Happy Halloween!!!

...have a fun and safe Halloween! I hope this makes you laugh as hard as it made me!!!

How Pumpkin Pies Are Made:

PB & Halloween Candy...

...fellow blogger Jen won this awesome Snickers pack thingie, not sure what you call it but basically she got all this decor for her house PLUS Snickers to hand out on Halloween. The coolest part? She got some of the Peanut Butter Snickers that aren't even on the market yet to hand out-how cool is that?!? Well, she won but turns out she'll be spending her Halloween in FL so she was looking for someone to take the package off her hands. I told her she had me at peanut butter and how can I help out?

She gave me all the decor and candy. All I had to do was decorate the house, snap a few pics and hand out the candy on Halloween. Here's the whole house. The front door...the witch is mine but she fell down the other day and lost her nose-how sad!

Per Matt's request, I added in the fake spiders.

Our pumpkins and some more decor.

At first, Matt was TOTALLY not into this at all but by the time we put the big sign up (which says, "It's no trick. Here's the only house you can get this new treat"), he was telling ME where to put it because he was going to put the strobe light here and the fog machine there (the light and fog machine came with the package too!) and then he'd run out from under the carport and scare the kids. I'll be sure to post pictures on Monday from Halloween night with what we come up with.

Matt agreed to let me leave the sign up all week but I'm a little nervous. I've seen quite a few people reading it when they walk by so I have a feeling that our house is going to be CRAZY on Halloween night! Thanks Jen for the opportunity! I'm pretty excited!!!

Painted Pottery Date!!!

...Sunday afternoon I headed over to Baked Goods off Gravois. I met Angie and Nick there. She had decided to make reindeer plates with Nick's hands and feet to give to the grandmas for Christmas. We were excited to get started...a little too excited-we put Nick's handprints in the wrong spot!!! Never fear, we "erased" it and got it right. Here's Ang drying the paint so we could scrap it off....ugh, nails on a chalk board sound!
Nick, as always, was such a good boy! I held him most of the time and he just drank his bottle and watched his momma doing all the work...typical guy!

Ang's putting on the final touches! It's upside down and no eyes yet but you get the idea. I think it turned out great!!!

It was a fun afternoon and a good time to hang out with some good friends. Now we have to patiently wait 10 days to see the final product!!!

"Baby, are you on my pumper???"

...Saturday night, Heidi had us all over for a spa night. It...was...AWESOME!!! Angie, Aimee, Jenn and myself were all in need of a little pampering and girl talk and we definitely got pampered and got in some good girl talk too! We each took turns getting a hand treatment so we all visited and caught up during this time. Aimee walked the Lewis and Clark half-marathon a few weeks ago. I got her a 13.1 sticker for her car that she has YET to put on the window. I told her she has until Tuesday...or else!!! Aimee got to play with Baby Nick and he worked up an appetite!
After hand treatments, we moved to the dining room and started our facials. Don't these girls look great??? They were just trying to get rid of the layer of "cornflakes!"

After facials, Trey came and made an appearance. He shared his blue truck with Nick and gave him hugs and kisses. Heidi took away his air pump and when Trey realized this, he looked at Nick and said, "Baby, are you on my pumper?" Us ladies broke out into hysterics when he said that!!!

After we contained our laughter, we moved on to pedicures. YAH!!! And yes, I tagged each of our feet in this picture on FB just for Jenn!

After our facials, we had a moment of relaxation...Nick got REALLY relaxed, can you tell?

So thanks for having us over Heidi! It was definitely a night of pure relaxation and good times. I'm so glad I have such great bloggy friends!

Red...

...no, it's not my signature color-I would never turn my back on Mr. Orange! But it is one of my favorite new movies!!! Photo from here.

This would not be my typical movie pic but Matt called me on Friday afternoon and said, "Let's do dinner and a movie." Sweet! We headed over to our favorite Chinese restaurant, placed our order then walked to the Dollar Store to stock up on candy and bottled soda for the movie. Then we headed to the movie theater where we were like 10 minutes late but didn't miss any of the movie, just previews. It was seriously perfect timing.

