my baby's eleven months old... I can't believe it, really. To celebrate, we all walked to the park. It was a beautiful day, in the 70's. Macy had a lot of fun on the swings. And tonight she took three steps on her own!!

Otherwise, I spent a lot of the day watching VH1's "I Love the 80's" shows. They spent a half hour on each year from 80 to 89. It really sucked me in because I could remember almost all of it and laugh along with all the commentators about how silly the 80's really were.

And I think I'll cut my blog short for today because, honestly, I'm not much in the writing mood. Actually, I'm in a lazy mood and would much rather be laying in my bed watching mindless tv. And I believe if I did attempt to put much more down, it would be, basically, bad writing (which is actually what this last paragraph is.)

ewwww.

happy thanksgiving... How ironic that my first thanksgiving with a husband and child is also the first away from my own family. Even so, we had a nice, little day.

Mike arose bright and early at 4:00 a.m. to put the turkey in the smoker. I was lucky enough to awake to the wonderful smell of smoked turkey. My mouth watered all day.

We spent the morning and early afternoon lounging around on the couch watching movies on T.V. We watched "Mr. Mom," "Romancing the Stone" and "Dances With Wolves." And then, whatdayaknow, it was 2:00: time to get ready. We were invited to the Schwartz's for the big meal at 4:00. Ron's family was down from Nebraska so it was a full house.

The meal and company was nice. Mike's smoked turkey was delicious, as was Ron's deep fat fried one. We also had mashed potatoes, green bean cassarole and dinner roles, all the requisted-by-law thanksgiving foods. I brought along a pumpkin cheesecake that I thought sounded very thanksgivingy. I had never had it before and, honestly, I thought it was pretty disgusting when I tried it. (I'm not a pumkin lovin' girl.) But there were a few people who enjoyed it. But I just couldn't stop until I had that piece of pecan pie. Not as good as my grandma's, but not too bad, either. And with my pie, I actually had coffee (with Bailey's and sugar, of course).

Macy was an absolute angel and had fun with the boys and meeting Ron's family. We headed home, stuffed, around 8:00. Macy went right to bed and Mike and I relaxed in bed and watched "A Christmas Story" (it's starting already!!!) and talked until we couldn't say up any longer.

Today, I'm hugely in the Christmas spirit. I want to start wrapping presents alread; and I do already have some, can you believe it? Unfortunately, Mike had to work today but Macy and I are meeting him for lunch later. And I think the weekend thereafter should be really nice, too. We plan on making a trip to Canton and, if I have any say, will stay only in the covered pavillions. The shopping season has begun. Bring it on!!!

lester... San Antonio is one of my new favorite places to be. The Alamo. Such beautiful history. Such beautiful wild oak trees. And I never imagined the River Walk would be so wonderful. I felt like I was in an entirely different world.

Mike, Macy and I began our journey Saturday morning. Miraculously, we were on the road by 9:00, even though we woke up with nothing packed. We were hungry by the time we reached Georgetown and decided to stop at Rudy's Barbecue. "Texas' Worst Barbecue" was what their sign boasted. I beg to differ. We thought it was one of the best.

So onward to San Antonio. We arrived around 2:30 and, after checking in to the Hotel and letting Macy run around while we relaxed, we headed out in search of the Alamo. It wasn't hard to find and, in fact, we were actually looking for a parking spot when I looked up and said, "oh, there it is." You could actually see it from the street. For some reason, we both expected it to be far from view.

It was beautiful. So amazing to think of what actually happened right there where I was standing. I was especially intrigued by all of the beautiful live oak trees that were hundreds of years old. Their branches winding beautifully through mid air. I took so many pictures of those trees. I hope they turn out.

After getting our fill of the Alamo's beauty, we moved toward downtown streets. There were many people about and this made me feel especially good after our Port Arthur trip. I really needed to be in a thriving, beautiful metropolitan. We bought some wine at Blum Street, making sure to get an extra bottle as a thank-you gift for our dog-sitting neighbors. We walked through a Tobasco specialty shop and found ourselves in the River City Mall. A three-story, real, live, busy, crowded, lit up mall. Oh, a wonderful, happy place. (Did I mention Tyler's mall leaves a lot to be desired?) And from the food court, you could walk right out onto the River Walk, which we did.

