All the World is a Stage

Long story, but the pictures I was going to post today are not available, so I decided to post past pictures of costumes and pumpkins for your amusement. One of my favorite things is to see all of the pictures posted on Facebook around Halloween. I promise there will be pictures of Claire next time! Happy Halloween!

An awful lot of running

Halloween is coming up, and Lisa has been getting into the spirit by decorating our windows with some fun silhouettes. She did not tell me about them until I walked home one day and saw our windows staring at me.

In the mornings, though, the monsters are outside trying to get in.

Saturday night we enjoyed a fun couples Halloween party hosted by some friends in our ward. Some of the guests included Bo Peep and her sheep, a farmer and a cow (Lisa’s pregnant friend made an outfit that included udders over her tummy and the farmer had manure stains on his pants, very clever) Puppet and puppeteer, princess and knight, Jack and Jill (after they fell down the hill, complete with dented pail). Lisa and I dressed up as Amy and The Doctor. Another Doctor and River Song showed up as well. (watch Lisa’s facebook for pictures).

We went as far as we reasonably could with our costumes. Lisa even died her hair (with Kool-Aid) to get her red-head look. 

Lisa also had fun trimming and shaping my hair to get our best impression of The Doctor. We couldn't imitate any one actor, so we dug through my closet and got a few cheap extras to create a new Doctor (somewhere between David Tenant and Matt Smith). She also made a sonic screwdriver from a few highlighters and paint.

The party included a photo scavenger hunt that took us all over Norman. I quickly got carsick with our aggressive driver, but we had a great time. Here are a few of the items we had to find/do.

Claire has been learning new things from us and from her little friends. She learned to say “uh oh” from a friend and she is learning to play the piano from Lisa.

One day Claire was wandering around with her doll and tried to lift it up over her head to give it a shoulder ride like I do with her. We helped her get the arms and legs of the doll sorted and she loved giving it a shoulder ride around the house.

All is well in Norman. It has cooled down a bit which makes walking to school much more comfortable. School is busy. I feel like The Doctor trying to be a space and time traveler with grading past assignments, taking care of current deadlines, and planning for my next lesson and upcoming tests and running back and forth between north and south campuses and the apartment. 

Happy Halloween!

Love,

The Hebdons

Ward Boundaries

We got new ward boundaries! We are still in the same ward, but we will have to attend church in a different building and at a different time, 12:30pm. Some of our friends will be in different wards now. Hopefully we can keep in contact with them since they’re such wonderful people.

I have just been embracing the fall weather and Halloween this month. I had to make a playlist that included many musicals and soundtracks that I felt were appropriate for this spooky time of year: Phantom of the Opera, the third Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Coraline, Wicked, Memoirs of a Geisha, the first Twilight, and Willy Wonka.

Claire: I have a strong suspicion that she is teething again; runny nose, sneezing, fever, but still has energy to go about her normal tasks. She’s got waving down and often claps to celebrate any success. I think she understands me when I ask her to throw something away, to sit down, or to watch out when I open the oven or close a door. She loves to draw with crayons, pencils and yes even with red pens when Dad is correcting quizzes. I guess she sees me underlining or writing a lot, and wants to do it too. I apologize that some of the pictures aren’t very clear because fingerprints got on the lens. There’s a picture of our couch because above it we now have our lovely temple picture hung. Our trailer was not meant to have a picture that big in it, so it’s nice to finally have it out of storage and on the wall.

Conference

I hope everyone had an enjoyable General Conference weekend! Some of my favorite talks include the one by Brother Ulisses Soares of the Seventy on meekness, Elder M. Russell Ballard’s encouraged me to replace fear with faith when I approach my new Visiting Teaching sisters, and Elder Quentin L. Cook’s talk on avoiding bondage of any kind. And I liked how Elder Russell M. Nelson gave me a new perspective in that death is only premature for those who are not prepared to meet God. Claire fell asleep in Skyler’s arms during one of the sessions and Skyler loved it!

Claire report: Claire is a great helper when I do the laundry. If I give her the chance she will help put the clothes in the washer, put the soap in, and later put the dryer sheet in the dryer. She attended a Dr. Who party with me and some friends at the library this last weekend. All age groups were there, so we didn’t feel out of place, and enjoyed being around other Dr. Who fans (there are some pictures on Facebook). We have a picture of Claire coloring because she holds all writing utensils perfectly in her right or left hand, and we never taught her how to do it! Sometimes she’ll take our car keys and stand on her tippy toes as she tries to use them on a door knob. She tends to like to carry around a stuffed animal or doll with a blanket.