It's Halloweeeeeeeeeen!..

At last my favorite day of the year has arrived!...

We have to work today, but it really wasn't too much work. It was the 5th weekend, and the crowd was small. Heather and I actually had time to dance and sing and have fun (well, in between customers that is!)

Once in the middle of the afternoon, the singing opera kareoke ladies took a break and played "Electric Slide", my favorite line dance. The young ghouls's, taking a break from "Haunted Hight" decided to get up and dance, soon, the soy candle lady was dancing, other people got up to dance, so I just had to shake my bootie too!...It was the most fun you could have in the middle of a pumpkin patch!..here are some of the ghouls......they were harmless, really!


The absolute highlight of the day was the "Pet halloween costume" contest....They were just the cutest. Naturally, I had to take lots of pictures.

Elvis was in the building....

My personal favorite...the weiner witch dog...


And the winner is:



And here's something you don't see everyday...


Yes, it's a goat!.....a Renaissance goat!.....
Finally, here we are on our last day at Relleke, HALLOWEEN 2004!

Skip ahead, skip ahead...skip ahead...

Let's skip ahead to Sunday, because this was just like any other work day at Relleke...

Oh, but

BOOOOOOO...it's the scariest night of the year.......No BONES about it!

Today we went to Relleke to get things ready for the last weekend. We came home and went to Dona's house and waited on the porch for trick or treaters....Bill wanted to wait in the bushes and scare them, but I threatened him and he gave up THAT idea. It was a beautiful warm night, kind of windy and creepy, just like we like it. Melissa was there with the candy. We just sat on the porch swing and ate cookies.

Anyway, here are a few of the ghouls that visited us..





and the scariest one of all..


Aw, I'm just kiddin'...

Bla, Bla, Bla...

Since there was no excitement today, I decided to link this page to my photo album from Forbes State Park, just one day, relaxing on the bank...ok, it seems that this link does not work like it is supposed to.....WHAT? WHAT?...something on the internet does not work properly????....so, anyway, you will have to sign in and use a password....

Sign in: halloweengirl and password is - halloween....

A day with the moms, Babe Ruth curse is over, total lunar eclipse

Today the moms and I went to Mt. Vernon. We had lunch at Fazoli's, where he all had the samething...a three cheese and tomatoe sandwich on an italian roll and freezies (which was really a smoothie, they weren't fooling me). We then went to Dobb's and did a little shopping, found some items to finish out my halloween outfit!...I hope I am done. I could have bought a complete outfit for what I have spent on little items to compliment what I already have.

After we came back to Salem, we stopped at the Court Yard Coffee house and had some raspberry and white chocolate mochas, oh, yeah...and a cookie!...So stuffed we were!

Went back to mom's and helped her hang the new silk flower wreath she bought today.
OK....Have to do something to wake myself up...so here is what I would be doing if I was a squirrel.



Oh, yeah, and the Cardinals lost the World Series to the Boston Red socks, 3-0 today, finally breaking the "Babe Ruth Curse", that began in 1918 when Babe Ruth was traded to the Yankees. The Red Socks had never won a world series since that time, until today, October 27th, 2004.

One more highlight today... a total eclipse of the moon happened right in the middle of the ball game.

Halloween Express

Today we went to Paducah, KY so Bill could buy tobacco products. (yuck, yuck, yuck!!). We took Dona with us. I was happy to find the Halloween Express and I found a feathered mardi gras mask to wear for halloween....weeeeee!

We ate at Arby's and then drove home in a horrible rain storm. Bill hydro-planed on the wet roads several times and scared the **** out of me!!

Ah, too much excitement for me!!

A Day at the Lake...

Today we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather. We went to Stephen A. Forbes State park. I took alot of pictures. Here's one that was pretty creepy...and in the spirit of halloween....This is a field of spider webs shining in the sun....don't EVEN want to know how many spiders it took to make them.



Beautiful trees on Frobes Lake...

So we are sitting on the bank enjoying the sounds of the birds and fish splashing in the water and Bill looks up in this tree (the one in this picture) and there is a hornets nest...oh joy!....first bees now hornets......hince...another picture opportunity...

and finally it was beginning to get dark, but just had to have this picture of the moon reflecting on the lake. It was a wonderful day, so quiet and peaceful by the water's edge, sitting next to Aussie Bill in his new hat....

Thomas T. Bee...

Yes, it's all about the bees again. Only a few bees appeared today when we opened our window, but we hadn't forgotten the fun times of yesterday. How ironic that the "mascot" of the day was Thomas T. Bee...yes a person dressed up like a giant bee!!!!!!!!!...Heather said.." I just want to go and push that bee down in the mud"!...Too funny!.

