Well, There's an Hour I Will Never Get Back!

.... but I'm not entirely sure I want it back!

I went to the grocery store with both the boys this morning -- Rich is STILL working.

We got to the grocery store and made it about 1/4 through when I realized I left my purse at home.

So we had to go back home and get it. This time it was "less" embarrassing -- last time I forgot it, I was already through the check out! Yes, the people at my local Publix know me! At any rate they do now! LOL!

And we get back to the grocery store... I forgot what it's like shopping with two of them.

"Mommy, can we have candy?"

No, sweetie, we have lots at home already.

"PUHLEEEESSSEEEE!!!"

Josh, we have lots of Halloween candy still.

(said while pouting and stamping feet): "But we don't have THAT kind!"

Suddenly, an idea hits. Okay Josh, we can get 4 pieces of THAT candy but you have to throw away ALL your Halloween Candy!

No deal.

Anyway, things continued along this line for the entire NINETY MINUTES (we had to have an emergency potty stop) I was at the grocery store! By myself or with just Sam, 45 minutes TOPS door-to-door.

O Solo Mio

Rich has an install today -- new software an upgrade or something.

He was working late last night and got up early today. He'll be working all day and well into the night. It wouldn't surprise me to find him hunched over the computer when we get up tomorrow morning. So even if he is "done" tomorrow, he will be out of commission until Monday... no, he has to work Monday... hmmm NEXT weekend.

With him tied up, I've been left to parent these children all alone! On a weekend! Yikes! And -- the weekend is an hour longer than usual because of the time change... Oh, wait -- it's a 4-day weekend here too because there is no school on Monday and Tuesday.

And poor Rich -- I don't know how long I have on the laptop -- the Internet connection keeps dropping out. I started this post at 1:00 P. M. and it's now 8:30 and I'm just on here to quickly finish up -- in the name of NoBloMoPo!

I took Sam and Josh and his friend Cade to Chuck E. Cheese this morning. Not as bad as it sounds actually! We got there early enough that the birthday parties had not started. By the time we were ready to leave it was getting crowded!

The boys had fun and they were able keep themselves entertained for a bit! Here's a picture of Josh and Cade in "the cage" at CEC. It's blurry because I had to take it with my phone.

My Inner Dialog

Yesterday B over at Random Acts of Motherhood posted about her "Internal Novelist." It's a great post and I found myself nodding and agreeing with what she says about how blogging affects everything you do in your life. Once you start blogging, you can't stop -- even when you're not at your computer actually "blogging" but when you're out and about.

I do this too and thought I'd share my crazy thoughts, just so B doesn't feel alone! After all, it is only day 2 of NaBloPoMo, and I need things to blog about so at the risk of you seeing how shallow I really am, I decided to share.

Everywhere I go, I have an inner dialog that runs through my head -- and more often than not it doesn't stay "inner" but I find I'm talking out loud. To myself.

And I wonder why people stare at me. See, all this time I thought it was my stunning beauty, but really they just think I'm a freak. See, now, that's the beauty of "Blue Tooth" headsets. When you catch yourself talking out loud, to your self, you can just pretend to be on the phone.

Anyway, today I had to go to Target for various items. Sam's been invited to a birthday party on Monday so I needed a present for that. Plus Sam's birthday is in 9 days and I needed stuff for that AND Josh was invited to a birthday party in 2 weeks so I thought I'd just go crazy and get that present too.

As I walk into Target, I am immediately drawn to the Christmas T-shirts in the Ladies "Fashion" department.... And I use the word "Fashion" lightly because this is Target. Oh who am I kidding! I'm a stay at home mom... most of my wardrobe is from Target! Partly because it's cheap, partly because that's the only place I have time to shop. Oh, yes, the Christmas t-shirts... They are cute so I contemplate buying one. But the one I like the best is black and I don't look good in black... and it's short sleeved. Even in Atlanta, not sure that's a good idea. I pull myself together and tear myself away.

I start to make my way down to the toy department, then see the ladies Christmas Pajama sets -- I have a thing for PJ's. I love them and think I should be allowed to wear them all the time where ever I go. Pretty much the same thing goes through my head that went through my head with the t-shirts. I decide that the PJ's can wait and attempt to move along, but....

My eye catches the pajama's in the boys department...

Josh needs new pajamas! He really does. He's grown so much that all his PJ's are way too small for him. I grab 2 new pair and then some socks for the boys because, well, you can never have too many socks for boys. My washer or dryer or something keeps eating them....

Finally! I make it to the toy department and start looking for toys to get the kids. I choose some things, get some DVD's for them... then head over to pick up a new Pokemon GameBoy Game for Josh. Rich's parents gave us some money to buy him something for having such a good report card and they wanted him to have it on Sam's birthday, so I went to look at the GameBoy Games...