Anyways, this is a great movie for both guys and gals. Good action and lots of blowing stuff up for the men and, of course, the romance and drama for the ladies. There was one really sad part but I won't give it away. At one point, the FBI comes to this guy's house and he meets his wife and kids there. The wife didn't ever have a speaking role but you could totally tell by the look on her face she was pissed. Matt and I both looked at each other at the same time to make a comment, it was funny. So if you're looking for a date night movie, pick "Red"...you and your man (or woman) will love it!

What??? It's Your Baby Shower!!!

...the Wednesday before I went to Florida, we had a baby shower at work for Paula. We have given up on suprising people for their baby showers because it's the only party you ever get at work...no wedding shower, no birthday (well we do a general birthday celebration once a month), no second child shower...you get first child shower and a going away party when you leave and that's it. We decided that if you're prego with baby #1 and we call you into the conference room unexpectedly then it's pretty obvious what's going on.

Everyone was asked to bring a snack...however, we didn't coordinate well and ended up with like 5 different desserts at 3pm in the afternoon-hello afternoon sugar rush! I brought Chocolate Dream Bars and they were a huge hit! They were pretty yum if I do say so myself and very easy to make....just time consuming because it's like 4 different steps and you have to let each layer set. Lucky Matt got to eat all the leftovers by himself because I got on the road to Florida...geez, I'm such a good wife! LOL

Around lunchtime, my boss and I decided to start getting the conference room ready for the shower. What does that include? Oh cleaning off counter space for the desserts and cleaning the dry erase boards...easy, right? Um no! We have like 6 dry erase boards that hadn't been erased, some in almost six months so what started off as an easy task ended up being a search for cleaner to get the board sparkling clean. Search equaled success which equaled clean dry erase board which equaled an invitation to my creative side!

Paula's cube is on the opposite end of my boss' and I in the office. Sometimes we'll be discussing things and Paula will hear her name so she'll come walking down the office saying, "What?" I had this great idea to channel my inner artist and I was really proud of that drawing! The first time around Paula looked like an R so I made her be walking in the second round. No, Paula doesn't have the neck of a giraffe but when I went to redo it, my boss was laughing so hard and told me not to touch it so this was the final product.
The boards slide so we had the first drawing covered and made a big to-do about revealing it then we slid that board and revealed ANOTHER board that said, "It's Your Baby Shower!!!" I thought our presentation was awesome and we explained that we were just "going green" on the decor! OH! And we cleaned the board promptly after the shower ended! Surprise, surprise! I made Paula a diaper cake which I put on the food table. My boss declared that she would NOT be eating any part of the diaper cake. In the lower right corner is part of the chocolate dream bars I made. Paula kept calling the dessert "Fatman's Delight," I like that name better so I might start calling it that.

Here's Paula with some clothes she got for little Baby Aubrey (P-let me know if I spelled that right). One more month and she'll get to meet her daughter!

I really feel as though I'm benefitting from Paula's showers because she keeps bringing all the left over cakes to work-YUM!!! Good luck Paula, only one more month to go!

Florida Day 2, Part 2: The Wedding...

...we made it to the wedding just in the nick of time! WHEW! It was a gorgeous day and just a really awesome setting. Here's Beth being walked down the aisle by her dad. I just love him!
Beth's sister, Jess, just had a baby maybe 5-6 weeks ago. Little baby Hannah came down with something right before the trip so they weren't able to come. After Beth's dad gave her away, he pulled out his phone and called Jess. Beth talked to her then the best man held the phone while it was on speaker so that Jess could hear the ceremony. What a sweet idea!

The ceremony was pretty short and at the end, Casey started pointing to the water because there was a shark!!! I snapped a pic but I'll put that in another post. Here they are...Mr. and Mrs. Luttrell!

This is all of Beth's family minus her sister Jess

Me with the happy bride at the end of the night (can you tell I got some sun?)

It was a beautiful ceremony and another good night of visiting with friends. I jumped in and helped cut the cake and took 500 pictures with her mom's camera. I laughed because I think I'm the designated cake cutter for everyone's weddings. I was also really excited to take pictures for her mom because she's got a really cool camera and it freed her up to be able to visit. I just know that next time I should wear leggings under my dress so that I don't have to worry about bending over to take a picture and showing my hinney to the world! At the end of the night, I was the DD to drive Casey and Beth to their hotel. It was the only time I got with them all weekend because she was so busy being the beautiful bride so I was glad to take them back and get to visit for a bit.

