And a frigid All Hallow's Eve to you, too!
Oof-da, but it was cold tonight. There's a little dusting of snow on the ground and some ice here and there on the roads and parking lots, and the temperature has been in the low 20s. Thank goodness for very little wind tonight. Still, it was cold enough to bite at our ears and cheeks as we braved the weather to go trick-or-treating.
Tuesday nights, Suzanna and Abigail have dance class, and they wanted to attend tonight, even though the instructor gave them the option to skip it for Halloween festivities. While they were dancing, Susan took Hillary to the mall to make the candy-collecting rounds. I picked up Suzanna and Abigail after dance at 6:45 P.M., took them home, picked up Hillary, and escorted them around the block for some chilly trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood.
There were precious few other people out and about. At many houses, the girls were told that they were the first people to show up--and that was around 7:30 P.M.! Candy givers were overstocked and feeling generous, dumping mounds of their goodies into the girls' bags. I was freezing my extremities, but we still hit all the porch-light-lit houses on our block. Everyone was very friendly, and some had even set aside special goodie bags for the girls without ever having met them ("We've seen you out on your bikes, and we mean to have your family over soon").
No one argued when we'd made it around the block and Daddy suggested heading indoors. Susan made hot chocolate for us all and reported that about a dozen people had stopped by our house for candy. So, sitting on our kitchen counter now are the two giant bowls of candy we bought to give away plus the two giant bowls' worth of candy the girls collected.
I guess I'll have to pitch in and do my part to make all that candy disappear. *sigh*
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Goblins, Fajitas, Urine, and Home Decor
Friday
Susan and I took the girls to the Armory for the Dickinson Parks and Recreation annual Halloween party for littluns (third grade and younger). Suzanna dressed as a farm girl (what we called her scarecrow outfit minus the straw coming out the sleeves and neck of her shirt, because we couldn't find that raffia in time), Abigail as a bride, and Hillary as a princess (in her witch costume with a tiara instead of the witch's hat). They got bags of candy when we entered, and then we wound our way through a haunted house set-up (well decorated with someone hiding in costume who popped up occasionally to startle people) until we made our way to a large room filled with games: bowling, tic-tac-toe beanbag toss, etc. It was fun to see the scads of other little kids in their costumes, and the girls enjoyed playing the games and seeing/talking to their friends from school. Each child received free bottled water on the way out, courtesy of Pepsi.
Saturday
Our new entertainment center was delivered on Friday, so we spent part of Saturday setting it up with all the electronic media equipment. We also unpacked and organized all our CDs, cassettes, videotapes, and DVDs. Susan's aunt Kathy spent the evening with the girls so that Susan and I could go out for supper and then to a musical at DSU. We ate at El Sombrero and had a great meal: we shared the Fajitas El Sombrero for two, featuring a sizzling platter of shrimp, chicken, chorizo, and steak to stuff as we pleased into flour tortillas. We each got a plate of deee-licious refried beans and cheese, Spanish rice, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, and lettuce, too. Susan had a strawberry margarita, and I enjoyed some cerveza. It was so much food that what we took home made a meal for the five of us tonight!
Afterward we saw Urinetown: The Musical at DSU. It's a funny, satirical musical, and we both enjoyed the script. It was our first theatre experience in Dickinson, and we were pleased with the production, too. There were no klunky voices, no awful actors, no disastrous directing choices--the detractions (and distractions) of which there are usually at least one per production. A student employee from the Academic Success Center (where I work) was in the cast, so it was fun to see him on stage. And it was a full crowd in the auditorium, including a very funny and friendly woman who sat next to me and visited easily between acts . . . and even during Act II. When a certain character came on at a certain time, she guessed the secret that the character was about to reveal, and she leaned over and told me, "I'll bet she's her mother. I just had a feeling all along." When the character revealed this parenthood secret, the woman next to me punched me in the shoulder as though to say, "I told you so." Afterward, Susan asked me who the woman was, figuring it was a coworker of mine whom she hadn't met yet. Nope, I have no idea who she was!
Sunday
Today was the day for sorting through the stacks of pictures, photographs, and knick knacks that we've been forming in the living room as we've been unpacking boxes. We figured we should assemble all our decor items in one place before we started putting up pictures on the wall; better to see it all laid out so that we could remember our options and reimagine old things hanging up in new combinations in this new place. We got out the hammer and nails, the level, the tape measure, the stud finder, the pencil, and the step stool and got to work, room by room. We're not done nailing and hanging yet, but we have assigned every hanging item to a room now. We'll place tchotchkes, candles, framed photos, etc., on the horizontal surfaces after everything is up that belongs on a vertical surface.
We want the home decorated and everything in its place by Thanksgiving when my family will be in Dickinson to spend the holiday with us! My sisters from Oregon and Nebraska and my dad and stepmom from McGregor, ND will all be here, and we're very much looking forward to it. We want the home in order to "show it off" to them (and to maximize the space available for setting down suitcases without feeling claustrophobic among stacks of boxes).
