Sunday, October 31, 2010

Halloween 2010

Today was a very special day for two reasons: 
Its Halloween and its my little pup Mac's 4th birthday! 

We first had to do some yard work and get the pumpkins outside for trick or treaters.

 Wouldn't you love to be greeted by that? 


I pulled my flowers out of the planters and placed the pumpkins on top.


Look who snatched a pumpkin decoration. He snapped the stem off with his teeth.

Onto the costume portion of the pictures...

 Skunk Costume

 Jade in a photo opp. She looks real happy right?

 I thought she needed a photo for the pictures. She didn't think that was necessary. (Golf Caddy costume)


 Costume Switch. Although Jade looks like a grinch she is a skunk and Mac is a bumblebee.

 How the photo shoot really went.

 Figured he would put some of that rusty hockey gear to use again.

 Waiting for trick or treaters to ring the doorbell.

To end my blog today I will post a picture of Mac with his birthday present from us.

(At the end of the day no matter what he does we will still love him 
and label him a "good dog.")

Love you Mac and Happy Birthday. You make me happy (most of the time). HAHA

--mJOY

Saturday, October 30, 2010

I'm Ready Halloween. You can come now.

Whew! A busy day filled with chores (ugh) and Halloween festivities (yay).
Here's a Rundown on today's completed agenda.
We cleaned the house which is now sparkly clean. We also managed to hang a coat rack in our foyer which we have been meaning to do since we moved into our house over a year ago. I think since we waited that long to do it, it feels that much more amazing to have it done. Here is a picture of the foyer with a few completed projects...

After cleaning we went shopping for a few things and purchased a few yummy smelling candles. Sometimes I am amazed what smells they can capture in a candle. One of the candles today was called Beach Holiday and it smelled like kid's sunscreen in a yummy i'm at the beach type way. Mitch didn't like it but it seemed to trigger so many memories. Kind of amazing how they do that. In the end we purchased a cranberry candle which smells like a juice box. It literally makes me thirsty to smell it. Then we bought a cake frosting smelling candle and a hot chocolate one. YUM! Guess we were hungry when we candle shopped :)
Next on our list we had to pick up something we make on pumpkin carving night as a tradition. A Papa Murphy's Jack-o-Lantern pizza. So silly yet just one little touch of the season to make your meal extra special. It was so delicious. That was followed by one of their new s'more dessert pizzas.
Go ahead. Drool.



With our full bellies we brainstormed and imprinted our carving design. Here's how it went down...



Remember yesterday's post about Mac eating everything? Here is another prime example documented...


Finally. The completed Jack-o-Lantern's....

Wait for it....

Surprise!


I think you can guess which one is mine  :)

Friday, October 29, 2010

Thank You.

How awesome it feels to return to my blog and see I have followers. It kind of puts pressure on me to keep putting forth some good blogs but its a good pressure :)
So my past weekend was pretty much super special and amazing. My husband Mitch and I went to my parents farm to visit. Now usually our visits consist of my other siblings and their significant others, children, etc. Don't get me wrong, I love getting to see my whole family but I am glad I had the opportunity for some one on one time with my mom (dad was in the field).
My mission for the weekend was to learn at least one of my mom's special gifts/abilities that she has. My mom is the most gifted and awesome mom out there I swear. She has this ability to sew, quilt, and crochet any project that she sees AND bakes and cooks great food. She has these few very special homemade items that she makes that make people swoon. The item I chose to take on was making homemade apple pies.
I started out thinking well I dont think this will take a while. I mean you cut the apples, roll the dough and freeze. Well we had enough apples to make five pies. Whew! I learned what is so hard about that task alright. The vision of flaky crusts with sweet, yet cinnamony apples helped me push on and with lots of help from my mom together we made 5 folks.
Only one mishap with the apple slicer. Apparently it can't differentiate the difference between apple skin and my skin. Ouch. Regardless, we froze and brought five frozen apple pies back home.
Fast forward past the three hour drive with Mitch, me, my dog and my cat (All of which sit in the front seat). We get home and Mitch keeps mentioning how we should bake up one of the pies. Now we just came home from the farm with pumpkin pies and pumpkin bars so I convince him to wait. Then the next day I cave in to that amazing goodness and bake up an apple pie. I already had intended on starting a blog and thought wow this is one of those things I really am grateful for. No, not apple pie. Well yes maybe but the bigger picture is my mom. She is amazing, gifted, and I hope I turn out just like her. I hope to learn all of her crafty skills.
For the blog I decided to assemble an apple pie slice "shoot" to show off this pie that I am so proud of. Pictures tell the story from here on....

A few minutes later I hear a clink and run to the dining room. This is what I find...
Notice the plate and actually I changed the crime scene. That plate was upside down on the floor below the place mat.
On the other end of the table was this...
Meet Mac. Mac eats anything and everything he finds. This includes all types of food, tissues, packs of gum, and last week cotton balls. When Mac gets caught doing something bad his ears go down. If you need this behavior defined, check the picture above. Too bad he continued to lick his apple pie lips while feeling bad. Isn't he dang cute? I think that's what saves him haha.
So yeah. This blog is extremely long because just like I mentioned in my first blog, things don't always go as planned. Mac tends to take us through some fun adventures.
My joy this blog = Mac, apple pie, and my mom!! Oh yeah and that adorable place mat and plate that the pie slice is on. Did you notice? Check it out. I picked out the plates when Mitch and I got married and my mom being so crafty designed and then figured out how to sew up placemats and a table cloth to match. She is great!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Start of Something Great...i hope :)

Hmm... Can I handle all the pressure to say something great with the first post on my blog? Well here I begin. As I embark upon the start of my blog I wonder where this will take me. I have an idea but we all know that life doesn't always go on the path we thought it would. Then some other questions hang in the back of my head with this new start. Is my life exciting enough to blog about? Will I have any great ideas to share? Well I guess I will leave that up to you readers to decide.
I am a preschool teacher and a couple of weeks ago I had the fortunate experience to attend a convention solely for Head Start teachers from six states. I always dread having to attend conventions but once you are there and engaged with an excellent speaker, one is able to forget the dread factor and starts to really listen to the speakers. While listening I began searching for useful information for my preschool classroom but also for personal information on becoming a better me. Something everybody can afford to do. One speaker at the convention gave us advice for adding more positivity in my daily life (A skill I could always improve on). He said to tell yourself every morning "Something great is going to happen today and I can't wait to find out what it is". Isn't that great? I mean as a child I LOVED surprises. Wait, who am I kidding? I still do. Life is full of great things and sometimes things are overlooked because they are so simple and "small". We just need to slow down and recognize all the great (though sometimes very small) things that happen during a day. Easier said than done I know.
The events and people in my life have come together to form a fortunate life for me. I am hoping that with this blog I can share those things that bring me joy.
Please join me on this "joy journey" as I seek to appreciate and share all the positive things in my life.
p.s. I also plan to share pictures, projects and other fun things. Don't think it will all be serious, wise advice because that isn't really me. :)

Stay posted!
-- mJOY