a whole lot of nothing but everything...

 There was frost on the pumpkins this morning, brrr.  It was 32 degrees when I drove Miss Charlotte Claire, the alarm-sleeping-through, bus-missing teenager, to school.  Jon said tomorrow I should wake her up, but nope, I am not starting that, and she agreed.  I drove her gladly, because she really never does this, and I enjoyed the beauty of the fog burning off, the sun shining on the brightly colored leaves...it won't be long before those trees are forlorn and naked...

Yesterday....mammogram...the same hospital where I've had seventeen babies, (but only brought home 16), a gall bladder removal, a D.&C. after a miscarriage, and have been with various kids for various surgeries, and with Ben when he was 15 and got into a four wheeler accident (yes, he almost died.  The surgeon told Paul to get me up there, because things didn't look good...he hit a tree branch, some of it lodged in his leg, cut from ankle to knee, and the infection from the wood spread up the leg like lightening, but the surgeon, God bless him, was able to clean him up good before it got into the bloodstream)(scary stuff, but wow do I play a good game of Off On A Tangent...). My point was the same, familiar hospital, with everyone masked, and the check points, it seemed so surreal...I remember when Covid first started, and my mammogram was cancelled, rescheduled, cancelled...things were NEVER going to be normal again.  Now it's a semblance of normal, but...strange.  

When I filled out the forms in the waiting room, there was this question:  

Number of pregnancies:    22.  That was my answer.  Now how many women have to count on their fingers to get the correct answer to that question?  (16 kids, one stillborn, five miscarriages...)

The mammo itself was no fun, not terrible, made better by the niceness of the technician.  She said the radiologist would look at it, and call if he saw anything suspicious, otherwise I'd get notified by mail.  So don't be surprised if I don't like to hear my phone ring for the next few days.

I was out and about all by my lonesome, so I went to Aldi...I bought a turkey for 87 cents a pound, and have it thawing.  We're having a turkey dinner on Sunday!  I know it sort of takes something from Thanksgiving to have turkey before, but.  We are anyway.  Camille Anaya is turning 14 that day, can you even believe that?  I have been blogging for over 14 years now, as I started before she was born.

Anyway, I also went to Walmart to get her a few birthday gifts, and I am not saying what I got, just in case she reads this.  

Home, ahhh, home.  I made up some butter chicken for the crock pot, then went back out and about with Char and Cam...to Target.  Then home again, ahh.  

I have been bothered by the clutter around here, too much in the living room.  We decided to move things around a bit, and get rid of one of the coffee tables, which we replaced last year, then never actually got rid of it.  It's still in here, on it's side in the doorway, waiting for someone stronger than me to bring it out, not sure what to do with it, it's banged up, and scratched...

It looks more open in here, less is more, right?  We decided to go ahead and pack up the autumn decorations now too, not that we're decorating for Christmas quite yet, but...we can put a few things out little by little now that the pumpkins are gone...to me, the autumn stuff is just second class, like a consolation prize season, compared to Christmas.  Christmas stuff is the bomb, it's IT.  Fall stuff is nice, but it's nicer to put it away, to get out the REAL decorations.  

We strung some white lights in the kitchen, and I'll put some out here, the girls are reminding me to keep the Christmas stuff to a minimum too, as I tend to go overboard...

The Keep The Dogs Off The Couch experiment was a grand failure.  It lasted exactly as long as we kept four guitars on the big couch, as soon as we took them off, they hopped right back on.  I've shooed Miss Sunny down four times today, I'm done, they win.  

(someone should prob rake those up...)

This fine day I have to go pick Miss Sonja K. up from work, she rode to college with her friend Gracie, but is staying to work for a while after classes.  She can't drive the rental car, and our car is still in the shop.  Then Mariel hit a deer the other night, her Mitsubishi is now in the shop too, waiting for parts!  It was Halloween night, on a dark country road, and this big deer flew out from nowhere, Mar said she screamed a proper Halloween night, bloody murder, scream, as did Emily and Abigail...they were all fine, just some front end damage to the poor car, and we won't even talk about the poor deer.

Ah well, I should probably start on something constructive around here.  I washed dishes this morning, but these floors could use a good cleaning...have a really good day!