We next purchased tickets for the river cruise. The cruise was, surprisingly, an hour long and took us up and down the entire river walk. It was helpful because we then knew where the important places were that we wanted to return to. Mainly for food.
But by the time the cruise ended, Macy was restless and we were starved so we went to the first restaurant we saw, which happened to be back in the mall - Steers and Beers. And then it was off to bed for us.

Sunday morning brought us cooler weather than we anticipated and we found we didn't pack like we should have. Alas, I did bring along a sweater and a jacket for Macy, but poor Mike was stuck in his shorts and short-sleeves. We ate breakfast at the hotel and found ourselves sharing our table with a couple from Denver. She was originally from Austin and he from Shreveport. They had an 18-month-old and we all had a nice time together. We were actually kind of sad to leave them. But we did and, since it was still pretty early, we decided to get in the car and see what we could find outside of the downtown area. We came across several billboards for "Natural Bridge Caverns and Wildlife Safari" and decided to check it out. It turned out to be one of those drive-through safaries and was actually a lot of fun. With our ticket purchase we were given a bag of food for the animals and were instructed to just throw it out our windows to get a good view of the animals. We had Ostriches, Zebras, Waterbucks, Buffalos and many other beautiful creatures actually coming up to the windows of our car. There was this one animal that looked like a big deer that came up to our window, put his head in and was just the most friendly thing. The Zebras would come up and hold their mouths open for the food, right next to us!! It was so awesome to see these animals so close. Macy loved it and was pointing at everything and saying, "Du, Du" (which really means dog).

But eventually, we did have to leave our new friends and we then went back downtown. We spent most of the day on the riverwalk. We had lunch at Dick's Last Resort where the waitstaff are actually instructed to be rude to the customers. Our young waiter did a pretty good job being smart alicky and rude, but Mike was just as adept and towards the end of our meal, he actually sat down to get to know us. He asked us where we were from and upon learning our roots, informed us that he drove through Nebraska with a friend once but his only memory is of his friend stopping in Lincoln to piss on Memorial stadium. I didn't think this was very nice and I told him so. He was from Miami.

After more walking and shopping and sight-seeing we went back to the Hotel to rest. Macy was supposed to take a nap but she didn't. But when we left the room to head to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner, she was asleep by the time we walked in and slept all through the meal. So we had Mike and Mollie time. It turned into a real date!!

The dreaded Monday morning did arrive and Mike had to don his suit and tie for the convention. We had breakfast and parted ways, making plans to meet at 1:30 and, after three hours of walking through the River City Mall, I became exhausted. I began walking to the Henry Gonzales Convention Center about 12:30 but, once there, I still had about 40 minutes to kill. So I kept walking right out the front doors and made my way to the right down a nicely colorful cement tiled walkway. I came upon a park. Nothing Historical, nothing touristy, but a simple little park with a wooden fort and other wooden swings and play things. Two Mexican women sat on the ground watching their children play. They looked so happy with big smiles on their faces. They nodded to me and my blonde, blue-eyed little girl as we strolled by. It was about then when I first saw little Lester, wearing a blue and white jogging suit with the big McDonalds "M" in gold on the front. He didn't introduce himself to me. I doubt if he could speak English. But I learned his name from his big sister who was chasing him and yelling, "Lestrrr, Lestrrr." That name never struck me as being a beautiful one, but it sounded beautiful as she called it out in her native tongue. Lester was chasing a pigeon and wouldn't stop for anything. But as he came near me and heard the squeaky wheels of Macy's stroller, he stopped and looked up at me. And in his eyes, I finally understood why the San Antonio history was so beautiful. I'm not sure what it was about this particular little boy. I'd seen many hispanic people during our stay. But now, when I think of San Antonio, little Lester will be one of the many images that come to mind, along with the sound of his sister calling his name.

not much to report... Another beautiful day. I mowed the lawn this morning. Had lunch with Mike at Pasado's. Mexican. Very, very good. Otherwise, spent the afternoon trying to stay awake. For some reason, I was very sleepy.

Our neighbor, Glen, came over tonight to be briefed on the ins and outs of maintaining Truman and Sigmund. We're off to San Antonio in the morning and won't return until Monday night and Glen and his family are nice enough to look in on the house and the pets for us.

