Baby Ruth

I have always thought this comic was funny. Why? Because it’s my daughters middle name. I know, I have an evil side.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Charlie the Ghost

For some time now, any noise or weirdness that may happen in our house, my hubby will say that it is just the ghost. Charlie the ghost, that is. He does this to spook Oldest and sometimes he gets me too. Our house isn’t very old and no one died in it, (well not the house part), but there are some weird noises and sounds at times. I don’t know how he came up with the name Charlie. Sometimes, L will point up to the corner of the room. This will make Oldest cringe. She will ask L if she sees Charlie and L will nod her head yes every time. We have even went so far as to tell Oldest that Charlie hangs out in her room. He stands in the corner and watches her sleep. I know, super creepy and we shouldn’t do it. She hates it when we say this, but it is all in fun. In my mom’s room, the light has been known to turn on by itself. We say Charlie is playing tricks again. In my bathroom, I have one light that likes to flicker at times when you first turn it on. “Oh Charlie, would you knock it off,” I say outloud. The the light will straighten itself out.

Several months ago, Oldest had her friend over and they love watching scary vidoes. We were outside early the next morning, trying to let L play before the sun took our shady area. Her friend wanted to play Ghost Hunters. He was talking about something on the show and Charlie popped into my head. “So, you’ve seen Charlie then?” He had a funny look on her face, so I went with it.  “Charlie, the ghost that stays in her room.” I said pointing to Oldest. “He stands in the corner and watches you guys while you sleep.” Oldest was looking up at me with a big grin on her face, thinking that this was going to spook her poor little friend. He thought about it for a few seconds, then shook his head yes. “I have seen him.” He said kinda low, looking down. Then he walked away. He never said another word and the Ghost Hunter game went right out the window.

When I was about Oldests age, I had a cat named Puff. On the weekends, I would hear my door crack open just a smidge and he would jump up on the bed, and snuggle down beside my leg. Even if I was needing to get up, I would let him stay for abit, listening to him purr. Unfortunately, Puff got sick and passed on. The first weekend he was gone, I swear to this day he visited me one last time. I was half awake when I felt something jump onto the bed and lay down beside my leg like he always did. At first in my groggy state, I thought it was him, them I realized it couldn’t be. Then I thought that maybe it was another one of our cats wondering around looking for a place to cuddle. I laid there awhile longer, then decided to see which one it was. I reached down before looking and there was nothing there. The feeling of a cat laying beside my leg was gone also.

Now back to what I said about no one dying in the house. Apparently the very first owner of this property built the garage. He was a machinist that liked to build guns. The story is that he wanted our neighbor to come by one day, he wanted to talk with him. He didn’t get the chance right away and several days later, the guy killed himself in the garage. Our garage. When hubby told me this, I was speechless. I felt so sorry for this man.

And no, his name was not Charlie.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween to all!

Another Scary Movie

It’s as much fun to scare as to be scared.

-Vincent Price

Last year I did a post about Movies that Creep Me Out. If you missed it, and like creepy, scary movies like me, you can get spooked here. Yesterday morning, I turned on the t.v. and since Little L had allready escaped the bedroom, instead of watching cartoons, I started flipping channels. I landed on FX and there was a movie…I went to turn the channel, when I noticed the little girl was up in the air, pulling on a blanket, all alone in her room and giggling. I had to stop to see what it was. Because you know kids alone in their rooms, giggling, floating in the air is not a good thing.  Then I remembered that I had seen this movie, but what was it called? It was past 8:30 and I really needed to be getting some breakfast going, but I didn’t want to walk away. After awhile and no help with telling me after the commercial break, (thanks FX), I remembered the name, Mama. It is a really good creepy movie about a ghost named Mama. It isn’t on Netflix anymore, that is where I had seen it a couple of years ago.

The next movie that came on, although I didn’t watch it, was The Purge. Now this is another not so favorite movies, but I have watched it a couple of times. I don’t like movies that seem real. I mean, what kind of town would let people go around one night killing who ever they want to kill and it be ok? I hope not any, but seriously, who comes up with this stuff?

