All hallows eve.

The ghosts and ghouls are roaming the streets tonight, ringing my doorbell every couple minutes bartering their cuteness for my prized sweets (more widely known as Reece's). This is my first Halloween EVER passing out candy, and so far it's pretty relaxing. It's so fun to see all the little kids costumes and think back to when I used to be allowed to stay up until 11 on Halloween. It was a big deal, guys. The only thing that would make this better is if Kendall wasn't at work.

I'll cheer myself up by enjoying a mug of hot cocoa, some yummy candy, my huge crush on Binx, and my Halloween decorations I threw together today.

I'm pretty proud of my craftiness this season. Not only was I decoration crafty, but Kendall and I were pretty costume crafty as well.

I'm so lucky to have a husband who fuels my unhealthy obsession with all things, specifically Once Upon A Time related. But that's a story for another day!

Happy Halloween!

Western Halloween.

Halloween around these parts, to me at least, means getting down and dirty with some local farm festivals. I have an unhealthy obsession with pumpkin patches, corn mazes, barbecues and pig races, and in October it is out of control. Like, those around me should be scared for their lives if they try to get in the way of me and my farm festivities -- I will take you down. Eventually Kendall had to cave and appease my compulsion, and willingly took me to my all time favorite farm, ever.

SCHNEPF FARMS.

I seriously used to go here every year as a kid, and then we became long-lost friends through my teenage years. Last year, our love affair was rekindled and now all I think about all year is the dusty manure filled air, the surprisingly scary roller coaster, the fluffy goats, and of course, the delicious farm fresh food. I just think that Schnepf embodies everything that I love about October, and brings me back to my roots.

The highlight of our night was sitting behind this boy and his dad on the roller coaster. After the first drop, Kendall exclaimed appropriately that it was a pretty rough ride. The little boy turned around, laughing, and said "that drop made my stomach feel funny!" After the third time around the track, Kendall turned to me and said, "what a great dad. I bet this ride is killing his body, but he's doing it to make his son happy."

Just another reason why I love Schnepf Farms, and will continue to wish every month is October until it comes back to me next year.

Punkin.

Probably the only tolerable part about Kendall's night job is that I get more girl time than I normally would during the week. Luckily, I have great girlfriends that want to spend time with an old married lady like me and try to make plans with me during their hectic weeks. Last week we got together for a Halloween themed pumpkin carving night. Kendall was kind enough to buy us pumpkins and left us some Martinelli's to add a little "sparkle" to our night (cue "awwwws" now).

Seriously, look how flippin' talented we are at the art of pumpkin carving. Those are some professional looking pumpkins. Halloween is my favorite time of year and stabbing the crap out of a pumpkin definitely satisfied my Halloween itch. These girls are so awesome and I'm so glad I was able to spend time with them. There were lots of secrets, gossip and giggles happening up in here. I recommend for all married women to get in some quality girl time -- like pumpkin soup for the soul.

A song for the deaf.

Anyone who knows me knows that music therapy is the perfect career for me. They also know that it abducts me from real life and makes it impossible for me to function throughout the year, which I think is going to be totally worth it in the end. So basically I'm putting the blame on music therapy for my hiatus. 

Sorrynotsorry.

I've always liked to think music is magical, and music therapy allows me to continue that belief in a socially acceptable way. This semester I've been working with children who are deaf and hard of hearing -- I know, it doesn't make any sense, and that's why it makes sense. Music is so much more than I could have ever dreamed in my wild magical dreams. It is so magical that it helped me connect and communicate with children who can't even hear me. It showed me that unicorns and Hogwarts must be real, because music can do the impossible.

As Dumbledore once said, "music, a magic beyond all we do here."

It's been too long...again.

Everyday, I get this overwhelming feeling that there is a part of my life that is missing, and everyday I know that the part of my life I'm missing is journaling and blogging, taking pictures, documenting my life. I tend to get overwhelmed with school, and life in general, and think of blogging as an added layer on my stresscake of a life. Like girls do, I make it out to be way more difficult than it has to be. In reality, blogging helps me to let out how I feel and express myself in a way that my stressful life doesn't allow for!

So, here's to trying, once again, to blog. Consistently. Forever.

And an update of what has been happening at the Lewis and Clark residence.

Basically these last few weeks have been filled to the brim with fall activities, hanging out with the Sirius monster, crafting and knitting, and food. I've been trying to juggle full time school with husband time and housework time, all while not chopping my own head off. I don't know how you girls do it, but I think I'm learning. Slowly.

Sick day.

I woke up this morning feeling absolutely awful. I popped the good pills, and no more than an hour later my pain was back. So, it was a day in bed with my husband for me! Not that I'm complaining about the husband part. As much as I hate being in pain, I love love LOVE watching movies all day in bed with Kendall. Now that I'm stuck here sick, I'm sitting here on the computer trying to decide on a much needed vacation for us over October break. 

Basically, these are our options:

1. Disneyland. Are you surprised? Halloweentime is my favorite ever. The price? Not my favorite ever.

2. Las Vegas. Recently I've seen a lot of people taking vacations there and that they have a lot of fun Halloween themed things! And they're having a sale on hotel rooms.

3. The cabin. Beautiful getaway and free! Not so excited about dealing with spiders again, though.

4. Camping. Again, beautiful and bugs.

5. Any other fun getaways, preferably with a Halloween theme.

Seriously, I don't know what to do. What are some of your favorite Fall vacations?

HELP!

Can you hear the people sing?

I'm not gonna lie, I'm one of those stereotypical musical theater nerds who grew up singing all the soprano solos for Les Miserables and dreamed of one day being able to sit in the front row while listening to real live singers belt those beautiful lyrics and tug my heart strings with those unbelievable chords. Not to mention that Jean Valjean is the musical man of my dreams, and Javert is the musical man of my nightmares. Not enough imagery for ya? Well here are some pictures of my amazing night seeing Les Mis with my wonderful family...before my camera died.

That last one is supposed to show the rest of our family...and that was the best I could do before my camera took it's last breath.

But on a serious note, Les Mis was the bomb dot com. I wanted to go every single night after that to watch it again. I'd probably rank it as my 6th best experience of my life, and I cried at least 53 times, but who's counting?

Highlight of my night: Kendall expressing confusion until I related the characters to Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe. Of course as soon as I related it to a movie a received a huge "OH!" and he was immediately interested. Instead of calling them their stage names, he continued to call them Hugh and Russell through the whole musical. I love my movie nerd of a husband.