GREat!

Guys--I just registered to take the GRE.  As in, graduate school.  Graduate school!  I will admit, a tiny part of me is freaking out right now, but the rest of me is almost excited (well, not for the test exactly, for the school part).  I am such a nerd...

Conference Room Doors

Quiet when shut tight
Once opened chaos explodes
My silence is gone


*snap snap snap*

Great Lengths

Want to see a magic trick?  Watch, I'll make my hair grow an inch or two in a matter of seconds.  Ready?

Wait for it...

Tada!!

Last week, I had access to a CHI straightener (thanks Eva!), so I decided to straighten my hair for work.  As I knew it would, it messed up a lot of people.  It was awesome!  Most of the guys just stared at me for a few minutes before saying: "You did something to your hair.  What did you do?"  Haha...gotta love 'em.

You know, I'm pretty sure this is the longest my hair has been since my sophomore year of high school.  Let's see how long I can go resisting the urge to chop it all off!

Oh, and since we're talking about hair, I guess I should show you guys this:

Yep, I made it myself.  (Go here for the tutorial.  Thanks Diana!)

A better shot of the knot.  Doesn't it look cool?

That is all for now.  I'll stop being vain about my hair now.

Don't ask me why I always feel the insane urge to post pictures of myself making ugly faces...I just thought this one was funny. :)

Adventures in Paradise...Bakery

Earlier this week, someone needed to pick up lunch for a meeting we had going on in our office.  Usually another lady takes care of lunch stuff, but she was out sick.  (We missed her a lot.)  Therefore, I was the lucky one chosen to get the food.  We have a Paradise Bakery right around the corner from work, so it was not big deal.  Or at least, it wouldn't have been for a normal person.  Ha.

I walked in and found out that the menu we were basing the order off of was the catering menu, not the normal cafe menu.  Snafu #1.  Luckily, one of the workers (he looked like a manager) took pity on me, probably seeing the desperation in my eyes and the green Heliae shirt, and majorly helped me out.  He got the order all filled out and sent me over to pay.  I picked up a sandwich for myself (might as well...) and walked over to the cash register.  Snafu #2: my purse is huge, and I was now carrying a menu, a paper with our order on it, my sandwich and cookie, and trying to pay and get drink cups and all.  Again, the nice girl at the cash register took pity and was very helpful.  It was only then that I realized my biggest problem yet: the tea.

Two people wanted iced tea.  Now, my only experience with iced tea has been A) seeing other people drink it, and B) passing it by as an option at the soda fountain.  Snafu #3:  the soda fountain at Paradise Bakery does not have a tea option.  Instead, they have four huge metal canister-looking things with tea in them.  I literally sat and stared at them for a few minutes, totally at a loss.  

"Sure," I thought, "send the only girl who doesn't drink tea to get some for two of our VPs."  

I was about to call my boss and ask her what to do (she drinks iced tea all the time), but I realized that I left my phone sitting on my desk at work.  Great.  I finally just filled some cups with ice (going on a brain wave that iced tea is just normal tea, but with ice--brilliant, I know) and went for the plainest brew I could find and hoped it would work.  I also had a great conversation with someone else at the drink area.

Random Guy: So, you're not getting any of these? [motioning to the soda options]

Me: Nope, I'm not.  I'm getting iced tea, except I don't drink tea and have no idea what I'm doing.

Random Guy: Oh, OK....

Yeah, I pretty much just gave up on looking like a competent adult in any measure.  

In the end, I think everyone got what they wanted (at least I didn't hear any complaints) and I got a delicious Paradise Club sandwich to replace my PB&J.  Oh, and an opportunity to turn in my first ever expense report!  Get excited!

And who says office jobs are boring?

Circles and Squares and Afghans--Grand Finale!

I finished!

Finally.  Oi.

Here you go, Seth--one egg, sunny-side up!

You know, I actually thought this took me a year to do.  I just looked back--I didn't start it until March.  Huh.  Still, it seemed like it took forever!  This is definitely the most labor-intensive crochet project I've done...so far.  Who knows what I'll do next?  Muahaha...

"Happy Christmas, Ron!"

[Yes, a side note already: Does anyone else think this is the funniest line in the first Harry Potter movie?  Or even recognize it?  Zach and I make fun of it every time we watch it...]


Whilst caroling for my ward FHE last week, someone started singing "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  Ok, A) that song was NOT on the approved list, and B) it's reeeeeally long (or so it seemed--it was cold outside).  In rebellion, a friend *cough*Bradley*cough and I made up a Harry Potter version.  We thought it was hilarious--and I still think it is.  So, as a special Christmas treat for you all, I will share it with you.

You all know how the song goes, right?  So, get that going in your head and I'll supply the changes--I'm not writing out the whole song, because that would be ridiculous. 

"On the first day of Christmas Hermione* gave to me: A Phoenix in a holly tree..."
*Or whatever other HP character you want to use.  Bradley really likes Hermione.

Second Day: 2 Wrackspurts / Crumple-Horned Snorkacks (take your pick--we couldn't decide which one we liked better)

Third Day: 3 Deathly Hallows

Fourth Day: 4 Firebolts

Fifth Day: 5 GOLDEN SNITCHES

Sixth Day: 6 Fizzing Whizbees

Seventh Day: 7 Horcruxes (yes, we know this would not be a good gift, but they had to be in there)

Eigth Day: 8 Owls a-flying

Ninth Day: 9 Quidditch Cups

Tenth Day: 10 Hippogriffs

Eleventh Day: 11 Hogwarts letters (get it? 'Cause you're 11 when you get your letter?)

Twelveth Day: 12 Wands a-waving

Maybe some day we'll make a music video...

Pumpkins Single-Style

Rhonda, this one's for you. :)

Last week I was actually social.  (Disregard the fact that I was the only one home and therefore lonely for most of the week--that had absolutely nothing to do with it. *ahem*)  One of my outings involved my ward FHE and pumpkins.  Yay pumpkins!  I will admit, we cheated and used stencils, but we were not feeling creative enough to actually draw out faces.  Ha--I tried once (on a paper towel, not the pumpkin) and it looked pretty bad.  Yeah, anyways...picture time!

 Here's the pumpkin Brad and I carved:

Rhonda, Landon, and Devin* carved another one:

This is Rhonda's worried face, in case you couldn't tell--the only thing between her fingers and the carving knife is a section of pumpkin.  Carve carefully, Landon, carve carefully.

Note the beautiful eyes, freehanded by Landon.

Since we aren't allowed to have fire in the church, we headed over to Landon's house afterward and borrowed some candles.  Here they are all lit up:

Don't they look awesome?

This was the first year that I haven't carved my "own" pumpkin at home, and this one got moldy before Halloween night, so we didn't even have a pumpkin on our wall outside.  Man...the parents and I are getting lame in our old age.  But hey, only 100 days until Zachy gets home!  Yay!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

*Or did he?  Maybe he was just out washing "pumpkin dirt" out of his eye.  It's OK, Devin--we all cry sometimes.