Halloween Fun 2012

Once again it’s that special time of year when we get to celebrate All Hallow’s Eve and dress up as something we’re not. I was determined to make this one a fun one, and I’m pretty sure I succeeded.

My problem this year? A costume conundrum.

I’m unimpressed with most of the costumes they make for women because they’re … well, trashy. That or expensive. So, that means I have to create my own. That’s not a problem unless I don’t know what I want to be.

An awesome pair of fake eyelashes from my dear roommate inspired me last Friday, so I chose to be a beautiful butterfly.

A close up of those cool eyelashes. And a self portrait too.

It was a fun costume, if a messy one. The glitter on those wings gets everywhere. But I sure had fun wearing it!

This year I had a creepy cube with plenty of spider web. On the fly (haha!) I thought it would be funny to pretend I was a butterfly caught in a spider’s web. I’d say it worked out.

Here’s the signs I made and hung up.

I won an award for my trouble—Most Kid Friendly Office Space for “Butterflies Are Free.” I was actually aiming for “Best Use of Spider webs” but okay.

Some of the fun Halloween treats of the last few days.

Before I close … a few other fun Halloween costumes, starting with Glinda and Elphaba.

Finally, here’s another cute butterfly.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Following Frankenstorm, also known as Hurricane Sandy

I don’t’ know what it is about New York City, but somehow it seems like in every movie involving some type of natural disaster or alien invasion, New York City is always one of the first targets.

As one of the largest and most famous cities in the world, not to mention one of the financial capitols of the United States, I suppose it makes sense why it would be one of the first cities hit. And because so many people live there, the victims pile up quickly.

But it’s always just fiction. Until this week.

Hurricane Sandy made landfall in Cuba before setting a course straight for the Eastern United States. It’s always terrible anytime a hurricane makes landfall, but especially in highly populated areas. I don’t recall a hurricane having hit this particular area before.

I’ve been so struck reading stories, watching the news and looking at pictures online of famous landmarks that have been hard hit with Hurricane? Superstorm? Sandy in the last few days. Stories of mandatory evacuations, homes destroyed, taxis floating in water, etc. kept me spellbound at work today. I’d try to post them here, but I don’t wan to violate copyright laws or anything so I won’t.

I suppose this just goes to show that nowhere is safe from natural disasters. As a good friend pointed out today, someday it’ll be our turn here to have a natural disaster. Most likely an earthquake, but I’d rather not dwell on that.

In any case, my heart and prayers go out to all the victims of this terrible disaster. I wish them luck and good fortune as they put their lives together and begin the hard work of restoration.

And the adventure for this week is . . .

This week I had an interesting experience that I wanted to share here, in my blog. I haven’t ever been through anything quite like it, which is why it struck me the way it did.

So, the month of October was a busy one for my department at work with several trips planned. One of them got moved to November, but the other one this week, an Idaho market visit following my supervisor’s presentation on Wednesday, has been in the works for awhile. I’ve been anticipating this trip for weeks because not only would it give us much-needed Idaho business, it was also a chance to visit my sister and her family.

I scheduled all the visits a week ago, and we were good to go. My only hang up was whether to drive my car or get a rental since I planned to stay through the weekend.

Except things didn’t quite turn out as planned.

I was talking to my aunt on Sunday night about the trip when I suddenly started feeling really nervous and sick to my stomach about it. I knew what it meant: something about the trip wasn’t right.

For anyone who is of a different faith, I believe that God protects us and gives us warnings when something we’re going to do will put us in danger. This was clearly that type of warning.

Since the trip was for work and all set up, I was distressed at the idea something was wrong and I shouldn’t be going after all. I tried hard to shove the thought down, but it wouldn’t go away. The more I thought about it, the sicker and more anxious I felt. And I had no idea how to explain to my supervisor, who doesn’t share my faith, that I had received a prompting from God not to go so she’d have to handle the visit on her own since I wouldn’t be there to help coordinate.

I had a conversation with a good friend who offered me some great insight. I followed her advice and had a nice conversation with my supervisor, who was very understanding, although the way I explained it to her, she kept referring to it as anxiety, when I knew it was more than that.

Suffice it to say that I didn’t end up going. Whatever the reason why I wasn’t supposed to go (most likely I’ll never know), both my mom and my grandma also had impressions of the danger to me if I made the trip, so it must’ve been something fairly serious. However, I am happy to report that I’m safe at home as I write this, so it’s a good thing I recognized a prompting and heeded it.

Tiptoe through the pumpkins, through the pumpkins . . .

It’s that special time again, when I get to the North Logan Pumpkin Walk. Yippee!

This year’s theme was “Let the Games Begin” … and boy did they ever. I was worried every other scene was going to be The Hunger Games, but I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn’t. I never cease to be amazed at the creativity (and time) people put into these.

Take this one for example. It’s an entire scene based upon I Spy.

How about some classic board games—like Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Twister, Life and Candyland?

Or Clue?! LOVED this one!

Don’t worry — there was one fairly extensive scene involving The Hunger Games.

What Pumpkin Walk would be complete without some people pictures?

What a lovely day it was, in case you can’t tell from the thousand and a half pictures that I took. It’s a great fall tradition, I’m happy to share through my blog. Oh, and I couldn’t have asked for better weather. A lovely 70 degrees in mid October? Yes, please.

The Grand Canyon

I had another adventure this weekend, and I’ve been dying to share it! Let me preface it by saying that about a month and a half ago, a friend sent me one of those silly forward emails that lists a bunch of items on people’s Bucket List. You check which ones you’ve done and send it on to the next person who is supposed to send it back with theirs checked.

My dear friend the Bibliophile was shocked and perhaps slightly appalled to discover that I’d never seen the Grand Canyon, which she considers to be “practically in my back yard.”

Well, perhaps it is sad, being that it’s just a couple states away from where I grew up. However, when Yellowstone is only four hours away, and the Grand Canyon is more like 15 … it’s not too surprising.

This weekend that all changed while on a fun trip with friends (and one family member).

I was having a lovely vacation in St. George this weekend (most likely a separate post will be coming about that). Our plan was to drive to nearby Zion National Park on Saturday to spend the day enjoying one of Utah’s beautiful national parks.

As we were on our way to connect with the highway that would take us to our destination, we saw both Zion and the Grand Canyon listed .. and the miles to get to the second weren’t that much further than the first. So, on a whim we decided why not try something new? Three of us had never been before, and the one who had never visited the North Rim.

It turned out to be further than the sign said, more like 130 miles as opposed to the 42 listed, but we decided to go for it anyway. It was a llooonnngg drive there and back and we started far later than we would have had we realized what our destination was going to be. However, all four of us were delighted with our experience.

I also learned a cool trick with the operating system on my phone. It has a panorama setting which takes fantastic long pictures. I had no idea!

I had a great time visiting one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, which happens to be another of our national parks. And this was only the North Rim! I was told I still must visit the South Rim, and I’m confident that given time I’ll make it there. Oh, and we were lucky on this trip because I discovered yesterday that the North Rim closes right around Oct. 15 (or when the snow flies, whichever is first), so we made it  just in time.

What a great spontaneous trip! Enjoy a few more pictures. I have many (yes, I know it’s completely shocking), but I’ll just post a few. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to be there. The fall colors on the trees (well, the ones that were turning anyway) were gorgeous. One of the pictures below is my attempt to capture that.

I don’t actually know what the rock is called, but I thought it looked like a dog’s head, so I couldn’t resist taking a picture. Of course we’d need a picture on the bridge.

Okay, I promise I’m done now. As you can see, it was a great little jaunt, if a little exhausting.