Photography by Cheryl

You’ll never guess who I saw walking around my neighborhood today? Actually, I saw many cute things, scary things, silly things and everything in between…. but the cutest of all had to be this little bear, asking for honey (and of course candy!)….

For some strange reason, this area celebrates Halloween the Sunday before the actual day. Weird I know, but hey, I didn’t make the rule…not only do they change the day, but they have set trick or treat times…do any of your towns do that? This is all new to us and we aren’t quite sure how we feel about it, but it is what it is! Anyway, we had a blast… we trick or treated for a couple of hours with a group of friends…lots of kids and then we all went out to dinner… yup… 31 kids at the dinner table…can you imagine!!!!! (here are some of the 31 kids… some of these went home, some are behind others and others didn’t make it into the frame). As you see, the 7th grade crew was walking one way and the younger crowd another…but we all caught up at the end!

I will try to share some more pics tomorrow as I am tired now. Tomorrow is another busy day for me…I have an appt. in the morning, the wrap assembly in the afternoon from TEAM week and tomorrow night Matthew is in a school play…so bear with me if I am mia from your blogs…I will catch up soon…I promise!

I am not sure how it happened, but it seems as if overnight my baby grew up. Seems like just yesterday he was 6 months old and crawling, then in a blink of an eye he was starting “big kid” school, aka kindergarten… and now I’ve turned around and I see a young man before my eyes, already almost half way done with middle school.

Saturday, Andrew attended his first Bar Mitzvah of many this year. The service was nice and the party was way more practical than what kids do on the east coast…that was nice to see.

Here’s my boy all ready for Temple on Saturday morning…

and here he is, all set to go the evening party (see how casual!)

(Warning… this post is strictly my opinion… you may agree or disagree… that is fine…we are all entitled to our opinions…I am just sharing mine)

Racism in our country… I read these words today.. and I thought I would share…

What if Michelle Obama walked 5 kids including a pregnant 17 year old on
stage? Would racism change the perception?
What if a video surfaced of Michelle Obama being cleansed of witch craft by
a black preacher?
What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said ‘I do’ to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his first wife at the age of 42
(for a 22 year old heiress) after she no longer measured up to his
standards?
What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain
killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama were a member of the ‘Keating 5′?
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election
numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive
qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when
there is a color difference.

Personally, I feel that our choices are less than ideal and I am voting for who I believe is the less of 2 evils..I am voting for who I think, I hope will do a better job for our county…. I am not voting based on the crazy reasons I’ve heard (and I’ve heard a few)…like, well don’t you want a woman in the white house (have heard this several times)… well, yeah..that would be great but not an unqualified one. Sorry, but Palin does not belong in Washington…just because McCain chose her to help him win votes of woman, and right wing religious groups…doesn’t mean she is qualified… but that is just my opinion. Anyway, the fact that people can base their votes on things like that really makes me wonder… it really does.