ABC - Favorite Job

I loved working in a deli. I'd love to have a small cafe` somewhere and have it be all cozy and great. However, for right now my favorite job is working at the library.

ABC - First Hauntings

Way back before we had children, some friends of ours, my hubby and I all went to the "Brandon's Haunted Woods". This was back before safety inspections and politically correctedness.  Meaning - it was a lot more fun back in the day! LOL Anyway, it was great scary fun. The exhibits were amazing! 

A real car wreck - with a mannequin... or so you thought. The mannequin was a real person that would jump at you when you leaned in real close to look at the AMAZING details in the car wreck.  However, he didn't jump at everyone....

The photo above I haven't seen in person, but I'm willing to bet that the head in the pic is the dummy head for the daytime photo. I'd bet a chunk of change that the head at night is attached to a real live human and screams at you when you get too close!

There was a man all in black following us. Sometimes I'd see him, but in the darkness of night, he could just blend in to his hiding places and not be seen when he didn't want you to. So, SUDDENLY, there he'd be again, up close and personal breathing, literally, down your neck!

It was all great fun. That guy in all black followed me out to the parking area - deep into a corn field....

There is one more time that I want to mention - it's a first for me, so I think it fits this post. We've always "known" that our library is haunted, but one night I filmed a sound byte and got a real flippin' EVP!! I even got one that said, "Hello Tyra" it totally freaked me out and I haven't really done anything since - even though I've been asked...

ABC - Halloween Costume

We are quite the group at our public library after hours!!!

Me and My Co-workers

Secret Santas Revealed

Secret Santa you're the one, 

who made my hunts so much fun.

Playin' the game, I'm so glad,
For Secret Santa, you I had.

So much fun with your game,
Secret Santa, I KNOW YOUR NAME!!

The Secret Santas revealed themselves this week.  All in good fun.

My last scavenger hunt took me all over the library! I was everywhere - both floors! It was crazy, but, it was great fun.  Once again, I found my last gift too early in the hunt, which made it all the crazier.  There were so many little things to look for that I can't photograph them all for my blog. However, this is what my Secret Santa did - she took up close (and personal hahaha) photos of objects in the library. I then had to try to figure out what each object was.  Then, I had to find them! 

It's one thing to KNOW what each object was - it was quite another to remember where I last saw them!

As with the previous hunts, there was one object that stumped me - it was a tiny corner of a sign that explained that our Christmas books have a check-out limit of two-weeks.  I finally figured it out - it was the last object I had to find and I wasn't going to give up.

I guessed my Secret Santa correctly - right away in the game. However, this year we were all so sneaky! We all tried to trip up one another and make everyone else believe that we WERE their Secret Santa - even though we WEREN'T.  Like I said, great fun!

Also funny for this year, there seemed to be a common theme of scavenger hunts and poop! Go figure. I got snowman poop and crazy items, like prunes, to help a person poop.  Another one got a t-shirt that said, "I pooped today."  There was also a pooping reindeer, bathroom sprays, toilet paper and rhymes with poop in them! I wasn't the only one who wrote poetry; And, I wasn't the only one that sent messages, via taped to the break room door, to my Secret Santa asking for help or taunting messages.  Great minds do think alike!

Some of my gifts and trinkets were GLUTEN-FREE yummies on the last day - to be shared with everyone; pictures of snowflakes, a snowman and snowball throwing girl inside my locker, jingle bells (which I wear while at work in the 'quiet' library) and artsy-fartsy pens and papers!  Loved it all!

Secret Santa Strikes Again....

Tonight my Secret Santa riddled me again.  This time the clues were a little harder! I actually had to ask the Boss Man if he had any ideas!

The first riddle was on my locker: "To begin this week's journey  you must travel North and there you will Sea, that I intend to send you round and round to discover what your Secret Santa gift will be.

So, in our library there is a mural on the NORTH wall of an underwater sea scene.  I'm looking over there - nothing.  I look under the globes in that area - nothing. I look and look. My co-workers look and they are also stumped.  I give up. My shift was about to start. I figure I'd try again during my break.  However, during my break I couldn't make any headway, so I wrote a poem to my Secret Santa asking for help:  Dear Secret Santa, Much to my chagrin, another clue you must give me, so I can re-begin. North I look, but all I Sea, are underwater creatures and toys for puppetry. Round and round I looked, and dizzy I became; Another clue you must give, so I can play the game! Oh Dear Secret Santa, what is your name?

Finally, I mention it to my boss and he asked me the obvious questions, "Do we have books on the North Sea?" (not here) "Did you look under those two globes?" (nothing under them)  Then, he mentioned that we also have one more globe in the library! I didn't know we had ANOTHER globe, so off I go, in search of my next clue.  Sure enough - taped on the North Sea was my next clue.

"My hope is not for you to feel you have been schooled, but rather to have some fun, if only just a little. Please do tell me Am I Tyra, driving you crazy with my riddle?" (italics and underscore mine to show you.)  It takes a bit. I'm a homeSCHOOL mom, so I look in the homeschool section - nothing. The clue was on the globe by the SCHOOL yearbooks, so I look up my yearbook - nothing.  We have lots of little decorative things out right now, as well as a display of tiny or LITTLE buildings for those tiny village displays. So, I look for a LITTLE school in those areas - nothing.  Yup, I was going round and round!!  It turns out that a co-worker realized that the type was different for 'Am I Ty' in my riddle is the name of the LITTLE SCHOOL, named AMITY (in our district)! We happen to have a huge quilt display from AMITY SCHOOL hanging upstairs, so off I go in search of my clue.  Yup! There it was, safely pinned to back, non-damaging to the quilt I might add!!!

