The Castle is UP!

Your thoughts?

Puppy

Driving home from work, I was talking to Jon on the phone when he said, "Oh my gawd! You'll never believe this. A puppy just wandered in our yard." Actually I did believe it, cause dogs wander in our yard all the time. I've returned four dogs to their owners...Let me add, if you have a dog, it is an AMAZING idea to have your phone number printed on the collar. Tags get lost. I'm hoping this little girl has a microchip and she will be reunited with her family. Otherwise, I'm so gonna keep her. She is wonderful with my kids. The size, color, temperment, everything I've been praying for and she just walked in our yard. Maybe fate is kind.

Fun photo editing at Picnik!


Peace and Happy Dogs!!!

Progress on the Castle

Yesterday there was progress on the castle. The metal framing is up. Honestly, Jon waits till the last minute to put this sucker up, cause we aren't sure on the technicalities on erecting a structure on the property. Our neighbors assure us that they will stand with us, if we get that notice, and boycott the ruling. They love the event. Extra people walk by our house. People stop. Cars stop. People visit. They gawk. They call us crazy. They look forward to Jon's castle every year.

Meet Jon, the man behind the curtain, or rather doors...

He refuses to smile for pictures. I was so pleased to get this one of him smirking.

Oh, and Julia, my role on Halloween is to take the kids around trick-or-treating, get pictures of Jon's decorations, get pictures of the "competitions" decorations and my most important role is restraining Jon from spending money on this "decoration". :D

Peace and Happy Thursday!

The Planning of the Castle

Yes, people, that is 70 feet long and 14 feet tall. Jon has constructed this castle each year, and each year it takes on a different plan. Last night he said to me, "I'm just going to have to figure out how to do it bigger this year without spending money." Great idea, babe! Then he stayed up all night thinking about it. I heard mumblings about "digging holes" and hollared "DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!". This is all in response to the "competition" who have challenged Jon to a Halloween decorating competition. Friendly, neighborly people. We scoped out their stuff last night and the wheels in Jon's head just started spinning like crazy. Jon swears we will win in the category of "Realistic". He scoffed at their attempt of a castle. I'll sneak down and take pictures, ya know, to give an accurate representation of who is truly the best and all. And for the record, there are no categories, Jon just wants to win in something. They have offered beer as our consolation prize...What should I offer since THEY ARE SO GONNA LOSE!?

Peace and Crazy Husbands!

Wrinkles.

It is raw. It is untamed. I wish I believed in injecting botox. These are just the forehead wrinkles. I've got eye wrinkles too...Wait a minute, let me see if I have proof of them...

Gah! There is even an eleven between my eyes. And I have a fuzzy face! What is happening to me?! These pictures are proof why it is good to have props in your pictures as you get older. It detracts from the glaring proof of aging. Let me toss a few of the smooth faced ones in the picture...
See! Don't they just make everything look better?!

Peace and Happy Kids!

How was your weekend?

Trip 2 to the barn. Jon informed me this morning that he needs more plywood. That is a two foot stack of plywood on the trailer. Why he needs more is beyond me. And neighbors next door..."Do not encourage Jon. While he looks innocent enough asking if he can build into your yard. Do not believe it will be just a few little decorations." And neighbor across the street..."It was an AMAZING idea to encourage Jon to build an arch across the road and continue the madness in your yard. I'm not a fan of that idea." And neighbor to the other side..."Why yes, our last name is Addams."

Peace and Halloween Madness Continues!

Spending Time at Grandpa's

Grandpa's place is a peaceful getaway for my family. Grandma and Grandpa are wonderful. Above is a picture of part of the property. Grandpa plants trees every year. Many years ago, the property was used for pasture for the horses. It has been over a decade, but the fields are great to play soccer, fly kites and ride four wheelers.

James loved laying in the cushy grass and pondering the dirt.

Daisy's grave.

Amazing Tree!

The reason for our trip to the barn is the Halloween construction has begun! The metal you see here is the structure that Jon mounts his plywood "castle" to. This is the just the beginning...

Peace and Happy Friday!!!

Baking!

Clapping fun with Flour!!!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies! Nomulous! I use a Pampered Chef scooper to make the perfect sized cookie balls. Raise your hand if you eat cookie dough!!! *Raises hand*


Alas! We have to cook the dough. Cookies make me happy.

