Halloween 2008

Halloween was a day filled with activities!

It started with getting the girls ready early to have them at the school to walk in the parade with their siblings.

Cadie and Courtney dressed up as little pumpkins!

We got to the school and met up with the parade. Daddy took the girls and started on the parade to the nursing home. I stayed behind to hide "ghosts" in Annie's classroom.

I caught up to the parade after they had left the nursing home and I got pictures of the kids walking back to the school...

Sammy the skeleton pirate. Someone from the nursing home gave him the skull mask... that wasn't apart of the original costume!

Next up was Anna...

...the hippie!


We also ran into a very silly little bee along the way...

... so I had stopped and visited for a few moments waiting for daddy and the girls to come back by!

However, we had a miscommunication and I returned to the classroom, while he needed help at the nursing home! Sorry, Daddy! Thank you to Jolene K. for helping with the twins (she has lots of experience as her twins are now 16)!

I had been asked by Annie's room mother to do the games for Annie's class. I was glad to have something to do and I had done lots of research on what fun Halloween games there are.

I decided on doing a trivia game and a ghost word game. We started with the ghost word game. I took tootsie pops and put tissue paper over them and decorated them with eyes and a letter on the back. The letters on the back spelled out words. I decided to hide the ghosts around the classroom. The kids divided into 2 teams and had to work together to find the ghosts and form words! They all did a great job and I had enough gifts for everyone!

Next up was the trivia. Again they were divided into 2 teams. The first team to 2000 was the winner (though, I had enough treats for everyone). I had questions marked with a point value depending on how hard the question was. I alternated between the two teams, but in hindsight, it would be better if the team who got the question right -got to keep going until they missed a question. Then the other team has the option of stealing the points if they answer correctly. The kids did very well and the team who won barely beat the other team!

I had just as much fun as they did!

Unfortunately, I didn't get to the other classrooms to see their parties! JC had taken the girls out to the playground (and Sammy's class was out there as well) and they had a blast playing with the big kids!

Cadie on the tornado slide

Courtney on the tornado slide

Before heading out, I snapped a few shots...

Sammy and his friend Aidan

I totally missed the kindergarten class...

but, this is Austin ready to go.

We headed to town as I had a few errands and I wanted to treat the kids to McDonalds.
Then once our errands were done, we came back home before heading out for the evening...

best buds

the gang getting ready to trick or treat...


The girls were very tired...

Courtney

Cadie wasn't too trilled either... sleep got to her too!

poor tired pumpkin!

After we had traveled a few streets, we met up with Jen and her girls and trick or treated my parents. Before we all headed out, I couldn't help but snap a pic of Hannah and Annie!


Once we were all done, we visited grandpa J and grandma J! We brought pizza and so we all sat down to eat after a full noc of trick or treating!
Halloween was fun... exhausting but fun!

The loss of one great man...

Ok, so I know I promised to update about Halloween and all that has been going on around here. Honestly, I have barely even seen my computer since last week sometime.

The laundry around this place is slowly trying to take over...

Not to mention I worked an extra day last week and then the day I was so extremely tired and thought I couldn't function anymore, I found out that I could. See, I got a call from my dearest friend Debbie (who happens to be married to my cousin Mark) and she wondered if I could go down and check on Mark's dad. They had found him unresponsive in his chair. Debbie had called 911 and they were on their way, but since I live 1/4 of a mile away, she wondered if I would go down and check on him until they got there. Thankfully, Grandma J and Grandpa J were already here! They were graciously watching the kids so I could get a little catnap in as I had worked and hadn't had any sleep.

I was in a panic driving down the road, I didn't know what I would find. I didn't know what to expect and though I am a nurse, what could I do in the field? At the hospital, sure I know what to do, but this was different! I decided to keep my cool and just assess the situation as I got to it. I walked in and both Chuck and Mark were standing there. Not really sure what was going on or what to do. Thankfully, Lyndell (Chuck and Mark's dad) was breathing and he had a pulse! *whew* He had a temp of 104 axillary. I asked for some cool cloths and placed them under his arms and by that point, the rescue squad was starting to show up. Darren was first there and had difficulty getting a blood pressure. Before I could even offer to take the blood pressure, the remainder of the rescue unit was there and I just stepped aside. To make a long story short, Lyndell ended up being life-flighted to Methodist Medical Center.

