Happy Halloween!!!

Well we had a very lovely All Hallows Eve in our delightful neighborhood......Let me tell you what happened.
First lets set the scene. Our house sits on a street that is called a loop, because there is a South Marklen Loop and a North Marklen Loop....we are in the first bend nearest South Marklen Loop. We have a reputation already of being the COOL Halloween house, because of My Prince Charming's talent in making things look, sound, feel, and sometimes even smell Cool. Halloween is My Prince Charming's absolutely Favorite Holiday. He has a wonderful talent, especially for making things creepy and spooky. So this year he had the front of the house all set up. We had previously made several gravestone markings, painted black, which My Prince Charming had set along the front of the house to the right of the front door, with colored lights on behind the tombstones. There was a Large Green and Black hairy Spider wired to the palm trees in the front of the front door, along with a lovely bloodied sign that says "Beware of the DOG" There were spotlights hung from the tree near the street, with a thing called a GOBO that made the light reflection look like a Cobweb. This was washing over the driveway where on either side were several large blue industrial size barrels. On the right, the barrel would spew forth water when a button was pressed. On the left was set 3 barrels, one looked as though something had burst out, with claw markings on several parts of the barrel, with a strobe light and when a button was pressed smoke would eminate from the barrel in a very eerie way. 2 stationary barrels sat next to this one. Then My Prince Charming had parked his Jeep as though he'd been forced into the tree to the left of the house. Then another solitary Blue Barrel set up beside the jeep. Directly infront of our front door, is where I was stationed, with the candy Box, and my selections of buttons. Then infront of me was our trailer in which My Prince Charming had placed our Mummy, making the Trailer resemble a horse drawn hearse. Then strategically placed between me, and the trailer was another blue barrel where My Prince Charming had placed a skull, chest cavity and skeletal hands in a barrel, and when another button was pressed this Skeleton would come out of the barrel, which was filled with water. My Prince Charming had procured a CD that had the most eerie, spooky and nerve tingling music, that was piped out through the length of the driveway. The scenery in place the character consisted of My Darling Daughter dressed in a Black, ripped and torn mid-calf length dress,( I think it was suppose to have been ankle length, but she didn't get the right size), White Wig, she had white face make-up and black lipstick. My Darling Daughter had a friend over clad in black pants with a black tee shirt, and donning a Red Sparkly hooded cape, also with white face and black lipstick. They would stand at the head of the driveway close to the street and startle the little trick or treaters who having walked past them to get to where I was with the candy, assumed they were just statues. My Prince Charming was dressed in a costume that he wore at our Family Reunion in Yoder in 2002. The Yellow and Red jester costume, complete with the costume's enormouse head in place, My Prince Charming has a device that when spoken into can distort the speakers voice to sound like a monster and an alien. My Prince Charming went with the monster selection on the voice distortion box. Together with a torn shirt over the body of the costume, and in one of his oversized 4 fingered gloved hands he held a woman's head that with her white stringy hair, and white face and bloody stump of a neck was quite a site. He was quite scary and well funny too! I was merely clad only in regular clothing, tan pants and an orange tee shirt and Winnie the Pooh ears. We had decided the kiddies deserved to be able to approach something kind, after being spooked while walking through the driveway, and as compensation for being scared silly after getting their candy.
We a wonderful time scaring and impressing our neighbors. We had several comments about how scary our place was and that we should win.... Win what we've never found out. Perhaps the furthering of the scariest house repurtation.
In the early part of the evening we had on our property a group of kids, 2 zombie princesses and a zombie elvis came through with their mother and older sister, who upon trying to exit our driveway were accosted by a crazed woman, her male companion, who had a little girl dressed as Belle, with them. The male companion was holding the crazed woman back from this group of Mother, 2 zombie princesses and a zombie elvis and teenaged daughter. All I heard was the crazed woman and male companion yelling and oscenties, all of the children crying, 2 zombie princesses and a zombie elvis and poor little belle. Then I saw shoving and pushing. At first, I thought they were just joking, but then the screams of "Call the Police" were yelled over after the male companion apparantly pushed the mother to the ground. So, I still being skeptical of this....hesitantly dialed 911 and requested the police to come to our house. While I was standing at the head of our driveway, at the street I was holding my cell phone, talking to the 911 operator and letting them know what the assailants were wearing and what was going on. The Crazed woman and her male companion continued screaming wildly at the mother and the teenaged daughter and their language was not becoming human kind. My Prince Charming Still dressed in his Zombie Jester outfit, and carrying the Severed Head, came to wher I was to see what was going on. But wearing the costume that he was wearing My Prince Charming isn't able to see very well. He began walking out into the street towards the crazed woman who was being held back by the male companion. My Prince Charming had become rather angry at the spectical these 2 less than humans were causing, and in front of OUR HOUSE! So with the Voice machine still on, and holding the severed head up high he yells to the male companion....
"GET OFF OF MY PROPERTY!!!"... "YOU NEED TO STOP USING SUCH BAD LANGUAGE!!!"..."GET AWAY FROM MY HOUSE!"
I was also not pleased at the time and finally the police showed up and sorted things out.
I went to work the next day and upon reflecting over this ordeal found it hysterical. What must that male companion have thought with this Giant headed Jester thing, coming at him with a severed head, screaming in a Monster sounding voice.... "GET OFF MY PROPERTY!!!"
My Prince Charming and I have had several good Belly Laughs about this. I hope you will also.
And I do hope that everyone had a Safe and Very Happy Halloween!