We were VERY busy and it was a successful day. Next week they are having a halloween costume contest....for DOGS!....

Today I was not "One with the bees"

Today we went back to Relleke Pumpkinfestival in Pontoon Beach....it was raining when we elft but by the time we arrived the gray skies were turning to blue. Everything was going fine until we opened our window for business. Suddenly there were swarms of bees coming in our front window, scaring the customers. Heather and I used the fly swatter to smack them into outer space...it was like playing badmiton...however...they would not stop. Finally the Popeyes's chicken lady came over and brought some sanitizer with something extra in it that the bees don't like. So we mixed it with water and I kept wiping down the front count all day....sure enough they wouldn't come in, neither did the flies. It was kind of entertaining watching people freak out when they saw the bees, well it was funny until they went and bought food elsewhere.....what a bunch of weenies!.....Speaking of which, we sold alot of!...

It's all in the hat...

Today Bill decided to make a fashon statement (if you can believe that!) So off we went to find a new hat. We went to Effingham to Rural King (Well, where else would you buy a hat?!)...He tried on white ones, beige ones, straw ones, even a pink one..he looked so sweet in that one..:-)...anyway he must have a really small head because they all looked like 10 gallon hats, but at last...we found a nice australian number....so here he is sporting his new hat....gotta love him!

The Legend of the Fall...

Today Bill and I both felt like crap, so we slept in for a while. About noon we decided to go to Relleke and get the trailer organized. We needed lots of soda so we went to Schnucks where we get such a good deal! While we were there we ate supper in their nice restaurant attached to the store. The food was really good, there is a sunday brunch that sounds yummy too. Bill had meatloaf and I had a bison burger, yes, bison! No fat and low calorie. After we bought soda and took it back to the trailer. The pumpkin farm was deserted, all we heard was the donkey.....AGAIN!

Here are some pictures of the Fall leaves across from the house and the side yard. These are just from a few days ago, but after all of the rain this week, the leaves are all just turning brown.
I love the fall....

Skin Heads in Illinois

Today mom and I went to Pana to meet Shelley. Shelly wanted to borrow one of my wigs to wear for Halloween. There is NOTHING in Pana, even Wal-mart was small and boring. Anyway, mom and I met Shelly and Chris (Cary's sister) at McDonalds. Then we found a chinese restaurant and had some lunch...the whole time talking and laughing.

Like I said, there is nothing going on in Pana, so we went to Walmart and then to Casey's where mom bought us some Frappacino which we drank while sitting in the parking lot, we talked for about an hour and a half. I had brought some boxes that were stored at my house that belonged to Shelley. We got a big laugh out of some of the things in there: A poster with Shelleys face on Farrah Fawcett's body, a key chain that said "Eric" (uh-oh), a bouquet from my wedding, cook books and a beer stein with "Shelley Holsapple" on it and the year 1989 and a booklet I made for Shelley on her 21st birthday with pictures and captions of her life up to that point.

While we were waiting for mom to get the Frappacino I was looking in my purse and found the skull cap that is to be worn under wigs, so I gave it to Shelley who promptly put it on her head and sat there while people stared at her...It was so funny...well...here's the picture...worth about 2000 words....she looks like she just "ain't right....".



Had such a great time with my beautiful daughter (yes she really IS beautiful, I'm just sayin'....nobody looks good in a skull cap...

anyway...she seems so happy and is planning her wedding and her life. I am glad, she deserves it!

Bill is still laughing about this picture....

Howl is everyone today?...and ..where are the locusts?

Today was rest day for us...such a hard day yesterday...what with the bees and all..no wait..I think the customers were even worse!!! Question: How much catsup does it take for ONE corndog??, but I digress!

Today it stormed, lightened, thundered, rained, more rain, more rain, raining so hard it is beating the side our our house, then hail...Bill was wondering what was next...locusts?

One of my friends on the Clayboard posted this picture just for me, since she knows how I love Halloween...so here it is for posterity...and that's why the "howl" in my title....I know, I know, I need professional help!

The Bee's Knees

Back to Relleke today....we were very busy! Income for the day was a record for one day of all of the events we have worked at.

We were, however, plagued by bees. The smell of the suger and lemons from the shake ups drew them. They never stung us, all they did was flutter around. This will probably sound strange, but somehow I felt a connection with them. I kept having to go outside to get soda, and they were everywhere....they were landing on me, but never even offering to sting. They just buzzed their wings softly on my cheek and landed in my hair...ok, yeah,...I'm weird...but I just felt that all they wanted was the sugar, so I made some shakeups and set them outside the back of the trailer away from the door. Soon the cups were full of bees, and only a few drifted inside after that.

