Halloween Festivities

I think I've celebrated for Halloween in more ways this year than any other year. When I was young, I would go trick-or-treating (obviously) and carve pumpkins, and when I was older, I would attend Halloween parties.

I still carved a pumpkin:

However, this year, I actually put effort into creating my costume (as opposed to wearing a sweatshirt that said "Lifeguard" on it for my costume last year). For my costume: we got the dress at DI, the gloves at Walmart, the ears at the Disney Store, the shoes from Payless, and the belt is actually a scarf from Seagull Book.  For Matt's costume, we got the shorts at DI, the ears at a Halloween store, and the shoes online.


We also went to a corn maze:

And a Haunted House (my 1st time):

I'll be the first to admit that I had my eyes closed the whole time at the Haunted House (minus one or two peeks) and I had a death grip on Matt's arm. But I did it!

What "traditions" do you like to do around Halloween?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

#6 on Bucket List: Check

I was in a fashion show once.

It was a short career.

I always thought it would be fun to do, but I was always so shy that I never volunteered or applied to do a fashion show. Then, last year, my opportunity came. The Law School does an annual "What Not to Wear" fashion show for the students, where the demonstrate appropriate interview, work, and cocktail party attire. I got to go to Dillards and try on all sorts of professional clothes and then model them for my 140 fellow 1Ls. It was a good experience, although my shyness still prevented me from fully relaxing.

What things have you done on your bucket list?

Rhetorically,

Rebekah 

Toenail Art

While I didn't go on a vacation over Placement Break, I did have the chance to catch up on a lot of things I had put off (Halloween toenail painting being one of them). As I reviewed my blog posts, I realized I haven't ever posted pictures of my toenail art! Besides making earrings in my spare time, I also enjoy painting my nails every month to match a holiday or seasonal theme. So here they are:

                           EASTER                       SUMMER

                     4th of JULY                         WEDDING

                                    

 HALLOWEEN

Disclaimer: in the summer picture, the brown on my toes is NOT dirt. 

It's actually a tan mark from my shoes (which means that you'll now go back to check, if you didn't notice already). 

Rhetorically,

Rebekah

General Conference

Every 6 months, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints get to hear to the current apostles and prophets speak. Each speaker has given significant time and energy to ponder and pray on what they should speak about.

Ever since I was in Junior High, my dad and I have had competition to see who can guess the titles to each General Conference talk. When I first started, I would get so distracted by the first story, that I would rarely get the topic of the talk right. Over the years, I've learned the art of listening to the various stories and scriptures and boiling them all down into a two to five word title that sums up the speaker's intent. Taking a few public speaking classes also helped me to identify how a talk is organized and presented.

The "talk title" competition aside, I always look forward to General Conference. It's almost like a "self help" weekend, where you learn how to cope with and overcome your trials, strengthen your relationships with your family members, and share the gospel.

While I have something good to say about every talk, I especially liked the opening talk by Elder Hales. What better way to start conference than by explaining how conference works?

If you missed conference, or want to know more, visit this site for video, audio, and written recordings: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2013/10?cid=HPFR100413105&lang=eng