Halloween 2011

This was the second Halloween at our new home.  There were a few more kids who were trick-or-treating this year at our house.  I think this is due to the new street lights on our street that make it a brighter place to walk as well as a few more houses that have been built closer to our street.  A couple of days before the holiday we went to the kids party at the school.  It was a Harry Potter themed party.  The gym was over crowded with parents and kids changing their money out for whatever currency they use in the book.  The money was then used to buy hot dogs and drinks to help fund raising for the school.  Afterwards there were different activities placed in classrooms in the school.  The one the kids liked was potion making where they got to make slime they could take home and play with.

On the actual holiday the kids started the day with a costume parade at their school.  We got to see everyone and the creative costumes that some people had come up with.  After the parade we picked up the pumpkin, pizza, and root beer for dinner that night.  When everyone got home they were excited and hyper due to treats they had already enjoyed at school parties that day.  It was warm enough this year that we were able to go out on the deck and carve the pumpkin so it would not be as messy inside.  After the pumpkin got put on the front porch and everyone filled up with pizza they got their costumes on.  This year we had two captains, a witch/ballerina/princess, and a princess.  Through the HOA some of the families in the neighborhood did some bigger things than just hand out candy.  Some of them included hot dogs, hot chocolate, popcorn, and a haunted house.  All of them had a great time, picked up a ton of candy, and were monsters the next day when they had to wake up for school.

Slime and Smurfs

Today was a very fall day, sunny but cool.  After picking up a burger for lunch the boys and I dug a hole for the  new apple tree.  While digging the 2 foot deep hole we filled the wheelbarrow twice with rocks.  We finished digging the hole today, but did not have enough time to put the tree in.  The kids had a Halloween party at their school tonight.  It was a Harry Potter themed party and there were a ton of families there.  For one of the activities they got to make their own slime.  They all that it was a pretty cool thing to be able to do.  We then went to catch the Smurf movie.  It is not really a family show, but more just for children.  The best part was watching the kids reactions to the jokes and singing the Smurf song.  After a couple of quick stops we were home and all of the kids were so tired they wandered up the stairs like zombies and fell right to sleep.  Overall it was a pretty busy day.

An average day

Today was a very easy going and mild day.  It had a lazy start of me in comfy clothes for the first part of the day.  We first went out to pick up one of my daughters who had a very positive report from her teacher and is making great progress in school.  To celebrate the hard work that she and my wife have been putting in we went out to lunch.  We enjoyed drinks and sandwiches.  After lunch we took a drive around the neighborhood to see the new houses being built, changes to landscaping, and to get some sunshine.  Even in this cooler weather the grass is still growing strong, so I mowed the lawn which might be for the last time this year.  It has been a odd year for weather.  I took the lettuce out of the garden and saw that in the next couple of days that we may have a few more red tomatoes.  Julaine made a great baked potato soup and I took care of the baths and PJ's tonight.  After everyone fell asleep we watched the pilot episode of "Once Upon a Time".  Overall not an exciting day, but it was nice to be home and be with family.

Movie Night

After getting three hours of sleep and then going to meetings and working a regular shift I was ready to crash.  I slept for most of the day until the kids got home.  Afterwards the boys both enjoyed going to scouts and then we all had some pizza for dinner.  After a book with the kids and they had gone to bed we both watched the movie Captain America.  It has lots of shooting and fighting so nothing the kids could see, but it is a movie we both liked a lot.

Fall Colors

Today started like an average Saturday with cleaning and breakfast cereal.  Later in the day we did some shopping.  Besides the normal stops at Target and Walmart, we picked up some paint and wood for some decorations that Julaine is working on.  After picking up what we needed we got some soda and pizza and headed up the canyon.  We had a fun time looking at all of the red, yellow, and brown leaves.  It was too cold to do any hiking and everything is closed for the season.  It was cool to see a huge tree that had fallen into the river during a previous storm.  When we had our fill of the outdoors we came home and watched an episode of Doctor Who and ate some raspberry cookies.

Blog 2.0....It starts again

Hello again to all three of you readers of this blog.  Hahahaha.  Anyway, I thought I would try blogging again.  Not that I want to communicate any political stands or have something amazing to share with the world.  Sometimes it is just nice to have somewhere to post and write other than Twitter and Facebook.  It has been a while since the last post to this blog.  We were able to build a great home at a location that we love.  Many of you have already visited, but if you haven't send me an email and I can give you directions.  If you have already feel free to drop in again. Below is a picture from my latest adventure, "fixing the one year old fridge."

This was something that I didn't thing I would have to do for a while.  The pieces I replaced were the compressor start relay and the overload.  First I spent some time using the vacuum to clean the coils under the fridge.  This minor cleaning job did not help, but it did make things look cleaner afterwards.  Next I  searched the internet and made many calls to part stores I was able to track down a part that would replace the two, but would not be an exact match.  This gave me a great excuse spend some quality time at Home Depot to purchase an ohmmeter and pick up some drill bits.  That's right the drill bits were extra and not needed for this project.  Anyway with a little help from the guys at the store I was able to get the part wired correctly and stop the ice cream from melting!  The kids had fun watching and there were no injuries to report.