Ever since Shawn and I started dating, we have had so much fun deciding on Halloween costumes. We have been fortunate enough to be invited to costume parties most years since we met. Our 1st party, we went as a Union solider and a Southern Belle (complete with hoop skirt). That was fun...but it gets really expensive to rent costumes every year. Since then, we have either bought the costume from a party store or came up with our own using clothes from our closet. This year, we were invited to a party and were also hosting a party, so we recycled an old costume and bought a new one. Friday night, Gilligan and Mary Ann went to a costume party, only to arrive, peek through the window and notice that there was hardly a costume in sight. 
After a heated debate on the front porch of the home as to whether we should even go inside and make fools of ourselves, we decided to call it a night and go home. Fortunately, the hostess called us to ask where we were and we sheepishly answered, "In front of your house getting ready to leave!" The hostess assured us a few other people were in costume, so we went in and had a good time with friends from Shawn's work. On Saturday, we hosted the Harvest Costume Party for our Sunday School class. We dressed up as Cleopatra and Mark Antony and had a house full of creative costumes including Napoleon Dynamite, Captain Jack Sparrow, a football player, the Scarecrow, Wicked Witch of the West, and Cowardly Lion, Superman, a pumpkin with his farmer parents, and a 'Bun in the Oven' and her baker husband. We had a great time bobbing for apples, decorating pumpkins, and eating!! Now that we have finished with Halloween for this year, the discussions have already started about the costumes for next year. Let us know if you have any great ideas!!
Friday night, Shawn and I met up with my parents at the National Folk Festival on Brown's Island in Richmond. This is the 3rd and final year this event has been held in Richmond. Since it was the last year, we decided we should check it out. We didn't want to miss out on something really exciting. And since next year it is moving on to Montana, we knew it was now or never!! When we arrived, it seemed like a lot of people milling around with little purpose or understanding as to what exactly we were supposed to be doing. As the evening progressed, the stages started opening and folk music could be heard all around. The stage we were directly next to was some very unusual music from Canada, I think, and we were all very unimpressed. I even started chanting 'over-rated' very quietly! We all decided to walk up the hill to another stage to give the folk festival one last chance to impress us before we called it a night, and we ran into two guys from the hills of North Carolina...they called themselves "pickin' partners" and they played the piano and guitar. 
Jeff Little and Wayne Henderson entertained us for an hour with great music and funny stories. What was even funnier was the lady standing behind us that seemed to have a comment for everything that was happening on the stage...which she delivered in a very dramatic voice, complete with hand and body motions! Next time you see Shawn, you should ask him for an imitation, as he can give a perfect representation of this lady. The evening ended with a funnel cake and a shuttle ride back to the car. If you had asked us at the beginning of the evening if we would ever recommend the National Folk Festival, I'm pretty sure the answer would have been a resounding "NO!" But after the great entertainment we saw, we are disappointed that we didn't take advantage of this great Richmond experience in previous years. Rumor has it that Richmond is doing a local folk festival next year around this time, so maybe we will make another trip to Brown's Island next fall...if only to hear our dramatic lady friend again!!
This was home improvement weekend for Steph and Shawn. We had a couple of big projects to finish up before winter and Saturday was the big day! A little background... when we bought our house, the deck was painted (not stained) a horrible brown color that peeled up every time it rained. I had the great idea last summer to try to get all the paint off with a pressure washer. Bad idea!! It didn't do much except damage the wood. We spent all last summer trying everything to get the paint off...scraping, a chemical that eats paint, sanding, and just peeling bits off with our fingers. We got worn out and then winter came so we just left it in a state of disrepair. After a lot of discussion over the winter and spring, a conclusion was reached. We would paint over the brown on the railings with white and then try to get the rest of the paint off the floor and stain it. And ta da!! It turned out really nice. We are just really happy to have this project done after almost 2 summers of work!!
The other major project was giving our front bushes a big trim. They grow like weeds and they are taking over the front of our house. We decided to whack off as much as we could to try to get them under control. Shawn spent most of the afternoon with the hedge trimmer and ended up with a big mess of tree limbs to clean up when he was done. The bushes will look great next spring when the leaves come back and hopefully they will be more manageable next year, too. As far as projects went, these went pretty smoothly. Sometimes working on the house together can bring out the worst in us, but we were still talking to each other at the end of the day!
