Weston's Trick or Treating

Beggar's Night in the Des Moines Metro was Friday, October 30th from 6-8 pm. We had planned on taking Weston around the neighborhood and letting him stretch his legs. But the weather was so horrible, it was cold and rainy and miserable. So, Weston's Entourage (his parents, Aunt Shannon and Urban Family Aunt Rachel and Uncle Jason) all loaded up the cars and headed to Merle Hay Mall. The Mall was the closest and supposedly were distributing candy until 8 pm. Jason took these pictures.
Dragon Weston chillin'in line... there was a massive line of children along with their extremely Rude, line-cutting parents who just butted in anywhere they wanted.

Dragon Weston receiving his very first piece of candy from a beautiful Vampire at Brodkey's Jewelry. He only got 5 Tootsie Rolls for all of his walking and efforts. It was very sad.

The whole family went along. This "in action" photo showing the stress of the line. :)

Dragon Weston was plowed down by a 3 yr old channelling a Freight Train. He hit his head pretty hard on the floor, so we took off the very warm body of the dragon and left our little guy with the feet. He was ok, but enjoyed the attention of being carried by his Aunt Shannon who helped him out with the costume.

This fun, but I think next year we'll brave the rain and go old school through the neighborhood.

the creation of Mother Nature

So... it's Halloween again at the Onthank Company.

This year I'm appearing as Mother Nature!!!

Here's my details:

Dress: made from the Gray Lady pattern in this season's Martha Stewart Living Halloween issue. She didn't say it would be see-through! Whore! So I had to MacGuyver a dress this week.

I have leaves and butterflies on the dress, and butterflies and glittery fall foliage in my hair. And a bird on my left shoulder. I feel frumpy, but still pretty.

Makeup isn't showing well on pictures. It's all golds and glittery. I used green and bronze eyeliners to draw to design on my face.

This is my right-ish profile. You can sort of see the design on my right side. and the tulle dress in detail, along with the hair. I am wearing tea-stained fishnet tights as sleeves, they look non-existent in pictures. Should have stained longer.

From the left... like the butterflies and the bird?

Full length with my friend Dorothy, I mean Jean. She's just too cute!
And the next best thing to Costumes... POTLUCK DAY!!! I made a Halloween Dirt Cake!

POST SCRIPT: I WON 1st Place!!!!! And it was a hard run this year. But finally, I have returned to the top! Woo-hoo!!! I'm just a bit excited! I mean, I won in 2006 (my first year) as the "Proper Young Lady" with books on my head, lost in 2007 to a man dressed as a slutty woman and a store bought Geisha (I was a Gold Digger, complete with a gold coin covered shovel), and Scott's step-dad passed away in 2008, so my Domestic Goddess Costume sat in the closet. This is my bragging rights for the next year. I am thrilled.

5 years down the road...

It occurred to me that my last post may be taken the wrong way.

I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, especially Scott's. He does so much around the house, more than any other husband (in my age group) I know.
I am just so frustrated with how "out of control" my life feels right now. Like there is nothing that can be done to change the situation, no matter how hard we try.

Scott and I are celebrating our 5th Wedding Anniversary today. I always hear that years 7-10 are the most difficult. I think year 4 was pretty tough. And to be honest, year 5 looks like it might be harder than year 4. But I have a feeling that we will pull through. Not because we have to, but because we want to. Scott and I are at our best, especially to each other, when we are alone, or with Weston. It's just so much easier when it's just us. :)

He's one of the few people I can be completely honest with, or completely silent with. And he makes me laugh. And when I'm with him, I always feel pretty. He makes me feel pretty. And he is one of the Best Dads I've ever seen - If we could afford it, and my body would cooperate, I'd have many more children just to see him be a dad.

And because I know he reads my blog...

Love you, Husband.

Happy Anniversary!

Options and Worries

We're weighing a lot of options lately.
What to wear, what to eat, where to live?
It seems like I am always having to make some sort of choice. What will we have for dinner tonight? Can I possibly defrost and eat by 6:30pm? (Weston has to start eating by 6:30 on weeknights, or he thinks that you are going to starve him. He's been like this since he was pretending to breastfeed.)
I am tired. I am exhausted from having to make choices every single day. I wish I someone could take my decision making for while. I wish someone would shoulder the responsibility of my family and my life for a bit.
Think about it... wouldn't it be nice if you could wake up in the morning and your closet just spits out an outfit to wear? You'd take one look at it and be like, ok, so I'm wearing that. Hmmm, I'll pull my hair up and wear the purple and gray eyeshadows with the pearl chain necklace and hoop earrings. It's nice weather so I'll step it up with the heels. Done.
You pick up the kid from daycare, get home and your freezer has thrown some chicken and frozen carrots on the counter. The pantry contributed some wild rice and seasonings. The cabinets set out the baking sheet, so roasted chicken. Ok, dinner's done.
My life is in chaos. Plain and simple. And I'm tired of deciding who does what. Which bills get paid, what we'll do about the house, what's for dinner, who feeds Weston and what he eats for every meal.
Some days, I think feminism was the greatest waste. I'm not sure what women gained from it. Except more work and more worries. Not only are we responsible for our careers (if they can be called that,) be we are also responsible for our families and homes. I'm lucky. I have a husband that helps. But he can't or won't make a decision. Sometimes I wonder how he lived before me, but that was a lifetime ago. He had a great job that he loved (and it paid $5,000 more a year than he's making now) and he only worried about minor things like paying the rent, electric bill, cable and his season hockey tickets. He didn't even have long distance or a cell phone then. He lived that way for almost 8 years. It's no wonder that I hold the responsibility for our family.
I'm sorry if this seems like a rant or a whine. I'm just so tired. Tired of holding everything in, and tired of carrying our world on my shoulders. I wish someone would take care of me for while. This morning Star 102.5 was discussing the flu (again) and I drove to work wondering how I would handle being sick. How could I take care of Weston after daycare if I was too sick to work? Who would help me? Scott has to work. Shannon has to work. I'd have no one. And then he'd probably catch it from me, so then I would be out of work longer. (Yeah, I worry about this kind of stuff all the time. You should be in my head while I am trying to fall asleep. Last night I was thinking about asking my boss something about this weekend's Hawkeye game, and I ended up dreaming about him! Eew... I can't even leave people when I go to sleep.) Do you think I'm losing it?

