I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas!

Merrrrrrrry Christmas from Montana! I hope ya'll are having a wonderful Christmas with your families and loved ones, and that Santa brought you everything you asked for : )

For the first time in a couple years I got to wake up to a white Christmas! Considering last year when Kansas got our huge snow storm I was in Florida, so today started off juuuust right!

So pretty!

Christmas thus far has been pretty uneventful compared to past Christmases with the whole fam, but its still been good. Its just Alex, me, and sweet lil' Milo up here in cold, snowy, mountainy, hick-town Montana. We woke up and had some breakfast with coffee and mimosas, and then we opened up our presents (and by we, I mostly mean I watched Alex open her presents because I opened mine back home so they wouldn't have to be shipped to the middle of nowhere Montana). 

I promise we're not alchies

Mama and pup's first Christmas!

My sister Jenny got me a sewing book and some starter tools! Don't let the face fool you, I'm excited...juuuust a little questionable of how long it will take me before I can sew something that won't look like a monkey made it.

We were listening to some good 'ol Christmas tunes, and Nsync's Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays came up. (An oldie but a goodie) So we decided to youtube the music video. Good grief, I miss the 90s and boy bands. Heres the video to enjoy for youselves...You're welcome.

Nsync followed with some Straight No Chaser. I'm a little obsessed. I love me some SNC! If you haven't heard of them or seen the original video that made them famous - this is a must watch.

I got to see them in concert last year at KU, and afterwards they were at a table signing autographs and meeting the fans. I wanted to be remembered from the other fans when I met them, so what do I do?...Look like a complete idiot apparently. (It just comes so naturally to me) But hey, I'm surrrrre I was remembered after this. For better & worse : ) Heres the gist of how the convo went down...

Hey, I loved ya'lls concert. You guys were great!

Thank you!

Well, I have a joke for you guys!

Ok, lets hear it.

What kind of pants does Mario wear?

(silence)

Denim denim denim...Denim denim denim! (in mario's theme song)

(awkward silence, blank stares, and pity laughs & smiles)

Okay, welp it was great meeting you guys! (walk away)

(Laughs from my sister and friends I went to the concert with off to the side)

I guess they missed out on the best classic video game of Nintendo64.

Welllllll, reliving our childhood days, we came up with a list of past Christmas toys that we begged our parents/Santa to get us when we were younger...

1) Furby (At the moment I loved it, but shortly after I realized just how freakin creepy those things were. I even put mine in my closet, turned off the lights, covered it with a blanket, and this thing would still talk and move around)

2) Tamagotchi. Pretty sure I always got the ugly, red, squirmy thing.

3) Easy Bake Oven. Love the tagline from this picture...

What did you guys ask for for Christmas when you were younger?! You know you're getting older when you ask for practical gifts and gladly accept clothing. I got a bread maker which I'm ready to use the crap out of when I get back home! Well, on the agenda for the rest of the day for me and Fishy is just to relax, watch some more xmas movies and Boy Meets World, and cook a pizza for dinner...Psh, forget ham, bring on the pesto! You can't really expect 2 college students to pay for and prepare an extravagant christmas meal can you? But I think we're pretty content in our pesto chicken pizza decision.

I hope that you all have a very very Merry CHRISTmas!!

Xmas Movie Quote: "Ooooohhh, ahhhhhhh, mmmmmm!........Thats it I'm not going."

Santa...I know him! I KNOW HIM!

So its about 20 degrees outside and what am I eating?...Ice cream (I am without a doubt my father's daughter). Not only ice cream. Ice cream with some mallows! Its good to know I'm staying true to my blog title.

Christmas is upon us! 17 days...I'm so ready. Are YOU ready? (just out of kanakuk habit, my auto response to this is always "I was born ready!") And only 13 until Montana. Only 3 days left of practicum for the semester. Today was the last day of class. And one more paper due Monday. Then I'm officially on winter break! PTL. I'm very much going to enjoy not having a schedule, no homework, sleeping in, hoping for snow to do some sledding, and lots-o-lots of Christmas baking of course : ) Along with enjoying doing absolutely nothing, I have a list of just a few things I really want to accomplish over break including...

-Catch up on some reading. I'm shooting to finish HP7 and start and complete Les Miserables.

-Learn some new tunes on the piano. Its been a while since I've had free time to challenge myself with some new songs

-Scrapbook some up to date

-Color a little bit in christmas coloring books (color me 5 years old)

-Last but not least, be a bit of a lazy bum and watch endless Christmas movies. This is what break is really for in college. Seriously.

