April in Minnesota

This has been the worst Spring I can remember. It just seems that winter does not want to let go, but this weekend I think the tide has turned. We have green sprouting in all the tree tops overnight after a nice spring storm yesterday. It is strange how just this little touch of green brightens my spirits and makes me lighthearted.

Its been a year since we closed on our new home and it sure went fast. But right now the days are dragging as I am waiting to go through my lawsuit for medical malpractice for my Cauda Equina syndorme injuries. Should be done by the end of June, I hope. But enough on that item.

I placed a silver glazing ball in the lilac bush beside the house and watched as the little chickadees went wild. They were flying at the ball and trying to get those "Other" birds to leave. For over twenty minutes I watched them hopping from branch to branch and to the top of the ball. They seemed mesmerized by their own reflections.

Well I am going to sign off for now and enjoy the budding leaves in my trees outside the window and dream of warm weather and sunny days.

Halloween

This has always been my favorite holiday of all time, especially as a mother and adult. I loved to dress up when I was younger and create fantastic haunted house to scare the kids. My first year with a haunted house, I was in Germany and created a series of rooms in a large basement in our military housing. I dressed up in dark clothing, whitened my skin with cornstarch and oil, and laid down in a coffin to wait.

Soon I secret word let me know that the group coming through consisted of boys over the age of 13. Slowly they came into the room and their host took them past my coffin. I opened the lid soundlessly and crept up behind the largest boy. The host turned as if to walk into the next room and the boys turned to follow. Suddenly their was a scream, a punch, a toss and there I was thrown back into my coffin and the "big boy" who scoffed at our "lame" haunted house was screaming on the way out the building. I was sore from being tossed into the coffin and my stomach hurt where he had punched me but I was hooked.

The next best one I did was set up Dr. Frankenstein's lab. My hubby at the time was Dr. Frankenstein and my daughter the victim. We took a table with a leaf in it and spread out the table just far enough that her leg was between the table top. Then a fake leg was placed next to her own. My ex took out his saw and started cutting between the two while my daughter's friend shot bloody fluids from a squirt gun onto his lab coat and face. My daughter screamed and the effect of amputation was created. In the same haunted house we had the witches cave, the mummy's crypt and the werewolf.

I really loved going to the Darmstadt Castle where an American GI had created a haunted house for the Germans. He had trolls, ghouls, witches, demons, dead, and monsters in the ruins. It was a dark cold night with a full moon as our bus pulled up and let us off. But it was fantastic and the perfect setting for a haunted tour. I always wished I could go back there at this time of year to see what is going on at the castle.

So remember this my friends, Halloween is the time of pranks, ghosts, and ghouls. Be sure to scare those older kids that come knocking at your door if you can. And have a great time getting back at them for all the nasty stuff they put your through for the entire year.

BOO!!!!