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I have never been into Halloween. Wait, I think that is a lie. I was absolutely into Halloween as a child. As a teen and an adult, I became less charmed by it. Plus, at many times in my life I have lives in places where the kids did not come around for candy anyway, so it kind of slipped off my radar.

My ex and I had made this decision to just sort of bypass Halloween when it comes to Gigi. Well, I have no idea in the world how she got wind of the holiday, but she did. It could have been TV or someone at pre-school or even her cousin, who is 18-months older than she is. Either way, the kid was rearing to go at the age of two. She dressed as Sleeping Beauty and the rest is history.

Last year, I was in classes Halloween night. Even though it was legally my Halloween with Gigi, my ex got her. I bought her costume anyway. She dressed as Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

This year is my ex’s legal time with her, but I will take her to events on the days around Halloween. I am also going to put up Halloween Decorations this year, because it just so happens that Gigi is excited about making the house look a little spooky. I have some great harvest things, like fake pumpkins that look real and some autumn leaves. I even found a cute pumpkin stepping stone online that we can place in the front flower beds. I think she has it in mind to put up a ghost or something equally as typical, but it all comes down to the fact that it is just one more thing we can do together; one more memory to make.

I just wanted to take a minute to introduce two new blogs I am beginning. Both come as a result of a horrific event that happened at the site that hosts the two blogs I have been keeping for nearly a year now. The owner of the site disagreed with one of my post and yanked my entire account for two weeks. Assuming she does put my blogs back online in two weeks, I still feel like I need to do the responsible things and eventually only keep blogs that are on my own paid hosting service.

Girly Things is an ode to why I love being a girl. As a woman, there are just so many female-centric topics to write about and I want to keep the tone of this blog feminine and forever supportive of all things Girl. One of the blogs I am phasing out is also called Girly Things, but this time I have a real domain. The vibe of the blog is the same though.

One Clear Dot will be more of a general blogging adventure, but I will attempt to keep a clear and insightful focus on life when I write there. It’s my platform for my new attitude about being present in my own life.

Please visit them and leave a comment.

I just picked up a copy of Chix Can Fix by Norma Vally and I am thrilled at how simple she makes the hundred home improvements in the book look. I have a ceiling fan here in this room that is not mounted correctly and I think that with the help for the book I can get up in there and figure it out now.

I want to be a handy-woman. Well, not professionally, but just around my own home. Home ownership is expensive enough with mortgages, taxes and Florida-style homeowners insurance. Paying a constant parade of repairmen to come to the house for little things here and there is just about enough to drive me over the edge.

Our most recent repair was in the bathroom. I picked up new shower faucets for both bathrooms and then we paid a guy to come in and install them. In the past, my ex or my brother-in-law would have done that for me, but my ex is not an option and my BIL was out of town on business.

Now I look back and see that I really should have been able to figure it out on my own. I just need to have the confidence and some basic tips. We need the faucets replaced in the bathroom sinks an in the kitchen as well. I want to order them online and then just install them on my own.

The pros of doing it yourself far outweigh the cons. First off, I can budget more money toward a cool new faucet if I know I do not have to pay someone to install it. I had a faucet in the kitchen of my last house that was tall and modern and made washing big pans a snap. I want to replace our average one here with a more modern fixture.

 

Gigi had so many firsts on this last trip to West Virginia. I’ll have to post a little about her first experience with fishing. She caught a bass on her first try.

Here she is with her cousin shucking some sweet white corn. She did a really good job and got nearly all the silk off. We ate that corn for days! I sure miss being able to go out and pick dinner. But then, we have our upsides here in Florida as well. Although we cut down both the pink grapefruit and the sour orange trees, we have star fruit ripe right now and apples and lemons just about ready to pick.