Pumpkins and Halloween 2008

My favorite time of the year again.... Fall and Halloween... Pumpkins, patches, carving, baking seeds and an excuse to dress up as someone you're not and drink with friends...Dan takes me to the pumking patch every year... I love it.
On Halloween we went to a house party at a friends' place. Dan was Kirk Lazarus, from Tropic Thunder. The "dude playing the dude disguised as the other dude." It was hilarious.
(Especially If you've seen the movie...)

I was a Ghostbuster. Getting slimed is no fun...
Marlon and Coral were DOG the Bounty Hunter and his wife, Beth. SO funny.

Coral did and awesome job on the costumes!
Chris and his Lioness, Junko, Tyler as a guitar hero, us, and Matt as Papa Smurf.


Papa Smurf was one of my favorite costumes...
Beth (Coral) always knows where the beer is



The real hit of the party was the Banana... played by Jeremy, of course!


Happy Halloween, you gouls!

Kevan's surprise 40th Bday party

It's starting already. The "40th bday" parties... Well, I must say, I never would guess that any of Dan's friends was anywhere close to the big four-O.

This weekend (Oct 17th) was Kevan's 40th... and we got to hang out with some of my favorite people and had the best time!
Kevan was certainly excited about his party...
Man, that's a lot of candles on that cake!
Dan and I with Kevan
Who has not changed a bit since Highschool... (his girlfriend blew up and framed this awesome shot. It's so "Top Gun.")
By the end of the night the girls and I had made all kinds of friends!
Happy Birthday Kevan!

Back out to MotoX paradise

We were invited back to Dr. Huss' private MotoX track last weekend. It was another glorious day! Already sunny and bright by 9am
Built in sprinkler system and amazing landscaping
Fueling for the day
Dan gets high first thing in the morning!
The only picture of me is of my butt. That's my dear husband...
Our friend Ed brought his daughter Maggie...so cute
She got ready all by herself
Did I mention she was SO cute?
Ed and Maggie... they grow up so fast, don't they?
She is a little daredevil and we had a blast together...
We stopped by to see my nieces on our way home. They wanted to jump right on the motorcycles also... maybe Daddy will let me take them out one of these days!

The piggy bank

So I think this pretty much describes how we are all feeling lately.
Haven't fed my Piggy in a while. The poor thing is emaciated...

It's a good thing I'm out of rooms to try to remodel, since the piggy is so broke.

Below are the last postings of the finished bedroom.

Now it's ime to start giving some back to the Piggy!

DIY: Do it yourself bedroom

When I first moved in I didn't even have bedroom furniture, so didn't have much to work with. I painted using grays, peuters in silvers
But after a while I felt like we were sleeping in an office, so I decided to go with earth tones; browns, creams, etc. I love it. Dan likes it too. It's amazing how color can make a difference in how COZY you feel!

This is the bathroom area when I first moved in... Totally blah.
And now... So after the bedroom, kitchen and patio I'm out of areas to transform. I guess now I have get back outside and go riding!

DIY: Do it yourself kitchen and patio

Dan went out of town for business three times in the past month and a half. Each time I took on a project and finished it before the came home. I hope he doesn't leave again because I'm out of rooms to work on!

Ok, so I've been watching a lot of "DIY" T.V. and the kitchen cabinets have been bugging me for a while. Nothing wrong with them, structurally, just didn't like 'em.

Now that I've done it, I have some great advice to anyone that might be wanting to start a project like this yourself: DON'T DO IT. Boy... did I open up Pandora's huge box...

When I first moved in, they looked like this: I added some color and knew the next thing to go would be that horrendous lighting...
Thomas (my handy man) put in the recessed lighting... which made a HUGE difference!
But a year later the cabinets were still bugging me. So when Dan was out of town I just took all the doors and hinges off... and starte sanding
And priming...
The worst thing about a home project is that until you're finished, the whole place is a disaster and I could not wait to finish and get it all back in place!!!
So I worked for 3.5 days straight... painted, waited for the doors to dry and put them back on.
The electric drill is my new favorite tool. Ever. The white matches the tile well and it brightens up the whole kitchen! Of course, my back was so sore I could not move for a week....

Finally! Finished. Flash didn't go off for these pictures, but it sure looks brighter in there!

When my back was feeling better and Dan went to Japan, I decided to move on to my next project. This is the patio when I first moved in:
We managed to turn it into a ghetto patio, which bugged me so much...
I kept watching DIY (Do it yourself) shows and reading magazines...
This was the best idea I've ever seen... I cleaned up and started laying wood interlocking tiles!
Getting better...
MUCH better! Now we can actually go outside and ENJOY it! :)
I even got myself a little potted herb garden, with fresh basil, rosemary, and mint.

It was SO nice when Dan came home, I cooked him (yes, I'm cooking now too, what the heck is going on with me???) a nice dinner and we ate outside on the patio by candle light! It was so nice! I think he was a bit surprised how much I got done while he was gone... Hey! I kept busy! :)