Stepping back onto the merry-go-round

Ever since we came back from California, it's been nuts.

Just nuts.

Napa and Sonoma were SOOO relaxing... no kids..... nice dinners..... lots of wine.... laughing at just about everything with Sara and Braxton..... repeating all of the above.....

then WHAM.

Some things clearly more important than others, but nonetheless, nuts.

Memorials, soccer games, crazy work schedules, (workouts?) relatives climbing over each other at our house, painting, mowing, a never-ending supply of junk spread out on the floors.

And this weekend? The annual "Ann's going to be no fun to be around Spooktacular.

The one day a year I get thrown to the dogs with the girls in tow, navigating the numerous games and candy-tossing events at the YMCA with about three thousand other little munchkins and their crazy parents. 

The girls love it. Look forward to it, in fact.

I could do without it.

End result of the day is we have a Ann with her hair pulled out, and the girls come home with bags of cheap trinkets that will just end up embedded in the bottom of my foot somehow.

Or will find their way into the HVAC system. 

One plus is the annual Pumpkin Dash and Fall Classic run held earlier that day - I'm planning on running the 5k race, despite not having done much of anything since the tri in EGR in early September. And it's always a hoot to watch the girls run up and down Bayless Street with their pumpkin dash t-shirts on.

Maybe it's that I don't have my in-laws as backup on the spooktacular. Karen's usually a willing (although I bet not enthusiastically) participant. Maybe she just went for the cake walk, who knows. But having their help was always good -- not so much this time around. At least the girls are old enough now to comprehend the games they're playing and actually make a decent effort at winning that little plastic fish or plastic spider ring.

Helluva time I tell ya.