It's the annual Halloween blog!

That time is here again! I know you're all excited about the annual Halloween blog (if you are that interested, you can find the last 2 years' on my myspace). I was a little disappointed. There didn't seem to be nearly as many funny moments tonight as in the past two years. (And no, we don't have the time machine set to October 31st. In the Dayton area, they schedule "Beggars Night" for the 30th on years where Halloween falls on a Friday or a Sunday). There were a few cute moments though, so here they are--as usual, in bullet format. :)

--After a pack of 3 boys got candy from me, one looked in the other's bag (presumably to see what I'd given him, since I had a variety I was giving out). He stood there rifling through his brother's (friend's?) bag and finally the exasperated mother yelled from the sidewalk, "Diego, you're being high maintenance! Come on!"

--I had a few silly responses to the "What do you say?" prompts of the parents when the kid reached the doorstep. One kid said, "Merry Christmas!" and another just looked at me and said "Halloween." Not "trick-or-treat." OK.

--My favorite costume of the night was a kid dressed as Napolean Dynamite. He had the curly blondish fro wig, the big glasses, the "Vote for Pedro" shirt, and his jeans were tucked into his boots. I'm not a fan of that movie (I really want that 2 hours of my life back!) but it was a pretty good costume. I almost asked him if he liked my sleeves or if he would dance for the candy.

--My favorite parent of the night came up to me and asked, "Do you know where Trunk Drive is?" I told her I was relatively new to the neighborhood and had seen it close by on walks, but I wasn't sure which direction it was in. She said, "Oh, we're new too and now I don't know how to get home!" Turns out, she was using a firetruck that sat at our instersection for the first hour (they had the lights flashing and the firemen were basically glorified crossing guards who handed out candy and gave the littlest kids a thrill.) as her landmark to know which street to turn down, and when the firetruck left she had no idea where she was in the neighborhood. When I pointed to the corner and told her the firetruck (unless there was more than one!) had been sitting there, she breathed a sigh of relief and said she could find home now that she knew she was on the street from which Trunk branched off of. Random question: which is worse? Trunk Dr. or Gross Dr.? Seriously...who named the streets in this neighborhood?

--Tiny rant: As nice as it would be to have both parents go out with the kid and be able to enjoy it with him/her, I think it is totally unfair when both the mom and the dad take the kids out and don't leave somebody at home to give out candy. I think it is cheap and selfish. There. I said it.

--Mark was told today that he's allowed to dress up in costume for work tomorrow. (So now all my AF wife friends are thinking "what the heck kind of military is Mark in?!? My husband's flying helicopters in Iraq!" I know, I know. :)) Besides the whole handing out candy part, we're not really into Halloween so he's obviously not going to dress up. I did, however, suggest that he go as a colonel because we have a set of colonel rank that his uncle gave me upon Mark's commissioning (so I'd always "outrank" Mark. :) I guess if he one day makes general (psha :)) he'll outrank me then, but it turns out that it's pretty hard to find generals' stars in the military clothing store and colonel rank was the best Uncle David could do for me.

--Trick-or-treating was supposed to go from 6-8 pm. I completely ran out of candy at 7:30. The best part was that I ran out when a group of about 15 kids all came up at the same time. Actually it was 2 groups who reached the house at the same time--about 6-8 little kids and 7 teenagers. The little kids got to me first and I had the exact number of pieces for that little kid group and it gave me a little squeal of delight when I dropped the last pack of skittles into the bucket of a kid in a stroller and held the empty bowl up for the high schoolers standing behind the little kid group. I put on a sad face and said "Aww! Sorry guys! Just a few seconds too late!" but I was smiling on the inside. ;) Teenagers who trick-or-treat annoy me, unless they actually put serious effort into their costumes. These didn't, so I was perfectly fine with the timing of my empty bowl.

--I started with A TON of candy. A TON. I always had what I thought was a ton at Eglin, and I always gave each kid 2 pieces and ended up with some left over. I knew there were probably more kids in our neighborhood here, so I started out with a ton and then went out and got 5 more bags yesterday because I was scared I didn't have enough. Tonight, I started out giving out 2 pieces and hit panic mode at 6:45 and switched to 1 per kid. When I ran out and came inside at 7:30, I got all the empty bags and added them up. The grand total was 18 1/4 pounds of candy. That. is. rediculous.

So, that was Halloween. It didn't get much attention at my house this year. It sort of snuck up on me, so I never got around to getting a pumpkin, and I'm sure that if I had one I wouldn't have had time to carve it. I hauled a fake one with a little light bulb outside with me and called it a day. :) I didn't dress up (besides my pumpkin beret :)) and Fredo spent the whole trick-or-treat time in his crate, so he didn't dress up either this year. I didn't even get Sarah Beth a costume! I hear the gasp from all of you out there. Yes, babies in costume are very cute, but seriously...it was freezing and she wasn't going to sit outside with me, plus her bedtime was halfway through trick-or-treat time, so we just didn't even go there. She did stand just inside the glass door and play with candy wrappers for a while (and lick the door, which was hilarious but totally gross), so she got to watch the kids and her cuteness was admired by kids and parents alike, even though she wasn't in costume.

