by Claire on October 23, 2011
I hang out a lot with my mom at her assisted living facility. Bwahahaha.
Oh wait, we’re talking about me, not Mr. Amputee Skeleton (he has only one lower leg.) One would think I have no life or no friends. Not true. I just like the lack of drama, lack of urgency, and living in the moment that hanging out there offers me. Not to mention spending quality time with my mom. But I’ll save all that for another post. Back to Halloween.
Mom had been bugging reminding me to get her Halloween decorations out of storage, so finally yesterday I did so. Mom and my daughters all love decorating for Halloween. Me, not so much. If I had my ‘drothers, I’d do my home all Better Homes & Gardens like.
However, during the decorating for mom, some of my sick sense of humor came out. Hence, hanging the skeleton above mom’s Oxygen In Use sign. (Although she’s not on oxygen any longer, they haven’t removed the sign. Yet.) I started cracking up in the hallway and showed mom and she LOVED it. Another elderly lady came by and she smiled and loved it too. “You gotta have fun while you can” she said. Truer words were never spoken.
“You dirty rat!”
My mom’s ex-roommate used to HATE this rat. I think he’s hilarious. I set him on the floor and instantly thought, oooh, what if I give some old guy a heart attack with that thing? And I cracked myself up again. Man, I am twisted. Aforementioned elderly lady passing by loved it, as do the staff.
Mr. Dead Amputee is looking at mom like he wants to eat her head so he can grow a limb.
Some of the more harmless decorations.
The whole shebang.
I hope she wins the contest.
Tagged as:
family,
fun stuff,
Halloween,
holidays,
random
by Claire on November 1, 2009
This was the first year, really, that I sort of got into the spirit of Halloween. My daughter decorated the house really nice this time, and I even had a decent costume worked out (for free), but like all well-intentioned plans, it didn’t turn out like I had hoped.
I had hoped to have a low-key family get together but kids and grandkids had other plans, and mom figured my house was “too far” to come. Whatever. I figured then that I’d hand out candy to the neighborhood kids and then drive up to see my grandkids where they were at. God had other plans. About 4:00 my daughter heads out to get a Starbucks and pick up a headlight for me, and calls frantically from an unknown cell phone. Turns out her car died on in the middle of a left-turn lane. Major déjà vue for me – I was pregnant with her when I ran out of gas in the middle of an intersection in Long Beach, California (with my other one year old daughter and older step-son in the car.)
Anyhoo, turns out car is totally dead. Car is a 2004 Kia Optima, by the way – I swear they have time bombs in them that go off at 90K and the car totally craps out. But I digress. Car has to be towed to the dealer to have them figure out what’s wrong with it. Towing guy – not a mechanic, I’m sure – says he thinks it’s the timing belt. I did some research, and if this is true, this is not a good thing. The belt is not so expensive, but the labor is, and anything else that a broken timing belt could have caused, like major damage to the engine. Great.
So, there went my evening because daughter needed my car to follow tow-truck driver to the dealer and then do some other things. I was left at home to answer trick-or-treaters. Fun, but not something that one really enjoys doing alone.
Oh well, onward and upward. I’m struggling today to find my positive attitude in all this – the last two Saturdays have just outright sucked. First we lost Merlin, then the car died. I know there’s got to be a pony somewhere in all this horse manure. LOL. That’s just how I roll, really. I’m going on a run this morning as soon as it gets light out, so that will help.
Here’s some pictures of the day.
My daughter as the Goddess of Fertility. Appropriate for a pregnant lady, and not as overdone as the pregnant nun motif, you think?
Me as an “elegant” witch (dressed up for my mom’s potluck on Friday night). That black velvet dress used to be my mothers, by the way, and was too big on me. Looks like I have a project ahead to alter it and give it some shape.
My last-minute carving attempt, freehand. Not too bad.
Part of the front door decorations. I tried to get the rest, but my camera doesn’t photograph night shots so well (or is it the camera person?)
Now time to clear up all the cobwebs and move on to Thanksgiving. But first, a couple birthdays on the horizon. My oldest daughter turns 30 and my youngest grandson turns 2. Wowzer.
Tagged as:
Attitude,
costumes,
Halloween,
holidays,
Kia,
Kia Optima,
life events
