TGIF!

I'm actually pretty pleased with how my week has ended...minus still feeling slightly overwhelmed with all D has planned this weekend.  First, I had a short work day due to all the overtime I've done throughout the week.  After coming in at 10, I had some excellent, exciting news regarding one of my cases (the one closest to my heart at that).  The news does involve me working more overtime and working on a Sunday...but TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY worth it.  I hope it all works out the way we all want...  Next, I found out the court hearing that I have spent all week preparing for (since this is a case that I am just handling while the other worker is on maternity leave) got continued.  For those unfamiliar with the world of public social services/foster care, it means the court hearing will not happen, I will not have to testify, and my stress preparing was unnecessary.  Although on the positive side, 1) I don't have to go to court and 2) I've better familiarized myself with that case.*  I'm just happy I don't have to deal with that.  Then, I got to leave work early and just chill for a bit.  I'm still tying up some loose ends of work stuff...but at least I'm home!

Now let's see...first things first...HALLOWEEN!  Now I'm not the biggest Halloween fan.  I feel stupid if I don't have something unique and fun.  My past experiences have shaped this idea.  Let me back track to mine and D's previous Halloween experiences:

• Year 1:  D and I are in Valdosta visiting.  We go down with no Halloween ideas and no costume stuff to even use.  Away from home you are forced to buy something.  We go to Wal-Mart (**shudder**) the day of Halloween.  Ok, every one knows shopping on the day of Halloween is terrible.  There's nothing good left.  D ends up getting this weird hat with a rat on top.  This is what I came out with:

 

Btw...one of the most disgusting pictures.  Why did I even wear the short sleeve shirt??  Why not a tank top?  It was a kids costume.  I thought it was cute at first, but by the end of the night I felt ridiculous and stupid.

D's costume.  Wow.

• Year 2:  Again, D and I go out shopping the day of Halloween.  I can not find anything decent that I would not feel like an idiot wearing.  We leave with nothing and I decide not to do Halloween (it is on a week night that year anyway).  D just finds some clothes in his closet and throws something on (sorry, couldn't find a picture of that, but trust me you're not missing anything).
• Year 3:  FINALLY we plan ahead!  I searched forever to figure out what to do.  Finally we decided on the Pac Man/Ghost gig.  It definitely made a world of difference being in a "cool" costume that people liked.  I loved it and I hope we re-use these:

• Year 4:  After asking D all month (and even sending along ideas), I never could get a solid idea from him.  So I decided to go forward with my idea for a solo costume.  I figured he could do whatever he wanted.  So Friday before Halloween, we go out to buy some basic supplies for my costume and look for something for D.  He thought about doing Peter Griffin from Family Guy or The Dude from the Big Lebowski.  So we checked out some places and couldn't find any solid clothes for D.  Then we hit up the Halloween store which we stayed at forever going back and forth between costumes for D.  Then we spent all day Saturday buying the rest of the supplies for my costume.  Final product:

D in all his glory

Hot air balloon and D after his costume fizzled.

I must say...it ended up being a fun night.  Not even kidding though...next year we are doing easy, bought out of the bag costumes.  Mine looks simple but it ended up being stressful and taking a while to put it all together.  And people were obsessed with D's costume, which he picked out the day before.  I also ended up with a massive hangover the next day.  I was literally in bed until 4pm.  It was bad.  So after a long post...I'm going to leave it at that and try to enjoy my busy weekend!

**Disclaimer:  For those that don't know, I work as a case manager/social worker with children in foster care, their birth parents, their foster parents, their adoptive parents, testify in court on behalf of all these aspects as well as dealing with anything else that involves all parties.  Try managing all of these parties for 15 children.  It's been a learning experience to say the least...**