Random! Random! Random! - 100th Post!

I was trying to plan some big, exciting, fun 100th post.  However, I'm have so much to catch up on that my big exciting, fun 100th post is being replaced by Random! Random! Random! 

Halloween
Halloween was great!  We had gorgeous weather here over the weekend and it was around 75* when we went Trick-or-Treating.  Love it!  I hate having to figure out how to bundle up the girls under their costumes.  Russell and Jackson came with us.  Kristin stayed home with Ryder because he was afraid of his Blues Clues costume.  Poor little guy!  Apparently he was also not down with carrying his candy bucket.  As you may have seen from my Tweet, both grandmas were out of town over the weekend.  While we love to have family close by, it was pretty nice to just be us for one holiday.  Here are a few pictures from Trick-or-Treating:

I hate that my camera does not take better pictures in dark-ish settings.  If anyone has a recommendation for a point & shoot that functions well in low light, send them to me!

October marked 1 year since I was diagnosed with and began recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome.  I have plans on writing an entire post about this, but wanted to share a quick picture.  During the first week of October 2009, I lost all movement in my face.  I was hospitalized and began the road to recovery.  The picture on the left was taken on October 31, 2009 and the picture on the right on October 31, 2010.  

 

Work, Work, Work... blah!

I'm starting to feel a little stir crazy at work.  I don't know if it is because I have been here almost three years, bored with my current position, don't feel like I'm making any progress, or what.  It's probably a combination of a lot of things.  Yesterday I got to work from home and it was awesome.  I got so much stuff done - work, house, Ava.  I feel like I got more done there (even doing a few personal things at the same time) than I ever get done when I am here.  Plus, I got to take Ava to dance and be a good wifey and have a clean house and dinner cooked.  It will never be like this every day - husbie usually works from home but had to go into the office for training - but I kind of wish it could be.  I'm scared that if I did something that I worked from home all the time, I would go crazy.  I'm also scared that if I ever decided to be a FT SAHM I would go crazy, too.  I'm just in a funk and need to get out of it!

Christmas is Around the Corner

I'm so completely craving Christmas this year - not sure why!  I always love the holidays, but this year I feel like I'm looking forward to it more than usual.  I don't love the inundation of toy commercials.  Every 30 seconds I hear Ava screeching that she wants a different toy.  Boy toys, girl toys, baby toys, it makes no difference.  Those toy marketers are smart, smart folks.

Fall-ish Weather... Finally!

Fall-ish weather has finally come to DFW!  I'm sure we'll have another couple of doses of warm before winter really hits, but if every day could be the mid-50's to low-60's, I would be a happy girl!  We kicked the heater on for the first time last night.  I do not love the nasty burning smell it makes after it has been turned off for 7-8 months!  I need to pull my sweaters down from the top of the closet and maybe pick up a few new things.  Here I come, LOFT & Limited!

H&M

Dallas is finally getting an H&M.  WOO-HOO!  For the last few years, every time I travel I carve out a couple of hours in which I can find an H&M and go shopping.  I have always thought it was complete BS that we didn't have one.  It's opening in North Park in 2011 and it cannot open soon enough for this girl!

Ava's Birthday

I can't believe my little baby is going to be 4 this month!  We're having a party for her girlfriends on the 14th (eek - less than 2 weeks!) and her family party on her actual birthday, the 21st.  Both will be Tinkerbell themed and I hope they turn out cute and that the weather holds for her friend party!  We're getting a Tinkerbell bouncy and a simply do not know what I will do if we can't use it.  Note to self:  need to come up with plan B just in case!

World Series

I've watched more baseball in the last 3 weeks than I have in the last 3 years combined.  Sheesh!  So proud of the Rangers for all they accomplished this season!  My brother, SIL, sister and nephew got to go to Game 5 (thanks for the invite people!  not!).  Luckies! 

White iPhone4Word on the street is that the release is being delayed until the Spring of 2011.  Not cool!  I have been holding out waiting to get a white one and it's looking like I might be caving before then.  Apparently there is some issue with the opaque white over the IR receiver and two different manufacturers are making the front and the back, and can't get the whites to match.  What a debacle!  

I think that's it for the current moment!  Hope everyone had a great Halloween and is having a great week!

Weekend Wrap Up

Finally we got to see some sun yesterday!  It seems like it has rained for weeks in Dallas, and it basically has.  Friday I really wanted to take the girls to the pool but it was...raining!  So, we went to open bounce at Pump It Up instead.  Wow.  There were probably 50 kids and 30 moms crammed into the bouncy house room.  It was tight and there were definitely 'traffic' problems, but the girls had a great time and wound up exhausted.  Afterward, we headed over to one of my favs, Hobby Lobby, to get stuff to make crafty wall art for the girls' playroom.  I had already picked up all of my crafty wall art supplies when we cut down an aisle and saw the cutest hot pink and lime green wall art - all 50% off!  So, I ditched my crafty wall art project and grabbed pink and lime pieces instead.  Here are a few of the ones we got:

Haley and I got everything hung up while Ava was napping and I proceeded to clean the entire house (to promote forgiveness of my Hobby Lobby spending from husbie).  We had to meet him at Hertz after he dropped off his rental car late Friday afternoon.  He came home to sparkling clean house and his favorite dinner ready-to-go.  (I'll have to post the recipe for my quick and easy chicken enchillada soup later, it is yummy!)  He did forgive the Hobby Lobby spending and thought the playroom turned out really cute.  Right before dinner we gave him his early birthday surprise.  He LOVED it and was totally surprised.  We relaxed the rest of the evening, which was really nice.

Saturday bestie came over while Austin went to play golf and we went to go check out baby things.  We had a funny moment that I completely forgot she was preggo until she turned around and whoa!  There was the belly!  ;)  We had fun hanging out and gabbing.  She brought me my birthday present, a super cute Vera Bradley towel and cosmetics bag.  I love VB!

Later that night, my brother and SIL, a nephew and my sis came over for dinner and games.  I found a really great roasted chicken recipe to make since our grill decided to go out on Saturday.  Grr.  I'll have to post that one, too!  

Sunday we saw the sun!  It was amazing.  We went to the pool for a few hours.  I love our neighborhood pool - they have a really nice set up that allows husbie and I to lay out right next to the kid pool so we are super close to Ava but can still have some relaxation time.  Haley is a super swimmer and had 5-6 of her friends there to play with in the big pool.  I wore this Victoria's Secret swimsuit.  I did have to exchange the bottoms.  I was right between sizes, so I decided on these.  I like bottoms with ties so there less chance of the 'muffin' effect.  Lol!

As you can tell, Ava really loves her new fishie floatie!

We pretty much hung out and didn't do a lot for the rest of the day, Haley and I watched a couple of my old dance competition tapes that my mom had found.  It was fun to see all of our very 90's costumes!  

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

So completely cannot wait...

...for husbie to get back from his work trip today so I can give him this:

I am soooooo excited!  It's an early birthday present, which I was going to hold until the day in August, but his BlackBerry is crapping out and his frustration ith it is growing rapidly.  And, I am NEVER able to surprise him.  So, this will totally throw him off.  :)