Happy Halloween! Ba-hahahaha!! (thats my evil laugh). Trick or treating-- the begging for candy from strangers. We spend 364 days a year telling our kids to run, run away fast when a stranger approaches with candy, but yet on Halloween, it becomes ok to take candy from strangers. Crazy!! But, in all honesty, I love halloween. I love to dress up with the kids. It's the one day of the year that it becomes ok for me to be as crazy as I really am. I love taking the kids trick or treating. And of course, there is that wonderful little thing called:
"The Mommy Tax"! You gotta love the Mommy Tax! That ensures you good candy for at least another week! The kids get to eat all the candy that they want on Halloween night, then it all goes into a giant bucket, so that there is no fighting over the candy. Which also supplies Mom and Dad.

In our old neighborhood it was a blast to go trick or treating. We had a great neighborhood. All of us close- in proximity- neighbors would give the kids special treat bags. Then we would hit the streets. One street over there was a house that turned their garage into a "cafe". They grilled hot dogs for the whole street, made hot chocolate for everyone, and served kool-aide and of course beer. It was all free for the taking. As you can imagine--our neighborhood was THE neighborhood to trick-or-treat in! It was great, great fun. They made a spook alley in the back yards, and used their ATV's to drive those daring enough to experience it around. My kids loved it! It was great fun. And the candy was awesome.

I was a little sad this year, thinking about the hotdogs, and spook alley, and not really very excited to trick-or-treat...but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Our new neighborhood was alive and kicking!! There were kids galore, and it was fun to listen to the screaming and having a blast. Some of the neighbors really got into it, by playing MJ's Thriller out their windows, or other scarey, festive music. Most had their smoke machines, and a lot had weird dancing zombie type things. Several houses had the grown-ups all dressed up handing out candy. There was one lady who had gone all to the nines in her witch costume--complete with the spooky-witch- british accent. Her skin was all green, and her teeth, yes teeth, glowed in the dark. It was wild. Thing 2 started toward the door, saw her, and turned around and ran back to me. He says "I don't need candy from her". So I took his hand and walked him to the door... it was fun to watch him interact with her. The funniest part is she is the president of the childrens class at our church!! How great is that?! The other house that completely freaked them both out was this house where they were dressed up like zombie/monsters. You had to go past him to get the candy, and he would growl at the kids that they could have 3 pieces of candy . Thing2 would'nt go up. Once I convinced him to go up, the critter just growled at him, and he took that candy so fast and ran his little heart out. He had the funniest look on his face-- I wish I would've had a camera. It was priceless!!

Thing 3 did NOT want to go Trick-or-treating. The kids would ring the door, yell trick-or-treat, and she would freak out! Then our neighbor boy came over, and got his candy. We said to her "Thing3, don't you want to go to anonymous neighbor boys house and get candy?" She got all excited and yells "Yeah!" Then she grabbed her bag and was out the door. She would run, not walk from house to house. But, always end up at the back of the pack of kids. One time she got all mad, turns around to me, yells "I can't see" then growls the loudest growl. It was soo funny. All the kids started laughing and moved out of her way. Because she was shorter than everyone else, she couldn't run as fast. That meant that she never got to ring the doorbell. Several times we had to ask the people to shut their doors, and let her ring the doorbell. She is soo funny! She had a blast. Once she got to Anonymous Neighbor boys house, (who BTW is her cousin. She loves the whole family. There are very few people that she will go to without crying--these guys are among the chosen few! ) she was done, and wanted to go home. So, we made a bee-line to Grandma & Pappys house, and she zonked out before we got there. I am glad she made up her mind to go trick-or-treating.

Anyway-- I love Halloween. I know, as a Christian, I shouldn't. But, I do. I love the parties, the pranks, the jokes, the costumes, the falling leaves... it's just a great time. It is the start of "the holidays" for me! I was a dope this year and forgot to take pictures of the kids trick-or-treating. I guess there will be no scrapbook pages. Oh well. Some of your best memories are what I call Kodak moments. Those pictures that you have in your brain of events... some are better left in our heads! I have that!

Today was the childrens program for our church. I was extremely nervous. When we practiced on Friday--the whole thing took 2 hours. I was dying. Were we REALLY going to have to sit on the stand with all these rowdy kids for 2 hours?? Thankfully, no. It was only 1 hour and 15 minutes. We made it without killing someone. We made it without any major distractions or embarrassments. It was all good.

I remember the stress of those programs. I was glad that it was them, and not me! I am glad that we are getting into a groove with the kids. Hombre is soo good with kids. He is a natural. I love to watch him interact with them. He is the pied piper of children!

