Happy Halloween!

So Josh and I decided to get (slightly) into the Halloween spirit. We carved a lovely (if somewhat deranged) jack o' lantern on Monday night. I see now why we didn't always carve them as kids... it's a huge (and disgusting) pain to clean out the insides! Blech! Anyway, we of course had a bowl of candy for kids who came trick-or-treating tonight. Our favorite visitors were Brian and Jenny and their kids, Samuel and Abby. That's Samuel with Josh, he was adorable in a Superman costume that was really pajamas. And Abby had a costume, too, even though she's only a month or two old. She was a hot tamale, complete with green hat/stem. Too cute!! Other than those two, we didn't have too many kids. Which mostly means Josh and I have more candy for us... just what we need! I'm just excited because, now that Halloween is out of the way, the more important holidays (Thanksgiving and especially Christmas) can start! :) 

P-A-R-T-Y

We celebrated Charlie's birthday on Sunday evening, and had a great time! We had mexican (enchilada casserole) for dinner, and then we relaxed with a game of Chicks v.s. Dudes. It's a game like Battle of the Sexes, with questions for boys that are about girl stuff and vice versa. Except that it's set up like tug-of-war, and whoever pulls the other team across the middle wins. For your last question the other team gets to pick a challenge, which can be a thumb war, a finish the phrase, a spell-it, or "who makes me?" (they give a product, you tell who makes it). The girls got to the challenge pretty quickly, and decided to have Mom thumb wrestle Charlie, since she's got the fastest thumb in the west... but HE WON!!! We still won the game, though... we played 3 games, actually, and the girl's took the series 2-1. There was much whining from the guys about the difficulty of the questions. However, we were really all winners, because now we have a story to embarrass Sam with for the rest of his life... the question was "If you bought a product from OPI, you would be buying product for what part of your body?" So Ellen was trying to give Sam a hint, and said something about Mr. Frosty (their cat) which led Sam to yell out "PENILE!" So that was pretty stinking hilarious... and we had to take a short break from the game to die laughing. We decided that we will definitely be sharing that story with any girl he ever brings to dinner with us (which will mostly just ensure that he never brings one). All in all we had a great time! Happy Birthday again, Charlie! :) 

All Gone

Well, it was long overdue, and I finally did it. I cut most of my hair off on Sunday. The longest layers are now shoulder length, the shortest just past my chin. I decided that, since I had worn it in a ponytail probably 95% of the time since school started it was time for a change. I still haven't really gotten the hang of it yet. This is the day I got it cut and the stylist straightened it for me so it hangs nicely. I don't have a straightener, so now it's usually half flipping in, half out... so a straightener would be a good Christmas present if anyone's making lists! :) It certainly has gotten lots of attention this week... even random parents who just volunteer at the school have been stopping me to say something about it. I think I like it, but I'm still getting used to it! 

Guilty Pleasure

Ok, so you've heard of guilty pleasure movies... this is a guilty pleasure game I found by accident! It showed up as a pop-up, and I couldn't resist playing it. The goal is to get out of the haunted house, and you can pick your costume while you're doing it. It's made by K-Mart, to advertise different decorations (and costumes) they sell. Anyway, its low-tech, but it's fun... enjoy! :)

