Election Night

 I went to my polling place on Monday night to help set up for the election. We had to move some tables to storage. I put the legs up on a round table and was wheeling it to the closet. It got away from me and, instead of letting it fall, I lunged forward and face-planted flat on the floor of the hall.  My glasses flew off (but did not break) and I even lost a shoe. 

So that was fun. I believe I landed on my nose and you cannot imagine the buckets of blood. Since I am the youngest of the crew, people were slightly panicked. Once I convinced them to get me some paper towels, I was able to run to the restroom and got the bleeding stopped.  I then drove myself home. 

My oldest daughter, the nurse, is convinced it is broken (she lives 2 hours away and is going by photos). My youngest wanted me to call the doctor.  I did call today and they can't get me in for two weeks, lol. 

Today I worked the polls from 5:30 am (setup) until 8:15 pm when we were finished with end of day with two black eyes and a very swollen and slightly off center nose. Not one voter mentioned it.

Our turnout was much lower than expected but did include the usual suspects who taunted us with political t-shirts and hats (when they don't get a reaction, they ask - did you read my hat?).  We were told not to confront anyone who breaks the political rules.  More fun times.  

I am too tired to eat, too upset to watch results and I am going to bed.  I guess tomorrow I learn whether I am locking myself in my house for the next four years. 

The Right Date

One Saturday I got up and put on my good jeans. Fixed my hair and it looked really great. Went to the oldest church in my town for a quilt show. The parish was established in 1818 and services were held in a log cabin. When the oldest part of the current church was built in 1909, the log cabin was moved to the rear of the property and used as a parish center until 1976 when our community had a series of church arsons and it was burned to the ground.  

The only problem?  I had the wrong weekend. 

A week later, I put on decent clothes, did something with my hair that was not nearly as successful and went to the quilt show.  I think I am just going to let the photos speak for themselves. 

I was surprised by how vibrant the reds were. My favorites are always the doll quilts or children's quilts. A lot of the crazy quilts had some really special touches. 

I hope you enjoy looking at the photos.  I had a nice, quiet Saturday admiring all the quilts. I ran into several friends who are still quilters. And I did finally arrive on the correct day. 

Trunk or Treat

It's our final year of preschool and tonight was our final Trunk or Treat night! By set up it was in the mid-70's and very sunny. A little windy for the decorations, but not too bad and not rainy! Success.  

I found this fabulous backdrop on Amazon for the clearance price of $5.99.  We practiced earlier this week with magnets and it worked perfectly. Not so perfectly tonight with the wind.  Luckily the husband brought masking tape and we made it work. 

Last year we spent a lot of money on candy. And so did the other "trunks".  I decided to purchase books through out the year - sales on Amazon or the kid's Scholastic Book orders and put together between 50-60 books for kids to select instead of a candy bar. 

I was the Book Fairy, and invited children to our trunk to select a book!  Grampa was a grampa who let them select a little can of playdough. 

There were lots of terrific trunks and I thought I would share with you.  

A note on this Sesame Street trunk. Mom is a former member of my 4H club and a former student in my Sunday School. They had a variety of treats including a social experiment. Kids could pick a potato. And my grandson picked a potato. 

Yes, another mom who was in my 4H club and her adorable family.  The fun part of living in a small town. 

This mom is an art teacher who was painting faces. She was very popular! She used to be in my 4H club, too. 

An action shot of the facepainter and the Book Fairy.

The preschool also offered a hotdog dinner in the shelter along with cookie decorating. (I baked 72 cookies on Monday). There were activities in the play yard and here are a few photos. 

He was shooting spiders into the net. 

My talented daughter made these great shirts for the Momster and Dadcula along with my Book Fairy Shirt.  I had ordered a similar shirt last July but it seems to be lost in a warehouse out west and I finally gave up and requested a refund. 

My grandson wanted to be a Lego which was easy enough to make (plastic disposable bowls attached with super glue to a piece of foam board). My granddaughter's request was Red from the newest Disney Descendants movie. After studying the costume online, I decided to order the pieces from an inexpensive website. The pleather pants and jacket were beyond me. 

In addition to my Book Fairy Skirt, I was also requested by one of my middle grandsons to create a "Bottle of Mustard".  Simple, but effective, he was happy with it.  

Whew.  Tomorrow the temperature is dropping 25 degrees and we are supposed to get high winds and rain for trick or treat.  We will be handing out treats at my daughter's house while they take the kids out, but I am thinking turnout will be low with the weather. 

I Had No Idea

I called City Hall a week or so ago and asked if they had a list of the houses that had entered the city's Halloween Decorating Contest. We had driven the grandkids around town last year to view the houses and wanted to repeat the trip. 

They asked if I was willing to serve as a judge. How hard could it be, I thought? Sure! My youngest granddaughter and I put on our Halloween headbands and talked grampa into driving us around.  

Who is the person on the right? It would be a homeowner accosting the judges to 1. ask us to come back after dark (it was dusk) and 2. To then walk us through his entire exhibit explaining each item placement. 

Our list had 18 houses and business and it took us over two and a half hours the first night to visit the first nine. 

It was a good thing she was wearing her Halloween pajamas. 

We had lengthy judging sheets with categories and numbered ratings.  

We judged on construction, theme, creativity and design.

Many homeowners were lying in wait so they could explain every detail. The house above had an elaborate system of piping on the ground which was connected to a smoke machine which just covered the ground with a low layer of smoke. I think he is crawling somewhere hooking it up for us. 

Some of the yards were a competition of who could spend the most on animated decor from the box stores. My husband kept daring me to write "Menards" and "Home Depot" as the theme. 

The next afternoon I was treated to an half hour tour of a local golf course who decorated all 18  holes and a few trees for the business category. It was a change as his wife had purchased clothing and masks at rummage and flea market sales and dressed the displays. 

Then we picked up my assistant judge and her younger brother and went back to work on the residential entries. 

This was quite elaborate as well as noisy. 

This house glowed for blocks away. 

This home had put in paths so you could walk through the whole yard. 

As you can tell, the photos are not in order of clicking. This was an entry in the DIY category. 

Another DIY entry and to make it even cuter, the children of the house were carving pumpkins in the driveway. 

This homeowner explained that he had switched from white bulbs in his spotlights to blue bulbs for a more eerie feeling. 

One of the homes that really likes the blowup decorations.

And can you tell that they are all starting to mush in my brain?

I think this came in second in DIY? I'm not sure. 

So, we spent over 5 hours driving around looking at the decorations and lights and listening to sound effects and speaking with decorators. We would drop off the assistants and I would spend another half hour each night with my paperwork. 

I thought I could just drop off the paperwork but it turned out I spent another 45 minutes being interviewed about my scores.  My results were put with other judges and placings were announced the next day.  I have no idea who was awarded what.  

Next year will we will go back to plan A - which was driving around admiring the decorations just for fun!!!