Trunk-or-Treat

The kids and I went to the church's Trunk-or-Treat last night. It was fun, the kids were admired. I threw together a Professor Sprout costume the night before and slapped a label on an IKEA plan. It worked. The label read: "Caution! Devil's Snare - DO NOT TOUCH!"

The event was also a chili cook-off. There was a lot of chili, but my favorites were a bacon chili and a seafood chili. SO yummy. The kids had hot dogs and were satisfied. They came home with even more candy, and now the big jar I have all of their candy in won't fit the lid on top. They are pretty possessive about that candy...

After the awards were handed out for costumes and chili they announced the start of the trick-or-treating. The two big kids disappeared. I just kinda figured they'd come and find me when all of the candy ran out or they got too cold. I was right, they did. I took Peter around once, then took him to the movie room to enjoy Charlie Brown while I helped clean up (I was on the planning committee for the night, so clean up was one of my duties). David and Andi wandered into the movie room after all of the candy was gone and all three devoured as much as they could. Made for a fantastic sugar crash at bedtime. Weeee! They also reported that they were totally warm. Good. Two layers of fleece had better have kept them warm! I got gloves for them for Saturday, it is supposed to be pretty chilly during trick-or-treat hours on Saturday. Oh, but next week we warm right back up to low 60's for our high. Definitely different from last year! A good kind of different, too. :)

Jonathan called tonight! He had exactly seven minutes to talk. It was so good to hear his voice. He has only been able to write one letter, which we received last week, but it isn't for lack of trying. Every evening he's supposed to get 45 minutes of personal time. Unfortunately others in his bay don't know how to pick up after themselves and get the whole gang in trouble at inspection. He and many others spend the 45 minutes of personal time trying to get things ready for that inspection. They are often "smoked" for their efforts anyway. He passed the practice test of the field test he's taking this Saturday, so he thinks he'll get it done on Saturday with flying colors (crossing fingers!!!!). If he does he'll be able to call us on Sunday for more than 7 minutes. That will be nice because Andrea was devastated that she couldn't talk to him longer. Boy are the kids going to be glad when he gets home. One month, nineteen days. We can do this.

But I could really use some prayers, guys. Tensions are high, there's been too much sugar and too little sleep.... Short tempers and sadness make miserable people, and even grumpier miniature people. We could use some good vibes here in our little corner of the world.