I'm pretty excited because I've always wanted to go to San Antonio. We want to see the Alamo, walk down the river walk, etc. I've heard it's a romantic city. It's actually part business for Mike because he has to attend a conference Monday morning. But we'll have the rest of the time for ourselves.

More to come when we return...

imageek... I guess all my whining about the weather has paid off. The last couple days have been absolutely perfect. I've taken Macy and Truman for walks each day and enjoyed every minute of it. This, coming from a girl who won't step foot out of the house in temperatures above 85 or below 55. Of course, I'm exagerating, but you get the gist.

But besides walking, I feel like I've gotten a lot done the past few days. I've registered myself for the GRE (Graduate Record Exam) and will be taking the same on December 17. The registration cost was an unrefundable $115, so I pretty much have to do it. It's a 4 hour exam in Nacogdoches, about an hour south. This is where the geek connotation comes in... I'm actually kinda excited about it. I can't believe I just admitted that.

Otherwise, life moves along smoothly. We grouted our kitchen tile last night and it is all ready for the grand finale - the caulk. Eh, we'll get around to that when we're ready. We had more important things to do tonight like head to Fat Dog to replenish our dwindled alcohol stash. I'm trying to start drinking more red wine as opposed to my favorites, white zin and chardonnay. The reason? I hear red is healthier and has less calories. Who knows? Nevertheless, the box o' red we got tonight tasted pretty good. I'm already on my second glass.

goodnight.

crazy humid... So humid that even though it wasn't actually hot, I did have to close the windows and turn on the air conditioner just to dry things out.

Otherwise, Macy and I made our requisite trip to Target this morning. We bought curtains for the kitchen, livingroom and bedroom. I'm not quite sure I like the kitchen ones yet, but the rest are just fine, ya'll. (please read the last seven words with a southern drawl)

And tonight my next-door neighbor, Shanna, and I walked down the street to play this month's game of Bunco. And guess who the big winner was. Yes, me!! I came home with $25, thank you. Shanna won $20, so we had quite the happy little walk home. In the rain.

tile, walley & liotta... We could've just layed around and done nothing all day, but we didn't. Instead, we put up a really cool tile border around our kitchen. It's made up of mainly ivory tiles, with random green, blue and yellow tiles mixed in. It looks so awesome and our kitchen is almost complete. Now all I have to do is find matching curtains and hang pictures on the wall. But what's even more exciting is that now I know how to tile. I even know how to cut tile.

After we cleaned up our mess, Macy and I played in the living room while Mike made a great supper of broiled walleye and homemade onion rings. yummy. And while I cleaned up the kitchen, Mike gave Macy her bath and it wasn't long thereafter when she went to bed.

We later relaxed on the couch and found ourselves drawn into the Ray Liotta biography on A & E, which was really quite interesting. I've always been fascinated by him, and Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies.

Sorry to cut it short, but I'm tired. Goodnight.

saturday adventure... Let me tell you about our adventure today.

Ever since Mike got the job in Tyler, we've been excited about a few aspects of the move to Texas. One of them was the fact that we would only be four hours from the ocean, or the Gulf of Mexico anyway. Any map you look at clearly depicts a town by the name of Port Arthur located right on the Gulf of Mexico, in a straight southeasterly direction from Tyler. Today, we excitedly decided to check it out.

So we packed up Macy and Truman and were sure to remember the stroller, dog leash and the camera for what we expected to be a nice walk along a beach and maybe some strolls through some beachfront shops. We were also expecting killer seafood dinner somewhere along the way.

The ride down was absolutely beautiful. The trees are starting to turn; well, at least the non-evergreens. Macy was a good little girl, even though she developed a cough on the way down. We stopped at Eckerds in Jacksonville for some children's cough medicine and by the time we reached Lufkin, she was cough-free and sleeping.

Enter Port Aurthur: We drove ourselves through what appeared to be an abandoned part of town, following the "Port of Arthur" signs. What we finally came to was some type of refinery with a gate. We couldn't get in. Fair enough because I wasn't liking the feel of this part of town anyway.

After consulting out map, we turned around and decided to take highway 87 which appeared to go around the town of Port Arthur and end up on the coast. The name of the town nearest was Sabine Point or something like that. It sounded nice. We had to drive through a pretty sad part of town on our way. There were abandoned buildings everywhere, mixed in with the dilapidated ones. It was dirty and trashy and I kept waiting to enter into a nicer part of town but we didn't.

