pumpkin carving

Last weekend Charlie and I went over to our friend's Phil and Bethany's apartment to have dinner and carve pumpkins. We had bought a pumpkin at Home Depot the previous weekend, but when we went to take it with us, it had a moldy spot on the back. It wouldn't have bothered me, but I was afraid that when we started cleaning out the inside, it would be rotten inside, too. So off to the store we went again, to pick out another pumpkin.

Charlie deemed this the perfect pumpkin. He talked about it over and over again about this being the perfect, classic pumpkin. It got old after awhile.

Bethany made a wonderful dinner of chicken pot pie and corn casserole. We stuffed ourselves and then began to clean out the pumpkins. Charlie cut the top off, and then disappeared into the living room to play video games with Phil, leaving Bethany and I to clean out the pumpkins. It was supposed to be a couples activity, but it became a girls thing once they discovered how slimy and gooey the inside's were.

I liked to use a spoon to scrape the insides and then dump it into the trash can. I couldn't decide what kind of pumpkin to do, and in the end I carved a girly one, with swept aside bangs and full lips.

Bethany made a Dallas Cowboys pumpkin, since she and her man are big Cowboys Fans!


Although my lips kinda look like a mustache, which I laughed at, but they do look nice lit up. It was a fun night and we were happy when we went home!

the book fair has rolled out...

Sorry I've been away for so long. It's because the Book Fair has been in town and I have come home exhausted every day, and yesterday was our Donuts with Dads event which starts at 7am. Which means I was there at 6am, which meant I was up at 5am. That may not sound early to some of you moms out there, but I normally don't get up until 6:45am. I'm always at my desk by 7:30...I just move fast in the morning.

But the Book Fair has left my library and things will be back to normal tomorrow. Yay. I love how much money we always raise from the BF and how many books I can buy, but our fair is quite the production, as you can tell. We completely empty out our small computer lab and cover the bookshelves in the library.


It's been an overwhelming experience to have my workspace turned upside down. I really enjoy all the fun that it brings, but it is not the calm, quiet place that my library normally is.

In the coming days I will share our pumpkin carving experience and some things that are going on at work. There is stuff to share but my mind can't even wrap around it all right now. No, it's not adoption stuff. There isn't anything going on in that front.

Talk to you soon!

an ode to almond butter

I have made a new friend: almond butter. Oh my. I never knew anything could taste so yummy. I am trying to eat less things that will irritate my bladder and peanuts are on that list. I don't know why, but the doctor gave me a pamphlet with all the various things to avoid and peanuts were on the list. It said that I could eat almonds though, and I needed a substitute for peanut butter.

I found this next to the peanut butter, and although I wasn't sure about it when I bought the jar, I really do like it. I only recently discovered that I like almonds, so this is all new to me. For some reason, the skin on almonds has always bothered me, until recently. Somehow, I tried them in a mix I had and decided they were okay. It's interesting to see what I suddenly like now that I am older. In the last year I have discovered hollendaise sauce, grits, poached eggs and now almonds and almond butter.

What have you discovered taste-wise lately? Anything new?

a photo shoot with Phoebe

So, Mommy has this new camera and she is always practicing taking pictures and she thinks I am particularly photogenic, and I guess I am pretty. Yes, I am a pretty girl, uh, dog. The other day she took some pictures outside, because inside it is hard to get pictures of my eyes. They don't come out right, but in the sunlight they look nice.

Here I am on the porch, looking pretty good.

Here is a close up of my eyes, which are kind of a blueish white. I am a Husky-Lab mix and you can certainly see the Husky in my eyes and in the shape of my tail.

So I posed for my mom a little bit and then I tried to lick the camera and then I heard a siren and howled for a minute. Mom has always wanted to take a picture of me howling, but I am hard to catch as it is often in the middle of the night, or she doesn't have the camera when I do it. She was happy to catch it.

After this photo shoot, I was tired. I told Mommy to take a break and I took five. Modeling is hard work.
I must say that I love the fall and being outside. I have heavy fur and so these cooler temperatures are just perfect for me! I think I'll take a nap and dream of chasing birds and eating bones. My favorites.

click, click, click

Go and read the post on our adoption blog. There isn't any big news, but a prayer request. Check this post, please.

Thanks!

wedding dress white

A story of several wedding dresses and my random sewing skills. Several years ago in June I went to the church early for a wedding with my husband, who was doing the sound for the wedding of our Pastor's middle daughter, Lauren. I ended up helping out as the wedding director was running around and when the bride's mom went to practice bustling up the dress, there was no loop.

We looked and looked and looked for the loop. There was lots of lace and beading on the skirt and we thought maybe we were missing something, but it just wasn't there. The hook was there, but there was nothing to hook the hook onto. Problem.

So that's how I ended up like this, ten minutes before Lauren walked down the aisle.

I said to someone, "if you have a needle and white thread, I could probably make a loop. It wouldn't be hard." So we ran around, looking for a needle. Turned out the reception decorator had a needle, but only had black thread. We looked around some more and I noticed that some she was using some cheesecloth, which is basically thread. We tore some thread off the edge and I ran down the hallway to the holding room and had Lauren lean against this cubby thing while I swore I wouldn't poke her and sewed on a loop of thread. In the picture she is meeting one of her fiancee's relatives while I am sewing.

It was one of the most random instances of my life, when my sewing skills came in handy and I was able to help. And I love that someone captured it on camera.

Two, I have gotten addicted to the TLC show Say Yes to the Dress where brides come to Kleinfeld's bridal salon and look a wedding dresses. I love it. I liked picking out my own wedding dress and find it fun to watch others figure out what they like. It's fun when they get all emotional and cry choosing their gowns. But the interesting point about the one I watched today, was that one of the customers on this rerun was Kate Gosselin, who was picking out the dress for her vow renewal. I found it sad to watch, as she was so excited to find a dress and was thinking about what Jon would like her in and what made her feel pretty. The whole situation with Jon and Kate is so sad and slightly disturbing. There is so much trash out there about them, and I just feel bad that their kids will be able to dig it up someday. Everything lives out there on the internet.

Remember that wisdom, folks. Everything lives forever on the internet. It takes a court order when you die to have someone shut your blog or Facebook account down, I read recently. They are looking into changing that, but it will live on long past you. And that may not be a good thing.

Okay, that was a sidebar, but those are my thoughts on wedding dresses. Did you love yours? I liked mine a lot. I think I looked really good in it and felt pretty that day. It's what I could hope for on my day. Tell me about yours.

a walk around the neighborhood

Today we walked around the neighborhood and looked at some yards and landscaping. Our yard is in great need of work and Charlie started today by digging out some stumps left from plants we cut down. But we took the walk to look at what other people have done in their yards. I found several little gems of things that I liked and saw these flowers.

This blue one was one of my favorites. There is a teeny tiny bee on the center one. He was friendly.

I hate these plants (cope berry bushes?) but the berries are pretty.

I have no idea what the little purple berries are, but they seemed happy and friendly in the sunshine.

I have been enjoying my new camera lens (18-200) and learning how to work it, and I think I have finally figured out how to work the macro setting. I still can't get as close as I can with the standard 18-55 lens. I do love the softness of the bokeh. Lovely. Double click on these photos and you can see them in all their large glory. Such loveliness.