Too old for trick or treating

Do you agree that there is such thing as too old for trick or treating? Some local communities are trying to ban trick or treating for kids age 14 and up except for those with special needs. Reason being is that they feel over 14 is simply to old to be out begging for candy and that most of them don’t even bother to dress up in a costume. Also because they were frightening residents by showing up as late as 11pm carrying large sacks for treats or with overly scary costumes on. Do you think its okay if the older child is out trick or treating with younger siblings or do you just strictly believe over 14 is simply to old. Do you pass out treats on Halloween?

Are you bothered with egg throwing in your community? It’s a shame that some stores actually have to go as far as to pull eggs from their shelves around Halloween and only sell them to adults if they ask for them. This is an attempt to avoid selling eggs to youth that wishes to throw them on Halloween. I think egg throwing is the most silliest part of Halloween.

Well there is no way I’m opening my door for trick or treaters that think they can show up at 11pm. I don’t really mind older kids trick or treating, until you see the same big kid trying to show up twice then I have to send them away, other than then I feel they just kids being kids trick or treating and it doesn’t bother me during regular trick or treating hours what about you?

Obama Election night event tickets

This is so surreal to me I got my email invite to the Obama Biden Election Day celebration early yesterday evening. I contemplated hard as to if I would plan to attend this event here in IL or just watch it from home. Regardless if Obama wins or loses I’m still excited to see the outcome. While trying to make up my mind I thought about how the annual events in the downtown area can be like the annual Taste of Chicago which gets seriously packed around the 4th of July with people from all around the world coming out to have their taste at the different food venues set up and to enjoy the fireworks from the lake. When dealing with these large turnouts it never fails to be some type of violence and terrible traffic. Well just as soon as I decided that I wouldn’t miss this moment of history on Election Day and that it would probably be very unlikely in my lifetime that I would see another moment like this occur so yes I decided that I would plan to attend.

I remember hearing my grandmother speak about her days of picking cotton in the fields and my great-aunt speak about herself marching with Dr. King in Alabama, these are all significant surreal memories they were able to personally share. Now here I will be attending an Election night celebration event in honor of Barack Obama the first successful African American to make such history right before my very eyes. I praise him for making it till the end and I have praise that he will still be standing tall and hopefully with a victory in the end.

Unfortunately for me though I didn’t check my email messages until early this morning and when I went to reserve my ticket the return message was “sorry there are no more tickets available for this event.” I should have known that. Oh well tickets gone in less than 24 hours. While this event will be held at a huge park I might still go to see the turnout of outsiders like myself trying to look in, just the presence alone excites me, but not as much as it would have if I actually had a ticket, so maybe I’ll go snap a few pictures and head home early or maybe I’ll just stay home altogether I’m back undecided we‘ll see.

Jennifer Hudson lost her mother and brother

I just wrote a blog a short while ago of Jennifer Hudson’s success after being a contestant of American Idol and how she has been doing her thing. Sadly, tragedy has struck within her family. I feel so sorry for Jennifer and her family my condolences goes out to her and her family. Her mother and brother were found dead in their South side Chicago home, murdered gunshot wounds. Her 7 years old nephew is reportedly missing from the scene with the alleged suspect possibly driving a white 1994 Chevrolet Suburban Illinois license plate X584859. This is so sad, such a shame. Gun violence, resulting in the murder of two lives for what reason? Was it that serious, did these two lives have to end this way and to cause so much heartache and pain in this young woman’s life? Things like this just breaks my heart, nobody deserves to be murdered. Domestic disturbance is all I've come up with in regards to why this may have happened. Jennifer you will be in my thoughts and prayers and I hope the suspect of this double homicide is captured and for the safe return of your nephew.

Update, police has a suspect in custody for questioning but her nephew Julian King is still missing.
Amber Alert

Oh my goodness updated 10/27 police have discovered the body of Julian King inside the white suburban on the West side of Chicago. This precious child's life taken by gunshot wounds as well, this is such a devastating tragedy.

Rainy day family crafting

Well we had a very rainy yesterday, rather gloomy, windy and chilly. My son enjoys art and being creative very much. He asked me last week to take him out for more crafting supplies, but I had 50 million things going on and didn’t get around to it. Next thing I know my other boys started in on me about the supplies and just our luck while looking through the Sunday ad’s I noticed that both Michaels and Jo-Ann Fabrics had great sales going on, so I finally got around to take them shopping yesterday when they arrived home from school. Thankfully the rain had let up from pouring down to just drizzles.

