Dueling Pumpkins

This year is our 5th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.  I was impressed with our carving skills this year.  We have clearly improved since we started this little contest back in 2008.

2008: Left: Mine; Right: Eric's....Yikes.....clearly before we discovered the wonderful world of Pumpkin Carving Templates and Pumpkin Carving Tools.  Eric like to say he was practicing this year.  I won hands down.

2009: Left: Eric's; Right: Mine....He will fight me on this one but according the the facebook votes, I won.  He will say that if you add in the votes from people who saw them in person that he won, but I have no documentation of their votes...=)

2010: Left: Mine; Right: Eric's....We both had quality pumpkins that year.  I was particularly proud of my cat design, but those fence posts were a pain in the @$$ to cut out.  Eric's deer head got lots of votes from our deer hunting enthusiastic friends, but once again again I claimed the facebook vote victory.

2011: Left: Eric's; Right: Mine....Eric finally claimed a victory with his flaming-faced jack-o-lantern.  I tried to get creative with the scary tree, but the sections were too thin and it ended up looking like a brain instead.

So which one do you like the best?!

Weekend Recap: I Don't Think I Ever Left the Kitchen

Holy Moly it's cold this morning!  Looks like "winter" has decided to come early in the south this year. My northern-dwelling relatives and relatives are probably laughing at me, but low temps in the 30s is COLD!  I had the hardest time getting out of bed this morning because every time I would throw the covers back I would get a draft of cold air and pull them back up.  Note to self: when the 1st alarm goes off tomorrow morning the fan is going OFF and the fireplace is going ON....and it's time to switch from summer pjs to winter pjs.

Since the football team played on Thursday night this week we had a RARE free Friday night.  We decided to take full advantage of it and head out for some fun.  We met some friends at a restaurant in Auburn and then went to listen to a band for a little while.  It was a lot of fun, although I was so glad to get home to my bed.....I was soooo tired.  I guess I am not quite adjusted to my new busier schedule.  Hopefully that will change soon.

Saturday fall decided to come play and it got COLD! It was not too bad when we got home late Friday night but by the time we got up on Saturday it was chilly chilly outside.  We'd decided to have some friends over to watch the Bama game (as usual) so I pulled out some recipes and got to cooking.  We had a feast for the game!  I decided well before we ate that I was going to eat bad and not feel the least bit guilty.....and I did.

We had a cheese ball, Spinach Dip (served with Hawaiian Bread of course), sausage balls, chips and guacamole,  Homemade Pretzels with Spicy Cheese Dip, Baked Mozzarella Cheese Balls with pizza sauce to dip, and Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread for the main course. For dessert we had Pumpkin Spice Cake (with yellow cake instead of spice cake mix because I did not read the box when I pulled it out of the cabinet), and Chocolate Chip Gooey Butter Cake...best cake EVER.  Healthy? Absolutely not, but certainly one of the top 10 football gameday spreads I've eaten.

We actually had a lot of down time this weekend which was refreshing.  It resulted in lots of playing with the puppies outside in the balmy weather. Eric decided to work on his golf game and use Hawk as a ball return.  He LOVED chasing the golf balls in the backyard. (Hawk, not Eric) Peanut occupied himself with digging holes, and the puppies did their puppy thing which involves lots of chewing on each other regardless of where they are.

Sunday we did some Halloween prep, which included our 5th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest.  Pics to come tomorrow!  The votes are still being tallied for now. One of my favorite parts of carving pumpkins is eating the seeds afterward.  Separating them is a painstaking task, but they are so worth it!  I made 2 varieties this year: the classic "Roasted" seeds tossed with olive oil and salt, and some Candied Pumpkin Seeds.  The candied seeds were a new one for me but they were delicious!

Since it was so chilly on Sunday I decided that we needed to have soup for dinner.  I am weird about soups and will only eat certain kinds so I am usually hesitant to try new soup recipes. I found a Crockpot Potato Soup Recipe on Pinterest that sounded easy enough, so I decided to try it.  I now have a new go-to potato soup recipe!  I love some baked potato soup, but I hate having to bake the potatoes and make a rue and all of the other things that go into it.  It's delicious, but very time consuming.  This recipe tasted just as good as my homemade soup, but was much much easier.  Just dump everything into the crockpot and wait....done.

Of course I turned it into a "Loaded" Potato Soup with all of the extras I added in.  =)  It was so good and perfect on a chilly night.

Monday is calling...I have lots of extra fun things going on this week, which include a Halloween costume contest @ work (we are defending our title this year), my alumni basketball game this weekend, Senior Night at THS, and my daddio coming for a visit this weekend! Happy thoughts about all of the fun are going to keep me going this week!

Friday Letters

Crazy clouds on my way home yesterday

Dear Friday, You showed up right on time this week.  Now all that's standing between me and the weekend is a (hopefully uneventful) workday and basketball practice.   Let's do this.

Dear Eric,  I'm sorry you guys lost last night. As disappointed as I was that I could not go to the game since it was on a Thursday this week, I am excited to have a free Friday night to play!  I am not sure I remember how to play on a Friday since it's been so long since we've had a free one and we better enjoy it because we won't have another one until mid February....oh the life of coaches!

Dear Mom and Dad,  Things are finally falling into place with this move!  I can't wait to see the house!

Dear Work, You've been a little less than stellar this week.  I am not a fan.  Let's fix this next week, can we please?!

Dear Costume Contest at Work Next Week, You are JUST what I need to put a little fun back into my workday!

Dear Self, Please remember how much better we feel after a good night's sleep. We are a bit busier these days and that extra 45 mins to a hour of sleep a night is a necessity for us to make it through the day.

Dear Nick-at-Nite, Could you move your nighttime shows up and hour so I don't have to stay up past 10PM to watch Friends?  I cannot resist watching when it is on which results in me staying up later than I need to.

Dear Eric, You + Me + pumpkins = 5th Annual Pumpkin Carving Contest  THIS WEEKEND.  BTW contrary to what you apparently think, I am winning the series 3-1.  I have the facebook picture votes to prove it!  P.S. Does anyone have any good pumpkin carving ideas?!

Pumpkin Spice x 2

Mmmmmmmmm.......

This weekend I finally gave in to the Pumpkin Spice temptation this weekend. I came across a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cookies last week.  It had 3 ingredients, one of which was cream cheese icing, so I decided to give it a try for obvious reasons. I needed something sweet to take to our bonfire Saturday night so I whipped up a batch Saturday afternoon.  They were delicious! I added a little bit of Penzey's Cinnamon and some fresh ground nutmeg to give it a little more oomph.

The results were fantastic! When it comes to desserts, and cookies in general, I usually don't bother if it does not have chocolate because why waste calories on food that's bad for you if it's NOT chocolate.  These cookies are now the exception (although I did consider adding some chocolate chips). The fact that they were even easier than the cookies mixes that come out of a bag made them even better!

Pumpkin Spice Cookies

1 box spice cake mix

1 15oz can pure pumpkin

1 container cream cheese icing

cinnamon (optional)

nutmeg (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and place cookie balls (about 1Tbsp) on a baking stone or cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 mins (the shorter the cook time the softer they will be). When they come out of the oven they were still somewhat rounded, so I pressed the tops down with a spoon to flatten them out.  Cool on a wire rack.  When cool, top with cream cheese icing and garnish with cinnamon.  

While I was baking these little gems I was perusing pinterest for some more pumpkin spice creations and came across this Pin from one of my favorite healthy cooking blogs. I have made several of her recipes and have yet to be disappointed, so I figured I'd give it a try.  The recipe was for Pumpkin Spice Muffins, and it used the EXACT SAME ingredients as the cookies I was baking.  The ONLY difference was you added 1 cup of water to the mixture.  Of course I had to try it!

Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 box spice cake mix

1 15oz can pure pumpkin

1 cup water

1 container cream cheese icing*

cinnamon for flavor and garnish (optional)

fresh ground nutmeg (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and pour mixture into greased loaf pans (I decided to make mini bread loaves instead of muffins). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. When cool, top with cream cheese icing and garnish with cinnamon.

This was probably one of the easiest breads/cakes I have ever made.  *She made her icing from scratch, but I still had 3/4 of a container of icing leftover from my cookies so I used it.

And the best part of these recipes?  They are not that bad for you!  I figured that each of my mini loaves had maybe 550 calories in the ENTIRE loaf, which means a big fat slice (like 1/4 of the loaf) might set you back 150 calories. There's no oil, no eggs, just cake mix, pumpkin, and water. As for the icing, I used one container for both recipes, had several spoonfuls by itself, and still have 1/4 of the container left in my fridge.  You can't beat it! 

A REAL Fall Weekend

Oh Hi there Monday....nice to see you again...NOT.  Apparently I was subconsciously not ready to face Monday either because I somehow turned off both alarms without realizing it and woke up at 6AM this morning....perfect (I am supposed to leave the house at 6:15AM).  OOPS!  Needless to say it was a ponytail day for me.

I guess I was still trying to recover from a jam-packed weekend!  Since Eric had plans to camp where they were hunting this weekend I figured I'd just hang out with the pups....boy was I wrong!

Friday I had basketball practice until 5PM, and since we let the girls out early I decided I would run home to let the pups out and head to Montgomery for the football game since I am not going to be able to go to this week's game. Plus the game was in just Montgomery and I figured I'd be home by 10PM.  I walked up to the field just in time to hear the National Anthem, which was followed by this announcement: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen please stand by.  The game is going to be delayed because we do not have a referee crew.

We will let you know when we have figured something out"  

Um excuse me?  No referees?  How does that happen?  This was a region game so it was not scheduled at the last minute. So we waited.  About 7:45 (45 minutes after the game should have started) we had another annoucement: 

"Ladies and Gentlemen we have found a crew.  They are heading this way from Clanton.  

The game will begin as soon as they arrive."

Clanton is 45 minutes away from Montgomery. The game FINALLY got underway at 8:30PM, and THS came away with another win and I was on my way back home at 11PM...arg. Eric did not get home until after 1AM.  He said that apparently a crew was never scheduled for the game...awesome.  

Saturday morning Eric was up and out of the house by 9AM to head to the woods.  I decided to call my SIL and see if she wanted to head to Trade Day.  It's an annual Arts and Crafts Fair in the town we live in.  We went, but were not too impressed.  THere was nothing too spectacular and it seemed a lot smaller than it was in the past.  We spent maybe 20 mins walking the entire block where it was and left. 

On the way back to the car, I remembered reading about another fall festival going on in our area.  Neither of us had ever been and were not sure exactly how to get there, but we figured if we got on the highway that went to that town we were bound to find it.  Boy did we.  About 25 minutes down the road we started seeing cars parked on the side of the road and then traffic came to a standstill.  We decided our best bet would be to go ahead and park and hoof it.  About a mile up the road we arrived at Syrup Sopping Day.  Yes in Alabama there is a town called Loachapoka that has an annual festival called Syrup Sopping Day.  Their website says that this sleepy town of about 135's population nears 20,000 on this day every year. I believe it.  There were booths with anything and everything you could imagine--there were 2 booths selling bed sheets, who does that?!--and OH the FOOD!  

1. Making the Sugar Cane Syrup.  It was bubbling like crazy!

2. Sugar Canes for syrup.

3. The Dinky Doughnut Machine....it was pretty cool.

4.  Dinky Doughnuts....AKA our lunch which we ate with the wine we got from the wine tasting booth =)

5. Kettle Corn....oh glorious Kettle Corn! 

Saturday night I headed out to the woods to meet up with Eric and our friends at the campsite for dinner!  We had a big bonfire.  The boys cooked some deer tenderloin and some burgers.  And we HAD to have S'MORES of course!

It was a little chilly but the fire kept up nice and warm.  One of the girls brought her guitar and sang some Pistol Annie's tunes for us.  It was an absolutely PERFECT fall evening! 

It took us a few tried to get it right. 

Sunday Eric came home for about 10 mins before he had to run off to film/practice.  They play on Thursday night this week so they had to double up on Sunday.  I managed to finish up my fall decorating and purchased our pumpkins.  The hard part is going to be finding time between now and Halloween to carve them.

Yes we feed Peanut in the living room because his fat self will try to eat Hawk's food, too.

Eric decided to head back to the woods on Sunday after practice and while I was finishing up dinner he called to say that he got his 1st deer of the season!  It was just a doe, but this should keep the hunter in him satisfied for a week or 2 so he won't want to go back every night! =)

Friday Letters

Taken in the same spot @ about 6:35am each time.

Dear Eric, Did you really think that I was going to run some late evening errands last night and NOT stop at Dairy Queen for some ice cream?!  I thought you knew me better than that!   Good Luck tonight!  I am going to try my best to get to the game tonight. =)  P.S. I'm excited about our Trade Day date tomorrow morning!

Dear Fall, Have I mentioned how much I love you? This weekend is going to be so pretty and I can't wait!  I'm still slowly transitioning my boots (because our high temps are finally sub 80 degrees) into my wardrobe and that makes me happy!  I would not mind a little more chill in the air next week so that I can wear the super cute purple sweater I got at Loft yesterday (50% off sale prices = happy Betsy!).

Dear Mom and Dad, Good Luck with your house hunt today!  I hope you guys find something that you absolutely LOVE!  Oh, did I mention my parents are relocating back down south!?!?!

Dear Self, No more "fun" Pinterest Hair Experiments on work days for us. Even though putting our hair in a bunch of wet buns, sleeping in them and waking up with beautiful cascading curls SOUNDED like a great idea, it did not exactly come out the way we planned.  It ended up taking us twice as long to get ready this morning (thank goodness we happened to get up when the alarm went off this morning!) because the poodle look went out of style in the early 90's.  I could have been Fifi's the Poodle's twin. I was so horrified that I did not even stop to take a picture.  I sprayed my mane down, blow dried it and straightened it as fast as I could.  From now on any hair experiments will be attempted on the weekends when we do not have to be anywhere before 9AM the next morning. P.S. Your hair is not quite long enough for "cascading" curls, so let's just forget about those hair styles...m-kay?

via | via

Dear HS Bball girls, Can we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make this a drama-free year? Your coaches would really appreciate it.  This getting upset with each other and just not showing up stuff is not the way to handle your problems...lets talk it out so we can fix our issues.

Dear Dancers, Have I mentioned how precious y'all are?  You guys are soaking up everything that I have taught you and I can tell you go home and practice every week!  It really makes my super long Thursdays completely worth it!

Happy Friday!

3 days in....

3 days....3 days into basketball season which means just 3 practices and we've already had 2 kids quit.  I really was in shock when I found this out yesterday.  After just 2 practices can you really say that you've "tried" something? I certainly don't think so.  What's worse is that they didn't even bother to tell their coaches....they just didn't show up yesterday.  From what we've heard they said they didn't like all of the running we made them do.....last time I checked in order to play most sports you have to be in shape and have stamina to make it through an entire game.  And to be honest they really have not had to "run" that much.   If 3 suicides, 2 half court and back/down and backs, plus 2 more down and backs is a lot of running then I must have been training for a marathon when I played ball.  I am pretty sure they would cover that much ground in the first 2 minutes of a game (which I am sure they would have expected to be on the court for).

In order to succeed at something you have to work at it.  That's why they had summer workouts that they were required to attend.  We actually had 2 other girls who played last year show up at tryouts who between them came to ONE summer workout and expected to be allowed to play.  The school we coach at has a policy that if you don't make a percentage of your summer workouts them you are not allowed to tryout and they were well aware of the policy, but I guess they thought they were above it.

As for the ones who quit this week I just don't understand what they expected....it's the first week of practice....it's SUPPOSED to SUCK.  You're supposed to work hard, and run until you feel like your legs are going to fall off.  But it makes you better. This is when the group of girls who want to play ball become a team.  They push themselves and each other harder than they thought they could go.  They encourage each other to be better and not accept anything but their best.  This is when leaders step up and take charge.

I know that they're going to quit I don't need to worry about it, and that it's much better to have them quit now than have to deal with them not wanting to be there later on down the road. But there's a part of me that wants to talk to them and let them know that you can't just "quit" when you don't like how things are going in your life.  These kids are 16 and 17 years old.  If they quit playing a sport because a little bit of running is hard, what are they going to do when they get a job and their boss tells them to do something they don't want to do....quit?  Go home to mom and dad and say the mean boss man made me do something I didn't want to do?  I would hope not.   My parents NEVER let me quit.....anything. Trust me, there were several different teams and sports I played that I wanted to quit for various reasons, but the rule in our house was that if you started a season you had to finish it...no buts about it.  At the time I HATED that, but those seasons ended as they all do.  Those seasons made me appreciate the seasons that I did enjoy even more. Sometimes you are put in situations to be tested, and those situations give you and opportunity to either runaway and quit or to thrive and learn something about yourself. I know I am a better person today because of it.  I don't quit when things get hard or when I am told to do something I don't want to do.  That's life.

On the upside, we have 9 girls who ARE committed to this team. I am very excited about this season.  I was shocked watching tryouts the first day, and it was VERY apparent that the girls put in a lot of work this summer.  Example: first day last year we had them dribble down the court with one hand and dribble back with the other.  I think that maybe 1 or 2 made it down the court and did not lose control. There were basketballs flying everywhere. This year on the first day they did dribbling drills down the court with 2 balls at a time and they could ALL do it under control.  It was AMAZING.  Their hard work this summer has paid off big time so far.  I really really hope that it carries over into games.  You can drill all day long, but you have to be able to apply it to game situations.

I am so grateful to have this opportunity again this year to work with this team.  I really have high hopes and hope the girls on this team do, too!

Bologna Monkey Face

Remember that time I decided to make myself a fried bologna sandwich for dinner, and of course had to take pictures of it, and then made a photo collage out of the pictures and realized it looked like a monkey face? Yep....that monkey-face fried bologna sandwich was Deeeelicious for dinner last night!

Wow....I need to get it together. Apparently my usual daily activities, plus a 2 hour basketball practice in a germ infested school is starting to wear on me.  I woke up late this morning still exhausted, and was greeted by a stuffy head and a stuffy nose.  Perfect.  I go an entire year without being sick in my germ-free (or close to it) adult world; spend 2 afternoons in a high school gymnasium and I feel like my head has doubled in size and floating 2 feet above my shoulders.

I am hoping this cup of coffee at least makes me feel like I can walk and talk at the same time today. There are a couple of bottles of OJ (and maybe a Red Bull for this afternoon?) in the gift shop downstairs that I hear calling my name.

Happy October 15th!

October 15th has rolled around again!  I had plans to recap homecoming weekend @ THS today, but when I realized the date when I looked at my calendar this morning I decided to take this post in another direction.

October 15th holds a very special place in my heart because it is the day that officially kicks off basketball season!  When I played there was always so much anticipation for this date because that's when we could officially start practicing and get ready for the first game (which was still a good month away).  I will admit this feeling usually lasted through the first 15 minutes of practice or until the first time coach made us line up  on the sideline for a dreaded "Sweet 16." For those unfamiliar with basketball drills a "Sweet 16" is running sideline to sideline 16 times as fast as you can.  There was always a time limit to finish under and if you didn't get it, you did it again.  Horrible, yes, but also necessary.  You can run all of the miles you want, running up and down a basketball court is an entire different kind of conditioning, and distance running will only help so much.

Today is the 6th October 15th that I am not experiencing this day as a basketball player, and I still miss it, a lot. Knowing that I get to walk into the gym this afternoon as a coach makes it a little easier.  At least I get to be in the gym, with a basketball, teaching a sport that I love.  Even though I am not playing, the feelings I have today will be no different.  I will still experience the same anticipation throughout the day, and I know that I will have butterflies in my stomach as I drive up to the gym this afternoon.  I am well aware that the next 4 months of my life are going to be busy and crazy. I look forward to it, and I am ready for it.  Because there is nothing better than the sound of squeaky shoes on a gym floor, the smell of the ball,  the sound basketball swishing through the hoop, or watching our girls set goals and achieve them.

October 15th is always the start of a new beginning, a new season, and I am so glad that it's finally here!

Friday Letters

Dear Hawk and Peanut, You guys were absolutely precious with your ice cream last night. I am still in shock that your DAD suggested we get an extra ice cream cone for the two of you to share.  Nor can I believe he suggested we let the little monsters in the house for a little while last night.  I know you guys were not too happy which was evident when both of you tried to climb in my lap after I took them back outside.

Dear Fall, I am LOVING you being here!  I realize that in Alabama we're still in early fall which means instead of highs in the 90's with excessive humidity, we have 70's with lower humidity.  Not exactly boots and sweater weather (especially in the middle of the day), but it's nice to be able to spend long periods of time outside without melting.

Dear Dancers that I get to Teach this Year, Y'all are so much fun!  I am really really looking forward to my Thursday evenings when I get to teach you guys some tap dancing this year.

Dear Eric, I love that you insisted that we get an ice cream cone for Hawk and Peanut and that you insisted that we let the little monsters in to play for a little while last night.

It's Homecoming week, so our little town is in quite a frenzy!  I didn't graduate from THS, but I still enjoy the festivities and I can't WAIT for the game tonight!

Happy Friday!

The Coolest Halftime Show EVER

I have decided that I can overlook the fact that this is the Ohio State University Band (Go Boilers!) because this is the best halftime show I have ever seen.....EVER. Apparently this is their halftime show this year.  Video game fanatics will love it.  Those of us who are not quite up on all of the popular games might get a little lost, but will still be impressed.

Happy Wednesday! 

Columbus Day Weekend Recap

I know I am a day late on my weekend recap, but I was enjoying the last day of my glorious 3 day weekend  yesterday. You could not have asked for better weather this past weekend.  Fall finally decided to come hang out for a bit.  I just hope it sticks around to play because it was beautiful outside all weekend!  I did my best to not do anything this weekend.  Eric was really busy with football stuff  so I was pretty much on my own, but I made do!

Friday he had an away game 3 hours away.  I consider myself a dedicated football coach wifey, but a 3 hour drive is a bit much for me, especially when we are a heavy favorite.  Instead I stayed home, listened to the slaughter on the radio and worked on my dress for homecoming this week.  I am making another dress like the one I made for HC's Homecoming, but this one is purple and includes Tiger stripes!

Saturday we watched some football on tv and I made a few appetizers to snack on.  Eric requested Buffalo Chicken Dip AGAIN.  I am pretty sure this is the 4th or 5th time I've made it in a month. I was not planning on making it this weekend so I did not have all of my normal ingredients, mainly my Budweiser Wing Sauce. Let me just say I will never make it without the stuff again because the result when I used a different brand was not pretty.  I ended up with an oily film on the top of my dip.  When I went to stir it in, the dip got more watery.  We ended up pouring some off, but it was still gross looking (it still tasted good!).  Note to self: Stock up on Budweiser Wing Sauce STAT!

Saturday night we had a little date night.  We heard about a New York Style Pizza Place called Kas's Corner in the little town next to ours a few weeks ago and decided to give it a try.  We were not disappointed!  The pizza was delicious!  I hope the place stays in business for a little while because I WILL be going back for more pizza soon!

We had a pepperoni, mushroom, sausage, and bacon pizza.  We like meat, what can I say?  It had just the right amount of sauce and the crust was incredible!  It had some kind of seasoning on it that made it taste like Texas Toast.  

Sunday I was up bright and early to watch the coverage of the Chicago Marathon.  I am so excited to report that SHE DID IT!   My momma is officially a marathoner! I am so proud of her! Technology is pretty sweet because I was able to track her progress online throughout the race, and I was able to get text messages telling me when she hit certain points in the race.  Now she can cross that marathon off her bucket list!  Yay Mom!

@ the running expo

The rest of my weekend consisted of cleaning, dealing with what seemed like endless loads of laundry (I know I have said this many times before but I seriously don't understand how Eric goes through as much clothing as he does.  I do a load of [HIS] laundry every night and still ended up doing a good 6 loads this weekend.  I am going to spend my life doing laundry when we have kids!), and a lot of playing with these guys.  I managed to tucker these two out on Monday. Peanut was content to make himself comfy on the pillows while I made the bed up, and Hawk-well you can see just how sleepy this boy was last night. My goal was to play outside with them as much as I could this weekend since my life will very soon be consumed with basketball. 

These two little monsters found their way into the food container this weekend.  They're smart little boogers. How did they manage this?  I may have a fear of locking myself out of the house and so when I go outside when Eric is not home I leave the door cracked.  These two decided they wanted a little more to eat and took advantage of the cracked open door. As you can see our little girl (on the right) is feeling much better. We let her out of the kennel one day this weekend and she and her brother took off for a few hours.  She came back limping so we decided to keep her kenneled for another week or so, but she is pretty well healed.  

She has also become quite the snuggler.  Her favorite place is in my lap which she crawls up into as soon as I sit down outside. Hard to believe that just a month ago this dog would not let me near enough to pet her.  

Our gorgeous fall weather has continued, enough so that I broke out my boots to wear to work this morning!  I sure do hope this continues!

Friday Ramblings

The sunset the other day behind our house.  I did not do anything to the colors in this photo; it really looked like this outside.

Heeeelloooooo Friday! (did you use your Animaniac's voice?) It's still crazy to me to think that we're already through the first week in October.  I need to get my Boo Y'all Bunting up because Halloween will be here (and gone) very very soon.  With basketball starting up in a couple of weeks I will surely not be thinking about crafting or decorating soon.

