Halloween Costumes for Grown-Ups

Pregnant Mommy costume from Make It and Love It blog - too cute and too funny!

And here's what she made for her husband so you can see what's in his belly...

I don't know what self-respecting grown man would wear this - but I'd love to see it! haha! From  CostumePop.comhttp://costumepop.com/adult-costumes/how-to-make-a-sheep-costume/...

This one is not only creepy, but so realistic that they had to label what was fake and what was real in the photo. Definitely points for creativity and hard work. From CurtisTucker.comhttp://www.curtistucker.com/labels/Photo.html...

Another creative costume from Instructables.comhttp://www.instructables.com/image/FKA1YH7G1QW9W1Y/How-to-make-a-Mount-Rushmore-Costume.jpg!

We can't leave little Fifi out of the fun! From DoggieStylish.comhttp://www.doggiestylish.com/store/2009/10/how-to-make-a-dog-fish-costume-for-halloween/...

If you're dog goes missing by the end of the night, check this guy's house. haha

I don't know of a cat on this planet that would let you do this to them. But if you can find one that would, definitely go with this costume!

I'm still working on what I'm going to wear, but I hope these pics got your creative juices flowing! Happy Halloween!

Wookiee Cookies

There are three brothers that stay the evenings with us for night care while their mom works the swing shift and I often take them to the library to do homework and read books.

This is what one of the boys checked out from the library tonight:

It's my new favorite cookbook, Wookiee Cookies!
Tonight we made R2D2 Treats. It's a banana covered in melted white chocolate chips, then rolled in crushed nuts and Kit Kat bars for the side legs. SO YUMMY!

summer love

I am in love. I mean, other than with JP, of course. :) I have fallen in L-O-V-E with this song. I know it's the happy-go-lucky-bubblegum-summertime-love type of song. But it's so....just wonderful. *dreamy look and deep sigh* Summertime is the best and summer romances are wonderful. JP and I fell in love in the summer (of course, So Cal is like a perpetual summer) but it was so creamy-dreamy!

Plus, this music video reminds me SO MUCH of the beach fires we would have with our church singles ward - 100+ single, young, beautiful people just having fun at the beach with fireworks and good music. :)

Baby Yoga!

So, I did yoga with the babies this week! For those who don't know, I am a licensed co-provider in a child care and I also started a preschool for the older toddlers and children. Anyway, Claudia picked up this book at a conference we went to a few weekends ago about doing yoga with children. It's called, "My Daddy is a Pretzel" and it goes through a cute little story and shows you how to show the children to get into some yoga poses.

I was so caught up in doing the yoga with them that I forgot to take pictures - but trust me when I tell you it was ADORABLE! They LOVED it!

They were pretty good at the poses, too! I was seriously impressed with some of the 2-year-olds being able to balance and hold poses so well. Downward Dog and Lion's Pose were the favorites, followed by Bridge and Airplane. You should check out this book and let me know of any other great ones for children!

Guitar Blues

I am LOVING my guitar class!! Learning to play the guitar is one of my dreams and it fits so nicely into the degree I'm working towards (Early Childhood Education) since I can play songs for the children that I enrolled in a guitar class this semester. We're several weeks into the class and I've learned so much! I'm actually starting to sound a little bit like I know what I'm doing! I'm learning the classical guitar style so it's mostly all finger-picking (as opposed to using a pick) and we play both the melody and the bass parts with our right hand simultaneously - fingers play melody + thumb strumming bass. It's really cool!

My guitar looks like this one and sounds so rich and full. I love it!

So one of the first songs I learned was a blues piece called the Blues 4-Beat Lick. I've played it for the children in our child care and preschool and they just love to dance around to it. I've also played a few of the classical pieces at the end of lunch and beginning of nap time. It's so peaceful and beautiful that it really helps calm them down and lull them to sleep.

Anyway, there's an update on working towards my dreams. :)

Dreams

I lived in LA once. I was single then. There was a group of other young, single adults that got together on a regular basis. Some of them formed a group to help each other reach their dreams. I forget the name of the group - Dream Team or the Dreamers or something like that. But they figured that with the 50+ members in the group there was bound to be someone else there that could help you reach at least one of your goals.

There's this great Jack Johnson song that goes...

A dreams a dream
And all this livings so much harder than it seems
But girl don't let your dreams be dreams
You know this livings not so hard as it seems
Don't let your dreams be dreams

here are my dreams, in no particular order...

• get barrelled surfing
• make the short surf film Watermark that I wrote
• get my children's books published
• play the guitar well
• play the piano well

• go sailing for my first time
• sail down the coast to Mexico
• go on an open-ocean sailing voyage
• sail around the world
• have children

• become fluent in another language
• be able to do a pull-up
• run a marathon
• create a frame-worthy painting
• sew an article of clothing at least once a month

• become good at cross-stepping on a longboard
• hang 10 longboarding
• bust the fins out shortboarding
• windsurf on a regular basis
• do yoga every day

 I'm currently working on several of these dreams. But any help and inspiration from others is welcome and greatly appreciated. I think I'll post them in the sidebar and ceremoniously cross them off as I achieve each one.

What are your dreams? What can I do for you? What can we help achieve together?

Hello, again

jour·ney/ˈdʒɜrni/ Show Spelled

–noun

1. a traveling from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time; trip

2. a distance, course, or area traveled or suitable for traveling

3. a period of travel

4. passage or progress from one stage to another

I've been away for a while. I was physically away, in another country; then I was mentally away, lost somewhere inside my mind. But I'm slowly coming back to myself. I feel as though I've traveled a long road only to find myself back where I started. As T.S. Elliot said,

"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Well, I'm not done exploring but I am rediscovering who I am and what I want from life. I'm ready for a fresh start. I have no expectations, only hope. Hope of reaching each new day just happy to be alive and sharing it with those I love. I hope to share each new discovery with you along the way...

 (a little inspiration from this etsy shop...)