Ghoul's Night Out

Before Halloween gets too far behind us, I need to post some pics of a fun party we had.  Rebecca, Kim, and I wanted to have get-together before Kim had the new baby.  (By the way, he was born last Friday, 11/11/11.  His name is Reed and he is such a cutie.)

It was just going to be a small gathering, but we kept thinking of fun people to invite and before we knew it, it turned into a pretty big bash,or should I say monster mash, and we still weren't able to invite all the fun people that we know.

We warned them all that some of the goings on might be shared, so here goes...

Our first two guests arrived in time to help us get things ready.  Whew!

Kim dressed as a pregnant cat.

Rebecca was a triumphant sumo wrestler.  

"Pat" showed up

as did the ever helpful Red Riding Hood.

Along came 2 witches and a nun,

another cute witch, and a sister wife, the pregnant cat again, 

and a blast from the past "70's Chick."

A Southeast Asian farm worker with a very thick accent, who seemed to be a little suspicious at the time this picture was taken, was a great addition to the party,

as was this impressive Hula team.

Cruella D'evil's twin sister, a posed and poised party-goer, and a witch with hat problems showed up too.

The Cat in the Hat, an Angry Bird and a Cowgirl got in line for eats and treats.

We then went to the Batt cave for games.

Everyone tried Lucy's lip trick.

Little Red Riding Hood and the Hippie had a head stand contest.

The hippie won.  Red Riding Hood's thought it was her age that impeded her but maybe it was just the cape.

We danced to Thriller.  M J would have been proud of this side of the room.

But this side?  Not so much.

The Great Pumpkin danced in to start the gift sharing.  There were some amazing gifts.

Lady Luck was with Liz.  She not only got the two-day-old pizza....

but the live mice as well.

Ramona took home the pig foot/back scratcher/possible Sunday dinner,

but not before Cassie had a turn.

Mandy left early so she was the recipient of this:

(a bag of giant marshmallows aka Ghost Poop)

That 70's chick took the mice home for her pet snake, but she had to fight the cat for them.

Sister Jeffs got the giant tub of cheese puffs.  The children will be so happy.

And Mom finally got the tatoo she has always wanted.

We had a great time.  Thanks everybody!

Cutest Trick-or-Treater

 Wanna see the cutest trick-or-treater that came by this year?

About 30 seconds after arriving he decided to be a Cowboy Stripper.

He wanted to play in his box we keep in the family room.  I guess he found the cowboy costume a little inhibiting as he crawls in and out.

We did get him to pose for a second with the hat and chaps still on.

Grandpa had to try the hat.

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

WAAAAAHHHHH!

Did you want to see how my flowers looked Monday afternoon?

Okay, I'll show you.

Do you want to see how they look now?

I guess I can't complain.  It was a really great fall.  I just wasn't quite prepared for the devastation.

Hey, I've been busy procrastinating

Someone keeps bugging me about why I haven't blogged for so long.  

I don't really have a good excuse.  We've been back home for 3 months.  You would think I could get back in the swing of things. (As if I ever was in the swing of things.)  

Anyway, I guess this little illustration pretty much explains it:

The only difference between me and the person in the illustration is that I get up earlier. 

Maybe that makes it worse.  I'm up longer and still don't get anything done.  BUT....

 I promise I'm going to do better.

Starting tomorrow.

Or maybe next week.

At Last

I thought I would post some pictures of some of the things we've been doing for the last time.

Here is Alan settling up with Gean, our taxi driver in Juazeiro.  We met him on the first trip there and liked him, so we just kept calling him to drive for us.  He took us to his house a time or two to visit with his wife and two little girls.  We took them American candy sometimes and they loved it. 

Thanks for the safe trips, Gean.  There were times I wished you would look at the road a little more while you were driving and visiting with Alan, but we always made it.

It was the last time I'll walk past Snow White and the Dwarfs on the way to our hotel room.  (They always made me think of the yard with all the yard "art" on East River Road.)  I never did understand how they worked in to the landscaping or general decorating theme of the hotel.  Now that I think about it, I don't know if the hotel had a general decorating theme.  

Good-bye, Juazeiro.

                               It was the last time I was signed up to fix lunch for the office elders. 

Raimunda helped a lot.

The last time I'll be on an outing with a bunch of crazy, but great, sister missionaries.

                            The last time a large group of missionaries will sing to us and make us tear up.

The last time Brazilian men will come and pack up our stuff to ship home.  I guess that was the first time too.

And I hope it's the last time I boil something dry while I am making a blog post.  This apartment reeks!  Not to mention that there won't be any potato salad tomorrow for lunch.