Change for China - Part 1

This is my good friend Kate who recently moved to China. She is going to be living there for two years and she graciously invited us to come for a visit. Well, maybe she was just being nice because she never expected we'd actually come, but we're going!! All four of us! We've already begun our saving plan (yes, of course we have one! If you know anything about me you'd know we're savers and planners!).

Our first plan of attack at acquiring the necessary funds for our adventure has been my current gig working as a long-term substitute teacher at a local middle school teaching French (yes, I speak French... I minored in it in college and was certified to teach back in 1997). I'm just filling in while the regular teacher is out on maternity leave, so I'm just there until December 22. I'm not going to be making a fortune but every penny I make I'm saving for China! (I should add that while I'm teaching I'm WAY busier than normal so I may fall behind on this blogging bit, but I'll do my best to keep up!)

Next, I'm going to be working again for the Associated Press at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, so that will be the next chunk of change I save for our trip... more to come on that.

The boys are trying to get in on the "Change for China" campaign as well... they've got a plan to set up a table near the crosswalk at their elementary school and sell after school snacks to kids on their way home from school. It sounds like a great idea to me, but we have to wait until the boys are off track in order to pull it off, and they don't go off track again until January, which may be too cold for an outside stand, but they're not giving up hope, they're thinking of selling hot chocolate or something warm like that... we'll see how it goes:)

Jeff's doing his part as well... he's already had his leave approved so he has the time off and everything! It's pretty amazing! I am so excited and really, really, really hope this all works out! I will definitely keep you posted on our progress! In the meantime, I'd like to invite you all to view Kate's blog called "Ron and Kate plus 8 million". It's hilarious! She's a fabulous writer and very, very funny! She talks all about her culture shock surrounding her move to this foreign country. It's really great! You should check it out! Here's the link: http://ronkatepluseight.blog.com/ Enjoy!

Halloween... been there, done that!

Yet another Halloween has come and gone! It was another fun holiday for our little family. This year Will was a Vampire Rock star and Drew was a Punk Rock star, so I guess you could say we still had a theme like in the past, but this time Jeff didn't join our charades (see my last post to see me as a Rock star).

This is Drew, complete with piercings, tattoos and "guy-liner". He looked awesome!! Almost too good! I hope when we flash forward 10 years or so, he hasn't decided to wear this look on a daily basis! (Will kept teasing him that he looked like a girl with the make-up on and it really got to Drew, so I doubt he'll want to.)

Here's Will (with eyebrows) as cute as can be! It seems I am always painting eyebrows on him at Halloween because he always wears dark wigs with his costumes. His eyes are radiant in this pic!

Well, instead of recapping all our activities for this Halloween, I decided to take you on a little trip down memory lane, to see all the fun themes we've worn through the years. We've always dressed up as a family so it's been a little hard on me to see the boys growing out of that tradition. So bare with me as I cope with yet another new chapter beginning:)

Here's where it all started... In 2001 I dressed up as Dorothy and Drew (at 8 months old) was my little dog Toto. Later, Jeff dressed up as the scarecrow, but we didn't get a very good pic, so this will forever be the memory of that inaugural Halloween.

This is 2003 when we all dressed up as the "Spot" family. (We skipped 2002 as we were moving to OKC on that day.) A friend was having a party where we were supposed to come as our favorite character from a book, and Drew was fascinated with the Spot books, so we decided to go as them. I was HUGELY pregnant with Will so I'm attempting to hide my belly in this pic.

In 2004 Drew's new favorite movie was Peter Pan, so we decided to go as those characters. Jeff was Captain Hook, I was Tinkerbell, Drew was Peter Pan and Will was the Crocodile. My mom and I made (well, let's be honest, my mom made and I assisted) our costumes and we started them in August! It was a lot of work, but we've gotten many years of good use out of them!

In 2005, Drew's new obsession was Power Rangers, so we decided to go as a Super Hero Family. (This was pre-Incredibles:) Drew was the Red Ranger, Will was Super-man, I was Wonder Woman, and Jeff was Super-Dad because he refused to wear tights! He had all the things a super dad would have: an apron, tool belt with tools and diapers, and a pocket full of money:)

In 2006, we went the "traditional" Halloween route. I was a Witch, Jeff was a Vampire (not the sparkly kind), Will was Frankenstein, and Drew was a Skeleton. I had a bunch of really cute scrap booking paper that I'd been holding onto for years just waiting for the right opportunity to use... and this year I finally got to use it!

Then in 2007, Drew and Will were both obsessed with Star Wars, so we decided to use that as our inspiration. Jeff was a Jedi Knight, I was Princess Leia (my LEAST favorite of all of my costumes... I hated myself in that wig and plain white dress), Drew was Darth Vader (but I hate masks so I made him wear it backwards or not at all), and Will was Yoda. They STILL play in these costumes all the time!!

I honestly can't think of a theme we HAVEN'T done... so I guess I shouldn't be so sad about not dressing up as a family anymore. But I still do.

Anyway, hope you all had a happy Halloween and got lots of candy and had lots of fun!