The most divine brownie mix dough I've ever had the pleasure of eating. Turtle Brownies. This brownie mix calls for 2 cups of melted Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate Chips. It is soooooo good!!!

Peace and Baking Happiness One Day at A Time!

She's not My favorite Actress

In fact I think she is a bad actress with about 2 inches of depth to her character. She's famous though and she is apparently a knitter. So big props out to Kristen Stewart for embracing knitting. Very cool knit "sticks" and love the skull bag she is carrying in the pictures.

Check out picture proof of her knitting.

Peace and Gotta Report the News!

P.S. Toss those tomatoes you Twilight haters! LOL I've personal protective equipment on.

Snickers

Jon: Don't make those cookies again! And if you do, don't put chocolate in them!

Me: Can I put raisins in them?

Jon: I guess, just not chocolate. I hate chocolate.

Me: What?!

Jon: You know I don't like chocolate.

Me: Did you like the brownies I made?

Jon: NO!

Me: They had caramel on them. *enticing wheedling voice*

Jon: I don't care, I don't like chocolate.

Me: You eat Snickers.

Jon: Snickers just has that thin layer of chocolate on the outside.

Me: It has nougat in it. That is chocolate.

Jon: No it is not.

Me: Yes it is!

Jon: No. I hate chocolate.

Me: You eat Reese Cups.

Jon: It has peanut butter with a thin layer of chocolate.

Me: You eat chocolate chip cookies.

Jon: Yeah. You should quit putting chocolate chips in them. I hate chocolate.

Me: Whatever.



So who can tell me if the nougat in a Snickers bar is chocolate or not?

Peace and Chocolate Hating Hubster!

Crazy Gloves

Pretty colors? Purple and Green. I love to combine these two colors. They just look so happy sitting side by side. The arm warmers pictured above are the exact same arm warmer in both pictures. Pretty cool?! Reversible crochet. Who knew? Are you green with envy that I'm going to be sporting these fun arm warmers? LOL Love fun crochet!

Peace and Warm Hands!

Spider Girl!

Isn't she cute incognito?!

I purchased this yarn during Ravelry's Dye for Glory competition. The Frisky Sheep had this beautiful listing as one of the yarns entered in the dye for glory contest on www.ravelry.com. In honor of Sock Summit 09' she dyed up this colorway especially for the conference.

The yarn is 100% superwash merino wool in a heavy fingering weight. 4 oz, 430 yards. The colors are kettle dyed with acid dyes so they will not bleed or run. Once knit up you will have a wonderful pair of socks or a great scarf in hot fuchsia, rich chocolate, deep purple, and intense teal.

I ordered three skeins. Jesse's hat and fingerless mittens used a half of a skein. It is a lot of yarn and it is beautiful yarn. There is a nice stretchy feeling to it and it doesn't itch.

I'll have to add the pattern link for the hat another day. At the moment I'm not sure where I found the pattern. The link for the fingerless mittens is called Rowan's Wristies on Ravelry and the link for the pattern is from the blog Ramblings of a Yarn Junkie.

Peace and Happy Child!

Meet Joey and Boomer Man!

Peace and Bonded Bunnies!!!

Pulled Pork

Doesn't this look divine!!! I love Boston Butts. It is the shoulder portion of the pig. See below. As we all know the actual pig butt is the ham. Ham sounds delicious!!!


My in-law family are quite skilled at butchering. All the boys spent time working at the local butcher shop in town. Except for Josh, above, he learned from his brothers. He's a little pipsqueak, don't ya think? He's the youngest at age 24 and promises his mom and dad he is never going to grow up. I like to call him a child to get his dander up. Then he makes dirty jokes and I lose the battle of wills. My dirty joke repertoire is really limited. Anybody got some good ones I can have on stand-by?

The in-laws spends each weekend at a local farm festival, preparing pulled pork on the roaster and hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill. Good food, good people, good place...it all makes for a great weekend activity for the family. James, Jesse and I go each weekend and enjoy the playgrounds, balloon fun, pumpkin fun and food. The last weekend of October we go on the hayride with our friend Barry, pictured below.

Peace and Fun Festivals!

