Halloween prep

Tonight danielle and cindy came over to help with decorating for the big annual halloween party tomorrow night. We hung cobwebs mostly. Luckily the boys did lights for us last saturday. Once the rooms were done we frosted cupcakes - orange and black. What you see on my hand is not really a bruise, but rather the remains of professional grade food coloring. I think it will be gone by tomorrow night. But what i'm really nervous about sporting all day tomorrow are the tiny braids all over my head. I need super big kinky hair to properly look like sigourney weaver's zuul character in ghostbusters. Here's hoping my plan works!

For kristin

Can you guess what was in the cup? Plewe and I ran some pre-halloween errands and got talking so we hit the a.c. Yum! Nothing like a super limey squeezie to complement corn dog bites and sweet potato fries and a complimentary ice cream bite. Plewe had to finish mine, though. Too much carbonation. Wish you were here - we even brainstormed some wwww tour destinations. How does wendover sound? winnemucka any better? There's always lava again. The motel with giant sized tubs has been remodeled - fancy rooms now!

Pajamas and halloween

Last night for fhe the ward had a fun party where we all showed up in pj's. It's not often I get to wear my super great red night shirt so I jumped at the chance - and i'm happy to say I was a hit. The overall party was pretty great too. We had a "cupcake walk," traditional fishing with a pole and string and clothespin, donut eating contest (i was a fourth of an inch from winning), getting to know you bingo (which I failed to play), gross things to touch through a hole in a black sheet, and apple dunking - which I totally did well in! Okay, that's my sum up. Wish you were there!

Sightings

This week I couldn't help but notice all the stunning sights around me. The canyons are covered in a lush red and gold. Over the weekend I was lucky enough to drive up big cottonwood for a relief society retreat - heaven I say. Today on my evening walk through the neighborhood I thrilled to walk by unraked homes and feel the lightness of leaves crunching under my feet. I passed by a man and boy in the street tossing a football between them while being sprinkled by a constant breeze of leaves. It was a movie moment. Memories of my first year at byu, discovering, it seemed, fall for the first time. I knew I was in heaven - until it was time to go to class.
In other sightings, I was shocked to spot, or as I felt, to be spotted by, this red dinosaur seemingly peeking through the asphalt of my parking lot at school. I had to take a photo as proof.
Hooray for fall!

cookie update

this is for mike... i went to the office. they had a plate of no-bakes. i took one. it was good.

this and that

despite my love of mobile blogging it seems when i think of something to blog about i forget to ever get around to blogging it and then i can't remember so i figure it wasn't worth sharing anyway, but isn't that the whole point of blogging - just sharing stuff to share? i know it's one of the main reasons i have a blog.
so.... let's see if i can think of any thoughts i've had lately. last night was ward temple. i sure enjoyed myself as it was the session for asl patrons. i'm wishing i knew asl - i'd love to be able to share that talent - but first it would take work to learn and that i can't say i'd necessarily love to do. but back to the temple session - having asl helped me stay more focused and attentive, i liked that. i also liked that the session was so full! it's a great feeling knowing that so many people are all gathered together to do service and worship in unison. i ran into a couple old friends and that was a bonus.
being back from holiday hasn't been easy. i've been busy working like a dog - and when i'm not working i'm just as busy it seems. luckily the temple is a relaxing "not busy" sort of busy. but tonight, since i'll be home before dark, i hope to get more chestnuts gathered out of my front yard and sidewalk - what a pain they are. it took me about 2 hours of work last week and now i have to do it again. i also want to walk to the library tonight and stop by a little wig store on the way home - i still need to finalize some halloween costume plans. sigourney weaver from ghostbusters, or sarah palin? hair for both is a bit overwhelming to me, but the outfit is all set for sarah palin. in the end i'll probably just go as her - i have to wear my republican buttons!
the teacher next door to me has shown movies for the last week or two. i enjoy the sound track for some, but i'm starting to get annoyed. the walls at my school were designed to be mobile so they're just thick cardboard, really. they let sound through like no other. it's hard to read or discuss anything with movie noises blaring through. plus it makes my kids jealous that i'm not showing a movie. or maybe it just makes me jealous that i'm not watching a movie.
i subscribe to byu's job listing by email. not sure why. but yesterday i saw advertised a position that i used to dream of having - a resident hall supervisor. i sort of already had the job, but it was different. this one would have me living in the hall, with the students, free room and board. how fun would that be? really, in a way, it's my dream job. i'm still a bit tempted. but provo is far away and that life even further. this is where i am now. i will work on loving and embracing it and calling it my dream. i think it is. at least close enough.
and now i think i'm done.

I said pump it up

And I meant to attach this photo so you could see what I meant. Sorry left it off. I know my loyal fans were worried. For a split second.

Pump it up

So i'm hanging with dan's short guys. I should mention that last night for fun we attended a football game. Unfortunately the opposing team is like #4 in the region and we kind of lost. Tonight the helmet needed pumping up. Have you ever heard of such a thing? News to me. Here are the men of the family pumping up the helmet. Sadly right after taking this photo the needle got stuck - thought it was broken for good.