K-Mart Haunted Mansion

Another One

Ok, so I have another book to add to my list of "Why do I torture myself?" books. I've been reading The Tortilla Curtain, by T.C. Boyle for a week or two now because a group of Midway people (some teachers, some moms, etc.) do a book club and I thought it would be fun, and this was the book they chose. It's also the One Read for Columbia through the Daniel Boone Library. Anyway, so I bought it, and I've been reading it. It's confronting the issue of illegal immigration, which pretty much has everyone in an uproar right now (although, what doesn't have people in an uproar, it's 2 weeks before Election Day). It follows two couples, one upper class white couple with everything they could want and one illegal Mexican couple with nothing, camping in a canyon trying to save up enough money for an apartment. Anyway, I read it, and from about the moment I started it, I knew it was going to be just like the John Steinbeck books I get sucked into and then wonder why I even bother, since I mostly want to throw myself off the nearest cliff once I'm done with them. And this was about the same as reading The Pearl, the poor couple get bad break after bad break, are constantly on the brink of being killed, deported, or something of that nature. The only difference is the white couple also has major issues... so there's really no happy ending at all. Every time something good happens, and life is looking up, especially for the Mexican couple, they get robbed, hit by a car, raped, or run out of their "house" (and I use that term loosely) by a forest fire. Seriously, as soon as something good happens, something even worse happens: someone gives them a free turkey on Thanksgiving, and they start a forest fire that nearly kills them (and a lot of other people) while trying to cook it. It gets a little redundant. The book itself is good, the writing is excellent, I feel for the characters, and understand the pertinence and reality of the situation, but I am reminded (again) of my reasons for sticking to kids books. At least it will make interesting discussion at the book club meeting, I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks! 

We Are The Champions!!!

Well, the experts all said it would be over in 5 or 6 games... and it was. Just not with the outcome they predicted! And this guy had a lot to do with it! I love this guy! We were so excited when he was named MVP... but my favorite part was listening to him giggle when the Chevrolet guy was giving him the new car! Anyway, it was an awesome game, an awesome series, and an awesome post-season to be a Cards fan! First year in the new stadium, too... SWEET!

Happy Halloween

I got a forward of a bunch of dog costumes this week, and I couldn't resist putting this one up here just for Jessica's friend, Julie! Without her I wouldn't have a clue what an IG even was... and I certainly wouldn't have the lovely mental image of what happened right after this picture was taken. Which, in my head, goes something like this... camera flash goes off, dog is gone, bolting around the yard like a giant sausage with the tootsie roll costume bouncing around and eventually just peeling off from sheer wind force as the dog tears around the yard in a state of bliss... but that's just in my head... what do you see? :)

Happy Birthday!

Geez, what's with October and birthdays?! Anyway... can't ignore that today is, in fact, my sweet baby brother Char-Char's 20th birthday! Hard to believe there's only one of us left a teenager! Love you, Charlie! 

Tim's (Belated) Birthday

Well, we finally made it down to Springfield to celebrate Tim's birthday this weekend, and we had a great, relaxing trip! We mae our way down on Friday, and stopped and ate at Culver's at the Lake. We'd been wanting to for a long time, and finally just decided we would... it was awesome! They have great burgers, and the fresh frozen custard like Andy's. Saturday we headed to the city, and spent most of the day there. Tim and Josh tried on some fantastic hats, and we ate, rode, and shopped our way around the park. I was just excited to have Connie there so I didn't have to be the one dragging everyone into the Christmas store! But I was still the last one out, go figure! We left the park early (for us), and headed back to Springfield for a little Cardinals World Series action! Mom made us spaghetti, and it was great, and we sat around and watched a fantastic first game of the World Series! Sunday morning we got up, went to church, and then headed to Zio's for lunch. Talk about great Italian food! All in all we had a great time visiting and enjoy everyone's company! Happy (late) birthday, Tim! :) 

Funny Pictures

I was doing some cleaning a couple of weekends ago, and found some truly horrific pictures from years ago... so, naturally, I had to scan them in and post them, may as well make the humiliation public! :) Anyway, these are two pictures, one from July 1990, and one from much more recent, I think from about 3 or 4 years ago (I don't know, it was whenever Jessica was getting engaged, because that's why she's not in the picture, she was off on her cruise). A little background... the 1990 one was taken on the bank of Grandma and Grandpa Price's pond, I assume we had just been fishing. As for why Jessica is holding Charlie upside down... well, that's just what you do to little brothers. I particularly like the maniacal grin on Jessica's face... and, of course, the lovely and stylish acid-washed denim short overalls... a classic style statement! Then again, I have a worm in my hand, so you judge who is worse off! :)

The other picture is from when the church was making a photo directory, and we went to get family pictures taken (sans Jessica, but I don't think she was missing us). We thought it'd be fun to get one of the siblings, but we just couldn't stop laughing long enough for the photographer to snap the picture. Naturally, it was all Charlie's fault! So the guy got so fed up that he took this one instead. Which I actually like better then the serious, posed ones we did (eventually) get taken. Anyway, finding these pictures just made me smile and laugh, and reminded me of how much I enjoy my siblings (most of the time, of course)! Love you all!

