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."

Fall is HERE!

Fall is officially here, and I'm loving every bit of it! There are so many things I love about this season, just to list a few...
1) Cooler weather (I get to bust out my boots and hoodies, yes!)
2) Beautiful fall colors. My drive down K-10 when I visit home is definitely much more scenic
3) Crunchy leaves (Yes I'm one of those who like to step on a pile of freshly fallen extra crunchy leaves)
4) Pumpkin tastes & scents
5) All of the scary movies that start playing on channels. A little bit weird but I actually really enjoy scary movies! (with the exception of Wrong Turn...sick nastiest movie ever created and I will never ever visit west virginia because of it) Of course the night after I watch one I need to fall asleep with the tv on with something happier like some good 'ol Friends seasons.
6) Halloween & Thanksgiving
This season doesn't get much better. I also have started watching one of my favorite movies that I only watch during this time: Hocus Pocus. A classic. By the time Halloween hits I probably watch this movie a total of 50 times. I'm a sucker for Kenny Ortega movies (Newsies, Hairspray, HSM...what? did I just say HSM?) : ) Not that I know any of the dances from HSM or anything...

This week and weekend has been so amazing. First off, my birthday was this past week and I've never felt so loved by my wonderful friends! I received a package full of mallows, some leg warmers (yes, it may not be the 80s but I still rock the leg warmers), baking goods, a sewing machine from my dad (I have not sewed my 7th grade sewing class where I made a hideous butterfly pillow. We'll see how well that gift turns out), and a birthday mocha coffee was awaiting me when I got to class on wednesday. Plus multiple texts, voice messages, and fb posts to complete it. Thanks everyone! Then this week flew by and by the time I knew it, it was Friday! I. love. Fridays. First, I have time to make myself a legit breakfast other than a bowl of cereal. This Friday's breakfast choice...greek yogurt blueberry pancakes! For those of you who might be like me and enjoy cooking/baking here is the deeeeeelicious recipe!

Ingredients:

8 oz. Greek yogurt

7 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1 tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 large eggs (I use Egg Beaters instead)

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon to taste

Directions:

Place Greek yogurt in a medium bowl. Add flour, sugar, baking soda and salt.

Whisk eggs in a separate bowl. Add vanilla to eggs and stir to combine. Pour egg mixture into the Greek yogurt-flour mixture. Stir together gently. Add in as much cinnamon as you like. (i love me lots of cinnamon)

Pour the batter onto a griddle sprayed with cooking spray until golden brown. Eat up & enjoy!

mmm-hmmm!

Today was a perfect way to spend a sunny fall day! It started off with going to church in Topeka, where in the college session we talked about trusting in the Lord. How more perfect than to hear that right now when I have no clue where life is taking me after I graduate?! I just need to completely fall back on him rather than taking matters into my own hands, and trust that God will take me where he needs me to be. After a great college session and regular church I headed to Barnes & Noble for some study time where I enjoyed my 2nd pumpkin spice latte of the season from starbucks and read up on some Postsecret. (If you haven't read through this book or blog, I highly suggest it) Then I headed out to Gary's Berries to meet up with the rest of the church for the rest of the evening and hung out with some great folks. They had a corn maze (shaped like a hippo......what the crap does a hippo have to do with fall?....Fail) that took me at least an hour to get through. I had never been in one before and I definitely felt like I was in the movie Signs and some creepy alien monster might pop out at any moment. And just like me and not thinking ahead, I was wearing what I wore to church: a dress, tights, boots, and nooooo jacket. Needless to say, halfway through the maze I was FREEZING. I thought my fingers might have needed to be amputated by the end of the night. (Thank you Adam for the jacket otherwise they might have had to be!) Coldness aside once the sun set, it was such a fun, fall atmosphere. Although in my opinion it would have been better with a bonfire and some smores : )

Thanks Summer for hiding my neck and making my face look like a blob : )

How tall this fall?! For David, not that tall.

It lies. It says I'm 5'1, I'm at least 5'2.

I'm hoping this week goes just as quickly. Bring on this next weekend of fun! Bachelorette party, Worlds of Fun, and hanging with my little sister who has been in AK for the past 6 months. Get excited!

For your movie quote challenge, should you choose to accept it... "You're a complex Freudian hallucination having something to do with my mother and I don't know why you have wings, but you have very lovely legs and you're a very nice tiny person and what am I saying, I don't know who my mother was; I'm an orphan and I've never taken drugs because I missed the sixties, I was an accountant."

Have a great week and happy Fall!