Halloween

The month of October was so full of fun that I haven't had a chance to post anything until now! (good excuse, huh?)

Now that Skyler's the Scout Master he gets to do all sorts of fun things, and I often get to come along. One of the traditional October activity in this ward is going to the corn maze. This year we went to Thanksgiving Point's Cornbelly's Corn Maze.


These are a few of Skyler's scouts - good kids.

They had a giant half bouncy ball thing that you could jump on. It was SO windy and freezing cold that it actually helped to warm us up to jump on it even though we had to take our shoes off. These are a couple of pictures I got of Skyler jumping.
And these are the pictures that Skyler took of me. He did NOT plan this, but it's kind of creepy how well these pictures fit together.





This is Zack in the corn pile - it was like a sand pit only filled with corn and he LOVED it

And here we are with the Cinderella carriage. I'm blowing Skyler a kiss, and he's pretending to whip me... :)



These were my cute little Sunbeams. Towards the end of the year it gets really fun to teach them because they are older and more interactive. I had a really good group this year - couldn't have asked for a better one!

This is the Primary Halloween Party group photo


Skyler came with me and we both had to throw together a costume. He wore my dad's high school football jersey. We painted on some black streaks under the eyes and transformed him into a football player. I threw on some scrubs, a lab jacket, and a stethoscope. Then I wore my hospital I.D. and even though it says "Registrar" on it all of the kids kept asking me if I was a real doctor. If only that was all it took! LOL

For a girls night one weekend I got to go to Odyssey Dance Theater's Thriller. If you ever have the chance to see this I would definitely recommend it. It was so much fun!


Before the show actually begins they have 'zombies' roaming around the seating scaring people or just making them laugh. We got a few pictures with some of them.

This is my best friend Amanda and I with one of the zombies





And here is the whole group that went

We even got around to carving a pumpkin this year. I think it turned out pretty well.
Before Skyler and I were officially part of the activities committee we were just volunteers and we got to help with the Halloween party. We were in charge of what became the coolest ward party haunted house EVER. This left us only minutes to run home and change into our costumes. We were supposed to be Morticia and Gomez Adams, but all the kids thought I was a vampire and they weren't sure what Skyler was supposed to be :)


I tried my hand at making a Monster Cake. It sort of ended up looking like a frog, but if you look close you can see the teeth - that helps out a little
I made some monster eyeball cupcakes to go along with it.

HALLOWEEN DINNER:

These are my "Feet of Meat" which was just meatloaf in the shape of feet and Brazilian nuts for toenails. Then at the ankle where the feet were 'cut' off was chili sauce. It made for a fun Halloween dinner.

My sister and her family came by Halloween night before they went out trick-or-treating.

Abby was a pumpkin and Alyssa was a witch.




Here's Abby trying on my wig. She that that was awesome. - And that was our Halloween fun!

Random Happenings

So once upon a time when I was younger my brother said something like "hold still, you have a hair on your face" and then when he tried to pluck it off we realized it was attached! It had to be 3 inches long growing right out of the side of my face! (I don't know if any of you have ever had such a devastating experience before LOL) Needless to say he has never let me live it down. Well, not long ago we were all sitting around talking and he found THIS on his leg! It wasn't quite the same as being a girl and finding such a hair on your face, but it was still quite impressive and we all got a good laugh out of it...


How would you like to have a job where you could do this? I know I have many days where I think to myself "Man! If I could just hop on a mini dirt bike for a quick ride around the hospital, I know I would be completely rejuvenated" Some people have all the luck :D




I was finally able to re-finish our living room coffee table this fall (thanks Aunt Barb aka Dumpster Diving Diva). It was a lot of fun to see it transform. There's something so satisfying about "making" the things that decorate your home.


Here we are at the State Fair 2009. This year my buddy Amanda H. and her buddy Ryan C. came with us. It was a lot of fun to be able to go with some other people this year. P.S. I just realized that some random lady is giving me bunny ears in this picture...Thanks Lady!



The first attraction we saw was the Alligator-tamers. It was very exciting to watch. The two guys that did it are brothers and have been traveling with this show for years. They had one cheesy, but hilarious joke after another. We were cracking up. They performed the hand-in-the-alligator- mouth trick and both Amanda and I holding our breaths in anticipation. That was kind of scary to watch and I'm pretty sure I screamed when the alligator chomped down (not on the guys hand luckily) After that came the rides...
I got the brilliant idea to try to take pictures as Skyler and I rode the infamous fair ride: The Zipper - hence the lovely shot of my chompers and Skyler's chest

Believe it or not these two are action shots I snapped as we were rocking and spinning around - I love Skyler's laugh during things like this. It's so unguarded. It sounds like a cute little giggle and neither of us could stop laughing the whole time.
Poor Ryan is something like 6'7'' so needless to say he wasn't the most comfortable during the ride.


