For those of you who have been around Plotmonkeys for a while, you’ve probably already been asking yourself…
Why hasn’t Leslie started talking about Halloween yet?????
Well, ask no more.
Woo hoo! Halloween is almost here! 
And not just any Halloween. This year, for the first time in three years, we are doing one of our big Kelly blow-outs. You’ll recall what life has been like for us for the past few years–last year, we were living in my sister’s house. The year before we were in the middle of trying to sell our Florida house. The year before that, 2004, was the last time we even saw our Halloween stuff, much less did anything with it.
Right now, my lovely rec room is wall-to-wall with boxes, corpses, entrails, limbs, monsters, witches, skeletons, costumes and various implements of torture. And there are more to come….because, yes, I’ve been ebaying again. I’m currently awaiting a package containing five severed heads, three headstones, two bloody hands, and one angry gargoyle (but no partridge in a pear tree.) We’re introducing ourself to the neighborhood in style, and by the night of our party, October 27, there will be zombies erupting from graves in our front yard, enormous eyes watching out of our front windows, and huge spiders devouring corpses on the front of our house.
As for the inside, my new living room, which is still devoid of furniture, is providing the perfect space for a torture chamber. We already have the guillotine and pendulum, and Bruce is currently at work on an electric chair. The dining room will be transformed to a traditional old haunted house with dead folks–right down to this really cool “peeling wallpaper” stuff I got for the walls, several “haunted portraits”, dead grandpa in a casket and dead gandma silently rocking by his side. Gonna be very erie and very nifty.
As for the rest of the house–well, there will be lots of little touches throughout. I think I’ve mentioned that I have as many boxes of Halloween decorations as I do of Christmas….and oh, do I go all out for Christmas!
So yay, let’s celebrate, we’re getting close to my most favorite time of the year. My 3 favorite holidays, right in a row. Of course, I have 2 Blazes and one online read to finish during the midst of all this…but let’s not think about that now.
Anybody else gearing up for a big Halloween blowout?
******
A reminder from last Friday!
I haven’t heard from:
#87 Nathalie
You won last week’s Jungle Madness.
Email me at: carlyphillips@mac.com
with you full name, email, address and backlist choice
(excluding CMH or SWAK)
Thanks!
Leslie Kelly used to say she wanted to be a doctor when she grew up, but then she discovered Nancy Drew books. Being a flashlight-under-the-covers-nose-in-book reader throughout her childhood, she couldn’t think of anything else she’d rather do as an adult than continue to lose herself in fictional stories. Her real life marriage of 20 years to the man of her dreams is a constant reinforcement that happily-ever-afters really can happen…and that they’re worth writing about. Living in Maryland, Leslie spends her non-writing time laughing a lot with the above-mentioned romance hero and their three daughters. Though an author of more than thirty sexy, contemporary comedies, she has recently branched out to write dark romantic suspense under the pseudonym Leslie Parrish.
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Morning jungle friends…I hope that all is well…
Wow Leslie, I want to come to your house for Halloween…I didn’t really think people went all out like that anymore…I only saw it in movies, because my family never did…the only other person I know of that goes all out for Halloween is Stephen King…if I lived close enough, I would want to trick or treat at your house…I don’t have any plans…I don’t decorate much for any holiday…no vistors…the school tries to do stuff, but it is nothing like what you do…It sounds like you will have a blast and the kids in your neighborhood will never forget the experience…post pics when you have the house completed…on myspace or here, just so that I can see it…Well, gotta get ready for work…
Have a wonderful day everyone
Peace and love,
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Good morning Plotmonkeys!
Leslie, I’m shivering in my shoes just thinking about your house. Wow. One of our neighbors LOVES Halloween. She goes all out. We don’t though it is fun to see all the kids costumes when they come to the door. One year this kid came dressed as a Borg from Star Trek the Next Generation–really cool costume–and three girls came as the Supremes. They even sang a song. It was great. We generally have rain, sleet, snow or a combo of all three on Halloween here in Denver.
I’m a Thanksgiving and Christmas girl myself. I’ve been collecting ornaments since the seventies.
Hope everyone has a wonderful Tuesday.
