Happy Halloween

FNC has been a big supporter of United Way and have started having lots of Halloween festivities to raise money each year. This year we had a putt putt course through both buildings, several costume contests, a bake-off, a raffle, trick or treating for FNC kids and a pot luck lunch. Daniel and I decided to wear our costumes from last year and save our new costumes for the party we are attending tonight. Enjoy the photos!

QA's golf hole 'R.I.P'




Two of the holes actually go into an elevator which you must ride up or down to another floor to continue.


Some of the many costumes! I love it when people participate!











On a side note, I won the bake off for the Halloween treats category with Giada's Chocolate Orange cupcakes with Limoncello Frosting! I received a lovely golden spatula! I'll post more pics from tonights party and Blue Mountain!

More to come

Well, we made it back from our cruise. It was FANTASTIC, INCREDIBLE, AMAZING!!! I could go on and on. I can absolutely say we would do a cruise again. There were some things that we considered 'negatives', but it didn't hinder us a bit. This was the most stress free vacation ever! I'll share more details about the ship and the trip later, but here are a few pics to tied you over.

The Carnival Fantasy docked in Cozumel.


Excuse the hair...


Chichen Itza Mayan Ruins


Our last day at sea

Because it is hard

It is hard to sit at work the day before your vacation. So to waste a few minutes of this incredibly long day...a random post.

Last night, in addition to packing, Daniel and I had dinner with the Parkers. Since they have a relatively new baby and I can't resist a pic of my man holding a baby...

Daniel and Grace in deep conversation?



Notice Grace is holding 'her baby' who is also named Andrew. While Daniel spent most of the night holding the real Andrew, I was relegated to holding, feeding, and burping the doll version. :)




Adorable Andrew! I just love how his hands are folded on top of each other.

Birthdays and Baby Showers!

Yesterday my Mom, Christina, and Gwen all celebrated birthdays! Happy Birthday Libras!

Tuesday night Sage, Christina, and I hosted a baby shower for Gwen and Natalie. We had a wonderful time. Sage made Captain Rodney's dip...heaven! If you ever need to make a dip for a party...make this one! Nina made an outstanding penne with chicken and vodka sauce. I could eat this once a week at least! I'll be posting several recipes from the evening under the Recipes link on the right shortly. Besides the great food, we had great friends and great fellowship! Enjoy some pics below!


Guests of Honor: Natalie (having a girl) and Gwen (having a boy)




Natalie and her Mom


Corinne and Jenny


Norah, Carol, and Julie


Rachel, Leah, and Rita


Opening gifts


Gwen's diaper cake


Natalie's diaper cake

*For anyone who has forgotten...we leave for our cruise Saturday! WooHooo!

Hubby's latest weekend project...

A Rose Trellis!
Daniel decided last week that it was past time we upgraded from our way too small metal trellis to a larger, more attractive trellis. He sketched a few designs, let me pick which I liked best, and then built it. Easy as that! It only took him a few hours to build Saturday afternoon and a few hours to paint yesterday. That husband of mine sure is handy!


Please excuse the state of my roses. Between the deer and the damage I did trying to remove the roses from the previous trellis, they could use a little TLC. I'm trying to give them a day or two before I wind them through the new trellis.


Do you see the hibiscus on the left? Yeah, that's what baby deer do to a hibiscus plant sitting right next to your house. It used to look like the one on the right.


A big thank you to Daniel for his creativity and skill! You are wonderful! Now....what shall be the next project? I'm sure I'll come up with something for you to make in the next, say...three months?

R2 and Asters

Well, I still love our Roomba. We are trying out the name R2...he spins around and beeps and is very helpful...I think R2 fits. Several people have commented on my calling R2 a 'he'. I can't exactly explain it, but he's definitely a HE! You'll just have to come watch him in action and decide for yourselves.




To go with my 'cleaning up' mood this weekend, I did some work in my (now mostly retired) veggie bed. I pulled up the veggie plants that had finished their work, added in some new soil, and planted some beautiful Asters. I had every intention of getting Mums, but the color of these Asters really struck me! They basically look just like Mums, and I just couldn't quit going back to these while at the Depot. My Marigolds, a holdover from the veggie garden, do sort of give an LSU-vibe, but that shouldn't last too much longer! You'll see in the photos below I do still have a serrano chili plant, one tomato plant, my bell pepper plants, and my green onions mixed in with the Asters. These are still producing, so I won't be pulling them up for some time yet.




This is a recent photo of the new roses I got this spring. This is one of the few blooms the deer haven't destroyed yet!


Now, on to my public service announcement. A few months ago I requested ideas on how to use the Pimento Peppers growing in my yard. No one provided any, so Tuesday night I decided I'd just try throwing them on a salad. When I cut them up, they smelled like bell pepper, and the internet kept describing them as similar to sweet bell peppers. Well, the internet LIED. I don't know if I got some random cousin of the plant described on the internet or what, but these peppers are not sweet. They are HOT. Actually, Hot doesn't even describe them...they are dangerous! I cut one small pepper up to put on our salads, and thankfully (i guess, maybe for Daniel!) I decided to try the tiniest speck of a piece before throwing it on our salads. I can honestly say, this pepper had contact with my lips and the very tip of my tongue for maybe 1 second, but for the next 2 hours, I had to keep a piece of ice to my lips! I immediately ran to the sink to wash my mouth out, but to no avail. I looked like I'd had a collagen injection! Red, swollen, extremely painful lips! Thanks to Corinne I did have a long list of home remedies to try...milk, yogurt, rubbing alcohol, benadryl, and aloe. Let me just tell you now, the ONLY thing that works is FRESH ALOE. Not sure why I tried this last, but praise Jesus (and Daniel for remembering to cut some for me) it worked! Lesson for you all...keep a fresh aloe plant on hand for any pepper oil burns! It tastes like crap, and looks pretty disgusting coating your lips, but it's heaven compared to the previous pain.

P.S. If anyone wants some Pimento Peppers, I've got a whole plant you can have!

P.P.S Happy Anniversary to Meg and Ben and Lisa and Chip! Here's to 4 wonderful years!

two in one day? i must be sick?

Since I have charged batteries in my camera, I just realized I had several pics I hadn't downloaded yet. There are some mornings when I take Bailey out that the sunrise just catches me and I can't help but take a picture. So, boring as this may be, enjoy!



With the camera in a different setting:




P.S. Monday's post entitled....Tell me about your talent. :)

Lovely Fall dinner!

I found this recipe for Lemon-Rosemary Roast Chicken on Cooking Light's website yesterday, and made it for dinner last night. Wow! It was so delicious. I did make a few modifications. I put a few lemon slices in the cavity of the chicken while roasting. I also made mashed sweet potatoes on the side rather than roasting the potatoes with the chicken. I served this with a mixed greens salad with tomatoes, onions, and dried apricots. You dress the chicken with a mixture of olive oil, fresh minced garlic, fresh chopped rosemary, and grated lemon peel. This mixture smells divine and gave the chicken a wonderful Fall flavor. I did finally charge my camera battery, but did not have it charged in time to take any pictures. I'll try and do better next time.

In other exciting news, Daniel and I have just purchased a Roomba from Woot. If you follow that link to the irobot website, please let me reassure you we did not pay the retail price! Woot had it for 50% less. It arrived yesterday and did a brief cleaning this morning while we were getting ready for work. It's hard to not watch it go! It does bump into the furniture quite a bit, but it's worth it to watch it 'Detect Dirt'! When it does detect dirt, this light comes on and it starts spinning in a circle over the dirty part of the floor. We haven't set up any virtual walls or schedules yet, but I can't wait! Bailey is a little unsure about it, but I'm sure she'll adjust eventually. I'll keep you posted on how well it cleans.

P.S. 29 days til our cruise!

Our First Executive Meeting

Our book club, which has yet to be named, has it's first 'Executive Meeting' tonight. We will be having dinner and drinks on the square and then will be moving to Square Books for a live Webcast of Philip Roth being interviewed about his new book. Why are we venturing out for Philip Roth? Because he is the author of the book club's first book! Corinne chose: American Pastoral, and I for one am very excited to check it out.

I am also going to try to keep the list of books I'm reading updated on the right side of this blog. I'll figure out a way to let you know if I think it's a good one or not (think 5 * scale or some such).

P.S. Isn't this Fall weather heavenly?!

book/dinner/cocktail club

Corinne, Jenny, Audrey, Christina, Jennifer, and I had a lovely girls night out last night. Jennifer hadn't had much opportunity to get out since the birth of Andrew just over a month ago, so we used that as an excuse to get together (we'll use just about any excuse we can think of!). We talked about everything from clipping coupons, to books, to nomination speeches, to home births (and everything in between!). We had such a lovely and therapeutic time together, that we decided to attempt a monthly book/dinner/cocktail club. The details aren't finalized yet, but Corinne is in charge of selecting the first book for us to read (yes, even you Jenny!). We don't plan to take ourselves too seriously when discussing our books. Everyone is to bring one question or topic to discuss just to help keep things moving. I'm really looking forward to this, and I can't wait to see what Corinne chooses!

Sweetest girls in the world!

My nieces Madeline and Avery.

Please go yearbook yourself today!

For the few readers out there who haven't 'yearbooked themselves', please go try it out. Some of the pics are hilarious. Some were so heinous, I could not bring myself to post them on here. Enjoy!

1950


1960


1962


1964


1966


1972


1978


1982