Daycare is closed for the 2nd day due to the flu. There goes my sick time!

Job Survival according to Christopher Damon

My dad called around 1:45 today. He was passing through Des Moines and wanted me to stop out in the Onthank Parking lot and meet him. Sure, no problem. I love seeing my Dad even for 5 minutes at a time. (Coincidentally, he must have forgot about meeting me for lunch today. Which for the first time was ok, since I had also completely forgotten and brought leftovers.)

So, I basically skip out to Dad's truck around 2pm. (I really do love seeing my Dad in Des Moines. It does wonderful things for my mood.)

I open the passenger side door and sitting on the seat is a plate of cookies. Pumpkin shaped and decorated, pumpkin flavored cookies from the Amana Colony bakery. Oooohhhh! Yes. There are about 13 cookies on the plate. All mine? Nope. He brought them for my work people!

"Dad, why do you keep bringing treats for my co-workers?"

"Well, if they are thinking of lay-offs and for some unknown reason your name comes up... maybe some baked goods will have good influence."

That's right, Folks! My Dad thinks that cookies and scones are job security. And he's probably right. According to my aunt Linda, I should never finish any project, just have everything carry over to the next day. That way they'll hire more people when they can and not make do with just the few of us who do it all now.

Between the 2 of the them, I think I am as safe as can be. :)

Valley Fest

So, ValleyFest was this weekend. (For those of you who are not Iowa Band Geeks, ValleyFest is an all-day band competition. First a day show and the the night competition referred to as Showdown. Shannon and I performed for a total of 6 years in Des Moines.)

It was freezing. Literally. We woke up to snow. In my 14 years of ValleyFest experience as both a performer and a spectator, I have never been this cold.

Here's a little run down of our day:

Weston got all bundled up (it's all about the layers) and watched 4 bands during the day competition. He was a little rowdy during the breaks, but he seemed to really love the actual music part. And he actually sang along with a few shows. It was awesome. Shannon has the best pictures. Scott and Weston headed home after the day show. After all, Iowa beat Michigan Saturday night, and kick-off was at 7:05. Shannon and I back in the stands for Showdown. We had stopped by Wal-mart for more blankets and other necessities. We were freezing. She put heat packs in her shoes, we each had some for our hands, and I had put one on each knee to defrost my legs.
Waukee (I think) performing their "Africa" show. They placed their entire Pit (for the novice, this is the Mallet Percussion section consisting of bells, marimbas, timpani drums, accessories, etc. Mine and Shannon's section) on the field. So, that was unusual for Shannon and I. Then imagine our surprise when the entire band marches off the field onto the sidelines! It was crazy. Apparently its also legal now... so long as the Pit is on the field.

Urbandale... a Des Moines school did a 007 James Bond show... it was pretty cool. This was the one Weston sang to during the day competition.

Unfortunately, the freezing cold air of the night wrecked havoc on one soloist's Soprano Saxophone and her clarinet... the reeds kept freezing and she couldn't play. It was incredibly sad and frustrating because she had done so well during the day show.

We had a blast... but we left early. A family squeezed (literally) next to Shannon and that was uncomfortable and whatever fragrances they had showered in before coming were so potent that even in the freezing cold, they were giving Shannon and I headaches. Combine that with the cold weather, and we left. Which sucked. We missed some of our favorite bands: Waterloo West, Ankeny, Irondale (Minnesota) and of course Valley High. But, IPTV filmed everything, so we hope to catch up as soon as it's televised.

On a sad note... for some reason, this year was more theatrical than musical. 2 or 3 schools used recordings (eew) and another actually had the drum majors perform and narrate the entire show to a loosely-based theme of the Twilight Zone. double eew. If I wanted to see Off-off-Broadway, I'd buy tickets to a high school play, not sit in the freezing cold wanting marching bands.

I actually preferred Des Moines Roosevelt's massacre of a John Williams' show to any of the theatrical performances. And that was an awful show. (I know, I performed John Williams, but I love his music, and it just was not a good performance. Maybe they should have marched with music or had a different arrangement. But it was still preferable to the narrations.)