I Want to Believe

The moment you've all been waiting for is here. You want to see our costumes? Well here they are:What's that? You don't know who we're supposed to be? Tsk, tsk. That's sad. But if it makes you feel any better, only about 6 people in our ward knew who we were last night. ("FBI Agents? That's pretty cool.")

I'll give you a few more hints.

How about our pumpkin? That's a pretty big clue.

Still not getting it? How about this photo of the back of Seth's costume:Come ON, people! Okay, okay. Final hint:

Aren't we awesome? We look just like them! And the haircut was totally necessary. I know Scully's hair is long in the new movie, but it just isn't the same. (I was trying so hard not to smile. So instead I look like I'm smirking).

Yes, we are big X-Files fans. And honestly, who grew up in the nineties and WASN'T an X-Files fan? That's why I was so perplexed when no one knew who we were last night. For heaven's sake, our badges said "Fox Mulder" and "Dana Scully" AND had their actual pictures on them.

Granted, it did help when Jon walked around playing the X-Files theme song (he had it downloaded onto his phone). I think that was the best part of our costumes.

I knew hardly any of the youth would know who we were. But the adults? Especially the ones our age? COME ON PEOPLE! The 90's weren't that long ago!

I do have to say this: the people who did recognize us were awesome. Sis. Paul walked right up to me and said, "It's a good thing you're married. Otherwise I think my husband would marry you right now." Turns out they're huge X-Files fans. Made my night.

In case you're wondering, Seth is an alien. Do you know how hard it is to come up with an alien costume? I forgot his green hairspray at the Trunk or Treat, so no one understood what he was supposed to be. And his hair isn't completely green because the can of hairspray went crazy and wouldn't stop spraying. And yes, I did make his shirt myself. (As in the writing, not the sewing. Sewing is not one of my talents).

Going for the Mulder and Scully look: bored, yet concerned

PS--If you knew who we were from the first picture, you're our new best friend. And if you knew who we were just by reading the title of this post, you get a treat. As in I will mail you a treat because you are AWESOME.

The Horror, the Horror!

(Extra kudos if you can place the quote used as the title!)

My friends, I have a sad story to share with you. It all began on Halloween Eve, otherwise known as Ward Trunk or Treat night.

Everything went swimmingly that morning. Seth was an angel and let me carve our pumpkin and make our delicious shrimp bisque (which I knew would win the prize for "Best Soup"). We even had time to go visit Krystal & Victoria. A lovely, perfect morning.

Things continued well as the afternoon progressed. The bisque was staying toasty warm in the crock-pot, the pumpkin seeds were ready for roasting, and the supplies for our costumes (which we had been planning for months) were all in order.

Just before 4pm, Jon came home from work, which meant I was free to go out and get the final touch for my costume: a haircut. (Yes, I am dedicated enough to cut my hair in order to complete a costume. We're serious about Halloween at this house).

And from this point on, our story takes a turn for the worse. Let me introduce our villain:(not this exact store, but you get the point)

What you can easily deduce from my choice of hair salons is that I really know nothing about getting my hair done. Oh, and I'm cheap. But I figured I was safe--after all, I had a picture of exactly what I wanted:

A cute bob (a little shorter than this one)

Seems simple, right? I showed her the picture, explained what I wanted, and even left the magazine open on her little vanity so she could look at it for reference.

To make a very, very long process short, this is what I came home looking like:Layers on one side, no layers on the other. Uneven. Too long. Basically just totally disgusting. And yes, I had that look on my face, too.

A few background details at this point:

#1--I had accidentally left my phone in Jon's car the night before, so I couldn't call him and ask him to come home a little earlier than normal so I wouldn't have to stress about not getting my hair done on time.

#2--Jon had volunteered to help set up for the activity, which meant he needed to be there early. He told me this about 10 minutes before I left to get my hair cut.

By the time I got home, it was 6pm. Time the activity started? 6pm. I rushed upstairs to do some serious editing on my hair. And no, I've never taken a hair-cutting class in my life. By the time I got it looking decent, it was 6:30pm.

Jon had called me several times asking me what was taking so long. I told him I was finally ready and rushed downstairs to leave. It was at this point that I realized that when Jon left early, he took 1) himself, and 2) Seth. Nothing else. Which meant that I was frantically gathering up costume odds and ends, our pumpkin, matches, candles, candy, bowl, and the crock-pot full of soup. I threw it all in the car and got to the church by 6:40. Trunk or Treating started at 7pm.

Grumpy Jon (he hadn't eaten) and grumpy Seth (who refused to be put down so his dad could eat) met me in the parking lot. We started unloading the car, at which point we realized the soup had spilled ALL over the backseat. This just added to Jon's good mood. We were bickering as we walked into the church.

