my garden is confused

As I write this post, I am contemplating turning on my heat.  

My house is freezing and the weather outside is rather chilly.

Fall has set in and now we are feeling some wintery temperatures for the first time.  

Up until this week, our weather here in the south has remained quite warm.

My garden is so confused.  It is still producing lots of good stuff.

All through October, I noticed lots of new veggies appearing.
I love walking out there and seeing the plants remaining VERY green and full of life.

Red and green chilis

Crazy hot habenero peppers.
{I have a funny story about these little guys in an upcoming post.}

And this plant has been my favorite ALL summer.  

It's full of tiny chili peppers.

Full of color.

And hundreds of peppers.

Still producing...

We even have tons of these little pumpkins.

I was so excited to pick them and decorate the house with our very own PUMPKINS

for Halloween!

Yep...even a few gourds.

But this is my most prized veggie for the fall.

Finally, after months and months of caring for this plant,

I got me a sweet yellow bell pepper.

First one from the garden...in October.

The bugs kept eating them {no matter what I tried}.

But, when fall set in and the temperatures cooled off just a bit...no more bugs.

I finally got to pick and EAT one BEFORE the bugs.

And now, my pepper plant is full of them!  YAY!!

I told you our garden was confused.

Our zinnias died, fried from the extreme heat during the summer.

Look what's blooming again...

All of our plants seem confused and still blooming.

With the first signs of winter approaching {today, in fact...brrrrrr!}

and freezing temperatures forecasted for tonight,

mother nature is about to show my garden who is in charge!

It was good while it lasted...all through the fall.

Quite YUMMY in fact!

still behind on posting

More Halloween photos...

The boys got to dress for school.  

Sam's dress up day was actually a few weeks ago.  Apparently I had not seen the note that came home from Sam's elementary school notifying me of this big day.  So, on the way home from school I overheard Sam telling his brother "I get to dress up tomorrow for school and I am going to be a pirate."  I panicked!  We threw this pirate costume together {with the help on Nonnie and Party City} in a flash.  

One catch, he had to be a book character.

So we pulled this book off of the kids' bookshelf {one of my boys' favorites} and sent him on his way.

Whew...nice save!

The kids got to "parade" through the hallways to show off their costumes during the 

Character Parade.

There's Sam and his amazing teacher, Mrs. Buff!

James actually got dress up the Friday before Halloween.

Argh Matey!

I snapped these pix as we were walking out the door for preschool.

Notice the breakfast cereal in his hand. 

That's just how we roll {and yes, I just said that}.

Oh how I love the picture below, of the little ones saying the blessing before snack time.

This is James and his best buddy, Cody.

This is Mrs. Julie.

Mrs. Julie and I are actually friends - we went to elementary school together.

She take very good care of my sweet boy!

And she tolerates that crazy kid, too!

argh matey

Yep, you guessed it...
more Halloween aftermath {I'm not quite done yet}.

This is THE BUSIEST time of year for me {as a photographer}.
I am photographing beautiful families left & right
for the upcoming holiday season.

I have 6 sessions to edit as of right now
and 5 sessions coming up this weekend.

I did take some time to use my talents on my own kidddos!
We did a little Halloween Mini-Session in the backyard on Monday {after Halloween}.

They made the most ADORABLE pirates EVER!!
And ABSOLUTELY LOVED being "in" character for this mini-session.

Lil' Matey MAX

Just about to throw a fit.  

Then I brought in the reward for smiling at mommy's camera...

...candy!

And, now Sam's turn.

Pirate SAM

Last, but not least...

Scallywag JAMES

I love this shot...

Check out more amazing black & white photos...

something a little fun

"life is short, so make it what ya wanna..."

halloween

Decorations

that I can't claim.

These photos were taken in Charleston, SC

at my friend Leslie's house.

My family piled in the SUV and took a road trip to visit Leslie and her family a few weeks ago.

She said she loves to decorate for Halloween and I believe it!

I loved ALL of the flares of fall throughout her home.  

With a little "scary" thrown in, too.

How festive and fun!

Her home looked like something out of the Southern Living Magazine.

I loved it.

She inspired me to spice up my own home with some ORANGE and BLACK 

in honor of Halloween {pictures to come}.

Thanks, Les, for sharing your home with my crazy family!

saving money

This week the sales weren't that exciting plus I was overwhelmed by other things going on, so I didn't HURRY to the stores at the beginning of the week.  I HAVE found that to be the key to this "couponing/sale" game.  If you want to get the best deals, you have to hit the stores on Sunday and Monday to really stock up things you NEED.  Otherwise, you get the left overs.

I wasn't planning on hitting up the stores for the sales this week.  I did make one trip to Kroger at the beginning of the week which was VERY productive.  But, the other sales (at CVS and Rite Aid) didn't seem too appealing.  

However, I got VERY excited when I got my "Single Check Rebate" $ from Rite Aid in the mail on Tuesday.  

Remember a few weeks ago (week 2) when I actually PROFITED from my trip to Rite Aid?  

Well, I got my rebate check for $41.41.  

That inspired me to look over the sale papers again and hit the stores QUICKLY for just a few things.

It was a very random list of items that I got, but overall lots of BIG savings.  

Seriously random items - so no pictures!

Kroger Purchases

I paid $4.46 for $46.92 worth of groceries.  

Rite Aid Purchases

I paid $13.38 for $67.47 worth.

AND I earned $9 in Up Rewards (good towards my next purchase)

$1 in "Single Check Rebates".

So REALLY I only spent $3.38 and will be giving MOST of the items I purchased away.

CVS Pharmacy Purchases:

I paid only $9.27 for $136.22 worth.

Yep, you read it right.  That's a savings of 93%.

AND, I earned $10 EXTRA CARE BUCKS (good towards my next purchase.)

So technically I made $0.73 PROFIT.

I did get 3 boxes of Purex laundry 3-in-1 Sheets that made this trip completely worth the time!

SO FOR THIS WEEK...

All of these items should've cost me about more than $255.

I paid just a little more than $27 for all of it.

AND, I earned $20 towards my purchases next week.

In the end...

I SAVED 90% from my purchases this week.

halloween

I LOVE decorating for Halloween.

I love using pumpkins to add the feel of FALL to my home.

This is the first post of many this week that include my take on FALL and HALLOWEEN.

Consider it the aftermath (considering Halloween was yesterday!)

I am such a slack blogger!

This is the first project that I did for my son's school - the Silent Auction Fundraiser Basket.

The theme - Halloween, of course!

And I loved it!