the geekiest halloween

 

If you've talked to us recently, you've probably rolled your eyes as we've tried to convince you that there's a Nickelodeon cartoon you really should watch—Avatar: The Last Airbender. NOT the blue-people Avatar (although the color of our costumes might mislead you). And NOT the Shyamalan movie (I'll never get those 2 hours of my life back). The cartoon is just a fabulous story about interesting characters, even if you think its medium is suspect.

And if you haven't talked to us recently, roll your eyes right now because I'm about to tell you to watch it.

(Any of you netflixers can watch it on instant play. And if you don't have netflix, come to my house and I'll watch it with you. Seriously. I've made rice krispie treats for friends who have taken me up on this.)

Anyway, we joked that we should dress up baby girl as the show's main character for Halloween. And then her still-bald head and my sister's power of suggestion convinced us that the idea was no joke:

She turned out to be the cutest little Aang. The only thing missing from her costume: teeth.

Christopher dressed up as what you might think is a giant, cheesy, anime monster. But when you watch the show, you'll be so invested in the characters that this will be awesome. Plus, it will probably remind you of us.

I wasn't sure at first about wearing a Halloween costume that a larper might use on any normal weekday. But when I realized I could be the moon princess, I pulled out my blue shoes. 

We had fun this Halloween. And we're well on our way to geekifying our daughter. Please go watch our favorite cartoon, or we might just let her unleash some wicked airbending moves on you.

little help?

We need to move. We thought we would stay put for a few years. But every year, we seem to contract amnesia about how much we hate packing up all our books. This time, we're looking for somewhere cheaper and closer to Christopher's work—we're gonna get these student loans paid off.

But finding an apartment is harder than I thought, especially since we're trying to do it on the cheap. Yesterday, I went to look at a promising option—tiled bathroom, lovely neighborhood. But I didn't feel good the baby being on the floor there. And it had this awkward-looking fireplace. One of the stones just below the mantel was cut in the shape of a wolf, howling at the moon.






I know you get what you pay for and this apartment was seriously cheap. But I just feel like I shouldn't live in a place where somebody thought a howling-coyote fireplace was a good idea.

So do any of you Utahn readers know of a good place to rent?

 

We're looking for a 1-bedroom (or 2) apartment or basement with a washer/dryer (or at least access to one), as well as a place to store our two bikes. Somewhere north of Draper and south of Salt Lake. Maybe Murray?

I love our place now and I'm dreading the process of gathering all our things and leaving. Kind of nice to know that this little girl will be happy wherever we end up.

oh, dear. am i turning into one of those people?

You know the kind. They only blog about their kids and how adorable and perfect they are? 

Sure, our baby girl spits up when we're going somewhere, and she screams when we wipe her snotty nose, and her poop is gross. But I can see how I might forget all that when I'm blogging. I forget it in real life all the time because she's so cute that I almost can't stand it:

we love our farmer. you should too.

When I went to our veggie pickup today, I passed on basil and peppers, since we've already had so many all summer. So Jill asked me if I wanted broccoli instead. I said yes, she left for a second, walked back to the garden, and cut some for me. It's not even my favorite vegetable, but I'm excited to cook up the freshest broccoli I've ever eaten.

Our CSA is another casualty of summer's end. We only have one more pickup. I'm excited enough for it to start again that we've already ordered our farm share for next year.

If you do the same before October 15th, you can get next year's veggies for 20% off. I highly recommend it: getting all those veggies cut our food budget in half this summer (which is weird, right? I didn't think we ate that many vegetables), we tried things we never would have bought on our own, and when we weren't sure how to prepare something, we just checked the Bells' blog for a recipe using that week's pickings.

Click here for an explanation of the discount. Click here to place an order. And click here to see a picture of one of the Bells' adorable kids who entertained my baby while I waited for my broccoli.