a wandering post about winter.

note: this also counts as day 19 of blogtober: share a diy. (you should be proud of this little blogger, doing it herself and hibernating. or if that's not good enough for you, i scrape my own windows when there's frost and snow on them.)

there is snow on the ground.
christmas music can make me either disgruntled or gruntled. (its a word, look it up.)
and it's so COLD.
its winter.
winter means scraping ice spiders off my windshield and
the dull thud of my boots on the frozen ground.
it means that the house gets cold at night anyway
but this year its colder than normal.
when i woke up this morning, my nose was cold. cold as if i'd been outside for 10 minutes.
i hate cold noses.

it means waiting for my car to warm up but lets face it, the heater sucks.
(you had one job, heater...one job.)
and the house, even though its almost 80 degrees, still feels like its only 55, and the cold beats at the windows like a chant.
cold cold cold cold cold
the sun seems so much brighter in the winter, taunting us.
"come outside and play...it's lovely out here!"
but then you open the door and BOOM
winter shoves in like an army at the gate,
like the uninvited to the party
the cold air billows in like snow before the plow.
everyone seems to be strapping their snow-pushers to the front of their mud-splattered pick-up trucks
the minute we get a skiff of the white stuff.

its my second favorite season (autumn is first). i love the white stuff.
i love the tingles you get in your toes whenever you see the christmas lights
and the giddy laughter that bubbles up when you think of your family's faces on christmas morning
because you got them some awesome gifts this year.

i love the bonfires that you have in the snow,
and life-threatening sledding in the dark - or even in the daytime.
i love the way the streams freeze over but then bits of the ice break off
and you can see the black water tirelessly sprinting on beneath the white cover.
the rivers do the same, but bigger water means faster water means thinner ice,
so its more like elephant skin, wrinkled but white, edging up on other ridges, pushing up the banks.

i love christmas. i love the holiday season. even in january, there's skiing and
there's hot tea and leggings (so awesome)
and you have the perfect excuse to bundle up and cover your skin
and you don't have to worry about finding tank tops that fit
because "what the heck ITS SWEATER SEASON frumpyness is actually semi-acceptable and visual comfort is expected"
and reading for hours on end is legit because what else are we gonna do? sunbathe?

the snow keeps coming and then it melts and the ground turns into one cohesive puddle of mud and yucky water.
the garden is kind of melted, but the sunflower stalks from last summer are still standing
and when the wind rustles their leaves it sounds like brittle newspaper being torn.
they wait like dirty giants, non-anticipatory of their fate, unmoving and solidly firm,
dead to the world around them.

sometimes we get rain, but it can't decide whether it wants to be rain or snow.
somehow i got all my christmas present shopping done before thanksgiving
but i can't buy anything because both my birthday and christmas come this month, dang it.
so i sit here, and i read, and i write, and i work, and i wait
because its winter.

but dang it dang it dang it 
why does it have to be so cold?

screw it all.
i'm going to hibernate.
don't wake me.
(unless its food time. or you plan on kidnapping me and taking me to somewhere lovely. or you've found a dragon and you want to give it to me. *whispers* someone please get me a dragon...)

Guest Post: Jana (she's the best :) (also DAY 12: collaborate)

SO - GUEST POST:

Jana from Jana's Faith has kindly agreed to post on here. You should really check out her blog because her pictures are awesome and her writing is thoughtful and she's really just AN AMAZING PERSON.

(also she designed this blog. she is the fairy godmother of blog design, seriously.)

But yes: she's here. Give her a warm welcome! (that means lots of applauding and smiley faces and comments.) :D
_________________________________________________________________________________

hello peoples!  thank you to my longtime and fantastic buddy, sami jean, for letting me put my words on your blog, talk about trust!

anyway, when i was contemplating what i should write about and my thoughts ranged from gushing about books, blabbering about beautiful music *ahem, ed sheeran*, or providing a six page essay on why everyone really should love coffee and chocolate as much as i do, sami gave me a great idea.  so i'm gonna go with it and talk about traveling because i love it ever so much.  and i've had a post rolling around in my head about if for a while…

one). make your own soundtrack to life.  

seriously though, you know how there's always that thing floating around on pinterest that says "i wish my life had a soundtrack"?  well i totally agree, especially when you're traveling.

because now France sounds like owl city (especially this song and this song) and random french rap songs (don't ask me why, it's just what was on the radio).
and london is a weird mash-up of anthem lights covers and adele.
above: the coolest rhino statue i've ever seen (never mind that it's the only one) in front of museé d'orsay, paris

two). write people profiles. 

