22 Things

I totally stole this from PinkPancakesKate...
Looked like a lot of fun, so I'm gonna give it a go.

 

22 Things I Haven't Done, 22 Things I Will Never Do and
22 Things I Have Done

 

22 Things I Haven't Done:

 

Experience Natural Child Birth

Travelled to Europe

Got so drunk that I blacked out

Done any hallucinogenic drugs

Ridden a long distance on a train

Been to the West Coast

Finished college

Been to Bonnaroo

Partied like a rock star

Successfully grown fruits/vegetables (black thumb of death for gardens)

Had to have an animal put down

Made it through a Halloween season with watching the original Halloween

Gone more then a day without eating

Gotten truly scared of a scary movie 

Tell Rupert that I don't like him or hate him

Been able to keep my hair color/style/length the same for more then a few months

Successfully quit smoking :(

Stayed at a job for more then 3 years

Gotten arrested

Paid off a car

Drank Tequila without getting sick

Given up on becoming instantly wealthy :)

 

 

22 Things I Will Never Do:

 

Go to bed angry

Go one day without telling Rupert and Chris how much I love them

Stop loving my family

Missing loved ones

Skip Halloween

Give up on Equal Rights

Become a Republican

Bungee Jump/ Sky dive

Fly internationally without tranquilizers

Be a size 0 again

Experience natural childbirth

Stop drinking coffee

Fall out of love with television

Feel ashamed of who I am

Become a Christmas person

Enjoy hot weather

Live far away from my family (if I can help it)

ENJOY a healthy lifestyle ;)

Having baby fever

Stop loving horror and crime genres

Hike the Appalachian Trail

Missing Indiana

 

 

22 Things I Have Done:

 

Had a C-Section

Gone skinny dipping with friends

Gone to a nude beach

Had a one night stand and married him :)

Honeymooned in Jamaica

Been naked in front of almost every one of my friends (for some reason they still love me!)

Played make-up artist for a wedding

Seen Halloween, Blues Brothers, Fiddler On The Roof and Scream more times then I can count

Not introduced horribly annoying shows to Rupert just because I can't stand them

Introduced Rupert to the horror genre

Cried when told "I love you"

Had a wedding that started on time

Played violin, viola, cello, piano, clarinet and bass clarinet

Missed high school marching band

Spent 4 days in a drugged out haze (thank you anxiety)

Gotten more speeding tickets then I can remember

Read the Twilight series in a week

Fallen in love with knitting

Cried watching movies I've seen before

Given up on a friendship

Played hooky and went to Asheville, NC

Stopped wishing I was a stay at home mom



Ready. Set. Halloween!!

So I know that I've been saying "It feels like fall," "Almost Halloween," etc for what is probably the last two months, but let me share something with you...

One week from today is Halloween!

How in the holy hell did that happen?

I was under the impression that it was still September and I had LOADS of time to get the rest of my decorations out, go to the pumpkin patch, buy candy, figure out mine and Chris's costumes, cook yummy fall things, have a bonfire or two and everything other fall thing I love.

But alas, no.

I swear it was my mom's birthday (9/9) like yesterday.

So now, I have one week to cram in all of the activities listed above.

I must.

This is not optional.

These are like rituals for me.

It'd be like a devout Christian skipping Christmas.

Really.

Ugh.

For some reason not only has October flown by but I find I'm not in "the mood" as much as I usually am.

The first Halloween stores open and I'm there. Decorations are out IN September and I sit on my big ol' butt just waiting for Halloween.

This weekend we finally got around to going to the pumpkin patch.

*Side story: I bought a Groupon thing for admission to Cruze Farm for pumpkins/hayrides/etc. I googled it and it showed up 5-10 miles from my house. Awesome! GG, Chris, Aunt Linda, Rupert and I load into my car and head that way. We drove in circles for 30 minutes or so before going to the Cruze website to find out that it is in Kodak (so NOT Fountain City). So we ended up at Oakes Farm in Corryton, much closer.

We decided that Rupert is old enough this year to enjoy the "Back 40" so we bought admission to that, a hayride and one pumpkin.

The hayride and pumpkin patch were the same as last year but with one exception... Rupert couldn't decide on a pumpkin. It was like a life changing decision for the poor kid. To top it off, he kept picking up the pumpkins and dropping them while we are chasing him around telling him to stop picking them up and trying to coax him into liking one of the million pumpkins we picked out. (FYI: no pumpkins were harmed in the making of this story)

There's a good one!

Ucky, pumpkin guts

Here's one!

Nope, this one!

Found one!

This one!

Here's another!

Chris: Rupert, go back towards Mommy, she has a pumpkin for you!

Pumpkins!

This is the one.

Nope, it's this way!

Got one

Coming Mom!

Got one!

This one!

Big pumpkin!

 Seriously, pick a pumpkin

This one?

Over here!

 Dad! It's too "heaby" for me.

After a good 30 minutes, he chooses a pumpkin we picked. A good, classic, round, orange pumpkin.

Then we got back in line to go the main area and let him play in the Back 40.

The Back 40 is 40 acres of corn mazes, games and activites for kids.

There's a mini corn maze (which we did) and a regular corn maze (no thanks!), a Little Creatures enclosure with a llama, miniature horses, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs, a huge sandbox, some pretty wicked slides, bounce houses, steer roping (fake), and pedal go-karts.

