# Welcome to Halloween!



## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Well, in typical New Jersey fashion, this years prop work is already turning into a project! I got part of the fence up, two columns (that were broken last year when they blew over), the mausoleum and put 3 bodies out in the yard today to see how they looked and if that was where I'd like to leave them. I then started emptying the garage.....AGAIN...so I could make room. Got one side cleaned out enough to take out the air hockey table and pool table when someone got home to help me move them. The grandkids were taking costume pieces, skeleton pieces, everything and tossing them EVERYWHERE! Nap time comes for them, so that means I have to go inside. Came back outside after naps, cleaned it all back up and was ready to ,move the tables when my son got home. He tells me, "You do know it's supposed to rain tonight, don't you?" Well, obviously not or I wouldn't have started this stupid project. I was just going to leave the tables on the patio under a tarp until all the furniture was moved around to make room for them. Does he think I would have wasted an entire day if I knew it was going to rain? What a moron!!! SO, I put everything BACK in the garage, slam the door just as hubby gets home. He looks around and decides that I need to go out to dinner....I MAY have had a bad day!!! While at dinner, the winds pick up, the sky opens up and there is enough thunder and lightening to make the best of horror movies. We get home and ....TA DA.....one of the columns has blown over, the bride has blown over, the guy that I just hung in the tree to untangle and then forgot about is wrapped up on the higher branches so tomorrow I'll have to go get the damn ladder to untangle it, again! Ah....I just fricken LOVE setting up for Halloween. I can't wait to see what October has to bring!


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## HalloweenZombie (Jul 22, 2007)

Go Trisha! Go Trisha! *dancing poorly*


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## Evil Queen (Mar 8, 2008)

Somebody get this woman a drink stat!


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## morbidmike (Sep 11, 2009)

its not easy being a haunter!!!!!


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## Jaybo (Mar 2, 2009)

It's hard to build everything to withstand the nasty weather we get this time of year. I feel for you! Don't give up, make those other family members work!


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## RoxyBlue (Oct 6, 2008)

Trish, you need some minions to help you so you can relax a bit and not run up your blood pressure:jol:


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## sharpobject (May 7, 2008)

Pattie - I'll be happy to have a drink with you on Saturday


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## Death's Door (Mar 22, 2006)

I feel your pain Pattie. The weather in NJ is always unpredictable. Last night I was outside and it was as if the sky was divided - there was crazy lightening and thunder on one side and then there was a clear side with stars and moon. I have never seen the sky like that. Eventually the storm came in and covered the moon but man it was weird out last night.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

I'm happy to report that the bride, who was not finished yet, fell into the black mulch and mud. At least now she looks aged..lol. The kids allowed me to get 4 whole headstones out in the yard today before they acted up and we had to call it quits! Tomorrow is a complete redo of the house...rearranging and cleaning before the haunters get here at SEVEN O CLOCK IN THE MORNING on Saturday. Somehow I also have to get the yard done, get the tarp up onto the carport and get to the store to buy food to cook for the gang. Oh well....whatever gets done, gets done.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Sorry to bore you with another story but here goes.... I think I may have desensitized the grandkids a bit TOOO much! One just came back from Disneyworld (the one that will be 3 in November). When she got to the Haunted Mansion ride she told one of the attendants, "this looks like grandma's house." Yeah, I WISH! Instead of being scared she was riding along saying, "that's fake, it's not scary", and calling all of the monsters, "aww, you're a little cutie." 

Now, I need you to move ahead to yesterday with me...I was putting Bela Lugosi's headstone out in the yard along with a few other headstones, feeling a bit glad that they were allowing me to work for a few minutes. I have a zombie ground breaker in the yard that is usually attached to the massager but I just stuck him on a piece of rebar in the yard just to get something out there. The girls are playing dressup, so one is dressed in a purple princess gown with a magic wand and dragonfly wings (her choice) and the other is dressed in a lady bug costume with a magic wand. I turn my back for FIVE seconds and next thing you know they are dragging a Disney princess pop up tent into the cemetery and setting it up right next to my nice new headstone! Yeah, this looks scary as hell! I then see them out with the zombie. They are waving the magic wand over it, saying "bibbity bobbity boo" and turning him into a handsome prince. They then call him a little cutie, kiss his head and go back into the tent to "order pizza." 

*SIGH* I'm NEVER going to get anything accomplished like this. I spend more time putting all the crap back where it started from! Oh well, I guess I should be flattered that they want to help, think that my house looks like the haunted mansion and that most of all, they are making me laugh! Looks like some all nighters are in my future so I can work when they aren't here..lol.

Now, back to cleaning out the garage and getting ready for tomorrows M&T.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Seems like I just can't buy a break this year..lol. Friday we cleaned out the garage, Saturday the haunters were here and Sunday was finally my day to work in the yard. Got a few things accomplished but the amount of interruptions I had was amazing. One good interruption though was one of our actors from last year came by with 4 friends and volunteered to help and offered to help set up! All she asks is that we let her set up a small table out front somewhere because they have started a non-profit dog rescue. No problem...set up TEN tables if you want..just help me..lol.

Move ahead to Monday (today). Both sons in law are off today so that means no kids here. Since it was supposed to be raining today, I figured today will be a good time to finish painting those headstones. WRONG!!!!! It's raining so hard that the pool cover, which we just put on yesterday, now has to be pumped off again, and the water running down the street is up over the curb! One of my headstones is floating across the yard, my zombie is begging for a life preserver AND, the best part of all......the flippin power went out around 3 AM and it's still out. It is SO dark in here it's not even funny. I feel like the little house on the prairie days....sitting here painting headstones by fricken candlelight! Do you have any idea how hard it is to stay in the lines of the nicely carved names when you paint IN THE DARK!!!!
So much for a nice productive day! I can't see, can't cook, can't do laundry...nothing! I have until the battery dies on my computer to get stuff done on there too..lol. Oh well..better go get busy!


