I cleaned out a bunch..

of paper..yeah, Perry fixed my shredder and helped me get rid of a bunch of receipts and things that can not safely be thrown in the trash unless destroyed.. Filled up a big trash bag with shreds and the rest is better organized. This makes me happy.

all for me? ....

Perry made me this Halloween lamp. Isn't it cute? I saw some metal outdoor ones at Hobby Lobby, loved them but they were $104.50 each..Ouch! Perry left a paper on the table with a circle drawn on it and asked me to make a jack-o-lantern face on it...Then he made this... Perry has a very creative mind and I love it.

Today, I got these in the mail from Norma..three Halloween Scrapped pages..What a wonderful surprise..Thanks, Norma..I love them.

A present to myself. Shelf sitter skeletons that see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. A good example to follow. Can you believe thay came with glue dots to attach to your shelf..bad idea! Perry made me a base to attatch them too. He is so handy.

Halloween of 1995

Papa with Nick and Lauren serving trick-or-treaters...not very flattering pose of Papa..Lol

Lauren as Pebbles Flintstone..Mouth is full of candy.

Papa gives Lauren a fresh baked Halloween cookie

Nick is ooooooo Darth Vader

Darth Vader, unmasked

Yes, I think our Dad was an elder....

Titus 1:6-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

⁶ An elder must live a blameless life. He must be faithful to his wife,^[a] and his children must be believers who don’t have a reputation for being wild or rebellious. ⁷ For an elder^[b] must live a blameless life. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered; he must not be a heavy drinker,^[c] violent, or dishonest with money.
⁸ Rather, he must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must love what is good. He must live wisely and be just. He must live a devout and disciplined life. ⁹ He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong.


during my morning devotions this was part of the day's reading. I read it and thought...Wow! Dad was an elder..at least he had the qualifications of one..Perry's life meets these qualifications, too. They both have taught a lot by example.

What! You, too?...

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.'" (C.S. Lewis)

My husband is home for the...

next two days..right now he is asleep in his recliner. I may call him on his cel so he will talk to me?

Our water is turned off today until 5pm...they are still working on our street. Will it ever be finished?

My Kindle crashed Saturday. But a nice man at Amazon.com helped me reset, and update it through my pc..so all is well. It crashed because I had not kept it updated. I was 3 behind. I am working to get all my books in catagories. I must get a wireless router. I am so proud of my Kindle but I want a Kindle Fire.

I got a Keurig one cup pot...loving it. I want to buy some cocoa and tea K-cups..try various kinds of flavored coffee. Some of the ones that came with my unit are good but very, very strong..finding myself liking the body of the brew. Loved the tea samples but have already plowed through them. You can also get cider k-cups..yes, I want to try them.


I am dragging, my blood sugar is too high, always...never sleep anymore, so stay tired. Am anxious about the coming holidays...already got the tax statements on the house, ugh!


But most important...
I miss everyone...

just for fun...

Wacky Halloween Definitions ....

 Boogieman:
Guy who passes time at a stoplight picking his nose.


Coffin:
What you do when you get a piece of popcorn stuck in your throat.


Frankenstein:
Hot dog and a mug of beer


Full Moon:
What your repairman reveals when he bends over to fix your fridge.


Goblin:
How you eat the Snickers Bars you got for Halloween.


Invisible Man:
What a guy becomes when there's housework to be done.


Jack O' Lantern:
An Irish pumpkin.


Jack the Ripper:
What Jack does to his lottery tickets after losing each week.


Mummy:
Who kisses the boo-boo after you scrape your knee.


Pumpkin Patch:
What a pumpkin wears when trying to quit smoking.


Skeleton:
Any super model.


Vampire Bat:
What Dracula hits a baseball with.


Zombie:
What you look like before that first cup of morning coffee.

gotta love it...