We finally made it out of town. From the looks of the map, we were very, very close to the gulf. So we just kept driving and driving straight south, both of us wondering when the pavement was just going to drop into the sea. We passed big oil rigs and oil refineries and finally found ourselves driving on a pot-holed road no wider than the Mopac Trail, with giant weeds on either side so that we couldn't even tell what was behind them. And every once in awhile, a truck would be parked alongside the road and you could only imagine that it's owner was out there past the weeds fishing. Well, we hoped that's what was happening.

At last we reached a clearing and we finally saw water and we were so excited. Along the side of the road there was trash and cement blocks but we didn't care. We unstrapped Macy and hooked Truman up to his leash and stepped across that narrow road and looked at the water. We took pictures. Me and Macy together sitting on a rock. Mike and Truman on the same rock. I even got bit on the back of my ankle by a fire ant and then again on the top of my foot and then found my shoe was full of them. But we made it to the ocean, damn it, and we were happy!

Once we had our fill there, we drove up the road a bit more and we concluded that we felt more like we were in swamplands than on the coast. For goodness' sake, we were practically 10 feet from Louisiana.

At this point we were starving. I wanted so bad to return to civilization and sit in a nice restaraunt, but in order to do this, we were forced to go all the way back to Beaumont because the most sophisticated looking restaurant we found near the coast or in Port Arthur was called "Skeeters Bar and Grill."

In Beaumont we found a Cajun Grill place and since the parking lot was full, we decided it must be good. It was across from a Mall, too, and I always feel better when one of those is in sight. But we must not have noticed the big sign out front which said "Auction - Saturday, November 15" Yes, the crowded parking lot was not dinner-goers at all, but auction bidders looking for a good deal on restaurant furniture, etc.

We ended up taking an exit called "College Street" and figured they had to have food there. We found Crockett Street, which was actually blocked off and they had a few harleys sitting out front. There were two restaurants and three bars on that block alone. We chose the Mexican one and had a great dinner, complete with beers and margaritas. Afterwards I suggested we take out the stroller and leash and stroll for awhile before the long drive home. We walked around the block. Nothing. Up the next block. Nothing. People, this was the absolute deadest town I've ever seen. We somehow managed to find the only block in town with any sort of inhabitants. At least Port Arthur had people milling about. Yes, they were shady-looking but they were real, live beings.

So that ended our day and we headed ourselves home. But the fun didn't stop. Macy began crying, I mean screaming, about 100 miles from home. She wasn't hungry, wasn't tired, just bored and sick of being in her carseat. Those of you who are parents know what I'm talking about. I couldnt' do a thing for her and I was torn between being so sad for her and so completely frustrated at the same time. Oh, and did I mention it was raining really hard?

She eventually fell asleep and the remainder of our return home was peaceful except for the point where I began laughing outloud. I began to think about that absolutly filthy, crappy, so-called oceanside and how we were so happily making the best of the situation by taking pictures. It wasn't even pretty! And then the restaurant fiasco that followed. Oh, and thinking of just how, ok I'll say it... shitty... Port Arthur really was. Who knows, maybe we totally missed a beautiful part of town. I'm goint to have to do some research, but what we saw was dissapointing.

we finally made it home. Once here, Macy awoke and crawled around for awhile to stretch her legs, Mike and I showered and all is well once again.

I know I'm dissing our day, but it really was fun. I like doing things like that and I especially like doing them with Mike. He makes everything fun. We both like just setting out in the morning and seeing what happens. It may be wonderful, and it may be disappointing, but it's not about the destination, but the journey. Our journey today taught us a lot and despite all the pitfalls, we're still smiling.

false advertising... I feel like I need to change the name of this blog to "occassional morning coke... and maybe an evening toddy, if I can stay awake, that is." I've been trying to ween myself off of the cokes for my diet's sake. And the box o' wine currently in the fridge is not white zinfindale at all, but a chardonnay. And as if that weren't enough, I've taken a liking to mixing up a margarita after dinner. But even so, the name is catchy, no? I think I'll keep it.

It's taken me awhile to catch up on things. Macy and I arrived home safely Tuesday night from our trip to California. I'll do my best here to recap...

