The Ballerina, The Obi-Wan, and the Hatless Witch and their Lame Adventures in Trick-or-Treating

Our kids have been pretty spoiled in trick-or-treating years' past. We've always gone with our daycare provider and close friend Leona, her husband, and their two daughters. Usually in Scottsville, but one year we did go to a mutual friend's neighborhood in Henrietta. Both places were great. LOTS of kids, LOTS of lit-up houses, pretty low on the traffic--not to mention the fun of hanging out with good friends. This year Leona and Co. Decided to go to their church party instead of the neighborhood scene. No problem. John and I have a new house and new neighborhood to check out. I did get a little antsy last week and almost called our Henrietta friend to "bum a ride" on their neighborhood. I mean, our area has very few sidewalks, NO street lights, and our particular street has more older folks about than young families. But, what better way to learn things about your new neighborhood/neighbors then to go around in the dark demanding candy from them?

I got off work a few minutes early, raced home, threw a pizza in the oven, and threw the costumes on the kids. We gulped down our food, and then we set out around 6-ish.

The very first house we hit is our next-door neighbor (of course). After adoring our cute kids in their cute costumes, she warned us right off the bat, "Did anyone tell you we just don't get a lot of trick-or-treaters out here?" The second house, we got tons of exclamations of "Wow! We actually got some trick-or-treaters this year?" (And almost acquired a new pet as their dog followed us right out to the street.) The third house: "OMG, where did YOU come from?! We NEVER get trick-or-treaters. No, seriously, where did you come from?!" (Had to explain that we'd just moved in last summer.)

We saw all of two trick-or-treating groups (each with two kids and one parent) while we were out (and one of them were from the third house we'd hit--and I think they were still in awe of us). John and I decided to try a different tract of homes close by. We walked over to a nicer, they-so-make-more-money-than-we-do tract: you would have heard the crickets if they weren't already gone for the winter! Plenty of lit up houses, but NO trick-or-treaters!

All told, we were out about an hour. I'm sorry, but it's just no fun to go out on Halloween without seeing a bunch of other kids in their costumes. And it's no fun going down a road with no sidewalks when you're toting a (almost) 2-year old in a stroller. And even though it IS fun for your (almost) 7-year old to brandish a flashlight since there are no street lights, it is NOT fun to pick up all her candy in the grass after the THREE times she tripped in the dark.

Next year we're driving to Scottsville. Or Henrietta. Even if no one invites us!

Happy Halloween!

One screwdriver to remove plates expiring TOMORROW: $6.99

Bi-annual vehicle registration: $72.00

Having to go renew the registration at the DMV in your Halloween costume: PRICELESS

The longest day of the year

You Hoosiers had the first taste of the "fall back" time change Sunday. When I was younger and kid-free, I loved this time change. Extra hour of sleep--yes! Well, when you have kids, they don't understand the time change. Kids wake you up at 7:00am--even if it's the 7:00am that was YESTERDAY and not today. So, I have to get up "early" Sunday morning, and somehow make it through the whole "extra hour" day. You wouldn't think one extra hour would be much (especially when it technically happened at 2:00am and NOT 7:00am). Well, when kids are on a schedule, and you're trying to get them to change it by that much, an hour is a long freakin' time! I mean, what do you DO with an extra hour?

So I pulled up my sleeves and tackled that extra hour with a thankless task: housecleaning. Just to make it somewhat more bearable, I got the kids involved--with bribery! I made up a list of kid-friendly jobs, and for each task they accomplished, they got a piece of candy. I've never seen Keith and Mary less whiny or more helpful! Why didn't I think of this sooner?

And why all the housecleaning? Because I'm finally having "the girls" over to the house this Friday for a buy-some-crap party. Personally, I usually avoid these parties like the plague--except the one *I'm* giving--the kind where the wares are FOOD items. Only invite me to parties with food, folks! Anyway, John and I are in panic mode 'cause the house just doesn't quite seem ready yet, and we'd really like to buy new furniture before we invite people over. But you know what? If we waited until we could afford new furniture, we wouldn't be having people over until the kids were out of college! IF then!

So, the kids and I wore ourselves out cleaning (while John wore himself out with bagging leaves and mowing). What depresses me is that the house is already on its way to becoming a mess again. Despite my best efforts, I'll still be doing that last-second panic cleaning Friday night at 6:59, opening the door breathless to my guests at 7:00.

WHY, OH WHY did I do it?! Oh well. It'll be fun to have some people over for a change.

Perfect Post!

