The older girls went as cats, Phaydra was kind of a cat in her super warm bodysuit with cat ears on it.
It was SOOOOO freaking cold we trick or treated for about 20 minutes with me, the girls and baby, my MIL and SIL and my neice and nephew Jack, 4 and Eve, 2.
The little kids were so cold we ended it early and then Jason came home and took the bigs out for a bit longer. We still yeilded a good candy haul despite the stupid weather. They really should have moved trick or treating hours to Saturday night...it was SO much nicer...still cool temps but the wind would have been non-existant.
Jason carved the gargantuan pumkins yesterday (yes 2 days after the fact) but they look awesome...pics on FB.
I'm in bed with my 18 day old baby watching the Oscars. What a difference 3 years makes when i was at a glam party winning an award for best shoes at the party. But you know what...wouldn't trade it for all the tea in China.
It's spring (almost)...we've been cooped for months....so what have we done so far....
Replaced all the $14 crappy curtains in the downstairs part of the house with lovely roman shades (pics on FB)
Replaced the crappy light fixture in the kitchen that came with the house into something I can't stop staring at (will go blind from staring at light)
We have new flooring after the unfortunate incident in September where the pipes burst and killed our old floor.
We are replacing a lighting fixture in the master bath.
I put out the porch furniture..probably prematurely but i don't care.
....So now our downstairs has all new curtainry...and we replaced all the light fixtures in the downstairs with brushed copper looking faceplates last year.
Projects to continue this spring:
Repaint the kitchen and downstairs half bath. Replace all upstairs faceplates with the same brushed copper looking ones from downstairs. REplace teh front shutters on the house
Projects down the road that we want to do: replace the counterops with granite. do something interesting with the under the stairs crawl space. replace fridge with newer one same with washer and dryer.
I really need someone with expertise to come in and assess what can be done with our kitchen and laundry room!!!
We are the proud owners of two chinchilla's again!
A black one I named Cinder. Aryana wanted to name it Fluffy, but I wanted names inspired by campfire. And I thought Cinder fit well. I was able to back it up by comparing it to Cinderella. Ahhh kids, so manipulatable. So Aryana agreed to Cinder.
And a grey one named Smokey after the Smokey Mountains where we vacationed last year and I loved...and also she's the color of campfire smoke.
So yay! Pics are on Facebook...if you aren't friends with me there and want to be just holler :)
Aryana is at her last day of kindergarten today! I'd say the year has flown by but it hasn't...it feels like she's been in school forever and I'm happy she'll get a break.
Sabriyya had her pre-k graduation today. She was adorable in her cap and gown :) (pics on FB)
Sabriyya starts her countdown to kindergarten camp on Monday....school starts at 8am! Yipes....I've been so used to the 9am school run that getting up and getting her to school at 8 is going to be rougher on me than her. She's already up usually...its me...I'm not a morning person.
But I'll champion through it. She's excited and I'm glad she's excited...and its FREE! Even better.
I think this will be a good experience for her...only 3 kids per school in the district get picked. And while I know its because they thought she needed some extra practice...I'm actually ok with that....I'm glad they are recognizing that early and getting her the attention she needs.
So weird that I have friends that I went to high school with that have kids graduating from middle school and high school!!!
I know we are all biologically old enough for this to occur....as we are all between 33-35 years old this year, but it just is weird all the same.
At my 15 year reunion...i was commenting to my lovely friend S, who is mundungus42 cousin, about how young and attractive we all still were...lol. Which then lead to a conversation on how well we really all had aged considering we're all in our mid 30s now and so few of us look much worse for wear.
Operation Tariq (my brother) had moved back to Indiana had thrown my household into a tizzy. Not in a bad way....what it did was sent us into a large amount of disrepair in our house in order to get it into better working order.
We got rid of the sectional couch and replaced it with his sofa in the play room. We got rid of our mismatched table and chairs and have replaced it with his table which has matching chairs and takes up a little less space.
We had our garage sale and made about $300 some of which was Tariqs stuff and so he got a portion of that but we still made out like bandits and got rid of TONS of large items that were taking up space in the attic crawlspace, the garage and the house.
So while my house is a bit of a holy mess right now...there is light at the end of the tunnel because its' going to look SO nice and organized when its all done. I even got the kids to sort their toy box and pick out old toys to donate to Goodwill.
I also organized my closet, which typically happens a few times a year. I typically keep my closet semi decent. It's my dresser that I'm crap at...so I'm trying to hang more clothes so that all my dresser drawers don't fall into hell.
We also got out under the stairs crawl space emptied so that we can shove appliances in there and its no longer a pit of despair of just shit piled up like a hoarders room.
And my front coat closet too! I can see the floor in there! Glory be!
I went on Pinterest just now...and a college friend of mine, who happens to be black, had posted a bunch of pics of strong and influential black women of history on her Pinterest feed. It was really inspiring. It was great to see pics of these strong, talented and famous black women who beat the odds in times where they were more than likely to be oppressed than championed for their beauty, brains and influence.
I thought....i want to post some influential Pakistani women from history. I googled "pakistani women" and then did a Google Image search. Of course, as i suspected, Benazir Bhutto came up immediately. But as I scrolled through the pics an alarming "picture" occurred..
Benazir Bhutto pictured.....former female president of Pakistan....assassinated.
Beautiful Pakistani women, actresses, athletes or models with articles attached to the pics stating that they are sluts of some form because they displayed their bodies whether it was modestly or immodestly.
Pakistani women in burkha's or otherwise with their faces obscured.
And the majority....Acid burn victims, their faces melted off of their faces because some asshole man came up with a stupid reason to deem these women 'worthy' of punishment.
Really makes you want to say Pakistan Zindabad (long live Pakistan).
