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'Sup peeps?
How's it going? I am once again going to ask for updates from everyone. No, I'm not going to do it in as many words as last week, but come on. Remember the 'I can't know what you're up to if you don't tell me' thing? Maybe I'll try a little your-own-medicine one of these days… Just putting that out there… xP
First of all, I want to give a huge shout out to Alex Preston! She is my only "follower" on this blog. I can't say I understand why she did it (or even what it actually means…) but I just want y'all to know how much I love her. Alex, you are a beautiful, wonderful, talented person and I am SO blessed and grateful that we're friends! I miss you and can't wait to see you again! Love you, girl!
I love "Pippin". It's an awesome show. Thanks, Trench!
Anyway, this week was probably the most eventful since I moved here. I'll see if I can accurately portray what happened. (Of course, that'll be easier if I can remember more than I currently do… We'll see how it goes.) (Also, I may end up going for a record for the number of ellipses one uses in a blog post. Apparently I'm up to four already, and this is only my third real paragraph. Shall we see how many of those end up coming to play?) Allons-y!
Okay, so Monday. Most of the day wasn't anything too special, but I did end up going to a YSA (that's young single adults, for those that don't know. It's an LDS term for those of us who are 18+ and not married.) FHE (family home evening. Usually done with families, obviously, but can be done with ward or other groups.) activity. It was a multi-ward event, and I went with a girl that lives in the next development or something like that. Her dad is in our bishopric and when they came over to visit with me last Sunday said he thought the two of us would get along. So far, we totally are. I met up with Matice and her friends Robert and Rebecca (the two of them aren't members, but apparently go to a lot of activities and stuff with Matice) and we all drove up together. The activity was in Mountain View, a little over half an hour away, and was a photo scavenger hunt in a 'pumpkin patch'. The patch itself was a bit sad, honestly. It was a few pumpkins in a parking lot. There were a few bouncy castles we weren't allowed to go in; some baby chickens and a mini goat; some "haunted caves" that were little ten foot long tunnels made out of hay bales; and some cardboard cutouts scattered throughout. Like I said, it was sad. But once the hunt started, things really picked up. As I said in my tweet that night, my team was pretty awesome. At least half of them would be really fun to GISHWHES with- that were all trying to figure out how to get extra points and make our pictures cooler and stuff. Also, I'm pretty sure I talked to more guys that night than I have in the past year or two combined. Some of them were really cute, but most of them were from Palo Alto and seemed a bit put off at how far away I lived. Unless they were just put off by me. I dunno. Anyway, the night wrapped up at a ward building a few minutes away with hot cider, pumpkin bread and cookies, then the four of us drove home.
Tuesday wasn't anything too special. I actually don't remember what happened at all, so I'm gonna go with nothing. (I can't keep the days straight when they're happening, much less almost a week later… So sue me.) The only real highlight from this day was the 'Supernatural' episode. HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!! It was REALLY good. Like, I think it's about as close to televisual perfection as you can get. Seriously. Beautiful.
Wednesday was another crazy one from the get-go. Niccole had a doctor's appointment to check over the x-rays she'd had taken on Monday, but they still can't tell if anything's broken or not. She also went to get her teeth cleaned, which surprisingly enough took her half an hour from walking in the door to walking back out. Kelsey gets out of school early on Wednesdays, and we didn't think Niccole would be finished in time, so I was in charge of picking her up. I got the two younger kids bundled out the door but didn't notice my phone going off because they were making a fuss. It was a good thing Niccole got finished so quickly 'cause I was late through it all. If I'd known soon enough I wouldn't have even tried, but by the time I saw the text we were close enough that we went and met them anyway. After everyone got home Niccole sat the kids down to watch a movie while I went out for a job interview. I got it, by the way. I didn't say anything earlier about it 'cause it's nothing big, though. It's just a part time position at a PetsMart in Mountain View. It's a bit of a drive, only part time and doesn't pay much, but at least it's something for now. I'm also hoping Target will call back, 'cause that would make up the rest of my needed funds until I can find something better. Don't worry, I'm still very actively looking, but this will let me have some money to gas my car, pay my bills and start getting ready for STC. Who knows, maybe these jobs are just making it so I can easily go for episode four and then start something bigger and better when I come back. I dunno. After the interview, I went and, ahem, donated for my drug test and then drove over to meet Niccole and the kids at the Apple complex. We went to the corporate store, which is where they sell their apparel and stuff on top of their normal products, then sat and played Eye Spy while we waited for Ryan to get off. Once he did, we got signed in as guests and went to Cafe Macs for dinner. It's a pretty darn impressive place. The food was really yummy, quite well priced, and the atmosphere was awesome. Just one more reason I want to work for them. xP
Thursday was another down day. We did pretty much nothing, which was nice. We knew the next two days would be crazy busy, so we took it easy.
