We had a wonderful time for Halloween this year! The weather was perfect for having kids out and about, and we live in an area that reminds me totally of the Halloween scenes in the movie "E.T. the extraterrestrial"--lots of houses go all out in decorating, and when the kids were out, it was so much fun! Jennifer and I sat at the door, drank beer, and handed out treats and laughed at all the little ones coming to see us; meanwhile Eric made dinner (spagetti) and drank beer in the house with Darrin and kept track of the teenage masses running in and out. 
Reimond was a Crayola Crayon in Blue... He actually followed the rules about teens not being allowed to trick or treat (Belleville, the next town over, and home of our friends Darrin and Jennifer, passed a LAW that trick or treaters could not be older than 12, and anyone older than that seen out would be cited with a $25 ticket! Not sure how enforcement went on that one... Mascoutah, our town, just had the rule that kids could trick or treat from 6 -8 pm, and we had kids of all ages here!)
Aurora was a member of the "walking dead" as she and Brie were taking out the two "little ones" belonging to our friends, and thus they were in costume; some of the other teens were in costume just to be in the spirit of the evening and they were out "supervising" and being seen...
Jen got enlisted in helping do the makeup for Aurora...
Reimond was a Crayola Crayon in Blue... He actually followed the rules about teens not being allowed to trick or treat (Belleville, the next town over, and home of our friends Darrin and Jennifer, passed a LAW that trick or treaters could not be older than 12, and anyone older than that seen out would be cited with a $25 ticket! Not sure how enforcement went on that one... Mascoutah, our town, just had the rule that kids could trick or treat from 6 -8 pm, and we had kids of all ages here!)
Aurora was a member of the "walking dead" as she and Brie were taking out the two "little ones" belonging to our friends, and thus they were in costume; some of the other teens were in costume just to be in the spirit of the evening and they were out "supervising" and being seen...
Jen got enlisted in helping do the makeup for Aurora...
The flowers on the table were for me from Eric. Aren't they pretty? He "claims" they were "just because", but he also indicated they were "renumeration" for staying up with Patrick the other night too (heeheehee)...
Elizabeth was one of many incarnations of "Hannah Montana" we saw through the evening, and Brie was an "evil Tinkerbell". Other popular costumes around here included Batman, Spiderman, Brides and Princesses (including the Disney versions), and the usual Star Wars characters, pirates, brides, and so on. Some of the cutest costumes I saw, however, were on babies, including the three week old sleeping spider (who was the youngest sibling of three and was just content to ride in the stroller while they had fun getting treats), a toddler dressed as a hatching egg (think egbert from the saturday morning cartoon of Garfield)--a round egg with chicken legs out of the bottom, and the baby's head and arms where they should be. It was precious! Another was a toddler dressed in an elaborate batman costume who came up to me and said "tricks pease!" I could have picked him up and hugged him!
Alex was a "Commando" and he was so excited to be out. One of the concerns about Belleville's new law is that Alex is 13 and it would have forbidden him from trick or treating, and he wouldn't have understood why he couldn't go but his sister could... When Jen clarified the law she found that kids who were in special needs classes were exempted from it that made her feel a little better, but they decided they would rather just come to our house for the evening... It was really fun to have everyone over! Each of the kids had their own age groups of peers come by and hang out with us, and even Reimond had a circle of friends here that only somewhat intersected with his sibling's group (there is overlap in the groups of friends, and everyone got along with everyone else, so it was loud and chaotic and fun!).
Reimond "borrowed" this costume from one of the kids, who had it sitting on the floor after they came in. Cliff was NOT amused as Jen commented "did you want fries with that order?" (Cliff now works at McDonalds.....)
Jared stayed the night, and a friend of the
kids' stayed til after 1 am, watching a movie with Reimond and Jared in the living room (he lives just 2 doors down from us). And I couldn't forget to add this photo of the "lovely Doublemint Twins in Drag"--friends of Aurora's who stopped over (the rest are back by the door). She went walking around with them for awhile, and Patrick did the same with a group of his friends who also came over... It was such a fun night! Felt like my house in Minneapolis used to, so it was comforting and familiar, even if my "babies" were far away. Liisa graciously posted pics and videos for me on facebook shortly after taking them just so I could see and be a part of their celebration there...
Eric spent a part of Friday fixing my van--he got the Tensioner pulley on and replaced the belt so my van now drives again! He did an amazing job, even if he did need an extra set of hands (Patrick quickly stepped into the breach for us). Good thing we got it running as the CRX is now in the shop and needs a Vaccuum Assembly of some sort for the brakes (I forget the exact name of the part, but Honda no longer makes them; fortunately we found one at Auto Zone, and the dealership said they would be happy to install it for us once we have it in our possession). Auto Zone had to order it for us and it should be in by Tuesday. Then, fingers crossed, we will again have three working vehicles. Being down to only one really sucked!
