even though I'm totally sick again, urghhhhh
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
all hallow's eve
I realize that I've totally not updated for the past two days of Halloweek, and Halloween is TOMORROW! But I worked all day yesterday and today was spent indulging in Halloweenie activities to the fullest and then going out in our costumes. I work again tomorrow (totally wearing my costume while I teach kids how to make a fire), and unfortunately I'll miss Trick or Treating since I'm teaching the evening Minnesota Mammals program, but it's still HALLOWEEN which means getting trashed and watching Nightmare Before Christmas! WOOO! I'll post pictures and stories as soon as possible, but know that I am definitely living it up this Halloween :)
even though I'm totally sick again, urghhhhh
even though I'm totally sick again, urghhhhh
Sunday, October 28, 2012
halloweek 2012: days 4 and 5
I'm sort of failing at this updating once a day thing for Halloweek this year. Oh well, it just means I'm LIVING LARGE.
I'll admit something, the one thing I really miss right now is Halloween parties. Some of my best friends had a big one last night (this year's party night for Halloween) in SL, UT and I was really sad I couldn't join them. I love getting dressed up and going to parties. Even just dressing up and walking through the streets at night, looking for parties is fun. Plus binge drinking and dancing, duh (jk...). BUT something happened last night that made me so happy, despite not being able to attend a big Halloween bash.
Yesterday was spent hanging out at home and doing arts and crafts (HALLOWEEN VERSION) before going up to Duluth! I'm obsessed with Minute Mysteries, so as soon as we got in the car we grilled Troy with questions about the most recent one for the entire hour and a half up there. We finally got it, but with a lot of hints (to be fair, it was a really hard one). But we eventually got it! We went to Savers first to go Halloween shopping. I'm lucky because, since I had the flu last year (blech), I still have a half-finished toucan costume that has never been worn to a Halloween event. Thus, I've given myself permission to be a toucan this year! AKA I only needed a couple more things, so I was just looking around Savers as an interested party. However, it was absolute CHAOS. It was as if a tornado of frat boys had suddenly emerged in the aisles of Savers and it required Halloween merchandise as fuel. I did find yellow tights for bird legs, though! The gods of Halloween are on my side! After I'd found them (in my size, too!), I hurriedly went to join Anna and Leeann in a less crowded aisle (Troy had gone off to Gander Mountain). Leeann then started asking me questions about what I thought she should be, which allowed me to act as one of my favorite roles of all time: A HALLOWEEN COSTUME DESIGNER AND ADVISOR. She decided that she wanted to be a crow after a little bit of deliberation (our first idea a couple of weeks ago was to be Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie from MLP: Friendship is Magic, but then we decided to go with birds for the easiness factor), so I wandered around the store with her and grabbed random items off of racks to throw into her arms that I thought would be good crow paraphernalia. We ended up getting a good haul of things that will hopefully combine and create a MAGNIFICENT CROW COSTUME. Then we can all be a flock of birds for Halloween.
After Savers, we headed to Fitgers for dinner. There we saw dozens of college kids in costumes heading for the building, which made us wonder if we made a mistake in trying to go to Fitgers on a Saturday night. Fortunately, the costumed children were headed to a fall gala instead of the restaurant. I had another moment of forlornness, wanting to join the college kids with a costume of my own in their gala/party. Then I realized that there probably was not booze at this event and decided I would rather go to Fitgers and eat my delicious wild rice burger and drink apricot wheat beer with my franz. And that is just what we did. I was originally going to get a growler of the apricot beer, since it is SO GOOD, but I had spent too much money already, so I didn't. Instead, we enjoyed our food and beer and then headed up to Hawk Ridge for OWL NIGHT!!!
All desires to go to a Halloween party had ebbed from my system after Owl Night. We immediately heard a saw whet calling when we got out of the car, which excited us beyond belief! Unfortunately, it turned out to be a lure, but still! It was FREEZING. That took my mind off of anything else but how cold I was plus OWLS for awhile. I'm glad they warned us that it would be cold, because otherwise I wouldn't have thought to wear long underwear. And I'm glad I did. Because, like I said, it was cold. We got up to Hawk Ridge and took our seats just as the program was beginning. The person teaching the program was Sarah, a hilarious naturalist who was constantly praising our back row for our supreme ornithological knowledge. When other people wouldn't answer her questions, we'd jump in for them. We got acknowledged for knowing that elf owls are the smallest owls in the US, that flammulated and spotted owls are the other dark-eyed owls besides barn and barred owls, and that the term "flammulated" had something to do with patterning (turns out it means flame patterning). Just like during the day, the banders set up specialized raptor nets to try and trap owls so that they can band them and track their progress the same as they do with hawks. We waited the whole program, an hour and a half, for owls to be caught so we could see them. In the meantime, we learned some new things about owls, made ourselves seem smart by answering all the aforementioned questions about owls, touched owl wings, and listened to owl calls. The Long-Eared owl is especially hilarious to listen to. I couldn't find any good examples to post, but they sound like whining children. While playing a barred owl call, we saw a silhouette fluttering silently above us, so we all remained perfectly still, turned off all the lanterns, and waited. We watched the owl (either a long-eared or a barred) fly overhead one last time and then head back towards the banding station. We hoped it would get caught, or at least something would get caught, and it happened! Three saw-whet owls were caught just as everybody was about to leave. We ended up staying until 10:30, wanting to see the owls and then people releasing the owls (because people can adopt them for a fee and then release them). We watched as one owl sat on a woman's shoulder for five minutes. Just as our group was about to leave, Sarah asked, "Did you all want to hold one of the owls?" I turned around with eyes as wide as dinner plates and slowly nodded, whispering, "YES!" I was so excited. Even though I've most definitely handled a saw-whet owl in my life before, I was still so so so excited to hold the adorable little owl. It's just my bird nerd nature, I think. Troy and I both held the owl; we were instructed to hold her just like an ice-cream cone. She was so soft and looked right at me with her lemon yellow eyes and I melted. It was an amazing experience, and I wouldn't trade it for a thousand Halloween parties.
One of my favorite quotations from the night was, "Owls don't always smell like skunks, sometimes they smell like bread" from Sarah. The other was her explaining that she doesn't kiss the owls because she values her face. And her face "brings in the big bucks". She was amazing.