Mike dropped us off Saturday morning at the cute little Tyler airport and the day's travels went quite smoothly. We arrived in Ontario on schedule and met my sister Monti and her Husband, Heath, and kids (Chase & Chelsie) by the baggage claim. It was so good to see them. They all looked great. On the way to the parking lot to deliver my bags to the car, we met our great-uncle, Edgar, and his wife, Peggy. We all then returned to the airport to await the arrival of Grandma, Mom, John, Beki and Emah. They, too, arrived on schedule and after all the hugs and kisses, we left for the "Hometown Buffet" for dinner at the suggestion of Aunt Peggy. After stuffing ourselves, we retired to the house of LaRue. We spent the evening snacking and talking and we took a walk the three blocks to Chase and Chelsie's school - Sandia Elementary. We also were visited later by my mom's cousin, Paula, and her husband and son. By 10:00 I was beyond exhausted and was finally able to sleep, which I did in Chase's bed with my little sister, Beki.

Sunday morning came way too early as Macy was still on Central time. She woke at 4:00 a.m. Since every room in the house was occupied by sleeping individuals I was forced to pick a room to hang out in. The unlucky sleepers were Heath, Monti and Chase who were asleep on the blow-up mattress and couch in the living room. But Uncle Heath, bless his heart, was willing to take Macy in his arms and she surprisingly fell asleep there. I was able to snore a little longer on the loveseat nearby.

Everyone was pretty much up and ready to go by 9:00. We then headed to Arcadia to see my great-grandma who had recently been placed there. She will be 104 in December and, in all honestly, we thought we had lost her last summer. But she is still kicking and she looked much better than I expected in her red pants and shirt and pink sweater. She even looked as if someone had put a little pink blush on her cheeks. Her nails were also painted red and her hair looked nice, as well. She couldn't see us, but upon being told her daughter, Marie (my grandma), was next to her, she took every opportunity to introduce her to whomever happened to come over and talk to her. We took a lot of pictures, but sadly, we did have to leave, and we did. I hope we will see her again. Maybe on her 104th birthday.

Monday we all awoke excited because we were going to Disneyland. But it was one of those days that I think we'll all laugh about some day. And if I'm asked in the near future if I'd like to go to Disneyland, I think I will shudder at the thought. Oh, not that Disneland is a bad place, no! But oh my gosh it was so crowded. I didn't think that Veteran's Day would be a big holiday, but school was out Monday and Tuesday and you can imagine how it was. I think we went on four rides and we honestly spent most of our energy trying not to lose anyone in our group. But I think (I hope) the kids had fun. Macy won't remember, but the others will.

So Tuesday brought our travelin' home day, which went without a hitch. But it was very sad to leave my sister. If only she weren't so far away. I'm hoping and looking forward to another reunion soon. But as sad as it was to leave, it was also wonderful to see Mike, who was waiting as close to the gate as he could get in this day and age. It had only been a couple of days, but it felt so good to hug him and be in his arms again. Yes, my family is far away, but my family is here, as well, and that's a good feeling to have.

i know i forgot something... I packed today. Perfect weather for it, too; cold, cloudy, rainy and dreary. We did get out and get our heads wet, though, when we took a quick trip to the Flint Post Office. And tonight Mike took us out to dinner at Spring Creek Barbeque. We first went to "Bubba's Grill" which is brand new in the Flint "strip mall" (Poistivly No Loitering, the sign reads in its parking lot. And no, that spelling mistake is not mine), but they didn't have high chairs, for heaven's sake. So we ended up at Spring Creek. It was good, but no Dave's, which is still our favorite.

But now we're home and Mike is giving Macy her bath. Hopefully she'll soon be asleep and we can proceed with our plan of lying in bed and watching a pay-per-view movie. And tomorrow... we'll be flying away to California. This'll be the first time Macy and I travel so far together... alone. I'm very excited, but I feel bad leaving Mike behind. I'm gonna miss him.

Well, goodnight, ya'll. Blog ya Wednesday!

coolin' off... It's finally November-like here. Actually, it's more like October-like weather to me, but I guess for Texas it's finally seasonal. The temperatures were in the 50's today, cloudy and drizzly. What I wouldn't have given for this weather on Halloween! Yesterday, and every day preceding, temps were mid 80's or higher with extreme humidity, so today was quite a welcome relief.

