Early Halloween

So okay, another weird fact about the area I live... they do trick-or-treating early around here. And at a mandated time. And for only for kids 12 and under (in certain towns). It's an interesting rule that we learned about since we moved here. The local towns mandate a specific times for trick or treating. And in our town specifically, if Halloween falls on a weekday, then they mandate that trick-or-treating is moved to the Saturday before Halloween, and during the daylight hours.

So yesterday was our "Halloween" or trick-or-treating day, from 1-4. I just think it's strange, and kinda lame. I mean I know it's all about safety and keeping it not "on a school night", but it still takes a little bit of fun out of Halloween. When we were kids, we waited until dark on Halloween and trick-or-treated until our hearts content... and ON Halloween. It just doesn't seem as fun to do it early. And then mandating the ages? That's lame too.

Oh well. Mr. H2O and I joked that our future children will be lucky to go trick-or-treating twice... once early our town, and then we can go to Grandma and Grandpa's on Halloween. Twice the fun, Twice the candy.

Here are the pumpkins that I took time to carve in time for "early Halloween".

My little pumpkin - it says "boo"



My Big pumpkin - says Happy Halloween, but it dried up a little and the words got messed up


After I took these pictures, I promptly tripped on the front step coming back in. Yep... I am graceful. The camera is fine, my knee and ankle are not.

House Updates

Back in September, Mr. H2O was told by his job to "work from home" for a couple weeks. It's a long story, but basically they needed the lab that he works in for some testing, and for safety reasons he couldn't be there. So he got to "work from home" or basically catch up on his Maury watching and household projects and get paid for it. It was originally for 2 weeks, but 2 weeks turned into 3 weeks and then almost a month. Now I love my husband to death, but having him home all that time threw me off and I was looking forward to when he went back.

In that time though, he did manage to get our front yard projects done, which included finishing the building of the garden wall and the battle for control of the front lawn. So I've decided to post up some pictures of the H2O house lately since I haven't really shown it off in awhile. Not a drastic change but it looks a lot nicer now. And you can see some of my outdoor fall decor too.

Before (June '07)


After (October '07)


Side Garden Area Before


Side Garden Area After


Other side Garden Area Before


Other side Garden Area After


My new Japanese Laceleaf Maple


Front Door in June '07


Front Door with some of my fall decor Oct '07


That's what we have for now. And it is amazing, the front lawn is looking so green right now. It was a battle for Mr. H2O but we managed to grow the new seed and get rid of most of the crabgrass. We are planning on putting in a shade tree in the front lawn at some point.
I would show pictures of the back, but it is pretty embarrassing. It is all weeds and overgrown crabgrass right now and looks absolutely terrible. It is such a big and odd shaped lot and a complete blank canvas. Mr. H2O is insisting that we wait until we have a "master plan" before we do anything back there. I just want it to look... well, just not terrible like it is now.