Speaking of Christmas movies, I believe these are my absolute favorite top 10 that I will need to scrounge up to watch. Majority of these I have on VHS. Not gonna lie...I miss those VHS days sometimes. But here they are...in no specific order, because asking me to pick one over the other is like asking me to pick my favorite Disney song...

1) Elf

2) The Santa Clause

3) Jingle All The Way

4) Home Alone & Home Alone 2 (this may be cheating putting them together, howeverrrrrr I'm over it)

5) White Christmas

6) How The Grinch Stole Christmas (The fires of looooooooove. Oh martha, oh christmas!)

7) Miracle on 34th Street

8) The Nightmare Before Christmas

9) A Charlie Brown Christmas

10) Its a Wonderful Life

In the season of everything wintery wonderfully wonderful, me and Alysia had our annual plaza date! I love this tradition that we have kept up with. 4 years going strong! We both are crazy busy: me with college and her with her big girl job, but we look forward to this in order for both of us to just relax, dress up & have a night on the town, catch up on life, and have some quality BFF time. We started out ice skating down at crown center....I have not ice skated since senior year in HS. To sum up, lets say I almost ran over multiple little children. Watch out parents when Tori's on the ice! Alysia found it veryyyyy amusing as to how I tried to skate backwards and wanted a video...I'm kind enough to share that video with yall. Thanks Alysia for making it sound like you're talking to a dog... "show me your trick, Tori!"

 Here is how my plaza date went down, in pictures...

 

I got to meet up with some crazy kids of TBC

I feel like we should send out a holiday card together, I think we're at that step in our relationship.

Me brushing up on my Broadway knowledge via quiz book

Next time I'll be blogging I shall officially be on break! So for you fellow students - good luck with finals and enjoy break. And for those of you with legit adult jobs - sorry to be rubbing in my 4 weeks of laziness. (but not that sorry considering its my last winter break as a college student so I'm living it up as much as possible!) : ) Until we meet again...have a wonderful week & preparing for Christmas!

Your not-so-really-much-of-a-movie-challenge-because-its-so-obvious quote..."First we'll make snow angles for two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a roll of Tollhouse cookie dough as fast as we can, and then to finish...we'll snuggle."

Happy Needless Turkey Murder Day!

 Happy late Thanksgiving everyone! I hope yall had as much of a fabulous, relaxing break as I did. I headed down to Texas bright and early around 8 on Tuesday (yes, I'm guilty of skipping practicum this day...I'm such a good student) I grabbed a free muffin from Panera for joining in their new panera card (if you haven't gotten one, you definitely should. Join for free and instantly get a free pastry. Holla!), a cup of joe from Starbucks, and started out my drive with Taylor Swift's new cd...

Me belting it out to some T-Swift. You could say I was high on life this morning. Wouldn't you if you had 6 days off of school, got a free delicious muffin, and a new cd that could fit the soundtrack to your life?

In order to keep myself entertained on my drive down I kept tally marks of 3 things...1) How many road kills I saw. 2) How many semi trucks I passed. 3) and how many McDonald's I saw. Annnnnd which one do you think won?! Keep reading 'til the end to find out : )

I got to stop in Edmond to visit a good 'ol kampie, Logan! We had an epic skit together on our OD day at K-1 back in '09. It consisted of finding nemo, the wizard of oz, and making fun of wall-e. I'm so glad Logan shares the same kind of hatred for the movie Wall-e as I do.

This is how I feel about Dallas rush hour traffic...or at least when I'm not in a state of panic and scared for my life.

Wednesday was a pretty chill day. I started off spending some time at a Panera by my grandparents house to try to knock out a paper and some grad school crap. Mission unsuccessful. I mostly facebooked, youtubed, and people watched. Then I spent the rest of the day hanging out with Amanda, my cousin. Get this...we got to go to a FREE KEITH URBAN concert!! I love me some Keith. According to Amanda they really only were advertising it through a radio station so there were a decent amount of people there, but it wasn't totally jam-packed. Okay, technically it wasn't a full concert, but hey, I was within a arms length of this man! (video to come soon to facebook) I think he was filming something for a music video for his song Put You In A Song, considering there were cameras all around and he performed this song about 5 times in a row. Good thing I love this song! Then he performed some oldies but goodies like Somebody Like You, Days Go By, and Making Memories of Us. The whole time I was also searching around for Nicole Kidman thinking she'd be there with him, alas, no sign of her about.

