Halloween

Joe and his buddy Jim.

Another Halloween has come and gone, and I could not be happier.  There's something wrong with a holiday that makes you give away your candy and constantly has kids knocking at your door interrupting your tv show.  I'm not amused.  Of course we'll go all out for Max when it's Halloween, but until he's old enough to realize what's going on, I'd like to skip ahead to Thanksgiving.  Nobody makes me give away my treats on Thanksgiving.  That's a far superior holiday.  We ended up having 187 trick or treaters last night.  I managed to steal the good candy out of the bag and stash it away before Joe noticed.  The kids should be fine with the crap-candy like tootsie rolls and dots.  They're kids!  No need to give them the Butterfingers and Twix.  That's just silly.

This year for Halloween, my lovely husband decided to dress up like his friend Jim who's a teacher aide at the school.  He's also Joe's hunting buddy, and has made appearances on our blog before.  Jim is

The behind shot is the most disturbing.

well loved at the school, and the kids love his bald head.  Jim makes it a habit to play basketball in odd clothing.  His favorite attire being gray polyester pants, a referee shirt, and white Chuck Taylor's.  If he's playing ball, you can pretty much guarantee that he'll be in this outfit.  Once Joe decided to go as Jim, we had to make a stop at Value Village in Anchorage for the outfit.  Joe lucked out and found exactly what he needed.  Sunday night before Halloween, I shaved his head in the traditional Male-Pattern Baldness style and took a long, hard look into my future.  It was not a pretty sight.  But Joe does not to do anything halfway.  He had to have his hair cut to look like Jim.  I agreed and told him that I'd help him out as long as my son never came home with this same hairdo.  Monday morning he got all dressed up, and headed to school.  Needless to say, he was a big hit.  The kids thought it was the greatest thing ever, and are still calling him Mr. Jim.  

Janna and a few other teachers at the parade.

At the end of the day we had our Halloween parade and assembly where they give awards for the best costumes.  They had Joe and Jim come forward in front of the whole town for special recognition.  Joe did his best "Jim-walk" and even did his impression of Jim's cartwheels...which are not great.  The town loved it!  Joe definitely stole the spot light.

A few of Janna's students dressed for Halloween.

Since I didn't have a costume, and wasn't about to shave my head in any way, I just told people that I was a woman who was shoplifting a pumpkin.  Max helped out with the costume.  :)  Speaking of my little guy, he is growing big and strong and weighs about 2 1/2 lbs this week.  He's working on his lungs this week and my book says that if he were born now, he would have a good chance at survival.  But we're going to let him cook for another 2 1/2 months... and get a little bit cuter...and fatter.  You know I like my babies fat!  Joe and I put together his crib, and bought a swing.  We're slowly getting ready for his arrival and can't wait.  He's big enough now that you can see him move.  It's pretty weird to be sitting there on the couch and see this blob move across my belly.  He either loves or hates when I drink hot drinks.  He moves around like crazy.  He would probably do the same with really cold things like ice cream, but since it's 8 degrees in Mountain Village right now, we're not eating too much ice cream.  My leave of absence has been approved, and I should be good to go for the rest of the school year.  I teach through December 16, and then I'm out!  Couldn't come soon enough.