What's Up?

So, what have I been up to, since it obviously hasn't been writing my blog?

Let's see...

Last Saturday, the Germantown Hills Fire Department had its big yearly fundraiser.  The firehouse is only about two blocks from our house, which was convenient for the 5K road race at 7:30 in the morning, which I ran with my running buddy, Mike Fiedler.  The race course not only was one of my normal running routes, but it also passed right in front of my house!  This means that Jeff and the kids came to see us off at the start and then hustled back home to wait for us to pass by toward the end of the race.  Very cool!

 

I guess we're blurry in the bottom photo because we're going so fast.  Not.  (Actually, Jeff was experimenting with a new camera.)  I ended up finishing the race in 27:17, fourth out of 14 for my age group.  I was pleased.

Later on that evening, the kids participated in a costume contest at the fire station, their first opportunity to wear their costumes.  Before the contest began, however, they were able to "shop" a bit.  The Germantown Hills Business Association sponsored a fun activity where the kids each got a big piece of paper with 25 Germantown Hills businesses on it.  The goal was to visit each business, get a stamp proving that they'd been there, and then draw "Germantown Hills Bucks" (like Monopoly money) to cash in at the fire department on Saturday (like Chuck E. Cheese's).

While the kids enjoyed getting candy and bucks, I enjoyed visiting all of these businesses, many of which I had no idea.  (I discovered a framing shop that has a bigger selection and as good of prices as Hobby Lobby.  You can bet I'll be be back...lots of new pictures coming up!)  At the firehouse, we turned in the kids' completed merchant forms and were placed in a raffle for gift baskets from said merchants.  Believe it or not, Jeff and I ended up winning one!  It had some fantastic gift certificates in it, so this was all well worth the effort.

Anyway, both kids had a pretty good number of bucks to spend, so they stocked up on candy and lots of small toys to get lost and broken.  But they had a good time!

Afterwards was the costume contest.  While neither our little skunk nor our clone trooper won, they both had a good time!

 

We also carved our pumpkins last weekend.  (Well, by "we," I mean Jeff and the kids.  Mostly Jeff.  I took pictures.)  Since that time, we've had nothing but rain, which means our poor jack-o-lanterns are shrinking and rotting.  But they only have to hold up until tomorrow!

Fun!  Hope you all have a great Halloween!