A Howling Good Time

Is it sad that at 27, I was more excited about Halloween this year than when I was a kid? This is the first year that we have ever had trick-or-treaters and both of us were super excited to hand out candy tonight. Nate even came home early from work, which is a BIG deal around here.

Oliver and Lola dressed up again this year. I was just going to use the costumes we had from last year but then I found two costumes at Target that I knew Nate would get a kick out of. Oliver is afraid of the most random stuff (the vacuum, the refrigerator and the remote control to name a few) so I dressed him up as a chicken. And Nate's pet name for Lola is 'Pig' because she is always running around with food in her mouth and snorts like one when she sleeps. So when I found a little pig costume, I just couldn't pass it up.

They are usually such good sports about letting me dress them up and take their picture, but tonight they would not sit still together because they were trying to rip each others head pieces off. But the neighborhood kids got a kick out of seeing them all dressed up and Nate got a good laugh out of it, so it was worth the effort.




It was so fun to see all the neighborhood kids dressed up. Even Nate got in on the action! Ray and Renee gave Nate this hot dog costume and bet him that he wouldn't wear it. Which of course meant that he had to wear it, loud and proud. He endured much ribbing from Ray and Renee, but the trick-or-treaters thought it was great getting candy from a hot dog!

Bring on the kiddies!


Nate with the Reks kids from next door - Joy, Luke and Jacob.

The Secret Life of Pumpkins

Someone clearly has way too much free time on their hands. This picture makes me laugh every time I see it. Thanks to Alisha and Aunt Jo for sending a smile my way!!

Happy Tummy

Don't you just love it when your husband comes home and says he'd rather go out to eat than have you cook? Oh, wait, that's not exactly a compliment...but who the heck cares because the bottom line is, I didn't have to cook dinner!! And I didn't have to beg, plead or whine to get out of it!

Nate came home tonight pretty much on time (shock!) for the third night in a row (double shock!) and wanted Chicken Strips like the ones Ray and Renee had at small group on Friday. He thought they came from Applebee's but I, being the connoisseur of dining out that I am, knew that the food that night had actually come from Chili's. How did I know this you ask? Three little words:

Southwest Spring Rolls


If you have never had these things before, you are majorly missing out. I am crazy for these little pieces of yummy Mexican goodness!! And now that I know Nate likes the chicken at Chili's, I see a lot more of these babies in my future!

Who ticked off Mother Nature?

What happened to Fall? We had maybe five days of nice fall weather and suddenly it's forty degrees and ridiculously windy. Man, am I missing the beautiful Tennessee falls (especially when I heard Jamie got spend the weekend in Gatlinburg - so jealous!). I am going to be seriously bummed if it stays cold from now until May. My Southern blood cannot handle a six month winter!

But the yucky weather was at least good for one thing - I got a lot accomplished around the house. I finally tackled the pantry which turned out to not be as much work as I expected. It only took about an hour and I am happy with the way it turned out. Nate was rather unimpressed with my handiwork, instead focusing on how little food is actually in there. I tried to explain the concept of meal-planning and just in time grocery shopping but his eyes started to glaze over and he wandered back to his football game.

I also hit up the big sale at Kohl's this weekend and finally found a feather comforter for our bed. For those of you who haven't heard the story already, I thought I had this buttoned up months ago when I picked up a feather comforter for 75% off at Target. I carefully tucked it away in a closet for the day we finally moved into the house. Well, six months later, I haul it out and get ready to put it on the new bed, only to discover that it doesn't fit the duvet cover. What the heck?! Did I buy a queen when I meant to get a king? Nope, says KING right there on the box. Right under the words....FEATHER BED. Feather bed? Dang. Yes, that's right, I was so excited about the 'deal' I found, I neglected to pay attention to exactly what I was buying and ended up with a king size feather bed rather than the needed feather comforter.


I am still not sure what to do about this little part that shows the box spring? Do you put a dust ruffle on this kind of bed? Or just a fitted sheet? And then no matter which you do, what color do you use?


Thank you to all who weighed in on the Great Bar Stool debate. I decided to go with the shorter stools as that seemed to be the general consensus. Most everyone thought it would be better to be closer to the counter than to sit higher up. I have come to the conclusion that our counter is just an odd height for a bar, as everything I found came in the same two sizes and neither seems exactly right for our counter.


Height issues aside, I love the stools themselves and am pleased with how it turned out.

Time to tackle the next big decorating challenge - a new entertainment center!

A Cut Above

So our grass has been growing nicely under Nate's tender loving care and is now in desperate need of mowing. But being the apartment dwellers that we are, we do not yet own a mower.

Yesterday morning we spent about two hours lawn mower shopping. I use the term 'shopping' loosely, because Nate already had the mower picked out, we just needed to hunt it down. We hit up the local Sears Essentials first but all they carried was Craftsman mowers. Then it was over to Lowe's because we had a coupon, but no dice. We started toward the big Sears at Castleton Mall until Nate remembered that we could look up the phone number using our GPS system. One phone call later, we knew we could special order the lawn mower for delivery later this week. At this point, I wanted to keep going to the mall and just order it but Nate was insistent that this could be done over the phone, should we strike out everywhere else. So we headed off to the local tractor supply, because Nate was 'feeling lucky'. All I can say, is that place was very, um, interesting. Home Depot had mowers both in the store and outside, so we worried that maybe we had missed something at Lowe's, so it was back to Lowe's where we found exactly the same mowers we had looked at before.

At this point, Nate thinks maybe since Sears in Castleton can order the mower, surely the Sears Essentials near us can do the same. Makes sense, right? Wrong. A second trip to Sears Essentials and I am officially over lawn mower shopping.

On the short drive home, Nate calls the Sears guy back and places the order for his special mower with the Honda engine. Would we like it delivered to the Sears Essentials in Noblesville? What the heck?! They can't order it, but they can deliver it? Go figure! So he gets all the way to running his card and the guy says it won't let him complete the transaction over the phone. Nate will have to come into the store. At this point, I can barely contain my 'I told you so'. We could have saved an hour and a half and 1/4 tank of gas by just going there in the first place like I said.

So Nate's special mower will be here on Wednesday. I can't wait to see what all the fuss was about.

Bar maid

Some of you might recall my initial horror at the realization that our kitchen island has a breakfast ledge. I was not aware or at least never noticed that this was in the plans and was not exactly excited at the news.

However, I have made peace with it and shopped carefully for bar stools over the last few weeks. I found some that I liked at Target and, like the good shopper that I am, I have patiently waited for them to go on sale, which they did this week. While bar stools aren't on the 'approved' shopping list (per Nate) because they are not a necessity, you can't argue with a sale!

On Monday I made a special trip to Target to purchase my bar stools (really more like bar chairs, if there is such a thing), only to discover that they come in two sizes - short and tall. Well, dang. I looked at the samples and debated and looked some more before deciding to go with the taller version. I have terrible spatial skills and had I known they came in two sizes I certainly would have measured before leaving home because I am just that bad at eye-balling it.

So I put one whole chair together (ridiculously time consuming for a chair with only six pieces!), set it at the bar and immediately regret my decision to get the tall one. Shoot. I back up and look at it, walk across the room and look at it, make Nate sit on it and look at it...and I still think it is too tall.


But when I bust out the tape measure and measure what the shorter one would look like, I'm afraid it will be too short. The only way to really know? Head back to Target on Wednesday and buy one of the short ones. Which I put together last night (a little faster this time because I'm getting the hang of it). Last night I liked it but today I am not so sure; I think it might be too short. Nate of course thinks either one is fine but likes the short one better, so he is basically zero help.




Maybe I am over-thinking it. Is the short one a good height? Or should I scrap them both and look for something in between?

When more of a good thing isn't such a good thing

Yesterday I broke my vow not to buy candy until the day of Halloween. I know that I can't control myself around it, so I choose not to keep it in the house. However, my favorite Halloween candy is Brach's candy corn. And when I saw Brach's Caramel candy corn staring out at me from the candy aisle at Target, I simply couldn't resist. I love candy corn and I love caramel, so what could be better? And at only 50 calories for every 10 pieces, a handful at night isn't going to break the calorie bank.

This stuff is disgusting. Whoever decided that these two things go together was clearly not a lover of candy corn or caramel flavor because this stuff is a disgrace to both. Very disappointing.

However, the orange, brown and yellow color scheme looks very nice in the glass pumpkin I have on the kitchen island. I guess all was not lost and now I don't have to worry about eating to much of the centerpiece.

When a House becomes a Home

The house if finally starting to feel like Home, rather than 'The House', if you know what I mean. We made a lot of progress over the weekend with unpacking and organizing. We are now down to just the craft room and the pantry - both time consuming projects that I plan to tackle some time this week. The pantry is unpacked, but in no sort of order. It looks like a grocery store and Pier One exploded in there; food, vases, platters, bowls, candlesticks everywhere! The craft room has basically become the catch all for all of my creative stuff - wrapping paper, scrapbooking, stamping, etc. That one will be a biggie to unpack and organize, especially considering that my actual craft table is currently holding one giant TV in the family room!

But those two places aside, the place is shaping up. It is far, far, far from 'done' but at least it's mostly in order. I am still having a hard time bringing myself to put anything up on the walls yet, so the living/dining rooms are covered in picture frames and mirrors and shelves. I want to live in it a little while and give careful consideration to each item before I start poking holes in my walls.

I have also been doing very well in the spending department. I have held myself back from purchasing everything I want right away. This has taken considerable self-control on my part! But I have started a wish list of items that I want, with plans to purchase one or two items a pay period and also to watch for different things to go on sale. I might have a little trouble sticking to this plan, though, because the local Linens n Things is going out of business (actually they all are, so find one near you!) and everything is on sale. I am trying to hold back a little longer until the deals get really good! I am currently stalking a leaning floor mirror and some amazing pumpkin curtains for the master bedroom. I might have to go 'off-list' if I can score a good deal on them.

My office.

On the list of things to buy - a large bookcase or two for all my books. My very own Nerd Center!


The family room furniture is finally where it belongs. The next truly big item on our list is to replace the couches and buy a nice entertainment center for the new TV. Nate talks about this plan almost daily but still refuses to actually enter a furniture store.


The table and chairs have finally been moved to the breakfast area. I am still trying to decide whether to lower the lamp over the table or not.


The guest room is ready for guests! Any takers?



The other guest room is looking a little bare!


It took two hours and several swear words to get this stupid thing up the stairs into the loft. We ended up having to take it apart into six separate pieces and put it back together again. For a piece of Target furniture, that thing has held up pretty well!


The craft room, waiting for me to work my magic.


The dining/living room with all our pictures waiting for their new homes.


And what weekend wouldn't be complete without a little drama? Saturday night we had our first frost of the season and it cracked a window in the family room. Nate is none too pleased about it, as windows are not covered in our warranty. He talked to Cameron about it yesterday anyway and Park came by today to look at it and said he would see what he could do about it. No promises, but at least he will try to find us a replacement. Guess we shall see.

Afternoon delight

Just when you think you couldn't like your new neighbors anymore, they bring you cupcakes. Jill delivered six big fat vanilla cupcakes to our doorstep this afternoon.

I have been craving cupcakes for the last three days, and briefly considered buying some yesterday at the grocery store. But seeing as how I have zero self-control around vanilla cupcakes, I decided baking 20 cupcakes was probably not a good idea.

Apparently God does reward self-control because Jill appeared like a angel sent from Heaven. Well, actually, I wasn't home when she came but I bet you she had a halo and a pair of wings.

Now I just hope I have enough self-control left not to scarf all three of my yummy cupcakes in a single night!

Get over yourself

To the rude people in line next to me at Wal-Mart this afternoon:

Complaining loudly about the fifteen minute wait and verbally assaulting the cashier is not going to make the line move any faster. You are shopping at Wal-mart on a Saturday afternoon - what exactly were you expecting? A red carpet and VIP service?

If you do not wish to wait in line, perhaps you should consider shopping at Piggly Wiggly on say a Tuesday morning. If you insist on joining the rest of humanity at Wal-mart on a Saturday afternoon, please spare your fellow shoppers your vitriol and allow the poor cashiers to earn their minimum wage in peace.

Gimme Five

Look at that beautiful five-day forecast! Nothing but fall weather in my near future.

We had a big rainstorm last night and woke up to fall temperatures after weeks of the hottest weather we've seen all summer. I can't wait to bust out my light weight scarves and these beauties from Payless which have been waiting in my closet for the first hint of cool weather.

What was lost has now been found

I found my keys!!

After 10 days of looking in the car, in the house, in every box, bag and basket, I finally found my keys - under a box in the dining room!


Who would have thought to look under all the boxes!

(Virtual) Reality Star

Cameron called yesterday to say that the Virtual Tour of our house is posted online! They only posted the 'interesting' parts (family room, kitchen, foyer, loft and master bedroom) but it gives you a pretty good idea of what it looks like.

You can check it out here.

Whirlwind Weekend

Much like the entire last week, the weekend flew by and I feel like I got very little accomplished.

Friday night we had small group at Ray and Renee's house. This was our second week and we have really enjoyed getting to know some more people from church and the neighborhood. Everyone is just so friendly and warm, we really enjoy the few hours we spend there every other Friday night.

On Saturday Nate over-seeded and fertilized the lawn. The backyard is growing nicely in most spots and by Sunday morning we could tell a definite difference from his all his hard work.

I spent the morning running errand for the house and picking up a wedding gift. I think I unpacked maybe a box and a half the entire day. By 1:30 it was time to get ready for Greg and Jess' wedding.

The wedding was in Greenfield, IN about a 45 minute drive from Indy. The wedding was beautiful, the food was great and it was fun to hang out with Nate's coworkers.

Nate and Shawn practice their best Heisman poses while waiting for the newlyweds to come out of the church.


The restaurant wasn't quite ready for us when we arrived at the reception, so the boys amused themselves with a Frisbee that Curtis helpfully provided from his trunk.


Poor Gil got filthy fishing the Frisbee out of the bushes.


Nate with his Roche colleagues. This is one crazy group; it's a wonder they get any work done.


And finally, us at the wedding.


There are a few more pics of the wedding posted on Flickr.

On Sunday, we went to church and then I spent most of the afternoon cleaning the apartment and bringing over the odds and ends that were left over there. Then a little grocery shopping and by the time I got home it was nearly 8 o'clock!

Hopefully this week will be a little more productive on the home front. I am ready to have the moving part done and just be able to enjoy the house instead!

Honey, have you seen my keys?

I am notorious for misplacing my keys, and occasionally Nathan's keys, and last Thanksgiving I even managed to misplace my dad's keys. But they always turn up a few hours later in some random place like the dog's toy basket or the top shelf of the refrigerator.

But this time my keys seem gone for good. It has been a week since the last time I saw them and I have turned the house and car upside down looking for them. I keep hoping they will turn up in a box, bag or basket, but so far no dice.

Have you seen my keys?

(A) Mission Accomplished

Today my boss let me finish up work at noon so that I could run some errands and get some things done around the house. I have been trying to take it easy at work all week without much success. My office is like a black hole that just sucks me in as soon as I sit down at my desk. Despite my best intentions, I haven't done a very good job of taking it easy on the work front this week.

Needless to say, I had big plans for this afternoon - several shopping errands for the house and then cleaning the apartment. We have a busy weekend and I wanted to knock a few things out early.

Thanks to the Office Depot delivery guy, I got nothing on my agenda accomplished. On Wednesday I ordered a printer stand for my monster work printer. It was scheduled for delivery between 8am and 5pm on Thursday. No problem because I'm home all day, right? Wrong. At noon yesterday I got an email from Office Depot Support saying the delivery guy is lost, can he please have a number at which to reach me. So I email back my cell number saying I can be reached at any time all day. Five o'clock rolls around and still no Office Depot delivery guy.

So this morning I give him a few hours to show up and finally email OD Support around 11:00am to say that I haven't heard anything from anyone regarding directions or my delivery. She emails back to say they attempted to delivery yesterday and no one was home. Excuse me?! How exactly did he manage to attempt delivery when he couldn't find the place? And I was home the entire day. The house is big, but there is no way my guard dogs would have let his delivery attempt pass me by.

I very politely inform her that I was home all day during the stated hours and the lost delivery man never called and never came, no where the heck is my stuff? Rest assured, it will be delivered today between noon and 5pm. Well, dang, those were my errand running hours. But I want my cart so I can finish arranging the office. So I wait...and wait...and wait. It is now 10:00pm and the guy never called and never showed. And my errands remain undone.

You better believe Office Depot will be getting an earful from me on Monday morning.

On the bright side, I did manage to use my five hours of free time wisely by arranging my closet. This is no small task by itself, but I also took the opportunity to get out my winter clothes, sort out consignment stuff and put away my summer clothes. It took nearly four hours but I am pretty satisfied with the end result. I still want to hang some more shelving in the closet but that is a project for WAY down the road.

Nate has finally managed to score some space in the master bedroom closet. Here is his corner:


He also gets about half of the left hand wall. The jeans are where my clothes start. And yes, those shoes are all mine (but not all of my shoes!).


Nate's first comment when he saw it was, 'Wow! You've got some space left over.' That sounds an awful lot like permission to go clothes shopping!


After working from home for over a year, I have quite a collection of track suits, tank tops and hoodies for around the house. That's what you see piled on the shelves there.



So I might not have accomplished what I had planned for today, but I certainly have a feeling of accomplishment at having the closet done. One project down, nine hundred more to go.

Tag, I'm it!

I've been tagged by the lovely Leah over at Make it Fabulous.

Eleven of my Favorite Things:

1. Clothes Shop:
I am obsessed with The Limited for many reasons:
- I am a small girl up top (if you know what I mean) and their x-small really is extra small.
- Their slacks and jeans fit me like a glove.
- Their jewelry is amazing.
- Their handbags are oversized and FABULOUS.
- They have great sales and coupons.

2. Furniture Shop:
Do I have to pick just one? With a brand new house to fill up, I have hit practically every furniture and home goods store in Indianapolis. If I had to shop at just one, I would go with Crate and Barrel.


3. Sweet:
Dark chocolate anything. I can lie to myself and pretend it’s good for me while I eat it!

4. City:
Prague, Czech Republic – Nate and I visited in 2002 on our European Tour. It was the place we were least looking forward to and is the first place we want to re-visit some day! The history is amazing, the architecture is breathtaking, the shopping is to die for and on top of all that, it’s dirt cheap to stay there.

5. Drink:
Venti non-fat extra-hot caramel macchiato – I got a Starbucks Visa card just so I can earn free coffee.


6. Music:
Although she hasn’t put anything new out recently, I love Kelly Clarkson; the girl is super talented. I also love girl anthems from PCD, Danity Kane and Carrie Underwood.

7. TV Series:
I am almost embarrassed to admit this publicly, but I am addicted to Gossip Girl. Seriously, the dialogue is so catty and the clothes are so fabulous, I am hopelessly hooked.


8. Film:
Sweet Home Alabama, How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Mean Girls

9. Workout:
Ugh. I was totally rocking the gym for about a year but lately I have been a lazy bum. I love a good cardio or kick-boxing class when I am motivated to actually get to a gym.

10. Pastries:
I love a good cheese danish. Or anything from Baker’s Sweets in Sumter, SC (they can do no wrong in my book!)


11. Coffee:
Yes, please! Seriously, I would take this stuff intravenously if I could, and I am deathly afraid of needles!


And I'm going to tag Pink Polka-Dotted Dreams and Maria (this will give you something to do while waiting for Baby Hine!).

Line of (last) night

Last night's episode of Chuck made me laugh out loud more than once. But this was by far the funniest line of the night.

Roan: "We need to talk about protection".

Chuck: "I don't think it will get that far".

Roan: "I was talking about a weapon".

Oliver and Lola's excellent house adventure

Oliver and Lola's first trip to the new house was Saturday afternoon. I brought them home from the groomers and turned them loose to explore. They ran from room to room checking each one out, then started all over again and ran around each piece of furniture in every room like they were checking to make sure it was all there.

Lola gets up every single time you leave the room to follow you wherever you are going. We have a lot of the upstairs doors closed so that they (mostly Lola) can't get into anything, so every time you open a new door she goes nuts checking it all out again.

They also love running up and down the stairs as many times as you will let them. I swear they will both lose weight these first few weeks, as much running as they are doing. And if they get going too fast on the way down, their feet go out from under them when they hit the foyer floor!

They are also a big hit in the neighborhood. Actually, a little bit too big of a hit! Twice now we have had kids ring the doorbell to see if Oliver and Lola can come out and play. And they are swarmed with kids whenever we walk them in the front yard. We actually had to sneak them out the back door a couple of times to make sure they actually did their business. They get so distracted by the kids, they forget to go!

Lola checks out a new room.


Oliver sticks close to his daddy where it's safe.


Lola found a new favorite spot to sleep. She is going to be very sad when the washer is hooked up and this pile of bedding disappears!


Moving is hard work.

Box by box by box by box

You want to know the least fun part about moving? Boxes. They are dirty and heavy and leave little bits of cardboard all over when you break them down. I sure will be glad when all these boxes are gone.

The move this weekend went better and faster than expected. Nate worked his butt off Friday night loading the rental truck with our mountain of boxes. Early Saturday morning he unloaded them at the house while I took the puppies to the groomer to keep them out of our way. Our wonderful friends, Buster, Weez and the McLovins came to help us load and unload the furniture during Round 2. With their help we had the majority of our stuff in the house by 2:00pm.

Nate and McLovin on the move.


Weez helps unload the truck.


Nate and Buster wrestle a mattress up the stairs.


I spent the rest of the day unpacking while Nate did this:


Just kidding, Nate worked very hard all weekend, unpacking boxes, putting together the beds and carrying all of my shoes upstairs to the closet (no small task!).

On Monday, we had professional movers come move some of the bigger items like the washer and dryer and our monster entertainment center. Then the DISH guy came out and set up our satellite TV. Hopefully we'll have some time this week to relax and actually use that beautiful new television!

For more pics of the house and moving weekend, check us out on Flickr.