Slimey Stats - Day 61
Yes, it's been that long since I posted about our dear friend sitting on a jar on my kitchen counter. And yes, he's been sitting there for 61 days now! So, here's what's been going on since day 21 back in October...
About a month ago, I could actually see some eye buds. Pretty amazing.
About 2 weeks ago, Ben was standing on a chair "helping" me do the dishes. He said to me, "Mom, I want to see Slimey." My hands were all wet so I told him to wait and I'd show him in a few minutes. Apparently, that was too long to wait because without me knowing, he picked up the jar and was checking Slimey out all by himself. I went to grab the jar and noticed that it was upside-down. I completely freaked out! Now let me just tell you that I was a little extra emotional at this time, if you know what I mean. Thinking back now, I realize that it's just a caterpillar. I ran down the stairs screaming to show Jon the jar. Neither one of us could see poor little Slimey. I took it back upstairs where Ben has this terrified look on his face because of how I reacted. He said, "I just wanted to play with my pet!" Hugs, kisses, apologies.....and I'm back to trying to find Slimey. I mean everything we had in there was all over the place. I did finally find the chrysalis out of the cocoon in some grass. The cocoon was made in the grass, if you'll remember and that was amazingly still in tact. So I was able to get him back into his cocoon (without touching it, mind you) and there he sits.
I look in on him all the time and he still looks the same. Jon keeps saying he's dead but I don't think so. Wouldn't it be all shriveled up by now? And it's still shiny. Wouldn't he be all dull if he was dead? Here's hoping for a spring butterfly or moth......
We chose a tree in about 2 minutes. I handed Stephanie the camera and asked her to take a picture of us with our tree. Somewhere between wiping snot off of Talon's face and getting Ben to look at the camera, Talon got loose. Jon ran off to get him while I stood in front of our lovely tree with Simon and Ben. 
After Jon grabbed Talon he lifts this other tree up and says "Hey, what about this one?!" Stephanie and I were both like, "Ooohh, I love that one. That one is much better! It's such a nice shade of green!" So off we go to get our picture taken with the new tree. 
As Jon's tying the tree onto the van I say to Stephanie, "This is usually one of our biggest fights of the year!" She says, "It's my presence!" I said, "You're coming every year from now on!" Okay, it's all tied on and we head out for dinner. We ended up at Red Robin and had great food. The kids were really good too. And the raspberry limeade was awesome!!! 
Tah-Dah!!!!!!!!!! It's straight (almost) and it looks so good! I think the Lord fixed the top of our tree somehow while I was at Target or something because that thing was crooked!!! And I am loving my new star. Since we got married nearly 8 years ago we've had the same grapevine star, which I still like, but I happened upon this one at OTP and had to have it!
I mean, are we in that much of a hurry to get to Christmas that we can't stop to be thankful!? I love Thanksgiving! It's my mom's holiday. Back in the day we would have the grandmas, all of my aunts, uncles and cousins from both sides of the family over at our house for the whole day! Ahhhh, I remember it well...Aimee and I would be setting one of the 6 tables we had set up, while watching the Thanksgiving Day parade, keeping track of the floaty balloons going by and waiting for our favorites. My mom would be making food all morning long. She had already stocked the fridge and freezer with all of our traditional favorites. Ham and Turkey of course. Butter with mashed potatoes! :) Pickles and olives. Peppermint ice cream. Those creamy pastel mints with the white sprinkles on the bottom. Our Thanksgiving traditions have changed a bit since but we still get together with the whole Riddering clan! And we have some things that have become new traditions. I'm a very nostalgic person so change is not fun for me. But a lot is changing with the coming holidays. And guess what? I've learned to embrace the changes as part of the fun!
I am so excited! Aimee and I have talked about this since they were born. Hoping...wondering...if maybe they would be able to be flowergirl and ringbearer together and now it's happening.
Talon's first look at all the candy. He had no idea!
Talon got sick of it after a while so Jon took him home. I stayed out with Simon and Ben - until they got sick of it too. Here they are trick-or-treating with Wylie, the skunk. :)
There was still time for others to trick-or-treat when we got home so Simon set up his post on the stoop. I couldn't figure out how he kept running out of candy when I watched him give each person a huge handful. So we were able to get rid of everything we didn't like. Very nice!
And as you can see...neither one of us wanted to carve Talon's pumpkin. It's just fine without a face. Talon didn't seem to mind a bit! :)
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