I thought I would go over some pretty good scary movies that we have watched this year. We don’t do theaters, so most of them we watch on the internet at a free sight. There was Insidious 3, which I thought was definitely creepy at times. Sinister 2, I didn’t get to watch it all as of yet. My hubby watched it, and he said the first one was so much better, but it always is. The Visit was comedy is some parts, but creepy in others. While watching, there was one part where my daughter screamed out loud and then bit my hand that she was holding on to very tightly.  No Good Deed is a crime, horror, thriller type movie and worth checking out. Ouija is also a pretty good watch. I have never or will never own a Ouija board, but I don’t mind watching dumb asses play with them.

Some t.v. shows I got interested in were American Horror Story and The Walking Dead. I haven’t see the 4th season or the newest one yet of AHS, but we did a marathon of TWD the week of the season premier.

A few really bad horror movies that I felt like we wasted our time watching were The Gallows, Unfriended, and Paranormal Activity, the Ghost Dimension which was our latest one we sat through. It could have been a lot better, since the first 3 were good.

I am sure there are more movies to add to both lists, and I will think of them after I am finished with this post. If you have any to add, leave me a comment so I can check them out. This weekend our plans include, Hotel Transylvania 2, The Gift and the new Goosebumps movie to name a few. We want to get all spooked up for Trick or Treating.  🙂

 

Closer and Closer to Halloween

October is over half way through and that means Halloween is getting closer by the minute. It is finally feeling like fall here in the desert. We have had rain for the past couple of days, even some mighty strong hail that had us all trapped in the garage Sunday evening, till it died down. Since this month is moving way too fast, I wanted to share some pretty interesting facts about one of my favorite Holidays. Hope you enjoy!

Halloween celebrations date back 6000 years.

“Samhainophobia” is the fear of Halloween.

You can refer to Halloween as: All Hallows Eve, Samhain, All Hallowtide, The Feast of the Dead, Haloween, All Saints Eve and El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead).

We wear masks on Halloween because Welsh and Celtic traditions say that the dead visit the living on October 31st. They wore masks so that the spirits of the dead didn’t recognize the living.

During the 1800’s in America, the end of the harvest season was celebrated at the end of October by wearing costumes, eating sweets, and playing practical jokes on each other.

Trick or treat originally meant that the person asking for the treat would perform a “trick”, like reciting poems or sing a song, for the amusement of the giver.

The “trick” part switched from performing to vandalizing homes and other pranks if the treat was not given.

Bobbing for apples started with a Roman harvest festival honoring Pamona, the goddess of fruit trees.

The Jack o Lantern originated from Ireland, where they hollowed out old turnips and placed candles in them to keep away evil ghosts and spirits on the Samhain holiday.

About 99% of all pumpkins sold are used as Jack o Lantern’s.

In 1964, Helen Pfeil of Greenlawn, NY was arrested for handing out arsenic laced treats to teens she thought were too old for trick or treating.

Orange and black are the main colors for Halloween. Orange representing the Fall Harvest. Black representing darkness and death.

Black cat’s get a bad rap on Halloween. They were once believed to be witch’s subordinates who protected their dark powers.

White cat’s are believed to be bad luck in England.

Halloween is the 2nd most successful holiday. Christmas is number 1.

Halloween candy sales average around 2 billion dollars annually in the United States.

Around 86% of Americans decorate their homes for Halloween.

Halloween is the 3rd biggest party day, trailing behind New Year’s Eve and Superbowl Sunday.

Pumpkin is a healthy holiday treat. It is low in fat, high in antioxidants and fiber. Roast the seeds for a fun Fall snack.

Bone Chilling Halloween Facts

If you see a spider on Halloween, it is said it is a spirit of a loved one watching over you.

Legend has it that if bats fly around your house on Halloween night 3 times, death is on its way.

It is said that a person born on Halloween can communicate with the dead and has protection from evil

If a candle’s flame turns blue on Halloween night, legend has it that a ghost is near.

Avoid owls on Halloween, it is said that they will swoop down and steal your soul.

Want to meet a witch? Legend has it you will, if you turn your clothes inside-out and walk backwards on Halloween.

Some of these facts came from here. 

