2nd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party!

We had friends over Saturday night to carve pumpkins. It was so nice catching up with friends we haven't seen in a while. Everyone's kiddos are getting so big! We had a great time visiting and the pumpkins looked awesome! Hopefully they'll last until Halloween! There was some pretty intricate detailing going on!

I think the trampoline was a big hit!

One of Greg's co-workers jumping and Desiree and me trying not to double bounce each other. I think everyone agreed that jumping on a trampoline is a good workout!

And in more exciting news...I got the rental car today while my car is being fixed! We were upgraded to a Chevy Impala. Ooooh! It's fun to drive. It feels really big and it's really quiet. And you can start the car with the clicker! Fun, fun! Here's the nice, new car sitting in the driveway with only 600 miles on it.

Addendum to the last post

Since the last post ended with a little bitterness, I wanted to share some funny things that I've noticed since the accident...

1. Last night I attempted to get things out of the trunk by reaching through the small opening in the back seat. I was only able to get our toothbrushes out last night. (I was tired and that's all I had the energy to do!) So this morning Greg needed the rest of his stuff out so he could go to work. So I started by reaching through the hole again, but then I decided to try to open the trunk again. Apparently you have to push the trunk down while you push the clicker and the trunk pops right open! What a nice feature! So that made it a lot easier to get things out!

2. The radio controls on the steering wheel change the station no matter what button you press! That was fun trying to turn the volume up or down and the radio switched to another preset station! Interesting!

3. I've been the safest and slowest driver in Dallas today! 35 is the new 40! And there can't be enough room between me and the next car! Especially when I'm stopped at a light!

4. I have switched my seat setting to be just barely within reach of the pedals. I may need to get pedal extensions, but there is no way my face is getting close to those airbags!

OK, well I just thought I'd share my new insights and car features! Have a good day everyone!

Weekend Adventures

Greg and I started the weekend having separate adventures of our own and then ended the weekend together with a bang...literally unfortunately!

On Friday I flew up to St. Louis for a wedding shower while Greg drove up to Oklahoma City for a fun, wedding weekend. I was exhausted when I got into St. Louis at 11:30, but apparently Greg and the guys stayed up until about 5 am the next morning! At a more traditional time for the general public to be up, I went shopping with my mom before the shower...I'm sure Greg was still sleeping! Then we went home and raked leaves! I miss raking leaves! Isn't weird how you miss things you never thought you would when you aren't able to do them any more? While raking leaving I spotted a preying mantis! OK, I'm not sure that's really what it was, but it was big and ugly! And it kept turning its head to look at us!

I'm sure Greg was still sleeping at this point!

The shower I went to was great! There was tons of yummy food, lots of good presents and I was able to see some of my high school friends' babies. They are all so big now! I wish I would have taken pictures, but I completely forgot! Meanwhile in Oklahoma...Greg was playing sand volleyball with the guys in the wedding.

I had to leave the shower early to get to Mass and dinner with my parents and nephew, Sammy. He did awesome at Mass! He didn't make a peep and he was all smiles! Then we went out to dinner at PF Changs. Here is Sammy and my Mom waiting to be seated.

Look at those chubby cheeks!

On Sunday morning I flew down to OK for Matt and Amanda's wedding. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a wedding! They had the ceremony and reception on the OU campus. Which, despite Greg's UT bias, is a very pretty campus. They had the wedding in a courtyard on the campus.

Here is the ring bearer, Michael, who is Andy and Alisa's son.
He did a wonderful job walking down the aisle and ringing his little bell!

This is the view that I had initially of the wedding.

Then Greg switched places with me and I had this view.

Much better!

Michael with Alisa after the wedding.

This is the groom's cookie cake! Not only was delicious, it was a great picture of the Dallas skyline!

This was my other favorite food at the wedding! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Mmmm!!! What a great idea! I had to restrain myself from eating too many! They were so good!

Here's what Greg thinks of arms length pictures!

The gorgeous couple cutting the cake.

They didn't end up as messy as I did at our wedding. Greg was too good at dodging my attempts! This is a before and after at our wedding...

What a nice husband!

OK OK, back to the real world! So we're heading out of Norman and I decided that I would be nice and drive so Greg could get some sleep after his long weekend. Well, we were stopped at a red light no more than 2 minutes down the road and the car lunges forward! So I stomp on the brake harder because I thought for some strange reason that the car just started moving forward on its own. Well, it turns out that we were hit from behind by a teenage girl who was probably not paying very close attention! Why else would you run into someone who had been stopped at a red light for the past 30 seconds? We ended up bumping into the car in front of us, but luckily we didn't do any damage to his car.

It took 20 minutes for the police to get there and I was a nervous wreck the entire time! I was shaking from being scared so badly and because it was really cold! Fortunately no one was seriously injured. I'm sure Greg and I have whiplash and Greg had a headache last night. I made him take a nap in the car while I drove home so I could be awake while he slept in case he had a concussion and stopped breathing. I think that shows just a little bit of how paranoid and crazy I am! I was contemplating setting my alarm when we got home to wake us up every 2 hours. But Greg vetoed that idea and we went to sleep and woke up feeling better this morning.

Here are pictures of my once beautiful car...

Fortunately it's still drivable, even if it does look a little ghetto with the bumper hanging off! I've been calling the Norman police department all morning trying to get the case report faxed down here. Then I get to call the other person's insurance company and figure out how to get my car fixed. Note to the wise, apparently you should get the other individual's insurance information when you're in an accident. Who knew! This was my first (and hopefully last!) car accident! No more please!

So that's how our weekend went! Very eventful again!

New fence project and more!

Greg and I decided that we should finish building the fence at our house before it gets too cold to stain it. So this weekend Greg built the gate for the remaining section of fence. I wanted to help, but there was way too much math involved! So I just helped with the heavy lifting! Here is a picture of the gate so far.

I was very impressed with Greg's handy work! I've taught him well! Just kidding! Now we just have to fill in about a foot on each side of the gate and then make a hole in the ground for the gate to lock in place. And I'm sure I'll be the lucky one who gets to stain it next Monday!

On a completely unrelated note...I had a great time in Phoenix this past week! I learned a lot and got to pick the brain of the CEO. I was also able to meet all the other clinicians from around the country. It was definitely fun! The time change was awesome too. Their two hours later than Dallas. I know this is going to sound weird, but it was so fun waking up at 4:30 every morning and then looking at the clock and getting to go back to sleep for another hour! I also got up every morning and exercised and still had plenty of time to get ready before our meetings started! I guess the trade off was that I was ready to go to bed at 9! Oh well!

It was back to work today and I had two kiddos who were celebrating their last day...so their wonderful parents brought me presents! Woohoo! Now I remember why I love my job! Kidding! They were so nice though! One family brought a delicious smelling candle and cinnamon monkey bread mix and the other brought some festive mums! How fun is that?! I've never had monkey bread...until tonight when I got home and made the mix! It was goooood! Don't mind the stick and a half of butter that it calls for!



Hope everyone has a great week!