Cool Halloween Display

Some people in our city go all out every year and put up a really cool Halloween display. It's synchronized to spooky Halloween music on a certain station that you tune into when you pull up. We took the kids by a few nights ago and really enjoyed it! I tried to take some video but because it was so dark, the lighting was very poor and the video didn't really turn out so well, but here goes anyway:

This was the part of the display I liked the best and thought they did an exceptionally spooky job with (you can see it better if you click the little "Full Screen" button-looks like 4 little arrows--on the bottom right of the video):

Bill is so into Halloween, I was kind of afraid of giving him ideas! I think we'll leave the massive display to this family, they are clearly very good at it!

Mouse Motel

This is one of my all-time favorite things to do with a carved pumpkin...I don't know why but I just think it's so cute! And so easy too!

First Fire of the Season!

My in-laws have done an amazing amount of generous things for us over the years but this time of year I like to think one of the best gifts they've ever bestowed on us is the gas fireplace that I loooooove to light up on chilly nights! Tonight is the first time all fall it's finally been chilly enough and I couldn't wait to light that sucker up! Aaaaaaaaah fall, how I love thee...

Freaky Food and Monstow Teeth

I absolutely LOVE this time of year: I get to combine two of my most favorite things, baking and weird food. Another plus is that my stepkids get a huge kick out of the crazy things coming out of our kitchen! Last night was monster/mummy night:

Monster Teeth

Pizza Mummies

Mummy Cupcakes

The monster teeth remind me of a funny story about my stepson L...about this time last year we had taken them to Going Bonkers, and in one of those claw-to-get-treats arcade games he won a pair of cheap plastic vampire fangs. He called them "monstow teeth", in his cute little speech impediment where his R's sound like W's. He thought those things were the BOMB...unfortunately he set them down on the table with a bunch of used napkins and I accidentally threw them away with the trash. 

When we figured out what happened and I confessed he cried like his little heart was broken, and I felt like DIRT. He talked about the monstow teeth for days....he even started saying all he wanted for Christmas was monstow teeth. We were busy so couldn't replace them right away, but I felt so bad that I finally went out and found some replacements at a Halloween store and gave them to him...you would have thought I gave that kid a million bucks!! His eyes lit up like Christmas morning, and even though he didn't actually wear them very much, he carried those things around like a prized treasure for the longest time. He is such a funny little kid, he's so darn cute sometimes I can hardly stand it!

Back to the freaky food: these monster teeth and mummies are also so cute I can hardly stand it! Tasty, too!

Puppy Chow!

As I've posted before, I kind of have a thing for food that unexpectedly resembles other food. For your consideration today is the deliciously addictive little treat known as Puppy Chow:

Mmmm, who can resist its chocolately-peanut buttery goodness (although Bill has declared I am not allowed to make it anymore as his inability to Just Say No interferes with his caveman diet)....and it's soooo easy to make, too! Here's the recipe. Yum yum!

I HATE SPIDERS

In case I haven't said it before, I freaking hate hate hate hate HATE spiders. Despise them. With a huge purple passion. Not only are they scary and gross and vile, but my dad got very, very sick from a brown recluse bite several years ago. He was very, very lucky to have been in optimal health prior to the bite because it really knocked him for a loop, for several weeks.

Bill hates spiders a fraction of an inch as much as I do. But as I've posted before, he is ALL about Halloween, so a few days ago when I happened to see an almost comically fuzzy black-and-white spider near our fireplace, I thought for sure he was playing a Halloween trick on me...

UNTIL THE DADGUMMED THING MOVED. MOVED. It was real all right! I seriously thought he was going to have to peel me off the ceiling:

AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! And of course, because I was so busy screaming and running away, it got away and I had no idea which way it went.