 

 

 

Kid Ghost Stories

Well it is the 2nd day of October and time to get into the haunting mood. I love hearing and reading ghost stories, so I am always looking for ones that aren’t that scary that I can tell to my kids. Little L is loving the idea of Halloween. She runs around the house pretending to be a ghost and tries to scare us. Yesterday, she told me there was a ghost in Sissy’s room. I had to go investigate, with her right behind me. We crept into her room and looked around. I told her there were no ghosties. She then said they were in our room. We went back and forth like this for a little bit, til she got distracted and went on to something else.

So if you are looking for a couple good not so scary stories for the younger kids this Halloween, look no further. I ran upon these the other day doing some ghost hunting myself and thought I would share them.

“The Pink Jellybean”

At the end of a long, dark road is a long, dark path.

At the end of the long, dark path is a lone, dark house.

And the lone, dark house has a single, dark door.

Behind the single, dark door is a long, dark hall.

At the end of the long, dark hall are some tall, dark stairs.

At the top of the tall, dark stairs is a long dark balcony.

At the end of the long, dark balcony is a big dark room.

In the big, dark room is a big, dark closet.

In the big, dark closet is a big, dark door.

Behind the big, dark door are some steep, dark stairs.

At the top of the steep, dark stairs is a dark, dusty attic.

In the dark, dusty attic is a big, dark chest.

In the big, dark chest is a small, dark box.

And in the small, dark box is a Pink Jellybean!

Hairy Toe

retold by S.E. Schlosser

Once there was an old woman who went out in the woods to dig up some roots to cook for dinner. She spotted something funny sticking out of the leaves and dug around until she uncovered a great big hairy toe. There was some good meat on that toe which would make a real tasty dinner, so the old woman put it in her basket and took it home.

When she got back to her cottage, the old woman boiled up a kettle-full of hairy toe soup, which she ate for dinner that night. It was the best meal she’d had in weeks! The old woman went to bed that night with a full stomach and a big smile.

Along about midnight, a cold wind started blowing in the tops of the trees around the old woman’s house. A large black cloud crept over the moon and from the woods a hollow voice rumbled: “Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!” Inside the house, the old woman stirred uneasily in her bed and nervously pulled the covers up over her ears.

From the woods there came a stomp-stomp-stomping noise as the wind whistled and jerked at the treetops. In the clearing at the edge of the forest, a hollow voice said: “Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!” Inside the house, the old woman shuddered and turned over in her sleep.

A stomp, stomp, stomping sound came from the garden path outside the cottage. The night creatures shivered in their burrows as a hollow voice howled: “Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!” Inside the house, the old woman snapped awake. Her whole body shook with fright as she listened to the angry howling in her garden. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the door and barred it. Once the cottage was secure, she lay back down to sleep.

Suddenly, the front door of the cottage burst open with a bang, snapping the bar in two and sending it flying into the corners of the room. There came the stomp, stomp, stomping noise of giant feet walking up the stairs. Peeping out from under the covers, the old woman saw a massive figure filling her doorway. It said: “Hairy toe! Hairy toe! I want my hairy toe!”

The old woman sat bolt upright in terror and shouted: “I ATE your hairy toe!”

“Yes, you did,” the giant figure said very gently as it advanced into the room.

No one living in the region ever saw the old woman again. The only clue to her disappearance was a giant footprint a neighbor found pressed deep into the loose soil of the meadow beside the house. The footprint was missing the left big toe.

Be Brave My Little One

Tonight Oldest talked daddy and I into letting her watch a scary movie. The Woman in Black 2. We watched it just a couple of nights ago, actually, my hubby watched it, I was in and out. Had my head in my tablet a little too much. I did not think it was that scary, so I said it was ok with me. He got it running and soon the spookieness began. Oldest wanted to sit by me, but Little L was still up and had other plans for sissy. They sat on the couch together for a bit, then it was time for her to go to bed. Daddy and I  took her in to get teeth brushed and diaper changed. He shut the bedroom door so L wouldn’t run out. As soon as the door went to, I heard feet hit the floor. Oldest had ran to her room. Guess we have good timing on leaving her alone in a dark room with a spooky movie on. Daddy went out first then I heard oldest tell him that it was so scary she started shaking. Funny girl, and she kept watching. When I came out after L was asleep, she wanted me to sit beside her. There were a few more jumpy moments left. I kept telling her to stop watching. She didn’t.  The very last seen, I won’t say what happened, just in case you want to watch it, I told her not to look. The last scene always sticks in your mind. You know what she did, she watched it! Silly, silly girl. Then, when it was done, she was like, “can I sleep in your room tonight?” Daddy said no. I told her it would be ok, it was just a movie. “You don’t understand,” she said. Then asked me to walk her to the bathroom so she could brush her teeth.  I did, we laughed the whole time, about being scared and when we were getting ready to leave the room, there was a noise outside. We both looked at each other and scrambled out of the room together.

