Thanksgiving Day

We got a scary reminder of just how much we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. I'll preface this story by saying that Collin is completely fine but he gave us quite a scare. Thanksgiving morning I got up early and took the boys over to my parents. Tim joined us later because he needed to let the dogs out so they wouldn't go too long without going outside. Morey still jumps on the couch and the table so we don't allow him to come over to my parents yet. The boys and I got there bright and early and helped make the stuffing and get the turkey in the oven. We had our traditional breakfast of kielbasa and cinnamon buns and mimosas. They boys did not have mimosas of course, they had plain orange juice. Things were going just fine. We watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade and some of the dog show, the turkey was done and we were all busy getting the side dishes prepared. All of the sudden we heard Collin screaming. He came down the hall from one of the bedrooms saying his mouth hurt. I could see he was bleeding so I grabbed a flashlight for a better look. He had poked a hole in his throat just beside one of his tonsils. By the time I was able to see this Collin was pretty well calmed down, he wasn't even complaining that it hurt. I informed him that we were going to the ER and he got really upset. We briefly considered going to Nighttime Peds because he was acting so normal but my gut just told me he needed to go to the ER. We didn't go to the closest hospital because they don't have an ENT doctor on call. The ER which is notorious for being backed up and slow took us right away and we were seen in no time. They called the ENT doctor on call and it turned out to be someone I knew and trusted completely. He looked in Collin's mouth and decided that the best thing to do would be to call the attending doctor at Children's Hospital to find out what the most up to date protocol for this type of injury was. They decided that Collin would get a CT scan at the hospital and as long as it came back OK we wouldn't have to go to Children's. If Collin had just stabbed himself in the tonsil it would have been no big deal and we could have just gone home. Instead he stabbed himself to the left of his tonsil and just behind that muscle is where the carotid artery is located. The doctor was pretty sure that the injury wasn't that deep but didn't want to take any chances. In order to get the CT scan Collin needed an IV. God help me if my child ever needs another IV because it was the most miserable experience of my life. He does not have good veins, or at least easy to find veins and we had to wrap him in a sheet and hold him down while the nurses tried to find one. Bless his little heart he tried to be brave at first. I told him exactly what was going to happen and that it would hurt and he was OK when they first started. He even said it tickled when the nurses were feeling his arm looking for a vein. Unfortunately she couldn't find it with the needle and we held him for what felt like an eternity while she fished around for one. It made me cry to feel him struggling and hear him screaming "please help me". They finally had to take a break and let him relax a bit. The second nurse who tried got it right away. Collin still cried and screamed but it was over in no time the second time around. As soon as he got his IV they were ready to do his CT scan which was too bad because he didn't really have enough time to calm down completely and was terrified of the machine. It was this big circle that spun and lit up. He was supposed to just lay on a table that went through it twice. The lady running it was nice and put him through it once without turning it on just to show him it wasn't scary but he wasn't buying it. He really needed to be completely still to get a good picture but we had to do the best we could. I talked to him about Disney World and going on roller coasters and compared that to the ride through the circle while they took the picture but he wasn't really buying that either. Finally he calmed down enough that we were able to get the test done and it wasn't the greatest picture but it showed enough for the doctors to determine that Collin hadn't hit anything when he stabbed himself. It was decided that we would stay overnight just to watch for signs of a blot clot or stroke. The doctor told me I could have taken him home and woken him up to check myself but if it was his kid, he'd be staying overnight. I sure didn't want that kind of responsibility. Throughout the whole ordeal Collin kept insisting that he was fine, and he acted fine too. That is probably what helped me to stay calm and not freak out. We finally got a room in peds around 9:30 and I finally got to eat my Thanksgiving dinner, which my parents had brought to us earlier in the ER, around 10 that night. Collin fell asleep around 10:30 or so but got woken up every hour to make sure that he was OK. The first 3 times he was woken up, he screamed bloody murder for a good 20 minutes afterward because he was so mad about it. After that I think he was just too tired to care anymore. He woke up at 7am the next morning all bright eyed and bushy-tailed. It was 8:45 before he even mentioned wanting some food despite the fact that he hadn't been allowed to eat during this entire process. He mentioned food once just before he fell asleep the night before but wasn't upset when I told him he couldn't have it. We went home the next morning and he's been completely fine ever since. He never even had any pain medicine! I wouldn't have thought it would hurt like hell but apparently after the initial pain that kind of injury isn't painful at all. So this Thanksgiving I am most grateful that I have two beautiful children who bring such joy to my life. I sometimes take them for granted and forget how everything can change in an instant. I am so thankful that, although it was very scary because of what might have been, Collin is none the worse for wear. I gotta say, you should have seen him pushing his IV pole around when he wanted to go somewhere. He adapted very quickly. I was quite shocked and kind of proud that he was able to relax and have some fun despite being very scared. I'm thankful for my sister who gave up her plans with Max to help me out. She watch Nick so my parents could come see us and bring us some dinner and she and Max took our dogs home so Tim wouldn't have to leave the hospital. There are so many things that I'm thankful for this year, I can't even begin to mention them all but mostly I'm just thankful for the wonderful care that my son received and that he is completely fine. Watching him play today you'd never guess he'd just come home from the hospital yesterday.

