HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Our first Halloween in the Main Street house was a very happy one indeed.

Carter as Robin Hood
 

We had a heck of a time finding a costume to fit Carter. He wanted to be Batman (The Dark Knight) but all the kid costumes were too small and the adult costumes too big. It's hard to be an in-betweener. Fortunately Dada found this one. It was adult-sized as well, but I altered it a bit. It's not Halloween unless I'm fixing someone's costume at 4:30 PM.

Carter, T as ??? and E without his Viking costume, which was apparently too warm to wear until trick-or-treat time.

Rosalind as a WALKING ZOMBIE!
(That's what the packaging of her costume said. I found it offensive and discriminatory -
what about wheelchair-bound zombies?) 

ZOMBIE FACE

E as Athena the goddess of ...wisdom? And Roz

Brennan used his mad culinary skills to carve our jack o'lanterns :)



ooooh, scary.

Carter left around 5 with his buddies for dinner and trick-or-treating. We were sad to see him go - just another reminder that our kids are growing up too fast. WAAAAA! No growing up!

Harrison wasn't going to go trick-or-treating this year, but we finally convinced him to come with us. He threw on a cape, a witch hat and glasses (he did it so fast, I didn't get a chance to grab a pic) and went as Harry Potter. Hubby and I took him, Roz and Emma around the neighborhood.  I wore my Betsy Ross costume and Hubby went as Hubby. The kids made A HAUL and we met many sweet people living nearby.

Brennan and Bella stayed home and handed out candy to our small number of trick-or-treaters - but they did come, which made us very happy. Halloween is alive and well in our neighborhood.  Hooray!

All Hallow's Eve Eve

Bella stayed home sick from Seminary and school today. Get well once, will ya? :)

One of the conditions of our moving into this house was that our friend the landlady would come over to inspect the house every six months, in April and October. Her previous tenants were prone to doing unhelpful things to the house, which she would later discover after they moved out, so she figured it was in her best interest to come visit every so often. Can't say I blame her, but the previous tenants I'd like to line up and fire-hose.

She's coming tomorrow, so today I'm scrubbing the bathroom grout. GROSS. I've decided that if the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the rest of hell is paved with tile. "Here's your toothbrush, Mr. Hitler!"

Speaking of odious people... then there's the overly helpful neighbor in Fargo, North Dakota, who planned on passing these out to the Fatty Fatterson children who come to her door for trick-or-treat tomorrow night. I hope she grows a heart. Or a brain. OR some courage (to sign her name).



How superior you must feel :)

After the daylong scrubfest, I settled in for some TV and watched Warm Bodies with Brennan and Bella. Such a HAPPY movie!  I loved it! And then of course Survivor. No Mutual tonight, we begged off since Bella was sick and Harrison had to clean his room. Meanwhile Hubby took Carter and Rosalind to a soccer meeting, which for some reason, they always enjoy.

Culinary and Marching Band Prowess

Today, after running people around to their various stuff, I came home to find Brennan making onion rings from scratch. Mmmmm. So happy that kid likes to cook.

Found this on the loveseat.

Found this in the bathroom. I think Mr. Loveseat did it.

This is seriously so cool. Watch and be happy.

The Incredibly Participatory Sunday

Hubby and I spoke in Sacrament meeting today. Our bishopric likes to (has been asked to?) assign a choice of two General Conference addresses for topics.

I took First Observe, Then Serve...

Hubby took See Others As They May Become.

Matt and Candice S, the ward choir directors, had asked me weeks ago to accompany them for a musical number today, so I played for them after I gave my talk. Kind of funny how that worked out. Here's what they sang.



Then choir practice after church... we're working on our November song and Christmas stuff, including this gorgeous, gorgeous song:



After all this, I put on my jammies and crawled into bed, only to be happily (I swear) surprised by my visiting teachers' coming for our scheduled visit.  Fun surprise #2: Candice was also wearing pajama pants. Fun surprise #3: Brenda brought pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which were promptly devoured after she and Candice left.

A good, busy day. Holy heck.

From the Derp Files

Today was our ward Halloween party. We absolutely love, adore and cherish Halloween at this house. I sent Bella up to the attic to fetch our Halloween boxes so we could costume up for the evening, and in one of the boxes was this little plastic pair of handcuffs:

Derp de derp derp

I tried several ways to remove them, including Hubby's real life handcuff key, but they weren't budging.

Some thirty minutes later I had to take Harrison to his soccer game and was just about to escape his embarrassed teenager notice when he spied my new attachment. "You're not wearing those, are you??"

Okay, I guess I'm not.

He had the bright idea of using a Swiss Army knife accessory to flip the little switch (this one's switch was broken, the other side's was fine - go figure) and free his mother from her stupidity...at least in this instance.

The game was great - I sat in the car and rehearsed my talk for Sacrament tomorrow - and we rushed back just in time to hand Hubby the candy and decorations and kiss him and the other kids goodbye. Brennan stayed home - ward parties aren't his scene. :) We had signed up to take one of the doors at the church and pass out candy, and also to bring a bread item. I made two pans of our favorite breadsticks and then Harrison and I were off.