Congrats Beth and Casey! I wish you a long life of happiness and be sure to use my wedding gift...wink, wink!

Florida Day 2, Part 1...

...on Saturday (Day 2), I again let my internal alarm clock wake me up around 6:30. I sat on the deck chatting with our roomie Jay for awhile and then we all decided to go do a little shopping. The shopping area had a little pier so here's a pick of Ash, Garet, Jess and I on the pier...if you can't tell, it was early and chilly!
One shop had a cage full of hermit crabs, I kind of felt bad for them because they were all climbing all over each other and trying to escape like this little guy.

After shopping, we decided to soak up some more rays (FYI-I came back burnt to a crisp and that was the first thing Matt said to me when I got out of the car). We did find this seashell with some tar on it from the oil spill. I think there were other tar balls on the beach but I wasn't touching them because they also looked like do-do.

I'm such a nerd and took Beth's wedding invitation to the beach with me and tried to take some creative shots. This one was my fave.

After sun and beach, we had lunch at Peg Leg Pete's (yummy grouper sandwich!) then all had to get ready VERY quickly for the wedding. We started the trek to the wedding (a half mile walk down the beach!), I was huffing and puffing and working up a sweat. This guy, however, never made it to the wedding...

Tomorrow is the post you've all been waiting for...THE WEDDING!

Florida Day 1, Part 2...

...After my nice long walk on the beach last Friday morning, I headed back to the condo and we got ready for the beach! First up, here's a view from our fourth floor room.
Baby G! He wasn't so sure of the waves in the ocean, I don't think he liked the sinking feeling but then again who does? We got some great shots on him on the beach. He was such a good little one on the trip. He just went with the flow and was happy as could be.

I was trying to be creative and created my footprint in the sand with seashell toenails!

After a long day on the beach (seriously, we didn't do anything else besides the beach on Friday-it was fab), we headed to Beth's parents' condo where they hosted dinner for all the guests that came into town. Her work friends brought 7 Layer Dip, some sort of bacon dip and another dip with saurerkraut-they were yummy! I got to meet her SIL for the first time and she was really nice and very helpful. Here's Mr. Hicks manning the grill before dinner. Once dinner was done and we all stood around visiting, I got to catch up with him. He said the prayer at our wedding reception for dinner and he's such a sweet man. He even made me cry (in a good way) and I got a good daddy hug from him. Love you Mr. Hicks!

The Cape Girls, L to R: Me, Ashley, Beth, Jess and Christina

To summarize...day 1=amazing! Nice long walk on the beach, laying on the beach all day then visiting with old and new friends all night, does it get any better than that?

Florida Day 1, Part 1: My AM Walk...

...late Thursday night around 11ish after a lot of driving, a little drama and tons of laughs we finally made it to Florida. Let me start off by saying that little two year old Garet was AWESOME on the 10+ ride down. He got upset once in which we learned that rolling down the window made him happy just like with our dogs! We didn't get to bed until 2am and my silly internal alarm clock had me up at 6:30am!?! I decided to take advantage of it and take an early morning walk on the beach. So let's just say that before 8:30am, I had already taken 41 pictures but I'm only going to share 5 right now.

My first pic of the trip and the early morning sunrise!
Mr. Crab Up Close and Personal!

Here I am on my morning walk, GOOD MORNING FLORIDA!!!

Being creative, my ring in the sand (stole this idea from Angie D.'s)

White sandy beaches!!!

I'm so glad I got up early and got a nice, long walk in. FYI-walking 2 miles on sand is really HARD! It was a great start to a fun trip!!!

FYI: This is my 500th post!

Monday, Monday...

...Good Monday Morning Everyone! I am either sleeping in right now in my own bed snuggled up with the pups or I am sleeping in right now in my bed at my mom's house, getting ready to get up and make the last 2.5 hour trek back home from Florida! Either way, I knew I wouldn't be posting about the trip yet so I thought I'd share this funny list with you. I got it as a forward and I NEVER pass those things along but I thought this one was hilarious. So enjoy and tune in tomorrow for a Florida recap!