I hope you all had a wonderful, far less eventful than mine, Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for all of the wonderful people in our lives, and even though I don't always take the time to say it, I hope you all know how special you are and how much you mean to all of us. Here's to a happy and healthy holiday season ahead. Cheers!

Good-by 29, Hello 30

I'm leaving my 20's behind and despite the fact that my sister has teased me for months about getting old, I'm not bothered by it at all. A lot of remarkable things occurred over the last decade (OK, "decade" made me feel a little old). I met and married my husband, had two amazing children, graduated college, bought my first brand new car and our first home. There have been ups and downs along the way but I wouldn't change a thing. I'm grateful for all the experiences I've had and all the things I've learned from them. The next 10 years will no doubt bring challenges as well, but it also brings lots of new opportunities and adventures. My boys will go to school, maybe play a sport, an instrument, who knows what interests they'll develop. but we'll have fun watching them grow into young men. By the time the next decade has passed Collin will be 13 and Nick will be 11. They'll be teenagers and then I might feel old, but not yet. Turning 30 isn't exciting like 21, or even 25 when your car insurance rates go down, but it doesn't make you old either. I remember a time when I thought 30 was ancient. I was probably 10 or so and taking dance lessons. My instructor was telling us about college and how they have a cafeteria where you can get a hamburger any time you wanted. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever heard. 21 seemed really old then. I remember thinking that I was going to go to college, eat all the hamburgers I wanted, get married and have a baby by the time I was 21 (because that seemed so old and far away). As I got older, maybe 16 or so, I realized that 21 wasn't old at all and my plans changed. I went to college and ate more waffles with strawberries and whipped cream than hamburgers, but still thought it was pretty cool. I was almost 23 when I got married and 26 when I had Collin. That's still pretty young but a big improvement over 21. I guess when I was 21 I probably thought 30 was old but now that it's arrived, it's definitely not. I am not old, I'm just slightly more experienced and hopefully a little wiser. I keep thinking that I should feel something about turning 30 but I don't. I'm not particularly excited or dismayed, it's just another day, another milestone crossed. Maybe I'll feel differently on my actual birthday but for now, no big deal. So you can call me old all you want and maybe someday I'll actually get there, but I hope not. I have a friend who just turned 70 and I wouldn't call her old. Yes, the number is getting to be rather large, but she is definitely not old. Age is just a number, old is a state of mind. As long as your body doesn't have other plans for you, I think you can stay young forever and that is exactly what I plan to do. So bring on my 30's and every decade after that. I look forward to each and every day with all the joys and challenges that go along with them.

I look good for my age

My son informed his sitter that I was celebrating a birthday soon. "How old is Mommy going to be?" she asked. 100!!!!

I have been BUSY!

This is the first time I've sat down at a computer (for personal use, not work) since Thursday night. I have been super busy, but its been so much fun! I'll try to catch you up to speed.

Friday, after work, we met Jane and her family for dinner and a trip to The Avenue at White Marsh for the Christmas tree lighting and Collin got to sit on Santa's lap. By the way, the curry recipe Jane posted on her blog is every bit as good as it sounds.

On Saturday we went to Joey's 6th birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese. I can't believe he's 6 already, I am getting old fast. The boys had a good time. In fact, Collin was having so much fun he wasn't even interested in the birthday cake! They had this really cool ride that I would have hopped on myself if I wasn't too big. It was this seat that moved and gyrated while you watched a cartoon movie about flying or riding a roller coaster or something like that. Collin LOVED it, Nick-not so much.


