As I clean my home, vacuuming up the bits of werewolf fur scattered about and the bits of white fleece and the packaging from the 20 plus glow sticks needed to bring my 4 year olds dream of a glow in the dark ghost costume.  My little guy has had a tumultuous and stressful couple of years adjusting to having his world turned upside down.  He's always been somewhat scared of the dark but last year, in the midst of the worst of the chaos, he absolutely refused to go trick or treating in the dark.  Things are calmer now, he'll stay in his own bed most nights and the stories of the loot his brother has gotten from his Halloween adventures inspired him to strike a deal with me.  He was willing to go trick or treating in the dark as long as he had a costume that lit up.  We settled on a ghost.  I ended up deciding to glue a bunch of flexible glow sticks to his baseball helmet and then covering it with white fleece to give him a classic cartoon ghost shape. 
His big brother's requests always seem to involve a lot more work.  He wanted to be a werewolf.  Specifically one with long sharp claws.  I covered a black stretchy hoody with long black fur and attached a nose and an impressive row of teeth to frame his face.  After a couple of false starts, I sculpted Fimo claws and sewed them to gloves using the button holes I poked through the base of them.  Both boys loved their costumes.  Unfortunately, the magical powers of the lighting up ghost did nothing to protect my little one from the terror his big brother instilled in him by growling at him while practicing his "werewolf-ness".  I found the little guy sobbing in a closet at one point.  We got through the bumpy start and I even managed to carve out a little time for me.  My self and a friend got ourselves all fancied up and went to see "The Rocky Horror Show" at the Royal Mcpherson Playhouse, put on by The Kaleidoscope Theater Production Society;  www.kaleidoscope.bc.ca .  It was hands down the most fun I've had since I moved to Victoria.  The cast did an amazing job.  We sang along, did the Time Warp, offered my ex husband to the drag queen mc'ing the costume contest, (no luck there, she didn't want him) and ate lots of cake with the cast afterwards.  I was mistaken for the lead more than once and I've decided it's because my butt looks like a 26 year old male dancer's, not just because of my height. 

I finally feel like I have carved out an identity for myself in Victoria, separate from my role as wife and mother and it feels fantastic.  I get to be me first, a mom next and a Realtor and artist too.  It's been an extremely difficult journey over the last couple of years, but every excruciating step has been worth it.  I can't wait for what life will bring me next.  I've taken down the last of the decorations and cleaned up the mess from all the empty candy wrappers and chunks of fur flying around and the only thing left to do is figure out exactly how much of the kid's candy I can eat before they notice.  I call it "candy tax".  It's payment for all the work I put into their costumes every year.  Now I get to take a little break before I start digging out the Christmas decorations.  :)