Halloween is not my favorite, as a grown-up

...and yet, here I am at work, in my long black skirt, black shirt, spiderweb earrings and very tall witch hat (a leftover from one of Kate's costumes so it's small-ish around, and gives me a headache). The boss said "best costume wins a prize" and I don't know why I felt compelled to agree to it. Gotta show the appropriate amount of team spirit, I guess. There'll be pizza later, woo. But I have never really liked dressing up, as an adult.

When the kids were smaller, I also dreaded the walk around the neighborhood, trying to keep up with them. Plus, other peoples' kids acted like hooligans, running and yelling. Yuck. Shhhh. And back then, dinner was wrecked, bedtime was wrecked ... it was a whole thing. I usually end up having fun, but anticipating it, no thank you.

I mean, yes, the pre-party was/is usually fun(ish) -- moreso now that we like our neighbors -- and it's cute when they're little and everyone "awwwwws" at their costumes. Let's see if I can remember what mine dressed up as (somehow I didn't catalog it every year in the blog! What?!):

Alex's first Halloween... he was 3 months old, I'm not sure if we dressed him up. We did take him to a party.
Kate's first, she was a little gray bat.
at age 2... Alex was a brown doggie, and Kate wore a Braves shirt and a baseball cap.
3-4-5... I know there were Wolverine, HeatBlast (a cartoon character Alex loved), Blue the dog, and maybe IronMan in there. and Kate was a Princess, Princess, and a Princess. ;) (Belle, Sleeping Beauty, and probably Rapunzel.)
6-7-8... Kate was a witch one year, and then an angel the next, LOL so fitting. Oh, and a blue Power Ranger. I think Alex might have been a Power Ranger, too. He was a grim reaper once, but I feel like that was later, more like 7th grade. It's sad that I don't remember every year specifically. Sometimes, I do recall Alex would want to go as some anime character who wore a bandana and a blue hoodie.... and no one at all would know he was really dressed up. I was slightly embarassed for him those years. ;) Kate had me buy a $35 "Goddess" costume once... that one was a head-scratcher, too.

Last year, Kate went as a "vampire," but mostly she just put ugly makeup on, "blood" dripping and whatnot, and that was the whole point. This year she's making herself Mike Wyzowski from Monsters, Inc, and is going to be adorable. Alex wore a "This is my Costume" t-shirt last year, and I applauded that. He and Shawn bought alien heads this year (oh please click through, you won't regret it!), in honor of his marching band show theme, and I don't know yet if they're going to wear them tonight. (Alex has band practice until 7:30 anyway, so he likely won't trick or treat).

I agree with this blog post about letting them be kids just a little longer. I love that. But I have a feeling Alex will want to hand out candy instead tonight. Kate will go, with the other girls in the neighborhood, but they're all a couple years younger than she is. It's also supposed to rain, and that's another thing I dislike about Halloween -- when there's bad weather.

Anyway, boo, hiss, cackle cackle. At least we get candy!

Someone set the table (ha ha, it's always me)...

What's for dinner this week, peeps? Here's my plan:

Tonight (M): King Ranch Chicken Casserole and black beans on the side. Probably chips and salsa/queso on the side, too. This is a new-to-me recipe; I have a very old KRCC recipe - received from my aunt as part of one of my favorite bridal shower gifts, so many years ago. (It was a kitchen shower, and the gift was a recipe book where each guest had been sent a recipe card ahead of time, and brought them with them, to fill up the book! I cherish it.) But that recipe uses canned condensed cream-of soups, and that is so passe.

I think I did it wrong anyway by using flour tortillas, when I should have used corn all these years. It wasn't specified by my aunt. So anyway, it's Mexican fiesta tonight and I'm excited about it!

T: Leftovers on Parade, because we had a version of this sundried tomato pasta w/chicken on Friday night and there's a lot left. It was so yummy!

W: Soup and Grilled Cheese. You are starting to think, "She is really phoning it in this week, again!" And my reply to that unsaid thought is YES. I am bored with everything I make and tired of having to come up with new ideas. So soup and grilled cheese it is. Kate and I will have creamy tomato and Alex and Shawn probably will have Chicken Noodle.

Th: Baked Lasagna, salad, and garlic knots. The lasagna is currently in my freezer; I made it a few months ago and smartly kept half for sometime in the future. Thank you, past me.

F: Alex has band practice until 7:15 but the rest of us will be eating shrimp scampi pasta. However, I forgot to buy spinach, I couldn't find a small (mini) bottle of Chardonnay at the store I went to this weekend (Walmart, okay, it was Walmart*, and they had ONE Black Box Chardonnay but I couldn't reach it) ...and I just ate about 1/3 of the pint of cherry tomatoes I bought for this recipe. Whoops. So I'll have to shop again on Thursday for this one.


This turned out to be an extraordinarily pasta- and casserole-heavy week! Must have been the cold weather on Saturday when I made my grocery list! It was 50 degrees and raining allllllll day.

... reviews the list again...
... thinks about Friday, because Alex is going to have to actually eat with us, since it's a practice and not a football game...

