A weekend full of adventure

This weekend was Halloween and I wanted to go to the Halloween thing they were doing downtown but I knew my husband didn't really want to so in the end we went to the drive in to watch The Vampire's Assistant and Zombieland. Both movies were good but I really enjoyed Zombieland. It was really funny and I will probably watch it again when it comes out on DVD.

Earlier in the day I thought it would be a great idea to make these little Halloween brownie things on the Betty Crocker website. They were shown as being easy to make. hahaha mine were not really anything like the ones on the website.
I took some pictures to send to my mother and she said she laughed so much she nearly wet herself. Here are my Halloween treats tricks.

my little ghosts

my spooky spiders

Here is a picture of how they should have looked and in case anyone wants to attempt to better mine then the recipe is at the Betty Crocker website. Click here for the official recipe.

So I think that pretty much wraps up Saturday.

Since we had so much fun at the beach the week before we decided to go again and to bring a picnic so we could make a whole day of it.

We had such a lovely morning and afternoon. The dog was having fun trying to catch birds and we had a nice picnic. I was collecting seashells as I want to decorate a picture frame with some.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from that day:

i think this one looks like a dinosaur

just a little bit of driftwood

one of many jellyfish we saw

So the day was getting on and we were getting a lot of sun so we decided to take a detour on the way home and perhaps go to another beach. We ended up going to a beach just a little way down the road and that is where our day took a turn for the worse.

First off, we stopped the car, jumped out to grab a lovely conch shell that was still intact. It looked as though there was something still in it so we bagged it and put it in the back of the truck. Then we drove down further and stopped again. I jumped out looking for shells and saw of all things....a dead baby shark! How I wish I had taken a picture of it but unfortunately I couldn't because as my husband was calling to tell me, our truck had a very very very flat tire. We had driven over some branches and pop went our tire.

It really wasn't funny because we were right on the sand and couldn't go back the way we came as we had had to drive over branches and water. So, off I went with the dog in the other direction to try and find an exit. I walked for ages and miraculously found a secret exit that I didn't notice until we walked past it.

The dog and I walked back and I felt so sorry for him because he has never had that much exercise in his life. I thought he was going to pass out. It was funny because he kept licking water up and I didn't have the heart to tell him that salt water wasn't going to help his thirst much.

Anyway, we got back to the truck with the good news about the exit but it was no good. It was too far for our truck to make it as my husband had tried to move the truck and nearly got it stuck in the sand. He got the jack out and tried to change the tire but obviously it kept sinking in the sand.

We were about to call a recovery company (which would have been a nightmare trying to explain where we were) when a good Samaritan stopped and went off to try and find some flat wood for us to use. Luckily he found some and it worked!!!

We had caught the sun and were exhausted by this time but we were in goodish spirits as we didn't have to spend the night on the beach.

Throughout all this drama my husband decided to take a picture of the flat and here it is:

Now I really wish I had taken a picture of the baby shark but at the time I thought it would have been in bad taste to be off taking pictures whilst we were stranded.

We got home later and we all had aching bones. The dog pretty much went into a coma for the next day or so.

I was gathering all my shells together and as I was admiring my beautiful conch shell it started to move. It was still alive! I felt bad and although if I had realized it was alive at the beach I would have put it back, since we had it at home and people do eat these things we decided to cook it and remove the stuff inside. Oh god it was traumatic. Never again. It was scary and gross but my shell is lovely and when I get it all polished up I will post a picture of it.

For the time being our trips to the beach are off but I'm hoping this won't be forever as we have had a really nice time there this past two weeks.

Dangerous driving

So on Sunday I had a go at driving. I have been putting it off, not intentionally, but Sunday I decided to just go for it. Probably not a good idea when I had PMS but everything is always clearer with hindsight.

We went down to the neighborhood behind us where they are still building as I thought it would be lighter on traffic.

For a while I practised by going round this square they have. It was okay for a first attempt I guess. I mean, I had trouble judging how close I was to the middle of the road but it was okay. My husband was not impressed with my stopping at the stop sign as it was admittedly juddery and I couldn't stop exactly where he wanted me to. I did this for a while and then I was directed out onto the real roads (where traffic was). It was scary. We drove around a bit and I was kind of feeling okay but then we got to the houses right behind where we live. The roads are really narrow and have cars parked on both sides. This is where it all went really wrong. My husband started having a panic attack and shouted at me. He kept saying to go left. Actually it was more like....GO LEFT GO LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT!!!!!! So, I start going left onto the other side of the road but a big red truck is coming straight at me on the left so I go back to the right to get past it. I don't know whether my husband couldn't see this truck coming at me or what but it was a nightmare. We nearly died.

So then I just wanted to get home so we went along the way and my waining confidence was just pulverized. I tried to go up a road but nearly crashed into a parked car and I had to stop and reverse back so I could get by without scratching it. Then we turned the corner and were nearly home. I had to stop the car in front of the gates and I had plenty of room but my husband seemed to think I was planning on driving through them. We got through them safely (surprisingly) and then I got told off for using the indicators when I turned the corner although I thought you were supposed to do this. Then I had to park which I knew I wouldn't be able to do...and I couldn't. I drove up the pavement. I couldn't even be bothered trying to fix it because I was nearly crying so I got out and let my husband fix it and then went inside and cried.

I hate all those people that say....oh driving is easy. No it isn't. It is really hard concentrating on all the different things and trying not to kill people or get myself killed. Plus people in America drive on the opposite side of the road than in England and the cars are all different. Like there is no clutch and the indicator thing is in a different place. Plus I don't know what the road signs mean half the time and have no clue what the speed limits are. So it isn't easy at all and I hate the fact that I HAVE to learn how to do it.