The next couple of days was very hard on the family as they had to make some difficult decisions. Lyndell had found out in August that he had cancer and that it had spread to the bone. He had been undergoing chemotherapy for the cancer. He apparently, had gotten a 'bug' and his body had nothing left to fight it off with. His family had to decide to ween him off the cardiac drugs that were helping to keep him going. They were told that he would never come out of the state he was in. His family was devastated. They were not prepared for this and it wasn't ever what they expected.

Lyndell died on Halloween. I felt honored that Mark and Debbie asked me to watch Austin for them the noc before Halloween and Halloween noc. I was more than happy to keep Austin for them! So, for Halloween, I had 2 pumpkins, a pirate (with a skull mask), a transformer and a hippie!

I had a blast with all of them! Austin is so well behaved and quiet (very different from my crew)! But, he played very well with Sammy and seemed to do ok. Debbie and Mark had requested that Austin not be told about his grandpa b/c they didn't want him upset for Halloween. How amazing they were to think of Austin and I made sure that NO ONE mentioned anything around him. Austin got to have a great Halloween before learning about his grandpa.

I also have to mention how terrific I think Debbie's older boys are. Her oldest son, Derrick, is a senior in high school and after his football practice, then he came and picked up Austin and took him trick or treating the noc before Halloween. Many of our local communities do stuff on both nocs. While many kids would take advantage of not having any responsibility, he ASKED if he could take Austin out.

I couldn't even begin to tell you the impact of Lyndell's death not only on his family, but our community and in the business world. Lyndell had started his own business -Corsaw Hardwood Lumber. He is well known all over the state and probably beyond for his hardwood floors. He will be greatly missed.

His visitation last noc had at least a 2 hr wait in line. It is one of the biggest visitations I have ever seen. They had a beautiful service for him today at Wiley Luthern Church. Which I got to attend b/c my best friend JEN came out and stayed with the girls (I couldn't ever thank her enough for all she does for us)! His oldest grand-daughter, Becky, got up and spoke and did a phenomninal job! A business partner also spoke and so did his nephew-in-law. They all did a wonderful job and had us laughing and crying. Mr. Howerter (my music teacher from grade school) sung a beautiful peice. After the service, everyone gathered in the basement of the church for a delicious array of food!

If you have made it this far in to this story, please go hug your parents, your children, your grandparents... anyone who means a lot to you... and tell them that you love them. You never know when that might the last time that you get to say that to them.

May God Bless you and your family.

Halloween pics of years gone by...

As I have been cleaning out the cabinet where I kept my Stampin' UP stuff... I ran across a big box full of old photos.
They are nice and neatly labeled... (of course, this was done before the twins)! Anyway, I thought I would share some pics from Halloween past...

Annie and Sammy from Halloween 2003...

Even though these are store bought costumes, I still thought the kids were so cute! Sammy was Buzz Lightyear and Annie was a Barbie princess... I tried to do her hair up in a bun... of course it didn't turn out quite right... but, I tried!

Halloween 2002...

This is JM, Annie, Hope and Sammy. I use to take the kids to my Aunt Mary's (Hope's mom) and we would trick or treat around Fiatt. It is a very small community made of of people who have lived there most their lives. It is a very safe place to trick or treat and the kids loved going with Hope!

Annie dressed up as a Chicago Bears Cheerleader in 2001...

I must admit, this was one of my favorite costumes!

Annie and Michael Brillhart, Halloween 2000...

Michael was the big blue dragon from Dragontails and Annie was Piglet! This picture was taken when we were living on Ft. Benning. Michael's mom, Melissa was the first person to talk to us when we were moving in. Her husband Brian helped my husband at the time, move some heavy furniture from our appt where we had been living. They were so kind and Melissa and I got to be great friends. Since then she has moved all over and got divorced and was last living in Arizona.

Two for Tues-sday

It is time for two for Tues-sday!

This pic was taken last year... the girls were horses...

Big Sis Annie dressed up like a cowgirl and the twins were her ponies! It was too cute!

Also, in case you haven't been to Go Blog Yourself in a while, head on over there and leave a prayer for Tuesday.

If you have already began your Christmas shopping or are thinking of it... Stop in at Debi's and check out the discovery toys... a portion of the sales goes to help Tuesday and her family!

Last request... jump over to Eight is Great to play along with Two for Tues-day