She went on to bed, I told her she could leave the t.v. on and she wanted me to leave the light on too. I did, but when daddy went in, he turned it off. It’s still off too. Hopefully she will fall asleep and think nothing of it through the night. I really don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and trip over her on my way to the bathroom.

Be brave my little one, be brave. 🙂

Fun Freaky Friday

I know Halloween is over and it is on to the Christmas season. But that doesn’t mean that you have to stop enjoying spooky, creepy things, right?! My oldest is becoming pretty good at scaring me. She loves to hide behind doors and furniture to pop out at the right time and see how loud I yell or how high I jump.

The other night, I was standing at the kitchen sink rinsing a bottle. I heard a noise behind me and turned around to see what it was. Nothing. The room was empty. Thinking that it had to be the dog, I turned back around. At the same time, another empty bottle that was sitting on the back of the sink fell over. It made me jump. I was no where near that bottle and the other two sitting beside that one didn’t fall. FREAKY! I was putting the bottle back where it came from, when I heard the noise again. I turned back around and scanned the room. I got to the kitchen table and underneath it was my daughter. Her long hair half hiding her face. I was so taken by surprise that I jumped and yelled at the same time. She crawled out laughing her butt off at me. “You scared the crap out of me girl!” I yelled. “Look,  I have chill bumps all over me!” Which this made her laugh even harder and off she ran to tell her daddy about her victory.

Then last night, oldest came out and said that she was tired and going to go brush her teeth. It was only going on 9 p.m., usually I have to remind her that it is still a school night at 9:30 and she will milk it till 10:00. So she goes off to the bath to brush her teeth. I seen her pass by me several times, going to her room then back to the bath. At one point I lost track of which way she went. I asked my hubby if she had went to her room or still in the bath, he didn’t know either. Not wanting to holler for her to wake up the sleeping baby. I got up and went into her room. Her door was about half opened, which made me think she was in it. I pushed on the door and it wouldn’t go all the way to the wall. Something was stopping it. I pushed again, not real hard because I swear I thought it was her standing behind it. I giggled thinking she was gonna pop out but she never did. I must have pushed the door several times then I stepped back to look in the crack between door and frame. Expecting to see her standing there but I all got was a wall.

Confused now, I walked in the room and looked. Behind the door was a punch ball that she got on her birthday. I stood in the middle of her room, feeling really stupid that I thought she was back there. I grabbed the laptop and headed on into the living room. She finally emerged from the bath without any knowledge of what went on. We followed her into the room to give her goodnight kisses and hugs. Yes, she still wants us to do this! I broke. I told both of them what I had just done. They looked at each other and of course made fun of me. Nothing I said made myself sound any more sane. With all her shenanigans, what was I to expect? So, I gave up and went back to the living room.

Thanks for reading! 😜

Afraid of the Dark

 

My oldest has the smallest bedroom in the house. I usually go in her room right before I go to bed and turn off the t.v. for her. She sleeps right through it too. When the t.v. goes off, that is the darkest room ever! I. hate. it!  When I was growing up, my room was right off the dining room. It was a good size room too. Since I had to walk through the dining room and living room to get to a bathroom at night, my mom put in a night light so I could see. Not only that I was and still am afraid of the dark. To this day, I remember coming out of the bathroom and running back to my room as fast as I could. I wasn’t even allowed to watch scary movies back then, so I can’t even blame my fears on Freddy or Jason.