As it happens, that spider is obviously one crayon short of a box, because it made an appearance while the kids were here. I wonder what our neighbors thought was going on over here with the sudden frightfest of screaming that was going on...I'll confess here and now that I'm pretty sure I was screaming louder than both the children combined. Fortunately Bill ever-so-gallantly stepped in and saved the day by vanquishing the thing. My hero *flutters eyelashes* :) 

Cloud the Genius

I think my dog might be a genius. Seriously, she learned something totally on her own that really and truly amazes me about the dog brain.

Background: a long time ago she used to have separation anxiety when I would leave the house, so I developed a routine that helped her anxiety. I would fill her Kong toy with treats and then smear peanut butter inside and give it to her. It would take her some time to eat the peanut butter, then she had to "play" with the Kong to get the treats out. One day after several months of this I happened to be home and heard a bunch of loud thumping down our wood-floored stairs: she was pitching the Kong down the stairs in order to get the treats out faster. How smart is that?

The other treat she really loves are these hard bones filled with some sort of squishy, doggie-enticing goo inside. Like these. We started noticing that she was pitching THOSE bones down the stairs too! I thought that was brilliant! Not only did she learn to use the stairs as a "tool" to help get the treats out of the Kong, but she transferred that knowledge to a totally different toy...genius!

Now we live in a house with no stairs at all...but we noticed recently that she has taken to throwing her bones up in the air, and doing this adorable little "jump"! She really is so cute. I love my dog!!!

Check her out:

The Scariest Little Video I Ever Did See

I'm going to link to this video here, but I need to give a strong WARNING that the last minute of the video contains some extremely horrifying pictures of a true crime scene involving murdered young girls. Watch the video but if you're squeamish or delicate definitely turn it off before minute 18 begins.

I have vivid memories of being herded into a gym during 3rd grade at Belt Line Elementary (so, 1983, 1984?) and being shown this video. I found it absolutely terrifying.  I didn't understand what the images at the end were, really, but the sight of that lone empty shoe floating in the creek was extremely frightening...I remember the other kids saying "there's a cut-off foot in the shoe!" I had nightmares for weeks. The sight of jelly beans still occasionally freaks me out and makes me think of this horrifying little piece. Now that I have tracked it down on the internet and watched it as an adult I would like to know who the HECK at Belt Line Elementary thought it was a good idea to show this to a bunch of 8 year olds?!

Now obviously being a product not only of the early 1960's but also of the Highway Safety Foundation, it has some very cheesy and quite laughable moments. And I do remember being confused as a kid watching this (even then it was two decades old!), that some of it was actually kind of funny when it was clearly supposed to be a very serious message.

Seeing it now, I can tell it was meant to be geared more towards educating parents than children. Again, I ask, WHAT were they THINKING, showing this to little kids?! I seriously think I am scarred for life. And as I've posted before, even though I know the threat of one of my stepkids being kidnapped by a stranger is a million to one chance, the thought never leaves my mind when I have them out somewhere by myself. I am paranoid and I hope I'm not scarring them for life in a whole other way by never letting them get even out of my reach (luckily that's not often, as Bill is usually with us and I'm not quite such a quivering scaredy-cat mess when he's in charge) :)

Back to this horrid video....another quibble I have is when it talks about educating children about "molesters" not once does it say that children can be and are molested by people they know and trust! In fact they're much more likely to experience that than they are a stranger abduction. Maybe it's a sign of the times that we know so much more now, that we know to teach them about good touches and bad touches even from people who are not strangers....was 1964 still the dark ages about this stuff? 1984? Unbelievable.

Oh and the last little thing I found terrifying about this video: the inner feminist in me screeched in horror when the narrator says the little girls are arguing about "whether it's better to be a nurse or a schoolteacher"...they just had to squeeze that in there, didn't they? Even though this is supposedly a video about protecting children from danger and NOT a video about reinforcing archaic gender roles. UGH!

Scary indeed.

My Husband is a Little Boy

I wish I could have captured in a picture or better yet on video the look on Bill's face, then the little please-please-puhleeeze dance he did, when he discovered Halloween shirts for dogs at PetSmart recently. I was against putting my dog into the shame of a Halloween shirt but he begged and pleaded and looked so cute just like a little boy that I couldn't resist.