WoooHooo!

After a very thrilling last inning, the CARDS ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!! YAY!!! Josh and I were watching, and as soon as that last strike was caught and called, we went a little crazy (much to Truman's displeasure, as he raced up the stairs with a tail 4 time its normal size). Lots of naysayers after the Cards less then stellar finish to the regular season, but all I have to say is...

Na-na, nananana... you can finish the rest of the Looten Fight Song yourself, I'm headed to bed!

Birthday Party

Just pictures from Ruth's birthday party! She had stromboli (always a favorite) and red velvet cake. Luckily, this year the cake was less, well, dense than last year's, which hit the plate with a resounding "thwack." Anyway, she cleaned up on presents, but Nala thinks she got the best present of all: shiny curling ribbon! We all had a great time; love you, Ruthie! 

Lock-In, Part I

The Sleepers... Ok, so we had this lock-in as a prize for the kids for selling raffle tickets (in addition to the leg shaving, which is in the next entry down!) so we decided to make it all about them. We didn't give them a lights-out time, and we gave them all the food they could handle. We had 22 kids, and it seemed like they had a great time. We played games, ate, played soccer, played video games, did the DDR (Dance Dance Revolution), just your typical lock-in stuff, after the Hickman/Rockbridge football game. I headed for bed upstairs in a pew at about 4 am... about in the middle of the pack. But, since there was no bedtime, most kids just slept where they fell, and by morning the church basement looked like a homeless shelter. Check out the pictures below... Josh stayed up all night with them, except for the brief nap he took on his hand. Brandon (Paul Bunyan) was the last one to fall asleep, and he slept in the chair. Charlie crawled under a table because he wanted to sleep on the floor (it was cool) but not in the middle of a room. He was so asleep that when I dropped the full jug of SunnyD on the table above his head from about 6 inches, he didn't even stir. Then just about every Sunday School room had a random assortment of kids sleeping on (or under) the table. It was quite entertaining, but I doubt we'll be doing an "No Bedtime" lock-in again... at least not for a long while! Read the next few entries for more stories about what the kids did when they were awake!

Lock-In, Part II

Alright, here are more pictures of the Lock-In! At the top right, you can see Josh sporting a lovely Tennessee Titans scarf while pushing Greg to the Hickman/Rockbridge "Providence Bowl." And that was about the best thing that happened the whole night for us HHS fans... they lost 48 to 0, and I'm impressed it was only 48! It was not pretty! So that was definitely not the best part of the Lock-In...

The Little Debbie Snack Relay, however, was flippin' sweet, as my husband is fond of saying lately. Basically, they had to race down the aisle at the church, grab a Little Debbie snack out of a bag, eat it, and run back. The first team to get through all of their snacks won. The picture is of Brandon (aka Paul Bunyan) going head to head with Kelly... Kelly, as you can probably guess, did not stand a chance! But it was a lot of fun, and I think we got most of the ground up LD snack pieces out of the carpet! Good thing the janitor came after we left on Sunday!

Another major highlight during the lock-in was the Grand Leg Shaving! The youth chose, as part of the Fish Fry, their prize for selling raffle tickets would be to shave the boys' legs. They had to raise $500 for Josh's, and $200 each for Charlie and James... they raised over $1000, so all the boys had to do it! It was pretty entertaining... My favorite is the contrast between Josh's legs when he was done shaving just one... he had some pretty bad wookie hair. It was also pretty hilarious watching the boys... James and Josh kind of hammed it up, while Charlie pulled his chair behind them and was heard to be mumbling "I hate you guys..." under his breath.. don't know who he could have been talking about... hmmm, something to ponder. Needless to say it is quite humorous to listen to them talk about how funny their pant legs feel now... and it hasn't even started to grow out yet! Ahhh, what they sacrifice in the name of youth ministry!