Truths For Mature Humans
1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.
14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.
18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!
21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.
22. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
23. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!
24. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important. (Ladies.....Quit Laughing.)

Happy Monday!

Sweet Saturday...

...Good morning all! Hopefully while this is posting, I'm sleeping in at the condo in Florida and will be spending my day on the beach...hopefully!

Saturday after our pumpking pickin' good time, Matt and I headed to the Spiritual Center in Clayton. Aimee had told me about this place and we'd actually planned a girls day out there but it didn't end up working out. I told Matt that I would really love to go check it out because it seemed really interesting.

I knew before we went that you had to take your shoes off to go inside. Well, Saturday ended up being a gorgeous and HOT day so I was wearing sandals. OCD Alyssa took a pair of socks so when I took my sandals off outside, I slipped my socks on and headed in. Here's a pic of the sign from outside.
It was really neat, the guy was expecting us so we visited with him for a little while. I was most interested in seeing St. Therese so he told us about the miracles she had performed and showed us pictures of evidence. I took a picture of her but I'm not posting it because I'm not sure if I can. He didn't say no photography and there weren't any signs that said no photography but I'm not risking it.

Then he took a tour with his family that was in town while Matt and I perrused around and read. Unfortunately, we were running late and short on time so we didn't get to see the whole place. I will be in the area a few times in the next couple months so I plan on stopping in and getting an actual tour. If you're ever around the area, it's very interesting and unique.

Afterwards, we decided to grab some din-din and happened to run onto Delmar!!! I love this neck of the woods!!! Matt refused Cheese-ology-boo!!! But I compromised and told him that as long as we could get Fro Yo for dessert, he could pick dinner. His choice?....

Blueberry Hill!!! We've been there before and I thought I didn't like it but couldn't remember why. Once I looked at the menu, I remembered-not a large selection! I ended up getting a grilled cheese sandwich and baked potato soup. Nothing too exciting, it was good but not fab. Matt ordered the Special Sandwich (that's the name of it), chips, fries and baked potatoe soap...he had leftovers go figure! We also ordered wings for an appetizer (umm...he hadn't eaten lunch and I'd eaten at 11am) which he ordered dry with the mild sauce on the side. After two years of marriage and two years of dating (that's four total if you're counting), he's FINALLY remembering what I like and dislike!

One thing to say about this place though...the service was FABULOUS!!! I'd been having some really crappy service lately, including a waitress who spilled an entire soda on me (I mean sopping wet pants from mid-thigh to mid-shin), said she sucked at life and then didn't even offer us a free appetizer or anything (even after we informed the manager because she would NEVER come back to our table because she was hiding from us)...yeah, so I was pretty stoked when my water glass was never completely empty, our plates were cleared almost immediately and no one spilled anything on me!

After dinner, we crossed the street to stop at Fro Yo and O.M.G! I was in HEAVEN!!! I was looking at all the yogurt choices when I saw Matt pointing to one, Reese's Peanut Butter....ahhh!!!! I filled my cup up then went to the topping bar...hello chopping up Reese's, cookie dough, Heath bars and sweet chocolately syrup!!! Needless to say, I was a happy, and quiet camper, on the ride home as I enjoyed my delicious concoction from Fro Yo. Matt was too stuffed from dinner (imagine that!) and he REALLY missed out.

It was a fun and different afternoon, something we normally wouldn't do but it was nice because we were together. I'll miss him this weekend but it'll be a nice time with the girls and a chance to hopefully relax. Okay, I'd better get up and start my day...I'm thinking a long walk on the beach followed by beach time with the girls and G-man! I'm sure I'll have TONS of pictures to post next week. Enjoy your weekend everyone!!!

Pumpkin Pickin'...

...Saturday was a long, fun day! I got up and ran a little. Boy-its weird to go from running 20+ miles to less than 5 but my body needs to recover so I just need to deal with it. So after my run, I went to work so I could take a half day today and head to FLORIDA for Beth's wedding. I got off work at 1 and stopped by the nursery (for trees, not babies) to help Matt pick pumpkins.

