The reason for TRUNK-or-Treating

When we first moved here to Texas I didn't really pay much attention to the whole trick-or-treating scene - except that I had candy ready to hand out. Why would I? No kids. We were newly-weds throwing what was to become our annual adult-only Halloween party. So I barely noticed that we didn't have many trick-or-treaters. Not sure if it was due to the party or that we kept eating the candy ourselves. Anyhow, once the whole door-knocking vs. parking lot thing became an issue, I started wondering why the change in tradition? Was it a Southern thing? A Mormon thing? A Southern-Mormon thing? Well, when people from the church down the road kept mistaking us for their church and Gommy's ward up in Bountiful, UT hosted theirs, I started in on other theories. Safety? Ease? Time-saver? But these theories were flawed as well since it's not as if you go around the circle once and head out -- you know you're going to end up there for hours talking; and certainly it can't be easier to "dress up" your trunk and drive 20 mins to the church to hand out candy down there instead of in the comfort of your own home; and chasing your kids away from reversing vehicles is certainly not my idea of safety. So why again are we starting this new tradition and kicking out the old?
Well tonight I got my answer. See, I figured I'd be smart and go door-to-door before the trunk-or-treat and that way hit 2 birds. But not with one stone. Nope. It took all my stones to drag my 3-yr and 1-yr olds around the ENTIRE neighborhood. And then another ENTIRE neighborhood. And why, you ask, why on earth would I condemn myself to such an inevitably painful, long, drawn-out, sticky-hand & chocolate smeared experience? For the same reason smart people stick with the trunk-or-treating.... because 3 out of every 4 houses is a "not home," "don't have candy," or "We don't celebrate Halloween." Bah!

Deep thoughts on Marriage

Andrea is dressed for Halloween as Princess Genevieve from "Twelve Dancing Princesses." At the end of the movie Genevieve marries the cobbler.
Whilst trick-or-treating...
(Andrea) "I'm a pretty princess."
(Net) "Yes."
(Andrea) "I'm getting married."
(Net) "Not yet. You have to wait a while for that."
Four houses later...
(Andrea) "Am I getting married now?"

Andreaism

(Andrea) "I'm tired. I want to lay down in bed and go to sleep."
(Jeanette) faints.

Andreaism

(Andrea) pats Marks cheek and says, "You are so beautiful."

Party! Party!

10/26/07
It's Halloween time again...and that means time for our annual adult-only Halloween bash!! After all, trunk-or-treat just isn't enough when you're too old to be collecting the candy! We weren't sure we'd be doing it this year with the stress of the refinance and all, but c'mon! No party? No way! I begged long enough that Mark caved, so I (literally) threw together a party in a day and huzah! Success!
In attendance were:
Jack the Pumpkin King & Sally - Ken & Angela Newman
Fairy Princess & Karate Fairy of Doom? - Jeremy & Amy McQuivey
a Lint Trap & Gumball Machine - Joe & Sally Davidson
a Visitor from California & Cleopatra - Mark & Net
It was great! It wasn't quite the orchestrated event like last year, but we had some pretty moments in our games nonetheless. My personal favorite was when we were all standing together in a tangled mess playing "Spiderweb" (where everyone grabs a random hand with each hand and then you have to untwist the knot) when we finally realized no matter how many times someone stepped over Ken and Jeremy's arms, we weren't ever going to untangle. And then our next round lasted all of 2 minutes.

Overhaul

It's funny the things you don't really notice until they start changing. Like neighbors. You don't really notice until you have some. And then once you do, you don't really pay attention until they throw fiestas until 3 am. Every weekend. And once you've called the cops on them enough times that they've stopped, you don't really acknowledge the long stares (glares?) until....hmmm.... or regard the absence of interaction until there is some. And then you wonder, what brought this about? It couldn't be that for the first time in almost 5 years they notice me doing something I haven't done before...like yardwork?
So we're trying to refinance the house. And that takes a loan. From a bank. Who thinks our house is worth it. Doesn't go over too well if the house doesn't look so hot. So I decided it was high time to attack the mess that is our yard and see what could be done. 14 hours, 3 trimmed shrubberies, 10 bags of leaves/sticks/weeds, 6 bags of bark compost, 3 flats of flowers, 2 tanks of gas for the weed whacker, a bucket of bleach, a borrowed hedger, a fixed edger, brooms, rakes, shovels, a pick-ax, and a whole tube of IcyHot later, our yard is looking pretty dang good!
And ya know what? Suddenly my neighbors are waving "hello!"

Myrna Time

This last weekend we had a fun visit from Myrna! Hooray! David and Judy dropped her off Friday night so that we could keep her up talking all night. It was great!
The next morning Myrna and I took the girls in the double stroller to the park. It's about a mile walk there, which didn't seem a big deal since the weather was surprisingly nice and cool and crisp! Finally! Enough with the 85-degree weather already!!
We had a great time at the park, but I must say, it was a really good thing the adult-to-child ratio was even or we might have ended up swimming with the ducks and turtles. Seems that the ingenious architect of the park did not take my advice. Had he taken my advice he would not have built a playground right next to a sloping hill with a lake at the bottom of it. Brilliant. So since all the kids naturally want to see the ducks and turtles, we get to spend the whole time throwing ourselves down the hill, trying to make a human barricade each time a little one makes a break for it. Fun!
By the end of our visit to the park we were both quite exhausted (from the diving and all) when we realized the temperature had sneaked upwards and we now had another mile walk home. D'oh! Oh, and Andrea was not about to ride happily in the stroller. No, she wanted Myrna to give her a piggy-back the whole way! Myrna is a really good sport.
Myrna's visit with us ended when I drove her up to Vaughn's daughter's house in Allen (about 45 mins away). I think the driving made her nervous as we had to take 635 and 75 - two of the worst, most-congested freeways in Dallas. And the Dallas drivers were on their "best" behavior for me as well. Love when you turn on your blinker to change lanes so the person behind in the next lane speeds up to block you. So nice. Too bad I didn't realize I could have taken the tollway most the way there to shave off about 20 mins while enjoying very little traffic. Double D'oh! Oh well.
Thank you for the visit Myrna!! It was great to see you!

Andrea-ism

(Andrea) "My tongue is sick."

Heritage

What a pill! Lacie has a jumpstart on the devilish terrible-twos already. Mark only encourages it when he tells Andrea that Lacie is wearing a Yamukah and Andrea runs around saying, "Lacie's a Jew! Lacie's a Jew!"