Oh Those Wacky Mormons

Every year my neighbors and good friends go absolutely ape chit crazy at Halloween. Think of it as "Mormons gone wild. " This year, they out did themselves. Traffic started at 6 pm.
.................................. and We ran out of Candy at 7 pm.



It's called the "H" fallout. Their house brings people from neighborhoods far and wide, along with a lot of their fellow church brothers and sisters. That's a big family. Hundreds.... or so it seems.




We like to have fun too... even though we're not Mormons...(snicker), so we do what we can. Which isn't much..lol.
The pic doesn't show it, but at our house there are skeleton lights over the door, purple bat lights on the railings, "eyes' in the bushes, strobe light and black light in the foyer.

Son #2 was wearing a gorilla mask and scaring small children while giving out candy... lol. In spite of the way it looks with the flash, it was very dark around our house and it looks cute.

Hey! Next to the Mormon Fun House 2 doors down, cute is the best you can hope for. lol. It's dark around our house because the neighbors on either side and across the street from us and turn off all their lights, lock their doors and pretend they're not home on Halloween.

See, having the Halloween fun house so close is expensive. This year we gave out 12 bags of candy. 12 LARGE bags. Approximately 576 pieces of candy....one by one by one;to butterflys, ninjas, sumo wrestlers wearing santa hats(!?), the Flintsones, princesses, one gopher, spidermen, etc, etc. It was a great fun.

Darn those Mormons know how to party pagan. (Since Halloween falls on a Sunday, the county decided we needed to observe it on Saturday.)

Trick 3 - Treat 0

.................This is how we begin Halloween at my house.

%*&#! Tow trucks come ringing the doorbell. Will the fun never end? Well, WILL IT?! PLEASE, somebody ! Make it STOP !

(That's Son #2 in the red car, trying to parallel park for the 50th time.

And Son #3 standing at the street watching his car get unloaded - again.)

Patrick's Saturday 6

Saturday, October 30, 2004
The Saturday Six

Now I know why I've not done these before... I never remember til it's Sunday, or Monday. That and my answers are boring. lol

1. What is the most clever Halloween costume someone you know has worn (that you wish you'd have come up with yourself)? Any and all of them. I'm terrible at that kinda thing!

2. You're invited to a Halloween party that begins in one hour. You have to make a costume only from what is already in your house. So how would you dress up? Oh chit! I'm not hosting this party am I? oh dear, see answer above. I guess I could grab one of the gowns I have, and one of the kids old man masks... see I suck.

3. What is the amount of the last check you wrote? (gulp) $2,100. Replaced the wood trim on the front of my house. My hand still shakes thinking about it.

4. How many keys are on your keyring, and are there any that you've forgotten that you even had? Only 10. And (beaming and shit) I know what each one fits. Well, except for that weird little silver one that hangs next to that unknows copper looking one, which separates my house key from that other mystery key that just looks really cool.

5. Who was the last musical performer you saw live in concert, and was it worth the admission price? oh geeez.... um... It was so long ago, I don't remember!

6. READER'S CHOICE QUESTION #29 from DaBabysBack: What is your favorite day of the week and why? Friday, I can stay up as late as I want and sleep in (most times) on Saturday. Friday nights are all mine to indulge the night owl that I am.

Manolo Says Trick Or Treat

Manolo says Trick or Treat. Yummm

If you've not been to Manolo's Shoe Blog Go take a look.

Well only if you like to laugh and love shoes that is...

Ghosts Of Halloween Past

A few Halloweens ago, when my sons were...oh, about 15, 15 and 13 years old, they dressed up and got together with the usual gang of friends who all met at our house to start trick-or-treating together in the neighborhood. I thought it would be fun to send the video camera with them. They thought that would be a blast! Little did I know what they were going to cook up.

After about 3 hours they came back (about a group of 7 of them) to my house, exhausted, happy, and proceded to dump all their candy out on the living room floor and started sorting through it. They were all "Ohhhing" and "Ahhhing" over the 'good stuff.' Bartering with each other for the other guys 'good stuff'. All the typical kid things they had done since they were all very little. I remember watching and thinking how cute they all were. How sometimes they still were little boys no matter how old they got, and how some things never change. Oh how wrong THAT thought was going to be.

