October

Some things that happened that I don't have pictures of:

Katie started a weekly art class.  She's in heaven.

Cross Country continued.  Katie's school ended up winning first place at the district-wide meet.

The got to have a popsicle party and she got some ribbons.

Myself and a friend took another friend out for her birthday.

We headed back to Stalker Farms for some s'mores and some scares.

We'd done this once before.

This time we were able to hit up ALL the haunts.

Never thought I'd say this but ... Good times!

Although I screamed (A LOT) and my back hurt from walking all stressed out and hunched over, I highly recommend it.  Good, gross, loud, creepy fun.

Hoping we can head back next year with husbands in tow.

I'd like to hear them scream.

NOTE: If you're in a group of three (or more) and you're walking all together in a bunch holding on to each other, the first one in line misses the scares.  Although you do have to lead the group through the mazes, the scare actors jump out and scream at the second and third person in line.  Unfortunately, that second person was me.

My favorite part was walking by a 6ft-something HUGE creepy guy in a half-face bunny mask who was holding a bloody hatchet.

Me, in a sheepish voice: "Hello, Mr. Easter Bunny...."

Him, in a menacing growl: "Do I LOOK like the Easter Bunny? 'Cause you look like a CHICKEN to me."

HA!  Awesome sauce!

And on a calmer and not so violent note, I began to volunteer in Mikey's kindergarten class.

Speaking of Mikey, he began getting homework.

He likes doing it.

Most of the time.

Huzbend had some homework too.

Fixed the toilet.

He had some help.

We went for a hike with Ralph.

He was a happy puppy.  He got to play in the water.

LOTS of water.

Which meant that I was soaked.

The kids had fun too.

If I remember correctly, Mikey walked almost the whole way!!

Unheard of!

Oh yeah.  This guy was there too.

One rainy October weekend was spent creating cardboard armor.

It wasn't created for any other reason than for the sheer awesomeness of it.

Then the next big school event occurred!

Kids and Donuts!

Wait.  That was supposed to be DADS and Donuts.

He did have one, in case you were curious.

It's his one donut of the year.

This year, we were able to make sure there was not only a nut-free option, but also a GF option!  My kids were able to have donuts too.  They were SO excited.

After the pig-out, we stopped by Katie's classroom for a visit.

Although she spends most of the donut part of the morning off socializing, she is always very proud to bring her Dad to visit her teacher and see her classroom.

PUMPKIN PATCH!

After we spent a bit of time on the bouncy bubble, playing the various farm games, climbing tire mountains and riding in the tractor train we got down to business and began,

THE GREAT PUMPKIN SEARCH!

MUSH, DADDY, MUSH!

Wagon butt.

It took just about FOREVER for Mikey to pick out a pumpkin.

Took Katie just a minute or two less than Forever.

The weekend prior to Halloween, we got to work carving our precious pumpkins.

We put the kids to work de-glopping.

Eeee-yuck.

After hours, and I do mean hours, the pumpkins were done.

From left to right:

Katie's - Owl

Mine - Ender-Man

Ralphs - Bone

Mikey - Nova Corp Guy

Huzbend - S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol

That same weekend we went to see Beauty and the Beast, The Broadway Show.

The kids LOVED it.  With a capitol L.

And then, it was Halloween time.

First up, the school parties.

Then the neighborhood party.

Did you know that The Wolverine likes pizza?

Bet you never thought you would see,

Seahawks fan

Ash

80's Karate Guy

SHEILD agent

and Magnum P.I. 

having polite conversation.

Here is the whole crew.

And here's the kids.

Time for trick or treating!

We had a group of like 100 kids and two dogs.

Well, it felt that way.

The two dogs part was true.

Charlie the dog was there (see pic below) and Ralph came too.

Partway through trick or treating, Mikey lost his mojo.

Realized that working that hard for candy that he can't even eat was kinda a waste of time.

Katie worked to get him back in the spirit.