Lots of good chili, tons of variety, and lots of food. Cute costumes, fun people, and candy. It was a good night.

Later: "Cry me a river so I can swim around and laugh in it" made me laugh myself to sleep.

And who names a town in Montana "Musselshell"??

My question, while doing genealogical research or something today. I have several relatives who were born there. I finally read that the town and county Musselshell are named after the Musselshell River, which was named by Lewis and Clark after they found freshwater MUSSELS living along the banks of the river.

WHO KNEW!!  It's an amazing world, isn't it?

Meanwhile, it's Parent-Teacher Conference week, and the kids are home from school, which means: keep the food coming and the dishwasher running. The Five Mouths are living up to their name.

Oh it's a tough little life

Messing around with iTunes today, I was reminded of this golden oldie, and of spending rainy days down in our Brookings basement with BC, listening to Mom and Dad's records. Good times.

Watch out for hop-ons

You're gonna get some hop-ons.

"How was your birthday?" (wink, wink)

Tonight I went out with the guy I started dating 22 years ago today.

We went to Red Robin and had burgers, and pretzel bites for an appetizer. Mmmm.

I'm really, really glad I started dating him. :)

Hubby's Birthday

A very fun day. Hubby stayed home from work and we ate, a lot.

If you order a biscuit, this is what you get.

For dinner we went to Red Robin with the kids. It was one of our weirder RR experiences - the table was VERY small and the service was slow (on a Wednesday night?). But we made it through, thank goodness.

Happiest of Birthdays to my sweet man.
The world is a sunnier place with you in it.
Love you always.

Church Ladies...

...from my old McWard, in particular, used to tease me about all my shoe pics on Facebook. I just really like shoes. Like, a lot. So here's one for them:

Score-age

I found these very distinctive Danskos at Value Village today. And I'm happy, dad burn it. They're in perfect shape and size 5 1/2, which has been pretty much impossible for me to fit into since I had Brennan.

SO THERE. Laugh your butts off. ;)

Boston Town

Woke up in Boston and I think we ate our leftover stuff from last night for breakfast... either that, or I was still so full from late dinner that food was nowhere near my agenda. Also, it was 4 AM our time, not a big meal time normally.

Mom and I packed everything up, took our bags downstairs and deposited them in the hotel's closet for people who want to traipse around without lugging their stuff everywhere... I will NEVER pack that much again. It was horrid. I think I reopened at least one of my hernias.

Here's looking at you

The Salem hat, which is awesome, had to stay unpacked or it would lose its awesomeness. It made for some fun stares and double takes, since I had to either wear it or carry it everywhere we went. When asked, I usually said "We bought it in Salem," which usually brought a knowing "Ohhhhhhhhh."

We went on a cute trolley tour with MILES the tour guide and his adorable Boston accent. The hat rode shotgun on my knee.

Mom and me on the trolley - I'm wearing my spooky Salem scarf

Keep in mind that the rest of these pictures are taken from inside the trolley. Miles wasted no time between stops. This first one is of the cemetery where Paul Revere and other notable Revolutionary era people are buried. I must say the "no left turn" sign is exceptional.

Granary Burying Ground

First Burial Ground, Woburn*, Massachusetts

After getting lunch and driving directions from the super cute Boston accent-having waiter - I could seriously move to New England just to pick that accent up - Mom and I drove around Woburn until we found our ancestor's cemetery. Lieutenant Matthew Johnson, a native of England, emigrated to Woburn, Massachusetts, was taxed as a resident in 1666, died and was buried in 1696, which blows my mind - some of my people were here in America at least a century before the Revolutionary War began.

This was fun: a woman on the sidewalk, seeing our rental car, with California plates, sang "California, here I come..." to us as we drove down the street in Woburn. Yes, the tourists are here. I haven't traveled much, so being asked "Where are you ladies from?" whenever our not-Boston accents made an appearance never lost its novelty.

This was a cemetery experience like nothing I'd ever had before. First Burial Ground was probably once part of a lovely community, and it's not that Woburn isn't lovely, but the cemetery is right in the middle of an urban area with a 7-11 store and rundown apartments across the street. I'm used to the closed off, landscaped, respected grandeur of Park Hill and Willamette. Of course no one has been buried in First Burial Ground for probably two centuries, so no close descendants are alive to care for the graves - and pre-Revolutionary cemeteries are so common around here, people probably aren't in awe of them.

We looked, and looked, and looked for a long time, trying to find our grandfather Matthew Johnson's headstone. It's not a big cemetery and many of the headstones have fallen prey to the elements or vandals, so we didn't have many to search, but we made the rounds two or three times and still couldn't find what we were looking for. Mom and I were disappointed, but I'm very glad that some sweet soul grabbed a picture of Matthew's headstone a few years ago, before it was lost.

