Spookiez Spot

GIVEAWAY ~ Win a copy of 7th Son: Decent by JC Hutchins

2009-11-08T14:47:00.000-08:00

Read Part 1 for yourself!

Leave me a comment with your thoughts on Chapter 1 of 7th Son:Decent!

For addition entries (be sure to fill out an entry for EACH thing you do, and leave a link where applicable)

I'll announce a winner on November 24th, so get your entries in before Midnight on November 23rd!

Tweet about this give away! (up to twice per day)

2. Tweet about the book, use this text (up to twice per day)

Human cloning isn’t near … it’s already here. Get the book everyone’s talking about: http://JCHutchins.net/order #7thSon

3. Post about this giveaway on your Facebook! (up to twice per day)

4. Post about the book on your Facebook! Use this text (up to twice per day)

It’s the best book you’ve never read: high-tech thrills, deranged computer hackers, human clones, conspiracies and a villain that makes Cobra Commander wet the bed. Check out “7th Son: Descent” by J.C. Hutchins for FREE at http://JCHutchins.net !

5. Blog about this giveaway!

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(In the interest of disclosure, I was NOT provided with this book from the publisher or the author, actually my brother bought me two copies, and I decided to share with my readers. No compensation of any tangible kind was received in return for this post, I just want to support an awesome author in any way I can! Other authors can feel free to send me copies of their books for review and/or giveaways though!)

I comply

2009-11-08T14:10:00.000-08:00

Just playing with my background and such...

2009-11-03T14:23:00.003-08:00

So watch your step, but feel free to poke around ;)

Just watched the full 7 hours of @GhostAdventures LIVE!!

2009-10-31T00:00:00.000-07:00

And for the most part it was AWESOME! BOO to Mr. Bess for trying to pull the ethereal wool over our eyes, I mean, how dumb does he think we are? Other then that, it was a great investigation, and tons of fun to watch and text into!

2009-10-28T14:37:00.001-07:00

On the 26th day of October..

2009-10-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I gotta go back and fill in the other days, I will I promise, I just have to get the pictures edited and ready to post ;)

Today I made a Boo Ghost garland to hang up, and the kids and I did some pumpkin matching games :) It was a lot of fun, I really wanted to carve up some pumpkins. But I don't have enough child safe carving

>>> [ WARNING ::: DATABASE ERROR ::: CONTENT OVERRIDE ::: SOURCE: EXTERNAL ] <<<

> source terminal location: UNKNOWN

> source terminal identity: UNAVAILABLE

> source login information: ENCRYPTED

> message begins

the post you are now reading is designed to dull your senses to THE TRUTH. do not live the life of the worker bee, the cog, the well-oiled piston in the MACHINE OF DECEIT!

there is a grand CONSPIRACY afoot. you have been taught to believe that you are UNIQUE, one of a kind. THIS IS NOT TRUE. long ago, a cabal of scientists created technologies to ensure that ANYONE'S MIND AND BODY can be duplicated.

human cloning isn't NEAR. it's already HERE. discover the truth at http://JCHutchins.net

you are being DECEIVED. break free from the cogs, flee the hive, become A PROPHET OF THE TRUTH!

kilroy2. was here ... kilroy2.0 is everywhere

>>> [ CONTENT OVERRIDE CEASES ::: DATABASE STATUS: RECOVERING ] <<<

So, we still have a few days to go in this grand month of Halloween and I look forward to what we still have in store!!

On the 23rd day of October...

2009-10-23T16:06:00.002-07:00

We went to a very fun art class, and saw some friends and made some FUN fall inspired art :)

On the 21st day of October...

2009-10-23T16:06:00.001-07:00

We went out and Boo'd a few friends ;)

On the 20th day of October..

2009-10-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

We watched the kids favorite Halloween movie, Haunted Mansion!

And Halloween's Most Extreme on the Travel Channel, one of my favorite shows! I love to see what other people are doing to celebrate Halloween ;)

While I am at it, here is the new list of things I have to make sure to watch before Halloween

Ghost Adventures Live
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Still have a few new episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place before Halloween ;)
Ghost Hunters Live
The Addams Family series (haven't found them on yet :( )

We also still need to hit up a real costume store, trying to find vampire teeth for Danielle is proving to be difficult. We have no pumpkins to carve yet, so I have to get on that as well.

On the 19th day of October..

2009-10-20T20:16:00.000-07:00

We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the beach :)

On the 18th day of October..

