Running around

The local Boy Scout troop hosted a haunted house for the Cub Scouts and families at their sponsor church, where the pack meetings are held. We went. Mr. K had planned to take N and J. I asked what about K. She likes to do things, too. In the end, we all crammed in to my Taurus and went. N and J found the haunted house very scary. J came out sobbing and cried all over my jeans. I hear she clung to N the entire time she went through (kids went through together, five at a time). She does not want to go if they do it next time.

They also had lots and lots of Halloween candy, cookies, layer cake, lemonade, and bottled water. K didn't go through the actual haunted area, but she loved the party. She ate so much sugar-laden food that I thought she'd be ill, but so far only N feels sick. J had a couple pieces of cake, so she recovered quickly. I'm hoping we won't have bad dreams tonight.

I think this might have been one of the best evenings of K's life. She likes people, and there was a small crowd. She loves sweets. We were all glad K and I came along.

Sunday we went to the park. Once again, we brought K. Mr. K took the kids' bikes so he drove separately in our truck to transport the bikes. This is the first time the kids have ridden their bikes at the park since their training wheels were removed. They did really well. I'd never guess that they'd never ridden on trails without training wheels before. K went for a stroller ride while N and J rode bikes. Later all the kids played on the playground. There were baby swings for K. Once again K was happy to have been taken out with the big kids. It's amazing how she knows she's one of us and expects to come along wherever N and J go. At least she's trained not to expect to go to school with them. I bet next fall when they get on the bus for the first day of school, she'll be devastated since she can't join them.

We are expecting our first freeze of the season tonight. I picked all of my green tomatoes of any size, and I brought my banana tree in. I'm not sure where to put it, though. Hopefully the cat won't eat it.

My mom's birthday is in a week or so, and I asked her what she wants. She wants kitchen shears that come apart for easy washing. I found a pair at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and purchased it with one of my gift cards obtained with my Discover Card cashback bonus. I used the last one on a new Crock Pot.

My old Crock Pot died due to my making a bad mistake. I needed a pan like that to pre-heat to 500 °F in my oven to try a no-knead bread recipe. I used the lid in the oven, too. The lid has a plastic handle. I think the crock pot and lid would have been fine at 350 °F or so, but the lid handle melted somewhere on the way to 500 °F. I've been looking on line for a replacement for several weeks, but it is out of stock. I got a new, larger and fancier model today. I haven't taken it out of the box yet.

Mr. K has not missed the trashed Crock Pot. He hates food that comes out of Crock Pots, but it can come in so handy that I still use it sometimes. I have a small one that I use to cook 1/2 pound of dried beans at a time.

Mr. K got the bathroom floor done all in one afternoon. What ambition he has! I still haven't caulked the other bathroom sink or tub, covered up the oopses on the ceiling, or done the sponge painting yet. I'll get to it one day. I did remove the old caulk remnants with a razor blade from around the bathroom sink recently, though.

I need to fold laundry and then clear the mess off my bed so I can go to sleep. Probably I'll try to squeeze in an episode of Rockford Files on DVD, too.