Halloween Preparations with a Sudden Twist!

Well, I never dreamed in a million years that on Halloween Eve I would be recreating a ghastly, bloody site befitting of any Halloween horror movie. As we were happily carving our pumpkins last evening, the knife I was using suddenly slipped up slicing through the lower quadrant of my pinky finger as well as my ring finger. As I felt it, I knew it was bad. Hurling myself to the floor in case I passed out, I screamed, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God . . ." as blood pulsed out of me enough to fill the kitchen floor. Yes, it was gorey, terrifying and totally not part of my Halloween plans. My mom and Aunt Brenda came to my rescue and applied pressure to the wound while Howie swiftly got towels to wrap my hand in and rushed me to the ER. The admitting nurse in triage told me when she looked at it, "Oh goodness, this is complicated. I can see your pulse!" I felt like I was in the Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie where the knight gets his arm cut off and blood is pulsing out of him, so I said to the nurse, "Just a mere flesh wound!" She didn't get it. Oh well, it made me feel better anyway. Long story short, I received 11 stitches in my pinky finger and 4 stitches in my ring finger and was instructed to call the orthopedic doctor on Monday because I would need surgery to repair the nerves and tendons I had severed. Before any of this had happened, we had a lovely day with my mom and Aunt Brenda. This morning Howie continued the carving of the pumpkins with a proper carving tool, thank goodness. Here are pics of the pleasant part of the last 24 hours.

Drawing our designs.

Emma-Caroline wanted hers to look just like "The Littlest Pumpkin".
This was drawn before the fiasco last night!
Halloween Day: continuing the carving with Daddy!
Finished Product!
Look at those seeds!
Special Effects: These all were taken by my mom because I can't take photos now, sniff!


Sweet little pumpkins!

Cool Weather, Warm Hearts!

This is a special weekend indeed! We not only have Halloween, which is one of my most favorite holidays to celebrate, but we also have my mom and Aunt Brenda here visiting us from Memphis! They arrived yesterday afternoon and we have enjoyed visiting together and sharing quality time. We also had an unexpected visit from our dear friends the Pearsons last night who were just stopping by to pick up Halloween tablecloths for our old neighborhood's Halloween Bash.


We were so excited to see them and after much assuring that they were not intruding, we got to all sit down and have a nice dinner from PF Changs together.
It was great to catch up. The kiddos enjoyed being together too and picked up right where they had left off since the last time they had seen each other over the summer.



Our house has continued to get more and more complete. Last night, Howie and I were even able to sleep in our new master bedroom! We awoke to two laughing girls who bounded into our bed and snuggled down under the covers with us. It was AWESOME to wake up to a cool crisp morning and spend some time snuggling with my sweet girls while we read stories together!


Emma-Caroline is becoming quite the reader and is enjoying reading stories to her Nana and Aunt Brenda. One of her favorites is "The Littlest Pumpkin"! We will be carving our own pumpkins tonight, roasting pumpkin seeds, and getting our costumes ready just in time for Halloween! Have a wonderful weekend. We will be back soon to tell of our Halloween adventures!

Sunrise . . . Sunset!

I came across this little gem while going through my pics from Disney World the other day. I took it as the sun was setting outside of my hotel room window. I love sunrises and sunsets. It always reminds me of the blessing of the day that God has created for us. May you have a blessed day today and always!

You've Got a Friend in Me!

Tweaking the Blog!

Just a note to say that I have finally gotten the blog like I like it for now. I wanted to be able to post pictures bigger and after several days of playing with html code and reading blog tutorials, I have finally come to something that I think works. It's actually kind of fun tweaking your blog. Don't ask me how I did it. As any good cook will tell you, "I tried a little of this, and a little of that" and it worked!

A Message from Emma-Caroline!

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins!

My poor little Emma-Caroline is sick with strep throat. Now how does chocolate chip pumpkin muffins relate to the sad fact that my little girl is sick?

Well, she is not at school today, and in an effort to make her feel better, I decided I would try a new little recipe I found on one of my favorite blogs to read "Fly Through Our Window"http://www.flythroughourwindow.com/page/3/.

I couldn't find the brand name that Darby used in her recipe, but Martha White brand is just as good and made fantastic muffins!

We started with our mix, milk minus 3/4 TBS as Darby suggests, 3/4 cup pumpkin, and a dash of cinnamon. Mixed all together, the package almost makes 24 mini muffins.

They are YUMMY and EASY to make!

Although Emma-Caroline is more interested in sleeping (poor sweet baby) than sampling the muffins, they are a huge hit here at The Avery House.

Sophie was alarmed that Barkley might would like a little taste for himself.

Safe on the bar stool, Sophie delighted in her yummy chocolate chip muffins while reading the latest issue of American Girl Doll.

At least one of my girls feels well enough to enjoy these little fall treats. We will definitely be making these little goodies again when Emma-Caroline is feeling better soon!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies!

I found a great little pumpkin spice cookie mix the other day at Home Goods. Sometimes you can find some really good mixes there. Baking cookies is always a hit around The Avery House so we decided to try my new little find.

One stick of butter, one egg, a package of mix, a little mixing, some cookie cutting and heavy cookie sprinkling and we were set to bake our cookies. Sophie was in usual form and allowed me to capture some of her silliness on the camera.

After sampling a couple of cookies, Emma-Caroline and Sophie gave this little seasonal find two thumbs up!

Smoke House

OK, I am not the World's best fire builder, I'll admit it. But I thought, well, I could at least give it a try. Saturday morning was the day. I was going to get up, build a fire, and have breakfast and a cozy fire ready for Howie and the girls when they got up, at least that's how I envisioned it in my head. Instead of my beautiful Breckenridge cabin fire that I envisioned, it looked a little more like this.
Smoke engulfed the family room so fast that I was choking and coughing while my eyes burned in my haste to try and get the fire out.

I quickly opened the doors of the house thinking I could hide my botched try of making the perfect fire from Howie before he woke up, but the smoke just kept billowing out from the fire place.

Finally, Howie did come down only to see that the lever that I thought was the flue lever was actually not the proper lever and that the real flue lever was actually closed. Yes, I know, pretty dumb on my part.

Now The Avery House smells like a smoke house.

Bacon anyone?

I Heart Bearden Elementary School!

Last night we attended the first ever Bearden Elementary School Fall Auction to benefit Emma-Caroline's school. My friend Whitney coordinated the event and to say she did a fantastic job is merely scratching the surface. It was AWESOME!!! With the help of two very talented local artists, Lynn Arnwine and Amy, who are also parents of children at Bearden, each class created an original piece of artwork to be auctioned. Emma-Caroline's class was the piece de resistance and EVERYONE wanted it including ME!
At the end, it became a real nail-biter as I staked my claim on the well-sought after piece. There was even talk in the crowd that "two blonds" were going toe to toe for the prized artwork. In reality, my friend Brettany was standing with me and even put in a small bid increase in my favor. The auction closed, and I won!!! I was thrilled. I had never bid on something and won! Selfishly, I will be hanging the artwork in my home (actually it is already hung) and will not be giving it to the school. No one really expects me to give it to the school actually. It is after all a piece of art that Emma-Caroline's class worked on together to paint. I will, however, be taking a nice photo of it to reproduce on note cards as gifts to the principal and to Mrs. Hughes

Emma-Caroline woke up this morning and was ecstatic to find her class's painting hanging in our keeping room. I am happy we were able to buy it for our family and that we were also able to contribute to our wonderful school.