I borrowed my friend Becky’s costume and sat at the front door in my “bubble bath” to greet our Trick-or-Treaters this year.

Here I am:

Here I am with Ivan and Angelina (who came as Diego and Dora):

A few of my favorite responses:

“How did she get in there?”

“Are you balloons for Halloween?”

“I had to come back and take your picture—can I take your picture?”

Last night, Chris and Stephanie had the church over for a Fall Festival, complete with food, pumpkin carving, a hayride, and a very last minute Trunk or Treat. We had a great time as you’ll see for yourself if you look at the pictures!

This is the second set of plants I had to take back to Lowe’s after planting in the backyard this summer. It’s nice that Lowe’s a money-back guarantee so if you kill the plant within the first year, you can take it back. Granted, I got all my plants on clearance so they were half-dead to start with, but as you can see, I finished them off. Apparently, rhododendrons don’t like to be ignored.

However, as my next door neighbor told me when I was planting them, roses take abuse pretty well. Here are some pictures of the roses I planted at the same time as the rhododendron. Looking good!

Mo and I were going to visit some friends in the hospital (one of my clients had pneumonia and Gary Schaper had a hip replacement) and I wanted to get them gift certificates to a restaurant near the hospital so they could easily get something other than hospital food to eat.

First I went to El Lorito, a local Mexican restaurant where I have bought a gift card before.  They told me they didn't have any left.

There's not much else close to the hospital, so I was forced to resort to fast food.  I went into Wendy’s and asked if they had gift certificates.  The girl at the register told me they did not.  Another guy working there told me they did have some but not anymore.  The girl corrected him, saying, "No, those were coupons we ran out of."

At this point, I told Mo I would try Burger King and then I was giving up.  So I went into Burger King and asked if they had gift certificates.  The lady at the register didn't have a clue whether they did or not, so she asked the lady cleaning tables, who looked at me like I was crazy and said "We don't have gift certificates here."  This being the 3rd place I tried, I was disgusted and threw my hands up in the air and sighed as I started to leave.  About this time, a manager came to the front and asked the ladies working there what I wanted.  The table-cleaning lady responded, "She wanted gift certificates.  I told her we don't have any."  I don't know what made me stick around to listen to her response, but I did.  Then the manager said, "I thought we did have some in the back."  To which the table-cleaning worker replied, "No, we don't have any gift certificates...we have gift cards."
Unbelievable.  I looked at her incredulously and said (rather forcefully), "That's the same thing!"
The manager told me I'd have to excuse those two and sold me the gift cards.

As I was finishing up working with a child on feeding goals at lunch in his classroom (of 3 & 4 year olds), the rest of the class was finishing their meals too, and taking turns going to the bathroom before getting on their cots for nap.  One girl was holding up the line.  I overheard the following:

Teacher: Are you almost finished in there?  Your friends are waiting.

Girl:  (in her singsong voice) Not yet.

(Several minutes passed)

Teacher: What’s taking so long in there?  Are you working on a number 2?

Girl: (Very seriously) No.  I workin’ on a number 8.

Teacher: Okay then, sounds serious.  We’ll let you sit there a while longer!

In a classroom during breakfast this morning, there was a sudden loud noise.  The nutritionist, who happened to be in the room, exclaimed “Whoa, that scared the bejesus out of me!.”  I was working with a 3 year old who loves to repeat everything he hears.  He immediately responded, “Whoa, that scared the blue jeans-es off of me!”

Cara won a Your Pets Hallmark Contest and they’re selling her card, featuring our cat Cleo, in Hallmark stores now. How exciting is that?!? Now run out to the store and get one for yourself! Cara will be available for autographs and Cleo will be paw printing in the Fort Smith store soon! (seriously) If you haven’t been voting for Cleo, you can at http://www.hallmarkcontests.com/vote. Search for Cleo under the Your Pets contest.

We invited the church youth over for a Memorial Day BBQ and games. Mo grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and Cara planned games including the clothespin relay, the cotton ball on a fork relay, the three-legged race, the sack race, water balloon fun, chubby bunny, and a jelly bean tasting contest.

Check out the rest of the pictures here!

I entered a Hallmark card contest and won!  Now I need your help to my cat, Cleo, win the grand prize-go online and vote everyday!
Thanks, Cara

Online voting has begun!  Vote today!  And everyday!

https://www.hallmarkcontests.com/vote/index.cfm?step=1&perpage=1&showsingle=yes&card_id=4345

If the link doesn't take you directly to Cleo's card, you can Search for a Card with "Cleo" at

http://www.hallmarkcontests.com/vote/