My demon Story

This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti was released in 1986. A Christian thriller. I read it in the early 1990's. Remember when I said we had moved to Waynesville in 1989? Okay, so I'm sure you are wondering how a Christian thriller novel can tie into Halloween haunts in Waynesville, since this is Waynesville Hauntings month. Right? The book is the background to my story. This Present Darkness (I read this almost 20some years ago. gah!) has always stuck in my head because of the grimness and it was my first introduction to a world where people believed in demon warfare. Bear with me!

Around the time I read the book, an occurrence happened in our home on O'Neall Road in Waynesville. The basement needed cleaning. Big deal! The basement always needed cleaning. There were seven of us kids at the time, we lived hard in the house. Meaning there were a lot of people and lots of upkeep and cleaning that had to be done. I'm a bit of a cleaner. I clean when I get upset, I clean when I need to think, I rarely clean when I am happy. Thus, the current state of my home is Messy. Anyway, I was cleaning the basement one day and decided to clean the door to the garage. I splashed a water and bleach mixture on the door and wiped it down with a rag.

LATER: I returned and saw that the door hadn't dried completely because there was still a darker outline on the door.

EVEN LATER: I returned and upon glancing at the door from the basement stairs, I about fell down the stairs. I ran back up stairs, heart pounding hard and telling myself it wasn't what I saw on the door.

LATER STILL: A few kids and I crept down the stairs and we gawked and talked about what was on the door. It wasn't disputed what it looked like, but we didn't know what to do about it.

So what was on the door? After the door had dried an outline appeared covering the entire door. It was a caricature of a demon in relief in the wood. Bony hands, hooded skeletal face, eyes, teeth...the whole thing on a six foot solid wood door.

Over the years I considered outlining the outline, but never got the courage to do so. Something superstitious niggled in the back of my head that I should never give it more than a cursory glance and a prayer as I used the door. Never took a picture, either. I moved out in 1996 and never went back. The home now belongs to someone else. I hear they have done a lot of renovations. I hope they burned the door.

On Friday, my sister emailed me the picture below. I guess the homeowners haven't burned the door.



Are you a believer? BOO!

Peace and We Need some Happy Hauntings!

Fast Friday

Peace and What Stories will I have to Tell Monday?!

Silly Kids!

Hasbro is sponsoring a $1000 giveaway through 5minutesformom in the Silly Kids Photo Contest!

Big giveaway!

I love kids and love those silly faces! It was hard to choose, but I decided that the photo below captures the spirit and liveliness of little boys and girls. This picture was taken at Jesse's third birthday party. Pictured are her cousins, brother and friends, including Levi, who we lost in July. This picture captures a happiness and innocence that each child holds as they barrel through life laughing and giggling. They are playing the parachute game. I remember playing this game as a child. I delighted in pulling the canvas over my head and sitting beneath the parachute laughing and telling secrets.

Peace and Happy Memories!

My kids

I've introduced James and Jesse before, haven't I? :D They are my little imps. Maybe in a few years I'll call them my little punks, but for now their sweetness is too much.

Jon met me at the YMCA last night with the kids and we did our thing before heading to Walmart for grocery shopping. As I was buckling James into his car seat after grocery shopping (in the Blazer. I'm driving the G5), he starts lecturing me. The exchange went like this:

James: Mommy, we aren't racing home.

Me: Why? Cause you know you will lose? (Yes, I said it and I was teasing him!)

James: NO! Cause you speed.

Me: I don't speed.

James: Yes, you do! And the police are going to take you to JAIL! (Jon is rolling with laughter behind the Blazer)

Me: I won't go to jail.

James: YES YOU WILL! Daddy said so.

Me (glaring at Jon): Honey, Mommy will just get a ticket.

James: Why?

Me: Cause I'll pull over when the police officer turns on his lights.

James: You are still going to JAIL! Cause you speed.

Me: Okay, bet I beat you home.

James: I'm not racing.

So, Jon and I leave the Walmart parking lot at the same time and when I get close to town, I see that Jon is a little ways ahead of me. I pull up alongside them and wave and go on home.

I look over when they pull in the driveway and James is glaring at me. So I hustle over to open the back door and see what is wrong with him.

James: YOU CHEATED!!! YOU ARE A CHEATER! (*he is near tears*)

I couldn't help it, I fell down laughing so hard!

James: Don't laugh at me! *he's huffing a bit*

Jon is in the front seat laughing his butt off.