Friday and Saturday were spent getting ready for the ward Halloween party. Niccole was in charge of it, which was stressful enough. She kept getting frustrated at the severe lack of communication she encountered, especially with people from the Morgan Hill Second Ward. (It was a combined activity.) That was all on top of the fact that she and I decided to enter something into the chili cook off. We decided to use the butternut squash recipe she'd found a bit ago. Since the kids liked it as much as they did (not to mention the two of us!) we thought, why not. On Friday we got most of the stuff ready to make the chili, so we spent a lot of time chopping and browning and roasting. I cut so much squash that I got a blister on my middle finger and one of those painful, sub-dermal almost-blisters on the bottom of my index finger. That stuff is REALLY hard! Saturday we actually put it all together (it barely fit in the crock pot and pressure cooker. Niccole says she needs a bigger crock pot.), finished our part of the decorations and worked out the stuff for the trunk. Niccole decided she wanted to set up the trunk like a crime scene, so she traced Asher laying on a piece of paper and painted it black before tracing a 'chalk' outline on it. We got all three kids to make 'bloody' footprints that we cut out and taped in trails away from the body and used police tape and evidence markers from a kit she found. It was pretty great. Set up started at 4:00, though Ryan didn't think we'd need that much time. (the thing was scheduled to start at 5:30.) We pretty much did, though. The turnout was HUGE, and the whole thing ended up being a lot of fun. Niccole did a great job. Wanna know what was funny? We totally won the contest! It was a blind tasting, so the judges had no idea what chili was made by whom, or even who had entered at all (Not all the proffered chili was put in the contest). The bishop jokingly (I think…) said we cheated, but whatever. We got a cake as our prize. It's okay. Not great, but okay. The kids had fun with the trunk or treat, Ryan was recognized as Ash Ketchum after people saw Niccole's Pikachu, and I was only made fun of by one small child for my 'costume'. (I didn't have one. Kelsey decided she wanted to do my hair in 'snakes' and called me a witch. I said I was a homicidal maniac, 'cause they look just like everyone else, but no one who asked got the reference. Of course, she was six, but still…)
Today was a pretty typical Sunday, other than Asher throwing a world class tantrum. It did lead to an adorable moment between him and Ryan, but if you want to see that you'll have to check out my Twitter feed. It's already there. As we were heading out to church, the kids asked if they could go play around outside whilst waiting for their parents, and I said yes. When we got to the yard Browyn started running in circles saying "playing around, playing around, playing around the rosie," over and over. That was adorable, but you can't hear it in the videos I got. Sorry. We played Shrek Uno when we got home, and that was also fun as the kids learned and got into the game. Other than that, the cutest thing that happened is going to be our visual entertainment for the post.
Ryan told the kids after they put their pajamas on we could watch some "Studio C". They really like it, though half the time I really can't tell if they're laughing 'cause they actually think it's funny or because the three adults are. Who knows. Either way, seeing them- and especially Browyn- dance to the theme song is worth anything and everything else that comes from trying to get them to behave. This isn't the best example, but it's pretty good. My favorite Browyn dance move is the little hip-wiggle she does. I think you can see it right at the end. I'm not sure. But it's still cute!

Wellp, that's pretty much it. Questions? Comments? Concerns? I'll be waiting!
(Okay, so the total tally of ellipses was too low for me to actually go count them. I didn't put in nearly as many as I thought I would. Parentheses, on the other hand, are plentiful and abundant. Hopefully they made up for the complete and total lack of cool anything in this post. Sorry?)