Happy Halloween

Our neighborhood did their trick-or-treating last night, so we had the Warrens and Smiths over for dinner to help with the festivities. After the door bell just kept ringing and ringing, Kaytie, Whitney, and I decided to just set up camp outside and save the ringing part. We were cracking up at some of the costumes this year. It reminded me of some of the costumes that I was over the year. One of my favs was probably Pippy Long Stocking. It was a little painful as I had to navigate bent coat hangers through my side braides... but boy it turned out great.

And look at little Harley man. He decided to go with the pirate costume again this year. The poor guy only has 2 costumes and his mama is too cheap to buy him another one. He matches the 2 pirate trick-or-treaters my mom made me for the front porch. Too bad he wouldn't take a picture with them.

And this has nothing to do with Halloween, but this was the sunset at the stadium Friday night before Matt's game started. It was so beautiful!! Happy Halloween!!

Catch Up

It's time to catch up on the last few days. Friday night Hoover played Mountain Brook and won. Hip Hip Hooray! They are undefeated right now and the last regular season game is this Friday. The playoffs will start next week and then it just goes week to week.. so we'll see what happens.



Look at this sweet picture. One of the sweet coaches wives that we sit with asked my dad to hold her precious little girl Manning for a second and look at my dad. He was having the best time with her. He's going to be a good pops one day!

A quick little 1/2 family shot at the end of the game. Sister and her hubs had to leave a little early for a bday party, so they missed the picture festivities. My family is so awesome to always support Matt!

And last night we had a little ladies night with the some of the girls in our small group. We met at Jim N Nicks for some bbq and fellowship. It was so great to catch up with everyone.

One more quick shot celebrating Lindsay front and center... mommy to be very very soon. Serisously, Lindsay is due like any minute now and I thought for a minute there she may go into labor and it would be like that episode on Saved By The Bell when Mrs. Belding comes to the school for a baby shower and has the baby in the elevator at school. Now that I think about it, what students throw their principal a baby shower.. whatever, I still love that show.

Cheap Entertainment

First, let me just go ahead and warn you that this is random. So, you know Matt and I do some crazy stuff to entertain ourselves... and this ranks up there with one of those. So, Matt got home from practice and I told him that I had always wanted to see if I could run and jump over the coffee table. So, I tried it and then he tried it and then we decided to see if we could take each others picture in the air. And here's matt flying through the air.

Obviously, by the looks of this picture you can see that I cannot jump quite as high as matt can. I am working on it though. This was after many many attempts that Matt kept saying.. oops I didn't get it.. do it again. I was tired after this last one.

Then we practiced our jumps.. matt rocks at a toe touch...

me... not so much. My thighs are sore today. It's friday... I am pumped!!

What I'm Reading

First, let me say today was a good day (other than the fact that it is another day of life) was the fact that we got out at 1:30. We had a little plumbing issue at school and they had to shut the water off and well, you just can't have 800+ students at school with no potties. Hot diggity dog! On to what this post is really about.... I am reading 2 really awesome books right now, so let me share with you. First, is Radical, by David Platt. I am doing this with a a group of girls at work in a weekly Bible study. This book will rock your world. It's all about what radical abandonment for Jesus really looks like. He talks about how we need to wake up and realize there are infinitely more important things in life than football, how cute we or our kids are dressed, how nice our furniture is, and so on. We must wake up to countless multitudes who are currently destined for a Christless eternity. I could go on and on. This book is peeling away my heart on the Christian spin to the American dream that our world has created. I have a lot to work on...

And in addition to that, we are reading Living on the Edge-R12 at church and studying it in our small groups. This book is based on Romans 12 and is teaching us how to experience true spirituality. This book has opened my eyes in so many areas. It starts with surrendering it all. Jesus reminds us that we cannot be a Christian on our own terms. Why do I feel like I need to be in control, and that I have the best plan? My Savior knows the best and has the greatest plan for my life, so I must continue to know that my Father's will for my life is far greater than I could ever imagine what I think is best. This is a really cool book too and I would recommend both of these if you are looking for something to dig into. Happy Monday!

And The Office

Are you ready for the most non exciting room of our house... (I guess other than the bathrooms). Here's our office... hold on to your seats people. A little sidenote.. on this first picture I kept trying to figure out what that while thing on the side was and why it looked like the picture was curling up... stupid me..it's the wall. I guess that just adds to the other stupid thing I did today, which was lock my filing cabinet keys in the filing cabinet with my purse.

It would help if I actually did something to the window in this room, but I just haven't. Anyways, here's the office. This room is just a hodge podge of furniture and random things from all places. Total investment in this room is under the $100 dollar range. This room actually did get used A LOT when matt and I were in graduate school... now, not so much. That papason (how do you spell this word) chair was free from a friend in college, we just got a new cushion for it. I can't guarantee how long it will last, but it's held up pretty good the last 6 years. I just ignore the cracking and creaking it makes when I sit in it.

This cabinet we actually swiped from my mema's house (I think my uncle made it). We sanded it and painted it black. We have so many books, we really need another bookshelf, but this works for now. There is matt's guitar and his beloved cowboy hat that I once tried to sell at a garage sale.

And here's our desk. We got this desk off Craig's List for 10 bucks. Now, that's a deal for you. My parents bought us the chair when we moved in, the left drawer cabinet was my great grandmothers, we sanded and painted it too. The old rickety filing cabinet was free too. See that sunflower picture... yours truly painted that. That was my first Sips n Strokes creation. Good thing you can't see it up close. See, I told you the room was full of cheap things and so much excitement!!

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we got together with our small group at church for a little Halloween bash at the Wilson's house. No costumes, just good ole pumpkin carving. After some burgers, a little mourning from our team's game, we brought out the tools and began our creations. In the bottom right picture you can see some people took carving tools to the extreme. As always, I take out the guts and Matt does the carving. I actually like sticking my hands in this yuck.

We have such a great small group and have several newer couples in our class, so it was fun to fellowship with everyone.

Some people really got all into the carving. We always have some overachievers. Matt went for a simple look this year, just 2 eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Exciting stuff!

Here's a shot of the girls. It was good to get out in the real world last night. I have been a little under the weather this week and actually had strep throat, seriously? I haven't had that since like third grade, ridiculous!

And this was the best we could do for a group shot and the trusty self-timer. Hopefully our pumpkin will make it to Halloween, unlike our sweet friends last year who got their pumpkin stolen off their porch and it was already rotten. Really, who steals rotten pumpkins?!

Let's Eat

It's that time again....Kelly's Korner --Show Us Your Life and it's all about kitchens this week. Our kitchen is nothing spectacular, but we love it and it serves its purpose. You don't have to look at us long and know that--we like to eat. This is our little breakfast "nook" -if you like to call it that. Here's a run down of the fine pieces of furniture in here. That bakers rack was mine in college and it matched my bed. That is a Big Lots special and has worked perfectly with the table we scored off Craig's List before we moved in this house. Our previous kitchen table was square and just didn't work for this space. We just recently recovered the chairs... the hubs is awesome at this task and we have done this several times in the marriage and haven't shot each other with the staple gun.

Here's the rest of the room. My favorite little gem is in the left corner, that little KitchenAid mixer Matt gave me for our anniversary this year. I love that little puppy. And who could have chosen a better color than crimson. I will honestly admit that my counter tops always look this way. It's that crazy OCD thing coming out again. I cannot stand for things to be on the counters or stuff not be put away. It's weird.. I can leave the bed unmade, but counter clutter drives me nuts. PS-look at that little stinker peeking around the corner

And this is probably my favorite little corner of the kitchen. Sister got me that H trivet a few years ago and I just love it. Matt searched high and low one year for a cookbook holder for me...love it too. Excuse the 'nanners in the picture... they don't really have a good home. Now, what's for dinner?!

Here's The Dining Room

It's Show Us Your Life again at Kelly's Korner. This week is the dining room. Hold on to your seat, cause this room is real exciting. So, here it is. We painted this room red when we moved in because I love red and well, the hubby and my dad needed something to do. And boy, did this take them a while. We have some seriously tall ceilings here, but they did a great job. We just recently got some new drapes for our dining room and I really like them and those puppies came from Wal-Mart, believe it or not.

We got our table and china cabinet at Ashley Furniture when we moved in. We didn't have a dining room in our previous two homes, so we had to purchase one and this was the floor model and we got a steal on it. Let me explain the crookedness. The leaf isn't usually in the table, but we had a little party recently and I haven't stopped to take it back out. But when we put the leaf in, I turn the table crooked so it's not so tight on the window side. It really took me a while to be able to do this, because I am a straight person. I don't like things diagonal and off the line... that's the OCD in me.

I really love our china cabinet because we finally have a place to display the china that we never use. Seriously, in all the 6 years we have been married I have never used this stuff. I have had opportunities where I probably should have used it, but I just didn't. That needs to be a goal for me... get the china out and use it. I should write that one down. Hope you have a great weekend!