i've just started doing this but i wish i would have done it as i traveled.  because sometimes there are those people sitting across from you on the subway that is so cramped you have someone else's bag in your lap, and that person is just casually doing a crossword puzzle.
or there's that lady who, in the middle of a blank lot in London, has set up an easel and is painting a crazy complex modern art thing.  and i'm sitting/standing there with a billion different lives for these people.  and i've come up with some pretty convincing ones… like the one about the girl in the floppy sunhat and a killer sunburn, she just picked up and left one day to go travel around europe… oh, and she lives with her grandma.

so write them down, even if it's just for yourself so when you're old and moldy you can tell your grandkids about when the old italian guy randomly walked up and started demanding that you take a picture of him with your dad.
pic: artist lady in the middle of london, i couldn't tell you where we were as we were semi-lost when i took it. 

three).  journal, journal, journal.  write, write, write. 

tips for yourself or others in the future.
where and what you ate and if it was bad or good.
what you actually wore that you packed and what stuff you disgustedly shoved in the bottom of the suitcase, because it just didn't work.
all of the amazing things you saw, felt, heard and did.  and smelled, don't forget to add in those smells.
pic: the harbor in marseille, france.  

four).  always look at everything as an adventure.

… even when you've been walking for, i don't know, hours and your converse that were really cute + comfy at the beginning of the day have turned into instruments of torture.
and then later, when you find out that you basically just did the most extensive walking tour of Paris in the history of man, hey, at least it made a good story and awesome blisters.
pic: pier at omaha beach, normandy 

five). eat the food. 

i'm really hoping that this goes without saying, but i'm afraid it might not: eat the dang pastry.  i don't care if you're on a diet or you've already eaten dessert twice that day, you must eat the food.  end of story, the end.  

because crepes will never again taste as good as they do when you buy them from the old man in the little hole in the wall across from notre dame. 

and those mysterious weird, apple dumplings that have ricotta cheese in them, and taste like heaven, will never confuse you as to how they are made as much as the do when you're there. 

and when you're in a pub, in london, and people around you are talking like in call the midwife, eat the fish and chips.  embrace the grease.  refuse the napkin. 
pic: somewhere in a back alley in europe that had an amazing ice cream place

six). get lost + out of the city. 

forget the map and just start walking.  or buy a ticket to some kind of motorized contraption and hop on, then get off when you wanna.
*disclaimer: i would suggest a little bit of research, just so you know that you're not getting off in the bad part of town (not that i've ever done that) or so you don't get back on said vehicle during rush hour.  because that last one might end up with you have full body contact to complete strangers… on all four sides of you. not that i've ever experienced that.* 
oh, and leave your personal space bubble at home, because it's just gonna get broken.  like stepped on, run over and then backed over again.  

one of my most favorite times in france was when we got on the train and didn't get off until the stops no longer had concrete and my foot hit the bare gravel when we got off.  and then there was the most beautiful french town that was home to 300 people, old caves filled with bats and cave drawings and the most amazing guesthouse in all of history.  so yeah, go see pictures of my baby faced self eating a slug and wandering through other peoples' fields here.
pic: a clearing in the woods outside of d'Arcy sur Cure

seven). go see dead things and really, really old stuff. 

i love museums, all around the world.  but european museums really have it going on because those countries have been around way longer than america has, so they have a lot more stuff from way back when.  and most of the time they have stuff from other countries from a long time ago *cough* mummies egypt what*cough* 

so go see the easter island statue (which disappointingly doesn't chew bubble gum), stare at granite statues of mesopotamian creatures that are twelve feet tall,  marvel at how humans can look at a rock + make a masterpiece out of it and try to figure out how people were able to actually read the rosetta stone to unlock the secret of languages, because it's kinda worn.  and the whole bringing ginormous, bigger-than-a-house pillars back from who-knows-where to europe in the 18th century is still mind boggling to me, howw? 
pic: some old guys portrait at the louvre in paris 

eight). take pictures.  a lot of them. 

because no matter how many you take you will always want to go back and take more.  which is why i have gladly agreed to go stumble around europe with sam for a while, at some point in life… preferably sooner than later. 
(and yes that is me, dreamily looking out to sea and feeling like a romantic poet…  although i think i was actually really trying to figure out how i could possibly move to the little uninhabited island.  i failed unfortunately) 

nine). look at the normal, everyday life of european cities.  (aka not everyone lives under the eiffel tower.) 