Susan and I took the girls to the Armory for the Dickinson Parks and Recreation annual Halloween party for littluns (third grade and younger). Suzanna dressed as a farm girl (what we called her scarecrow outfit minus the straw coming out the sleeves and neck of her shirt, because we couldn't find that raffia in time), Abigail as a bride, and Hillary as a princess (in her witch costume with a tiara instead of the witch's hat). They got bags of candy when we entered, and then we wound our way through a haunted house set-up (well decorated with someone hiding in costume who popped up occasionally to startle people) until we made our way to a large room filled with games: bowling, tic-tac-toe beanbag toss, etc. It was fun to see the scads of other little kids in their costumes, and the girls enjoyed playing the games and seeing/talking to their friends from school. Each child received free bottled water on the way out, courtesy of Pepsi.
Saturday
Our new entertainment center was delivered on Friday, so we spent part of Saturday setting it up with all the electronic media equipment. We also unpacked and organized all our CDs, cassettes, videotapes, and DVDs. Susan's aunt Kathy spent the evening with the girls so that Susan and I could go out for supper and then to a musical at DSU. We ate at El Sombrero and had a great meal: we shared the Fajitas El Sombrero for two, featuring a sizzling platter of shrimp, chicken, chorizo, and steak to stuff as we pleased into flour tortillas. We each got a plate of deee-licious refried beans and cheese, Spanish rice, guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, and lettuce, too. Susan had a strawberry margarita, and I enjoyed some cerveza. It was so much food that what we took home made a meal for the five of us tonight!
Afterward we saw Urinetown: The Musical at DSU. It's a funny, satirical musical, and we both enjoyed the script. It was our first theatre experience in Dickinson, and we were pleased with the production, too. There were no klunky voices, no awful actors, no disastrous directing choices--the detractions (and distractions) of which there are usually at least one per production. A student employee from the Academic Success Center (where I work) was in the cast, so it was fun to see him on stage. And it was a full crowd in the auditorium, including a very funny and friendly woman who sat next to me and visited easily between acts . . . and even during Act II. When a certain character came on at a certain time, she guessed the secret that the character was about to reveal, and she leaned over and told me, "I'll bet she's her mother. I just had a feeling all along." When the character revealed this parenthood secret, the woman next to me punched me in the shoulder as though to say, "I told you so." Afterward, Susan asked me who the woman was, figuring it was a coworker of mine whom she hadn't met yet. Nope, I have no idea who she was!
Sunday
Today was the day for sorting through the stacks of pictures, photographs, and knick knacks that we've been forming in the living room as we've been unpacking boxes. We figured we should assemble all our decor items in one place before we started putting up pictures on the wall; better to see it all laid out so that we could remember our options and reimagine old things hanging up in new combinations in this new place. We got out the hammer and nails, the level, the tape measure, the stud finder, the pencil, and the step stool and got to work, room by room. We're not done nailing and hanging yet, but we have assigned every hanging item to a room now. We'll place tchotchkes, candles, framed photos, etc., on the horizontal surfaces after everything is up that belongs on a vertical surface.
We want the home decorated and everything in its place by Thanksgiving when my family will be in Dickinson to spend the holiday with us! My sisters from Oregon and Nebraska and my dad and stepmom from McGregor, ND will all be here, and we're very much looking forward to it. We want the home in order to "show it off" to them (and to maximize the space available for setting down suitcases without feeling claustrophobic among stacks of boxes).
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Abigail's New Appearance
Abigail now wears spectacles! As of Monday, she is the proud owner of a pair of glasses. A vision screening at her elementary school a couple weeks ago revealed that an official visit to the eye doctor was in order, and the doctor prescribed corrective lenses. Abigail's eyeballs are as sensitive to light as is her skin, so the lenses react to light and automatically darken outdoors to function like sunglasses. The frames are rectangular and are dark purple. She wears them faithfully and proudly. She looks so much older with them on, which makes me a little sad. However, now reading is so much easier for her that she's plowing through books at the same rapid pace that Suzanna does. Abigail is grateful for her glasses, and she's gotten compliments from her classmates at school, too. That's a very good thing.
Oh, and she just this morning lost another tooth: her upper-right incisor. She came up to me to say, "Dad, I have a tooth that's really loose. See?" When she wiggled it, it fell right out--no pulling or pain required!
P.S. I started wearing glasses at about 3 years old, as did my sister Sandy. We also wore our glasses religiously. I think Sandy still wears contacts. I grew out of needing glasses in my early twenties, though. Maybe the same thing will happen for Abigail . . .
Oh, and she just this morning lost another tooth: her upper-right incisor. She came up to me to say, "Dad, I have a tooth that's really loose. See?" When she wiggled it, it fell right out--no pulling or pain required!
P.S. I started wearing glasses at about 3 years old, as did my sister Sandy. We also wore our glasses religiously. I think Sandy still wears contacts. I grew out of needing glasses in my early twenties, though. Maybe the same thing will happen for Abigail . . .
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