Me and Manda face at the concert. I don't want to brag, but I wore this orange v-neck, and the next day when Keith performed at the halftime show for the Cowboys, he was indeed wearing an orange v-neck. He definitely saw me and knew how much I love him and wanted to reciprocate : )

Afterwards, we met up with the rest of the fam for a late dinner... 

Cat, I'm a kitty cat. And I meow meow meow and I dance dance dance...

Then it was Turkey Day! I love this day because it pretty much consists of lots and lots of family games. We played What's Yours Like (hilarious game), Scattegories, Picture Telephone, and Balderdash. Balderdash is one of my favs, except for the category of initials. I suck at initals. One of the initals was GLFC...I gave up on this round and put down a throw away answer. "Grandfathers with Lice Finding Cleanliness" Get this, I got 4 votes with this baby! haha seriously family?!

Picture Telephone was pretty entertaining too. One I started out with was "Betty White is my hero." haha somehow Betty turned into raggedy ann, and raggedy ann turned into bob marley. This one ended with I like singing with Bob marley by the campfire.

After our butt-load of games it was finally feasting time! Oh my goodness, I had a huge food baby afterwards but it was totally worth it. We played the cheesy game where we go around the table and say what we're thankful for. If you know me, you know I'm indecisive. I had to make a list. Mine consisted of 1) family (the obvious cheesy answer) 2) country music 3) and peanut butter. To sum up...It was a great Thanksgiving this year!

Me & Amanda dueling for the wishbone.

Later during the weekend we did some baking (go figure) although I don't know how we could possibly eat these after all the food and desserts we had on Thursday. We ran out of the hershey kisses, so we had to get creative and use mini chocolate chips. These cookies certainly have some character and flare.

My break definitely went by wayyy to quickly, but it was time to head back home and to school. I made another stop in okc to visit a fellow intern from the summer for a bit. I love making stops on long drives to visit friends, it helps break up the drive and make it go by faster. Especially since the drive home always seems to go so much slower than the drive getting where ever you're going in the first place. I was quite bored with my drive near the last 3 hours...so bad that I was speeding juuuuuuust a littttttttle. Maybe 10 over the speed limit, perhaps 13 at times...Good thing there were no po pos in sight!

I came home, was up until 2 working on finishing my paper and grad school-ness, woke up at 6, and headed to class. I may have fallen asleep in my 2nd class of the day when we watched a movie. All I can say is tonight I'm thinking of loading up on some nyquil and passing out for the night!

Annnnnd as for the winner of the counted tally marks. Drum roll for the winner on my drive down to TX was........ 

The winner was semi trucks! Personally, I was rooting for road kill. But what can ya do?

In other news...CHRISTMAS IS COMING! : ) Get excited. Have a wonderful week everybody and good luck for those of you like me who will be attempting for counter balance my thanksgiving food baby!

Movie Quote of the blog..."We have to go shopping...your shirt is bedazzled." "Bedazzled with rhinestones!"

Aye, You're Harry Potter! (in a British accent)

 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part uno finallllllllly came out! It seems like we've been waiting for forever. My sister got the tickets and I went to the midnight showing in KC with the lovely Renee and Katie, which I was majorly looking forward to since I hadn't been to a midnight showing since The Goblet of Fire. Midnight showings are the only way to go. You're surrounded by fans who dress up, quiz strangers on HP knowledge, and cheer, laugh, cry, and applaude all in unison.

Ohh the beauty of sweats, no makeup, and looking ready for bed. I considered dressing up in costume, buttttttttt I figured after a long day at practicum and driving to KC, I preferred comfort over a costume. Although we did see tons of people dressed up. Even older people in their 40s and 50s. (Awesome? I think so. I hope thats me when I'm older.)

Cute sleepy girls. Don't worry, they got their burst of energy once it started! Good thing was that there were only a few majorly overly-obnoxious fans in our theatre. I still love that if you are that type of fan though, its totally acceptable to make a complete fool of yourself amongst other HP fans. But once you get into the real world, you may be a tiny bit judged. 

Now only to wait 8 more months until part 2...On the plus side though, that gives me time to finish the book! I've read all of them except the last one. I'm about 1/3 of the way through, and even though I know what happens and how it ends, I'm looking forward to finally join others in saying I've read the whole series!

ALSO, if you are a HP fan, or even if you're not...you need to watch this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmwM_AKeMCk Hands down. If you aren't sucked in and singing along in the first few minutes, well...lets not go there. Because you'll love it! Disclaimer: I was a fan of Darren Criss on here before he became a Glee sensation.

After the show got over around 3 I slept over at my sister's apartment so I didn't have to drive all the way back to Lawrence when I needed some serious zzzzzzzzs. It had been a rough week of school with yet another paper due, and a huge group project proposal presentation. Sometimes I'm so over group projects, but in the wonderful world of social work thats all we do. Lovely. So, Friday was my day off and I needed some relaxation. I slept in til 10 (which hasn't been done in a loooong time), got some Starbucks (sadly not a pumpkin spice latte. That morning I needed straight up black coffee), and then definitely spent a good 3 hours at Borders with my computer listening to music and browsing through magazines. Mostly holiday baking/crafty magazines, but also threw in some fit mags and a girly mag to complete my day : )



This was in front of my parking spot at Borders that I had to get a picture of to ask you guys what, or who, in the world is this supposed to be of?! Albert Einstein? Santa Claus? A ghost?? What do you think?! I'm so confused.

Yesterday was quite the day out of the ordinary. Some friends invited me along to join them in KC to make a cheesy music video to the completely ridiculous song Christmas in Kansas City. This song plays on the radio around this time, and it is the. worst. song. ever. But its also great because of the fact that its so bad. How could I oblige to this offer? I accepted. Bought a tacky xmas sweater from goodwill. Made my appearance as a keyboard player that can play while doing a handstand. and am told this video will soon be on youtube. Goo, watch out world wide web!

One more day that I need to make it through until I leave for Texas for Thanksgiving! YAY. I'm so ready for a break away from school, not to mention heading south where the warm weather is is a major plus in my book : ) I have a lot to do before then, but then I head out Tuesday, with a pit stop in OKC to visit some good friends! On my to-do list today...

1) Finish a butt load of laundry

2) pack for Texas

3) Go for a run since the weather turned out so beautiful today

4) Finish ku grad school apps to give to my teacher tomorrow for a letter of rec

5) write a 2 page response paper over suicide...I'm sure i'll feel so overjoyed and happy when writing it. Who wouldn't?

6) make some mixed cds for my drive down to TX

7) Bake something pumpkiny to use up some opened pumpkin thats about to expire

8) watch Elf : ) This should probably be my top priority...

I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing, blessed Thanksgiving with all your families!! Remember to be thankful for everything God has blessed you with, and tell those you love how thankful you are for them : ) I'm looking forward to lots of family time, endless delicious food, and lots of rounds of games including catch phrase, picture telephone, and Oh Hell. (Jenny, i refuse to play settlers of catan) Then bring on CHRISTMAS! This year I shall spend it in the most random of all places, Montana, with my little seester Fishy.

Movie Quote of the day..."Mom, look. In China everything is old. There's old houses, old parks, old people. Look, this guy is at least four hundred years old!"

Confessions...

Confession number 1:...I have already started listening to CHRISTMAS music. Truer confession...I started listening to Christmas music mid-October. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Christmas? Since I've been about 7 or so I have gotten used to hearing Christmas music in October. I took piano lessons since I was a youngen and when October hit we had to pick our Christmas piece for our winter recital. So it has become built in me that it is totally normal to listen to Christmas music in October. Branson, MO would agree. And in the spirit of upcoming Christmas, enjoy this little clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFlcqWQVVuU And you should definitely also go buy Dave Barne's christmas cd on itunes.

Oh hey Christmas season, thanks for finally arriving!

Confession number 2:...I used to hate/refuse to eat, touch, or smell peanut butter in any shape or form. Now, I cannot get enough! I'm sure my sisters reading this are making squinty faces and still completely grossed out by this new fact. But hey, I've always been the odd ball of the family (only brunette for example) so they should have seen something like this coming. No one in my family eats peanut butter, except for my mom, so we were never fed it growing up, so I just believed that I should dislike it. When all the other kids in elementary would have PJ&Js, I enjoyed in my JJ&MJ (just jelly and more jelly!) However, I am proud to say I can indulge in delicious pb&js, and my new favorite...peanut butter and banana. Mmm!

Confession number 3:...I also used to hate country music. Thank goodness I finally came around and discovered country music is the best music out there : ) (currently watching the CMA awards!)

