'Twas the Night Before Halloween . . .

. . . . and all through the house CHAOS REIGNS.

• ONE . . . young boy dripping with mud after football practice in the pouring rain
• THREE . . . hours Bailey has spent tonight trying to understand inexplicable statistics facts for a critical test tomorrow.
• TWENTY-FOUR . . . the number of years ago I took statistics. I remember NONE of it, which is proving to make me not a great helper to Bailey in her hour of math crisis.
• THIRTY-SIX . . . unfrosted sugar cookies Bailey needs to take to school tomorrow for a Storm Buddies activity.  To find the cookies we went to TWO stores since district policies forbids homemade treats.  Once home we noticed that all the purchased cookies are crumbling, so Dan just drove back for prepared sugar cookie dough, which we are going to bake ourselves tonight, defying district policy.
• THREE . . . the number of costumes which are needed for tomorrow for trick-or-treating or Halloween parties.
• ONE . . . costume that fits and has been deemed sufficient.
• TWO  . . . costumes purchased online two days ago for two daughters, with very expensive shipping. TWO costumes will be returned on Monday. Expensive shipping not refunded.
• NINE . . .  the number of stores I have been to today in a fruitless pursuit of assorted last minute Halloween paraphrenalia, including FOUR stores to find the perfect yellow tights which are now going to be returned because that particular costume is unworkable.
• FOUR . . . the number of stores Dan has run to today after work, also looking for assorted Halloween stuff. 
• TWENTY-SEVEN . . . .is the number of people, mostly teenagers, who are invited to our house tomorrow for a big Halloween party.
• ZERO . . . . the amount of preparation or cleaning we have had a chance to do for this party. 
• 100% . . . the amount of preparation I will need to tackle tomorrow morning, including cleaning a very messy house.
• ONE . . . Halloween activity I need to come up with for Joseph's school Halloween party tomorrow. 
• UNCOUNTED . . . more things I could say about today which I won't because I don't want to implicate anyone.
• 4:45 a.m. . . The time our alarm clocks go off in the morning for Seminary.
• TWENTY . . . minutes I just spent writing this blogpost instead of accomplishing anything, because I needed some time alone.
• FOUR . . . ibuprofen pills I took which have not even come close to touching my headache.

Happy Halloween.  Please, make the nightmare go away!