2009-10-18T20:09:00.000-07:00

I baked up some Sour Cream Pumpkin Bread. All ready for breakfast tomorrow morning ;)

Mmmm, pumpkin-y ;)

I also baked up some Pillsbury Spooky Cat Shape Sugar Cookies!

Michael tested the dough to make sure it was tasty ;)

Going into the oven

All baked and ready to nom, nom, nom!

And of course, while we nom'd on our warm cookies, we watched Simpson's Treehouse of Horror XX!

I really find it hard to believe that Simpsons have been on for twenty years, but yep, they have, and somehow they still managed to put out a good Halloween special :) AND amazingly enough, it was actually on in October this year ;0)

On the 17th day of October..

2009-10-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

The SpiralScouts, Laughing Pines Circle #185, visited the Single Palm Pumpkin Patch.

We took a hay ride around the pumpkin patch, a REAL pumpkin patch with actual vines where the pumpkins grow.

Then we went to our SpiralScouts meeting (the scouts are all wearing the tiedyes they made in August ;) )

And we decorated our pumpkins, with paint and stickers.

Much fun was had.

And we learned about the history of Samhain, and the story of Persephone. We all got to taste some pomegranate :)

On the 14th day of October..

2009-10-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

I did the scariest thing so far!

I visited (dum dum dummmmmm) an emergency room!! Yes, I dared to venture into the terrifying area of life known as health care....

I had a migraine from hell, along with vomiting that would make Linda Blair sit up and take note. After valiantly trying to fight it myself using lots of rest and ice packs, I gave up and let Angela drive me to the emergency room :(

Where I was treated to such horrors as PAPERWORK! BRIGHTLY LIT WAITING ROOMS SMELLING OF DISINFECTANT! REPEATEDLY BEING STUCK WITH NEEDLES! BLOOD DRIPPING DOWN MY ARMS!! and the most horrible of all, THE BILL (insert blood curdling scream here!)

Thankfully I have insurance, so I was only required to pay my part, the co-pay + 20%. But honestly, that was more then I had in my account, and now today after the ordeal is supposed to be over, and I am the lone survivor of the terrors walking into the sunlight to find a new day, I am not left with a sense of satisfaction of another terror survived. Instead I am faced with the harsh reality that last nights trip to hell cost my family grocery money for the week. If I had not had insurance, I am sure it would have cost us groceries, gas and possibly the rent for the month too!

(here's where I get political, another horror movie in and of is self, and mention the President's Health Care Reform..)

As I am sure most people who know me already know, I support our President full heartedly. And not on any issue more so then on health care. Sure, I am one of those lucky Americans that have health care already, and as I know, I am even more lucky that not only do I have GOOD insurance, but it's affordable for us to cover our whole family. My children have never been with out insurance, thank the Goddess. Just because I am covered, doesn't mean I don't support health care reform. Because for most of my adult life, I haven't been covered, or I have had coverage that was so bad, I might as well not been covered. And I can look at my friends and their families struggling to keep themselves insured or to pay medical bills because they have no insurance at all. It's easy for people with health insurance to worry about what will happen to them if health care reform becomes a reality. I worry, believe me, I want to keep my Dr's, the kids Dr's, and all, and the wait at most of them is already unbearable. In reality though, it's more important to me that EVERY one is covered, even if I means that things won't stay as nice and tidy for our health care as it is now. But at the same time, I don't really know that my health care will be effected as I have heard. Lots, and lots of information out there is faulty at best, and from questionable sources. So for now, I will get my information from the official source, http://www.healthreform.gov/ knowing that they too have an agenda, but theirs is more in line with my own.

On the 13th day of October..

2009-10-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

I baked Apple Crumble, sort of based on this recipe Cinnamon Apple Crumble but as the slacker I am, I forgot to take any pictures. Could have to do with the fact that I was doing laundry and dishes and everything all at the same time, LOL!

The children really enjoyed the crumble topped with vanilla yogurt for dessert! And now, I have a date under a quilt with "Mostly Ghostly" and my kids!

I am always happy when I see more people out there trying to

2009-10-12T20:51:00.000-07:00

STOP THE INSANITY!!

Free Range Kids has a great post about how Halloween is being ruined for scores of children FOR NO GOOD REASON!! Something I have discussed on this blog several times ;)

Read it here!

