Friday, November 12, 2010

Halloween

I absolutely LOVE Halloween!  Ashley came home early on Saturday so we had to get busy fixing our costumes.  My costume idea didn't work out so I had to dress up as the easy-to-do scarecrow.  Ashley found all this neat stuff on the Progressive Insurance website so she decided to be "Flo" and she made a great one!  We got all dressed up and headed to the church Halloween party! 
Here we are in front of the cute display in front of the hosts house.

 Me and Allan-he wouldn't dress up this year so our couple's picture looks like he's married to a country bumpkin!

I LOVED my sweet friend, Debbie's costume!  She had lost her dog!!!  What a hoot that was!

Ashley with some of our church teens-Corey-the nerd, Kelsey-the nurse, and Kameron-the pirate.

The church witches-Pat & Mickie were such funny witches.  Both their husbands came as vampires-pretty funny.


Simone is from Germany and she came as this famous German cartoon character, Pumuckl.  Brandon was a very impressive Captain Jack Sparrow.

Clark, our host, kept busy cooking the hotdogs all evening.   Allan was his assistant.

The girls-Rock Star Erin, Samantha the M&M and also our hostess, Jaclyn as Miss Hickville and Lori as Mr. Hickville.

 We had some pretty impressive pumpkin carvers.

More pumpkins! 


 After it got good and dark, we went on a hayride.  So much fun but of course there were people hiding along the way that jumped out and scared us!  

 Roger as one of the local men in our community!  He REALLY looks like him! hahaha  So, so funny!  Fieriel was a princess and Kameron was a pirate.


 Group shot of all the ones in costume-we all had a great time!

Sunday we went to church and out to eat at our usual place-Molina's.  Before Ashley left we had to take our traditional pics in front of the tree!
 Me and my girl!  I love her so much and always enjoy the fun times we have together. 




Daddy and daughter
 Ashley is such a beautiful girl!  I thank God for her!!





















Monday, October 25, 2010

Another GREAT Weekend!



 
 Wednesday evening as we were getting ready to leave for supper before going to church, this guy shows up and surprises us!  We did not know he was coming home for fall break.  I was so excited and really struggling to hold back my happy tears!  We hadn't seen Colby in several months so we were SUPER happy he was home. 


 Colby was bonding with Oreo...finally.  It takes Oreo a little while to be friendly with the kids when they first come home each time.

Friday night, we went to Game Night at church.  This was to celebrate the October birthdays and anniversaries.
 I made stromboli and it was GREAT!  I actually made two big loaves of it and only came home with a couple of small slices.  There is always such great food at our church fellowships.  Church ladies just know how to cook!
 I also made a pan of brownies!  I've discovered Betty Crocker ( I think it's Betty's mix) Dark Chocolate brownie mix!  You MUST try it!  I usually add a cup of chopped pecans, but since Colby doesn't like nuts, I decided to put peanut butter chips in instead.  WONDERFUL!! 
 After the food, comes the games!  There were two groups playing dominoes.  We had a large group playing Phase 10 and it got ugly!  I thought we were going to have to stop the game and pray for a couple of people! They get ruthless with those 'skip' cards.
 We got home in time to see the TEXAS RANGERS big win over the New York Yankees!  So proud of this team and excited about their first trip to the World Series. 
 All weekend we had been battling stopped up drains.  We were having to limit how much water we ran in order to keep it from backing up in the toilets and bathtubs.  Saturday morning though, it all came to a halt.  Water was NOT going anywhere but back up in the drains.  Allan began to try to unstop it by 'snaking' out the drain.  No. Such. Luck  He dug this deep hole right by the front door and tried going at it that way.  Again...it's not working.  Then the rain and storms started so he had to take a break.  Later, he tried again and still nothing was moving so he gave up for the night.  It is so hard to keep a house going with no water! 
 After church Sunday morning, we ate at our usual place-Molina's.  We had a great lunch with church friends and family.  My parents got away before I could get their pics.
                     This is Stevie, who takes GREAT care of us at Molina's!  We love her!
                     We came home and took our usual 'tree' pictures before changing out of our church clothes. 


Me and Oreo!

I am so grateful for another great weekend with one of my kids.  I just need them both here at the same time!
I hope everyone had a great weekend also.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I need to get moving!

Once again I 'think' I'm going to start exercising.  Right now, I'm just 'thinking' about it.  I have several great workout videos to choose from.  Well, I imagine they're all great ones but only if you do actually use them.  I'm trying to decide just which one I should start with.


