A Southern Accent

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen, Voices whisper in the trees, "Tonight is Halloween!" Dexter Kozen

Cause dudes can be crafty too, you know... From Dude Craft: I am entirely delighted to close out the Halloween Stories series with the extremely talented and ever generous Cathe Holden from Just Something I Made . In keeping with the style of her own blog, Cathe has included a super-cool, free piece of art for you to copy and use for your own trick-or-treaters. Here is her story: Cathe Holden from Just Something I Made . In keeping with the style of her own blog, Cathe has included a super-cool, free piece of art for you to copy and use for your own trick-or-treaters. Here is her story: Although we live in a sleepy country neighborhood, our children love working our area for treats rather than driving to town for more action. Sympathetic to the great effort the kids must go to for their loot, walking from acre parcel to acre parcel- down long and sometimes dark & creepy driveways, our neighbors treat the kids with full size candy bars, loot bags and one gentleman even brings out hi...

I passed an old pizza place my college boyfriend and I used to go at least once a week this weekend. It's been thirteen years, but my mind reached far back and I could see the two of us sitting there in the front booth, eating a large cheese pizza in front of the big-screen TV, watching ESPN. Then I felt sad just for a bit because of the way it all turned out. I think it's ok to mourn the death of what we had and and in no way is it a reflection of the feelings I have now for my husband. I was crushed - devastated (I'm talking Bella in New Moon) when he broke it off after three years. He was my first love and I guess it's true you always keep a little tiny place in your mind for these memories. But I know now it was for the best. I spent my senior year single and found my forever best friend, got a tattoo (with said best friend) and partied a bit (sorry mom) with that same best friend. (That same best friend that's headed to LA with me in less than two weeks!!!) I ...

I worked from home yesterday because of a grumbly in my tumbly and hubs came home around noon because he didn't have any lessons. The little man was at preschool and we were both sitting downstairs watching TV and the house seemed so quiet. Hubs gets up at 5:30 every morning and basically goes to bed when the little guy does, so we don't get a lot of one-on-one time. We have to plan dates and focus on spending quality time together - and sometimes it will be months before we get away together for a couple of hours. I always look forward to our dates and we have a great time, but we still rush back home and through the door to see our little man. Today, he said, "It seems so weird being in the house and him not being here, you know?" I said, "Yep, but at the same time, it's nice to have some us time, you know?" Then I crawled into his lap and we snuggled and watched Law and Order together. It was good one-on-one time, you know?

It is the world's largest Christmas project. At church this past Sunday, our theme was Operation Christmas Child . If you're not already familiar with the program, Operation Christmas Child began in the United States in 1993 with 28,000 shoe box gifts. Since that time, the kids-helping-kids project has collected more than 69 million shoe box gifts and hand-delivered them to needy children in 145 countries. I sat down with my little guy after church, told him about the boxes and about little boys and girls that don't get anything for Christmas and asked him if he'd like to help me fill a box for a little boy or girl to make them smile on Christmas morning. With a big smile, he said yes! That made me want to continue to spread the word about this program. We watched a video at church about the program and they had "Bikers for Boxes" and I thought, hey, why not have " Bloggers for Boxes"? I ask that you repost this on your site, or include the Blogger...

We finished decorating the house this weekend, finally visited the pumpkin patch and carved a cool jack-o-lantern mansion inspired by one in Martha Stewart's Halloween magazine. I did a similar thing with my mantel last year, but with a couple of little touches from the dollar store (glitter skull and spooky menu) and things around the house (small chest, old family pics, old golf trophy, silver teapot), my pumpkin people from HomeGoods (they have the best and cheapest Halloween decor) and some sticks from the yard - plus my little Happy Halloween hanging banner from last year - and we have our spooky setting, ready for trick-or-treaters!

I'm hosting a quick giveaway for 10 $50 off of $100 coupons (they are electronic coupons in PDF format. So all you will have to do is click and print)! The coupons are good from October 23-29 nd , so this contest begins today and ends at 5:00 EST! All you have to do is leave a comment and I'll use the random number generator to pick 10 lucky winners! If you haven't checked it out yet, Old Navy has a great new online site http://www.oldnavyweekly.com/ that resets every week and you have to "find" the coupons on the site by moving and clicking different items. I've found a 20% off coupon twice in the last month and I've been able to pick up lots of great items for my son and myself! I even bought hubs a Steelers t-shirt there that he loved! Here are a couple of things I'm currently loving at Old Navy: Each week, they have a special "item of the week". This week's special: This week, find that something special for you – or a friend – w...