November 03, 2022

Home Happenings: October 2022

November 03, 2022/ Lisa Carpenter

Looking back, October marks the most mellow month of the 2022 for me. At least in terms of getting out and about. Our typically wild and crazy Callie had ACL surgery — technically CCL in dogs — near the end of September, which meant she had to lay low and go slow, rendering us pretty much homebound for most of October.

October 21, 2022

Poppin' Good: Spooky, sweet treats made with popcorn

October 21, 2022/ Lisa Carpenter

Celebrate Halloween and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month with these spooky and sweet treats, courtesy Popcorn.org.

October 16, 2020

Streamin' and screamin': My top 10 scariest films

October 16, 2020/ Lisa Carpenter

‘Tis the scary season—and no, I’m not talking about Covid and our political climate (though those are downright frightening, for sure).

No, I’m talking about Halloween time.

As folks peruse streaming services for scary stuff to watch in celebration of the season, I’d like to offer a few films that forever scarred, I mean memorably scared me, on the off-chance others may wish to be similarly scarred, I mean, scared.

October 30, 2017

A grand monster mash

October 30, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Hooray for Halloween! And for Halloween fun courtesy JibJab!

Do you make JibJab videos featuring your grandkiddos? I made a fun one for Halloween and hoped to embed it here for all to see. Alas, JibJab no longer allows users to download their videos for embedding (boo!), so here are a few screenshots of my creation.

I'd love for ya'll to see the silliness in full, though, so if you have a sec, click on over to my grand monster mash mixup for ghoulishly goofy Happy Halloween wishes from...

October 28, 2017

Saturday movie brief: Boogie men

October 28, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

Halloween puts me, like many folks, in the mood for scary movies. With Tuesday being Halloween, this weekend is the perfect time for feasting on frightful flicks.

Thing is, it's so horrifically hard to find scary movies that don't make me want to puke because of the gore or hide away in a country compound built just for my family and me because the sickos on screen are too close to some real-life psychos — or the possibility of such — in our current society.

I've yet to come up with a horror flick to enjoy with my husband this Halloween weekend, one with a fair share of scare but not so much I have to flick on every light in the house as I head to bed — or dive onto the bed when I reach it so a boogie man doesn't grab me from beneath. (I'm not the only who still does that, am I?)

I did, though, find this fun montage of old-time boogey men, from...

October 23, 2017

Halloween candy stats by state, plus GRAND Social No. 276 link party for grandparents

October 23, 2017/ Lisa Carpenter

We're one week out from trick-or-treat time. Have you stocked up on candy yet?

I recently received an interesting graphic from CandyStore.com on the top treats by state. Scroll over the interactive map for a closer look at the sweet stats.

What's tops in your state? I was surprised to see that M&Ms weren't tops in Colorado, where apparently Milky Ways are king, considering how many pounds of the plain or peanut goodies my husband...

November 02, 2015

Final treat, plus GRAND Social No. 179 link party for grandparents

November 02, 2015/ Lisa Carpenter

Final treat

Yay for November! Before we plunge headlong into the new month, I have a final October treat: My grandsons in their trick-or-treating attire!

Soldier Bubby...

soldier costume

Hulk Mac...

October 28, 2015

Grandma's colorful, creepy crowd

October 28, 2015/ Lisa Carpenter

Halloween has gotten far more colorful since I became a grandma.

A little more creepy, too, I must admit.

Proof lies in my seasonal pics from the past seven years:

halloween costumes

Oh, how I love my creepy, colorful...

November 01, 2014

Saturday movie review: 'The Awakening'

November 01, 2014/ Lisa Carpenter

Come the Halloween season, I crave a spooky movie. Not a scary-as-all-get-out movie, you know, the sort so evil one fears they've surely opened the gates of hell simply by watching it. And not the violent, gory, bloody yuck fests, either. And definitely not the poorly written, poorly acted scream fests featuring babbling blondes running from madmen in masks.

No, I like a good old-fashioned, suspense-filled ghost story. One with just the right amount of startles and chills yet one that allows me to afterward walk — not run! — up the two flights of stairs to my bedroom without having to turn on every light along the way or jump onto my bed in fear of what may be underneath it.

The Awakening