Infected!

Back to the land of the living! Or the land of the blogging, as it were.

It's been a crrrrrazy two weeks with a may-jer cold (me), the flu (The Boy), an unwelcome - or, perhaps, welcome given that all that was waiting for him at home was sickness - extension to a business trip (The Husband), and a virus (our computer). Suffice it to say, it was a week and a half of solo parenting, working from home while tending the ill, and cursing stupid spyware.

(Cue "I told you so's!" from all the people who get after me for not keeping my virus software up to date [Hi Dad!])

Ugh. But we're all back under the same roof now, and we're all healthy (with the exception of the computer, which is in the process of having its hard drive blown away prior to us renewing its technological virginity and starting from scratch).

And none too soon, since yesterday was the oh-so fabulous Hallowe'en.

The Girl is quite unimpressed that we don't partake in the annual decoration fest that marks a Minnesota Hallowe'en. Everyone else gets to decorate, she complains. So, this year we said she could decorate if she pleased, so she scotch-taped her best seasonal drawings on the front porch and hung kleenex ghosts from the trees.
Trick or treating was the usual good times. One of our church members says she considers Hallowe'en to be the most Christian of holidays that the US celebrates, because it's the one night of the year when people get out of the house, meet their neighbours, and answer the door to strangers and connect with them. I'm quite tempted to agree with her.

The kids had awesome costumes this year. A hundred billion thanks to The Husband's mother, who lovingly crafted the best Laura Ingalls Wilder costume (complete with pinafore and bonnet!) I've ever seen.

My contribution to costume-creation was a little bit less skillful. The Boy's teacher said he had to dress up as a book character. Fortuitously, we are reading The Wizard of Oz right now and he chose the scarecrow. Some pants borrowed from a sister, a shirt borrowed from a father and then turned inside out, a Hawaiian skirt dismantled and tied to elastic to make straw anklets and bracelets, and a hat from Value Village combined to make the best scarecrow since Ray Bolger lamented his missing grey matter.

Add a time change (Daylight Saving Time falling back is the Best. Day. of. the. Year!!), and it's been a fab weekend. I kinda don't want it to end.