Floral Design 9

Oh how I love Melissa's Floral Classes. That girl is so talented. Last class was in the spring. This class... Halloween edition. Couldn't be more excited for this. How often does one get to put together a Halloween floral arrangement?

At first I wasn't sure how Melissa was going to pull off the Halloween look with flowers. I mean, I saw the flowers she had out on the table. They were beautiful. When it all came together in the end... it was AWESOME!

I'm always so amazing with how many flowers can fit into a small space (look at the last floral class). But if you cut and arrange everything right... it really all fits! So anyway... with all of her classes that I have gone to in the past, I have liked all of my arrangements that I made... but this time I left LOVING what I put together. In fact, everyone that comes over... I show it to them. People are probably getting annoyed with me and don't care... but I really do love it. Plus they smell good. WIN WIN. The pictures don't even do the arrangement justice. There are so many flowers in there that you can't fully see.

Megan did the class with me. She had to go early, so in this picture mine isn't done yet, but I had all the flowers in at this point. All lot of people didn't add the Halloween elements to their arrangements, but I'm so glad I did. :)

Flashback Friday 87

Today I'm flashing back to June 2005. I went to DC for the first time with my roommate at the time, Tammy, and a couple other friends in the ward for a couple in our ward that got married out there. We explored the city and went to the wedding in Virginia. I got to see the DC temple for the first time. What a beautiful temple!

P.S. This was the summer my friend Nicole Taylor convinced me to go blonde. It is weird to see me with Blonde hair. I never quite got used to it that summer either. It was fun to try once... but never again!

Confessions of a Brunette on the Internet 140

I know I say this a lot... but this week flew by. I have been busy. Something going on every night. I like it that way.

Yesterday for work, we went out to lunch at Malawi's Pizza. I like that place. Pizza with purpose. Every meal you buy, they give a meal to a starving kid in Africa. It was my department that went, we sat at a big booth and the entire table was covered in pizza's. We had 6 pizza's, 2 dessert pizza's and a few salad's. It was nuts. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the table. The pizza was so good though and between the 8 of us, ALL of it was gone by the time we left. Don't worry... I tried one of everything. That being said... you should know that the crust is super thin... so you can eat more without getting so full. Mmmm

I'm doing a musical number in church this Sunday. It's a quartet. I love singing. I miss having my friend Wes around because he is my singing BFF and we would sing in church here and there and I loved it. We both did. Every time Wes and I would sing together, we would practice the song the day before or the day of. Just how we roll. I was used to it because when I sang with my mom and sister... we typically did the same thing. I learned at a young age to not stress out over it and it always turns out great. This time however... we have practiced a few times, a couple of weeks before hand. For this song, that practice is needed. We are practicing again tomorrow. I love being an alto. I have a cool part 97% of the time. This time my part is cool... but it is also one of the most complicated parts in the arrangement. I'm not the only one... this is probably the most complicated version of Praise to the Man that I have ever seen. Complicated for the pianist too. Did I mention it is also 8 pages long? Rich found this gem for free online, so we accepted the challenge and went for it. The ending it quite triumphant and dramatic and imagine it might be a little awkward after we end because it will seem like people should clap and they can't. We have joked about marching. At this point... I think we are all just hoping it turns out for Sunday.

I finished Prison Break on Monday. I watched all 4 seasons in a little over a week. After the first season I wondered what was going to be in the next 3 seasons because they broke out of prison in one season. Little did I know they would break out of 2 more prisons during the series. I'm not going to lie to you, I finished the show while I was at work. I was balling my eyes out during the last two episodes. Seriously... had to get a tissue and turn myself to face the other side of the room in case anyone walked by my office. How embarrassing would it be for me if someone saw me balling and come in to ask me what was wrong and I tell them I finished watching Prison Break? Ha ha... the same thing happened at the end of Lost and Alias. Okay! I'm a baby.