Here is a repost of my classic posting from 2008 ;)

It's that time of year again...
When families are faced with the choice, to celebrate or not celebrate Halloween. Personally, I am sure all of you know, I not only celebrate Halloween, I revel in it! I LOVE Halloween, and would prefer to get rid of Christmas and Thanksgiving all together ;)

But I swear, the more I read people's arguments on why to NOT celebrate Halloween, I am filled with a dread that I can't shake. Are people really so paranoid of a holiday that PartyWorks and Hershey's have so corrupted from it's original form, that it is barely recognizable?? I understand the not wanting to expose your children to excessive blood and gore, okay, I get that. But to not even let them dress up and trick or treat?? Or worse yet, to be a TOTAL hypocrite and let them go to a trunk or treat at the local church. If they are trunk or treating, you are celebrating, so get over yourselves.

Let me give you a few thoughts to ponder. First off, if you have EVER gotten your information about Halloween from a Chick Tract, then please, click away from my page now and go and pray or something, cause you are too stupid to continue reading.

First off, Halloween started out as a harvest holiday known as Samhain. Now contrary to popular Christian belief, there was NEVER a pagan god known as Samhain. Samhain is derived from the Celtic word for Summer's End, cause DUH! it happened at the end of summer, LOL! So, no pagan god Samhain, and therefore no human sacrifices to him. Also, pagan's don't believe in Satan, and they sure don't worship him, cause he's NON-EXISTENT in pagan culture. So, no human sacrifice to him either. In fact, there is NO human sacrifice in paganism today, AT ALL! And if you look at history, Christians have killed many, many more humans then any pagans, I'm just sayin...

Secondly, the whole idea of poisoned, tampered with, or booby trapped candy. This is a myth that has been blown so far out of proportion, it's absurd! TWO, yes TWO cases of children being killed by Halloween candy have been recorded in the news since 1964 (yep, that was 44 years ago people). The first was a boy in 1970 who ate his uncles stash of heroin, and then the family tried to cover it up by saying the drugs were in his Halloween candy. The second, in 1974, a boy ate a pixy stick that was laced with poison. Upon investigation it turned out the boys own father planted the candy in his sons bag, to collect on the boys insurance money. NEVER has there been a recorded incident of a stranger handing out laced, tampered with or poison treats on Halloween, and contrary to the Chick tract above, it is not common practice to do this to harvest sacrifices for Satan!

So, while I can go on and on about the non-horrors of Halloween, I do want to make a point. These days, Halloween is another hallmark holiday, cleansed of all it's original roots, and make palatable to the masses. If you are a family who chooses to NOT celebrate Halloween because of it's pagan roots, then I recommend you think twice about Easter and Christmas too. Because while the historical activities attributed to those holidays, namely the birth of Christ and his resurrection, are widely accepted as accurate, the actual dates of said activities and the celebrating of those holidays are NOT specifically condoned in the bible. Shockingly the dates and MOST of the activities now celebrated for those holidays are in fact PAGAN in origin ;) Christmas trees or Easter bunnies anyone??

I will accept reasonable discussion of this topic in my comments. BUT keep in mind, any argument you make to me that uses God or the Bible as it's basis, will be countered with the teachings of the ALL POWERFUL AND KNOWING SQUIRREL IN MY BACK YARD :) After of course, the appropriate offerings of nuts and seeds are made ;)

On the 11th day of October...

2009-10-12T10:54:00.002-07:00

I baked Pumpkin Muffins with Angela! We tweaked the recipe a bit to make it healthier. We substitute apple sauce for half the oil, and added ground flax seed ;)

Unsuspecting pumpkin, moments before being sliced in half and baked ;) This is a sugar pie pumpkin from the grocery store. Much nicer and tastier then canned, and super easy to make your own pumpkin puree!

Don't forget to save the seeds for later roasting!

Fresh out of the oven.

Skinned!

Tossed in the food processor and pureed into pumpkin goodness!

The gift of the Goddess, Pumpkin Pie Spices!!

Blended with spices, while still warm. You can't imagine how good this smelled.

Here is our batter all mixed up, with added ground flax seeds, and applesauce in place of part of the oil.

We spooned the cream cheese mixture into the muffin tins, because it refused to freeze!

Topping with struesel!

All baked and ready to be eaten warm ;) YUM!!

On the 10th day of October....

2009-10-12T10:54:00.001-07:00

I vegged, and chilled with my homies, and watched 4 episodes of Ghost Whisperer ;)

On Day 9 of October..