Confession number 4:...Apparently I like posing with mannequins...

Confession number 5:...I'm terrified of clowns. Not quite sure why, I've never had a tramatic experience with any. Yet, the phobia still exists.

Confession number 6:...I'm 23, and sometimes still struggle with body image. It can be such a struggle being a woman or young woman these days when we are constantly surrounded by magazines, commercials, and movies telling us that in order to be beautiful you need to be tall, blonde, a certain weight, own fancy clothing labels, own products upon products of makeup, etc, the list seems never-ending. I really didn't even feel completely comfortable or confident in my own skin until this past year. Today in my Wednesday volunteer work I do with Strong Girls through KU, we talked to our girls about body image and what we view as beautiful. This is so important to bring up to young girls (our group of girls are ages 8-13ish) because it seems they are getting hit harder younger and younger with these never-ending distorted images of what beauty is. This can lead to eating disorders, low self-esteem, and a poor body image. It can't be said enough, but the world lies to you on a daily basis.

We watched this Dove commercial...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U The girls thought A) She was beautiful before anything was done. B) She looked pretty with the makeup on, but then thought it was crazy that even with the makeup, she still wasn't good enough. So the computer had to go in and make her neck longer, eyes bigger, take away blemishes, and create this non-existant "perfect" woman. I encourage all of you ladies reading this to be confident just the way you are : ) Don't try so hard to become a cookie-cutter of what the world tells you you should be. Stand out, and know you. are. beautiful. just the way you are! A verse I love to go back to when I catch myself trying to fix my outside appearance more than what is inside and my heart is 1 Samuel 16:7. It says "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." How much time do I spend getting ready in the morning and looking at myself in the mirror? And how much daily time do I give to God and spend time in his word? Some days it isn't even a competition. (Hint, my self-image usually wins) Even though I don't take much time to get ready anyways, but if I still switched around my time spent getting ready with my time spent in God's word I'm pretty sure my day would be so much better.

I want to encourage any ladies reading this to be confident in yourselves and stop comparing yourself to women on magazines and on tv. Of course, I struggle with this too now & again. But I challenge you to make a statement by maybe not wearing any makeup one day and still feel beautiful, or dressing down, wearing sweat pants and still feeling as confident as you would in your skinny jeans. Sure, some days it sucks to be a woman but on the other hand: Women don't have to worry about going bald or growing hair on their back. (ew.) We can handle stress better than men, and women live longer than men. Enough of my ramblings, hey its the social worker in me. Ladies (and gents), you are BEAUTIFUL! Keep on keepin' on!

Movie Quote Challenge..."Just remember, inside every girl, there's a boy. That came out wrong, but you know what I mean!"

Happy Haunting!

Can I just say how incredibly thankful I am that this week is finally over? Sunday through Thursday I probably got about 16 hours total of sleep. Two papers, 1 presentation, and two all nighters later I am still thankfully alive. Though, I am now sick (not contagious, moreso my body telling me 'Tori i hate you' for lack of taking care of myself in lack of sleep and loading up on stress) So what to do when I start feeling dizzy when standing up for more than 10 minutes? Lie in bed, watch scary movies on tv, and blog update!

I'm in love with all these scary movie marathons that are on tv now. Give me the blood, guts, horror, suspense, the whole shebangs! Growing up I was also obsessed with Nickelodeon's Are You Afraid of the Dark. Me and my sisters quote it allllll the time! Who else loved this show?? (not to mention old school Nick in general. Now it pretty much sucks)

But last night I watched The Strangers. when I was home alone. and it was dark out. and our window blinds were wide open. Stupid idea Tori. I was expecting my roomie to come home sooner than she did and I thought she would walk in during the middle of the movie to watch it with me, but no no. I watched this all by myself. Disclaimer - I love scary movies, but I've found I like them more so when I know it could never happen. The Strangers could easily happen. Okay, well, easily maybe if you live out in the middle of nowhere like these people. However, being home alone watching this was no bueno.

A year or two ago I actually took one of those facebook quizzes titled "how long would you survive a horror movie?" I found out I would be the second to last to die in a horror movie. Apparently, though, according the quiz this is a very noble place to die in a horror movie. This person does not die because of a stupid decision, rather this is the person who sacrifices themselves so the last person can survive and end all of the terror. Yep, that would definitely be me. : ) How long do you think you would survive a horror movie?! Would you be the weak one and die first? or the hero/heroine to survive? To sum up...I'm the type of person you want around if life turns into a horror movie. I've seen them all so I know what to do, how to kill the killer, and of course, I'd sacrifice myself so you can live. Stick with me and I'll help you defeat this guy...

these things,

and yep, even him.

