We usually get less than 15 little trick or treaters and because Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year, we won't even be home, we'll be at choir practice. Yes, choir practice on Halloween, Bonnie is such a slave driver (ha!) but she said she would understand if some of us didn't show up, but as my hubs and I really have no excuse Not to be there, I guess we'll go. I just really hate driving in the dark when I know there might be a kids on the side of the road.
I did take a few pictures that meet the Halloween theme, including the following one that I emailed to Karen at http://thisoldhousetoo.blogspot.com to be part of a blog post along with 23 other people. We all take one picture during a certain hour of the day, email them to Karen and she will put them all together. My hour was midnight to 1:00 a.m. October 31.
I can't wait to see what the other 23 people took pictures of, although I'm not sure if Karen even has power or not as she lives in Connecticut and was in direct line of Hurricane Sandy.
This is the one that will be in that blog post, in color, I changed it to black and white for this post.
These following are of my sons, my two sweet boys as they were getting ready for the Zombie Pub Crawl http://zombiepubcrawl.com They ended the night looking even more Zombie like.
When Andy first moved to Cincinnati, he and Ethan were not what I would call friends, in fact barely brothers. Their personalities are very, very different, even though they grew up in the same house, with the same parents, and given the same opportunities. So, when Ethan told me he was going to drive to Cincinnati to visit his brother, I just about fell over. Months later, he visited again, now they talk and text each other often. When Andy comes home to visit, he stays at Ethan's instead of staying in our new guest room. I feel a little sad about this, but I'm very happy that they get along now, and they are still just as different as they used to be.
People at church would Always call them by each other's name, which drove them nuts. They don't look like each other, Ethan is 6 feet tall and solid, Andy is 5'7" and small (although he's at the gym several times a week, drinks supplements and protein and is very muscular).
Ethan can talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime about anything. Andy can talk, but not simply for the sake of talking. Ethan is a free spirit and has a "don't worry about it" attitude, whereas Andy is more serious and very, very driven. Andy knows what he wants to do, and will research ways to make it happen.
Ethan, above, looks like a Goettsch (my hub's family) and Andy, below, looks like a Shocinski (my dad's family).
I think it was a good thing that they were so different growing up, because that meant I couldn't treat them totally the same. I tried, as much as I could, but they needed me in different ways. Ethan is ADD and had all of the symptoms that goes along with this diagnosis, homework and school problems, getting in trouble at school, losing things, forgetting things, stubborn, argumentative. He also needed vision therapy because he was seeing double. I Knew he was attention deficit when he was in Kindergarten, and kept trying to get him tested, but without the help of teachers, it's hard to get doctors to believe. He was finally tested and found to have ADD in fourth grade. He charmed all of his teachers into thinking that he just needed to mature a little more which didn't do anything to benefit him. All of that charm turned out to be a big plus for him though as he can talk people into giving him things for free and doing things for him and giving him jobs. He does a lot of bartering, by fixing people's cars, and will be getting a full sleeve tattoo this way.
Andy taught himself to read at age four, did his homework without me harping at him, got good grades, saved his money if he wanted to buy something that we didn't want to spend our money on, never got in trouble at school, he was responsible, teachers loved him, he was neat and clean and had the same backpack all through high school. He would always say "Ethan gets everything, I don't get half the stuff he does". (that's why them getting along now kind of freaks me out a bit)
He was never sick, never got strep throat, never got ear infections, he was good at everything he tried, artistic, coordinated. He does have bad eyes though (takes after my side).
When I would complain to coworkers about my boys fighting and arguing and pretty much hating each other, they would assure me that when they got out of their teens, they would start to get along and be friends. I really didn't believe them, but geez, it turned out to be true. I'm so happy for that.
they make me so proud...my little zombie boys...
I simply love them to pieces
And, just a little bit of color. I hope you all had a great Halloween, and to all of you that were in the path of the devastating Hurricane Sandy, my prayers go out to you. Until next year...
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