HALLOWEEN

It was quite a Halloween around here.  I woke up at 2:30 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep.  So I turned on the fire in the stove, lit a hot apple pie candle and turned on a Hallmark movie.  Does it get better than that?

Of course by the time it was over, I was ready to go back to sleep.

When I finally did get back up and dressed, I headed to Rite Aid to get my prescription.  I also got another bag of candy for the Trick-or-Treaters.  It turns out I didn't need it, but better safe than sorry.

We began to hear little voices around 6:00 p.m.  Joe grabbed the bowl I had put the candy in and headed outside.  I followed a few minutes later.  He was standing there talking with our next-door neighbor Kate.

There are never a lot of kids on our street.  But we got a good number tonight.  Probably about 30 or so.  The candy we had went.

I didn't stay outside very long.  I wasn't feeling all that well.  I got a chair from the back yard for Joe and then went inside and laid down.  When I heard Kate leaving, I went outside again so Joe wouldn't be alone.

After awhile our neighbor William came home.  He and Joe are fast friends because they both served in the Marine Corps in Okinawa.  Just a few months apart as it turns out.  I think Joe left for the States as William was going over there.  Or was it the other way around?  They talked and talked so I went back inside and laid down again.

About an hour later I heard William leave and Joe came in.  He said no kids were anywhere so he gave it up for the night.  There were about 10 candy bars left.

I got up and made tortellini and meatballs for dinner.  It turned out good.

And now begins the holiday season in earnest.  Just wait until you see all the things in store for this month.

Kathy

HALLOWEEN 2017

This was the busiest Halloween I can remember in a long time.  It began with me picking up Debbie and Kathy for Bible Study.  Dorothea showed up too so it was a full house.  We talked about true discipleship from Mark 8 -- what it meant and how we could be disciples.  Another good study and the last one for this year.  I used to take a break in the summer, but figured out that was pretty useless since people are around and the weather is good.  A winter break made more sense.  Not only is it cold and icy at times, but being women we are all super busy with the holidays.  We will pick back up in March.

After the study we stopped by Salvation Army to make some donations.  I didn't have much together, but anything is something.  I gave away a dress that I really like but haven't worn in over a year, a top that is really pretty but the neckline is annoying to wear (someone else it might not bother), a green sweater that is too small for me (I bought the wrong size and wore it only twice), and a top that I knit for myself back in 1984.  I hated to give it away because there was so much work put in it.  I wore it a lot for a long time but I had to admit that it was way too small, I'm not in my 20s anymore and I would never put it on my body again.  *sigh*  So instead I took a picture of it to remember it by and put it into the bag. I hope someone else loves it as much as I do.

Next we took Kathy home and then headed to the bank.  At least I was putting money IN.  Then it was off to the library.  The church library is getting rid of a lot of books and we are donating them to the library where I used to work.  If they can't use them in the collection, they sell them to raise money for programming.  So every week or two Debbie and I head over there to get rid of another load.

Because it was Halloween I was wearing my holiday vest.  Hey, I only get to wear it once a year so why not.  I went into the workroom to drop off the books while Debbie returned some of the books she had out.  Diane and Barbara were in the back and I was talking to them.  Diane was also wearing a Halloween top and she was telling Barbara how we always had our picture taken together on Halloween and she missed that.  I said, "You still can.  I have my camera with me."  She had hers too.  So I took off my jacket and we had our picture taken together.  I so miss my co-workers and I'm glad we can still have fun together.

On the way out Doug gave me one of those solar powered Halloween decorations.  What a nice guy!  That was so sweet of him.

Our final stop was ShopRite.  Having gone away last month I hadn't had the money to do a big shopping so I was out of a lot of things.  I bought a lot but there were so many sales that I didn't spend more than I usually do for a two week shopping trip.  Debbie got a lot of sales too.  We were two happy ladies when we packed our bags into the car.

I took Debbie home and then took a long time unpacking the car.  I was very tired.  Very.  That is a lot for me to do in one day.  Joe couldn't help me unpack because it's been only a week since his surgery and he can't lift anything heavy.  He did put things away a little at a time so that helped a lot.

