Welcome friends and family!

"The colors of life shift

within a fixed parameter,

movable blocks of shadow

and light, interchangeable

or not."































"Chaos is a friend of mine." ~Bob Dylan

"Chaos is a friend of mine." ~Bob Dylan
Da Boys!

Front and Center!

These two creatures who have locked up my heart will be front and center in this little corner of blogosphere!







Sunday, November 14, 2010

And so begin the Teenage years!

We have a teenager under our roof as of this past Monday.  Things will never be the same.  Connor turned 13, and he is quick to remind us that he is now a teenager.  Puberty, however, began to creep in over the summer, so we were more or less prepared, I guess.

The now healing black eye on the new teenager is the result of he and his brother (who has a knot on his forehead) jumping on a neighborhood kid's trampoline with more than one kid on at a time.  Sam's foot smashed into Connor's head and Connor's whatever caught Sam in the forehead.  Both boys had been prohibited from jumping on said trampoline due to an earlier incident that resulted in injury.  Must have slipped their memories,.....




Our new teenager has been awfully grumpy as of late.  I'm not sure if this is due to the new state of being or just the usual ups and downs of kid who is often unstable.  Probably both.  Oh joy.

I have a feeling that this kid is going to be a bit harder to contain in the little bubble he's lived in all of his life due to being bipolar and Autistic.  He's never had much interest in venturing out into the world of peers or even, very often, the neighborhood.  Times they are a changing....

This year he joined his first after-school club and went to his first party since kindergarten.  These were milestones that we were thrilled about.  However, this is a child who we can't lose sight of in Wal-mart since he wanders off to follow whatever catches his attention at the moment.  The coming years will be fraught with new and, for his mom and me, uneasy concerns. 

But, for now, we are getting used to the newly evolved teen who is grumpy and sleeps most of the weekend.  In so many ways he's just a typical newly- minted teen.  Come to think of it, the teenage years are an emotional roller coaster ride that Connor is already familiar with.  He's been riding an emotional roller coaster most of his life.  This might just be old hat to him.

Yep, the birthday boy is growing up.  His voice is deeper and he's taller than his grandma.  It seems like only yesterday he was a little fella flying around the house in his Spider-Man costume.

Monday, November 1, 2010

It was a dark and spooky night...


We do Halloween as we do  most holidays around here.  We go all out with decorations to set the mood, to get into the spirit of the occasion.  It's been a haunted house for weeks with spooky decor.  The furkids are not fond of many of the sights and sounds of the season of the witch.  Mac has never liked hanging objects, things that sway and dangle.  Witch cackles and talking spiders that creep across the floor do not set well with any of the 3 furkids.  They were not happy pooches last night.  The only night they hate more is 4th of July.







The goblins that reside here were decked out for the candy crusade.  Connor became a Greek Warrior for the night while Sam started out as Harry Potter, changed his mind, and with Harry's magic, morphed into a business dude, complete with facial hair.  Trish escorted the candy crusaders.



I, as tradition dictates, kept the home pot brewing and handed out sweet treats to the procession of small vampires, fairies, superheros, witches, creatures and the assorted princesses, bees and lady bugs.  I did this while watching a disappointing 4th game of the World Series.  My Rangers got tricked, I'm afraid.



As I type, the vestiges of Halloween have disappeared into the attic or garage and the turkeys have been trotted out (thankful, as every year, that they are not live and endangered).  They will preen until thanks have been given and the flood of snowmen, angels and ornaments send them off to join the ghosts and Easter bunnies.  I have to admit that the season of snowmen, angels and Christmas trees are my favorite time of the year.  Listening to a stuffed turkey gobbling on the coffee table makes me smile knowing that magical season is just around the corner!





















                                                     Hope you had a spooktacular night!