Halloween Costumes

So what did you wear for Halloween? Since we were in Disneyland for Trick or Treating I made a costume for me and Sister-in-law Nurse. I got the idea from the California Gurls video by Katy Perry.

I went out on a limb and made these daring outfits for Sister-in-Law Nurse and me. Since I didn't have the body of a 25-year-old Pop Star I made ours less risqué. That and I didn't want to be kicked out of Disneyland. We were quite the hit with all the 20-somethings and younger. Most anyone older than that didn't know what we were.

Here's the whole family. Middle Child's coat zipped up with a funny face and Baby wore a Ghillie suit.

We had a ton of fun trick or treating and made out like bandits in the candy department. We shouldn't need to buy any more candy for at least the rest of this year. And don't expect me to wear this outfit again. Once was enough for a lifetime.

Look What Facebook Started

It all started with a simple Facebook post:

"I think I need cowboy boots, hat & belt buckle for next year's rodeo"

And my Uncle went to work. He told me he collected belt buckles. I had no idea! He offered me a belt buckle for next year. I was kind of excited. My very own belt buckle!

Last week I got a package. It was from Maryland. I knew it was from my Uncle! I opened it up and found these really cool belt buckles. They are for the boys. The buckles are incredible! I love the color.

I love the designs. I love the animals. Both the boys loved them. Instantly Baby wanted the Eagle and I was a little worried Middle Child would want it too. But he wanted the Armadillo. I shouldn't be surprised, he would be more apt to like the unusual animal; for example, hippos are his favorite animal.

My Uncle told me the belt buckle I picked out was big. And he was right! It's over 5 inches long. And it is so intricately detailed.

I love all the swirls etched into the silver backing. I love the gold Steer head and horns. I love long-horned steers. There's a few south of town that I gawk at every time I head to the quilt store. It's the second best part of going to the quilt store.

But I digress. I love my belt buckles! I can hardly wait for the next rodeo. I may have to wear it to the demolition derby next week. Just to practice wearing cowboy clothes. I've never been to a Demolition Derby so I don't know the proper fashion etiquette. I clueless as to whether Cowboy clothes are worn like they are to the rodeo. But it is Spanish Fork. I could wear it to church and no one would notice.

Canadians

I recently got a new flat iron. I decided to enter the fashion age and purchased a cute one.

I thought the safety warnings were rather curious.

Apparently people in Canada are even dumber than us. They're not allowed to use flat irons.

And my favorite part was that they had to warn us not to use it on our eyelashes because our eyes would probably get burned.

That Makes Me Look Fat

The other day Olaf got Baby up and going. He threw him in the shower. He got him a towel. And he put some clothes in the bathroom so Baby wouldn't have to leave the warm bathroom and venture into his cold room to get dressed.

Baby showered and got out when I finally knocked on the wall to let him know he'd been in there enough to cost me a small fortune in a water heater bill.

About five minutes later I noticed he was still in the bathroom. No surprises there. He likes to crawl under his towel and over the heater vent and get nice and hot. So I went in the bathroom to help him get moving.

"Hey, you! Get up! We need to get you dressed. Here's the clothes Dad got you. Do you have your underwear on yet? Nope, here it is. Dad even brought you two pair to choose from. Do you want light or dark blue striped undies on your bum today?"

"Light blue! That Dark Blue makes my butt look fat!" and he snickered his evil laugh.

Random Happenings

1. Discovered a RedBox movie sitting on top of the TV since last Saturday.
2. My DVR can't tell the difference between "New" and "Rerun" and recorded about 10 iCarly shows for the kids. I took care of that series recording.
3. Middle Child has been sent to clean his room every day for the past two weeks and the floor is no more visible than it was two weeks ago.
4. Attempting to break Tank's habit of sleeping on sofa by leaning chairs against the front of it to no avail, he jumps over them and sleeps on the back cushions as if he were a princess.
5. Ate out way too much this week, but looking forward to it tonight.
6. Bought some soft and warm Acorn slippers for half price last night while Olaf was buying paintballs for his game today.
7. When I told Baby to wash his face he replied, "I'm a Boy! I'm supposed to be dirty!" and he ran away to play with a friend.
   
