Halloween, Brand New Car, and Election 2012

I can't believe it's November already. Still warm enough that Wyatt can run around out back with the neighbors playing light sabers, but cold enough that he needs to wear gloves or else he'll come inside crying, like yesterday. Before we know it it'll be Thanksgiving (and Mom and Dad will be coming!) and then it'll be Christmas and then it'll be 2013. But you all know this. I'm just saying: time keeps marching.

Since it's now November, that means October just passed, and October means Halloween. Halloween is less stressful for me now that the kids are getting older; I don't feel all that costuming pressure and I don't have to attend legions of elementary school Halloween parties. (Is it terrible that I'm complaining about attending legions of elementary school Halloween parties? Actually, I don't really mind attending; it's coming up with the games that stresses me out.) ANYWAY, we had a fun Halloween this year. Here are some pics. First, our ward Halloween party:

Our little Devil

My terrifying husband

Ethan in his gorilla suit (a Christmas present last year -- bought it at 80% clearance after last Halloween) and Ethan's friend Josh. Josh has excellent hair. 

Wyatt the ninja. All my boys--all 3--have wanted to be ninjas, pretty much exclusively, from age 5 to age 8.

Jonas no longer wants to be a ninja. Obviously.

My terrifying husband overseeing the game he was responsible for as YM president: eat as many Sam's Clubs cheese puffs as you can with your arms behind your back. It was a winner. He thought it up all by himself.

Actual Halloween was a very nice day for Minnesota. Jacket and stretchy gloves weather, but no puffy coats or stocking caps required (hooray!). Our house somehow managed to be the meeting place for Jonas and his bevy of buddies. Here they are before they tore off around the neighborhood, roaming around sans parental supervision. (I remember how nervous I was the first time both Ethan and Elise went trick or treating without a grown up, but with Jonas I didn't even think twice. I'm either becoming a better parent or a worse one. You choose -- I'm undecided.)

The boyyzzz. And no, this isn't my front porch. It's much too well-decorated to be my front porch. It's our across the street neighbors. The boys had already taken off, but I managed to wrangle them all together for a picture before they were completely gonzo. 

Once all those boys got home, we escorted them down into the unfinished basement where they happily traded candy until their parents came and got them. Much to my dismay, Jonas traded a lot of his chocolate for (get this!) popcorn. Popcorn? C'mon now.

Our Wilkey pseudo-relatives and good friends in our ward, the Ponzcochs, came over to trick or treat with Wyatt. It's a win-win: Wyatt doesn't have kids his age in our family to trick or treat with, and the Ponzochs don't have a neighborhood that lends itself to trick or treating (more rural, big houses widely spaced, etc.) Wyatt had a great time running form house to house and only had to skip a few because their porch decorations were unacceptably terrifying.

How could anything terrify this kid? He even has a sword. (I ended up holding it all night, but still.)

So Halloween was fun.

In other news, we got a new car. Yep! A new car! In a nutshell: Forrest's new job means a lot more driving around the rural midwest. He gets mileage reimbursement, but the Tahoe is a ridiculous gas monster and the Mazda isn't very comfortable for him (or customers) to drive around in. Also, Ethan will someday (someday?) have his driver's license and it would be nice for me if he had a car. Ease the chauffeuring pressure and all that.  So, our solution: sell the Mazda (sniff! it's been a good car), and use what we make on it to pay off the rest we owe and buy a cheap Honda Civic or something like it for the kids' car. Then buy a new car that I'll drive the majority of the time, but that Forrest can take with him on the road. It needed to have good gas mileage, but be roomy and comfortable inside. I also wanted some good cargo space in the back. Anyway, after some searching, we found it. Here she is:

It's a Subaru Outback. Isn't it pretty? The color is unique (something something bronze?) but I really like it. The kids aren't so sure about the color, but I did not let their skepticism dull my enthusiasm. I think it's classy. And I've really liked driving it so far. Very comfy. And it gets even better gas mileage than the Mazda, so that's awesome. Sometimes the kids might have to touch each other if I drive all four of them somewhere--they've been spoiled by bucket seats all these years--but they can handle it. We'll just put Wyatt in the middle: Elise and Jonas don't mind being touched by Wyatt as much as they mind being touched by each other.

And, finally, now that it's November it means one more thing. The election is Tuesday. I'm excited/curious/a little worried. A couple of weeks ago I was convinced Romney would win: I thought his base was more energized, not necessarily from Romney-love but from Obama-hate, and I also felt that he convinced a lot of people during that first debate that he actually WASN'T Mr. Burns from the Simpsons, which made centrist voters more likely to support him.  And here's the thing: If Romney does win, a certain part of me will be excited. The part of me that likes to root for Mormons on So You Think You Can Dance. Also, the part of me that knows he's a good man (I do think he's a good man) and that he's not an extremist or an ideologue, but is instead more of a centrist pragmatist. I do worry a little what the ideologically-driven House will do with a Republican in the White House, but I have to have faith that Romney would try to keep them from doing anything too extreme. Hopefully. Maybe.

That said, I'm still voting for Obama. I also think he's a good man, just like Romney, but I align with Obama on issues about 85% of the time, and I align with Romney about 35%. (You can take a handy quiz if you like that sort of thing here. My students are using the site for a paper and I thought the quiz was a good one: all-encompassing enough to mean something.) I think Obama will probably win, now, too--I think he got some good press during Hurricane Sandy that might sway people, and the polls are tilting his direction in swing states. That said, it'll be close. It'll be interesting, no matter what happens. But come Wednesday, I might have to stay away from Facebook, no matter who wins. I have too many friends on both sides who think the other guy is Satan.

And now, on to grading. And more grading. So many vague pronouns to highlight! So many comma splices to correct! And every once in a while I get to give somebody an A. That's always fun too.