Another Halloween, that is.  I guess we’ll be inundated with Christmas stuff, at the stores, now.  Thank God we don’t have TV.  1) We aren’t subject to those damn political ads, and 2) No toy and Christmas commercials.  Don’t get me wrong, I love Jesus and I think he’s the righteous son of the Big L-to-the-O-to-the-RD, but I really hate the commercialization of the holiday.   But, let’s get back to the subject at hand.  HALLOWEEN a/k/a The Day of Candy and Dress Up.

The truck was worked on this morning and I had it back in my possession a little after lunch. It only set me back $90.00 for the rear brake line, and $55.00 for the towing.  Not bad considering we could have been DEAD!   I digress; we went to Kroger, got a frozen pizza for the kids, picked up some last minute 50% off Halloween items (including an adorable Pumpkin costume for Davey), and two pumpkins.

We got home and while the pizza baked I carved one pumpkin.  That’s as far as I got, and the kids were okay with that.   Then we got ready.  Olivia needed her face painted skeleton-like for her “dead Guinevere” costume, and Mikey needed his face dirtied up for his zombie look.  We couldn’t find Benny’s pants for his folk dance costume, so we improvised and used some old gi pants of Mikey’s.  I got Davey suited in his adorable pumpkin costume, took some pics of the troop, and off we went to Mo’s house.

It was quite a night.  Her neighborhood is quite hilly, but the neighbors made up for it.  All nice people, and I noticed many differences between trick-or-treating in the north and trick-or-treating in the south.

• In the north no one sits outside to give out candy.  It’s too butt-effin’ cold, don’t'cha know.
• In the south everyone sits outside to give out candy.  They even go so far as to congregate with a fire pit, and beaucoup de food!  Everyone is invited to eat.  Lu-lu (Mo’s daughter) managed to get a piece of pizza that later Davey stole.  Well, he didn’t steal it.  The crust was set on his stroller tray and he claimed it.  His tray, his crust.  Fair is fair.
• In the north you rarely see people driving their trick-or-treaters around.
• In the south you see people driving their trick-or-treaters around wayyyy toooo much.   We even chanted “Park and Ride” to one group of teens riding in the back of a flat-bed.
• In the north it’s usually so cold that you must put layers on under the costume.  There’s even the rare occasion that a winter coat must be donned.
• In the south you can wear a short sleeve tee when you hit the pavement.  Seriously.

When we got back to Mo’s I let the kids eat one treat and off we took for home.  Davey, who was a trooper the whole night, pitched a fit 3/4 of the way home.  Baby would just not give up and sleep.  Poor thing.  He finally zonked out, and I haven’t heard a peep from him.

All-in-all, the day was pretty good.  I enjoyed the change this year as this was our first year trick-or-treating down here.  I missed doing our thing in NY, though.

I did tell the kids that we aren’t going anywhere tomorrow.  Save Kroger because, of course, I forgot to buy formula while we were there this afternoon.  It must’ve been the 50% off Halloween stuff that had me mesmerized.

Stay tuned for my Thursday Thirteen.  I’ll be showcasing “13 pictures from Halloween 2007″.

W O R D L E S S W E D N E S D A Y

This was taken last year, during Fire Prevention Week!
Have a plan and practice it.

NFPA Website

Even a bad day needs a self portrait.
Straight from the camera phone.  If only you could read my mind, it’s saying, “THIS DAY BLOWS!”

The day started out relatively good. The baby woke up at 5:15am, played a bit, took a bottle, and went back to sleep. We slept in my bed until about 8:40am, and then got up to get started with the day. I got the kids fed (toast with cream cheese and fruit: breakfast of champions), drank my coffee, computed a bit, and then started to get everyone ready.

Today being Tuesday, we had home school co-op. We had to leave early because today was “picture day”. No biggie. I had all the clothes laid out and I’d already taken my bath, so all that was left was getting ready. This was the easiest task of the day, I’m sure of it now. We were out the door by 11:30am.

Got to co-op at 12:10pm.

Pictures were done by 12:30pm.

We were at McDonald’s by 12:40pm. I ate here under dourest; it was Olivia’s turn to pick where we ate, and she’s all ga-ga for those stinking cheap toys they give in the Happy Meal.

Finished eating and back at co-op by 1:20pm.

Co-op went from 1:30 – 4:00pm and since I’m lead teacher, and my back is on fire, I declared that I would not be picking up kids. Luckily for me, I have all wonderful assistant teachers. They’re all caring, supportive, and very understanding. Blessed is an understatement, but I digress. I took it easy and my back would thank me later. Read on…

On the way home I was gabbing to Maureen (reference: best friend, a/k/a Mo) about how I wanted a cup of coffee, and should I get Dunkin’s or Starbucks? I chose Dunkin’s. I pulled in, drove around to the order box, placed my order, and pulled around to the window. As I started to brake I felt the brake pedal go straight to the floor. I knew that was right. I knew that was not good. I stopped, fortunately, paid for my coffee and rolled off. Mo was still on the phone and I was really scared. What would I do? Oh my God, was this seriously happening? Could I get home like this? No effin’ way. The brakes were out. It was all I could do to get to the parking spot at the bank, next door to Dunkin Donuts. You could imagine the sheer look of terror on my face as I realized that if I had not stopped for coffee, I could have lost my brakes on the highway. The 65 mile per hour highway. With four kids. No brakes. Car crash or roll-over anyone?

I swear, shit like this does not happen when Michael is home. Shit like this happens when you least need it to.

I called Michael, and he gave me advice about what I should do.

I called my other friend, Michelle, to see if she could pick me up. She told me she’d be there ASAP, which was about an hour. I said, “No problem! I’d wait till 10:00pm, if I had to!”

I called Mo back, and she told me she’d come out and hang with us while we waited for Michelle. Unfortunately the amount of kids I have exceeds the number of seats in her car.

Mo and Michelle arrived at the restaurant at which we were waiting, at the same time. Mo stayed with the kids while Michelle took me over to the car shop down the road. We arranged for the tow truck to get the truck, but he was an hour out. By this time it was 5:40pm.

*sigh* <or> *deep breath*

We putzed around, and I finally got the call that the tow truck would be there in a few minutes. I got him paid, and off we went. By the time we got home it was 7:30pm.

Seriously busted.

I bathed the baby, and as I was dressing him my back started to scream at me again. It said, “Hey bitch, I thought you were going to rest me today!”

“I swear I was,” I replied, “I just wasn’t ready for the shit storm. Honest.”

As I picked Davey up, my back got caught and I began to really feel the pain of the day. I actually cried as I descended the stairs to get his bottle; it was that bad.

The house is quiet now, save the hum of the baby monitor. I’m tired. I have a bottle of wine, but I’ll be damned if I’m too lazy to open it. I think I just need to go to sleep. Yes, that’s probably what I need.

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Moral of the story:
When you are leaving your house to go out and about, and the hatch doesn’t open, DON’T say you hate your truck. Love your truck no matter what kind of piece of shit it is.  Otherwise one or more of your kids will look at you like the little  smart-ass they are, and say, “Mama, you shouldn’t have cursed at the truck today!”