Its quiet tonight, would have thought there would be more hilarity going on. We didn't have one candy grubber tonight so Gabe ate it all.

Often lately, I have found myself remembering bits of memories from childhood. Perhaps I have just been in a pondering mood, but I do want to try to write these recollections down.

My Mother is a determined woman. Once she gets a thought she moves heaven and earth to accomplish that thought. As you can imagine she isn't afraid of hard work.

When I was a very young child we moved a total of at least 17 times. This is according to my father who has always been entirely exasperated with moving, or for that matter change in general. I think my mother liked the act of moving, finding a good location, scrubbing the new apartment, packing and unpacking. I suspect she felt a sense of accomplishment. I also remember clean polished buster brown shoes and very white undershirts. I remember the most locations after the age of 5.

We moved to Skowhegan Maine when I was about 5. I remember starting kindergarten at an old brick schoolhouse near the Kennebec River. That would have been around 1967-68. I remember the roughness and fury of the river and the dreaded suspended foot bridge. The bridge was suspended over a deep ravine.

I have vivid recollections of walking over that horrid footbridge, holding my Mother's hands. I recall her admonishing me to stay close and not to go near the edge. I remember her iron grip on my hand, and the nausea I felt everytime I knew we had to walk over the bridge.

More vividly, I remember my Mother's determination to run her errands. The only way to get where she needed to go was to walk the footbridge. We did not have a vehicle at the time, nor did my mother drive until much later. I always sensed her panic and fear of the bridge that would swing in the breeze. For my little 5 year old mind the bridge did not seem particularly sturdy or safe. To this day I have an intense fear of heights. I blame it on that damn bridge. But I am still amazed at the determination of my mother.

I started kindergarten, and shortly after I recall having to dress up in a storybook costume. I cannot remember the circumstances. Vaguely, I recall a contest of sorts, and I remember feeling fiercely competitive.

My Mother sewed my costume, Little Bo Peep. I carried a stuffed lamb and a staff that was really a bent curtain rod. I was intensely proud, and felt beautiful.

I wish I could remember why I was wearing the costume, but do recall being sent out to recess before the judging. I was so afraid to get that lovely Bo Peep Dress dirty. Soon though youthful exuberance overtook me and I decided to have a go on the slide. Right behind me was a little blonde boy . I remember the glint of his sun bleached hair and the devilish look in his eyes. His name was Mark.

Mark, was a troublemaker, but weren't all boys at that age out to perturb little girls? I was a quarter of the way down the slide when Mark grabbed my shepards staff, aka bendable curtain rod. I remember than being really angry as I yanked it out of his grip and the curtain rod came apart. I had the bottom half and he had the crook half. I landed at the foot of the slide and whirled around just in time for Mark, who landed at the bottom in a careless heap. Without thinking I swung the half of the curtain rod straight over his head, whipping him hard. Thwwapp.

I do not remember if I got into trouble although I am sure I did. That part of the memory remains a mystery. But what I do remember is thinking that Mark had ruined my chances of winning the costume contest by breaking my staff and I was inconsolable.

It really is curious how experiences shape our young personalities. I am now most assuredly afraid of heights. I am intensely competitive in certain situations and I hate change. I have rarely been attracted to blonde haired boys/men. Leaves you to wonder how much of our personalities are shaped by events and not genetics.

Boy the time alteration really messed with me, even if we did technically get an extra hour. I have been dopey and slow since I got out of bed this morning.

Well it is here.......... All Hallows Eve. My favorite story is The Headless Horseman. The movie with Johnny Depp was fairly creepy. I don't really like horror movies, I hate to be startled. What is your all time favorite horror flick?

Tomorrow is Samhain. Samhain means summers end in Gaellic. It is one of two major Celtic festivals, the other being Beltane which is may 1st. Beltane celebrates life and rebirth, Samhain celebrates death. Death however in a sense of seasons. When christianity was being forced upon the pagans Samhain Eve Became All Hallows Eve. It was meant to commemorate the people who had become saints in the church. Black signifies death and orange signifies harvest.

It is interesting how many of our modern day holidays are a result of Christianity laying its strong arm on the pagans. Pagan simply means without a god. That could not be further from the truth. The early religions had many Gods and Goddesses. But the people were really earth based and season wise. Many communities had mid wives or wise women. These women dealt with the sick, birthed the babies and were the keepers of history. Often called witches at the advent of christianity, the term witch comes from an old word "wicca" meaning wise. Many of these wse women were later persecuted, and burned at the stake.