Does anyone understand Pokemon and the versions? Fire Red, Sapphire, Leaf Green, Ruby, Diamond and Pearl? I swear it's like a foreign language that only boys ages 6-10 speak. I'm staring at the case completely dumbfounded. The thoughts going through my head are not "family oriented" so I won't share them here...

I find someone to unlock the case and ask him if he knows anything about Pokemon. No such luck. I should have suspected. He's not 7.

I settle on one -- I don't know which one or if it was the wrong one -- who knows! I know I don't want to get him "Diamond & Pearl" because I think he's getting a Nintendo DS for Christmas and we'll get the DS version of that for him.

So, I'm sort of done at Target but then see that the Halloween stuff -- it's all 50% off! I can't believe it! I contemplate stocking up on decorations for next year but decide against it. I do grab some cereal bowls -- I have an orange one at home and the boys fight over it, so I grabbed three more in the other colors they had.

By now I really have to pee (who decided Starbucks at the entry way was a good idea anyway?) so my thoughts are all about getting out as fast as I can. But I still need cards and wrapping paper... I head over to the card aisle, quickly and randomly pick out what I need and go to pay. I'm in such a hurry, I leave half my stuff at the check out! Oops! Not the first time and probably not the last either.

Anyway, from there I headed over to Costco and I'll spare you the thoughts there because that place puts my brain in overdrive! So much to look at!!!!

And, I need to save some more drivel, fodder extremely interesting stuff for tomorrow!

Our Halloween!

Wow! Yesterday was a long day!

We had plans to go over to our friend's house for dinner and then trick-or-treat with them in their neighborhood. And, of course, since we were going over there for dinner and trick-or-treating and that Rich had to work, that meant we'd be leaving around 5:30pm.

As soon as I picked Sam up from school (at noon) he started asking when we were going to Miss Mary's house. I convinced him to eat lunch and take a nap (he slept for 2 hours! Yay) because it was still a ways off. Once Josh got home at 2:30 all the excitement and subsequent tears that follow, began! I knew that from 2:30 until 5:30 when we left was going to be a challenge so I was a bit relieved when a boy that lives down the street came to play with Josh. It got the boys outside and not thinking about "Trick-or-Treat!"

However, about 4:30 when I told the boys to come in because it was time to do homework and start getting ready, things went swiftly downhill.

At one point Josh was crying on the stairs saying "Halloween is RUINED! This is the worst Halloween EVER!!!" Poor kid! He was just so excited!

Finally, it was 5:30 and we were ready to go! We headed over to Mary's house and the boys had a blast playing before dinner. Josh and Mary's oldest Cade really play well together and don't really get to play as much as they used to. They were watching "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and Josh thought it was the funniest thing ever! He kept saying, "I got a rock!"

Then the boys put on their costumes. Meet "Skull Warrior" and the "skeleton."

The neighborhood Mary lives in had a little Halloween Parade with the kids just before "Trick-or-Treating" started. All the kids gathered at one end of the street and walked down to the other end. It was very cute!

Waiting for the Parade to start

The Skull Warrior with his Mommy (he didn't like the mask very much so it didn't last too long). He looks just like his father!

Mommy and her little skeleton!

I love this one... You know he's thinking, "Can't we just go already!"

FINALLY! The parade begins!

We walked from one end of the street, around the corner and up to the entrance to their neighborhood. Then everyone started Trick-or-Treating. And it was pretty cool because we were all there together at the start, it was like the whole neighborhood was doing it together.

While all the other kids were in line across the street, I sent Josh and Sam over to a house where there was "no waiting..."

Sam had the all the women just enthralled! At one point he came back to show Daddy what he got and Daddy asked if he had said, "Thank you!" Sam said, "Oh, I forgot!" and turned around and went back to say thank you and got more candy!

Josh was really excited and FAST! He and Daddy went ahead of Sammy and me. After we hit about 7 houses, Sam looked in his bag and said, "Mommy, do we have enough candy yet?"

And, unfortunately, Rich's work kept calling him so we could only hit a few more houses in this neighborhood, then we headed back to our own neighborhood to finish up while Daddy worked. This worked out well though because I managed to get Sam to bed then Josh and I went up and down our street and got a few of Josh's friends' houses. By then it was nearly 8:00 and he was ready to come home.

We'd left a bowl of candy outside our door while we were out and, surprisingly, it was still over half full! Josh got to pass out a few pieces of candy to some Trick-or-Treaters. We also lit our pumpkin up.

But, at the end of the night, Josh proudly proclaimed that this was the BEST HALLOWEEN EVER! Quite a change from a few short hours ago!

I hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween!

Now, are you ready for Christmas?