All sorts of Halloween fun

Halloween is our family's second-favorite holiday (you really can't beat Christmas). But Halloween is celebrated all month long in the Droegemueller household. The father in our home happens to be a HUGE classic horror movie fan, and has quite the collection on DVD. So many, in fact, that we can watch two horror movies each night in the month of October and still have some movies left over for November (and yes, that is what we did last month). We do have some family-favorites that aren't quite horror but have tie-ins to horror themes, like the Munsters TV show, the Three Stooges, and Abbott and Costello. Usually the children preferred staying upstairs and watching a cartoon, but at other times they joined us. That led to some interesting evenings where, after a zombie or or vampire movie, Abby or Augie were scared or had bad dreams. But on the whole, it was good family fun.

The whole dress-up-and-trick-or-treat thing started in August when the children began thinking of their costumes. Abby was the first to pick hers out. Our neighbors had a goldfish costume that was really cute, and she loved it immediately. We painted her cheeks and nose orange and she looked very goldfishy on Halloween. Augie got to choose from his older brothers' outgrown costumes, so he was the Flash. He loved demonstrating how fast he could run.

Sam had a really hard time picking his costume. Finally I had him browse the internet for costume ideas and he chose to be Indiana Jones. We bought a hat and whip, added his own pants and shirt, and the costume was done. He had a little too much fun with the whip before Halloween so it got taken away until Halloween night.

Jimmy was the last to pick a costume. He really wanted to be Iron Man, but we couldn't find a costume in his size. I tried to convince him to be Darth Vader, because we had all the pieces and parts to it, and although he agreed at first, his heart was really set on Iron Man. It was just too sad to not let him be his dream hero this year, so I gave in. I looked at five stores the Saturday before Halloween, with no luck. No one had a costume above a size 8. So we ended up getting a red sweatshirt, some red and gold fabric, and making a costume. Usually I sew them a costume anyway, but this year I was just not in the mood and very busy. But in the end we sewed gold patches on the red sweatshirt and I made the gold and red pants. We hurried and made a mask out of a paper plate 15 minutes before the Trunk or Treat Halloween night, and finally the costume was finished!

Pumpkins are always a big deal at our house, but this year was just so busy that we ended up starting to carve our Jack-o-lanterns at 9:00 the day before Halloween. It was crazy, but we got the guts scooped out and the faces cut out and the mess hauled away before 10:00. Abby and Augie had simple but fun faces on their pumpkins. Sam carved the Green Lantern symbol and Jimmy carved a cat head (Catwoman) then "vs" and a Batman symbol. Daddy's pumpkin was very cool. It showed three ghosts peeking out from behind a tombstone, a spooky tree with an owl, and other graveyard details. He cut it in layers so that with the candles behind the pumpkin shell it had depth and neat little details. He was really excited to use his Dremmel tool this year and that's why he picked a more complicated scene (and he finished much later than the rest of us, but it turned out great!)


On Halloween we actually had two trunk or treats -- one at the church, and one across the street from the church at the greenbelt put on by all the single adult branches. So needless to say our children had PLENTY of candy. Then we came home, ordered pizza, and watched (what else) monster movies.

I had two costumes. On the Tuesday before Halloween our YW group had a reverse trick or treat activity. I dressed up as the Bride of Frankenstein. However, getting my hair to stick up was very difficult and took three hours of frying and crimping and hairspraying. So on Halloween I was the bride of Fu Manchu and wore my Chinese style dress and slicked back my hair. Very simple but good enough for a trunk or treat. It was actually very nice weather, high 50's and warm enough to go without a jacket. Later that night it rained so we were glad we'd skipped the regular door-to-door trick or treating.

Myself as the Bride of Frankenstein, and the infamous Fu Manchu.

Random thoughts

I really have no big events to talk about today, so I'll just give an update on a few things.

Jimmy is doing well with his new "school" which is K-12 or Idaho Virtual Academy. Basically it's still homeschooling, but the curriculum for the day is loaded onto his online account, we print his worksheets, and he uses the books they sent him to complete his work. I like not having to stress about, "What am I going to teach today?" I have seen him improve in a lot of things, and in others he still struggles, like Math. He'll probably move from fifth to fourth grade math soon. He does get to go to a lot of social outings, like a P.E. class every other week and ice cream socials each month. His "teacher" or educational consultant with IDVA said that by the year 2020 50% of students will be educated over the internet. This type of academy is on the leading edge of an educational movement and it has grown by 30% over the last year.

