Goodbye, Old Friend

Last week the Sentra started running pretty rough -- well, rougher than normal -- so we took a deep breath and took it in to get checked out. Casey intentionally took it in on election day, knowing the news wasn't going to be good and wanting to get all the bad things in his life over with on the same day. The next morning when we all woke up in the brave new world of America's first Hawaiian president (not that I'm saying they're connected or anything) the mechanic called with The News. That's right, he told us it was time to decide whether or not to pull the plug. Take the old girl off life support. And although I didn't previously feel any emotional attachment to that car, suddenly I started feeling sad. No, "sad" is too strong a word. Nostalgic.

I mean, this car has been with me and Casey from the beginning. She's seen a lot of history. Look, there we are!



That was the day we got married. The decorations on the old girl were courtesy of Casey's siblings. They really went to town that day.




She moved across the country with us. Found our first apartment with us. See, here she was buried in the most snow we've seen since we moved here.



When we bought our first (and only) house.



When we brought Andrew home from the hospital. (And when Willa came home too, but we didn't have a picture of that day.)



She faithfully transported Casey nearly 100,000 miles to and from DC, although not always without incident. I remember one time when I hitched a ride with him when I was pregnant with Andrew, and as soon as he dropped me off I puked all over L Street. Then there was the day Casey was driving past Bolling Air Force Base during a torrential downpour. In our neck of the woods, when it rains, it POURS. Streets flood. Roads become impassible. Casey came upon a section of the road that appeared to be flooded, and there was a stalled Mercedes on the right side of the road to testify to the treacherous nature of the road. But, with great faith in his trusty partner, Casey floored it and made it through. (I'll let you decide if that's a testament to the warrior soul of the Sentra or a side to Casey you don't always see.) And on 9/11 Casey and the Sentra sat stranded together on the freeway between the Pentagon and National Airport, watching smoke pour from the Pentagon.

Of course, those hard miles of stop-and-go traffic did take their toll. She liked to throw off her hub caps every time she hit a pot hole -- and if you've ever driven in DC, you know there are one or two pot holes waiting to swallow your car whole. Casey went through 12 replacements in their years together.



Oh, the Sentra. She served us well. And look, she saved a reminder of our beginning together.



See that? On the driver's visor? Let's take a closer look.



It's confetti, from our first day together.




Hel-lo, New Friend.

Costume Day

Halloween just kicked off the fun of dressing up at our house. Andrew keeps begging for "costume play dates" with his friends.




See that orange mustache Willa has? We recently re-discovered Tang! That's right, the drink of astronauts. Apparently they still sell it. You can get it at Costco. We're all addicted now. Andrew thinks Casey is a magician for bringing the stuff home (incidentally, that's what happens when you send your husband to Costco for milk and bread -- you get Tang). But watch out, it stains your upper lip.

Trophy Day

Today was Andrew's first last soccer game of the season, or in other words, trophy day. From the moment Andrew learned he would be playing soccer this year he's been asking when he would get a trophy. (He's spent a fair amount of time admiring his dad's trophies in his bedroom at Grammie and Papa's house.)



Don't laugh at his face. The sun was really bright.



That's Coach Dan. He was great, and so patient with these spastic four-year-olds. When he gave each of the kids their trophy, he said something specific about each one of them. You know, something about how they scored goals, or improved their soccer skills, or were tough, aggressive, etc. Andrew spent most of his time at soccer running around in circles, but Coach Dan always got a hug. Just like when he got his trophy.



You can see where Andrew's real focus was at the end-of-year party. I was so afraid he was going to dive right into the cake without a fork.



That's right, Andrew. Be proud of your trophy. Your parents earned it.

Scary Story

While the kids were all getting ready to go out, and of course getting their pictures taken by the moms, Andrew spied his friend's flashlight and decided that Halloween night is the perfect time to tell a scary story. I can only guess how he knew about flashlights under your chin and scary stories. You have to listen carefully, but I promise it's worth it. And here we thought Willa was the one with the big imagination.

Happy Halloween

Andrew was Anakin Skywalker, and Willa was of course Cinderella. They have been wearing their costumes around for days, and were so excited to finally put them to good use -- to get candy, of course.



They started off well. Willa caught on fast.



And long after Willa got her candy, Andrew continued to choose. Hey, you have to make sure you're not missing anything, right? Luckily our neighbors love Andrew, and probably would have given him the whole bowl of candy if Andrew had asked for it.



Check out the intensity on this face. She wouldn't let Casey carry her candy for her, and took great pleasure in marching up to doors and getting her fair share of the loot.



Andrew's preschool has a little costume parade for Halloween every year. This is his whole class, with him at the very end of the line. Yes, he is strategically placed by the teacher because he cannot walk a straight line unless being directly guided. This way he's also separated from his best friends, with whom he can only make trouble.



He was the only kid in the entire school who had to wave to everyone, and the only one who had to leave the line to give hugs to everyone he knew.



Here's the three amigos, Carter, Andrew, and George.

Pumpkin Carving

Andrew and Willa have been obsessed with pumpkins this year. Andrew keeps asking me to get A LOT A LOT of pumpkins to make pumpkin pie (like I would ever make it with anything but the canned stuff), and Willa thinks every pumpkin has life in it.



Meet Willa's family of pumpkins. The white one is the baby one, and there's a daddy, a mommy, an Andrew, and then two giants. All of them walk, and talk, and have all kinds of adventures. Who knew pumpkins could be so personable?



Andrew was fascinated with the pumpkin guts.



Fascinated and excited. But he would not touch them. They are far too gross for touching.



Here he was singing a pumpkin song. In the end all the pumpkins got to go trick-or-treating.




I should have taken the pictures of the finished products before they'd been outside for a couple of days. The squirrels feasted on their teeth.