I was perusing some Facebook photos, and came across these pictures of my sisters that had been taken (courtesy of Tim Przybyla) at a church Halloween party.
Jenna and her ladybug costume:
(Oh... and the beautiful temple in the background is where Doug and I got married!)
Carissa is the one on the left. (Yeah... the one NOT in costume. Tsk tsk...)
I'm startled to see how much she's changed since I last saw her 5 months ago. She looks older... and different... it reminds me of how I felt when I came back home after my first semester of college and found that my brother Ryan had grown several inches and was considerably taller than me.
It makes me miss my family.
Less than two months until Christmas... and we're planning on spending Christmas in Fresno, so I'll see them then!
Jenna will be turning 8 in less than a month. I want so badly to be there for her baptism... but there's no way I could be there with school and travel expenses.
My little sister is growing up without me... and I can only catch glimpses through pictures.
*Update... I will be there for her baptism! She's willing to wait a while until we come to Fresno! Happy day!
Right now, I'm helping with technical aspects of the production "Hello, Dolly!" that Springville High School is putting together. We had a 7 hour set-building party on Saturday, and I had an amusing experience during the course of the day.
The theatre teacher at Springville - Mrs. McKinnon - recently had a baby. Since she is unable to be at school, there is a guy named Christian Cragun subbing for her. He recently graduated from the BYU Theatre Education program, so he is not too much older than me.
Now... on to the amusing story.
I was just going around and doing my thing, when one of the high school boys called out, "Hey! BYU girl!" I have a name you know... but I turned around and gave him a questioning smile.
Kid: "Do you like Mr. Cragun?"
Me: "Who?"
It took me a moment to realize the kid was talking about Christian... because I only call him Christian, not Mr. Cragun.
Me: "Oh, you mean Christian?"
Kid: "Is that his name? So you guys are on a first-name basis, eh?"
Me: "Well, yeah, since we're kinda close in age and we're colleagues..."
Kid: "Yeah. So are you guys, like, dating?"
At this point, I stuck my left hand up in front of his face and wiggled my fourth finger, showing off the gleaming silver ring that encompassed it.
Me: "I'm married."
The poor kid was so embarrassed. He said something along the lines of, "OOOOH, forget that I said that..." and immediately walked away without a second glance. He avoided any eye contact with me for the rest of the day.
Obviously, he has never learned how to do the "ring check". I suppose that's a trick you don't need to know when you're in high school anyways.
I can't help singing the Julian Smith "another awkward moment" jingle in my head when I think about it.
I kind of wish that I had waited a little longer to reveal that I was married. It would have made the story more entertaining to tell... but it undoubtedly would have embarrassed the kid even more.
It was probably good to let him know quickly and get it over with.
Sorry, kid.
Oh, the wonderful moments I have with high school students... and it will only escalate once I actually start teaching.
In my book, fall lasts all the way until Thanksgiving.
If other people start decorating for Christmas and singing holiday songs, that's fine. But I like letting fall last as long as possible.
That was never a problem in Fresno. The weather does not get terribly cold during October or November. My house always has a fall-like feel to it during those months. We even have two super weird fruitless-pear trees in our backyard that do not shed their colorful leaves until December! Strange trees...
However... it's different in Utah.
It snowed during the night, and this morning.
When I walked outside about 45 minutes ago to walk home, it was snowing again.
My husband opened the door to see this:
Plus I threw a snowball at him. Yep... straight into the apartment. I figure that carpet dries quickly.
What a lovely face I'm making. And what a lovely fire extinguisher in the background.
Snow in October. It's not unusual.
It's very entertaining to listen to all the freshman who are surprised about having snow in October. They don't even know... they'll love it even more when we're still getting snow in May. They'll accept it soon enough.
My brother is going to school at BYU-Idaho, and he texted me this morning telling me that it had snowed at least 4 inches during the night and that it was still snowing. Poor kid.
I was feeling very festive as I was walking home in the snow.
It felt like Christmas.
Now I'm finding myself impatient for the holidays. Just two months until Christmas!
I was trying hard to resist listening to Michael Buble's Christmas CD... but I think I'll give in.
My homework tonight will take 20 minutes tops. After that, I'm cuddling up with a blanket, apple cider, and maybe watch a movie with the hubs. I'm sure he won't protest!
Here's what I might (kind of) look like when I'm a granny!
Although... this makeup is designed for a stage, so the wrinkles wouldn't look so strong under stage lights...
Can I just say that my makeup class is so fun!
This was the first time I've tried wrinkles, so some of them could probably have been made more realistic... but this is just supposed to be late middle-age. I'll be doing really old age makeup in a few weeks. I'm gonna look ancient!
Let me tell ya... it is really fun to make faces with this makeup on.
