Haters Gonna Hate, Hate, Hate, Hate, Hate on Halloween

Halloween might be my favorite holiday. It's in a close running with Christmas.

And every year during this wonderful and magical season, I have to deal with the haters.

I hate Halloween. 
Halloween is satanic. 
Halloween is gross. 
Dressing up is lame. 
I hate scary movies. 
I hate the gore of Halloween. 
I just want Halloween to be over. 

You've heard the complaints. Maybe you've even used one of the above complaints. That doesn't mean I despise your existence. If you hate scary movies, I won't think of you any different. But let me love my scary movies in peace. Don't judge me when I fill my flowerbeds with headstones and deck my halls with skulls and crows.

Maybe Halloween isn't your cup of tea. Maybe you don't believe in ghosts and you aren't a fan of slasher movies. That's okay. I truly believe there is a place for everyone in this most great holiday.

My biggest reason for loving Halloween is because it is such a magical holiday. Maybe a little dark . . . but magical. It's a day to believe in mystical creatures and the one day a year you can dress up as anything you can imagine without looking like an idiot.

Dressing up is one of my very favorite things about Halloween. It's a life-altering decision each year to ask, "Who will I pretend to be for the night this year?" I brainstorm the possibilities months in advance. This year I decided that since I'm an adult and I do what I want, why limit myself to just one costume? That's why this year I had THREE costumes.

The day before Halloween, we had a community trunk-or-treat. Brian and I took this very seriously and constructed a lab for our trunk. It took an entire Saturday to build. Brian dressed as Frankenstein's Monster and I was a mad scientist. We strapped Brian to a table we made with chains and I lured children to him and handed them candy. We completed the scene with flashing strobe lights and a fog machine. I don't want to brag but our whole display was pretty awesome. We earned brownie points from children and adults alike.

On the day of Halloween, I decided to dress as Rosie the Riveter for work. It's a costume I've wanted to do the past couple years, so I was excited to finally rock it. I even did pin curls and tied my bandanna the legitimate way Rosie has hers tied. I had to watch a YouTube video and everything. Luckily the video I chose had the cutest British lady narrating, so it was easy to listen and apply myself to the business of bandanna tying.

On the night of Halloween, we had our big party. This is the fourth year we've held the Weller Halloween Party and each year it grows in popularity. With that being said, each year we put more and more pressure on ourselves to make it better than the previous year. After preparing all month, we were able to pull off our best party yet. It's pretty easy to throw a fun party though when you have fun friends. We had 20 amazing people gathered in our bungalow that night.

 We played some hilarious games and I wish I would have taken better photos. If you're a fan of Jimmy Fallon and the Tonight Show, perhaps you've seen him play Box of Lies. We came up with a Halloween rendition---Jack-O-Lantern of Lies. We were able to find those jack-o-lantern candy buckets for a dollar each at Target, so we purchased ten of them for the game. We then made a trip to the dollar store and came up with the most ridiculous things to put in the buckets. Some of my personal favorites: a toy dinosaur wearing a cape, a banana with army men glued to it, and an action figure stabbing a stuffed dragon. We also played a Battle of the Sexes game with several fun rounds we put together. Girls won. I was proud.

Our friends also pitched in by bringing treats which was so kind of them. We decided to make taco soup this year to give our pals some sustenance. I also made red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (complete with knives stabbing the cupcakes) and I created shish-kabobs out of some fun candy (frog gummies, eyeball gummies, gummy worms).

We (of course) had a costume contest. Everyone looked soooooo good. What was I, you ask? My third and final costume of Halloween 2014 was a troll doll. I wore a nude-colored bodysuit and hot glued a thousand sequins to it for a jewel bellybutton. Then I put way too many disgusting products in my hair to make it stick up and finished the look by spraying my locks pink. Several people didn't know what I was and asked if I was an exotic dancer. My friends probably feel loads closer to me now since I practically looked naked. Let's not even talk about how awkward it was to answer the door for trick-or-treaters. Brian was a Beanie Baby . . . and can we just talk about how cute he was in his leopard suit? I'm hoping I can get him to wear that bad boy again in the future.

Everyone in attendance looked completely rad. I love any excuse to celebrate, especially when there are great people to celebrate with. Thanks to all our friends who came to the party! Until next year . .

Truth Tuesday

Who's feelin' a Truth Tuesday post? I'm feelin' it. Here goes. A few quick truths for your Tuesday night, brought to you by Kelsey.

• Brian spent the last hour and a half in our garage, building the scene for our trunk-or-treat. Why can't we just put a bowl of candy in our trunk and call it good? I don't really know the answer to that question. But I do know that if everything goes according to plan, we will have the coolest trunk-or-treat vehicle in town. 

• This past weekend, I had a double date planned with my sixteen-year-old sister. We were going to a haunted house. I was abnormally excited all day leading up to the date. I think a part of me felt like a young high school kid again since we were going to hang out with young high school kids. When we arrived to the haunted house and got in line, I felt all cool and hip being the big sister doubling with her high school sister. But all the coolness instantly went away when a lady mistook me and Brian for Lexi and her date's parents. Do I really look old enough to have a sixteen year old?! 