Jon: "Why didn't you just put it on the floor?"
Meg: "It wouldn't fit!"
Jon: "Then why didn't you put it in a box or something?"
Meg: "I didn't have time! Why didn't YOU just bring it?"
Jon: "I didn't think it would take you so long to get here!"
Meg: "Well, neither did I! This wasn't my plan, either!"

I love my husband. But he's not very nice when he's hungry. I took Seth, he took the soup and went to eat. I tried to eat, too, but Seth wasn't helping. At one point he even dove into my soup bowl and covered himself with bisque. I think it was at this point I realized I'd left the crucial part of Seth's costume at home. No one knew what he was.

About 5 minutes after I walked in they asked all the adults to go get their cars ready for trunk or treating. Jon took care of that, but I was still stuck with whiny Seth who was only content when he was throwing my credit cards all over the table and floor (and into my soup).

At some point Marley took pity on me and started feeding Seth some pie so I could eat. He's lucky to have such a nice honorary aunt!

By the time I got done eating everything was done and they were cleaning up around me. I didn't get to try anyone else's soup (which wasn't too upsetting because mine was really good. Seriously). I didn't get any of Heidi or Krystal's pie. And I didn't get to see hardly anyone's costumes because I was so busy rushing around. I'd been looking forward to this night all month and it ended up being a disaster.

But there was some hope at the end of the long, dark night. First, there was my sweet husband who cleaned out the soup-filled backseat for me ("I got almost THREE CUPS of soup out of that puddle"). Then there were the people (like Marley) who sat through my sob story and empathized with me. Finally, there were Shawn & Krystal, who came to say hi and let me invite myself over to go trick or treating with them & Victoria the next night.

That made me feel better. We weren't planning on taking Seth trick-or-treating, but it's a good excuse to get ourselves dressed up in our costumes again--this time without all the drama. Because, amidst all the insanity last night, we didn't take a single picture. And our costumes are so awesome that we NEED photographic evidence.

And so ended our terrible night. Actually, I think it officially ended with me cleaning up the hairy mess I made in the bathroom. But tonight should be better. And you'll all have to wait until then to find out what we dressed up as (those who know: DON'T TELL!).

Lesson learned: never, ever, ever be cheap about getting your hair cut.

Oh, and another disappointment: they didn't award the prizes for soup, pie, and costumes! So I'll award them myself:

Best Soup: Me. Yes, I am that vain (recipe here)
Best Pie: Guess we'll never know, since I didn't get any... :(
Best Child Costume: Victoria. And that thing is HOMEMADE!! (Go Krystal!)
Best Adult Costume: (I really want to be totally vain and say "Us", but I'll restrain myself). It's a toss up between Shawn's Balloon Boy and Heidi's creepy ghost lady.

Congratulations, everyone!

Halloween Preview

A sneak peek at what's to come...

(Not our actual costumes--these were for a YW activity)

Be sure to check back later for the SAGA of THE WARD TRUNK or TREAT. Believe me, it's a tragedy in the truest sense of the word.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

I've been doing some playing around with the blog and am looking for feedback. It looks good on my browser (Firefox)--how about the rest of you? Any suggestions?

Many, many thanks to Krystal, who helped me figure out the sweet fonts.

Picture This

Want to know what you'd look like if you...

*Fell off the pew at church*
*Fell down the stairs*
and
*Ran into the fridge head-on*

All in less than 8 consecutive hours?

You'd probably look something like this:

But since you're tough as nails, you'd just grin it off.

Some days I wonder if my child will ever make it to adulthood...

Our Haunted House

I'm not kidding when I say Halloween is my favorite holiday. Christmas is a very close second (it gets closer every year), but Halloween still takes the cake. My favorite parts are decorating my house and picking out costumes (which will be featured in another post--oh, the suspense!).

Unfortunately, I'm picky about my Halloween decorations. I'm not a fan of the cutesy, crafty, country style:Nor do I go for the gory, bloody, creepy stuff:I'm more of the spooky, old, haunted house type style. Unfortunately, I don't have unlimited funds to spend on Halloween decor, nor do I want to put the effort into totally redecorating my house for one month. So I'm not totally pleased with it, but it has potential.

The family room:I found the tattered curtains for $1 each at Dollar Tree. Love them.

The dining room:Notice the black flowers in the vase (behind the laptop)? I spent a lot of time (and money) hunting them down at Michael's before Wal-Mart even thought about carrying black flowers during Halloween. That's right--I'm the original.