I had the perfect post to the blog the other day. It was witty, informative, and lacked spelling errors. It had a kinda stream of consciousness about it--that you could actually understand. I was very proud of that post. And then clicked on "publish". And then I got a network error. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now the perfect post is just another one of those coulda-been moments. You all would have been impressed with my post--I just know it. And now I know I can NEVER, EVER recreate it. This brain can only spew out that kind of greatness once in a great while. It has to do with the rotation of the planets, the phases of the moon, and the percentage of sleep deprivation on which I'm currently running. I'll never get that perfect moment again.

I gotta remember to save these things first....

Painting lessons

1. If you choose a very, very dark blue color, don't be lazy--put up a coat of primer first.

2. When painting the ceiling, use long, continuous lines of color.

3. IF you buy the "how to paint, ya moron" book, actually read it and FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS.

Please don't patronize my kid

Last night when I picked up Mary after work, her day care provider told me that Mary was reading to the other kids. "She's making it up," Debbie says, "but it's nice that she enjoys reading to the other kids like that." I looked at her kind of funny for a second. I mean, Mary loves to pretend, but I've never really known her to "make up" what she's reading. Mary then came upstairs and showed me her new library book. As Mary and I were talking about the book and her reading to the other kids, I guess the provider finally got clued in. "You mean she WASN'T pretending? She can really read that? She's in first grade, and she can already read chapter books?! Wow!" I admited that sometimes Mary does need help with a word here or there, but yes, the child CAN read chapter books already.

PRETENDING, INDEED. HMPH!!!

Walk for Awareness

Sunday morning, I partook in the Breast Cancer Walk for Awareness here in town. Several girls from my department/building here at work decided to go since several co-workers/friends have recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. I brought Mary Anne and put Izzy in the stroller, and we wore our pink. It was a beautiful, perfect fall morning (apparently it's rained for this event for many years past). Mary was a little trooper and walked the whole time with minimal whining. After the mid-point, she was even jogging back and forth along the sidewalk. She really had a lot of fun.

We were one of the first groups to start the trek, so on the return trip, we got to see the mass of people just starting out. It was just incredible all the women there and all the pink. I'm glad I went, I'm glad I took the girls, and I plan on making this a tradition.

Some progress

One step forward:
We can finally fit the mini-van in the garage! Yay! Just a few more things to rearrange/stash in the basement, and the car will be able to enjoy our new home, too. Whew!

And now for the two steps back:
John started painting Keith's room. He gets one coat on the ceiling and decides "I don't like it". So we're putting our heads together trying to visualize how we want this room to look. But that blue he already put on the ceiling is very, very dark. Methinks we may have to prime before we can paint a lighter color up there! AUGH!!!!

Can I brag a little? (OK, a LOT?)

Last night John went to Curriculum Night at Mary's school. John signed up for bringing cups and peppermints to the future winter activities, signed up for the winter parent/teacher conference, and then got to talk to the teacher for a bit about Mary. The teacher told John that Mary is making the transition to the new school wonderfully (she's apparently well-liked by the other kids in her class). The teacher also said that she was "blown away" by Mary's reading and drawing skills. John and I know that the kid reads well--she moved on to reading Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein with no problems last year--and we even know she's pretty artistic. The fridge is constantly filled with her drawings and colorings, and she's always arranging her toys in little "dioramas" on her dresser or in the play room. But I guess it just doesn't hit you until you compare her little drawings to all the other kids in the class that wow--she really IS advanced for her age. She can draw horses, unicorns, whales, dolphins, lions, etc.--and she puts immense detail into them. Mrs. W. mentioned that Mary must have had a great kindergarten teacher. And yes, she did! And not to knock Mrs. G. (who was great, indeed), but I think a chunk of the credit needs to go to the day care provider Mary had since she was six months old. No way I could ever find anyone to measure up to Leona, and that's the reason why I'm willing to drive an extra half hour out of my way every day to keep Keith and Izzy there. She's irreplaceable; she's the best!

But let's not take credit away from our girl. Mary definitely is a good, quick learner. I hope she can keep up the drive in the many, many years of schooling to come!

You go, girl!

Update

Keith's room is still not painted.

The garage is still full of crap.

