Happy Halloween!

Trees

We had some dead (or close to it) trees near the house. The condo assoc decided to have them taken down before the winter in case we have another bad winter. Last year, during our negotiation, 2 large trees across the driveway came down fairly close to the house. They blocked the driveway for a few days and were a huge loss as they were very old.

Here are some pictures of the yard and house now that the trees have been taken down. I'm thinking we'll need to put in some younger, smaller trees in the spring, (a japanese maple? dogwood?) but let me know your thoughts!

Update

Well, I'm sure you've noticed that I haven't been doing much updating here. The house is staying as is for right now. We have a few touches on the front porch for Halloween which you'll see in a below photo, but mostly we've been dealing with a family loss. Matt's Grandfather passed away a few weeks ago and so his family has been packing up the old apt in NJ as well as dealing with all the paperwork, etc.

Matt also recently had ASA eye surgery which is a laser correction but not Lasik. I'm still learning about the differences but mostly there's a longer healing time, more variety of eye drops, the vision is not immediately repaired but takes days to heal. This is where we are now.

So in addition to all that, has anyone noticed all the Holiday decor already in stores????? It's not even Halloween!!! I haven't purchased a thing, but I do have to tell you that the gears are working and I'm happily thinking of all the options we have this year. The one downside, which Matt pointed out, is that without our previous 17ft ceilings, we are limited in the size of our tree. 8ft ceilings means a 7ft tree, which is the smallest tree we've had in...(counting back apts).... 7 yrs? WOW! that would be back to my very first apt, a little basement studio where Matt surprised me with a Charlie Brown style tree. I had thrown out my back and thought I wouldn't be able to get one that year. It still makes me smile!!!!

OK. Enough with Holiday talk. Let's get back to Halloween!



The pumpkin was a gift from Oliver & Melissa when they dropped by earlier this month on their way back to Texas (they came up for a friends wedding in Maine).



My fab Halloween wreath doesn't show up as well on our darker door. I'm seriously wondering about backing it with an orange or white color to bring back the black design.



This is Matt on day 2 - feeling better and up and dressed. We are now on day 3 and he's not so great - doing a LOT of sleeping which should help. We also have a follow-up for tonight.

Stay tuned for our tree clean-up!

Happy Birthday to a Dear Friend

This is a belated happy birthday to a dear friend of mine who is currently spending time with the Peace Corp. in Africa.

Happy Birthday dearest BB!!!!!!

Baltimore Pics: pt 2

Breakfast!

My skills in the kitchen have been coming back a bit as I have more time to cook and revisit trusty recipies! Friends of ours, Dave & Jenny, were able to taste my French Toast over the summer and Dave's enthusiastic claim that it rivaled the best he's ever had thrilled me beyond belief! And thus, having conquered French Toast, I have moved on to perfecting waffles. Below is a shot of my second and lastest try - better than the first, but I still say there's room for improvement!


Bless my husband, who continues to eat whatever I put on his plate!!