While cake planning - I got scared to death!

On a different topic, I'm sitting on the couch next to Henry, my three year old watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and working on the laptop finalizing in an email a cake order. The couch is right next to the window. I'm typing away and then I heard a LOUD thump and saw from the corner of my eye and could hear it was a BIG bird smacking the window.

Then I look outside and I see on our wood fence, a hawk with a bird flapping around in his talons. I think the smaller bird thunked the window as the hawk swooped and caught it... Of couse, there's a mark and slight hole in the screen now. But my heart was racing as it was LOUD! Ew!!! Hope that mark is bird poo and not bird guts! The view was an awful lot like this image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/forgetmeknottphotography/456866790/

Our backyard backs up into a park, so we constantly see deer and fox, but I've never seen the hawks in action. It was probably a robin as the tree in front of the house is alive with robins today as the dogwood berries must be ready for eating - lots of fluttering going on there.

While searching photos of a hawk with a prey I saw images of like hawks with rabbits, pigeons, squirrels, and a mole. And all this makes me realize there's one more reason to keep the cats in the house - besides the danger of cars and fox. I bet neither of our cats would be too big prey for hawks or eagles! Yikes!

The housing crisis - such a slippery spiral

These truly are musings. But, here you go. Right now my family of four lives in a townhouse in the DC burbs of Northern Virginia. My mother in law rents a one bedroom apt. 3 miles away. When we moved here, it was 2004 and prices were up and houses sold in a minute and a half. The asking price was the STARTING price. In the next 18 months we watched the house values grow another 100,000 for our house and in the last 2 years, watch it drop to where we bought the house and now we will watch it drop even lower.

My Mother in law wanted to buy a house when she moved, but everything was out of her price range, so she invested it.. So here we are, house prices finally come down so she can buy, but even in her SAFE investments she's lost a LOT of money this year (so far)... so is it a good time to take it out to buy a house that STILL might drop in price even more? Maybe she should wait and hope.

And here we are. We would love to buy a bigger house with a garage and space, but while we have good credit and the means to do it - even absorbing a small loss on our current house, we DON'T have the funds to buy a house without selling ours first. our house could sit on the market for a year or MORE.

We've thought about buying a house together (mother in law and us four as MIL is getting older and needs our help more and more), but again... her funds are dropping like mad, we are stuck with a house that needs selling.

Nearly EVERYONE is just like us - either their saved money for a down payment has dried up in the stocks, or they can't sell their house to get a new one! The ONLY people good to go are those who are first time buyers with money in the bank... And how many people is that? And as a new home buyer, are they seen as risky and do they have a harder time getting loans?

Any way I look at it, in my very uneducated ways, I see this as a very slippery slope that just spirals out of control... people wait out of fear and because they are waiting, the problem just gets worse...scary times! So, I guess I just better get used to the idea of living in this townhouse for a few more years! And just be thankful for what we have!

The Halloween Costume search

I've always loved dressing up for Halloween and have done so whenever I have had a reason to do so. The past several years we have gone as a family to a party around Halloween. Everyone at the party we know through an organization we all belong to (Ethical Society), so it's fun.

The first year we went as characters from the Lord of the Rings. My husband was Gandalf, my older son was Frodo, the baby Henry was a baby hobbit and I was a peasant from Rohan.

The next year we went in our own costumes without matching. My husband was a red-neck, my son was a nerd, I was a "witchy" chef and the little guy was Blue from Blues Clues.

Last year we went from characters as Borat. My husband has a striking resemblance to Sasha Baron Cohen, so we found the perfect suit and so on and he was FABULOUS (got second place at a bar's costume contest). I went as his sidekick (yes, dressed up as a man) and our oldest did his own thing going as a gorilla and we dressed the two year old as the bear from the movie.

But how do you TOP Borat? You cannot KNOW how fabulous that costume was! I've been wracking my brain for WEEKS.. and in my sleepy state this morning I got it! We'll go as the quintessential family as Sarah Palin sees it. My husband will go as Joe Six Pack, I'll go as hockey mom and my oldest son will go as a hockey player and the 3 year old will be a hockey player in training. I think this will be SOOOOO funny as the people from the Ethical Society are ultra in tune with the political scene and well... we all think Sarah Palin is a JOKE.

I'm having so much fun trying to come up with the most redneck-like costume I can think of for my husband... and I'm trying to figure out what to do with my hair (it's waist length)... I need to make it "hipper" I think. I never wear lipstick, but I'll HAVE to for the costume to real give it the kicker!

So fun!

OK, Sarah Palin

When her nomination was announced and I learned about her stance and lack of experience and life circumstances (even before it was disclosed her teen daughter was pregnant), I was FURIOUS that McCain could insult female voters that way - COMPLETELY insulted. If you like Hilary Clinton or not, NO ONE can really say she's not ready for office or qualified for it, but PALIN????

I am so completely thrilled that her lack of readiness is so apparent, but still appalled with the converts. It does not say good things for the USA.

Though, I did have to ask myself why I felt she should be staying at home with her infant with down syndrome and her pregnant teen? Would I feel the same way if it were the father? Yes and no. I TRULY believe that a woman has every right to be in the office, but ANYONE who pretends that mom and dads are the SAME are so not facing the truth. This baby NEEDS his mother - more than an average infant. Plus she CHOSE to have this child with special needs therefore she is obligated to choose HIM over career prospects right now. And as far as the teen daughter? Isn't she going through enough without her now being watched by the whole country, no WORLD??? So yes, I feel as a female she has more obligation to turn this opportunity down, but you know what? If Mrs. Palin was Mr. Palin, I would feel the same - not the time to be in the public eye and away from home. But then it is OBVIOUS she is a self-centered woman only thinking of her own prospects and not those of her children which just seems so twisted and wrong. I would do ANYTHING to nurture and protect my kids and I am appalled that Sarah and her "family values" does not see how messed up her priorities are.