She's always got that positive attitude.

We got home and dumped out the haul.

95% of which ended up in the trash or in Huzbend and I's tummies.

Below is what they were left with.

To supplement, I made sure to make some special chocolates.

Witch shaped coffins with tiny chocolate Halloween shapes inside.

As well as pumpkin and ghost chocolate lollipops.

And, there's always, PEEPS.

Well, only certain kinds.

You gotta read the ingredients on those puppies too.

Sigh.

The Rest of September

Jeez.  September was soooo long ago.  It's hard to remember what actually happened.

School started.  I did a post about that.

It was still kinda sunny and warm.  Septembers are like that here.

The living room was opened to Ralph at the end of August.

He really liked it in there.

He also liked to relax in the most odd places.

He became a good reading buddy.

Mikey participated in his first school PTA fundraiser.

(He has unwillingly volunteered at the event in the past.)

His favorite event:

The Noodle Throw

Katie was there too!

Miss Big 3rd Grader.

Mikey got to take home the kindergarten bear, Buddy, for an adventure. 

Annnnnnd, Katie joined the schools Cross Country team.

Other September happenings were:

We had our post-endoscopy/colonoscopy follow up appointment at the Children's hospital for Katie.

Results said she had Celiac and also Crohn's Disease (see here).

Doctor said we'd treat Celiac first and recheck in a few months time on the Crohn's.

And so, now, we are Gluten Free.

Mikey, and then Katie, came down with pinkeye.

And somewhere in there, not sure if it was September or October, Huzbend got it real bad too.

It skipped me for a change.

Katie began taking a kids coding class and really liked it.

Um. Yeah.

You know what?

I have all these grand ideas about what I can post on the blog.

At least once a day I think, "Hey!  That would be a great thing to talk about on the blog."

And, then life gets in the way.

As I said.  Great ideas.  All.  The.  Time.

Not wanting to start an entry and not finish it I say, "I'll get to it over the weekend when I have more time."

And then we watch movies and eat meals and clean the gutters out and have emergency PTA meetings and go grocery shopping and do laundry and go for a run and walk the dog a million times.....

And then the blog gets put on hold.  Again.

And now, it's been over two months with nothing.

I've got two months of backlogged ideas in my head.

So, I guess I'll just have to throw it all on here in my little 15 minute quiets.

A bit at a time.  And, also, not spend an inordinate amount of time obsessively editing.

I know.  I could be on Facebook.  Right?

I could do this the easy way.

But, I don't want to.  I like this old school "journal-y" type blogging.

I'll stick with what my pal Teddy says:

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty...."

Well, on a good note, I did manage to get recent pictures up on Flickr.

CHECK!  One thing off the list.  Yay me.

Let's check off two of those "Things To Put On The Blog" right now, shall we?

I have to say that there is nothing creepier then when you are on a walk on a cold, dark night with your dog and he gets spooked by something you can't see.

We were walking along and he froze.  Ears up at alert level and body frozen.  Tail upright in warning.

Then he scooted away, pulling me off balance.

Now, I wear a lot of lights when we walk.  Almost like a mobile x-mas tree.

Blinkies, a LED-lit leash, reflector vest, head lamp....

I couldn't see or hear anything.  It was so cold that there was really no one out.

I continued to walk away from the area, but he wouldn't leave it.

He kept turning around and freezing.  Starting at something behind us.

He did not like whatever was back there.

He's seen cats, other dogs and bunnies before.

I'm thinking it was a smell that he just didn't recognize.

Finally, we got a way aways and I turned back one last time 'cause I was thinking zombie.

Two shiny-bright eyes reflected my head lamp light back at me.

I couldn't see what it was.  But it must've been an animal of some kind.

But, I was creeped out for the rest of the walk.

It's cold out today too.  Like back east cold.

It was so cold that one of Ralph's chew ropes that had gotten wet in the previous weeks torrential rains froze.

Solid.