The next time I try it, I'm going to try graying my hair slightly. That would help me look more granny-like.
These are such great techniques to know, since Halloween is coming up.
Doug and I are considering using my makeup skills to be Carl and Ellie from the movie Up.
What do you think of that idea?!
First things first... are the falling leaves on my blog too much? Haha, I was having fun with finding animations...
Out of all the crafts I keep saying I want to do (but never get done), this is one that I've actually made:
You'd be surprised what you can come up with when you just put a bunch of different things on a wreath. Now I need to come up with a cute fall one and start thinking of Christmas ideas!
I just wish that I could put a hook on the door that's less obvious... but what can you do when you live in an apartment with a metal door?!
We've been having fun with cobwebs in our apartment.
But I have some cute stuff set up as well...
But mostly, we just have creepy stuff. Like this skeleton salt/pepper holder sitting on our lazy susan on our table.
Or these skeletons hanging from nooses on a rope attached to our smoke detector.
So yeah. Spiderwebs and skeletons.
I need to put candy corn in cute vases or paint some mini pumpkins. There are so many opportunities for fun, cute crafts and decorations during October...
Do you guys have any fun (and relatively cheap) fall decorating suggestions?
I've been sitting and staring at this computer screen for quite a while now. I want to write a post before going to work in half an hour... and yet, I do not know what to write.
You could call it a writers block, of sorts.
Okay. Here it goes.
Pardon my ranting.
My brain feels dead. School is eating away at me. There are so many things that I want to do during this fall season, and yet I do not feel like rewarding myself with those activities when I can't even focus on what matters. Putting effort into my schooling. Keeping our apartment clean. Writing in my journal, reading scriptures, grocery shopping and laundry... I don't feel motivated to do any of it.
My mind doesn't want to try. Why not?
I need to figure out a method to get myself motivated again. That way, I'll feel like I deserve to take walks and play in leaves. To watch movies. To take a nap. To go look for the infamous $5,000 Provo Treasure Hunt prize that is hidden somewhere in the vicinity of the city (the clues for which are killing my brain even further).
Right now, I feel like I don't deserve to get a break because I don't put effort into what matters. And so, I beat myself up about it. And I can't help feeling that treating myself this way is not healthy. Letting myself relax should help my stress and motivation levels, right? And yet I know that I get carried away with relaxing. And so, the stress goes on.
It's a cycle that I can't seem to break. And it's only going to make things worse.
*Sorry for the "downer" post, guys! I just (obviously) needed to unload some things.
So get this.
I had my camera in my bag this morning.
Then I thought... "Meh, I don't need this. I'm just going to Ballroom and rehearsal for my directing project. I'm not going to need my camera today."
So I took it out.
A blogger should know better by now, right?!
After Ballroom and before rehearsal, I took care of a few small errands. I found myself on the south side of campus. I still had a good 35 minutes until rehearsal started.
So... I decided to go on a walk. Fall + rainy day + a beautiful campus = great day for a walk.
Here's the part where I kicked myself.
I decided to walk along the South Campus River Trail.
And it looks so pretty right now, since the trees are starting to turn colors.
AND it was rainy today...
So, legit camera or not, I just had to take pictures.
Please don't judge my poor phone's camera too harshly :)
There are at least 5 different waterfalls along the trail. So pretty!
And look! A bench! If only there were more leaves...
The campus is beautiful, especially on rainy fall days.
Side note... it's Homecoming Week! Doug and I are going to see the Homecoming Spectacular tonight! So excited to see the new Vocal Point group perform! And to see the music video that I'm in that we filmed back in July :)
So here is what we ask from all of you lovely people.
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Hosts:
Our co-host this week is Ashley from Of Thoughts and Things. Stop by her blog and show her some love! You can find her blog by clicking on her button below. Don't forget to leave a comment there as well. We all love comment love!
We would love to have you.
So link up all your social networks and have a wonderful Friday and weekend!
What would your reaction be if you looked down at your wedding ring and saw that some of the diamonds were glowing?
"Are these fake diamonds?"
or...
"Oh, look at that! Sweet!"
or...
*confusion
Well. MY reaction was disbelief. I thought it was a trick of my eyes the first time I saw the two second-biggest diamonds on my ring faintly glowing as the hubs and I were out camping.
That was a couple months ago.
I had all but forgotten about that faint glow.
And then we went black-light mini golfing yesterday.
And this is what I saw.
My diamonds. Unmistakably glowing.
Here's a closer shot.
WEIRD, right??!?!
So I did a bit of research.
It turns out that a fair few diamonds have varying degrees of florescence. In fact, it is a characteristic found in many gemstones, not just diamonds. Sometimes the florescence is strong enough that you can see it, like with my diamonds. Sometimes it is so faint that you don't see it at all.