We went to both store’s since they are both in the same shopping plaza. They had fun looking around at the wonderful project ideas and the final decision came down to jewelry making. So, I let them pick out some beads, and the other needed supplies and we made it home just in time for dinner. We had leftover roast beef, with potatoes and macaroni and cheese. Since they had me out all evening my husband actually made it home before us so he did the honor of reheating our dinner and had everything ready for us when we made it in.

I thought the boys were probably tired out from the shopping in the rain and would maybe want to wait until today to begin their projects, wrong. They were full of energy and after brushing their teeth, ready to get started. Okay, so we having so much fun that we didn’t realize bedtime were approaching. Every time we got near the end of stringing up the beads we would lose them when it was time to tie the cord and have to start all over again, It was so funny watching them as a little frustration began to sat in, lol. I guess next time I’ll know to get the wire or more string cording instead of the stretchy kind. We’ll be at this again today because after for what seemed like the 20th time of beads flying off the cords Dad finally gave us a helping hand with tying the knot‘s for us. He got one done and we cheered yeah!!!!! But, not the other so we had to call it goodnight for the boys, to be continued today…….

Obama rallies crowd of 100,000

Photo’s below are of Barack Obama rallying a record crowd turnout of an estimated 100,000 plus in St. Louis, Mo on October 18th. Next, up more record breaking news are the Obama / Biden fundraising for the month of September reached $150 million. More excitement for the campaign, Republican Colin Powell speaks highly of Obama and it is expected that he will be giving his endorsement to Obama this election.

The final debate Obama and McCain

Well as they say three strikes and you’re out, winner of the final debate goes to Obama. Although it’s clear that majority of people say whomever they support is the clear winner of the debates. Obama supporters say Obama wins, McCain supporters say McCain wins and so on. Polls of polls give all 3 debates to Obama though. I must admit for a second there I actually thought McCain was going to pull off himself a final victory and win the final debate, wrong. He started off rather strong and aggressive for quite a while putting Obama on defense a bit, too bad it couldn't continue on and pull it off for him, McCain tactics wore off and grew rather dull as he kept trying to avoid the real issues in our society and rather stick to his hurt feelings on the campaign trail as if trying to gather sympathy vote’s for his hurt feelings lately, well newsflash McCain did you expect running for Presidency to be a walk in the park and a easy fight, politics is tough as usual and if you cant handle the heat get out the kitchen, stop wasting your chance’s to appeal to a national audience about how you’re going to bring about reform by tossing in the kitchen sink hoping that Joe the unlicensed plumber is going to fix it as he mentioned Joe name repeatedly throughout the debate.

I find it rather odd that Joe whom seems to be a supporter of McCain all along to trying to blast Obama about his taxes being raised when the national average salary for a plumber is in the $40K range and Toledo, Ohio avg salary in the $40K range as well meaning your avg “Joe the Plumber’s” would most likely get a tax cut if anything under Obama’s plan. Make’s one wonder just what was Joe’s motive’s here? I thought McCain was going to shed a few tears when speaking of Lewis and his comments, not to mention Acorn and accusing them of voter registration fraud, he failed to admit that while yes they turned in some bogus registrations, yet this is required by law in many states that they must turn in every single card regardless and if the elections officials let Mickey Mouse pass their eye’s then they obviously wasn’t doing their job, which was the case with some Acorn workers getting paid to register voters but instead they were creating false card’s while stealing $8 hourly from Acorn.

I think we totally lost the fighter pilot when they began to discuss health care and education. McCain may have done himself well with conservatives on the issue of abortion but what about those independents. In all I do have to salute McCain for at least coming out stronger in this debate and finally standing up for himself as not being Bush. That part was so funny to me I nearly fell out my seat he tried really hard to put on that tough guy image telling Obama he should have ran 4 years ago if he wanted to run against Bush. He looked like he rehearsed that one liner all night. Reality check for McCain is rather he like it or not it’s hard to separate him from Bush policies when he voted with bush 90% of the time, so why should we expect such reform and improvement from the Maverick now.

You know it’s rather silly to me the things you find out when you do a little fact checking into these issue’s. I can’t deny that both candidates are guilty of stretching the truth during these debates, that’s another reason why I don’t understand for the life of me how someone can actually make up their mind whom they’re voting for after watching these debate’s maybe a little influence so to say of who to lean toward, but a complete decision making change, hum alrighty then.

Relief at the gas pumps

Hooray, finally a break at the gas pumps. Gas prices have dropped by 35 cent nationally I heard on the morning news. It’s about time with driving a suv gas has been a killer. I stopped for gas today and noticed it was actually only $3.49 a gallon. Which is fairly much better than the average upper $3.80’s I have been paying per gal? I hope it drops more or at least stays in the $3.40ish per gal range for awhile, I shall see.

