Operation Trick or Treat – part 1

Halloween is here. So many questions I want to ask. I have been wondering about this for quite sometime now. I didn’t understand how much candy to buy, whether things sell out quick, how late to leave getting the boys costumes. And then with the Hurricane hitting I wasn’t sure we’d even get out. It certainly is very grey and overcast out there right now. Not to mention cold. The boys costumes are made of very thin synthetic material which holds in no heat, but they will not feel it. They are immune to the cold.

First Dylan wanted to go as a werewolf. After a while this changed to Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean. In the end he goes for Mace Windu. Hamish decides to go as Jake from a Disney show here called Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I order their costumes online a month early. I wasn’t sure what things get like and whether they sell out quick so better to be early and well prepared. Dylan has a costume parade at school. So I packed his costume and went up to watch him only to find I was half an hour late. Bad mother award for that one! Hamish went to school in his costume and I warned his teacher that he might need a hand getting out of it to go to the bathroom. I fully expected to pick him up in his spare clothes but he made it through.

I was wondering how much candy to stockpile. And how much exactly do you give each child? I cornered a visitor at our house warming party a couple of weeks ago to find out more of the etiquette of Halloween. She tells me it’s totally up to the candy givers discretion as to how much they give out. So i can hand out one piece, or a handful, even tell the kids to help themselves to taking a number of pieces. And does one of us stay home while the other parent takes out the kids? Well, we’ve learned that there’s a system. If your front light is on, it means you are available for trick or treating. So we can stay for as long as we want or until candy runs out and then pop off the light and take our kids out. And the neighborhoods usually have specific hours that you can go around so that you don’t have people knocking for hours on end. But I am not really sure what those hour are exactly. Well as soon people start knocking we’ll know I guess!

I’ve swept up all the debris and wet leaves from the storm. Remembered just now to wash my “costume” which is just a shirt with a pumpkin face on it. My other choice was a shirt that said “this is my costume”. Fletch was going as Professor Moody with the big goggly eye from Harry Potter. He bought the eye that you strap to your head, forgetting that he wears glasses and will have to put in his contacts if he is going to go through with that look. He had a chuckle to himself saying, “I didn’t think that one through very well”.

The kids have a candy bucket and once that is full, we are coming home. We don’t really need anymore than that! I wonder if anyone will give out toothbrushes and dental floss?

Today brings no words, just lots of candy and fun for all.

A Halloween Love Story.

Tomorrow is Fletch’s and my anniversary. 15 years. Do you ever wonder how people meet. Well here is our story. I was in my second year Uni, working two jobs to pay my way through and living on campus. Every Thursday night was ritual “bar night”. My uni mates and I would have pre-drinks, followed by a round of on campus bar drinks and if feeling particularly adventurous (or just still able to stand), a round of drinks in town. Just thinking about it makes me exhausted.

On this particular bar night, as a celebration of the University of Canberra’s foundation day, there was a festival with lots of outside entertainment and bands. It’s referred to as Stone Eve and each year it has a theme. On Thursday, 31st October 1997 it was ‘Halloween Stone Eve’. Even got the beer stein in memory of it. [Any of my Ucan readers still got theirs?]

I had lost some of my friends and as I was looking for them in the crowd I realized that a guy was looking at me with a big smiley grin. He was cute. He had long shoulder length brown hair, glasses and a tight fitting grey shirt on. I smile back and then keep looking around for my mates. Next thing I know, Grinning Guy has come over to say hi. Ballsy. Being Asian in appearance, boys didn’t really come over and just talk to me. Most assumed I was an international student and taking advantage of a poor innocent little international student was not cool.

But we chat and we dance. There may have been a bit of harmless flirting and bottom grabbing on my behalf. I can neither confirm or deny there may have been a few midnight kisses. And then he goes home as he has to work in the morning and we say goodbye. He asks for my number, says I’ll go get a pen and come back. He can’t find a pen but remembers it in his head. He tells me he wrote it down as soon as he got home. I am hopeless with numbers so if it had been up to me we wouldn’t be here today!

On the Friday morning, I get up and drag my sorry butt up to Uni. Some of my Uni lecturers used to deliberately hold 8.30am lectures just to sort the wheat from the chaff. And when I get back from class there’s a message on my voicemail. It’s Grinning Guy from last night! And the rest is history really. We got married when Dylan was two and so we don’t really celebrate our wedding anniversary. Instead we celebrate our “spankaversary” as we affectionately call it because it was the day we met and I grabbed him on the butt.

Today brings no words, just sharing some memories about how I met the love of my life and why halloween holds a special place my heart.

Attack of the Frankenstorm.

What does one do while waiting for a hurricane? There is no school for the kids and when there is bad weather they send out a recorded phone message that notifies parents that the school will be closed. We got the call on Sunday at about 3pm. He was pretty excited.

When we got up this morning it was raining, but now the winds have started to pick up too. The morning talk shows were calling it “Frankenstorm” and the “Halloween Superstorm”. Does it really need a special name to be audience friendly?

Fletch went to work, mainly because he wanted to make sure he was there to send home anyone else who turned up. He went in early and got home around 11am which I am relieved about because it is super windy now. They issue colour emergency codes here. The public servants for the county were issued code red on Sunday night, in other words don’t come to work. Other places got put on code blue which means turn up, but use your own discretion and go home if needed.