We got something to eat and then went outside to wait for the kids to come around.  Joe stayed outside about 3 hours but I was in and out.  Mostly in.  It was cold.  Last year we had 11 kids come around.  This year we had over 60.  I lost count.  The little girls were so pretty in their princess costumes and the boys thought they were scary in their superhero outfits or monster masks.  Of course I pretended to be scared and made them laugh.  The day before Joe and I decided we might not have enough bags of chips and pretzels to go around and so bought a big bag of candy bars.  I'm so glad we did.  Those chips were gone in the first hour.  I also printed out little gospel tracts and we gave them to the kids until they ran out.  I know a lot of them will just get thrown away, but I always say if the world is beating a path to your door, why not give them the gospel.  Joe and William, our neighbor a few houses away, talked for hours.  It turns out they were both in the Marine Corps the same time and were both stationed in Japan at the same time but never met each other.  Please pray for William.  He was in a serious car accident some years back where he flatlined twice.  No one expected him to live.  He has fought his way back and even went back to work.  Yesterday he was laid off.  He doesn't know what he is going to do.

One of the things I say to Joe each year is that when the door closes on the last Trick-or-Treater, the holiday season begins.  So welcome to November and to Thanksgiving.  I have some great posts planned for this month and I hope you will all enjoy them.

How was your Halloween?

Kathy

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone!  Hope you all had a fun-filled day.  Did you get a lot of kids knocking at your door tonight?  We prepared for 30-50 kids.

About 11 kids showed up.  I think.  I lost count but I think it was that.  Do you think we have candy left?  This was the worst Halloween turnout we have ever had.  And it wasn't just us.  I looked out the door about 12 times and there was no one around.  Not on the streets anywhere.  You couldn't even hear kids laughing and talking.  Usually we get the teenagers around 7:30 or 8:00 at the latest, but no one showed up.  Think we have a lot of candy left?  We will be sharing the wealth, I think.

We tried another snack from the free ones we got the other day.  This was rice chips with sriracha flavor.

When I first put a chip in my mouth I thought, "Wow, these are wonderful flavors!" And then it hit.  Boy were these hot!  I think it burned my palate.  They were good but I'd have to think twice about whether to buy them or not.  I like hot things, but these were HOT.  So it's a tentative thumbs up for me.  And for Joe a definite thumbs up.

The sunset was so great tonight.  I looked out the window and knew I had to get a picture of it.

The "Fall Harvest" movie I want to tell you about today was called "Autumn Dreams" (2015).  With big plans to leave their small Iowan town, teenage loves Annie (Jill Wagner) and Ben (Colin Egglesfield) elope. Their big city plans are halted, though, when Annie’s parents have the marriage annulled, and Annie stays behind in Iowa to help her family. Fifteen years later, when Annie is engaged in Iowa and Ben is engaged in New York, they discover that their annulment was never finalized. Annie and Ben reunite to make their divorce legal, but find themselves reminiscing about what could have been if they had stayed together. OK, just from the description you know how the movie ends.  But that's OK.  It's just a nice story.






Contrary to popular belief, I do not watch every movie that comes onto the Hallmark Network.  I am picky what I watch.  It's just nice to have clean movies with a nice story.

So Halloween is over and so is October.  I don't know how that happened.  Tomorrow starts (for me) the holiday season.  Just a few more weeks and it will be one year since I retired from work.  What a year it's been!

Until later...

Kathy

Sunrise:  7:29 a.m.

Sunset:  5:58 p.m.

10 hours and 29 minutes of daylight

Temperature:  57*/38* 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

It was a really busy day today.  It began when we took Pumpkin to the vet to be checked out.  He is about 7 weeks old, just as I guessed.  He has no fleas, nor ear mites.  He weighs just 2 pounds.  The only thing wrong is he has an upper respiratory infection.  I have eye drops to give him twice a day, a medicine I have to give every other day to deworm him (we don't know if he has worms or not) and vitamins for six months to help him grow.  Everyone loved him.