Lock-In Again

Ok, so I'm doing this in reverse order so you can see the story first! :) These are more pictures from the Lock-In. Here you see 2 of the major events: the Pew Crawl (not to be confused with a Pub Crawl) and the Grand Shaving. The Pew Crawl was awesome! The way it worked was the "caller" for a team stood at the front and opened a hymnal and read the last digit of the last number on that page. Then the rest of the team had to crawl under that many pews. When the whole team was standing up again, the caller yelled out a new number and they went again. The first team (two raced at a time) to make it to the front and have their whole team stand up won. It was HILARIOUS! Some team members had the "army crawl" form down perfectly (see James in the above right picture) while others struggled a bit more!

The Egg Game was also very popular... this was Josh's idea, and involved cracking an egg into about 8 or 9 feet of plastic tubing. Then you put one person on either side and they both blow into the tube as hard as they can. The loser gets a face (or mouth) full of egg while the winner, well, doesn't! See Josh on the left getting ready to play against Nate... see Josh on the right trying to clean egg out of his mouth while Jason is laughing so hard behind him that he can't even stand up. The big winner was definitely Nate, who took down Josh and "Paul Bunyan" (Brandon) without much trouble. Darn it all, since I was the photographer I never got a chance to play... shucks...

Sheer Determination

I've always been a sucker for a man who knows what he wants and goes after it...

Springfield Weekend

Josh and I headed to Springfield to visit his family this weekend. We headed down Friday night and had MadeRight burgers. I'd never had them before, and I don't really know how to describe them... they were mostly loose-meat sandwiches. But they were awesome! :) Saturday morning we headed to the city and ended up getting there around noon. Silver Dollar City is having the craft festival, which is one of my favorite times to be there (most of the time it is my favorite time to be there... but Christmas really wins, everything else is a tie). Everything is all fall and pretty colors, the trees are changing, and there's tons of fun stuff to look at (paintings, quilts, belts, any kind of craft you can imagine). Everyone was a little cranky and tired by the time we got there, but once we all ate lunch, and the Lootens took a nap before the Riders In The Sky concert (see picture), everyone was much more chipper! As usual, we ate way too much and it was all good! We ate lumberjack chips with cheese, fried fish, hot dogs, kettle corn, a bloomin' onion, and I'm sure there was more but I can't remember! After we left the city, we were going to take Mom Looten to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack on the new Landing in Branson, but we got there around 7:00 and the wait was at least 3 hours. Soooo we decided no way! We explored some shops in the landing, including one very lovely hat shop (see Josh above), and decided that the Landing is a really neat place. It is very similar to The Landing in Jacksonville, too. It has restaraunts, shops, kiosks, and tons of fun stuff. There were even two cowboys there doing tricks with lassos and whips (sorry, Ruth, I tried to give them your number but I couldn't get close enough). It had a very neat atmosphere, and I'm excited to go back next time we get the chance!

Instead of Joe's, we took Mom to a place called The Texas Roadhouse. It was amazing! They are known for their ribs, but they also have great rolls with cinnamon butter (I was definitely vibing on those) and the greatest mashed potatoes I've ever eaten! So we really enjoyed it, just sitting around and talking and laughing and having a good time. All in all it was a great visit! And we're excited to be headed back in a couple of weeks to celebrate Tim's birthday! :) 

Happy Birthday!

Just had to say it, Happy Birthday, Ruth! (Yesterday). It's hard to believe the youngest of us all is 18 already... more on this weekend tomorrow, I'm not feeling very well tonight. But I couldn't neglect my little sister, who was such a good sport when Heather and I wrote on her car! :) Love you!