Not one.

My Halloween wasn’t quite as fun as I had hoped. Baby K puked on 3 of my costumes before I just gave up and resigned to watching scary movies and handing out candy to all the little trick-or-treaters. Not a ghoul nor goblin graced my doorstep. No princesses, parrots, pirates, or pixies. Mrs. K was sad.
Anywho, here are some photos of the carving festivities! We got pumpkins for each family member. Is it just me or is mine rounder than the others? 😉 I’m going to be round as a pumpkin if someone doesn’t confiscate all this candy that didn’t get handed out last night. Any takers?
I’m going to tally up the giveaway entries in a few. Winners will be announced tonight or tomorrow. Good luck!

The Halloween Hustle

Tom Sawyer, Curious George, and (Where’s) Waldo hopped in the car this morning at 7am and sped off into the day. At least that’s who we were trying to look like. Perhaps my costume this year was a fail. Anyway, we pull into the parking lot where the Halloween Hustle 5K was taking place in our little Louisiana town. It was quite chilly for us so we didn’t get out of the car immediately. While we’re hanging out in the car, we begin to realize we’re the only people dressed up. Like THE ONLY PEOPLE. The registration form clearly stated to be creative and wear your costumes!

We can’t be the only creative people who like to run in Deridder, can we?

Captain J begins to flip. He’s all, “I can’t believe you talked me into this”, “What was I thinking?” , “The things I do for love!” And I’m all, “Oh well, we’re festive, dear. It’s okay!” I crawl in the backseat to begin feeding my little monkey. Meanwhile, J is saying how he is not getting out of the car to get our tshirts and race numbers. Then he tells me, “Hey, can you unlatch him and buckle him back in? I’m going home to change.”

Bah (Halloween) humbug!

We sped home because the race was starting in 9 minutes. 9 minutes!

Captain J runs inside and comes back out donning a Kurdish football uniform and I smile inside knowing that he does, in fact, love me. He dressed up! Hip hip hooray! I guess Tom Sawyer was a little much for him. Anywho…

we make it back to the starting line just in time and I get in the very back because I’m pushing a stroller and I just know I’m going to be slow as Christmas. The facilitators of the race are snapping photos left and right and some guy with a wig on shouts, “Why am I the only one dressed up?!”

Umm.

Yeah, I look like this every day.

Long story short,my army man and I looked like a bunch of weirdos running the streets of Deridder this morning. Good thing Baby K is still small, otherwise I fear he’d be quite ashamed. But all hope for the day was not lost. Ya see…this Mama (all worried about her out-of-shape self, disgusted by the 6-7ish extra pounds still lingering from the pregnancy) came in 2nd place of the 20-29 year old female division. Totally wasn’t expecting that! There weren’t many people in that group, I’ll admit, but as my dear friend Laura Faye said, “A win is a win!”

Baby K says, “Give me that medal, Mom!”

And I least I wasn’t dead last. Honestly, I thought I would be.

Have a super, fantastic, spooky Halloween y’all. I’ll be giving out candy with Baby K Curious George.

P.S.- Monday is the last day to enter my giveaway!

Pumpkin Patch

There are some days in life that aren’t spectacular, but in their own way they’re quite perfect- those days that nothing really happened, but you want to preserve it in your memory forever and always. Today was one of those days for me. It was just my husband, my little man, and me enjoying my favorite season. The weather was cool for the first time this year. We went to a pumpkin patch. We went for a drive. Nothing really happened except I might have fallen a little more in love with my sweet family. I love my boys!

  

Dark DIY Decor

Seriously, how cute is this?

On Monday, Captain J had the day off so I was able to get some crafting done. I had so much fun. Dork?

The only thing I purchased was black and white paint. I had the rest of the stuff laying around the house. That means you probably do, too so get to crafting!

I just really super duper love Halloween.

Halloween Crafts and Costume Ideas

Y’all know how I love Halloween, right? I do, I do, I really really doooo! To get in the festive spirit, I thought I’d direct you to a few posts I made last year for your viewing pleasure…

Are you crafty? Suppose you want to be? Here’s a cute idea for a “Some mummy loves you” card I put together. Directions are here. It’s perfect for your hunny or your child!

