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!

Bestie's Baby Shower!

I am finally getting around to posting bestie's shower pics.  The shower was really cute and Erin got so many of the big basics - car seat, video monitor, etc.  It was a big success!  It was also the most non-stressful party planning experiences.  I did all of the decor while the other hostesses did the food and invitations.  We were going for the divide and conquer method, which worked perfectly.  We also kept track of everything on a spreadsheet (call us dorky, but nothing fell through the cracks) and all paid equal share at the end.  I've heard horror stories where one hostess ends up pitching in $10 and others are doing $100 or more.  We established from the beginning that everyone would pay the same, no matter who was buying what.  I think it worked really well, and kept one person from feeling like they were buying everything.   

 Invitations from tinyprints.com

The hostesses - me, Randi (Erin's sister), and Cerissa.  We were also Erin's bridesmaids 7 years ago!

The food - we had a mid-afternoon shower, so we did heavy hors d'oeuvres, punch and champagne.  The cupcake & cookie stand was a 3-tier cake stand with edges wrapped in ribbon.  I used masking tape to hot glue the ribbon to so that the hot glue would pop off easily. 

  The flowers - daisies and spider mum's.  Clearly my glue gun became my best friend when creating the shower decor!  The vases were wrapped with ribbon.  Wooden craft stars were painted (and glittered) to match.  For the stars in the flowers, I attached them to floral wire.

The onesie & bib decorating station & diaper cake.

Decorating onesies & bibs

Some of the finished products!  We gave everyone a guideline of trying to create a onesie or bib that tied in with their relationship with Erin and/or Trip.  Mine was the frog prince since Erin was my roomate at TCU.  

The candy station - Erin has been craving all things sour, so we picked different candies and had bags and ribbons for guests to make candy bags as favors.

Erin opening a gianormous box of diapers - always handy!  :)  For the gifts, we asked that people bring them unwrapped and we made placecards for each guest.  We displayed them around the house as decorations and it was fun to not have to sit there and do the obligatory 'Aww, that's SO cute' for each gift, plus it was environmentally-friendly to save all the wasted bags and paper.  I still have shower gift bags from Ava's!  The verse we used was cute, "Save the wrapping this time around, bring your gift as it was found."  Some of the guests wrapped anyway, which we had planned for.

Guests - there were SO many babies and little people.  Ava was happy as a little clam - she is slightly obsessed with babies.

Hostesses with Erin (and Trip)

Ava & 'Ebie'

The gorgeous family tree painting that Erin did.  She totally needs to open an Etsy store.  So pretty!  She already had several requests from girls at the shower.

Jay & Erin

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  I'll be posting a weekend wrap-up later today.  I'm also going to be on a commenting rampage, as I haven't read anyone's blogs since the middle of last week.  Be prepared!  ;)