Fall Things. And A Few Confessions

October is my favorite month. I love fall, halloween, crunchy leaves and all things spooky. However I wasn't feeling it too much.. Staying inside working can really suck the seasonal spirit right out of you.. so I made a pledge to get out more and make October full of festive fun. 

That very day I got a call from my sister. She invited Sterling and I to Lagoon for Frightmares. 

Lagoon is a theme park that I've gone to ever since I was little. 

Every October they decorate it for Halloween, have spooks walk around scaring, and even set up haunted houses. Fog fills the air and they always have the best creepy music playing. 

 It's always so much fun, and I hadn't been in a few years! 

When she invited me I initially said no since my new rent is more expensive and I didn't want to over spend on things that weren't a necessity. But, my little sister Sarah is quite convincing and even found me a buy one get one free coupon. 

So we were in. 

Confession: This was actually the first time in many many years that I hung out with my little sister.

Truth is, I'm still learning how to be a daughter, sister, and friend. I'm lucky to have people who are patient with me. 

I don't know what it is, but I have an extremely hard time being myself around people.

But I am working on it. 

Anyways... we had so much fun. 

We got there and went on the Rocket first thing. 

Confession: I'm a screamer. 

And everyone knows it now.

From the time I sat down and got strapped, in I screamed. 

Blood curdling screams. 

People laughed, people stared... but whatever. 

Ice was broken, everyone now knows.. I scream like a banshee on rides.

Sterling sings theme song music and pretends he's superman... 

we all have different ways of coping. 

Confession: Dracula's Castle is a dorky little spook ride, but it's been my absolute favorite since I was a child!

It's a little car ride where obvious robots with rubber masks pop up and try to make you scream. Sure it was scary when I was little, but now I just love it. I called it the Tunnel Of Love as we drove in. Something about the spooky rides are so inspiring to me. Just looking at the outside of the castle I wanted to draw, paint, and get all of the symbols tattooed.

I'm never sure if I look like my family... but my sisters and I all have the same green eyes.

Oh my goodness. 

The. Kid. Behind. Us.

Adults are so gross!

It was seriously so much fun hanging out with Sarah and Jayce one on one. We discovered that Sarah and I do theme parks the same way. We ride every single ride we can, power walk through it, (sometimes we run) and we stay until the very possible last moment. Now knowing this we have got to plan a trip to Disneyland.

On a side note, we all discovered that we are indeed adults. Spinny rides now make us sick. I always thought that was just something adults said just to be boring. Nope. It's true. As you get older, spinny rides make you sick. And it isn't fun.

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Coming Out On Top

I'm extremely frustrated today. Little Miko pooped in the house this morning and tracked it everywhere, and Wicket peed in the house 4 times yesterday. I'm pretty frustrated that Wicket is marking in the house suddenly, and that the puppy pooped a lot, all while Sterling was in the room and didn't notice to correct him! Oh. I'm so frustrated. I've done so much laundry these last few days.. I couldn't think of a good blog post for today since I'm so mad, so I figured I would share something that happened about a week or so ago.

Last week, Sterling and I set out for a quick shopping adventure. I wanted to run to a few stores and grab an enclosed pet bed for Nubi, and a heated blanket for Wicket. This was before the heater got fixed, and the pets were really unhappy! So we set out thinking we would only spend about $50.00 on this whole ordeal.
We got in the car, started it, and heard some odd noises. Like a scraping and snapping. We kept driving as we noticed parts of the car slowly going out. The lights, the radio, the power steering, the car was slowly dying! It was nuts. We decided to go as far as we could and look for a car shop along the way.
I had been texting my mom at the time about going over to her house for dinner or something. As the car died in the middle of an intersection, I replied, "Well, looks like I won't be going anywhere.. The car just died."
I had no idea how much this would cost to fix. We would have to get it towed, then wait for some bad news, and pay money and wait. The entire day would be ruined!
My mom texted me back with the number of our neighbor who sometimes fixes cars. I hated to bother him, but I gave him a call.
The next thing that happened was awesome.
All of the sudden, my parents showed up, my neighbor showed up and so did his wife. They towed the car back to my old neighborhood growing up, and my parents took me to the auto shop to buy the supplies for the car.
The parts would have only cost us 50.00, but my dad offered to pay. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for that.. since it was right at the beginning of the month when rent was due..

We then went to the old neighborhood where our neighbor was getting ready to fix it. A belt snapped, and he could have it fixed in a short time. I asked how much, and he said not to worry about it. (I still want to bring him cookies!)

Sterling and I went two houses over to my parents house who were planning on going to the Renaissance Fair and asked if we wanted to go along. So, Sterling and I went on an awesome double date with my parents.

We watched jousting, ate kettle corn, looked at booths and actually had a fun day. My dad and Sterling talked about archery. Sterling has always been interested, and so has my dad! So, when we got back, my dad gave Sterling a bow that he had made! It was awesome to see.. and Sterling is pretty excited about it.

That day was incredible, and had such potential to be bad. For the first time in a very long time I was able to hand my problems over to someone else and let someone else help me.

The drive back Sterling and I kept talking about how awesome my parents are for the day they gave us, and the help. We decided we should double date more often.

And as we were close to our original destination hours and hours later, we stopped for the blanket and the bed, and only spent about $50.00 total that day.

I'm beyond grateful for my family and friends lately. It's nice to feel loved and taken care of.



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Babies!

 My older sister is having a baby, and today we had a little baby shower for her. 

For decoration we hung up the clothing that she had made for him, and my little banner. 

It was lots of fun and Kate got lots of cute stuff for her baby.

One of her gifts was a cute photo album of her when she was a teenager. 

I thought this was a cute picture.. we look like babies! 

This is us trying to look pretty for prom.

Kate is in the beautiful gold dress, and I'm in the plaid one with the gloves and flip flops. 

I'm also carrying a top hat.

I thought I was cool back in 2004. 

And speaking of babies.. 

This little guy crawled onto my lap! 

I was terrified. I'm not too good with babies.

I think he thought my hair was candy. 

I guess I'll have to get used to babies a bit since I'm soon to be an aunt! 

A Quick Craft Night

It's been a busy week here.

Lots has been going on.

Illustrating the book.. (I'm about 95% done!!) 

Editing photos..

building the website..

and so much more.

My days are packed.

I took the night off tonight to make a banner for my sister's babyshower this weekend. 

I sat on the floor in sweatpants surrounded by buttons, ribbon and craft paper.

Gluing, cutting and exclaiming, "AH! That's why it's called a HOT glue gun."

Ouch.

But it's completed and adorable. 

And it's been a while since I've had a little craft night like tonight. 

I'll be posting pictures of the actual baby shower soon after it happens.

And for now, here is a bit of inspiration for this beautiful Friday. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Wicket and I spent Thanksgiving with my family this year.

I had him wear his Sunday Best... because, you know.. chihuahua

Little dogs get to be dressed up.

I told him, "Once a year.. on Holidays."

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving. 

We ate delicious food, and spent time as a family.

Wicket had fun meeting my parent's cats. 

He also enjoyed running around the backyard and eating turkey. 

Then Wicket and I went home and napped. 

(Wicket and I pouting together about being dressed up)

Dinner minus me.

Pie!