Jamie Lynn Spears pregnant again

Word has it that Jamie Spears Zoey 101 star and younger sister of Britney Spears is about eight weeks pregnant with her second child after just giving birth this June. She allegedly thought she wasn’t going to be able to conceive because she was breast feeding and the conversation of aborting has come up. Is this really true or just a rumor coming from the Enquirer, Read more here.

That one’s name is Barack Obama Mr. McCain

There sure is some bad blood between the Obama's and McCain’s. Did you notice how Obama and McCain barely shook hands at the end of the debate and when they did they just kept right along moving with no further conversation and my goodness Michelle and Cindy didn’t even acknowledge each other at all. Its funny how after the vice presidential debate Palin and Biden almost seemed like one big happy family at the end when they all were on stage, just carrying on in such a friendly manner, but then again at least their reasoning was valid being that they were all just meeting one another for the first time.

Not to mention McCain’s insulating way of referring to Obama as if it kills him to speak his name or something. I think the slight edge that Obama has been gaining in the national polls is beginning to take its toll on McCain. I think he was more negative in this current debate as opposed to the last one. The more I hear them battle it out the more McCain keeps me aware of the reason I feel Obama is the true change for the better we need in this election.

From McCain himself:

"It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate, loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney," McCain said. "You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me."

More details into the debate here

Presidential Punch

Serves: 1

Need:

• Ice cubes
• 8oz clear glass
• ¼ C cranberry juice
• ¼ C wild berry flavor Gatorade Fierce
• ¼ C 7 - Up

1. Fill glass to the top with ice cubes
2. Pour cranberry juice into glass
3. Slowly and carefully pour Gatorade on an ice cube, not directly into the cranberry juice
4. Slowly and carefully pour diet 7 - up on an ice cube, not directly into the Gatorade
5. Look at your beautiful drink; then enjoy it.

*If you use the exact ingredients and follow the directions precisely you can actually layer these patriotic drink colors. If you must substitute, remember that the secret is to have a liquid with a high amount of sugar (making it denser) on the bottom, a liquid with a medium amount of sugar in the middle and one with no sugar on the top.
(courtesy of my son's school)

Good bye Summer Hello Fall

Although it’s already starting to feel rather wintery in the Midwest during the early am and late pm brrr!! It’s almost about that time to crank up the furnace. We got a brand new high efficiency furnace put in our home over the spring so I’m eager to see how that baby is going to work and cut down on our heating bill. I will be keeping my eye out for that decrease.

This is the start of my clean closet weekend as I call it. Do you pack away summer / winter clothing when the seasons change??? I’m such a shopaholic (for bargains and deals that is) that I have to clear away the summer clothes into totes and space saver bags to make room for our Bulky sweater and winter gear. I t makes it easier to find what you’re wearing for the day especially for my boys, the less clutter the better organized things are.

Sometimes I place my boy’s outgrown clothing for sale on ebay, Craigslist or sell them through consignment shops or resellers and well there are times when I just feel like the heck with it. It’s time to clear house and I donate them which is easier. I have a scheduled pick up in 2 weeks with Amvets so they gotta go gotta go gotta go right now. I hate to feel cluttered with unnecessary things.

Well fall it fall it is time for all leaf raking. It’s fun at times!

American Idol’s Jennifer Hudson Debut Album

Jennifer Hudson American Idol contestant native of Chicago IL debut album under Arista record label hit stores yesterday. With songs featuring Fantasia Barrino season 3 Idol winner, Ludacris and T - Pain. I remember watching when she was once mentioned as the 3 divas during the season referring to her, Fantasia and La toya London. I haven’t purchased this cd as of yet but I have listened to it. It’s just okay to me.

I actually just heard of its debut today on the radio while driving in my car. Wow she finally makes her debut album after what 4 years, hum? Well I do have to give her props though for someone that was the 6th runner up on American Idol season 3 she seems to be doing rather well for herself to say the least. She was actually voted off the show but came back as a wild card pick. I wonder why they stopped doing those on the show. I remember Clay Aiken was a wildcard comeback pick that went on to do very well with his album.

She also won several awards for her debut actress screen role in the movie Dreamgirls as Effie. Not to mention that she was also the 8th youngest actress to win a best supporting actress Oscar at the age of 25, the fourth African American to win an Oscar in such a competitive category. She became the first African American singer to appear on the front page of vogue magazine and the third African American celebrity to be on the cover of Vogue with Halle Berry and Oprah being the other two.

She is now engaged to David Otunga better known as Punk from the second VH1 reality TV show of I love New York and Ms. New York may be better known for her appearances in the reality TV show Flavor of Love competing for the love of the hip hopster Flava Flav.

Jennifer Hudson singer actress model you go girl! Jennifer is a powerhouse no doubt there she can sang.