Fright of 2010

Brad and I don't watch a million scary movies every October, anymore, but how can you have a Halloween without at least a little fright? To meet our fear quota for the holiday, we joined our friends Alex and Amber and scared ourselves silly at Millers Thrillers Haunted Woods.

David and Harmony Miller (the corpse bride and groom in the picture) are friends of ours from college. It was really neat to support them and see for ourselves how great their haunted woods were. Every single costume was incredible, the trail was super spooky complete with lots of startled-scream-inducing frights. I'd give it an A+ even if it wasn't run by friends!

We couldn't take pictures on the trail, but here's one of the four of us waiting in line. It was taken shortly after a crazy jester got in my face and I screamed and I accidentally clutched onto Alex's arm instead of my own husband's. Seriously, it doesn't take much to scare me. I was the perfect victim.

Of course we had to woo a stranger into taking a group shot by the hay bale after we (barely) survived the woods. (Seriously, barely survived. We literally had to crawl through a broken down limo with a scary person sitting there and jumping out at every third or fourth person! So close! So scary!) To celebrate our survival, we each calmed down warmed up with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. Ahhh... That's better...

PS. Aren't Alex and Amber just so vogue?

I don't necessarily go crazy about Halloween like some people, but it is always fun to make a fool of yourself by nearly peeing your pants amidst a bunch of strangers, creepy clowns, corpses, and lumberjacks (they must work with wood, or why else would they all be using those chainsaws??) at least once a year. Thank you, Millers, for meeting that need. :)

Did you scare yourself silly this year? (AKA, did you pee your pants at all??)

Another year older

Happy Birthday, Bradley!



{Pic from his 80's birthday party, last year.}

My hubby turns 27, today! For some reason, 27 seems extra-grownup to me. (Much more so than 26, anyway.)



{Pic from his recent roadtrip out West, post pending.}

I'm so excited to begin another year of watching you conquer your world, Bradley. You're strong and you're brave, and I am prouder of what you have already accomplished and what you are currently striving to achieve than you could ever know. Ever. I admire your courage and strength, and simultaneously appreciate your tenderness and love. You deserve the world. Go get it.

So, happy birthday.

Here's to another year older.

Another year stronger.

Another year braver.

Another year of growth.

Another year of accomplishments.

A year becoming even closer to the man you want to be; the man God intends for you to be; the man I know you are.

Another year together.

Happy birthday, Love.

Wild Wild West

For Halloween this year, Brad and I were a cowboy and girl visiting from the Wild West!

Can you believe that Brad made those chaps (complete with fringe) and that vest completely from scratch!?  They are totally legit. I am definitely impressed with his mad sewing skillz. Combined with my Target purchase (What? We're not that crafty!), together we made a pretty believable Western couple, huh?

Since surrounding ourselves with people we love is kind of our thing, we hosted a Cowboys and Indians costume party! A lot of our friends were able to get into character, as well, and many of them even joined in on the theme.

After we spent a substantial amount of time munching on all the festive goodies, many of us gathered together to play a game called Loaded Questions. What a hilarious way to get to know each other better! Lots of great laughs (and a few inappropriate comments) finalized our Happy Halloween of 2010.

I pretty much love our friends and getting to spend time with them. Having people over to our house (and finally having a house big enough to accommodate our party addiction) is pretty much one of Brad's and my favorite things in the whole world. Any excuse to have everyone over is good enough for us. Add costumes, games, finger foods, snacks, and punch to the mix, and we're totally sold.

We are so blessed to have these awesome people in our lives.

Love you all!

Did you and your family have a super great Halloween? If you dressed up, what were you??

Homemade Costume

My Mondays at work are always super busy, so I don't have time to compile the Halloween post that I'd like. But, since I know you're dying for some details, I'll give you a little teaser:

Brad sewed his own costume, this year. Can you believe it? He went to Joanne Fabrics, himself, finagled a pattern using his own clothes, then spent hours at the sewing machine creating it. You won't believe how great it turned out!

Any guesses on what he was/made? (No cheating, if you already know.)

Biker Babe

I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that this costume had absolutely nothing to do with Halloween.

When we recently visited Indiana, Brad and I met my dad and brother for lunch one day at Culver's (Yum!). Turns out my dad has become quite the Biker stud (on his Geezer Glide, haha), and he couldn't resist dressing his little girl up in all of his mo-mo-gear (leather coat and gloves, do-rag, and aviator shades), even though every bit of it was way too big for me.

I do believe I'd make quite the Biker Babe! Well, at least that's what my daddy told me...

Now let's see if my real Halloween costume can top this... Hope you all have a spooky Halloween and have a lot of fun dressing up in really great costumes!

The art of Subtlety

City driving has the ability to bring the road rage out in anyone. I can definitely relate to these not-so-subtle sentiments.

The funny thing is, I ended up passing this guy on the right because he was going so slow. Guess he didn't get his own message.

Dog Food Confusion

You know how Chester likes to crawl inside his dog food bag, right? Well, he doesn't seem to quite understand that he can't also fit inside one of the smaller bags.



Doesn't he look like a giant dog?

We were in a hurry, and just grabbed a small bag this time, even though we normally buy the biggest bulk-sized bag possible. Since he seemed to be in the mood to crawl into a bag of dog food, I threw down the empty one for him to play in. (I'm just that kind of loving mama who likes to please her sweet pup.)



That's more like it.

However, it didn't take very long of him licking crumbs to realize which bag had the better reward, and he went right back to squeezing his little head into the smaller one. He's no dumby, that dog of mine. He's smarter than he looks.



To each his own.

Chester is so, incredibly weird. But I totally love him and wouldn't have it any other way.

Old is all in the perspective

Happy birthday, Em!!

Love you so super much! You're the most beautiful 30-year-old person, I know! Hope you have a great one! You most definitely deserve it. Here's to another awesome, blessed year. :)

(I can't believe my best friend is 30! What in the round world?? Turns out that the older I get, the older "old" gets... Luckily, having older friends always helps to keep me feeling young! Muwahahaha.)

Speak Now

Today is like my Christmas in October! Taylor Swift's third album, Speak Now, is finally released!! I've been anticipating this new installment to my TSwift collection almost more anxiously than I anticipate Disney's Vault opening!



Isn't she beauuuutiful??

I was thiiiiis close to buying it the minute it came out, (you know how I love my midnight releases) but I discovered that Target was releasing a Deluxe Edition that included a second CD with some extra acoustic versions of her songs as well as some additional new songs and some video footage! Of course, I have to have the best of the best when it comes to my best friend. To my intense sadness, Target doesn't open their doors until 8:00 in the morning... Which simply means that I left work a mere 15 minutes after I arrived this morning so I could swiftly (see what I did there?) acquire my new prized possession!



I was barely strong enough to resist the T-shirt temptation.

The Target employees must have already noticed a Swizzle rush, or they could just recognize a lady on a mission, because as soon as I walked in, they directed me straight to the Taylor display, and I made a beeline to my new fave CD. I heard a couple of them chuckling amongst themselves as I took a self portrait of my excitement, and they discussed how they can "already see the crowd comin' in!" Whew. Good thing I beat the rest of them!



The dress is red rather than purple on Target's Deluxe Edition.

It's fair to say that I absolutely love this album and every song on it. I've spent all day listening to the entire CD on repeat, reading the lyrics and committing them to memory, not to mention decrypting the hidden messages she puts in the booklet within the lyrics of each song by having a series of letters capitalized throughout, spelling something unique to the story. She's so clever.

Oh, how I love Taylor! Honestly, we're the best of friends (and she doesn't even know it). I'm so happy today. What a happy, Taylor-filled Monday!

With Beauty and the Beast coming out, AND Speak Now, October has been a release month designed just for me! I believe it's the little things in life that make the biggest smiles... ♥

Fall Foliage

While we were up in Indiana, I couldn't help but marvel at God's beautiful artwork. It seems like He demonstrates Autumn in an even more obvious way in the Midwest than He does in the South.

Here in Nashville, we definitely still get the changing seasons with falling leaves, but I don't think we get transitioning trees quite this vibrant. What a blessing to witness; a treasure to behold.

God is so good.