Destruction, Construction and Halloween

Destruction: Operation Germ Removal

Last week I found a fabulous remedy to tub nastiness! In the last two apartments we have been in, our tubs have been a nice, uniform beige, which wouldn't be a big deal if it wasn't supposed to be white. Unfortunately, in our last apartment I did permanent damage to the muscles in my right hand while trying to remove the 9 years of smoking grodies from the walls of the shower left by the man before us who used to hotbox himself in the bathroom to smoke. Wanting to avoid further tissue damage, I decided to get creative. (o: Sadly, I believe I have done further bodily damage by patting myself on the back repeatedly. I connected a scrubber pad to my sander and now my shower is white again!! I know. I am intellectually gifted, this week anyway.
Construction: The Great Pumpkin Creations:

We had a lot of fun doing pumpkins this year and I'm just kicking myself for not bringing my camera to the pumpkin patch. I told them they could only have a pumpkin if they could lift it, and my sweet boy just about herniated himself lifting his, which is the biggest of the lot. They ever picked up a pumpkin for Anakin, our cat who has been dead for a year and a half, but that they both still consider a part of our family, and one of the only reasons they look forward to the Resurrection.
It was a challenge getting candles in those little guys, and had to cut a hole out of the top of one of them so the flame could escape and not burn its hat.

Then there was Halloween. We had an appointment to look at a rental home that evening, but got stood up by the guy and ended up way behind schedule costume-wise. We were all so crabby (okay, mostly me, who rubbed off on everyone) by the time we left home and we ended up coming late to everything. We got to a Halloween party in time for the kids to watch on sadly as they deflated the bounce house, but at least they got to Trick or Treat.
Okay, this is my husband's scary face that he puts on when he feels like freaking me out. Of course, my sweet son has learned it well and loves to torment me with it.


And then, the day after we did our pumpkins, I saved a few seeds for my boy to plant in our token dirt that we keep in the kitchen. My girl had planted hers during school that day. While I was on the phone, I told him about it and he headed off in great excitement. Later, I came in the kitchen and found that he had "planted" all my roasted pumpkin seeds. This picture is from after I had already scraped off the top layer.
Here, he deodorizes in preparation for some serious exercise running laps in our hallway, much, I'm sure, to the delight of our downstairs neighbors.