Added Pictures!

I added pictures of the big Halloween party to the previous post. Check it out here!

Brace yourself for the cuteness!

Halloween Cuties!

Yesterday was a pretty boring day, until lunch that is. My mom babysits a handful of adorable kids, and since she lives three doors down from me, I stop by her house several days each week to sneak a peak at them.

Some days are better than others, but let me tell you, yesterday was a great day. It was Halloween party for the brood, and they were all decked out for the festivities. We had a Dorothy, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Charlie Brown and a fairy.

My adorable cousin Karlie as Dorothy. She is such a doll!

And we have Mr. Angelo starring as Woody!

And what's Woody without Buzz Lightyear. Michael looks good!

I told my mom I would stop by and take a few photos. Um, I took 89. What can I say? I love those kiddos, and it is quite the challenge to get the attention of little ones while they are checking out each others' costumes and the room full of fun and toys.

The kids had pizza for lunch and got snack bags of course. I believe they were going to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," after I left. They were having a ball.

Little Liam looks like Charlie Brown.

The gorgeous Khloe Rose as a fairy. I love that little pixie baby! LOVE her!

Happy Halloween from the clan:

Maddy's Home Day Pictures

We rescued our beautiful Maddy Mae from a local shelter, and my husband and I decided we would probably always rescue our animals. There are so many that need homes and just want to be loved. We are blessed with one incredibly adorable and well-behaved dog. I mean she has probably gone to the bathroom twice in our house in the four years we've had her.

Oct. 8 was the four-year anniversary of the day we brought our Maddy home with us, and I can't remember life without my furbaby. We call it her home day, and here are some pictures from her special day. Yes, we give our dog treats, sing to her and give her gifts. What can I say? I think our family would say we need a real child.

 Celebration of Maddy's home day 2010:

Our Maddy had birthday ice cream with peanut butter, and we sang "Happy Home Day!"

Maddy giving me home day kisses.

Mommy will blow out the candle!

My baby eating her ice cream.

Daddy and Maddy.

So, as you can see, we borderline worship our dog. We love her!

"Rocky Horror" captures "Glee"

Nothing too exciting is happening today, and I am on deadline for work, which is making my creativity dampen. I don't have the patience to come up with a witty post or something fun.

You know what I am excited about? "Glee" is going "Rocky Horror Picture Show" tonight, and I can't wait! It is going to be phenomenal!

I grew up watching musicals in my family. We loved "Sound of Music," "Music Man," "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Mary Poppins," just to name a few favorites. I was raised with morals, so "Rocky Horror Picture Show" was something I was not exposed to until my senior year in high school.

If you haven't seen "Rocky Horror," just picture cross dressing, crude humor and unnecessary language. It is a pretty raunchy show. I was exposed to it when my best friend from high school Carolyn and I went to visit a college we were thinking about attending. (It ended up being the school where we ended up attending.)

Well, I had visited the school with my parents and already decided I was going there. Carolyn was on the fence, so we drove up for a college visit together. It was a 45-minute drive, and we were so excited to go. We did a full tour of the campus, and since we both love music and theater, we decided to go see the college's production of the "Rocky Horror Show" that night.

We were quite surprised. Picture the two of us reserved, Catholic-school girls sitting in a play, which was full of audience participation and very risque costumes and dialogue. It was a riot, and we loved it. I can always appreciate a good production, and West Liberty always had high quality shows.

We ended up rooming together at West Liberty the next year, and the ironic part was that the theater production presented "Godspell" two years later. Although I loved the production of "Godspell" even more, I really appreciated "Rocky Horror" for what it was.

Although there isn't a real moral lesson presented in "Rocky Horror" it does have catchy music. I find the movie to be quite disturbing. It stars Tim Curry, Susan Sarrandon and Barry Bostwick. It is one of those productions that serves better as a live show.

Come on, how can you hate a show that featured "The Time Warp?"

"I wanna go to the late night, double feature picture show."

P.S. Totally off topic; we just had a tornado watch issued for our entire area. Freaky!

Week in Review - Oct. 17-23, 2010; Halloween Party

Well, we had another fun and exciting weekend, and now it's a rainy Monday. What a bummer! Anyways, last week was so busy, and I was lazy and forgot to (more like neglected to) document each day. So, I am trying to recall it all at one time! What a joy.

Sunday - It was the day after alumni band, and since we went to Mass as a part of those festivities, we didn't have to go to Mass that day. However, I did have to get up and do a Weight Watchers meeting in excruciating pain. Remember my foot saga? Oh, it was bad. I pretty much laid around and elevated my foot for the rest of the day. I even watched some of that show "Sister Wives." I totally and completely disagree with their entire lifestyle, but I couldn't look away. It was like a car accident. Later, we headed down to my parents' house for pizza and then headed home. It was relaxing, and it was nice for a change.

Monday - Monday, my foot was swollen bad, and I had trouble putting a shoe on. I hobbled into work, and my co-worker Janice encouraged me to call my doctor. So, I took the afternoon off and went to the doctor who was convinced I had gout. That whole story is here. After stopping by the doctor's office, I went to the store for my weekly groceries and dropped off my prescription. Then, I headed home and put rustic chicken in the crock pot. It was so yummy. I then ate lunch and relaxed for the afternoon and evening.

Tuesday - I woke up, and the steroids and pain killers were magical; I finally had some relief. I did some light working out that day, just to see how it went. I went to work. After work, I made beef and noodles and worked on cleaning out the office a bit in the evening. "Glee" was a re-run, so I had to make other plans. I had some stuff to put in storage, and my brother and Joe took the stuff downstairs.

Wednesday - I woke up and did Tae Bo before work. I then headed home for lunch. After work, I dropped off some stuff to Goodwill, and then I headed to Weight Watchers to do my meeting. We had leftovers for dinner, and for Wednesday date night, we watched "Hocus Pocus." We love that movie. Then we relaxed for the rest of the meeting before heading to bed.

Thursday - I got up and worked out (I believe). I went to work and went home at lunch to put chili in the crock pot for dinner. I can't remember what I did right after work. But, I remember we had chili for dinner, and then my brother came up to watch "Community," "The Office" and "Outsourced." We had hot chocolate and had a great evening, and Joe finished putting together my Halloween costume (pictures coming).

Friday - We had a busy weekend coming up. I went grocery shopping for all the events. When I came home, we had leftover chili for dinner. Joe had cleaned the house, and we had a great evening making a spider cake. We made a chocolate cake in the shape of a spider's body. We used chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles (to make it look hairy). Then we made chocolate-covered marshmallows and attached them going out from the body, to make the legs. We used pretzel M&Ms for eyes. It was huge and was a hit. We delivered it to my parents' house. That night, I could not sleep. I think I was up until 5 a.m., absolutely wide awake. It was terrible. I have gone through bouts of terrible sleep for years, and this weekend was bad. I was so exhausted. I only slept for three hours. I then got up and made a lot of food for Sunday. We were planning on heading to the pumpkin patch, and I was having my family over afterwards for food and "Sweeney Todd." On Saturday, I made pumpkin trifle, sweet potato salad, pumpkin dip and a cheeseball. Then I showered, ate and laid down for a bit before the Halloween party at my parents'. However, I only slept maybe a half an hour. I got up, got my stuff together, got ready, and then we headed to the party. We stayed there until 2:30 a.m. Then we headed home, and I got approximately five hours of sleep before my Sunday Weight Watchers meeting. It made for a long and tiresome Sunday.

Making the spider cake. My husband is the artist, and this was his baby.



I am working on the frosting and sprinkles.



Our finished project. I have quite a creative husband!

Yesterday, I got up, did my meeting, went to choir and church, headed to the pumpkin patch for a fabulous but hot few hours. We went to the shop, ate fudge and kettlecorn, shopped and had a wonderful day. Joe, my mom, dad, sister and I went, and it was so much fun. We headed to Kroger before heading back to the house for food. I served a pepperoni cheeseball (with crackers); pumpkin dip (with gingersnaps, Nilla wafers, graham crackers and cinnamon pretzels); pumpkin soup and bread; barbecue beef for sandwiches; a walnut, feta cheese and cranberry salad; homemade macaroni and cheese; Doritos; pretzels; some leftover desserts from Saturday that my mom brought up and an awesome pumpkin trifle. It was tasty. My mom, dad, sister, brother, Maria (brother's girlfriend), Joe, Father Bill (family friend who's a priest), friend Shaun and I had a great evening and watched the gruesome "Sweeney Todd," which was a hit. Joe and I love that movie.

What a week. I need a nap after my long weekend!

Here are a few more pictures from the Halloween party. Pumpkin patch pictures will come next week.

My awesome parents dressed up as Carnival  Cruise Line employees. We love cruising, and I love them! Hilarious.

And the big reveal of our costumes. I was Flo, the Progressive Insurance girl, and Joe was the Nationwide guy. This was Joe's idea. He made my apron and buttons.

My brother was the three hole punch version of Derek (as opposed to Jim). If you watch "The Office," you understand.

The Day Wasn't Bad Enough!

So, last Friday I was getting ready to go home from work, excited to start my very fun alumni weekend. Well, I woke up that morning with a really painful foot and was hobbling around all day long. You can read all about my pain here. I know people have way bigger problems and more chronic pain, but I was hurting, and I wanted to curl up and go to bed. It had been a long week.

Well, on my way home from work, I stopped at the gas station, took the gas cap off and put it on my trunk (since it is no longer attached for some unknown reason), put gas in my car, paid for it, hobbled back to my car and started my merry way down the highway dreaming of the awesomeness that I was about to go home and make (a.k.a. Oreo cupcakes).

Well, there was a real treat of a driver driving in the right lane next to me. You know what I am talking about; the person who drives really slowly, and then when you go to pass him/her they speed up...ugh! (By the way, this story has you on the edge of your stinking chair, right?)

I finally pass the person, and a semi truck comes up behind me. I see him flashing his lights at me. I couldn't figure out what he wanted, so I just kept on going. He flashes his lights again right before I get off my exit. I wanted to tell him that I was not the aggressive driver it was the other car. Then I thought, maybe that was my friend who just started driving truck with a new company, and I just didn't recognize the truck. Oh well!

I saw the friend at alumni band the next day, and it wasn't him.

On Sunday, I had my Weight Watchers meeting, and the check engine light came on in my car. Then the check gas cap light came on. It hit me: I left the gas cap sitting on top pf my trunk, and the semi truck driver saw it! Oh man! I am so frugal when it comes to stuff like that. So, I drove up and down the highway four times looking for the thing to no avail.

My brother Derek (who is in college and loves cars) went to a dealership and found out it was going to be $20. That's not bad; I thought it would be worse.

Sorry if I bored the daylights out of you. Until I figured out what the driver was trying to tell me, I was wondering and wondering. I love when I solve a good mystery! OK, it's not really a good mystery, but it was bothering me. Happy weekend!

Questionnaire of Sorts

Here is a questionnaire I found on other blogs and thought I would do. Someday, I may be able to look back and laugh at some of my answers or may still agree with them! The theme is fours (don't know why four, but it is).

Four jobs in my life:

• The Times Leader - I worked a s a reporter at a local newspaper while I was still in college. It was a paid internship, which is always a plus. Although I didn't take a job there (it was offered), I loved the people there and sometimes wish I would have stayed there. I worked with some people who influenced me significantly. Plus, I had some great experiences there. I got to cover an attempted murder trial, house fire (very sad), go skiing for a feature, go scuba diving for a feature story and even ride in an old bi-plane where I wore one those really cool leather hats and goggles. OK, they weren't cool; but, let's all pretend they are.
• The Trumpet - I was the assistant editor of my college newspaper for two-and-a-half years before becoming editor my senior year. The Trumpet was published weekly, and I really got to get my feet wet being a leader. I loved that job! I wish I could go back to those days.
• The Steubenville Register - This is where I work now. I don't have much good to say, and when you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. Let's just leave it at that: It's a job, and at least I have one.
• Weight Watchers - I am a leader for Weight Watchers. I went through some pretty incredible training, and when I think about what I do at Weight Watchers, I realize this job makes me feel most fulfilled. (yes, I am such  a cheese ball. Yum, cheeseball!) I absolutely adore helping others achieve there goals. There are tough days, but I love what I do. I think my husband would agree that I am happiest when I talk about that job.

Four movies I could watch over and over:

• Any of the Harry Potter movies - Yes, that is probably cheating, but I think of it as one story.
• "P.S., I Love You" - It is a sad movie, but I loved Ireland so much when we were there, and I just love seeing the scenes in the movie.
• "Apollo 13" - I have always found that movie to be so inspiring.
• "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (or any Christmas movie for that matter) - I adore this movie and could watch it all year around. But, I don't because my husband would frown upon that.

Four places I have vacationed:

• Ireland - Wow! What a fantastic, hospitable and beautiful country. We spent two weeks there in August, with only one day of rain and otherwise fantastic weather. It was a dream come true, and I thank God every day for a husband that helped my fulfill a dream I've had my entire life. Someday there will be an entire post on that trip.
• The Caribbean - We have been on three cruises and have been to several places in the Caribbean, including the following: Tortola, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Grand Turks, Half Moon Cay and more. I love the Caribbean lifestyle of relaxation.
• Disney World - Hello, honeymoon! It was such a magical post. I did a whole review of it here. It was quite the adventure for the two young newlyweds who had never vacationed without parents before.
• Canada - When I think of vacationing as a child, I always remember the several times we went to Niagara Falls. I loved it. My family always vacationed, and this was a favorite of all of ours.

Four favorite foods:

• Chocolate - It's a weakness. In fact, I did a whole post on that, too! I love chocolate candy, ice cream, cupcakes and frosting. It's amazing that I ever got to goal weight!
• Pasta - I may be Irish, but I love and adore Italians for their contribution of the tasty carb that is pasta. I love pasta so much, especially rigatoni. Yummy!
• Fruit - I love fruit because of how filling it is. It is naturally sweet, which helps with my sweet tooth, and it is low in calories. I have a special place in my heart for apples.
• A good hamburger - The American girl in me loves a really juicy hamburger with all the toppings. I love me a good hamburger. In fact, it is a running joke among my family and friends that I put fish and children on my burgers. For the record, I don't. Your children are safe. I eat normal toppings: ketchup, mustard, tomato, lettuce, onion, etc. The joke stemmed from a night on our first cruise when they took a picture of me eating a burger, and the burger was overflowing with toppings.

Four things I am looking forward to:

• My parents' Halloween party this weekend - It is such a great time with great friends and food. I can't wait! Don't worry; I won't forget the camera this time.
• Going to the pumpkin patch Sunday - I love the pumpkin patch. We have such  great time taking in the sights and smells of the fall season. I love fall!
• Christmas - You could ask me in January what I was looking forward to, and I would have said Christmas then, too. I just adore the season. There is nothing like it. In fact, I will probably be quite obnoxious talking about it all the time over the next few months. In my family, the Christmas music starts Nov. 1. We are a musical family, and there is way too much Christmas music to only listen for a few weeks. My husband even (reluctantly) follows this tradition! Woo hoo! It's coming!
• To see where we will be in a year -  I am hoping for a great year, and I can't wait to look back on this blog and see how much we have changed over a year.

If you do this in your blog, let me know! I would love to see your answers. Take care, and have a fabulous Thursday!

*My images are a from a collection from my computer that I have collected over time. Let me know if they belong to you!