Halloween 2008

I must say that we had the cutest poodle on the block on Friday night, and getting Ellie into her costume was not as hard as it was two days before at the Lakewood party. I think that's due in part to the fact that I snuck up behind her and pulled it over her head before she could see it coming.


She had a really great time on Halloween. Aunt Elizabeth came over to help hand out candy with Lee while I took Ellie around. We started out atour next door neighbor's house where Gracie - also babysitter to Ellie - was handing out candy before the football game. Ellie took the piece of candy from her and then gave it back. Gracie told her she could keep it and that made Ellie very happy. Ellie then ran from house to house collecting candy saying, "tick teet". Her trick was that she would run up to the house, collect her candy, run halfway down the sidewalk, and then return for a second treat in hopes that she would not be recognized. The pink poodle costume gave it away because there were not many running around in the neighborhood.

About halfway through trick or treating, Ellie met up with a group of girls from the neighborhood who were about 3-6 years old. When they'd go to a door, she'd be in back at first, but by the time candy was being handing out, she was in the front row. We ended the evening with some pizza from Campizis. There weren't as many kids out this year as there were last year. I think that was due to the fact that there was a home football game being played.

On Saturday, Lee and I had plans to go to a Barnett Vineyards wine dinner at Lakewood. We'd plans to go for about three months. We love Barnett wines and it was our favorite winery when we visited Spring Mountain when we visited there in 2006 so we were really looking forward to the wine dinner. Our babysitter, who had never sat for Ellie before, was scheduled to come at 6:00. I started getting nervous around 6:10 when she hadn't shown up so I started calling and texting her. Nothing. She no-showed. Honestly, if she'd called two hours before and faked an illness, I'd be somewhat forgiving... but no-showing? That's inexcusable. When I realized we were not going to have a babysitter, Gracie from next door came over immediately. Thank goodness she was home. We wound up having an awesome time... the wines and the dinner was fabulous. The onlyproblem was that Saturday night was daylight savings so Ellie woke up at 4:30. I stayed in bed while Lee got up to check on her. He changed her diaper and maybe due to the wine dinner, he put her diaper on backwards. It could have been worse, he could have put it on inside out.


Ellie got in her first fight this week. That's right - fight. I picked her up on Tuesday and Irma told me she, "wasn't too good today". According to Irma, she didn't see the fight start, but when she looked up, Ellie was clawing at some girl and pulling her hair. My girl is smart to go for the hair since it's not an advantage any opponent has on her. Irma said she pulled Ellie off the girl (they don't name names at daycare) and then Ellie ran back to for more. Ellie usually plays well and shares better than I ever did so I'd like to think that the other girl started it, but who knows.


In other news, the election was this week. I didn't vote for the guy who won, which was Obama. I recognize that the election was historic in that he will be our first black president, but I don't think that he was the right person for the job, and I think our forefathers are rolling over in their graves because of the ideas and beliefs that he espouses. I'm a worker and I always have been. I went to work on the day of my 16th birthday because that's the first day I could legally go to work and make money. I believe that hard work is the way to get ahead in life and the government has no right to step in and redistribute my wealth. If you want money, work for it. I didn't get here by sitting on my butt and collecting welfare checks. I got here by spending thousands of hours studying. If you looked at McCain's resume versus Obama's it was a no-brainer. People wanted change and they're going to get it on my dime. I'm trying to look at the bright side and that is that many people were motivated to vote in this election. My hope is that this makes more people interested in our government and that they become more active participants.