Tuesday Tell All: Ghosts of Halloween Past

I am a girl who loves Halloween. It is one of my favorite times of the year and is almost my favorite holiday, just barely notched out of the top spot by Christmas. It started when I was small. I loved all of it; the pumpkins, the costumes, the candy, the decorations. It was a day I truly looked forward to.

Rich can't understand my fascination. He thinks any real holiday would give you a day off of work. Halloween regretfully does not. But even without the break from your job, there are so many FUN things to do. I love to dress up. Growing up my mom made a witch costume for me and I wore it for years. At first I had a green face (the original Elpheba!) and then my mom got really creative. She started using egg yolk on my face which made me yellow and looked like old crackly skin. It itched like crazy, but looked good. One year I got to wear my mom real kimono from Japan (1988), and then next year I was a 50's girl and wore my Grandma Nance's old sunglasses and my dad's letterman jacket (1989). Such fun memories.

Over the last few years, I've been a cat and a witch which is fun and easy. I really love my two hats that I bought from Hallmark and Pottery Barn Kids. I love going to costume parties. I had my first real all girl Halloween party at my house when I was in seventh grade. My mom got helium balloons, set up games, had treats and doughnuts and I loved every second of it.I love to host pumpkin carving parties. I make soup, cookies and have a few Halloween games. My senior year of high school we went to the Masquerade dance dressed up at people from Payson. They were a rival city and their school colors were green. Who gets more creative than that?

I love carving pumpkins. I love the smell, the slime and the finished product. The first year we were married I saw the Pumpkin Masters carving patterns and tools and I'm now a devout fan. They make carving worth your time and effort. I love trying to do the difficult ones and take far too many pictures of the end product. I also have so many of the tools from 10 years of collecting that our entire ward could carve a pumpkin with our supplies. I threw my first big pumpkin bash in 2000, when Trey was one year old and we lived in our condo in Provo, Utah. We invited our brothers and sisters over and I knew right then, that was something I wanted to make as a tradition. Over the years we have had so many wonderful people come over with pumpkins in hand. We would feast on cookies, goodies, soup and made some seriously incredible pumpkin masterpieces! My favorite was when Todd brought over his medical tools to help aid in the carving process. It was a sight to see!I love trying out creepy recipes (ice hand for the pumpkin carving party)
and baking tasty Halloween treats with the kids.I love going to the Louisville zoo Halloween party. The kids dress up (so do I!) and they have the zoo all decorated. It's not that they give the best candy (they don't), but the atmosphere is incredible and you should see the elaborate sets they put up. There is the Wizard of Oz, a pirate ship, huge (like 3 story high) blow up dinosaurs, Snow White, a castle and so many other little sections. It's been a tradition I love and I'll miss when we leave. I love going to pumpkin patches, going on hayrides and eating caramel apples. I love Huber Farm in Starlight, Indiana and it was a perfect fall event. Since we have been here in Lexington, we haven't driven up, but we have been to a place called Boyd's Orchard that can't compare, but it still fun, especially for the kids. We went to Boyd's last night for FHE activity with my dear friend Tiffany Rosenhan and her little Savannah. Great place for pictures, not great pumpkins! (Note Brynn- I don't know if a real family picture is in our future for a while!)I love going to haunted houses. When I was a young women, our ward went to a haunted house in Orem. It was at the State Mental Hospital. OK, that fact alone made it a lot scarier. My mom and I were the first in our group and somehow got way ahead of the other girls and ended up being alone and chased through nearly the entire thing until we finally caught up the group before us, which didn't help much since they could still get us. That was SO much fun. When I was in 9th grade a huge group of friends got together and went to a Haunted Maze type thing. It wasn't as scary, but it was still fun. One of my favorite first dates was to a haunted house and it was fun because you got to cuddle and hold your date's hand in the dark. When I was engaged to Rich and he was off in California I took my little brother Jeff and his best friend Luke to a haunted house and then to TGI Friday's. That was a great night too.
I love happy Halloween decorations and it's a real test of will power when I see the Halloween displays up in stores. I not a fan of the the skeleton, blood and grim reaper nightmare stuff. I love cute pumpkins, witches and ghosts. Even in college when I lived in Hawaii, Amanda and I decorated our door and room!I love to 'Boo' people. It's fun little way to bring a little surprise and happiness into someone life. We got Boo'd Sunday night. It seems to have come full circle! I love that Rich's birthday is in early October and that the house is all decorated up fun in his pictures. Decorating the house is a day I truly look forward to and enjoy. This picture is from Rich's birthday in 1997. And I had to put up this picture. It is the only time I can remember (besides my mom's darling scarecrow outfit when I was very young) my parents dressing up. They went to a costume party and I think either Greg or I took the photo. It was probably in 1988 or earlier. My favorite part is even on Halloween, dressed up like a vampire, my Dad still wore his scrubs. I love it!Happy Halloween!