Sammy is at Taylor's Crossing again, and he thrives there. I am a volunteer for his class and I go once a month to help them do Stations on Mondays. He learns so much there, and learns at a fast pace. My only complaint is they don't teach history or art. :( He likes to have more social interaction so the school is good for him, even though I dislike driving him to the bus stop and picking him up again each day. It's also good that Sam and Jim don't compete as much because they are not doing school in the same room each day anymore. Sammy is also having fun in scouts and they will have a bike rodeo later this week.

Abby is starting Kindergarten with "true" homeschool (no online stuff, just what Mom teaches her). She reads pretty good and has most of her phonics down. She can read, "The old man had a coat. The old goat was cold. The fan ran in the sand," etc. She is a great absorber of information. She is also learning about counting and we did a unit on butterflies and insects this month.

Augie is taking some speech therapy and is working on speaking more clearly. He is showing just how smart he is by now being able to express what he is thinking. He is a typical two year old with his tantrums, etc. but he's getting a lot more fun, too. He loves to play with Abby and ride his big wheel. Abby and Augie are ALWAYS hungry and raid the snack cupboard at least four times a day! It would help if they ate their dinner. ;)

As for James and I, we're doing good. I've been reading a lot lately. Some of my recent books:

• Austenland (loved it! What a great romance and fun for the Jane Austen fan)
• The Book Thief (read with a box of tissues nearby--Germany, holocaust, etc. Very well written!)
• Eragon and Eldest (not so well written but interesting... very long!)
• Journey of the Heart (modern boy goes back to Martin handcart company and crosses the plains... not prize-winning literature, and needed a better proofreader, but interesting story for the LDS market.)
• All-Star Superman (yes, it's a graphic novel, but that counts as reading, too! great take off of the classic Superman story. My husband is so good to supply me with interesting reading from his shop.)
• The Princess and the Hound (great twist on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, by a charming writer, Mette Ivie Harrison. I visited her web site and she has great writing tips and I am inspired to write my own novel.)
• I also read the Twilight series, all 4 books this summer, and enjoyed them. Twilight's my favorite. I thought Breaking Dawn was predictable and had a lame ending. But I know most fans will disagree! I am excited to see the movie this December.

Now I'm on to a book Mom sent me called Gilead. If anyone has some recommended reads, send them along. I think I'll read Pride and Prejudice again, first time since 12th grade. I don't even own it, I'm ashamed to admit, so I'll have to go buy me a copy.

Bragging about our children

I mean, really, what else is a family blog for? We want all the world to see how cute and smart and adorable our kids are.

Now after that most un-humble introduction I hope you will forgive my bragging and still read my post. I wanted to put a couple of videos that I took recently. The first one is of Jimmy bowling. We took advantage of half-price bowling one afternoon and had a great time at Bowlero lanes. I even let Augie roll a few times for me (which is, of course, why I never got a strike--never mind the fact that I needed the gutter bumpers just as much as the kids). We all enjoyed it. Jimmy got a spare and I caught it on camera. In the end I beat Jimmy by 3 points.

The other video is of Abigail and her awesome Hawaiian concert. She found a lei, some maracas, and used my music stand to hold her "music" then asked us to come see her concert. The song is completely impromptu! It's so cute. Note how she sings, "I love my parents," of course my favorite part! The sound is a little off but you can get the gist of it.

Enjoy the videos. (By the way, the music stand was out because I have recently started playing violin again. After sixteen years of never playing, I am suddenly supposed to play as part of a quintet in Sacrament meeting. Yikes! So I have been practicing-- a lot.)

Comic-Con 2008

Popular culture, movies, wierdos, and comics galore!

Comic-con was the reason we picked San Diego for vacation, but in actuality it wasn't the highlight of the trip. We did spend a lot of time there... a LOT of time in lines, waiting to purchase something, waiting to get into a program or preview or panel, waiting to buy food... lines, lines, everywhere!

