Happy Halloween!

IT'S HALLOWEEN! 

IT'S My Favorite holiday of the year!

I've never been one to love the Christmas Season, though, it's starting to grow on my, but Halloween is a holiday that is just plain fun!

This year the kids have pretty awesome costumes. 

Here are some pictures from Friday's Halloween Hootie Day they had at school They were Michael Jackson, Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj... I mean Strawberry Shortcake.



I was glad that they were able to wear their costumes to school because this has never happened before.  Our school and most that I know of, don't allow kids to dress up at school anymore and don't do the party thing. 

Remember when we were kids when every holiday was a reason to party?  Schools are really starting to SUCK these days.  Imagine school being a place to LEARN!  Hmp!

But this year things were different.  Our school has implements Hoot Loot, a behavior incentive program where when kids are caught being GOOD, being Prepared, Polite and Positive, a teacher adminitrator or staff member might just give them a Hoot Loot ticket.  These tickets can be used to buy all types of things from the Hoot Loot cart that comes around on Fridays, or saved for even bigger prizes, like the Hoot Loot Parties.

Each of my kids saved 10 Hoot Loot tickets to go to the Halloween Hoot Loot party where they were able to wear their costumes to school and attend a party.

This is great!

It has always been a sore spot for me when talking about not celebrating Halloween in the school and allowing kids to have fun for the sake of the kids who didn't celebrate Halloween.

As a matter of face, I have been chastised and criticized quite often for allowing my kids to celebrate "The Devil's Holiday".  Even the boys have come and asked me why do we celebrate the Devil's Holiday because their friends don't.

 Just 2 weeks ago my grandmother asked me if I was taking my kids Trick or Treating and when I responded yes, she asked if I know that the holiday was meant to celebrate the devil and went on to tell me that lot of churches have Hallelujah Night as an alternative.

Now, while I don't knock anyone who prefers Hallelujah Night, I don't feel that I should be considers a bad parent because I LOVE taking my kids Trick or Treating. 

I went Trick or Treating as a child and I came out just fine... for the most part.  I don't remember brewing up spells or conjuring up evil spirits.  And I don't remember praising the devil when I said my prayers at night. 

What I do remember is going out and getting TONS of candy and having a great time walking around the neighborhood seeing my friends dressed up a an array of funny, scary and just plain awesome costumes!  (remember the super hero costumes with the plastic face masks?) 

This is what I do with my kids.  So what is the harm in such?  The true meaning of Halloween had nothing to do with worshiping the devil, as so many of my family and friends seem to believe.  For me, it's a day of fun.  A day for us to let lose as a family and go and beg for candy.  A day where, once the kids are all asleep, mom gets to steal all of their Reece's Cups!

Okay, maybe there IS some mischief going on on Halloween Night!

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN, ALL!

VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!!!

Okay, I am not one of those folks that sit back nicely and act as if speaking about politics is taboo.  I know that 2 years ago during the Presidential Election I was loud and proud about my political views and I perhaps lost one or two of my 10ish readers because of my open door to political discussions. 

VOTE DEMOCRAT!!!!!

Thank you.  That is all!

2 Glioblastomas down! (Dad's Cancer update)

Okay, so I am behind on my updates.  If you were a friend of mine on FB you'd be all caught up!  I am on there constantly!  But, with so many social networking sites to keep up with, I can't possible be on top of them all or there would be some hungry and angry children in this house.

Learned that the hard way. 

So, I have a free 10 minutes, so let's get ya update on my dad.

As I said before, the cancer came back.  Now, 2 years ago, we discovered the tumor when my dad was having crazy bad headaches and was forced to go to the emergency room.  They discovered the tumor and removed it immediately. 

It after finishing Chemo and radiation, it was discovered again in September.  Same place in the brain.  Okay, this brain tumor is called Glioblastoma, a terminal cancer, in stage 4.  Yes Stage 4.  After the first surgery, the prognosis was grim.  The surgeon walked in shook his head and said, "We got it all out, but it's not good."  I was there alone and I broke.  I had already researched the tumor and knew that most were not expected to live beyond 5 years.  At his follow up appointment, his oncologist came in and explained what Glioblastoma (GBM) was to us, shook my dad's hand, and said, "Good Luck."  Not something you want to hear when you are talking about your LIFE!

Those words hurt.  The strongest person in m life, who had NEVER been sick? 

This surgery was different.  The surgeon came in this time with a smile.  He said that it was indeed the same cancer, but that my dad was strong.  He said they got it all out and we may be able to get another 6 years out of him. 

Now I know this sounds grim as well.  I mean, what's 6 years?  That's not a lot of years when you're talking about LIFE. 

BUT, on a positive not, it is SOOOOOO much better than the prognosis from before. 

This time was different for him.  Last time, my dad's recovery was a breeze.  He was home within two days and completely back to himself with NO issues.  WHO DOES THAT? 

This there were a few problems.  He suffered some memory loss, due to the swelling, and there was a time when he couldn't remember my name.  And that was scary.  He kept repeating numbers and date and nothing was connecting.  It was so weird.  He couldn't remember how to get into his computer and he couldn't read anything.  It frustrated him and scared the crap out of him because his worse fear was losing his memory or his speech and not being able to sing.  He's a choir director, you know.

But once the swelling went down, the memory came back, just as the doctors promised.  And, with just a little bit of memory issues, he is back up and running.  As much as we tried, we couldn't keep him down long enough to recover. 

So there!  My dad's doing okay and I have faith in God that he will be just fine!

Daddy Fabulous

I think I may have to reliquish my title... or at least share it.

Last week, I had to go out of town for 5 days to be with my dad.  The cancer came back and he had to go through another surgery.  Same brain surgery.  Same brain tumor.  But that's not what I want to talk about in this post.  If you want to catch up on this before I post my update, click here.

Hubs took on my job.  And I have to say he did an amazing job.  Now while I fully expected that the kids would be well taked care of, I didn't expect that they would be in the best of spirits with dad in full control.  With a drill sergeant type-attitude, I fully expected the kids to be begging me to come home to reclaim my spot.

Not the case.

I, of course, called the kids regularly and asked how they were doing.  They always said that they were good.  They seemed really happy and excited to share what had happened in there day.

Hmm. No complaining about having to clean?

They were responding with smiles and seeming happy about having pizza for dinner 2 times in a week.

Hmm. No crying about having to do push ups for punishment?

They were all smiles and giggles when I asked how they liked being home with dad.

Hmm. No tears for mom to come home?


I walked in the door and the house was immaculate!  So much cleaner than I ever get it.  I'm sure it was partially because the house was put on the market on Friday (anyone wanna buy a house in Georgia), but I'm also sure that it was to show me up!

When I came in, the were PLAYING A GAME OF MONOPOLY!  Are you kidding me?  He HAD to stage that!  The house was calm and they were enjoying a family game of monopoly!  And not on the Wii! 

Okay, so I have to admit, I guess, that this dude did a great job of bring Mr. Mom while I was gone.  Friday was Miss Missy's 6th birthday (sniff sniff!  I missed her day!) and he took cupcakes to her class and hung out for the mini-party they had for her!

Who IS this man?

THEN, on top of that, he bought an additional set of cupcakes just for the family to enjoy at home! 

I mean, really?  Do I know this person??

So, I guess I have to give him his props for taking such good care of home while I was gone.

He has earned the title of

DADDY FABULOUS!

And NOW I know that it is OKAY for me to leave and that everything will be well taken care of. 

So, I guess I can take that cruise now!