Cher
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Wow. Halloween is my least favorite time of year! I hate the doorbell ringing, the up and the down, I hate the candy in the house because I don’t want to be tempted to eat it. I think I’m a grinch! But I do love watching my kids get dressed up and taking pictures. It’s just me personally that doesn’t love the holiday!
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Sounds like a great party Leslie. As for me I am glad it is DH’s turn to take our daughter trick-or-treating. She likes the idea more than the actuality. She never makes it very far before she says she is tired of walking.
Have a great Halloween everyone!
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Halloween is my favorite holiday. Fits my fettish for all things creepy.
But I have to tell this story: My hubby and I used to throw big halloween parties in our “garage turned rec room.” One year as decoration, we used masking tape on the floor to make those dead body outlines like you see at crime scenes. The problem was, it was really fresh and really thin masking tape, and when we pulled it up a week or so later, it left a mark on the cement. No joke, more than once we had a visitor walk up to the garage, look down and see one of the bodies and back away slowly. We were constantly having to explain it was an old party decoration. (Although I highly recommend it for keeping solicitors at bay. )
Lori
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Leslie your place sounds so cool. I live out in the country. No trick-or -treaters. :bigcry: Years ago I used to do up and have candy ready but no one ever came. I was born and lived in town until I was 15 and Halloween was done BIg in town, but that was in the late 60′s and 70′s.
About 10 years ago I was taking my girls trick-or-treating in town and there was a family that decorated their mansion on of the old antebellum houses. They had a fortune teller, a coffin in the parlor, and I remember a Jason with chainsaw going as you exited the back of the house. This was the first family that walked you thru the bottom floor on their haunted house. The girls still talk about it after all these years .
But back to me :dog1:I buy candy and I have a jackolantern on the front porch and that is about it for me.
Oh, My mom-inlaws b-day is Halloween so we have an actual witch in the family :banana:
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I love Halloween! I love going to the different events that we have in our area like the haunted hayrides and the haunted forest. Not to mention the pumpkin carvings, the special cookies, the great decorations. I even take time off from work to enjoy the occassion. It can get VERY scary! :yikes:
:bat: 
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I really like Halloween. Grew up doing the haunted houses and trick-or-treating every year(our neighborhood and my grandparent’s). My dad would put on the haunted house at the Halloween carnival and I always got to help with the “eyes and brains”. I haven’t had a trick-or-treater in the last 7 years(live in an apt). One of my best friends is having a Halloween party at her house this year, so looks like I have to put together a costume pretty soon.
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I guess I just love Halloween because I love being scared…scary books & movies, haunted houses, thrill rides. So so fun!
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Cher—funny on the weather, I remember October as being full-fledged fall up here in MD.
Yesterday, it was 92 freakin degrees here!! I could NOT believe it! It felt like being back in Florida!
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Carly- buy candy you don’t eat. I bought icky gummy things, so I won’t be tempted to even open the bag before Halloween. Heather on the other hand…
My stuff is sitting here in the living room to put up outside. I haven’t had the motivation to do it. It is usually up by the 1st. I hven’t even had the desire to do any inside fall decorating this year.
I have to get moving. We usually have a whole herd of kids who come here because I am the only one on our street who decorates, mush less gives out candy.
i do have a friend who has done his place up and have to go see it soon.
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My graveyard and all the light up bones and skeleton hands are set up. The witch, pirate ghost, ghost and vampire and hanging out of the tree. The HAPPY HALLOWEEN lights are on my window. We’re all set outside. Inside, I’m just unpacking my various accoutrements…including the brand new spider dip bowl and web platter I got. So cute!
We do Halloween up big in my neighborhood, so pretty much, my whole family comes here. First, we eat and then the kids go trick or treat. Nearly half of my neighbors sit outside on lawn chairs and hand out candy and talk to the parents who are walking the kids. One neighbor does a “haunted house” like Leslie does. Always a big hit.
I just ordered my daughter’s costume…she’s Princess Leia this year. :darth:
I’m wearing my new Harry Potter shirt that says, “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” which I got thanks to Rhonda Nelson, who knows all the best places to shop!