It was a beautiful day and everyone was having a great time! The Opera singing ladies were singing their hearts out, little kids were running around with balloon animals on their heads, faces painted, parents had wheel barrows of pumpkins and gourds and good food was enjoyed by all! I love the atmosphere there, it is always such fun.

Relleke is a charitable event, each week money goes to some charity. This week it was the Back Stoppers, teaching children about fire safety. They have a small house that they catch on "Fire" and let the children go in so they can show them how to escape. The kids love it. If they take the little fire safety course, they get a fireman's hat. Their mascot was there, a huge "Balloon" fireman and was running around and dancing. Bill just cracked up at the dancing Balloon fireman! He just kept looking at him and laughing......I think he needs professional help Bill, not the balloon fireman).

At the end of the day we had alot of corndogs left...So I was yelling at people going by?

"Corndogs are only $1.00.....please buy one so we can go home"!..

We sold all but a few...I think I am turning into a true carny...

It's the great pumpkin , Charlie Brown

Today we went back to Relleke...it was very cold and windy. The crowd was smaller than normal, but still we were fairly busy!...Sold lots of hot chocolate. The camel guys came up to get soda.....I wonder if the camels get cold. The donkey kept braying and it kept making us laugh....

When we left there was one huge pumpkin in the middle of the road...just sitting there by itself, it probably weighed 100 lbs, no kidding! I don't know why it was funny (maybe we were just tired) The next morining it was still there...then suddenly it was gone....

It doesn't take much to entertain us....

Could it have been the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?

Q-tips....

Today we went to Relleke, cleaned, and stocked the trailer....

So, here's a joke.....

Along came Polly....

Today, at last, a fun day this week. I went to mom's and we watched 'Along came polly', starring Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston. It was a cute romantic comedy. Mom fixed her wonderful Chicken salad, with grapes and nuts for lunch, with orange cake and coffee for dessert.. Yum!

Then we tried to figure out the Moviemaker program on her computer. We are still working on that!

Tomorrow Bill and I head to Relleke to get the trailer ready for the weekend.

Here is a picture from Sept. 2004 at Evansville, Indiana. We were attending the Clay Aiken concert and met up with some of our Clayboard friends we met on-line. Left to right:
My purdy mommy, me, Mary, and her mom, Joan. We had such a great time with them, but the reason I am publishing this picture is because I think we just all look happy!

You can't always get what you want...

In the words of Mic Jagger (and, well, the rest of the Rollingstones for that matter)....


You can't always get what you want...
You can't always get what you want...
You can't always get what you want..
You get what you need......

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!

Today is a holiday and we are resting from the weekend...so nothing much happening today...therefore....Let us Celebrate Haloweeeeen!








And there you have it...a small celebration of my favorite holiday.....guess it's just the irish in me...think I said that before...

The Village People

Back again to Relleke......OMG...so many curly fries...and Bill with the "eye" and all, but we trudged forward and got through the day.

I was telling someone about the pioneer re-inactment people, but what I said was "The Pioneer Village People.....so they thought I meant the "Village People", just misconceptional typing on my part.

So I'm already yawning...so I just wish I had some pix of the Village People....Y-M-C-A..hee

Curly Fry Eye

Today we were at Relleke Pumpkinfest again. Everything was as always. Music, food, screaming kids!...we worked our tushies off! Bill ended the day with a bad case of Curly Fry Eye....(steam from the curly fries going into eye)..this is a newly discovered ailment..ha ha.

Anyhoo, this was the weekend for the Pioneer Re-inactment people. It is always very interesting to see the authentic costumes and dwellings.

Not much more to report since all we did was WORK!




They camel guy was still there with his camels to ride...


And here we are in the pumkin patch where you can pick your own pumpkin.


We had a nice crowd today.


And, just for fun...really like this couple's tent and costumes....they had a camp fire going so there is smoke that makes the picture look cloudy....

OK, it is now 2007 and I was going back through my old posts, because I had changed the background from black to gold and was fixing the fonts that were too light to read...and I discover that I have also deleted some pictures from photobucket that went with these posts, so just use your imagination........you know, "crowd" "pumpkin patch", imaginary people....

The Dimpled One appears briefly...

We mostly spent the day at Relleke getting ready for tomorrow. We got home in time for Preson and Kara to come over. We looked at old family albums, he never gets tired of looking at those pictures. I love them too! Love you Preston, even if you are bad...:-).

Planet Ocean

Since our Planet is mostly covered with oceans and not earth, who was the genius that decided to call our planet Earth???

I'm just sayin'......

Let the Chewing begin.....