We went to our cousins house for dinner tonight. It was great great fun. Usually within 1 hour of being there, Hombre is giving me the secret signal that it's time to go... but that signal never came! We really enjoyed ourselves, and had a great time getting to know them. It was fun to reminisce about our childhood, and to learn more about their families. I totally enjoyed myself.

It has been a blessing for me to have them live behind us. It was such a difficult move for me, that having family live behind me was reassuring. When ever I get sad being here- I can look out my back window and see their house and realize I am right where God wants me to be. How could we NOT be? It is NO coincidence that my cousin happens to live right behind me, and we never knew it. We hadn't seen each other in over 15 years!! That is not a coincindence, that is the hand of the Lord! I recognize it when I see it. I am where I should be, doing what I should be doing. It is time for us to reconnect with family--both of our families! I see Hombre's Grandfather working miracles, and it is just amazing!!

Noises. Some noises are good: children laughing, babies crying, babies cooing, basketball games, swooshing of snow skis, the humm of a boat, the lawn mower... but some noises are bad. Some are actually really obnoxious. Especially in the middle of the night.

I had a nightmare last night. Some crazy thing was trying to catch Hombre and Me, and we were hiding from it... I woke myself up yelling his name. Surprisingly, he didn't wake up. But, then I heard it. The noise. At first I thought it was the bathroom sink on, slowly dripping. No, not my bathroom. No, not the kids bathroom. Was it the laundry room sink? No. Where was that comming from? Then I realized it was above me, in the ceiling. How could that be? I got a ladder, and stood there. Sure enough, there it was. The noise. Drip. Drip. Drip. Constantly, not stopping. Drip. Drip. Drip. Now, I am a freaker. That is common knowledge. It doesn't take much to get me to freak out. I go and wake up Hombre. He looks at me like I am on crack. He comes out, listens, then says "Yup. It's a drip. Go back to sleep." And proceeds to go back to bed. WHAT?? How am I supposed to sleep with that? The noise?! Drip. Drip. Drip. I am sure that it gets louder when I go to the family room. Drip. Drip. Drip. I know that sounds crazy. But I am sure that it is dripping louder, as if to say, "don't forget that I am here!"

Fast forward to morning. Hombre recalls me waking him up, but is convinced that there was no drip. I convince him to get on the ladder, and sure enough, he hears it too! And now, the ceiling is wet! Yikes!! It's freak out time again. I call several roofers. No one can help us. Not until next week. Yikes! Still freaking. I take the kids to their halloween parties. All the while obssesing over the dripping. I get home, and I poke a hole in the ceiling, cause its sagging.

Then I do what any normal woman does. I called my best friend. I told her how my life sucked. That everything was falling apart. And I proceeded to tell her everything that was ever wrong... you know how it all comes rushing back to you when you are upset?? She told me life didn't suck, that I just needed to cry. I needed to get it all out. Then I would be able to think straight. So I did. I cried my eyballs out.

My parents called while I was crying... They could tell I was a mess, so they came rushing to my rescue. My awesome Dad climbs up into the attic and diagnoses the leak. "It is comming from those un-sightly pipes on the top of the house. You just need to put some tar around them. It's no big deal. All is well! Stop freaking out!" Awesome Dad says. Whew! Am I ever relieved.

I do have to say this though--having a good, hard, freak out cry is cleansing! I feel better, and its cause the house isn't falling in on us. But also I suspect, its cause I cried the ugly cry today.

Ok, so you may have noticed that I have yet again not posted anything for over 1 week. Well, this is because my computer was freaking out. Everytime I turned it on, the screen would go all sorts of funky colors. Then get all wavy and weird. So, I went 1 entire week, thinking that my computer was broken, AND NOT using it, or the internet! Whew! That was difficult!!
When I couldn't stand it anymore, I decided to "brave" the obnoxious display on the screen and check my email. Then, I had this bright idea... I wonder if the reason its wigging out is because something is unhooked. Now, according to my youngest sister, I have yet to join the 21st century. In idoit terms: I am a computer retard. I know, shocking! LOL!! Anyway, it took quite a lot of looking (not really sure what I was looking for, but I was diligently looking), had to use the handy dandy flashlight... but low and behold, what did I find? The monitor was unhooked! Yippe skippee! I can join the land of the living again!! I fiddled and faddled a bit, and got this thing up and running again! YE HAW!!! I did learn something interesting... what in the world did we EVER do with out the internet and google? Thing 1 would be doing her homework last week, and not know the answer, and want to google it... WOW!! How on earth did we ever survive without this handy dandy little thing we call the internet??

I couldn't sleep, again. So I got up and checked on all the Things... I had to look at them each twice, cause it was too wierd!! They each were sleeping in the exact the same position. Covers kicked off, with their arms up above their heads. My mom always says "that's the sign of a content baby!" Oh, that makes me happy!! I wish I had thought to take a picture of each of them... but alas, its the same as with the eggs... I just plum forgot!

