A Southern Halloween

Getting ready to leave! (Sidenote: she calls sunglasses "goggles". How cute is that?)

Neigh! I'm riding a pony!

After we got done doing Trunk or Treat at a local park, we headed to the 'burbs to go trick or treating with our friend Kelly and her daughter. Her husband towed us around the subdivision in this thing. She told me the name of it, but I can't remember. It must be a pretty popular thing to do down here, because there were about four of them driving around the neighborhood.

I was taking her door-to-door, but she was crying for Daddy, so Donald took over and she was totally happy!

Sharing the goods with Daddy.

Silly papa!

Well, I was going to start knitting the P a scarf, but I can't find my knitting needles. Donald might know where they are, but of course he's in bed already. Darn it! Now what am I going to do.....?

We went to FreedomFest tonight in Madison. It was a lot of fun for Lauren. They had some band there that was supposedly big in the 60s, and Peeler danced her heart out for quite a while. She also got to go down one of those big blow up slides with the help of mommy. We watched the fireworks and Peeler gave a running commentary throughout the whole thing..."neat", "wow", "loud!". Heh.

Darn it I'm irked about those needles. Where the hell are they? Donald probably hid them somewhere so Peeler wouldn't find them, and now I can't find them! Dang it!

I'm Finished!

I finally finished my last class! I'm just waiting on my last three papers to be graded, and then I won't have to worry about anything until January! Yay!

So now what am I going to do with my time? I have a few things...

*Figure out what I'm making people for Christmas. I have a whole discussion thread full of ideas that I need to wade through.

*Convince my dad to get rid of all his crap before we move so that I can start selling some of it.

*Do more research about where to move and plan some of the logistics.

*Clean out the spare bedroom for my dad.

*Find more ways to make some extra cash!

*Teach Peeler her colors! The child calls everthing blue or red.

Autumn has Finally Arrived (and my camera sucks)!!

Finally we are getting some fall-like weather here in Mississippi! Last week was cold and rainy, but the weekend was divine, and there's more of it in the forecast. We took advantage of the nice weather this evening by going for a walk near the Natchez Trace. It was a great photo taking opportunity, but apparently our camera sucks. Or it could be the operator. We used to have a Kodak EasyShare, but after three years of use it died on our cruise this spring. We bought a Canon PowerShot to replace it, and it is nowhere near as user-friendly as the Kodak. Anyway, it was nearly twilight this evening, and I could not get the pictures to turn out for anything. When I used the flash, it made the background look dark, like it was pitch-black outside. When I turned the flash off, the image was blurry. I'm thinking the shutter speed needs to be faster, but I don't have the first idea how to change it or even if it can be changed. At any rate, I'm kind of upset because we got a lot of really cute pictures that are all blurry. Bleh. I want my easy Kodak back. Pictures always turned out perfect with that thing! Anyway, here are a few pictures that did turn out.

This is easily my favorite picture of Lauren taken recently. It really just captures her, if you know what I mean.

A study in motion. She loved this bridge! I bet she ran over it at least 20 times, back and forth.


And, a picture with her pumpkin. She "helped" me dig the guts out, but did not like the feel of them at all!

Well, we're going! And so is Donald! We are going to leave Thursday, Dec. 6 after Donald gets off work and drive through the night. Donald will stay until Tuesday, and then he'll fly back home. Lauren and I are going to stay through Christmas. Yay! Now we just need to figure where we're going to stay :o) I'm sure Donald's parents will love to have us, and there's always his sisters' house.

I'm excited to be going home for Christmas!!!! Even if Donald won't actually be with us for Christmas. He doesn't mind though - I told him that he wouldn't have to put up the Christmas tree, and I think that's all that matters to him. Heh.

I have a goal....

We are going to try to live without turning the heat on all winter. I think it's doable, considering it's been in the low 40s at night here the last few days and we've been just fine. It gets a little chilly at night, but it's nothing an extra blanket and fuzzy socks can't fix. Yesterday I roasted a turkey in the oven and that kept the house warm (almost too warm, really) all day and night. I think we can do it!