After we dropped Pumpkin off at home we went to Wawa and got lunch.  I ate quickly and then went off to church to help Carol with the Kids Club.

For the second week no kids showed up.  She had made up lots of treat bags with coloring pages, crayons, candy and a gospel tract.  So we boxed them up, got in her car and went around the neighborhood giving them out.  We left some on doorsteps or in mailboxes and gave a lot out.  All the people we met were so receptive and wanted to know about our church.  One woman told her little boy that we were ladies sent by God to tell him about Jesus.  One lady and little boy hugged Carol and another shook both our hands and asked where our church was located.  I was so happy and I know Carol was too.  It went so well.

I came home and saw that my front door was propped open.

When I got to the door I saw it was a cute little Halloween bucket.

With some candy and cute note in it from my friends Marion and Chris who are real estate agents.  I had referred several people to them and it was a thank you from them.  So sweet.

I started to straighten up the living room.  But...  I had done too much and just had to sleep.  I hate not having energy.  I had to lay down and went right out.  After sleeping about an hour, I got up and put together the treats for the Trick or Treaters tonight.

We sat out front of the house from about 5:30 to 7:30.  We had around 30 kids show up which is way more than usual.  We often get just 8 or 10.

I think Halloween is really fun.  I get to see and talk with my neighbors since we all sit out front together.

Thought I would show you some of the houses decorated for the holiday.

I always say when the door closes behind the last Trick or Treater, the holiday season has begun.  It sure doesn't feel that way this year, but I know the end of the year is close.

In fact I began today what I hope will carry through the season.  I am watching one movie a day until the end of the year.  This morning I watched A Boyfriend for Christmas on the Hallmark channel.  The first of 62 movies.  I hope.  It was a cute movie.  A real chick flick.  As you can imagine, I am watching these movies alone.

I'm going to go for now.  Another big day tomorrow.  Don't forget to....

Kathy

OCTOBER PHOTO CHALLENGE #31 -- WHATEVER YOU PLEASE

Friday, October 31 -- Happy Halloween!  I had off from work today and it was the first time in YEARS that I have been home.  It was nice.  I puttered around in the morning and then Joe and I met our friend Donna and we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  It was fun.  I haven't seen Donna in awhile.

After lunch we dropped her off and then went to Home Depot.  A while back someone decided to kick in the gate in our alleyway that leads to our back yard.  Joe bought some lattice to fix it and some paint.  That's his next project.

When we got home Joe laid down because his back was hurting him so badly.  I went to work doing wash and cleaning the house.  I was surprised at how much I got done.  It's not finished by a long shot, but I'll just keep plugging away and hope I can get the downstairs finished by Thanksgiving.  That's my goal anyway.  So much paperwork to go through.  How do I get so much paper?

We had so much candy and only 14 kids showed up.  Well, that's about average for us.  And it was COLD! So there's a lot left over.  I'm taking some to work tomorrow.

Today is the last day of the photo challenge.  I was going to do one in November also, but I think I will skip it and just do my own thing.  This has been fun, but I'm ready to move on to something else.  Today's topic is "Whatever You Please".  So I decided to show you some of my decorations.

 It's very late (or should I say early since it's 4 a.m.).  I need to get a couple more hours sleep before I have to get up for work.  Until later....

Kathy
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Friday's weather:
Cloudy
High:  53 degrees (11 degrees below average)
Low:  38 degrees (1 degree below average)
Sunrise:  7:29 a.m.
Sunset:  5:59 p.m.
10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight   

HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween everyone!  I hope you all have had a nice day.

After I wrote my post this morning I laid down and went back to sleep and slept through the alarm clock!  I got to work on time, but just barely.

The library was so dead today.  Almost no one came in.  At 3:00 some of us put on costumes to wait for the kids, but about 10 kids came in and that was it.  Sort of sad.  But we got a lot of work done.

Of course I got some pictures for you.

I took an hour off tonight to help Joe hand out candy to the kids.  We never get a lot.  Tonight we got about 25 or 30.  The little ones are so cute.  We sit out on the front step along with our next-door neighbor, Chrissy, and talk in between groups of kids.

