Trick-or-Treat!!

I hope everybody has had a great Halloween! We've had a pretty good one here. I took the kids out T-or-T'ing and P. stayed home and handed out candy. The kids and I had a pretty interesting adventure, and I'll share some of it with you.

First of all, the hours for Trick-or-Treating in our town were from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. That irritated me to begin with. My kids' bedtime is 8:00 p.m., and it's a school night, for crying out loud! I know not all parents set their children's bedtimes as early as I do, but I'm sure my kids aren't the only ones who go to bed that early.

Once I got over my irritation about the hours, the kids and I set out around the neighborhood. We headed up one street and I gave the kids instructions to go only to houses with porch lights on or other lights on that showed they were participating in Halloween. About the third or fourth house was decorated very spooky. The porch light wasn't on, but there were other Halloween lights on, and other decorations. J. wouldn't go past the curb, but A. was determined to go to the house as long as I went with her. So she and I walked up to the porch while J. watched. We got up the stairs and noticed there was a pedestal with a bowl of candy on it that said "enter at own risk." There was a sitting on a bench next to the candy, and I figured the coast was clear. I told A. she could get one piece of candy out of the bowl. Right as she reached for the bowl, a guy dressed as the Grim Reaper (or something equally scary...I don't even remember) jumped out of the shadows on the other side of the porch. A. screamed and latched on to me, I screamed! She started crying so hard. I think the Grim Reaper guy felt really bad. He told her he was really a nice guy in real life, and that he was impressed with what a brave princess she was when her brother wouldn't even come up to the house. He told her she could have three pieces of candy from the bowl since she was so brave. So, continuing to cry, she dug through the bowl and got the three best pieces she could find. She was still crying for about two more houses, and told everybody she saw about the "scary haunted house."

Several houses on up the road, my kids went to the door, and there were two other kids up there at the same time. The couple gave them all their candy and the kids turned to leave. Right as all the kids started down the stairs, I hear them say "Darth Vader and Princess (my kids' costumes), come back. You've won a special prize." I'm down at the street. Naturally, I'm thinking the worst. Uh-oh, these sickos are going to lure my kids back to the door with extra treats and snatch them and I'll never see them again. Believe me, I was up at the porch before my kids got back to the door. Well, the nice couple gave J. a Star Wars toy, and A. a Barbie figurine stamper. I almost felt bad for the thoughts that ran through my head, but not quite. I figure one can never be too careful in this day and age. But the kids were tickled with their "special prize."

By the time we got back around to the house after circling the block once, the kids decided their buckets were full enough and they were ready to go home. That was fine by me. Their buckets were really full. And I know they were ready to play with their toys. So we came home, had dinner, and they helped me pass out candy for a little bit. Then my mom's boyfriend came over with a couple of buckets they had made for the kids. They were excited to see him and get their treats from him, too.

All in all, we had a nice night. The kids also got to see their new little cousin today after school, so they were excited about that too. She is so little, especially when I remember how big my kids were when they were born. The kids were fascinated with her, though, and couldn't stop looking at her. They can't wait till she gets home and they get to hold her.

Happy Halloween. Here's a pictures of the kids in their costumes:

My Sister

...had her baby yesterday! I'm finally an Aunt! I've been a surrogate Auntie to several of my friends' kids over the years, and I love them as if they were my own nieces and nephews. But I'm so excited for my baby sister and her husband. Their baby girl was born October 30 at 10:38 a.m. She was 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 20 and a quarter inches long. I won't post her name here as I haven't gotten my sister's permission to do so. She is absolutely beautiful, though. I will take pictures and share them soon. My sister had a surprisingly quick labor and delivery, which I'm thankful for. Mommy and baby are doing wonderfully, and should be coming home tomorrow.

Fun Night

Tonight we finally had the chance to take the motorcycles out. Every time we've ridden before, we've either ridden alone, or one of us has followed the other in a car. Tonight we finally both got to ride. P.'s mom came and got the kids because the local fire department up there was having a fall festival tonight, and the church is having "Trunk or Treat" tomorrow night. So she came to pick them up this afternoon and we'll go get them tomorrow evening. I called my mom to see if she and her boyfriend wanted to take his bike out this evening and we'd all go get dinner. They decided that would be fun, so we went to a local bar and grill for dinner. Mom's boyfriend led out on his bike with her riding with him (she's not quite ready to ride in Fayetteville yet, especially at night). I was following him and P. was following me. We went to a couple of different places tonight after dinner before coming home. It was just nice to have the bikes out. Today was the first really nice day we've had in about a week. Tomorrow's supposed to be just as nice, so we're planning to go practice some tomorrow. My mom wants to go practice some more so she can get more comfortable riding before she gets out on the road much. I want to get as much practice as possible, because the kids are dying to ride with us. I want to get some experience first, though, before I carry such precious cargo.

