2 "All the Way" and a Coffee Milk Please...

I flew into Rhode Island early this morning after a wonderful two weeks with Jared and the girls.  It was wonderful to just be able to be completely present in my children's lives.  I was so stressed out at my old job that I couldn't breathe and my children never had my full attention.  It's been a long time since I've been able to just enjoy everything about each of them and it was heavenly.  What did I do?  Well, for starters, I went trick or treating:

I love the tradition of the picture out in front of my folks house.  Whether our numbers be large or small, it's still fun to watch as everyone grows.  I also got to watch this lunatic hand out candy:

He was a little disappointed this year because he wasn't as busy as in years past.  My mom didn't manage to buy cheap, crappy candy this year, so it was only a two tiered system:  Regular candy bars for kids dad likes and mini candy bars for everyone else.  However, since it was slower this year, plenty of strangers got a regular sized candy bar when they probably didn't deserve them - lucky bastards. 


For a few days, I thought Halloween was going to be the highlight of my week until this happened:

That's Count Chocula on sale and since I wanted to save lots of cash, one box just wouldn't do so I purchased six.  Judge if you wish, but if you tell me that Count Chocula is disgusting, then I accept your letter of resignation because this friendship is over.

Count Chocula didn't even end up topping my vacay because I also got to soak at Lava Hot Springs which I LOVE to do in the winter.  The day we went was wonderfully warm and pleasant and I only managed to soak for about an hour instead of my three hour record.  I was really missing my brother Jameson and sister Briana, because they are champion soakers and yell at my kids more than I do when they whine to leave.  Idaho will never be the same without them unfortunately.

I did have a low spot when I got sucked into an adventure with my brother Jeff.  I have an adventure with him every time I see the moron but each one is delightfully different and memorable in its own right.  Since you never quite know what will happen when he calls, it is impossible to be adequately prepared for his lunacy.  This time he called and asked if I would help him move the chicken coop he inherited from his wife's aunt.  I had heard a rumor that the coop was large, so I offered my truck for the job and foolishly thought I would avoid a fiasco.  Wrong.  Turns out he forgot to mention that we needed to dismantle most of the gigantic chicken run which consisted of a large, traditional coop plus a converted dog run.  BTW the dog run was filled with hanging perches as if the avian residents were eagles or parrots instead of just stupid CHICKENS!  He also neglected to mention that we would need to wrangle the chickens and secure them in the coop somehow.  Thus, upon arrival I immediately realized that the flip flops I wore were going to be poorly suited for chicken chasing.  Here's my sweet hubby (also in flip flops) standing in wet chicken crap since it had also rained the day before we showed:

Jeff also neglected to adequately prepare me for just how large the main coop was.  We ended up having to hoist it up intact on the top of the truck and scraped the paint job down the length of the passenger side of the truck bed.  Thank goodness I have a POS truck or I might have murdered him.  Unfortunately, loading the main coop was only the start of my torture because we had to borrow an additional trailer from Jeff's father in law in order to finish loading the rest of the dog run part of the coop.  This was AFTER I had to stand on the bed of the truck and load the 10 stupid chickens in the main coop as Jared and Jeff caught each one and handed them on up:

And here are a few of the starring idiots that I wanted to choke to death by the end of the day:

By the end of the adventure, I had a large amount of chicken crap between my toes and my whole truck smelled like chicken poop for several days.  However, the upside was that Jeff got poop in his eyes and on his face when the little chicken jerks tried to flap away from him, squawking their fool heads off the whole time.  It was a Karma miracle.  Just how ridiculous did we look as we drove around?  Judge for yourself:

My wonderful two weeks ended with my dad showing off his guns to my friend Alyssa and her hubby Chris.  Here are just a few of his handguns (yes my mom is posing with one) but I didn't get a pic of the rifles and shotguns...

Why does he have so many guns when he rarely shoots them either for hunting or for target practice?  Everyone in the family has a theory, but I like to believe it's just because he's an eccentric weirdo.  I love him no less for it in case you were wondering and nothing about the guy ever surprises me.  That's the beauty of eccentric weirdos - they always keep you guessing.

What was the most surprising thing about my trip?  Turns out that when I left Idaho I realized that it was the first time that I didn't cry in the airport when Jared dropped me off.  Also the first time I had no anxiety about landing back in the Ocean State alone.  Come to think of it, it was also the first time that I felt glad to arrive back "home."  Something has happened to me and I feel peaceful for the first time since my April exodus to the East.  My house still hasn't sold, but I like the beauty over here, I've enjoyed all the people I've met, and feel like I belong in New England.  I'm not saying it wouldn't be wonderful to have my house sell, but I'm finally letting go of the West and embracing my future in the East.  Yep.  Pass the coffee milk people.  I'm here to stay.