Poor dogs, I had to buy them new tasty bones to assuage my conscience :)

I did draw the line at taking them on their nightly walk in "costume"...I would not have poor Cloud suffer the indignity! Really, though, they are so cute...the 5 year old husband included! :)

Kitty Nail Caps

Bill and I almost peed our pants laughing when we saw this at PetSmart the other day:

The thought of putting those on Mr. M (the only one of our cats that tends to scratch furniture) had us both in hysterics...we were tempted for half a second, but then wisdom took hold and we realized that Mr. M already spends most of his days plotting our untimely demises in our sleep (based on the look on his face, that is, and how totally and completely unaffectionate he tends to be)...were we to suffer him this indignity, we'd probably never see the light of another day. Hahaha! Still, it was tempting...can you imagine?!

Daughters of The Republic of Texas

Most of my local readers are already aware that Texas is the only state in the nation that was once its own independent country (1836-1846). I'm a proud native Texan by birth, and by lineage I am also a fiercely proud Daughter of the Republic of Texas. What does that mean, you ask?

Any woman having attained her sixteenth birthday is eligible for DRT membership, provided she is personally acceptable to The DRT and is a lineal descendant of a man or woman who rendered loyal service for Texas prior to the consummation of the Annexation Agreement of the Republic of Texas with the United States of America on the nineteenth day of February, eighteen hundred forty-six (19 February 1846).
 

1. As a colonist with Austin's Old Three Hundred, or any colonies authorized under the Spanish or Mexican governments before the Texas Revolution or those authorized by the Congress of the Republic of Texas.
2. As an officer or private in the service of the Colonies or of the Republic of Texas.
3. As a loyal resident, male or female, regardless of age, who established residence in Texas prior to the nineteenth day of February, eighteen hundred forty-six (19 February 1846). ("Loyal" shall be interpreted to mean that he or she had not been proved disloyal. A loyal resident, regardless of age, gave the service of residing in Texas and aiding in its settlement. "Service" shall be interpreted to mean "resident" or "military.")
4. As a recipient of a land grant authorized by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Texas. Those grants include "Toby Scrips;" head rights, first, second, third, and fourth class; preemption grants; land scrips; colony contracts; bounty certificates; and donation certificates.

Through my Papaw (paternal grandfather)'s side, I am a direct descendant of William Albright, who met the qualifications for c). above.

For one thing, I'm so glad to know I have been deemed "personally acceptable" to the fine Daughters! :) I became a member along with my mom years ago in college, and for a time was active in the chapter at College Station. Young adulthood intervened and I haven't been involved in years, but recently I became interested again, and re-instated my membership into a local chapter here in my area.

Interestingly, my mom has also done genealogy work that came thisclose to our being eligible for Daughters of the American Revolution, probably the most prestigious historical ladies society of this kind. My mother-in-law is a proud DAR. My mom has done all the research and has proven our eligibility down to one tiny date, that we know from family history is correct, but she hasn't been able to prove it to the stringent standards that DAR holds. Or rather, I should say she hasn't really TRIED to prove it--she can, she just doesn't want to, because then she'd have all her DAR friends hounding her to be a fully active member, and she just simply hasn't got the time right now....maybe someday I can talk her into it... :) are you reading this, Mom? :)

Good Reads: Whistling In the Dark

The loss of innocence can be as dramatic as the loss of a parent or the discovery that what's perceived to be truth can actually be a big fat lie, as shown in Kagen's compassionate debut, a coming-of-age thriller set in Milwaukee during the summer of 1959. Ten-year-old Sally O'Malley fears that a child predator who has already murdered two girls, Junie Piaskowski and Sara Heinemann, will target her or her little sister, Troo, next. Sally's mom is in the hospital, while her big sister, Nell, is distracted by love and her stepdad, Hall, by the bottle, so who can save her if the killer is, as she suspects, her neighbor, David Rasmussen, a popular cop who has a photo of Junie hanging in his house?  .

