happy halloween!

it's halloween time again....how do I know....the signs are all there

the houses by my school are dressed to a T (though they looked better pre-windstorm.)

I rocked the pirate costume (complete with drunken parrot) at school on friday.

The day started with pumpkin scones and a pumpkin spice latte.

My pumpkin is carved and scarily looks out the window.

Im on the 10th and final day of halloween socks

and we sit on the couch decked out in our costumes drinking cider, watching halloween movies, and eating the candy we bought for the children because the children never came despite our brainstorming of not-so-creepy ways to lure children to our door....(come little children I'll take the away into a land of enchantment....)

not-so-cold camping

last year cold camping looked like this:

and sometimes like this:

and the layers were only shed after we climbed this:

this year cold camping looked like this:

we hiked over the dunes like this:

then laid on the beach like this:

since it was warm and there were TONS of people they they all laughed at our tents that looked like this:

and we ate lots of delicious food like this:

and this:

and only in the morning when it was chilly did we look like this:

twins!

when my little sister and I both lived at home and went shopping together we had an unwritten and unspoken pact...who ever picked up the article of clothing first got dibs. we look FAR too much alike to dress the same as well.

when I went away to school it was no ok to buy the same things, because we were 600 miles apart so would not likely be seen at the same function dressed alike. Of course everyone likes to wear new clothes so on occasion we rocked the matching attire in the safety of our own home while I was in town.

I now shop a lot with claires. (read: do random things where they give you t-shirts for doing them, stand in long lines at the ND bookstore, and scour the clearance rack at gap when we have a few minutes to kill downtown.) we now match. a lot. we don't plan it (fully) though we may pick the pair of sweatpants to take on a trip because the other one packed them too. and we may discuss what clothing we're going to wear so we're all on the same page attire level wise. but we don't plan the matching.

but on that rare (read: frequent) occasion that we do match. we take pics. and then we try to show it off (read: go into mcdonalds rather than through the drive through) because we are just that cool.

spirit week 2010

when I was in high school I only got spirited up during spirit week because it was a chance to get out of uniform. now I do it because it's a chance to be ridiculous. and so I give you spirit week 2010.

monday was twin athlete day. people still confuse megan and I so we decided to capitalize on it. and so we donned her dad's blackhawks jerseys and set out with matching style.

wednesday waz heritage day. I set right to work making some leiderhosen out of ribbon and binder clips, affixing a feather to my fedora, and searching far and wide for the perfect pair of knee socks. upon arriving at school i found a young frauline and snapped a quick pic.

thursday was grammar school day. first it must be known that in the catholic school world the term grammar school is used to refer to your k-8 school or any schooling before high school. secondly, although I went through an awkward phase in middle school where I liked t-shirts that were much too large I do not currently have anything from my grammar school days. I do however have my high school uniform. and so i rocked that. along with my kairos cross, high school class ring, and earrings I havent donned since those days of being a star.

7th (5th) inning (weekend) stretch

in baseball they have the 7th inning stretch, where you stand up, stretch, contemplate leaving, and mentally and physically prepare yourself for the last two innings that await you.

last weekend for me was my 7th inning stretch, except that instead of 7th it was 5th, and instead of innings my life has weekends. (unless you count august camping weekend, followed by tall ships and bdays in the month of August)

in terms of baseball my life this fall has been inning after inning of over-the-fence out-of-the-park home runs. two studer family weddings, two ND football games, 4 consecutive weekends of out of the park home run scale fun.

week 1, labor day weekend: Studer wedding #1.

we hopped in the car to drive to st. louis to see my cousin Christy marry a handsome lad Steve. we got to: see both sides of the family, witness a beautiful wedding, play with camera features, introduce the Studers to Ted Drewe's (who doesn't need a custard break between ceremony and reception), hang with the siblings, and make fabulous memories

week 2: ND vs Michigan AND North Shore Century

we hopped in the car to drive to South Bend to see the Fighting Irish take on the wolverines. This year was the first during which we sprung for tickets...we put in for 3...thinking we'd get 2 or at least we'd sell the third....needless to say this was game one of three... The Irish fought hard....and we took some framable pics.

we then drove home, so we could get on our bikes and ride and ride and ride and ride the next morning. claires and I were slow....so we took naps while nick rode an extra 12 miles. 52.5 miles later we all completed our ride...and had new bike gloves raptor hands to show for it (and yes that is how we described our pose to the stranger who took our pic)

Week 3: ND vs MSU

even during my time at ND I never made it to an away game (unless you count the sugar bowl of 2006....but that doesnt really count as an away game) so this weekend we headed off to East Lansing to hang with K^2 and Tod^2 and catch some Irish vs Spartan action. We saw K^2's family then Tod^2 took us to sparrow tailgating land where we had free drinks, and free food, free beads, and FREE VISORS! and we met this delightful man who sat in front of us, more accurately, paced in front of us, yelling at the players by name...checking his laminated roster if ever he was unsure who deserved the yelling.

Week 4: Studer Family Wedding #2

this week we headed off to Burlington, Vermont, the land of ben and jerry's, maple syrup, color changing leaves, the lake monster champ, and hippies. This is NOT the land of the coat factory, despite the atrocious claims of one individual. here I rocked my hat while waiting at JFK airport for Airforce One to clear the area, here we ate tons and tons of ice cream, my dad molested a cow, we saw lots of pretty trees, tasted vermont, toured the magic hat brewery, searched for the lake monster, danced the macarana, witnessed another beautiful wedding, this time joining my cousin Greg with his girl friend of 10 years, Sara, and paid $300 to fly out of town on a US Airways puddle jumper after jet poo canceled our flight home less than 8 hours before it was to take off

week 5: the stretch.

we entered week 5 plan-free and 100 % excited for it. we cleaned the apt, put up halloween decorations, then sneaked north to wisconsin to pick some apples and the occasional contraban pumpkin. it was delightful.

....

by now we have entered week 6: the camping trip part 3. tomorrow morning we head out...next weekend we cheer the irish to victory in person one last time for the year...3 weeks from now I sleep in.