• This past Sunday, I had a big bowl of Halloween candy for the kids. After church ended, I gathered my things from the Primary room (including my big bowl of candy) and went to find Brian. Sidenote: We have a lot of old people in our ward and they are all adorable. Anyway, an older lady wanted a piece of candy and I was like, "Sure, take whatever you want!" Then I instantly had this long line of old people. They were just grabbing candy bars and then thanking me and telling me how thoughtful I was. I realized suddenly that I was standing right by the door. I think they assumed I was just passing out candy to ward members (and that's kinda what it turned into). In the moment, I found it a lot funnier than it probably is. But I seriously lost it when we got outside to the parking lot. We are talking crying from laughing so hard. I hope they don't expect me to bring them candy every week now. 

• Same day of church in Primary, a boy requested that we sing Super Mario Brothers. The chorister was all, "Sorry, that's not a church song." But I was just all perplexed and wanted to ask him, "How in the world do you sing Super Mario Brothers? 

• Remember how years and years ago, women were banished when they had their period? Well, sometimes I don't think I would mind that. As long as banishment involved a sofa, ice cream, and lots of good movies.

• I already have our Halloween costumes for next year planned. I'm feeling like an overachiever. Or maybe just a psycho.    

And just for fun, here are some photos of Halloween looks from the recent past:

Costa Rica: Sloth Sanctuary

I figure I better blog about our trip to Costa Rica before it's really old news. I can't believe it's been two months since our awesome vacation!

Our first full day in the country was spent at the Sloth Sanctuary over on the Caribbean Coast. The Sloth Sanctuary is basically the WHOLE reason we even went to Costa Rica. Random, right?

You see, most normal people have things on their bucket lists like, "see the Great Wall of China" or "go skydiving". I have things on my bucket list like, "go see the sloths at the Sloth Sanctuary in Costa Rica". I can't even remember how or when I first heard about the sanctuary. I just somehow discovered it and then knew I had to go.

To anyone planning a trip to Costa Rica, I would highly recommend adding the Sloth Sanctuary to your list of things to do. It did not disappoint. The people who run it are incredible. They take in injured and orphaned sloths. The goal is to nurse the injured ones back to health and free them into the wild. With orphaned sloths or babies born in the sanctuary, they will stay their whole lives since they don't really know what it's like to be a wild sloth (I feel like wild sloth is a total oxymoron, by the way). I love sloths (don't they just look like the best cuddlers?). Really, I'm just an animal lover, so being in close proximity to these creatures was exciting for me. We learned a lot of random facts about sloths, like that they only have one bowel movement per week. Who knew?  

The only downside of this part of the trip was getting there. The main airport in Costa Rica is in the middle of the country. Granted, the country is relatively small but traffic if unpredictable. Looking it up online, the destination time from San Jose to the sanctuary varied from two to five hours. We left early that morning to leave ourselves plenty of travel time. It ended up taking us four hours because we got stuck waiting to cross a bridge for an hour. Not fun. However, the drive was breathtaking. At least we had a lot to look at. Driving was also quite the adventure. We rented a car and BWell drove. There were a million one-lane bridges. On some of them, you couldn't see the other side. So you kind of would just cross the bridge and say a little prayer that a car wouldn't be coming from the other direction. Poor Brian, he was a trooper during our journey.

We arrived to the sanctuary before our lunch was quite ready. That left me and Brian time to meet Buttercup and have her all to ourselves. Buttercup was the first sloth at the sanctuary and basically the reason the sanctuary was started. She is 22 years old and just a sweetheart. When we entered the room and saw Buttercup on her swing, I forgot how to breathe and almost started crying. I am such a dork. I think between waking up early, our frustrating drive, and then just coming face-to-face with a sloth . . . it was just a lot of emotions. But really, look at how cute Buttercup is . . .

I felt like she was almost human. Like you know how Yoda from Star Wars is just this adorable little dude but then he's full of infinite knowledge? That's how I feel Buttercup is. Buttercup is Yoda. 

After we ate lunch with Buttercup, we went on a boat ride. We spotted some sloths sleeping in the trees, watched lots of pretty birds, and our boat guide even showed us some baby bats living in a log.

After the boat tour, we paid a visit to the injured and sick sloths. It was heartbreaking. A lot of them get electrocuted in power lines, some get hit by cars, others are abused. The worst story we heard was about a particular sloth who was set on fire by two stupid teenage boys. That poor sloth will probably never fully recover. It was sad to see so many of them hurting but nice to know they were in a safe place. We were able to pet and feed the injured adult sloths.

Then there were the babies. Oh, baby sloths, be still my heart. Baby sloths must be one of the top five cutest things in the world.

My favorite baby of all was actually very bad at being a sloth. A sloth's whole purpose is to use as little energy as possible. They eat a lot and sleep a lot. But my favorite little sloth acted more like a monkey. He was such a showoff and he immediately stole my heart. He kept doing tricks. Then he'd stick his little face and hands through the cage at me. I died. I died and went to sloth heaven.

 

This was such a great way to start off our trip. Luckily, our ride back to the hotel didn't take near as long. We even stopped and ate dinner at a restaurant on the beach while it was pouring rain . . . and then played on the beach in the pouring rain. It was magical. Sloths, beaches and rain. Yes. 

Up next on the vacation posts, you'll hear about how we took a sketchy little airplane to the most beautiful land on earth called Arenal, where we stayed in the middle of the rainforest and in the shadow of a volcano. Zip lining and river rafting adventures included.