Hmm. Yeah, I think the Friday shrimp is going to be postponed. Since it requires more shopping, and since pasta... I'm going to change that one. It will probably be hamburger patties, served with corn and mashed potatoes. Not that this is a healthier option, mind you, just an option.


*I officially hate doing my grocery shopping at Walmart, especially on a Sunday afternoon, but this weekend we needed a bunch of cosmetic-type things and some items for Kate's halloween costume idea, so Walmart it was. I hate everything about shopping there. Too crowded, nothing comes in regular sizes (food items, I mean), the cashiers use TOO MANY PLASTIC BAGS, and it generally puts me in a MOOD. I should say "Never again!" with vehemence, but Lord knows I'll have to go back there sometime. It's inevitable.

Little things I'm looking forward to today

This is a trick I've taught myself to get going in the morning: What am I looking forward to, today?

This morning:

1. Starbucks PSL creamer that I bought on a whim at Publix last night.
2. Setting a timer and working on the AdaptAir and Leyla product launch packages. One hour of focus at a time.
3. The lunch I packed. (My little things are often food things)
4. Taking a 10-minute walk outside, after the rain has moved on this afternoon.
5. Not cooking. (Tonight's dinner is either pulled pork leftovers or take-home pizza.)
6. The lovey kitties (both of them have been especially cuddly this week, which is fitting since it's almost their 2-year anniversary of coming home!)

I just finished one of the things I looked forward to earlier: my lunch. A salami, muenster and honey mustard sandwich. SO simple! But I rarely eat sandwiches and this was delicious, especially with a (this sounds so silly) bite of a Wheat Thin alongside the bite of sandwich. Perfect texture.

By the way, the PSL creamer wasn't as good as I'd hoped, but I think if I add a little nutmeg (and whipped cream, lol), it will be better.

Tomorrow's list will include:

1. Lunch with my buddy Susan at Panera.
2. Chaperoning band practice in the afternoon (leaving work a little early) with a new friend I enjoy
3. Temperatures in the high 60s/low 70s

Friday again, thank goodness!

Fall is rolling along so fast -- yesterday was the end of the first quarter of school for Kate, and here we are, nearly mid-October. Finally, the weather has shifted into "Tolerable" status; it was even chilly this morning, and I'm wearing jeans and long sleeves (3/4 sleeves, technically) with sandals, one of my favorite combos. I should be perfectly dressed for football tonight.

It has been one heck of a long week, starting last Saturday night. I had a work event downtown -- breast cancer awareness month, y'all -- at 4:00 pm. Alex had started his day even earlier with a mini-camp band practice from 8:30 until 4:00, and then they got into uniforms and went by bus to their first competition of the season. (We've learned there is such a thing as Band Competition Season.) I left my event early thanks to the kindness of Shan, offering to pack up our exhibit all by herself, and zooooomed up the interstate to make it for Alex's 9:00 pm performance time, and I made it, JUST.... and then they were delayed for possible weather. Ha!

In the end there wasn't enough weather to cancel, so they performed at 9:30... and were awarded the Grand Champion trophy around 11! (We didn't think we could possibly win! There were some other good bands. We (the band) didn't even do our whole show, and didn't use our full set of props!) IMHO, our band's musicianship -- they definitely sounded the best of all the bands -- and the level of difficulty of their show, gave them an edge. It was suuuuuper exciting when the awards were going out. I was all tense, hands clasped in front of me, eeeeeeeee..... and then yay!!!!

And that was just Saturday! The following Monday, another performance -- the county marching band exhibition (not a competition). That went until 11:00, probably, ending with a rousing performance by the guest band from Georgia Tech, which was awesome. Shawn took Kate home to bed, but I went to pick up Alex after the bus returned him to HHS, and after he helped unload the equipment truck (ooh, there goes my heart swelling again)... and we didn't get home from all that until probably 12:15.

Got up and went to school/work like normal the next morning, Lord have mercy and thank you for coffee!

So the week started out a little tired-y. We noticed a water stain on the kitchen ceiling on Tuesday or Wednesday. Something must be leaking upstairs, oh goody. Shawn and I have been showering in Kate's bathroom, because we think it's our shower leaking. The plumber is scheduled to come tomorrow morning (Saturday). I'm hopeful we can do some remodeling around the issue, for instance, removing the terrible flourescent light in our kitchen, like we did in our last kitchen, since our kitchen ceiling will likely be cut up and open anyway. We'll see. Fun stuff!

At work, it's been a week of management meetings, and me trying to make it appear that I'm making a difference. Sometimes I don't feel I am -- like I'm just here to help Shan with whatever she asks me to do. And helping is fine, being a helper is GOOD and worthy -- but I'd like to contribute in a bigger way, sometimes. This whole week I've been conflicted about not being invited to the mangement meetings. I'm not a manager, and don't necessarily want to be. But I do want to be considered more than just a general flunkie. Bah. I don't know. It's just background noise for my real work of Life With My Family, anyway. But it can make those 8 hours a day kinda challenging, especially when the task-load is light.

Tonight is a football game with our nearest rival, so it should be fun, and good weather for the FIRST time all season. I'm hoping to eat nachos LOL. Happy Friday. :)