"Somehow I feel as though you are dragon your feet, your gift awaits you. You want it, do you not? Shall I light a fire under you to make you move?  Must I tell if you are cold or if you are hot? Come on now my friend, I beg of you to give this all that you have got!"  Again, to the Children's section I go!  There is a dragon paper machie there.  Yup, under the dragon's butt was my next clue!

"Well now, you silly goose, surely you didn't think that that was the last clue? To put it simply as I can, that would not, could not be true. Please tell me you are not thinking of sitting down? It is clear as black and white that this game is not through. Only a few riddles for you to solve and a gift will be given unto you."  Off to the Children's section!! There's a stuffed goose there!!

"It would be a cardinal sin for you to quit now. I know that you have red that this is something I will not allow."  I have NEVER seen a cardinal in the trees in the Children's section! NEVER!! I even just put up and re-adjusted some decorations in those tree branches!! I think the cardinals were JUST RECENTLY added...  Anyway, one of my co-workers said, HEY!!! There's a cardinal on that branch! - we look - nothing.  Hmmm... so we look in the other trees, sure enough!! There's another cardinal on the shelf, by the tree, in the Children's section!

"My creativity is running low and it is time to rein you in my deer. I will hang around a little longer and share a tiny bit more Christmas cheer, and before I put a cap on all of our fun, one last clue will, for you, appear."  You guessed it, I'm in the Children's section and there is a capped reindeer hanging around!

"Don't delphin to this one too deeply. Sometimes it is okay for the pun to be so easy to sea. The porpoise for these riddles is to reveal to you gift number three."  Once again, the north wall of the Children's section is a painted mural of an underwater sea scene, complete with dolphins.  We looked everywhere at the first clue, but we look again. I'm a bit short, so a taller co-worker helps me out -  nothing. A patron made a HUGE stuffed dolphin and then gave it to us. We can't keep him out all the time though because he is so big that the kids like to sit on him and jump on him, etc.  So, we keep him by us in the back. He's a great conversationalist! I asked him what he thought of all of this Secret Santa stuff - much to my delight, he raised his head to talk with me and revealed my gift!! Such a sneaky helper that guy!

Secret Santa gift  hidden under dolphin.

 

The tag on the bag says, "Passing Through Once Again to Odor You to Have a Very Merry Christmas."

So, I wrote a new note to my Secret Santa: 

Dear Secret Santa, 

Much to my chagrin,

Help was really needed,

Before I could begin.

Your first clue so hard, the wrong North I did look.

All I could sea,

Were underwater creatures and toys for puppetry.

Help from several friends, did I need.

Then I took off with amazing speed.

Paranoid I now be,

Wondering if poop and stink is how you remember me!

So much fun to play your game,

Oh, Secret Santa, what is your name?

Okay, here's where the gamer gets tricky!! At 6:15-6:30 I happened to take my break.  I go into my locker, get my chips and eat.  Nothing spectacular in my locker, just my junk and the Christmas presents that I'm hiding there so my kids can't find them.  When I leave for the night, I go into my locker to put my name tag there and lo' and behold is a gift bag from my Secret Santa!!

Gifts that were mysteriously placed in my locker WHILE I was at work!!

I don't know if you can see it all, but there is a scarf - I wear scarves all the time!  Chocolate, gel pens for the artsy in my fartsy and a unique bird cage on a necklace.  I love unique jewelry. Tonight I happened to be wearing another necklace with a Silver bird cage. This bronzy one will work out WONDERFULLY with my collection of unique necklaces!  Love it!  I added a handwritten note to my last Secret Santa poem saying that I LOVE the necklace!

I have had one person in mind the whole time, but during this game, no one is to be trusted!!!

Secret Santa

At the Library where I work, we play a game during the month of December called Secret Santa.  Tiny gifts, nothing expensive. Just something fun.  Always a secret until the end, unless you catch someone in the act!! hahaha! Then the fun begins!  Sometimes we need a little help from the others so we can try to confuse all the players.

I can't say who I have and I won't print here who I think has me -- they all can read my blog!!

At first I received a BIG green Incredible Hulk PEEP in a can. It's so funny!  His face is all smushed up!  Attached to the bottom of the can was a bag of 'coal'. Chocolate to be exact and it tasted good too! I also received some gel pens that are supposed to smell like cookies! I haven't tried them yet tho'.

Tonight was too much fun.  Here is a photo journal of tonight's events.

It all started out with a clue.

The clues led to book titles.  This one said  Happy Birthday inside it as part of the story. So, I thought I was all done. My birthday IS coming up, you know!!

Then, I realized that there were more book titles and more clues!

I thought it was going to end on this cute little note. Nope.

This is the gift that, I think, I found too early! hahaha on my Secret Santa!!



It all ended with some unique SNOWMAN POOP!

Very funny co-workers that I have!

Happens to be my favorite brand of beans!!

hahahaha!

Where I Work

Part of the back area

A view of both floors on the East side.

This shows the Teen Area

&

Part of the Non-Fiction Area

The other half of the East side

Part of the Children's Area

Do you see the twinkle lights in the tree branches?

Another part of the Children's Area

My Church