Halloweenies all of us

I have failed lots of ways during this ghost and ghoulie season. No carved pumpkin. No pumpkin toast or pancakes for breakfast...although I did have a box of Frankenberry that they did not eat. I did not have little buckets full of Halloween goody favorites for the teachers. Bleh. I did, however, do a few things. I sent 3 bags of little powdered and chocolate doughnuts to the boy's class(per teacher's request). I helped with Art Masters with his class and helped get special snack set out for the hungry little costumed kidlets. It was dress up like your favorite book character day today so, like I said last night, I worked all day mostly on the boy's hat. G had her idea picked out and wanted to do it all by herself. Fine with me. She is very creative and who am I to stand in the way of all that? We also figured that they would wear whatever costume they wore during the day to Trick orr Treat that night. G decided to be Junie B. Jones and the boy was the Substitute Creacher. S dressed up as a witch and G did her makeup. So, this is who the boy was wanting to look like:



This is who G wanted to resemble:



This is what we got when I did a roll call for the Halloween picture:



I'll show you a picture of the boy's hat, because I thought it was pretty funny:



The kids had a good time and got some loot. Sometime in between getting them dressed and locking up the house, the kids had been warned not to eat any of the candy until we checked it for razor blades. This started an evening long conversation about razor blades and why they end up in Snickers. I never came up with a good answer, but it could have easily transitioned into cyanide in Tylenol capsules. Luckily, everyone who gave us candy was a family friend, so there was no real threat of sketchy confections.

Have a good rest of the evening...I am tired and in a very minor sugar coma. Time for bed.
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Almost dress up day....

I have been fashioning a book character costume for the boy today. Maybe, contrary to what I thought, I do work better under pressure. He finally decided what he wanted to be, so I went into panic and scramble mode. Just like with the dioramas, I take this book character likeness thing seriously. I cannot show you the pictures of the final products until tomorrow whent the kids are in them, but I have to say that I am pretty proud.

Rain is supposed to be on the horizon for Halloween this year, so we will be working fast and getting in before the kids melt from either the rain or the heat. Tomorrow will also an anniversary for the hub and I. 21 years ago tomorrow, we started dating. I think within just a few weeks of dating, if that, I knew he was the one. I am honored and blessed to have such a kind man with such high character as my husband and the father to my children. I certainly got the Halloween treat to beat them all.

Have a good night....


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Mom fail #98765432

After three loads of laundry, homework, dinner prep and cleanup and bedtime, I decided to sit down and take a few minutes for myself. I should have thought about it a little harder...sitting down and relaxing was too easy tonight. What's going to happen? I'll tell ou. Our oldest is super snorty and we have a broken vaporizer, so the hub ran to the store to try and locate one so our child can breathe in the night. He also removed the dead mouse from the garage that was pleasantly giving off the putrid smell of death. And he helped S to neti pot this evening. He's winning best dad ever award. As I sat on the couch to blog for a minute, I realized that I had not gotten a pumpkin to carve this year. G decorated a pumpkin at a party, but nothing was Pumpkinmastered up. Hanging head in shame. There is really no time to do one anyway. D'oh.

Go ahead and add it to your file...you know who you are.


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I was done in an hour...

So, the boy's glasses broke Saturday afternoon. He was not being reckless, although he had been at a birthday party in a bounce house for two hours. There is a possibility that the very expensive Spiderman glasses fell off in mid jump. That was not anything he admitted to, but I'm a mom. I know how the kid works. Anyhoo, the glasses were broken in a spot that was going to be hard to remedy with some extra sticky tape or some gum. After a call to his eye doctor, or the eyeglass place attached to his office, we found that his glasses were out of warranty. The next available appointment for him to see the doc was scheduled...a very close Dec.17. Wow. His teacher told us today that he was already complaining that his head and eyes hurt. Soooo, this afternoon we got to go to one of my least favorite places on the planet: LensCrafters. I giant rip off, but pretty much the only game in town if you need to get glasses quickly. And we needed them quickly. With a prescription like the boy's, he needs to have them on as much as possible. We found some new frames. They were no Spiderman frames, but the saleswoman/optician made sure to show the boy how you can twist the frames around without breaking them. Why, lady? Why did you think it was a good idea to show him that his glasses can do that? Some people don't think. Maybe she's inhaled too many lens cleaner fumes. The frames were chosen, the measurements taken and the return time given. It was actually an hour and ten minutes. By the time we walked around the deadest mall on earth, only to see this exciting shop that we did not enter:



I was ready to be home. We got back at our appointed arrival time. Um, yeah. Twenty minutes later, still waiting. Done in about an hour? I was done long before then. I turned around to find this:



These frames were a big no, especially since the frames had already been picked out. Meanwhile, the girls picked these out for me:



I am not an old lady in an Old Navy commercial or a intellectual looking chipmunk who has two brothers:






Thanks children that I labored and "birthed". Got the glasses and, ting tang walla walla bing bang, finally broke out of there. Let's hope these hold until December...especially if he tries the twist trick demonstration with them. Eek.
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Tired and...tired

I will give you the run down of our day, because I just know you are on the edge of your seats wanting to know.