They were all occupied and I noticed the camera sitting on the kitchen bar. I picked it up and rewound the tape. Just as I started to watch the tape (on the little camera screen) one of the boys freaked!... "DUDE, your mom has the camera!" 7 boys froze briefly before it started....."Mom... Mom.... Ms. Mac.... put the camera down," came a jumbled chorus of voices. Pleading, laughing, nervous, frantic, voices.

Oh yea.. like THAT was going to happen. Pfft! No way! I had to fight them off before I finally got them to all chill and let me see the tape. Two of the guys wanted to go home. "FREEZE." I ordered. I wasn't sure what I was going to see. Part of me was very worried. Had they egged a house? Vandalized something? TP'd a house? or something worse? I was sure as hell gonna find out.

I started the tape back up again, but this time I had 7 boys crowded around waiting. "Oh man, I can't believe she's gonna watch this...""YOU left the camera there, dude.".....and other similar comments whispered around while the tape rolled on......

The group had apparently gone and gotten one of the guy's younger brother to take trick-or-treating.... Little bro is the ONLY one in the group that is going up to the doors. The rest of the group is staying back and apparently filming/watching. So far, I don't see anything amiss.. Little Bro is trick-or-treating.

(Camera on...) "Little Bro" rings doorbell, gets candy, says thank you, leaves....(camera off) After watching him go up to about 2 houses, they try to tell me that's all that's on the tape. Yea, right. Do I look like I just came out of the pumpkin patch?

...........................Then IT happens.

"Little bro" rings doorbell. A mom opens the door. "Hi Mrs. 'X'," says the older brother who is the camera man, standing back from the front door. "Hi, 'A', you guys back again?" says the nice (oh so innocent mommie) to the camera man. Hmm.. seems they've hit this house already.."We brought my little brother says the camera man.

"Hi, "little a" the mommie says to the small one at the door. And then the truth is revealed..... As the oooh so unsuspecting Mommie leans over to put candy in "Little A's" bucket..... The cameraman slowly pushes the button and the camera zooms in. Way in. Trick-or-treat 16 year old style. Can you say eye candy? Trick-or-Treat! Can you say cleavage?! Not ordinary cleavage either. Into the valley and beyond kinda cleavage... Lucky she doesn't put an eye out kinda cleavage.... Lose a small puppy in there kinda cleavage. You get the idea.

I also notice the video is kinda shaking, but then so am I. I'm trying really hard to be the "mom" and disapprove but it's a lost cause, any minute now I'm gonna bust out laughing.... the little pervs. Oh, but it doesn't stop there.

Mr. Cameraman starts talking to the nice (totally clueless) Mommie as she is bent over handing out candy to more little ones arriving at the door. The camera still trained on the cleavage revealed by the low scoop neck shirt... The camera zooms in and out a bit, and in and out a bit, then moves from one (ahem) mound to the other.

"Gee Mrs. "X", the house looks nice with the uhh pumpkins," he says, or something equally suave from a 16 year old..... I can't hear the rest cause frankly, I have just lost it. I am completely cracking up at this. Camera man keeps talking, stalling for time. There are more kids coming to the door. And guess what... "Mrs. "X" needs to get the bowl with more candy that's sitting on the hall table behind her. She turns to walk a few steps to get the candy. The camera lowers and then focuses in again, this time on her ass, tight ~ the camera focus, her jeans and her ass. All real tight.

As she returns, she bends over again still oblivious to the little Hugh Hefners. There is the frantic movement and whispering that can be heard coming from behind the camera man. It seems his finger slipped and he can't find the zoom button to focus... I am hysterical by now and the boys are all laughing, horrified at being found out in this. Alas, being only 16 he could only come up with so many suave things to say and they had leave to continue with the trick-or treating. They didn't score like that again.I still have the tape... lol. And every year I ask if any of them are dressing as Hugh Hefner.

Back To Normal, Temporarily

Back to Normal - TemporarilySon #1 is home from college (UGA, woof) for a short fall break. YAY! I miss him. Last night, when Son #2 (his twin) came home from grocery shopping it felt like old times. Me, my three sons, son #3's girlfriend, all talking, laughing, running into each other while putting groceries away, trying to decide which of the food items they would demolish first. So ordinary, but I just had to hug them all and tell 'em I loved them.