Congratulations Boston Red Soxs!

WAY TO GO SOXS! I was so happy that Boston came away with another victory last night and swept the Colorado Rockies to win The 2007 World Series! It was so fun to have them play so well and know the curse it totally, forever broken.

My entire life I have been a baseball fan. I love the game. There is nothing like a Saturday afternoon at a ball park, enjoying being outside, visiting with friends, eating popcorn and a hot dog and watching some baseball. I played baseball as a child and loved playing catch with my dad.

I have so many wonderful memories of playing softball, but far better ones watching it as a fan. I spent months of my life at ball games throughout the years. My mom was even over the Salem Snack Shack one summer.

My brother Brad had a real gift for the game. We traveled around Utah watching him and his team and they won the UBBA state title. We even went to Anchorage, Alaska for a tournament when I was dating Rich.

In high school Brad was a great pitcher. I laugh when I think of going to the cop's house in the neighborhood and having him clock Brad's throws. I am so proud of the fact that I would at times catch for him in the backyard. Yes, I should have had a face mask and a chest protector, but I never missed any important ones that would have caused any bodily harm, so all was well.

Now back to the Soxs. We traveled up north in the spring of 2005 to visit Rich's sister Heather and her husband Kris when they lived in Boston while Kris attended Harvard Business School. I loved the city and all it had to offer. I loved the historical places, the buildings, the river, the museums, but I loved one place most of all. I finally got to visit Fenway Park. It was a magical moment. When I first saw the Citgo sign that you can always see when you watch their games on TV, my heart started to race.

I knew we were close and I felt like a little kid waiting for a big surprise to arrive. It was as beautiful as I had imagined and even trickier to find, but we parked our car (possibly illegally) and walked around the field. I was dying to get in, so we planned a tour of the field later in the week. The day arrived and I was so excited. I sported my new Boston hat I had gotten earlier and we saw it all. I loved every second. We got to go sit down on the first row and when know one was looking, I grabbed a handful of the warning track type red rocks to take home with me. They were having an very early batting practice for that night's game and when I ball was hit foul, our tour guide grabbed it and gave it to Trey. You couldn't ask for a better souvenir!

We had hoped to buy tickets to the game, but when we checked online, they were outrageous in price. And we weren't willing to pay scalpers prices at the field. We had given up home of attending. As we toured the facilities, Kris met up with us and we talked about how they often release tickets just before the game. We got in a very, very long line and waited and waited and waited. And it paid off. We got our tickets at face value and sat in the lower section (but under the overhang) just up past first base. It was something I'll never forget. Here we were with Rich's sister Heather, Kris and their baby girl Kamae and our three boys at a Boston Red Soxs game. We had hot dogs, popcorn, ice cream and cheered the entire game.And when they sang "Sweet Caroline" during the 7th inning stretch, I knew I was a true Soxs fan for life. It was one of my favorite memories ever!I am very happy that they'll get to put up a new banner next to this one with the year 2007 in bold blue.

