Halloween Queen

I get so excited when September rolls around. The weather gets cooler, apples are in season, and lots of store clearance sales. But the most exciting part about this time of year is decorating for Halloween. I showed a little restraint and waited until the middle of September to bust out the cobwebs (or 'cowb-webs' as my dad pronounces it), pumpkins, and fall scented candles. The longer I get to enjoy my favorite decorations, the better. I also decided not to put up my pride and joy, my Dept. 56 Halloween village. Because we're moving soon, it just would have been more of a hassle so I'll have to go nuts next year.

TV console (I didn't notice the fingerprints on the TV until I uploaded this photo!)

Halloween garland

Entrance to the kitchen

Entry vignette

Inside the front door

Front room wall

Side table

Dining Room (complete with wainscoting!)

Dining room table close up

Piano top

Spooky, spidery candlesticks

Piano top decor close up

And in honor of Halloween, I'm including the lyrics to my favorite Halloween song, "Halloween Queen."

Who will be the Halloween Queen?
Last year it was a cat.
The ghost was it the year be - fo - ore that!
What shall we do?!
(What shall we do?!)

Will it be a Jack O' Lantern?
Will it be a goblin?
Will it be a ske - - - le - ton?
What shall we do?!
(What shall we do?!)

The wicked wi-itch is so keen
So she will be the Halloween Queen.
What shall we do?!
(What shall we do?!)

What shall we do?!
(What shall we do?!)

Music and lyrics by Robyn (age 7) and Heidi (age 5)

Family Day Cruise on the San Jac

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I got to go on the San Jac for the Family Day Cruise on Friday. Unfortunately, you had to be at least 8 years old to attend so I had to find someone to watch William all day long. Thanks again to my friend, Melissa for watching him from 6:30 am to 5:30 pm. It was such a fun day. There was a 'Steel Beach' picnic in the helicopter hangar and they had armor/weapons demonstrations where I got to put on full body armor and hold training weapons. It was cool! It was a festive day, but at the same time, I got to see how this ship functions and got a taste of what Sean's job is like. It was cold, windy, and rainy but we had a great time.

Our New Place

Here's a rough video of our new townhouse in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. It's in a really nice area and very close to shopping, in the best school district, and within biking distance to Sean's work. It has everything we were looking for in a place to live. It's a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath with a finished basement and a 1 1/2 car garage. You're all invited to visit as soon as we're settled in.

*I'm sorry about the poor photography. I only had a few minutes to run through the house with the video camera. The lighting was poor because it was a cloudy day and most rooms don't have ceiling lights. I also wanted to post this right away so I didn't edit the clips together.

Front Porch/Exterior



Foyer



Garage/Basement



Living Room/Powder Room



Kitchen/Dining/Deck



Laundry/Master Bedroom



Walk-In Closet/Master Bath



2nd Bedroom



3rd Bedroom/Bathroom



We just got our orders. It looks like we'll be detaching from the San Jacinto mid October and reporting to Mechanicsburg early November. Hopefully we'll have lots of leave to do some traveling/visiting.

It's All But Official

I've been waiting to make this announcement until things were more concrete, but that's not going to happen anytime soon so here goes: we're moving. I know, most of you already knew this, but I'm putting it out there so all can be in the loop. We're relocating to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where Sean will have shore duty for the next couple of years. That means regular business hours, no overnight watches, no deployment, no single momness! It's going to be fabulous. We're taking a few days next week to go off and find our new home. We're looking at moving in November, but nothing is official. We'll get our orders in October. Hopefully things will fall into place then, but in the military, that is wishful thinking.

Kangaroo Jac's

I LOVE this place! We could just kick back and let the kids go nuts on the big slides and bounce houses. I even got to go down a few slides. A great Meetup activity!