Halloween Party 2011

This year, Ben and Shannon came to the rescue and hosted our Halloween party at their apartment. I think it had something to so with the under construction state at our house, or as Brian puts it "Hooverville." We had lots of fun activities to do together!

Lindsey started us off with her costume of Coach Sylvester from "Glee". Pretty stylin'!

We carved gorkins:

 

 

 

 

This year's winner: Brian's Hand of Sauron:

We also decorated Oreo Cakesters. Shannon's creation was a little creepy- Gummie Bears holding a seance:

Bruce got a little bit out of control, I'm afraid.

 We watched Disney's Haunted Mansion:

And we dipped caramel apples:

Even caramel apples can be spooky!

Spooky Score:0, Coolness Score:10

You might remember my first attempts at taking a picture of the spooky moon:

Not so good, so I tried again when the moon was full.

Much better. Pretty cool, but not too spooky. More NASA-like.

An Even Cuter Halloween Flag

This is the flag I've had up for the last little while:

 Pretty cute, right?

Well, this is the even cuter flag I always put up a few days before Halloween.

Yes, that's right, even cuter.

We've Been Shrink-Wrapped.

As you can see, my kitchen is slowly coming together again. Yippee!! The new appliances are in and the countertops have been installed. Did you notice that the 1994-era wood valance over the sink is gone?

Painting comes next. Oh, and all of the cabinet doors have been removed. The painters are going to sand down all of the wood surfaces and re-glaze the cabinets in a little darker color. Oak is so out these days. :) So, everything is covered in plastic. Lots and lots of plastic.

This is the radio that blares Hispanic music all day at my house. Sometimes the workers sing along. I'm getting used to it. I just might switch my own radio station eventually.

What Are The Odds?

This is what I found when I came home from work yesterday:

Yep. Not only is the inside of my house torn up, but the outside is too. The stars aligned and the County decided to fix the gutter at the end of our driveway, just like Bruce has been nagging them to so for the last 2 years.

What are the odds?

At Least My OCD Is Still Intact

If you know me well, you know that I have this THING about ironing my clothes. I don't go overboard and iron my underwear or my hoodies, and I don't iron creases into my jeans, but I HATE non-ironed clothes.

I came home from a long day at work last week to find that our closet had been emptied for the painters. This is what it looked like:

Yeah.

My ironing board is built into the wall of my washroom, which was all taped off for painting, which made it off-limits. Did I let that stop me? No, I went to Walmart and got this little beauty:

Now I can still feel somewhat in control of my life.

Outside Only

Obviously, no Halloween decorating is happening inside my house this year, so that leaves my porch. I love my porch! It's a great place to display gorkins:

Both sides of the front door got special treatment:

And even the laundry room door is looking like Autumn. (Somewhere behind that door is my real ironing board. Not that impostor that gets me through my days downstairs.)

I've even put up my cute Halloween flag that will be replaced by and even cuter Halloween flag a few days before the trick-or-treaters come.

Like Living In Chocolate Milk

Just so you know that progress is being made in TGHM, here are some pictures of the upstairs, which is officially done being painted!

 I am loving the paint color! It's like several different shades of chocolate milk.

And who doesn't love chocolate milk?

Gutted Like A Fish.

Welcome to my kitchen!

I'd ask you to sit down, but there's nowhere to sit.

I'd bake you some cookies, but I have no oven.

I'd get you a cool drink, but I have no ice.

Hmmmm...

Many Hands...

After the gorkin harvest, Bruce and I took advantage of the extra hands and had the kids help with the continuing destruction of our house. (See: TGHM.) While Bruce went to a meeting at the church, our job was to move the refrigerator out of the kitchen and into the garage. The refrigerator had other ideas.

As soon as Ben unscrewed the water line, which we thought was off, water sprayed everywhere, but mostly onto the wood floor. Grabbing a handy empty garbage can, I caught the water the Ben directed into the can. This solution was not going to last long. So, what else could we do but...have Shannon fling herself over the fridge to help hold the spraying tube, while Ben helped Brian find the main water valve. Lindsey was quick enough to grab my camera, and even though they aren't in focus because I hadn't changed from my outdoor settings, these blurry pictures perfectly portray the chaos of the moment.

Ben was the smart one and screwed the tube back into the fridge, thus stopping the flood until Bruce got home a few minutes later. Bruce knew just where to turn off the water supply. Naturally.

Eventually, the fridge made it out of the house- after we had to take it's doors off. Um, Brian, you just hold that fridge for just a sec while we find a screwdriver.

 After that we took down lights. Many hands make "light" work!   Sorry.

 By the end of the evening, my kids made a run for it. I don't blame them one bit. And TGHM continues...