2009-10-09T15:50:00.000-07:00

We practiced some of the print making skills we learned about yesterday with Margaret Hudson, and made

hand print pumpkin patch

foot print ghosts

They need details added of course, when the paint dries. The kids had tons of fun getting their feet painted with the cool, smooth white paint. And seeing how adding orange paint to their palms and a dot of brown at the top, made such wonderful pumpkins really got them to giggling too!

We also learned the rhyme 5 Little Pumpkins

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.
The first one said, "Oh, it's getting late!"
The second one said, "There are witches in the air."
The third one said, "But we don't care."
The fourth one said, "Let's run, let's run!"
The fifth one said, "Isn't Halloween fun?"

Then Woooooo went the wind
And OUT went the lights.

And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

On Day 7 and 8 of October, once again I was a slacker..

2009-10-08T20:35:00.000-07:00

Unless you count me staying up WAY too late watching From Hell...

on Wednesday night.

Then today we spent the morning at the home of local artist Margaret Hudson, and then came home and pretty much rested. I did craft a clay pumpkin while at Ms. Hudson's home, and will post pics when I get it back from firing :)

On the 6th day of October

2009-10-06T20:03:00.001-07:00

The kids and I had a picnic dinner on the living room floor and watched one of our favorite movies, Halloweentown II. Our favorite Halloween family movies, in no particular order

Halloween Town series
Twitches series
Haunted Mansion
It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Casper and Casper Meets Wendy
Scooby Doo series (with the live action cast, including Sarah Michelle Gellar)
The Addams Family series
Ghostbusters (and the kids like Ghostbusters II)

On the 5th day of October..

2009-10-05T15:11:00.002-07:00

We made Halloween Countdown Pumpkins!

Danielle hard at crafting ;)

Shraddha gluing loops!

The finished product.
Sorry there are no pictures of Jack-Jack, he was crafting a'natural ;)

On the 4th day of October...

2009-10-05T15:02:00.000-07:00

I admit it, I was a Halloween slacker :( But I took the kids in the Wayback Machine to visit the Civil War, and that's kinda spooky right? I am sure there are some great haunted battlefields ;) and the Kearny mansion in Kearney park where the reenactment took place is reported to be haunted! It has reports of cold, motion of objects in rooms, and a disappearing pitcher seemingly replaced with plates. After dark the mansion is especially creepy. Sadly, we were there in the middle of the day, and I am sure the cannon fire would have spooked any resident spooks into hiding!

Watching the soldiers leave the battlefield in formation to march back to their respective encampments.

Using a foot treadle sewing machine for the first time. She did pretty good! Jack tried it too, but I had to hold his hand so no pictures.

Watching more soldiers marching by.

On the 3rd day of October..

2009-10-03T22:22:00.001-07:00

I crocheted a little ghostie :)

His name is Boo!

Kombucha Success!!

2009-10-03T21:10:00.001-07:00

We poured the first three bottles of
our first fermenting. Vanilla Honey had turned to a nasty vinager. Ginger Lemon Honey was Yum and Fizzy, made with fresh Ginger slices, lemon zest and honey. And the all around winner raspberry Ginger lemon made with black raspberry jam, slices of ginger and lemon rind with some juice and honey.

We have several more flavors to test, will report results ;)

Caramel Apples in 10 minutes!

2009-10-02T06:36:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite actvities/snacks in the fall is making caramel apples. They are a borderline healthy snack, and there is more apple then caramel ;) So here is how I like to whip one or two out for an after dinner treat!

Start with the right ingredients:

Caramel wraps are much faster and easier then melting caramels. Plus safer for little hands to help with. I got these wraps at Whole Foods, but you can often find them this time of year near the apples in the produce section.

Fresh unblemished apples! My kids prefer red, and I prefer green and either are tasty. Make sure to wash and dry them well, and remove the stem.

These caramel wrap come individually layered in parchment paper. KEEP THE PAPER!! It is the best thing for resting the apples on and serving them, as the caramel doesn't stick to it as much!

Now, use the caramel wraps to cover the apples. Start at the top, stretching and working the caramel down the sides and around to the bottom. This is not an exact science, and sometimes you get tears or thin spots. Just do the best you can to make them even. Then insert your stick through the top of the apple.

Bake on a cookie sheet on the parchment paper for 5 minutes at 200 degrees to soften up the caramel. Make sure before you warm up the oven that you have the rack set to leave enough room for the sticks! I like to dip the bottoms into sprinkles to keep them from sticking to everything. Also, for kids, I like to cut the apple into wedges, as it's easier then trying to eat it off a stick!

So get out there and whip up your own batch :)