Here he's driving us out to the pumpkin patch...
Here's me riding the wagon out, kinda...

Everyone always post pictures of good pumpkins but the truth is, not all pumpkins are perfect. RIP Pretty Pumpkin...

Still just my point and shoot but I tried to get some pics of the pumpkins at different angles. Its really hard to take pics when it's so bright out that you can't even see the screen...

These little ones were my favorite because it had both orange and white on it!

We picked for at least 30+ minutes, the boys would cut the vines then I would put them on the wagon. The vines are kinda prickly when they're first cut!

Here was a little pumpkin trying to grow and you can see the buggie crawling on it...

Here's the fruits of our labor, over 80+ pumpkins!!! We took some to the stand to sell from the nursery but 70 of them are for a special event I have at work in a couple of weeks.

It may not be Eckert's or Rombach's but it was fun to get out in the field, get dirty and help out! Don't worry, we only brought 5 pumpkins home for our front porch!

Double Wedding Weekend...

...October 2nd was our weekend of double weddings. I was the DOC in Matt's cousin's wedding and Matt was a groomsman in his friend's wedding. Everything went surprisingly great! After dinner at Matt's cousins' wedding, I drove all the way from South City to North County because if my pretty paid $150 for a tux, I was definitely going to see him in it! He's such a good looking guy, isn't he? This is the only pic from that wedding because I left early to go home to meet Sherrie and he didn't want to be in charge of the camera. I was planning on wearing a dress that day but it was really chilly...I forgot how big my boobs are in this shirt-oops!
This was the grooms cake at Matt's cousin's wedding. He plays the guitar and is a big video gamer. They surprised him with it and he loved it!

The new Mr. and Mrs.!!!

The kiss! The great thing about being DOC is that I didn't have to stay in my seat. I hung out in the back and gave out programs/bubbles to late guests and got to take some really fantastic pictures.

Here's a G Fam shot (L to R): Grandma G, Star (Matt's mom), John (Matt's dad), Jan (Matt's aunt) and Paul (Matt's cousin)

A few thoughts/stories from each wedding:

*Jan made her own dress, I think it's fabulous. She's so talented and crafty!

*I walked up to Grandma G and she looked at me and said, "I don't remember who you are." I wasn't surprised, I'm pretty sure this is the first time she'd ever seen me without Matt so I wasn't offended.

*The only hitch with Sarah's (the cousin) wedding is that the florist forgot to send the mom flowers. No worries though, I just pulled three roses from the remembrance bouquet and no one noticed.

*The bartender got to the hall late so we didn't have as long to do last minute touches. There were four other people there plus the DJ (that looked 12) to help so while we were waiting, I looked at them and said, "When she gets here, we get in and get it done. You two-flowers, you-candles, you-wine, you-DJ, and I'll take care of everything else!" It worked like a charm and we were set and ready to go in no time flat!

*At the wedding hubs' was in...let's just say it was interesting. They were very...what's the nice word...particular about their RSVPs. His aunt and uncle, who is also the groom's Godfather, drove all the way from Texas but hadn't RSVPed. The bride and groom told them that they could come to the ceremony and then to the reception after dinner was served. The uncle offered to pay for their plate and the bride/groom still told him no. When I arrived at the reception, they were just beginning to serve dinner (I hadn't RSVPed since I knew I'd be at the other wedding). There was an entire empty table that the photographer and his girlfriend were seated at. I sat my stuff down there, was offered salad and said no thanks. I got up to walk around in between salad and dinner (it took FOREVER) and ended up seating with some friends chatting who had three empty spots at their table. Dinner was about to be served and I was asked if I wanted chicken or beef. I declined and got up for them to enjoy their dinner. As I was getting up, the photog came and found me and said, "I didn't know what you wanted to eat so I ordered you chicken." How sweet is he to come FIND me!!! I told him I wasn't eating and he was welcome to have it. I walked past the table later and I'm pretty sure he did eat it. Anyways, long story short (wait, it's already long!), there was no reason that the aunt and uncle couldn't have stayed for dinner since I was offered it THREE different times!

One more wedding and it's in Florida and then we're hanging up our wedding guests shoes for 2010!!! Congrats to both couples and thanks for asking us to be a part of your special day.