Happy Halloween!

Frankenstein
She-Devil

Cuddly little rabbit

Barack Obama

Frank Martin

Spiderman

Skeletor

Crazy Tree Man

We had a great Halloween! Truly, my all-time favorite holiday! We trick-or-treated until our feet bled, ate senseless amounts of candy, had some hot apple cider, caught up with the neighbors, saw my new nephew dressed as a pea pod - it was just all around awesome!

Anniversary

17 years ago, I married my best friend! Crazy to think it has been that long...surely my math is wrong as usual?

We are very blessed!

We are going out for margaritas (and Mexican food too). I can't wait!

Pumpkin patch

Since the kids had the day off school today, and we have been trying to get to the Pumpkin Patch for quite some time now, we decided it was today or not at all. We love Shaake's pumpkin patch! It is so much fun! I warned the kids that with it being so late in the season, there might not be any good pumpkins left. I cautioned them to watch for holes and rotten pumpkins. There were still lots to choose from and I think they all got something worth our carving skills!

NO gourds this year....they don't carve well!

Colin obviously wasn't listening during my 'perfect pumpkin' speech.

Too many older brothers? She is acting like a guy!

We had a great time and it was a really good way to kill time while waiting for Jim to return home from his long week in Wichita. He made it home! We are all happy to have him back!

I spent my morning doing dam inspections. I am always amazed at what people try to get away with. Lets just say that I will be busy writing up reports and some not so friendly letters in the next couple of weeks. I wish I could say that I was finished with the whole annual inspection process, but we are far from it. I am planning a couple of days out in the next week so that we can knock it off before the weather gets any colder!

No soccer games this weekend. That means a chance to sleep in and get caught up! If you all fail to hear from me it is because I am buried in the little girl's room under a pile of rubble, toys, clothing, and other stuff. By the end of this weekend, I hope that they are organized and living in less chaos!

Halloween in Kindergarten

I helped with Preston's Halloween party at school today. I think everyone had fun! I really do love Halloween, and I enjoyed seeing all the kids in their costumes and watching them get all hopped up on sugar until they could hardly stand to be contained in a classroom! Good times!

When I walked into Preston's classroom, I couldn't help but notice the gorilla - it was Mr. Terry who works at the school. The kids thought he was awesome!

Preston (aka Spiderman) had a nice day, got lots of treats and thought his first actual Halloween parade was fabulous! It was a little bit chilly, and I was thankful to grandma for watching Quincy and Harper so that they didn't have to be dragged all the way down town and back and hang out at the school for a very long afternoon!

It has been spirit week at Carbondale school this week for Red Ribbon week. Today was "senior citizen day." Last night I tried to recreate the Eisenhower haircut from last year, but I messed it up, so this morning I literally shaved Cam's head with a razor so it would be shiny bald and then we added wrinkles, chest hair, nose hair and liver spots to his head. He won! He was pretty happy about that!

And speaking of Cam, he got this award in the mail. It is from Tootsie Roll Industries. It was congratulating him for knowing how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop. The interesting part is that he didn't submit anything to the Tootsie company, and nobody here will claim any credit for it. I thought it reeked of Jim, but when I asked Jim about it, he said he didn't send it in. A mystery!

And now I have to tell you a Quincy story. I told her that it was getting close to time for us to leave and asked her to pick up the toys at my office this morning. She was being a real turkey and whining about it. Exasperated, I told her I was just going to cook her and eat her for dinner. She started laughing and told me you can't eat me. SO stupidly, I told her "yes I could, you are young and tender and will make a great soup."

She followed this up with telling me that she would just eat me - so I told her that I was old and tough and would taste terrible because I am just too old.

She laughed about it and then cleaned up the toys. We got everything gathered up and left the office, and as we are walking to the car there is an older lady pushing her walker up the sidewalk. Quincy goes running right up to her and says

"MY mom says that OLD people taste bad!"

Preschool Halloween

Quincy had her Halloween party at preschool today. While all the other little girls were busy buying up princess/cheerleader costumes, Princess Q decided she should be Frankenstein. Yep, she is totally my daughter! I loved it!
In addition to it being party day for Quincy, it was "crazy hair" at Carbondale school, so since Colin and Cam went off to school with blue hair, guess who else had to be in on the action?

It is a good thing Quincy likes to be rough and tomboy-ish because she is in a class filled with boys! She is one of 3 girls in her class. Her kindergarten class seems to be looking at the same type of ratio. She should not struggle to find a date to the prom!

Since the weather has been getting colder, I have been struggling to keep socks on Harper's feet. She loves to be barefoot (don't know where she could have picked up that behavior from). I managed to find her some shoes today and she liked them and kept them on her feet, and it seemed pretty hard for her to kick them off too. They were on clearance, so Harper's first tennis shoes not only are cute, they were cheap!

Quincy had her 6 month follow up check on her ear tubes this afternoon. They have stayed in place and are keeping everything nice and dry. Her hearing has improved tremendously, and she tested out in normal ranges today, as opposed to showing hearing loss 6 months ago. I am really glad that we had this done! Since her appointment didn't take very long, and we were right across the street from the hospital, we ran across and saw our new nephew. He is such a doll! And so tiny! I got to hold him for a minute, but Harper did not like me holding another baby! I will just have to wait until the weekend and leave Harper with Jim so I can go snuggle that baby!

Cam had a football game tonight. It was cold sitting out in the wind! And I didn't even get there until halftime since I was teaching RE tonight. Thanks to grandma for bringing the little ones home so they didn't have to sit out any longer! Cam's team lost, but they played pretty well, and they did make a couple of touchdowns, so that was good. I think their season is just about over. I thought tonight was the last game, but Cam says no. Jim had to come home to take care of a few things in the office, so it was awesome timing that he could make it to the game. Plus, we were really missing him, so it was nice to see him for a little bit. He will be heading right back to Wichita in the morning. At least a mid-week visit makes it seem shorter.

Absent

These people all noticed that Jim was absent today:

We functioned without him, but life is definitely more fun and easier when he is here!

Another absence today: I was absent from getting to see our brand spanking new nephew. First of all, he did not arrive until bedtime on a school night, but even if he had been born earlier, I would not have gone because Harper has had a low fever all day and just did not feel good. She is sleeping now, in her bed, for the first time all day! I can't wait to get to cuddle him! I hear that he is an absolute doll!

I got to work today to find that all the stuff that Cam should take to school was on the back seat. So I had to make a flying trip to Carbondale so he didn't get in trouble for not having his trombone etc. I returned to work just in time to have one of our landowners come in a little bit cranky because he thinks we abandoned him. I got that straightened out just in time to have our governing authority bail on me for the rest of annual inspections. Lets just say it was not my best day at the office!

I am sure that tomorrow will be better!

Nothin' can stop her now...

All these photos were taken within about an hour this evening. This little girlie is living up to her nickname!

She pushed the car all over the house - I don't think we are very far from her walking on her own!

I have said all along that I thought these 2 looked alike. What more can I say?

I did find a baby photo of Madison today - Harper looks like her too!

Captain Destructo should be very tired after all the blanket riding she and Quincy did this evening. I'm tellin' ya - this kid loves danger and I am worried she might want to work as a stunt woman some day!

We had a nice but not restful weekend. Preston and Quincy's soccer team played yesterday, they won, but they did not have quite as much luck today at flag football. They still had fun, and played very well!

All the little girl's stuff is now in their new room, but I still have a long way to go before it will look like a page from Better Homes....but we have time -- and now that their stuff is out of our room, I feel like I am living in a deluxe unit! I have to finish the painting job in Jim and my room - the one I started a year or more ago.

I took a lesson in good management and pawned off the responsibility of planning Preston's kindergarten Halloween party on one of those "newbie" moms who is not burned out yet! Now all I have to do is wait for her to tell me what to do and then show up! Everyone wins - I still get to help, but I don't have any stress or pressure!

Jim finished most of the chimney and removed the scaffolding this afternoon. He did a pretty good job and I must say it looks much, much better. He still has a little tiny piece on the roof side, but he can do that from the roof....no more scaffolding. I know he was really worried about getting done since he has to give the scaffolding back tomorrow. That, and he is once again going to training in Wichita for the week. At least this time I am not 9 months pregnant! I know the kids are not wanting him to go - you know, because I am no fun and all that. I guess I better start my list of heinous chores that I only break out when Jim is gone!

Preston's birthday party

We had a party for Preston's 6th birthday tonight. The good thing about birthday parties - my house is clean now! (Please don't open any closet doors).

Preston had a great time! He had a few of his friends and cousins over to celebrate. He had a "6" pinata.

Although we did turn a bunch of 4-5-6 year olds loose with a bat, nobody was hurt!

Preston had a Power Ranger cake that Grandma made - it was delicious and he loved it!

Lots of new goodies!

And a marshmallow eating contest - the winner managed to stuff 8 marshmallows in his mouth. He then spit them out on my front lawn! We won't mention any names!

(right Zack?)

Preston declared the party a big success! Movie time - we all need to sit and rest!