Halloween is over and now I have to ask myself, do I feel lucky? Well, do I, punk?

I have had pictures and things sitting here ready to post for almost a week and I've just been so insane with work and the oh my gah, will I have a job in a monthness of it all. Because I don't know if you are aware, but having a job is pretty darn important.

If it says anything at all about my state of mind, I just downed two of the small funsize KitKat's while writing that run on sentence and I don't even remember the taste of them or how I broke off all four pieces and didn't even notice myself cramming and chewing them. Evidently, I shoved them in my mouth and performed acts of poor grammar with nary a wink of my eye. Which actually twitches more than winks these days, because did you hear? I've been wondering if I have a job!

As it turns out, I probably have a job, I mean, that's what I was told and the probablyness of that is what is killing me. So please excuse my tardiness around here, my twitching, the swollen lower lip I have which is an evident allergic reaction to life, and all of my "AH, JOB! NOW!".

To make it up to you, I thought I might share my favorite shots from this Halloween weekend. The weekend that found me Christmas shopping at the end of it because, again, Christmas is coming up and I've been unsure if I HAVE A JOB!

This is my insanely beautiful family that I can just go ahead and brag about because, look at them, they really are pretty:




I'm mostly positive that all of you have things to be proud of, and I hope you know what those are and wave your pride around like a flag. Because this me, waving my pride around and it's because I made these! I made them, can you believe it?




And, he wore that suit the entire day, every where we went. Even to Wal-mart, which made us the coolest people in Wal-mart (please, just marvel with me).

At the end of his day as Batman, Ian owned trick or treating. He's pretty much a professional now and the best trick or treater you could ever meet. Ever.




He learned it all from another who actually has a PhD in trick or treating. She's very accomplished in this area, complete with a "team trick or treating" on her resume:



And finally? When we were at Wal-mart, they had a huge bag of candy corn and pumpkins by the register and I eyed it until Jason threw it in the cart. And I said, "No, really, I don't need all of that." but I kept looking at it like I really, really wanted it. Mostly because I did and he saw that and ignored me, even though he despises those little kernels of sweet goodness.

When we got home, I realized I didn't have a candy dish big enough for all of it, because, seriously, no one needs a candy dish THAT big. Pretty much, just me. So I improvised and it turned out awesome. And delicious. It turned out delicious and awesome, even with Jason singing "I don't like Candy Corn" at me all weekend long.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Today I am stuffed full of Kansas City barbecue goodness and it feels like the kick off to the holiday season for me, because I'm THAT full. In arranging to feed my office, I may have also picked up a huge pumpkin pie and chocolate cake to get a jump start on the over-eating that is up ahead us. Combine that with the pumpkin bread I made last night and I'm almost ready to jump into the spirit of the season head first.

Almost.

All of this leads me to our annual holiday card. I started thinking of ideas for our card this year and realized we didn't do a picture card last year. In looking through the pictures I took for the card last year I see why. I really had little to work with.

First? Fail.



Then? Double fail.



Oooh, look. Half-way there.



And, um, no.



Thinking back to the year before that, I did pictures of the kids as gifts and it took about 50 shots to get one workable shot.

Jason is going to dig out the Christmas stuff this weekend so we can have our photo shoot.

Wish me luck. Because, as you can see, I need it. Bad.

In the meantime, I'm in love with this video. Researching hair colors brought me to it.

Don't ask. Just enjoy.

We kind of felt like we should have left them with their own kind

Last month, Jason and I took the kids to the zoo where first thing in the morning we got to see the cheetah's run. While it was a very cool experience it lead to us being regaled with tale's of "cheetah poop" from Ian. Many, many cheetah poop tales. We even had a baby cheetah named Cheetah Poop. Sorry, I haven't gotten the birth announcements in the mail yet. Cheetah Poop is just so hard to draw. It looks very close to tiger poop. Which is a totally different subject. Trust me. Also? Ian will tell you what a horse's butt says, which let me help you out here, it says "poop".

We're very poop oriented in our house.

Most of us are forced to be.

But back to the zoo, which smelled a lot like, you guessed it, poop. Sigh.

Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from our day with you. Like this gorilla that was also very tired of hearing the baby gorilla say the word "poop":



Jason and the kids. Looking at some sort of "poop". Well they just got done looking at poop. In this shot they are looking at me, I'm not poop. Mostly:



And a shot of me and the kids with the creepy conductor bear. He was sans poop:



And finally a shot of Ian being overrun by ravenous sheep. Also? There was lots of poop to be stepped on:



You might also like to know that we were informed by another zoo patron that not only do sheep give us Ian's beloved poop but and I quote "that is a sheep, it gives us cotton."

It was a mostly great day. However, Jason and I were in bed by 9:00 that night because we were, you guessed it, pooped. Much to Ian's delight.