Sunday was the highlight of the weekend (at least for me, probably not for my guys). This year as our birthday presents to each other and Christmas presents to my parents my sister and I decided that the 4 of us would take the bus to New York to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. If you haven't been, you have to go. The bus is a great way to go because its comfortable, relatively inexpensive and you don't have to drive in New York City. Just make sure you get to the stop on time because you can't necessarily pick the bus up at the next stop. My sister found this out the hard way but she was lucky and our bus was stopping at the stop closest to her house. If you get tickets for the show before Thanksgiving they are considerably cheaper than after Thanksgiving. It is a must see. I have never seen anything like it and while I'm sure it would be good other places, there is nothing like seeing it at Radio City. They don't allow photography so I don't have any pictures of the actual show but I don't think I'll ever forget it. We at lunch at the Rock Cafe where you can watch people ice skating right outside the window. The only thing I didn't like was that the restroom had an attendant and though I did my best not to need her assistance, the faucets are rigged so that they don't stay on by themselves and she had to hold them in the on position for me. Therefore it cost me $1 to go to the bathroom. That was probably a lousy tip for NYC, but she's lucky she got that. Other than that, we just wandered the streets of New York and checked out a bunch of stores. I forgot my camera the first time I took a trip to New York so I made sure to bring it this time and I took tons of pictures. On the way home our bus had an accident when some moron attempted to cut the bus off so we had to wait about a half hour for New York's finest to show up. You would think that with as many accidents that must occur there every day they would have an easy system but it took FOREVER because they had to manually enter everything and it will be 3 days before the police report is ready. No one was hurt and the damage to the bus and the moron's car was minor so after the report was filed we were on our way home. It was an uneventful trip but we got back late because of the accident. When we finally got back to the park and ride, Dad discovered his battery was dead and he couldn't jump it so they called AAA and sent me home. It was a very eventful day and by the time I finally went to bed around 12:30 I was utterly exhausted. 5:15 came much earlier than usual this morning so I'll be going to be early tonight.

No longer frustrated

I called the insurance company today and spent 3 minutes working my way through voice prompts trying to get to a human who told me I had called the "wrong" number and gave me the "right" number to call. I hung up, looked at the number she gave me, looked at the number I'd dialed to begin with, swore because they were the same and called back. This time I was irritated and the voice prompt must not have liked my tone because it wouldn't put me through to anything so I hung up and called back and sweetly gave my information to the computer again and was finally connected to a very nice lady who informed me that since I did not go to LabCorp (and believe me I never would by choice, they suck) my doctor's office made a mistake by sending my test there and I would not owe any money. If I actually get a bill, I am supposed to call them back and they will look into it. I was very happy to hear that I don't owe the money, but a little disappointed that my doctor's office screwed up. There are lists for that kind of stuff, but hey, everyone makes mistakes. Lord knows I make plenty of them every day.

Frustrated

Tonight I opened my mail and discovered that my stupid insurance company has denied coverage for the lab work that my primary care physician sent me for because I didn't have a referral. Since when do you need a referral for lab work? The order sheet that the doctor signs isn't good enough? Not to mention that it was my primary care physician sending me for the lab work, not my specialist, who by the way has sent me for lab work numerous times and there's never, ever, been a problem. The total is apparently only $45 but that's not the point. The point is that now I have to spend my valuable time on the phone with the morons at the insurance company arguing over why they should pay for the lab work. It was just routine stuff from a physical, but it's been 2+ years since I've had a physical and I've switched primary care physicians; I'm entitled to a physical. OK, maybe entitled is a bad word, but we pay a lot of money every month to have health insurance. I'm a healthy individual and rarely go to the doctor so they are making money off of my premiums. I should be able to get a physical complete with lab work without having to call and fight with the insurance company. This is the problem with our stupid insurance system, they deny stuff like this in hopes that people will think, "$45 or time spent on hold waiting to be transferred all over the place in the hopes of finding someone who will tell you, we screwed up and should have covered in the first place? I'll just pay the $45". Someone once told me that someone they knew who was high up in one of the major insurance companies said that they routinely deny something ridiculous like 20% of claims just because people will get frustrated and not fight it till its covered and thus they make big bucks not covering stuff they should have paid for. Heresay, I know but I have no reason to doubt the person I heard it from. I HATE insurance companies. I wish we could go back to the good old days where physicians charged a reasonable amount and you paid for their services when you received them, like when you pay your accountant to do your taxes or your mechanic to fix your car. Anyway, tomorrow's task will be to call and try to remain pleasant while telling the mental midget on the phone that they denied a claim they should have paid. And I almost hope they tell me they're still not going to pay it because then I get to give them a piece of my mind.

