millsberryfriends08

It’s been an exciting few months in Millsberry! Let’s discuss all of the events going on right now in Millsberry. I think that the Mills techs must’ve heard our complaints about Millsberry getting boring, because I’m certainly not bored with it anymore!
The opening of Grow Good Farms in late September was the first of many events. On the Farms, you grow pizza ingredients. Each time you harvest your crops and make a pizza, you get to choose a new crop to grow. For every topping you add to your pizza, General Mills donates $0.05 to Feeding America. Also, for every pizza you make, you get a prize! The prizes are different items for a pizzeria, from booths to flowers to go on the tables! This is certainly a great event. Too bad it ends on May 31, 2010.
Next, we had the opening of the Honey Nut Cheerios Greenhouse. This was a complete package of activities all in one! A new game for the Arcade came with it. There is also an activity where you collect pollen on the Flower of the Week. For collecting pollen, you win that flower to put in your Mills Home! Also, there is a Bug of the Week feature. You must look really close in the Greenhouse to find the Bug of the Week. Once you find it, you get a bug to put in your house! There is also a grow-a-plant feature. There are many different plants to choose from, and each plant takes five days to grow. Once grown, you get that plant to put in your yard for your house, and you get to pick another plant to grow. Lastly, there is the Prize Hive. All it takes is a couple of clicks, and you have a prize! You get rewarded just for visiting! The Greenhouse also features many educational topics about bees, flowers, etc. Once again, another great promo from Mills!
It’s October! You know what that means! Trick or Treat time on Millsberry! This year looks awesome already! The trophies are so neat! I’m not for sure how many houses you have to have to get each trophy, but I certainly hope I get one! It looks like we get two weeks to Trick or Treat this year! Boy, am I glad! I didn’t have time to get all of my accounts done in one week! And…in case you didn’t notice, the Broken Mirror was re-released as one of the TOT prizes this year! That gives everyone a chance to get them! All of the prizes are AWESOME this year and I can’t wait to make rooms with them!
Last, but not least, we have the new residents of Red Lion Manor. Count Chocula, Boo Berry, and Franken Berry. There are three rooms in Red Lion Manor, each featuring a different game based on the three “monster cereals.” For each game, you get a prize! Once again, great prizes! I can’t wait to make rooms with these, too! And one final note about this promo: It’s almost like General Mills is reading our minds. First, the whole “Millsberry-is-getting-boring” thing, which they fixed. In a PM sent to me by Animalfan, which contained her story for this newsletter, she said she wishes Mills would do more with Red Lion Manor. Well, that wish was fulfilled!
The past few months have been awesome on Millsberry. I hope that you’ve enjoyed them as much as I have!

On Millsberry Friends...

Millsberry Friends has been sort of inactive in the past two months, but I expect that to change very soon. There is tons of stuff going on right now that will get members active again.
The Sponsored Contests board is up and running smoothly now. As of today, Millsberry Trivia, Millsberry Lottery, and Secret Sound are the three contests running. We are still waiting for the other contest staff to start their contests. Remember, donations are always welcome!
25 new Forumotion updates came out a couple days ago. These updates feature all kinds of new functionalities that will enhance our forum greatly. There should be announcements made later this week on which updates will be implemented into our forum.
Also, there will be an auction benefitting the MF Contest Fund later this week. Make sure you bid! Speaking of contests, let me give you a little spoiler. This December, we're probably gonna have a donation drive, sort of like the White Elephant Gift Exchange that Millsberry had back in 2005. More on that later...
I'm going to pick back up on the Reference Center and get all the Store Lists updated within the next week. Also that new board that I told you about a while back, I'm gonna start working on it some more too. It takes a LONG time to do what you have to do to get it done, so that's why it's taking a while.
Now, remember those images I told you about...that I was gonna put in your siggies telling what positions you had on the forum? Well, I'm going to try to get those done sometime this month whenever I get the time. I haven't forgot about them!
Lastly, I want to give a shout out to ghostrider_namz. He reached 1000 posts today (Saturday 10/31). Congrats to him!

-Top poster for the month of October goes to...pchp7! She had 201 posts this month!
-There were 82 new topics this month, 6% of the total topic count.
-There were 616 new posts in October, 4% of the total post count.
-Eight new members signed up in the month of October, 5% of total member count.

