Tuesday Tunes: This is Halloween!

      I couldn’t possibly let Tuesday Tunes pass me by this week.  With Halloween around the corner, everyone needs a little Marilyn Manson in their lives!!  So in the spirit of the coming holiday filled with candy, witches, goblins, and ghouls I hope you will enjoy this little tribute!

Brilliant Disguise

     This year for Halloween I am dressing up as a slightly overweight stay at home mom in the throes of mental-pause.  You guessed it; I will be going as myself which is scary enough!  It will be a brilliant disguise and no one will suspect.  I will be the one trailing after my two little goblins as they race from house to house begging for treats.  Without any doubt I will be wearing jeans, sweatshirt, and my Notre Dame jacket and struggling to keep warm and carrying a flashlight because above all else, I am a safety girl.  Dressed in layers is the ticket because by Halloween it is usually pretty cold here in northern Indiana.

           I used to love dressing up when I was a kid.  Besides the heaps of candy, it was the best part of Halloween.  If I were going to some Halloween party or getting some sweet treats out of the deal I might be tempted to dress up. Since my daughter and I resemble each other so closely, maybe, just maybe I could dress up too and trick or treat with them.  Just a fleeting thought.   But hey, even though I am only 5 ‘0 tall and about even in size with my daughter, I know that no one is going to pass out treats to a 45 year old.   Good sense will rule the day and I will sidetrack the fun and follow along behind lighting the way with my trusty flashlight like a good mommy.  If I want candy, I will bypass all the work and buy my own and sneak it out when I need a candy fix from my desk drawer.  Why, because that is the way I roll.

          

Focus on This: Shutterbug Choice

 

The Aftermath of Halloween

A Halloween Moment

It is the last day of BlogFest 2012, and what a journey it has been!!  Today’s host is Angela Tjong from Journey of Life.  Today she challenged me to describe one moment in my life.

     The kids arrived home from school.  Besides homework, there was only one other thing on the agenda.  With Halloween the next day, the time had finally arrived to carve the pumpkins.  We searched the internet for free carving patterns and the kids decided which design they wanted.   After much deliberation both kids picked free designs from the Pumpkin Masters website, and I printed out the patterns.  I had saved all the pumpkin carving tools from previous years, and my daughter and I were on a mission to find them.  They had been washed and stored in a drawer since last year.  Sure enough, that is where we found them scattered between two different drawers.  The only thing I didn’t find was the tool that is used to poke holes in the pumpkin and transfer the pattern.  Being the resourceful type I grabbed a knitting needle, and we were ready to get the party started.

        I took great pleasure in using my largest butcher knife to attack the pumpkin and make a lid.  Then it was up to the kids to dig out the pumpkin guts and sort out the seeds for later.  I began the tradition of saving the pumpkin seeds and baking them for an after trick or treat snack.   Carefully and painstakingly my daughter and I took turns poking holes to transfer the patterns we had chosen and printed out.  When all the slimy guts had been disposed of and every last seed had been placed in a paper towel strainer to dry, I preceded to tackle the tedious job of carving.  While I had first assumed the designs they had chosen looked fairly easy, I soon discovered they were a lot harder than they first appeared, tedious, and time consuming.  I was tired and hungry and ready to be done with the entire project, but I persevered.  For the first time ever, I dreaded carving the second pumpkin after the first was finished and thanked sunny Je$us I hadn‘t had more than 2 kids.

          My son soon abandoned the project to watch TV.  Only my daughter stayed and started supper per my instructions.  By the time the last pumpkin was ready for the front porch, supper was well on the way to being done.  Thank G0d for that sweet girl of mine!  My son chose a “grim reaper” pattern, and my daughter chose “Icabod’s Fate”.  For the life of me I couldn’t see the grim reaper when I looked at my son’s pumpkin.  It depressed the hell out of me.  After the pumpkins were carved and the battery operated tea lights were placed inside, we donned winter coats and gloves and ventured out into the night to see how I did.  It wasn’t until I was standing in the cold night air in a freezing drizzle that the grim reaper appeared to me.  Then I was amazed and felt redeemed in my skills as a pumpkin carver!  I had done well after all!  The glowing tea lights brought the pumpkins to life.