I stood up and said "James, I'm crying. SEE!" Tears of laughter. That boy needs to slow down, he is too smart for his own good. Or maybe I need to slow down. ;) James finished his lecture by informing me that there are Speed Limits and Daddy follows them and I should too. Next thing, Jon will teach him to read the speedometer. OY!

Peace and Taking is Slow!

FTR, I've had two speeding tickets since I got my license in 1994...once in 1998 and once in 2007.

Stetson House

Stetson House Ghost Video Link

One of the more famous ghosts in Waynesville is Louisa Stetson Larrick. She was sister to the famous hatmaker, John Stetson, of the ten-gallon Stetson hat fame. She grubstaked $60 in the 1800's to her brother for him to start his hatmaking business in New York.

Louisa moved to Waynesville after giving birth to nine children. She had separated from her husband a few years after the ninth child was born and lived in town until her death. She died of tuberculosis that she more than likely contracted from her brother, John, who came to her to be nursed back to health when he contracted TB.

Why Louisa still haunts the house is a mystery. Isn't that the case with all ghosts?

The video link above is a Dayton Daily News story. Samantha McKeehan is telling about her experiences with Ghost Stetson. Sam and I attended school together and she is one of my alumni.

I will add more on the Stetson House Ghost later in the month, when I visit the house. Dun Dun Dun!

Peace and Ghosts Abound!

Diana Gabaldon-Echo In the Bone

On September 22, 2009, Echo in the Bone, the seventh novel in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, was released. Books and Co in Beavercreek, Ohio hosted Diana at the Greene on Saturday, September 26, 2009. I went and the crowd was impressive. Diana gave a wonderful presentation, talking about her road to becoming an author among other fun tidbits. She has a wonderful sense of humor and the crowd responded to her dry wit. I loved it. Of course, since it was three hour outing sans kids for me, I spent most of the time crocheting. While waiting I finished an arm warmer. When I went up to get Diana's signature in my book, I asked her if she would mind wearing the arm warmer for our picture. She was gracious enough to wear it and expressed how warm it felt. (This arm warmer wearing thing was inspired by those crazy sock ladies that ask famous people to hold their WIP socks during photo ops.) Diana Gabaldon is a huge name in the literary world. Her book Echo In the Bone debuted at #2 on the New York Times list. HUGE! HUGE! I tell you, her books are amazing. If you want a bit of everything, historical, fiction, romance, adventure, time travel, medical, literary enlightment...Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series is my recommendation.

Peace and Awesome Books!

Fast Friday

Peace and Skulls!

The Hauntingest Town in Ohio

Come gather around the fire. I have some stories to tell...Dun Dun Dun!

Did you know I live in the hauntingest town in Ohio?! Waynesville, Ohio is home to over 16 confirmed ghosts. Don't ask me how they confirm ghosts. Maybe they toss holy water at them and the ghosts shimmer and go "OOOOO" and thus are confirmed? Anywho, I have lived in Waynesville since 1989. It was many years before I actually walked down Main Street and experienced the pull of the old shops. Then the shopkeeper yelled at me saying, "We don't like teenagers hanging around here. Get going!" I can count on one hand the number of times I've entered a Waynesville shop in the 20 years I've lived here. And I still hide from the shopkeepers.

Population according to Wikipedia and City Data is about 3,000...in the Village. Village being the definitive term because if memory serves me, the population has to be over 10,000 to be considered a town. Don't quote me on that, though. Waynesville has NO industry. That is right, we live off the land. Or rather we live off our antiques and market the quaintness of Waynesville to unsuspecting visitors. Those visitors...we just lure them in and they can't escape. Or maybe it is the ghosts that can't escape. Need a home for a ghost? Drop em off at the intersection of 73 and 42 in Waynesville. We will take them in and keep them warm.

Waynesville has over 10 churches. That is a lot of church-going folk. A guesstimate would put the majority of those church-goers as believers of the hauntings of Waynesville. Funny fact about the churches is that Waynesville was founded by Quakers, yet there is not one Quaker church in operation in Waynesville. The closest is the Friends Church off of 380 and that address may be considered Xenia. I've been to that church and it is lovely. Lovely people too, those Quakers.

The month of October will be sprinkled (like happy cupcakes) with random stories of the hauntings and my own personal sightings/happenings of ghosts/demons. So don't be hanging around these parts of you don't want to share in the fireside ghost-stories of Waynesville.

Peace and I LOVE October!