Have You Seen Me?

Hullo, All of you in Blog-Land!
My guess is you've been checking faithfully, every day, waiting for a post from your favorite Rachel. Wink-wink. Oops! How did the month get away from me?
October is always a crazy time and this year is no different. Don't be mad, but I don't have boutique pictures yet. I couldn't find my digi camera, but I did have one of those disposable numbers in my junk drawer. Amazingly BAD pictures. Fortunately my friend Christina had her camera, and she let me shoot to my heart's content, but I haven't seen her since the sale, so no memory card of fun for me yet! I promise to ask her.
Anyway, speaking of the boutique, it was a smashing success. It was easily the best one we've had yet, as far as sales go, but considering last year's paltry turnout, our expectations were down. BUT what really makes it cool was it was the single-best Barn Sale Sylvia ever had, so that's something to talk about. Syl made about 65 percent of the profit, but she also put in about that amount of work. You should have seen the wall-to-wall women! After Friday night's "preview" (for dealers and folks who'd been good enough to advertise for us), we thought we were wiped out! But Sylvia, the Barn Fairy, got up in the middle of the night to re-arrange things, so for Saturday's public event, we were ready. Six hours later, the barn looked decimated again. I still drove home with a car load of stuff, but I'd also managed to sell nearly a truckload as well, so it was ok. Fun times. Just don't ask me when we're going to do the next sale. I need a month or two to recuperate. So does my house. I'm finally digging out of all the craft supplies.
Other news: Great weekend in Colorado. We checked out the changing leaves (gorgeous), had a picnic up the canyon, watched the Rangers win the pennant (Robert, my brother-in-law is a Texan and a life-long Rangers fan, so we're happy for him) and "The Parent Trap" (newer version with LiLo, before she was a train wreck). I got a lot done on my holiday family Christmas project, though I won't have time to work on it again for a week and a half. I think I'm on track to have it finished by Thanksgiving. It was a restful weekend, and we came home through Taos to check out the autumn views and the crazies (local and tourist varieties).
Two flies in the ointment of happiness must be mentioned, unfortunately. One was just a disappointment. When I finally got cell service around Tres Piedras, I saw I'd missed several texts from my friend Steve. We finally connected over the phone as I left Taos. He'd been in town with a friend (!) and was on his way to Denver. So even though we were only an hour apart (he was in Santa Fe at the time), I missed out on seeing this good old chum. Sad face! I would have loved to have hosted Petty and his buddy.
2nd item is truly sad: My dad happened to check HIS voicemail when we got back to Los Lunas and were just a couple of miles from my parents' house. Good thing he did. Our neighbor had called to say a wild dog was stuck on our fence and at least one of our sheep was dead. It was awful, but much better than finding out when we saw a dead sheep in the field. Apparently it happened around 5 yesterday morning. The dog got away. Two of the three sheep were dead, and my poor brother had the unpleasant task of putting the third one out of its misery this morning (this is awful, but having nursed the last sheep who'd had the misfortune of a similar attack for a week before she died, it really was for the best). This is why I can't handle pets.
Well, hmm. How's that for a Debbie Downer note?
Anyhow, life marches on. Surely more has happened/is happening/will happen in the next few weeks, and I promise to be better with the updates. And you probably won't even have to look for them on the side of your milk carton.