CArving PUnkins

Here's our rendezvous with some large gourds. Lily was excited to help until she saw the innards. (her face in the bottom left picture about says it all.) From the time Andrew wielded the knife (looking a little too comfortable stabbing and gutting), Lily was content to just sit and watch. Zoe watched from afar for matters of trying to contain the mess. I did the sketching and carving of one 'happy pumpkin' and one 'scary pumpkin'. Their faces are not in their full-fledged glory seeing as I have not lit them up in the dark of the night (we had to carve in the middle of the afternoon due to Andrew's work schedule). Thusly said, Zoe was still scared of the scary one and kept on making a little scared sound while pointing to the scary pumpkin and saying, "hewwy". For the record though, she is now fond of petting the pumpkin after we showed her that it was 'soft' and 'nice'.

Halloween or bust

After reading many a blogger who has been there done that, we here at the Pedersen household are finally taking advantage of the Halloween festivities to be had. Like many others, we too visited a......PUMPKIN patch (gasp!). We had a good reason to wait as Lily's preschool hadn't scheduled their field trip to said pumpkin patch until today.

Grandma Allred came to participate in the fun and help me take pictures. I was pleasantly surprised at all the activities and was basking in the unseasonably warm 70 plus degree weather. (who'd ever think to worry about getting a sunburn at the end of October?)

We got to go on a hayride where our farmer picked various crops and told us the rundown of each one. We got carrots, onions and Indian corn to take home.

Then we stopped to find our pumpkins,

rode back to the main part of the farm and got to play on all the fun activities. We saw farm animals, went down a big slide, jumped in a big blow-up pumpkin, rode a cowtrain and went through a haybale maze. Lastly, the girls got to enjoy playing in a big corn box....soooo much better than sand (corn can't get stuck in your hair and is much cleaner than sand...what a good idea). They were so sad to leave but were exhausted and thirsty.

Jump, jump!

Come on Zo, you have to come THIS way...

two little girls. in a little cow train. even when the whole train is empty.

let's get one of these...Let's get one of these...

The last month of pictures

Halloween curse?

And for the second time, the sale of our home fell through....the buyers had exactly 8 hours to back out before they'd lose their earnest money, and they called to tell us they didn't get their financing. Are you serious?! Good thing I hadn't started packing in earnest yet. I was extremely let down despite the fact that I was not looking forward to the stressful weeks ahead.
And we wait...
Unfortunately, the election is coming soon and could drastically affect the way the housing market and sale of our home could go.
And so I don't wallow in the negative I am glad that we are in no particular hurry to move...
Mortgage rates are up and could stay up, so we don't have to worry about paying more for a new mortgage...Lily can stay in preschool, and we will actually get to celebrate Halloween...I don't have to pack like mad...am I convincing myself yet?
Ah, what will be will be...until the next offer....

A funny

This one was kind of long to post under my normal 'Lilyisms' so I thought I'd document it here. It's more funny if you're familiar with Super Why on PBS.

On one of Lily’s favorite shows, Super Why, the character (Super Why) has the power to change the story and will switch words to have the story read the way he wants. I’m always amazed at how much Lily retains as a direct result of t.v. watching (encouraging, I know). So imagine, to my surprise, after chiding her to eat something for breakfast when Lily told me, “I can’t, see! It’s in my story…I don’t want everyfing (anything)” (I shook my head in amazement at her imaginative little plot to get out of eating breakfast…not a big eater in the morning). And no, it didn’t work when I told her that I had the power to change the story to say, “Lily wants to eat everything!” (10/17/08)

And the winner is...

San Salvador, El Salvador/Belize Mission! Just a big shout out to my little sis, Torrie, who received her mission call tonight. We are so proud of you and know you'll be one rockin' sister missionary. Love you!

ughh

you know that feeling when you feel like you're getting nowhere? that is me right now.
We got an offer on the house Tuesday, we counter-offered, and they accepted. Now (supposedly and hopefully) we will be out of here end of the month. That being said, the house hunt starts in earnest once again. After being online for so long on the same house sites, I feel like all the houses meld together. I start getting really frustrated because I just want to find that perfect house at the perfect price---is that really too much to ask? sheesh!
We did get a good idea of where we want to live in Syracuse and the type of house we like, the trick is finding one that's available...
We did a little calling around to learn that the one empty house with a gorgeous floorplan we both loved was under contract. (are you serious?!) However, the agent did say the sale might fall through, and if not, there's a possibility we could build (yes, build!) the exact same house for the price that the already-built one sold for. that would mean getting to choose our own location and everything as well as giving us four months to live with family...saving up a little more to put down on the house at closing. All speculation at this point, but it's all I can hope for at this point. I'm just sick of looking (and it's only been two days!)
I think we may be in trouble.