           I have carved pumpkins for my children since their very first Halloween.  It didn’t matter that the first Halloween’s found them lying in a bouncy seat on the kitchen table, they were still there and accounted for.  Over the years they have participated more and more in this yearly ritual.  Although I was tired and hungry last night, I persevered because this moment would be one we would all store away among the most precious memories of the journey through our lives.  The laughter and chatter would fade, but the memories would remain.  It would be one we would each take out, dust off, and remember each future Halloween as we carved even more pumpkins.  After all, it’s tradition until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Memories of Halloween

Welcome to the 25th day of BlogFest!!  Can you believe we have already made it to almost the end of the month?  Today I am your host and challenge you to write about:

 "Your favorite Halloween Memories"

     What are my favorite Halloween memories??  I have so many it is hard to pinpoint one particular favorite so I am going to touch on  many because I can!    Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays.    Every October my mom would dig out the Halloween decorations and deck the halls with pumpkins, ghosts, black cats, and witches.   When it became fashionable to string orange and purple lights to celebrate Halloween she did that too.  She always took me trick or treating and since most of my relatives lived far apart, a lot of the witching hour of trick or treat was spent on the road racing from house to house.  I could always count on a huge Hershey bar and some money at my Grandma’s house and every year looked forward to the baked Halloween cookies my aunt made which were frosted in orange and decorated with candy corn, marshmallows, and chocolate morsels. 

       One year the Oak Ridge Boys were in town for Halloween and my mom and I dressed up and went to the concert.  Although there was a costume contest, neither one of us won.  We had a great time anyways.  I dressed as a court jester and my mom was a classy witch complete with sequined black dress, black high heels, jewelry, and pointy black hat.  I will never forget when we rushed home for some reason that afternoon  what transpired.  Although I have shared this little story before, it is simply too memorable not to share again since it is one of my favorite memories.  My mom flew into the drive way like a bat out of hell, jumped out of the car, and squatted on the front lawn and took a pi$$ while I laughed myself silly.  I can only imagine what the passing traffic and the folks waiting in the drive up at the bank across the street thought about seeing a witch pissing on the lawn on Halloween.  If you got to go, you got to go.  

     Once I became an adult and worked, Halloween was made even more fun  when we were encouraged to dress up and bring in treats to enjoy throughout the day.  While I dressed up when I worked at a grocery store as a cat, my favorite memories were of when I worked at the local library.  All the employees dressed up and in my department, we brought in lots of food so we could party and graze all day while we worked.  The children's department always hosted a Halloween party and then would parade all the kids throughout the library.  They were as thrilled to see our costumes as we were to see theirs.

       Since my own kids have arrived on the scene I have continued my mom’s example of making Halloween memorable.  Every year I have made sure my kids are made up in costume whether bought or hand made.   One year I made both kids pirate outfits and took them to the town Halloween party.  We played games, drank apple cider, ate doughnuts, and collected candy at the fire house.  We took a haunted hayride into the cemetery where we encountered spooks, goblins, and the headless horseman who rushed at the wagon and scared the be Je$us out of all of us.

        Every year since I have known my husband I have visited the Pumpkin Fantasy Land in Ligonier, Indiana to explore their new pumpkin creations, a hayride to the pumpkin patch, and to find my way through the straw mazes.  Before going home we picked the perfect pumpkins which I will take great delight in knifing, degutting, and carving a whimsical face.  We always save the pumpkins seeds which I bake for a snack, and this year I plan to brew some pumpkin juice to wash them down with.

         Like me, my kids favorite memories include walking through the neighborhood and loading up on tons of candy.  The best part of Halloween is dressing up, the candy, and the food until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Trick or Treat!!

Date with the Boogey Man- BFF 136

       Over the weekend I took my kids to a Halloween party hosted by our neighborhood fire department.  The kids dressed up in their costumes and away we went.   We discovered that the fire department was decorated with spooky spider webs and symbols of Halloween.  Within the interiors volunteers served up hot dogs, popcorn, and apple cider and we took full advantage of it!  Free food?? Count me in!! 

