Ramblings: Sugarshock

My body is slowly coming out of the pre- and post-Halloween sugar-funk that it's been in. Let's just say, I had to restock our candy supply about three times before Halloween actually arrived. And now I have a HUGE list of random blog-JUNK for you.

1. The kids were sort of punks this year about costumes. I usually really get into planning their costumes and coming up with funny and unique ideas for them. This year the older kids VETOED all my suggestions and wanted to do ridiculously boring costumes.

So instead of The Village People like I wanted, I ended up with a witch, a vampire, a SWAT team guy whose too-big pants kept falling off, and fireman that "kills badguy fires" with his water hose.
And yes, if they all would've agreed to the Village People, I was going to make Jeremy wear that sailor's hat whether he liked it or not. He would've pretended he hated it, even though I'm pretty sure he would've loved every minute of it. I was pretty done with Halloween and applying makeup and relocating everyone's costumes by the time it was actually over.

The boys had 2 Halloween parties--one at school and one with their playgroup the next day. Then I had to get all the kids dressed up and haul them downtown after school for Jeremy's office Halloween party (the pirate's not ours but he's a friend that the kids love meeting up with at office parties).

Everyone's kids run around the office and the ladies there basically hurl truckloads of sugar into their buckets as they whiz by over and over again.

Then on Saturday, they got to go to three parties. First a birthday party for their cousin, then a giant Halloween party at their friends' house (I think there were about 40 kids there), and then the church's dinner and trunk or treat. I was pooped by Saturday night but they were buzzing on their sugar highs.

They played a game where they had to get mummified in toilet paper by a partner. Maddie wanted me to be her partner and I did an awesome job because I've had so much experience tying the boys up like this when they're being naughty. The tootsie roll wrapping Alex needs some practice. Maddie kept shedding her wig and hat because it was almost 80*. Even her long fake purple eyelashes were melting off.

2. The city switched my garbage day from Monday to Tuesday a couple of months ago and it's still freaking me out. I don't like it. I want Monday back. It was a nice way to start the week and easy to remember on Sunday night. Tuesday trash days--I don't like you.

3. Yesterday Avery and Aidan verbally attacked me. They followed me around my room asking me when we were "going to get more babies." What?! Apparently they are convinced that babies always come in the plural form. I said, "Hmmm. You want more babies? How are we going to do that?" To which Aidan's brilliant answer was (and for pretty much any question), "WE HAVE TO GO TO COSTCO!"

If anywhere was selling babies in bulk, it would be Costco I guess. And then Avery screamed, "But we have to PAY FOR THEM FIRST." He's used to getting lectured that he can't open the stuff in our cart until we pay for it first. (Not that we don't bust open the grapes and scarf 1/2 of the container before we reach the checkout.) I'm also quite sure that if the baby section was right by the food counter, and they had to choose between new babies or hot cinnamon and sugar churros, they'd be stuffing their faces with that messy, fried goodness in two seconds flat.

4. I made two loaves of banana nut bread last night right before I went to bed. And all night long I felt like I was dreaming in smells. And then I'd wake up and I'd realize that the whole house still smelled like banana bread. It was really weird. Welcome to the freaky corners of my mind. Needless to say I was really hungry this morning.

5. I flooded the garage last night when I forgot that I left the water in the utility sink on trying to blast the poop-accident out of Avery's undies. Of course I got distracted, left it running and told myself that I needed to remember to turn it off in a few minutes, and then totally forgot about it. The undies got wedged in the drain, the three-foot-deep sink filled up pretty fast, and then just started producing a tidal wave that filled my entire garage with water. And because our awesome new garage doors actually have a really good rubber seal on the bottom, I was basically converting my garage into a swimming pool. So I opened the doors and watched a flood cover my driveway. I spent the next hour on damage control and used our giant broom to sweep the inches of water out of the garage. Grrr. See, I told you that poop is the root of all EVIL.

And Dena, here's a picture of the fabulous new doors as you requested. I'm glad someone else is interested, because I can talk about them night and day. Nothing fancy, but the TAUPE ( NO! NOT WHITE, NOT ALMOND!) matched almost perfectly and they actually OPEN and CLOSE, so that's a bonus. Pardon the shadows from our neighbors' trees. Funny, he planted them on his side of the fence line but WE get to trim them twice a year since they grow right over into our yard. They are worth it for the shade, though.

And Alainna--no more getting locked out after we take you to the airport. I had him install this keypad to protect us from ourselves. No more need for breaking and entering into our own house.

6. Avery threw a 20 minute screaming/crying/inspired-by-the-devil tantrum yesterday because he kept saying he wanted to "go in Texas." I told him we are already in Texas. That's the name of the place where we live. That is NOT what he wanted to hear. And no amount of explanation or logical reasoning was going to deter the kid from freaking about going in Texas. Finally I just said, "Ok. Maybe tomorrow." Good enough.



7. It's been heavenly weather this week--mid 70's and sunny. Now don't you want to go in Texas, too? We've been spending as much time as we can outside and the kids have been riding the wheels off their plasma cars. They are a BRILLIANT idea if you're looking for ideas for Christmas gifts. It's been one of the toys they've used the most. We just added this purple bad boy to our collection after I found the twins in a WWF style death match in the driveway over the one that wasn't being used. Now Alex will draw chalk racetracks around the length of the driveway and the three boys race around it while Maddie dodges between them on her bike.

The other most-coveted toy being Maddie's V-tech digital camera. The little boys love it and even Alex loves it, despite the fact it's pink. It can take video and still pictures. And you can add funny faces, hats, hair, etc to the pictures. They spent one whole Saturday taking silly videos on it. And I've been pleasantly surprised that it doesn't eat batteries like crazy. I've only changed them twice in about six months.

Definitely worth the $. The pictures aren't super awesome quality, but they don't care. I mean, when you can put silly glasses and a clown nose on someone's face, that trumps the lacking pixels.
And that's my consumer's toy report for you.

8. The kids have all of the Michael Buble songs from his new cd memorized because Jeremy is trying to brainwash them and turns it on every chance he gets. To get back at him, I'm going to teach them to play a few choice Metallica songs on the piano.

9. I had about 14 other things I could write but I'm sure if you're still reading this, you're ready for a break. I'll get back on track and try not to go so far behind that I have to write 20 page posts.

10. I couldn't end it on #9. It just didn't feel right. Have I mentioned that I have to chew as many times on the right side of my teeth as I do the left or my mouth just feels out of balance? Anyone know any good therapists? My crazy's getting the best of me.