Photo by Fred Rose

Many of these very thin, fragile headstones have the same design, with an extremely primitive-looking skull surrounded by wings carved into the top. I also love the lettering, and the paragraph style epitaphs.

What an absolutely cool experience.

*pronounced WOO-burn. Now you too can sound like a Massachusetts-er.

Four Corners Cemetery, Sullivan, New Hampshire

(Or "New HampSHIRE???" as I had to repeat whenever I saw a New Hampshire road sign. Thanks, Bob Wiley!)

This is seriously the coolest cemetery I have ever seen in my life, and that's saying something.  If you ever wanted to spend a spooky Halloween in a foggy, leafy, tree-y, creepy cemetery, this would be the one to do it in. So impossibly creepy, it doesn't even have a STREET ADDRESS - I had to use latitude and longitude measurements to find it. It's really kind of silly, since it's right in Sullivan. Sullivan has about three buildings, and then bam, there's the cemetery.

Also, bonus, my Revolutionary War patriot ancestor was buried here, the one my great grandmother Alice Keen connected herself to in order to join NSDAR. How very cool to see his grave in person.

Evergreen Cemetery, Rutland, Vermont

By far, one of the most memorable experiences of our trip.

Cemeteries make us ridiculously happy

Before we left for Boston, I spent some quality time researching this branch of the family and their last known physical addresses, which led us to Rutland Cemetery in Rutland, Vermont. It was extremely trippy.

While Mom parked the car, I walked into a dusty, wonderfully musty cemetery office populated by three men in various positions of relaxation. I spoke to the one who looked the most in charge and asked if he could help us find some family graves. He asked the names, I gave them to him, and he said. "Ohhh." Then to his cronies: "Those are the ones with the theft."

Uh, what?  "Something was stolen?" I asked, thinking maybe there was a figurine or some decorative thing removed by the neighborhood toughs. Just the usual cemetery hijinks. The guy was very quiet until he said, "Let me take you up there."

Just a beautiful, beautiful cemetery, by the way. It's located on a hill with huge old trees, and as it was a sunny day in early October, the leaves were starting to turn, but it was still pretty warm. We followed the man as he drove us around to the graves we were looking for.

We made it to our family's gravesites. The cemetery man explained that these family members had done very well for themselves, financially, and the father had had built an underground crypt for his family's burials, accessible by three granite slabs placed in the ground. Above ground is a cupola and other headstones engraved with their names.

"So what about that theft?" I asked.

Cue the neighborhood toughs. Cemetery Man said that as a prank, some high school boys had removed one of the slabs in order to access the stairs down into the crypt. Upon entering the crypt, they encountered the family in various stages of decomposition, and they stole a skull. They took my aunt's skull off her body.

I can't even imagine how gross, scary, or stupid, but I have to admit that my respect for the neighborhood toughs rose slightly - just the physical act of removing that slab was impressive. And then - this must have shocked the guy - Mom and I started cracking up laughing.

He continued the story by telling us that the crime went unsolved for quite a while until one of the boys' moms found the skull in her son's closet. We laughed harder.

Once the skull was returned to the cemetery, one of the cemetery guys had to go down into the crypt and, uh, give the skull back to its owner... speaking of gross. I wondered who the lucky cemetery employee was. And then, he said, they filled in the stairs with dirt. "So if anyone tries pulling up a slab again, all they'll see is a bunch of dirt. There's no way to access the crypt now."

A few days later in Salem, Massachusetts, to honor our auntie's skull's trip to the kid's closet, Mom bought a wonderful black scarf with cute white skulls on it for me. Thanks, Cemetery Man, for the memories!

All the Proctor Ladies

...pick your pens up!

At the Vermont State Archives in Montpelier, we found our ancestor Dorcas Dimmick Proctor's signature on a petition from the "Ladies of Vermont" to the state of Vermont to end the sale of "ardent spirits". 

SHE TOUCHED THIS.

When I tell you the air was thick in that little room, and there were goosebumps galore... 

Mom and I are having a WONDERFUL time.

Montpelier, Vermont

After not a great night's sleep at the airport Shilo Inn - I think we were too excited, worried we'd sleep in and miss our flight, and missing our beds (already) - we awoke in our hotel room, got ready, took our stuff downstairs to the shuttle, checked in at the airport and had a wonderful uneventful flight to Boston.

Boston traffic was an adventure. Stupid Boston traffic. We got lost, stuck in rush hour, someone's car broke down in our lane, the whole shmear, but we did get to see a little of Boston. It was exciting when it wasn't frustrating. Once we figured out how to get out of town, we headed northwest to Montpelier, Vermont.

We chose Montpelier as the first place to stay because the Vermont state archives are kept there at the capitol (actually, outside of town in a little office in Middlesex) and part of our reason for going was genealogy finding.

We stayed at The Inn at Montpelier in downtown Montpelier. It's a darling town and I wish we'd had more time to spend there. The Inn was lovely. The room was a bit small, but nice. I'd definitely stay there again.