I will post some pictures of myself on my new Harley as a couple of folks have requested. I just haven't really had the chance for anyone to take any pictures yet. I'll try to remember to take my camera tomorrow though.

School Dance

Tonight the kids had their first school dance. I knew it was coming up, but couldn't remember when or what time. I've been so absent-minded lately! Anyway, they got home from school this afternoon, and both of them were talking at the same time telling me the school dance was tonight and asking if they could go. J. said "it's at 8:00 Mommy!" A. said, "no, it's at 5:00." So I told them to give me a chance to find out exactly what was going on and then we'd talk about it.

So I went to pick up the phone and call the school, but decided to check their website first. Sure enough under PTA news was the information I wanted. The kids were both right. Well, sort of. The school they go to is grades K-5. Grades K-2 went from 5-6, and grades 3-5 went from 6:30-8. J. was confusing the end time with the start time. The best part, for the kids anyway, was that they got to wear their Halloween costumes.

So I let the kids know the real deal and let them know they would definitely be able to go, and that they could wear their costumes. They wanted to put them on right away! I told them they needed to wait. When the time came I helped A. get ready. She was a ballroom princess. That's my girl. Every year, when I ask her what she wants to be for Halloween (Angie D., you'll appreciate this), it's always a princess of some kind. This year, a ballroom princess. Last year she was Cinderella. The year before, when P. was in Iraq, she was a sparkly butterfly (close enough). She is such a girl! When I looked at her costume, I noticed that it had four little Velcro closures down the back. Not wanting to take the chance of it coming open, I told her to go get her dance clothes on to wear under it. When I asked her how she wanted to wear her hair, she told me at first she wanted to leave it like it was for school today (she wore it in pigtails, or "dog-ears" as we call it). But then I asked her if she wanted it in a bun like she wears for dance, and she said, "oh yes, that will be perfect!" I think that's one of her favorite things about dance class...she has to wear her hair in a bun. So we finished getting her ready and called J. down before we left (he said he really wanted to see her in her costume). Then I took her to her dance.

My little ballroom princess...

When I called J. down before we left, he very dramatically fell on the floor when he got to the bottom of the stairs. So I told P., "look, he thinks she's a knockout!" I had to snap a picture...

I came home and started getting J.'s costume ready. We found a Darth Vader costume at Walmart several weeks ago that he loved right away. I had to make sure it had batteries in it. It's a really need costume. It is padded so it looks like the actual Darth Vader from the movie. The chest of the costume has fiber optic lights with a battery pack that you turn on and off. It also came with a light saber that works. Now J. has two light sabers...he got one for Christmas a couple of years ago. I think he has both colors now. Anyway, so I made sure that everything was ready to go with his costume and then it was time to go get A. So I left P. with instructions to get J. dressed for his dance and went to get her.

My little drama queen had a meltdown. We don't have them very often anymore. We used to have a meltdown over one thing or another at least daily, sometimes two or three times a day. Now they're fewer and farther between, but they still definitely occur at inconvenient times. The short of it is that she didn't get any food (ok, I made sure she ate dinner BEFORE the dance and she could have a snack when she got home), she didn't have fun because she didn't dance very much (well, whose fault is that really) and not many of her friends were there, and the ones that were didn't dance (maybe she needs some more friends).

So we get home and J. is almost ready to go. He is so excited. He about had a fit when Daddy turned his fiber optic chest on. Then P. found a little D ring to clip to his belt to hold his light saber. We told him to leave it clipped to his belt. You never know with schools what kind of things would be considered a weapon and we didn't want him to get in trouble. So off to the dance we went.

My Darth Vader...

J.'s dance lasted an hour and a half, so I was able to relax some before I went to get him. When I picked him up, he was in a great mood. He had a great time, said he danced, and had a ring pop he was sucking on, and a glow necklace around his neck. I was glad at least one of them had a good time.