BUT, we did manage to get a ton of yard work done. John did most of it, but the kids and I helped when we could. We're pulling weeds and cutting down annuals and raking up leaves (already? aw, man!) and trying to figure out how to shape the yard for the spring. It's blatantly obvious that the previous owners only mowed and that was it. We've gotten confirmation on that from the neighbors on both sides. Apparently, the previous owner used to set his mower on the lowest possible setting so that he wouldn't have to mow as often. The poor tree roots have taken quite a beating--but so did his mower. One neighbor told us that the guy had to take his mower in to be fixed a few times for running over those tree roots! It's exhausting, but I'd still rather be outside doing all the yard work than inside doing laundry or dishes (or painting!) or whatever.

Mary Anne is going to take violin lessons! The school offers them free of charge and encourages kids to start this young, as it's apparently easier to teach them at a younger age. We have no idea if Mary will take to the violin any better than dance, but she seems interested, and it's worth a shot. We're taking her tonight to get her fitted and rent her "new" violin.

I may not get to be a Girl Scout leader this year! Absolutely no one showed up for recruitment night. It's getting tough. The schools no longer allow the Girl/Boy Scouts to advertise via flyers going home, so they have to depend on posted signs, advertisements in the papers, and word-of-mouth to get kids in. In fact, I didn't even know about recruitment night. We don't get a newspaper, and since Mary is bussed, we never drive by the school to see the signs. If I hadn't been so diligent about contacting council every other day about the status of a troop for Mary and me, I would never have known about it. I may have to stick Mary in an already existing troop in Penfield or possibly lead last year's Scottsville troop. Those poor girls still don't have a leader, so I am definitely needed there. We'll see how things unfold....

Like thieves in the night--or the plain sight of day

Izzy being somewhat unresponsive to the Sesame Street and Spongebob stickers I bought her after the first day of potty training, I made the bold switch to Hershey's Kissables. I blame my day care provider--that was all SHE had around the house when Izzy decided to suddenly try becoming a "big girl". I don't know that many girls who will respond to stickers after having chocolate as an inducement.

Anyway, I bought two little bags: one for the kitchen for potty #1, one for the upstairs bathroom, for potty #2. Izzy is doing much better for me at home, but there are still times here and there where I'm changing more diapers than I'm handing out candy. No big deal. But yesterday I happened to notice that the package of Kissables looked suspiciously "flat." Hmmm.... Sure enough, it was completely empty.

Any time candy goes missing in the house, I immediately know who the big culprit is. "MARY!" Sure enough, she shamefacedly admitting to eating all of Izzy's potty candy AND even sneaking some of the candy out of the bathroom. Well, now I know why Mary kept jumping up and wanting to cheer Izzy and give Izzy the little reward every time she used the potty. Little sneak.

At dinner, John and I made her feel bad enough about stealing from her little sister and told her that (once again) she won't be getting any candy for awhile (maybe we need to try something else, 'cause the little thief never seems to learn her lesson). And just to make sure, we asked Keith if he happened to be taking any of Izzy's candy. Nope. Not that there was any doubt. Keith is so happy-go-lucky you can't even imagine the thought even entering his head.

Fast forward to two hours later. It's way past bedtime, and I'm trying frantically to get Mary and Keith to bed. They've got their jammies on, they've brushed their teeth, and I'm trying to corral them onto the couch for their bedtime story. I hear rustling in the bathroom as I walk by. Sure enough, there is a little thief sneaking a piece of candy. But no! Not the properly shamed child #1 (still too soon for even that expert thief to try again). No! It's the innocent! The middle child who apparently realized what his life of innocence was costing him--no candy! Cripes! If we hadn't discussed it at the dinner table, he never would have been the wiser!

WHAT HAVE WE CREATED?!

Locke siting at Myrtle Beach

My step-father has an uncanny resemblance to a certain, strange character on a popular TV show....

I'm so "tarred"

...as my Grandma would say.

Due to the belief that I'm over-worked (and let's not forget under-appreciated!), I'm forcing myself to go to bed early every night. I've noticed my work skills depreciate as my stress levels go up and my sleep quotient goes down. So, I've done absolutely NOTHING this week (How could I? I've been nodding off on the couch before I even get the kids put to bed!). Meanwhile, John has finally officially finished all the paint, trim, and touch-ups on the girls' room. I'm supposed to mop the floors tonight, but unless I suddenly get a burst of energy before 8:30 tonight (when the kids go to bed, and I'm free) then that floor will just have to WAIT.

We start Keith's room this weekend. Wonder if that will also take another month? And possibly a trip to some sort of shrink for some high quality meds?

The Perils of Potty Training

Nope. Izzy is NOT one of those kids. The little stinker is using the potty about 50% of the time. And usually it's the 50% of the time that she's NOT with me. She's basically been staying dry all day at the day care, but when I'm home with her, it's hit or miss. Kids are so frustruating! But it's encouraging that she's showing any interest at all. She's about a year ahead of both her siblings on this count. Go, Izzy!

Other than the potty predicament, the weekend was pretty boring. John still painting trim, me still cleaning walls. Why am I so tired when I didn't get as much done this weekend as the previous?

A Momentous Day

Yesterday was Mary's first day at her new school. First off, the bus was about 10 minutes early. John was just calling me asking me where her jacket was, when he noticed the bus outside the garage door (yikes!). The driver said the schedules were a bit off and that he'd be there that early every day.

For the return trip, we have Mary going to a day care provider around the corner from our house. Unfortunately, the bus won't drop off right in front of the house, so Mary has quite a little jaunt from her stop to the house. The provider sends one of her older kids down the street to pick up the little kids, but since it was the first day, and we're the over-protective type of parents, John decided to take off work early and meet the bus, too. Well, John got there in plenty of time, the bus stopped, no Mary came off...and then it started rolling again. John, "Uh, excuse me!?" and stops the bus. Then Mary apparently saw John and headed to the front of the bus. Mary of course didn't recognize her stop and claims she didn't hear the driver call her name. Anyway, she made it off and got the thrill of being picked up early by Daddy.

It's hard to get out of a 6 year old what goes on when you're not around. You can ask all kinds of open-ended questions, but you're never 100% sure if what she's telling you is what really happened. The only things we could get out of her about her first day was that she "had a blast", she went to the library, and she couldn't play on the playground equipment because she didn't have sneakers on (uh, why didn't anyone tell THE PARENTS about that little rule?). I'm not sure what else happened during the day, but at least she seems to like it so far and was very eager to go back this morning.

Keith started his "preschool" yesterday. His day care provider covers preschool basics with the kids, but took most of the summer "off" from teaching since they were basically outside all day every day. Well, the little kids were jealous about their older siblings starting school yesterday, so she picked yesterday for them to have their "own school" and start their lessons again. She gave them all an alphabet puzzle. My goodness, you'd think the thing was gilded in 24 karat gold with the way Keith handles it. Since Keith is now the oldest, he's the most advanced. Leona quickly learned that he just needs to work more on his handwriting, 'cause he's got the alphabet down pat.

Izzy had a pretty busy day, too. After day care, we all went to Pizza Hut and Target. We didn't get home until after 8:00. I started to put her into a clean diaper and her pajamas, when I noticed that her pull-up was dry. Hmmm.... "Hey, Iz, you wanna sit on the potty?" I sat her down then went to go get her a book to look at while she was sitting there. By the time I got back, she'd already peed in the potty! Wow! This kind of caught me off guard--I really thought she wasn't quite ready yet and hadn't been pushing her yet. I hadn't even bought her any rewards--stickers--yet. So Mary gave Izzy one of her stickers, and we all cheered her on.

This morning Izzy woke John and me up at 4:00 and would NOT go back to sleep. Not in her bed, not with us, no where, no how. I finally got up just before 6:00 and got in the shower (John had already given up, too and had gone downstairs to sleep on the couch). When I got out, Izzy started fussing again. Since it was basically time for her to get up anyway, I picked her up and took her into the bathroom. Sure enough, she was still dry from the night before! So, I put her on the potty and even through the tired tears she was still crying, she peed in the potty again! Wow. It's too soon to tell, but there is the glimmer of a hope that she will be one of those kids who practically train themselves. I haven't had one of those kids yet, so I doubt it'll be that easy, but one can hope.....

Stuff I got done this weekend

1. Touched-up the paint in the girls' room.
2. Mopped the kitchen floor.
3. Scraped the wallpaper off Keith's walls.
4. Painted the trim in the girls' room.
5. Worked 4 hours OT.
6. Finally cleared that one #$% level in Super Mario Sunshine.
7. Completely cleared out ALL the boxes of toys from the playroom then put them back--in an orderly manner. WOW.
8. Put a second coat of paint in the trim in the girls' room.
9. Cleaned the bathroom.

John and I are soooo sick of painting, we're not sure when Keith's room will ever get done. And my thumb and wrist hurt from all the painting and the Super Mario. Ouch.

Look out, Trading Spaces! We're ready for you!

John and I took a couple days off this week and finally started painting the girls' room. John was a bit apprehensive about the two shades of blue we picked, but now that we've gotten two coats on and the paint has dried--it looks awesome! John and I are feeling proud of ourselves for the job we did since we're such amateurs and haven't painted anything in years. We still have to paint the inside of the closet and the trim, but so far, so good. I'll have to try to load some before/after pictures when it's done.