Go Soxs!

Not so happy things.

I have been very good about posting all the things that make me happy, but we have gone through a wave of disasters lately. I wanted to jot them down, so I keep an honest and accurate record of our real lives. And so my kids know that no matter what they remember about growing up (or how mad I got) I still loved them despite the large amount of items they tried to break, dismantle or destroy!

1. The girls flushed a bar of soap down the downstairs toilet last week. I have had to plunge it far too many times to record while waiting for the plumber to come home from a trip. Hope he calls tomorrow.

2. The girls can now climb onto Trey's top bunk bed. These made for some scary moments, and now have the ladder safely stored under the bed.

3. Trey threw a gooey, stick eye ball from Trunk-or-Treat on the kitchen ceiling this morning. After I told him to NEVER throw those things and get it down, I turned around to find two more stuck next to it and the first one mushed black all over. Look out; one angry mom on the loose! After much scrubbing and a layer of paint I can still see the greasy marks. Not happy about this one at all!

4. The Berber carpet downstairs near the back door has slowly been shredding by the quick hands of two little girls named Brynn and Kaitlyn. It now is covered by clear packing tape until I find someone to come and re-stretch it.

5. The van's rear windshield wiper is broken after Josh decided to wiggle it until it nearly fell off. Still deciding who to call or where to take it. Would like to be able to see out the back this winter.


6. After putting things away last night and going down to check the broken toilet, my Bev Doolittle painting fell off the wall, with no one close by, crashed to the floor, broke the glass and cracked the edges of the frame. Need to call around to various framing stores to get estimates.

7. Found more things than I care to describe inside the heater vent in the kitchen.

8. Our largest Hermit Crab died last week. Our backyard was muddy mush after getting rain for a week and couldn't go out to bury it outside, so I now have a dead crab wrapped in paper towel and a Ziploc in my freezer while I decide if I should just put it out with the trash tonight.

9. The girls’ bottles and diapers leaked in our bed this morning and Matt's PJ's were a bit damp when he woke up. Actually, he came down to the kitchen fully dressed at 6:30 AM which is never a good sign. Did three loads of laundry on the Sabbath.

10. Trey still has a 12 year old molar we have to get yanked and a spacer put in so we can straighten out his back permanent molar that is coming in. No clue who to call. Trey still doesn't know he needs it out. He probably, no, I should say WILL need to be sedated.

11. Discovering half a bag of Andes Mint Bits scattered all over the basement when Brynn snuck down for a little hidden chocolate. One bonus: Once I got them all up with the vacuum, it now smells like mint when you use it!

Well, there's my list.

To be fair, I should say that a few things have gone well. The warts have gone away with much prayer and nightly applications of Compound W. The van's car stereo went on the blitz for a month and would never really turn off (I just turned down the volume) and suddenly started working last week. We all got our flu shots, the cupboard hinge was just loose and not broken and no one has managed to break their arm THIS year.

I shouldn't complain. Sometimes when it rains it pours, but always after the storm clears, there is a beautiful sunset. That's what I'll keep reminding myself!

Trunk-Or-Treat

Tonight was our ward's Trunk-or-Treat and was held in the parking lot of our neighborhood pool. It was so nice to be a 30 second drive away instead of the long 20 minute trek to the building. The weather which had been cold, misty and miserable this morning at soccer, cleared up and we had a very pleasant night outside without coats or jackets.

After our fashion show in the basement a few weeks ago, we had all the costumes picked out, but it was still madness to get everyone ready on time. We had a full morning of soccer, splurged on lunch and then spent a hour digging the guts out of our pumpkins so we can carve them tomorrow. It would have been nice to get them cut out today, but there just wasn't time.

I spent an hour in the storage room digging through boxes looking for my witch fingers, wig and cape. I also found items to put in the back of our van to make it festive. When I came up from the basement, the kitchen had been slimed with pumpkin seeds while three little boys chased each other around with spoons. The girls had joined in the fun and all I can say was the house looked a bit blown up when we finally got out the door.

Trey decided to be the Hulk and wanted to spray his hair black and paint his face green. That was the hardest part of all the costumes, so I got lucky this year. Josh was Batman tonight, but said he'll be Superman on Halloween. Matt was Raphael Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.Brynn was a witch fairy. Too bad she didn't like her hat.Kaitlyn was a spider witch. She said no thank you to her hat too. We got the van all decorated. And even invited a few neighbors from our cul-de-sac to join in the fun. We didn't win any prizes for best car or costume, but we had hot chocolate, hot apple cider and doughnuts, so we felt like we had already won. It was a wonderful night and we are counting down the minutes until we can do it again on Wednesday.

Happy Halloween!

Lots of Little Friends

I had already made the boy's beds this morning and went back into their room to put away some laundry when I glanced at Josh's bed. What I saw made me laugh. When I make the bed or simply straighten out the bedspread after Josh has done it himself, I toss his ever growing pile of stuffed animal in a large heap and call it good.

I hadn't seen him go back in the room and tidy up the crew. I loved that husky was giving the bulldog a piggy back ride, that all the little puppies were in a neat row in the dog bed and that the three headed dragon was keeping watch over them all. The whole thing just made me smile. I see why Josh is always the first in bed and to fall asleep. He's got so many sweet friends to cuddle with.

Red Ribbon Week

This week was Red Ribbon Week at Veteran's Park Elementary School. It is a time the children learn about the dangers of using drugs improperly or illegally and promise to 'JUST SAY NO!'

The school selected some different and unique ways to show it.

Monday: Blue and White DayLet's be honest here, if your elementary school is having a blue and white day and the University of Kentucky cheerleaders and mascot are coming for an afternoon assembly, why don't we just call it what it is: UK Day! Oh how the die hard fans are eating this up. We were grateful that when Rich's brother Danny came out to visit last August (2006) we took a trip to Rupp Arena (where the UK basketball team plays) and got these great UK shirts that were on clearance for only $5.00 each! Who knew they could be so useful!

Tuesday: Picture Day Say Cheese! Thanks to Rich's Mom for the great new shirts. They were perfect and showed off their favorite colors. Let's just hope the hairspray held up through the rain and until they said cheese for real.

Wednesday: Wear your favorite jersey, uniform or shirt to show what you like to do instead of drugs. OK, the title was a bit long, but that really is what the note said. Josh had a hard time deciding if he should wear his ENTIRE baseball uniform, but in the end opted for just the shirt. Trey selected his orange (surprise) Suns shirt he got for Christmas, and Matt wore his Atlanta Brave T-ball uniform shirt.

Thursday: Wear Red DayRed, Red, Everywhere! Josh found some serious red to wear and the secret of the day were Matt's bright red baseball sock under the jeans. Trey wasn't going to wear red since he was going on a field trip to Fort Boonesbrough. He decided this shirt was fine, but stopped at putting on the undershirt. I was just trying to keep him warm during his day outside. Thankfully he finally agreed to wear the warmer coat instead of the jacket, but was still mumbling about it as he left.

They did not have the kids dress up on Friday. I guess they wanted them to focus on spelling tests and school.

With the boys dressing up this week, it made me think of a high school pep assembly we had when I was a senior for Red Ribbon Week. Yes, Red Ribbon Week. I think we had more assemblies than any other school I have heard of. And certain teachers would give you extra credit if you brought them Diet Coke or candy for the class. I loved it all. Now as a parent, I'm not so sure. But, I digress.

We had to come up with a cheer for the assembly. We used some moves we learned at cheer camp and came up it. "It's Hot. To Not. That's what we're finding out. That's why, we're Hot to Not." I still laugh at the thought of it all.

And if you didn't know... JUST SAY NO!