Halloween and (short!) update on Scamp

Halloween went off as it usually does. My husband always plays a spooky sounds CD or record, but this year, he ran the audio to the movie The Mummy in honor of his friend Neil who passed away too early and too suddenly from colon cancer. Puh-leeze get a colonoscopy if you're recommended to.

This year we decided to keep a tally of our trick-or-treaters. Congrats to my daughter who predicted 50. She was the closest to the actual number of kids who came to our door, which was 122! She has won her place at the front of the line at Thanksgiving dinner. I have good news to report: Scamp (who ruptured a disk and became paralyzed 4 days after we adopted him) has been trying to walk. We're close to 2 weeks post-surgery and he's doing a little step step step, cross-legged, fall over, step step, stand for a second, step, fall, kind of walk. Here's a benefit to shelling out $8,000 for his surgery (well, through a loan, that is): we've got this lovely go-for-broke attitude now. On a day that I'm dog-tired (no pun intended) and don't want to cook, "Let's go out to eat, we're broke anyway". When my 6 year old wants a vampire costume instead of using a hand-me-down, it's, "Who cares, we're $8,000 in the hole anyhow". And when I'm standing in front of a row of candy I need to buy for my 122 trick-or-treaters, I skip the crappy Tootsie Roll party mix and buy the "good" candy, because well...buying cheap candy isn't going to make the $8,000 in debt from dog back surgery go away.

When my 13 year old saw this candy bowl, she said, "Mom, we're THAT house!" (the house that gives good candy). Of the 122 kids, I swear about 100 delighted kids walked away saying, "Crabby Patties!". And you KNOW I let them see what I was putting in their little pillow cases. Anyway, you've got to take the pride and joys wherever you can get them! Hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!