In-n-out

this was a day of good food! Eggs and english muffins pretemple, toasted cheese prezoo, swirly cone midzoo, and then in-n-out post zoo. Let's just say I brushed my teeth to prevent further fattening. here's dan and her parents. Burgers are good.

Skyfari

The san diego zoo seems to straddle a canyon. Or gully? Either way we had to walk downhill and then uphill. So at the end of the uphill we opted to take the skyfari back to the beginning. Great view! I took a shot of the big church dome thing in balboa park just as a plane was flying by - sorry it doesn't show up better. We also took the tour bus - that's the way to see the zoo I say. It was quite the full afternoon.

Zoo

Apparently when you go to the zoo you must take a photo of flamingos. Here they are. I also took a photo of a koala. Can you tell? It's there. They were eating leaves. We saw lots of good animals. We also walked down the bus route and got stopped by security. Oops. we also ate swirly cones - deliciousness.

Fandango

Yum! Too bad I have no photos. But last night we enjoyed beans and enchiladas in old town. A super cool bonus was the singing trio. Oh I loved them. Dan's dad asked them to play the most romantic song they knew. It just so happened they played perfidia - the one song my father used to sing - beautiful - I had just told the table about it too. It was a perfect night.

San diego temple

This morning dan and I hit the temple. This is me modeling my new purse. The cool thing - besides my new purse - was that the name giver in the temple was an old friend from roosevelt days. Then the veil coodinator knew dan because she's in dan's brother's ward and knows our good friend rachel who used to live here. so the whole temple experience was pretty exciting. Don't you like my new purse?

Midway

Here 's a photo of the midway. Famous from wwii. unfortuntely, I failed to document the bob hope memorial. But luckily dan got some photos - maybe in a couple months she'll blog them.

Lovin' san diego

So dan and I arrived safely in the s.d. It's beautiful and warm here. In fact, as I blog, i'm sitting at a high school football game grateful for the shade. We began our adventure by visiting the marina and naval yards. Somebody recently decided the "greatest generation" needed some honoring so they built a monster sized version of the famous kiss on v-day.

body worlds

friday i attended the bodyworlds 3 show at the leonardo. oh my. it is a trip. a long hot trip - luckily they brought in some fans. i was in the blood room - having just read about how bad smoking is for the lungs and i thought i was ready to pass out. i'd only been there an hour but my brain was already full of stuff and the crowds were getting to me. i just wanted water. trouble was, i knew if i rushed through it i'd regret it since it cost 20 bucks to go and there's no turning around. but you know what they say about marathons - how it gets easier about half way through (someone must say that) - well, this was similar. i thought i was going to die, but then eventually, finally, it got easier and i kept going. i finally found some water, and i finally found a place to sit, but i managed to last anouther hour and a half and still read every possible sign i could find. it's worth it. you should go. it wasn't gross necessarily, it was just really interesting. science meets art sort of thing. i did get a bit sad in spots when things would remind me of dad. funny how i still find myself having sad flashes. i guess that's inevitable. but anyway, go - you might learn something!
sorry no photos - they were pretty insistent.

Water

This post is dedicated to dan. When we eat out she tends to warn me when i've drunk too much. Well the other night, when she wasn't around, at the oh so delicious bombay house, I chose to not finish my water. I took a photo to document the moment. I really didn't want anymore and I didn't want to over do it.
Unfortunately, we kept visiting and a bit later I noticed my glass was empty. Oops. So I decided I might as well finish off the pitcher. I was feeling better by then, anyway, so no pain ensued.

Best fun ever

Now don't be jealous, but for tonigt and tomorrow I get to sit in the school cafeteria for four hours and wait for parents to come visit me to talk about their little darlings. Needless to say I already have a headache.

Not for the sensitive! (like lynn)

Call me sick but I just had to post this horrible bruise on my grandma's arm. You'll laug when you hear how she got it. She fell out of bed! She's been staying at my mom's the last few weeks due to hurricane ike taking out her power. I guess mom's bed is higher and granny slept too close to the edge one night. She says the meds she's on probably made the bruise worse than it should be. The really weird thing is that she hit the night table and yet managed to not hit her head or face in anyway - the part of her that should have been closest to the table.

perfect fall

tracie inspire me to post. last night was a perfect fall evening, okay, it felt more like a summer evening because of the heat, but it wasn't. i went hiking with some friends to "the living room." we started early - at 5:30 so we could be back by dark. we saw lots of beautiful colors, but sadly i took no photos. when i got home i enjoyed a great bowl of beans. yum! home-made i'd like to add. then i watched an episode of "bones" with the roommate and then finished my evening off with a chapter from "pol pot" (thanks betsy!) - the book i wonder if i'll ever finish. i went to bed around 9:30 - felt like heaven!