Saturday morning Brie had drill and Aurora and Patrick ran in sectionals for cross country (their team moved on to the next level of competition and they will be running in that) , so Rei, Cliff, Jared, and I went to the bowling alley for Saturday morning Youth Bowling. Rei did fairly well: 119, 121, and 112 for scores, then he stayed at the bowling alley with Jared and went home with him for the afternoon, while I brought Cliff home. I then decided since it was such a lovely day and I was child-free that I would go explore Lebanon, IL and see if I could find the purported cross stitch shop that was up there. Got up there, parked in front of the funeral home at the end of the brick road, and explored all the shops up and down the length of "main street"--all 4 blocks of it. No cross stitch shops, but lots of cute antique shops that begged to be examined more closely (I was good--didn't go into any of them. I just "window shopped!"). I then stopped into their visitor center and asked about the shop, called "Mom and Me", and they told me it was closed and had been for over a year and a half. That made me sad. She did suggest the local Ben Franklin, or Hancock Fabrics, but while those are good places for the basics, it is like telling a gourmet chef to get supplies from the local gas station market... /sigh~
I came home and opened up the garage and got out my two handmade bookcases (I think my dad made one and my grandpa made the other), one of which was painted "princess purple" (my princess had had it in her room once upon a time), and set them up on newspaper, then painted them with "Kilz" white primer... They both had graffitti on them (phone numbers and misc. notes that the kids had written because "we couldn't find any paper mom!), and that purple HAD to go! I still need to do one more coat on the one (the purple one!), then they will be ready to go in my sewing room, to house my craft books again (it will be wonderful to unpack all my reference books again and have them at my fingertips). My daughter will be pleased to know that I only minorly slopped stuff on the actual driveway (but we won't discuss the newspaper underneath them). Eric says I did a decent job. At least they are now clean and neat again, and if I decide to paint them a color (to perhaps match whatever color we end up painting the walls) they will be ready to paint. A job well done!
Today the goal is to get the garage reorganized as we will have a gorgeous day to do so--highs in the upper 70s, and get the boxes gone through and moved OUT of the dining room/soon-to-be-sewing room... We are trying to get stuff done before my mom, sister, and niece arrive on Thursday evening. That trip may be up in the air right now as Rollie's mom is not doing so well (her hemoglobin is extremely low and she had to have blood transfusions on Wednesday of this past week--please keep her in your prayers!). We are operating on the premise that they will be coming, but certainly have no problems with it if it doesn't work out. Betty has to be first right now, and I support that completely!
On another sad note, on Halloween late evening Liisa's dog Max got attacked by a neighbor's dog who got loose somehow, and his neck was bitten up pretty badly. Liisa and Jesse cleaned it pretty well, but since the attack Max has been moving pretty slowly and not eating his dry kibble (although he will eat treats). This morning he had a seizure up at the land and my brother Erik thinks the stress of the attack may have triggered the seizures. (This is a picture of Miss Alexis with Max, up at the land, that I took 3 weeks ago).
Elizabeth was one of many incarnations of "Hannah Montana" we saw through the evening, and Brie was an "evil Tinkerbell". Other popular costumes around here included Batman, Spiderman, Brides and Princesses (including the Disney versions), and the usual Star Wars characters, pirates, brides, and so on. Some of the cutest costumes I saw, however, were on babies, including the three week old sleeping spider (who was the youngest sibling of three and was just content to ride in the stroller while they had fun getting treats), a toddler dressed as a hatching egg (think egbert from the saturday morning cartoon of Garfield)--a round egg with chicken legs out of the bottom, and the baby's head and arms where they should be. It was precious! Another was a toddler dressed in an elaborate batman costume who came up to me and said "tricks pease!" I could have picked him up and hugged him!
Alex was a "Commando" and he was so excited to be out. One of the concerns about Belleville's new law is that Alex is 13 and it would have forbidden him from trick or treating, and he wouldn't have understood why he couldn't go but his sister could... When Jen clarified the law she found that kids who were in special needs classes were exempted from it that made her feel a little better, but they decided they would rather just come to our house for the evening... It was really fun to have everyone over! Each of the kids had their own age groups of peers come by and hang out with us, and even Reimond had a circle of friends here that only somewhat intersected with his sibling's group (there is overlap in the groups of friends, and everyone got along with everyone else, so it was loud and chaotic and fun!).
Reimond "borrowed" this costume from one of the kids, who had it sitting on the floor after they came in. Cliff was NOT amused as Jen commented "did you want fries with that order?" (Cliff now works at McDonalds.....)
