The Month of October

I have been scolded soundly and I am here to rectify the situation. Why have I been scolded? Well, when you don't blog for an entire month, you tend to get people frustrated with you.
The only problem my dear readers is that I am out of creative juice, my life is really not all that interesting.
So I suppose I will just have to update on the life of Liz and everything of late.
For the month of October here is what we had happen in no particular order. Firstly, I received my first ever in my life, speeding ticket! I knew one day it would come, I had just never been caught yet ;)
Ok really, I do try to follow the speeding laws but sometimes we all just get a little carried away don't we? Some of us on a Freeway Construction Zone but we all do it. Needless to say, I have improved and if you are the poor person stuck behind my silver car going slow on I-80, you now know why and maybe you should consider also carefully going the speed limit.
Also this past month, I tried out to sing the National Anthem for the Utah Jazz games. Let me just tell you, the idea of singing in front of thousands of basketball attendees and Basketball TV viewers does not scare me but the actual trying out to sing does. I guess because when you want to make it really bad you just psyche yourself out. I think I kind of did that. I headed over to the Energy Solutions arena yet again to sing in front of some unknown person. This was however quite different from my previous experience. With American Idol you are singing by yourself and you're not. Because while you are singing a solo, so is the person at the table next to you and the table next to them and so on and so forth. Not to mention the thousands of hopefuls singing in the sections, bathrooms and wherever they can practice. This tryout you headed on down one section. You were given a number (I believe I was 57) and then you wait while the Anthem is sung over and over and over again. If you weren't sure on the words before then you were definitely now. I was lucky enough to run into an old High School buddy and was able to sit and catch up with her while we waited. I also brought along my sister Mabel for moral support. When they finally call your name. You carefully (very carefully for me considering that fact I wore heels) head down the stairs to the center of the Jazz floor where there is one microphone waiting for you and a table directly in front with four judges. Then you just start singing, alone and hopefully well. All the while with just a little over a hundred people standing behind you listening as well. I felt like I was doing pretty well but then I hit the high note and the nerves came. I never hit any wrong notes but suddenly my voice was a lot shakier than I liked. So they thanked me I turned around and that was it.
A few weeks later a letter came in the mail from the Utah Jazz thanking me for my efforts but unfortunately I did not make it this time. But Hey, I'm glad I did it. You grow each time you try right? Plus, there's always next year! :)
Moving on,
For a while I've been trying to come up with my Halloween costume. I actually had a very clever idea and ended up not doing it. But I had 4 other costumes this year instead. Starting with an early costume party where Stephanie and I headed over both wearing wings (She a Raven, me a Fairy) we ended up making a lot of new friends and taking a million pictures. The next costume was the "Runnaway Bride" where I headed to a family costume party down in Provo and told everyone I am not married yet because I run from marriage. Yeah not really true but it's an easy costume, Wedding dress + Tiara + Tennis shoes = Runnaway Bride. Brilliant! It was fun seeing all the family in their Halloween Glory. Then there was Witches Night Out, a festive tradition that the women in my family do every year over at Gardner Village. This year we dragged Toby and Ian along as well. I don't know if they enjoyed it as much as we did but hey it was fun! I also got to meet up with some of my girlfriend and later all of us, clad in our Witchy Garb headed over to Applebees where we received many a stare and the hostess could not stop giggling. Oh what fun! I also discovered a most delectable salad over at Applebees which I will never forget. An enjoyable evening was had by all.
Also during this lovely month of October I was able to attend two Baby Showers and two bridal showers. Baby shower of Cassie (a baby girl we are excited to meet) and my dear friend Stacia (baby boy!) Bridal showers of my dear sister Sascha (a lovely tea party thrown by her pals) and my soon to be sister-in-law Suzy.
My 4th and final costume was a 1950s poodle skirt wearing girl. I headed to work after painstakingly sleeping on curlers the night before and waking up early to try to create some sort of authentic hair-do on my head. Yeah I don't think it turned out all that well but it was still fun going to work dressed up in something other than "business casual." My friend Brittany and I even went trick o' treating around the Harry Potter themed office. By the way, my Harry Potter name (provided by Marriott) is Elliries Dawntracker or something along those lines ;)
It was actually pretty cool. My work decorated various parts of the building like Harry Potter locations (I.E the Forbidden Forest, Hogwarts, yada yada yada) and we even made the break room look like the Great Hall, candles hanging from the ceiling included! My favorite was definitely the Forbidden Forest where there was a paper Womping Willow and spiders and ghosts (attached to fishing line) fell from the ceiling to attack you if you weren't paying attention. To top it all of, they had a someone impressive Haunted house downstairs. Not too shabby I might add.
A couple of weeks ago we had a pumpkin carving contest at work where you could win a prize. I brought in my carefully crafted pumpkin Medusa and later won for the "Scariest" pumpkin and I got a Marriott Hoodie and a couple of bags of candy. Oh the joy!
Corresponding photos will come later.
Also this month a haunted house trip with my ward where a creepy clown held my hand and I was later shoved into a coffin. That was exciting.
My car has also had some excitement this month with all the different costumes, it's covered in glitter, fake blood, face paint and black hair spray! Not to mention it smells slightly like a pumpkin, I'd say time to get cleaned!
I am sad to say another happening of the month of October is the strange thing going on with my camera that I can't even explain to Canon over the phone so I'll need to send it in and see if I can get it fixed. Wish me luck as I am hoping for that camera to one day be part of my livelihood. This sad occurrence happened when I was taking pictures of my nieces in a pumpkin patch. It suddenly died a horrible death and hopefully can be brought back to life or I might cry. My nieces however are so lovely and the most darling things on the planet. Emma was a princess and Vera was a fairy. They bring a smile to my face each time I see them and I anxiously await the day my new nephew comes into the world, I can't wait!
I think I've about covered everything Brian (he's the one who scolded me)
The only thing missing is Halloween night. I was able to spend a lovely Halloween this year with just my family. We usually as most people know do themes. This year we just winged it. We carved pumpkins while dad videotaped us just like old times. We ate Halloween themed snacks and we went over to the Searles for homemade doughnuts and rootbeer (not going to lie, I ate 8 doughnuts) Then after the kiddies returned from Trick o' Treating, we headed over to the spook alley where Sascha and Ian were performing. Sascha as a Dead Bride and Ian as Frankenstein. I am sorry to say, we made Ian lose character as he could not stop laughing. What a trouper. That was so much fun and luckily we were able to see Susan and Jesse (aka Bob Ross and Happy Tree)
So that was it! That was October for you. I hope you enjoyed it, if you made it this far. And now, Pictures! Yay!

The Raven and the Fairy, who knew they could get along so well

My Award winning pumpkin
Ugly isn't it?

Stacia and I comparing
I don't know why

Stacia's shower
It was a blast and great to see all these people