Twas the Night Before Halloween

It's handy having our own black cat on Halloween

Emma designed and I cut it out - no knives for Dad!



nothing like goopy guts to roast in the oven with cajun seasoning!

Somehow we hadn't bought or carved a pumpkin till last night -- how and the heck that happened I have no idea... the good thing was that they were on sale at Walmart for $1.98 !! any size. I may go get some more so we can have some fun and do some more!

Today Hope and I will go to Emma's school and participate in the new tradition of Trunk or Treat, you decorate the trunk of your car and kids come and get treats from you -- it will be around the track out back at school - so more on that later with pictures to accompany.

All Saint's Day Party

We had an All Saint's Day party at church for our Wednesday Night gathering -- all the kids came and dressed up as characters from the bible. Hope was herself, Emma was an Angel........

We did a cake walk and the kids bobbed for apple on string hung from the ceiling rather than in tubs of cold water.... they tried to be David ( not Shockley) and threw a sock filled with a ball at a Goliath statue made from a ladder and a bucket - pin the heart on Jesus and ate hot dogs and ate cake! Cool night

You know you live in THE SOUTH when...

Emma needed to write 2 sentences for one part of her homework tonite and the first one would use the word "bus".

Emma asked me how to spell haffta...........??

" I have to ride the bus to school "

haffta = have to

And here are two pictures of the kiddo's - they sure are cute - and man they are growing up sooo freakin' fast.

More Shockley's in Review........

And the winner was........ Blacksburg Middle School for the Girls Volleyball Tournament!

All we heard in the crowd was other parent's complaining that the games were so fast and that their teams barely scored any points.... but it was great being the Blacksburg kid parent!!

Ah, nothing like a Memaw or G-daddy lap to sit on - who need a hard wooden bench?

Um, it was in her Halloween basket.... go Memaw.

After school everyday - Emma comes home and sits at the table and has a snack and tells me about her day - and Lilly always finds her and sits next to Emma on the bench. She also likes to participate in snack - we shoo her off the table though... eww.

Now that it's offically fall and COLD outside, Lilly is constantly trying to get outside, she loves it it's all we can do at night when it's crazy cold to get her to come in for the night - weird cat!

Hope and the Preschool teachers.... nothing like being a favorite

The preschool had a fall festival day at a local place called Parks Mill - it has a real mill there and they grind their own corn and flour and whatnot.... we had trunk or treat for the kiddo's and a picnic lunch there. At least it warmed up from the early temp of 37 degree's to a low 60 ish.

3's a Charm...............

They say it goes in 3's... you know, that stuff.

Monday Night, Mum was heard screaming..... when the deer hit Crystal ( the van ) at least it was a doe so her head only bounced off my side window instead of going thru it.

Tuesday Afternoon, Mum was heard gasping in horror.... as I fell in the preschool yard and landed - my full weight - on my left wrist. It held ( it should per all the hardware in there ) but it took a few years off me to think of it.

The days passed and I awaited event #3..................

Sunday Morning, Mum was seen with a look of horror on her face.... in the sanctuary at church, during the sermon, Rachel and Dad were trying to get my attention and I cannot for the life of me read lips, so Dad put his bloody hand in the window... AH! Time to get up and leave. Poor Dad, trying to get last minute chicken salad ready for a luncheon at church right after service, and instead got the top of his right pointer finger. At least there was a doctor in the house, my GYN doctor - Ha! but she cauterized it and called in antibiotic and pain medicine and saved a trip to the ER!

THAT'S IT!!! NO MORE!!!

There were good things last week and I still have pictures from last weekend, when my nerves finally calm down I'll add on monday or tuesday.

Oh yeah,

I forgot to add this to the blog. Cheryl emailed me these pictures last week and I sat here looking at the house going, huh..... - oh yeah, that's our old house! How cool. Her best friend who has their old computer forwarded the old pictures to cheryl. Not too bad for a starter house, except for the circa 1929! It was a great house though, lots of awesome woodwork and per my cousin, a hidden treasure trove in the brickwall in our living room.

