Sweet tooth!

The boys and I went to the store yesterday, and being that it's close to October 31st, there is an enormous amount of candy for sale. Have you ever noticed how much the candy has changed since we were little? Here's a list of my favorites from my childhood...most of these are probably no longer sold...haha...I am getting old! :)

Marathon Bar...these were a foot long, chocolate covered carmel "ladder" that we used to almost choke on because it was so stringy and sticky!

Ice Cubes...delicious creamy chocolate cubes...the smoothest thing around...my Gramma "D" always had some on her purse!

Necco wafers....dry and weird tasting, but we bought them anyway! LOL

Whistle pops...Lollypops with an loud whistle (made by some candy man with no children, no doubt!)

Candy cigarettes...we "puffed" on these things until the paper got soggy!

Bazooka Joe gum...hard as a rock until you chewed it for a while...once it was soft, it lost all it's flavor...we could buy it for 2 cents at the snack shack...and the comic and joke of the day were great, cheap entertainment!

Pixie sticks...if accidently inhaling the powder didn't kill you, the 1.5 second sugar rush just might!

Reeses pieces...if it weren't for E.T., these candies would have never lasted!

Fireballs...another snack shack favorite...why did we buy something that spent more time staining our fingertips than in our mouths???

Sour patch kids...wegmans sold them in bulk, and we snuck them into the movies!!

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These days, our kids have an incredible variety to choose from...

Gummy whatever...bears, worms, bugs, body parts...Chocolate anything and everything...So what did my kids get on our excursion to the store?? A package of gummy Krabby Patties, Josh eats them like a squirrel with his precious acorn. Jonathan took one bite, yelled "Yuck!!", and spit it to the ground. I'll stick to my modern favorite...the Take 5 bar!

Asleep

This week is my least favorite time of the whole year. I really dislike Halloween and all that goes with it. Our family does not celebrate the "holiday" or trick-or-treat. You might be thinking it is because of my upbringing and the fact that my family didn't celebrate it either. While this is somewhat true, Luis, who had a very different upbringing than I, feels even more strongly against it. Mom and Dad taught me that there was nothing cute or fun about Halloween. As the neighborhood kids came to our doors dressed like ghosts, witches, and other hideous things, my parents would hand out candy along with a little note about Jesus. We would stay home that night, and always have an abundance of left over candy, much to our dentist's dismay. One of the moms down the road from us felt such pity for me, that she made her son that was in my class, give me a portion of his candy. (No wonder that kid didn't like me!). Those parents didn't share or even understand the conviction that my parents felt on the subject. We, as children, didn't always understand either, and merely saw it as "they got candy and we didn't". Now that I am a Christian parent, I find myself sharing those same convictions that my parents did. I have noticed how much the "church" has changed on the whole Halloween issue. More and more, the standards that used to draw distinct lines have been weakened and watered down until it has gotten to a point where it's getting difficult to tell the difference between the Christians and the non-Christians. The world has become more evil, even just in my short lifetime. The worst part is that as the world continues to move down the slippery slope, the Christians have moved to the same degree, away from their convictions. Even down here in the "Bible belt", it is evident. Our children definitely live in a different world than Luis and I did as children, and we are finding ourselves having to explain issues to them that we didn't even know about until high school and beyond. Never before has the world been so blatantly anti-Christian. This generation has very little knowledge of a moral standard, because for the first time in history, the generation before it, in general, has not passed it on to them. The alarm has been sounding...college campus shootings...school field trips to the county courthouse to watch a gay wedding...presidential candidate images hanging with a noose for all to see...and we keep hitting the snooze button, hoping for just a few more moments of sleep and warmth...Little do we know how late it has gotten, and how desperately we need to wake up!

A little cheese with that whine!

Is it just me, or is whining the most annoying, most irritating sound ever to pierce a mother's ears?!?! Our youngest has mastered the art, if you can call it that. Not only does he whine at the drop of a hat, he does so at the highest decibels know to man!! I think even the dogs in the neighborhood are deterred by the shrills of Jonathan whining! Apparently, he thinks it is a viable way to protest, as it is his modus operandi anytime something doesn't go his way. Don't get me wrong...he can be the sweetest kid in the world. He'll walk up to me and just give me a kiss and a hug...out of the blue. He'll tell us he loves us around the clock, and he very quick to share. But mark my words....if you cross his path in a way he thinks is unjust, prepare to be bombarded by noises that were never meant to be uttered by human lips!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful (ok, maybe not quite THAT bad)!

Well, it is officially FREEZING outside down here in the lowcountry! OK, it's not like a NY freezing, but hey, after 6 years in the arid Sonoran desert, where the daily highs at this time of the year are still 99, I'm COLD! We have pulled out all the San Marcos warm fuzzy blankets, and all our "winter clothes" which basically just means long sleeves...The boys are rooting for snow, but I broke it to them gently that flurries are a rare event here. I showed Josh a picture of his first snow experience...high atop Laguna Mountain in the Southern California mountains! Simply beautiful there! It's amazing to think we have been here over a year already...and even more hard to believe that Christmas is right around the corner. Where does the time go?!?

Take me out to the ball game...

Well, tonight was the first practice for "fall ball" as they call it here in Hampton. Josh, who is still finishing up his soccer season, with his last game this Saturday, is super excited to be able to play on his Uncle Robbie (Aunt Marybeth)'s baseball team, along side his cousin Matt. He was a little nervous thinking about playing...and it was all because of "The Machine"...sounds like something straight out of a horror movie! In actuality, it's the pitching machine. He has "graduated" from T-ball, and this is the next step up before "real" baseball. He almost decided not to play, since he was so afraid he wouldn't be able to hit the ball, or feared that the ball would hit him. He sat and watched all the kids on his teams get up there and take their turns at bat, then, at last, came the moment of truth...He got up there, and after some tips on his stance and swing, Uncle Robbie backed away...Josh got a hold of 3 out of 5 pitches, with the last hit going right up the middle of the field. He's definitely not the strongest or most talented kid on the team, but he was grinning from ear to ear when I went to tell him that he did a great job, because he knew he did something that he thought he couldn't. Our fears can really keep us from doing so much, if we let them...but when we break through those fears, there is such a thrill and sense of accomplishment! I sat back as a proud Mama tonight...proud of Josh, for not letting his fears get the best of him. I was also taking in all the sounds and activities of the ball field and practice...something that I absolutely loved as a child, and am really excited that my boys love as well!