8. Actually worked out three times this week!
9. It snowed and a lot of trees were damaged.
10. Baby made cookies with Olaf's coworker last night and I ate most of them cuz they were delicious! I need that recipe! (I don't think the workouts counteracted the calories I ate.)
11. I bought my first Paul Frank t-shirt. (I'm probably too old to wear it tho.)
12. Left the truck out in the rain in a feeble attempt to get it clean. It doesn't rain hard enough here to wash a car.
13. Reserved the campground for Girl's Camp this summer.
14. Went to a beautiful roof-top wedding for a past co-worker. I wish her many happy years!
15. Balanced the checkbook and I'm still in the black.
16. Got all the laundry folded and put away. Helps when you don't do all the dirty laundry.
17. Tanned in an effort to keep up with the Rock Star Wives. I'm failing miserably in that deparment, I just don't have it in me.
18. Got to sleep in 15 minutes this week since the kids are on Spring Break and I don't need to get them up in the morning.
19. Put in my first "Time Off" request for Sister's Weekend!

Fashion Revisited

Husbands are so good for some things. But not other things. Like helping me pick out clothes to wear. As long as they're tight he loves it. Nothing slightly loose, cuz that looks like Grandma clothes and heaven forbid he be married to someone old! I must show how young I am at heart. I don't know if other husbands are this way because I've heard of a few who buy their wife clothes and shoes and even purses. Olaf would never attempt to buy me clothes without me first seeing them. He's got marriage-goggles and would probably buy a size 6 or something wonderful like that which I could-never-even-if-I-lost-50-pounds fit into. But at least he thinks of me like that.

The fun thing has been that I have been buying lots of clothes the last six months. It's so much fun to wear new things and have somewhere to go in them! If I'm at home I just want to be comfortable. But when I'm at work I want to be comfortable also, but in a business-type way. I have perfected the art of wearing sneakers with slacks but also heels with jeans. I know, it's been done forever, but I'm just catching on. Remember that post about how fashion-conscious-deficient I am? I still am, but I'm getting better.

I've also been stockpiling shoes as though we were headed for another World War with shoe rations. I had a teacher in Junior High who used to steal her dad's shoe coupons during WWII so she could get more shoes. She figured he didn't need as many shoes. And she was probably right. Men only need a few pair of shoes; brown and black dress shoes, tennis shoes for running/walking/hiking, and maybe a few more for good measure, but not the 25+ that I need in order to match all my outfits for work. And thankfully most men tolerate our passion for shoes.

The downside af all my shoppig for myself is that Olaf's wardrobe hasn't been added to for a while. I just realized he probably needs more shoes, he's wearing out the old ones. He also probably needs more jeans. I've tried to buy him some stylish men jeans, but he just doesn't love them so I'm about to send them to Goodwill where someone who appreciates fashion will buy them. I guess this weekend I will have to take him Jeans and Shoes shopping. At least with my new job I can stop by the mall on my way home from work and pick up some more killer deals for me without fighting the crowds!

Beauty Queens Abound

I thought I was doing so good with the whole makeup thing that us girls do to ourselves all in the name of vanity. Really, I did.

Until I went to BUNCO and found out I had the least amount of makeup of everyone. I think all these people in Utah know how to put it together so much better than me. It's something to do with the water their moms drink while their pregnant, cuz I sure didn't get it. At the time I was feeling good because I was at an all-time-high of 5 different eyeshadow combinations! Five, that's probablly more than I've ever had. But I found out that's nothing.

"What do you do with all those eye shadow colors?" I asked, amazed that anyone could have that many.

Several people explained to me how you need to match your outfit, your mood, the day, etc, etc, etc. Seriously? How many shades of pink/brown/grey/purple/bronze is there out there? Can't I just slap on some pink/brown/grey/purple/bronze eyeshadow and call it good? I try to make it match somewhat but do people really notice when your eyeshadow matches your shirt?

I also don't know how to accessorize. If I get more than earrings put on, then I am all dressed up and ready to go! These girls here have so many necklaces and earrings, one for each outfit. There have been jewelry parties I've been invited to. After the first one and a couple of purchases, I didn't know what else to buy.

