Ooooooo-it must be Halloween!

Last night we went out to Granny Great's house to check out her Halloween collage. She is AMAZING, and look at how cute she is!

From the time Talmage was itty-bitty she started collecting these Halloween houses. They are all unique and have different sounds that accompany their movements. Before continuing on.... take note of the jar with the white lid in the lower left corner, I'll explain more later on.

Talmage, Eric and Maidie checking out the Haunted Village from the "observation bench". Once again, take note of the jar with the white lid....on the left.

After 15 minutes of the unique cackling and squealing simultaneously coming from all 10 Halloween houses, my body begins to fill with rage (yes, just like when I listen to the band Phish). Right about the time I don't think I can take it anymore the Dode walks in. Praise the heavens! Who is "the Dode" you ask. The Dode is the Hippie's younger brother who my children ADORE! Consequently, he has no children as of yet, so he can shower all his affections on his niece and nephews! He acquired his nickname when Talmage was a wee-little lad. He could not say, "Sheldon," so we started referring to Uncle Sheldon as, "Sheldo". "Sheldo" was still too hard for our little buddy to pronounce, but he was able to say "Dodo", which stuck. Sheldon is now and will forever be known to us as, "the Dode".

When the Dode walks into Granny's house the kids immediately want to check out his bachelor pad located in Granny's basement. The Dode is getting married next month and will live in Granny's basement apartment with his soon-to-be bride, but until that happens he's been "bachelorin' " it solo for the past month. Dodo has cool furniture, and lots of room to run, jump and play, which in turn leads to moments like this....

It takes mad skills to throw out a "peace" sign while hurling your body through the air.

Check out Eric's form. "I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky"......

The Dode even properly entertains his guests with music. Notice Eric dancing in the background, it was pretty funny.

I think Maidie has a crush.....

.....I take you back now, to the jar with the white lid on it, sitting innocently on Granny Great's Halloween collage table........

Little did I know, nestled inside that seemingly nonchilant jar with the white lid, (which usually holds such pleasant things like; Grandma's home-made jam, or bottled peaches), was THIS!

Da-da-da....(cue scream)

Yes, you are seeing this correctly! A black- freakin'- widow! Now I'm all about Granny doing what she can to make her collage a good one, one that will be remembered, but planting a live black widow spider for effect while my children sit on the "observation bench" just inches away is a little too much for me! (See above picture to notice how close!)

As we were downstairs enjoying the Dode's man-lair, Talmage asks me if I saw the black widow in the jar upstairs. Uh, "what?" I ask. "You know, the black widow spider Granny has upstairs in that jar." he says. Now, I don't like spiders. ANY kind of spider. In fact, it was something I discussed with the Hippie before I agreed to marry him. He had to be willing to kill every spider I ever saw before we could make it official. (He has fulfilled that obligation by the way.) So upon hearing this news I dashed upstairs (morbid curiosity) to see for myself. Sure enough, there it was in the jar, just like Talmage had informed me.

Come to find out, the Dode, had discovered this man-eater in his laundry room downstairs and decided to keep it as his pet. So he scooped it up in the lovely jar provided by his grandmother and they decided to make it part of the collage.

It was a REALLY big black widow, and it was found INSIDE the house. Ahhhh! I don't know if you can appreciate the size of it with the above pictures, so here is one I took with the man-eater in porportion to my wedding ring. (A very nice ring btw.)

Granny Great even decorates her yard, what a gal!

To make up for the near heart-attack I had upon the news of the man-eater being so close to my children, Granny took us to get a bite.

Yeah, so I'm not entirely sure whose shoes Maidie is wearing in this picture. I can tell you they are NOT a pair I am acquainted with. Word to the wise, watch your shoes when she's around, she moves like LIGHTENING! I hope these shoes found their proper home.

.....and of course, the Hippie dog came with us on our travels.