Anna also got pictures of Troy and I holding the owl, those will come soon! After our owl holding experience, we got in the car and desperately tried to warm up with 99 cent hot cocoa from the gas station on the way home. We got home at about midnight, where I immediately leapt into bed, snuggled down, and went to sleep.
The next day (aka today), I woke up early to do my chore for the house, which was to clean the kitchen. Then we went to Subway, went grocery shopping (where I found out that there were NONE of my favorite Halloween treats available at this grocery store! No Halloween lofthouse sugar cookies or Halloween sugar cookie cutouts anywhere), and then headed to Jeff's house to make North Woods animal cookies!
We met Fir, an old employee who now works at the National Eagle Center, and decorated porcupines, red foxes, moose, squirrels, and fish. Anna made fish into the four different species of trout we have in our freshwater aquariums and then quizzed us on them. We then baked the cookies and ate too many. By the end of it, I felt like I was going to explode. We said our goodbyes and then headed home. The boys and Leeann wandered off to shoot guns while Anna and I stayed behind to paint with watercolors. I headed to the barn to feed Cica, where I saw this spectacle.
Woody staring down a pumpkin
Also I saw this, which I thought was really pretty.
I went home, drank a beer, and then read Halloween Cracked articles (and watched youtube videos about "ghosts") until everyone decided that we should eat noodles and watch The Help, which is exactly what we did! And it was awesome.
No pumpkin carving yet, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) no touring of haunted mansions. BUT there are still three more days left of Halloweek!!! BEFORE THE REAL TRUE BLUE HALLOWEEN!!!
Here are some of the Halloween doodles I've been working on
Remember Jezebel? I mentioned here here last year. I decided that I wanted to figure out her color scheme on one of my days off last week because I do what I want. I can't decide if I like her socks as blue and black patterned or black and white patterned. I love doodling my little bat girl.
Before I retire to bed, I will leave you with this amazing reincarnation of my childhood and Halloween all mixed into one youtube video from the 90s.
M Y N MINE
I'll admit something, the one thing I really miss right now is Halloween parties. Some of my best friends had a big one last night (this year's party night for Halloween) in SL, UT and I was really sad I couldn't join them. I love getting dressed up and going to parties. Even just dressing up and walking through the streets at night, looking for parties is fun. Plus binge drinking and dancing, duh (jk...). BUT something happened last night that made me so happy, despite not being able to attend a big Halloween bash.
Yesterday was spent hanging out at home and doing arts and crafts (HALLOWEEN VERSION) before going up to Duluth! I'm obsessed with Minute Mysteries, so as soon as we got in the car we grilled Troy with questions about the most recent one for the entire hour and a half up there. We finally got it, but with a lot of hints (to be fair, it was a really hard one). But we eventually got it! We went to Savers first to go Halloween shopping. I'm lucky because, since I had the flu last year (blech), I still have a half-finished toucan costume that has never been worn to a Halloween event. Thus, I've given myself permission to be a toucan this year! AKA I only needed a couple more things, so I was just looking around Savers as an interested party. However, it was absolute CHAOS. It was as if a tornado of frat boys had suddenly emerged in the aisles of Savers and it required Halloween merchandise as fuel. I did find yellow tights for bird legs, though! The gods of Halloween are on my side! After I'd found them (in my size, too!), I hurriedly went to join Anna and Leeann in a less crowded aisle (Troy had gone off to Gander Mountain). Leeann then started asking me questions about what I thought she should be, which allowed me to act as one of my favorite roles of all time: A HALLOWEEN COSTUME DESIGNER AND ADVISOR. She decided that she wanted to be a crow after a little bit of deliberation (our first idea a couple of weeks ago was to be Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie from MLP: Friendship is Magic, but then we decided to go with birds for the easiness factor), so I wandered around the store with her and grabbed random items off of racks to throw into her arms that I thought would be good crow paraphernalia. We ended up getting a good haul of things that will hopefully combine and create a MAGNIFICENT CROW COSTUME. Then we can all be a flock of birds for Halloween.
After Savers, we headed to Fitgers for dinner. There we saw dozens of college kids in costumes heading for the building, which made us wonder if we made a mistake in trying to go to Fitgers on a Saturday night. Fortunately, the costumed children were headed to a fall gala instead of the restaurant. I had another moment of forlornness, wanting to join the college kids with a costume of my own in their gala/party. Then I realized that there probably was not booze at this event and decided I would rather go to Fitgers and eat my delicious wild rice burger and drink apricot wheat beer with my franz. And that is just what we did. I was originally going to get a growler of the apricot beer, since it is SO GOOD, but I had spent too much money already, so I didn't. Instead, we enjoyed our food and beer and then headed up to Hawk Ridge for OWL NIGHT!!!
All desires to go to a Halloween party had ebbed from my system after Owl Night. We immediately heard a saw whet calling when we got out of the car, which excited us beyond belief! Unfortunately, it turned out to be a lure, but still! It was FREEZING. That took my mind off of anything else but how cold I was plus OWLS for awhile. I'm glad they warned us that it would be cold, because otherwise I wouldn't have thought to wear long underwear. And I'm glad I did. Because, like I said, it was cold. We got up to Hawk Ridge and took our seats just as the program was beginning. The person teaching the program was Sarah, a hilarious naturalist who was constantly praising our back row for our supreme ornithological knowledge. When other people wouldn't answer her questions, we'd jump in for them. We got acknowledged for knowing that elf owls are the smallest owls in the US, that flammulated and spotted owls are the other dark-eyed owls besides barn and barred owls, and that the term "flammulated" had something to do with patterning (turns out it means flame patterning). Just like during the day, the banders set up specialized raptor nets to try and trap owls so that they can band them and track their progress the same as they do with hawks. We waited the whole program, an hour and a half, for owls to be caught so we could see them. In the meantime, we learned some new things about owls, made ourselves seem smart by answering all the aforementioned questions about owls, touched owl wings, and listened to owl calls. The Long-Eared owl is especially hilarious to listen to. I couldn't find any good examples to post, but they sound like whining children. While playing a barred owl call, we saw a silhouette fluttering silently above us, so we all remained perfectly still, turned off all the lanterns, and waited. We watched the owl (either a long-eared or a barred) fly overhead one last time and then head back towards the banding station. We hoped it would get caught, or at least something would get caught, and it happened! Three saw-whet owls were caught just as everybody was about to leave. We ended up staying until 10:30, wanting to see the owls and then people releasing the owls (because people can adopt them for a fee and then release them). We watched as one owl sat on a woman's shoulder for five minutes. Just as our group was about to leave, Sarah asked, "Did you all want to hold one of the owls?" I turned around with eyes as wide as dinner plates and slowly nodded, whispering, "YES!" I was so excited. Even though I've most definitely handled a saw-whet owl in my life before, I was still so so so excited to hold the adorable little owl. It's just my bird nerd nature, I think. Troy and I both held the owl; we were instructed to hold her just like an ice-cream cone. She was so soft and looked right at me with her lemon yellow eyes and I melted. It was an amazing experience, and I wouldn't trade it for a thousand Halloween parties.
