photo montage of halloweekend

when i read blogs, all i really want to see is pictures. when it is 11 pm and i'm feeling like an old lady, its hard to conjure up the words to explain myself. halloween 2011. i will just say it was great. dressing up for no reason at all is all the reason i need and spending the day working at a peds office is great because parents would much rather go to their child's costume parade than have a doctor swab their throat! anyways, here's the pics, feel free to connect the dots! 

 i carved a pumpkin. sometimes i dream of getting this exact image tatooed on the bottom of my foot.

 biker chick. belle. meg. (disney should probably make a movie about a member of hell's angels. they've missed that one!)

we spent some time crafting boys' halloween costumes. meet chester. the real question is does his parole officer know he's out for a night on the town?

but he brought candy, so we didn't ask too many questions. good thing he'd already found his lost puppy earlier that day...

 us and said rat. which is more disturbing? you be the judge.

 family halloween party! the convict escaped!

 next year i might have to jump on that morphsuit bandwagon. but to snag a physique like harrison i think my diet will have to start tomorrow...

 this baby.

 living dead!

 this baby was not enjoying my company

 cat lady for halloween. (next year?)

 let the games begin!

 i don't advise trying to compete with the creative stylings of food a la virchow family.

 case and point.

 mixing up the costumes! notice that full bowl of dark chocolate mint 3 musketeers- the rejects of halloween candy and the last thing sitting on the candy shelves of the grocery store at 6:45 halloween night!

attempting to capture the disney theme with kelsey's disneyland license plate... yeah.

it was good times all around... and i can't believe tomorrow is november first and that means winter and snow in the forecast tomorrow.
that is another thing for which i have no words.
happy halloween, friends.

a whole month of thankful starts tomorrow.

trick or treat. or rat.

late last night the doorbell rang. we'd just come home from a halloween party and were doing what any sensible girls would be doing after a long night of your run of the mill byu dance party.

exfoliating with face masks! 

caked in green creamy stuff we told jennifer to go answer the door. she did. 

she opened the door to find a pumpkin with a note attached. she read us the note. from the bathroom, we yelled at her to open the pumpkin and she what was inside. she removed the top and, well, this sewer dweller looked up with beady little eyes.

we screamed. we slammed the door. we ventured out again. i uttered some choice words and the tricksters came out of hiding. 

don't worry, it was just our home teachers. (aka guys from church)

they took back their rat and wreaked havoc upon more girls, i'm sure. 

happy halloween! i hope something as awesome as finding a rat in a pumpkin happens to you.

start spreading the news.

third time's a charm. that's what they say, right?

three years at byu and three major changes. ayyy! hopefully this is the end all of these changes. freshman year i was a biology major. i was going to be a dentist and that was the plan.

sophomore year i was a pre-dietetics major. i was going to be a dietetician, and that was the plan.

junior year, well, welcome to the new plan.

a couple days ago i was laying on the couch watching forks over knives, yet another documentary about food production in the us. (watch it. it's really great.)

i zoned out for a minute as my mind drifted to the ever present question of what exactly i wanted to do with my life. then it came to me, and all of a sudden everything just started to make sense. public health.  what hadn't i thought of it before? when i was a dietetics major, i told everybody that in the end, i wanted to educate about health and whole foods, work internationally, and do something with early childhood nutrition. while you could probably do something like that with dietetics, mostly an entry level dietician is going to be working in a hospital telling diabetics what they can and can't eat. red flag. wrong major.

anyways, thats the sitch and although i won't be done with school for ten years, i'm still breathing a sigh of relief.

and bought my copy of mylo xyloto. (and i suggest you do the same!)

is that the wasatch?

if you ask me, the mountains that shelter provo to the east are the best part about the place. 

i thought i'd seen fall before i'd moved here... but mostly i was just accustomed to the gradual browning of the boise foothills. last week when i drove around the point of the mountain and into utah county my jaw about dropped. i had to remember to look at the road once in awhile and peel my eyes off the red and yellow mountains. before i went home i thought fall was basically over- heck it had snowed almost to the base of the mountains and when mt timp is covered, you kind of know to kiss fall goodbye. but i was wrong! fall pulled through. good job.

first world problems.

if november is the season of thankfulness....
then i should probably get this all out of my system before october bails.

yet another little list

today at work i compiled a montage of all the reasons my job can be pretty dang awkward. i don't know what is worse- the things i find myself saying, the things i find myself doing, or the things i find myself thinking. i will let you decide. but really- i've posted about a lot of the "happenstances" at work time and time again, but they just seem to get better and better. so here i go, divulging what happens from the other side of the counter.

1. the fact that one of my jobs is to check people out... and i say things like "i can check you out over here!" "you're all checked out!" or "i just checked you out". oy.
you can only say this to so many five year olds before you start creeping yourself out a little bit.

2. those parents. the ones who call for an emergency stubbed toe.
the ones who painstakingly spell out their last name.
the last name is smith.  S......M......I.....T..............H.
the ones who give WAY too much information... use your imagination.
the ones who give no information.
"and what are we seeing your child for today" "i think they're sick" ok. awesome.
the ones who think you are best friends.
"oh hey alyssa, it's me again. hailey's mom!" (hailey who...)
the celebrity families. notorious for their style, number of children, booming voices, craziness, or ability to dismantle an entire waiting room before they are even checked in. or all of the above.

hands down my favorite parent.

3. asking people if the urine sample they are thrusting towards me is "fresh" and then getting as far away as possible as they try to drop it right off into my hands. thanks.... but no thanks.

4. even more fantastic child names.
rayjin waters
autumn sky
alexandr khristian (neither black nor rapper)
and my favorite family of trees: aspen, autumn, everett, ivy, and oakley. true life!

