Awaiting the Great Pumpkin

I love fall.  I try to deny it every year.  It signals the start of winter and I loathe winter.  If it weren't for the Christmas hymns at church, I would attempt to sleep straight through from Nov. 1 through about March 20th or so.  God, that would be a great nap.  So I claim not to even like fall since it gets dangerously close to winter.  But once I'm in it, I remember how great it is.  First of all, I love to put canned pumpkin in everything.  Cookies, muffins, oatmeal, pancakes, smoothies...I may try to do some sort of a diy pumpkin face mask.  Who wants to be my guinea pig for that one?!?  Secondly, I love football.  HA!!!  If you know me, you know that I DO NOT have the attention span for the sport of football.  I don't have the attention span for most sports, although volleyball and the NBA both put up good fights.  However, I do love the atmosphere of football and I do enjoy a good tailgate.  Especially when the tailgate has shots that come in glasses made of ice.  And when Tosha is there and we can make up our own games instead of pay attention to football.  Thirdly, I love hoodies.  I mean, who doesn't?  They are the comfiest piece of clothing ever invented.  There are a smattering of other reasons why I love fall, I'm sure I'll get to them eventually but for now, here is a pictoral sampling of how this Saturday was a perfect fall day:

  Mom, Willa and I went to the Downtown farmer's market.  There aren't too many left so we thought we'd best take advantage.  Then we had an early lunch at The Green Gateau.  Yum. I think I could eat there every day and not get tired of it.  Oh and see those pretty, jewel-toned beverages?  Half price sangrias.  I guess they figure if you are brave enough to drink before noon, it should be half off.  We also popped into an antique store.  That is always a fun thing to do with my mom.   Between the lunch and the next event, I tried to get a car wash.  That sounds simple enough, but car washes these days are pretty high tech, and I'd had a sangria, and I swear the light that is supposed to tell you when to stop malfunctioned.  I'll spare you the details, but 50 minutes later, my car was a little shinier.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Adams' family 1st Annual Wing-Off.  What a fun activity and a perfect day for an outdoor football party!  Tiffany and Raymonn have a great new house (with some envy-inducing furniture;) and a fun yard for the kids.  Willa had so much fun with her friend Adah (who has envy-inducing hair, complete with a feather!) and some new friends, too.  A good time was had by the grown-ups, as well.  I think the Huskers even won, on this fab fall day.  By several goals.  Home runs??  Touchdowns?!?  Anyway, I want more fall days just like this before my 5 month nap.  Bears eat 20,000 calories a day before they hibernate.  I think I could do that...

And I just remembered another reason that I love fall and it is that I love mums.  I did not take this mum picture, but I do have several really lovely mum plants in my flower beds, courtesy of the old residents.  Thanks for the mums guys!  It almost makes up for all the wallpaper and the lacy curtains!