HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween boys and ghouls! I hope everyone is having a wonderful and safe evening!

The last few days have been super fun here in Taylor Town! We kicked off the Halloween festivities on Friday at our annual complex Halloween Party! We hung out with all our friends so that was so much fun. I love that we have friends that live right here with us so we can hang out and have a blast all the time.



Then Saturday we headed to Mount Dora with Monika and Dave, ate dinner at a super cute French Cafe and then went on a Ghost Walk which was a riot. It was a total blast and the weather was perfect and it was just a fun night out!!



Today Mike made some amazing chili and Cynthia and Lacey came over to eat yummy food and watch the new Nightmare on Elm Street - it seems that I now enjoy horror movies - it's a very strange and recent phenomenon but we've watched several horror movies over the last few months and I haven't been scared at all and I've enjoyed them quite a bit! So we enjoyed the movie, made jokes, giggled and chatted. We had yummy Halloween themed desserts and the graveyard pudding was mostly diet friendly just the cookies and the pumpkins were not on the program so it was nice that I could actually eat something!



We once again didn't get a single trick or treater oh well maybe next year? I'm sure the candy won't go to waste!!

WINNERS!!!!

Happy Halloween Weekend everyone!!!!

Just wanted to announce the winners of my Hauntingly Huge Giveaway!!!

I decided on 3 fabulous winners and they are:

Lisa

Sandy

Cre8tive

Congratulations ladies! And please contact me with your address so I know where to send your goodies!!!

It's Recipe Time!!

I realize it's been a while since I posted a new recipe. Now that doesn't mean I haven't been cooking around here but with the new diet and the restrictions not every meal is all that exciting. But this week I've been filled with energy and I've been super duper productive so today I went through a few of the recipes on my to be tried list and decided on Roasted Pork Chops with Polenta from Real Simple magazine. You can find the recipe here.

I am not a huge pork chop fan but these were yummy and juicy and I just love roasted tomatoes so that really was a big selling point. I made a few little changes I used much less oil adding olive oil pam instead and for the polenta I used reduced fat gorgonzola instead of the gruyere, not that I don't love gruyere cause I totally do but I had the reduced fat cheese at home. I also threw in a little bit of garlic and low fat butter spread. Let me know if you give this recipe a try!!

Don't forget the big giveaway!!

A Hauntingly Huge Giveaway!

This mess is too big and too deep and too tall
We can't clean it up! We can't clean it up at all!

Dr. Seuss - The Cat In the Hat

This is what my scrapbooking room looked like this morning. Clearly it was beyond a disaster I couldn't even walk in there let alone work! And because I couldn't work in my scrap room the dining room table was quite the disaster as well!!



After 7 hours my scrap room looked like this!! Amazing right?? There are a few more touches I want to give to the room but I actually can work in there. I have a table! I have room to move and everything is pretty well organized!! It feels great I pretty much want to just stand in there and look around!!



So now that you see my great accomplishment let me tell you what this means for you my amazing readers - another giveaway!!!! I have a giant pile of goodies including lots of Christmas paper and a whole box full of rubber stamps! I will pick at least 2 but quite possible 3 winners on Friday and all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me your favorite thing about Halloween, be it a memory, tradition, costume, trick or treat!!! GOOD LUCK!!

Yesterday I...

Yesterday I woke up early, did yoga, took Mike to work and walked 2 miles!

Yesterday I weighed in -down another 2.8 pounds bringing my total to 30.5!!!

Yesterday I dressed in grown up clothes.

Yesterday I navigated my way to and around a location I wasn't totally familiar with and I didn't get lost or need any of the maps I brought with me!

Yesterday I went on an interview for the first time in a very long time.

Yesterday I took myself to the movies as a reward. I ate popcorn in the dark and laughed and cried while watching Life As We Know It.

Yesterday I felt
Grown up
Independent
Happy
Alive

Right Now

Working on my Layout a Day challenge for today and I realized it has been quite a while since I posted a Right Now Blog post - so I thought this Sunday morning would be the perfect time to do so.

Right now I am sipping coffee and watching shows we DVRed this week and my TV tray is stacked with books and magazines and notebooks and odds and ends.



Right now Mike is also sipping coffee while playing on his computer (what else?)



Right now I'm watching Alyssa drink from the water bowl in her funny way.



Right now this is what the dining room table looks like - I'm not proud of it but it's a victim of Layout a Day that's for sure!



Right now Hooper is trying to get us to play ball with him



Right now Holden is napping on a dining room chair and I really don't know where Banky is, hiding in a closet I'm betting.



Right now Alyssa is following me all over the house as I snap pictures.



Right now the patio door is open and we are enjoying the nice morning.



Right now I'm completely stressing about the job interview I have tomorrow! I barely slept last night and I don't see much sleep in my future so please wish me luck!!

Layout a Day Update!!

I am so happy to report that so far I am having another successful Layout a Day! I have created 20 for 20 layouts (today's layout is currently a work in progress) and I've learned so much about the stories I want to tell, the stories I have to tell and what great ways there are out there to tell them. I truly don't know how Lain comes up with these prompts because they are fantastic and the community she has created is incredible full of inspiring and wonderfully supportive gals. So if you haven't done one of Lain's Layout A Day Workshops you absolutely should!

Ok all the gushing aside here is a little peak at some of the pages I've created this time around!

More Fall Goodness!

What is it about the Fall that makes you want to run in the kitchen and bake and cook? Doesn't that happen to everyone? It most certainly happens to me! The other day it was so beautiful out that I just threw the patio door open and I decided to bake cookies - many many cookies! The draw back to baking all these cookies is that I can't eat them but I happily gave them away and Mike is doing a good job at eating them. I made a new recipe Double-Chocolate Cherry Cookies that are in the new Betty Crocker Fall Baking book, Mike tried to talk me out of buying another new cookbook but I showed him a couple of these recipes and he threw the book on the conveyor belt so it's pretty good that I decided to bake for him right away.


Now I may have mentioned once or twice how much I love pumpkin anything and some of you might remember how last year I posted about the pumpkin shortage and I spent all of last Fall stockpiling cans of pumpkin. This week there was a press release that the pumpkin shortage is over and that cans of pumpkin will be back on our shelves soon! In order to celebrate this very happy news I made Weight Watchers Tuscan Pumpkin-White Bean Soup - you can find the recipe here. I had a lot of points left that day so I topped the soup with some reduced fat blue cheese crumbles, so delicious!! There is just nothing like cooking in the Fall!

Stay tuned for a Layout a Day update!

7 Years!

It's amazing how fast seven years fly by but then looking back you see just how much you've packed into that amount of time. Seven years ago today Mike and I were getting married in Las Vegas surrounded by our closest family and friends and since that magical day we have packed a lot into our seven years of marriage. We've shared laughter and tears, we've moved, we've danced and held hands. We've traveled, gone to the movies and watched a lot of television. We've gained and lost friends and pounds and experiences. And through it all we did it together side by side. I no longer wonder where we'll be by the next year I'm just thankful that we'll be enjoy the journey together - I sure am glad I married my best friend!

The above layout is today's project for Layout a Day!