Letters from Santa

      My son wrote his first Christmas list to Santa this year.
I made sure, even though I got laid off recently, that he had just about everything he asked for. He had straight A's on his report card. For a six year old good marks and a happy mom is important, but I not only got to see straight A's, but his teacher raved about him so when I went in for the parent teacher conferences that I knew there was no way it could be a bad Christmas for him.

    Then there was that inspired moment. people kept posting all these sights willing to take your money to send your child a  Letter from Santa. I thought to myself 'Why give them money? I can do this just as easily as they can. I can even make an envelope with a post mark on it. I wouldn't even have to waste the stamp, so that's exactly what I did! I had some marble looking stationary that I printed it on. You can get cheap stationary from the dollar store these day...

Letter From Santa

Post marked Envelope from North Pole

The call ever parent fears.

So I got the most frightening phone call you could ever get about your child.
His school called telling me he was absent today......
I text my Fiance and checked, who said he dropped him off 5-10 minutes late, but he took him to school.
I called the school and had them physically go check his class for him.
He was not there.
So completely panicked I called my boss freaking out and got his voice mail. I left a message on his phone. One of the leads at my work walked in while I was leaving the message.... I was already bawling at this point. I explained to her and told her I needed to check my house. That was as calm as I could get about the situation. I'd check the house then if he wasn't home I'd call the police.
I called my Fiance on my drive back home to find that he was there already and that My son took it upon himself to walk home this morning.
Meanwhile, while driving home I continued with my nervous breakdown. I cried in my driveway for at least ten minutes while I debated on beating my kid or hugging him to death. I go inside and my boy's back on the computer playing.
That wasn't going to fly. I grounded him from the computer and X-box.
I explained to my little boy that his school calls me when he doesn't go. That I though a bad person had gotten him and when bad people take kids, they don't usually come back.
He went to his room and I went out back to continue my nervous break down before calling my boss to let him know we found him. Told him I'd be in tomorrow because I was going to have a nervous breakdown for the rest of the day.
My boss told me to give him a hug and then slap him in the back of the head for him.
That option sounded good to me too.
 

I'll tell you right now. Thinking your child may have been taken by some sick-o drains the energy and life right out of you. The next day all my muscles hurt. I had a head ache that that has now lasted 2 days.  I'm emotionally drained. 

But I have come to realize I would do anything to save my child. I was adding up all the money I could get a hold of in my head while wondering if I knew enough thugs to offer as reward to attempt to get my child back and bring me the offender dead or alive. If brought to me alive, I'm not sure, depending on what they did to my child, if I could have let them live.

Thankfully I'll never know the answer to that.... My son was safe and I could breath again.

Well, such as it is. My phone went off the same time of day as when I received that frightening call today. My heart leaped out of my chest again. My son.... but happily no. It was the pharmacy reminding me my prescription was ready.... but the terror remains apparently. I fought the urge all day to call his grandmother to  check on him after she picked him up from school.

My only son.... my only child.....

I'm not sure I could live with out him. I can't understand how other mothers do. The thought of losing him that day was as if I was sentence to die.

2 Year Anniversary - September 13, 2014

So the impending  Anniversary of my fathers death was yesterday. But this year I was feeling it a bit.So to deal with my angst I did this............

So what if the neighbors think I'm weird... Lately, since he's died, I dive into this holiday. Just not usually in September... I've been adding a little every week since I'm in overtime at work. There will be more to come... I'm having my Fiance' build me a coffin this year to add to the collection. I found a witch mask so I've decided to build me a which and buy a plastic cauldron or make one who knows...

My son helping me with the placement felt he needing to be in the picture, but trying to hide. I made the Headstones last year
My fiance' cut them out of wood we had around the house. The joy of being with a construction workers. My son and I painted them. Obviously I did the lettering, but painting the base color lets him feel like a huge contributor. Which he is.

My son got to place all the bones.
You should always let your children help. They get a kick out of it.

My $5 dollar store find!

My son, an angel, and my skeleton dog from Smiths.

So a little update to my yard.... 10-3-2014

Yes, I drove home with the Skeleton showing in my seat just like this.

My son and the skeleton

A few humorous props don't hurt your Halloween any..

The witch I made this year.

My son keeps taking and playing with the skeletons helmet....

Halloween - Fun with my Kid!

