I've Never Seen A Witch

 Me & T— ready for some trick-or-treating

A few weeks ago, one of my youth group girls asked me to go trick-or-treating with her, and I agreed because she's so fun to hang with and I haven't been trick-or-treating in forever (naturally). I had so much fun trick-or-treating with T— tonight! She went as a pirate and I went as a narwhal. We got so much loot! One lady even said, "Oh I have something SPECIAL for the big kids!" and she gave each of us a huge bag of M&Ms!

I loved being a narwhal this year too. It was extra fun because most of the adults were like, "Are you a unicorn?" and a bunch of the kids were like, "OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOUR COSTUME!!! I LOVE NARWHALS!!!"* I got a LOT of compliments and many confused glances from people walking up and down Market Street. I'm glad I got to get out and have fun this year—I felt like I was a kid again "oohing" and "aahing" at the fun pumpkins and decorations.

Here are some pics from the evening:

A legit Cake Wreck!
I think the pumpkin got sick of all the kids enjoying
the sweetness and wanted to try some himself.

 A super cute family trick-or-treating on Market Street

 A sweet pup ready for Halloween . . . ps: it's a boy!

 Raise your hand if you're having fun . . .

One giant bag of M&Ms coming right up

My loot from the evening!

And as a special treat, here is a fun video of my friend, Heather J. dressed as a kitty making me laugh. She thought I was taking a picture, but I was filming!

*caps lock & exclamation points totally part of the deal.

What's This?

K— is ready for Halloween!

It's getting closer to that magic hour . . . Halloween. My housemates and I have already decorated our house for Halloween and we're planning our Halloween party and a trip to a haunted corn maze.

I keep jumping the gun and suggesting we decorate for both Halloween and Christmas. Ka— suggested putting snowflakes on the windows, to which K— adamantly vetoed. I suggested we all take a trip down to California and chop down a redwood tree to decorate as our Christmas tree. K— seems to think we wouldn't make it out of the park, but only because she isn't aware of my childhood klepto skills. Jk. I won't steal a tree . . . unless it's one of those Reese's chocolate trees . . . okay but maybe I wouldn't steal those either.

One thing that I have set as a goal for this month is to learn the Thriller dance. K— is mandating that I perform it for the house on October 30th. Wish me luck guys!

Dress For The Weather

Halloween is just around the corner and I've already been
browsing the racks for some ideas! 

Truth be told, I'm hoping to stumble across a narwhal costume, because COME ON, it's a narwhal costume! Alas, I have yet to find it. So, I've been looking at some other options. So far, these are my faves:

 AMANDA BANANA

AMO THE HOT DOG

There's actually a Spirit Halloween store that opened up close to the house, and I went to take a look there today. Here are some of the ones I liked:

 SALLY from The Nightmare Before Christmas

 A CLOWN

 THE MONA LISA

RAINBOW BRITE

One of my housemates says I should let you guys decide. I'm definitely up for suggestions . . .

Free Fallin'

Saturday is beautiful! You know why? Cause you can stay up super late on Friday night and SLEEP IN on Saturday morning! whoo hoo! Unless of course, you have an incredibly adorable 4 year old niece who doesn't quite understand time zones and calls you at 6 a.m. to sing you a song. :D Part of me was like, "I JUST went to sleep 4 hours ago!" And the other part of me was like, "This sucks! I'm too incoherent to enjoy the moment!" I LOVE hearing her voice and as upset as I was that she woke me up so early, I was more upset with myself for not being fully present for her during the phone call . . . I'm PRETTY sure that after the song I was like, "Oh that's great. Good job." and I'm 99% I said it in a groggy "i just woke up" slur. ;) But she is too cute to be upset with, so after listening to her talk and responding with some groggy "mm hmmm"s and "oh. yeah. cool."s, my mom grabbed the phone back and said they would let me go back to sleep. :D

This is her singing the song to me:

Then I got a text from my dad at 10 a.m. and I couldn't go back to bed after that. But that's okay, cause I would have slept all day, given the chance. And I needed to get up, cause today, i got to go to my FIRST EVER Pumpkin Patch!! :D Cindy Jones invited me to tag along with her family and I am so excited that I got to go! :D I had a blast!

I had decided earlier [maybe a bit too early in the morning ;) ] that I wanted the saddest, most pathetic, underdog of a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. I call this embracing my inner Charlie Brown. :D So I did, and I named her EILEEN . . . cause she's a wee bit unsteady ;)

get it? ei-leen . . . *sigh* i know. i spout corny jokes like they're sonnets . . .

Here are more pics from the day:

This guy kept singing about "If I only had a brain." what a creep. ;)

no breakfast + no lunch = giant hot dog, pumpkin pie, and hot apple cider

Haaaaaaaay!

The cutest barnyard animals ever!

The Jones Family! I LOVE them :D

One of these was once Cinderella's carriage . . .

Joshua and Gareth picking out a wheel barrel for the pumpkins to go in

Attack of the GIANT pumpkins!

"Jefe, would you say I have a PLETHORA of pumpkins??"

Me + Eileen = love at first sight! Taking my baby home! :D

This is My Birthday Song...It Isn't Very Long.... (but in reality it kinda is)

Okay, so now that I've won the award for longest blog title, let's move on!

First of all, a great big huge THANK YOU to everyone who made my birthday special! From the phone calls to the texts, to the cards in the mail, to the FB and Myspace comments...THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Even if you were a day late or a few days later, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! I am realizing more and more how truly blessed my life is because I have all of you who are such an important part of my life! :D

Well, I must admit, for not having all my friends and family around, this birthday was pretty amazing! I actually had a spectacular birthday weekend & day!

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS>

Friday was Halloween, and Westside Church hosted an event called CANDY ZONE for all the neighborhood families...and it was so much fun!! I dressed up as a nurse/doctor and worked the Welcome table with a new friend named Anna-Karin Roo! She dressed up like a Hershey's Kiss and it was so cute! I got to talk to Vanessa on Halloween, and she was putting on her Cinderella Costume...and she goes, "What are you going to be for Halloween?" and I was like, "I'm going to be a doctor." and she was like, "A doctor?" and I said "Yeah, a doctor" and she goes: "I want to be a doctor for Halloween!" so cute!!! But since I had sent the money home for them to take her costume shopping and she had all her Cinderella stuff, I said, "well, maybe next year. This year you can be Cinderella, okay, my pretty pretty princess?" And she said okay! I LOVE THAT GIRL!! :D Candy Zone rocked! It was so fun to be around all the kiddos and make them smile and it was awesome to connect with new people at Westside! And, as I was waiting for the bus, thinking about all the crazies that ride the bus on Halloween night, Deborah Siers (the worship pastor's wife) pulled up to the stop and gave me a ride home!! We had such a great conversation! I love her!
This is a pic of me and Anna Karen:



SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER>


One of my birthday presents from my Aunt Olga was a $25 gift card for Barnes and Noble, so Saturday, I went downtown and watched a movie and spent hours at Barnes and Noble! And bought some new books: Twilight, Sybil, and The Boy In The Striped Pajamas! Yes, I know, all movie books! hahahahahahahaha! While I was downtown, I also got some new stuff from Old Navy and Urban Outfitters...including...a new rug to go in my room!! And it's lime green to match the decor!! woot!

SUNDAY MORNING>


Sunday was such a great day! I had some a sweet quiet time at Loyal Heights Elementary while I was walking and praying through the park. :D Then I got to church and got to sit next to Annie, who is amazing and one of my coolest new friends at Westside! The message was really good and I was glad to get to see everyone...and some of the kids from kids church came up and gave me hugs before they went downstairs for kids church! so sweet! Then, I went home and made some lunch and got ready to head downtown for my big BIRTHDAY PRESENT to myself: THE MISSY HIGGINS CONCERT AT THE SHOWBOX down at Pike Place Market!! I had soooo much fun!!! And I got to meet new people and laugh all night at ridiculous concert commenters!! Joshua Radin opened...and he has such a good voice. :D And Missy and her band rocked the night!! Here's come pics and some video from the night...it's all borrowed cause my phone didn't capture the best footage and pics due to the crowd noise levels and the lighting. :D Enjoy!








And here's some video footage! She seriously is one of the most beautiful, talented singers/songwriters I know! And her stage presence is amazing! I got to stand at the very front of the stage...it was AMAZING!!!

Missy Higgins: SCAR


Missy Higgins: SUGARCANE


Missy Higgins: WHERE I STOOD


Missy Higgins & Joshua Radin: LONG RIDE HOME (cover of Patty Griffin song)
*by the way, the person filming this was right behind me...i'm the one with the dark hair with all the bobby pins standing in front of Joshua Radin!


Overall, it was such an amazing night! I got a new Missy Higgins shirt and a Joshua Radin tank top! So fun! I went home smiling so big and just replaying it all in my head!


MONDAY, MONDAY>



Was my actual birthday!! And, the first call I got that morning was from....MY DADDY!!! all the way from Iraq!! It was soooo good to talk to him!! He told me my birthday present was dinner at Cheesecake Factory on his Check Card! So that's where I'm going for lunch this Saturday! :D Then my mom called, a few more friends called, and I even got to talk to P.Dizz my Nizz for a while, which made me super happy! My facebook was flooded with well wished and it was just a super awesome birthday!! My boss even got me a CACTUS-GRAM for my birthday! And so far, it's still alive! :D And I got some great birthday cards and other gifts that were so amazing!! It was such a fun day!! And then, to top it off, I had small groups at Westside that night, and we had a fellowship night and everyone wished me a happy birthday and Kim Normand baked me a cake!!! And everyone sang Happy Birthday to me and the Vodegel's gave me a ride home!! What a blessed day it was!!!


Again, I am just so thankful for everyone who is a part of my life! I probably don't say it enough, but you guys are all such amazing people and I'm so glad you're part of my life!!

So now I'm 27 and though I am older, I still feel so young at heart and so happy!! It's been an amazing journey so far here in Seattle and God has blessed me in so many ways through it all! Love you guys! Until later...peace out!