Weird Halloween Week

Hola!

It's been a strange week, kind of an upside-down week.  We had the seemingly not-so-bad storm last Saturday, that left 700,000 people in the state without power.  It was a "perfect storm," of sorts.  A combination of circumstances made for optimal conditions...branches and trees came down on power lines.

(Actually, in central and western Massachusetts, there are STILL 85,000 people without power!  It's been a week now.  Wow.  We missed 2 days of school, and some of those districts are still out.  A whole week they've missed, and winter hasn't even started yet.)

One of the "strange circumstances" was that we have had a pretty wimpy fall, this year.  I usually look forward to October, for all the leaves changing and all the color.  But THIS year, either warm temps, or lots of rain, or something...has made it so that most of our leaves have NOT changed color!  Just still green, and some brown.  And, the leaves are still on the trees, mostly.

So, for the new header photo, I had to use a picture from a year or two ago.  When we had pretty leaves.  Not this year so much!

Another strange part: usually the branches are bare by now.  If they had been bare by now, that snow that fell last weekend would not have weighed down the branches and broken off so many.

So there you have it.  A weird storm.

We had Halloween anyway.  Lots of sugar-trading going on.  Here is Kara with some friends that went out all together.  She wore that great dress her Grammie D made, and it was tweaked with accessories.  She started as "Laura Ingalls Wilder" and added a hat and a tooth on a necklace: she became the "Tooth Fairy."

We also had David's 16th birthday.  He and I went down to the RMV and he took the test for his Driver's Permit.  He passed!  He was very excited, and we went straight to the empty school parking lot and he practiced for the first time.  Since 3 days ago, he has driven us home from the school, and Kara to soccer practice, and all around the neighborhoods close to the elementary school.  (And you thought that my hair was grey before.)
I'm kidding.  He's doing a good job so far.  "Practice, practice, practice," is what one person's advice was.  That means I have to grit my teeth and let go of the car keys.

Teresa is sad to have finished up volleyball.  She really learned a lot and had fun this season.  Here are a few photos of her serving.  She has a pretty good serve.

Here is a photo of David (over the summer), since it WAS his birthday last week.

Well there you have an update on life in New England--WITH electricity, I will add in gratitude.  WITH heat.  WITH hot water for showers.  All it takes is one day without those things, for you to say Whew!  I am sure glad I have electricity!

Happy Rest of the Weekend, Kari