We took Mary to her new school yesterday for orientation where she got to meet her teacher. We walked around the school a bit and dropped off the ten tons of supplies we had to buy. After visiting five different stores (one of them being an office supplies store), we were still short one thing: the BROWN clipboard. What the freak? Where did all the brown clipboards go???? But I felt pretty good when I noticed that in all the mounds of supplies accumulating in the bins separated on the floor that there were only about THREE brown clipboards there. Obviously, we weren't the only family who couldn't find one. Whew! I was beginning to wonder about a conspiracy. "Hey, Mack! Here they come! Hide the brown clipboards, quick! Make sure you leave about 20 CLEAR ones out, though!" I am proud to announce that on my lunch hour today I did stop at yet ANOTHER office supplies store and finally found one! Ha! I fooled them with my diligence and easy access to multiple shopping choices!

The long weekend is yet another bummer for me. The biggest pain about doing payroll is that any time there is a three day weekend, it means I'll have to come in the Sunday to work. It's not too bad since I get paid double time and usually only work 2-4 hours, but it's quite an inconvenient break in what used to be a guaranteed three-day stretch of much-needed time off work. I'll just keep focusing on the extra dough I'll receive. Yay! Money for more paint!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

What are you gonna do with your life?!

I WANNA ROCK!

Er, well, not quite. But now that I'm having to drive almost 45 minutes every day to and from work, it gives me quite a lot of thinking time. Well, when the kids aren't being so noisy that I can't even focus on driving, let alone thinking. (Boy, is this drive going to be fun in the winter!) Anyrate, as noticed with my previous post, I'm thinking a lot about my job and how I don't really like it that much. The pay is great, the benefits are greater, but there is still something lacking in it. Perhaps it's just that I've worked for this company for eight years and in my current position for six. Perhaps it's the fact that I'm in a union, so--despite the great pay and benefits--I've somehow or another been screwed out of a promotion several times due to asinine rules--from both the union and the company. I get told time and time again what a great employee I am, but I feel no benefits arising from it. I am STUCK.

So, what do I do? Isn't it interesting that I have a degree and yet no idea how to use it anymore. My teaching license expired five years ago (and was only good in Indiana, anyway). If I wanted to go into teaching again, I'd have to get my master's degree. We don't exactly have the cash for me to pursue that. While going through the angst of trying to figure out how to stay at home with my kids, I thought about and pursued all kinds of different options: selling crap from home, running a day care, becoming a medical transcriptionist, etc., etc. But nothing really sounded like it would fit my life or fit "ME"--or was too expensive to get into.

What a position to find myself in. Too qualified for some jobs, not qualified enough (and no money to get it) for others. But what it all boils down to is: I don't know what I want to do. I don't know what kind of job to pursue to feel as if I'm doing something worthwhile and not robbing myself of time with my husband and kids. So I stay at the same old job, afraid of losing the great pay/benefits that so many other jobs lack now-a-days, and wait perhaps for fate to intervene. Maybe we'll move out of Rochester--nope, that's not going to happen NOW. Hmmm...maybe when my union's contract comes up in February, I'll get laid off--not likely, but ya never know. Maybe a giant bundle of cash will fall from the heavens and right into my lap. Maybe I'll get some sort of miraculous flash from God telling me what would suit me and my lifestyle perfectly. Yeah, right.

So all these thoughts swirl round and round my head while I drive 45 minutes to and from work (when I'm able to block out the kids, that is). What the heck AM I gonna do with my life? Now that our housing situation is no longer temporary, what can I do to improve my vocation?

*sigh* I need a shorter drive.

I need a new job

Internet BAD

So I decide to go online the other day to look for horse decals I can stick up in Mary's room. You know--the stickers that are non-permanent and won't ruin your paint and when your kid gets sick of their current room theme can just be ripped off like PRESTO!. Anyway, looking up stuff is BAD. I found a comforter set which is just adorable (and reasonably priced) and--if purchased--would screw up the color scheme that we picked--and already bought--for her room. It's a good thing I've got some pretty solid will power....but it sure is tough! I am considering buying her one of the horse pillows. Mary's a might bit jealous of the Saturn glow-in-the-dark pillow that middle child received and has been grumping about it for a few days. *sigh* BTW--I never did find any decals to stick up. Gotta keep googling, I guess.

Someone asked me the other day when we were going to have a house warming party. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!