        There was a bouncy house, a pumpkin painting station, and a massive bonfire.  They even gave out free reflective bracelets to the kids.  Although my son begged to be allowed to try out the bouncy house,  I refused his request.  Seemed like a good way to get trampled to me.  The bouncy house was filled to capacity with jumping screaming kids as it was.  I knew if I let him go in, he would never want to come out and the whole evening would be spoiled in the blink of an eye.  Bouncy houses always remind me of a smaller version of the play land zoo of screaming wild kids at McDonald's.  Kids go in happy, and come out kicking, screaming, and throwing a pi$$y fit because once in, they never want to leave.  Personally I did not want to deal with that kind of self inflicted drama on that particular night.  I was there to have fun!!

       What really drew the crowds was the hayride through the haunted woods and the line was testimony to its popularity.  Everything from ghouls, Mario from Nintendo gaming fame, to the illustrious Harry Potter surrounded us.  A pair of ghosts moved through the never ending line handing out treats to the kids.  Despite the droves of people that lined up for their chance to be terrorized by unknown forces and boogey men in the woods, the line moved fairly quickly due to at least 4 tractor pulled wagons.   

           When it was finally our turn we climbed up and took our place on the provided hay bales.   We could barely contain our excitement!  We didn’t know what awaited us as the wagon moved slowly into the pitch  black night.  As we approached the woods we came to a lonely set of railroad tracks with warning signals flashing.  As our wagon crept across the tracks the blinding light of an approaching train drew closer giving everyone a jolt.  Zombies, goblins, and boogey men rushed up to the wagon out of the darkness eliciting screams of terror and nervous laughter.  One scary fellow stood along the path, and I could have swore he was not real…when suddenly he darted toward the wagon.  He scared the living be Jesus out of me.  I am so glad I didn’t have to pee at the time because I would have peed my pants for sure!   Instead of screaming…my reaction was to bust into a fit of giggles.  Everyone else was screaming and boogey men and women appeared at every turn.  Zombies approached moaning and bubbling cauldrons could be seen in the distance.  At one point we passed an abandoned graveyard and were startled to discover  its inhabitants busting out of the ground.   Spooky spider webs hung down from above and blood covered boogey men darted from out of the darkness and from behind trees grabbing at the wagon‘s occupants.  


            As we approached the edge of the woods and inched closer to safety one zombie grabbed onto the wagon directly in front of us and demanded to be fed.  “Feed me!!” he begged in a ghostly voice.  The lady sitting beside me was tempted to throw her child’s pumpkin pail at him, but she couldn’t pry it out of her kids hands.  

          As terrified as my kids have been of the things that go bump in the night in the past, both were biting at the bit to get on that wagon and head off into the night to face the boogey man head on in the spirit of Halloween.  It was a night of pure Halloween fun and I applaud the Concord Township Fire Department for their efforts!!  A big thank you to all the people that made the party a reality.  We had a blast.   Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a truckers wife.

Thrills and Chills: Could it be Satan??

      In the spirit of Halloween, an experience from my past came to mind that provided me with more thrills and chills than I could have bargained for.   Shortly after I first met my husband we went to our neighborhood Kmart to wander the store and see what was new.  Since we are both big kids at heart we were drawn to the game aisle and soon found ourselves eyeballing a Ouija board.  Although I had tried using a Ouija board before with my mom, my future husband never had and was soon eager to buy it and rush it to my house to give it a try.

       We sat side by side on the living room couch balancing the Ouija board between us on our laps.  We carefully placed our fingertips on the included plastic indicator.  Nervously we giggled as we decided what we would ask the talking board first.  We had both lost loved ones who we had been extremely close to and I think we both desperately wanted to make contact with each of them.  Not surprising then that the first question posed to the mystical board was “Is there anyone who would like to speak to us?”  After a brief hesitation the plastic indicator began to slowly move towards “yes”.  

         We held our breaths and asked the next obvious question: “who?” and the plastic indicator went wild and began to swirl across the surface stopping  at each letter in quick succession.  We read the letters out loud as they were revealed.  S - A - T-  A- N.   As the indicator finished the word it shot off the board right under our finger tips.  At the precise moment that our brains registered that the devil himself wanted to make our acquaintance a brisk wind blew through the living room.  From another room of the house,  my Persian cat Alicia May howled, screeched, and then raced down the center of the living room to the kitchen as if the devil himself was chasing her.  Pieces of paper flew in her wake.