Stroking Out, Not just for the Elderly

So, my father in law, Bob, came out for a visit in the first part of November. We had a great time with him. We took him to Discovery Cove where he learned that he's got a stability problem. He was finding it difficult to stay standing in the water, but as a result of being in the water, his ears were cleared out and now his equalibrium is now stable.
My Prince Charming and I took Bob to Epcot. We thought of all the Disney parks this would be the most interesting for him, and the least taxing....so we thought. We walked through the West Innovation Alley, and sampled some Coca Cola flavors from around the world....Italy has some nasty taste buds let me tell you! Bob is from the Greatest Generation of our country. He fought in World War II and in Korea. He was an independent photographer in the years after the war, until the mid 90's. He does have some amazing stories and he's told me a few.
When Bob lived with us in Colorado, he would occasionally let me or Mark know that he had had a stroke. I would eventually convince him that he really needed to go to the doctor and have them make sure everything was alright. So, he would call the doctor, and of course they would want to see him right away, and since I was the only one able to drive him, we would take an hour trip into Colorado Springs so he could make sure he was alright, and for the most part these were always just extremely milde strokes, where he experience moments of dizziness, or as he would describe he would forget what something as simple as a door knob was suppose to do and he would forget how to operate it. Not something I would feel very secure with. These episodes would upset me more than they appeared to bother him. But since he's been living on his own in Edinburgh, Texas, he's not had even the smallest problem.
We had just finally sat down to eat in the World showcase in China. Finally! I was starving, and was getting a bit frustrated with Bob, he couldn't decide where he wanted to eat. My Prince Charming and I were going to take Bob to Germany to eat lunch. Bob fought in World War II in Germany and we thought he might enjoy some German food. The world show case has 13 different countries that you can visit. The countries are set in a horseshoe around a nice lake in the middle of Epcot. We had to traveled (walked) through Mexico, Norway, China, and finally to Germany, when looking at the menu, Bob decides that he can fully recall the taste of German food and would rather eat at another country. He says anything would be fine....We continued traveling through Italy, America, and then to Japan, where when we had suggested eating in Japan he said sure, but upon arriving in Japan he informed us that he'd recalled once eating in Japan, during the war and having a "Not so pleasant experience" So frustrated we marched towards Morraco. Where he finally let us know that eating in China might be nice. Because I'm a diabetic if I get to the point where my stomach starts growling, this means I need to EAT NOW, and if I don't watch out cause my evil twin is mere Nano seconds from rearing her Ugly head. My Prince Charming knows this and squeezing my hand tells me everything will be alright. I headed towards the boat transportation that would move us towards China much faster than walking would have done. Except for the part where the dock is actually in ITALY and we have to WALK back through Germany to GET to CHINA! So Finally! We have after letting Bob know that the cute Chinese serving girl, probably has never heard the term " window shopping" in reference to looking over the menu, when she asks if we are ready to order. He mentioned that the toes of his feet were dragging in the bottom of his shoe. I asked him why his toes had begun dragging, he says "oh when I had my stroke." My Prince Charming and I exchanged an uneasy glance while My Prince Charming asks " when did you last have a have stroke?" Bob responds with a rather humourous nonchalance of "2 hours ago, when we were in the sea place." So after the initial shock of this discovery, Bob assures us that he's alright, now! We finish our meal, rather good I might add. Mark asked Bob the next time he decides to Stroke out, if he would please inform us so that we might either stop and let him rest and recover....or so we can leave and take him to the hospital.
I can't wait till Bob moves in! At the end of this Month!!!!