This update brought to you by Initiative 1183

As I sit here next to Isabelle while she writes out her thoughts on the King County election taking place this week, I find myself with some time since we just finished our hot debate on Initiative 1183. Therefore, I figured I'd knock out a quick update on the month of October in our house. (On a sidenote, I'm not sure my 9 year old should be writing her election thoughts on a topic in which she's arguing on the side to close state liquor stores so that Mom and Dad can buy liquor at Costco...but whatever. In her words, "why does the state get to add so much tax and make so much money and not everyone else." Amen, sister.)

ANYWAY...while she writes down her final thoughts, here are a few pics from this month. In quick summary, we did the following:

1) Watched/played a lot of soccer games (approximately 20 in October)
2) Remodeled the kitchen
3) Went to the pumpkin patch (3 times, in fact)
4) Grandad came to visit
5) Drove many many many miles between practices, extracurricular activities, dance, etc. to the point that I'm pretty sure the state will be building me my own lane on 405...or at least they should
6) Celebrated darling Sophia's 5th birthday
7) Wrapped up the month with our now annual tradition of the Halloween Death March. This year with an astounding 28 people in the group. We clean houses out of candy, people. No lie.

Hope everyone else had a magical October. We leave for Hawaii in a week and a half and I. CAN'T. WAIT. It's 40 degrees here right now...and 83 in Hawaii. Yeah, that'll do just fine.

Questions

I haven't written much in a while, so probably no need to start now. But for your entertainment, I'm stealing from Crystal to switch things up a little.

1. What ringtone do you have on your cellphone? If Todd calls, it's Baby by Justin Bieber. (I know. No, really, I know.) For all other calls it's All Summer Long by Kid Rock. With summer coming to a close (boo!), it's probably time to change that. And probably the Biebs while we're at it.

2. What is your favorite memory from this summer? Wow. Tough one. Early summer we went to Disneyland, which is always memory making. Late summer I watched my daughter win her first soccer tournament championship at Bigfoot. I took a spectacular trip to Vegas with friends and spouse, and was fortunate enough to have my mom and my dad both come visit with us this summer plus see dear friends from Texas that I don't see enough. Impossible to pick a favorite.

3. Paper books or ebooks? Can't lie, I love my Kindle. Paper books are still cool but the convenience of downloading whatever I want at will, and switching books without having to leave the sofa...my lazy side gives that a standing ovation.

4. If you could have one home upgrade, what would it be and why? Currently we are more than 75% done with a kitchen remodel that we've longed to do since we bought our house 5 years ago, so I guess I'm taking that off the list. Past that, it would have to be our second bathroom downstairs. It's embarassing and must be shown who's boss in the very near future. That remodel will also gain me a laundry room/area (bonus!) so that rocks. As for the why of this...we have five people in our house and share one bathroom. That has one sink. You do the math.

5. When was your first serious boyfriend/girlfriend? Probably 7th grade. We went out the entire year and he was the first boy I kissed. By 7th grade definition, it was "serious." For what I would define as "serious" now, I would have to say Todd was my first serious boyfriend. And that was high school, which I think justifies definition of "serious" much more realistically.

Sea Fair Weekend

WA Games Tournament

Lake Wilderness

Water Park

Low Tide