Gah!  Basketball is starting soon. The week after next to be exact. I am really excited about this season!  We're going to have a young team again, but that's ok. As long as they want to be there and work hard and play together then we should be successful.

Speaking of hard work and success......I am so very proud of this lady.

That would be my momma running in a 10 mile race a few years ago.  She's done the 10 miler several times plus a few half marathons, and this weekend she is embarking on the big one.  She is running in the Chicago Marathon!  I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of her.  I am in awe of her ability and determination to do this.  I ran the 10 miler with her a few years ago and I thought I was going to have to cut off my legs post race.  I can't even fathom running 26.2.  She said her school held a pep rally yesterday for her and 2 other teachers who are running a marathon and doing a triathlon soon.  How sweet is that?!  Good luck mom (and uncle Bill)! We'll be cheering you guys on from Alabama....I can't wait to see your BLING when you finish!

Another year of dance classes started up for me last night.  I've moved down from the high school-aged class to 5th-7th graders.  I was a little apprehensive at first, but then I started thinking that I was in 5th grade when I started taking from the studio that I learned so much at.  I had basic skills before then, but I really developed as a tap dancer between 5th and 7th grade.  After one night of classes I am so excited about this year!  These girls have pretty basic skills that I can work with, plus they really want to learn the harder stuff  I have to teach them! I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity again.  As I have said before, dance was my first love, especially tap.  It was the first thing that I realized I could be good at.  I realize that it's a bit of a lost art.  I have not seen a single episode of Dance Mom's where they competed with a tap number, but I've seen them show tap classes so I KNOW they are teaching it. For a girl who was always awkwardly tall and did not have the greatest flexibility or turning skills, tap was where I could shine. Now if I could only find a way to make a living at it. =)

Oh and did I mention that I get a 3 day weekend this weekend?  I would like to thank Christopher Columbus for landing in the western hemisphere so that I could have a day off from work.....preciate-cha Chris!

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The Wheels on the Door Go Round and Round....Hopefully

5 years ago (5.5 if you count my internship) when I started working in the building that I work in we had big heavy doors in the front of the building   They were ginormous and you had to throw your entire body into pulling them open, but they were normal doors and they served their purpose.  About 3 years ago they replaced those ginormous heavy doors with one of these babies.

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Yes that is a revolving door.  As a child these doors always offered lots of fun and entertainment when I came across them because I could go round and round and Mom knew I would not run off.  Plus most doors are not revolving and it was something out of the ordinary...like on the same level as an escalator (you know you got in trouble for going the wrong way on an escalator...don't lie we all did).

I am not sure when but somewhere along the way the revolving door started looking less like a playground and more like a revolving circle of death. Maybe it was the large automatic revolving doors that lots of airports started installing to help people with massive amounts of luggage get out of the baggage terminal without having to put their bags down.  Those things work great until you bump it and then it stops, with you inside the door...and no way out.  For whatever reason, revolving doors look like this to me now:

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Remember jumping rope as a child how many times it took to jump into rope when 2 other people were turning it?  Or am I the only one who had to watch it go by 7 or 8 times before I'd jump in.  That's the feeling I get when I see a revolving door....especially an automatic one. I am always convinced that something (a purse, shoe string, arm) will get stuck.  And don't even THINK about getting into a section of a revolving door with me if I absolutely have to use one.  I WILL freak out and do an awkward penguin shuffle to get out of it as fast as I can without falling.

So why all of the door talk today?  Ever since they installed the revolving door in my building there were 2 side doors for handicap access on the sides, one of which could always be opened from the outside, allowing be to bypass the revolving circle of death on my way in and out of the building each day.  But this morning?....that option was taken away from me, as the door is now LOCKED from the outside.  After cursing under my breath I had no choice, but to use it.  I made it through (obviously), but I was very very thankful there was no one pushing on the door in front of or behind me trying to trap me in it.  I have never been so thankful that I come to work before most because I can imagine myself having a minor meltdown if there were lots of people all trying to use this one door at one time (not to mention having to stand in line to come in the door).

I hope hope hope this is a temporary thing and all will be right with the world soon when someone decides to unlock the door from the outside. Until then I will have to hold my breath and pray that I don't fall halfway through. You better believe I will still be exiting the non-revolving door on the regular. It will be one more reason to look forward to the end of the day!