Halloween 2010

Who goes there?

We were going to go as Yoda, Leia, and Skywalker. But Richard failed to put a costume together and I didn't finish getting everything together either. But, here was an attempt at pulling my hair around my ears.

Looks fine from the front, but the sides just looks silly.

So, I went as an angel instead.

Using the force.

On Saturday, Michael and I went around to businesses who were hosting early trick or treating. Then that night, we enjoyed a ward trunk-or-treat, with games and cupcakes. :) Michael was very good at saying "trick or treat" by the end of the day. And collected much candy to share. :)

Farm Animal Sounds

Posted for Michael's viewing pleasure, and for my brother to get more views on his silly YouTube video. He can certainly find ways to make a little money in some of the most odd ways. But, all the little things add up.

By the way, I just redeemed my 11th gift card from Amazon via Swagbucks.com. I could've had 13-14 by now, but I took a chance, and entered into a bunch of sweepstakes. Swagbucks gives you points for doing what you do already on the Internet. I find I gain the most points by using their search engine, (although I keep Google handy). Sign up here to start bringing in some gift cards yourself!

Dreams do come true...

When I lived in Russia, many of us girls conjured up lists of our life goals. *Others may call these bucket lists. Mine consisted of 33 things, some of which include: "Have a large funeral" (Which I talked about here, actually), "Go a week without chocolate" (Make that an entire month! Booyah!) & also, "stop biting my nails" which by now, don't think will ever happen.

The irony of that however, is there are many goals on my list that I never thought would be entirely possible in my lifetime anyway--for example, #2 Visit Space. For sometime, I was very interested in space & astronomy. I still find it fascinating, but don't research it to the same extent as I once did. I knew being an astronaut really wouldn't be in my league though, because of my poor eyesight, and lack of smarts & training. I read about people who had been training to be astronauts for over 10 years, but had yet to go in a spaceship. Ca-razy!

In Russia, I must've talked about going to space all the time, because Anna even tore a picture of an astronaut from a coloring book, colored it for me, and autographed it with, "Good luck in all your future endeavors!" I still have the picture in my journal right behind my "life goals" list.

Why is this topic on my mind? Well, today, on the radio, I heard the most fantastic news. Starting at just $200,000, regular people like you and me can travel to space!!! Nevermind, it's for a total of four minutes; it's space nonetheless. This news gave me hope that by the time I can afford it (maybe we'll delay buying a house for some time), travel like this will be much more popular, refined, and inexpensive. Oh, and did you note the date this shuttle was successfully launched? 10.10.2010. It has to be a sign.

Until then, I'm accepting donations.

Running with Scissors

I went on a shopping spree today. I'm leaving all the tags attached the clothes because I'm almost certain most all of it will be returned tomorrow. I can't stand the guilt that comes when I buy outside of my budget.

I like to buy my pants online at Alloy.com. It's a teen site, however, I feel comfortable buying pants from them because I have for years, and they come in 37 inch inseams! As I perused over their clearance section just barely, I could not help but laugh. And I'm sure you will too. Do you wonder why these pants are clearance?

Looks like they need to fire the guy who was running with scissors at the Alloy factory. I laugh at this style now, but just had a story come to mind. Because it was the cool thing to have little tears at the bottom of your pants in high school, I took some scissors to my pants, and created a small slit on either side that just rested against my shoes. After school, I was hanging out with some friends in the hallway, and my pant leg hooked to something, and just tore the entire way up the seam past my knee, completely destroying those pants, and creating quite the embarrassing moment in front of my friends. Seriously, what was I thinking?

And now, I'm going through a new dilemma. To skinny jean, or not? I remember throwing away skinny jeans and thinking "good riddance" because I thought flare pants were the most gorgeous thing.

In case you get bit by the shopping bug, whether clothes, or Christmas gifts remember there are ways to earn additional cash back on the purchases you make online. My personal favorite is shopathome.com. Instead of going directly to a store's website, I get there through shopathome.com and they give me back a percentage of my sale. It's easy, and it's free, and includes large retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, as well as hundreds of other small stores. It's great!

You'll earn an automatic $5 after your first purchase within 60 days of signing up, and I'll get an additional $5 in my account if you sign up through the link on my blog! :)

Cupcakes!

October 5 is the perfect day to make cupcakes.

1. It's my brother, Willie's birthday. Happy birthday!

2. I found out my neighbors' grandson's 1st birthday is also October 5. Our neighbor has never met his grandson because they live too far away. But he happily shared photographs with us. We wanted him to be able to celebrate Dean's 1st birthday from a distance.

3. I received an email (from a radio station) that gave me some fun facts to read. It stated, "The most common birth date is October 5." <--Reason to celebrate!

I got the cupcake holder idea from Tysha's blog. The process of wrapping the box was more complicated than I had hoped, but in the end I fell in love with it, and definitely plan on delivering cupcakes in this style from now on. Isn't it cute?

Michael was so excited for the present--he thought it was his birthday!

