Then I entered the awkward days of Junior High. Too cool for a costume. Go to a friend's house and watch a scary movie. That's the thing young teens are expected to do. I used my mom as an excuse and claimed to hate Halloween. Because all "grown-ups" hate Halloween. Pssh. Trick-or-Treating is for babies. Right?
Fortunately, I made some friends who kept me young at heart. At 16-years-old, it was okay to go trick-or-treating again. Sure, we got many, "Aren't you too old for this?" remarks, but who wants to gain the reputation as the old witch who wouldn't give a kid candy? We took full advantage of Halloween to reinforce the stereotype of the annoying teen. Loud, obnoxious, but harmless. :)
Although Utah State is renowned for The Howl, its epic Halloween party, I felt like it was nothing more than an excuse for college girls to dress as scantily as society will allow and a holiday where a whole lot of no-good was doomed to happen. The last two years, I never got around to dressing up. I was indifferent to the whole idea.
But at this point in my LIFE, I have begun to figure out why my mom said Halloween was her least favorite of the holidays...and I realize I misunderstood her reasoning.
The whole concept of Halloween is rather corrupt and polluted...and practically pointless. That's what my mom doesn't like about Halloween. But I believe there is a spirit of Halloween. :) Not a devil-worshipping type of spirit, but a wholesome spirit! And it's exciting!
Here are my thoughts. What would our lives be like without holidays? After a summer of care-free and whimsy, I countdown the days until school starts again so that I can put structure back into my LIFE. As soon as I'm back in a routine, I look forward to the moment I can take a day off! It keeps me motivated as I take LIFE one day at a time. Just one more week. Just two more days. I can make it until tomorrow!
Holidays are touch-points. Mile markers, if you will. Society revolves around them!
The last few years my mom has really gotten into Halloween. She decorates our front porch with orange lights and black tinsel and funny spider lights. She used to make our costumes when we were little. She made helped me to be Jasmine, Mary Poppins, Esmerelda, and Captain Catherine Janeway. :) Too cool! She doesn't sew our costumes any more, but she was always okay with us going out and being whoever we wanted to be. We have a family Halloween party where everyone comes over and eats food and the little cousins go trick-or-treating. It certainly makes for a good time.
Phoenix and Erin Kitties at the family Halloween party.
Ben wearing my aardvark ears. :)
I say, why not have a holiday where it's okay to dress up like a silly-goose? It's about lightening up and living LIFE a little bit! It's all in the name of fun. :) It's a form of positive stress relief! The spirit of Halloween is delightful and allows everyone to perk up and be themselves. They can be WHOEVER they want to be for a night, and no one can say anything. It's okay. We can just laugh!
With that, I love My Bill. :) He was willing to loosen up and dress-up with me. I cannot even express to you how happy I was because of it! We had so much fun!
We dressed up as Arthur and D.W. Yes we did. FOR THE WIN!!! It was the most brilliant costume idea and it worked out better than I had ever hoped!
Al and Loraine were having a murder-mystery dinner party at their place and we needed costumes. So we went off to D.I. - the best store in the world! While we were picking out costumes for a murder-mystery novelist, and a mountain climbing enthusiast/architect, we were also keeping our eyes peeled for Arthur and D.W. material. And we found it! I found a pink jumper that I could cut to knee-length and I picked up some little black Mary-Jane's that I fully intended to paint blue. Bill found the perfect yellow sweatshirt and even some white Velcro tennis shoes in his size! Holy toledo! I was so excited!!! We bought some craft paint to paint our shoes and some felt and headbands to make little aardvark ears. :)
D.W. and Arthur
We were adorable. :)
We had a grand ol' time at Al and Loraine's dinner party! We enjoyed Loraine's delicious home-cooking and got to know a few more couples. I was a murderer. Not THE murderer, but I had killed someone in the past...that's what made my murder-mystery novels such a success...I had experience! ;) And I was also a hypnotist in a circus. Go figure.
Bill, of course, was the actual murderer of the evening!!! He knew from the very beginning!!! He played his part well and was one sly dog faking to be the illegitmate child of Sir Astrid. Not everyone was convinced it was Sir Roger B. Astrid when it came time to frame a party member, but hedunnit all the same. :)
Roger B. Astrid and Dame Bigh
Have I ever mentioned how much we love our ward? It's full of good people and lasting friends! President Berg, Bill's twin, planned a ward Halloween party. Everyone brought chili (we cheated....and dumped six cans of chili into our crock pot...and added a few things to spice it up. Heh heh.). And we had a fashion show! Everyone was so creative!
The Birds and the Bee
The Mermaid, the Baby Fish, and the Fisherman
The Puppet Show!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Count Dracula and a Witch
Pirates!
