My annual "Halloween Post..." Ta Da! This year was a different Halloween from previous years, that is for sure. Although Halloween was on Saturday, the kiddos were allowed to dress up on Friday for school. This was a fun day for Britt, but ended up being very sad for Brailey. You may have seen in our Facebook post that she was asked to remove her headdress, because it was deemed "culturally unacceptable." She was absolutely devastated! It was a very difficult day for her. She has been dealing with some insensitivity issues with some of her friends, as well, so when she was asked to remove her beautiful feathers, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. To give you an update on the costume decision her school made without getting in to details, it wasn't done in malice. On Monday, Brady and I met with the school officials who were involved, and it turns out they felt terrible about the entire situation, and although their intentions were to protect her from racism, unfortunately, it brought negative attention to what should have been positive. In fact, the entire costume issue is a larger problem than we knew, and Universities across the nation are dealing with it. Apparently, an article listing "inappropriate costumes" was listed in The New York Times recently, and Pocahontas was the number one "offender." Frankly, it is so infuriating to me what this nation has become and the ridiculous things people worry about, I can't even write about it. So much for freedom of speech. In any case, both Brady and I feel better now, and the school officials talked to Brailey on Monday and apologized to her, explained their reasoning and the bottom line is they made her feel better and reassured her she did nothing wrong, and that is all Brady and I wanted. In fact, they gave both Brailey and Britt several compliments while we were in our meeting, and I am grateful they know and understand we are raising good kids. We're probably just a little too country for Eugene, I guess. But back to Halloween... 
Britt started his Halloween with a swim meet, where he swam really well! He and I had a big time hanging out together. It was a short, small meet, which we both enjoyed. We wish they were all like that!
And while Britt was swimming, Brailey was at a gaming show with Brady. The first class was a Costume Contest, and guess what? She won! She was so happy, her trainer Patsy told me she was absolutely beaming. That is the difference between city and country people, I guess? I'm so proud to be country! She had a great day and performed really well. Brady took the picture below, which is why it is a bit blurry, but I think it still shows how happy she was. It truly was a darling costume! 
So by the time everyone got home, we were a little tired. We went to mass, came home, and carved pumpkins! This is the first year we didn't trick-or-treat. Britt feels a weensy bit gypped, I think, but he was good about it and enjoyed every second of carving his pumpkin. His pumpkin is the Lebron James logo, and Bray's is a Texas Longhorn. They turned out super cute! When we got out of mass, it was pouring down rain, so it wouldn't have been the best trick-or-treating, anyway. The theme of this year's Halloween seems to be change. Times are changing, faster than we can keep up with. Frankly, I don't mind my little B's growing up, but the world worries about things it doesn't need to, gives weight where none is needed, and then completely ignores what really matters! Yep - the world's gone crazy!