I also bought a new mini-cupcake pan. I was very pleased with it, and hope to make some cute minis for an upcoming baby shower I'm hosting.

A story with some pictures

Sometimes I think that I'm addicted to blogging, but then I look at how neglected my blog is and feel better about myself. It's all in my mind, really. When I go through various events of my day, something may catch my attention and I'll immediately start conjuring up a post in my brain. Most of the time these posts never make it here.

The worst though, is when I'm in the middle of doing something "fun" or out-of-the-0rdinary, or even just the ordinary with Michael, and I think to myself, "I need to grab the camera! I want to remember this moment forever!" Do you ever have these moments?

I don't think my Mom had these moments like I do. She lived in the days of film! *Gasp* (I love you Mom!) Therefore, she couldn't (well she could), rather she would choose not to take 15 pictures of the same moment, because that's simply too much film. One or two pictures would suffice. When I look through my old scrapbooks, I realize most of my pictures are from big events; first day of school, birthdays, Christmas, vacations, and the occasional random picture. I love my scrapbooks, and the memories they awake.

I didn't need to have a picture of me playing make-believe to remember I played it. I didn't need a picture of me having snowball fights, or playing nightgames in the middle of the street to remember how much fun I had. I know my Mom now takes many more pictures with her updated digital cameras, or her phone camera *gasp*! -but hardly any get printed. Do your computer folders bulge with photos?

I know mine do. Well, used to. Before our computer crashed. *sigh* It's okay, I've started a new set of pictures. And with each one comes the potential of a blog post, so I can "remember this moment forever." So with no further waiting, I present:

Michael having fun in a toy that he hasn't seen for months!

Now, Michael, you can always remember you lived this moment.

Been up all night-maybe that's my problem

I wish that I was good at something. Not just good, but excelled in some area. I just feel like I dabble here and there, but never dive right in. The End.

Sneak Preview

Also, read about Michael's pals here

How many guys does it take to put a shelf together?

The missionaries stopped by at random, on an evening we were rearranging our livingroom. So we put them to work.

Elder Wallin, Elder Crandall, and Richard. I thought it was funny when all three of them were sharing the duty of screwing on one leg on the TV stand.

Michael just enjoyed playing in the large box afterwards!

Pillow fights

A few weeks ago, I was watching a movie and in it two of the actors get into a pillow fight. Michael was all over this idea. He jumped off the couch, grabbed a pillow from the bedroom, then came at me. He's always liked jumping on the bed but hitting with pillows just adds more fun to the fun!

At this point, he just wanted me to stop taking pictures and start playing again. :)

Dreams

This is not meant to be a movie plug for Inception, but I have definitely thought a lot about that movie since watching it. My favorite part in the movie is during one of the levels when the characters are flying. I love flying in dreams. In fact, I have been flying in my dreams almost every night since watching the movie. It makes dreams one of my favorite things, because it's an experience I can never have in reality.

I felt like I could relate to the characters as they floated to the ceiling while flying. Actually, I hate it when that happens. Just like displayed in the movies, I have to crawl myself along the walls, and grab onto doorways to lower myself into the next room. This kind of uncontrollable flying is unbelievably annoying, and it used to happen all the time, until I learned to control it. Now, if I start off flying like that, I can usually make some controlled effort to "snap out of it" per se, and be able to fly freely up and down, and it's, well, awesome.

As I've mentioned this to some people, they've told me that they have never flown in their dreams. For reals? So, take my poll on the right, and leave a comment if you wish. Have you ever flown in your dreams? What is it like for you?

On a different note, for at least 2 years now, I have been having a reoccurring "nightmare" involving chewing gum! The setting surrounding this nightmare is never the same, but this situation is always the same. As I read the book "David Goes to School" by David Shannon, as a bedtime story for Michael I saw this picture that made me stop and reflect on these dreams. I feel it adequately illustrates how I feel sometimes in my dreams.


Nightmare situation: I am chewing gum. GOBS of gum. It's so much gum that I can't talk to the people around me, and I'm typically drooling because the gum is overwhelming. I reach my hand in to pull out the gum, and it just keeps coming out. Many times I'm wearing a retainer, and can't pull it out of my mouth because of this gum being wrapped around my back teeth! It's horrible! And most of the time, people around me don't understand what's going on. I usually have to wake up to make it stop.

I used to think our house rule of "no gum in the house" as kids was ridiculous, but now I don't like gum, period.

Paper Nut Alphabet

My dear friend Jeanie-a talented designer, has recently finished her alphabet poster. I have seen this in the works as she sketched individual letters. I honestly had no idea that this magical poster was going to be the result of her work. I can't believe all the intimate details she put into this piece of work. So, if you're looking to buy me a belated birthday present, or Michael an early Christmas present, or if you are just dying to have this displayed in your home, visit her etsy shop.

"Each character is inspired by Victorian ornamental typefaces and holds a wonderland of fine detail hinting at an object beginning with that letter. Perfect to encourage the budding imagination of your child...or to freshen up your own!" Isn't that incredible?