I’m still considering flying up to Leslie’s for her party, though!!
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Hi everyone, I’ve got a story to share with my jungle buddies that you just won’t believe! I swear, if I wrote a book based on my life nobody would ever buy it, they’d say it’s too unbelievable.
6:00 am Mon. – Son #2 wakes up howling in pain. 8O
8:00 am – phone with doctor
8:45 am – Doctor’s office for appt.
9:30 am – Doctor sending us to ER
10:30 am – checked in and into room at ER – morphine started
3:00 pm – CT Scan shows appendicitis (? sp)
3:00 – 4:30 – ER doctor trying to find pediatric surgeon (0 found); looking for trauma surgeon willing to do surgery on a 12 year old; scheduling transport to Duke or Chapel Hill in case no surgeon found.
4:30 – local surgeon willing – in surgery – ? when finished – just have to wait until he’s finished
7:00 – Son into surgery
8:00 – out of surgery – doing great – wanting to see his “appendum” – Uh….no! (actually, the nurse checked but they didn’t keep it – thank God!)
9:30 – moved to room in children’s hospital
4:00 am (Tues.) sleep, sweet sleep – finally!
5:30 am – “owwwww- pain medicine”
And so it’s gone since 5:30 this morning. They’ll let him come home if he’ll eat and walk. Not too inclined to do either at this point so I came home to shower and pack a bag. I’ll never leave home again without my laptop and a toothbrush.
The pre-op nurse has assured me that things come in 3′s and so with:
hubby’s brainechtomy (his words, not mine)
Son #1′s tonsilectomy
Son #2′s appendectomy
We are surely finished for a long, long time. When is that Chinese New Year again. I intend to have the biggest party ever when this year is over!!
Hope everyone else in he jungle is doing great!!!
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Oh< Jodie I’m so glad he’s OK. I had the same thing … Kindergarten tonsils; 4th grade hernia; 8th grade appendicitis (writhing in pain same way). May this be the end of this all for you!
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Oh my gosh Jodie, how unbelievable!! You really have had one hell of a year. Wrap yourself in bubble wrap for the next few months til it’s over, okay? :sicksick:
Big hugs to the munchkin!
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:hug2:
JODIE!!! I’m so sorry…for you and your son! Tell him all the Plotmonkeys are praying for a quick recovery for him!
As for you, might I recommend… :tinitime: As soon as you get home! Doctor’s orders!
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Speaking of Halloween, I posted some bizarre pumpkins on my blog today. I guess great minds think alike and all that. (Why is there no jack-o-lantern smilie?)
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When I was in my early twenties one of my friends & I went Trick or Treating with glasses in hand! We had so much fun, we never knew what kind of drinks we would get!!
I just happen to be wearing my new Old Navy orange shirt with black pumpkins on it, getting ready for Halloween!! Guess we are all getting in the mode for Halloween!! :bat:
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I love Halloween… because i love all the candy… yummy. Though i never been to a costume party before. Maybe because i work all the time. I can’t believe its October and we are in the 90s in Maryland… Where is the fall weather?
In my parents old neighborhood this family bought the house next door just to store all their halloween decorations. :arrr:They go all out in decorating their 2 houses with spiders and graves… bats flying. :bat: even some kiddie rides(i think its a swing set) they put computer screens out in the front yard and they put peoples names on it saying here lies…. its cool thing to do. its a huge event now, they have the police blocking streets off for it. But when I was young the police never came out. lol.
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Jodie sorry to hear about your son. :hug2:
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{{{Jodie!}}} Hugs!
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I can’t do the Halloween thing this year either but I’m really looking forward to it anyways!
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:hug2: to you Jodie. Hope your son gets to feeling better soon.
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I loved Halloween when my kids were younger, we always did trick or treating with my sisters and their kids and it was loads of fun followed by pizza at Grandmas. Now there is only 4 out of 11 grandkids that still gets dressed up so its gotten a little boring. Although my 19 year old daughter is going to a party so she bought a “Pimp” costume which is just hilarious.
:hug2: :flower4you: Jodie, Hope he feels better soon!
