Secret Boo...Who Wore it Best?

Our neighborhood really gets into Halloween and with only a week to go, the whole hood is teeming with scary yard art and all things pumpkin and spice.

One of the not so scary but super fun neighborhood traditions is that of the secret Boo. 

To "Boo" a neighbor is to very sneakily leave a treat with a Boo note at their door and then skiddadle before being caught...my crew loves this tradition and morph into a type of bank robber ninja on their night of booing. Their incognito style must work because they have never ever, been caught... also, the Booing ninja who got us is equally as sneaky, as they ran away undetected too. And while our Booer remains a mystery to us, they must know us very well because for the first year ever, even the weird dogs in our family were Booed. 

Within our awesome treats meant for humans was a an adorable purple dog monster costume... a perfect fit for both Penny and Turkey who happen to wear the same size.

   

 But really...we need help in deciding who gets the costume on Halloween night.

So please, you decide...who wore it best? 

 

Penny the slightly uptight Schnoodle?

Or Turkey the blind, deaf, addled but adored Boston terrier?

For the record, while both hounds, made adorable purple monsters, neither one absolutely embraced  and enjoyed dressing up.

If your neighborhood is not yet in the booing spirit, check out this site... for sneaky good fun!
http://www.beenbooed.com

Grown Up Moms on the Loose!

Some lovely and very fun women in my world got together for a ladies only weekend in Michigan and it was quite awesome. Since Rosie considers herself a lady and was just fine with the no boys allowed rule that we made up, she was not thrilled when she realized that this was a Grown up Ladies only trip, and asked what in the world a bunch of Grown Up Moms could do without kids. We weren't exactly sure either but were excited to be together and figured we would make it up as we went along. 

Turns out, this bunch of moms was able to come up with a lot of fun stuff to keep us busy.

The first thing we did was toast our getaway with a bottle of red...and yes we were just as happy as we looked.

And admired the sunset and took big deep breaths as we ate our lasagna. 

Giggled hysterically while we tromped about in the woods like the mature grown up moms that we are. 

And then did a little meadow path choreography because... well, why not?  

When we needed a break from hiking around the woods we shopped.... and posed for cousin pictures at the super famous Cherry Republic. 

 The brilliant motto of the Cherry Republic is Life, Liberty, Beaches, Pie which I totally agree with and have folded into my own personal belief system. 

So yeah...we were able to find all sorts of stuff to do...

We hiked about in woods and meadows, laughed a lot, lounged a bit, and enjoyed each other immensely...it was a perfect weekend. And we all learned that the north woods is a perfect recharging station for this group of grown up moms.  

Our 7 Minute Story.

Every other year the Ohio State Marching Band comes south to Cincinnati to play during the halftime  of a Bengal game.
This is very cool and exciting for any and all Buckeyes in Cincinnati, but our families especially adore the amazing band and throw a breakfast party for the band, Buckeye alumni and their guests. It's always big fun to see the marching band up close and share in our joint Buckeye spirit, our kids have grown up going to the special band party and love it. But this year there was a little space in the program and for reasons still unclear, our fathers asked us to speak... not for long of course, but just to tell a cute, fun story for about 7 mins.
Here is a photo that Mary took of Katie and I as we were about to began... as you can see Jamie is captivated by the idea of listening to his mom tell a story at breakfast.

I have no recollection of clutching my pearls...

To anyone else telling a 7 min story with one of your dearest friends is not a big deal, and since we split time my part of the story was 3 and a half mins, even less of a big deal.  

But since speaking in front of a group makes me a nervous wreck... I was pretty much a mess. 

Katie insists that she was equally as nervous, but I don't believe it...since she is forever super chill and coolio.  

So in the weeks leading up to our talk, I did my best to rope everyone in my world into my little drama and to worry and stress right along with me...but no one really did. 

Instead my friends and family told me that no one was really going to listen or care and it didn't matter what I was going to say as long as we didn't take too long. 

But I couldn't hear them, and continued to fret. But I also did a couple of productive things along with my needless worrying that made me feel better about things. 

I spent hours and hours writing, rewriting, reading and speaking my part of the 7 minute story and I made Katie meet with me and do the same, which was really fun. We decided to tell a story about how our teenage devotion to the Bengals led us to make banners out of bedsheets and hang them around the stadium and eventually to the Superbowl. 

While we thought the life and times of our bedsheet banner era was charming and fun, I made a mistake of practicing it for my kids who gave me the worst review ever.  

After listening to my 3 mins of the story 

a few too many times, they begged me to "just stop talking about this... about when you were a teenager. It's weird and your voice sounds weird, like you are talking to kindergarteners or something and really I don't even get what  you are talking about, maybe it's just because your my mom or something, but can you PLEASE just stop talking about what you're talking about." 

And from my pretend kitchen podium I told them that it was my turn to talk and their job to listen and I wasn't interested their opinion anyhow.

So that was awesome...but I was pretty sure that the nice OSU alumni breakfast folk wouldn't heckle me like my very own children in my very own kitchen. 

And of course no one did... the entire room was full of kind gracious Buckeye fans who listened politely as we spoke about our teenage Bengal banner years.
And while I was indeed pushed far out of my comfort zone, I am grateful for all of the kindness and support shown to me during my 7 minute public speaking career.