Joe handing out the candy.

I put a lit jack-o-lantern in the flowers.  Don't worry, it was a battery operated candle.

 So now the last trick-or-treater is gone.  The door is closed on the spooky night.  And the holidays have begun.  At least in my mind.  It's been a good day.

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Mostly cloudy
High:  71 degrees (nice!)
Low:  63 degrees
Sunrise:  7:29 a.m.
Sunset:  5:59 p.m.
10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight

GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN

Another morning where I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and can't go back to sleep.  It's now 4:30 and I am starting to get tired so maybe I can get a few more hours sleep before going to work.

My checklist for today is starting to get filled.  Candy?  Check.  I got 6 bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  They are my favorite so whatever is left is mine.  
 

I still have to go to the attic and get the Halloween bowl we always put them into, get some chairs to put out front to sit on, and find the Halloween top I want to wear to work.  I know exactly what I want to wear it's just a matter of finding it in my mess of clothes.

I will be taking pictures to show you later today or tomorrow.  We dress up at work and I always try to get a shot or two (or five or six).

After today, it's on to the holidays.  Only 55 days to Christmas and 59 days to my birthday.  The years just seem to fly by anymore.  I must be getting old. 

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Wednesday -- Light rain
High:  59 degrees
Low:  44 degrees
Sunrise:  7:28 a.m.
Sunset:  6:00 p.m.
10 hours and 32 minutes of daylight
The days are getting shorter and shorter. 

HALLOWEEN AND OTHER THINGS

I'm giving you two posts today to sort of make up time.  Hurricane Sandy has been so devastating to so many people.  I had no work on Monday or Tuesday.  Joe had a doctor appointment in Huntingdon Valley so I was able to take him.  The torn up trees and broken utility poles and power lines we saw was amazing.  Some of the trees along the sidewalks had gone down and taken huge chunks of cement sidewalk with it.  Unreal.

 As I mentioned, we seemed to be spared the worst of the storm.  But we still got it.

The wind was wicked, but not as bad as where my sister is in northern New Jersey.  She said it sounded like a freight train was going through her house and she thought the back wall was going to blow right in.  Continue to pray for her.  She still has no power, heat, etc. and it may be another two weeks or more until she does.  Power lines are down all around her.  Even where she works doesn't have heat so she can't even get warm there.  And because the gas pumps are out when her car runs out of gas, that's it.

We finally heard from the Caro family.  They are in bad shape too.  No electric, heat, gas either.  Please pray for them also.

You can see from this picture that our yard came through fairly well.  The trellis is a little broken, but that's not bad.  I put my glass gazing ball away, so that didn't get broken.  Tomorrow I will try to put things back into place in the yard.

   
I was so glad to see some blue sky yesterday, even though it clouded up later.

We had fun at work yesterday.  Some of the employees dressed up for the kids.  I find it hard to do my job in costume, but I was wearing a Halloween t-shirt.


Jerry the ghoul in his office.



Bob as the wicked killer baby.



Joan as the jester.  I love her golden slippers.



Sheila as the Mardi Gras queen.



Kathy as the library assistant supervisor.



Jerry, Sheila, Bob and Joan



Tom as "Father Tom".



Marquita and Juliana.

  I stopped at Sonic on the way home for their 50 cent corn dogs.  I had never had a corn dog before.  It was good!

We sat outside for awhile to hand out candy, but it was just too cold.  Especially after freezing at work all day, I just had to get warm.  So we ended up going inside.


Our front window.

  In spite of it being so cold, it was a nice evening.  More blue sky.

I have off from work tomorrow to take Joe to two doctor appointments.  Then I have the weekend off.  Pastor Justin is in Rhode Island at his grandfather's funeral.  Elder Rich was supposed to give the message, but he lives on Staten Island and can't get there, so Joe is preaching.  He has a sore throat, so pray that he can get through the message.

So that's it for today.  See my "calendar page" post below this.  Hopefully I will be able to post this weekend.  But not having internet is nothing compared to the way a lot of people are just trying to survive.  Until next time.