Why I love Halloween time!

I love Halloween. I had many happy Halloweens when I was a child, that could be part of the reason. We would dress up in the flame retardant costume my mother bought us at Woolworth's and head out for some treats. In the Bronx in the 1970's, almost everyone's mom was home when they got home from school, so you could start trick or treating right away-no waiting until 5 or 6PM like now. We'd have bags SO FULL of candy we literally could not carry them. We could eat candy for weeks! After my mother checked all the candy of course! We went to Catholic School and we always got November 1st off for All Saints Day! That was the best!

When I got older, I gave up trick or treating, but took a liking to Halloween movies. To me the classics are Halloween, Rosemary's Baby, Audrey Rose, Psycho, The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, Nightmare on Elm Street and Carrie. They were eerie/scary not like the horror movies now that are just downright gory. I know a lot of people like movies like Saw, but that's just gore to me. I love seeing those movies now. So much better when they are on TV then if I rented them! I saw them dozens of times, I know what's going to happen, but still it gives me the chills! I also love the few Halloween cartoons that would be on faithfully every October-with my favorite being "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" which I own on DVD. I vaguely remember a Fat Albert Special and a Bugs Bunny Halloween show.

Halloween will always be a happy time of year for me. I just hope my kids enjoy Halloween as much as I did! It's one of the highlights of being a kid!

My Baby is 5 months old already!!

Where has the time gone!!! Halloween is almost here and fall should be here (we still have summer like days here in NY). I can't believe my baby is 5 months today-I feel like it was just yesterday that she was born. She "babbles" now, smiles a lot, recognizes her family and is such a good baby. She laughs hysterically for her Daddy and big Sister, I guess she finds me serious-or just the one that feeds her!! We are hoping to finalize her adoption before the end of 2007, but our file is in Surrogates court instead of family court and things are moving at a snail's pace.

Here's a picture of my little pumpkin in her Halloween PJ's!!!!

My Immortal

I love the song My Immortal by Evanescence. My older daughter has been signing it since she was three. I just heard it on the radio and I turned it up. I have not heard it in such a long time, I enjoyed it. It always brings a tear to my eyes, it goes back to the first time I heard the song.

I was at my best friend's daughter's dance receital in June 2006. We were sitting front and center and there were about 25 dances with girls ranging for 7 to 18 years old. They announced that these two sisters were going to dance (a balance) this song together in memory of their mother who recently passed away from cancer. The girls had been taking dance lessons at the same dance studio for about 15 years and the school knew their Mom very well. The song came on and I was intrigued. Two girls danced alone, they were teenagers. You could tell they were emotional, and less then a minute into the song, they were crying tears for their mother. We were sitting so close, it's like we were right there. I started crying just watching them. I don't know if it was the words of the song or the circumstance, or a combination. The thought of teen girls losing their mother who probably suffered, just got to me. I wouldn't want to pass away like that and miss out on the rest of my girls lives.

They kept on dancing and like professionals, in memory of their mother, completed the dance flawlessly. Then you heard them really sob. Half the audience was crying. It was the first time I ever heard the song and the 100 times I have heard it since, that memory of the two sisters dancing still pops into my mind. I have tried to think of the words and what they mean, and I still can't figure out if the words are the mother speaking to the daughters or the daughters talking to the mother.

A beautiful song that still intrigues me....

This Sunday I felt SOOOO Lucky!

This past Sunday I walked in our local Support Connection 3 mile walk. It was fun, great weather and I walked with five friends. This group supports families whose lives are affected by breast and ovarian cancer. I have been walking in this walk for years and this year the turnout was bigger and better than ever. Men, women, children, even dogs came out to walk. People volunteered to keep the event running smoothly. Donations were made, which will greatly help keep Support Connection running and helping families that need their support and assistance.

I felt lucky-to be alive and well enough to walk. To have friends and a beautiful family. And not to have my life been disrupted by cancer. People put signs on their back and walk in celebration of a person, who survived breast or ovarian cancer. Some people's signs say they walk in memory of-that person succumbed to breast or ovarian cancer and lost their life. Some people walk with multiple people's names on their backs. One woman impressed me. She was younger than me, walking with her husband and a one year old in a stroller. Pinned to the back of the stroller was a sign that said "I walk for my Mommy". Her sign said "I walk for myself-I'm fighting the fight of my life!". I wanted to cry for her. She was obviously undergoing treatment, had lost hair and was wearing a bandanna. She probably didn't feel 100%, but she was out there walking because the cause hits home with her. I hope she wins this fight, if not for herself, for her young baby, who needs a mother.

My walking paid off! I was very good on Weight Watchers this week and when I weighed in today, I had lost another 5 pounds, bringing my two week total to 12.6 pounds lost. The women in the meeting were sneering at me, wondering how I had done so well. I did it perfectly and busted my butt exercising-that's how-there are no shortcuts! Hell, I'm doing better than the ladies on The Biggest Loser.