It's Halloween Ghosts and Goblins can be Seen!

Before Tralee's Halloween costume was on. . . .


After Tralee's gorilla costume was on. . . .


So, Halloween was full of events for us. Jim came home from work and we headed off to his Uncle Dave's house. Jim's job was to help spook the children that came to their door. He dressed up in a scary costume, as did Uncle Dave. As the children approached the porch they heard spooky music blasting, there were cauldrons full of dry ice that smoked, menacing candles burning, bugs, spiderwebs, a coffin, bats, body parts, and Jim guarding the candy. Uncle Dave hid in the yard where nobody noticed him so he could sneak up on the kids. This is what usually went down:

Kids stopped in the street and looked up at the porch deciding whether or not to go up. Usually they would approach with caution, sometimes tears would already be streaming down their face (I'm not kidding), and one of them would ask "Is it real?" meaning Jim. As soon as they decided nothing was going to happen Jim would jump up and the kids would scream, run away, cry, or all three. Sometimes brave children would stay and Jim would reach for the bowl of candy and hand it out. While this was happening Uncle Dave would sneak up on the kids, so as they turned to run away he would be standing there unto which more screams, tears, and terror would follow. As soon as the kids were out of the yard, and thinking all was safe, they would pass Uncle Dave's mailbox that had a sheet/ghost thing covering a leaf blower. Jim would wait for people to pass it, then plug in the leaf blower, and the poor person passing by would get another fright. It was pretty funny. And I have to say there was absolutely no mercy! A little six year old girl would be crying up Dave's walkway, while her Dad was pushing her to go get candy and Dave would walk right up to her and scare her to death! It didn't matter how young or how afraid the kids were, coming to Uncle Dave's porch only meant they would leave even more terrified than before.


Tralee slept through all of this, and woke up in time for the kids to lay out all of their candy. She had her first piece of candy ever! A lollipop. She got it all by herself, and was sucking on it with the wrapper on. Since she was sucking right through the paper, I decided to take of the wrapper and let her taste it. She got it for a few minutes until she started rubbing it on the carpet. That's when mean mommy took it away and replaced it with a grape. I'm sure the grape tasted worthless to her taste buds in comparison. But, the experience made a great photo op.


Later on some of Jim's other cousins, Rob and Adam, showed up and got into costumes. They helped scare kids for awhile until that got boring, and they decided to leave and start scarring adults. Uncle Dave had a list of people he knew that he wanted to scare. So, four adult men got into scary costumes, piled into our car and left to go "haunting." Haunting is when the aforementioned gentlemen (if I can call them that) walk right into someone's home--without being invited or even ringing a doorbell--and encircle a family or individual without saying a word. The effect is supposed to bring terror, fright, laughter, or discomfort or all of the above. Then, once the desired reaction is given, the four men walk right out of the house and it's as if they were never there.


At one home they all walked right in and there was a little boy on the floor sifting through his Halloween candy. The scary men encircled him and just stood there waiting for him to notice. As soon as he did his head bolted up and he yelled to his parents who were entertaining guests in another room, "Guys, the people in our house are scarring me." The parents did nothing, probably thinking their little guy was hopped up on sugar. I think eventually the parents noticed, but who knows. At another house Jim was sitting next to a teenage girl and just let one rip! That sounds like my man. Anywho the people were freaked, and interested in figuring out who was haunting them. Some of them guessed peoples names, but they will never know!

There was one experience the guys had that I'm debating whether or not to write in my blog. I guess I'll give the PG rated version. The guys decided to haunt a house, but nobody was home yet. Then the garage opens and a van pulls up containing a happy little family getting back from trick-or-treating. So, naturally the haunters decide to spook them and encircle the van. Screams erupt, tears are falling, and the parents seem spooked but they're not too terrified yet. After a few minutes one of the parents finally says, "Ok, you guys better go now." Of course this means the guys decide to stay longer, which results in a bit of an episode. Let's just say the cops were ALMOST involved, Jim was ALMOST beat up by the husband that looked like a football player, and we ALMOST didn't have a ride home. In the end one of the haunters reveled himself, and explained to the frightened family who he was and that they've been haunting for years--never meaning any harm. The family relaxed, apologized for "losing it" and all was well in the end. Do you think the guys learned their lesson after this experience? NOPE!! They haunted another house right after this! They said is was boring, well compared to last one I should think so! Unbelievable!


All and all, our Halloween was full of what everyone's Halloweens should be full of: excitement, an adrenaline rush, candy, tears, fears, and fun!