We got home and A. had a meltdown all over again. J. got treats and she didn't. UGH!! I told her, yeah, well, he doesn't get to have any candy from his bucket. A friend of the family gave each of the kids a little trick-or-treat bucket with quite a bit of candy inside last weekend. Since she didn't get anything at the dance, I let her have some candy from her bucket when she got home. It's amazing to me how different they are, and how like us they are in different ways. J. is completely relaxed in social situations, and he totally gets that from his dad. This might surprise those of you who know me, but I honestly am an introvert. I've just learned to enjoy things that I'm not naturally comfortable with. A. is a bit more challenged when it comes to things like group events. She loves her friends, but definitely tends to stick with one or two people she knows while J. will float around the room and talk to everybody. That is very much like P. and myself. When we go to unit functions or other social events, he is the one that goes around and talks to everybody while I am more comfortable sitting at our table or just trailing along behind him. Once I make a couple of friends I'm much more comfortable.

Anyway, even with the four trips I made to the school this evening taking the kids to the dance and picking them up, I think it was worth it. J. had a good time. Although A. said she didn't maybe she learned a little something about how to have more fun the next time...that is IF I let her go the next time since she gave me such an attitude for the rest of the night. I enjoyed getting them ready and taking them to their first school dance. I just can't believe they're growing up so fast.

Deal or No Deal?

This show cracks me up! My husband likes to watch Heroes on Monday nights, and it just so happens that Deal or No Deal comes on the same channel right before Heroes. So I've started watching Deal or No Deal. P. complains about it because it's stupid in his opinion, but I tell him to deal with it because I don't like all the things he likes to watch on TV. What is it about this show that makes us yell at the TV knowing they can't hear us? Tonight's contestant killed me. She was doing really well too and got an offer of $267,000 or something like that. Then she opened the million dollar case and her offer went down to like $103,000. Next round she opened a case with a low amount and got an offer of $185,000. She decided to take the deal.

The thing that kills me is that if she hadn't been greedy, she could have walked home with $267,000. P. and I are both sitting here yelling at her to take the deal. Her friends were telling her "No deal, no deal!" They changed their tune, though, when her offer went back up to $185,000, telling her, "that's a lot of money" blah, blah, blah.

But then I thought she should have taken the deal when she was offered 80 something thousand. I was like "take the money and run, girlfriend!" LOL!

Homecoming

So last night was the Homecoming Football game at my old high school. Since this is the first time I've been home in forever, I wanted to go. Plus my sister and her husband were going. Her high school class is having their 10 year reunion this weekend and several of them met at the ball game last night. At least her class is having a reunion. I've been out of school 15 years and we've not had one. I don't know what ever happened to our class president. I got an invitation for a 5 year class reunion, and my mom RSVP'd for me and sent the money, but it was sent back because of lack of interest. Good grief!

Anyway, it was pretty interesting being back there. Apparently they built a new football stadium a couple of years ago. It's pretty nice. Things sure have changed over the years though. The very first thing I noticed once we found a place to sit and were able to start watching the game was the cheerleaders and their lack of uniforms. The only thing that was consistent among all of them was the t-shirts. Some of them were wearing solid black shorts, some of them were wearing black pants, and one of them was wearing running shorts that were black with a white stripe around the bottom. We were all trying to figure out what the deal was with that. I remember when I was a cheerleader (yep, I was a cheerleader), we all had to be dressed the same when we were in uniform. When the weather started getting cold, either we all wore our jogging suits with our uniforms, or none of us did.

Another thing we all noticed was that the rules about the homecoming court have apparently changed. I remember the days when the nominees for Homecoming Queen and their escorts had to be dressed a certain way. The only exception was for the football players who were escorts. Everybody else had to be wearing at least "Sunday Best." There was one escort wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt with a baseball cap turned around backwards. Also, now they vote for Homecoming King too. Maybe that's always been the norm for some schools, but we didn't have Homecoming King when I was in school. Oh well. Things definitely change. There was also a fight that broke out by the concession stand sometime during the second half. Then everybody on the bleachers where we were sitting jumped up and scrambled over to see what was going on. So there are also some things that never change.