It was a child's dream.

Rupert had a blast just in the sandbox, the slides were like icing on the cake for him!

My totally favorite part was watching the Pumpkin Pounder blast pumpkins from the huge air compressor towards a school bus like several miles away (exaggeration?).

My other favorite part, probably my favorite favorite, was following Rupert around the mini corn maze. We were the only ones in there and we let him be the leader. It was super precious. He was giving us all directions and making sure we were following him and keeping up. *He might turn out to be a control freak like momma after all*

Chris and I also bought ourselves some pumpkins and have every intention of carving something spectacular in them this week!

Aunt Linda, GG and Rupert

The girls and Rupert

Rupert's picture of pumpkins

Rupert's picture of us standing in line

I am determined to enjoy this next week if it kills me.

I will enjoy Halloween dammit!

Meeting the Mullens

This past weekend was an amazingly long, fun, tiring, eventful few days.

We left Thursday afternoon and drove to Nashville and spent the night with Chris's parents.

We had dinner and did some socializing and even got to see Brian is in police uniform :)

Friday afternoon we left for Vincennes. It was a crazy couple of hours.

We thought we would be getting to the hotel with time to spare, but no, oh no... We lost an hour and didn't know it. Then when I was getting dressed for the rehearsal, my pantyhose ripped and my dress was a little snug (it shrunk, that's what I'm going with). So I finally arrive at the historic bank, thank you GPS, only 15 minutes late. Not bad! Bad for me, but generally not bad.

Me, excited to be back in the Motherland!

Chris, he hates straight roads.

My goofy little booger

Jesus! in Indiana

Corn! I LOVE corn!

I got to see Kate and D practicing for the wedding and ironing out all of the last minute details.

It was beautiful and inspiring.

I think watching another couple, obviously in love, reminds you of why you married your spouse and how happy you were on your wedding day.

Kate reading over the schedule

Practicing prayers and vows

After the rehearsal we headed to the parish for the rehearsal dinner and Rupert got to meet Oliver!

Oliver is the spitting image of his biological father and gave me total flashbacks to my childhood when I knew him and he was only a few years older! :)

Rupert on the parish's playground

Oliver

Oliver and Rupert watching cartoons

Oliver is waving, not hitting :)

After the dinner and socializing with lots of new and super fun and friendly folks, the drinking commenced.

We went back to the infamous 806 Main Street and got our drink on.

It was so much fun to meet the Mullen family that I had read and heard about for years!

Kate and I had met once before, like 4 years ago or more, and had remained friends since but I had never had the opportunity to meet her family and friends that I hear so much about via her blog (www.pinkpancakeskate.blogspot.com) and facebook.

The weekend also proved to change my opinion on Vincennes, Indiana. I had only been there once before and had seen very little of the town away from the interstate and was not impressed. Honestly, it looked like a little podunk dump. Boy has my mind changed! I am now in LOVE with that little cute town! They have a fabulous downtown area, complete with cute coffee shop (Pea-fections), a fun farmers market, gourmet popcorn stores, vintage stuff and art galleries. (Sigh) It's really a cool place.

Across from the farmers market

Mural on Main Street (I think)

Wedding Pumpkins

Saturday was wedding day and after breakfast Chris, Rupert and I headed out to do a little exploring of our own. First stop, coffee, I had an Irish Cream Latte with an extra shot that was pretty close to perfection. Not too sweet, just right. Then we tooled around the farmers market and I bought two necklaces, a crochet frog hat for Rupert and some baked goods. Then Rupert got to paint a pumpkin at this cute little table they had set up for the kiddos. He painted a few squiggles and mommy helped add some glitter paint and the proprietor added the googly eyes. So cute!

After that it was time to track down the bride and get to work!

I had driven up not only to see the wedding but also for the honor of being the make-up "artist".

I found Kate at her parents' art gallery, where the reception was to be held, and we got to work preparing the food for that evening. Kate had already prepared the baked goods and all that was left to do was heat, chop, mix, etc. With all of the nerves in the air and the supreme conversation happening in the kitchen, we decided to crack open the bottle of wine that I brought. It went fast. So we cracked open another bottle of wine (for the reception mind you) and finished that. Oops. Time for a booze run!

The wedding went off beautifully and the reception was a blast!

The bride was STUNNING in both of her gowns (long story) and her make up looked grand (if I do say so myself!!!) There was so much love at the entire event between the couple, their families and their friends. It was heartwarming.

Chris and I decided to head to Kentucky after the reception and spend the night with my Grandma and do some visiting before heading home. It had been a long day and I may have a had a bit to drink, so Chris did the driving and Rupert and I did the sleeping :)

Sunday we got to spend the morning catching up with Grandma, Papa John and Aunt Judy. Rupert had a blast riding the golf cart back and forth between the house and the barn and playing with the dogs. He just LOVES it there!

Then it was back in the car for another 5 hours home, ugh.

No wonder I got sick huh??

I caught a mild stomach bug and ended up missing work Monday and Tuesday.

Oh well, totally worth it!

I do believe a made a few new friends for life and it was certainly a weekend that I will remember forever!

Rupert and his eyeball sucker