Random things :)

I'm sorry that with the exception of the book on the Palin rally ya'll have just gotten posts about random things instead of focused updates. I just can't think of many subjects right now that are important enough to dedicate a whole post to...but I do have a few little updates to share so for now that's all your going to get until we have some bigger news. :)



--It's cold. I love it. Except at night in my house. :) The baby is the issue here. Since we're now paying for our electricity, I'd love to just bundle up and keep the thermostat super low, but I'm scared that I'm freezing out my poor daughter as she sleeps. We've got her in the fleece/flannel "blanket sleepers" that are thicker than her little cotton ones, but I'm just not sure it's enough. I guess if she still sleeps through the night, she's warm enough, right? She'd be waking us up if she were that cold, right? Paranoid first-time mother, party of one. :)


--Speaking of the weather and the baby, here are some pictures of Sarah Beth modeling her new winter coat.


She hasn't actually worn it outside yet. For now, she has a purple fleece hooded jacket that I think keeps her warm enough on the run from the car to the store and it fits much better, meaning she can actually move in it. It's been tough finding coats, though. The smallest size they come in is apparently 12 months, so most of the time when I try them on her and zip them up, her hands and face completely disappear. It's hysterical and I want to buy them just for that, but if they're not actually, you know....functional...then I should probably save my money, huh? The pink coat above was chosen mostly because it isn't too horribly bulky and it doesn't have rhinestones, Dora the Explorer, or animal print...although the fur on the hood is a nice touch. :) As you can see from her expression (and those of you who have tried with me know it's sometimes tough to get her to smile in front of a camera!) she digs it. :)

--We saw a mouse scamper across the aisle in the garden department of the local Wal-Mart. Not particularly newsworthy to most, but it grossed me out so I thought I'd share. :)

--The leaves in my neighborhood are pretty. Every day I think "I should grab the camera and take some pictures for Heide when we go on our walk" and every day I get too crazed just trying to get the stroller loaded up and Sarah Beth bundled up...and the camera just sits in the living room. :) I promise, Florida friends, eventually you will get pictures of the pretty changing leaves!

--One of the churches we visited had a "visitors lunch" after the service to welcome newcomers and do a little presentation about the church and its programs, etc. Instead of the inevitable covered-dish or giant crock pot of chili, they ordered in from....FAZOLIS! :) Please tell me how effective a recruitment tool that is!?! I have a feeling this particular church won't make the final cut, but they sure do know how to feed people! :)

Palin rally report

As promised, here's my play-by-play from the "Road to Victory Rally" last Friday. I don't know how to make a slideshow and don't feel like learning, plus I like to put individual pictures in an add lots of background information...so you've been warned: this will be a crazy long post with lots of scrolling.

We were shooting for a 7:30 AM departure. Those of you with infants know that didn't happen and we left closer to 8:00. :) Since the monkey hasn't been sleeping well (and randomly got up to eat at 2:00 AM Thursday night for the first time in months) and I stayed up late playing with our new laptop and wireless internet, I only got 4 hours of sleep. I briefly considered stopping at a gas station on the way for a giant "crappucino" both for warmth and caffeine, but then I realized that would most likely lead to a port-a-potty visit. Port-a-potty visits are not high on my list of fun--especially trying to squat in one with a heavy child strapped to my chest. I've never actually tried it, but it definitely sounds complicated. We made the trip caffeine-free. :)

The doors were set to open at 8:30, so I figured that since we arrived at 8:45 all the die-hards would already be working through security and we wouldn't have a huge line. Wrong. Since the ground was flat and the line was all snakey, I couldn't really capture how many people were in it, but I tried.

In the picture below, we're almost at the front of the line and we can actually see the set-up in the park.

It took about 45 minutes to get through security, so once we finally got inside the gates we had a little over 2 hours to get the lay of the land and see the sights. I think we actually got a good spot. It would have been better if I'd been a foot taller, but oh well. Here's the view we had before things got started.

I realized that's not a very good picture because there's no one actually at the podium, but it ended up being the best picture I took that showed how close we started out. Yup, I said "started out." We'll get to that later, though. First, some sights I took in while we stood around waiting.

Look closely--can you see the 2 black-clad snipers on the roof of the building? Exciting! There are 2 more on top of the building in the picture below.