I'm now on the communications committee for church. My first assignment was taking pictures of everyone in the ward. This is quite the task. Melodie and I warned everyone the day before to look good for church because we would be taking pictures. We were not just snapping pictures of everyone inside the church against a white wall, we were doing glamor photo's of everyone outside with the beautiful fall tree's in the background. As people came outside to get their picture taken, we pulled out our fancy camera's and called it "Glam photo's by Tracy & Melodie". It was awesome. Honestly, I was looking at the pictures after we were all done and everyone really looks awesome. I didn't even edit any of the pictures. The lighting was perfect and made everyone look good. This was such a good idea and everyone will thank us later. You're welcome ward.

Mr. Karaoke text me and told me he was really excited because he thought of another song we can sing together. He was practicing "Endless Love" still so we can sing it better next time, but he also said he was dying of excitement over the thought of singing "I've had the time of my life" from Dirty Dancing. I told him we could do it. So glad I have a karaoke boyfriend now.

Tuesday was the second Presidential debate. I have been really into the debates. I'm pretty much going to be nervous about everything until the election is over. The first debate I watched over at my parents house and I thought the debate went super well. The vice presidential debate I watched with Megan and Dave. It stressed me out and most of the time I wanted to throw something at the tv. Thank goodness Megan and I had gotten Sonic, I think that helped calm the nerves. The second presidential debate I watched a lone online... later that night because I was with Dave all night and the debates stress him out and he doesn't like watching them. I just had to watch though, so I waited until he went home to watch it. It stressed me out. I was hoping for more of the outcome like the first debate. It was just a fight between the them blaming who said what and talking over each other. Ugh. So frustrating. I am so hoping the Monday's debate is more like the first one. I like it when they go more professionally and are polite with each other and take turns. Oh well. Maybe I should prepare myself with some treats for the last debate.

Photo of the Week 138

Dave and I went to Denny's late one Saturday night after man session of conference. There is a word search on the back of the place mat... which I had to complete before my food came out. Dave and I decided to go to Denny's mostly because they have hot chocolate. We like hot chocolate season. Hot chocolate plus the word search... I thought made a creative picture.

Fall Four Wheeling - Take 2

Last year, I went with my friend Allyson up Hobble Creek Canyon to go Four Wheeling with a couple other girls at the Hyde's house (member of the bishopric in our ward). The other day I was remembering back to that little adventure and how fun it was... and not only fun, but it was so beautiful. I decided that I wanted one more little outdoor adventure before fall ended. The Hyde's are kind enough to let me come ride the four wheelers whenever I want. I tell him I'm coming and he makes sure they are full of gas and ready to go. Aren't they they best?

Dave and I chat via gchat while we are both at work. I mentioned to him my desire to go and asked if he wanted to go the next day. He was more than excited and we made it a date. Well, that fun four wheeling adventure was today.

We left right after work. On our drive up to Hobble Creek Canyon, we worried a little bit about the weather. It was raining a little bit and super windy. The drive up there was beautiful. I can't get enough of fall. We even got a beautiful rainbow on the way as well. When we got there and knocked on the door, he let us in and told us we were crazy for still wanting to go. A little weather can't hold us back on our adventure we were looking forward to. :)

Dave drove first. We explored the trails above their house and then decided to go past their house up the canyon more. This was the REALLY pretty part of our drive. On our way there, we were seeing deer everywhere. Dave didn't think they were a big deal because where he comes from in PA they are a dime a dozen... but I love seeing them. Maybe because I didn't grow up seeing them since I grew up next to the beach.

When we stopped to switch drivers and stretch our legs and look around a little... I spotted a huge Elk! We both watched him as he walked away. It was getting dark and he was far away, so this picture doesn't do it justice, but he was big and awesome to see. I still want to see a Moose... but Elk was awesome to see too.

Also when we switched drivers, Dave had to go to the bathroom so he walked up around the hill a little. On his way back I was going to catch him in the mirror and take a picture. He saw me and stopped to pose. I actually kind of love this picture. I don't know why.

Here is the view we had on our four wheeling adventure. We both kept saying how beautiful it was. Loved it.

