Zach's Halloween...

Zach loves Halloween.  As he's gotten older, he's just made it more elaborate.  I already posted about the making of the costume in this post from August. but I didn't get to be there for the finishing touches so, once again, I rely on someone else to send me pictures.  This first one was posted to Face Book by GFU.  I didn't know he was planning on wearing two costumes that day but I'm not surprised.  Here he is a Anakin Skywalker:

He sent me this picture of the horns he created several days before Halloween:

On the evening of the 31st I started getting costume updates.  First time I've seen him without a beard for a very long time.  Plus, I think he looks pretty good as a bald man!!

I like the wicked grin. . .

After the costume was complete, he wasn't sure what he was going to do.  I didn't hear from him until a couple of days later but he was tagged on FB so I knew he was having fun:

When he sent me this picture he said it was an interesting story and it was taken by a campus security guard.  It sounds like all of the effort he put into the costume was totally worth it!!

Matthew's Birthday...

I miss Matt.  I'm glad we choose to celebrate his birthday each year at DQ.  It's a good tradition.  An important tradition for someone who was very important in our lives. . .

This was the first year that we actually talked about him and shared memories.  His kids deserve to know how wonderful their dad was. . .

He has amazing kids - he would be so proud of his little family. . .

Lazy Weekend. . .

I accomplished absolutely nothing this weekend.  Unless you count catching up on my blog, chauffeuring the girls around and hanging out at The Village.

For too many years I let life drag me around, skewing my priorities, telling me to do this and do that so my world doesn't implode.  And then it all kind of imploded and nothing really bad happened. In fact, I'm starting to believe things are going to be so much better than they've ever been because I'm learning to let go.  (I've sung the chorus of the Frozen theme song plenty of times in my head!)

I also have daily FB reminders like this one that mostly just go in one ear and out the other but sometimes stick with me and make me think:

So this weekend we watched a cute toddler, had Street Tacos at The Village (twice!) and went bowling at Big Als.  It was lovely.  And at the end of the day Gloria told me I'm the best mom ever.  And I think she meant it.  And I love that I have this relationship with my teenage daughter. 

New Chapter. . . New Book??

So. . . things are changing.  Things have changed.  Mostly past tense.  I'm working on taking the crazy out of my beautiful life.  I'm almost at the end of a very long, somewhat painful chapter. Maybe even at the end of the book.  I'm tired but not defeated.  I'm slowly working through the regrets and finding the blessings.  I know I have plenty of them but I haven't been able to see them very clearly.  And since you have to start somewhere, I started with my front yard.  All things considered, it's not too bad.  It's just been neglected for years and years and years.  Like so many other things in my life.  So I hired a landscaper.  Here are the after and before pictures (I put the after picture first because it's so much prettier!):

 

It really is time to stop looking back and move into the future.  I think it's going to be a whole new book.