Jared stayed the night, and a friend of the
kids' stayed til after 1 am, watching a movie with Reimond and Jared in the living room (he lives just 2 doors down from us). And I couldn't forget to add this photo of the "lovely Doublemint Twins in Drag"--friends of Aurora's who stopped over (the rest are back by the door). She went walking around with them for awhile, and Patrick did the same with a group of his friends who also came over... It was such a fun night! Felt like my house in Minneapolis used to, so it was comforting and familiar, even if my "babies" were far away. Liisa graciously posted pics and videos for me on facebook shortly after taking them just so I could see and be a part of their celebration there...Eric spent a part of Friday fixing my van--he got the Tensioner pulley on and replaced the belt so my van now drives again! He did an amazing job, even if he did need an extra set of hands (Patrick quickly stepped into the breach for us). Good thing we got it running as the CRX is now in the shop and needs a Vaccuum Assembly of some sort for the brakes (I forget the exact name of the part, but Honda no longer makes them; fortunately we found one at Auto Zone, and the dealership said they would be happy to install it for us once we have it in our possession). Auto Zone had to order it for us and it should be in by Tuesday. Then, fingers crossed, we will again have three working vehicles. Being down to only one really sucked!
Saturday morning Brie had drill and Aurora and Patrick ran in sectionals for cross country (their team moved on to the next level of competition and they will be running in that) , so Rei, Cliff, Jared, and I went to the bowling alley for Saturday morning Youth Bowling. Rei did fairly well: 119, 121, and 112 for scores, then he stayed at the bowling alley with Jared and went home with him for the afternoon, while I brought Cliff home. I then decided since it was such a lovely day and I was child-free that I would go explore Lebanon, IL and see if I could find the purported cross stitch shop that was up there. Got up there, parked in front of the funeral home at the end of the brick road, and explored all the shops up and down the length of "main street"--all 4 blocks of it. No cross stitch shops, but lots of cute antique shops that begged to be examined more closely (I was good--didn't go into any of them. I just "window shopped!"). I then stopped into their visitor center and asked about the shop, called "Mom and Me", and they told me it was closed and had been for over a year and a half. That made me sad. She did suggest the local Ben Franklin, or Hancock Fabrics, but while those are good places for the basics, it is like telling a gourmet chef to get supplies from the local gas station market... /sigh~
I came home and opened up the garage and got out my two handmade bookcases (I think my dad made one and my grandpa made the other), one of which was painted "princess purple" (my princess had had it in her room once upon a time), and set them up on newspaper, then painted them with "Kilz" white primer... They both had graffitti on them (phone numbers and misc. notes that the kids had written because "we couldn't find any paper mom!), and that purple HAD to go! I still need to do one more coat on the one (the purple one!), then they will be ready to go in my sewing room, to house my craft books again (it will be wonderful to unpack all my reference books again and have them at my fingertips). My daughter will be pleased to know that I only minorly slopped stuff on the actual driveway (but we won't discuss the newspaper underneath them). Eric says I did a decent job. At least they are now clean and neat again, and if I decide to paint them a color (to perhaps match whatever color we end up painting the walls) they will be ready to paint. A job well done!
Today the goal is to get the garage reorganized as we will have a gorgeous day to do so--highs in the upper 70s, and get the boxes gone through and moved OUT of the dining room/soon-to-be-sewing room... We are trying to get stuff done before my mom, sister, and niece arrive on Thursday evening. That trip may be up in the air right now as Rollie's mom is not doing so well (her hemoglobin is extremely low and she had to have blood transfusions on Wednesday of this past week--please keep her in your prayers!). We are operating on the premise that they will be coming, but certainly have no problems with it if it doesn't work out. Betty has to be first right now, and I support that completely!
On another sad note, on Halloween late evening Liisa's dog Max got attacked by a neighbor's dog who got loose somehow, and his neck was bitten up pretty badly. Liisa and Jesse cleaned it pretty well, but since the attack Max has been moving pretty slowly and not eating his dry kibble (although he will eat treats). This morning he had a seizure up at the land and my brother Erik thinks the stress of the attack may have triggered the seizures. (This is a picture of Miss Alexis with Max, up at the land, that I took 3 weeks ago). We got report cards on the kids on Saturday: Aurora did wonderfully, Reimond did as expected (but he's working hard), and Patrick needs to work a little harder.... No real surprises on them.
Today is Eric and my "quarter year anniversary"--been three months today and it still is amazing to me! I am so happy! On that note, I guess it's time to get dressed and get moving on MY day! Lots to do and despite it now being central standard time again, I have let the morning get away from me!
Today is Eric and my "quarter year anniversary"--been three months today and it still is amazing to me! I am so happy! On that note, I guess it's time to get dressed and get moving on MY day! Lots to do and despite it now being central standard time again, I have let the morning get away from me!
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