HAUNTED HALLOWEEN

By Animalfan5, Millsberry Friends President

It was the eve of Halloween, October 30th, and people were getting ready once again for the spooky holiday the next day. Millsberry Academy had a big Halloween bash, and everyone left the school pretty happily to go and finish up their costumes. In Ravenwood, two sixth grade boys were standing near Red Lion Manor, the supposedly "haunted house". A chilly wind was blowing.
"So, Roy, you think you can handle it? I dare you to spend Halloween night in the mansion." Daniel smiled at his friend.
"That is trespassing, you know. Just because the Morsleys are away doesn't mean we could whatever we want, " His shier friend, Roy answered.
"They'll never find out. They’ll only come here in, like, a week and a half." Danny smirked. "And we'll find some way in. Unless you're too scared?"
"I'm not scared!" Roy protested. "Besides why aren't you doing it?'
"Ah, my mom'll never let me. You know her. And your mom will never let you, but she will let you come over for a special Halloween 'sleepover' " Danny looked mischievous.
"What?" Roy stared blankly at him.
"Tomorrow's Saturday! Tell your mom that you're going to a sleepover at my house, then ride your bike here. Simple!"
Roy sighed. "Fine, 10 PM tomorrow. And you better see me off."
"Oh, stop acting like a first grader, Roy!"