Crazy, funny story actually about this mask. When this movie came out for the first time, my brother loved it and decided to go as him for Halloween and bought the costume. My oldest sister HATES scary movies, I mean, she can't even watch Jurassic Park. (haha I love you Jenny) Jenny was in high school, saw this movie, and was forever scarred. But one day she was in our basement playing on the computer. (Side note, my brother is infamous for playing all kinds of tricks, jokes, etc on me and my sisters. But given that he never had any brothers, hey can you blame him for taking it out on his 4 sisters?) Chris, my brother, put on his costume, managed to walk downstairs without Jenny hearing him or noticing he was down there, and was ready to try to scare Jenny...

Jenny, still completely oblivious to any of her surroundings, feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around, sees the masked Scream man, FLIPS OUT, and screams BLOODY MURDER. My dad was outside, and even heard her scream from inside down in the basement. She started crying while my brother realized his stupidity of the situation and pulls off his mask trying to calm down Jenny. My dad comes running inside annnnnnnd, after muuuuuuuuch yelling, grounded Chris. I think this pushed Jenny over the edge to further her hatred of scary movies.

On the flip-side, my brother is the reason I love scary movies. He always made me watch them with him. (I think because growing up I was a big tomboy and was probably the closest thing he had to a little brother. Until jr high when I discovered roll-on face glitter and cotton candy perfume...good god what was I thinking?) I remember watching Jeepers Creepers, Final Destination, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre with him. Sometime soon me and my roomie plan on seeing Paranormal Activity 2...way excited. Of course, for about 3 nights after I watch a new scary movie I have to sleep with the tv on while playing a happy-go-lucky movie. My usual go-to movie is Finding Nemo : )

Well, Halloween is in 2 days and I am still completely clueless about my costume. I didn't even have time to go to the pumpkin patch to decorate a pumpkin. Halloween fail all around. (Guess I'll have to count cutting numbers in my sister's pumpkin center pieces as my pumpkin project) Any ideas for a costume would be appreciated. With exception of ideas from 3rd graders. One girl told me I should go as the princess from Princess & The Frog...umm, I'm neither black, nor frog-like. But I do like the princess idea - perhaps Belle in honor of B&TB coming out of the vault??

Aside from Halloween topics...this week I saw the Tony award winning musical Spring Awakening. Oh my goodness, SO AMAZING. I highly recommend it. Although I wish I could have seen it with the original cast including Glee stars Lea Michele and Jonathan Groff, but the touring cast still did a great job. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll walk away singing the songs and wanting more.

My hot date : ) Gross picture of me = a sleep deprived Tori

I couldn't walk away without buying a little souvenir, I'm actually wearing this shirt as I am writing this blog, along with my new KU sweatpants. Lovin it! Thank you Lord for inventing soft, comfy, sweat pants. And also hot cocoa (finally getting to be cold enough for this perfect combo)

I hope everyone has a fun-filled, safe, haunted, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Eat lots of candy! Then go to the store Nov 1st and buy it half off, you know I will! : )

Movie Quote of the Blog... "Hey...you got armhair."

Short & Sweet

Short & sweet new post. First of all, Mellow for Mallows is no longer. I've changed the name of the blog to Manic for Mallows. When first creating my blog I was attempting to think of describing words that started with an M to go with mallows, and mellow was all I could come up with. Though my love for mallows is anything but mellow : )Thanks to Renee for suggesting the word manic - much more suiting!

My sister Katie got married this weekend! It was perfect weather, she looked beautiful, so much delicious food and cake (major food baby after this weekend) and it was a great wedding weekend extravaganza! But my highlight was definitely when Katie and Tyler were leaving with people waving sparklers, me and Alex battled into a duel. Harry Potter style.

Expelliarmus!

My beautiful MARRIED seeester : )

In summary: this weekend was (in the words of kfc) so S-O, G-double O D good! (just like the mallows they had for smores!)

Proof of my mallows love- definitely the best when burned to a crisp on the outside and mushy in the middle. I will need to go on multiple jogs this week to even out for all the sugar I had, but hey, thats what weddings are for : )

Random rablings...