Aside from the ache our feet felt after so many lines and so much waiting, we did see some cool stuff. The exhibit hall was the happenin' place to be: movie star (or their look-alike) appearances, author and artist signings, exclusive toy sales, games to try and movies to preview. So much to do, so little time. The first night James and I split up and saw some different things. There are freebies at every booth, so we got pins, posters, magnets, pencils, stickers, etc. all shoved into huge free tote bags. The Warner Bros. booth had bags that went from your shoulder to the floor, with their upcoming movie releases printed on them. With one of the bags on your shoulder you were a literal walking billboard. We got some exclusive toys through Diamond Direct, James' shops' distributor service. The next morning we went into the exhibit hall as soon as it opened. James bought an exclusive HeroClix figure, the Anti-Monitor. I stood in line for a raffle to win the opportunity to BUY an lego set.. and after going through the line twice, I won! What did I get for my hour in line and $50? An Indiana Jones lego set (200 pieces), so it's not so huge or spectacular, but it's #71 out of 500. I hope to sell it on eBay and get much more back than I paid for it.

Later that day I got to meet Andy Runton, the author/artist of "Owly" comics. I bought a t-shirt and he signed it, adding a custom sketch to the back of the shirt! I think it's my favorite souvenir from the Con. James met a comic book artist on the floor and now loves his title, "Supernatural law," which shares the challenges lawyers face when they defend the likes of Frankenstein, etc. We saw Lou Ferrigno and Johnathan Frakes (from star trek) and James saw Willliam Katt, the guy who plays "Greatest American hero." We saw an NBA star but I don't know who he was... you could just tell he was a star because of the cameras following him and his 7-feet-plus height.

The costumes were a riot. Standing in line for my Legos I saw the "Elvis stormtrooper," complete with rhinestones on his stormtrooper belt, gold chains and gelled-back sideburns. (The picture of him here is not mine because James had the camera, but is from his web site, elvistrooper.com.) On Star Wars day, Friday, I saw a ton of ladies in skimpy Princess Leia slave-to-Jabba-the-Hutt outfits. And many other ladies showed how little material they could afford to put into their costumes...and how much skin they were willing to reveal. Even some men wore just loin cloths! Yikes! The oddest costumes I saw were a whole family, mother, father, girls and boys, wearing London Police officer uniforms, complete with black mustaches on everyone! There is a "nerd prom" or costume masquerade on Saturday night and these creative folks compete to win prizes for their costumes. We didn't go but saw that the winning costumes were a flock of pixies from Neverland that spelled "Peter" on their costumes when they lined up.

There were some great panels we listened to. My favorites were two panels on writing, one by J. Michael Strazcinsky who has done many comic books, screen plays, etc. The other was by Ray Bradbury. I loved hearing him talk. He is 88 or 89 and was in a wheelchair. He talked about selling his first short story for $10 and his three rules of writing: 1) write what you love and love what you write, 2) and 3) get up in the morning and write (he said "throw up") and clean it up at noon. He summed up by saying "write what you love and to heck with everything else."

Other panels we enjoyed discussed new animated movies like Batman: the brave and the bold and Wonder Woman. We heard from science fiction writers, King Kong experts, fans of Jack Kirby, and Blu-ray DVD producers, to name a few.

I went to the preview of the Twilight movie coming out, based on the Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer. I stood in line for an hour (of course, more lines) with 6000 other people. The line went from the end of the convention center to the hotel next door, across a courtyard about the size of a football field, and back... three times! When I finally got in the hall, I was shocked by all the screaming teenage girls who just swooned over the actors, similar to what you see in Beatles footage. One lady, actually a 40-year-old mother of a teen girl, went up during the Q and A time and asked the two leading men if it was "boxers or briefs." How silly and embarrassing! They never answered that question. I liked hearing from Stephenie about writing the books and she said her favorite Bella and Edward scene was in the 4th book (which at that time was a week from being released; now it's out and yes I've read it already). It looks like a good movie and it comes out the day after my birthday so I plan to go see it.

