Overalls and Pipe Cleaners

A student asked me today what my favorite holiday is.  I asked him if my birthday counts.  He said no. Rude.

Obviously, I love Christmas.

But I'm pretty sure Halloween is right up there as one of my favorites.  I love the costumes.  I love carving pumpkins.  I love chocolate.  Minus the stupid horror movies, what's not to love?

Here's a reminder of costumes past...

2009

Spongebob

2010

Mike Wazowski

2011

Waldo

And here's the latest...

2012

Minion

I got the overalls on ebay (thanks to help from my friend Kelsey...the master of ebay...I even got a 2 for 1 deal).

I made the goggles out of nerd glasses and elastic.

The hair is pipe cleaners I hot glued onto the hoodie.

I may look like an idiot and definitely feel like an idiot, but it's awesome, right?

Pumpkin Carving...I love it!

So I don't think I carved a pumpkin last year.  I carved one the other night, and I'm pretty sure it was a lot of fun!  I forgot how much I loved it!  Plus I bought a carving kit, and it comes with the awesome scooper thing that gets the "guts" out.  Plus using the tiny knives it comes with is WAY easier than the 1-2" knives I've used in the past.  What was I thinking?

So it always causes me a little anxiety to decide what I should carve into my pumpkin.  I could go with a traditional face, because I actually do love them.  But I wanted to do something different.  Originally, I was going to do something Harry Potter-ish because...well...I love Harry Potter. :)  But I did that a couple years ago.  Then I thought I would carve Sully from Monsters Inc., because that's my favorite movie to watch on Halloween. :)  But then I saw a picture of the aliens from Toy Story, and I got really excited!

"You have saved our lives.  We are eternally grateful."

"A stranger."

"From the outside."

"Ooooooooooh."

Tyler was carving Justin Bieber.  He sketched it from hand from just looking at a picture of the Biebs.  Such skill!  Someday I'll be an artist (ha! Sometimes I think I'm hilarious)

 Now stay tuned for my Halloween costume.  It's going to be sweet!

The good and the bad of the SoJo

So I just ran the SoJo Half Marathon this morning.  As I ran, I spend some quality time making a list of the good and the bad of this race.  Here we go.  Let's start with the bad:

The Bad:

• And it kind of made me mad.  At mile 10, I started to get a major toe cramp in my right foot.  It would come and go.  This happened to me on my last half marathon.  By mile 11, it had spread through my foot and up my calf.  And it was in both legs.  It was so painful!  I ended up walking for a mile and a half.  I was so mad!  I wasn't as prepared for this half as I would have liked, so I knew my time wouldn't be great.  But up until mile 10, I was actually on my way to set a PR!  I was cruising!  Well, the walking ruined that.  As I sit here a couple hours later, my toe keeps cramping up.  It's killing me!
• There was also a marathon going on at the same time.  They started 30 minutes before me.  I got passed at the end by the 1st and 2nd place marathon runners.  That's embarrassing.  Stupid foot cramps.  I would have easily come in before them if I hadn't been slowed.

The Good:

• I finally got to wear my cute purple-laced shoes for a half marathon!  Who knows...maybe they brought on the cramps, but I'd like to say no because they're cute.  And I got a few compliments on them. :)

• It was a BEAUTIFUL morning!  The temperature was perfect for a morning run at about 50-55 degrees.  As I waited at the start line, I got to see an amazing sunrise!
• I got to run right by the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  I wish I'd had a camera.  There were some trees in front of it with amazingly colorful leaves, and the clouds behind it just looked so picturesque!
• The Jordan River Trail is beautiful!  I want to go back and run on it.  That was at the end of the course, so that's where I was walking with the foot cramp issues.  To be optimistic, I'm glad I got to go slow to enjoy the scenery. :)
• I got a Chick-Fil-A sandwich at the finish line.  Weird thing to eat after a race.  I actually wanted to throw up after running, but it seemed like a fun idea. :)
• From the time I left my house this morning to the time I got home, I lost 4 pounds. :)
• I got a sweet medal (I got this from their website).

Small Appliance Love

My roommate Annie and I recently went to a party where we were watching an episode of the Cosby Show (which, by the way, is such a great show...sometimes I forget).  In it, Clair was teasing Cliff  about how he buys these shiny new small appliances in the kitchen, uses them once, then sends them to the "appliance graveyard."

Annie and I took inventory of our small appliances and realized we hardly ever use some of them.  We have decided that in the month of October, we'd like to use all of our little appliances in our kitchen.

So far we've used the quesadilla maker, ice cream maker, toaster (Toaster Strudel...mmm), heart-shaped waffle iron, George Foreman grill, popcorn maker.

The only things we have left are the pizza stone (not an appliance, I know...but still feels neglected), crepe maker (we used it a couple weeks ago...but not in October), Cocomotion, sandwich maker, blender, and bread maker.

It's been fun.  You should try it.  I should have been taking pictures along the way, though.