These are some pics on the only other ride we went on. You got to lay on your stomach for this one and "hang glide" It was more of a relaxing ride, but still fun. Due to the expense of tickets for the attractions (I think we spent $20 buck for 2 rides totaling about 8 minutes of fun) we didn't get to see the smallest person in the world or the half snake half women, but maybe next time...

Maybe the grossest thing ever...?

So my friend got married yesterday - everything was gorgeous - I'll have to get pics from the family (since I didn't take my camera) but I witnessed the most...creative *?* "Just Married" car decorating I've ever seen. Both the bride and groom are outdoorsy type people and the groom has some friends big into hunting. Well, when they walked out to their car that night, not only was it decorated with the more traditional shaving cream, silly string, Oreos, and ceran wrap, but greeting them on the front of their car hood was a freshly dead raccoon...YES, A RACCOON! They even managed to get the tail to stick straight up with some wire manipulation. One of the grooms buddies had trapped and killed a raccoon just for this occasion. I thought it was hilarious, but after a little thinking they decided they'd better take it off. Could you imagine the law suit from some PITA member who saw that!!?

Got this in an e-mail

I thought these were hilarious - I bolded some of my favorites either because I just thought they were great or else I have thought/done them...

- I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can
think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell
my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves
me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to
have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and
sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're
going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to
be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the
direction from which you came, you have to first do something like
check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to
yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're
crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk. - This is funny because I've done this!

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know"
feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose
not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't
work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically
fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all
know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards
or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and
suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first
saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually
becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting
90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's
laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little
bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the
only one who really, really gets it.

-How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than
take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear
your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to
finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the
spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron
test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart",
all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod
and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up
to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in'
examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete
idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and
said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and
i nstinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I

know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the
shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,
and you can wear them forever.


-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their
profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got
the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if
I do!- Ha ha, okay that's creepy

- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring
would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go
around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly
nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be
a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything
productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't
want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are
going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me
if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I
swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people
watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will
they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't
watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and
leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?
Darn-it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and
goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone
and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she
hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light
internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle,
then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising
speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,
but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still
not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car
keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the
Donkey - but I’d bet everyone can find and push the Snooze
button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time
every time...

-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would
happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the heck do I respond to that?

-It really ticks me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and
the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they
drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Last Hoo-rah!

This Labor Day weekend was busy as ever, but we managed to squeeze in some fun. Saturday Skyler helped out the neighbors as they unexpectedly had to replace a REALLY old water heater (gotta love those kinds of surprises). In the meantime I got a phone call from an aunt who was needing a little cheering up so I went over to her place and we canned tomatoes and peppers. This was my first experience canning and I think I could really get into it. We made a giant pot of a salsa type deal, and then she gave me a jar of just tomatoes and a jar of tomatoes and peppers (w/out the onions and garlic) to take home, plus some of what we had made together. I still haven't tasted what we made, so I don't know if I was any good at it or not, but I'll just pretend I was :) It smelled good, that's for sure!
When I got home Skyler and I decided to take a drive up a canyon we hadn't been to yet - I think it was called Neff Canyon?? We didn't get very far on the trail, but we got far enough to realize it's one we'll want to do sometime. Oh, and on the way down we saw the most random thing; this man had a bunch of packing goats that he was training for hikes and he was taking them on a walk up this trail. They got a little distracted by us when we passed by, but when he whistled and called them they followed him. It was so fun to see.
Labor Day we woke up and got ready to go hike this Neff Canyon trail, but moments before we were about to leave I got a call from my sister Heidi. She invited us to come up to her parents get-away home in Huntsville to go boating. Our plans quickly changed :D The weather was wonderful and we had such a good time with Heidi, Nick and the girls, and Heidi's friend Madie (sp?) and her husband Colby. I'll post some pics below - there are some good facial expressions in some of these so look close LOL

Here I am just chillin' on the boat

And here's Skyler manning the tube

This is about as close as a pic together that we got that day

Skyler just can't stop making me laugh (and I hope he doesn't)

Girls got to go first: Here's Madie, Heidi and my niece Alyssa, and me getting ready for the coldest shower (or more like face spraying) of our life!
Heidi's face in this one cracks me up - we were all screaming pretty loud. I really love the second one though because you can totally tell Heidi is mad and yelling at Nick to slow down LOL

The guys got to go next and we made sure their ride was JUST as exciting as ours >:)
Here is Nick, Colby, and Skyler
This was the final jump before the guys then got a little upset and had us slow down LOL This pic was taken right before the tube came crashing down and Skyler flipped off, rolling under the tube. We all couldn't stop laughing. Nick's face is the best in this one.

If there had been a trophy awarded for the person who fell off the most, Skyler would have won. He didn't mind though - it just meant a little more excitement for him. What a trooper!