One of my favorite quotations from the night was, "Owls don't always smell like skunks, sometimes they smell like bread" from Sarah. The other was her explaining that she doesn't kiss the owls because she values her face. And her face "brings in the big bucks". She was amazing.
Anna also got pictures of Troy and I holding the owl, those will come soon! After our owl holding experience, we got in the car and desperately tried to warm up with 99 cent hot cocoa from the gas station on the way home. We got home at about midnight, where I immediately leapt into bed, snuggled down, and went to sleep.
The next day (aka today), I woke up early to do my chore for the house, which was to clean the kitchen. Then we went to Subway, went grocery shopping (where I found out that there were NONE of my favorite Halloween treats available at this grocery store! No Halloween lofthouse sugar cookies or Halloween sugar cookie cutouts anywhere), and then headed to Jeff's house to make North Woods animal cookies!
We met Fir, an old employee who now works at the National Eagle Center, and decorated porcupines, red foxes, moose, squirrels, and fish. Anna made fish into the four different species of trout we have in our freshwater aquariums and then quizzed us on them. We then baked the cookies and ate too many. By the end of it, I felt like I was going to explode. We said our goodbyes and then headed home. The boys and Leeann wandered off to shoot guns while Anna and I stayed behind to paint with watercolors. I headed to the barn to feed Cica, where I saw this spectacle.
Woody staring down a pumpkin
Also I saw this, which I thought was really pretty.
I went home, drank a beer, and then read Halloween Cracked articles (and watched youtube videos about "ghosts") until everyone decided that we should eat noodles and watch The Help, which is exactly what we did! And it was awesome.
No pumpkin carving yet, and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) no touring of haunted mansions. BUT there are still three more days left of Halloweek!!! BEFORE THE REAL TRUE BLUE HALLOWEEN!!!
Here are some of the Halloween doodles I've been working on
Remember Jezebel? I mentioned here here last year. I decided that I wanted to figure out her color scheme on one of my days off last week because I do what I want. I can't decide if I like her socks as blue and black patterned or black and white patterned. I love doodling my little bat girl.
Before I retire to bed, I will leave you with this amazing reincarnation of my childhood and Halloween all mixed into one youtube video from the 90s.
M Y N MINE
Friday, October 26, 2012
halloweek 2012: days 2 and 3
First of all, IT'S FRIDAY! I can say this because I actually have the day off tomorrow. Not only that, but I also have the day AFTER THAT off TOO! AKA an entire weekend! This is exciting because it's my first days off in ten days, and you'd better believe I'm going to use them to do Halloweenie things galore. Listen to my Halloween playlist, dance in the kitchen, carve pumpkins, go to a corn maze, make Halloween art, go up to Duluth and possibly tour a haunted mansion...you know.
I wasn't able to write anything yesterday for day 2 of Halloweek because it was SO BUSY. The school group we just had here...all I'm going to say is PHEW. It was a whirlwind of teaching Energy Mix again (though in a different classroom this time and by myself) and then hurriedly cleaning up so we could head to Jeff's house to discuss the new curriculum for an evening program that Megan and I are teaching ON HALLOWEEN! Earlier this week, Jeff asked for volunteers to teach the new program on Halloween. I had an outer body experience where I saw myself raising my hand while my subconscious though, "Uhhh, you totally have the day off and need to create havoc on Halloween night, what are you doing?" I worked it out in my brain and heart though, I have the day before Halloween off, when we're having our Halloween party, and then I have the day AFTER Halloween off, so I can party hardy on Halloween night after the program (which we get to wear our costumes to!!!) and then sleep in and recover the next day, as well as mourn the passing of Halloween. Anyways, we indulged in chocolate milk that was decorated with jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, and bats and also ate tons of strawberry crepes while we talked about rabbits, bull snakes, and red tailed hawks. We also ran around the house screaming with Jeff's four-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, and at one point she came up to me and said in a deadly serious voice, "Get up and run", complete with a sassy head weave. HILARIOUS. Then I spent the rest of the night listening to my Halloween playlist and learning how to draw wolves. Efficient use of time, if I do say so myself.
Today was exhausting, but then SO GOOD. This morning was a difficult class of (guess what) ENERGY MIX! After Energy Mix though, I learned how to handle our Great Horned Owl!!! He is so beautiful, it was amazing to have him on glove! He hooted angrily at me once I got him on glove, which isn't good because it means he's mad, but it was amazing to see his white throat pouch bulge with each hoot, like a bullfrog. In fact, I called it "bullfrogging", which I feel should be used as a verb now. We had a debrief meeting, project time, dinner, and then Anna and I went to the barn to train our owls. This is when I witnessed one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen (besides watching Athena cough up a pellet, which was decidedly un-magical). I trained with Cica and gave her half her mouse, then left for about ten minutes to allow her time to eat before I came back in for more training. At this point, I saw that she still hadn't eaten her mouse and she was footing it in preparation for ripping it up. I stood back in the corner, which is something I sometimes do to build her trust in me. She eyed me for a second before deciding that she was cool with me being there. Instead of ripping her mouse into bite-sized portions and eating them that way, she decided to eat THE WHOLE HALF OF THE MOUSE. That is a lot of meat for a little bird like Cica to swallow in one bite, which was what she was determined to do. I watched in silent amazement for a couple of seconds while she tilted her head back vigorously, attempting to swallow with every fiber of her being. Then, she looked at me. She looked like this.