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Jodie, so sorry about your son but glad he is getting healthy again and back home. Here’s a big hug :hug2:
Leslie, I don’t envy you 92 degree weather in October. We have had some beautiful fall weather mostly 60′s and 70′s. This past weekend we had rain and in the 40′s. We had one of our biggest snow storms a week before Halloween a few years ago. Of course, Christmas last year was a doozy!
Cher
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{{{{{Jodie}}}}}
I am with Carly….(sorry, I am a grinch of sorts). I believe in the Disney-fied Halloween. I am kinda glad I don’t live near you, Leslie (don’t take it personally)…I would be too scared!!!! I am enjoying KILLING TIME, by the way!
Julie: My middle boy is going to be Anakin :darth: before he goes bad…think #1 or #2. He wanted my youngest to be Yoda, but I vetoed that one…I told him just because you want him to be Yoda, doesn’t mean HE wants to be Yoda. My oldest is a dinosaur from the “Disney movie Dinosaur” (okay, he’s a few years late, but that’s okay). My youngest is Thomas (hubby vetoed the Thomas costume with the candy catcher, since my youngest insists on carrying his OWN candy, I thought it would help…hubby thought my not quite 3 year old would fall over….so then, he rolls through the neighborhood :))
One family in our neighborhood is dressing up entirely in STAR WARS costumes (Dad is Darth, Mom: Leia, boys are: Boba, Yoda and I can’t remember the third)…
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Not a big fan of halloween, now that my kids are grown. I still give out treats, tho.
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Hi, thanks for all the hugs everyone. I’ve passed them on.
We’re home, he’s propped up with a bowl of ice cream and the remote and I’m headed to bed!
Thanks again for the thoughts!
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I’m with Carly. Don’t want to be scared, &, so, am not into costumes or Halloween items, but, sounds as if things really will be happenin’ at your new house.
Jody, So sorry for your son’s appendicitis. Good thoughts go your way with all the family health problems. Years ago, I had mine out at exactly the same time as my husband was having surgery for a lobectomy. His family doctor had told me that my stomach pains “were nerves”. Middle of the night called another doctor, &, after lab tests, had surgery. Husband was told by the nurse that his wife was “here” (in the hospital), he said, “send her in” &, due to morphine, was out for 2 days. When he next became aware, he said to the nurse, “where is my wife?”, & she said, “she’s in a bed in the next room”. He couldn’t believe he had been out the whole time–LOL.
Patricia A.
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Leslie thats crazy I want to go to your house!! I love halloween I am not as big of a fan as you but my mom is so I will be helping her with my parents big Halloween blowout.
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I love Halloween. It’s is my favorite holiday. No family dynamics with this holiday.
This year we are having our very first Halloween costume party. Let the countdown begin.
Jodie this is for you :hug2: Chin up and laugh. It helps with the stress.
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Jodie, I am glad your son is feeling better…hey a bowl of ice cream AND the remote, huh? He must be in heaven. I hope that you were able to get some rest…
Leslie, I got Asking for Trouble…
Hey, after reading everyone’s post on Halloween, it makes me wish that I lived in a neighborhood that actually got into the festivities…I have never attended a Halloween party or trick or treated…grew up in the times when people (sick ones) were handing out candy that was tainted with drugs or poisons…yeah…can you believe that…I hope everyone has a wonderful time with their festivities…at this moment, I wish I was a kid again, with no real worries…
Peace and love,
Paula R.
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Hi, everyone! Sorry I haven’t posted sooner — I’ve been out all day and just got back in!
Leslie — You have got to promise to take LOTS of pictures, or even a video, and do a “after party” blog here!!!! I hate scary stuff, but I’d love to see your house all done up for Halloween! :bat:
JODI!!! You’re poor son! Poor YOU! I can’t believe what you’ve been through this year, but I hope this is the very end of you being near any kind of hospital!!! Big hugs to you and your son! :hug2:
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Jodi, hope your son is feeling better soon! I like halloween – but I HATE dressing up … but when you’re younger you do it for candy, in college for drinks.
I think my best costume was an 8 ball … Disney’s Not so Scary Halloween is great to go to if you can … Scary is good too!