Emergency services is advising that the worst to come will be overnight. So we are going to have to sleep in the basement. The boys are excited as we tell them it’ll be like a camp out. Other than that, we’ve filled up the bathtubs with water. I’ve done laundry, not for lack of clothes but in order to keep the basket empty incase there is a power outage for a few days. I’ve baked and blogged. quite productive really.

The kids have had a great time dragging out every forgotten toy they own. I don’t mind so much, as long as they are entertained. I guess family days where we are all cooped in like this, although could be under better circumstances, are quite nice. All in all, we are keeping on like it’s a long weekend and keeping our eyes peeled on the weather. The older boys are getting in some xbox time, which I figure let them go because if there’s a power outage then they may not have too much time on there anyway.

Will this all be over in time for Halloween on Wednesday? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see! Before I finish up, the postie is out in this crazy weather. They have the funniest little postie vans here with no doors on the side. The poor guy delivers us our mail and I run out in the slush and freezing rain to get it. Junk Mail!

Today bring no words, and no code red if you are a postie with the United States Postal Service.

Storms a’coming

Hurricane Sandy is coming apparently. This is our first real experience at “bunkering down”, or at least preparing to bunker down in the basement. It is quite common here, when a storm comes to go to your basement and wait it out. There are lots of huge trees here and if they are going to fall then it’s safer to be in the basement area. Ours is huge. It has a full bathroom, living area, an office and a bedroom. Yes, our mancave will serve us well if we need to use it.

Yesterday was the most beautiful Autumn day, great for Dylan’s last soccer game, which they lost appallingly to a team that had also only one one game all season. I guess the polite thing to say is they had fun and that soccer was the true winner of the day. Anyway, back to my point, Autumn sunny weather, I guess you could say it’s the calm before the storm.

We have plenty of food so no worries there. I thought we were out of bottled water and went to check what stocks we have in our basement. We have a full wet bar area down there which is perfect for entertaining. Turns out we have enough bottled water, plus a whole heap of softdrink and alcohol. I was picturing what it would be like being trapped in the basement with the kids only having Sprite to drink. Eeeek! Oh well, I could always crack open the wine and then it probably wouldn’t matter so much.

We have gas appliances so we can cook if electricity goes out and a fireplace in the basement which runs on gas which also works if there’s a power failure. Fingers crossed that we are preparing for nothing and it is all a “storm in a teacup”. Hmmm, speaking of which, better make sure we’ve got enough tea and coffee. Don’t deprive me of coffee or you may not want to be stuck with me down there!

We went out this morning to pick up some last minute supplies and a last chance to get out of the house in case we are stuck inside for a few days. Towards the end of the trip, Hamish gets a little tired and Dylan is silly enough to antagonize him. Hamish biffs him one and lands a punch in the face. Fletch settles Hamish down and asks Dylan “what did you learn from that?” Dylan thinks about this carefully than replies in his little American accent “don’t stick your face in a beehive or you get stung”. Well I guess metaphorically speaking it works.

Today brings no words, just some preparation and nervous energy, hoping this storm will all blow over soon.

Unapologetically LOUD!

Today is Dylan’s second last game of the season. They have only won one game, and today they were annihilated. I stopped counting the number of goals that the other team were scoring. I think the problem was that the kids had team photos before the game and they all went and kicked around the ball whilst waiting for the shots to be taken. They used up all their start-of-game energy before they even got on the field. I feel sorry for the kids when they hop on the field because nobody cheers for them. So I cheer for them – LOUDLY!

Those of you who know me, know that I am for the most part a quiet person. I have to be comfortable with the people and know them before I can relax and interact. I raise my voice when I want to be heard and believe me, you do hear when I have something to say. But for the most part I tend to watch. Except when I am cheering on Dylan’s soccer team. I yell and scream and have total “jock fits”. You know what I mean. “Carn Wolfpack, look for your mates”, “get the ball up there!” etc. etc. I can’t help it. These poor little kids looking dejected and losing all their games, they need some encouragement!

Sometimes they play really well, it’s just bad luck and that’s all a part of sport, I know. But I wonder what the parents must tell their kids. Are they unhappy or indifferent about how the kids are doing? I am not judging anyone, just trying to understand the culture of parent participation in sport over here. I know I get some funny sideways (very silent) glances. I don’t mind really, I know that the kids are listening to me. Fletch, who is assistant coach and sits with the kids on the other side of the field can hear me, he tells me bemused. Dylan loves my cheering too and he tells me so with a big grin and that is enough encouragement for me to not care what anyone thinks!

Yes, I am a “soccermom” in most ways. (I will always be mum but being a US specific reference I’ve left it like that). Have you ever wondered what one is exactly? I always did and after looking up a definition on Wikipedia, it would appear that I am one. Running around from child activity after child activity, in joggers and sweats, hair tied back as there’s no time to actually do anything with it. Ushering kids in frenzied style to “get in the car or we’ll be late”… most of you kind of know what I mean. Once up at the school I got really cranky because someone almost reversed into me in the carpark. “Soccermom with head-up-arse-itis” was the exact phrase I used to passive-aggressively describe her on my Facebook status. But I let it go because I am the first to admit I can get chronic bouts of heap-up-arse-itis too.

Today brings no words, just some puzzling thoughts, the enigma of why Americans, who are known for being noisy conversationalist and having very private things to say in public, go to a game and not cheer as loud as they like.