Overall it was a good game. The band was pretty good. That was the highlight for my kids. They were pretty bored with the football game and Homecoming Court, but enjoyed the band. The home team won. There were about 4 minutes left on the clock when we decided to go ahead and leave to beat the crowd and the score was 19-6. As we were walking to the car, we heard the song that let us know that we had scored another touchdown. So I guess the score was at least 25-6. I don't know how they've done up to this point, but maybe they'll have a pretty good season.

My Birthday Present

Well, I know you all are just on pins and needles waiting to see what my husband got me for my birthday. I'm rather proud of myself that I kept the secret for a week. Well, I did tell some people, but I didn't post it here. I really wanted to wait till I had pictures. Anyway, here it is.

The kids sitting on Mommy's motorcycle. Don't you just love their cheesy grins??

The dealership we bought it from is in Smithfield, which is a little over an hour away. Plus we avoided the interstate, because I'm not quite ready to ride there yet; so it took a bit longer taking the back roads. P. had all his gear with him, because he wasn't sure whether I'd be able to ride the whole way home myself without getting too tired. Well, I rode the whole way home, plus some, because we stopped at his parents' house to show them. I hated to park it when we got home. I wanted to keep riding. I definitely plan to take advantage of every pretty day we have. It was awesome. I'm completely hooked!

My Baby...

Lost her first tooth yesterday. She lost it at school, and she was so excited to show me when she got home. I sent her with fruit for a snack, and she said her tooth came out when she bit into her nectarine. She said "the nectarine was very helpful!" I'll post a picture later.

Birthday Update

OK, the hubby definitely outdid himself this year. I know I mentioned yesterday that he hadn't given me anything yet, but I'm definitely learning to be patient with him about these things. He claims that he can never surprise me, but I was definitely surprised today. We went today and I got my birthday present. We didn't bring it home today, though. We're going to go pick it up Sunday. I'll post pictures then.

Curious yet?? :-)

Happy Birthday to...

Me!!

Today's my birthday. It was pretty nice. We spent the day with the hubby's family. We actually had a pretty busy weekend.

I know I posted a couple of weeks (almost) ago about J.'s birthday. We had his birthday party yesterday. He chose to have it at the roller skating center, and I have to say that it was awesome! First of all, the staff there handle everything about the party. Yes, that's the case with a lot of places around here that do kids' birthday parties. But there is one thing that made this even better. With all the birthday parties that I've done for my kids over the years (parties at the bowling alley in Germany, and even Chuck E. Cheese since we got back), the biggest issue has been keeping up with all the kids. It's not easy trying to keep almost a dozen 6 year-olds together to bowl and then to have cake and open presents. They get pretty bored. Even at Chuck E. Cheese for A.'s birthday party, I had to make sure to keep up with them in the game area. Older kids have a tendency to try to take advantage of little ones if there's not an adult close by.

It was different at the skating center though. First all the kids got to skate for a while, then "Roller Roo" came out and each child celebrating his/her birthday was recognized individually and got a balloon and a hug from him. Then they all got to skate with Roller Roo to a Happy Birthday song. Then the guests were called to one of four party "rooms" for cake and presents. A staff member ran the party, and took care of clean-up afterwards. Then the kids got to spend the rest of the time skating. We had a total of two hours. I debated whether to skate or not - I used to love to go skating when I was a kid. I decided to go ahead and skate, and I'm so glad I did. I had about as much fun as the kids did, and J. thought it was pretty cool that Mommy skated with him. I've decided that I'm going to have to take them more often.

My mom and sister, as well as P.'s parents came to the party. They also brought me birthday presents, although I didn't intend for it to be a party for me too. My mom and my sister got me scrubs to wear to work, which I really needed. That's what I love about this job - scrubs are so comfy! P.'s parents gave me a Satin Hands set from Mary Kay. I really needed that too. I haven't gotten anything from P. and the kids yet, but he asked me yesterday what I wanted, so maybe there's hope yet. He's not really good about planning ahead for these things, and he likes to say it's my fault because I manage the money and he can't surprise me...lol. Oh well. Some things will never change.

I mentioned earlier that we spent today with his parents. His dad was invited to be the guest speaker at the church he used to pastor when he was in Seminary, and he wanted us all to join him. The church was celebrating their homecoming - 183 years. Wow! P. was almost 4 years old when his family moved there and about 8 when they left. Everybody who knew him back then recognized him right away though. Their family was well-loved when they were there, and it was a nice day.