I keep trying to get it right, and I just keep failing miserably. My only consolation now is that I work and don't have time for that stuff. And I feel pretty good most of the time, til I'm reminded how behind I am. There has been no learning curve on the whole makeup/accessorizing thing for me. I'm still at the bottom of the curve (I typed curse at first and I think that's what it is) and there's no sign that I'll be coming up that curve, unless it starts to curve downwards.

My sisters joke about Utah Women. How they dress up to stay home and be with their kids. It's true. And I can't keep up. at. all.

Not Enough Shoes

The other day I went to Target for lunch. It's a great place for lunch. Not only can I browse and shop but it's the only sit-down Pizza Hut in the whole county. And Pizza Hut has a great lunch deal. For less than $6 you get more food than any human should consume for lunch. As I was browsing through the clearance men's section I heard a cart crash into a rack behind me. "Mom's letting their kids drive again?" I thought. As I turned to look at another rack of clothing I saw Sister-in-Law Nurse picking stuff up off the ground.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

She replied giggling, "I saw you walk by, but I only saw you from the neck down so I wasn't sure it was you. So I kept looking all the way down and saw your shoes and knew right away it was you! So I tried to push my cart into you, but it didn't go far. That rack of clothing jumped in the way."

Right now you're thinking, "What a sad sad sad girl that she can be picked out by her shoes! What, has she only got three pair or something?" But it's not like that at all! I promise I have more than three pairs of shoes, not many more, but a few. There is a logical explanation and it was that she was actually shopping with me when I got the shoes.

One day we went to Famous Footwear, not my favorite shoe store, but they were having their Famous Buy One, Get One Half Off. We thought, Perfect! We can both get a pair of shoes 25% off! I looked all over and found a pair of sneakers that I loved. They were a great color combination, soft and cushy, and most importantly the shoes had a good arch, hard to find. I was sold, except they didn't have them in my size. I wasn't worried though, there were signs pasted all over the walls "Can't find your size? We'll ship it to you free of charge!"

So I took the shoe up to the register and asked the girl, "I love this shoe but need it in a 9½ , can you have that size shipped to my house?" I know, gargantuan feet.

She replied, "Let me look it up online." typing, pausing, more typing, "Oh, we have a pair up in our South Jordan store. Would you like me to call them and put them on hold for you?"

"Umm, can't I have them shipped to my house like the signs say?"

"Oh, we only do that for shoes in our warehouse. They aren't in our warehouse, only at our store."

"Really? Well, can someone bring them down here?" thinking of the $3.50 gas price. This was before the New Old Car and I wasn't driving that far for a pair of shoes. That would rack the cost up another $20!

"No, we don't do that. Would you like me to call and put them on hold for a day or two?"

"Not at all," I replied. "I'm not driving up there and if you won't bring them down then I just won't get them here. I'll find them somewhere else."

And find them somewhere else I did! I got them online for the same price with free shipping.

So, that is why she knew me by my shoes. Yes, a long story to explain a short story, I don't mince words.

And while I'm posting this, our cable and internet are inoperable.

My boys just hollered from the basement: "The cable's out?"

"Yes. The city's lame."

"What?"

"YES, THE CITY'S STUPID!"

"Yes they are! We neeeeeeeeeed cable!"

"You'll just have to watch a movie," I told them.

"What? I hope my boys survive without TV!" from Olaf. "What have I been teaching you? How will you survive when we have to live off our food storage and there is no electricity?"

Be Prepared, the Boy Scout and Olaf motto. And if you know Olaf, you know I'm not kidding.

Rolled Up Pants

Not enough can be said for this Picture I found on the Satorialist. I had hoped this style of pants would not come back! I'm ok with the fitted pant, but this went a little too far in my little fashion world. Granted, I'm not much of a fashionista and have been known for my inability to accessorize and match much more than a t-shirt or plain shirt with a bottom. Simple jewelry I can handle. But all the other accessories are unbelievable. If you can believe it, my nieces have more accessories than I do in their wardrobe!