Halloween

What a beautiful night tonight! Balmy 78 with a breeze and a full moon. Gorgeous! Wish I could have gone trick or treating! Rosie and I took a ride delivering Halloween cookies and watching trick or treaters. We had such a great time. Now we're settling in for a movie.

All together I made five costumes this year. Totally fun! I really enjoy sewing. Now preparing for furlough.

Here's some shots of the costumes.






Now if I could just shake this migraine headache.

Fall

Fall arrived this weekend, with lovely cool temperatures, sunny skies and wind. Very nice. Rosie is loving it. I'm a little cold. Such a Florida girl.

Finished a beautiful ball dress costume for Joline Martell yesterday. It was so rewarding to see her glowing face when she put the dress on and started to spin. She was so happy. Definitely worth the few hours it took.

But it reminded me that I hate working with satin. Very slippy. You set a piece down and go to grab it and it's under the table. It also seriously messes with the tension on the machine.

We bought Rosie a costume. That's how I wound up making the dress for Joline. I was feeling a little blue that I wouldn't get to make a costume and Rosie and Jo ran up to me last Sunday and said "Hey since you're not making Rosie a costume, can you make mine?" So that was fun.






Now I'm starting on a power point for Wednesday. I'm talking to the Southeast Volusia Audubon about water issues.

Hoping to go for a long walk today.

What a week!

Oh my goodness. This week has been very, very long and I'll be glad when it's over.

I worked two 14-15 hour days and still didn't get what I wanted done.

Finished a dress for Katelyn tonight when I came home after 14 hours. It looks so cute. Wish I could sew more.

Weird news at work. I'll be glad when the sale goes through. I hate not being in control of my destiny.

Random thoughts

It's been a very long weekend. Taught a class at church on Saturday and made a peanut butter cup trifle. There was just enough left over to bring some home to Steve and Rosie.

We bought Rosie a Halloween costume. I was sad. It's the first time I haven't made her a costume. But it's a lot simpler.

Went kayaking again in the Indian River Lagoon on Thursday night. It was magical -- warm and glowing with the beautiful milky way looming above. I could have stayed out all night long.

Tonight I drove out through the county for some research on a story I'm writing later in the week, then drove over to the beach at New Smyrna to try to think and walk off some stress. I'm really enjoying these warm, humid nights. I love Florida.

Being outdoors

So we took a long drive yesterday and decided to catch up with the last session of conference one night this week. It was absolutely wonderful to be alone with Steve and Rosie for a few hours. We drove to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, saw Heavenly Father's handiwork nearly everywhere we looked. Beautiful wildflowers, the meandering St. Johns River, intriguing birds, a nice sunset and gorgeous moonrise. Truly fun.
I missed the last episode of the Burns documentary because Rosie wanted me to meet her at the Deltona High School football game. To make it worse I sent the set of DVD's off with my boss for his two week vacation. So I'll be waiting on pins and needles for him to bring them back.
Rode around with a bear expert tonight to look for a Florida black bear and set a trap to catch him and move him to a less enticing location where he's not being fed or feasting on garbage once a week. It's interesting to me how easily so many animals can be acclimated to human behavior. Still we had a nice chat about how people all handle these things differently.

Television

Tonight was the best night yet of the Ken Burns documentary. Wow! Really incredible. The film footage was beautiful. The Everglades, one of my favorite places, featured prominently and a couple of the portraits toward the end were just unbelievable.

It never ceases to amaze me how long it has taken us to live up to the promise of "All men are created equal" and we're really still not there yet...

I've watched more television in the last five days than I've seen probably in a year.

Cooked dinner, washed the dishes, took Rosie to the mall this afternoon, took her to Steak and Shake for a good report card and helped her finish a social studies project. Now hoping to finish a draft of a story for the weekend paper.