Warning - Photo Laden Post Ahead

Gosh... where to begin. Oh yes... Halloween. So our Halloween party was a smashing success! I think we had about 22 people attend. We had a fabulous time, and our guests loved everything from the food (I made spiderwebbed deviled eggs, cadaver finger cookies, mummy toe sausage bites, worm food cupcakes, etc.), to the games (guess the candy corns, best costume, Halloween adult candy hunt with hidden lottery tickets, and hunt for prizes in cold oatmeal for kids), to the decorations (our giant lawn spider!!). It was a lot of work, but we're SO doing this again next year. It was awesome!! I'm just sad we didn't take photos of too much, and of course photos never really show the fun very well. For the record, Rafi and I were scarecrows and previously had straw coming out of our necks and sleeves, but at the end of the night we pulled it out. Oh, and we had 90 trick-or-treaters!! Everyone (trick-or-treaters included) loved the fanged lip whistles we handed out in addition to candy, too!! Anyhow, thanks to all of our friends who came. It wouldn't have been the same without you. And thanks to my husband for building that awesomely huge lawn spider! (It even had black light eyes and smoke coming from beneath it. It's too bad that the pictures don't do it justice.) Oh! And Mateo made the Cranial Technologies Website with his costume!! Check it out!

On November 10th Mom came for a short visit, which is always fun (there's no sarcasm in that, people.) She and Tina and I went downtown to the Paramount Theater and saw Tuna Does Vegas. It was pretty good, though I think the other Tuna productions are better. Still it was nice to get away from home.

Hmm... what else, what else... oh yes, I chopped off my hair... again! I've never had hair this short (and Rafi fears someone will slap me on the back and call me "buddy" or "dude"), but I'm sure enjoying it! (Just ignore my silly puckered lips.) It has also revived my drive to dress well as a stay-at-home-mom. I'm refusing to fall into the yoga pants uniform, so I've been going through my closet and simplifying my style. I want to look good, but it needs to be easy, too! Plus you never know when you might have to run an errand. As it is I'm out of the house almost every day between grocery shopping, the gym, Mat's head checks at Cranial Technologies, and my mentor volunteering twice a week.

And now we're on to Thanksgiving. We celebrated at my parents' house along with Rafi's parents who flew in from Panama. I have two exciting things to report about this. First off, Stephenville finally got a really nice hotel!! If you are ever up that way, check out the Hampton Inn & Suites Hotel. Secondly, it snowed! This was very exciting for Rafi's parents, as they hadn't seen snow in 20 years. Mom, of course, prepared a great meal, and we celebrated the grandfather's birthdays with a cheesecake and a lemon cake. Can't beat that. The next day we shopped (obviously) and also visited the oldest Dr. Pepper bottling plant in Dublin, Texas. We all did the tour - which was neat - and enjoyed REAL Dr. Pepper and beef jerky. (I'll mention in a whisper that all that sugar made me a little shaky.) We and Rafi's parents drove back home to Austin that Saturday afternoon.

And that brings us to today - Tuesday - which is also our niece Maria Sofia's birthday. Feliz cumpleaños!! Today we drove to San Antonio to visit with Rafi's Tia Stella and Uncle Frank. Although they love to see Mat when we visit, I think their dog Glory took some time to warm up to him. Rafi bought a new digital camera (Nikon D40x), so we played around with that and got some neat photos in their back yard. Frank has quite the green thumb... my black thumb could learn a lot from him. Thanks to them both for treating us to pizza and pecan pie. We pray that Frank's back condition gets better.

So for the rest of the week we will go about business as usual. Rafi's parents will be in town until this Friday, and later on that same day my mom will pay a brief visit. (This means Nordstrom will be on the agenda!) Mateo has his 9 month checkup on Thursday, so I'll try to post again then.

And that's about it. Frankly, I'm surprised you are still reading. I apologize to my audience (all four of you) for not being a more witty or eloquent author, but I tend to write as I think. Until later...