Monica and Matt

Today I headed out to see Monica and Matt's (not so new) house. They have been in it for almost a year, and in town even a bit longer, but I finally made it out where my good intentions planned to go months ago! It was a good afternoon. I got the grand tour of their gorgeous home, and had a nice catch up chat over lunch. I enjoyed getting to know Matt better, and meeting their dog Sam who I had to woo into liking me, but he napped on my shoulder at the close of the afternoon, so I had success :O) It's good to catch up with an old childhood pal :O).

Halloween "Boo"ffet

Tonight we had a family get together and ate some old favorites with new names-swamp, crusty boogers, tombstones, sliced bones, wrapped mummies, eyeballs, pumpkin guts, beatle juice and spooky sandwiches. I'd tell you the secret ingredients....but I wouldn't want to give you nightmares....
Holly's Graveyard-very cute, very delicious, but a little bit unsettling to see your name on a tombstone....so I ate it...

My witches' hat cookies....missing about ten steps, but still yummy....I'll use any excuse to buy a few oreos...I mean...hat brims :O)

Another 5K down....

....for breast cancer research :O). This morning Mom, Lois, Holly and I headed downtown to do the Dallas Susan G Komen.....it's well worth the walk.

Will work for pizza.....

My old teaching partner, Angie is starting up a floral design company. She's done quite a few weddings, and I go and help her with the weddings in town....because I love spending time around flowers :O). Last night I headed over, again, for another wedding bouquet/lapel flowers/coursage and center pieces extravaganza. We literally worked from the second I stepped out of the car until past midnight. She pays me with a pizza dinner each time, and the knowledge gained in invaluable. I now know flowers cost a fortune, can't be stored in just any old room, require a LOT of supplies, take HOURS to arrange just right, but smell and look fabulous! At the end of the evening I usually like to make something crazy with left over pieces, and this time I made a little 'scratch' pumpkin. The wedding is 'fall' and the flower girls are carrying these baby pumpkins down the aisle, they look a lot like this one, though we spend more time on theirs, you get the idea. It was fun .

I LOVE FALL!

I absolutely LOVE fall, there is NOTHING like it.....I'm in the best mood because the weather is so fabulous, and there are so many THINGS to do, see, experience, look forward to! I know it should be depressing to see the leaves change colors and fall off the tree (and have to be raked into leaf bags for HOURS on end)....but....I LOVE it all....even the raking! Even with kids going to the office because they are getting a LITTLE too comfortable to remember to be respectful, meetings from here through Christmas break almost nightly.....and another losing season for the Baylor Bears....it never fails to gear me up for the slide into the new year! I love it when you don't count the days by the number of days in a row it hits 100, and when you can turn the AC off (and maybe start paying back the loan sharks for the money you had to borrow to pay those electric bills this summer). I love the anticipation of the holidays.....I love it when it gets dark early, and football is on every Sunday so you have a reason to order, and eat pizza every week.....and the best part is you can wear a sweater to cover up the extra calories. I LOVE the State Fair, the Balloon Festival, The local Art Festivals and pumpkin patches. I love Halloween candy....high school football games on Friday...or at least the memory of the games and dances and friendships....I'm pretty sure I'm fond of the other seasons as well, but right now I can't remember why because I'm enjoy this season so much.

Scrapbooking

This evening I went out with a friend from work, Amber and we met up with some of her friends and scrapbooked. As you know, I like to scrapbook, but because I don't know any local scrapbookers, I usually do it solo...and it gets really dull....I just want to finish QUICKLY....and it's more of something to check off the to do than to enjoy DOING! Tonight....I really enjoyed it. I only did six pages in six hours, but I enjoyed my hobby...sometimes I forget it the rush that I started this because I like it. Page one of Hawaii!

Homecoming....