I'm SUCH a dork.

Aliens.

OOOPS....about that feature called auto alert....

Ummm.. sooo.. Did you hear aliens possessed my computer today? No really, they did! See, I was browsing around and found a funny site where I took one of those quizzes. Well it gave me this cute little certificate for "babbling." Well, I mean what else COULD I do but post it. A babbler needs these things, you know?

................................And THEN it went bad. Very bad. The certificate wouldn't show up and Aliens took over to try their hand at HTML. So they wrote code and posted. And wrote code and posted. And umm, wrote code and posted, and well after, ohhhhh about a hundred or so tries, those little green guys finally gave up and left it as it is today. They didn't even THINK that somebody might have an alert feature for this "J" that goes off EACH AND EVERY TIME (I think?) they (cough) changed something.

...............................But sadly, it didn't end there. The aliens (no really, aliens I tell ya!) decided that the black background for the Journal was the problem. So then, if you can imagine my horror (oh wait..... some of you can), they decided to change the color format of the Journal. Those aliens are tricky little imps. But then they couldn't decide on a color... So they changed it and posted and changed it and posted and changed it... well you get the idea....until they found one they agreed on.

Oh(!)... and then if that wasn't enough then the little devils discovered that some of the posts weren't showing up against the lighter background and then they went in and changed the font color... errr - once or twice...........................And THEN they.................umm,

sigh... ok. I confess, it was me...... soooooo sorry!

Again with The Monday

Monday again.... hmmmm seems to be a recurring theme around here...

The errant car is finally fixed. Last week Son #2 took Son #3 to school, along with the new battery and some tools. After classes Son #3 and his friends got together and installed the new battery. Too bad it didn't help. The car was still dead. Click....Nada, nothing worked. Not the power windows, not the radio, nothing....$$$CHA CHING$$$! It's time to call "car guy". "Car guy" said he'd be up there the next night to take a look at it. Turns out it was a fuse that was burnt out. And "car guy" didn't charge me a thing to take a look at it and fix it.

Man, I love that guy. I think I'll take the brand new battery back and give the money to "car guy" for being so nice. This is the first time in a long time that I'm not scrounging for pennies to pay bills or using change to put food on the table; so while I can, I like to do something nice for other people.

Don't get me wrong, even with two jobs there isn't a lot of spare money every month, but I'm a big believer in "what goes around comes around," and he's a nice guy struggling to feed his family. Been there done that, and I could be there again on any given month.

"Construction guy" is almost finished. The repairs to the front of the house are done (that's the before picture up there ^). All the wood trim around the windows, garage doors and front door had to be replaced. Each of the storms (Charlie, Ivan, Frances) that rolled thru Atlanta this summer, blew the rain directly at the front of my house and I had damage in almost every room that had a window facing that way. The worst damage was the collapse of the front living room ceiling, twice. So now my house is sporting sparkling, white, vinyl trim (SQUEAL) that will never have to painted! (um, like I did that to the wood in the last 7 years? nooooooo, which is kinda why I am in this situation to begin with!) Last thing is for "Construction guy" to finish sanding and painting the front living room ceiling. YAY!

"Pool guy" is pissing me off. Electrician was supposed to be here last week to do whatever it is electricians do to pools. Another no show week.

Sigh, I love my house. OK, I love my kids first and my house second. Although....... Sometimes that order changes, depending on what the kids have gotten themselves into or what's broken and needs fixing in the house.

But this week they're tied.

It Must Be Another Monday

It's starting again. The mechanical curse. I simply mentioned in passing about the lawn mower. Barely mentioned! But still, last Friday, Son #2 decided to turn the new push mower over and clean out the underside of it. (and ummm, since WHEN does he clean anything?!) Sooo......

Lesson #1: Don't tip a lawn mower over. We learned (or so I thought) this valuable lesson last summer when Son #3 tipped the riding lawn mower over and I ended up flat out on my back in the front yard unable to move after trying to turn it right side up again. Now, when we start the darn thing, smoke comes billowing out. I mean BILLOWING out. So much so, the neighbors across the street came running out of their house thinking our house was on fire. The riding lawn mower hasn't worked since.. Fortunately, once I crawled my way back into the house, I have worked. So I bought a new self propelled lawn mower.