The living room:Not much in here. Spiderweb tablecloth made by me, plus some decorations on the shelf. Wasn't worth totally redecorating this room.

The piano:The pirate collection. Leftovers from my Jonny Depp obsession days. Remember that sign you bought me as a "wedding gift", Alisse?

Front entry:My personal favorite. I LOVE the candleholder. And yes, Seth does demand candy corn whenever he walks by.

As you can see, I have my standards. No spiderweb on any church pictures--that's pushing a bit too far for my taste. Family pictures, however, are free game for spiderwebbing.

I saved the best for last--the outside of our house:The spiderwebs on the windows are a bit too overwhelming--next year I'll make them smaller. But other than that, I love how it turned out. (Those are little ghosts in the tree, in case you can't tell).

The front door says "Laciate Ogne Speranza, Voi Ch'intrate." I'll let my Italian translator, Kristina, tell you what it means. I'll bet she's even talented enough to give you the reference.

I love Halloween.

Organize yourselves, Prepare every needful thing...

I've been pretty proud of myself this year: I've finally finished off two projects that have been nagging at me for years.

Project #1: 72 Hour Kits

I've been worrying over this ever since we got married. Sure, it took me almost 4 years, but they're DONE. Okay, almost done. We're just short a few important documents, some gloves, and a Scout Handbook. Now let's just pray we never actually have to use them, considering I can barely pick mine up...

Project #2: Three Month Food Storage

This ended up being easier than the 72 hour kits, so it got done first. We still have to tweak things every once in awhile, but that's to be expected. Next on the list of things I stress about getting done? Long term food storage. It would help if I could figure out where the local cannery is, but I can't (help, anyone?).

Along the same lines, we also tried growing some food in pots on our deck (no room for a garden in a town home). My chives are thriving. I'm throwing chives away because we can't eat them all. The tomato plant spit out a decent amount of smallish tomatoes before it succumbed to the cold weather. Or the fungus plague it got because we had two straight weeks of rain right after we planted it. Either way, it's sitting on our deck with about 20 tomatoes on it that will never ripen. And I was really looking forward to them, too. Next year: two tomato plants and some PEAS. Yum, yum.

Now, some projects that are a bit lower on the over-arching priority list, but were high on our "things we should probably get done around the house" list.

First, BLINDS. Now our neighbors won't have to avert their gazes every time they walk onto their deck. I can't believe the people before us lived here three years with no privacy in their kitchen. (Jon putting up the blinds with the assistance of Seth)

And, thinking way in advance, we bought a bunk bed at Ikea for when Seth gets out of the crib. The bottom is a full size, so it doubles as a guest bed. And yes, it definitely takes up almost the entire room.The baseball ceiling fan will be leaving soon. It's all yours, Sommer! Once we get that taken care of (and the blue bordering painted white), we'll have a little break from house projects until next summer. Hallelujah. Seth will be disappointed--he's been loving having all these power tools hanging around. 100% boy...

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday, October 10

All the youth in our stake were invited to a pumpkin patch near our house for a fall activity. Since I was required to participate, I figured I might as well bring Jon & Seth and call it a family outing.We had a pretty good time. They had a corn maze, which was fun. Not $6 worth of fun, but the stake paid for it, so whatever. Jon, with all his cleverness, had us out of the maze in less than 20 minutes. Some of the youth wandered for an hour or more...

While we waited for the tractor to take us to the pumpkin patch we let Seth run in the little hay maze they had set up for kids. He had a blast, but he sure wasn't interested in doing anything besides running in circles.We basically just let Seth run through the pumpkin patch. He's still too little to care about the pumpkins, so we didn't buy one there. Maybe next year. My Beehives had a great time chasing him around, and he loved whacking the pumpkins.
By the time we got back, it was getting pretty chilly (plus it was dinnertime). We grabbed a doughnut (okay, I took two) and left the youth to their chilly fireside.

Seth at 15 months

Seth survived his 15 month check up yesterday. He barely cried when they gave him two shots in his thighs--he was more mad than anything.

Official Stats: 22 lbs, 4 oz. 31 inches. ( I can't remember what they said for his head circum.)

She was impressed with his vocabulary. He spent the entire session saying "Car. Crash. Car. Crash" over and over again. He even threw his cars at her a few times. (Does that count as a sentence? "Car crash"? How about, "Cheese, mmmm"?).

We did have one conversation that amused/upset me. Seth hates, hates, hates being confined. Examples include his carseat, the pew during sacrament meeting, and (occasionally) his stroller. So waiting in the tiny examination room for an hour? Not fun for Seth or Mom.