And now for one of my Favorite Books of All Time! This book amazed me with some hysterically funny parts, some truly chilling scary parts, some sober dramatic parts....it is every element you could want in a story, all wrapped in one!

I literally could not put this down. Sally O'Malley is one of the most engaging characters I have come across in a long time, and Mrs. Kagen has a wonderful way with dialogue. I loved the setting of this, having a nostalgic yearning for a decade I never lived in, and the plot was certainly roller-coaster. This is definitely in my Top Five Favorites list...read it, read it, read it!

Tricks and Treats, Part Two: Chocolate Mice

So in keeping with the Halloween theme, today my stepkids and I made these freakishly adorable chocolate mice:

Aaaaaa!! They're so freaking cute I can hardly stand it! And tasty, too. Another huge plus: super easy-peasy to make...now that's a win in my book!

You can find the recipe here.

Nacho Vs. The Ghost

We have this cute little Halloween ghostie in our living room:

Which has recently become Nacho's favorite toy:

In more ways than one (after he "conquered" it, that is)!

Yep, that's his favorite place to hang out these days...I think what he likes best about it (besides that it's probably nice and toasty for his tiny little body inside) is hiding in the ghost, them jumping out at every animal or person that happens to walk by, spritzing out his tiny tail, then running back in...he's so stinkin' cute!!!

Good Reads: The Tale of Halcyon Crane

When a mysterious letter lands in Hallie James’s mailbox, her life is upended. Hallie was raised by her loving father, having been told her mother died in a fire decades earlier. But it turns out that her mother, Madlyn, was alive until very recently. Why would Hallie’s father have taken her away from Madlyn? What really happened to her family thirty years ago? In search of answers, Hallie travels to the place where her mother lived, a remote island in the middle of the Great Lakes. The stiff islanders fix her first with icy stares and then unabashed amazement as they recognize why she looks so familiar, and Hallie quickly realizes her family’s dark secrets are enmeshed in the history of this strange place...

If you're in the mood for a deliciously creepy ghost story, then this is the book for you! I just happened across this in the library and loved every word of it. If the image of a sinister little girl ghost singing this familiar tune doesn't give you the willies I don't know what will...

Say say oh playmate
Come out and play with me
And bring your dollies three
Climb up my apple tree
Shout down my rain barrel
Slide down my cellar door
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more more more more

This is author Wendy Webb's debut novel, and I'll definitely be hoping for more from her!

We Love Halloween!

As I've posted before, Bill and I both llloooovvvveeee Halloween...maybe a little too much!
Check out our decorations:

Barbie's Litter Box

I am always impressed with my stepkids' creativity and the interesting ways their minds work...here's a great example of the many ways they never fail to amuse me!

We recently added a new kitten to our family, and for now we have turned the kids' playroom into Nacho's Room, until he gets adjusted and everyone is used to him. He has his own food and water and tiny litter box in the corner of the playroom. The kids rarely spend time in there anyway, it's really just a storage place for all their crap...um, I mean toys, so it works out well.

My stepdaughter has a fabulous modern-glam Barbie dollhouse with all sorts of accoutrements and fine furnishings. Imagine my surprise the other day to be cleaning things up and find this:

Yes, folks, that is Barbie's toilet filled with kitty litter, for the little pet to use. Bwahahahaha! After I got done snorting and giggling, we had to have a talk about kids NEVER touching litter (she swore she did it the first day we had Nacho, before he ever used the box, that it was clean, but stillllll....that is nasty!).

But I still get a giggle every time I think about it. The connections their little brains make are just so interesting!

Fall at the Arboretum

Bill and I had a fantabulous "date day" at the Dallas Arboretum this weekend! It's always beautiful there, but this weekend was especially nice. The weather was perfect, the fall decorations were gorgeous, it wasn't too crowded, and we really, really enjoyed just hanging out on the grass together. All in all a perfect day!

I love pumpkins!

And now for the most gorgeous thing at the entire Arboretum: