Outside of the Box

It is always refreshing to see original and clever costumes that break away from the weak traditional adult costumes: cat, angel, devil, and the ever so popular cowgirl. (I admit to being at least 2 of these, btw)

At my company's office in Utah, I worked among several graphic artists and many other creative minds that would never settle on being anything close to traditional. For this reason, I always looked forward to Halloween every year becasue I never knew what was going to show up, but I  was certain it was going to be good. I am quite sad to be missing out on it all this year.

A few absolute gems that I love:

:

Dora the Explorer. His backpack had speakers on it and was blasting "Come on vamanos, everbody let's go!" Hilarious.  Yes, he even has pink Nikes. 

 

                               

This is Curt, one of the most talented designers I know, as Mary Poppins.  He always has the best costumes.  This year, his family dressed as the cast of Peter Pan and went to the mall to show it off. Too fun.

                          

Shaved face in the back of his head.  Who would of thought?

Nachoooo!! I don't know how to sew.  Let's just say that a hot glue gun and a stapler saved me on this one.  

 

Noelle's little guppy. One of the cutest baby costumes I've ever seen.

 

White as Snow

This is my sister-in-law, Lizzie. As you can tell, she does not have a hard time making friends.

She went to Africa last month, and this picture made my day, and I'm pretty sure it made their lives.

Only a Mother Could Love . . .

I'm feeling kind of shallow and heartless this morning.

This guy found our doorstep last night around 6:30 pm. I tried to shew him a few times, but sure enough at 8 pm, 10 pm, and midnight he was still comfortably situated on our front porch. Pictures do not capture the appearance/scale of this pup too well. He is what appears to be a bad combination of a chihuahua trapped into a rottweilers body. How do I say this nicely . . . well, he is ugly. He looks normal chihauhua sized in these pics, but he is not at all.





I went to bed around 1 am figuring that he would make his way home, if he indeed has one, in the middle of night. I was relieved when I woke up at 7:00 this morning that he was gone.

After returning from my jog this morning, I came home to find the rott-uahua fast asleep on our porch. It pulled my heartstrings a little bit that this guy apparently is a stray and he wants us to take him in. "Of all the fish in the sea, he chose us" type thing. Then he stood up and put his huge, ugly chihuahua ears in the air and it totally killed the tender moment.

I know this sounds shallow, but just like in the dating scene, there has to be some sense of initial attraction or interest in the person. And if it's not there, it's not there. I have paced by my front door about 10 times this morning trying to have a change of heart, and hoping he will look cute to me. No such luck.


I called animal patrol and they said they will be by to get him. It has now been two hours and he is still chilling on my porch. Am I hero for calling the pound in hopes they will take him in and feed him? Perhaps someone will come in and think his unique look is cute? Or, am I the wicked, shallow lady who doesn't want an unattractive housemate?

I Heart Tina Fey

Shameless

Recently I was talking with a friend about how he pays his children a nickel for each piece of Halloween candy that they surrender from their stash, and a dime for any full size candy bars, and then he throws it away. Of course he does all of this to try and keep his kids healthy.

I really should be embarrassed about my thoughts/plotting that followed our conversation. I soon pondered how I would likely do the same thing with my future kids, minus the whole throwing away part. Instead, I would buy from their stash for a low price, and keep "mommy's secret stash" somewhere for when I needed a sweet fix. Genius if you ask me. I'm joking by the way. Kind of.

My thoughts then wandered to how I would never admit to my children that . . .

• The typical plastic jack-o-lantern head with a handle was never a sufficient companion for trick-or-treating. The pillowcase was always the better choice.
  
  
• I would go to the rich neighborhoods because big/expensive houses = big/expensive candy.
  
  
• I would not go to bed on Halloween night, until my stash was dumped out on my floor and strict inventory was taken to see what candy I had the most of that year. Dang Tootsie Rolls always won.
  
  
• In a somewhat OCD manner, I would line up all my candy by type and size, and then throw away any of the nasty mystery candies that were wrapped in those unmarked, generic orange and black wrappers.