Why is this illegal?

Seriously? Jackson police have nothing better to do?

I really want to go home in December. I've convinced Donald to let Lauren and me go, but I haven't quite convinced myself. We've been working so hard to save money for our move, and we'd have to spend about $1000 of it for a trip back home. I'm just not sure I want to spend the money, because ultimately, having enough money to move is really important.

I think what I'm going to do is gather up some junk from around the house and try to sell some of it. We have to do it anyway before we move, so maybe I'll just get a head start and use whatever money I get from that to go to Wisconsin. I don't know. It'll be a year next month since we've been home, and I'm ready to go back for a couple weeks. I'll be finished teaching my class the first of December, so after that I'm free until I start student teaching in January. If we don't go now, we probably won't get home until at least next summer, maybe later depending on our situation.

I REALLY want to go! Ugh. Sometimes I hate being a grown-up!

Why we came and why we're leaving

Why We Came to Mississippi

I spent my junior and senior years of high school in a little (tiny) town in northern Mississippi. I didn't mind it too much at the time, but it was definitely different from what I was used to, and went back to Wisconsin for college. During college, Donald and I made quite a few trips back to Mississippi to see my dad, and discovered that we really liked the coast area. We decided that we would move to the coast of Mississippi (Gulfport, Biloxi) during the summer of 2005 after I graduated.

I'd always wanted to live near the beach, and Donald loved the casinos, so it seemed like a great fit for us. Our plans were to just get whatever jobs we could, rent a little house or apartment near the beach, and just hang out. And then I got pregnant. We almost decided to stay in Wisconsin, but because my family is so crazy, we decided to move anyway. My dad lived in Hattiesburg, about an hour away from the coast, and we knew quite a few people there, so we weren't worried about being all alone with a new baby. I finished school in July, and we planned to move in August.

I was actually really excited about moving to the coast. I imagined long lazy days spent at the beach with the baby, trips to Florida, and hanging out with my dad in Hattiesburg occasionally. We had an apartment all picked out and were ready to move. Donald and I drove down to Hattiesburg from Wisconsin the third weekend of August. We left our cars there and flew home so that we could drive the moving truck down the next weekend.

And then came Katrina. We knew it was going hit the coast on Friday the 27th, but of course we had no idea how bad it would be or that it would hit Hattiesburg as badly as it did. Even if we would have known, we still didn't have much of an option of where to go (or even to go) any more. Our cars were already in Mississippi. The moving truck was packed. We'd already turned in the keys to our apartment. So we went.

Hattiesburg, and my dad's house, were completely destroyed. We stayed with one of my dad's friends for six months until Lauren was born. During this time, Dad decided to start travel nursing, and we decided that we weren't going to stay in Hattiesburg. We really didn't know where to go. We didn't have a whole lot of money, so we didn't feel good about moving too far away, so we eventually settled on Jackson (2 hours north of Hattiesburg).

Why We're Leaving

I guess the biggest reason is that we just don't fit in here. We have issues with this area in particular, but honestly I don't think any area in the South would be much better. We're not religious, and anyone from the South knows just how big of a deal that is. It is nearly impossible to meet people unless you go to church. Everything about the politics of this area makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Case in point - the Democrat running for governor (John Arthur Eaves) is advocating public school prayer. The Republican, Haley Barbour, is so far up the butt of special interests that it makes me want to puke almost as much. I honestly have no idea who to vote for. Anyway, the politics suck. The weather sucks. (Most) people think global warming is no big deal because the rapture is going to happen before it matters so they won't be here to deal with it anyway. People look at me funny when I don't wear makeup in public. I'm sure that happens in other places, too, but the women in this area are crazy and I'll never fit in with most of them (unless I decide to wear skin tight jeans and heels to McDonalds, go tanning, and apply my makeup with a putty knife). I know there has to be some normal people out there somewhere, but honestly, I don't feel like finding them. And now I'm just rambling.

Anyway. We're getting out. I want to live in a neighboorhood that is neither cookie-cutter suburbia or poverty-stricken. Somewhere where recycling is normal, the grass is green, and people don't judge you based on the church you attend (or not). I need cool weather, snow (just a little), and public transportation.

