Halloween Candy

It's that time of year when everywhere you go there are piles of candy bags, just waiting to jump into your shopping cart.  I managed to ignore them until just the other day.  I thought that I'd better buy a couple bags, meaning four, just in case we get a few trick-or-treaters this year.
Now the trick for us will be trying not to eat all of that candy before Halloween.  It will be hard because I always have to buy my favorite candies.  The one year, I was actually sticking to my diet, I bought the candies that I don't really like.  Yes, there are actually some candies I don't like and can easily pass up.  One of those candies is Smarties.  When I mentioned last year to someone at work that I didn't like Smarties, they ridiculed me.  They said that is the all time favorite treat and that everyone loved them.  So I had to set out on a mission to ask everyone at work if they loved them or not.  Truthfully, most people did like them but there were a few that didn't.
Another candy that I can do without is the Three Musketeers bars.  Not sure why, but I just really don't care for them.  Candy corn is not a favorite.  Anything that is cinnamon flavored like red hots...ugh!
Now for some of my favorite Halloween candy treats!  I love those little snack sized Take Five bars.  The only problem is I can't find them in very many places and so far I haven't found them at all this year!  *sigh*
I also love Mounds, Butterfingers, Milky Ways and Peanut butter Snickers and a whole long list of other chocolaty treats.  Those were the four bags I bought the other day.  So far I've managed to only eat one Mounds bar, although just writing about them is making me think I might need another one.

  I like to go to my Mom's on Halloween and help hand out candy.  The best part is she hands out full sized candy bars and we get to bring some home for ourselves!  That is very good incentive to go up and visit her on Halloween.

Do you have a favorite Halloween candy?  Are you able to keep enough for those little trick-or-treaters or do you need to run out and buy more before they show up at the house?  Or better yet, do you just keep your porch light out and sit inside and eat all the candy yourself?

Our life is full of Beans!

Our second pound puppy arrived a few years back. I had been thinking of getting a second dog to keep our Pomeranian, Zeke company.  We'd been making visits to the Humane Society but not necessarily to bring home another dog.  One such day I said to my daughters as we arrived at the local shelter "We're only bringing home another dog if we find a female black pomeranian."  We entered the small dog room and there was a male black pom mix.  He looked kind of dejected.  Not like the other very happy, overly excitable pom mix puppy.  This black pom was 3.5 years old and named Prince.  We decided, as he quietly watched us with his big dark eyes, that he was going to be the next member of our household.  We made the arrangements for the meet and greet between him and our other dog, for the next day.

I was a little worried as we arrived the following day because Zeke hadn't been around many other dogs and I didn't know how he'd react to this new guy.  To our amazement, they seemed to take to each other fairly well and so we went home with another little dog.  

After much thought, our daughters decided on the name Beans.  Don't ask me why, we just didn't think the name Prince fit him and Beans did.

It took a few days before Zeke and Beans seemed to bond.  Zeke is definitely my guy, so he gets a little jealous if anyone invades his space by me.  They wrestled a bit but seemed to get along pretty well.

Beans fit right in with our routine.  If someone is taking a nap or sleeping in, Beans is right there with them.  He loves car rides and seems to get along with most everyone.  They warned us that he didn't like cats and we do have cats, but he never seemed violent towards them.  More like he regards them as something to chase.  Especially if they are slinking past him.  There's something about a slinking cat that really gets his attention!

Beans is not a beggar, at least not like Zeke.  He'll lie patiently on the floor at dinnertime, waiting for any scrap that Dad might throw his way.

Beans is usually a little love but he can get snarly or snappy on certain occasions.  One of these occasions is when he's sleeping.  He's fine if you want to pet him, but if you try to move him you're going to get snapped at.  I know.  He likes to go to bed early with my husband and sleep on my side of the bed.  When I come to bed he doesn't want to move and lets me know.  Luckily my husband, whom Beans adores, can just pull him over to his side without any fuss as Beans gives me the evil eye.  He also doesn't like being poked and prodded at the vet.  He doesn't like us to cut any mats off of him, so we make sure we let the groomer deal with that.