So, that got me thinking of all the things that I love. I decided to make a list, and post it. It is in no particular order... just things that make my heart warm!

1. My kids sleeping. That obvious! It's cause their not fighting, whining, or "frowing fits" and I can look at them and remember that I DO love them! Even when they are little demons!

2. My Dog. She is sortof of a freak... but she gets so excited to see me. Even if I just went to take the garbage out. She greets me like she hasn't seen me for years! That makes me happy!

3. Books. I love books. I find myself thinking often: "Must have books. Need more books!" Is that healthy? Dunno, but I love books!

4. Music. I love music. My friends always tease me about the fact that I can tell you exactly where I was when I first heard a song...I think its cause my life is puncuated by song, and really its just one big gigantic musical... I am constantly thinking about "what song would I put here in my 'movie of life'." Hummm... that is a little weird.

5. Food. I love eating out, at REAL restaurants. Not Burger King or McDonalds... There is nothing more satisfying to me than a good meal that someone else has cooked. Hombre teases me that when I order, I take FOREVER to make up my mind and I tend to OVER order... meaning I order too much food. I think thats cause I always view my meals as my last meal... what if I died, and this was my last meal... I would want it to be awesome. Hombre always out orders me--that bugs me! Umm, I really am a little weird! Is that really a surprise? LOL!

6. Laughing. I love to laugh! There is nothing more healing to me than a good laugh! I heard once that if you want to stay young and look young, you have to laugh! I like those kind of laughs that get you going soo hard that you can't talk, and the tears just flow-- thats a good laugh!

7. Hombre. Need I say more?

8. Water. I love the sound of water... rivers, lakes, oceans! I love it all. It is the most relaxing sound in the world to me. I want, someday, a house on a lake with a huge, awesome porch that I can sit, listen to the water and read a book. Ahh--heaven.

9. Fireflies. They are soo magical. I can't even begin to explain how incredible they are. If you have never had the chance to see them, then take a trip to the mid west in the month of July (they are only out for like 6 weeks) and see if you don't find them the most enchanting things around. When I create my own worlds, fireflies will be everywhere! Just one look at them, and they make you happy!

10. Cicadas. I love to hear them "sing". (click on the AU files in the cicada link to hear what they sound like) The first time I heard them, I thought there was an electrical wire down somewhere... but then I became used to them, and their "songs" became a peaceful sound to me. Now, the bugs themselves are gross, but the sound they make is music to my ears!

11. Skiing. I love to snow ski. I am soo excited for it to snow so that I strap back on those skis and tackle the mountain... or better yet let the mountain tackle me!

12. Campfires. I love the smell of campfires. I reminds me of being a child. Why? I dunno. We never camped. But for some reason the smell of fires reminds me of home.

13. Traveling. I love to travel and SEE things and places and people. You learn so much more by going, doing and seeing. I want some day to travel all over the US, and then branch out to the world. There is so much to see and learn. Some of my favorite cities: San Diego, San Fransico, SLC, Chicago, Jackson Hole, Seattle, Spokane, Chelan, Couer d' alene, Madison, London, HongKong, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, The North Shore, Oregon Coast... I could go on and on... I just haven't seen enough of the world to be satisfied.

14. People. I love to watch people. Everyone has a story... I like to see how they interact with each other, how they act when they think no one is watching. You can learn a lot about life from silently watching people. My favorite memory is going into the city to the mall at christmas time with my cousin and sitting in the food court and just watching people go by. THAT was a great time!

I could go on and on... but this is just the short list of "a few of my favorite things!"

It is amazing how quickly time flies-- it has been 12 days since my last post. I am shocked! I have such a hard time sleeping at night lately, and I lay there and think of all these great post ideas... but then I finally DO fall asleep, and by the time I am coherent again, they are all a distant memory.

There is one thing that has been consistently on my mind. It was an interview that I saw with good ole George Dub-ya... DISCLAIMER: I try to refrain from talking about politics with anyone that I would like to continue being friends with. Friends, family and politics just don't mix. I tried recently to talk politics with my Mom-- It didn't go over very well. I guess that tells you that I have sortof a "different" view. Whatever that means.

I really don't like Dub-ya. There are soo many reasons why... I wouldn't even venture to start naming them. I heard him recently in an interview defending his appointment of Harriett Meirs to the Supreme Court. He said: "I listened to what Congress had to say. They had some interesting ideas. One of those ideas was 'Hey--why not appoint someone who has never been a judge before"? UHHHHH- OK!?! That makes no sense to me. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I guess the reason I am not in favor of someone who has never been a judge being in the highest court in the land is this: Will she be able to rise to the pressure that she will be facing, and rule in favor of the LAW and not popular/political opinion? She has no experience in this venue... I just think that it is a tad bit risky to appoint someone with no experience to our highest court of law. I guess the old addage really IS true-- It's not WHAT you know its WHO you know! One good thing for Harriett-- she'll never have another job interview again. Wouldn't THAT be nice??!