**********

The next day, Roy was finishing up his costume. He was sure it was going to be an original. Roy decided to mix his old costumes together, so he would be like a Super-Alien-Vampire-Mummy, and add a few extras from his favorite holiday and prank store, The Extraz, which just opened on the corner of his street in Ravenwood. It had a whole section dedicated to all sorts of neat pranks-whoopie cushions, itching powder, squirty flowers, etc. The other half of the store was seasonal, meaning right now there were a bunch of clearance Halloween and Thanksgiving novelties, and closer to December, it’ll have everything for Christmas. Roy thought it was an awesome shop, and the owners were very fun people. His mom agreed on the “sleepover”, so it was settled that Roy and Danny will go trick-or-treating together, and then afterwards Roy will spent as much time as he can manage in Red Lion Manor. Roy got chills just thinking about it. Danny was gonna come too, and wait outside for a few hours, but Roy had a sneaking suspicion that as soon as he was out of sight, Danny will make a quick escape. He sighed and returned on trying to get the cool purple belt to stay on his fake mummy costume.
At 9:45 PM, the boys went and dumped their stuff at Daniel’s house. Then they said that they wanted to visit a few more houses for candy and then they will get back home. Roy secretly shed out of his costume, took what he needed for the night, and he and Daniel snuck out their bikes.
They rode to Red Lion Manor, where Daniel tried the front and back doors but they were locked. Roy was secretly happy. The night was chilly and he was shivering, though he didn’t know if it was from the wind or of the task he was about to do. Danny checked the front door again then said “Climb on that ledge and dive through the open window. I know for a fact it’s never closed. Don’t know why. Now, get a move on. It’s time.”
Roy did as he said. Taking a big breath he climbed up the side wall holding on to the window frames. He found a big pitch black one and jumped. Just like Danny said, it was open. Roy was afraid he would fall down hard on the other side, but the floor was closer to the window here.
The floor must be raised inside, he thought. Maybe there’s a basement? It was pretty cold where he was, and Roy dug around his sleeping bag for his handy-dandy flashlight. To make himself comfortable, Roy and Danny especially got Roy’s clean pajamas, Danny’s sleeping bag, some food for a snack and breakfast the next morning, Roy’s jacket, flashlight, bathroom stuff, and book. Roy was ready to survive the night.
He turned on the flashlight and waved around. It looked like he was in a living room. There was an old dusty TV set, some old couches and chairs, and a big old wooden coffee table. The door to the left probably led into the kitchen or dining room. There was also a staircase, which Roy carefully climbed, because the railing was so worn, one touch could knock the whole thing off. He reached the second floor and saw that the staircase kept going upwards, but Roy decided to explore the second floor. Plus he needed a warmer place for the night. He turned right and saw five doors in the hallway. He tried the first two, but they were shut tight. The one across the hall was open, but with nothing in it but a rickety chair. Roy tried the door next to it, and he discovered a tiny bedroom, with one window, a desk chair, pale worn rug, and an old bed.
The bed was stripped, so Roy set his bag down. He heard some strange noises but decided to ignore them. He settled in the bed, took out his book, and decided to read by flashlight to calm his nerves. Half an hour later, he decided to go to the bathroom to brush his teeth. He left his stuff, took the flashlight and went searching for the bathroom. As he walked along the second floor, the floor creaked really loudly, as if the house could fall any minute. On the other side of the second floor, again a few doors were locked, but one let into a bathroom, which at least had a working light, but most of the tiles were caked around the rims with dirt and the walls had some mold on it. The sink had no running warm water, only cold, which was bad for October/November. There were also some spider webs on the ceiling but luckily no spiders. Roy quickly brushed his teeth and hurried back to bed. He decided to read another chapter in his book before going to sleep. But when he got back to his room, his book was gone! He looked around, the book seemed to disappear. Roy shivered, but decided to get back into bed. He’d look for his book tomorrow. He turned off his flashlight and crept into the sleeping bag.
Meanwhile Danny was waiting till 11 PM. If Roy was too scared, he wouldn’t last an hour, and Danny didn’t want to camp out outside all night, so he jogged around the block to warm up. Then, exhausted, he settled down by a tree in Red Lion Manor’s backyard. The building loomed up on one side of him....
Roy just couldn’t fall asleep. The open shutters outside his window kept hitting against the building and it seemed like the floor was creaking even more now. Behind him, Roy thought he heard a scratching noise coming from the wall. He got up, closed the shutters and window, shut the door tightly and borrowed down deep in Danny’s huge sleeping bag. But that didn’t help. There were still creepy noises about and after a few minutes, the shutters started again. Roy climbed out of the sleeping bag, put on the robe and slippers he brought (Wow all the comforts of home!) And decided to explore the manor. He inched toward the door, opened it, and looked around. It was pitch black. He forgot his flashlight! But no matter where he looked, the flashlight disappeared like the book. Roy didn’t know what to do. He really was scared. But it was worse staying and bet, and maybe the full moon outside tonight would give off some light downstairs. He took a big breath and tip-toed out of his room. The floors squeaked gently. Roy crept as quietly as he could toward the staircase, but it was scarier without his flashlight and Roy was afraid he was gonna fall over the railing, or worse, just crash right through it. Roy felt for the wall, and stayed as far away from the worn railing as he could. He made it down the stairs where the moon did light up the living room, but it was colder than ever in the room, and the moon made the whole room look ghostly. Roy paced around the room, but that was so useless. He was hungry, but he forgot his food upstairs but he didn’t wanna go back up without his flashlight. Roy looked out the window. Daniel, of course, was nowhere in sight, and a bunch of orange pumpkin faces glared at him, along with a bunch of skeletons, witches, and spiders. Being inside a creepy mansion on Halloween- just great, Roy though with a sigh. He walked into the kitchen, where he saw a shadow move, stop, turn around, and then running away to the side. Roy hoped he was hallucinating. He tried turning on the sink water, but it too, was freezing cold, and Roy was cold enough. He sat on a chair around the rickety kitchen table, but then he heard a yowl and he jumped straight up. He dashed into the living room to the source of the noise, where he heard the shadow run around and then up the stairs. He turned toward the stairs, from where an object was hurled at him so he tripped and fell. After recovering, he noticed with surprise that the object was his flashlight! So someone took his flashlight and now threw it at him????
As a bird hooted nearby, Daniel woke up with a jolt. He dozed of by accident. He looked at his watch. It was almost 12:00 AM! His mother was gonna kill him! He quickly jumped up, found his bike and pedaled furiously home. He would have to make up an excuse now.
Roy flicked his flashlight on and off. It wouldn’t turn on. He tried it a few more times, and the flashlight finally started working. Roy ran up the staircase, curiosity wiping away his fear. On the second floor, a shadow kept darting back in forth, as if lost.
“H-hello?” Roy called. “Do you need some help?”
The shadow stopped and Roy saw it shake and back against the wall.
“W-who are y-you?” It asked. “I know martial arts!” The person talking was a female.
“Um, I’m Roy,” Roy said timidly. “Who are you? Why are you here?”
The shadow stopped shaking. Roy pointed his flashlight at it. It really was a girl, in a nightgown, shawl, and a brown ponytail. She gave a nervous smile. “I’m Elise. What are you doing here?”
“I was dared to spend a night here. You know, the usual. How about you?”
“I wanted to prove to my mom and friends that I could wing it here,” Elise giggled. “Though it’s scarier here than I thought. And on Halloween! There has to be something in the air, right?”
“Uh, sure. Hey, did you be any chance come across a book. Paperback, with trains on it?” Roy asked.
“Yeah, I have it.”
“Wait, what?” Why did Elise have Roy’s book.
“I confess. I saw you creeping around and so I got into your room while you were in the bathroom. I liked that book you were reading so I sorta, kinda, borrowed it without asking.” Elise blushed.
“Oh, so it wasn’t ghosts?”
“Nope, me.”
“Okay, then. Take it for the night. I just want to get some shut-eye.”
“Wait, just like that?” Elise stared at Roy.
“Yeah. Good night.” And Roy turned around, and tromped down the hall. Elise stared back at him, her eyes wide.
It must’ve been almost 1 AM when Roy fell asleep, so he got up at about 10 AM or so he figured. It was good that it was Sunday, plus they didn’t get any homework for the weekend. He took his food and packed up his stuff. He was leaving right after breakfast. Danny’s parents slept in on Sundays, so Roy should make it to his house before they found out about his nightly adventure. It was much better walking around the manor that it was bright and sunny. Roy wasn’t so scared anymore, though the house was still all dusty and eerie. When he came into the kitchen, Elise was already there, drinking a smoothie and staring into space.
“Hello,” Roy said to her.
“Hey,” she replied, then looked away again. “Oh, by the way, here’s the book. Thanks for letting me read it.” She pushed the book toward Roy.
“No problem. So, you going home soon?”
“Yup, but I’m kinda tired. This place is giving me nightmares,” she said with a yawn. So that’s why she wasn’t in the mood, Roy thought.
“Yeah, me too. I better hurry up and eat. No one but my friend knows I’m here.”
“Wow, must’ve been some plan.” Elise coughed, and then picked up her stuff. “The front door opens up from the outside. I’m gonna go. See ya around.” She then turned a left.
“Bye,” Roy said and then heard the door slam shut.
I guess I should leave too, Roy though as he ate. He kind of liked the mansion now, without the spookiness from the cold night before. He shuffled around a bit. Then opened the door and stepped back into the normalness of an autumn Ravenwood.