so, i lived in france for five months with my family when we were in language school.  and parts of it were good, great even.  the food was amazing and uber fancy cheese was really cheap.

but the amazing food was expensive, so just like in the states, not every meal was escargot and creme brûlée.

and if when you're walking down the tight, little streets with cute shops on either side, remember that 98% of the time people's whole lives are in the apartments above you.  
this is their everyday.  
they walk down a steep set of stairs and get their groceries for the day from the funny little market on the corner.  and that's just part of their day, they live normal lives with work, school, play and family all mixed in.  so be a nice american (see #ten) and respect the normal lives of others, no matter what language they speak or how cool their clothes are. 

also, economics lesson for you today: 
a lot of european countries are socialist.  which means that the government decides when the heat can be turned on in apartments and when it can be shut off.  which means that when it is in the 50's in october but the greater powers didn't think it was time yet, life indoors also requires coats, scarves and boots.  (not that i would know from personal experience… the frostbite didn't cause any long term damage anyway. )
pic: a backstreet somewhere in europe

ten). be a nice american.

i think both from living in a european + african country and living outside of my 1st culture for the past three years, my senses have been attuned to the interaction between americans and the national citizens of whatever fine country you're in.  and there have been several times when i wished my french accent and fashion sense was better so i could try to claim that i was european.  in other words, i was not proud to be an american due to the lady screaming in english about long lines… so be a nice american.  

speaking english slowly, in an a n n u n c i a t ed voice doesn't help a n y o n e.  especially not the person talking, because, well it just doesn't work.  and i can say these things because i'm an american and i have the passport and bad french accent to prove it. 

and unless you're in italy, match the volume around you.  if you're in italy you can laugh, guffaw and be loud as you please because it's exactly how it is in the movies.  but if you're in… well anywhere else, channel your inner european and speak in lowercase, because it too is just like in the movies.
pic: versaille, because it's beautiful

________________

so there you have it, ten tips on how to travel the world like a boss… or like a homeschooled missionary kid, whatever you prefer.  

you guys have any thoughts, tips or comments?  earth shattering epiphanies or requests for me to be your personal travel guide (which is totally an option)?  just let me know in the comments.
and come see me and say hi, here or here.  

one does not conquer a black diamond in reverse

NOTE: i wrote this post LAST winter. so it's old. but it still holds true. enjoy! (also, just fyi, all the photos are from pinterest.) (also, this counts as day 26 of blogtober: share an opinion. this is my opinion on perfectionism. and salvation. bombdiggity.)

okay, so I'm going through a ski obsession. Most of my awesome friends snowboard. But a few ski. While I am not an incredible skier, it is one of my most. favorite. things. to do. EVER.

My mom and I were talking about my perfectionism, which has begun to become just a little bit overwhelming. I told her that I felt like I was trying to ski my way UP a black diamond.
For me, this is a fairly hilarious mental picture. Think about it: I ski without poles. So whenever there is a slight incline which I must scale, I have to do the wide-legged, inverse-snowplow, almost-cross-country-ski (which I hate) motion which is basically me flinging my self forward and hoping I can complete that ridiculous action again before I start to slide backwards.
It's lovely.
By trying to go up a black diamond like this? That would be self-inflicted torture.
So, perfectionism = making myself climb a black diamond.

It can't be done. I cannot be perfect. (Not to bust your bubble, but neither can you.)
So, we're all going to fail. We are all going to make bobbles and slip-ups, and it's going to hurt as bad as my legs do the day after skiing.

Here's the catch: this guy lives on our metaphorical ski hill. And he walks around to the people like me who are trying to get up the black diamond. Or maybe they aren't even past the bunny hill. Maybe they are injured and hanging out at the lodge or the first aid hut. Maybe they are even the people who are at that almost-Olympic-skier level that make you kinda sick, because they go flying down the mountain doing moguls and flips and bleh. Anyway - this guy has lift tickets. Free ones. And he sees people like me, and the injured ones, and the inexperienced ones, and even the awesome ones and he gives us free tickets. We don't have to try and get up the mountain on our own. We just have to stick the ticket on our coat and get in line for the lift. The ticket is unlimited. Every. Single. Day. We are allowed to go skiing as much as we want. The ticket gets us to the top of the mountain every time without fail.

(This is such an awesome ski hill...it should be a thing. Free lift tickets? Heck yeah.)

So, we can't get up the perfection ski hill. But this guy gives us a free lift ticket that allows us to get to the top of the mountain, so that we don't have to be perfect.