Also, in my daughters room, her closet door doesn’t like to stay shut. It drives me nuts. When I see it open, even in the day, I have to shut it. She is unaware of my weird phobias, thank goodness. I try not to act like it is a big deal but there is something about an opened dark ass closet that freaks me the *@#$@ out! My closet is always shut, and I can usually tell when she goes in it, she leaves it opened  just a crack. She used to come in our room early in the morning, since the bathroom that she uses is also ours. She would then go into the closet to change clothes, when done, she would leave the door opened just enough, that when I woke up I would jump every time. I finally asked her about it, she said that she didn’t want to wake Little L up with shutting the door. I told her to either shut the darn door or wait till everyone is up and then change clothes. Better yet, take your outfit into your room the night before…duh. (She has a dresser but has other stuff crammed into it, and her closet is more for storage.)

I’m not only a coward in my house but going outside after dark also gets me. Oldest and I had put a spiderweb in her window as a Halloween decoration. It is pretty good size and has lights on it. She wanted to go out the other night to see it. We got outside and rounded the corner and it is really really dark out for only being like 7 p.m. The street is quiet which makes it even more spooky. We looked at the decoration and then she decided to run across the street to check the mailbox. I didn’t want her to go, but she did anyways. I just happened to look up and across the street I saw a dark figure. At first it looked like it was standing then it looked like it was walking down our way. I didn’t want to scare her, but I did holler and say hurry up. She started back across and the figure was still there. We headed up to the front of the house and I still had a feeling of dread. I had to look one more time just to see if it was still standing or walking towards us. I looked and saw…a very big, spooky trash can sitting by another bunch of mailboxes. I laughed to myself as we headed into the house. I didn’t tell her but I did tell my hubby about it later on that night.

So every night it is the same thing. I get in her room, ready to turn the t.v. off and I always glance at that closet door right before the room goes dark. Oldest is peacefully sleeping behind me and I am still a big coward and do a power walk out of her room. Silently praying that she didn’t leave a shoe in the way as I go. 🙂

 

The Pumpkin Man

Pumpkin man pumpkin man

I’m the one-eyed pumpkin man.

I will chase you as fast as I can,

‘Cause I’m the one-eyed pumpkin man.

You will run, thinking… it’s

just for fun.

But when you hear me scream, you

will hope that it is just a dream…

‘Cause I’m the one-eyed pumpkin man!

 

Trying my hand at a spooky poem inspired by one of my daughters favorite toys.

 

Last year’s pic but she still loves him.

 

One of my favorites.

The Phone Call

The girl came home from school to an empty house everyday. Her mom worked and would be home around 5. Her daily routine was to come in, and immediately call her mom at work to let her know she was safe at home. Everyday she called, the same lady answered the phone. “Hi Brenda”, the girl said. “Can I speak to my mom, please?” The lady on the other end, who recognized the girls voice, said “Sure thing hun, hold on.” Every day it was the same thing. The girl would talk to her mom and tell her that she was ok. Tell her about homework or if she had an easy day. Then the girl would say good bye, hang up and ransack the kitchen for goodies to eat.

One Monday afternoon, she got home from school and did her usual thing.  All the teachers gave some kind of homework today for some reason. But not letting it get to her, she proceeded to call her mom. When Brenda answered the phone, “Thank you for calling YCH, how can I direct your call?” The girl thought, knowing Brenda’s voice, that she sounded kind of sad today. The girl responded by saying “Hi Brenda, how are you?” The voice on the other end said “I’m good, how about you?”  “Ok, lots of homework tho, can I speak to mom.”  “Ok hun.” She always called her hun. The girl laughed at this thought and said thank you. When her mom came on the other end, the girl started telling her about her day. She was in good spirits, besides the mound of homework that awaited her. In her ramblings to her mom she said, “I think it’s funny how Brenda always calls me hun.” Her mom became quiet for a moment, then said, “Brenda died over the weekend, she had a heart attack.” The girl froze, not knowing what to say. Silence. Her mom spoke, “Are you ok?” No words could form from the girls mouth. Thoughts ran through her head. Lots of thoughts. What…How could…who was that that had answered the phone? How did they know who to transfer the call to? She started to cry and hung up the phone. Several minutes later, the phone rang. She answered, trying to control the tears. It was her mom. “Honey, are you alright?” “It’s ok to cry. I will be home soon.” The girl nodded and squeaked out a tiny ok and hung the phone up once more.