One tip for anyone who might go to comic-con: plan to spend a lot of money. James and I found really cool books, and he added to his collection of comic essentials and showcases a great deal. Just the food at the food court there costs a lot: $14 for two hot dogs, a 16 oz bottled water and small soda pop. There's a lot of cool t-shirts and toys for sale and you can find about anything related to comics or anime or movies there for sale.

There were movie screenings each night and fan club meetings, etc. but we were so beat each night (and were forced to admit, we're old people now) that we left the convention center by 7 at the latest each night. We were glad to go back to our condo via shuttle bus (a free service, and very conveniently a stop was located across the street from our condo) so that once we stumbled off the bus and into our condo we were definitely done for the day.

Vacation time

James and Sarah's vacation in San Diego

Since the birth of Jimmy (our first child) James and I have not taken a vacation without children. That's 10 years... so it was about time we did! We planned all year for our vacation to San Diego and the Comic-Con 2008. It was well worth all the saving and planning and prayers to make this vacation happen! And we definitely won't wait another 10 years until we do it again!

We stayed in Downtown San Diego in a nice condo. It was a little expensive but we found some friends of friends who were also going to the Comic-Con to split the cost with us. It saved us some money, too, because we didn't need money to park at the convention and we didn't have to eat out for every meal.

Some of the highlights of our trip were from day 2, Tuesday, July 22, when we went to Sea World. I have never been to a Sea World park and I enjoyed the Arctic exhibit and the Shamu show a lot. The dolphin and sea lion shows were great as well. We also saw manatees, sharks, penguins, and I got to touch a manta ray. This picture of the polar bear swimming under water is my favorite, but the killer whale in mid-air is a close second.

We also attended a couple of museums: the Maritime Museum with actual floating ships from around the world (the Star of India, a Russian submarine, and the HMS Surprise which is the actual ship filmed in Master and Commander). Later in the week we went to see the USS Midway, which is a huge aircraft carrier! James was once enlisted in the Navy and he had fun seeing what it would have been like had he not been given a medical discharge.

The bulk of our time was spent at the Comic-convention itself, which I will post pictures of separately. Overall it was a fantastic vacation. Coming home I had a bit of a realization (while sitting in the Salt Lake airport waiting for our shuttle). I realized I am "me," Sarah, not just Mom or wife or Sis. Droegemueller. I have a personality! Wow. I didn't realize how much I'd pushed aside to be "mom" 24 hours a day. I surely enjoyed spending the week with my sweet and patient husband, relished a "whenever we want to" time schedule, and can't wait to do it again!

Pinewood Derby & Easter

Hello!

March was eventful!

During the month we had the Pinewood Derby, Easter, Sarah was laid off, Sammy learned to ride a bike, one of Sarah's sisters (Marian) was married, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of my marriage proposal to Sarah, and Wallace Johnson (Sarah's father) celebrated his 70th birthday! Whew!

This year was Sammy's first year in the Pinewood Derby competition. With the help of his mother, he designed his car as the Batmobile complete with rear fins. Naturally, I needed to get a new tool to assist me in carving out his sleek, cool car. Jimmy chose to have his car in the style of an alligator, and he too needed fins at the rear end of his derby. With the designs in place, I proceeded to carve out the cars. It was then up to the boys to sand and paint their cars. Because they looked like they were having so much fun (and I got a new toy, er tool!) I decided to carve a car for Abby to race.

At competition time, all the cars were under weight so we had to do some last minute adjustments. The coolest, sleekest, most awesome car was the one I made for Abby. I had all the confidence that she would take the grand prize and the blue ribbon would adorn the mantle of our fireplace. I spent a great deal of time on the car refining it, sanding it, painting and resanding. So when Abby's time came to race her car, she danced up to the starting gate, placed her car and...ZOOM! The Pink Comet raced down that track like a snail asleep! Because of the way the tournament was set up, she was able to race a few more times and eventually won one race. Through it all, Abby didn't mind and it was only her father's pride that was hurt. She did win the award for the "Hottest Car."

Sammy & Jimmy both enjoyed racing their cars. In the end, Jimmy ended up winning Second Place for the second year in a row, and he also took home the award for the "Best Paint Job." Sammy's Batmobile won the award for the "Most Theatrical."

Next year the Droegemueller's will return and we will win that blue ribbon!