Earth religions are not satan based, they are based on age old healing and earth wisdom. Happy Samhain!

Feeding the cat this morning, I noticed a small trail of minute brown dobs. Bending over to investigate I knew immediately that it was mouse poop. We live in a huge field, with corn fields surrounding us. Why would a mouse care to visit? Where was that foolish cat when we had this nocturnal visit? Non plussed, I bent to clean up the evidence of the cats lax attitude. Unlike many people I didn't panic or crawl on a chair, I actually like mice.

I rescued a wild mouse once from a busy street. My sister in law and I were out shopping and passed through the Main Street of Fairfield, Maine. Fairfield is a small town with one busy street. There we sat at the traffic light when I noticed a small spot on the road ahead of us. When the light turned green we inched forward and I noticed the spot was a little brown deer mouse. It was frozen in the middle of the street as cars went over the top of him. I thought he was squished until I saw him run slightly to the right after a truck passed over him.

Well I quickly made my sister in law pull over, as I pointed out the helpless mouse in the road. I got out of the car and ran into the middle of the busy street, holding my hands up to stop traffic. I am really not sure what I was thinking, I just reacted.

My sister in law was watching me with a confused look on her face. I began to try to escort the tiny mouse across the street while traffic waited. Mice can die from fright but this little guy seemed okay as he started to dart in stop and go fashion. Apparently, a young man working at the gas station across the street was watching me save my mouse and decided to rescue me from the mouse. Yeah Right!

My young male hero arrived next to me offering to catch the mouse and move him off the street. Once the young guy got near the mouse the critter leapt at his hand. This scared my hero gas guy so much that he turned and ran back to his station, leaving me to face the rescue alone.

By this time my sister in law is on the side of the street, peeing herself with laughter. She wasn't gonna help as she was petrified of mice but did attempt to yell directives from the sideline. Isn't that just like a girl?

Finally, with the signal light turning red, I started to finally inch the mouse across the street. Just as we were getting to the grass, he stopped, I assume to gather his wits about him. Just then a local police officer walks over to me and asked me if the mouse is my pet? I explained to him that he was not a pet but stuck in the middle of the road. I was just rescuing him.

The officer proceeded to lecture me on the stupidity of saving an animal in the middle of the street. On and on he went, telling me to leave the mouse alone, or I could get a ticket. The officer's parting words were "Ma'am you could have been hurt". I thought that was the whole idea? I did'nt want the mouse to get hurt either. He may have been a lowly animal but didn't he deserve a chance at living?

I ignored the officer as I shuttled the mouse off into the grass, and watched him disappear, scuttling along his merry way. I'd like to think that he was going to arrive in his mouse burrow and live to scurry another day.

We are thinking of taking Miss Colleen to view Rosa Parks lying In State at the Capitol Rotunda. I think that would be an awesome expereince. The 15 year old doesn't want to go but Colleenie is all about history. I also think it is important to offer respect and honor a brave soul. I am so glad we live close enough to offer the kids the opportunity, it is a monumental event.

Hubbie took Gabe to see Zorro last night while I did the grocery shopping. Gabe was impressed with the sword fights and in his excitement almost took out the poor guy sitting next to him. When Gabe sees a fight scene he makes all the appropriate grunts , pows and wham sounds and waves his arms every where. We are used to it and laugh because he is so thrilled by it. You should see him watch wrestling! Hubbie was thrilled with my ingenius idea of movies because he hates grocery shopping. Although I hate it, I hate doing it with a cranky husband more! Besides as much as i wanted to make hubbie happy, I had an ulterior motive. I save alot more when Hubster isn't along. Hubbie is a junk food maniac. Gabe isn't far behind either!

So I dropped the boys off at the movies and headed for the craft store. Now, in all honesty, some women love shoes, some clothes and I love beads. I was a raccoon in a former life because I love anything shiny! I don't get to the craft store much because I never leave without spending alot of money. I admit I succombed to temptation and bought some beads, but I also bought items for a autumn wreath for the front door. At least that stuff was on sale because all the Christmas stuff was in. Look out! It is just around the corner. I assembled my wreath last night and must say its beautiful. Easy to do yourself and so much cheaper than buying one all made.

So its off to DC tomorrow instead of football, hopefully if we leave early enough we can get back to watch a late game. I think a historical event is grounds for missing football though.