Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind. ~Mary Ellen Chase

You may wonder if I have suffered some sort of time lapse (which wouldn't be too terrible a concern because I CAN, as you know, control time). This time I have not though. For me, the official start-date of Christmas music is October 31. Some people say that I am not paying proper respect to Thanksgiving...but find me a song (not written by Adam Sandler) about Thanksgiving and I will listen to it as well :) Alas, the Thanksgiving music genre is sadly lacking in songs... Since this is the case, I begin listening to Christmas Music on October 31!
My favorite Christmas music ever is Trans-Siberian Orchestra!! I will probably periodically post different videos...but for right now, my favorite is the one that is Wizards in Winter paired with an awesome light show!

Happy Holiday Music Listening!!

"I'll bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween." Author Unknown

Its Halloween!! Honestly though, Halloween doesn't really hold much excitement for me. Although tonight I DID go to a fun party :)
It seems to me though, that Halloween is just one big excuse...

1. An excuse to eat wayyyy to much candy
2. An excuse to dress up in scandalous clothes. Apparently the shorter and lower the better??
3. An excuse to get incredibly drunk
4. An excuse to dress babies up in costumes that they actually hate wearing!
5. An excuse to put fake blood all over yourself

Ahh, but Halloween isn't all bad. I would sound very bitter and negative if I left it at that, so I won't! Halloween also brings so many great things too!!

1. You get to eat wayyyy too much candy!
2. You get to dress up! (If you like that kind of thing)
3. With Halloween comes fall, and with fall comes:

• Baking with pumpkin
• Jackets
• Colorful trees
• Soup
• Hot Chocolate
• Seeing your breath outside

4. Bonfires
5. Music like Thriller, Twilight Zone, and Ghostbusters
6. Very very cute children who really DO like their Halloween costumes

Okay Dev, okay, Halloween is actually kind of cool.... I'm going to go ahead and say that it doesn't make my list of top 5 favorite holidays, but I could definitely think of many more worse ways to spend a Saturday night :)

(I just hope that the highly intoxicated and very high people in my apartment complex will mind their own business as much as I am!! As of right now, two drunk people have tried to walk into our apartment. Thank heavens for good deadbolt locks!)

I May or May Not Have....

Ok...due to the fact that I have been SLACKING on my blogging...I'm going to give you the quick bulleted update on my life since my last post:

• Ross got his mission call!! Congratulations Ross! Utah Ogden! We were in Rolla at the YSA conference so he called us and put us on speaker :) Listen closely, I'm totally in the youtube vid. Ross I'm so proud of you!!
  

• Ah yes, the YSA conference. We had quite a blast, with our stoplight tees and everything! Pictures to come!

• Halloween!! Whats Halloween without pumpkin carving?! I would love to take credit for ET...but alas, that was Kristen - she is the pumpkin master. Woody doesn't look half bad though eh?
• A new niece!! (Why do all of these have exclamation points...?) Haley and Jon's newest, Isla Alyse, was born this month! She is so precious, and I cannot wait to meet her!!
• Thesis update: I am now on track to defend BEFORE THANKSGIVING!! As long as I can keep this pace up, I will be done with this blasted thing SOON!!!

• Dear Washington, Its been 5 long years since we've seen each other, but I am officially on my way back. Its official - I'm moving to Vancouver! I got my placements this week. Well, I know at least what school district I'll be in for the first 6 weeks (i'll learn which school this week hopefully), then for the medical placement I'll be in a subacute care setting (convalescent center) working with a lot of Dysphagia! I am so incredibly excited. I wish that you were not 34 hours away however. So close, but yet so far...nope, its actually just so far... Love Dev

• I am STILL loving work - and now I'm officially on the website! Check it out! Thanks Kiely for taking the picture - we had a blast!
  

Its coming...

I've always been one to countdown. I usually start at like, 93 days before Christmas, or something. Today, the countdown is short. Only one more day till ROOT CANAL WEDNESDAY!! Why, you may ask, am I counting down as if it was comparable to Christmas? Because, I may answer, if it takes away this dang pain it will be nearly as exciting as Christmas....but only NEARLY. For now, the pain medicine the dentist prescribed is doing the trick, but I am anxiously awaiting a more permanent solution :)