Since my Texas driver's license is only temporary (and without a photo) until they mail the real one to me (in 6 to 8 weeks), I went in to MotoPhoto today and got a picture ID. I figured I may need it for my travels this weekend. Yes, my travels. During the hour we needed to wait for it to be done, we visited Mike at work. Unfortunately, he was quite busy so we didn't stay long. We then browsed about Steinmart on our way back to MotoPhoto where, upon reviewing my ID, I noticed they had my address wrong so we were forced to wait for another one to be printed. We spent our time playing with toys on the floor.

But back to the previously-mentioned travels... Macy and I are flying to Apple Valley, CA to visit my sister, Monti, and her family. And what's even more exciting is that my mom, grandma, sister (Beki) and niece (Emah) are flying there from Nebraska. It's been six weeks since we left and I'm so very excited to see them all. The only downfall is that my sweet husband has to stay home because his vacation time doesn't kick in for six months from his start date (April 7, 2004). But we have prepared him for his lonely weekend through a quick trip to Home Depot this evening, setting him up with fresh new lumber and "red oak" stain so he can make the wall box-shelves I've been wanting for so long. But even so, I'll miss him.

Otherwise the day was spent putting up photos about the house. And I finally unpacked that one remaining box that has been sitting in my closet now for six weeks. Contents: Mike's stereo, my angel I bought from my aunt Peg's Country Peddlers party years ago, my marble elephants, souveniers from my Grandma Boldt's long-ago trip to Europe, and Mike's glass candle plate. Quite the momentous occasion. Is this finality of the move? I think I'll save that for when I have everything that is cluttering up the guest room put in its proper place. Yes, we'll save the finality until then.

i love the night... I don't like mornings, never have. But when evening starts, when I sense the dusk, I become happier. I like it that the day is done. Sure, I'm thankful every morning for the new day, thankful that the sun is shining, thankful when it rains, thankful for what I have and all that, but it can't compare to how relaxed I feel at the end of the day. I like something being accomplished, even if it's only just a day. I look at it this way; if it was a good day, I hold it in my memory, write about it; but if it were a bad or sad day, I can be glad that it's over and happy that I made it through. I like sitting back, thinking about the day, I really do. Am I wierd? This isn't some new thing either, I've always been like that. And after much analyzation, I've come to the conclusion that I must just be one who lives in the past. I've never really been a planner. I've had goals, sure, still do, but taking them day by day is how I get through and each day done is closer to the goal. Just another reason to delight in the night.

So anyway, I've not too much to report. Macy and I have had a most typical couple of days since my last post here. She continues to both amaze, humor and frusterate me all at once. She's absolutely way too cute to ever be mad at, and seriously, nothing she does at this point is done in any sort of purposeful way. It's totally normal to play in Truman's dog dish and unwrap the toilet paper from the bathroom all the way into the living room, and eat bugs and grass and dirt. But it's when I catch her doing these things and say in obvious distress "Oh, No! Macy!" and she looks at me and smiles while she continues the naughty act, where struggle in my efforts not to smile and laugh with her. It is at these times when the same thought goes quite calmly through my mind, "I have a kid." Simple as that.

canton... Yesterday, Mike, Mace & I packed up and headed 35 miles west to Canton for their world famous "First Monday" trade days - a huge flea market. We were unprepared for the vastness of it. Think of your typical state fair x 20. After paying $3 to park, we strapped Macy down into her stroller and headed towards the action. We walked through what looked to be tables and tables of just plain junk towards one of the many pavillions. These pavillions, in contrast to the outdoor vendors, seemed to house much nicer stuff. We bought two rugs for our house, a block set for Macy for Christmas (don't tell!), and lots of food. After being there about 5 hours, we'd had just about enough and headed home, where Mikey prepared dinner using another recipe he borrowed from one of his new paramedic buddies, Frankie. Basically, it was a quiche-type thing without the crust. Yummy, yummy! That, coupled with several glasses of chardonnay, made for a wonderful meal - oh yeah, and some Blue Bell rocky road ice cream for dessert.

