Halloween Fun and Busy Wednesday!

It had been many years since I drove in snow and ice. Yesterday, I drove to Maple Grove for our weekly grocery shopping and got to test my skills. I am so grateful that Joe insisted we have snow tires for the winter as it made the drive less anxiety provoking. We made it safely there and by the time we returned home a few hours later the roads were cleared.

Joe and Jeremy were able to finish picking up the hutch to the $240.00 dining room table, chairs, and hutch set we bought at the thrift shop on Monday. We rented a pick-up truck from Menard’s to haul the top of the hutch. The truck rental took the price up from a little over $201 to $240.00. JOe and I appreciate Jeremy's helping to get the set down to our flat. I am very happy with this find.

Last night we sat in our driveway and greeted trick-or-treaters. I braved the cold weather for a little over an hour. Jeremy was outside for the duration and Megan joined him after dinner. The kids started coming before it got dark, so Jeremy ate his dinner in the driveway between groups of kids.

Megan had set up her firepit and some of the parents and a few kids used the opportunity to warm up before heading to the next house. Megan also had ingredients out for making s’mores. Okay, I ate more s’mores than the other folks.

Another fun feature was the sensory boxes Megan had used for her Brownie troops recent Halloween party (which she also turned into a badge opportunity for the girls – learning about the 5 senses). The kids could reach into holes cut into the front of boxes and feel eyeballs, worms, and other yucky substances. Megan assured me the eyeballs were just peeled grapes. We heard a lot of “YUCK!”

It was fun to watch the littles in their costumes. The older kids were respectful and were having loads of fun being with their friends instead of parents.

Photos from our Halloween evening:

Megan and Jeremy's Driveway Set-up

The pumpkins we decorated last weekend! Mine is hard to see because I painted it. 

Jeremy's pumpkin is next to mine, Megan's racoon, Caleb's pumpkin, and finally Charlotte's.

                   Charlotte as Evie (A Pokemon character) and Caleb as an executioner.

Today, I volunteered again in the sorting area at the thrift shop. I met more volunteers and saw two of the volunteers from Monday. Everyone I have met has been very friendly. Minnesota friendly is a thing, you know. This crew asked me a lot of questions about our move to Minnesota. We had a “Christmas items” training session today for sorting, pricing, and distributing to the proper temporary storage bins to then be sent up to the store floor. We started the actual sorting; however, we had to go back to sorting clothing after we discovered the store was not yet ready for Christmas as they decided to mark everything for Halloween down to half off the already low prices.

After I got home, I had a fun video chat with my cousin, Eleanor. She has an Android and I have an iPhone. She is not on Facebook so we couldn’t use Mesenger. Fortunately, Eleanor figured out how to turn a phone call into a video call from her phone. She just got back from visiting her son in Kansas, so we had lots to chat about. Eleanor is the oldest grandchild of the Hudkins clan after our cousin Bob’s passing earlier this week. She was born seven months after Bob. Charlotte came home from school while Eleanor and I were chatting, so I got to introduce her to Charlotte. Charlotte is generally reluctant to talk to people when she first meets them, but she seemed to be fine with meeting Eleanor via the telephone. Charlotte told Eleanor that she looked like one of her grandmas. And she wasn’t talking about me…

Charlotte came back to see me after I had finished talking with Eleanor. She told me, “Megan is busy and told me to bring my reading down to you.” She sat down at the “new to us” dining room table and read to me. She did a good job, including reading with inflection. We practiced answeering the questions for comprehension on the back of her reading paper and she had them all right.

She stuck around after the reading, and we played some “make believe.” This is where she tells me pretend stories and I ask her questions. Today she told me she was going to teleport to Mars. Then she goes into a little under-the-stairs area that is separated by a curtain. When she came out, I asked her how the trip to Mars went and she told me that she ended up in a dog’s brain. She said the dog wasn’t happy that she was in his brain.

Now she is playing checkers with Grandpa and drinking a berry lemonade ICE. This is the best reason to have a dining room table again!

My first social security check arrived today! I was so relieved when my application was approved yesterday. I had convinced myself that the woman assigned to my case was out on maternity leave and I was never going to get approved. Anyway, I got two months of pay in my account today.