In case you're wondering, my costume was a piece of gum stuck on the bottom of a shoe. Jm was a scary goul, and Tralee was a gorilla.



That's all folks.

Battle of the Golf Ball

Well, I think I'm slowly getting back into the grove of things. I even managed to clean downstairs, cook a good meal last night, and I'm even considering grocery shopping today. So, I think the vacation is slowly leaving my conscience and everyday thoughts are replacing it.

As I was cleaning today I had to stop and grab the camera as I observed Corky and Tralee fighting over a golf ball. In all fairness, the golf ball IS Corky's. I feel bad for the dog, ever since Tralee was born she's so used to hearing "No Corky!" So, whatever toys ARE Corky's, I usually don't let Tralee tamper with them. However, this was too funny so I let man and beast have out their battle.

Corky was chewing on her ball, and Tralee would get down on all fours to look at it, and attempt to grab it. Usually Corky would run away, but every once in a while Tralee would manage to steal the ball. I noticed that Tralee used a toy cell phone to distract Corky, and when Corky wasn't paying attention Tralee would snatch the golf ball away, and then have TWO toys to play with. However, as soon as Tralee got the ball, she would immediately try to give it back to Corky. Corky was apprehensive to take it back for fear that I would say, "No!" so usually Corky waited for Tralee to drop it, and then snatch it back. This lasted for several minutes, and here are some cute pictures I captured from the little golf ball adventure.

Disney Vacation

Ok, we made it back from our Disney World Adventure. Overall I think the trip was a success. There were fun and exciting moments, hectic and exhausting ones, but mostly we had fun spending time as a family--especially Jim and I. We don't get to see the rest of the Labiszaks that often, so it was nice to play with them for a week. I guess I'll go through a quick explanation of our days and post some pictures along the way.

Saturday, October 20th, 2007:

Jim and I finished packing, took our dog to his cousin's house to be watched, and did some last minute shopping with Jim's Mom. Afterwards Tricia (Jim's Mom) took us to the Boise Airport and we flew to Salt Lake City, and then to Orlando. Tralee was really really good on both flights. She ripped up the in flight magazines, slept, ate grapes, and played with the passengers around us. On the flight from SLC to Orlando there was a Hispanic woman who didn't speak very much English sitting next to us, Tralee LOVED her! The lady kept singing songs to Tralee in Mexican. Tralee had fun with her, plus it was nice to have someone else entertain her here and there. We arrived in Orlando at 11pm, and Jimmy picked us up at the airport. Tralee was very excited when we arrived, and was all smiles. We went to our hotel (which was really nice) and played for a bit on Jimmy's Wii. Then we went to sleep.


Sunday, October 21st, 2007:

Jim and I slept in as long as Tralee let us, and then went down to my parent's suite. Tralee was really cranky on Sunday. I think it was a mix of we were in a new place, her schedule was off, and she was around people she wasn't familiar with. She was very clingy to me and Jim for the rest of the day. Grandma and Grandpa Labiszak passed out Halloween Cards that had little gifts inside for all of us. Jim got a Home Depot gift card, I got some money, and Tralee got some money, books, and cute outfits as well. They were fun little gifts, my parents are really thoughtful. Besides that, we all just relaxed on Sunday.



Monday, October 22nd, 2007:

Monday was Jimmy's 30th birthday. It was kind of a miserably HOT sticky day. We all headed off to Magic Kingdom. Mom bought everyone's tickets for the week, and we started out riding Pirates of the Caribbean. It was Tralee's first ride ever. She did very well. Her cousins Haylee and Brady were a little scarred at first, but thought it was fun. Jim and I separated from the rest of the group for a bit to go to the Baby Care Center. I didn't know Disney had these, but they're nice indoor rooms with changing tables, baby supplies, high chairs, and nursing rooms. It was so nice to be able to sit in an air conditioned quiet room and feed Tralee. After taking care of Tralee we did all the other normal Magic Kingdom things. My favorite ride was Splash Mountain. Haylee loved it too! Brady wasn't so sure about it. I sat next to Amy on this ride, and at one point a huge splash of water bombarded our boat. Lucky for Amy it hit me, and I blocked her from getting wet. It felt good though, because I was so hot. At the end of this day we were all ready to go home. It was just too hot, but we had fun.


We also realized that Tralee is a little narcissist! There was a full-sized mirror at the suites we were staying in and she loved to climb up to them and play with her reflection. She would put her little mouth up to herself like she was kissing herself. It was pretty cute!


Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007:

This was my favorite day at Disney. We all headed off to MGM Studios. I think MGM is my favorite park at Disney. We started off going on The Great Movie Ride. This was special to Jim and I because this ride was closed on our honeymoon, so going on it was kind of the completion of our honeymoon. I told Jim, "It looks like the honeymoon is finally over." The highlight of MGM studios was going on The Tower of Terror with Haylee. Haylee heard all the people screaming and said, "It sounds like they're having fun!" We all tried to tell her this ride was scary, but she still wanted to go on it. Grandma Labiszak, Jim, Haylee, and I all rode it together. The rest of the bunch stayed behind to watch Tralee and Brady. During the entire wait Haylee was a little chatterbox saying things like, "I'm not scarred, there's no ghosts in Wisconsin or Minnesota." Jim even told her, "I'm so scarred I might poop my pants." Haylee thought that was hilarious. Anywho, as soon as we saw the little pre-ride movie Haylee said, "Uh-oh, I didn't think this ride was going to be like this." Then on the actual ride Haylee was terrified. The picture they took of us on the ride is priceless! Haylee's body is scrunched up in terror. Her little eyes are squeezed so tight her whole face is all squished. After the ride she kept saying, "I'm still scarred." We kept telling her how brave she was to ride, and that we're so proud of her. When I asked Haylee what her tummy felt like she said, "It was telling me to get off of the ride!" All and all she survived, but every other ride at Disney she was skeptical to get on, and it took some heavy-duty convincing for her to ride it. Some other highlights from MGM were The Muppets 3D show. Haylee and Brady were trying to reach for the 3D objects, and they both giggled. We rode Star Tours, and Amy, Mom, Jim, and I all rode the Rock 'N Roller Coaster. The ride takes you from 0 to 60 MPH in 2 seconds, and it plays Aerosmith songs the whole way. Mom was so funny, she was like, "That was too much for an old lady!" But I think she loved it. Jim and I went to the Baby Station while the rest of our group saw The Little Mermaid show and did some other things. Jim and I were okay with missing out on some things because we pretty much did it all on our honeymoon.


Wednesday, October 24th, 2007:


Wednesday started out pretty early. We all woke up for a time share seminar. It was interesting, but not worth waking up for at 8:00 am. The good news is Jim got a round of golf and $50 out of it, and I got $50 worth of Disney bucks. After the time-share info we headed off to Epcot. The weather was great. It was overcast and a little drizzly. Jim, Tralee, and I started off with the group by riding the Nemo ride. We also ate at the restaurant at Norway. It was a storybook lunch with the Disney Princesses. The kids liked it, and it was fun to see all the princesses. The meal was interesting. Jim really like it, but he's Norwegian. He actually said some of the waitresses looked like his sisters. All the workers at each Disney country is actually from the country they're working at. We scored some fast-pass tickets outside the Norway ride. We think the worker accidentally layed them down, and we picked them up. We were able to get on the ride right away, while others had to wait 20 minutes. The only problem with our brilliant plan was that right before we stepped on the ride Grandma Charlene told Haylee, "We're going to see some trolls on this ride." Apparently Haylee is terrified of trolls and she started crying hysterically and refused to step foot on the boat. So, Grandma and Haylee waited while the rest of us, including Tralee rode. After this Jim and I mostly wanted to walk around the countries at the world show case. So, we headed off while the rest of the group rode the rides, and did some other sight seeing. We saw some awesome Chinese acrobats. These girls stood on one hand, on a tiny peg like five feet in the air, and did all these different poses. It was incredible. Jim and I also purchased chocolates from each country.


I just have to describe the pictures above. There's a place at Epcot where you can taste sodas from all around the world. Jim LOVES this place--probably because it doesn't cost anything and you can taste as much as you want. There's a cool explanation of each soda and why and were it's made. Italy's is VERY bitter, Japan's is good for you, and our favorite one is from China, but they weren't serving it anymore. Oh well.

