The winner is…Stacey Kinzebach!
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It’s Saturday, and my family has plans for tonight! It’s a movie night! I’m not sure what we’ll be watching, but I know it’ll be something scary because we’re getting ready for Halloween. We’ll watch a kid-friendly Halloween movie, followed by something truly scary after that for the bigger kids (me). No one likes to sit next to me when a scary movie plays because I tend to jump. Once, when I watched Carrie in the movie theaters, I tossed my popcorn into the air when that hand sprang out of the grave.

But that’s tonight. Today is an unofficial holiday that only folks in a few cities actually celebrate — Buffalo, New York; Detroit, Michigan; and Cleveland, Ohio. It’s the Sweetest Day and celebrates CANDY. I can get behind that holiday, so I’m sharing a sweet puzzle today. Enjoy!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what your favorite Halloween candy is!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Ann Dean!
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I’ll be at the Arts Festival again today, all day, but once this weekend is over, my family and I will be gearing up for Halloween! We try to make every holiday an event! For Halloween, we start watching spooky movies on the weekends (Family Movie Night includes, fun snacks, a darkened room, and the big TV), and of course, we have to nail down the kids’ costumes.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what you do to get ready or in the mood for Halloween!

UPDATE: The winner is…Courtney Kinder!
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I had no clue, no theme for today’s puzzle. I’m bored with Fall already. I miss my pool, but pictures of green pools aren’t pleasing. So, I went to my favorite stock photo site and typed in the word “Cuddly.” I don’t know why. It was the first word to pop into my mind. The picture in the puzzle below was on the top line and tickled my funny bone. The expression and where it is… Enjoy!

Solve the puzzle then comment about anything, doesn’t matter what. Tell me you just plucked your eyebrows. Doesn’t matter! Comment for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Mary Preston!
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No, it’s not Taco Tuesday, but it is the annual holiday — Taco Day! Woot! Now, this is a holiday I can get behind!

Have fun with the word search. I had fun looking for all the types of tacos I love or would love to try. There actually aren’t many I haven’t had. Okay, so there’s only one I haven’t had—the Tinga Taco. It’s chicken with chipotle sauce, so I can make that happen! I don’t know about you, but our family has tacos often. I love a breakfast taco with egg and potato and a generous stripe of hot sauce. I love chorizo and potato. Lengua (tongue)! Tripas (tripe–yum)! Chicharrón (pork skin–yikes, I misspelled it in the puzzle)!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, and then tell me what your favorite kind of taco is.

UPDATE: The winner is…Cara!
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Fall is here. 🙁  (I miss my pool.)

We don’t have much of one here. We had 93-degree weather just a couple of days ago, but the temperatures are definitely falling. Our nights are in the low 60s now. Leaves are falling, but we don’t get that lovely gradual process of leaves changing colors and drifting to the forest floor. Ours wither from the heat, drop into the pool, and then it’s winter. So, Fall colors are nice in pictures, but we don’t get them here!

I’m sharing a wistful, Fall-themed picture in today’s puzzle. I hope you enjoy it. For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what Fall is like where you live!

UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom!
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I love creating heroes who are unique. They don’t always express themselves the same way or present themselves the same way. Knox Ramsey is a grumpy, gruff man who didn’t think he could be in a long-term relationship because of some issues that haunt him from his childhood. And he’s very physical. I should have added that to the word search!

Anyway, I riffed some attributes I enjoy seeing in my heroes. Have fun with the puzzle!

Then, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, tell me what attributes you love to see in a hero! 

When I was a child, I so wanted to be a paleontologist, digging up dinosaur bones. I knew part of what I’d need to study was geology, which is the study of rock formations and…rocks. So, I began collecting and identifying them, checking out books from the library about seismology, vulcanology, and books that helped me identify the rocks I found.

I still have a shoe box filled with rocks I collected. There were perfectly round river rocks, Apache tears, petrified wood, fossils, quartz crystals, and pyrite, to name a few.

I display rocks all around my rooms in pretty dishes, ones I discovered as a child and some I purchased in the many rock shops located around Arkansas. When I hold them in my hands, I feel a connection to…something. It’s woo-woo shit, I know, but they do “ground” me.

Here are a couple of the bowls I have filled with my pretties.

My rocks aren’t just a nostalgic pursuit. I use them, too. During the recent Super Blue Moon, I placed a jar of water on my patio table, but I also placed some clear quartz crystals and amethysts on top of the jar to “charge” them.

See the worry stone? The flat one? I carry that with me when I’m not at home, because hermit that I am, I destress when I rub its surface. Sometimes, when I’m writing, I wear a large, polished carnelian stone strung on leather around my neck, because it’s supposed to help with creativity. Maybe it’s the stone or maybe it’s the ritual, but it works for me.

My favorite rings aren’t the ones with the expensive gemstones. I love wearing my labradorite, moonstone, and dendritic opals. Their imperfections make them more interesting to me.

These days, I’m not picking up stones from my path, but I do encourage the 10-year-old to look at the ground and find them for me. She brings me gifts all the time, usually some piece of agate for her “collection” or a smooth stone she’d like to paint on. Maybe, someday, she’ll catch the bug.

So, yes, in addition to hoarding vintage vanity powder jars, Avenger figurines, and fortune-telling teacups, I hoard rocks.

Contest

My question to you, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, is…

Have you ever collected rocks? Do you have a favorite stone?