So glad that we did this today despite the weather. It wasn't freezing AND it was beautiful. I really feel like I need to take advantage of these situations. Thankfully Dave agrees. Love spending time with Dave. It's always a good time.

Girls Just Wanna Run

My roommate and good friend Megan has been on a running kick lately. She claims she is not a runner and then runs a ragnar and half marathon. No big deal. She is awesome.

She signed up with some co-workers to run in a Pink race for one of the girls mom, Linda. She asked me if I wanted to run with her. I had not done a race this year (I tend to do one a year) and I had never done a race for cancer before, so I thought why not and signed up. Besides... it seems like I need to sign up for a race to spend some time with Megan. She is always gone and I miss her.

This past Saturday, Megan and I got up at the early hour of 5am and drove to Salt Lake to meet up with her friends from work. We then all drove to Park City for the race. The race started at 9 for some and 9:40 for the rest of us (5k). You are probably wondering why we had to get there so early. Well... we had to pick up our packets (shirts, numbers, etc..) and the pick up ended early. So.... after picked up our stuff the girls running the half marathon left and Megan and I took a nap in the car for two hours before we ran our race. So glad we did that... I felt like that nap helped a lot. I don't function well in the morning.

Since all of us girls were running for Linda, the girls made us each a little tag to wear that said Linda and we each got matching pink bandana's.

It was a little chilly... but not bad. It didn't take long to warm up once I started running. It had been raining the day before, so all the fall colors were enhanced. Park City was beautiful! Running it a lot more pleasant when you are in beautiful surroundings. :) I only stopped for a couple of minutes to walk up a little hill. Besides that, I was able to run the whole thing. It was nice because when you ran to the finishing line they had someone on the speaker announce your name as you ran in and said good job as everyone cheered for you. It was nice. I had never had that at a race before. I guess they looked at your number we ran in and looked up our name according to our number. I finished a few minutes after Megan, running the 5k in 34 minutes (I'm a slow runner). It felt good to be done. At the end of the race we got a little charm necklace and had snacks. They had chips and salsa and cake bites (which was a first for me to see at the end of a race) and of course they had fruit too. Megan and I were exhausted from getting up so early, so we quickly made our way home after we were done with the race and enjoyed our BEAUTIFUL drive home. I couldn't get enough of all of the colors. So gorgeous.

Thriller

Friday night, Megan and I had a roommate date. We had both been wanting to see Thriller for years but never had the chance... until now.

Never heard of Thriller? (not Michael Jackson's music video... of course we have seen that). Well, it is a show put on by a dance company that does a bunch of Halloween dance numbers. I happen to love dancing, so I was excited to go.



One number in the show... a bunch of people came out in panda costumes and tap shoes and were acting like kids. It reminded me of when I took tap in first grade and did a tap number to "Yes I am a Panda Bear". As soon as I thought that... that music started playing and they were doing the same tap routine that I did in first grade. I sang along to the whole song and was impressed that I remembered that far back... because I assure you, I haven't heard that song since. It was funny.

Before and after the show and during intermission, they had zombies going around and creeping people out.

All in all... Megan and I gave the show a 7/10. Reason being... first of all, it was too long. It started at 7:30 and went until 10 with a 15 minute intermission. I was starting to get pretty antsy towards the end. Second of all, the dancing was awesome, like seriously awesome, but there wasn't enough of it. I understand the dancers need breaks and costume changes and such... but I feel like there are better ways of doing it. They had these LONG stupid video's that they would show, they had a clown (I hate clowns) that would just talk and try and be funny (which it was a little) and they had a singer that would sing morbid songs. I would have given it a 10/10 if they would have made it shorter with more dancing.

Of course I am still glad that I saw it. Will I make a it a tradition and see it every year? Probably not, but it was still a fun show with some amazing dancing and it really got me in the Halloween spirit. Megan and I had a great time. So glad she wanted to go with me. After the show we met up with Dave and got some shakes. Good times.