Our Annual Pumpkin Face-Off

It's that time of year again...

I'd like to point out that I was trying to simultaneously watch a cheesy, chick-flick while carving my pumpkin. That could be why it turned out so pedestrian (right).

I may have to give this one to John for his googly-eyed Vampire pumpkin and his sneaky suggestion that we watch 'my movie' during our carving contest.

Face Lift

It took a couple of weeks and a lot of hard work, but we were finally able to finish updating our guest bathroom today and I'm pretty proud of it.

We used to have a lot of older plumbing fixtures, including a pedestal sink with a dangerous, wobbly top. Thankfully, now our guests can also turn on the shower without fear of the antique knobs falling off and crashing loudly on the porcelain tub. I've heard it happen a few times and it was always embarrassing, no doubt scary for them.

And, it's all done in time for Matt and Nick to arrive this Thursday. I can't wait!

Let's Gourd Ourselves

This weekend I feel compelled to make our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out all things fall to decorate our home with, and wouldn't you know, I was sent this story today about just that. It made me laugh so hard I may have peed a little.

It's written by someone named Colin Nissan and was recently published in McSweeney's (which I'm a big fan of). I just read it again and am still cracking up. But, be forewarned, the material is definitely very 'colorful' and not for the faint of heart.

Shoe Thing

After driving around today for work in this rainy, dreary, (not to mention COLD) October weather, I was so happy and surprised when I came home and found an early birthday present from my parents waiting for me...

Thanks for brightening my day Mom. I love my new Pumas!

Game On

One of my favorite things to do when I go home to AZ is play board games with my family. We are quite a competitive group and I haven't been able to duplicate that spirit here in PA.

From what I gather the family has moved on from the time honored Scrabble, and is now obsessed with Boggle (an oldie but a goodie). It's been ages since I've played Boggle but since joining Facebook last year, I've had the opportunity to play it's online sister game, Scramble.

It was pretty fun for awhile but I put it on the back burner when I was just beating my high score over and over. However, now my fam has recently discovered it and I am now having a ball playing them from afar. It gives me a chance to brush up on my competitive skills before our Christmas visit.

Let the games begin!

Shady

I don't know how people pick paint colors for a living. Last night I sat for nearly an hour on the floor of our guest bathroom agonizing over the right shade of yellow, when it's only going to cover half the wall since I'm doing wainscoting along the bottom. I finally thought I had settled on one until I walked into Sherwin Williams today and nearly vomited over the sight of it up close. It looked like bad baby food.

Thankfully, they had an array of colors I hadn't seen before and I was able to select Bees Wax (below).

This of course was after I had a moment where I almost changed all together to a green shade but decided to save myself the time and trouble and keep that for another room one day. Choices, choices...

Boop-Oop-A-Doop

When John first met me he said I looked a lot like Betty Boop. I think it was my hair, which was even shorter back then, and I definitely had more peppiness at that time.

That said, I have thought Betty would at least make a good Halloween costume. Especially if your 30th birthday party is on Halloween night and you don't want to wear anything too over the top weird or heaven forbid any of the costumes they make for women these days that are so skimpy they make you blush. So, this is what I ordered today...

I think it's pretty cute. It comes with the wig, but I think I might be able to manage without it.

Fright Night

I haven't watched a scary movie in over a decade and I don't like anything startling or gruesome. So, when one of our friends mentioned that for her birthday she wanted to go to the Terror Behind the Walls haunted house at the Eastern State Penitentiary last night, I was not at all thrilled.

Years ago as a writer I had to do a story where I ranked all the haunted houses going on one October in the Phoenix Metro area and that was a trying task to say the least. I haven't set foot in a haunted house since. Terror Behind the Walls is ranked one of the top scariest in the country so I felt like I had to brace myself for this evening.

Thankfully, we had been through the Eastern State Penitentiary a few months back on a daytime guided tour with A. and S. which gave me a general sense of what to expect. I was still pretty anxious about entering the gates, but John held my hand through the entire thing so aside from letting out a few yelps due to scary actors spooking me, I was OK. Granted, I also looked down the majority of the time or squinted as to not take too much of the visuals in, but it ended up being fun and something I can say that I did. Once will definitely be enough, though.

New Adventures

Several years ago I lost my way in terms of a career. I've spent most of my time here in PA unsure of where I was working or what I was doing and it's definitely created a lot of added stress in my life. Of course, I'm so grateful to even have a job and a paycheck that I have tried more recently to look at work as something I do to afford the things in life that I love. John has always practiced that motto but I just have a harder time getting past the idea that I haven't been doing anything the least bit enjoyable for a long time.

Recently, as we talk more and more about having a family, I started to brainstorm ideas for jobs that I could continue to have with kids in the picture. Not only do I want to work, but I have to, and as much as I hate the thought of being in sales, I am admittedly good at it and it's been good to me financially.

That's when I came to the decision that I was going to go to real estate school. I have always loved houses, house hunting, decorating, etc. I also like the idea of being around people on a daily basis. Working with a diverse group of individuals isn't something I do at all. I'm often on the road by myself making calls to the same type of customer or part time in a home office with Duke to talk to. It hasn't helped trying to make friends here.

So, I'm going to try my hand at something where my skills can be utilized but that also poses a new challenge for me. I start my classes next Tuesday and the plan is to complete them in a few months, take the test and then see where that may lead me. I'm really excited about it and am looking forward to doing something in my free time that I find stimulating.

I'll keep you all posted from there.