Miscellany

I've been keeping myself a little busy lately, but none of it is really blog-worthy; it's all sort of boring. Things like dishes, errands,* and things that aren't boring, but still not really blog-worthy. Like, football** and Fantasy Football.***

I've been thinking about costume ideas for Halloween. I realize I have over a month and a half, but I want to make our costumes again this year, and I want to have plenty of time to make them nice (and not have to buy a Christmas shirt and turn it inside-out because all the other black shirts are sold-out). I got the stuff for Samantha's costume today; she'll be a pumpkin. It's not incredibly original, but they look so cute. I'm not going to make a hat for her, though. I'll just make her a "stem" and some leaves out of ribbon and clip it to her or put it on a headband.

For my boys I had some costume ideas that David shot down, but I'll probably do them anyway, 'cause they're hilarious. One idea is Gum Stuck on a Shoe. I would dress the kid up all in pink (or some more "manly" bubble gum color), then stick a shoe on his head. I would actually make a hat shaped like a shoe, so it would be slightly bigger in relation to the toddler-size wad of "gum." The other idea is Floor of a Movie Theater. I would dress the kid all in black and put bits of popcorn, smooshed-up candies, chewed up gum (I would probably use Silly Putty to make it less gross), candy wrappers and random sticky stuff (to emulate spilled soda) all over the clothes.

For myself, I will dress up as a Substitute Teacher. I'll put a "kick me" note on my back, make my hair look slightly disheveled, wear my glasses slightly askew, put a paper airplane in my hair, put a run in my nylons... Stuff like that. I only wish I had thought these up myself. I actually found them on some website. This other website has a lot of good ideas, too, and I might end up using the pizza costume or the airplane costume. And the Recycled Costume cracks me up (I don't have enough other costumes stocked up for it, though)! But I really like the other ideas. They're just so silly. And they jive with my Halloween Rules.****

We invited ourselves to go rock climbing this evening with some friends from church and they accepted! They go almost every week and have been saying all summer, "We should get together sometime." So we finally said, "How 'bout Monday?" And it was agreed. It was so fun! I had been bitten by the climbing bug the summer before my mission, and went quite often. But that was six years ago, and I hadn't been since. I think the bug got me again. I wish we'd gotten together earlier in the season, but I think there will still be some good climbing weather left before it gets too cold. The other day I told David, "If you ever want to get me a present and don't know what to get, I want a such-and such." I have no idea what it was I asked him for, because now all I can think of are rock climbing shoes.

Left: David on his way down from the top of the rock. Right: I'm demonstrating the most effective maneuver for getting down the rock wall. It's hard to tell, but I'm actually standing on just one foot. In the blue shirt is my new friend Sarah. We just met her this evening for the first time. In the white shirt is our friend Amy, whose family has been climbing for a couple years. Their kids are really good and were giving all kinds of pointers to David and me.

*Errands can be fun, sometimes, like when an old man at the store asks, "Are these boys twins?" And then he chats with them and calls them "Beautiful children." But not today. Drew threw a tantrum in the grocery store because I wouldn't let him ride under the cart. He barely fits, and he kept dragging his feet so they got ran over. I got sick of it and made him sit in the cart and he cried like I was beating him.

**Football is fun, but after four years of watching every televised game of every season, I still don't know how to watch it. I'm always amazed when David says, "There's a penalty," and two seconds later the referee throws a flag and calls the penalty. Meanwhile, I'm still watching the guy who was only pretending to run with the ball so the guy who actually had the ball could get through. Those play-action fakes get me every time.

***I joined David's fantasy football league. I think I'm in last place. But it's only been one week, and some of my players will get better throughout the season. I mostly have David set things up for me, as far as who to start and who to bench. I thought he was taking care of me, but then he went behind my back and drafted my favorite player for his own team! The audacity!

****I have this crazy notion that Halloween costumes have to be either Halloween related (ghosties and ghoulies and the like) or just zany (foodstuffs, funny people, et cetera). Animals are okay. I don't go for Disney characters. I wasn't always like this; I just came up with these "rules" last year. Eventually, though, I'll just have to let my kids pick what they want to dress up as. I'm not too worried about Drew and Owen, but I really don't want Samantha dressing in any of the skanky costumes that are so popular. I went to the costume shop today, and they had them in teen sizes! They're making them for younger and younger girls. I just hope and pray that Bratz and Hannah Montana are out of popularity when Samantha gets a little older. 'Cause no one likes to say "no" to their kid, but I totally will if she asks for any of that garbage.