I had read that homemade signs would not be allowed in, so I didn't bother to make one. I saw several once inside, though, that said things like "Plumbers for Palin" and "Raise babies, kill taxes." My favorite sign was this one:

I have a game for you. It's called "Where's the Palin look-a-like?"

See her?

The people between me and her were looking at me suspiciously after this, so I couldn't get a better head-on shot, but you can pretty much use your imagination to fill in all the details. I'll just say that I admire her dedication.

The upper left of the next photo contains the band that entertained us while we waited. I believe they were called the "Calypso Cowboys." It was basically twangy country music with a steel drum. I actually liked it! :)

Through the 3 hours of waiting, sweet Sarah Beth was a patient little angel. She didn't look like she was having fun in this picture (that I took by holding the camera out in front of me), but she was really really tired and the marching band interrupted her nap.

I was having a better time, though.

Things finally got rolling when Congressman John Boehner got up and made a little speech. He was warmly received. Not being a native Ohioan, I'd never heard him before. He made a good speech but the whole time he sounded as if he was either drunk or in the throes of a terrible chest cold.

11:30 finally rolled around and "Eye of the Tiger" (no, I'm not kidding) pumped the crowd up for the guest of honor. It really was like a pep rally--people were jumping around and sreaming and looking around trying to figure out which direction she would be coming from. Since I didn't bring my stilts, I obviously couldn't see her come out, but I stuck my camera in the air in the general direction of the mayhem and here's what I got. She's in there somewhere.

Here she is!

Sorry they're all at weird angles and off-centered. I was just sticking my camera up in the air and seeing what I got without being able to actually look in the viewfinder. Unfortunately, these were the best shots of her I got because all the clapping and cheering absolutely terrified Sarah Beth and she proceeded to melt down just as things quieted down and Sarah Palin began her speech. I frantically tried to calm her down for a few seconds while people I'd stood next to for hours gave me sympathetic smiles that really meant "get that baby out of here NOW! I'm trying to listen!" We beat it back to the back of the crowd so I could get her out of the middle of the pack. The saddest part was I'd put my "Country First" sign on the ground long enough to get her out of the carrier and when I went to grab it before we made our hasty retreat the guy in front of me was standing on it! I didn't want to distract anybody further so I just lefted it. Boo. :(

She finally calmed down and I got to listen to about the last 5 minutes of the speech. Here's the view we had from the back.

Awesome. :) Oh, well. It was still a really fun couple of hours and I'm still glad we went, even though I waited 3 hours and didn't really get to hear the speech. I read somewhere that there were about 15,000 people there. Woo hoo. :)

More Ohio pros and cons...

Thought of another pro/con set of living in a hotly contested swing state:

Con - ENDLESS campaign ads.

Pro - Both parties have made/will make several campaign stops in Ohio...including Sarah Palin coming to West Chester (about 45 minutes away) this Friday for a "Road to Victory" rally. I've been wanting to go to one because all the footage I've seen makes them seem like giant pep rallys for America...and as a former cheerleader, I can't resist a good pep rally! I picked up a ticket today, so Friday morning Sarah Beth and I are going to bundle up and huddle with the masses for hours waiting for some music and a 20 minute speech--and I can't wait!! I'm just trying to figure out what to write on my sign... :)

Video time!

Hey friends! I'm finally going to update you with a few videos of the "Crown Princess" as my dad calls her. The sad thing is that this site will only allow 100 mb max, and almost all of mine are longer clips and therefore too big. I'm sure there's a way to edit them and make them smaller, but as my soap (Army Wives) comes on in 13 minutes, I have neither the time nor the inclination to figure it out. :)

The first video is of her crawling (slowly and awkwardly) around the room chasing Alfredo. This was shot the day we got our keys to our new house, so instead being able to plop her down somewhere and being reasonably sure she'd stay in that general area, we had to have someone on her at all times because she could get into the roller pans quicker than we realized. We found this one out the hard way (and ruined a onesie in the process). Anyway, here she is chasing the dog. She is much faster now, and her favorite thing is to sneak up on him and pull his hair while he's lying on the floor minding his own business. She squeals with delight. He squeals in pain, runs away, and looks at me with very sad "why are you doing this to me, mommy?" eyes. :)

Thesecond video was shot last week. She FINALLY figured out how to bounce in her jumper. Before this week she would sit in it for a few minutes and half-heartedly tug at the toys, but she wouldn't really enjoy it. All of a sudden, it finally clicked for her on Friday and now she loves it!

I have a couple more, but they're too big and I'm too tired to mess with them. :) I'll try to put them up on Facebook sometime soon, along with some house pictures. I was trying to wait until we had things in order so I could take pictures that didn't have the tool box in the middle of the living room floor or the drill on the coffee table...but we've been here for 3 weeks already and it looks like that's not going to happen anytime soon. :)