I could not stop laughing. The mouse had stretched her tiny little mouth to resemble a Joker smile smeared across her face, it was so huge. She couldn't get it down her throat, no matter how hard she tried, squeezing her eyes shut each time she attempted to swallow. She would then stop to take a breather, making somewhat alarming tiny smoker wheezes as she tried to breathe with half a mouse in her mouth. She would stare at me, and then try to swallow again. After a couple of tries of this, I wondered if I should actually be worried because I would feel terrible if my bird choked in front of me and I was laughing while it happened. Luckily, she got it down eventually. Oh man Cica, you cute 'lil bean. After training, we went on an expedition for ADULT WATER. Adult water is our terminology for booze (I'll post aout the story at some point). We got home, I heated myself up one of the carmel apples that Jmack brought home with her from her brother's wedding, got myself a beer, and settled down on the couch with my treats to watch HOCUS POCUS.
I. LOVE. HOCUS. POCUS. In fact, we've already watched it once, probably about a week ago. But we watched it again tonight for those who missed it (and Anna had never seen it before), and it was still phenomenal.
Come little children, I'll take thee away...
The other movie I try to watch during Halloweek is Halloweentown, a Disney Channel Original Movie that was made in the 90s that I LOVE. I'm not sure if I'll get to that this year, but I know FOR CERTAIN that Nightmare Before Christmas is most DEFINITELY going down on Halloween night, as per usual. There is no question about it.
After Hocus Pocus, Leeann and I had a TON of energy. We decided to expend such energy by frolicking in the woods. AT NIGHT.
I used to love going into the woods at night; it was how I got my "rush". Alice and I would drive up the canyons, choose a trail, and hike it in the pitch darkness. Sometimes we would use a light, sometimes not. Our favorite place to go was her cabin, up Millcreek Canyon, where we would hike up to the abandoned mine and take ridiculous pictures of us along the way. Don't get me wrong, I was TERRIFIED when we went on these nighttime adventures, but that was also part of the fun. I'm still scared of the dark (as mentioned before), but I want to try and change that. So Leeann and I went for a frolic that reminded me of my high school deviant days. Also there was something different about the night that made me feel at peace with the darkness. One reason was because it wasn't exactly dark, the moon was nearly full and as such was swollen and milky. It shone through cracks in the cloud cover and illuminated the entire, skeletal forest. We first decided to go down to the beach, since we both realized we hadn't been for a couple of weeks. We walked down to the shoreline, preparing to see a spectacular view of the moonlight beams on the glossy water, and instead got a flock of startled geese that awoke with a start and took off into the water, squawking vehemently. I almost had a heart attack. Imagine a still, silent night suddenly interrupted by cacophonous goose cries and then imagine me shrieking, which in turn caused Leeann to jump. It was like a chain reaction of TERROR. After we recovered from the incident, though, it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked the shoreline trail, exhibiting our best frolicking moves and talking about our lives. I need to remind myself of that when I'm out at night. As much as my imagination likes to convince me otherwise, the woods are a safe place. We hiked to the other dock and watched a bonfire across the lake from its flickering orange reflection in the water. An hour later, we decided to head home and call it a night. It was a good spin-off of Raphael's and mine Halloween constitutional we implemented two years ago, though this time in the woods and without costumes. SOON.
I drew some Halloween doodles on my tablet while watching Whose Line is it Anyway. I have more doodles in my notebook that I'll also post either tomorrow or Sunday.
As an ending to this post, I'm going to lay out some random personal Halloween trivia:
- I used to have a blog back in jr. high and the beginning of high school that was semi-Halloween themed, since I was so obsessed with it. The colors were black, lime green, purple, and orange (lime green and purple being my favorite colors), and it was mainly centered around bats as a theme. The description was particularly cheesy, but I actually really like the writing: "FLUTTER THROUGH THE MOONLIT AUTUMN SKIES WITH YOUR AMBER-EYED BRETHREN, TOPAZ SHADOWS FLITTING O'ER ENDLESS FIELDS OF PUMPKINS...". Also I claimed that it was Halloween all the time. Which it is in my life.
Also this was my profile picture
I WAS COOL
-Even as a child, I was obsessed with Halloween. My mom worked her ass off making me the ridiculous, over the top costumes I requested each year. I distinctly remember her asking me if a certain component of a costume would work, where I would, 90% of the time, reply with, "No". Which I'm sure was incredibly obnoxious. So SORRY MOM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I'll be sure to tell her in real life too, don't worry. I had the best costumes each year because of her tireless efforts at making my dreams a reality.
-My mom always got my brother and I little gifts at Halloween as well, which was awesome. We still get gifts sometimes, which makes me so so happy!!! Halloween was a BIG DEAL at our house. We decorated the house like Halloween, got Halloween gifts, put out the Halloween books I'm still in love with to this day, and always always ALWAYS carved pumpkins and went trick-or-treating. In fact, I threw a huge fit a couple of years ago when my parents tentatively suggested that we not carve pumpkins that year. So we continued with the tradition, even if I was the one that initiated it aka forced everyone to do it. We weren't the house that created a spook alley or dressed up in terrifying costumes or tried to freak kids out, but we were more of the "cute/cool" kind of Halloween house that embodied all the traits of Halloween that I adore. I was too scared of the houses that were the scary kind to even get candy from them, anyways.
-ANOTHER component of my childhood besides the things mentioned above were the children's Halloween movies I watched. This included Lumpkin the Pumpkin.
These kids are clearly drunk
During college, I found a website where I could download the soundtrack from Lumpkin the Pumpkin for freesies, which I implemented into my Halloweenie Playlist. It's a musical, you see. About Halloween safety. With singing pumpkins.
AND OH MY GOD I JUST FOUND IT ON YOUTUBE.
God bless the internet.
-I have always been a "make my own costume" (or more appropriately, have my mom make my own costume until jr. high) type of person, preferring to find items to comprise my costume from thrift and Halloween stores. This means that I'm able to draw out my idea for the costume first (that's right, I'm legit) and then shop around to try and find all the correct "ingredients". It's an art.
-Pumpkin carving has been a steadfast tradition in my family since the dawn of 1990 (I'm assuming, I certainly HOPE I carved a pumpkin at just two months of age). Different artistic renditions of pumpkins in my past have included wolves (complete with glowing green eyes that came with the pumpkin carving kit), a cat in a tree, Oogie Boogie, Zero, bats in front of a full moon, my failtastic Om nom pumpkin in college, the famous unicorn breathing fire pumpkin of last year, and owls. Lots of owls (just kidding, actually just one!).