Bishop and Sister McMahon
We played the most intense game of Jenga on record and a rousing game of Clue. I held the Jensen's new little baby girl and Bill crawled around the gym floor with baby Maggie, the ward pet. :) When we first moved into the ward, every time we saw Maggie, she was with a different couple. We weren't quite sure who she really belonged to! :) Our good friend, J.J. Butler affectionately dubbed her as the ward pet. We each take turns taking care of her, just as you would a class pet.
David taking his turn at Jenga
Maggie and Arthur
After reading a blog post, Bill learned how to make our own fog machine! All it required was glycerin and water and a little bit of heat. We were set on trying it, so after a crazy run around town looking for glycerin (which you can only buy in the pharmaceutical area, by the way) we gathered up all the materials to make our very own fog machine. We experimented with it all night while listening to the music from the happenin' Halloween dance party in our parking lot. We love being surrounded by single student housing. :)
The next night we invited Kyle and Kristi Allred over to Sunday dinner at our place. We had some great conversation and got to know them a lot more. The Allreds' LOVE Bill. They ADORE him. They think he is the bee's knees! They always sit by us in Sunday School and we do quite a bit together as couples. It's really fun, and I love how much they admire Bill. It makes me laugh. And I feel that much more honored to call Bill my husband. :)
Kristi and Kyle - carving pumpkins!
We carved pumpkins after dinner and Bill thought it would be cool to somehow place the fog machine inside a jack-o'-lantern and watch the fog billow out of it! It kind of worked...
See the fog?
Somewhere in October we also went on a double date with our good friends Michelle Pfost and Chris Roche - some of our very favorite people. We had steaks over at our place and talked for a long while. Then we made our way over to Cache Valley's annual Pumpkin Walk! It was so fun to see all the creativeness that exudes in the valley. :)
Oh we're walking to the Pumpkin Walk!
Angry Birds!
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tigger
Plants versus Zombies!
Michelle and I with Tangled!
A scene from "The Christmas Story"
Me, Chris, and Bill
Yoda
Also, October marks the month I finally discovered the goodness of Pinterest. Inspiration station! I found the directions to make a cute little ghost decoration, and I actually went through with it. It hung above our table all throughout October. He brought much happiness to our home.
The importance of networking has been reaffirmed to me again and again. Getting a job is all about who you know. Bill has been working closely with the owner of AlphaGraphics of Cache Valley for quite some time. One day Bill and James were talking and somehow the topic of conversation turned to the fact that I'm majoring in Graphic Design and minoring in Marketing. James was very interested in this fact and had been thinking about taking on an "intern" for quite some time. He asked Bill if he thought I would be interested in such a position.
So Bill came home and talked with me about the opportunity. I was flattered and absolutely hesitant. I loved working for USU Housing, not because of what my job entailed, but because of the people I worked with. They were my second family. My Housing job was also consistent and fit perfectly around my school schedule. I didn't want to give all that up. An internship seemed terribly risky at the point in my LIFE.
After thinking about it for a couple of days and after talking with Bill, I realized that it would be terrible to let this opportunity pass me by. Although I love Graphic Design, I don't have any experience within the field to place on a resume. To get hired on anywhere as a Graphic Designer, a big thing they look for is experience. James also offered to pay me the same wages that I made at Housing. I wouldn't be losing any income. My risks were not as high as I had previously thought.
I finally met with James face to face and he explained to me a little more about what the internship would entail. We looked at my schedule and realized that I would certainly be able to work it around my school schedule. It would be a little crazy, but very doable! If I was willing, they would like to see me start as soon as possible.
Without a lot of notice, I talked to my supervisor Christy at Housing and let her know of the good and bad news. Good in that I had this wonderful opportunity ahead of me...and bad because I would be leaving. I told her on Wednesday. Our boss, Jason, okayed, it on Thursday. They found another gal to fill my position, and my last day at Housing was that Friday. Wow! When things need to change...it will happen.
The Lord is always giving us opportunities to stretch and to grow and to get out of our comfort zones. It's incredibly hard for me, but I've realized that I have NEVER regretted any decision I've made that requires me to grow. The Lord really does know what it best for us! We just have to be willing to put our faith in Him.
And now I am an employee of AlphaGraphics. I really do love it there! There are some dull moments...looking for things to do to keep me busy, but I've had some exceptional opportunities I know I would not have been able to gain anywhere else. A lot of changes have happened in the business in the short time that I've been there, and I've been able to learn and grow with everyone else. It was a good time to come in and join the team! And I really do love the people I work with. They each have extremely different personalities, but I enjoy getting to know them. :) They are great individuals!
I didn't realize how jam-packed October truly was! But it was a fun experience as a couple and a window of opportunity for personal growth.
Happy Christmas Adam everyone. :) I'm almost caught up!
1 comment:
hooraaaaayyyy for Halloween! Love it! You guys DID look adorable!
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