Pokey Peas Challenge for October 2023

I didn't mean to not check-in for a while. I got busy with my portfolio for work and just haven't taken time for fun things online!

I spent most of September riding my bike to raise money for research with kids with cancer. I even got my photo on Times Square Billboard for it! I ended up finishing with 102.2 miles on Sept. 29th. I have given my legs a rest the last two days.

This weekend the weather has been cooler. The temp in my house has been about 65 degrees but I don't want to turn the heat on just yet.

I can't remember if I mentioned my huge sweet gum tree died. I had a guy come out in August and he quit 3 hours into the job. He was upset that the city didn't disconnect a wire for a street lamp that went through the tree. He said the guys could do it even with the wire but then quit. He at least didn't hold me accountable to pay him since he didn't finish the job. I thought I would get a smaller bid since they had taken down some of the bigger limbs but I have been told no because it is still a big job. Ugh. I have hired another guy but he was 8-10 weeks out so I am just waiting for him to call to get me on his schedule.

My niece has moved back here for a bit from New York. I have enjoyed spending time with her. We are supposed to go hammocking tomorrow. She says she does this all over New York. I am planning to go to a park where we can hopefully be away from people. I don't think the park board really allows it.

I went to We Create in September and I started an album for some of my Costa Rica pictures. At the end of this month, a friend and I are going to a crop to a nearby town. I need to get things prepped so I am not bringing too much.

I am chilling at the coffee shop for a little bit. I hope everyone is doing good.

Happy Monday or decision day for me LOL!

It was sooo good to finally scrap with some peas and my mojo is still going too kitbop. It was the jump I needed. I finished the page I started Saturday.

gramma I hope you're feeling better! Holy cow your 49ers are for REAL! What a beatdown! The sports world really needs to let go of thinking the Cowboys are an elite, always bound for glory team. Those days are long long gone lol.

grammadee I can imagine the quiet would be a relief and also a little bittersweet. It sounds like a fabulous gathering, and I can't wait to see the fall photos. I am with you on that pumpkin pie for breakfast and dinner! I love pumpkin pie and one of best parts of thanksgiving is the leftovers and no cooking for days lol.

DS2 and I watched the Chiefs game but otherwise it was a quiet Sunday and I thoroughly enjoyed it lol. The weather has finally really cooled off it's weird, but I can feel the uplift in my mood as the heat goes away. I'm definitely becoming a cold weather cat the older I get lol.

@knutshen good to see you checking in! I'm sorry about the tree, I hope that gets resolved soon. I'm curious about hammocking. Someone ties a hammock to the jungle gym here one night, makes me wonder if that's what they were doing lol.

knutschen - Trees are such an expensive commodity and we rarely think of that - especially removing a dead tree because you aren't getting anything "back" for your money. Congrats on all the biking and fund raising!

I enjoyed watching Shimelle live this morning with my coffee, and now I'm gonna join the online crop and see if I can make more headway on this work project: yes, ANOTHER album for ANOTHER co-worker leaving the hospital. I swore I wouldn't do another. A sweet coworker (who I consider a friend) decided to make an album for her: 1. printed photos 2. bought the 12x12 album from Amazon 3. turned up to work with a sad look, the album in her hands and a package of *construction paper* and said, "help, I don't know what to do next"! How can I refuse?

kitbop -you're such a good person to do that album!

joyfulnana - yay for improvements with your current job -I hope that it'll give you a better work-life balance.


I'm definitely looking forward to seeing DD23 - she'll be here through the 28th. My sister and BIL are also coming this month but just for a couple of days (they're stopping by after visiting his folks who live a couple of hours south of us). We'll get to see DS at Thanksgiving as well as Christmas/New Year's as we're planning to drive up there. Fingers crossed that the budget/speaker debacle doesn't have the Smithsonians closed over the Thanksgiving weekend as we're hoping to see Pandas before they head back to China.

Happy Tuesday! Hope you all are having a nice day. I plan to get into some crafts today. Also, I have several classes today including a cooking class. This class is always a good one and the chef he makes cooking fun. I hope our weather will be cooler now so I can get back to real cooking. We has some HOT days last week and over the weekend. But yesterday and today seem to be cooler but not turning on my stove until I know for sure! LOL! joyfulnana, I think my mood is starting to smile a little, too now that we are cooling down.

Waving hi to knutschen and nylene!

linda- Sounds like you have some fun holiday plans! I have seen the Pandas on YouTube and they are so cute. I hope you get to see them.

kitbop- What type of album are you making for your co-worker? Your scrapbook pages are so great so I know your album will turn out lovely. I haven't done a mini album in a while and was thinking of doing another for some Summer trip photos.

joyfulnana- Congrats on your work decision. Sounds like your days will be less stressful. I am all for that!

grammadee- Wow, what a wonderful family time you had! Your meal sounded delicious and sitting out on the patio must of been a real treat. So cool!

Hey Pokeys! I am almost healthy. My annoying little cough isn't 100% gone yet even though it's been ten days since I got my cold. Unfortunately Dean didn't feel well enough to travel on the weekend, so I drove to my mom's by myself. I had a nice Thanksgiving with my mom, sister, brother, and his family. I got my nails done Tuesday and I'll post a picture later. Yesterday there was a grad info night at the high school, so I went along with some of my students. It went well and they gave us pizza for supper. I'm hoping to get some scrapping and some reading done this weekend. grammadee and I have book club on Tuesday and I've actually finished that book already. Early for once. I did receive a couple of free advance review copies of books this months, so I need to try and finish them so I can post reviews.

joyfulnana I'm glad your job situation worked out. kellyr21 I will have to check out that YouTube channel. Linda all your visiting family sounds wonderful. I hope you have fun.

grammadee - thank you - I'm enjoying reliving those memories - they grew so fast. Love your thank you card - so pretty!

kellyr21 - our weather cooled off enough to open windows the beginning of the week but then yesterday we had bad storms all day and night. Next few days will be warmer but low 80s warm not 90+ and then we should get another cold front (which here means lows in the 48-55 range and highs in the 68-74 range...which is my absolute favourite weather)

justjac - I'm glad that you're feeling much better.

joyfulnana -I hope you get some scrappy time. Happy Birthday to Rudy!

DH's eye surgery went smoothly yesterday - he's at his follow-up appt now so fingers crossed all looks good. I need to finish up cleaning and baking today and then tomorrow will be a early morning to go get DD23 from the train station (it's nearly 2 hrs away).

Not sure how much scrappy time I'll have for the rest of the month but I'll try and at least check in here.

Hi everyone!

Thanks kitbop - making memories is always better than scrapping them so no complaints here really and I suspect I'll manage to sneak a little scrappy time here and there. Well done on the coworker album - I'm so glad she loved it.

(((Hugs))) gramma -I hope you're feeling better soon

Here is a tag book layout. I was gonna make it a tag book but decided to make a lo of it. Turned out cute!

Tagbook Layout by Kelly Roberts, on Flickr


Tagbook Layout Inside by Kelly Roberts, on Flickr

Oh gramma. Like you needed Covid to finish off your trifecta. Hope you start to feel better soon.

Enjoy the party, joyfulnana. I don't mind them as much, kitbop, when the parents are doing the planning and all I have to do is watch the fun and take photos. I know I for SURE would not be out on ice with them!

Great idea for a page, kellyr21, using the tags from the book you started. I will have to take a closer look in the Gallery.

I just finished reading our book, justjac, and looking forward to getting together next week. I like that we get to sample books by authors that other members enjoy, authors I would probably never find on my own.

Enjoy having your dd home, Linda. Making memories is always the fun part. Scrapping them later is just the bonus.

nylene, is this the weekend of the wedding?

Wow! You finished that scrapbook for your coworker in record time, kitbop! So glad she loved it.

Yesterday I cooked up five gallons of tomatoes. Today I made lasagna with two of them--a double batch of my usual recipe, and a couple of cake pans of a gluten/onion free variety of it for dd. Still have the rest of the tomatoes to put into containers to freeze as fruit.

Tomorrow hockey season starts in our community and dgs has his first home game at noon. He is super excited. Today they picked up his home and away jerseys and his name badges. Dd was on the phone and facetime this evening trying to figure out how to sew his name onto his jersey. I haven't done that in years. Told her how I used to do it, but that maybe she should ask her sisters-in-law who do this all the time.

He has played for a few years, but not on a competitive team or in a league.  Many of his classmates are on his team, so this is one more way for him to get to know them.  In small town Canada, hockey is a big deal.

grammadee - that makes sense. I'm glad it'll be another avenue for making friends - always tough after a move.


gramma - ((((Hugs))))

DD23 is here! Her train was only 5 minutes late - woohoo! We stopped at Cracker Barrel for brunch on the way home. She loved the train ride.

Yay Linda enjoy your time with DD!

gramma either football game works for me. Still not a nascar person lol.