Halloween 2013

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays along with 4th of July, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter... Ok, I might really like holidays. They give us something to look forward to and there's usually copious amounts of food involved. There are the decorations to put up and costumes, ugly sweaters or new dresses to wear. Yes, please!

Although I love Halloween, we didn't really get on the band wagon for much of the holiday celebrations. We forgot to buy pumpkins to carve, we couldn't get our fall wreath to stick to the door of our apartment and I thought about costumes just enough to realize they wouldn't be happening this year. Plus, the Dr. will be out of town at a conference on the 31st and that always takes away a little bit of the magic. Sigh.

Luckily our ward was hosting a trunk-or-treat dinner and carnival. We decided that we at least wanted to do something cool for that. I remember seeing something on Pinterest that inspired me to turn my car (Winston) into a monster. The Dr. and I cut and painted cardboard for the better part of two nights (our evenings are very short now that we go to bed at 9). We put Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo on and got crafty.

I have to say that it turned out to be pretty awesome:

Hi, I'm Winston. I eat you now.

We aren't technically Greenbay Packers fans in our house but that cheese head is about as close to a costume as we got this year. Next year we will rock Halloween. I hope.

Since the Dr. is away today I am going out to the church cannery to help out and pick up some food storage items for ourselves and a few people in the ward. When I get back into town tonight I will probably end up trick-or-treating with a little family in our ward. They have the two most adorable little boys and we've become quick friends with their family. They are just so easy to hang out with. Even though their boys are energetic I always feel like I can relax with them. That's a great quality in friends.

Oh and can I mention that I love face time/Google Hangouts?? I get to see this cute mug in the morning even though he's all the way in Colorado.

Oh I love this guy!

Record Keeping

I suck at keeping records of anything. Like medical bills. I just don't see why one should keep track of them. I used to write in my journal every single night when I was in middle school and most of the way through high school. Then work, school, friends and late nights happened and I just stopped. I have never been back in the habit except for when I was a missionary in England.

 I feel like my memory has forgotten so many of the moments I swore I would remember forever. Like the time I moved to Santa Barbara and didn't know where I would sleep the night I drove into town. What was I thinking when I did that? Had I totally lost my mind? I guess we'll never really know. Or what about the time I met Thomas and we fell in love. In Albuquerque. It was random and exciting and made my head spin but I am sad I don't have a more detailed record of that time. We also moved all the way across the country to Boston and went on an amazing cruise and have been on more trips that my poor battered suitcase could handle. We've had so many adventures together and somehow I have yet to fill the journal I bought about 3 or 4 years ago. So here it goes, another attempt and probably another fail at keeping records but hey, I am gonna try. 

This is the Dr. and me. We are in the woods of New Hampshire being what the New Englanders call "Leaf Peepers". I didn't realize how lovely fall was until I lived in perpetual summer and palm trees for almost 4 years. I miss the warm winters of Santa Barbara but I think I could get used to fall in New England.

My friend Melanie also came for a visit recently. Don't worry, I realize my eyes are closed. You are going to see a lot more pictures like this one. I must have inherited my dad's inability to keep his eyes open in pictures. Classy.

Conference!

I was so excited to have the opportunity to go to Salt Lake this spring for General Conference! I love the feeling of all those Mormons together in one place, ready to hear the Prophet speak! We drove up from Santa Barbara all through the night and arrived in SLC about 9 am. I took some of our friends for a little tour of Temple Square....

Then there was the mission reunion! It was amazing to see so many of my companions and friends from the mission. The best part of the night was when we got to sing Jerusalem, our mission song. It was awesome!

The following day was full of conference and luckily we had tickets to see one of the sessions. It was crazy trying to meet up with all the people that I needed to see there. I got to see friends from home, Park City, the mission, cousins from all over the country and I even ran into a few people from Santa Barbara!

We took some of our friends from Santa Barbara to Park City to see snow... why they liked the snow so much is beyond me! It was freezing!!!

The trip home was another long road trip but it was a lot of fun, we goofed around and ate lots of junk food. We got to see the St. George Temple too and, well have a look....