I think I pretty much just live to amuse myself most days....Today I went to Hobby Lobby to meet my friend Mary, who has a daughter who is getting married, and we picked out glass containers etc....but that's another story....for YEARS I've been promising her I'd make a mum for her kids for all their homecoming dances etc, and then every year the time gets away from both of us and her sons and daughters have ended up spending 75 bucks for the basics at the mum shop....so THIS year....we finally hit the right timing. Her son didn't care, he just wanted cheap.....he's a real doll, so just know...he works hard for his money but he's a guy, and his idea of a mum is a one time thing that then gets trashed. Anyway, I made Mary save all his old mums (he just wants to toss them), b/c I told her we could use the old parts....and we did. I didn't add anything that wasn't already on any of his other mums (if you guys were around in high school, you'd know my Mums are usually more elaborate than even this, I don't add this picture to impress you with craftiness, but rather the price). I even used the center off one of his old mums! It's a good thing he has a new girl friend every year...I used some of the letters from the last four girl friends, wouldn't you just DIE if you found that out?....but....for 10 bucks....he's got a mum....Did your high schools do mums (if you weren't at Pearce, if you were at Pearce, you KNOW we did!) If so, did you keep them? I still have all mine...I need to chunk them, I probaby have ten. We didn't just give mums for dates, we gave them to friends etc etc etc....and it wasn't just the one mum suckers, it was 2 and 3....OUTRAGEOUS....how easily manipulated society is ;o) It was fun though.....those cow bell noise in the hall :O)

Animal Update

What I appreciate about my animals is how 'helpful' they are. Before the shower I cleaned up and Lilly didn't like the pillow arrangment in the guest room, so she added a few personal touches. I bought a basket to hold my chocolate dipped fortune cookies and Muffin let me know it made the perfect cat bed and just really helped open my eyes to some alternative uses so I wouldn't get to just use it 'one time'. Unfortunately, she didn't rsvp to the shower so she didn't get to stay....(don't worry, she was removed, it was cleaned and the fortune cookies were in cupcake holders....for those of you who don't have cats and still worry about sanitation ;O).

Sandye's Bridal Party

Today was Sandye's bridal shower. As much as I love throwing parties, and I do....I get so caught up in the planning, it's almost a relief when the party has come and gone and I just have the pictures to keep me company.....because, if you know me, and you do....it's all about the details and the longer I have, the more details I include. If you'd like a play by play, picture by picture account of all the details, email me and I'll send you my shutterfly slideshow site, if not, this will keep you company :O). This first photo was taken by her Mom at the end of the shower after 6 girls had left. It was a great turn out. The second photo is the invite and sign in. Everyone brought advice on love (I found a stamp with the chinese character for love and mailed it in the invites), and then they wrote up a little summary on cherry blossom die cuts of how/and when they met Sandye. They pinned their stories to some fans arranged in chronological order with photos from throughout Sandye's life attached. Sandye and Wolf were engaged on a cruise this past spring, and he had the proposal written inside a silver fortune cookie, so the shower theme took off from there. Sandye is Jewish, and she keeps kosher as well, so the menu was a lot of vegetarian cuisine. Veggie egg rolls, vegetable lo mein, stir fry veggies, sticky rice, chow mein, mandarine orange and almond salad, fruit, salmon sushi, almond cookies and chocolate dipped fortune cookies (my personal favorite), tea and lemonade. I think everything went off without a hitch....the food was devoured, and people went back for seconds and third, they ate until the plates ran out. I did threaten to hold everybody hostage until it was gone, and I guess they took me at my word. We ate, played a few shower games and chatted until about 3:30. Sandye went home with quite a loot! It's just 74 more days until her wedding in December!! I can't wait, I've learned so much about the Jewish culture, though I've been friends with Sandye forever, and we've chatted about customs, as she passes through all these stages with so much religious significance, I'm learning boat loads more. The last photo I'm including is Sandye and her Mom. I don't know what it is about weddings, it must be the romantic glow or something, but I think Sandye looks even more fabulous then ever, if the secret is marriage, I need to go find a guy because how precious is she! Wolf is a lucky guy. I've had the pleasure of seeing her wedding dress too, and it's a killer.....I can't wait to share those photos as well :O).