Addie’s Cat-O-Lantern

Today was what I thought was Addie’s last football game but Nicole told me there’s a Jamboree in Joplin so I’m sure we’ll be going to that. It was 92 at the game today – HOT!

This is probably TMI but I always used the Hlavin deodorant that you only have to use once a week. The last time I ordered it, it was $19 for a small container but I ordered two of them in March, 2019. I’m sure I had one that wasn’t empty so say I’ve used three in the past 2-1/2 years. I was getting close to being out and I had looked at it on Amazon and it was now almot $27 for the same size container. I wasn’t going to pay that! I got two other kinds of deodorant to try. Neither were the least expensive but they were way less than $27. The first one felt sticky all day and didn’t work that great. Today was not the day to try a new deodorant . . but I did. We sat in the blazing hot sun for two hours. I was hoping no one wanted a hug because . . well, the deodorant didn’t work so well. I came home and ordered the Lavilin, which was way less and probably close to the same thing. I got a 6 pack for a bit less than $75. It’s been about 12 years ago that I started using Lavilin but once Amazon was out and I ordered the Hlavin and kept using it. I’ll be fine with the Lavilin . . I’m glad I didn’t wait til my Hlavin was completely gone. I have enough to last til the new order of Lavilin gets here.

OK . . back to our trip to Nevada.

I was trying to stage it and get a good picture for Instagram but I’m so not into “staging”. What you see is what you get around here.

The other day I ordered two small dough bowls. I figured they’d have room for three small pillows like this or one small pillow and other “stuff”. I was so happy they arrived today before we left for Nevada. I took one of the bowls, put the pillow in it, put the two felted pumpkins, put one felted ghost, wrapped it in plastic wrap so it would be pretty when Addie saw it. After the game, we went by their house and I gave it to her. She was so happy with it. I also gave her the window decorations, the Trick or Treat wall plaque, the Halloween socks and a handful of strawberry edible straws. She’s so sweet (especially when she’s getting stuff!). It makes me happy to see her so excited.

Nicole is a good mom .. much better than I was in some ways. Addie had some kind of stick on spiders all over her bedroom walls, fake spider webs, etc. She even had some of the stick on spiders on the ceiling. I said “How did you do that?” Oh . . she showed me. Got on the bed, put the spider in her hand, sticky side up and jumped . . stuck it to the ceiling. I said . . how are you going to get it down? She was able to jump up, grab it and pull it down. Chad might not be around today if he had stuck things on our ceilings! 🙂

I told Addie I’d have a Thanksgiving pillow for her after Halloween so the pressure is on!

It’s funny/weird watching your own kids grow up. Chad was really a sweet child but when he turned 13, he was . . different . . difficult, very difficult. Some of you remember his high school days. Everyone said once he turned 18 or 20 (I can’t remember), it would start getting better. It did, somewhat and he’s a good guy now. But, today at the game, talking to him, he seemed mature and easy to talk with. He seemed different. On the way home, Vince said “Chad seems more sentimental or something.” I told Vince . . I was just thinking that he’s finally seeming to be at the maturity level I would expect from a 34 year old married guy with a child.

He has 5 or 6 really good friends. It seems like the wives all get along for the most part. Any time there’s something to be done, those guys are there for each other even before being asked. One of the guys built a house recently and I think most of the other guys and their wives have been over there sanding, painting, staining, laying floor. Several of the guys are excellent mechanics. When Chad went to Louisiana to get my grandpa’s old truck, one of the guys insisted Chad use his bigger trailer since it was meant for hauling vehicles. When Chad bought his Jeep Grand Cherokee, he got the one that he could pull an RV with and he checked and was confident he could pull that pickup with the Jeep but one of the guys insisted Chad use his 3/4 ton diesel king cab pickup . . to Louisiana and back!

Just as we were leaving, one of his friends dropped by. I knew him but Vince had never met him. Vince liked him (and that says a lot). After we left, Chad called and said “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Seth was coming by!” I told him . . It didn’t bother us. I’m glad you have Seth for a friend.

I told Vince today . . Chad has good friends but, to me, that means that Chad is also a good friend to them.

My life isn’t perfect. My family isn’t perfect but it’s close enough to perfect that I’m happy!