It still looks nice, we took the girls by there a few weeks ago - Emma didn't remember it. The new owners tackled that huge christmas tree out front and they seem to be stuck with the swing set that we used lots of cement on! Whoops.

at the Shockley's this week....

Pajama Jam - Birthday Weekend with the girls and Grandparents.
Hope is the lead Cheeta Girl~Thank Goodness Memaw found that awesome yard sale where Hope racked up for $10~

Dad and Rach taking a spin on the balance beam

Um, Rachel and Emma on a big swing.... little cheeta in the back ground with daddio.

The best part of the birthday party - popping my black birthday balloons!

um, what can I say - icing from the cake and rach's toungue.

Strike a Pose cheeta!

ah, sissy's.........

I took the girls with me to the library the other night to return a book and we parted ways at the door -- "their" section vs. "my" section. As I was browsing the aisles a little boy came running up to me with that knowing expression on his face and I stood there trying to catalogue who the heck this boy was.... ah, Dillon from Emma's kindergarten class.... I said Hi and pointed to the childrens section and he took off like the Flash. I stood there pondering the fact that this will be my life in a few short years... boys looking at me expectantly looking for my daughters!

UGH!

On a good note: today is parent/teacher conference day for Emma - and I think this may be the only time I can tell my beloved mother-in-law Cheryl ... HA! ... The teacher told me I didn't even need to come today if I would prefer. I say HA! because there are soooooo many times I tell her things about the kids and she goes HA!HA! David is getting his own back but I don't see why I need to suffer because he was 8 handfuls growing up as a child. I said HA because I am not positive but I think this may not have happened to my husband.

Hilarious note: Rachel got her report card and got all A's and one B. The B she got as a result of talking in class and her teacher deducted 10 points from her grade. The Shockley mouth will get you every time. Good news is her Volleyball Team is having an all day tournament on Saturday - we are going to go watch at least one game... they anticipate doing well as they have a winning record for the year.

Silly String Night

Trike-A-Thon day at Sinking Spring Preschool!

Dad came by and had a Pit Stop snack with Hopester.

Birthday Weekend....

Not too shabby for the BIG 4 - 0 eh?

Headed to Roanoke on Friday for the Pajama Jam with Memaw and Rachel - we got to go to Hotel Roanoke in our pj's for Breast Cancer Awareness night - had dinner/drinks and 2 concerts by county music stars.... - saturday had a surpise lunch with 2 of my best friends from Roanoke, Mz Theresa and Mz Carol! How lucky - my family and by girlfriends... I guess 40 isn't so bad.

When Cheryl get's copies of the pictures from the pj - jam i'll add them to the blog.

Birthday Week ????

Sunday morning I was told to go back upstairs and the girls would be up shortly with a surprise... breakfast in bed. Ergo, the start of birthday week for Mom.

//

Birthday day was yesterday the 1st... the girls gave me hugs and promised for a great day! The girls at work got me a flower -- then when I got home Hope gave me a homemade birthday card she made at school - and there were beautiful flowers at the door, from my partner in crime Ms. Theresa, a slew of cards, it's nice to know my girlfriends ( and chris roberts! ) from Roanoke still think of me! Then before we left to go back to church ( yup - the busy craziest day of my week ) another vase of roses showed up from my oldest bestest buddy Layner! Talked to Momma and thanked her for the funds to get my hair done - begone grays!!! The kiddo's at church sang to me -- then we had covered dish dinner. David made it on closing day no less, and he brought the cake! not just a simple birthday cake - but a large cake with white icing so that all could see the number "40" plastered all over the cake! What a wonderful husband.... it's been a while since I had been that embarassed, the folks at church enjoyed it. I also got calls from Paige and Robert, my bestest friends that just moved to Ohio. Oh, yeah, and my M-I-L Cheryl, she opened the conversation with asking how much would I pay her NOT to sing to me, that had me laughing all day! Whew.... thanks to all, it was an awesome day!

ps. there is to be a surprise party sometime in my future so I will continue when I have more.

Hope Isabelle

Reasons 1 through 10 why our Hope is destined to sleep alone...