I'm just going to say it: Its GRACE. The ticket is grace and salvation and God's love for us. When we think about it like this, it's really kind of easy to grasp. All we have to do is accept the ticket, and then use the lift.

We don't have to be perfect, because we CAN'T be perfect. We will fail and slide down that stupid steep ski slope every time.

Thank goodness for free lift tickets.

Day 31: costumes for Halloween

i wanted to dress up as Sadness from Inside Out.

that didn't happen.

i was not exactly forced, and i did have a good time, but it was something that was uncomfortable. and weird. and honestly i hate high heels. (although they are adorable.....)

WHO'S FREAKIN' IDEA WAS IT TO CREATE LIPSTICK.
because they just made it to the top of my hit-list.

we had a grand time. i mean: let's dress up and go to the Pride and Prejudice theater production (that was AMAZING i might add).

i love non-conventional Halloweens. 

note: photos are courtesy of Taylor....she's in the polka dots. :)

DAY 30: October Favorites

how to you say THIS IS MY FAVORITE.

(lol. it's called fangirling.)

October is OCTOBER. how can it not be a favorite?



it involves leggings and hot coffee instead of the iced we get in summertime. it means more blankets on your bed and awaking groggily to find that the sun is not up yet at 8:30.

October means its okay to spend an afternoon inside reading a book. because in the summertime that's apparently not okay. it also means new kittens because we need more mouse murderers.

it means that hunting season is here so Dad is gone for 10 days and every weekend until Thanksgiving. but when he comes back he smells faintly of woodsmoke and gunpowder and leather and if we're lucky, the iron-tinted odor of blood. (which is gross, but not actually that gross when you're used to it.)

it means that its okay to make pumpkin spiced EVERYTHING. it means its okay to turn on the heater. it means its okay to say 'ITS SO COLD' and your co-workers don't laugh at you.

it means comfort, and family, and giddiness because the leaves on the sidewalk crunch.

it means when you find that friend that absolutely LOVES red leaves that have landed on the round and she's SO HAPPY to have some to throw up into the air and you get a photo like this:

it means taking seven million pictures in the morning when the sun is just coming through the leaves on the trees and you're on the front porch taking them in your pajamas and bare feet and your toes almost freeze off.

its October. how can it not be a favorite? its the last hurrah before winter. its the last sprint, the last adrenaline rush, the last leaf as it falls from the tree.

DAY 23: do something new. a devotional...kind of.

ok so I was supposed to take a picture of what I thought was true (it was a bible study homework assignment). and the first thing I thought of was a compass. you know, like, a true reading?

So, I grab my compass and my camera and I run outside. (bible study was going to start in 30 minutes. I really am a college student when you consider how proficient I am at procrastinating homework assignments and then completing them right before they're due.)

I put my compass down on the porch so I can take a pic....and the reading is TOTALLY OFF. the needle was pointing due east. what is going on?

I move the compass, thinking maybe the needle isn't level and that's what's throwing off the reading.
the needle moves to north. and then I see the little screw next to where the compass had been. a screw made of metal.

then I started thinking:

WE are the compass needle. we point towards magnetic pulls, which is usually magnetic north, but sometimes that can be offset by other magnetic pulls, like a screw. and screws can be an example for worldly attractions. if we get to close to them, we point towards them instead of north.

and did you know that magnetic north (what a compass points towards) does not point to True North (what the North Star points towards)? so lets just assume that as the compass needle, we get as close to we can to north as we possibly can. HOWEVER, that is not actually an accurate reading on North. The only accurate reading for that is the North Star. and lets just say that the North Star is God. he is North, he is unchanging, he is true.

Sometimes we will think "oh, i'm fine, i'm pointing towards north. other people are way off, pointing towards the world, not towards north, so I'M FINE". but the thing is, is if we keep following our slightly-off reading of magnetic north, we will be MILES off by the time we get to where our destination should be. Our only way to get to NORTH is by saying "ok, so THERE is the North Star, and the general direction of north is the way my needle is pointing, so i'm gonna follow that True north, and make sure that my needle is pointing is the same direction."

our job as Christians is to point towards Him. We need to keep ourselves far enough away from worldy attractions and other magnetic pulls so that we can point towards North, as much as we can.  then, we need to check our magnetic north reading with the True North, the North Star, God, to make sure we're pointing in the right direction.

not to ask the obvious question or anything....but which way are you pointing?

Day 21 - a letter to me in 5 years

i'm just gonna throw this out there. THIS IS REALLY HARD TO DO which is why its 9 days late. so there.

