Porches and Apocalypse

Friday night there was a bittersweet incident that occurred at our house. As Chris and I were getting ready for bed I heard a lot of commotion (shouting, yelling, cussing) outside of our house. When I looked out, I saw a group of kids just "chillin" on OUR front porch. I was like, WTF?!?! Who does that? So, I went out and asked them why they were hanging out on OUR porch? They responded that they would leave. But, after that I felt a little uneasy, so I kept peeking out of our bedroom window like an old lady. I realized that some of the little kids (elementary/middle school) that had been on our porch were being cussed at and fussed at by the crack-head lady that lives in the corner house. So, I decided to go outside and intervene. When I went out, the kids immediately approached me and were eager to have another adult to tell their story to. Apparently the crack head lady is friends with their mother, who was hanging out at her house. But, the crack head wouldn't let the kids on her porch (even though their mother was there). That's why they were trying to find someone else's porch to escape to. Ok, this is around 12:30 at night and our neighborhood is not great. So, I felt really bad for these kids. They had no where to go and were being degraded by a crack head, but they couldn't leave because their mother was there. So, I started talking to them about their schooling to try to get their minds off the crack head. Then, I asked them if they liked to color. They said "yes". So, I told them if they followed my 3 rules (1. don't talk to crack head anymore 2. keep their voices quiet 3. clean up when they're done) I would bring them some paper and crayons to color on our porch. They were really thirsty and asked for a glass of water too, because the crack head wouldn't let them inside. So, I brought them some water in a cup that I didn't care about along with a big box of markers/crayons/colored pencils and computer paper. When I went up to bed, I peeked out the window a few times to see their sweet little heads bent down, coloring away. When I awoke, I found the porch perfectly cleaned, and the rest of the computer paper in our mailbox along with this:

Broke my heart . . . such sweethearts. I can't even imagine living a childhood like they must have to deal with.

The porch was the place to be this weekend. On Saturday we began the horrible task of repainting the porch woodwork. Well, we wanted to do it the right way, and strip away the old paint. We thought we were prepared with a heat gun, sander, glasses, masks, scrapers:

But there was no getting this 80 year old paint off

We tried everything, including a natural stripper and a power washer

Finally, I was irritated with the whole situation and decided we should just paint over it, like everyone else had done.

Our result wasn't too shabby:

New house numbers that we've had since we bought the house 2 1/2 years ago!!!

Mums were added for Fall color:

As well as Halloween lights:

After all the porch madness (which spread out over Saturday and today, Sunday), we went to Chimichanga for some margaritas, chips/salsa, and quesadillas/fajitas. Then it was time for an evening show:

This was an animated film produced by Tim Burton. It had an apocalyptic theme, which tends to be my favorite these days. I just love the personification in animation, and this film did a wonderful job personifying inanimate objects. If you are interested in apocalyptic-futuristic type books, these are some of my absolute favorite books:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Road by Cormic McCarthy

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

I am both eagerly awaiting the start of this week and dreading it.

Dreading it because:

-SNAP starts (the after school Speech therapy for private school kids) which means my Mondays and Wednesdays will be spent working until 7:00pm.

-Also dreading it because of a staff meeting on Wednesday morning -- I hate getting up any earlier than I have to.

Eagerly awaiting because:

-Monday night I start yoga at the YMCA.

-Tuesday we should be receiving our replacement drum set for Rock Band (our drums broke the second day of having Rock Band).

-Thursday we have IVF training (so Chris and I are taking the whole day off). And, we're getting a BIG special delivery that day.

-Saturday we're going to dinner and the symphony, and I might try to get my mom to come with me for a pedicure for her birthday!

-Sunday we are thinking about going apple-picking, hiking, and Fast Eddy's (we'll see if this comes to fruition or not).

I shall return with updates through the week. I might have a fun food/baking post coming Wednesday or Thursday!