By the time the pediatrician actually came in, Seth was done. He was whining, arching his back, and clamoring at the door. At this point she said to me, "He's most likely starting in on the terrible twos a little early." Check. Already established that one.

But then there was this tidbit: "Has he ever bitten you?" Nope. Never. "Well, you should keep an eye on him. He seems like he might have the sort of temperament to bite other kids."

First, it was funny. Seth never even takes toys from other kids, let alone bites them. Then I thought about it, and I was kind of upset. She's categorizing my son as a bully after locking him in a tiny room for 40 minutes and observing him for 5? That hardly seems fair.

I'm not upset enough to switch doctors or anything, but still. Maybe when he goes in at 18 months I'll tell her we had to take him out of playgroup because he took off two fingers with one chomp.

Finally, keeping in line with a pre-established time frame, we got rid of the bottle. He only had it before his nap and before bed (and we never let him keep it with him) so it wasn't too hard. We just swapped his bottle of warm milk for a straw-sippy-cup of warm milk. But it broke my heart to put those bottles away, mostly because I loved rocking him while he drank. What happened to my baby?

Do I look like the kind of kid who would bite someone?

Final Installation: The Wedding

We each spent Christmas with our own family. It was nice to have time to celebrate without constantly thinking about the wedding, but it was hard to be apart, especially since we hadn't seen each other since Thanksgiving.

My family and I made the final preparations for the wedding: collecting RSVPs, putting the flowers together, and taking my bridals. I think I missed Jon the most the day I went through the temple for the first time. It was a wonderful experience and I had a huge group of family members who came with me, but I missed him.He flew in the day after Christmas and spent some time hanging out with me and my family. I wasn't stressed at all about the wedding, but I was stressed about meeting his parents for the first time. That's right--I met my in-laws the day before we got married.

December 27, 2005

Despite my worries, we ended up having a really good time. My parents drove Jon & me down to Salt Lake where we met up with Jon's parents, plus his siblings Daniel, Mary & Elizabeth and their spouses/fiance, Wendy, Scott & Kade (Elizabeth & Kade had just gotten engaged and Mom Blood spent the first few minutes after I met her telling me over and over again how big Elizabeth's diamond was). We all had lunch together in Salt Lake. It was nice--we spent a lot of the time laughing. I really love Jon's family.

To make things easier the next morning, we rented some hotel rooms in Salt Lake. My sisters and I, plus our cousin Amber (our official hairdresser) were all in one room. The girls thought it was great--they were having all kinds of fun for my 'bachelorette party'. I wasn't even there for most of it. I wasn't in the mood for too much craziness. I spent the evening with my parents and Jon.

After we took Jon back to his aunt's house, I came back to my parent's room. My dad gave me a beautiful blessing assuring me that everything would be okay. It's one of my favorite memories of our wedding.

December 28, 2005: Wedding Day

Contrary to all my expectations, I did manage to get a decent amount of sleep. We purposely chose an afternoon appointment (12:20pm) so that we wouldn't have to feel stressed trying to get everyone up and ready. Amber did a wonderful job on my hair and had enough time remaining to do Marah & Bethany's hair (and her own, of course).

My parents and I headed to the temple where we met up with Jon & Dad Blood. It was kind of awkward for both of us--that weird "not quite married, but really, really close" stage. We got all the paperwork settled and then went our separate directions to get ready.

Being with my mom in the Bride's Room was another of my favorite parts of the day. We had to be careful not to catch each others eyes in the mirror or we'd both tear up. Even though there were lots of other brides getting ready, too, I felt like it was a special time just for me and my mom.

It didn't take long to get ready. My dress fit just like it was supposed to, meaning that it was incredibly tight. I spent most of my time in a state of overheated asphyxiation. And my bustle broke, but it didn't bother me too much. I just had to carry my train the rest of the day.

My very favorite part of our wedding day was waiting with Jon in the Celestial Room while our friends and family were gathering in the sealing room. It was so nice to have a quiet moment to enjoy being together and think about what was about to happen. I never felt nervous--just very calm and happy.I wish I could remember everything more clearly, but the day was a blur. I loved kneeling across the alter from Jon and knowing that I would get to be with my best friend forever. The ceremony was simple, but powerful and beautiful. I'm so glad so many of our friends and family could be there with us.

From the time we walked out of the temple together until our reception ended that night, we were constantly doing something. Pictures, then our luncheon, then a brief break before the reception. We barely had time to eat, and I have absolutely no memory of what our cake tasted like (but it looked amazing). It was crazy, but in a good way. Neither of us had anything to stress about--we just got to enjoy our day and visit with our friends and family.It was an exhausting, but wonderful day. There's nothing I would have changed--everything was perfect.

THE END

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