Sometime I'll talk about why we chose Oregon. I don't know when, though, because I still haven't finished my last class. Hah.

A Peeler Post

Lauren is 21 months! She's really come a long way developmentally in the last 2 months especially. She is now talking up a storm! About a month ago I was thinking that I should write down all the words she knows and count them up. I figured she knew about a hundred. Well, since then, her vocabulary has at least tripled! There's no way I could keep track of everything she knows now. Her speech pattern is kind of humorous. She ends all of her sentences with "yeah". As in, "Play pool, yeah", or "Horse neigh, yeah". It's cute.

She loves anything baby. She has a couple baby dolls but loves this one the most. She feeds her and tries to change her diaper, and even tries to nurse her. Apparently baby wanted water in this picture.

She's a pretty good eater, too. She loves chicken and when ever we ask her what she wants for dinner, she'll say "Chicky, yeah". Hah. Here she is eating her spaghetti a few days ago.


Her hair...I don't know what to do with it. It is finally growing, but now its in her face all the time. She pulls out barrettes, and it's not quite long enough to put in a pony tail. She always ends up looking like mommy never brushes her hair!

We went to Target the other day and took a trip down the Halloween costume aisle. I couldn't decide what I wanted her to be, so I figured I'd let her choose. So, I let her out of the cart and figured whichever costume she liked, she could have. She ended up going straight to this horse thing....when she puts it on it looks like she's riding a horse. It's cute, but of course it was the most expensive toddler costume they had. Oh well. I think she'll play with it even after Halloween because it is a big stuffed horse, so maybe she'll get my money's worth. We'll see. Anyway, I had to find her a cowboy hat to go along with it, so we ended up with this one. She had it on yesterday and was dancing around the house with it on.


She also loves to "help" mommy. She "helped" me make pumpkin bread and caramel apples yesterday. The kid ate pumpkin puree right off the spoon (yuck!). She apparently liked it though. She was in charge of putting nuts on the apples. Yeah, that didn't go so well. She had fun though.

We made sock puppets the other day with a couple of Donald's old socks.


Finally, she has started making funny faces that just crack me up. When she does this one, she looks exactly like my grandma used to when she took out her dentures and tried to scare me. She'll now make this face on command when you ask her to do the funny face. Quite the little comedian!

Two, Three!

Our child has just about no fear. She will jump off of almost anything, with the only warning being her saying, "two, three!". And then she jumps. And hopefully one of us is there to catch her.

The Story of the Zoops

I went into Donald's work today to take him lunch, and one of his co-workers asked me if I knew of a good daycare. I told her that I didn't, since I stay home with Lauren I've never really looked into it. I asked her why she was looking for a new daycare, and she said that the one her son is in now is turning him gay. I thought she was joking so I laughed! Turns out, the class is mostly all girls, so her son is spending the day playing with girls. His teacher told mom that her son was learning to jump like a cheerleader, and now mom is freaked out that her son is going to "turn gay" and is taking him out of that daycare. Oooookay! I asked her if working with mostly men would turn her into a lesbian, and she of course said no, but I don't think she made the connection. Geez!

Just a few quick updates:

*We're going to Vicksburg tonight and staying at the Ameristar hotel for Donald's birthday. I told him he could go alone, but he insisted that Peeler and I come with, so off we go. His friends at work gave him some money for his birthday, so he's going to have a good time in the casino with it. Hope he wins!

*After being insanely busy last week, I have run out of steam. I haven't done a damn thing all week. I really need to get busy this weekend and finish up my schoolwork so I can just be done!

*I hate McDonald's Monopoly. Donald and I are both on diets (7 pounds down, whoohooo!) and this damn game is making it difficult. We sent in for some free game pieces, but who knows how long it will take for them to get here. This is the closest to the lottery we have here in MS, and it's kinda like crack.

*I know I haven't posted any pictures in a while. This is because I haven't taken many. The kid doesn't sit still long enough any more. Also, I can never find the camera. I promise I will try to do better.