Happy Halloween!!!

Our weather is going to be downright icky! Rain, snow, 37 degrees. Stinky for all those little cute goblins and princesses :-(

sigh

Anyway, Happy Halloween! 

 This one is for you Mom

and for you dog lovers...

Flashback Friday

Houdini died today, in 1926. I probably knew that once - that he died on Halloween. But I had forgotten so I thought it was interesting when I read that this morning.


But this...THIS is fascinating;

On this day in 1517, the priest and scholar, martin Luther, approaches the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, and nails a piece of paper to it containing the 95 revolutionary opinions that would begin the Protestant Reformation.

In his theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment – called “indulgences” – for the forgiveness of sins. At the time, a Dominican priest named Johann Tetzel, commissioned by the Archbishop of Mainz and Pop Leo X, was in the midst of a major fundraising campaign in Germany to finance the renovation of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Though Prince Frederick III the Wise had banned the sale of indulgences in Wittenberg, many church members traveled to purchase them. When they returned, they showed the pardons they had bought to Luther, claiming they no longer had to repent for their sins.

Luther’s frustration with this practice led him to write the 95 Theses, which were quickly snapped up, translated from Latin into German and distributed widely. A Copy made its way to Rome, and efforts began to convince Luther to change his tune. He refused to keep silent, however, and in 1521 Pope Leo X formally excommunicated Luther from the Catholic Church. That same year, Luther again refused to recant his writings before the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Germany, who issued the famous Edict of Worms, declaring Luther an outlaw and a heretic and giving permission for anyone to kill him without consequence. Protected by Prince Frederick, Luther began working on a German translation of the Bible, a t ask that took 10 years to complete.

The term “Protestant” first appeared in 1529, when Charles V revoked a provision that allowed the ruler of each German state to choose whether they would enforce the Edict of Worms. A number of prices and other supporters of Luther issued a protest, declaring that their allegiance to God trumped their allegiance to the emperor. They became know to their opponents as Protestants; gradually this name came to apply to all who believed the Church should be reformed, even those outside Germany. By the time Luther died, of natural causes, in 1546, his revolutionary beliefs had formed the basis for the Protestant Reformation, which would over the next three centuries revolutionize Western civilization.

Style

Do you have style, or A style. What does your home look like?

My brother and his wife have a style. It's very southern California :-) Shells and palm trees and sailboats and beaches. It's nice.

I have a style in my craft/library...CHEERFUL!! You know, bright colors and happy little knick knacks.

My fella and I talk about the styles we like all the time but have never really committed to anything. 

Yesterday, I made an executive decision - RUSTIC, that's going to be our style. Not western or southwestern or country or Mexican...just rustic. We both like it and have for years. It's time to embrace the things we love. Sheesh!

Like this;

Wrapping up the vacation...

...yep, the party was a huge success. No snags or problems and a lot of fun. My brother was surprised the most by our appearance and that of his little brother. That was pretty cool. I have to admit, I was sooooo excited when he said he could make it - he lives in Louisiana! That was awesome!

So, Sunday we just hung around the house and visited. Just what we needed for sure.

Monday we went to the beach! Us landlubbers really enjoyed that. I'm not really a beach lover but it sure was nice to be somewhere so foreign! 

We stopped at a little place on the San Clemente pier for a drink and a fishy snack :-)

It was another fantastic day!

Ok, I don't really care about seagulls but hey, I don't get to see them that often and this one didn't mind standing still for a picture.

And it's not everyday you see a flock of pelicans!

Then we drove up the coast a little and stopped to check out this beauty.

while we were there, this seahawk flew up to the top of the mast to eat it's lunch. 

I miss palm trees

 I tried to talk him into buying this hat. He wouldn't. BUT, he let me take the picture!

We even went bowling one night! Really, when was the last YOU bowled? Mom waxed us all! Seriously, decades since she's picked up a bowling ball and she beat everyone! Me? I TOTALLY sucked! But I was great at being bad at it!

It was wonderful. And I loved that the girls spent so much time with us. That was really wonderful. I didn't expect them to at all so it was an added family bonus. They were delightful to be around.

I love my brother and I can't wait to see him again!!

more vacay party pictures

What a GREAT day for a party!!!

Cousin Monty and his wife Carol drove down from Ventura!

Cousin Ron and his wife Kathleen and their son Justin;

 Cousin Rick

da mama :-)

Awww

Jeff and his siblings!

 That's nice 

 Denae and her brother Mark

Jeff and his girls!

brothers!!

Poor Greta

Geez, poor Greta. When I took her in last Saturday to get her shots, the vet told me she has BAD teeth...just like Pepper (and me!). She also had a couple lumps he wanted to remove. I dropped her off yesterday morning and picked her up after work. The Vet said that she was 'under' for about 2 hours so she might be pretty groggy the rest of the night. Nah, she's was a trooper! Well, except for the whole cone head thing. whoa. She is REALLY struggling with the cone! Damnit! I feel so bad for her! When Pepper had to wear the cone, if she ran into something she just said "crap" and kept going. When Greta runs into something, she becomes immobilized. It's so, so pitiful. Sigh

So, he pulled all her front teeth, top and bottom, except for her canines, and one molar.

Then, he removed this pea sized bump on her neck which turned out to be a lot bigger under her skin so there are sutures, and zapped off a couple other ones;

Then ther was this big fatty  cyst on the inside  of her back leg. He took that out because if it got bigger, he wasn't going to be able to remove it and it would become a problem for her.

Poor Greta!!! Ugh. I hope she gets the hang of the cone. She has to wear it for 10 days!!

vacation

...more party pictures!

 He was pretty flustered with the whole surprise thing.

I LOVE that the whole family jumped in! Chelsey made the cake

AND the cupcakes!

And the food just kept coming!!!

Nachos, tacos, burritos, chicken, rice, potato salad...we had it ALL!

The Photo Booth was a big hit with the young/hip crowd :-)

and Ashley made this for her Dad! So clever and creative!

I loved how surprised the 35 and under crowd was about the cost of things,

 the year my brother was born! 

...more to come!