my gift

A couple of Christmases ago my sweet cousin Holly decided to give me a 'teacher-y' gift. I couldn't wait to see what it was--after all cousin Holly has about a decades worth more so whatever gift she would give had to be amazing. Thoughts ran through my head: maybe it was a book to foster creativity, perhaps it was some little known classroom tool that only super teachers had, or perhaps it was something so insightful that I couldn't even begin to guess what it was.

Cousin Holly gave me a very practical gift: sweater socks. Yes, sweater socks. The socks are black, white, gray, and deep red. They fold over to reveal a snowflake sweater on the fold. These are quite possibly the ugliest socks I've ever seen...yet I can't get rid of them.

It's not due to sentimental value; while being the ugliest socks ever, they also happen to be the WARMEST socks ever. I LOVE them sooo incredibly much! I want to wear them all the time. :-D I'd post a picture of them but I don't want Chris to see them on here before he has the opportunity to see them in person. hehehe There's just something incredible about seeing these things in person which doesn't translate on film....er pixels.

Now that the temperature has dropped I'm wearing these babies all the time. Wahoo!!! In fact, when I pick up Chris from the airport on Thursday, I think I may have to wear them.

obsessed?

We weren't the type of family that had family game night. I'm not sure if it was due to us only owning three games or if we only owned the three as we weren't game people. We owned trivial pursuit, pretty/pretty princess, and monopoly.

All three of those games are near and dear to my heart. I am pretty bummed that I lost most of my jewelry from pretty, pretty princess. I jump at the opportunity to play any of those games. So when McDonald's brought back the Monopoly game, I was pumped! This weekend with Chris we went. Today I've been twice. TWICE!!! What's my problem?

The chance of winning is so minimal yet I'm gladly trying. I think this contest will surely be mine--I will win a million dollars...as well as a free sausage biscuit. ;-) At present I have nine game pieces (i gave my duplicates to Jonathan).

I won't go tonight for dinner--some yummy soup is going to satisfy me. I'm hoping that I don't go the Morgan Spurlock way...I don't need any added health problems. I also don't need thirty additional pounds. I do, however need some more game pieces such as Ventor Avenue, Boardwalk, and Mediterranean Avenue.

State Fair

I grew up in town that most would call small. The state fair never came to it but usually a couple of times a year a carnival would come through. In middle school it was a big deal. I'd go as often as possible and then the awesomeness of it would wear off...no longer did i want to go to them. When I heard people talk about state fairs, i thought, 'ahhh no big deal'. Then I moved to Texas.

Wow. The state fair is a big deal hear. The first two years I thought about going but never did. It didn't seem like it was that important. This year I could no longer ignore the news stories. Chris and I went to the closing day of the Texas State Fair.

As you can tell by his handsome face, we were stoked! The last time he went he was nine. We set a few ground rules: 1. we'd share all of our snacks 2. we would not ride anything that would make us vomit 3. we had to take pictures to document the experience.


Ahh the Texas Star, the largest ferris wheel in the western world, I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot. It was so much fun!!! We saw sooo many pretty sights from the top. I loved it--we could see how busy everything was. We could check it the cotton bowl. I loved it! I loved it! I loved it!

We of course had a few snacks.
Alligator sausage, fried coke, and my personal favorite: donkey tail. Yes, that's right, a donkey tail. Picture it: an all beef frank, wrapped in cheese, wrapped in a tortilla, and deep fried to perfection. As the guy told us what it was, my face lit up! Next time Chris is in town, we're going to try to make our own. Hopefully it will be yummy!

We also really enjoyed people watching. One grandmother told her grandson, 'come on fat head. solid boy. come here!' in a very endearing tone. Did any of your grandparents call you solid or a fat head? Mine never did.

Chris & I didn't want to leave. We decided we needed to go to about seventy-five more.

Fun Give Away!

A fun fall give away! Check it out!

Also look for State Fair of Texas pics to be posted later today! It was my first state fair ever.

Bruce

Ahhh that would be my sweet, wonderful boyfriend & I at a pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago. I'd never been to one & really wanted some type of frame-able picture of us for my desk at work. We've got some pretty fantastic pictures together (they mainly include us making ridiculous faces or doing something ridiculous) but nothing that quite fit the frame & display at work category. Please know we didn't miss any ridiculous photo opportunities as you can plainly see:


We had a great time! We also took the time to really think through what our pumpkin would become. We weighed our options--we bought a pumpkin carving kit (mainly because i think the tiny tools are cute)--we looked at patterns. My wonderful Chris decided it was too easy to use a pattern & we were far too creative for it.

So he free-handed a lovely design on our pumpkin & we got started. I was pretty nervous about it; I wanted our first carving session to go well...I wanted to impress anyone who would see our beautiful pumpkin.

Meet our beautiful pumpkin, Bruce:

Isn't he beautiful? I'm very proud of him! This weekend Chris & I are going to give Bruce a sibling. I'm really looking forward to our next carving project.

breathe

ahhhh...the roller coaster ride is over. I'm breathing again. My mom is doing much, much, much better. Thank you for the prayers.