a geeky nature, so those who like geek stuffs will probably love it.

As for me, I'm busy doing laundry. I totally confess that I let it get away from me and now I'm working on catching up again. In the process, I've also redone how the boys clothes are stored here at the house. Their soon'ish to be stepmother seemed a bit overly concerned that I send a new shirt back on Sunday, so I've decided to inventory their clothes here to see if I even need for them to send clothes over here. It turns out that I really don't. Granted, I'm going to need to find them some more jeans and some heavier shirts, but not having her send clothes over rules out any clothing issues that she might come up with. So, I think I'll put the call out here...if anyone has any size 8-10 clothing that their sons have outgrown and you're looking for a new home, please think of me. I can't afford much but I could probably at least pay for the shipping on it.

So what are all of you doing? Is your laundry all caught up? If so, have you gone through it to remove outgrown/worn out items? I challenge all of you to do that. :)

Well, the weekend is done and that's left me with mixed feelings. Y'all know that usually I totally adore Mondays but this past weekend, I had Roger here with me all weekend and it was so wonderful! We spent time talking and playing Guardian's Crusade together. On Friday, we picked up some pumpkins from the grocery store and drew faces on them. Saturday night, we made homemade meatballs together. Yesterday, we worked more on his game and made a bird feeder together. It was just a wonderful weekend of connecting with him and having him leave was hard for the both of us. More and more he tells me that he wants to be at my house all the time. I'm not sure how we'll handle it when/if he decides for certain the he wants to live here with me.

But, now it's Monday and I need to focus on the week to come. This coming weekend, I have Ben with me for the weekend so I'm going to making something that he loves for that. In between now and then though, I have no idea! I guess I'd better get my tush working on this menu!

Monday- Leftover Chili
Tuesday- Chicken Pesto Pockets
Wednesday- Breakfast for Dinner
Thursday- Foil-Pack Taco Chicken
Friday- Potato Hash
Saturday- Taco Casserole
Sunday- Leftovers

What are you having this week?

Wow, it's Friday and all I want is a nap! I was up too late last night and up too early this morning, but sometimes that's just how it goes. I have Roger here with me this weekend and we're already having a great time together. We went to the grocery store and picked up some pumpkins. When we got back, we drew faces on the pumpkins and put them on our front steps. We've done Legos and watched tv together and just really enjoyed our time together.

So, what did I actually finish? Well, I finished a week of working around the house and I'm enjoying time with my baby. Ok, I s'pose that's technically cheating, but sometimes that's how a Friday goes. The boys had a half day of school so I was out of here at 11 to pick them up. Since then, I've been having fun with him, so there we go. Now, I need to sign off because we have some delicious chili on the stove waiting for us. Happy weekend all!

Happy Thursday, everyone! Is it as chilly there as it is here? The weather report is seriously calling for snow to be mixed in with the rain tomorrow! Ugh! I love Michigan, but I am so not ready for snow. I've been hoping that the dang rain would stop so I could get outside and cut back the rose bushes and all the other vegetation that has taken over the flower beds. They're in horrible shape. I swear the owner hasn't done a thing with them in years. Well, I can't control the weather so no use fretting over it. Instead, how about deciding what to do for ourselves today? What are we all going to do to make us happier campers?

As for me, I'm going to continue working on "The Wall." How is that doing something for me? Well, let me explain. Like a lot of people, I do not thrive in chaos. In fact, let's face it. Those of you who know me, know that ocd could be my middle name sometimes. When I'm surrounded by chaos and a lack of organization, my brain becomes chaos, etc etc. I actually swore I'd write my dissertation on this if I ever made it to that level of schooling. Anyway, now I'm rambling. So, basically, the more organized and clean my house is, the happier I am. Over the past couple of weeks, I've posted something like 6 listings on Freecycle and gotten rid of a bunch of stuff. I already have another small pile of stuff waiting to be listed. I just want to add a few more things to it. It's amazing what you find when you unpack boxes! Watching stuff that I don't need anymore, releasing it out of my home is setting me free. Every time I look out back and see that someone has picked something up, it's like a bit of weight off of my shoulders and who doesn't enjoy losing some weight? ;)

Ok, so that's what I'm doing today. What are all of you doing? Don't forget to sign my little linky thing below and/or leave a comment! By supporting each other, we support ourselves!

Before I get into the story that goes along with my picture, I just wanted to mention a new photo challenge group that I know of. Edie and Corinna have launched a new blog called Sunday Shutterbugs. Each Sunday, they will each post a picture that they took that day/week. They're both very good photographers. In fact, if I ever get married again, I want Edie to do the wedding photos. Anyway, they're inviting all of us to also post a link to a photo that we've taken. So, this week, I'll be posting this photo...



Now for those of you who have followed my photo stream over on Flickr, you know this handsome lad is Vegas. Vegas came to us from England and he is a very well loved member of our family. So loved, in fact, that Roger insists on taking him back and forth between his Dad's place and mine, even though Vegas actually belongs to me. Not only that, but he was going back and forth to school with Roger every day and even going outside at recess! That's where Vegas had a pretty big adventure. It seems Roger and one of his friends were playing with Vegas and somehow he got thrown onto the roof of the school! Oh my...I told the boys that monkies can't really fly... Anyway, it seems he spent 2 days (including an overnight!) up on that roof and of course it rained. Poor monkey. I'm sure he was thrilled when someone finally rescued him. Of course, then he had to take a bath and we all know that monkies do not like the washing machine. Vegas didn't escape unscathed, I'm sorry to say. His one eye is now scratched and his shirt will never look clean again. Roger and Vegas are still the best of friends, but Vegas has retired from the adventure circuit for now...