I need to go to bed now, I'm exhausted and tomorrow I get to SLEEP. IN. Tomorrow's plans also involve carving pumpkins, doing those Halloween art projects, going to Duluth to tour a haunted mansion possibly, go to Fitgers, and then go to OWL NIGHT at Hawk Ridge! Nighty night!
I wasn't able to write anything yesterday for day 2 of Halloweek because it was SO BUSY. The school group we just had here...all I'm going to say is PHEW. It was a whirlwind of teaching Energy Mix again (though in a different classroom this time and by myself) and then hurriedly cleaning up so we could head to Jeff's house to discuss the new curriculum for an evening program that Megan and I are teaching ON HALLOWEEN! Earlier this week, Jeff asked for volunteers to teach the new program on Halloween. I had an outer body experience where I saw myself raising my hand while my subconscious though, "Uhhh, you totally have the day off and need to create havoc on Halloween night, what are you doing?" I worked it out in my brain and heart though, I have the day before Halloween off, when we're having our Halloween party, and then I have the day AFTER Halloween off, so I can party hardy on Halloween night after the program (which we get to wear our costumes to!!!) and then sleep in and recover the next day, as well as mourn the passing of Halloween. Anyways, we indulged in chocolate milk that was decorated with jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, and bats and also ate tons of strawberry crepes while we talked about rabbits, bull snakes, and red tailed hawks. We also ran around the house screaming with Jeff's four-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn, and at one point she came up to me and said in a deadly serious voice, "Get up and run", complete with a sassy head weave. HILARIOUS. Then I spent the rest of the night listening to my Halloween playlist and learning how to draw wolves. Efficient use of time, if I do say so myself.
Today was exhausting, but then SO GOOD. This morning was a difficult class of (guess what) ENERGY MIX! After Energy Mix though, I learned how to handle our Great Horned Owl!!! He is so beautiful, it was amazing to have him on glove! He hooted angrily at me once I got him on glove, which isn't good because it means he's mad, but it was amazing to see his white throat pouch bulge with each hoot, like a bullfrog. In fact, I called it "bullfrogging", which I feel should be used as a verb now. We had a debrief meeting, project time, dinner, and then Anna and I went to the barn to train our owls. This is when I witnessed one of the most amazing things I'd ever seen (besides watching Athena cough up a pellet, which was decidedly un-magical). I trained with Cica and gave her half her mouse, then left for about ten minutes to allow her time to eat before I came back in for more training. At this point, I saw that she still hadn't eaten her mouse and she was footing it in preparation for ripping it up. I stood back in the corner, which is something I sometimes do to build her trust in me. She eyed me for a second before deciding that she was cool with me being there. Instead of ripping her mouse into bite-sized portions and eating them that way, she decided to eat THE WHOLE HALF OF THE MOUSE. That is a lot of meat for a little bird like Cica to swallow in one bite, which was what she was determined to do. I watched in silent amazement for a couple of seconds while she tilted her head back vigorously, attempting to swallow with every fiber of her being. Then, she looked at me. She looked like this.
I could not stop laughing. The mouse had stretched her tiny little mouth to resemble a Joker smile smeared across her face, it was so huge. She couldn't get it down her throat, no matter how hard she tried, squeezing her eyes shut each time she attempted to swallow. She would then stop to take a breather, making somewhat alarming tiny smoker wheezes as she tried to breathe with half a mouse in her mouth. She would stare at me, and then try to swallow again. After a couple of tries of this, I wondered if I should actually be worried because I would feel terrible if my bird choked in front of me and I was laughing while it happened. Luckily, she got it down eventually. Oh man Cica, you cute 'lil bean. After training, we went on an expedition for ADULT WATER. Adult water is our terminology for booze (I'll post aout the story at some point). We got home, I heated myself up one of the carmel apples that Jmack brought home with her from her brother's wedding, got myself a beer, and settled down on the couch with my treats to watch HOCUS POCUS.
I. LOVE. HOCUS. POCUS. In fact, we've already watched it once, probably about a week ago. But we watched it again tonight for those who missed it (and Anna had never seen it before), and it was still phenomenal.
Come little children, I'll take thee away...
The other movie I try to watch during Halloweek is Halloweentown, a Disney Channel Original Movie that was made in the 90s that I LOVE. I'm not sure if I'll get to that this year, but I know FOR CERTAIN that Nightmare Before Christmas is most DEFINITELY going down on Halloween night, as per usual. There is no question about it.
After Hocus Pocus, Leeann and I had a TON of energy. We decided to expend such energy by frolicking in the woods. AT NIGHT.
I used to love going into the woods at night; it was how I got my "rush". Alice and I would drive up the canyons, choose a trail, and hike it in the pitch darkness. Sometimes we would use a light, sometimes not. Our favorite place to go was her cabin, up Millcreek Canyon, where we would hike up to the abandoned mine and take ridiculous pictures of us along the way. Don't get me wrong, I was TERRIFIED when we went on these nighttime adventures, but that was also part of the fun. I'm still scared of the dark (as mentioned before), but I want to try and change that. So Leeann and I went for a frolic that reminded me of my high school deviant days. Also there was something different about the night that made me feel at peace with the darkness. One reason was because it wasn't exactly dark, the moon was nearly full and as such was swollen and milky. It shone through cracks in the cloud cover and illuminated the entire, skeletal forest. We first decided to go down to the beach, since we both realized we hadn't been for a couple of weeks. We walked down to the shoreline, preparing to see a spectacular view of the moonlight beams on the glossy water, and instead got a flock of startled geese that awoke with a start and took off into the water, squawking vehemently. I almost had a heart attack. Imagine a still, silent night suddenly interrupted by cacophonous goose cries and then imagine me shrieking, which in turn caused Leeann to jump. It was like a chain reaction of TERROR. After we recovered from the incident, though, it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked the shoreline trail, exhibiting our best frolicking moves and talking about our lives. I need to remind myself of that when I'm out at night. As much as my imagination likes to convince me otherwise, the woods are a safe place. We hiked to the other dock and watched a bonfire across the lake from its flickering orange reflection in the water. An hour later, we decided to head home and call it a night. It was a good spin-off of Raphael's and mine Halloween constitutional we implemented two years ago, though this time in the woods and without costumes. SOON.
I drew some Halloween doodles on my tablet while watching Whose Line is it Anyway. I have more doodles in my notebook that I'll also post either tomorrow or Sunday.