I love Ellen Degeneres. I wish I had time to watch her more often. She never fails to make me laugh. (for other fellow Ellen fans..."Dennis Quaid is here!" : ) love it, can't get enough of undercover dennis quaid) Ellen often does a segment called "Whats wrong with these photos? Photos" where people send in pictures of things that aren't quite right. Today at target, I was browsing through the clearance section and found this...

I was seriously considering buying it just to get a picture, but instead...I went home, got my camera, came back in hopes it would still be there, and just my luck, it was indeed! (I mean, I think I can understand why poor Belle has not been purchased and is on clearance) What did I do next? Send it in to Ellen? Yup. We'll see if Belle is up to Ellen's par for her whats wrong with these photos photos. Maybe getting a picture of someone drinking out of this would be better...and by better I of course mean worse.

Movie quote of today's blog... "If I'm not back in 5 minutes...just wait longer."

I hope you guys have a wonderful week, go outside and enjoy this beautiful fall weather - Perfect for KU homecoming week!

Did You Know?...

Did you know that each year Americans consume enough of Brach's candy corn, that if layed end to end, could circle the earth 4.25 times? I was roaming through the Halloween section at Target and read that on the candy corn bag and not gonna lie, was about to buy a bag of the candy pumpkins, but decided against my instincts and put the bag down once I read that. I used to absolutely love this stuff - I also would often break off the white tip of candy corns, show my parents and pretend that I lost a tooth, in hopes of getting some money from the tooth fairy. Did anyone else do that...or just me?? : ) Unfortunately, my parents could not be fooled.

This week flew by! (PTL) The week was pretty uneventful, but this weekend was crazy busy, in a good way of course. Friday started off with a pumpkin spice latte, #5 of the season. My name is Tori, and I have a PSL addiction. However, I needed the energy for my morning project. What was my project you ask?...

Cookie decorating!

Friday night was my sister's bachelorette party and I wanted to make some cookies for the event, so I thought why not make a whole other batch for some Halloween cookies?! Growing up my dad always made these cookies for Christmas, at least 3 batches worth. And me and my siblings were the designated decorators. Back then, I hated decorating cookies. (shocking, right?!) I could not sit still for more than 15 minutes or have the patience to decorate cookie after cookie after cookie. Somewhere in the longrun, though, I grew to love baking and use it was a way to de-stress, use it for a creative outlet, and also have a not-so-really-but-almost-serious-ambition to start a bakery : ) (Komsthoeft's Kakes (cakes?), perhaps?) I started icing at 9 in the morning....4 hours later, 2 batches worth of cookies were decorated!

The cookies for the bachelorette party (note to self: never use the gel decorator because it does not dry)

My finished beauties

After the manyyyyy hours of decorating I finished up some homework, then got ready for my sister's bachelorette party! The party was 80's themed, and i'll tell you, it was awesome driving home dressed like this getting double takes : ) I should have been busting out to some 80s jams, sadly I didn't have my ipod on hand, so I was blaring out to some country instead. 80's goes with country right?

Story: They put us in "the pope room." There were pictures and statues of the pope covering the ENTIRE room. Including a lifelike waxed head of the pope sitting on our table. At first we thought it was a halloween decoration. No no, he sits there all year long. Crazy thing is our waiter told us that was their uglier pope because someone had stolen their better one. Who in the world has a desire to go to a restaurent, hide a class contained head of the pope under their jacket, and walk away with it??

 Saturday me and my sister Alex decided to head out to World of Fun! We had planned on doing it sometime when she got back from Alaska, and TBC was going that saturday, so I figured it would be fun to go and do our own thing and see some tbc-ers along the way. We got there at 11 and nearly did all the major rides before noon since there were no lines yet. Awesome! Alex's birthday was in July and I didn't get her a gift yet, so my gift to her turned into us doing the Ripcord! It was completely terrifying, but totally worth it. (Video to be posted on fb soon, including high-class commentary from david brown)

Sisterly love.

Alex told me she wasn't going to scream - she screamed louder and longer than I did. You sit on a throne of lies, Fishy.

This week is a shortened week, thank for fall break!! I just need to make it through 1 presentation, 1 day of practicum, and 3 classes, then it shall be a wedding weekend extravaganza! So excited for Katie and my soon to be new brother, Tyler : ) I hope you all have a fabulous day of 10/10/10, week and fall break!

Movie Challenge - "I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored."