C as Tinkerbell

E and his pal T dressed as cheerleaders at the school Halloween parade (E later added a fabulous blonde wig)

This is what you get when you ask a 3 year old to smile for the camera.

Cousin El dressed as a Greek goddess at the school Halloween parade.

C and her toothless pal KJ

STOP TAKING PICTURES OF ME IN MY HALLOWEEN COSTUME (please?)

(Check back tomorrow night for photos of Baby G in HER costume. She’s attending her first Halloween party attired as a bunch of purple Concord grapes.)

Today was the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Knoxville. As you can see from the video below, more than 15,000 people ran, walked and just came out to cheer in support the important cause of breast cancer research.

If you watch the story til near the very end, you will see that Henry was there in spirit! I had several people email and text me after the story aired on WBIR’s 6pm newscast tonight, letting me know that they had spotted a Henry sign in the crowd. Then, the incredibly thoughtful person who had actually brought the Henry/pink ribbon sign to the race – no one I’ve had the pleasure of meeting yet – also sent me a photo.

It’s beautiful. Thank you SO MUCH for bringing a little bit of Henry along to this incredibly important event.

If you would like to make a donation to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support breast cancer research and treatment, CLICK HERE.

Because the response to Wednesday night’s premiere was so positive, WBIR Channel 10 in Knoxville will be offering a commercial-free re-broadcast of “Henry’s Story” TONIGHT (Saturday, October 30) at 7:30 pm EST for folks who missed the special when it aired earlier this week. Once again, the program will end with a live, human staffed hotline for people to call in to ask questions about drug abuse, addiction or to get information on where to get help for themselves or a family member.

Thank you again to WBIR for this wonderful gift to our family and to families everywhere.

However, WBIR’s commitment to this issue hasn’t ended with the special on Henry’s life and death. The station is also airing a month-long series of stories about the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is ravaging our hometown, and hometowns across America. Here is the first feature in the series, in which John Becker looks at the skyrocketing rate of overdose deaths from Rx drugs.

Henry’s life meant something. And so does the life of every human being suffering from drug addiction. It’s our sincere hope that “Henry’s Story” has helped to encourage a louder, more honest dialogue around this terrible blight that is killing far too many people.

Please visit HenryGranju.Org

One of the wonderful things about blogging – which I’ve been doing very regularly since 2002 – is that it offers you the chance to go back and read moments in time over again. I never imagined how much those years of blog posts about our family life would one day mean to me, but now they mean a lot.

Like this one, from January 23, 2005.

CONVERSATION WITH HENRY

Henry: “Mom, I think we should get a pet monkey.”

Me: “We don’t need a pet monkey.”

Henry: “I would take care of him.”

Me: “Henry, we aren’t getting a pet monkey.”

Henry: “I’ve been reading about monkeys online and they make great house pets.”

Me: “No, no monkey.”

Henry: “You can teach a monkey some great tricks.”

Me: “No pet monkey.”

Henry: “I’d name my monkey ‘Trotsky’”

Me: “You amuse me.”

Henry: “The monkey would amuse you more.”

Please visit HenryGranju.Org

I really kind of hate Halloween; I am more of a Christmas person. I looooooove Christmas, although this year’s holiday season is going to be awfully hard. But anyway, back to Halloween. I just hate dressing up in a costume – simply don’t enjoy it – and I find dealing with kid costumes kind of a pain. I also happened to be married to the only person on the planet who hates wearing a costume more than I do, so Jon is also not much of a Halloween booster.

But we do what we have to as parents, you know? Last week, Jon took E, C and Baby G to Boo at the Zoo, and this weekend we’ll take the little girls trick or treating with friends in the neighborhood. C is going to be Tinkerbell and Baby G will be rocking her first Halloween as a bunch of Concord grapes. (E and J are at their Dad’s this weekend, which is good for them because their Dad and stepmom are waaaay better at the whole Halloween thing than I am).

In honor of Halloween weekend, here are a few of my blog posts from Halloweens past:

2009 – Frightening encounters in the office park

2005 – The year of the Halloween gourds

Please visit HenryGranju.Org

Jon and I are using Baby G as our human guinea pig in an ongoing sociological experiment in gender identification. But I can’t quite figure out the results. That’s what I blogged about at Babble last night.

Please visit HenryGranju.Org

I don’t know if you’ve seen this Gawker story in which some anonymous jerk of a guy spills all about his single semi-hookup with rightwing Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, but when I read it, I felt nauseated.

I am no fan of O’Donnell’s politics (HUGE UNDERSTATEMENT) and I don’t think she’s qualified to be a U.S. Senator. However, this Gawker piece, in which the guy discusses how the two of them drank a few beers together over the course of an entire evening out on the town, and then made out/fooled around in his bed for a few hours afterward is just garbage.

O’Donnell has made a big deal in her political campaigning about how she doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse until she gets married. That’s obviously her own business, but she also wants to get into your business and mine by suggesting that government should legislate with the aim of making sure none of the rest of us do the deed until we’re hitched either. Given this preachy stance, Gawker played this story up for all it’s worth, suggesting with the headline, “I had a one night stand with Christine O’Donnell” that they are revealing some major act of hypocrisy on her part.

In fact, however, the obnoxious first person accounting from the anonymous asshat who says he went on a single date with her three years ago – and whom Gawker admits to paying “in the low four figures” for the story and photos – actually tells the tame tale of a woman who DID NOT have sexual intercourse during what Gawker describes tantalizingly as a “one night stand.”

So a 40 year old single woman had 5 or 6 beers while out for an evening, and then fooled around with her date before they parted ways. Big deal. So what? The point of this story was clearly to sexually humilate O’Donnell, with the jerk doing the kissing and telling actually commenting graphically and in a particularly ugly, misogynist way about the state of O’Donnell’s pubic hair.

This story is sexist garbage of the worst kind. It’s an attempt to keep an outspoken woman with whom the Gawker editors happen to disagree politically in her place by shaming her publicly in the most sexist way possible. If a male candidate went on a date with someone three years ago, had a few beers, and then made out with his date – fairly predictable behavior for single adults – would this be of interest to anyone? Would the state of his pubic hair (or his penis size, or his erectile dysfunction, etc ) be something Gawker would allow to be written about in a graphic and negative way? I am guessing no.

I am very disappointed to see progressive friends passing this story around today and making fun of O’Donnell. Women in particular need to denounce this trashy, sexist piece, and I am proud to see that the National Organization for Woman has done just that.

This kind of nasty tripe is why so many smart, good people are deciding against running for office. This story is frightening to potential women candidates in particular – women in both parties. The message is that if you run for office and a particular media outlet of either political persuasion doesn’t agree with your views, they will humilate and shame you publicly, using your personal sexual history to make you look like a sexually aggressive, yet undesirable drunken slut.

I am really sorry this happened to Ms. O’Donnell.

(But I still hope very much that she loses the election)

Please visit HenryGranju.Org

I just love this photo taken last weekend of in Bell Buckle of G, age 16 weeks, with her great-grandmother.

G is my grandmother’s youngest – and almost certainly last – great grandchild.

Henry was my grandmother’s first great-grandchild, and the two of them absolutely adored one another. She played a huge role in his life.

She told me last weekend that when she gets to heaven, she’ll look after Henry for me until I get there.

Please visit HenryGranju.Org