It's Halloween Night!

Mostly I am going to do a photo dump.  Because lots has happened, and it would be a lot to catch up on.  Basically we had our Halloween Party again this year (after a brief hiatus).  Small, but fun.  Lea and Chuck went too and helped the kids make a Fall craft (which they then used to collect candy -- or in Desiree's case, cookies and cinnamon rolls that were leftover from a reception at the funeral home earlier in the day.  I had to laugh when I saw that in her bag...).  And I turned 32 yesterday.  Yippy skippy.  And my husband found out he is now on mandatory 6-day weeks.  Starting this week.  How thoughtful of his job.  Grrrr...  So our plans to go to the Cheesecake Factory for my birthday on Saturday have been thwarted.  However, we will still enjoy a nice dinner out to a new restaurant that's local and a little more on the pricey side (it's a Mediterranean place) and then go to Coldstone Creamery after that.  The rest can be told in pictures (with maybe a comment by me here and there). 

 Okay, so this one was a bit before the Halloween festivities.  This was Home Coming for Xavier's high school.  He was a Duke.  So I went to enjoy the show along with Lea and Chuck.  Plus it's proof I sometimes still take pictures of myself ;).

 These are supposed to be witches' broomsticks.  I didn't have time to tie green onion around all of them (maybe chives would have worked better).  I wish I would have had the time, because the onion made them even better.  But it's just string cheese and a pretzel rod otherwise.  Fun, and easy -- if you didn't do the onion part.  Plus not a sweet snack!

 Deviled eggs.  This is the first year they weren't completely edible, because my mom didn't feel like doing the black-olive spider thing.  But the kids loved the spider rings even more anyway...  I think Desiree collected 8 rings (she didn't eat that many eggs though).

 Booberry treats.  I love these things.  It took me a while to find the stinkin' cereal, but I finally did :).  Maybe I should try Frankenberry or Count Chocula treats.  But there's just something about the Booberry...

 Fritos with green slime dip.  The dip was a hit.  There was none left to bring home.  And it's marginally healthy for you (if you don't count the cream cheese and sour cream :)).  It has salsa (or in this case tomato sauce, since I forgot to buy salsa), chopped spinach, green onions, cream cheese, sour cream, garlic.  That may be it...  anyway, it was good.  Except Desiree didn't like it.

 Easiest Halloween treat ever:  pumpkin poop.  They're just cheeseballs with nothing special done.  The hardest part was finding them...  (I don't think they make the Planters blue can ones anymore...  And now I have a million more of these still to be eaten.  Clearly I had a lot of pumpkins...) ;).

 Rotting swamp punch.  Or, if you're my mom, Rotten Stump punch.  Either way, it was okay.  Way lemony in my opinion.  But it also was gone by the end of the party, so it must have been good enough.

 Jack-O-Lantern pizza.  We do this every year.  Because it's main-dish"y" and offers a little more sustenance than some of the other options.

 Mummy dogs.  Made for the same reason as above.  They'd be cuter with eyeballs of mustard or ketchup.  But I didn't have time.  As it was, I was making these and the pizza AT the funeral home at the last minute (and beyond.  Thankfully everyone was running late :)).

Now to the part my dad actually cares about.  The kids.

 So Emily went as some character named Claudine from a show or movie called Monster High.  I'm out of the loop, I guess, because I don't know what it is.  Except I've seen the dolls and I'm kind of unimpressed.  Anyway, she did not look 3 1/2 in this outfit.  More like 15.  It broke my heart a little bit.  I think she should be Tinkerbell or something.  Also, she's not used to long hair, so she was constantly brushing the wig out of her face.

 Desiree was also a character from Monster High.  Draculaura.  Again, I wish she could just be a Disney Princess.  At almost 8, she looks quite sophisticated in the above picture, in my opinion. 

 Here are the kids eating their Halloween-themed food.  Saria, Benjamin, Samuel, and the back of Emily (with Desiree over talking to her Grandma).

 And here are Saria, Desiree, and Samuel making the craft with Chuck and Lea (not pictured).

 Then it was on to Halloween Bingo, which was a big hit!  The kids loved it, and even Emily held her own really well.

 Another shot of Bingo with my mom.

I didn't get as many pictures of Brad's kids on the still camera, but I got more of them on the video camera than I did of Desiree and Emily.  Eh... I'm a work in progress.

Sunday was the Primary Program.  We survived another year.  Yay!  Desiree and Emily were sick, so they weren't there to do their parts, and that made me sad :(.

 My visiting teachers came and decorated our house while I was at work yesterday.  For my birthday.  To the immediate left there (not pictured) is a pretty heavily-trafficked road.  So I'm pretty sure lots of random people knew it was my birthday.  Haha....  This is also the infamous door I left my keys in that time...

 Just a close-up of the hearts they stuck in the ground.  Can you tell it's wet and rainy?  That's pretty much how it's been the last week and a half.  Yep, fall is here.

And here's my birthday booty.  Purple fuzzy socks and the flower plant from my co-worker friend Sylvia.  Caramel apple from visiting teachers, Chocolate cream thing from co-worker friend Deanna, cute man/woman statue (that I can't wait to display in my house one of these days :)) and awesomely 80s candy mix from my bestest friend Juliebean.  And they did cake and ice cream at work as well.  So it was a good birthday.  And it's been a pretty good week.  I'm just glad tomorrow is Thriday (because Thursdays are my Fridays :)).  And that Jeremy will be on swings next week.  And that we can enjoy a birthday date night on Saturday :).  And maybe I'll even remember my camera and take a picture ;).

Happy Halloween!

P.S.  Stefanie, here's a link to a betamax.  (In fact, my dad has that very one!  And I think it still works!!!)  I sent you an email explaining it, but I don't know if I have your current email address :).