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

Maybe you can put the kids in the mausoleum so you can get some work done on the next go around.

Sorry you are having such a difficult time.


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Pa Ingalls: "Half Pint! Bring me some more Monster Mud!"


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

LMFAO...I wish it was that easy. Hell, if I thought I could scrape the mud off of them before their parents got here to pick them up, I'd give them a bucket of mud and let them go at it.


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## Lauriebeast (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh Pattie, your stories are priceless. I laugh every time I read about your babysitting adventures. You really should consider keeping a journal because it would make one helluva funny book.


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## NoahFentz (May 13, 2007)

Did I tell you how much I love my *basement* Haunt? I got a new roof. No more rain...

Happy Halloween!!


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

It's not nice to make fun of a fellow haunter who now has to bail out the front yard just to get to the headstones that need to be reset. BAD JEFF!


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Why.........just WHY?


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## Haunted Bayou (Feb 16, 2007)

trishaanne said:


> LMFAO...I wish it was that easy. Hell, if I thought I could scrape the mud off of them before their parents got here to pick them up, I'd give them a bucket of mud and let them go at it.


Buy them some cheap Hanes T-shirts let them get dirty and just hose them off.







They'd love that. Who cares what the parent think.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

HauntedBayou....we opted NOT to try monster mudding with these two little demons. However, I had a few old tombstones they could mess up while I was painting the new ones. Supposed to be massive winds and rain for the next 2 days, so I figured we'd get outside today, spread out the tarp, give them the paint brushes and old headstones and they'd keep themselves busy so I could at least get the front of one stone painted. It's now 11:30 am and we're working on the second bubble bath of the day!!!!! I'm never going to get this stuff done  However, granddaughter number 1, who has beautiful brown curly hair is now sporting grey streaks...reminds me of Madeline Kahn in Young Frankenstein..lol. The one with the dirty blond, curly hair, well....let's just say she would make a beautiful clown right about now! I don't even know how that happened...they didn't even HAVE those colors outside with them!!!!!


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Just a note to those haunters on the east coast...there is a nor'easter on the way...SURPRISE! We're due for rain and MAJOR wind for Thursday-Saturday. 50 MPH wind gusts...yippee. Looks like this will be a major test to see if my stuff can withstand the wind. However, first thing in the morning I am taking down the tarp that was already in place for the concession stand. What a shame....I was actually beginning to make progress!


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## debbie5 (Mar 2, 2007)

Oh geez louise!! Guess I'm not putting up tombstones or my 8 foot Grim reaper yet! Thanks for the heads up. I hope my web victim can withstand another year of getting buffeted into the tree.


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

Sustained winds of 25 MPH with gusts of 45 MPH. Lost our date sign and one headstone. Had to take the concession stand tent down, and put all the cars for the drive-in on top of it to keep it from blowing away. My large tombstone for Heather O'Rourke blew over but didn't blow away. I'm leaving it there until Sunday, in case the wind ever stops. I made an invisible man, Claude Rains to be exact...his headstone is still there but he has collapsed a bit. That huge block of foam, 8 ft x 4 ft, just blew over. I'm sure that by morning there will be more damage. I'm really looking forward to not doing this next year!


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## slightlymad (May 25, 2006)

Only you could make me glad Im not home setting up like I should be. Sorry I missed everybody this month been traveling for work. Finally on the way home so the weather should be nice now lol


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## trishaanne (Aug 20, 2005)

GRANDMA NEEDS A TIMEOUT...LOL

OK, so I set the gremlins up with play doh, and cutters and everything they could POSSIBLY need to keep them busy for 20 minutes so I could work on my "rotten candy" for the concession stand. Since it's raining I figured I'd get some of the little detail work done today. Got the spray adhesive out, the batting and the spider webbing for the final coat. I found purple and green spider webbing too, so I have 3 colors of cotton candy this year. Anyway, I'm spraying the adhesive just enough to make the batting stick and have a nice little assembly line going for myself. The gremlins are playing nice, for a change, and I'm really moving along. WELL....as usually happens here, it was too good to last. 

My doorbell rang so I ran downstairs, not thinking to move stuff off the dining room table. I mean, I'll only be down stairs for a half a second. It was someone riding past the house that stopped to ask if they could take pictures and wanted to know some details about when we were open and stuff. All was well until.....

I heard the gremlins giggling, then laughing. NEVER a good sign. The older one had been watching me use the spray glue! Yup, you guessed it. They got hold of it, sprayed it like perfume on their arms and were getting ready to spray "hairspray". Apparently, poor Bella needed some perfume too, because when I came back up, less than 3 minutes I SWEAR, they were covered with glue and spider webbing. Now I have 2 three year old spider victims and I can't even use them! My poor dog is looking so pathetic as I try to get as much of the webbing off of her as I possibly can before she gets another bath when hubby gets home. She's up to 103 pounds and goes completely limp at bath time so I can't lift her into the tub. Meanwhile, the kids are in the tub soaking until lunch time! I hope I can get this stuff off of them before their parents get here! I guess I should be glad that they didn't spray this stuff onto their faces! HOLY CRAP....it's always one thing after another. Just when I was making progress. Oh well, there's always tonight to work on stuff! *SIGH*


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