 I really love Juilanne's video. It looks fairly easy for a beginner like me.  So far, all I've done is just watch it while I'm eating a bag of kettle corn.  I guess I'll never look like her unless I put down the popcorn and actually participate in the video.  If I'm being honest, even if I do put down the kettle corn, I will NEVER look like her!


 I also have this video, which features my FAVORITE on Dancing with the Stars-Maksim Chmerkovskiy or Maks for short.  I have actually done part of this one before.  Maks makes it really hard to stay focused on the dancing and you girls all know why!

 I don't actually own this video and I'm definitely smart enough to know that I should never, ever try this one at all.  Jillian's goal is to KILL YOU or make you wish you were dead.  I'm pretty sure that is what would happen to me if I should ever lose my mind and even think I might can get through the first five minutes of her workout.  Not. Happenin.

I think this one is my best bet for any kind of success.  By success, I mean, still alive at the end of the workout.  I do love Richard's quirkiness and his great way of motivating people. Yes, he is a bit weird but I still like him. The music is great on this one too!  Also, I'm not intimidated by the typical skinny models that most other exercise videos tend to have as participants.   

I'll let you know later (after I finish  off this Snickers bar) which video I ended up using.  If you don't hear from me again, you will know that it was Jillian and her 30 Day Shred, which actually finished me off in the first five minutes. Wish me luck!

Monday, October 18, 2010

Great Weekend!

This is all the candidates after the crowning.  There were so many pretty dresses and purple seemed to be the color of choice for quite a few girls.   

 Ashley with Jacey & Kelsey.  So prettayyyy!  These girls have accomplished so much during their high school years. I am very proud of both of them!

 Saturday morning, after breakfast, we headed out to do some shopping.  I have never been to Goodwill Store to do actual shopping, but I do make several donations a year when I clean out closets.  Anyway, we did drop off a donation of old clothing and then went in to 'shop'.  We were mainly looking for ideas for Halloween costumes for the church party in a couple of weeks.
 After not having any luck at all, we were at the back of the store where the 'high end' attire is kept and we came across this little jewel of a jumpsuit.  I could totally be CHER for Halloween!  After much thought, well not really much thought at all, I decided this was not proper to wear to a church function.  Well, it really isn't proper to wear ANYWHERE! haha  We had fun wondering WHO had actually wore this; WHERE they had worn it; and WHY they had worn it!  Too funny!!
 Ashley found this little number which screams 80's BRIDESMAID DRESS!  Those were the biggest sleeves I've ever seen!  We didn't find anything suitable for either of us so we were on to do more shopping.  We later did decide on costumes for both of us but we're not telling yet what they will be. You'll have to keep checking back to see what we came up with.
 Me and Ashley

Sunday was our normal routine.  Ashley helped me teach my 2 & 3 year old Bible Class and they were so precious!  After church, we went to our usual Sunday dinner place-Molina's!  Food was great, as usual! 
I always love my weekends with my girl and can't wait until she comes home the next time.  I'm WAY past due a visit with my favorite boy though.  Hopefully in the next week or so we will get a visit from him also!
Me and my GREAT kids!
I hope you all had a great weekend too!

Thursday, September 23, 2010

5 Random Question Friday

Just Me and My Life

I decided to play along with Beth this Friday for her 5 Random Question Friday blog.

1. What's your "comfort food"?


This one is a no-brainer for sure! It definitely is CHOCOLATE. I'm not picky either about what form it's in...whether it's
a snickers bar...

or
brownies


or
chocolate cheesecake



Chocolate is definitely MY comfort food!

2.What is one thing that is on yo
ur mind right now?

I'm working frantically to get the church directories printed and bound before Sunday. Frantically is putting it mildly.


3.What's the best advice you've ever received?

Stay close to God...best advice ever! When you feel far from God, remember, He is not the one who moved!
4.If you found $10 today, what would you do with it?

I would probably make it last for a week or more for my (almost) daily Sonic Happy Hour run.


5. What is your least favorite thing to clean in your house?

It would definitely be the litter box!
I love these guys to pieces but I hate to clean up after them. Oreo's mother DIDN'T teach him proper bathroom manners before he left her and made us his family. Hershey has much better bathroom manners.


Hershey

Oreo

Link up with Beth and share your answers with us!