Halloween 2016...I Survived

On Halloween night our very small town comes alive. I like it. I love the community feeling, seeing all the kids dressed up, watching the progression of Jack becoming a big boy, and people watching. We live out in the country so we don't get any trick or treaters. I do miss giving out candy but watching Jack, Bennett, and Maybree trick or treat is too cute.

Our night didn't start out too great. I surely thought we were headed for a disasterous night. My mom, my sister Samantha, my nephew Bennett, my niece Maybree, Jack, and myself decided to get some supper before we headed out to trick or treat. There was only one table of people when we got there and they were already eating. After we sat down three more tables filled up. The waitress was baaaaaaaad. I honestly felt bad for her. After 45 minutes and seeing everyone else get their food I got up and said something. I then noticed the waitress walk over to the counter and get what I am sure was our order and take it to the back. She forgot to take our order to the back! I went up there and asked her and she said no that they have had it. I know it was a lie. We didn't know if we should just wait but we really wanted to head out before it got too dark. Just as we decided to leave they brought our food out so we had to throw it in to go boxes. I wasn't happy that they didn't at least give us a discount. We then felt very rushed and aggitated.

We decided to go to a neighborhood that is in a big circle so we could just park and walk to a few different houses and call it a night. We already had way too much candy even before we left to go trick or treating. We were pretty much going just for the experience.

I'm so proud of Jack! All of our talking and practicing paid off. He walked right up to the door, knocked, said trick or treat, got his candy, and said thank you. He loved it! He would say his thank you and then was anxious to get to the next house. I even stood back and let him do it and he did perfectly. He only got scared once where a house had a person in a full monster costume. He didn't cry but ran behind my legs. All the other scary stuff he laughed at. I think it scared him because he thought it wasn't real but when it moved it made him nervous. Bennett was scared of a few more things but never flipped out. He just wanted to be reassured. We went to about 15 houses and called it a night. We hadn't eaten yet so we were pretty hungry. 

Well tomorrow is November 1 and so another cycle of holidays are ahead of us. I'm excited and anxious to get it all in. I just hope with November comes cooler weather. 

I hope your Halloween night was boo-tastic!

Oh The ER Visits

Saturday morning Jack woke up at 4:30 am and requested milk and "strawberries" (which are fruit chews). He has milk and these fruit chews daily. We were getting ready to go shopping in Little Rock to find some things for Jack's new school and the final touches for his Halloween costume. At around 6:30 that same morning it looked like he had an ant bite under each eye. As the minutes passed it got worse and then his arm broke out.

I took him to the ER and they gave him a prescription for steroids but the spots had pretty much vanished before we even left. We decided to hold off on the shopping and ended up carving pumpkins instead. Those steroids had him so hyped up. When he finally laid down he slept for about an hour and woke up broke out again. After about an hour they disappeared. Later that evening he broke out again and it was worse than it had been before. We took him to the ER in another town. They gave him Benedryl and sent him on his way.

Sunday we broke out some but not like he had the previous day. So, the plan was for him to go to school and me to go to work. Well this morning he broke out again so our plans changed and I made him a doctor's appointment.

Dr. Young said the meds that he was prescribed at the ER probably wouldn'd do the job so he gave him a different steroid. He also discovered that Jack has an awful ear infection. He hasn't run any fever and hasn't complained about his ears at all. So now I'm waiting for his meds to get ready. Hopefully this will do the trick but the doctor did say that he might break out a few more times.

Jack's allergic reaction was the center of our weekend but we did carve a ghost and spider pumpkin and made pumpkin cookies. Today Jack and I are going to check out his new school and introduce him to his new teachers and classmates.

Planner Life

Yesterday I got my new planner, stickers, and extra notepad/graph paper. Oh I can't even convey how excited I am to start using it all. I LOVE new planners. I never stick with one for a whole year and that is okay. Sometimes a planner might just be for a phase. I'm in a very hectic time of my life right now so I think a new planner is just what I need to get myself organized and excited about planning future events.

I purchased the "me & my BIG ideas Create 365 The Happy Planner, Hello Life". It runs from July 2016-December 2017.  I got it from Amazon for $26.99. It is beautiful and I already love several features. I also purchased the "Important Sticky Notes" by Create 365. I love that they have mini to do list stickers so you can write a few things on them.

I also went ahead and purchased a package of note and graph paper that I can add to my planner. In the package it was half note pad paper and half graph paper. I knew I would want extra paper to write down ideas, bucket lists, wishlists, and such. I've already started a page of Christmas gifts to buy.

Here is a look at what I bought.

Monthly view

I like the big boxes and the notes section on the side

Big Picture

At the start of each month there is a page to write down what is currently going on in your life (I love this), birthdays, monthly goals, and important dates

Added notepad pages

I bought these added pages and they slipped right in. I love that it has a place for the date on each page so if you wanted to write a journal this would be perfect. 

Weekly view

I like that it isn't broken down by hour because my day isn't broken down into hours. I like that each day has three big boxes to write down important information. I actually think the boxes are big enough to write out the important stuff in the top box, my work to do list in the middle box and use the last box to write my home to do list. 

There are other accessories that go with these planners and I hope to get some of those for Christmas. One of my favorites is that you can get a carrying case for your planner. I for sure want that and may not be able to hold out for Christmas. I want to be able to carry it with me to most places without having to carry it in my purse where things have been known to get ruined by spills or lipstick tops that come off. 

How do you stay organized on paper?