Recycled

Back in, let's say 1984, my Aunt Twila made me an outfit.  A very cute one, corduroy and everything.  I wore it, liked it and because it was handmade my mother saved it.  27 years later, the outfit has been given life again. 

Turkey Recipes

Today at school Emma and her classmates made a Thanksgiving Cookbook.  Below is Emma's recipe and then a couple of my favorites.....gobble, gobble!

If I had written this as a child, "Dad" would have been replaced with "Mom"
Love you Mom!!!!

Halloween 2011

Emma got out the snowman knife and wanted to start carving!  She was excited.

She was all about scooping out the pumpkin.  She did a great job and there wasn't too much complaining.  She even drew the face on her pumpkin.  

All the goo!

What a mess!  I was going to roast all the seeds until I looked at how much work it was going to be to separate the seeds and then I said just throw it all away.  Very easy clean up!

Our pumpkins!

All lit up and ready to go.

Snow White, ready to hand out candy!

Our neighbors invited us to go trick or treating with them.  Since the neighborhood is so big they pull a flat trailer so the kids don't get too pooped (or the parents!).  It was fun!

Snow White after the second stop.  At the next stop she came running up to me crying hysterically, she had to go potty!  Great!  We happened to be stopped next to an empty lot that was a perfect spot to take a squat :)

After trick or treating we went back to the neighbor's house and they had a piñata.  Emma got to go first since she was the youngest.  She doesn't look like it, but at this point she was exhausted!  She was staring off into space most of the time.  It was pretty funny.

Daddy giving Snow White some tips

Here she goes!

All the girls lined up

Weekend Getaway

This past weekend Andrew and I left Friday morning to head up to Minnesota to meet up with our friends Sarah and Chris.  We met them almost 2 years ago on our Caribbean cruise, we were celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary and they were on a belated honeymoon.  They came down and saw us for Andrew's 30th birthday a few months after the cruise and we have stayed in touch through Facebook and text.  Well, Sarah and Chris are about to have their first baby so we decided to head up there to hang out with them before the new arrival.  Sarah and Chris outdid themselves and we had a BLAST!  We left Emma with her grandparents and had a good old fashioned adults only weekend.

I don't have any pictures from Friday night because I forgot to bring my phone with us, but after we had dinner we headed over to the Mall of America.  We walked around for a bit and then decided to ride some of the roller coasters.  The coasters were so much fun and they even went upside down and did loops and the whole shebang.  It was great.  After that we went to one of the restaurants and had drinks and just hung out.

Here is what we did Saturday

Our first stop was a tour at a local brewery called Lift Bridge in Stillwater.  The beer was tasty and we even got a growler to take home with us.

Andrew enjoying a sample on the tour

Andrew, Sarah and Chris on the tour

For lunch we headed over to this restaurant, Nook, for their famous  Juicy Lucy.  It was AMAZING!  This restaurant has also been featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  I can see why.  

The famous Juicy Lucy burger.  Looks alright until....

....you take a bit.  OMG!  Yes that's cheese people.  Lots of cheese.  Pepper jack cheese to be exact.

So much cheese you can even dip your fries in it....I'm starting to drool

Andrew and Chris devouring their Juicy Lucy

DELISH!

After lunch we had some time to kill so we went back to the Mall of America and walked around.

They also took us by Target Field...pretty neat place

The golden glove at Target Field

After dinner we went to a dueling piano bar.  It was packed!  But after a bit we were able to get a table and had a great time

We finally left at 1am!  

It's a problem and it's called Pintrest and it's serious

One of my coworkers introduced me to Pintrest several months ago.

I took a quick look at it, thought it was cute and then promptly forgot about it.

Then she was talking to me about it again about a week ago and that my friends is when the sickness began.

"Hi, my name is Alyssa and I'm addicted to Pintrest and crafting, thanks for coming today."

In one short week my addiction has completely gotten out of control.  I'm a crafting freak and the ideas on Pintrest are always new and exciting and changing and they have stuff for Christmas and Thanksgiving and Halloween and New Years and sewing projects and food recipes and clothing ideas and home decor, and funny sayings and oh my god I'm in love (and there's even more than that too), almost like the same kinda love that you have for your husband and child....it's intense man.

So without further ado, my projects folks.  And just remember one week, 7 short days filled with preschool and 40 hours of work and food preparation and bill paying and cleaning and showering and toothbrushing and all that other silly stuff.  Oh yeah, and I hemmed a Snow White costume, I'm not bragging or anything but I was pretty impressed with myself, I'm not gonna lie.

Black beans with fake flowers that I spray painted black and a little Halloween ribbon

I love this fall hurricane, so easy, dried split peas, red beans and popcorn

I can't wait to give this as a gift.  I started this a 9pm on Saturday and finished it by midnight.  I haven't sewn in 4 years and I really didn't know what I was doing but the tutorial I followed was awesome!

Obviously another gift and super easy as well.  The lining is vinyl, I think that's neat.

I'm not even going to lie, this cracks me up

I really shouldn't be laughing at someone elses' misfortune, but really this is funny.

On the way to my house the road gets a little bit windy and there's a great big sign like this

Which to anybody that has taken Drivers Ed, means slow down. 

But not this guy

Or the 6 other guys (yes, I'm being sexist) who have done the same thing. 

What's even funnier is that this fence is about a year old.  Yes one year.  In one year this poor fence has been slammed into at least 6 different times.  Not all in the same spot.  3 times were at the corner when you turn off this road (yes the same corner).  This spot and about 10 feet on either side has been damaged.  And then there is another spot about 50 feet from this one as well. 

Oh and I just noticed in this picture that you can see some of the fence is painted and some of it isn't.  Yeah, that part that isn't painted, that's already been fixed once, or maybe twice.  I tend to lose track.

I'm sure that by posting this, it means that I'm going to go through that fence someday too. 

But right now, I'm just enjoying laughing at those guys.

First Day of Preschool 2011

Emma  started her first day of school ever on September 6th, 2011, just one day before her 4th birthday.  She was more than ready to start school.  Emma goes to preschool at the YMCA that is about 3 minutes from our house, which is sooo nice.  She goes to school on Tuesday's and Thursday's from 9:00am-11:15am and loves every minute of it.  Her teachers are Mrs. Poss and Mrs. Blazejack and there are about 20 kids in her class.  I'd say it's a good mix of both boys and girls. 

Brushing her teeth for the big day!

Eating breakfast...getting excited!

My preschooler!

Showing off the Strawberry Shortcake book bag

Walking with Daddy

I'm so excited for her!

It was a madhouse there!  So we were waiting in the hall before they opened the classroom

Washing her hands

Signing in.  Emma was pretty much the only kid that I saw that could actually write her whole name. 

At the end of the day, giving it a big thumbs up!

Emma had a great day at preschool.  When we were getting ready to leave to go home she said that she was scared but that it was better than she thought it was going to be.  This really surprised me because she didn't seem scared at all.  I was also surprised that I didn't cry or tear up.  I think it's because I'm just so excited for her and she was more than ready to do this.  If she had to go to school a year ago, I think I would have felt a little differently.  I'm so proud of my big girl!