Thursday, October 25th, 2007:

Jim finally got to go golfing this day!! He and my dad did 18 holes. Golfing was pretty much the only thing Jim wanted to do on this vacation, so he was excited to finally go! I took a nap in our room while Grandma Charlene put Tralee down for a nap. YAY! Later on when I was down in Grandma and Grandpa's room I put an old lady workout program on. It's the one where the old lady is sitting in a chair doing physical stretches. My mom pulled up a chair and started doing them. I was laughing so hard! Then Haylee wanted to do what grandma was, so I was laughing on the couch while Grandma and Haylee worked out with the old woman. It was nice to laugh with my mom and niece. Shortly after this the guys got back from golfing, and Jim and I decided to go back to Epcot with Tralee, while the rest of the group trekked back to Magic Kingdom. The reason Jim and I wanted to go back to Epcot was to try and get on the new ride called Soarin'. We didn't get to in on Wednesday and the rest of the group raved about it. So, Jim and I get there and the fast passes were for five hours later. We didn't want to wait that long, so we decided to just wait in line for the ride, even though the wait was 80 minutes. There was a height requirement, so we thought we could just do the kid pass off that we did on other rides. The worker at the front of the line said we couldn't do the pass off, so we didn't get to ride Soarin'. I was a little bummed about it, but got over it. Jim and I actually found a couple to give our fast passes to, since we didn't want to wait until 8:00pm to ride it. The couple was really excited to get the fast passes, because by then all of the fast passes for the day were gone. It felt good to make them happy about that. Jim, Tralee, and I decided to leave the park and go swimming at the hotel. We had fun, and it was nice to take things at a slower pace.


The blackbird above kept trying to steal Tralee's crackers from her! It ate right out of Jim's hand! A few pictures above there's a white bird at Magic Kingdom that kept trying to steal pieces of our turkey leg! Dirty birds!!



Friday, October 26th, 2007:

Friday was Amy's birthday. Dad, Jim, and Jimmy woke up early to golf again. I slept in until we were ready to go to Animal Kingdom. It was pretty busy. Some highlights from this day was the Dinosaur ride and the new Everest ride. Jim and I left Tralee with the rest of the group so we could ride this new ride. It wasn't there on our honeymoon. The wait was over 50 minutes and the fast passes were gone, but we lucked out again! They had a single rider line. Basically anytime they needed a seat filler they would take someone from the single rider line. Jim and I didn't really care about riding next to each other, we just wanted to try the ride. So, we only waited about 20 minutes, and the ride was super fun! It went backwards really fast, and the story behind it was super cute. Basically a Yeti was following the riders around and tearing up the track. I loved it, and Jim's motion sickness kicked in a bit. After Animal Kingdom Jim, Jimmy, Tralee, and I left and took some naps. Before dinner Jim, Jimmy, Haylee, and Brady went swimming. We all had one final meal together on Friday night. I was a little sad that this was the final time Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Amy, Haylee, Brady, Jim, Tralee, and I would all be eating together for I don't know how long. I really enjoyed being with my family.


Saturday, October 27th, 2007:

Saturday was a rough one! Jim had to get up with my Dad and Jimmy at 3am to go sit with all of our baggage at the airport. We figured out we couldn't all fit in the rental cars with all of our luggage, so we took two trips to the airport. The first trip was to get the luggage to the airport, and the second trip was to get the people to the airport. The rest of us got up at 4am and left for our flights home. We all made our flights, and managed to get home safely. Mom actually sat with Jim, Tralee, and I for a bit, before we had to board our plane. She showed me her drivers license picture, which I'm still laughing about. I loved it! I love my mom, and her drivers license picture isn't THAT bad, but it does make me laugh. It was nice to have one final laugh with her before saying goodbye. When we arrived in Boise we discovered that Delta lost one of our bags. So, that was annoying, but they delivered it later on. When we got home Jim, Tralee, and I napped for the better part of the day, and then we went to Jim's Aunt's Halloween party. We played games, ate, and hung out with family. I was a little tired from our travels, but had fun.

Sunday, October, 28th, 2007:

Jim and I slept in until Tralee woke us up. We ate Puffy Up Pancakes, vegged around, and then got ready for church. We both were tired at church, but made it through. Tralee was a squirmy worm and a little chatterbox today. We had to take her out at one point during Sacrament Meeting. She slept through most of Gospel Doctrine, and she danced and smiled during Relief Society. Overall Tralee is a little cutie pie. Everyone comes up to us and tells us she's adorable. It really helps if Tralee gives one of her signature smiles. If she's not in a good mood she won't smile, but will study the person's face that is looking at her as if to say, "What are you lookin' at sucker?" Either way she looks adorable.

Well, that's it. I know it wasn't the best description, but hopefully the pictures say more than my rambles.

Today I'm still trying to get unpacked and do some much needed laundry. It's so hard for me to get back into my normal groove after a vacation. Oh well. Maybe in a few days I'll have my life back to normal. . . probably not, but we'll see.

