OCTOBER 2020

 

Happy Fall!  Once again I'm reporting that the world is still in COVID-19 times and the number of cases continue to rise every week.  Since there isn't a whole lot to do, most of the memories this month show us prepping for Halloween and a monumental birthday.  Enjoy!

 Teague and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on October 2nd.  The weather was warm and beautiful, just like the actual day!  We both took 1/2 days off from work and visited some of our favorite restaurants in a progressive celebration of sorts. 

  On a very rainy Sunday, I got to hike and enjoy lunch with a favorite friend of mine.  We always laugh the whole time we are together and I'm reminded how important long-time friends are.

  One of Dylan's teachers has a fun weekly competition and awards candy prizes.  This month Dylan won twice in a row!

Presley is sporting a shorter new haircut and is loving it!  It makes her look so much older as she transitions out of the standard little girl/long hair phase.

  Presley joined me for a Mom's Night with some great friends....masks in place, of course!

  My school has such an amazing PTO: every month they bring treats to the staff.  I love their thoughtfulness and generosity.

  This month we had so much drama with our neighborhood-communal mailbox.  First, the entire back was removed by some vandals (along with a bunch of other boxes in the neighborhood) so I had to drop by the post office to pick up our mail. Weeks and weeks later we noticed a new mailbox so I stopped by the post office to pick up the keys and was told that not only did our mail carrier have all the keys (why????), but he also has put all our mail in the new box.  How were we supposed to access our mail?  And during a heated election season?  Many calls later we were finally able to retrieve our mail from a very full mail slot.  Ridiculous!

To give the kids something to look forward to, I resumed monthly Hangtimes with each child.  It's one-on-one time just to check in.  Sadly, there aren't that many things we can do during this pandemic, but Maddox and I enjoyed some Burger King fast food in the car.  Still worth it.

  Dylan and Presley challenged me to play "The 80's Game" one Sunday afternoon.  Dylan won.

  Here's the first installment of the Halloween candy we purchased for the Trick-or Treaters we hoped to get.  The next day Teague picked up 4 more bags. And yes, we had extra leftover.

Here's my Carving Crew hard at work

Pumpkin Decorating Day deserved some comfort food for dinner: pumpkin shaped grilled cheese and tomato soup

Some of the finished products

Snapchat put some fun filters on their app 

Dylan's (and my) school had Spirit Week the last week of the month.  Monday was PJ/Comfy Day and I was thrilled to participate.  I honestly feel it made me more productive at work....it certainly made me happier.

The night before Dylan's birthday, my little helpers and I got to work blowing up balloons and hanging decorations to prepare for the milestone 13th birthday.  Dylan is now a teenager!

His breakfast request: funfetti pancakes, little smokies and bacon

One of Dylan's teachers always leaves birthday treats on the door of her students.  So sweet!

First time in the front seat!  Not sure it was worth the wait as he now has a closer view to my driving

Dylan has adapted the quintessential definition of a teenager: iPhone and Dutch Bros energy drink

That's it for October!  Dylan and Presley went trick-or-treating while Maddox hung back making sure the candy bowl we set out was properly full of treats.  The littles made out like bandits on the candy as the few houses that were participating were overly generous.  It was a really fun day and a pretty good month.  Until next time....