I love fall, but I hate the drag...

Yes, I'm writing in Gamecock garnet...

Anyway, I love fall. I love football, I love sweaters, and I love getting warm coffee instead of iced. Iced coffee is something I merely tolerate during warm months but I much prefer the cardboard-sleeve-over-paper-cup warm lattes of fall. But I hate the inevitable "drag" that comes with the first few weeks of cooler weather. Like your body has some sort of breakdown just because ten-twenty degrees are knocked off. Sniffles, coughing...the whole family has it and it's a drag. So we call it the Fall Drag. After it's over, life is wonderful. Then we can enjoy the crispy leaves on the front walk, the warm dinners (I love to make homemade soup and bread....nothing better, I swear), and the holidays.

Halloween is my husband's favorite. He LOVES decorating the front yard; he turns into a big child about it. There has to be stringy cotton "cobwebs" across the bushes and plants, headstones with RIP planted in our lawn, and, of course, two or three quality carved pumpkins. Last year I opted for the traditional jack-o-lantern face...

I find its simplicity comforting and I like traditional things anyway. Logan, however, got one of those carving patterns, and it turned out REALLY well, better than I thought it would.

So I can't wait for Halloween this year. Callie is going to be a monkey (anyone who knows her is not surprised at all...she loves monkeys). I just thank GOD she likes monkeys and sort of oddball stuff and she's not obsessed with Hannah Montana/Bratz/ crap like that. I hate, HATE stuff like that and I'm so glad she's chosen to be her own person and develop a unique personality instead of being a cookie-cutter "girl" toddler. She loves sports, running, playing in dirt, being outside, and when she does have a baby doll, she's finding different ways to stuff the doll into small crevices in our home, like under the couch. But above all, she loves being read to and looking at books. She has probably over a hundred books around our home (thanks in large part to my parents, who send care packages full of books every few months), and she will sit and just look at books for ages, then bring them to you to decipher the heiroglyphics we call English.

John's really getting big. His ears are enormous and stick out just so from his head...it's absolutely adorable in that awkward way:

I wish we could do more things with him. Money's so tight lately....there's a Little Gym here that offers Baby Sign Language classes but when I found out how much they cost, I about passed out. Their gymnastic classes for Callie were too expensive, too. But they encouraged me to bring Callie in for a free trial class next Saturday and they would discuss military discounts with me, so I'll at least take her to that.

Off to clean the house...it's amazing the damage a two year old can do!!