OCTOBER’S 10 THINGS

I started this “10 things” series a few months ago and I’ve really enjoyed it. It feels like a journal entry and it’s been fun to go back and read older ones. I don’t edit these much– I’m just saying 10 things that are in my head at the moment. So here we go.

1. For Halloween, M really wants to be Batman. This is the first year where he has cared about what he gets to be for Halloween which is kind of fun! I also love doing a family costume so that’s propelled me to be Robin and Danny to be Alfred. 🙂 We got M’s costume in the dollar section at Target (they had a mask and a cape for $3). I’m basically making my costume out of felt and a red shirt (I think my costume will cost less than $1) and Danny already has the old man clothes to be Alfred, he’ll just need some spray on white hair which is about $1.50. So our costumes (as usual) won’t be all out– they’re pretty simple but they’re fun and festive and that’s all I was really going for.
2. This week I NAILED our passenger side mirror on our Jeep and it shattered into a million pieces. I was so bummed!! But when I got home, I had an unexpected check in the mail! I shared all of this on our Instagram stories because I was sure it was going to cost a couple hundred bucks to fix, and one of you said that you’d recently shattered a side mirror but said that a glass repair business replaced it for $25! I started a little research and found out that an auto parts place is just a few blocks away from me and I can fix it for about that cheap.
3. I’m running a 15k on Saturday! I used to do lots of marathons and other races before M was born and it feels good to be back at it. The very first race I did was a marathon and it seems like I’ve worked my way down from marathons, to halfs, and now a 15k haha. I’m liking these shorter distances though because sometimes training for big races can feel like a part time job and I just don’t have the time during this phase of life.
4. We put M in soccer at the YMCA. It only cost $10! And that is lucky, because it has been a fight to get him to go every week. He loves sports at home, especially soccer, but he is really shy and being in front of a little crowd of parents at practices and games was basically torture for the poor guy!! But for whatever reason, last night he decided that he loves playing soccer now and he killed it at practice last night! In the beginning, I would bribe him to play with toys and treats but then I decided to take a more hands off approach and we’d just go sit at practices and games and let him watch and I would tell him he could play if he wanted to but he didn’t have to. I was hoping that would make him feel more comfortable– I don’t know if that’s what worked or not but it was so fun to see him shine last night.
5. I gave a presentation recently about personal finances and death (basically why you need an estate plan – see this post about it here). And it has been in my head ever since! I don’t know if its Halloween, or my job as a criminal lawyer, or what, but all I can think about is death and all the different scenarios in which we could leave our things when we die.
6. We’re starting a No Spend November on November 1st where we aren’t spending any money on going out to eat for the entire month of November. We did this over the summer and it was so refreshing and saved us about $200! We’re gearing up for Christmas spending and trying to just force ourselves to not be wasteful with our money
7. We’ve gone to two different pumpkin patches the last two weekends! Both were free (other than buying a pumpkin… which we didn’t ha) and seriously I just love how festive they make you feel! It *almost* makes me embrace fall. M had so much fun going down the slide over and over. Ah i love that kid.
8. I’m literally as excited for this weekend as I used to get as a kid on Christmas Eve. Halloween where we live is a really big deal. There’s a big city Halloween parade just steps from our house, trick or treating in all the cute little shops we live by, a church Halloween party, a fun glow stick hike, Danny’s work throws an epic haunted house….and they’re all happening this weekend!!
9. I’m in the process of finishing up Phased 3.0 so that it will be ready to relaunch in a few weeks! Phased is our 90 day fitness + finance program, designed to kick your physical fitness and finances into gear. It has 90 days of work outs, walks you through creating the ultimate budget, teaches you about setting and actually achieving goals, and lays out some pretty great life lessons. I’m going to do a Black Friday sale, but since many of you will also be doing our No Spend November and your no spend challenge might include online purchases, I’ll do another sale in December. That way you can grab some for your friends and family and get physically/financially fit for the new year. There is no greater gift! 🙂 The new version has new workouts and an easier to navigate layout. I’m excited!
10. I just started the third season of the podcast Serial because ever since it came out I’ve gotten nonstop texts from friends and family wanting to know whether some of what goes down in our justice system is true or false as presented by Serial. Without having heard much of the podcast, I’ll say yes, crazy things can happen in our legal system. With that being said, it also wouldn’t surprise me to find out that stories coming out in Serial have been sensationalized… sensationalism = more interesting story.  Generally I have faith in our justice system but it is certainly flawed in many respects and to answer the two most common questions I get: 1) yes, sometimes innocent people go to jail which is obviously horrible and 2) yes, dirty cops exist. Sometimes they do stupid things like plant evidence. Speaking from my own experience working with the police in many respects, I still think most cops are good. Usually bad cops eventually get caught and prosecuted.

That’s all from me. What’s been going on with you this month? Are you dressing up for Halloween? 

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