But I must say a little bit more about Canton, and how I felt when I was there. Parts of it, actually, made me very, very sad. Especially while walking through the most apparent poor people selling the junk in the outdoor booths. Walking through them made me feel awash with sadness and desperations. I pictured what their homes must be like, dilapidated and dirty. It seemed as if they literally walked the streets, picking up anything they thought would sell and threw it on the ground hoping for a buyer. Neglected dolls and old bikes lined the grass and I found myself wondering what they could say if they could talk. I sensed they all had sad stories. In one particular aisle of outdoor booths, I felt a vibe so bad I felt nauseaus. It was in this aisle that we noticed on the grass two infant caskets, old and dirty and obviously dug up from the ground. We couldn't believe someone would be trying to sell such things. They were so dirty and obviously used to bury someone's deceased babies. Sickening. It took us quite a while and quite a distance from them to begin to feel better.

Canton was interesting, but as we left I suggested to Mike that we go into Dallas for awhile since we were only 45 minutes away. I felt a desperate need to be in a city, around modern civilization and back into 2003. But considering we had Macy, we decided just to head home. But we did stop at Walmart on the way for formula and a few items needed for dinner. It wasn't Dallas, but it wasn't Canton and at least that was something.

happy, hot, humid, halloween... Years ago, I drempt of my child's first Halloween. I couldn't wait to dress her up and go to all the family and friends' houses for trick or treating. So you wouldn't be surprised to hear that this year was a little bitter sweet. Or at least that's how I felt for most of the day.

Halloween began for me about 8:00 as I began sewing the little colorful balls onto Macy's Halloween butterfly costume. At 9:00, Lisa dropped off her youngest son, Luke, for me to babysit til noon. He's four. We had a nice time during the morning; he talking nonstop, even during the cartoons, our playtime out in the yard with Truman, our walk down the street and lunch, and me trying my best to understand everything he was saying. I was pleased, though, when he informed me my macaroni and cheese was better than his mom's.

Later in the afternoon after Macy's nap, we went out into the hot, humid, Texas day, destination: Target. In all honesty, I was trying to find some little thing that I could wear for that night's halloween party at the Schartz'. You know, a cat-ear headband or something in the like. Instead, as I was browsing through some little t-shirts and pink cargo pants I thought "these are cute, but they're so high school." Well, that's when it hit me - why not dress up like a high schooler? I know, pretty lame but I've consistently been a lame Halloweener...

So when Mike came home from work and holed himself up in the bathroom getting himself in-costume, I dressed Macy and in no time we were ready to go. I had to laugh as Mike stepped into the living room in my old bib overalls (we're the same size!!), his hair greased, parted with an alfalfa-like sprout coming out the back, and his always funny Lee Bob teeth - you know, those fake buck teeth that look like you haven't brushed since 1964 (a big seller in the gas stations down here).

And we were off to "The Woods", a very exclusive community in Tyler where the Schwartzs' live. As we drove into the neighborhood, we were in awe at how many little trick-or-treaters were out. There were cars literaly parked for 3-4 blocks on either side. As we meandered down the streets, we saw lots of little walking kitties, rambos, witches and the always popular batmen.

The Schwartz house was alive. There were about 15 kids out playing in the street, waiting to head out. It was all the same couples from the Gustafson's dinner party, plus a couple more.

So all the moms (and Mike) began down the street with the little ones. Macy in her stroller with her butterfly wings and antennae headband. At her first house, she was presented with a sucker and that was good enough for her for the whole night. From then on, we simply tagged along with the others, talking to Melissa, Gracie's mom, and listening to Lisa shout orders to the kids. We learned a lot that night.

But what was really interesting was the Las Vegas feel it began to have. There were so many people walking around!! Instead of having to ring doorbells, a lot of the neighbors were sitting or standing outside, dressed up themselves or their houses looking wonderfully frightening. And in Jackie Gustafson's wagon, instead of her young son, Thor, sat a cooler of beer and a box of wine. We all just drank as we walked and those we passed were doing the same.

Back at the house, I stuffed my and Macy's faces while Mike joined in the dad's already-in-progress poker game. And as the night wore on, the men stayed at their poker table, the women gathered in the kitchen around food and drink, the kids ran screaming here and there, the sweet little 10-month olds, Macy the butterfly and Gracie the mouse, alternating between sitting in the living room taking in their surroundings and crawling at mock-90 through the house. All in all, besides missing my family, Macy's first Halloween was a success.