"You've Been Hit!"

Said the Halloween Phantom.

Who's the Halloween Phantom? A fun make believe character created by someone who likes imposing upon strangers to give away food Halloween.

For those of you unfamiliar with what I'm talking about (as we were until the past Monday night), it's a thing (probably a Utah thing) that neighbors do. It starts innocently enough with someone anonymously ringing your doorbell at night, then you rushing to the door in your pj's to discover a plate full of goodies and a paper that reads "You've Been Hit!" with a picture of a witch on a broom. Then the next paper has instructions with how you're now suppose to bake 2 plates full of goodies and pass along to 2 more neighbors or else you'll be cursed by the Halloween Phantom [insert spooky, creepy, crackling laugh].

Normally I'd find this type of thing fun (I was queen of asking and answering to dances in high school which was done in a similar fashion) but nowadays when I have oh so little time, it's just one more EXTRA thing to do. But since I've liked all of our neighbors that we've met so far, I've decided to play along.

However, after attempting (more than once) and failing to whip up some delicious homemade goodies, I'm beginning to think we may have already been cursed by this so called Phantom....

My first idea was to make those ever-so-easy 3 ingredient pumpkin cookies. Hard to fail at those, right? Turns out our can of pumpkin had expired. So, I came up with Plan B. Since we already had a box of spice cake mix, I figured we'd just make those, frost them, and cut them up into bars! I know, I know, I'm quite the Betty Crocker Problem Solver.

So, we got halfway through with making the cake when I found out we were out of eggs. Joy.

No prob, my husband was going to stop by the store after work anyway, so I'll just have him pick some up. He did and after dinner (don't know if it's our new house or what, but we have all eaten dinner together as a family every night since we moved!) I finished making the cake while Bart got the boys ready for bed. Well, sometime during me caring for Elyse, some certain little somebodies just couldn't help themselves and the above photo is what I later found waiting for me on the stove. Dangit I thought, we most certainly cannot give this out to our new neighbors! :O

Pretty sure I'll be buying some cookies at the store tomorrow. With my 3 kids. Wish me luck.


p.s. just to include you in on some other fun things hitting us this week ~ Grant sprayed down lunch with a counter top cleaning spray (before any of it had a chance to be eaten), shattered a plate (on accident), and filled up the toilet with toilet paper (a full roll of toliet paper that is). It's times like these that I recommend watching this video. It's helped to bring on a smile (or a dance) when the going feels rough.

p.s.s. we just made the decision to ditch cable. Gasp! We still very much consider ourselves Utah Jazz fans, we just don't have the hours in our day to make time for it right now. Plus, lately our sons have been giving us the live version in our very own backyard with their play hoop. ;) The savings of $60/ month is pretty sweet too, and Netflix rocks. Btw- they just added LazyTown (aka Sportacus!), and my new favorite show: Rules of Engagement. If you haven't seen it, but love Patrick Warburton (aka Puddy and Kronk) and/or David Spade, you should check it out. Pretty funny stuff.