I promise you with every ounce of me, that as soon as we are able, we are going to take off running (maybe literally) to our next travel destination!! But until then, we have spent a lot more time doing a whole lot of nothing, probably like many of you out there.
This actually happened at the end of September, but we had three large trees removed from our yard. Two of them hung out over our neighbors house and they were very happy to see them go.
I had to take a walk around the neighborhood while they were working on trimming the trees back because I just couldn't look! We had a bunch of projects we are working on here at home in October including getting measurements for 8 new windows on our house that will be installed in December.
To start the month off, Grant had to have blood drawn so they could find out if he was still allergic to peanuts (spoiler: he still is.) We spoke to his allergist about getting him into an immunotherapy program, but he's still on the fence about whether he wants to do it or not.
Oh my goodness, this boy is so funny. "Turn this around, Grant. (Meal idea)"
Hmmm, okay, this actually sounds really good! (Grant: "Oops, I spelled bread wrong!") You'll be surprised to know this because he's a boy and he's second born, but Grant is actually a very good speller. Despite the fact that he also spelled raisins wrong, ha!
This is the most colorful meal we have had in a long time!
Throw some grilled chicken on top and that's a decadent meal! Thanks, Grant!
We had to move the kid's swing from the back yard to the front yard because the branch it was on in the back yard was removed. Todd spent several hours trying to throw the rope up with various heavy objects. Good news, it was eventually a success!
After the swing was up and secure, our neighbor Brendan came over and was really swinging the kids all over the place - they were having a blast!
Y'all. I am NOT artistic at all. Like not even remotely good. But my dear sorority sister Michelle is an artist and we all got together via Zoom to do a little Auburn door hanger project! (This is not mine, this is Michelle's. Mine wasn't bad, but certainly not blog worthy!)
I was so happy to see some faces that I hadn't seen in a very long time!
We did some yard work and set up some silly Halloween decorations! Look at the big spider on the tree, ew!
The people who live behind us and through the woods had a really pretty tree in their yard. I love it when the leaves are changing, but there's still some green on the trees.
Oh my word, we laughed so hard at this. The vice presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Mike Pence (above) was totally overshadowed by a fly that landed on Mike Pence's perfectly coiffed hair. At first, I thought he was stuck there because Pence uses so much hair product. Then Todd said, "Did the fly land there and die?" He eventually flew away but man it was funny!
Your mid October coronavirus statistics for the US.
Look at this cute kid with this hilarious Tyrannasaurus Rex taco holder his Nana got him! A few seconds later, he stuck his nose in the the T-Rex's mouth and said, "It's eating my nose!"
Fall has definitely arrived. I'm holding on to any little piece of summer that I can.
In October, Natalie did ONE more theater production before she decided to take a bit of time off to focus on school. This time, she played Martha, the house maid with a thick Yorkshire accent in The Secret Garden. She was so funny- she actually watched YouTube videos of people with a Yorkshire accent, just so she could stay true to the character. It was really awesome- her accent was great! As you can see, everyone had masks on.
When they were in a scene, they could drop the masks, but as you can see, the girls here are spaced far apart. It was a really great play! The Prana pulled it off once again.
The cast of The Secret Garden.
We have never been Booed before, so we were very excited to have that happen for the first time! We really have the nicest neighbors! They even remembered that Grant has a peanut allergy and didn't include anything that he couldn't eat. So sweet!
We did this, too!
At one point this month, I remembered that I could go to World Market in Framingham and grab some our favorite German treats! They have our favorite curry ketchup, Milka chocolate, Leibniz and even European Kit Kats!
I took this picture of the fire hydrant that sits between my neighbors house and mine because the tree in the background was the same color, but I think the best part was the little Lego (?) person that's laying on the fire hydrant!
Here's another thing I did in October... I got a mammogram, which turned into a biopsy because they found some calcifications on my right side. I've had some issues with my right side for several years and had to have things checked out back in Germany but I never picked up my results when we left in January (just forgot that I even had it done at the Klinikum in Amberg.) Since Newton Wellesley Hospital didn't have a baseline to go on, they decided to do a biopsy just to be on the safe side. Good news, I don't have cancer! That was not a fun experience though. Although I always say that labor is the one true pain I measure all pain against and I'd rate this biopsy WELL below that experience!
I swear it snows EVERY October here in Massachusetts. We got about 5 inches of snow on Grant's birthday! What??? Meanwhile, we won't get any snow again until January.
Grantie had a birthday at the end of October! Hard to believe my little buddy is 11! We had both families call in so we could sing him happy birthday and open some gifts with him.
How is this little stinker already 11? His request was chocolate cake with chocolate icing and cookie dough ice cream.
Opening presents on his birthday - what could it be?
When he opens presents, he jumps around A LOT. It's hard to catch him in a halfway decent picture because this kid is always moving.
He wanted some gaming glasses to help with the headaches he sometimes gets because he sits at a computer all day (not really his fault as he does the full-time-at-home schooling this year.)
Speaking of the reason he does full time at home school... here is your late October Covd 19 statistics.
Thankfully MOST of the snow melted and the kids were allowed to go out trick or treating with the neighborhood kids. It was cold though. Here we have Natalie who is a zombie wooly mammouth and Grant, who went with the neighborhood theme of the wild, wild west.
Here we have Grant, AT, Natalie, AB and little Ava in the front.
Hilariously, Todd and I were sitting outside (10 feet away from the table that had candy on it) and suddenly I heard a "PLOP!" A big hunk of snow fell out of the trees and RIGHT INTO MY DRINK.
Todd was conveniently the plague doctor this year.
Brendan gave us some lights to light up our table because we have no street lights (or very, very few that don't shine very brightly) so no one knew we were sitting there in the dark!
We put a bunch of candy in bowls and people would grab a bowl, drop the candy in their bag, and then throw the paper bowls in the trash can. Not eco friendly, but at least it was safe.
At one point, we could see Todd's breath through his creepy plague doctor mask - and when he shone the light on his face, it made it even creepier! Later Grant said, "Are you smoking?"
Todd had a blast scaring the neighborhood kids from the lawn.
The kids disappeared and hit up the entire neighborhood before going to the neighborhood one street over to get even more candy. I think they did ok!
This zombie wooly mammouth wrangler had a good night, too!
And we're on to November!
