Headed Into the Holidays

(Brian and I had a little fun on Halloween)

It turns out, having your fridge break down is a great incentive to clean it out. You have to remove all of the food and put it in coolers until the repair guy comes, so you're halfway there.

Our fridge stopped working unexpectedly two nights ago, but a repairman replaced a part and we are back in business and squeaky clean.

For Halloween, Sophie looked darling as her favorite book/movie character -- Tris from Divergent.

Ian wanted to be dry bones (the skeleton version of the turtle) from Mario Bros. With a little help from my sister, who made him an awesome shell, he was a cool looking skinny skeleton turtle. Or, as he joked on his way to school when I first did his face make-up weird (I was trying to draw a jaw line for a snapper turtle, but I made it go over his lip and it looked like a mustache) -- he was an awesome looking Italian-black-and-white-skeleton-ninja-turtle.

Isaac was a construction worker. Last year, his best friend was an army guy. We got him an identical costume and they were both army guys. They love to play army--perfect. This year, they both wanted to be construction workers. The love playing construction and want to own their own company someday--again, perfect. We got him a tool belt with real tools and safety glasses. Lots of people commented that the best part of his costume was the giant drywall bucket (which he carried around to gather treats).

My mom and I had high hopes that Katie would be either Minnie Mouse, Aurora or both (one for school by day and one for trick-or-treating by night). I got her the Minnie dress and my mom splurged on a Disney Aurora pink dress with wand, crown and painted parasol for her birthday last May.

Unfortunately, those dresses have not gotten a lot of use, although we did get some fun pictures at the park.

As Halloween approached, Katie raided the costume box for various pre-Halloween parties and events. She was a cowgirl, a dragon and the transformer bumblebee. That was all fine with me, but, I kept prepping her for the big day. What would she choose? Aurora or Minnie?

When the big day got here, guess which one she picked?

Spiderman.

An old Spiderman costume that we bought second hand when Ian was five. Isaac has also worn it.

I'm not surprised. She loves princesses, but she loves super heroes equally. Or, maybe more?

The nice part is this--since she is my fourth kid, I didn't really care. My mom and I both laughed about it.

Ian 11, Sophie 13, Isaac 9, Katie 5

Sophie invited her junior high friends over for a party. We decorated the family room all spooky and rigged up an outdoor movie. The weather was warm and perfect! We had a fire for s'mores, tons of treats and root beer over dry ice. Brian took the other kids trick-or-treating and my mom was kind enough to come pass out our candy while I supervised the party (nicest group of kids ever).

November has been an interesting month. Right after the 5K on the 1st, my Dad and Brian headed to Montana for a construction job my dad lined up. They were gone for a week, back for 4-days (during that time they were working non-stop to build metal frames to take to the next job) and then they were gone for 11-days!

Brian is a trooper. He has worked so hard. And, Montana was like -17 degrees every day, so I am glad it was him, not me, who was there.

For the kids and I, the only hiccup was the van breaking down in the middle of the 11-day stint. Everything else went great! I didn't know what it would be like having him gone for so long. It made us appreciate each other more. He sent me a giant bouquet of flowers the day he came home. It was like we were long-distance dating again (he always sent me huge bouquets of flowers when I lived in D.C.).

Here is the best news of the month so far. We've been trying to sell our 25th Street house. We finally got an offer! But, it was a lease-to-own offer. In some ways that was fine. I was trying to be optimistic. It will be paid off in 10-years. So, I guess if we lease it long enough--that could be pretty sweet. Bigger pay-out. Delayed gratification.

But, a lot of things are going to happen in the next 10-years of our lives. Braces for FOUR kids. College. Maybe mission(s). Maybe a wedding. My oh my, our Sophie will be almost twenty-four and Ian will be twenty-two. Leasing the house and paying it off is a sweet idea. But, getting some cha-ching right now is even more tempting.

So, we were ecstatic when we got another offer, this one to purchase, and put the house under contract yesterday! YAY! YAY! YAY!

They seem like solid buyers. Full-price offer with a few concessions. They want to close in four weeks. We are crossing our fingers.

This has opened our minds up to entertaining some dreams about finishing our basement. Brian and I walked through and discussed all of our plans tonight. I was giddy! I never imagined I would live in a house like this one, with a yard like this one and neighbors who are beyond the best. We love it. However, it does need a lot of work to truly be our dream home. (It is the shell of our dream home now and the beginnings of our dream yard). I really hope the sale will go through and things will really get rolling for us.