Fluky Milestone

Monday night I gave the boys a bath and in the middle of it, Collin climbed out of the tub, used the potty and got back in to finish his bath. Already squeaky clean, and not to be outdone by his brother, Nick bugged me till I got him out of the tub. As soon as his feet hit the floor he was trying to climb on the potty so I stuck him up there just to see what he'd do. He sat for a couple of minutes and then all of the sudden he actually peed! I made a huge deal out of it and so did Collin. Nick said "icky" and we flushed the toilet. He hasn't tried to sit on a potty since but every time he gets near one he says "icky" and flushes it. Perhaps he will be easier to potty train than Collin was since he has his older brother to imitate. I remember Collin doing this same thing at about the same age and it was a total fluke, he wasn't potty trained till he was almost 3. No real hope of being done with diapers any time soon, but hey, it gives me hope that there is a light at the end of that dark, expensive tunnel.

Look Ma!

Nick found Collin's swim goggles the other day and couldn't resist trying them on. He was just delighted with himself to be wearing them. I guess I'll be getting him a pair this summer.

How to make your mother look like a raving lunatic in a few easy steps

1. Accompany mother and brother to mall for brother's first hair cut. Be incredibly good about staying right with mother for weeks before this trip so mother thinks nothing about carrying brother and letting you walk.

2. Behave perfectly while brother gets his hair cut and then angelically ask to play in the mall playground for "just 5 minutes".

3. Play for 5 minutes like an angel and then throw a temper tantrum because you can't climb something.

4. Freak out when mother makes you get your shoes and leave because you threw a temper tantrum.

5. Run away from mother in the mall. Scream at the top of your lungs "Ouch! Stop! You're hurting me!" and drop to the ground like a limp noodle every time mother takes you by the hand and tries to lead you out of the mall.

6. Actually have the nerve to ask for pretzels and a drink on the way out of the mall because "I've been good".

7. Inform mother in the car that "I can do whatever I want to" in a voice dripping in attitude worthy of a 16 year old.

8. Actually do whatever you want to despite whatever punishment raving lunatic mother inflicts upon you.

9. Tell father you were bad at the mall and apologize to him and ask to play wii and watch TV, both of which raving lunatic mother has taken away.

10. Apologize to raving lunatic mother with a gigantic hug and kiss and say "Please don't be mad at me anymore, mom. I love you so much. I'm sorry I was bad."

Updates

So now that I'm over my irritation with the political process I'll fill you in on a few things my family has been up to lately.

Collin has gotten so good at Wii bowling that he achieved a pro score the other night and was really excited to get the special ball. Unfortunately, he decided it was funny to throw the ball directly into the gutter and promptly tanked his score and lost his pro status. In about 15 minutes he went from a score of 1028 to 640. We spent the evening together tonight, just the two of us. I took him to the mall and got his 'fro cut into a darling little boy cut that shows off his curls, then we played on the play ground and split some pretzel bits (as is our tradition every time we go to the mall) before heading home. We really enjoyed our special time together. I remember that I used to go on "dates" with my Dad when I was little and they meant a lot so I'm going to make sure that I make time to take both of my boys on "dates" and hopefully, they'll have fond memories of that when they're old like me.

Nicholas has several new words. He says cookie, turkey, gobble-gobble, bubbles and eww. I learned that he really knew what kinds of things were eww after I got him out of the bath the other night and didn't get his diaper on quick enough. He left me a GIANT turd at the top of our steps and stood there pointing at it saying eww over and over until I turned around to see what he was talking about. As soon as I realized what he'd done I said eww as well and he gave me the biggest grin, shouted EWW and ran away giggling. He's also starting to get the hang of coloring. Every day when I pick the boys up from daycare Collin proudly shows me the papers he's done that day and Nick does his best to steal those pages. Two days ago when I walked in the door, Nick came running up to me with a paper he had colored with his name on it. He had the biggest grin on his face because he was so very proud of himself. I made a huge deal out of it as well. How has my baby become such a big boy? I'm planning on taking him for his first haircut tomorrow night because I'm getting their pictures taken on Saturday. I'll post pictures of the two of them soon.