5. the stickers. oh, those stickers. if i have one piece of advice to offer up, it is probably this. never ever ever ever touch the stickers at the doctor's office. i am quite positive that every single symptom and syndrome can be found on that special box of princess stickers. the throaty coughers hack all over them. the boogery kids wipe their noses then dive right into the bucket. whole boxes get stuck in toddlers' mouths. never touch them unless you're trying to leave with a souvenir of a whole different strain.

in other news, i still don't know what i should be for halloween. it has got to be good. i've got to wear it to work and the children have got to like it! i want witty. i want comfortable. i want some great ideas!

i made applesauce. i am going to make my children their own baby food. i will probably eat more of said baby food than the actual baby.

i probably spent the last hour trying to figure out how to use spotify since i am getting the vibe that pandora is so.... 2010. it's just me, getting with the times!

did i tell you i drive a van? it is awful. dreadful.

happy almost friday... big plans this weekend! working. hiking. continuing my college drop out bumminess. making hummus and more soup. a recap will most definitely ensue.

i'm locked out. it's cool

having wifi rules. 

so does having your car held hostage in boise.
followed by having the privilege of driving your mom's minivan back home. (to utah? where is home? who am i?)
but only as much as having zero music the entire time and resorting to super classy josh groban for the last four hours. yep. that desperate. josh, your spanish accent could use a little work.

i guess i should preface that all by saying i made a special trip to boise this weekend. my car needed a little tlc, my teeth needed the plaque scraped off, and my sisters had a homecoming dance i needed to take pictures of. high school is great place.

i drove down on thursday.
brought greek food to my mom, spied on her class, and watched kourtni and lindsay in homecoming court on friday.

me and the models. but really

i just found this on the camera and laughed a lot. 

went on a long run with my parents, ate gourmet fries and burgers, and played paparazzi for homecoming on saturday

purple fries. totally normal.

idaho fry co.... i was a little skeptical, but it was gooood

just passing the time, taking pictures of my home/farm.

the parents

the couple

cutest baby. i just couldn't pick only one

:) or should i say >:(3)

this picture is proof you should never ask a sixteen year old boy to take a picture

clearly, enough was enough.

and then drove home in the ss honda odyssey today.
what a weekend! upon arriving home, i was greeted by letters from two of my missionary pals. two! i never get letters. what are the odds? elder pittson sent me this beauty

"i included a picture i found of you being all vegetarian and whatnot." classic. i miss my buddies.
have a wonderful week... and bear with me as i try to change the layout of this blog over the next few days... it needs an update.

fall drive

it was a good sunday... fall, can you stay a couple more weeks, please? 

obviously, the canyon is a pretty great place during september and october

after this week's snow scare, we decided we might as well milk the prettiness for all it's worth...

and i really just wanted to play with my camera.

it was great to catch up with friends

and reminded me just how lucky i am to be where i am, do what i am doing, and learn what i am learning. 

it's a good life.

split pea soup.

the cold weather caught me off guard at first when it kidnapped my high 80s temps, but now i think i've developed stockholm syndrome.... its fine. it's also fine that i had to google ("fall in love with kidnapper" to remember what that was called. i love technology) hey, anything that gives me an excuse to unpack my sweaters and lay on my couch cocooned in a blanket. 

october has made me mildly obsessed with two things right now.

soup.

 and pumpkin. (per chef kelsey.. heaven forbid i bake something)

have you ever tasted a split pea? my guess is yes... when you were about 18 months old and your mom was doing her own rendition of "here comes the plane". lets just say the split pea bin at sunflower market intrigued me this week. after this soup, well, i'm a believer.

split pea soup
serves 2

1 c split peas, picked over, rinsed
1/2 onion, chopped
spoonful of coconut oil
2.5 c water
small potato, chopped
medium carrot, chopped
dried basil
dried oregano
dried parsley
s + p

1. on medium heat, saute onion in coconut oil. salt and cook for 2 minutes
2. add peas, water, potato, and carrot. bring to boil, then reduce to simmer
3. add all spices to taste- i never measure. simmer until vegetables are soft, but split peas are still toothsome.
4. pour half the soup into a blender and blend to baby food consistency (sick... but delicious) return blended soup to pan and mix together, adding copious amounts of salt and pepper.
5. dish up. don't burn your tongue!

some suggestions for you.

there are some serious things happening this week. 

if your area code is 801, you probably better be pulling out the sweaters and dusting off the snow shovels. utah is ridiculously funny... like i am pretty sure it was in the mid 80s on monday. now it's snowed past the y. i wonder if fall ever feels a little short-changed? the weather today made me pull out all the stops. i think it was completely understandable, too. ie fuzzy socks. heat on full blast in the car. leftover chili and cornbread. hoodies. google searches for sweet potato recipes and more soup. 

monday. 82 degrees

wednesday. 43 degrees.

when you ask a girl on a date, it's probably a good idea to not wear your favorite sweat pants. sure, i understand they are your favorites and your steelers sweatshirt your friend picked up at a flea market is screaming classy, but it does nothing but give aforementioned girl another good story for her date stories vaunt. lets just be real for a couple minutes. or a couple hours.

steve jobs passing led me to find this commencement speech he did at stanford in '05. that guy was probably the definition of real. it is what i needed to hear, and maybe what you need to hear too! (and makes me feel even less bad about being a college dropout.) my suggestion is to listen to it while folding your laundry. therapeutic! 

i bought peaches from a fruit stand... best peaches of my life. today i was feeling like a cross between a squirrel prepping for winter/hibernating bear as i sliced them up, doused them in lemon and sugar, and threw them in the freezer in preparation for the doldrums of winter and those days when you'd give anything for a ripejuicy. do you hear that? i think the fruit stand on 800 n in orem is called to you.