Happy Halloween!

Halloween is apparently a big deal in my office.  Half of the people here are running around in costume (my devil horns are currently on my desk, but I did bring them).  There's a spook alley with lots of black plastic, a giant inflatable grim reaper (we're talking 8 feet tall) and a thunderstorm soundtrack playing 3 aisles over from me.  I hate to think about the amount of black plastic currently gracing the halls of our buildings here.  It's pretty sweet, actually.  There's a space decorating contest this afternoon.  After the pumpkin carving and costume contests, but before everyone brings in their children to trick-or-treat through the office.  We don't get much work done on Halloween.  Sweet.

So yesterday, I had the sweetest birthday surprise from Steph, Rae and Boo... a BEAUTIFUL flower arrangement with birthday balloons currently sitting on my desk and surrounding me with the scent of lilies.  I love lilies.   See, I usually like to fly under the radar with my birthday at the office.  But the front desk ended up calling my boss to let me know about the delivery, so he was upset that I hadn't mentioned it since he and Sara wanted to take me out to lunch and it was already like 3pm.  Then, carrying it through the halls and elevator to my desk was like an Olympic event.  This thing, including balloons, is about as tall as I am.  So now I have a giant "Happy Birthday" mylar balloon towering over my desk.  All of a sudden everyone comes by and asks, "is today your birthday?"  Sudden flashes of Bill Engvall.  Nope, it's not my birthday, just wanted to send myself some flowers and balloons to see how many people would ask.  Here's your sign.  Anyway, I love it!  Thank you girls!

Last night, as a little celebration, I went over to Mel and Vic's and Dustin joined us as well.  We made pizza, carved a pumpkin, and indulged in a little cake and a classic scary movie, "The Haunting."  The classic ones are usually pretty suspensful for me since they never actually show anything, but I have a very active imagination so I fill in the blanks quite nicely.  Anyway, Angelina and I had a great time carving the pumpkin while the guys were getting the movie.  We decided to personalize it a bit.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Vic-o-Lantern!  The funny thing is, the more you look at it, the more it looks like Vic!  (Before he shaved his goatee again last weekend.  lol).

After the pumpkin, we had cake, and apparently a little test to see not only what kind of shape you can make with a box of candles (Vic... hey, there are only 24 candles in this box!  Me... well, that's because I'm only 24, silly!), but how many people it takes to light them all.

After examination, it was determined that the shape of the candles slightly resembled the Eiffel Tower if you looked at it a certain way, but really looks more like the radiation symbol.  lol.  In any case, I blew out all the candles, so lets see if that wish comes true :D

Thanks everyone for a wonderful birthday!  The rest of the pictures are here.

More Halloween Fun

Yesterday, Rick and Erin drove down from Rexburg with Ben to visit for the weekend.  Ben is getting so big!  And he's more adorable every day.  Those big blue eyes are irresistible. 

So after they got here, we put on our costumes and met up with Mel, Vic and Angelina in Sandy.  Mel made her famous guacamole while Vic transformed himself into a bumblebee with very cool goggles.  Angelina began practicing her witches' cackles (with the help of my brother.  Scary).  Once we were fully prepared, we all jumped in cars to caravan over to a Halloween party at Jason and Candice's house.  I drove my horribly squeaking car (which I managed to get fixed this afternoon... too much stuff in the trunk = bad links in my rear suspension, apparently.  Bleh.)  That aside, we got there just as everyone was starting to show up.  Good music, great costumes, tasty treats.  To the right, we have the beautiful Forsyth family.  Someone attempted to off them all during a cut-throat game of Murder in the Dark, however.  One after another.  Apparently someone there had a secret vendetta.  I actually ended up being the last person left other than the murderer.  We seem to have neglected to get another detective into the mix at the beginning.  It was fun, though.

Dustin managed to walk away with honors for the evening  with his "Funniest Costume" win in the costume contest.  I, on the other hand, only succeeded in leaving a trail of red feathers everywhere I went.  I suppose that's just a side-effect of the angel / devil thing.  LOL.

Anyway, only 3 more days until Halloween!  (2 more days until my birthday)  But who's counting ;)  The rest of the pictures have been added to my Halloween album :)

Witches' Night Out

As part of the countdown to the fabulous holiday that is Halloween, Melody, Angelina and I went to Witches' Night Out at Gardner Village on Saturday night .  I had absolutely no idea what to expect, but it turned out to be totally cool.  There were cars lined up and down the street dropping off women, most of whom were dressed like witches.  We weren't dressed up, but Julie brought a hat that Angelina wore.  It was funny, she was totally afraid of the witches until she had her own witch hat, and then she was cool with it.  She was adorable, as usual.

We wandered around, did a little window-shopping in the cute little shops they have there, entered some drawings (Angelina won a doorprize in the scrapbook store!  Too bad it was an issue of CK that Mel already had.  Angelina loves it, though, going through and pointing out all of the ads and layouts that she thinks are pretty.)  We also went into the spa and got our fortunes told.  It was actually kind of spooky!  We all walked away going, how could they have known that?  Totally worth the wait in line.  Now to wait and see if they come true! 

More pictures here.

Back Again!

Just got back from Paris yesterday and it was awesome!  I had such a great time.  Right now it almost feels like I've never been gone, which is a feeling I hate... I wish there was more time to savor things before getting back to reality, but I guess that's just the way it goes.  I've been thinking about what to post about the trip, but honestly, if I tried to do a re-cap it would end up about 20 pages long so I'm just posting my top 3 moments of the trip:

3.  Getting stuck in the elevator going up to our rooms on Saturday night.  The steamy appearance to the picture is defintely appropriate (Vic... cough cough... lol).

 

2.  Melody and her waffle in Brussels.  Dustin picked this as his #1 moment and honestly it's a tough call, but right now I'm keeping it at #2.  We just turned around to find her stopped in the street, covered with chocolate from trying to eat her waffle and walk at the same time.  I'm not sure which was funnier to me... Melody or Dustin's reaction to Melody.  Way too funny.

1.  The boat ride on the Grand Canal in the gardens at Versailles.  We rented a row-boat and took it out for a spin.  All of us took our turns at the oars, but the combination of Melody and I turned out to be extremely humourous.  I thought Dustin was going to cry he was laughing so hard.  Which, of course, made US laugh harder and the harder we laughed, the harder it got to row.  The kids out there trying to practice their skulling hated us.

All in all, it was an awesome trip.  Next year we're shooting for Italy :D 

More pictures here.

Check!

Ah... I *just* checked off the very last thing on my list of things to do at work before I can leave on vacation tomorrow afternoon.  I busted my butt to plow thru my list early so that I can work from home tomorrow before my flight (AKA finish laundry and pack while I keep an eye on my email).  It feels so good to cross that last little thing off, you know?  So this time tomorrow, I should be boarding my non-stop flight to Paris :D  Of course, I still have about 27 things to do on my other list... the one that doesn't involve work stuff, but that's a different story... lol.  Aside from the Great Binder Clip Debacle that has to be resolved on my way home from work, which involves the local Staples and a pricey receipt error (I'm helping out one of the instructors by taking some supplies over to the convention), it's all easy stuff... like throwing in a load of laundry while I watch opening night of the NHL!  (Yes, I know that the season premier of LOST is tonight, but honestly, I missed so many episodes last season that I figure it's pointless to try and pick it up now).  Besides... these are my Avs we're talking about.  I'm mildly bummed that I'm missing the Caps tomorrow, but hey, small sacrifice ;)  Good times.