As an ending to this post, I'm going to lay out some random personal Halloween trivia:
- I used to have a blog back in jr. high and the beginning of high school that was semi-Halloween themed, since I was so obsessed with it. The colors were black, lime green, purple, and orange (lime green and purple being my favorite colors), and it was mainly centered around bats as a theme. The description was particularly cheesy, but I actually really like the writing: "FLUTTER THROUGH THE MOONLIT AUTUMN SKIES WITH YOUR AMBER-EYED BRETHREN, TOPAZ SHADOWS FLITTING O'ER ENDLESS FIELDS OF PUMPKINS...". Also I claimed that it was Halloween all the time. Which it is in my life.
Also this was my profile picture
I WAS COOL
-Even as a child, I was obsessed with Halloween. My mom worked her ass off making me the ridiculous, over the top costumes I requested each year. I distinctly remember her asking me if a certain component of a costume would work, where I would, 90% of the time, reply with, "No". Which I'm sure was incredibly obnoxious. So SORRY MOM, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! I'll be sure to tell her in real life too, don't worry. I had the best costumes each year because of her tireless efforts at making my dreams a reality.
-My mom always got my brother and I little gifts at Halloween as well, which was awesome. We still get gifts sometimes, which makes me so so happy!!! Halloween was a BIG DEAL at our house. We decorated the house like Halloween, got Halloween gifts, put out the Halloween books I'm still in love with to this day, and always always ALWAYS carved pumpkins and went trick-or-treating. In fact, I threw a huge fit a couple of years ago when my parents tentatively suggested that we not carve pumpkins that year. So we continued with the tradition, even if I was the one that initiated it aka forced everyone to do it. We weren't the house that created a spook alley or dressed up in terrifying costumes or tried to freak kids out, but we were more of the "cute/cool" kind of Halloween house that embodied all the traits of Halloween that I adore. I was too scared of the houses that were the scary kind to even get candy from them, anyways.
-ANOTHER component of my childhood besides the things mentioned above were the children's Halloween movies I watched. This included Lumpkin the Pumpkin.
These kids are clearly drunk
During college, I found a website where I could download the soundtrack from Lumpkin the Pumpkin for freesies, which I implemented into my Halloweenie Playlist. It's a musical, you see. About Halloween safety. With singing pumpkins.
AND OH MY GOD I JUST FOUND IT ON YOUTUBE.
God bless the internet.
-I have always been a "make my own costume" (or more appropriately, have my mom make my own costume until jr. high) type of person, preferring to find items to comprise my costume from thrift and Halloween stores. This means that I'm able to draw out my idea for the costume first (that's right, I'm legit) and then shop around to try and find all the correct "ingredients". It's an art.
-Pumpkin carving has been a steadfast tradition in my family since the dawn of 1990 (I'm assuming, I certainly HOPE I carved a pumpkin at just two months of age). Different artistic renditions of pumpkins in my past have included wolves (complete with glowing green eyes that came with the pumpkin carving kit), a cat in a tree, Oogie Boogie, Zero, bats in front of a full moon, my failtastic Om nom pumpkin in college, the famous unicorn breathing fire pumpkin of last year, and owls. Lots of owls (just kidding, actually just one!).
I need to go to bed now, I'm exhausted and tomorrow I get to SLEEP. IN. Tomorrow's plans also involve carving pumpkins, doing those Halloween art projects, going to Duluth to tour a haunted mansion possibly, go to Fitgers, and then go to OWL NIGHT at Hawk Ridge! Nighty night!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
halloweek 2012 :: day 1
HAPPY HALLOWEEK, DAY 1
Today has been a really busy first day of Halloweek, but also a really good one! I taught Energy Mix in the morning, which is a class where we discuss renewable sources of energy (and we make solar ovens that cook cinnamon apple slices, delicious). In the afternoon, I observed BIRD AND BIRD BANDING CLASS with Megan, where we acted ridiculous and got to go birdwatching in the pouring rain. This was the best part because, even though it was pouring rain, we still saw lots of birds, including one I've NEVER SEEN BEFORE. LIFE. BIRD. It was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, which was so cool to see. Another reason why it was bomb.com is because we went down to the dock and an adult Bald Eagle flew low across the entire lake just sixty feet out from us. It was magical. Right as the eagle disappeared from our line of sight, a loon called (despite it being really late in the season for loons, they should have migrated by now). The loon turned out to be a juvie that's been hanging out for some unknown reason. Basically, bird class ruled. We had macaroni and cheese for dinner, it was a rainy October-y day, Cica had a lightbulb moment during training today, and then I taught a raptor program on falconry that involved dressing up teenagers in ridiculous costumes and pretending to cut their hand off if they chose a bird above their social status. It was a good, full day. Before I go to bed, and in order to celebrate day one of Halloweek, I'm going to post some photos that demonstrate the touches of Halloween I've been seeing around here.
pumpkins, pumpkins, PUMPKINS!!!
A doe has been hanging out around our compost piles for the past week. I see her snacking on apples and then hanging out in the small strip of trees separating the barn from the dining hall. I almost ran into her the other day because I didn't see her, which is when I took this picture. I say hi to her sometimes when I'm walking home in the dark. I call her Felicity.
In high school, some of my best friends and I were shopping and found skull rings that we proceeded to buy and swear that we would wear every day in October for the rest of our lives. So far, the tradition has held true (well, for most of October...)
The other day at the barn, Jmack and I were both doing projects. She was practicing making shapes with a jigsaw (we get to play with powertools at this job), so I convinced her that we should make Halloween decorations. We ended up making that weird little angry blob ghost, her super cute tall ghost, and the three gravestones. I like Mr. Sprinkles and really do hope he RIPs. FOREVER.
I drew ghost pictures for everyone in the house one day when I was bored, had a pile of scratch paper I needed to get rid of, and a sharpie. Now they're all on our doors and it makes me so happy.
And it's only just beginning...
