Halloween preview

All Hallow's Eve is a big event at the Talbot abode, and one of my favorite things to do it make costumes. I didn't make Drew a costume for his first Halloween because he was only 6 months old, I had one given to me by Uncle Steve (a bat) and we didn't really celebrate Halloween last year because Drew had a minor surgery just days before.

In my mind, this is really Drew's first Halloween, and I just finished his costume moments ago. That means we have to try things on and take pictures, and it's just so cute I had to share right away.

So here's a little preview of what Halloween will look like at our house; let's just say there's going to be a lot of lightsaber action. :)

Thank goodness we bought the lightsaber, otherwise his Yoda hood would be off in a second. He has yanked and pulled at it each time I've tried it on him today. I'm glad we have a distraction so he'll keep his costume on; I just hope we won't have any casualties.

Happy Haunting!

Dental school

On Saturday we went to the school to pick up a book for Brent to study and then hung out on the concourse between the dental building and the library. It's a beautiful green walkway right through the middle of campus. It starts with a roundabout and a clock, it has a cool fountain in the middle, and then I'm not quite sure where it goes. There's a statue and a walkway between buildings, but we haven't gone past the fountain. We had wonderful weather to walk around and let Drew enjoy being outside.

This is the fountain in the middle. It's pretty cool as the water just flows down the steps. Drew was a little frightened of it, which was probably a good thing. He could easily have gotten into it if he wanted to.

I've really been missing Utah. Everyone has gone up, looking at the leaves. Some friends from our ward even went out a few weeks ago for a fall/hiking trip. I was so jealous. But finally, I see fall is coming to Oklahoma. I'm seeing more and more rusty reds and burnt orange. It definitely feels like fall today -- wet, cold and foggy.

Here's the clock tower. From here, the dental building is just on the left, and the library on the right. Across the street is a new building (integrated medicine on the left) and the student union building.Drew loved being outside. He threw these rocks like it was the funnest thing in the world. His hands were filthy! It was fun to take a break and just hang out with each other.

While mom's away...

...the boys will play! Or at least dad will play and pacify the baby while putting him in the high chair and letting him feed himself yogurt!

I had my first choir practice for the Christmas Cantata with which I'm involved, and I get home to this sight: Brent sitting on the couch, not studying but playing a game on his laptop. And there's Drew in his chair, completely intent on using his little spoon to get yogurt out, smear it somewhere, then put it in his mouth to see if there's anything left. He did smile for me, but most of the time he had a pretty serious look of concentration on his face. I made Brent throw him straight in the bathtub, but then I got left with the messy high chair. Let's just say the next night when I had to go our for mutual didn't go that much better -- Drew had goldfish for dinner. I guess Brent forgot all about the other food groups. :)

Tag!

Thanks Christy! I've never been tagged before and I was starting to feel a little left out. :) I love to read these on other people's blogs, so now you get to read one on mine!

8 TV shows I love to watch-
(Disclaimer: Like many of my fellow moms, our tv is usually on Qubo or playing a DVD, so I don't get to watch a lot of "grown up" TV.)
1. Veggie Tales
2. The Biggest Loser
3. Jacob Two-Two (another Qubo cartoon)
4. The Today Show
5. CSI
6. Friends, even though they're just reruns and I know every line of every episode.
7. America's Got Talent
8. Brent's favorite: The Simpsons

8 Favorite restaurants-
1. La Petite Baguette: Ok, I haven't actually been here yet, but it's an actual French restaurant and bakery and I heard it's great. You know I'll love it!
2. Little Caeser's: Hot-and-ready has been very popular at our house lately. It's mostly all about the bread sticks, but the pizza's not bad either. Fast and easy makes it a favorite.
3. The Elephant Bar: Yummy French dip and sweet potato fries. Yum!
4. Winger's: Our favorite Cedar City eatery that we can't seem to find in Oklahoma.
5. Braum's: This restaurant has fast food, but the cool thing about it is it's a local dairy and they have great ice cream and a fresh-food market at some locations.
6. The Olive Garden
7. On The Border (pretty good Mexican)
8. Wendy's, I guess.

