Wow, it's been a while. I've been busy with Halloween, since the big day is coming up. See www.myspace.com/booksnjazz or www.hauntspace.com/hauntress for my halloween interests. To date I've managed to corpse a Bucky, made a haunted mirror and a bunch of candlesticks and various items. I also have the torso finished for my groundbreaker corpse, courtesty spookyblue. I'm going to make some evil pumpkins for my (what else) evil pumpkin patch next to the hellhole and in front of the voodoo room. The other big thing to make (I'd love a bone chandelier but buying the bones can be expensive) is a giant marionette for my haunted nursery (which is what the bucky is for; I need a Tiny Tim for the child). I have my story outlined on my blog at myspace, I think. It gets difficult to keep up with so many sites.

Hope everyone had a great 4th. We had some fireworks in town that we were able to watch from the porch, so that was nice. Was missing my husband something fierce, since he's one of the reasons we celebrate this holiday. And I think of it whenever I see people frolicking in the pool, leisurely walking along the golf course or ambling down the road. I am proud of him, but am simultaneously angry that the American public has NO idea what it's like to not hear from a loved one. To know there's been action in a particular area and have to wait for a phone call, or worse, a knock at the door. To go for weeks with no information. To have to answer a child's question about where Daddy is. What Daddy is doing. For some, the answer is easy. Daddy is defending the country. For me, not so much. The answer is much more painful because he's supposedly a 'weekend warrior.' Weekend no longer.

For those of you with Halloween inclinations, I have a spot on myspace (myspace.com/booksnjazz) for all things Halloweeny. It's still under construction, but will get there. I began working on my first corpse a few days ago, and am trying to find a little time each day to work on it.

No sewing as of yet, since my kids are constantly in my face, or fighting. Which is, truth be told, the same darn thing. My daughter had a birthday and I baked this awesome Barbie Fairie cake which I'll post sometime next week.

Hmm, not much today. I wanted to work on my MIL's present, for today of course, of David M's Potting Shed, but the garden screamed to me. I still had stuff to plant from 2 weeks ago, so that took precedence. Next project is to stain the interior window woodwork, then maybe I can work on my halloween projects and sewing.

My first halloweenie thing is to create an armature for my corpse - Spooky Blue has some excellent and humorous instructions. If I can get that much done, with power tools nonetheless, then the rest should be workable. I can get the children to help since they always love getting gross and disgusting. Hey, wouldn't you if you were a kid? Not sure what I'm doing after that. I was thinking of snake ankle ticklers, but I do need to work on the whole haunted porch deal.

So wish me luck this week, everyone, to get through the inside project so I can do the fun stuff. After all, it's only 126 days and 55 minutes until Halloween!!

No pictures, since my husband took my camera overseas and left me with the videorecorder from hell. No, I swear, it has a terrible mind of its own. It's been a while since I've written, and I did promise that I would get to issues regarding freedom of speech and expression, yet I continually find myself having to deal with other issues.

I think the biggest things with us is my husband's deployment and the fact that we have a person of questionable behavior toward children living down the street from us. Yeah, he's actually in the sex offender registry. I hate that I can't do anything while he's free to walk the streets and talk to my kids. The police are aware and, with the sheriff's department, are patrolling frequently. It's still frustrating.

If I can get the pictures off of that horrid camera, then I'll post images from the garden. I have a number of roses and so many different birds, from woodpeckers to goldfinches. I think many of you do garden, and I would love to see pictures from my roses before they were hit with blackspot. I've pretty much filled the courtyard all in with gerber daisies, vinca, moss roses, penta, impatiens, begonias, lantana, bee balm, scotch broom, creeping phlox, salvia, dianthus, coneflower, coreopsis, gaura, and obedient plant. Which isn't, btw, very obedient.

My daughter had her dance recital and was actually not bad. She had 3 dances - at 6 - and performed pretty well. The worst thing was that her dad missed them because he had to leave during the first one, but we're getting 2 copies of the performance so he can get a copy whether he wants one or not!

I'm hoping, beyond hope, to establish a routine for housework, exercise, keeping up with the blog with intelligent stuff, not just family stuff, and the kids (but I need to include sewing, too!). I've neglected this for a while, and need to focus outside of us, if I can.