 Satan!!! Holy hell!  We freaked out!  The Ouija board crashed to the floor as we jumped up scared $hitle$$.  The fact that Satan wanted to have a cozy chat with us scared the living be Je$us out of us.  The instant gut reaction was to get that crazy board out of the house NOW.   We rushed outside the back door grabbing a box of matches as we raced to the burning barrel which sat unsuspecting by a huge tree that bordered the property.  My dad had recently had the barrel dumped and as we threw the board, indicator, and box into the barrel we realized that the barrel was completely empty except for what we had just added.   My better half lit a match and threw it in the barrel.  We fully expected for the contents to burn slowly, so when flames immediately shot up into the tree tops burning hot and bright…we freaked out just a little more.   What in G0d’s name would cause the fire to burn so hot and so high?  Could it be Satan??  We fled to the safety of the house and watched the fire mesmerized as the flames shot from the barrel to the sky.

          After a short while the fire stopped as suddenly as it started and we went back out to the barrel to peer inside.  Every trace of the Ouija board was gone !   I am not sure what we expected when we bought that Ouija board, but I guarantee we got more than we bargained for.  That one incident made a believer out of me that a Ouija board was nothing to mess with and I have never attempted to again.  I learned from that experience to allow fate to take its course and once folks are dead it is best to let them  rest in peace.   If you go looking for the devil, you will surely find him.  Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.

Witchy Woman - BFF 135

     My mother loved Halloween.  She loved to dress up, decorate the house, take me trick or treating when I was a kid, and hand out Halloween candy.  We never got very many trick-or-treaters, but for those few that decided to darken our door Halloween night my mom bought bags of all her favorite candies and filled Halloween themed treat bags.  We literally had candy coming out of our ears!!!  Didn’t really have to go trick-or-treating, but we did anyway.

       One year when I was in my twenties my mom and I dressed up to attend an Oak Ridge Boys concert on Halloween night downtown at the old Elco Theatre .  My mom chose that year to dress as a witch and yours truly dressed as a court jester.  My mom really wasn’t satisfied with the plain Jane witch costume she bought. It wasn’t her and it certainly didn’t have enough sparkle to wear to see her favorite singing group.  Not only that we were sitting on the front row, knew the boys personally, and in my mother’s opinion it would never do to look like a dumpy frumpy witch in front of them. 


       She decided her witch costume needed sequins and glitz, and even suggested I should spice mine up too.  She added black sequins to her witch’s dress,  wore spiked 3 inch high heels, adorned herself with sparkly jewelry, and the classic black witches hat.  She looked like a rich witch from the right side of the tracks.  We both looked pretty good.  Unfortunately neither one of us won the top costume prize…that went to some guy who came in a garbage can and covered himself with trash…seriously.

         It wasn’t the fact that we went to a concert that night, or the fact we rubbed elbows with the Oak Ridge Boys before and after the concert.  Those details have faded with time.  What I remember best about my witchy mother was what she did when we got home.  You have to understand…we lived across the street from a very busy bank at the time with an equally busy ATM machine and drive up windows.  I don’t remember why we made a trip home…maybe we forgot something.  That must have been it…because it was still light out and the bank was swarming with cars .  My mom peeled rubber into the driveway stirring up a dust cloud in her wake, jumped out of the car, and heisted her witchy skirt to her thighs, squatted and took a very satisfying pi$$ right there on the front lawn in front of G0d, sunny Je$u$, and everyone waiting their turn at the bank!!!

          At the time, I laughed my a$$ off at the sight of a Halloween witch on Halloween taking a fresh pi$$ in full view of everyone and his brother. It was hysterical…witch hat and all.  I can still see my mother with a look of contented bliss and relief clouding her features that I don’t recall seeing before or since that precise moment.  It was peeing at it’s finest.  You know the kind….where you have to go so BAD and finally unleash the fury and dump enough urine to fill half of Lake Michigan.  She simply couldn’t have waited to unlock the door, dash down the hall, and use the bathroom.  It was either squat and pee on the lawn as G0d intended or pee her pants and I can tell you my mom had no intention of doing that!  At the time, I am sure she didn’t care one iota that half the free world was watching.

      Even this many years later, I have to chuckle at this priceless Halloween memory of my mom.  I am afraid it is a memory that will be ingrained in my brain until the day I die.  Much better than pi$$ing your witch duds on the biggest bewitching night of the year.    Until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.