The next thing that I have been thinking about is something that I saw on CNN (again late at night when I couldn't sleep). Did you know that in California, normal Joe's like you and I can write a law, and if no one in the Senate apposes it, it is then MADE a law??!! Umm, I think that is cool to some extent, but a little freaky deeky in another. I would like to make some laws of my own...

1. Mandatory prison time, (no getting out early for good behaviour or sentence suspended, or sentences served at the same time) for anyone convicted of child abuse of any kind.

2. 3 strikes your out! There are too many sicko's on the street, and they keep on offending! 3 strikes your out. (even if that means 3 different charges at the same time-- too bad soo sad! Throw away the key!!! Just move the prison out to the middle of the desert ! I have major issues with our prision system. It is entirely too much like a country club-- but that is another post for another time!)

3. A toll road for the new highway they want to build here. That would absorb some of the cost. Flip, I would be willing to pay .80 cents per toll booth if that meant there were alternate routes in and out of the city!

4. A ban on all loud rap music that you can hear through your own car while the windows are up, and you can feel the base in your chest... oh wait! I haven't expereinced that here--- YET!

Ummm, thats about all of them for now. Last night, when I couldn't sleep, I had a huge list of the laws that I would write... but that is all of them that I can remember. If I remember more I will post them later. I am sure that we all have a few that we would write ourselves!!

Borrowing the words of the great Garrison Keilor :
"Be well, do good work, and keep in touch".

There are a lot of adjustments when it comes to moving... unpacking the boxes, finding the "right" Doctor, finding a good gas station, your favorite grocery store, and the noises. Everywhere you live, you have your typical noises. But, it seems like those noises are amplified at night, and especially when it's a new environment. I swear, last night, I heard them all!! Every single last little one! You know the ones that I am talking about... the ones where if you've lived there a while, you can tell yourself "Oh, thats just the water softener kicking on" or " thats just a tree rubbing against the rain gutters", or " thats just the neighbor's dog barking"... but when you are in a new environment... everything seems louder, and scarier! Last night it was raining. I woke up in a panic, thinking someone was breaking into the house... NOPE! Just the wind attacking my windows with fervor! I get settled back down, and am just dropping off to sleep, when I hear, what sounds to me like a CRASH! I panic, check on all the kids... Umm, nope, just one of the kids' toys falling off their bed. I get settled down, yet again, and hear a low, long "HISSSSSSSSSS" What the heck?? I think for sure I am on to something... and start following the sound... all the way to the basement. It's just the watersoftener kicking on. Now I am wide awake! I tried the whole counting thing... 1 one thousand, 2 one thousand, 3 one thousand...not working.... 4 one thousand, 5 one thousand 6 one thousand... still wide awake.... What do you do when you are wide awake and its 4:00 in the morning? You do what every other normal person does... you watch infomercials.

Did you know that you can now buy software that will teach you, yes teach you, how to use Ebay? As if! They say that they can teach you how to make the sure fire auctions and you can make up to $5,000 a week!! Wow! If I had NO brain whatsoever, that would sound pretty inticing to me.... You even have a 90 day money back gaurentee... all risk free for the 1 time low, low price of $49.99 plus shipping and handeling(which happens to be another 20 bucks!)

This leads me nicely into my next point. Everyone knows someone who is a sucker for infomercials... Well my friend told me the funniest story today about a person that we both know. He is kindof a dork. Well, that is actually putting it nicely. He is a complete weirdo. His mother refers to him as "unique". That's just a nice way to say "my son is freaking weirdo!" But, hey, what do I know? Anyway, Anonymous Weirdo is addicted to infomercials. He is out to make it rich, and do it quick, without any work....There are so many stories to be told about Anonymous Weirdo, but this is the latest. He bought boxes and boxes of vitamin supplements. He was convinced that this was how he was going to make his millions. He purchased so many boxes of the supplements, that the bedroom where Anonymous Weirdo's son sleeps is too full for the son. He told my friends husband, Anonymous Lawyer, that he wanted to sue this vitamin supplement company. "They stole his money." He asked A.W "Why do you want to sue the company?" and A.W. replied: "Well, they said in the infomercial that this stuff was a 'sure thing! it would sell itself' Well, it's not selling itself... its all still sitting in that bedroom taking up space! The Vitamins are not selling themselves!!" Oh my!! Ummm....
Note to self: Vitamins do not sell themselves! Do not believe anyone who tells you they do!