Fall

I had a meeting at church tonight (that's why I didn't call, Dad.  I'll call tomorrow).  As I was leaving and driving home, it suddenly hit me:  It's fall!  I got all giddy thinking of all the wonderful things Fall brings.  Egg nog (I bought some of that this weekend and we're almost through it...).  Warm apple cider.  Home-made hot chocolate.  Snuggling under big blankets.  I don't know.  I just got giddy.  I could feel the crisp chill in the air (it actually hailed while we were at church...), and I just had all those thoughts of Fall-ishness come over me. 

This also means there will be some must-watch videos in the coming months.  We start with Garfield's Halloween Adventure. Then comes Thanksgiving, and A B.C. Thanksgiving is required viewing material. Sadly, my copy is one burned from a very old Betamax copy, so it has tracking issues ;).  But you get the gist of it.  Love this.  Have watched it for years and years and can practically quote the whole thing.  It makes me laugh.  Then Christmas will come, and we'll need to watch A B.C. Christmas (I get the warm fuzzies at the end :)), the Christmas Claymation (which I'll need to borrow from my mom), and, of course, Garfield's Christmas.  And I'll probably convince Jeremy to watch While You Were Sleeping with me too :).  Snuggled up with some hot chocolate, of course :). 

This was a totally random and pointless post.  But I'm excited about Fall and the events that follow.  And I just thought I'd share :).

Here Comes the Rain Again

Yep, this is a song title post.  Because I like those.  I also toyed with the idea of naming it after a couple of other songs.  I might save those for another time, though.  Because I'm sure they will be applicable at another time in my life (even if I wish they wouldn't be...).

So the rain has returned to Washington.  We had something like 3 months of non-recordable rainfall.  That's pretty unheard of around here.  But in the last week, we've been wet and soggy 80% of the time.  And the temperature has dropped.  Jeremy and I haven't quite gotten out our winter clothes yet, but that's coming.  We feel it.  We keep putting it off because our house is so teeny tiny and it's a juggle-a-thon to try unpacking things.  I like to think when we have our house, life won't be that way.  But sometimes I think I'm just fooling myself ;).  Like I always think the grass will be greener over there somewhere. 

So seriously... I've been kind of in a funk lately.  Like an ew, gross, ick kind of funk.  Which is probably why my last post was so nostalgic.  Not sure why, exactly.  Just showed up and I had a hard time kicking it.  I think it's mostly gone, but every now and again (like this morning), it crops up again.  I'm feeling overwhelmed with a lot lately.  Which isn't really like me.  I usually thrive on a long list of things to do -- and I get a lot more done when I have a lengthy to-do list.  The last few weeks, that has not been true.  I've decided I want to spend a lot of my time reading for pleasure.  I've even quit looking at pinterest most days.  Today I started out funktefied, probably because I was thinking about how I needed to do laundry.  And go to the store.  And go to Lea's (but this was a happy thing!).  And go to Presidency meeting.  But you know, by the time I got the clothes in the dryer, things settled down.  Granted, I'd forgotten the laundry soap and had to buy it there (ugh).  And granted I had to go to the store while my clothes were in the washers, because I didn't have enough money to dry them (had to get cash back).  And granted, I forgot that was the very reason I went to the store in the first place and used my credit card (as is habit), which doesn't offer cash back as an option.  And so, granted, I had to stop at Rite Aid and see if they had either of the 2 items the grocery store didn't (cheeseballs or Booberry cereal).  And granted, when I finally had the money (Rite Aid had a massive container of cheeseballs), I drove past the laundromat like I was headed home, so I had to turn around...  But then I got the clothes in the dryer, and the day improved significantly.  And Lea was running behind today too, so the timing worked out perfect.  She and I enjoyed omelets and blueberry cream muffins and fun girl chat.  And I'm glad we do that every other Friday.  I think I need it :).

Of course, it hasn't helped that Jeremy and I have been a couple of sickies this week.  He got sick Sunday night, and I got sick by Tuesday and stayed home from work.  And now we are both coughing -- which I'm hoping is part of the getting it gone stages.  Our house isn't the driest house in the Pacific Northwest, so it's not helping us get over this...  And it also hasn't helped that graveyard shift is the pits.  Seriously.  I used to complain about swing shift...  Never again.  Graves is hideous.  Jeremy doesn't sleep so well during the day (he's in there sawing logs now, and it's 6:46 pm here), so his sleep schedule is all messed up.  And he reverts back to regular sleep times on the weekends, so he has to go back through it all again Sunday evening.  Ick.  He's on swings in November.  It'll be a breath of fresh air.

I didn't get the job I had applied for.  I was somewhat surprised not to have gotten it, because I am doing the work right now.  And there were a few days I was a little peeved about it, even though I do believe things happen for a reason.  And I think my life is just going to take a different direction, and I'm okay with that :).

In other news, I have decided, as part of my unfunktefying myself, that we are doing the Halloween party again as a family.  Nobody's house is big enough, so we are using the funeral home.  I'm pretty excited.  And this is why I was in search of cheeseballs (pumpkin poop) and Booberry cereal (Booberry treats).  Lea is going to go also and have craft stuff so the kids can do a craft.  Maybe I'll buy candy and they can use their craft bags and go trick or treating to the grown-ups or something.  Who knows.  But at least we'll have some fun food :). 

And I don't know if there is anything else exciting going on.  Nothing comes to mind.  I'll be 32 soon.  Ack.  That's weird.  I don't feel 32.  And I ate Chinese food tonight, and I'm still waiting for it to not be sitting so heavy in my stomach.  I think I ate too much of it.  And I know better than that :).