Happy Halloween - This and That

Happy Halloween Everyone!

 (Hope your Halloween has been all treats and no tricks!!)

Well, I'm finally back in blogland and just wanted to touch on a few things now that I'm finally back. 

  
First off, the reason for my absence.  Most of you already know this; but for those of you that I only have contact with through my blog; my father in law passed away last month.  He had been in and out of the hospital for almost three weeks before losing his battle.  In a weird way it was fortunate that he & we had time to prepare for this and yet he wasn't in pain for too long.  When his time came, he was ready and was appreciative of the long life that he had enjoyed.  That brought us some comfort - you're never ready, but it did bring us some comfort.

Dad could build or fix almost anything!

So for the last month, we've been busy tying up his affairs and helping out my mother in law where we could.  Not only is she on her own; but none of the children live too close to her; so we've been running back and forth to help her out where needed.  But she's doing pretty well.




The rest of this month has been a lot of catching up with everything else - everyday things you get behind on dishes, laundry, bills, etc. and even the fun things like crafting.  Yep, I've been doing a lot of catching up with that this month too!  So, starting real soon (tomorrow to be exact!); I'll be back to sharing some projects with you again.  And in a couple short weeks, Sparkle N Sprinkle has a great, big, fun, blog hop coming up that you won't want to miss either.  This hop will be our biggest & longest yet - giving you four full days to savor all the great projects we have planned for you.  And you'll get the chance to enjoy the work of all the newest designers that joined the team this month too.  So be sure to mark this hop on your calendar - you don't want to miss this one!  (Don't forget, there will be great prizes to be won too!!)

Last but not least, in my area, we just dodged a bullet here weatherwise.  Living in the country, we prepared for the worst with the approach of Hurricane Sandy this week.  Stocking up on necessities, gassing up the cars and of course the generator.  But we got lucky - very lucky.  All we've had to deal with is some high winds and rain.....lots and lots and lots of rain - it still hasn't really stopped.  It's been hard on our farm animals; they're pretty miserable, but we're all getting by and we didn't lose our power - a major plus!  But so many others haven't been so lucky - the devistation in some areas is just hard to comprehend.  We're thinking of all of those people and hoping there's a swift resolution to all the issues they are facing.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to those dealing with the aftermath of the storm as well as all  those helping to try to bring things back to normal.

Well, that covers the nutshell version of various things I wanted to touch on as I get back to blogland.  Don't forget to stop back tomorrow for a new project!  See you then!!

Until next time,

***Julie***