Safely Spooky

Our park district sponsors a yearly event called Safely Spooky.  The idea is to give the kids and adults a safe place where they can hang out for Halloween.  This was our first time participating in the event.  I figured it would be a cool thing to do for Cairo and it would get us out of the house for a bit.  I invited my sister-in-law and she joined us. When we got to the park the line to get into the park wrapped around the entire park.  Look!   Can you see the long ass line?? This park is huge, about the size of two neighborhood blocks and the line almost wrapped around the entire block!

I was a little concerned about Cairo, I wasn't sure if he was going to be freaked our or not.  I spotted some guy with a mask a bloody machete making his way towards us so I told Cairo  "hold my hand" and he goes "why" and I said "just remember it's all fake and not real", so he quickly grabbed my hand, just as the guy was a few feet away.  I was glad the pretend murderer didn't yell at us. Cairo was calm and collected.

We decided to paint our faces like catrinas.  Cairo too.  He didn't have a costume, but we had tons of face paint.  As we walked to the back of the line to get into the park people kept looking at us.  I'm not sure if they were looking at us cuz they thought "oh cool!" or "cheap costume", either way I think it was cool.  Although I wish the paint was better, the stuff we used was too oily and smeared easily.  Here's Cairo, doesn't he look like he's having a good time?

Here are the two of us....yeah he's still having a good time.

So the idea is you walk through the park and they have spooky decorations all around.  There were a doctor couple who were all bloodied up with organs in jars and body parts in hand.  Some prisoner girl who wanted help getting out and this nifty inflatable organ player, it had a rotating dancing couple!!

All along the place there were stands were the kids could get candy, some stands gave out full size candy bars!  Others gave you a piece of gum or starbursts bleh!  It got dark kinda quick and eventually we got to a tent, which was supposed to be a haunted house type tent. Cairo refused to go in...he quickly started to back away.  So he and I walked around it while Auntie went in on her own.  I'm happy to say she survived it.  Further down the road was a haunted grave yard and guess what?  Yep, Cairo refused to go through it so this time Auntie walked around with Cairo while I went through the graveyard/maze alone.  I made it out ok....or did I?

At the end of the whole thing they had 3 fogatas going.  They were huge.  Here's a pic of one, see how excited Cairo looks?

Aaaand here's a pic of Auntie....

Aaaaand here's a pic of me with Cairo.....OMG you can just see the excitement in this kids face.

I tried to get  a good picture but the light from the fogata was just to strong.

Instead of going on a hay ride we sat to eat some burgers and hot chocolate!

AND we found Waldo!!!

All in all Cairo did have a good time, even though he was a party pooper in the pictures.

The customer is always right

You just gotta love Bernie Sanders. He's started this movement of moving your financial accounts from the big banks to smaller community banks or Credit Unions.  The Washington Post recent posted an article about Credit Unions, it's pretty informational and has links to even more information.  The idea is this, big banks like Bank of America are reporting major profits yet at the same time they are going to hit customers with monthly fees in the beginning of the coming year when their customers use their debit cards for purchases. That just sounds so cynical, I mean come on!  It's a great example of how consumers are taken advantage of by big banks and no one seems to care.  Big banks are interested in how much of your money they can take, they are basically taking a slice of your budget pie because they can.

I had a Bank of America checking and two savings accounts.  I closed all of my accounts.  I moved my checking services to a community bank in my area and I could not be happier.  I opened online savings accounts that accumulate more interest than what I was getting with Bank of America. I would recommend for people to do the same.  Imagine what would happen if everyone moved their financial business to local banks and credit unions?  Imagine the impact that would make and message that would send to big corporations?  They have been the boss for far too long and it is time to reclaim the old concept of the customer is always right.

I am a job creator

For a while now every one in the media or in the GOP have been referring to the job creators and how much they need tax breaks.  They are referring to the big corporations who apparently need more incentives to keep their businesses in the U.S. to "create jobs" for Americans.  The thing is that these "job creators" have been having tax breaks for many years now and even though some of these companies are claiming major profits like Bank of America there aren't many jobs being created and more people are in fact being laid off.  Here's an example of what I mean. 

If I had extra cash to spare, I'd buy Dunkin Donuts coffee every single day.  If I had extra cash to spare we'd eat out at least once a week, pizza nights or something.  I had extra cash I'd update my house by in updating the kitchen, the main bathroom, the half bath downstairs, I'd build a family room in the basement after installing a sump pump and having the gutters taken out of the drain, I'd furnish the new family room with a nice flat screen T.V. and furniture.  If I had extra cash I'd take my family on a vacation every year, we'd go camping twice a year.  If I had extra cash I'd buy healthier food from Whole Foods.  If I had extra cash I'd buy my son cloths that fit right and buy new ones as he out grows them.  If I had extra cash I'd upgrade my car to a more gas efficient one.  If I had extra cash I'd buy every one in my family Christmas presents every year, nice ones at that.  I think I alone would keep several people employed and quite possibly cause for a few others to get jobs.  The more I think about what I'd do if I had extra cash in hand the more I think that the GOP and the media has got it all wrong.  We are the job creators, the average people living average lives.  If we had more money to spend, the more stability companies would have and the more employees they would need to meet the demand made by us the consumers. Why doesn't the GOP see that?

We're going to the Circus!!

Being the disorganized  mother I am Cairo arrived late to his first Cub Scouts meeting this week,  UGH I felt horrible, the kids were already finishing up working on their first patch.  So to make it up to him we're going to the circus!  Thanks to Cairo being a Tiger in the Cub Scouts we were offered a deal on Ringling Brothers tickets.  $17 a ticket and there is a pre clinic where the kids can hang out with the circus peeps before the show, how sweet is that??

I had to put it on the credit card though.  I don't have the cash for it now.  As a bonus my cousin and her husband will be here visiting from Mexico and they will be joining us.  I haven't seen them, or any of my family members, in 3 years.  I'm looking forward to seeing them and talking to them.  They will give me a better feel about moving to Monterrey and about getting a job down there, if it comes down to it.