It's been awhile!

Since the end of September I have been busy.

I have been decluttering my home...somewhat anyway.

I have been planning for our up comming trip to Illinois to visit family.

I have had 2 meetings with the contracted fire service for the area in which I live. We have to subscribe to a contracted non-profit fire department because we live in a rural area. It is something that most "City Folk" don't have to concern themselves with. It also covers emergency response for medical emergencies, snake removal, bee removal & when we are away, they will come out a few times each week & drive around our property to make sure there has been no damages due to weather or vandals. Then they temporarily fix the damage & notify us by telephone!

I have a few things left to do before Halloween as well. I have to assemble the pieces of my costume. I need to find the kids trick or treat bags. Clean up the kids carseats & few other things.

My birthday was this month. On my birthday I slept late, spent three hours giving myself a pedicure & soaking my feet. I wore nice clothes (nice for me at least) & did my hair & make-up. I am a stay at home mom so I don't do any of that very often. My husband took our kids & I out for dinner & I got my very first tattoo. It is still healing, but it is healing surprisingly fast.

My father had an emergency appendectomy. My husband got a tatto as well & I spoke to one of my brothers for the first time in probably 6 months or so. I also spoke to my sister as well, but I can only reach her on an average of every 6 weeks or so.

Recently I have also started to make & mail out paper cranes to perfect strangers. When I mail them I send instructions on how to make their own paper cranes. It is said that when you make 1000 paper cranes & write your wish on the wings, it will come true. I haven't been writing wishes on most of my cranes but I include the instructions hoping I will receive a crane in return. It seems many Postcrossers know the legend of the crane. Postcrossing is how I am getting most of my addresses, but I did get one from 43 Things & 1 from Basic Human.