Veterans Day: For Our Soldiers of Past and Present

Thank you to the veterans of the past and the soldiers of the present. Your services are much appreciated and will never be forgotten.

No Snow for Me

photo credit: Lotus Carroll via photopin cc

So we were supposed to get this big snow storm yesterday; a noreaster to be precise but it was another dud for my area. I am so not complaining about that.

In fact, I'm happy but I'm sure a lot of the kids weren't happy here, muahaha! They sent the kids home around 12-to-1 pm yesterday afternoon expecting inclement weather, which never seemed to arrive.

It flurried a little bit around 6pm or so but did not stick. The wind picked up - it was definitely windy last night and it's still windy today but no accumulation - no snow and the kids all had school today.  

I hope the snow holds off until December! That's what I'm used to. I know we've had years here in the Hudson Valley where it sometimes snows in November, but most times it usually holds off until after Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, I loved the snow. Now - not so much, lol.  

I think it looks pretty when it first falls, but driving in it, walking in it and cleaning up after it has taken most of the magic about snow away from me. Okay, not completely. I still enjoy getting snowed in sometimes. It depends on what I have going on in life.  

If it snows when I have nothing to do outside of the house, then I can sit home and enjoy the view with the expectation that I'll have to shovel when it's all over, of course. Shoveling is good exercise by the way.  :D

Right now I find myself really starting to think about Thanksgiving. It's only a couple of weeks away. I've got my mind on my turkey and my turkey on my mind. :D I love the holidays...

The Wheels on the Bus Song - My Favorite Nursery Rhymes Videos

An adorable video by:  hooplakidz

Beautiful Videos and Songs: The Power of One

Video by: MulliganBrothers

~ Powerful ~

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

I can't wait to paint faces tonight and put on my witch costume!  I haven't worn it out in 3 years.  It's gonna be so much fun - I'll be matching with my daughters!  And I am beyond stoked to paint my sons faces for the zombie look.  I hope it doesn't get too chilly out there but we'll be ready for it, if it does.  Can't wait!

Beautiful Videos and Songs: Vangelis - Beautiful Planet Earth

 

I think that this video is beyond beautiful. It's absolutely breath taking...majestic and stunning.

Beautiful video by:  Cafeberdar

Feeling So Blessed Today - Hurricane Sandy

I woke up feeling so very blessed today, because we did not lose power, no thanks to Hurricane Sandy.  In fact, it's not even raining here right now.  The wind was pretty vicious throughout the night. 

It kept waking me up and I could hear one of the doors to the house rattle a little bit, but we made it through. In my county alone there are over 30,000 people without power and most of my little town is out, but not us. We got so lucky.  

I personally feel like I owe that to a whole lot of prayer. I'm sure many prayed that lost power, too, maybe it was the luck of the draw. In any event, I feel blessed and am beyond thankful. Looking at pictures of the places hardest hit is unreal. I can't believe the damage to Atlantic City, lower Manhattan, Jersey and the snow in Virginia - this was such a crazy storm.  

It looks like we'll be able to celebrate Halloween tomorrow, after all, as long as it's not raining, which = a happy Mommy and happy kids. Thank you Lord for having mercy on us. 

Monster Storm Sandy Headed for New York...

So we have this monster storm Sandy headed our way and I don't usually get nervous about these things, I just prepare as best I can, but this time I have to say I'm a bit nervous. It's not just any storm; it's a freak storm with a Noreaster colliding with a late season Hurricane and...right before Halloween!! Oh, joy!!!

I've pretty much kissed Halloween goodbye, unless a miracle happens and the storm moves out to sea, but it doesn't look like that's happening. It's headed straight for us. I'm more worried about the possibility of losing power now, though, than I am about Halloween.  

I live two hours north of NYC, so I'm close enough to the coast to be affected by Hurricane force winds and tropical storm force winds if we get them. I don't have any trees that are close enough to my house to come down on it, thankfully, but my Mom has a big tree by her house and there's a few big trees by my brothers house.  

My brother also has the kind of job where he works in all types of weather; nothing keeps him home, so I'll be worried about his safety. I just hope that everyone's preparing and stays home if they're able to during the worst of it.  