********

“Wow, you actually did it. Lasted a whole night in the great indoors!” Daniel said, when they were later talking. His dad was working late, and his mom was busy in her home office, so no one knew anything. And Roy just had a run in with creepiness, but for some reason his friend was acting weird. As if an angel swooped down into the manor while he was there. Now, Danny was jealous, because he was just spent half the night dozing by Red Lion Manor’s tree. So what? Roy wasn’t the “master of dares” or anything. Daniel was sure he was still braver, and who cares if it looks like Roy was hit by Cupid? Daniel would rather ride dirt bikes. But he was still curious.
“So, what happened out there, in Red Lion?”
“Oh nothing much, just a big ghastly creepiness,” Roy said. Then shook his head, and started running toward Downtown. “Race ya to the Entertainment Complex!” Roy shouted, and that was that.

The Long Way Home

By blang, Millsberry Friends Administrator

It was Halloween night in Millsberry. Most of the Trick-or-Treaters had already gone back to their homes throughout the town. But some were still out there …

Bobby, owner of Bobby’s Bait Shack, just turned off the lights to the shack as he said “goodbye” and “happy Halloween” to the last trick-or-treaters who had waited patiently to receive their candy. He picked up the jar of candy he had, ate a few pieces and started walking home.

“I’ll take the long way home tonight, just to see if I run into anyone and they want some candy. I have plenty extra,” he thought.

Bobby lives all the way down in Golden Valley. The “long way” home, to him, is going around the downtown area instead of going straight through it from the shack. On the way home, he would pass Sylvane Lake and parts of Lakeview as well.

Keep in mind that it’s Halloween, and people tend to not want to walk alone at night on Halloween. Bobby wasn’t scared, though. He’s not like most people. He’s big and brave and not scared to face anything. Until tonight…

“What was that?!” he thought. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” He was almost yelling now.

He was hearing a strange growling noise coming from Sylvane Lake. He had absolutely no idea what it was, or why it was growling at him.

“GRRRRRRRAWWWWWW!!!” That was the horrible noise he kept hearing over and over, about every five seconds. He was running now, full speed, directly AWAY from the lake. He didn't want to look back, but he did every now and then.

Something was chasing him. He could hear it walking behind him. He looked back again, afraid of what he might see. He could see it. He wasn’t sure what it was. It looked like … like … Sylvie? Could it be? Sylvie, the sea creature that everyone in town had grown to love? Surely not. But you never know.

He was still running, and the mystery creature was still following close behind -- and gaining on him. Bobby had never been this scared in all of his life. He was almost to his house now. But he turned around and started heading back toward downtown, because he didn’t want the creature to know where he lived, just in case it would come in at night and eat him or something.

Bobby stopped to catch his breath beside the community center. The creature was nowhere to be seen. He had lost it.

Suddenly, right in front of him, from the other side of the Community Center, the creature jumped out and knocked him down. It was Sylvie! -- although a much, much smaller version. Was it really Sylvie? Had something been dumped into the lake that shrunk her?

Finally, the creature’s hand came up, and took off its mask. Under the mask was none other than … Robert J. Williams!

“I want some candy,” Robert said, smiling.

“Why couldn’t you have just asked?” Bobby questioned, “instead of scaring me like that?”

"Ah … just asking for it wouldn’t have been much fun,” Robert chuckled. “You gotta have some fun every now and then. And Halloween’s a good time to scare a friend."

“I guess you’re right,” Bobby admitted, and shared his candy with Robert.

After that good scare, Bobby headed to his home, nestled in the “small town” atmosphere of Golden Valley. He hoped he could still get a good night’s rest, for he had to get up in the morning and get to work back at the Bait Shack.

Piczo