Fall is here!

It's my favorite season of the year, and after the shortest summer ever in history (or that's what it seems like), fall is back! And here's how I know:

1) The weather is so beautiful! With lows in the 40's and highs in the 70's, I don't know if you can beat that. Can it just stay this way for another six months? I would say year-round, but I do like some snow and summer weather (some of the time).

2) Fall decorations are up - I've got one on my front door but plan to expand today. Don't worry, they're just fall decorations and not Halloween....yet! I'll try to hold off until Oct 1st for those. :)

3) Traffic has quadrupled in the Provo/Orem area - thanks BYU and UVU students!

4) No more good parking spots in my apartment complex

5) Forget logging onto any BYU website. Can you say RouteY overload?? All I want to do is check the football schedule...

6) ....and speaking of that, college football is back! We missed BYU's opener since we were down by the Grand Canyon in the middle of nowhere, but you better believe we'll be catching as many of the remaining games as possible.

7) Haunted house billboards are back! We didn't go to a good haunted house last year, so I'm determined to make it this year. It could be our last Halloween here (who knows!) and with the best haunted houses in the nation, we can't miss it!

8) Back to school shopping time! For those of you out there who think I don't need another excuse for shopping since I do it all the time, think again! I hadn't been shopping since May - 3 months! Really, I don't shop that much. And when I do, I really try to get the good deals. In AZ this weekend my friend Sara and I spent a few hours at Name Brand Exchange - yeah, at one store! Anyways, for a whopping low price of $69 I got three pairs of jeans (all Buckle and Express jeans) and two shirts! I forget what good deals you can get there. It's totally worth the price of plan tickets! (But if they wanted to open a location here in Provo, I wouldn't complain!) Disclaimer: this really wasn't back to school shopping. I'm done with school! It was more "I'm in Arizona" shopping. But since it's back to school time, we'll count it!

9) The leaves are about to start changing colors. It hasn't happened yet, but when it does it will be georgeous. We hope to make it up to Sundance again this year to see the beautiful autumn colors. I didn't realize how pretty it was until we took Jack's brother, Dar, and his wife, Amanda, up there last fall. Maybe some mountain biking up there? That would be so pretty! We'll see...

10) The stores (Rodworks, Tai Pan Trading, etc.) have all the cute Halloween decorations again. And I haven't even been to any to see them yet! I haven't been to either of these stores in months, either. But with more time off now I hope to go soon.

11) I was going to stop at 10, but then I remembered! Fall TV season is back! With "The Hills" and "One Tree Hill," not to mention football games, it's good I have Fridays off or I'd be way overloaded! "Lost" isn't back until 2009, but we're getting closer!

I love this time of year - all leading up to Christmas! Christmas will be a little different this year since we're taking a trip and won't be going home, but it's all good. Yesterday at work I was sitting in a meeting feeling pretty stressed. I was only there at work two days this week, and it was like the work just wouldn't end! I was there until almost 7pm last night. Anyways, I was sitting in the meeting and all of the sudden starting thinking about how it's fall and the holidays are coming, and it totally made me happy. It's a great time of year!