The biggest worries for my area will be downed trees from high winds, power outages, flooding in some areas and maybe a tornado warning. We actually had a tornado warning last year during Irene. We're not used to those things here, so that was very scary for us here in my town.  

Thankfully, though, we didn't get a tornado! I prayed non-stop that night that we had a warning, right until I finally fell asleep! I was lucky enough to not lose power last year during Irene, but other areas of my town were not so lucky and lost power for close to a week or more.  

I pray that doesn't happen to me this time and that we get lucky again. I just have to make sure that we have everything we need in the house in the event that the power does in fact goes out and hope for the best.  

If I lose power next week, you won't see me posting for a while until power is restored, but hopefully that won't happen! I pray for the safety of all of us along the east coast, and I also pray for people's homes and businesses. Everything is in God's hands - prayers for all.

The ABC Song - Nursery Song Videos

My daughters love this.  I think it's really cute too.  :)

Video by:  hooplakidz

Beautiful Videos and Songs: Love Is Everywhere

This is one of my favorites and so beautiful.

Video by:  dragonflyslight

Carmen's Random Tips: Halloween Makeup Ideas and Some Halloween Tips

Halloween Makeup Ideas and Halloween Tips

photo credit: cobalt123 via photopin cc

Want to save some money on Halloween makeup, or maybe you just don't like the mess of Halloween makeup, so how about using eye shadows instead? I've done this a few times over the years and the end result is just as great, but less messy. 

First of all, I love painting faces and I'm good at it. I can still remember painting my 16 year old son's face for his Kindergarten alphabet parade. He was F for 'fox' and I painted his face just like a fox.  

All I did was look up a picture of a fox and tried my best to paint his face just like that picture with eye shadow. I have used regular Halloween makeup too, but I realize now that I prefer eye shadow. 

What made me decide to write about this is that this year I have one 'Big Daddy,' three zombies and three witches, including myself. I found a really cool witch makeup tutorial that I'll share down below that I want to try for myself. Actually, I found two that I like, but I'll tell you which one I'm going with. If you look on YouTube, you'll find a ton of great makeup tutorials for just about anything! Okay, so back to the makeup...

The only thing that I need to buy new for myself is purple lipstick. I own everything else, which = saving money. With my three zombies, I'm ordering zombie kits, fake blood and I'm gonna use eye shadow for the rest. I'll use the eye shadow first, as to not ruin my eye shadow.  

For anything scary, if you own black eye shadow or even dark grey, white, greens, and purples, then you're good to go! Red lipstick - even better!! Actually, now that I think about it...if you really want to save money, other Halloween makeup ideas include using ketchup for fake blood on clothing and using red lipstick for fake blood on skin. Zombie clothes? Take some old clothes and rip them up - very simple!

Other Random Halloween Tips

Tip #1  Another tip for Halloween night to keep kids warm if it's chilly outside is to add layers underneath their costumes that match the costume. For example, with my daughters their witch costumes are pink and black. The sleeves are more of a pink, so I'm gonna put pink sweatshirts underneath with black sweat pants or warm black leggings. You can try multiple layers of long john's - things like that. Always make sure to keep the feet warm.  I'm a firm believer that if your bottom half is warm, you'll be alright.  

Tip #2  Here's a tip for your pumpkins. This is something I was thinking about because I've been seeing a few rotted pumpkins around town. I had that happen when I first started carving pumpkins...a few times. This is from carving too early. I've found that it's really best to wait 1-2 weeks before Halloween to actually carve the pumpkin.

You can buy the pumpkin early, but just wait to carve it, that way it's not ruined before Halloween night! And never light it before Halloween, unless you're using a special light made for pumpkins, because candles will make it rot quicker, too.

See below for the great tutorials that I found and have a safe, fun and Happy Halloween!!!

Celestial Witch Makeup Tutorial - Spirit Halloween

Video by:  Spirit Halloween

 This is the one I'm more than likely going with; I'm just going to practice it first!

Another good one. 

Video by:  xteeener

Both of these ladies are very talented... There's also a ton of other great makeup tutorials on YouTube, so check them out! Please note that in 2021, I had to swap out the original top video that I had in this post because that YouTuber is no longer active on YouTube :( but the Spirit Halloween look I also loved and looks like something I'd try in the future!