Today has been a really busy first day of Halloweek, but also a really good one! I taught Energy Mix in the morning, which is a class where we discuss renewable sources of energy (and we make solar ovens that cook cinnamon apple slices, delicious). In the afternoon, I observed BIRD AND BIRD BANDING CLASS with Megan, where we acted ridiculous and got to go birdwatching in the pouring rain. This was the best part because, even though it was pouring rain, we still saw lots of birds, including one I've NEVER SEEN BEFORE. LIFE. BIRD. It was a Red-Bellied Woodpecker, which was so cool to see. Another reason why it was bomb.com is because we went down to the dock and an adult Bald Eagle flew low across the entire lake just sixty feet out from us. It was magical. Right as the eagle disappeared from our line of sight, a loon called (despite it being really late in the season for loons, they should have migrated by now). The loon turned out to be a juvie that's been hanging out for some unknown reason. Basically, bird class ruled. We had macaroni and cheese for dinner, it was a rainy October-y day, Cica had a lightbulb moment during training today, and then I taught a raptor program on falconry that involved dressing up teenagers in ridiculous costumes and pretending to cut their hand off if they chose a bird above their social status. It was a good, full day. Before I go to bed, and in order to celebrate day one of Halloweek, I'm going to post some photos that demonstrate the touches of Halloween I've been seeing around here.
pumpkins, pumpkins, PUMPKINS!!!
A doe has been hanging out around our compost piles for the past week. I see her snacking on apples and then hanging out in the small strip of trees separating the barn from the dining hall. I almost ran into her the other day because I didn't see her, which is when I took this picture. I say hi to her sometimes when I'm walking home in the dark. I call her Felicity.
In high school, some of my best friends and I were shopping and found skull rings that we proceeded to buy and swear that we would wear every day in October for the rest of our lives. So far, the tradition has held true (well, for most of October...)
The other day at the barn, Jmack and I were both doing projects. She was practicing making shapes with a jigsaw (we get to play with powertools at this job), so I convinced her that we should make Halloween decorations. We ended up making that weird little angry blob ghost, her super cute tall ghost, and the three gravestones. I like Mr. Sprinkles and really do hope he RIPs. FOREVER.
I drew ghost pictures for everyone in the house one day when I was bored, had a pile of scratch paper I needed to get rid of, and a sharpie. Now they're all on our doors and it makes me so happy.
And it's only just beginning...
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
*insert vincent price laughter here*
HALLOWEEK BEGINS TOMORROW
Applicable. I wish I was this good at decorating cupcakes.
(gif/image from weheartit)
Applicable. I wish I was this good at decorating cupcakes.
(gif/image from weheartit)
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
life lately
I've taken hundreds of pictures since moving here to Minnesota. Here are some that portray life here in the woods.
Saturday, October 13, 2012
life in the woods
Life in the woods is full and rewarding. The smells, the colors, the sounds; all of it makes my heart swell when I think about it. The cracks of squirrels and deer walking through two foot piles of autumn leaves would have sent me into a small state of panic two months ago, being an incredibly nervous person. Now I consider it something strange NOT to hear, as well as the mechanical flutterings of songbirds and flushed grouse and the deep, throaty calls of ravens. The smell is usually a delicious, woodsy scent that is like a mixture of soil, decaying wood, and greens, but lately it has instead smelled like a large variety of farm animals due to lake turnover season. Ah, well. The colors are absolutely magnificent. I was excited for fall up here, and I was not disappointed. The maples, aspens, and birches surrounding our house and the lake all exploded into differing hues of golds, oranges, and the most beautiful red. That red is the most amazing color; only cheesy words like "passionate" and "lovely" do it justice. I have pictures to post next time that will hopefully convey what I'm trying to write about here.
In fact, I have become so habituated to life in the woods that I almost take it for granted now. I am trying so hard not to, though, because I love every little thing about this place. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the way the lake looks like a Monet painting in the early blue light of the morning, or the rolling fog coating the wetland marshes surrounding the barn, especially when you're sick and coughing, wiping snot from your nose and wishing you had gone to bed an hour earlier the night before. I realize time here may be short, and do not want to waste any second of it lamenting loss of sleep (though regrettably it is an inevitability, considering my sleep requirement). While taking the woods for granted is not something I want to continue, habituation is actually an interesting and desirable setting for me. I realize that I know these woods now. I can pick out landmarks to guide my way much like I do in cities, though woodland landmarks are much more subtle and hard to distinguish. One might be an overturned tree stump with its roots sticking out of the earth while another might be a square rock with 2/3 of its surface area covered in moss (both are real landmarks I use: the first marks where I like to take my classes to build shelters for survivor and the second marks where to go off the path to get to the area where we feed our foxes).
Speaking of moss, I love it. I am madly, deeply in love with moss. The forests that I grew up in while living in Utah were very similar in tree growth to the Audubon Center (though different trees, which I wouldn't have known at the time), but plant life is completely different. The forest floor is covered in different types of plants, sprigs of tall grass that exist in singular clusters, mushrooms, and MOSS. So much moss, the softest and most extravagant kind. I purposely take my shoes off to stand on moss wherever and whenever I can find the time. It makes me so happy to feel the moss on my toes, on my fingers, and if I could I would rub it on my face (well, I can but I haven't). Lichen is also abundant on almost every tree surface, in different textures and colors that I could take photographs of all day long. Mushrooms are another new thing to me, since I'm only used to occasionally finding the one boring grey mushroom that sprouted in a particular damp spot in the backyard. Here there are different variety pushing through the nutrient rich forest soil and fighting it out in the rough and tough wilds of the woods. They're also fun to take pictures of, though most of them are gone now due to our cold spells.
I used to get nervous about driving at night in areas where there seemed to be no civilization around, no lights from nearby houses, towns or cities to seemingly guide the way. I would feel a great sense of relief to see the lights of Salt Lake Valley upon arriving home from a trip where a great expanse of it had been driven on desolate expanses of interstate. However, now it's normal. In fact, I feel the opposite feeling. As soon as we emerge from the lights of the city and can be found driving along our peaceful forest road back to the Audubon Center, I feel calm in my heart. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty scared of the dark (I try to walk home with people at night at every opportunity) and my night vision is horrendous, but it's home now and I'm slowly but surely acclimating to it. One of my goals is to hopefully be okay with the dark and the nightly woodland activity by the end of my stay (which I don't want to think about at all right now).