So it's that time of year again!
Spooky, scary, decorate your yard if you can afford it sort of thing..
Well I'm definitely on a budget.
So I went into the dollar store.....
Guess what? They sell body parts! Rubber rats, glow in the dark stuff...etc etc
Yeah, some of it's rather cheaply made, but if you shop right you can do a few things in your yard.
So here's a few ideas for you.....

I am giving what instructions I can to tell you how I did it or a link to the website I found it on.

Bodies!
Yes I made my own with a little help from the dollar store. I found some of my son's old clothes, my old clothes.
1. I got a bunch of those old plastic grocery bags.
2. A pile of junk mail and adds that were piling up around the house.
3. Old clothes.
4. Dollar Store Mask.
5. Dollar store body part ( bloody eyeballs, severed hand & feet, heart & liver)
6. I bought red dish washing soap & food coloring (To make blood that wouldn't attract bugs and animals)

My son and I crumples up the ads, newspaper & junk mail and put it in the old plastic grocery bags. Then I stuffed them through the arms and legs of the clothes and stuffed the butt and chest. I kinda took the time to give it the right shape by smashing it inside the clothes a but till it looked alright.

For the ghoul in the chair, I used a cheap mask and a hoodie for the head. I stuffed a bag and shaped it like a head, put the mask on it and shoved it in the hood. I'm probably going to find a pair of shoes that don't fit my son for the feet, and I'm thinking about some $1 kids gloves for the hands, but this is a play as you go sort of thing for me.

I gave the ghoul some hands with gloves and 

black marker to make the fingernails.

For the headless body we used our severed body parts and the mix for fake blood. Dropped the heart and liver on the ground near by and Walla! Dead body!












Spiderwebs!
Then there are those spiderwebs you can buy....

Spider webs in themselves creep people out for fear one of those itty bitty spider might slink on down. So lots of those (now available at the dollar stores..).

Skeletons!

Cheap easy plastic wrap a tree. Put a skeleton or a mummy on your tree.














Graveyards!

 Who doesn't love a creepy bloody Graveyard?This was the plastic fencing and Glow in the dark head stones they had with.. of course spiderwebs.

Needs a touch up still on the bottom.
I made a mistake on it.

My Sons contribution to my headstones.It's
Actually really Funny!

Boy drove me crazy to help when I was doing
This one.

My boy was happy to paint the cross to help with this.

Glow In The Dark!
















Dangly Things!

Making Ghost

 So I blew up a white balloon, took a whit trash bag and drew a face on both side, tied fishing string from the house to the trees, tied a small piece of from the balloon, cut a tiny hole in the bottom (now the top) of the bag put the balloon  inside the garbage bag threading the  fishing line out the little hole to tie to the string line you ran, Wallah! Cheap ghost (like the ones they sell).

Little dangly things to hang on your house. They have glow in the dark skeletons all over and normal.

Glow in the Dark bats. I did add some definition with a black marker so they could be seen better day or night.

DOOR SPOOKS!


My door Glow-in-the-Dark Skeleton head. I added black marker to make him more visible. I took a piece of paper and traced his eyes on it them colored it how I wanted too and taped it behind it to add more features to it.











I'm working on some home made bone I found HERE (Click Here)  . I am giving it a shot
 

Drying bones

So from the link for the other bones, I figuured
This one out.

Pretty good so far.... Needs to be painted now.

 


















Take Look In My Yard So Far!

Mother & Son Time

Now this, while isn't as scary, was done mainly by my son with a little help from mom.
I printed and cut out these pieces and shape. Pictures too. He colored, glued, and painted with water colors. I simply attached the shapes to black yarn, got some sticks from the yard and made the mobile part. We're going to put it up a day or two before Halloween because of our temperamental weather we have her. Since it's paper, it won't survive the rain & snow.

Halloween Mobile

Halloween Costume

A little Imagination and patience, you too could start making decorations all month long.

Now for the Bonus feature....
I made his ghost outfit.
from on dale material. I was going to use a cheap white sheet since we don't have any in our home to cannibalize, I sought out the material clearance section. I still have to make a hood on it, but that won't be too hard.
 Want to make your own too? Go to this Website (Ghost Costume)

With The hood I made but before the fringe.

Fringe added

 Busy weekends yes. Fun? Hell yeah!
And my boy has never made a mother so proud as to help her put bodies in the yard!

He's still spooked by the decorations a little bit now that they are completed. Helping to make them helped him be not so scared. But he still shows them off to EVERYONE who come over or even walks by the yard. My five year old loves the time we're spending together decorating the yard for Halloween.