What's happening?????

Well, lots really. Some recap stuff from the past several weeks, pictures to help tell the story.....

Well, I know I promised pictures of the sand sculpting contest, so here are a few, slideshow on the way:
Brandon on the beach on a cold Sunday morning:


Not the most elaborate castle I have seen there, but still amazing detail.


Lots of "statements" with the sculpting this year:










The pictures do not really do the sculptures justice. It amazes me how much can be done with sand.

For the squeamish I highly recommend you skip the next picture.

Brandon was bitten by a spider, just under his eye a few weeks ago. It also happened to get a bacterial infection. MRSA? No one would really say, but considering he was already nine days into a ten day stint of Amoxicillin, it could have been. He had to go on cephlex to help with it.





We had two emergency room visits, two family doctor visits, and a visit with a plastic surgeon over this. He also managed to have a sub-cutaneous hemorrhage just after the last picture, which made it even worse.

Brandon is playing soccer again...so in the middle of the game Brandon is yelling instructions to me about when to take pictures of him. "Get this one dad", "Get me just as I am kicking it", etc.


A spider we found in the garage:



Susan sponsored a team for the Race for the cure two weeks ago. Due to my world record procrastination, Brandon and I were photographers for the event. All of us had a great time.








And Susan carried her son the last mile....no kidding...


Susan and I went to a costume party this past Saturday.
See if you can guess who I went as...
I can't believe I'm going to show you this.....


Oh, and there is more....

Hint: "I would say I'm sorry if I thought that it would change your mind"


Tuesday this week was the start of piano lessons. Brandon's mom may actually pay for half, yet to be seen though. Brandon was very excited. Heck, I'm excited. I've always wanted to learn. I've been looking at electronic pianos for a long time, and two weeks ago I got one for a half to a third of retail. At Sam's club no less. We were in there to get one of Brandon's prescriptions for his spider/bacteria experience and I decided I would just "look". 15 minutes later I was wondering how it was going to fit in the car. :-) Hey, it was that good of a deal.

Ok, so Sam Hain, All Hallows Eve, Halloween.
Brandon lost his mask at his lockin with the YMCA, so we had to make a quick stop to get another this afternoon. We also needed candy. Brandon had carved his pumpkin on Monday so that was already set.

All that being done, Brandon announces that he wants to go get candy with his friends, the neighbors. Now that hung me up. My mind is doing the parental unfounded fear thing. He is ten. Should I let him go with his friends? What happens if they get in trouble? What if he gets hit by a car, and on cue, sirens blare in the distance (not kidding, they really did right at that moment). My heart rate jumps. What if.....a thousand horrible things. Meekly I speak, "Yes, you can go." He jumps for joy, does cartwheels, etc, until I start spelling out rules. Have to be back by 6:30 (it is 6:15 at this moment and not even dark), Have to stay on this street, have to ...., have to...., have to.....

Poor kid. Seriously, I was freaking out.

He goes across the street. I walk inside and close the door. I can do this...he can do this....

I walk back out, across the street, and tell him a few more things....come back and close the door.

I do this exact same thing six times in all. Yes, six times. By the sixth time, his friends are tired of seeing me. Brandon says, "I KNOW dad!!!!" He knows, but will he use that knowledge?

So I say to him, "Under no circumstances are you to have ANY fun. Do you understand me? Having fun would mean you are breaking some rule, and I won't have it." He cracks up laughing. :-) And yes, I did say it to him. He knows dad is destined for a padded room with nice people to hold him down.

In the end he spent a half hour with his friends handing out candy. when they didn't make any moves to go get candy, he came home to ask if I would walk with him, and I felt a prayer had been answered. So we walked the 'hood, he collected his bounty, and I actually let him have a little fun. He even remembered all the rules, and was very polite at every house he went to.

Here is a picture of his pumpkin:


And the boy that carved it: