Tuesday, October 30, 2007
We just had an Earthquake!!
Wow!! At 8:05pm we just had a 5.6 magnitude earthquake. I haven't felt one that strong since the big one in 1989 at 6.9. I had just walked downstairs after kissing both boys goodnight. The whole house just shook very fast and very strong. I almost lost my balance and just saw all the pots on my potrack swinging back and forth. I yelled out my husband's name and ran back up the stairs to grab my boys out of their beds. My youngest was face down in his bed...he thought he had caused it. My other son thought it was fun and wanted to do it again!! Ugh!! It's funny, I had so much to get done tonight and was thankful that the boys were in bed so I could get started. And now...still a little shakey, I'm glad we are all fine and we are huddled around the TV to hear more and wait out all the aftershocks.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Month of Halloween
I love Halloween. I'm not sure what it is about Halloween I love so much. Is it the pretending to be anything other than yourself? Is it the girl in me wanting to play dress up? Is it because deep down I just love to decorate? Or do I love to be a little scared? I'm not sure what it is but I love Halloween!!
We live in a small community that is made up mostly of young children and dogs. So you can imagine how busy Halloween is in our area. For the past 6 years I lived on a block that really decked it out for Halloween. Neighbors dressed up the yards, we would all hang out in our yards from 6-8pm passing out goodies, taking lots of photos, and just having fun. Our neighborhood was so popular that people would drive over in cars. Last year we had close to 500 trick or treaters in 2 hours. It was insane and oh so right up my alley. The theme of our yard was Alice in Wonderland. We had the spooky forest with the cheshire cat and the rabbit hole, tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the Mad hatter's tea party that included a 2 foot teapot with bubbles pouring out it's spout and a lovely set of chinese lanterns that were lit. We opted to hand out bubbles, mini flashlights, decks of cards, rings, nail polish, and other small games. It was oh so fun. I gladly played the role of Alice and hubby was the Madhatter.
So..here we are in my favorite month and I have done nothing to prepare for Halloween. No new theme, no costumes, no fun handouts, nothing, nada. To make matters more difficult, we have moved to a new neighborhood since last year and we are set back far on our property. It's not exactly at street level like last year, which presents it's own problem for trick or treaters. I have also been way too busy. I have been over the top totally and passionately involved with our upcoming adoption and we are traveling back east for 3 days next week to work on adoption stuff. I'm also still trying to get a handle on all of the craziness that is school...carpooling, schedules, fundraising, cooking projects and hosting this month's class meeting. I just haven't had any extra time or energy to focus on Halloween and I'm a little saddened by it.
The boys really want to be a jet plane and an airplane this year. I've been trying to figure out how to make this happen as they are very specific about how they want their arms to be their wings so they can run around and "fly" very fast. I'm a little worried I won't have their costumes done in time and this of course is much more important than my Halloween fun of decorating. What I wouldn't give for a little sprinkling of magic so that I can pull it all together.
And if time gets the better of me this year, and there is no chance to get to our decorations, to order our loot, I will survive. Perhaps there is a small gift in that for me too. The boys are older. I have a feeling they might really enjoy trick or treating this year. Maybe by taking this Halloween year off, turning our lights out and just being together to trick or treat as a family in our new neighborhood, I will discover an even better way of enjoying Halloween. At least for this year, anyways. I can always dream about next year.
We live in a small community that is made up mostly of young children and dogs. So you can imagine how busy Halloween is in our area. For the past 6 years I lived on a block that really decked it out for Halloween. Neighbors dressed up the yards, we would all hang out in our yards from 6-8pm passing out goodies, taking lots of photos, and just having fun. Our neighborhood was so popular that people would drive over in cars. Last year we had close to 500 trick or treaters in 2 hours. It was insane and oh so right up my alley. The theme of our yard was Alice in Wonderland. We had the spooky forest with the cheshire cat and the rabbit hole, tweedle dee and tweedle dum and the Mad hatter's tea party that included a 2 foot teapot with bubbles pouring out it's spout and a lovely set of chinese lanterns that were lit. We opted to hand out bubbles, mini flashlights, decks of cards, rings, nail polish, and other small games. It was oh so fun. I gladly played the role of Alice and hubby was the Madhatter.
So..here we are in my favorite month and I have done nothing to prepare for Halloween. No new theme, no costumes, no fun handouts, nothing, nada. To make matters more difficult, we have moved to a new neighborhood since last year and we are set back far on our property. It's not exactly at street level like last year, which presents it's own problem for trick or treaters. I have also been way too busy. I have been over the top totally and passionately involved with our upcoming adoption and we are traveling back east for 3 days next week to work on adoption stuff. I'm also still trying to get a handle on all of the craziness that is school...carpooling, schedules, fundraising, cooking projects and hosting this month's class meeting. I just haven't had any extra time or energy to focus on Halloween and I'm a little saddened by it.
The boys really want to be a jet plane and an airplane this year. I've been trying to figure out how to make this happen as they are very specific about how they want their arms to be their wings so they can run around and "fly" very fast. I'm a little worried I won't have their costumes done in time and this of course is much more important than my Halloween fun of decorating. What I wouldn't give for a little sprinkling of magic so that I can pull it all together.
And if time gets the better of me this year, and there is no chance to get to our decorations, to order our loot, I will survive. Perhaps there is a small gift in that for me too. The boys are older. I have a feeling they might really enjoy trick or treating this year. Maybe by taking this Halloween year off, turning our lights out and just being together to trick or treat as a family in our new neighborhood, I will discover an even better way of enjoying Halloween. At least for this year, anyways. I can always dream about next year.
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