Love October, Hate October

OK, "hate" is a strong word. However, it's this precise week each year that I think I'm going to LOSE it! No matter how much planning ahead I do, October is so jam-packed full of events that there's no fun left- it's just work to trudge through it.
I LOVE the Fall... the crispness in the air, the colors changing around me (especially here), football games, the smell of the pumpkin candles I like to burn... BUT I get so darn busy that I can't enjoy any of these favorites. Now I'll proceed with listing what is going on with the Smith Family and why I haven't blogged all month. Take a deep breath with me...
After returning from our Texas trip, the weather had significantly cooled off here. I'm pulling out the winter clothes from last year that I THINK might still fit, only to find out that most of it doesn't. So it's off to shop at Target, Old Navy, Kid to Kid and any other cheap place that I can find cute stuff for school. Shopping may be fun for some, but not my kids and not in the time frame we seem to have. Because my lessons take up the afternoons and some evenings, it's hard to fit much time to take them except Saturdays, and that equals crowds. So, we're slowly getting the kids some clothes but I wish it were out of fun and not necessity.
Next, I'm totally consumed with my position as Nativity Chairman at church. The big, community event happens in 7 weeks, so it's the final countdown of all the year's preparations. Visit www.apexnativity.org to see the website of the event! I'm learning a great deal about organizing and managing a committee and working with various personalities. Interesting!
Then it's the birthday month... Uncle Daryl and Cousin Shelby on Sunday, Darrin's is Monday and Cindy Smith's & Hannah's is Thursday. She's turning 8 which means it's baptism time! Her baptism is next Saturday. So not only have I had gifts to buy, a regular birthday party to plan (gotta love the easy bowling alley package!) but also a baptism dress to find, pictures to take in it, invitations to send, songs to pick, and a celebration brunch to prepare with another "baptism mom". (more like the bakeries will prepare the food) At least it's being held at their house, so I don't have to clean! I'll report on Hannah's special day very soon.
Oh, and I haven't mentioned Halloween. Finding the desired costumes is always a huge one on this month's list. Hannah was the tough one. Being a tomboy, she refuses to dress up as anything girly, yet it can't be scary either. She wanted to be a SWAT police with a hard helmet, but that hunt was proving to be too expensive. After spending hours online trying to help Hannah find the right costume within my budget, I convinced her to wear all black and pull out her spy toys for "Secret Agent Hannah"! Luckily it worked. Preston is going to be Indiana Jones and Haylee the chef. PHEW- finally covered this one!
Weekend Activities: The first of the month was spent rehearsing and staying voice-healthy to sing in our friends' wedding. The rehearsal, dinner, wedding and another dinner took up much of the weekend, but was so wonderful to celebrate with them!! Congrats to John and Kimberly!
The next weekend was consumed with the spending time with the kids. They had a church Primary rehearsal for the annual children's program. Haylee sang and Hannah played piano prelude while Preston's speaking part consisted of two words: "the earth!" Then we took the kids to see "Beverly Hills Chihuahua". We don't do full price movies often but they'd been talking about it for two months and we made them use some of their allowance earnings to pay for it!
The third weekend was filled with attending a birthday party, an adoption party and rehearsal for our stake conference choir. I was delivering Nativity stuff all over the area, too.
This weekend will be fun as we're hosting a college football party with our good friends, the Connor's. They are Kansas fans, so we've been planning a rivalry party as they play Tech tomorrow! Go Red Raiders!! We'll celebrate Darrin's 38th birthday while they're here with some pumpkin cheesecake- his favorite!