Lesson #2. Don't tip a lawn mower over. Hey, they're boys ~ sometimes the lesson doesn't take the first time. (smirk) last Friday.....

"Mom," the phone call came in at work.
"Yes son #2?" I replied.
"Mom, the lawn mower is smoking."
"Yes son, it's been smoking since Son #3 turned it over, remember? We have a new one now, use it."
"That's the one I mean, Mom."
Silence. Silence. Silence... except forslow methodical banging of my head on my desk.
"Son, did you tip the thing over by ANY chance?"
Silence.... Silence....
"Well.....kinda."
Kinda? PFFFT! sigh. I now have 3 lawn mowers parked in my garage that don't work. Well, they work if you don't mind the fire department arriving everytime you cut the grass... details, details.

Today...

"Mom," the phone call came in at work.
"Yes Son #3?" I replied.
"My car doesn't work."
Silence. Silence. Silence... except for the slow methodical banging of my head on my desk.
"What exactly is 'doesn't work'?" I find the courage to ask. I really don't want to know, but it's one of the necessary evils of being a Mom. We gotta ask, it's in our contract.

"I left my car lights on all day at school, the battery's dead," he admits.
"Um, YEA, that'll do it son."

I look outside, it's raining. It's 4:00. I'll do alot of things. But I won't mess with car batteries. Much less car batteries in the rain. Electrical things scare the stuffing outta me. He's already tried to get a jump from a friend, but the battery is kaput.

Son #3 manages to get a ride home. On my way home from work I stop to buy a battery... "Lady, what kind of car is it? Make, model, year, engine size?" Engine size? Grrr. I hate cars.

"So, Lady do you want the $50 or $129 battery?" Like THIS is a tough decision?.... pfft.. $129, NOT. But... while I'm there with 5 men who are standing around with nothing better to do but watch one guy get a battery for me, I take advantage of the situation. I ask about smoking lawn mowers... and I think I got an easy fix, I'll have to wait til it stops raining to try it and find out.

Tomorrow I will have Son #2 drive Son #3 to school with the battery and tools and Son #3 can get his teacher, Major K to help him replace the battery. Guys like doing that sort of thing.

My mom always said things come in 3's.... Soooo 2 down! one to go! Bring it on... I'm ready. Come to think of it, I've not heard from Son #1 in a few days at college....

I'm bringing a pillow to work for my desk/head.

Mondays Wishing Well

Sigh... It's Monday, again. After another thrilling (not) weekend. Let's see, the excitement was....I worked (2nd job). The highlight was painting the kitchen pantry. Oh joy.

The pool still isn't finished. Since the pool isn't finished, the fence can't be finished. The front living room still isn't finished. Replacing the trim on the front of the house isn't finished. Le sigh...

Wish this week was finished.

Pass The Kleenex Please and Thank You

Ok, normally TV is a huge wasteland (IMHO anyway.) But every once in a season a new TV show comes on that is really, really good. Ok there are actually a few I like this season, but this one is a must see.

We all go thru the 'poor me, life sux' days (or months)....of course some have good reason to feel that way..but the majority of us don't ~~~~> pointing finger at ME! and this show reminds me every week, how lucky and blessed I am.

Extreme Makeover Home. Every week hundreds of people get together with a design team and help a family that needs a new home. These people completely build a deserving family a brand new home, suited for the needs they have. The show tonight is about a family that has a daughter that is allergic to the sun. She can't go outside during the day, but what's worse is that she can't go into many rooms of her own house because of the sun. Just imagine. I can't.

Hearing stories like this makes whatever problems I THINK I have, fade away. My kids are healthy and because of a simple TV show, I am reminded to thank God for that fact, if I've forgotten to. Sometimes the answer to prayers is "no", and sometimes the answer isn't what you expected... but sometimes prayers are answered in a unique way by angels.... even via a TV show.

$Money$

It Takes Money to Make Money.....

Congratulations to SpaceShipOne for winning the prize for being the first privately built space vehicle that is able to carry a pilot and two passengers (the weight of 2 for testing) to the edge of space and then do it again in two weeks or less. They won the $10 million prize ........ummmm...........

Too bad it cost them over $30 million to do it. "

I've always heard the saying, "It takes money to make money..." Guess it's true.

No wonder I'm broke.