The Twelve Days of Halloween


(Sung to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas)
On the 1st day of Halloween, my true love sent to me, An owl in an old dead tree.
On the 2nd day of Halloween, my true love sent to me, 2 Trick or Treaters...,
On the 3rd day of Halloween,...3 Black Cats…
On the 4th day of Halloween,...4 Skeletons…
On the 5th day of Halloween,...5 Googly ghosts...
On the 6th day of Halloween,...6 Goblins Gobbling…
On the seventh day of Halloween,...7 Pumpkins Glowing…
On the eighth day of Halloween,...8 Monsters Shrieking, …
On the ninth day of Halloween,...9 Ghosts a Booing…
On the tenth day of Halloween,...10 Ghouls a Groaning…
On the Eleventh day of Halloween...11 Masks a Leering….
On the Twelfth day of Halloween...12 bats a flying...

I wish I had known this when my kids were little..they would have loved it...

Five little pumpkins....

Five little pumpkins
Sittin' on a gate
First one said:
Oh my, it's getting late
Second one said:
There are witches in the air
The third one said:
But we don't care
The fourth one said:
Let's run and run and run
The fifth one said:
I'm ready for some fun
Ooh, and in went the wind and out went the light
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight

Our favorite Halloween recipe...

Ghosts in the Graveyard

Prep Time:

15 min

Total Time:

1 hr 15 min

Makes:

18 servings, about 1/2 cup each

What You Need!

2 pkg. (3.9 oz. each) JELL-O Chocolate Instant Pudding

3 cups  cold milk

1 tub (12 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed, divided

15   OREO Cookies, crushed (about 1-1/2 cups)

Assorted decorations: 3 oblong sandwich Cookies, decorating gel, 5 candy pumpkins, 10 candy corn pieces, gummy worms, can make grass from flattened green gumdrops

Make It!

BEAT pudding mixes and milk in large bowl with whisk 2 min. Let stand 5 min. Stir in 3 cups COOL WHIP and half the cookie crumbs. Spread into 13x9-inch dish; sprinkle with remaining crumbs.

REFRIGERATE 1 hour. Meanwhile, decorate sandwich cookies with decorating gel to resemble tombstones.

INSERT decorated cookies into top of dessert just before serving. Add candies. Drop large spoonfuls of remaining COOL WHIP onto dessert to resemble ghosts.

                                                                                       Nick & Lauren 
                                                                                       Halloween 1998

A vintage Halloween poem...

MAKING JACK O' LANTERNS

Just take a golden pumpkin
Of quite the largest size,
Cut all 'round the stem, just so,
Scrape out the inside below,
And cut two holes for eyes.
And now fix a nose beneath,
And such a great big mouth with teeth,
And you've a jack-o'-lantern!

Then fix a tallow candle,
Just big enough to light,
And when it flickers, see him blink,
And when it flares up, see him wink
And smile so broad and bright.
This is the jolliest sort of a fellow,
With cheery face so round and yellow,
This funny jack-o'-lantern.

-Anonymous

Please pray for me....

I want to lose 20 pounds before Christmas. I have been feeling so bloaty, achy, back aches,  ..and all around miserable. My skin hurts! This is not a vanity thing. I cannot breathe and stay jittery...Thank you

about the grands photo of Nana and Nick...

Norma posted....this is the book Mom bought Nick when he was about 3. That would be 1993. It was loved and read until it had to be patched with scotch tape and if you look close you can see a bit of nibbling on it. I am so glad I still have it. I invested much time reading it. I think this is the book in the picture. You'll also note it is the Gingerbread Cat...not GIngerbread Man. Certain pages of the book were laugh out loud moments to Nick and he laughed uncontrollably at them, .... everytime.

Just us sisters....

"A perfect sister I am not,

 but thankful for the ones I've got.”"

Author: unknown

Christmas 2009

This is delish.....

Chocolate Cobbler - pictured is Perry's birthday cobbler 9/13/2011

Ingredients

- 2 sticks butter Batter - 1 1/4 c sugar - 1 1/2 c self rising flour – I used Bisquick - 1 tsp vanilla - 3/4 c milk CHOCOLATE LAYER - 1 c sugar - 6 heaping Tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened) - 2 c boiling water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a 9x13 glass baking dish, melt the two sticks of butter in the oven.

2. Meanwhile in a bowl, mix together the 1 1/4cups of sugar, flour, vanilla and milk. Once the butter is melted pour the batter over the butter in the glass baking dish, but do not stir.

3. In a separate bowl mix together the cocoa and remaining sugar.

4. Sprinkle cocoa/sugar mixture on top of batter. Do not stir.

5. Pour the 2 cups of boiling water on top of that (don't stir) and bake for 30-45 minutes. I bake mine until I have a nice golden brown crust.


6. Serve warm but, also good cold. Great with ice cream or whipped cream. 

I made this for Perry's birthday this year...soo easy. Just follow the directions. It tastes as if you took a piece of chocolate fudge pie and mashed the crust and filling together. Just had to share it. I warn you it looks like you are making a mess but it is so good.

on top of the media cabinet....

My arrangement on top of the media cabinet. I bought the little bobble head Trick or Treaters this year. I put the little girl witch shelf sitters in the spooky old trees. See the library window captured in the picture of Nick...ooohhh. When I first saw it.. I was spooked..then I saw it was just a reflection of that window. The big ghost in the top picture was a favorite of Nicks. It is a sheer stretchy fabric pulled over a wire frame. He said it is more like what a "real" ghost looks like...(hehe) no scary eyes or mouth with pointy teeth.

I just couldn't forget Snoopy...

Snoopy rocks while the Peanuts tune plays...it is so cute. I think this was the last animated purchase made and chosen by Nick and Lauren before they moved to Keller. Probably in 2002 or 2003.

What do you call a fat Jack-O-Lantern?

       a PLUMPkin.....

and so on, and so on...

This is my "Monster Mash"..at least that is the song it plays while the monsters dance in the graveyard. This would not work when I unpacked it but my handy husband took it apart and now ...it works! Nick and Lauren loved this and listened to it over, and over and over and over.... I added the mummy spider this year.

This is over Spooky Town....

On the shelf over Spooky Town I put these Halloween decorations. Paid homage to the old horror films...Frankenstein, Dracula, Wolfman, Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Mummy. I love those old gray movies, as Nick called them. Yes, of course I have them on dvd.

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin..

God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you.

He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff

-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc.   

Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.   

My ceramic jack-o-lantern figure. I have had this for at least 20 years. I have always assumed he was saying.... "WHAT?"

more halloween memories...

This is my Spooky Town. I don't remember when I bought the first of the lighted houses. It was at least 10 years ago. I added a few accessories this year. I display it in the window of my library. Yes, that is a tornado you see. This year I bought ghouls playing cards..it is lighted and a set of lighted jack-o-lanterns. If I were Norma I'd have the skill to make a panoramic picture of this scene..I don't.

Sometimes I laugh so hard....

tears run down my legs....

Another Halloween Memory....

This is pillow jack. He was bought when Nick was 3 (1993). It cradled his head for naps..later he was there for Lauren. He has been much loved through the years.

It's beginning to look a lot like....

Halloween. OOOO!

 The ghost lamp on the left was a birthday gift from Norma (probably 1979 or 1980) The pink haunted house was my first Halloween decoration from Perry, also 1979 or 1980. The skeleton in a tux was  chosen by Nick and Lauren in the late 90's. It twists to the tune of "Puttin' on the Ritz"..

"What kind of cake do you want?"....

Perry asked. I said "I want a poke cake."

 I requested yellow cake with raspberry jello and cream cheese frosting...that is what I got. Yum!

Yes, I am a Spark....

"Suffering is the tuition one pays for a character degree." - Richard M. Rayner, M.D., SparkPeople member

I belong to a diet group online called Sparks. I love to read the health articles and best of all it is free.....