I notice that I've gotten stronger since I got here. The first week we started training, we did a high-ropes course emergency take-down to train staff on what would need to happen. Some of us practiced climbing one of the poles up to the zip platform so that we could learn how to maneuver our way around an awkward portion near the top where the balance beams were nailed in place. The other difficult part of this situation was that we weren't just climbing, but we had to clip in as we climbed in order to remain safe 20 feet off the ground, since there was no belayer (part of the emergency scenario). This was a new challenge for me, both climbing vertically up a pole and then needing to hold my body in different positions in order to clip in and clip out and thus keep me from falling to the ground. I did it once and was exhausted. Last week (about two months after I first arrived here), we did another training that involved learning more about zip-line training, since many of us hadn't done it before. I climbed the pole faster and found it MUCH easier than it had been two months ago. Not only that, but I also did it three more times with no issues whatsoever. I was proud of myself. Hopefully I continue to see changes in my physique, I want to get even stronger and hopefully improve on my rock climbing skills!
I have so many more things I want to say, or at least that I've thought about while walking through my beloved woods, but I can't think of any of them right now and I believe this post is long enough (with no pictures and all text, a rarity!). I need to go to bed now so I can do barn chores in the morning. Nighty night.
In fact, I have become so habituated to life in the woods that I almost take it for granted now. I am trying so hard not to, though, because I love every little thing about this place. Sometimes it is hard to appreciate the way the lake looks like a Monet painting in the early blue light of the morning, or the rolling fog coating the wetland marshes surrounding the barn, especially when you're sick and coughing, wiping snot from your nose and wishing you had gone to bed an hour earlier the night before. I realize time here may be short, and do not want to waste any second of it lamenting loss of sleep (though regrettably it is an inevitability, considering my sleep requirement). While taking the woods for granted is not something I want to continue, habituation is actually an interesting and desirable setting for me. I realize that I know these woods now. I can pick out landmarks to guide my way much like I do in cities, though woodland landmarks are much more subtle and hard to distinguish. One might be an overturned tree stump with its roots sticking out of the earth while another might be a square rock with 2/3 of its surface area covered in moss (both are real landmarks I use: the first marks where I like to take my classes to build shelters for survivor and the second marks where to go off the path to get to the area where we feed our foxes).
Speaking of moss, I love it. I am madly, deeply in love with moss. The forests that I grew up in while living in Utah were very similar in tree growth to the Audubon Center (though different trees, which I wouldn't have known at the time), but plant life is completely different. The forest floor is covered in different types of plants, sprigs of tall grass that exist in singular clusters, mushrooms, and MOSS. So much moss, the softest and most extravagant kind. I purposely take my shoes off to stand on moss wherever and whenever I can find the time. It makes me so happy to feel the moss on my toes, on my fingers, and if I could I would rub it on my face (well, I can but I haven't). Lichen is also abundant on almost every tree surface, in different textures and colors that I could take photographs of all day long. Mushrooms are another new thing to me, since I'm only used to occasionally finding the one boring grey mushroom that sprouted in a particular damp spot in the backyard. Here there are different variety pushing through the nutrient rich forest soil and fighting it out in the rough and tough wilds of the woods. They're also fun to take pictures of, though most of them are gone now due to our cold spells.
I used to get nervous about driving at night in areas where there seemed to be no civilization around, no lights from nearby houses, towns or cities to seemingly guide the way. I would feel a great sense of relief to see the lights of Salt Lake Valley upon arriving home from a trip where a great expanse of it had been driven on desolate expanses of interstate. However, now it's normal. In fact, I feel the opposite feeling. As soon as we emerge from the lights of the city and can be found driving along our peaceful forest road back to the Audubon Center, I feel calm in my heart. Don't get me wrong, I'm still pretty scared of the dark (I try to walk home with people at night at every opportunity) and my night vision is horrendous, but it's home now and I'm slowly but surely acclimating to it. One of my goals is to hopefully be okay with the dark and the nightly woodland activity by the end of my stay (which I don't want to think about at all right now).
I notice that I've gotten stronger since I got here. The first week we started training, we did a high-ropes course emergency take-down to train staff on what would need to happen. Some of us practiced climbing one of the poles up to the zip platform so that we could learn how to maneuver our way around an awkward portion near the top where the balance beams were nailed in place. The other difficult part of this situation was that we weren't just climbing, but we had to clip in as we climbed in order to remain safe 20 feet off the ground, since there was no belayer (part of the emergency scenario). This was a new challenge for me, both climbing vertically up a pole and then needing to hold my body in different positions in order to clip in and clip out and thus keep me from falling to the ground. I did it once and was exhausted. Last week (about two months after I first arrived here), we did another training that involved learning more about zip-line training, since many of us hadn't done it before. I climbed the pole faster and found it MUCH easier than it had been two months ago. Not only that, but I also did it three more times with no issues whatsoever. I was proud of myself. Hopefully I continue to see changes in my physique, I want to get even stronger and hopefully improve on my rock climbing skills!
I have so many more things I want to say, or at least that I've thought about while walking through my beloved woods, but I can't think of any of them right now and I believe this post is long enough (with no pictures and all text, a rarity!). I need to go to bed now so I can do barn chores in the morning. Nighty night.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Monday, October 1, 2012
october lovin'
I vowed to stop filling posts with random pictures just because I liked them (that's what tumblr is for!), but this is October we're talking about. I love October with every fiber of my being (or at least a lot of fibers of my being). The entire month is rife with the pinnacle of fall colors, foggy mornings, harvest moons, pumpkin themed EVERYTHING, and (of course) HALLOWEEN! Everyone in the house knows how much I adore October, so I was greeted with many "HAPPY OCTOBERS!" this morning. In celebration of this love, and because I don't have time for anything else, I'm going to post some October and Halloween inspiration.
what I wouldn't give to be there right now
if I went to this house, I would be in heaven
and of course...
At home in Utah, we have a box of Halloween children's books that I read religiously every Halloween, despite the fact that they're for second graders. I'll miss reading them this year, but I'm excited to make some sort of new tradition for Halloween! Plus, there will definitely be pumpkin carving, scary movie nights, costume making, and Halloween parties in my future. Halloweek this year is going to RULE to make up for me getting the flu last year the night before All Hallow's Eve.
It's going to be a good month, I'm positive.
what I wouldn't give to be there right now
if I went to this house, I would be in heaven
and of course...
At home in Utah, we have a box of Halloween children's books that I read religiously every Halloween, despite the fact that they're for second graders. I'll miss reading them this year, but I'm excited to make some sort of new tradition for Halloween! Plus, there will definitely be pumpkin carving, scary movie nights, costume making, and Halloween parties in my future. Halloweek this year is going to RULE to make up for me getting the flu last year the night before All Hallow's Eve.
It's going to be a good month, I'm positive.
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