74 days!

 Time is just ticking closer & closer!  But first, the grandson starts kindergarten next week and my birthday is next Friday! (cash & presents always accepted!)  The Spouse & I are planning to go away for a couple days soon and he's fully planning on hitting the last 10 real Maple Grove cemeteries we need to go to in Michigan!  We've visited 22 already and this will finish them off.  These are all in the SW-ish part of the state so they're somewhat close to each other.   

I was excited to look at my emails this morning and saw one from Dex at Countdown to Halloween - signups are happening for the Countdown Bloghop!  

I've already had a list going of topics I'm going to write about - so the official sign up makes it seem close!

Oh, and signups for the Card Exchange on the HalloweenForum have started, also!  

Since I'm passing on the Secret Reaper (like a secret Santa, but H'weeny), I thought I'd get in the cards.  

Basically everyone posts on the thread that they're participating - and how many cards they want to send out, if they want to keep it in the US or not - and everyone sends messages to exchange addresses.  Some people send really basic cards, others go all out making theirs - mine will be somewhere in the middle. 

I got my Target version of the "disco" skeleton.  I actually like it a lot. 

The body is silver and the JOL head is faceted and not glued on mirrors.  And since the Spawn spent many years in dance, the glitter that's in the eyes, nose & mouth don't bother me.  I can't vouch for the Spouse, but I'm OK with it. 

I've behaved and haven't bought anything else - except this!

I took the screenshot yesterday, but today it was available to ship, so you know I grabbed it up!

I also got a 15% military discount and had a $5 voucher to use.    

And as for my big ol' piggy from HalloweenExpress - my account still says out of stock, but the actual listing just says on backorder - with no other info.  But Oriental Trading has the exact same pig and they say it's shipping on 8/21.  So fingers crossed!  I'm half tempted to cancel the HE order and get it thru OT, since I've ordered from them before and never had a problem - just in case - even tho I'm pretty sure they're the same company....but anyway.   

I better start thinking about when we'll start exhuming the skeletons from the garage and getting things staged out on the patio.. it won't be until next month but we don't want to wait until the last minute to pull weeds from between the bricks and move the grandkid's toys out of the way!

Later, peeps!

Gratuitous backyard selfie - because I don't hate this pic!

Augtober??

I've been seeing a lot of posts & memes about Happy Augtober?  Kinda weird, but I guess it goes along with "Summerween"!  I kind of see what they're getting at with that.   

Anyhoooo.  Check out that tree!  I noticed it a week before I took the pic, too. 

I've been noticing a lot more trees already changing, too.  I wonder if it has something to do with all the haze we're getting from the Canadian wildfires?   We've been getting a lot of days with weird lighting and odd colored skies. 

I was in Ohio the last weekend in July and we stopped at the Cracker Barrel in St. Clairsville on the way home Sunday and saw this across the street!  

OMG.  I went onto HalloweenExpress.com and look at what may have fallen into my basket!

This guy is 36" long x 24" tall x 14" wide!!!

They also show a wide of someone moving its head so the dimensions are accurate. 

And this one!  I have one peeking skeleton similar to this, but mine isn't waving.  

Love it! 

Both things were on backorder when I ordered and gave reasonable estimated delivery dates, but now I'm concerned because the piggy is now showing as out of stock.  I emailed the company and haven't heard back yet.  

OMG - Michaels!

A fox???  Where was this the first year I had my horse skeleton and wanted to do a fox hunt scene?

and ~why~ is it currently unavailable for store pickup AND unavailable to ship to me???

I picked up all my goodies from TSC - they're all absolutely adorable. 

Of course I had to pose the raccoons on the trash can!

If you look close, there are real raccoon footprints on the lid. 

The possums!  LOVE!  

And the babies have hooks on their undersides to hold them onto the mom.  

The Goose!  Love it, too!  It's nice & solid and obviously life-sized.  

He's going to be fun. 

Super cute towels and they feel really nice, too. 

I never saw this on the Cracker Barrel website, but they sure had it in the store!  At least the one I mentioned earlier in St. Clairsville had it.   

Since I had a coupon....and it was the last one!

I'm jumping all around here - when I saw the foxes online at Michael's, I still stopped into the store where I got 2 raccoons from last year, just kind of hoping.  Nothing.  But I did find these guys! 

They're paintable, but still cute even if they're not painted!

So with the exception of the fox skeleton, I think I'm finally done with skeleton purchases this year.  

I think.

My fabulous 3' disco wannabe is due to be delivered today. 

I can't wait to see what he looks like in person - I'm obviously ok with it not being completely covered in little mirrors like the one I got from Party City last year.  Very neat, but there are tiny mirrors all over my house! 

I confess to be mildly guilty when I ordered the disco guy.  Not about the fact that I bought him, I have a 'fun money" account at the bank where a bit of each paycheck goes into just so I can get the H'ween stuff that I want.  But I've kinda gone crazy this year and I do believe that storage is going to be a BIG issue come November.   Currently the horse, pony & unicorn are all neatly stored in the box that the horse came in.  But it's cardboard and wrapped in a lot of duct tape. Something sturdier would be nice.  There is a small loft in the backyard shed - there are a lot of critter skeletons just loose in there - at the mercy of real critters who like to get in there and knock them down.  The smaller skeletons are in a box in the garage.  And the new ones I've acquired so far this year are pretty much just floating around loose in the garage.  

I've mentioned the new giant totes they have at Home Depot to the Spouse.  If they're big enough to hold a 12' skeleton, they're big enough to hold a lot of critter skeletons!  But then again - where to put it?  I'd probably need like 3 anyway.  

Ugh. 

Anyhoo. 

I realized last night that I had a headlight out and just learned that they look like flames! 

They're not usually on when I look at the front of the car. 

I also learned that the fancy headlights that turn when you turn the wheel are very expense to replace.

And you have to go in thru the tire well to replace them.  

This is going to be an adventure!