Halloween Mania

NaBloPoMo Day 2!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had a great time at the Halloween party on Friday night! The weather was perfect to be outside. Uncle Eric and Aunt Judy brought up decorations for the yard, so we were decked out with hay bales, scarecrows, goards, lighted trees, ghosts, spider webs, and the list goes on and on! We also borrowed a fire pit from a neighbor, so we could all stay warm. Add to that all of the friends and family who came to play, the various costumes (on adults and kids) and all of the yummy food and we had one spookin' party...and that was all before any trick-or-treaters showed up!

Most everyone sat in chairs outside to greet the trick-or-treaters. It was pretty funny to watch because a lot of the kids looked like they did not know whether to come up or not. We had to yell out, "We have candy!" before a lot of them would venture into the yard! As usual, we took turns passing the candy out while several of the parents took the younger ones around trick-or-treating.

Because the weather was so nice, people were more spread out in coming, which made it a lot easier to handle this year. We also had a record amount of candy, so that helped. I have no idea how many kids came, but there had to be over 200.

All-in-all, I think everyone had a good time. I know we did! In addition to our family that is always there, our friends the Davis', the Hausteins, the Moores and John Mark (one of our young professionals) also came.

As far as costumes go, we had:

• a lumberjack- Andrew
• two pirates- Alisha and Uncle Eric
• a scarecrow- Aunt Judy
• a cowgirl- Nancy
• a man incognito- Bradley
• Pocahontas- Katie
• two cowboys- Jackson and Caden
• Batman- Chase
• a storm trooper- Gavin
• Humpty Dumpty- Cameron

I got a few pictures, but was too busy keeping everything moving and our candy stocked to get very many pictures. If any of you who came got pictures, I would love it if you could get me copies!

Let's Party!

I am so excited about tonight! Why am I so excited, you ask? Well, it is because of the annual Lough Halloween Party! What else?

The first year we moved in here, we figured that with Hallsville being so small and being so close to Columbia, we would not have many trick-or-treaters. I bought about 4 bags of candy and Andrew freaked out (well, he didn't exactly freak, but he was a little surprised) that I had bought so much. He kept saying that we were going to have so much left over to eat and we probably should not have spent that much money on candy we did not need after just buying a house and putting a good bit of money into fixing it up.

Boy, was he wrong! (Sorry sweetie!)

The first child showed up at 4:30 and the rest started showing up around 5. There were so many kids, you could not drive down the street. Parents were bringing them by the van-fulls...and even lawnmower-fulls! Kids were everywhere! I felt like I was at the fair, or at 6 Flags.

Well, needless to say, we ran out of candy after about an hour and a half (of really trying to conserve those four bags). We turned out the lights and sat down to watch a movie with about 10 pieces of candy left- we had to stop while there was a lull in the traffic. We had the lights out ~10 minutes when the doorbell rang! With the lights out! Seriously! They were still coming! I think we ended up with two pieces of candy left by the end of the night.

There were probably around 400 kids there that night! Every year since then (5 years)it has been rainy on Halloween, so there have not been as many kids...only a couple hundred. But, it has become our tradition to invite friends and family over to help us handle the load. Everyone brings a bag (or 2) of candy. We all sit around and eat soups and snacks while taking turns passing out candy and oohing and aaawwwwing over the costumes. It is a lot of fun!

Pictures are from past years. I will post more pictures after tonight.

...And Good Times Were Had By All

We left Friday afternoon with our friends, Monte and Kristi and their three boys (3 mo, 5 yr, 8 yr), to go to Branson for the weekend. On Saturday, we went to Silver Dollar City for their World-Fest Festival. Even though we did not ride a single "big kids'" ride, we had a great time. Andrew actually spent a lot of time holding the baby as most of the "little kids'" rides make him sick. :)

The morning started out pretty cold and windy. We kept asking ourselves, "What happened to the 63 degree weather we were supposed to have?!" I forgot my jacket at home and Andrew purposefully did not take his. (This is the man who would rather freeze than have to carry a jacket around that he did not really need.) Andrew ended up buying a jacket for $10. Kristi wanted to buy a new sweatshirt/jacket, so she let me wear the jacket she brought. The sun finally came out around noon and the rest of the day was beautiful!

I think the highlight of the day for me had to be watching the Zunyi Acrobats of China. They were amazing! Although, I do have to say, as a physical therapist, I was deeply disturbed by the things I saw! Bodies are not supposed to bend that way! Seriously! At one point, one girl was held up solely by something S-shaped between her mouth and another girl's mouth! At another point, there were two people flying over the crowd. I have never seen anything like this show! I definitely want to see another complete show again!

While we were there, Andrew also bought me a really cute ladybug doormat.
The next SDC festival is Bluegrass and BBQ Festival. We are hoping to get to all of the festivals this year.

I'm Seeing Blue

Saturday night, Andrew and I went on a date! That's right~a real date! We started out by going to Chili's for dinner. From there, we headed to Mizzou Arena to see the Blue Man Group concert?...show?...act?