Dear Sam,

five years is a long time. hopefully you've figured out that there is more to life than school and your future career.

i hope you've figured out how to be decent to people on a regular basis, not just when things are going your way.

i hope you've realized

that life is a little less complicated than you make it out to be.
that there are more important things than winning.
that priorities hurt.
that rest is important.
that getting the bad stuff off your mind, easing the worries, all that, it helps a LOT.
that you are beautiful even when you're ugly. at least God thinks so anyway, and his opinion is the only one that counts.
that being alone is different from being lonely. and sometimes both are good.

that you are really really really really REALLY blessed. by friends, family, home, and pretty much everything else. you don't have much to complain about.

that life is much deeper, and much richer, and much fuller than you could ever imagine, and all you have to do is dive in.

that you must look at things from an objective point of view, and at people from a subjective point of view, and at yourself with an introspective view.

that when you care about someone, you do whats best for them, and you put yourself aside.

that you must care about yourself, and put up boundaries. not walls: boundaries. they're different. one says: here is the line; you must not cross it; please respect that. the other says: don't come near me. but nearness is special. you need that.

that listening to respond is different than listening to hear.

that there is a balance around you. sometimes it must be upset; no change is not good. there must be a little change, a little discomfort, in order for there to be growth. but that balance is also a good thing to be able to maintain.

that secrets are not a good thing. you should be open. secrets tend to eat you...from the inside out.

that there's that soft spot inside of you, hidden well. but it is soft, and it hurts if you push it too hard.

that its okay to be scared. it means you're about to do something really brave.

that you know the right thing to do. deep down, you know.

and you know, 5 years is a long time. everything might change between now and then. the only things that won't change are good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark, and how much God loves you. and God. God won't change at all.

and in the midst of all this, i hope that you have discovered new music and new books and new places and made new friends and figured out who you are and how you like to chill. i hope you've made life, in these five years, or at least caught glimpses of it.

live well.

Sami

DAY 29: music faves.

because DUH. MUSIC IS THE BEST.

its like air wave therapy.

ANYWAYS. what am i listening to recently?

Ed Sheeran - Tenerife Sea. SO BEAUTIFUL. like, almost makes me cry.

Ed Sheeran - Give Me Love. just, like, WOW.

Ed Sheeran - I See Fire. (okay, YES i am on an Ed Sheeran kick. but there have been worse things, right?)

Shawn Mendez - Stitches. its such a GOOD angry song.

I Am They. (basically their whole first CD.)

what about you? anything good on the sound waves right now?

DAY 24: lazy days. what to do?

watch the rain fall. as far as i'm concerned, rainy days are the epitome of lazy days.

drink tea. preferably earl grey.

Source

read books.

Source

sometimes, i'll go for a drive because there's nothing else to do.

Source

but usually, on a lazy day, the best part is when i let down my guard. i feel good, because i'm not stressed. i'm okay, because i'm able to rest, just for a day. just for a day. because in my world, lazy days come one at a time.

DAY 27: DIY Halloween Decorations...wut.

i am the worst decorator in the history of holiday decorating. or ANY decorating for that matter. my room has been unfinished for basically FOREVER, and my apartment's only excuse for its sadly empty walls and sparsly furnished sitting area is that i'm a college-aged person with little spending money and all of that goes towards food, clothes, and then into a jar (because EUROPE HERE I COME) so basically there goes anything that makes you think warm and fuzzy and its description contains the words "couch" "furniture", or "apartment".

seriously. i don't even have measuring cups for my kitchen.

so WHY on this lovely green earth would i decorate for halloween?

(ahem: the answer is, i wouldn't.)

BUT its this stupid tag that i signed up for. so dang it i have to at least say my opinion.

Halloween Decorations. (oh shoot, and their DIY to boot.....)

1. Halloween is not halloween without a carved pumpkin.

2. candles. enough said.

3. bonfires. also enough said. 

and honestly, after that? who cares! get a movie and make 4 different types of popcorn and sack out on the couch for the evening. happy halloween!

note: all of these pictures came from Pinterest. enjoy!