Today I thought I would make some home made bread. Well, I MADE it at home, but used a bread maker. I hadn't used it for a while and I put in all of the ingredients and let it go through all of it's cycles until it was finished cooking...uh oh....a malfunction occured (to put it mildly) and when the bread was done it was as hard as a ROCK...and about the size of a grapefruit.. Well, this just ticked me off and so I opened the door and winged it out into the yard..the dog.. ran by and scooped it up in her mouth..like she plays with her ball! So , I ran out the door and played with her yelling..."give it to me, give me the ball"..pretty soon I was gasping for air...and went in the house. I looked out the window and she was trying to gnaw her way into the "bread"...chew, chew...dropped it on the ground....a few minutes later I saw her in the field out back, I thought she was choking...(death by bread, yikes)..anyhoo, she was just burying the bread...guess she thought it was a bone!...(visions of I Love Lucy)..OMG, I was laughing so hard....

Wish I had a parrot...how hilarious would THAT be?.. Huh?..

Here's my dog, she is daft!..

Red Hats? Clay heads? Pillow heads?

Today was a fun day....

Mom and I went to Centralia to buy clothes for our trip to San Jose in November...mom knew of a great sale downtown and I really cleaned house (mom just did a little dusting, you know, she just bought one outfit!)

After the shopping we wanted to find somewhere for lunch. A lady in the clothing store told us to go to "Two Sisters" in the alley behind the police station. We went there and were pleasantly surprised. It was a craft shop as well, but was a beautifully decorated restaurant. Such a fun atmosphere. We had frito pie and chocolate cake with coffee for dessert. While we were sitting there I looked into the back dining area and there were all of these ladies (older ladies) with red hats and all dressed in purple and red. I remembered reading about the Red Hat Society somewhere and in fact these ladies were members of the local chapter. They were all just adorable and some of them stopped and talked to us. We were talking on the way home about how we are members of the Clay board and are such huge Clay Aiken fans that we should have our own hats to wear...so we decided on the following:

Clay flower pots on the head...get it?..Clay?...so we would be called "Clayheads"...or sadly maybe "potheads"..
So then we decided maybe we should just strap pillows on our head and become "pillow heads", you know , due to all of the thudding that is going on....alas...we finally decided on fedoras, as that is Clay's favorite kind of hat........

Here is one of the Red Hat Society members....I wanna have a red hat too!...(whining)


Here are a couple of girls that have the right idea...they were at the Evansville pre-party....



MOM, You are such a nut!!

Move over Lindberg......

Today is Monday. We are resting up. Today marks an extremely important day In History, as it was the 2nd and final trip into outer space (even though it was momentary) by the privately owned “Spaceshipone”.
It left the earth’s atmosphere and returned safely in glider mode. The plane was built and flown by private individuals. So very exciting, as it is the beginning of space travel for the average individual. It’s importance is up there with the first flight of Lindberg. I’m getting my ticket as soon as I get my next million….now that’s humor folks…

Give me that ole time......Kareoke Opera

Today is Sunday and back again to Relleke. We took a few minutes before we opened and walked around to see the crafters and the new things they had added. While we were walking around we stopped by the Petting zoo that is part of the activities for children attending. Since Bill is still wanting chickens we had to check them out too. There was a huge, strutting, “dominecker” (that’s what Bill calls them, he’s so funny :-)) rooster. There was a female too, but she was walking low to the ground, like her knees were bent (do chickens have knees?), guess she was hiding from Mr. Dominecker…ha ha! The donkey kept hee-hawing all day, it never ceases to be funny!

The singing duet was there again this year! They are pretty good, but we just call them the “opera Kareoke” singers! Have you ever heard “Give me that ol’ time rock n roll (Bob Seger)” sang by opera singers….????…Now that’s entertainment!

Let the Fun Begin......

Today we our first day working at Relleke. A windy but beautiful Fall day!
Such fun for everyone attending. The money made from this 5 weekend
event goes to charities, such as St. Josephs Childrens Hospital, the fire prevention program –BackStopper- to teach children about fire safety, etc. We give a portion of our income from the event to Relleke Farms and they in turn help support these organizations.

Here are some pictures I took today. I only had about 5 minutes so didn’t have time to compose them like I would have liked to.

OMG, so tired and we get to do it again tomorrow…yippee!!!

My life is Scary..

And, this month also begins my FAVORITE season…Halloween!!!

I have always loved Halloween and as far as I can remember, have never missed a year dressing up for Halloween, which probably explaines why I love the Renaissance Fairs..you know, more costumes!

I have always loved scary things, autumn, pumpkins and cool weather, it’s the Irish in me I guess.


Three cheers for October!!!!