I see blogger has not fixed its issues with loading pictures. Arses. I'll have to add them at the end, if I can.

Halloween was GREAT. Kids had a lot of fun, and the yard looked great. Considering it was on a Friday night and the weather was amazing, we didn't have as many trick-or-treaters as I had hoped. But we had at least 100.

Monkey is doing great, and growing like a weed. A smelly weed with an attitude, but growing. I'm homeschooling him this year. Yup, it's true. We basically decided the Sunday night before school started. We went to 'meet the teacher' night and dropped off all his supplies. Sat through the speech.. and went home feeling nervous. Monkey is an animal at home, but incredibly shy at school. If he doesn't understand something he's afraid to ask and so lessons move along.. as they would anyway.. and I would basically spend the evenings re-teaching him what he learned at school that day. We talked to him about it, and he loved the idea. But after the meet the teacher night, we felt it was the best idea anyway. She explained there would be no grades but only 'P' for progressing. Monkey loves grades, he enjoyed trying to improve on anything which came home with a low grade on it. I just thought that was odd. And they were going to continue the boxes/lines/bars math thingy.. which I still don't understand. So he's already multiplying double digits by double digits... and I love the vocabulary books out there! He really enjoys trying to use his new words, and now that I know what he's learning I can incorporate it in things we do or quiz him on it when we're driving around. It's fun for all of us. He has more time now in the evenings for other classes. We put him in piano, and MrNV works with him daily on that. I'm excited. Once he has a solid hold on all the basics, perhaps we'll integrate him back in for High School. But I have a lot of amazing help from a friend that home schools. And Missouri is one of the easiest states for home schooling, as far as laws go. I have to chuckle, though. In going to the library there are many types of homeschoolers.. which is fine. But there are people that believe in just living life as a type of education. No structure at all. It makes me giggle, but maybe that works. I do love the idea that we can work the day around Monkey's mood. Once in a while if he's tired and sitting is not working out, we'll run errands and just do school later. If we're getting frustrated with new math things, we move on to English and do math later. Being able to customize is really paying off. But because he really does love it, it's really not an issue. He understands if he doesn't take learning seriously he'll be a train hopping bum when he grows up, and he's not too excited about that :) So... I'm a homeschooling mom now. Egads.

Dad is doing great. Still living with us. He hurt his left arm a while back so he hasn't been cooking as much. I'm about to shut his cable off if he doesn't get on the ball! :) I'm going to shut it off anyway if he doesn't get out and vote today, it's already 3:46pm. Slacker.

We voted today. Monkey filled in the circles for me. Being the big smelly REPUBLICAN that I am, I have to be sure to brainwash him at an early age. We may not win this election, but I can't complain about it if I don't vote. We were having Sunday dinners for a while and my father-in-law's democrat girlfriend would come. She's a great lady. And I respect everyone's right to decide what party works best for them. I think the checks and balances keep us honest. But man, she was definitely one tough cookie! My mom, dad, step-dad, husband and others tried very hard to bring her to the dark side.. never worked. So I will be happy for her if Obama wins today. And if nothing else, it will keep the news interesting. I was sort of suffering from a lack of candidate enthusiasm anyway. I just hate taxes. We're self employed and I write a check to the IRS literally every month. It's painful. And it's going to get more painful. I don't like pain. But, good luck to the winner.. and I hope you do a good job. I will admit, I'm ready for Bush to shuffle along now.

Oh, and someone in our neighborhood.. a few blocks away... owns a serval. It's like a big kitty :) It was wandering around the hood one Saturday afternoon getting the neighbors riled. I'll post the photos, it was crazy. Turns out it is de-clawed and tame. But it was hissing at everyone, so who knows. But when people stalk me I tend to hiss too. I don't think it's legal to have one in the city limits, but nobody has been eaten yet so I'll let it slide :)

Go McCain! (sigh)

Hello Brashen! :)