1. Got up to find I had three people sick or injured who were supposed to be teaching. Scramble time!

2. I got to hear my sweet 9 year old and her friends in their singing group sing with the choir today. It was absolutely gorgeous. I cried, of course.

3. Went to watch S's team play in the championship game in their division. The game was rough. The opposing grown ups rougher. The game went into sudden death overtime. Then into PK's. Our girls won. It was a beautiful thing to watch. They all worked so hard all season. I am so proud of all of them.

4. I broke several speed limits to get back to the other side of town in time for our church's Trunk or Treat. We had scads of people there. We were so pleased to have so many people from the community to come and play for a few hours.

I am now calling my cousin and going to bed. Good night, friends.


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Bubble wrapped kid

The day started out smple enough, dress in 17 layers of clothing and fill every Tervis Tumbler in the house with coffee and hot chocolate and run across town to be a half an hour early to warm up for an 8am soccer game. Our girls were playing a team we had beaten before, but it was so cold that they all were a bit frozen and dull. But they woke up and won. One of the girls from the other team decided to play American football instead and wiped my oldest out. Same story, different day. That girl got a yellow card...she deserved more. My girl got a trip to the Ortho ER and a cracked growth plate in her shoulder. Nice. She may be small, but she is a tough cookie, but in a fair amount of pain. G scored the only goal in her game and her team won to close out the season. The boy's team ended with a loss, but they played hard! We almost made it through this season without a major injury...almost.

Oh well. Hopefully all the children and the hub will rest comfortably tonight. We are all wiped out!

Night all.


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And when I die...and when I'm gone...

Today is one of those days that has made me think deeply about life and death and how so many things are related and how much more fragile life is than we think. And, no, it was not because we were picking out floor and tile and fixtures and Home Depot for two and a half hours and I was on the verge of a mental break.

Since kindergarten, G has had a good buddy, M. She is pit bull spitfire of a girl, the only child of loving parents. My brother still talks about his conversation with her when he went to have lunch with G as her "bring a special person to school" person. M corrected him on how to pronounce her name, talked his ear off and entertained him for the whole meal. She an G have competed against each other in soccer for several years. Fierce competitors both, but always starting and finishing their match with a hug and a high five. M's parents have been equally supportive, cheering for G when she saves a goal or makes one. Yelling words of support to her when a goal gets in or she gets hurt. The last game they played, M's dad yelled at G to keep her chin up and said he'd buy her an ice cream for the next saved goal. Pure kindness. Monday, after lunching with his girl at school, he left not feeling well. Just hours later...he was gone. This precious man who has been so kind and involved is gone. And so very young. For various reasons, I did not find out this news until this morning. It wasn't widely publicized and, since our girls aren't in the same class this year, G's class was not informed. The hub and I have gone through the day numb, knowing we would have to discuss it with G, a kid who loved her friend's dad so. At first she was stunned...asked a lot of questions...wanted to know when she could see her friend and wondered what she could do. I had no answers other than prayers and hugs.

This evening we received emails and texts from the hub's cousin. He and his wife have struggled for years with infertiity. Who have fought with the adoption system. Two people who have yearned so for children of their own, who have wept heartbroken tears for unfiulfilled hopes and dreams. Today they sent us pictures of their two foster siblings. A brother and sister, exactly a year apart, yes sharing a birthday. The looks of absolute and pure joy on their faces gave me chills and tears. For the second time today, the husband and I sat speechless and filled with emotion...obviously different this time.

Biblical the band Blood, Sweat and Tears are not, but situations like this always make me think of them. "And when I die and when I'm gone, they'll be one child born in this world to carry on, to carry on." This precious father passed from this life to a new one in Heaven, leaving behind a grieving family. I wish I could reverse it...to take away the pain. At the same time, two children who so badly needed a stable family and parents to love and care for them, have in a sense been reborn in their new family with my husband's cousin and his wife. I wish we were closer to celebrate.

Tears of pain and tears of joy...two families in need of lots of support and prayers. Hearts too full emotion to know how exactly to separate all the feelings out.

Bless them all.


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