On to the four-legged children. Morey is adjusting nicely but he's had a few moments that have made me scream and then laugh. Last night I was lazy and didn't clear the boys plates after dinner. I left them for later and took the boys upstairs to give them a bath. When I came back downstairs I walked into the dining room to find Morey, not just with two feet on the table licking the plates clean but with all four feet on the table. He was just standing there in the middle of my dining room table cleaning my dishes for me. He did get right down as soon as I yelled at him. Later that night I let the dogs out but neither one pooped, really not all that unusual. The corn Morey ate off the boys plates must have made him go because he followed me downstairs to do laundry and pooped in the basement hall. It was his first accident in the house and at least it was poop. His very first accident came when I took him to the vet for his follow up appointment after being neutered. I think leaving the house without Sadie must have freaked him out because he peed on the front passenger seat in my van an the way there. I'll take poop over pee any day, so much easier to clean up. This afternoon the boys were playing outside for a bit before we went in to let the dogs out. Morey must have heard us because I walked by the house and realized my blind was funky so I took a closer look. What I saw was a pair of paws and a little brown nose peaking between the slats trying to see what we were doing. Very cute! He starts his dog training classes soon. Tim went to the first class this week. It was just lecture so Morey had a temporary reprieve got to stay home. The woman teaching it has over 40 years experience training dogs so we're looking forward to Morey completing the class successfully.

Tim and I recently celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. 7 years, 2 kids, 2 dogs, a dog and a mortgage later I look at our life together and think how lucky we are. It's hard to believe it's been 7 years already, it certainly doesn't feel that long. Just another reminder of how quickly the time goes by. We met more than 10 years ago, that's a full third of my life! I wouldn't trade a moment of it and I look forward to a lifetime of happy anniversary's.

Sadie and Jackson have been on their best behavior. They are tolerating Morey and the kids quite well and are happy and healthy so not much to report there.

Why I will NEVER watch Oprah again

10:33 p.m.

Oprah (!) being interviewed at the Obama rally in Chicago: "It's my town. My town's been vibrating all day...[Gail tells her to tell a story about how she voted.] I was voting across from a drug rehab center. And there were some ladies in there that I was like, 'Well, how long have you all been detoxed?' And they said, 'Just last week,' and I said, 'Okay, that's good. That's sober enough.'...And I thought, 'We will even take the drug addicts' vote.

In case you couldn't tell from my last rant I'm a bit disenchanted with the voting process these days. The quote above is exactly as Oprah said it and it absolutely makes my blood boil. Are we so desperate in this country that we need to have the drug addicts voting for president? This election has been going on for more than a year. In the week or less that they've been sober did they research what the candidates stood for? I doubt it. It's our right to vote in this country and I would never deny anyone that right. More than a right, it's our civic duty to vote. I believe it is also our duty to understand the issues and what the candidates stand for before we vote. Obama wasn't my choice for President but I'm not that upset that he won. My biggest problem with him was that he wants more government and I think the government screws up just about everything it touches with too much bureaucracy, but what do I know? I could be totally wrong and I hope I am. My problem isn't that he was elected, my problem is that McCain didn't stand a chance right from the beginning. The media crowned Obama King a long time ago and he was able to outspend McCain by two to one. How do you possibly compete with that? You can't. Obama ran an innovative campaign. He had a lot of new techniques that were nothing short of ingenious but you also had ACORN out there registering the Dallas Cowboys and God only knows who else to vote. It's those type of things that I object to. I'm glad to see so many people so excited about the election and I hope that this excitement continues. Its good to see young people finally involved and excited about something that's so important. My hope for the next election is that both candidates use the same type of financing and that the media stops telling us all who is going to win long before the election takes place and for God's sake, get rid of ACORN and replace them with a non partisan group who will register real people to vote once and only once. Yes, I know, by and large, that is what happens, but there were tons of reports of people registering multiple times and under false names and it just bugs me. An election should be won without those kind of shady tactics being necessary. Obama would have been able to win even without that kind of stuff. I think it demeans him and his presidency that people weren't confident enough in him and his abilities that they felt it necessary to register anyone and everyone, multiple times if necessary, and get the drug addicts out to vote just to get him elected. I hope that he is able to unite the country and deliver the kind of change he promises.

I promise this is the last bit of ranting I will do on the election and politics, at least for another 2 years. And by the way, the Washington Redskins did correctly predict the outcome of the election by losing Monday night. And here's another stat I heard recently. It's going to be a good 4 years for the New York Yankees. They only win the World Series when a democrat is president so they have 4 years to return to their former glory. Talk about a stat I like to see turn out to be wrong this time!

