Pumpkins & Cattle

This is for everyone who has seen the pumpkin. I don't even have to qualify which pumpkin I am refering to... it is simply "the pumpkin"

This past Halloween one of the teens carved a pumpkin that said "Rachael and Jenn" and we put it on our front step. There were A LOT of tea lights in it. This was, as he said, so it would "glow brightly for all to see", or something like that. And there the pumpkin glowed. And then began to rot... and rot... and rot and snow fell on it... and I didn't want to touch it... and was going to wait until it froze to rid myself of it... then students thought it was funny... and began talking to it... and announcing "THE PUMPKIN" every time they got out of the car when they arrived... that I couldn't get rid of it... and it's still there... no longer rotten as much as... petrified. And will be, now, until nature has it's way with it and it becomes ashes to ashes... or something dramatic like that.

It has come in handy actually. Just yesterday I used a couple of its candles to throw at a beligerent squirrel that was digging up the bulbs I had planted the day before.

On another note, but holiday related and a focus on something this same pumpkin-carving teen said this past Christmas that had me laughing. I don't know why I haven't blogged about this yet, though I had promised to a while ago...

Anyway, I had the teens over early in December to help me put up my Christmas garland outside. Earlier in the day I was in my garage and SWORE I heard cows mooing... what? I definately went through the "am-I-crazy" mental check and landed on, "I am really hearing cows". I live right in the middle of a city. Not sky-scraper land, but busy streets, buisnesses, regular city siren noises, etc... and then among the regular din I heard... mooing. It was incredibly surreal. So that night the teens are over and I shh everyone and ask them what they hear... and of course it went silent at that moment. THEN! A loud chorus of cattle mooing rises up out of the cold night air! and everyone screamed... and dropped what they were doing to investigate. Two cars took off while a couple of us stayed behind (way too crowded in those cars) and they came back reporting that there was a cattle auction building down and across the street. A cattle auction.

So later on I'm outside putting more garland up and this pumpkin-carving teens comes outside and yells, "JENN! The Cattle are LOWING!"