Costumes

I love love love dressing up for Halloween! I can remember every Halloween costume since I was three years old. This list is definitely a "just for me" thing, so I won't be offended if people get bored and stop reading.

Age 3: Pumpkin (the costume was later handed down to our dog, Tawny)
Age 4: Butterfly (I remember luh-huh-huving the wings for my costume and was convinced that if I tried hard, they could make me fly)
Age 5: Pirate
Age 6: Mouse
Age 7: Dragon
Age 8: Pippi Longstocking (one of favorite costumes ever. I was amazed at how my mom could make my pigtail defy gravity with wire. I thought it was the coolest thing ever).
Age 9: Pirate again. (I recall being upset that I had to do a costume repeat. Weird fact- it was the exact same costume I wore when I was five. Apparently I had not hit a much needed growth spurt yet).
Age 10: Belly dancer
Age 11: Hippi
Age 12: Cleopatra
Age 13: Dead cheerleader
Age 14: Baby (just like every other girl my age)
Age 15: Nerd (this was the first of several times I dressed up as this)
Age 16: Spartan Cheerleaders (my friend Deanna and I made our costumes, learned a bunch of Spartan cheers and performed them when we went trick-or-treating. This was another one of my all time favorite costumes!)
Age 17: Grandma! (This was the last year I ever went trick-or-treating. I know it seems old, but my theory is if you dress up and are in school, you can still go and get free candy)

Age 18: Princess. I just wore my prom dress and a dollar store tiara. This was my most boring Halloween ever. My friends all were attending crazy college parties and I was too scared to go YSA. The only thing I dressed up for was the primary activity that I had to help out at.
Age 19: I did the nerd again for one party, and then for the YSA party I was a tourist.
Age 20: I was a rocker chick? I guess that would be the best name for it. I had those fake tattoos and wore black stuff, so I was one of those.
Age 21: This was the triple costume Halloween. For our ward party I was a nerd again...
... and then on Halloween I had to take a midterm. BOO! I didn't have anything planned so I didn't bother thinking of a costume. I got home from school around 8:00 when these two nerdy boys in our ward rang our doorbell. They were both dressed up and trick-or-treating. I excitedly asked if I could join them . They gave me a look like "Uh...a girl is talking to us...not sure what to do..." but then agreed to let me tag along. I ran into my room, wrapped a towel on my head and threw on my bathrobe. So I was a...shower lady? Whatevs. I trick-or-treated and got some cereal, top ramen, and canned food. (So I guess THIS was my last year I trick-or-treated! Ha!) After that, I went home and took off my pathetic excuse for a costume when my friend Lindsay called and asked if I wanted to go to a party on campus. I threw on sweat pants, sunglasses, and rubber gold teeth and became a gangster-ish person? Anyway, we had fun and I enjoyed a night that went from having no plans and no costume to spending the whole night doing Halloween stuff with two random costumes!
Age 22: Princess Peach and Mario! Loved these costumes!

Age 23: Flapper

and Age 24.....

She works hard for the money.

Good news! I was recently offered and just accepted a very part time job with LDS Family Services! I'll be working with them 5 hours a week- most likely 2 hours during the week and 3 hours on Saturdays. "Five hours a week? Don't quit your day job," you may be sarcastically thinking. Well, I'm not. I will still be working my usual 40 hours as a child therapist during the week, so those extra five are gonna keep me busy. I know there are lots of people who work 45+ hours without any problems, but when you are naturally lazy like me it gets challenging. I am excited, though. It will be so encouraging to work with a population who generally holds the same values and beliefs as I do. I will also be working with adults, which I really really miss. Trying to trick a 14 year old into talking to me for a whole hour gets exhausting at times.

I start work for them in about a week. Wish me luck!

A few weeks ago, Jordan and I went on a spontaneous trip to:


It was awesome! It was a celebration of Jordan finishing his first quarter of PA school and me finding our camera (I'm still so giddy about that). It was also a SHORT trip. We left on Friday at 3:30 and got home Sunday around 4:00. But in those compacted 48 hours, we had a blast.

On Friday night, we pulled into our hotel, The Alladdin (which I forgot to get a picture of... Boo). I was a fancy hotel with a concierge ("I'm the con-see-oige!") and overpriced/overrated valet parking. We normally are SuperInn type of people, but we found The Aladdin for a great deal on hotwire.com and decided to go for it. The hotel was fun because tons of people going to different weddings, concerts, and more. And the hotel was right in the middle of down town. Although I didn't get a picture of the outside, I got a picture of our room. Cute, eh?

On Friday night we decided to go get some classic Kansas City BBQ. We asked the concierge where we should go, and she suggested a placed called Gates. "Just a mile down the road", she said. "Ok, we'll walk," we said. So we walked...and walked and walked...and walked out of down town into a ghetto area. Help? We FINALLY got to Gates where we equaled half the population of the entire white people in the restaurant...and that part of town, maybe? The BBQ was good, but I couldn't enjoy it because I was too worried about walking back from Gates in the dark. Luckily, we powered walked back into town in safety. Phew! We walked around a little while longer, found the biggest creepiest grasshopper/praying mantis EVER, and made it back to our hotel to watch Shark Week.