8 things that happened yesterday-
1. Brent had the day off from school. In Utah we have Fall Break -- aka shoot a deer day. In Oklahoma, we have Fall Break -- aka drive to Texas to watch the big OU vs. Texas football game on Saturday. No complaints; I just think it's funny. :)
2. Although he had the day off, Brent still went to the school and studied for hours! He could use some extra prayers next week -- midterms! We're talking like two tests every day all week!
3. My friend Keri, who is actually due tomorrow, finally got to go to the hospital to have her baby. She was thinking she was going to go early for about three weeks now. We're so glad Brinkley (sp?) Larson arrived yesterday about 10:30 p.m. She's absolutely beautiful!
4. The most wonderful baby sitter in the world (thanks Sarra!) agreed short-notice to watch Drew while Brent and I went to the temple for a session. It was really good. Drew was even in bed asleep before we got home!
5. I put together a bunch of writing exercises, trying to make it easier to get some inspiration for a writing project.
6. Instead of folding the giant mound of clean laundry in my room, I relaxed a bit and read my book ("Ella Minnow Pea" by Mark Dunn -- awesome book!) and fooled around on the computer.
7. Drew tried to say "gorilla." He signed it and then tried to say it -- reminded me of when my nephew Lennix would say it. We're getting closer to verbal communication!
8. I blog hopped to see what everyone was up to. I really enjoy reading all your blogs!

8 things I'm looking forward to-
1. First and foremost: For this semester to be over! Poor Brent is studying his brains out; this is a tough semester for him so Drew and I don't get to see him much. Plus I'm in a choir for a Christmas Cantata (which I'm writing the program for, too) and our ward's Young Women's presidency, PLUS a writer's group I try to go to every Saturday for some non-child-watching time. It's tough to find time together. I would love just to hang out with Brent for a few hours.
2. For Drew to talk. He's doing awesome with the signs and he picks up new ones all the time, but so far all he says is "yeah," "no" and "green."
3. Halloween! We love Halloween at our house, and it will be all Jedi around here with Yodrew and Obi Brent Kenobi.
4. "Twilight" movie to come out in November; I'm planning to have a girls night out with my Okies.
5. Christmas: Not only is this one of my favorite holidays, but we are flying back to Utah to see everyone we love and miss!
6. Oct. 23: Drew will be 18 months old!
7. Performing the Christmas Cantata I'm involved in; the music will be great and something I wrote will be presented to the community.
8. Christmas again -- I can't tell you how much I miss you all!

8 things on my wish list-
1. A nice, new bestseller book with my name as the author.
2. New clothes (I don't get to do much shopping but I live next to all the best stores!)
3. For Drew to hurry up and talk so he can go on to be the smartest, handsomest baseball player ever!
4. A long, fun vacation with Brent - preferably to Europe.
5. A Canon Rebel
6. My body to be back in prebaby shape
7. A house
8. A craft room

8 persons I hereby tag-
BranDee
Erin
Leanne
Katrina
Keri
Tawny
Steve and Cass
Julie (now you have something to blog about!!)

My new endeavors...

So I've been dabbling in finding a creative way to use my writing skills. I'm a little embarrassed, but some of these dabblings will be online for your enjoyment. If you think I'm silly, don't bash me too hard. :) I've started another blog so I can share what I'm doing and, I'm hoping, get some feedback as to what people think. My goal is to put something up at least twice a month. So far, I don't have anything in particular I'm working on. I have written a children's book that I'm fine tuning (thanks for the help, Mom!), but I don't have any ideas for a larger project. Just keep in mind most of these will probably reflect my favorite genres -- young adult and fantasy. Here's the link if you're interested: megtalbot.blogspot.com. Happy reading!

October kick-off...

I feel like we had so much fun this weekend -- it was like a month's worth in one weekend. Guess what we did! I'm sure you guessed right -- we went to the zoo. But it was family night for zoo members and all the rides and the Fin and Flippers Show was free!



We had lots of fun in the short hour we went. We went to the show first; Drew loved the sea lions jumping out of the water and making loud noises. Then Drew and I took a ride on the carousel and we finished with a ride on the tram.

We've been on the carousel before, but last time Drew and I rode a stationary elephant, so I thought it would be fun to put him on one that moved. However, he got too scared to do it with me just holding on to him, so I practically broke the poor wooden zebra and climbed on.

Then we went to our friends's house (Katrina and Jordan) to watch the USU/BYU game, although I have to admit I didn't see a minute of it. We had a barbecue and then I had way too much fun with the girls to venture into the guy zone in the living room. We tried to laugh hard enough to get Keri into labor, but no such luck!

I really miss Utah, especially as we watched General Conference this weekend and saw the beautiful mountains behind Salt Lake City. But I have to admit, I don't miss it nearly as much as I thought, and I know it's because I have some really awesome friends. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'm so glad we're all dental wives together!! From left, Leanne, JQ, Katrina, Keri and me (we're missing our friend Lindsay, but she just had a little baby a few weeks ago, so she probably had better things to do than hang out till the middle of the night with us).

PS - I got my stitches removed on Monday and my finger feels SO much better. It looks like I've been practicing for a gruesome Halloween, but I can finally type again! I also got a sewing project done today. :) So happy to be off the disabled list...