Beans can spot a pill a mile away.  We try to hide it in food and he'll eat around it.  I have to cut it into several extremely small pieces and hide it in wet food, while I continue to give him more food at the same time.  He'll be so busy trying to finish his food, so he gets more that he'll eat those small pieces.

Beans also thinks he can take on any dog no matter what size.  He gets along great with Zeke but he wants to rip apart the big dogs across the street.

Another thing with Beans is he's not that smart.  He will sit on command and he's pretty good at catching treats when you toss him one but any other tricks just seem beyond his comprehension.  I really think he's probably smarter than all of us.  He knows that all he has to do is sit there while Zeke does every trick in the book and then if he raises his paw half an inch off the floor we'll give him a treat too.  After all we can't give Zeke a treat and not Beans.  Right?  He's also trained us that if we want a good nights rest we'd better have a bowl of water and food in our room, since they sleep in there with us.  If not, around midnight, he'll make an obnoxious growling noise that gets louder and more persistent until you can't ignore it.  All because he needs a midnight snack.  Yes, I know we should train them better but we're lazy.
Another thing that Beans has done is train my husband to walk them when he tells him to.  My hubby used to walk them at about 9:30 pm.  One day Beans decided they needed to start walking at 8:30.  He would bark and jump up until hubby gave in and took them out.  Before long the walk barking started at 8 and then 7:30, 7 and now sometimes even before 6 pm.  I say to my husband, why don't you wait until you're ready and he'll say "I'm sure Beans needs to poop, so I have to take him now."  You can tell who's trained who...

Ever since we brought him home he's done something that I think maybe he learned from his previous owner.  When someone comes home he runs as fast as he can to get a toy, preferably a soft material squeaky toy.  Then he'll come running with it in his mouth squeaking it nonstop.  He'll just run past you back and forth squeaking the toy.  It's so funny if  you look in the window as you're on the porch, unlocking the door you will see Beans dart off as fast as he can to find a toy.  If he can't find it in one direction he'll run past and look in the other.

He might be a grumpy little guy, but we love our Beans.  He makes us smile and he's been a wonderful addition to our family.  We can't imagine life without him.  Here's a few photos of our little guy.

This is shortly after he joined our family.  He's put on some weight, since then, due to too many treats and midnight snacks!

Beans and Zeke having fun in the snow.

Happy Brothers!

As you noticed, we don't have too many pictures of Beans on his own because Zeke always wants to be the star of the show. 

Relaxing seaside in Seaside!

Every year or two for nearly 30 years I've spent some time in Seaside Oregon.  It is always a great vacation, relaxation, destination!  We stay at the same Motel that has charming cottages or ocean view condominiums to stay in.  We love the ocean view and the easy access to the ocean, since it's right outside your window!
It also has a great boardwalk that you walk along the beachfront to the town, where there are some great shops, activities and restaurants.

This is the view from our room.

We usually went to Seaside in the summer but the last two years we've gone  in late September and it was the ideal time.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  The crowds were greatly diminished.  Peace and quiet were easily found.

One of the things I associate with Seaside is delicious, fresh seafood.  The first thing we do is go to the fresh fish market and pick up some delicious salmon jerky.  Usually a pound or two will do it.  I also have to have one of their crab cocktails and my family usually likes the shrimp cocktails.

Yum!  This is the peppered salmon jerky.  They also have teriyaki and plain.  I would've included a picture of my crab cocktail but I ate it too fast!

Most evenings we eat dinner at our favorite restaurant Norma's.  Great seafood!  My mouth waters just thinking about it!   After dinner we spend time in our room either playing family games like yahtzee or racko or watching TV as we watch the sunset.  We're usually munching on the great salt water taffy we pick up at the Candy man store.  They have so many flavors of salt water taffy to choose from.  I just usually grab a big  plastic bag and start down each row grabbing small handfuls of the flavors that sound good to me.  That's usually a lot of flavors!

One of the beautiful sunsets!

The next morning we head out to one of our recent finds, thanks to the in room local sights guide.  This place is called Camp 18.  It is a fascinating restaurant, gift store and old logging memorabilia museum all rolled up into one.  The food is fabulous!  They serve lumberjack portions and that means big!  I've had the cinnamon roll both times and I can only finish about half of it.  This time, as we were preparing to leave I saw a guy get one of their burgers and it was so big that it was held together with a large knife!  I'm getting one of those next time!

The very large ceiling beam.  This picture doesn't do it justice. That was one really big tree!

The antler chandelier.

The fun games they have at the tables for you to play while you wait.  This was a real brain buster.

The cinnamon roll.  That's not a saucer it's on.  That is a full size dinner plate!

This guy couldn't believe the size of that cinnamon roll either!

This is the first receipt I've received that told me to "please pay at the stump"!

This is the stump.  It is large enough for the cashier to stand inside of it while she rings up our bill.

After our large breakfast we headed down to Tillamook to visit our favorite cheese factory.  We decided to take a different route.  Big mistake!  It was very twisty and not the best road to take when your stomach is overloaded.  I haven't felt car sick in a very long time but I know that my daughter and I were feeling a little green by the time we got there forty something long miles later!  Thanks to the fresh air streaming in from our open windows we managed to keep it together and felt good enough to actually look at cheese when we arrived.  After picking up some cheese to take back to our room and later home, we headed back.

 The rest of our stay consisted of my husband and daughter going down to the ocean and to the aquarium in Seaside.  I stayed in the room reading my good book and watching people with dogs going back and forth to the beach.  There was one old dog that walked so slowly and stiffly, but you could just see the joy on his face each time he went down to the ocean.  His owner walked slowly by his side as his little dog buddy trotted ahead of them.  It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it.  There are a lot of dogs at the ocean!  We don't bring ours for a few reasons.  No dogs at that motel and one of our dogs doesn't like car rides.  Plus they are both little barkers and I'm not sure how good they'd be in a motel.  Relaxation, in this case, means watching other people and their dogs.

The next morning we packed up and headed home just as the rains moved in.  Perfect timing!  The flat tire just as we drove out of town was also perfect timing, since there was a Les Schwab's right there and they fixed our tire for free in no time and we were on our way!  Good times and memories were made!

Going to the Veterinarian's office.

I've had multiple cats and dogs over the years.  I've been a good pet owner making sure they're always up to date on all of their vaccinations and spayed or neutered.  Some of my pets have been easy to take to the Vet's and some of them not so easy.  Here's a run down on some of the little guys and how they do on that dreaded Vet visit.

Zeke is one of my pound puppies.  He's always a good boy at the Vet's and usually endures what they do to him rather well.  He really doesn't like the temperature taking but I can't say as I blame him there!  The one thing he does do is bark.  He's a small, barky dog and once we're in the office he barks at the women behind the desk and any dogs that come in.  Once we're taken back into the exam room he barks at any shadows he sees pass on the other side of the door.  Kind of an embarrassing headache but at least he doesn't bite.

On the other hand there's Beans.  He's another small dog pound puppy.  He's a loveable little guy unless you mess with him when he doesn't want to be messed with, like at the Vet's office.  He's my only pet that has ever drawn blood and it was the Vet's.  The problem with Beans is he doesn't give any warning.  He's just standing there looking cute and innocent while the Dr. examines his mouth, ears and so on and then all of the sudden there's a growl and a whomp at once!  They usually take him to the back room and muzzle him.  He also has the tendency to want to take on any animal in the waiting room, especially the really big dogs.
Bean's has just about outdone any other animal in the cost department because he had to have a whole lot of teeth extracted.  That is not cheap!!!  I'm sure the Vet was laughing to himself as he pulled all of those teeth and  thought "You won't be biting me anymore!"  I was not laughing when I heard how much it was going to cost.  *sigh*

Most of my cats are pretty good because we put them in their little cardboard carriers and we're on our way.  We might hear a little mournful howling and meowing all of the way but at least they're not trying to attack other animals.

I've had a couple cats that some how seem to know, days in advance, that it's shot time.  Little Skooter would disappear and not show up until after I'd cancelled her appointment because she was a "No Show".  I think I cancelled her appointments more than any other pet.  I don't know how she knew it but she just did.

Now my big red cat Weasley has turned into a Skooter.  He is our only current indoor/outdoor cat.  He shows up when he's hungry or decides he wants to nap inside on a rainy day.  You can never really know what time of day that will happen, especially on a sunny day.  Unfortunately his last appointment was a sunny day.  We planned carefully and decided that if he came in in the morning for his food we'd just keep him inside until his afternoon appointment and ignore his persistent and increasingly louder meows and howls to go outside.  So we did, only to have the Vet's office call and cancel his appointment 20 minutes before we left the house!!!  I did remain civil, but it was hard!

Another reason I cringe, when we take our pets to the Vet is I never know what I might get a lecture about.  I take that back.  I do know what it will be about.  It will be about an overweight cat.  Our adorable little Bella kitty was a little overweight and my daughter and I had to listen to a lengthy lecture about it.  It didn't help that we are both overweight as well and thought we were being judged because of it.  Now I'm not saying that we were, but sometimes those that are overweight have that mentality.
So today when we had to take our little, well not so little, 1 year old cat Monkey in, we were shaking in our shoes.  Monkey is very overweight.  He is a food bully.  If any other cat wants food Monkey is there watching.  I can glance away for a minute and look back and he's eating the food and the other cat is no where to be found.  Our little chubby cat, Bella disappeared and never returned a few months ago.  My husband thinks Monkey may have eaten her.  I really don't think so, but he is large.  My sister calls him beach ball.  So today we waited to hear the overweight cat lecture...and we didn't get it!  Phew!  Yes, the Dr. did give us a couple helpful hints on weight loss, which we are implementing but Monkey is such a love that they couldn't help but laugh at how cute he is.  Phew, again!!!

So anyways, Vet day is always a surprise one way or another.  When we have to take some of them I feel my anxiety level go up a few notches because I have no clue what's going to happen.  I don't know what I'm going to see because I've seen some yucky stuff coming out of my pets at the Vet's that  I won't go into because I'm trying to erase that from my memory.   I can't always blame my anxiety on the pet.  Sometimes it's the office and the price of what needs to be done to my little four legged friends.  That price is enough to send some into a coma.  I've been close a couple of times.

But overall I thank God for Vets!  They keep my little furbabies happy and healthy.  Well, maybe not so happy in Monkey's case as he searches the house for his food bowl that's safely stored until feeding time.

This is a picture of our sweet,chunky Monkey a year ago when he was a baby.

Birthdays

I just had my birthday.  It was a wonderful day.  I try to schedule one of my quarterly vacations over my birthday, so I don't have to work around it.  That makes it an even better day.

I've never been one of those people that gets all depressed or wants to ignore their birthday.  I know I'm getting older and it doesn't bother me.

I have one of those late birthdays.  Back in the old days, when I was little, the deadline for starting kindergarten was October 15th.  Since my birthday was September 30th, I made if before the deadline, but I was usually younger than all of the other kids.  I started kindergarten at age 4.  So everyones birthday seemed to come long before mine did.  All my friends were turning 6 when I was turning 5 or 16 and driving when I just had turned 15 and so on down the line.  I always felt like I was catching up to them.

I married a man 6 years older than me, so that makes me feel young.  Good planning, if you ask me.

I always feel sorry for someone when I hear them say that their family didn't do anything for their birthday.  How can you forget or not celebrate a birthday?
I figure if you let someone forget your birthday, then you shouldn't complain.  My husband and daughters get a wishlist from me a few weeks in advance.  I kindly let them know where the best deals are on the items I like.  In return I expect to get wishlists from them before their birthdays.

My family always has and still does make a big thing of birthdays.  When we were kids we had parties with our friends over as well as  big family get togethers with cake and gifts.  Even now we have family parties with my Mom and siblings, niece and nephew, most of the time.  It's always something to look forward to.
A time to get together and chat.
 I loved planning my daughters birthdays.  We would have fun choosing the birthday theme and buying all of the party goods in that theme.   I would order their favorite cake and we'd usually have pizza or some other meal they loved.  They usually got a dinner at a favorite restaurant too, on a night of their choosing.

So birthdays have always been a special time for me.  As long as family and of course cake and gifts are involved, I don't mind turning another year older. (Especially if it's a pink champagne cake from McGavin's bakery. MMMmmm)

The Good Old Days!

I remember, when I was a child, how we loved to play outdoors.  We'd play tag and red light, green light, badminton,  lawn darts.  We would ride our bikes all over.  The nearby woods were a great place to explore paths and make forts.  Or how about a game of H.O.R.S.E, with our backyard basketball hoop.  Night time hide and seek was always fun.

Every summer my sister and I and sometimes my brother and other friends would make our annual bike trip.  We would ride a few miles from our house to a waterfront park and eat a picnic lunch, or the candy we bought at the penny candy store on the way.  Then after playing there for a while we'd head home, usually pushing our bikes most of the way because it was almost all uphill.

Our parents thought nothing of letting us go play in the nearby woods or school yards, as long as we let them know where we were going and were home in time for dinner.

It's sad that when my daughters were young and now, parents can't really feel as confident letting their kids roam around on their own.  I would've never let my kids run around in the woods for hours, without one of us present.  I always felt nervous letting them walk home from school on their own and arrive at an empty house, even though they were definitely old enough and very trustworthy.

When they road their bikes it was only on our little dead end street, where I could keep an eye on them.

I can't help wondering if it's because there really are that many more predators out there now than when I was a child, or is it because we are more aware of them because of the media?  Sadly I tend to think that there are just more of them out there.  Not only predators, but homeless people living in the woods, that might not appreciate kids tramping along into their territory or bullies ready to cause some trouble.

I find this heartbreaking as I think back onto the good times I had and the freedom.  Maybe I was just lucky because even then, times were changing.  My younger brother, as a kid, had a couple run ins with some unsavory types while he was out playing and luckily he had the sense to head home right away and not get lured into something that could've turned out bad.

Still, I think that if parents are vigilant and join in on those outdoor activities, there is still a lot of fun to be had and good memories to be made!

The start of school.

I was never one of those Moms that looked forward to the start of school.  It meant getting everyone up and out of the house early.  We tend to like to sleep in and take our time getting out and about.  It also meant time for Hyper Nag Mom to make an appearance.  Did you do your homework?  Is there everything in your backpack?  Did you set out your clothes?  Don't get me wrong, I like to nag.  I just don't like it to be a daily thing for 9 months straight.
Going back to school also meant dealing with the daycare and making sure they were getting my kids to school on time.  Having a back up plan in case one of my daughters got sick at school and so on.   I was lucky enough to be able to only work four days a week during most of my kids childhood and three days a week during most of the high school years.
I was also fortunate enough to have highly intelligent children that excelled in all of their subjects, except maybe P.E.  I could never fault them for that because my P.E. skills were always lacking, as well.
There were two things I always looked forward to before school started.  Clothes shopping and school supply shopping.  I still miss those things, so I make it a point to every year buy myself some new fall clothes and check out the school supplies.  I won't go into clothes shopping  for myself too much in this post because that's a whole other can of worms in my life, but we can talk about school supply shopping!
 I love school supplies!  There is nothing like adding some new colored markers, colorful spiral notebooks or folders with fun designs on them to my inventory.  Don't even get me started on talking about post it notes!  Yes, I am a post it note hoarder.  I have them in all sizes, shapes, colors and designs.   I also have many, many notepads also in all sorts of colors, designs, etc. etc.  This might lead you to believe that I'm a list and note maker and you would be right in that assumption!  Right now I'm surrounded by assorted notes.  I keep an appointment book on my desk with assorted appointments and tasks listed on it.  It is covered with sticky notes with some of the exact same memos to myself but I think I might pay more attention to them if they are also on a brightly colored note.  I have a grocery list, a Walmart/Target list and a to do list always within reach.  If I find a notepad or sticky notepad with a Hello Kitty design on it, I have to buy it!  It's a given.  I can't possibly understand why someone else wouldn't want a wonderful notepad or sticky pad collection, but that's just me.  Here's a very small sampling of what I'm talking about.

This is the second year I haven't had a child going to school/college.  My youngest graduated from college in 2012.  I don't miss that one bit.  Eventually, maybe, I certainly hope one day I will be a Grandmother.  Then I will be able to shower my grandchild with school clothes and supplies.  I will leave the school nagging to their parents, but I will probably nag their parents a little bit to make sure they've done everything a good parent should do as far as nagging goes. :o)