DAY 28: what i read in october

i finished this one: my review is here.

and i'm working on this one: so far it has beautiful descriptions and a mystery that I AM DYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENS. i'll let you know what i think of it.

and coming up: this one. it looks interesting, but it will probably take me FOREVER. yay.

my reading skills have diminished greatly. must fix them. any good books that you'd like to recommend? TELL ME! my most favoritest thing on the planet (other than chocolate and travelling and poems that make my heart hurt and pinterest) is book recommendations. I LOVE THEM so don't be shy. :)

DAY 25: this week i did absolutely nothing exciting

i worked. i played a little piano. i started reading a new book that i actually bought. (i never buy books. i WANT to buy books. but my budget is cruel and unrelenting and focused towards more expensive goals...like travelling.) and i started making some more journals. (more on that later.)

i baked some pumpkin and looked up a midwifery school. i pondered whether to post my forceful and probably-not-politically-correct post on feminism. i watched an entire season of The Big Bang Theory which is my guilty pleasure show. and i laugh way too hard at it.

i made sure that every time i walked down the sidewalk i kicked the leaves and enjoyed their crunching. i gaped at the frost-glazed trees and the fog bank that is usually much larger this time of year, but had just missed our house. i was disappointed at this.

i looked up Albanian food. it looks lovely. lots of flaky doughs and meat and cabbagey fillings and BAKLAVA. (i have to figure out how to do this gluten free) so that stuff is on the list.

i made sorbet (strawberry and mango) which was really good. oh, and meatloaf.

but this week, other than these things, has been rather quiet. that quietness that comes, not before the storm, but three weeks later when nothing has happened for a while, and you start to think that nothing will ever happen again. its that quiet when you've been walking for a long time and haven't really gotten anywhere. anywhere remarkable, that is. its that quiet right in the middle of everything that makes you tired enough to just lay down and take a nap. its the kind of quiet that comes from everyone watching you to see if you will go through the door. the problem is...do you even see it? its right in front of you. you've gotten somewhere, but you don't see it. you just need to overcome that one last obstacle. go through the door.

Day 17: TAG you're it: a happy list (10 things...:)

it's a great idea, really.
writing down things that make you happy. like counting your blessings.
remind yourself that your life is incredible. even if its incredible just because you're breathing and you've got wi-fi. even if its just because you're in pain - it means your alive.
even if its just because you had ice-cream last night.
even if.
count your blessings.

~~ it is autumn.

~~which means i can wear sweaters and boots again.

~~we went on a train trip to Portland and it was lovely. (more pictures to come, etc.)

~~ + new music to listen to. my ipod isn't even close to full but its got all my faves.

~~ god is patient. god is gracious. god is listening. 

~~ COFFEE: because its always a toss-up between a hazelnut breve and an americano with room for 

cream and sugar.

~~ a new bible study on Hebrews. The Nearness of King Jesus by Lisa Harper. its really good to get out and go to a bible study that isn't based solely on my own motivation.

~~ i'm signing up for college. my brain got bored over the summer and this fall. yay midwifery school. (maybe? probably? unless something drastic happens.)

~~ these little girls, my nieces. (aren't they adorable?) their mom (my sister) took the photo.

~~ the fact that God has everything under control.  Hebrews 4:13 "Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account."


SO - TAG YOU'RE IT.
if you read all the way through this post then i tag you. comment below some of the things that you're thankful for! or steal the idea and do it on your blog. :D

p.s. I'm behind on this little Blogtober adventure AGAIN but i promise you that i will catch up. :D

Day 20 & 22 - Halloween tags and Pinterest roundups

Because i am SUCH a rebel: i'm combining these posts. So, its all from Pinterest. but i'm answering the tag questions. (i know. waaaaat?)

feel free to do this yourself! :)

1- What year did you first go trick-or-treating?

my family and i have only ever gone to church harvest parties and things like that. so, no, i've never actually gone trick-or-treating.

2- Favorite kind of candy?

3- What are you going to be this year?

sadness from Inside Out! (LOVE that movie...)

4 - Favorite costume you've had?

my sister and i did this for like, 3 years straight. cowboys and indians. OH and there was that one time where the entire family dressed up like hicks from the backwoods. there were some reactions to that. 

5 - Favorite spooky creature?

black cats. (the worst they can do is scratch you.) (plus these little buggers are ADORABLE.)

6 - How hyped do you get for Halloween?

7 - Halloween Pinteresty thing that you've always wanted to try?

we made caramel apples ONCE while i was a child. i REALLY REALLY REALLY want to give it another go.  

8- Favorite part of Halloween?

we don't actually GO to the movies. we just sack out in my mom's bedroom and watch like, 3 movies in a row and chow on junk food. 

9 - Orange or black?
both.

NOW: i'm not going to specifically tag anyone, but feel free to steal this. :) Happy Halloween!