Halloween

This is Lightning McQueen.

This is Lightning McQueen on Skittles.

Before Trick or Treating

Giving out candy after Trick or Treating.

We had a good Halloween. Gabby decided to be a white princess after watching Narnia. She loved the white witch's dress but didn't want to be the mean witch so she modified it to be a white princess. Sam was Lightning McQueen. We Trick or Treated for about an hour. The temperature started dropping fast and we got cold so we came home and handed out candy for about an hour before turning in.

Speed, I am Speed

Yes, I know you can't actually see anything in this video except the occasional flashing light. But listen and hear my own little Lightning McQueen.

Not a dance video

But one dance picture.

One more...

Last dance video, I promise!

More dance video

More leaping...

More dancing

Sorry for posting so much at once and in advance for all the dance posts. They are mostly for Daddy. No one else needs to watch them all unless you really want to! Gabby also enjoys the part where they jump over the shoes. We do this at home too.

Freeze Dance

The setup for the SKIES classes here is horrible at the moment. They say there is a new building coming. We'll see if it's better. In any case, you can't see your kids doing whatever it is they do in the current setup. Monday her dance teacher allowed parents to come in and watch since we haven't been able to. Gabby's favorite part of her dance classes has been freeze dance.

Decorated Pumpkins

Here are our decorated pumpkins. We got the push in face pieces in our Boo basket last year. The kids still love them. Gabby actually decorated her little pumpkin last week. It spent the week upstairs in the babydoll bed with a princess hat and many treasures around it. She carried it around for a couple of days. Now it is outside with the big one.

Halloween Houses

A few weeks back we went to a friend's house and decorated Halloween houses. We used a kit and just let the kids do what they wanted. I still haven't taken pictures of the finished product but here are the kids working on them.

Seven Months

We passed the seven month mark last week. I can finally say we have less to go than we've done. Barely. But we still have to get through Christmas, New Year's, Gabby's seventh birthday, Valentine's Day, and my birthday (which we could forget) before we're close to his return. Yes, we have R&R coming up in less than three weeks but that's really just a short vacation in all this.

The emotions have been on a roller coaster this month. Finally past halfway (up), second half to go (down), R&R coming up (UP), it's gonna be hard to see him leave again (down), he sent us a box (up), the Internet (that we pay for) just doesn't seem to be working for him anymore (down), it's good when he calls (up), he's been gone so long we hardly know what to talk about any more (down).

Over half of Fort Lewis is deployed now between Iraq and Afghanistan. The unit in Afghanistan especially has been hit very hard with casualties. I don't think most people realize how many we have lost in Afghanistan in the last couple of years. It has gone up dramatically. I'm not even sure I realized it until I saw it first-hand.

Comparably, Robert is very safe where he is, stuck in a cell, I mean cube, in Baghdad. That makes a small part of me happy. But I know he's much rather be out there on the street doing his thing than sitting in a cube working on a computer. So mostly I am sad he's stuck where he is, which I know some of you can identify with and most of you probably think is crazy. But I have never thought he was meant to be stuck in an office all the time. When I picture a civilian job for him, I still don't see him sitting in an office. And there is that guilty part of me that knows I don't really have to worry about him this time. Only once this deployment have I looked out my window and seen someone sitting in a car in front of my house and gotten that feeling in the pit of my stomach. And it wasn't even my first thought that time.

So we're heading in to R&R in a few weeks, another whole spectrum of emotions. I have a lot to get done before he gets here. Christmas shopping, getting ready for our trip to WDW, being sure I have groceries for a Thanksgiving meal that will not be at Cracker Barrel this year. I worry about his travel being safe, him not getting delayed, our trip going well, everyone's health, not being about to get a flu shot. And I dread when he leaves again. For the kids, for the dog and for me. We told Gabby about it last week so she would understand it was just a vacation and that he was not coming home for good. She seems ok with it right now. She will not want him to leave. Sam is still too little to explain it to. It will be hard on my little man to understand. I do hope having Christmas coming up behind it will help distract us all and bring the spirits back up.

Seven months. We'll be at eight by the time R&R is up.

Pumpkin Patch

We went to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday with the Daisy Scouts. We took a hayride and the kids picked a small pumpkin, pet the animals, found our way through the straw bale maze, played on the straw bale pyramid and picked a bigger pumpkin to decorate.

Sam and Daddy

We got a box from Daddy this week. Gabby got some pretty bracelets and Sam a little bear (the rest is for Christmas). He also sent a new book video. Here's Sam's reaction.

Fire Safety Day

Last Saturday was Fire Safety Day on post. We went to Home Depot for the project first and then headed over. They had firetrucks, facepainting, bounce houses, mascots, and hotdogs! The little dog in the red truck rolled around, talked and sprayed water. The kids thought he was great.

Football Season, Time Zones and Bedtime

So as I was watching the Auburn game tonight without Robert, I started thinking about the time zones and start times and how it all works. In the last five (including this year) seasons, we have lived in all four CONUS time zones. Really, we have. So here's the deal:

In Eastern Time, you can manage to eat and almost get the kids to bed before a 745 ESPN kick-off. But you have to stay up till after 1100 to see how it all comes out, making you very sleepy for church the next morning (especially when you go to church at 845).

In Central Time, you can manage to eat before the game but you're working on bedtime in the second quarter. If you wait till half-time, it's a little late but before the game is too early. It's still after 1000 when the game is over, which is closer to bedtime but still can keep you up later than you mean to be when you have little ones.

In Mountain Time, you can have your supper cooked by the time the game starts, but you're usually eating during the first quarter. Thankfully in our house in Montana, we could see the TV from our dining area. A big help during football season! Bedtime comes at halftime and if you plan right, you can have the second half kid-free. The game is over at a reasonable hour and you might actually get to see a little of SportsCenter afterward.

In Pacific Time, unless you are good at crock-pot meals, you can't really cook before the game starts. So you're cooking and eating during the first half of the game. Halftime is too early for bedtime, which will now happen smack in the middle of the fourth quarter. Not the best time to leave a game. By the time the kids are in bed, you might be left with 2 minutes left in the game. If they go easy. It's only 830 when the game is over and you're left with one more west coast game that you could care less about now that the kids are in bed. So you'd better find a movie to watch.

So for future settle-down planning, I'm picking Mountain Time as the best time zone for football. At least with little kids. Just in case you were wondering.

BTW-In Germany, we had to get up in the middle of the night to watch the night games. Then it finished up about an hour before Robert had to leave for PT, which made it hard to decide whether to go back to bed or not. Well, not for me, but for him. In Iraq it's even further over in the morning, which means there is no time to go back to sleep. In the case of the rain delayed game, he was actually already at work on Sunday morning before the game was over.