Anyway, we saw the Blue Man Group live. I surprised him with the tickets in his "Easter basket"~really just a plastic basket that I through the tickets into, hid in the house and told him to find. I knew that he had wanted to see them last year when they came to town, but we ended up being in the hospital at that time. I wanted to find a way to thank him for how wonderful he has been over the past year. I mean, when I was completely falling apart, he was a rock for me. So, when I heard the Blue Man Group would be here again this year, I could not pass it up.

Andrew seemed to really enjoy it. I did, too but it was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that my stomach was upset throughout the entire show.

But, really, it was a lot of fun. The percussion was pretty amazing. At times, there were something like 6 percussionists drumming and changing tempo in perfect sinc. I was surprised at how much of a comedy routine they did! They poked fun of what it took to be a rock and roll band and to put on a rock show. They also had a lot of audience participation at times.

While I would probably not personally spend the money to go see them again, I am glad we got to go this time.

It's Cristmas Time- Part 1

Last Saturday, we went out with Don, Nancy, Brook, Geoff and Gavin to cut down our Christmas trees. It has been several years since we put up our own tree and we were pretty excited. But, because we don't have a lot of space at our house, we were determined to get a "taller/narrower" tree than we are used to.

So, Saturday morning, we got up, decided whether or not we were really going to go (it was cold and raining off and on), and headed out to Don and Nancy's house for breakfast. We ended up at a tree farm called "Star Pine Farms" where everyone else had gotten the tree last year. We loaded up on the tractor-pulled trailer and were taken out into the middle of the farm, dropped off, and told to cut from either side of the road. We all decided to head off to the left.

Andrew and I looked at several different possibilities, but finally decided on one at, you guessed it, the last row (which happened to be down a hill, probably 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile from where the tractor dropped off/picked up). So, we cut it down and started dragging. Along the way, we came across Don and Nancy cutting down their tree- the biggest yet! So, I took our tree and Andrew helped Don carry his. Brook ended up helping me drag ours the last little bit.

As the tractor came back to drop off another load of customers and pick us up, we heard someone ask where the best trees were. The driver stated, "Well, it depends on what you want. IF you want trees that are big and round, you go to the left. IF you are looking for the tall, skinny trees, those are by the old church, over here to the right." That is right! We had been so focused on finding a tall skinny tree and were on the wrong side of the road! As we looked to the right side of the road, we saw several tall, skinny trees just like we had been looking for, just 2 or 3 rows off of the road.

All in all, we had a good time. But next time, we will definitely ask where to find the best trees!

Mizzou Football

Andrew loves college football season! That really is an understatement. Once it starts, most Saturdays can be expected to be spent in front of the TV with the radio on and the computer in his lap so he can keep track of all of the games he is interested in. This past Saturday, that was not the case. While I was sitting in the Ladies Bible Study on Thursday morning, waiting for it to start, one of the elderly ladies came in, sat down, and in the conversation, announced that she had two tickets for the Mizzou game on Saturday- first come, first serve! I immediately jumped on it. Apparently, she has season tickets from when her husband worked at the University. Her kids have encouraged her to keep them so they can go when they are able. But, when they can't get into town, she gives them away.
So, Saturday, we found ourselves decked out in black and gold, walking up the hill to the stadium with our tickets and receiving our complimentary rally towels. The tigers played Iowa State. It was a fun game. The final score was 42-28, moving us into number 9 in the rankings! Unfortunately, one of the great players on our defense got hurt in the 4th quarter and was taken out of the game. He is probably out for the rest of the year- he tore his Achilles tendon. Andrew has been talking about how sad that is all weekend! I had forgotten how much fun football games can be in person. We might even have to think about getting season tickets in the next couple of years. Time will tell! GO TIGERS!

Casting Crowns Concert

Friday night, we went to the Casting Crowns Concert in St. Charles with The Ellis Clan. We had an amazing time! We were not sure how the boys would react as they had never been to a concert before. As we entered the arena, their jaws dropped and they just stood there and stared, taking everything in. When the intellabeams started flying all over the arena, Stephen looked up and said, "Wow!" It was so cool watching them get adjusted. Being a Christian concert, there were many people raising their hands. Before the end of the concert, Mason was one of them. I thought that maybe he just thought it was a concert thing, but he informed Monte that when you sing about God or Jesus, you are supposed to stand up and put your hands in the air. You never know what your kids will learn when they go with the Loughs! :)
The concert itself was amazing! They combined several of the songs in a really cool way. They also sang a lot of songs from their new CD that we do not have yet. It told us that we really need to get that CD. If you have not ever listened to one of their CDs, you should. The music is great, but what really touches me is how real their lyrics are. They don't beat around the bush at what they are trying to communicate. They just say it how it is. They are uplifting and thought-provoking. As has been happening lately, a lot of the things I have been studying came up in the concert. They sang one of the songs we really liked from the ZOE conference, The Word is Alive. I hope it is on the new CD.
We didn't get home until around midnight. By that time, I was coughing pretty bad, so I took a Benadryl and NyQuil. As you can imagine, I was knocked out! I slept until 10 the next morning! I think I am still trying to recover!