A blue glow (such as the one in my diamonds) is the most common, but some diamonds glow orange or yellow. Florescence can either raise or lower a diamond's worth. If blue florescence is found in a slightly-yellow diamond, it can cancel the yellow out and make it seem clear and haze-less!
Florescence (or a lack thereof) does not mean that your diamonds aren't real! It is a quality that diamonds obtain during their formation, and it is neither good nor bad, as long as the florescence does not react with the diamond in a way that makes it cloudy and hazy.
My diamonds are nice and clear in most lights, although they tend to look slightly yellow in bad lighting. In white light or sun light or stage lights though, they are nice and sparkly and clear!
Here's another picture, this time with a combo of normal lighting and black lights so you can see the effect.
I'm so glad that both of the two smaller diamonds glow and not just one of them. Or one of them and the middle diamond. That would drive my OCD nuts!!!!!
Have any of you ladies out there ever noticed florescence in any of your diamonds?
I would love to hear about it.
Florescent diamonds are much more common than you think! Even among higher-grade diamonds!
I'm sure that the last thing you want to see when you are surfing the blog-o-sphere is someone with an injury.
But dang it, this week has been so busy and I don't know what else to post about at the moment, so I'm just gonna go ahead and post a picture of the tiny experiment I did in my theatre makeup class yesterday.
Yeah. A fresh black eye.
It's just starting to swell up and turn color.
Beautiful, isn't it?
Even more beautiful with the blotchy quality of the pictures my phone takes!
Bear with me, it was only my first attempt at a black eye.
I walked home with the makeup still on, and it was so funny to see people double-take when they saw my face
They even tried to be sneaky about it so I wouldn't know they were looking at me.
Hilarious.
Don't worry. We don't always give ourselves black eyes in makeup.
Next week it's much better!
We're giving ourselves burns, broken noses, slit throats, cuts, scrapes, bites... you name it!
October is my favorite month EVER!!!!!
I have a full 31 days to go googly-eyed over this month, and there are plenty of fall things to post about... but I figured we may as well start this month out right and make the first day Potter-related!
Yes. I'm a ginormous Potter-head.
Aren't we all, though?
Maybe not. But there was no way I was going to miss out on this Potter link-up that Ashley from "Simply, Ashley" put together! We Ashleys are just cool like that.
Anyways... here are my answers to the link-up questions on Ashley's blog!
1. Your favorite of the 7 books?
This is truly hard to answer. The first book is definitely the one I have read the most. There's just something wonderful about going back to the beginning where the magic all began. However, Deathly Hallows was great. It was so different, since most of it did not take place at Hogwarts, but that was almost like a breath of fresh air. Plus, I just loved hearing Snape's back story.
2. Your favorite of the films?
Uuuummm... I honestly really liked the 8th film. Sure, there were things about it that I would have liked to be done differently, but it was the film I was most excited to see. I like the fifth one almost just as much... and I love the humor in the sixth. Aaaah, why is it so hard to choose?!
3. Which, if any, of the films made you angry for not staying true to the book?
There was no particular film that I'm angry about. I just get frustrated that various scenes in all of the movies were either changed or left out... for example, I did not like the scene that they added in the sixth movie of the Weasley's house being attacked. Dumb.
4. Your least favorite female character and why?
Everyone seems to hate Umbridge, and I agree that she is an awful old hag, but I love the dynamic that her character brings to the stories. It's a love-hate sort of relationship. Even though I hate her, I would never want to change her character into someone else. You can't have the Harry Potter story without Umbridge and her porcelain kitty plates.
5.Your favorite male character and why?
Snape, hands down. I love his whole story line, and his love for Lily is basically one of the foundations of the whole plot! Plus... as far as the movies go... I just love Alan Rickman.
6. What house would you LIKE to be in? Now be realistic... which would the Sorting Hat put you in?
I've almost always been a Ravenclaw girl. I was Head of Ravenclaw House in my Harry Potter Club in high school. And, sure enough... every sorting hat test that I have ever taken has put me in Ravenclaw. Even the Pottermore test put me in Ravenclaw. There's no question about it... Blue and Bronze is where it's at!
7. Which subject would be your favorite at Hogwarts?
I've always wanted to learn charms. Those spells seem like the most entertaining and the most useful for everyday matters. Potions would be so interesting to learn though...
Now, let me share some HP love with you!
So true.
This is totally me.
Marauders :)
Hmmm... sounds logical to me!
Hipster Snape.
Ashley posted this one on her blog, but I love it, so I'm posting it too :)
Alright, I'll stop drowning you guys with all my nerdy Harry Potter obsessions now.