Election Day Rant (Why I Hate the Media)

I went out and cast my vote today and although I've studiously avoided coverage of the election since this morning, my husband has currently won the argument over the TV and I'm stuck watching the talking heads call the election in New Mexico for Barack Obama with a whole whopping 3% reporting. I can't begin to tell you how much this whole process has irritated me. From the months and months and months and months of talking ad neauseum about who is the better candidate,to ACORN, to early voting, to the electoral college, and especially the talking heads calling elections based on exit polling; I'm sick of all of it. I don't think the process is a good one any more and it should be changed. I know there is some reason why the electoral college was instituted and I'm sure it was a good one, at least at the time, but shouldn't the election results reflect the will of all of the people? If a majority of people in the state vote for one person, that person gets all the states electoral votes and the votes of the people who voted for the other candidate no longer count. It is possible to win the popular vote and not the White House. How is that OK? And why is exit polling allowed? If I'm getting home from work and getting ready to go vote and they've already called the election, why would I bother going to vote? Either the candidate I'd be voting for has won or has no chance of winning so I might as well stay home. I don't agree with early voting either, I think it leads to greater voter fraud. Absentee ballots don't bother me provided you have to show proof of identification to use one. I feel like political coverage should be limited to what each candidate's views are, not who is likely to win. Everyone should vote on the same day and there should be absolutely no coverage of the results until all the ballots have been cast and counted. I also think that you should be required to prove you are who you say you are before you're allowed to vote. I was asked for my name, address and date of birth. If I had registered as someone else in addition to myself, I could have given that information and voted again at a different polling place. I wasn't asked for any form of picture ID although Tim did say he was asked for his licence. I guess I'm just looking for some uniformity and some semblance of fairness. I've been irate over exit polling and media coverage since Ehrlich lost the election to O'Malley a number of years ago. I remember very clearly watching the TV in the early evening (I don't even think polls were closed yet) and the screen said Ehrlich had over 100,000 votes and O'Malley had 60,000 with some small percentage of precincts reporting and they called the election for O'Malley. It just irks me to no end. Not so much because Ehrlich lost, despite the fact that he was doing a good job and even had a decent approval rating. I can accept that O'Malley, for some reason beyond my comprehension, was popular and a Democrat so of course he was going to win. What I can't accept is that the election was called before all the votes were counted. That would be like saying that because one team is winning in the third quarter they win the game. If you're going to call it after three quarters, why bother playing a fourth? I can't stand the entire process anymore. I'm tired of the media determining, by their coverage, what the outcome will be. Yes, I realize this has been a bit of a bitter rant but I do feel a little bit better. It's just wrong that we call the election before all of the votes are counted. I guess the media need something to do all day and night but if it were up to me, I'd be watching Dancing with the Stars and hoping Susan Lucci gets kicked off. Instead I have to wait until tomorrow to find out who loses that election.

And the winner is...

For the last 5 presidential elections when the incumbent is not running for re-election the Washington Redskins have predicted the winner of the election by winning or losing their game the week before the election. If they win, the party leaving the White House will remain in power. If they lose, the opposing party wins the White House. The Redskins are playing the Steelers tonight and the game will go on far later than I'm able to stay up. Regardless of the outcome of the game, I'm still going to cast my vote at some point tomorrow. I can't wait to see if history repeats itself and the outcome of the election follows the outcome of the game. By the way, I want to be the person whose job it is to keep these kinds of stats. Really, who sits around and says "hmm...I wonder which football team's record corresponds to the presidential election results?" I can't believe this stat actually exists!

Funniest Commercial I've Seen in Ages

Happy Halloween

Unfortunately I didn't take too many pictures of the boys on Halloween because my camera battery was not charged and died after two pictures. I did get some when we stopped by my Mom's house but they're on her camera so I'll post them when I get them. Collin was a pirate and Nick was supposed to be a lion. He despised his costume and sobbed when I put it on him so I didn't make him wear it for trick-or-treating. Instead he wore a pair of jeans and a Halloween shirt and Collin's pirate bandanna on his head. We were gone trick-or-treating for all of 20 minutes and then we came home and sat outside with our neighbors and passed out the candy. I think the boys had more fun doing that than actually trick-or-treating. They got to hand out candy and run around after dark. What's not to love about that? They even gave away some of the candy that they had gotten and after we binged today, we are done with Halloween candy.