Here's the freaky bug. It was walking around on the sidewalk, following people. Yikes!

Saturday, we got up and headed to Kansas City Worlds of Fun. It's an amusement park that is about Lagoon quality. The day was really fun but it made me feel so old. When I was a teenager, I could spend all day at an amusement park, ride any ride any number of times and feel perfectly fine. Now that I am the ripe old age of 24, I felt so sick after four rides. I kept trying to fight it and ignore the nausea, but after a few hours I had to face the motion sickness. It was depressing.

Poor Jordan. I didn't have the heart to tell him this wasn't a real ride...

"Uh...this ride sucks."

Luckily, we were able to cool off our stomachs by watching one of the amusement park shows. It was a group of high schoolish aged kids singing and dancing to rock and roll songs. It was sorta a second rate Glee. We eventually left in the late afternoon to spend the evening in the city.

Saturday evening, we hit the town! We walked all over exploring the city. One thing that I LOVED about the city was how everyone dressed. All the girls dressed up to hit the town. Even the ladies who were going to see a movie were all dolled up. Of course, with a movie theater that looks like THIS I wouldn't show up PJs either.


Funky heads...all three of them.

No, I am not trying to pole dance.


On Sunday, we checked out, hit up a local ward, and headed home. The trip was so short but so much fun!

Don't we all need a fairy princess dress up game?

yes. yes we do.

Lucky for us, my brilliant brother Troy created an app for itouches and iphones called "My Fairy Princess". For $1.99 you get to pick out a princesses hair, crown, shoes, dress, wings, and ethnicity. The princesses can dance and pose.

"But you don't have to take MY word for it."

(I forgot Lavar's name for a second and ended up having to google "black guy off of reading rainbow"...is that bad?)

While talking about music we liked 12 years ago...

Me: "I loved the Spice Girls so much in 6th grade. I used to dress up as Sporty Spice, go into Troy's room, and lip sync to every song on their CD in front of the mirror."

Jordan: "You are such a NERD!....I did the same thing."


Can you believe in our 1 1/3 years of marriage, I am only NOW finding out my husby previously owned a Spice Girls CD??? AND knew all the words?? If he told me that when we were dating, it would have sealed the deal much more quickly.

"I really really REALLY wanna zigga-zig AH!"

Because I am proud.

HAPPY NATIONAL LEFT-HANDED DAY!

Happy Birthday, Richard

August 13th is one busy day of the year!

It is ALSO my father-in-law's birthday.

Richard is a great FIL. I can see that so many of Jordan's great qualities come from him. For example....

*Richard is very funny. He has a subtle sense of humor. He's had some awesome quips and one-liners.
* He is very generous. He's helped us out in many ways and is always willing to help others.
* He's very welcoming. Some people feel uncomfortable around their stern father-in-laws, but mine has been as sweet as cherry pie!
* He's a hard worker
*He's a great father. He's very supportive of his children.
* He always calls me sweety :)

Happy Birthday, Richard! Thanks for letting me use your last name.

Sister, Sister

Although I certainly do not have a favorite sibling, I DO have an all time favorite sister....


...and it's Molly!

And it's her birthday today, and like all my other family member's birthdays (except Nancee's) I am 1000's of miles away. So instead I shall give a post.


With Molly being my only sister and the closest sibling to me, Molly and I were pretty much forced to be best friends.

We have gone on several sister vacations (Washington DC, California (twice), Utah (many many times))


We roomed together in college


We even had a list of boys that we both went on at least one date with. It was never a goal of ours, it just worked out that way.


We were each other's maid/matron of honor


And we practiced our Helen Hunt impressions together.

Molly and I also have several movies that we have watched countess times together and have memorized. We have alot of songs that we've made up, "dances" that we have choreographed, and about 1,000,000 inside jokes. (Like, Molly- remember "No. No. No. No.", our child, "WAAAAYNE! What are you doing October 24th....")

Molly is great because she is very funny. She is very nice to others and talented. She served a challenging mission. She's a science smarty pants. And she and her husband Brad are going to grant me yet another niece for me to love like crazy!

But most importantly, I love Molly because she hates all the same actresses as I do.

(shudder)

Happy Birthday, Molly. Wish you were here! :(

Sew crazy!

Last week I bought a sewing machine on a total impulse. BEST impulsive shopping I've ever done. I bought it online on Monday and it was at my doorstep by Thursday. Since then I have had so much fun sewing* stuff. I've been going nonstop.

This is my sewing machine:
And no, I did not find it in the Barbie isle. The flowers are dumb. I think whoever created this machine thought that only 10-12 girls would need such a ultimate beginners model. Oh, well.

The machine IS great for beginners too! I highly recommend this baby to anyone who is even curious about sewing. The best part is it didn't even cost that much. Ka-ching. Now I have more money to spend on replacing my missing camera :(

(Seriously, Seattle family members....has anyone seen it? Anywhere?)

Without said camera, I can't take pictures of my beautiful** creations. Basically all I have made are throw pillows for our living room and peepee teepees for baby gifts.Wish me luck as I tiptoe into harder patterns...

*attempting to sew...often messing up and whining.
**beautiful is widely subjective. A more appropriate adjective would be "....eh.."