Disney World

Our little family is leaving for Disney World tomorrow to meet up with the rest of the Labiszaks for a week of fun. So, I won't be posting anything until we return. The last time Jim and I were at Disney World was 5 1/2 years ago on our honeymoon. So, we're excited to go back and have a relaxing fun time with family. See ya in a week!

Bowling League Night

So, Jim and I joined a bowling league. The last time we went bowling a lady working at the bowling ally stopped Jim and said, "You should join our bowling league, with a score in the 200's, we need you!" So, yesterday she called Jim to remind him to come to bowling league night. We made it a family affair and had a really good time!

Jim did really well! His first game he got 5 strikes in a row, and people were calling him Superman. His final score was 243! They're going to put him in the newspaper! Jim's average for three games ended up being 185! Plus he picked up 4 - 10 split! Ya baby! I'm lucky if I break 100. My first two scores were 115 and 107. My last frame of the last game I needed to get a strike or a spare and then two pins to break 100. I got the spare and then I lost concentration, because I thought it was a sure thing. I only knocked ONE DANG PIN down! So, my last score was a 99. Oh well. It was fun, and Tralee was very well behaved. There were actually lots of babies there, so she fit right in.

I'm not sure if Jim and I fit right in. There were a lot of "country folk" there. I mean, wife-beater wearing, mullet stylin', belt buckle wearing, hill-billies. It was fun though. The couple we were pared up with were pretty normal, so it was fun. Anywho. . . Friday night for us will be Bowling League Night. "What, would we like to go to a movie with you on Friday night? Oh sorry, we have bowling league night, maybe on Saturday." Haha!

LOOOOOONG NIGHT

Tralee was fussy last night, and she wouldn't nurse. I felt helpless because she would look at me through her tears as if to say, "fix what's wrong mommy" and I couldn't because I didn't know what was wrong. I gave Tralee infant Tylenol, rocked her, snuggled with her, walked with her, and she kept crying. Every time I tried to nurse her she would turn away and get really mad. I read that when babies go on nursing strikes it could be because they're teething and their mouths hurt too much to nurse. So, maybe that was it. Also, I fed her a few bites of our pizza at dinner, and maybe there was something like garlic in it that made her tummy upset. Whatever it was that kept Tralee up broke my heart! I hated feeling helpless. At around 1:00 am I went and woke Jim up and asked him to give Tralee a blessing. I couldn't hear it over Tralee's yells, but a few minutes after the blessing Tralee finally fell asleep in my arms. I kept her in bed with us, and she slept really well. I didn't sleep because I was worried about her, and praying she wasn't getting sick right before we left for Disney World on vacation. At around 5:00 am she woke up and I tried to nurse her again, she didn't seem interested, and then finally she latched on. I felt better knowing she was eating. Then around 7:00am she nursed again, but it took some coaxing. Then I finally fell asleep with her, and we slept until 9:30am.

Today is a new day, and Tralee seems to be in bright spirits. She nursed, after some more coaxing, and now she's crawling around on the ground babbling and smiling. So, whatever was wrong I hope stays away. I hope that was also a one night episode, because it was brutal on the whole household!!

I'm praying for health and happiness for all of us, at least until after our vacation.

Musical Talents

I've had a difficult time going on walks lately. Every time I start a walk the weather is great, but halfway through, the clouds roll in , the wind starts to blow, and the rain starts pouring, so we head home. This weather wouldn't bother me so much, but it's too extreme for Tralee, even though I bundle her up.

Jim's been working REALLY hard lately. He usually wakes up around 6:00 or 6:30 AM and gets home around 6:00 or 6:30 PM, sometimes later. I feel bad that he works so hard to support us, so I try to make sure our house is stress-free when he gets home. I like to great him at the door with Tralee and Corky. We usually yell "Daddy's Home!!" and give him hugs and kisses. He loves it. Although I'll admit, sometimes he gets home, I'm still in my comfy clothes, Tralee is cranky, and I haven't even thought of what to make for dinner yet. We all have our days.

Tralee is a musical baby. We noticed if we're watching t.v. and a song comes on Tralee will stop what she's doing and watch the performance. I've tested out her musical abilities latley by playing songs with good beats. Usually I'll jack up the volume and Tralee and I will dance. I pick her up and we grove across the room. Tralee loves it, and it's good excersize for me! Today for the first time I noticed Tralee dancing to music! She kind of just bobs up and down, but it's really cute! While I was doing the dishes tonight, I gave Tralee a spoon to play with, and she started banging it on the floor and on her pumpkin. I wonder what she'll do with her musical abilities? Be a drummer, singer, or dancer? Maybe all three , she'll be a triple threat!