Maybe you need a super easy and cute costume idea? Look no further, people:

It’s Cindy Lou Who! All you need is some wire, longish hair, a ribbon, a foam cylinder or triangle, and some cute PJ’s (Post here).This was awfully cute and precious, but I decided not to be Cindy Lou Who after this. I was feeling much more bad to the bone so instead I came up with this:

Goodwill is my friend this time of year (Post here).

I’ve been a great many things over the years including a Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader:

a California Raisin, the Road Runner, witches, princesses, football players, a genie, and many other things.

I’ve been trick-or-treating for about 25 years now and I’m afraid my time has come to an end (for now anyway). This year our plans are to stay at home (dressed up of course) and hope that all sorts of little munchkins come knocking on our door for candy. I guess I’m growing up as much as I hate to. I can still have fun, though! So here’s my question to you, what should Mrs. K’s clan be for Halloween? Any ideas?

We need some creativity!

P.S.- Stay tuned tomorrow for a post showing my latest creative adventures. I repurposed items found around the house to make a super cute Halloween entry way!

A Dog Day Birthday!

Guess who had a birthday?! My little D-Nugget did. Drifter is moving into his adult years. We celebrated his first birthday on October 31, 2010. As a Halloween puppy, we should have known what kind of mischief we were in for when we adopted him. There have been many days that I wanted to throw in the towel, but I’m so glad I didn’t. He has calmed down so much, but we still have a long road of training ahead of us. Just the other day, I let him outside to relieve himself and when I came downstairs five minutes later to let him in I found him eating Arctic Melt. In a panic, I called the vet to see if he would meet an untimely death but she assured me that he would be fine- just uber thirsty! It’s moments like those that make me realize how much I love that little dog.

We got him a huge bone that he found quite challenging to maneuver. Here’s a video (especially for Miss Tiffany who suggested I post a dog vlog) we took before we handed over the enormous birthday treat. The other cutie patootie in the video is our older dog, Holly.

Here are some photos of them in their Halloween garb-

Poor souls.

We did take them to the dog park to play in the snow, though- an activity a little more up their alley than playing dress-up. I like to take them as much as possible now because they might not see snow for a long, long time when we move to GA. Enjoy some more photos!

My sweet Holly- always checking in.

Drifter-always running off to his next adventure

Holly’s quick, too!

The best of friends!

If you’ve made it this far in this post then you must be an animal lover (or just really bored) so allow me to recommend a blog for you. You should definitely check out Where Spirits Walk blog if you love dogs or are interested in dog mushing. This lady has a whole slew of huskies that she works with, mushes with, and rescues!

Also, if you’re in the Fairbanks area and need someone to take care of your furry friends while you’re away, call up Holy Dog Pet Boarding. They are so sweet and very helpful and convenient! We always leave Drifter and Holly with them when we go out of town.

 And now for one last picture-

Happy Birthday, Drifter! You’ll always be my first kid before a kid, my Braxton Hicks, if you will. 😉 Hopefully, if we ever do reproduce, our son or daughter won’t be half the handful that you were to us that first year.

Spooktacular!

Did you all have a spooktacular Halloween? I did! I’ll tell you all about it, but first I would like to mention that my computer is working now so the second part to my New Zealand post will definitely go up in the next couple of days. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Whew! This weekend was a lot of fun, but boy (or girl), am I tired! We kicked off Halloween watching scary movies on Saturday with friends. In the afternoon, Michelle, Ashley, and I went to see Paranormal Activity 2 (it was okay). The previous day, Ashley and I saw Let Me In which was just okay, too. I was glad I went to both of them, though! Anyway, Saturday evening we piled up on Michelle’s couches with our husbands and watched Freddy Krueger, Zombie Land, and Final Destination.

The next day we decided to get all dressed up and go out bowling and trick-or-treating. As you probably recall, I had decided to be Cindy Lou Who, but in a last minute costume change I went with something a little more fun- my interpretation of KISS-

As you can see, this was a pretty drastic change. Easily one of my favorite costumes to date. I picked up this jewel all for about 25 bucks. The best place to go for costume ideas, props, and clothing is your local thrift store. Goodwill, or in my case here- Value Village- has unique items so you won’t be showing up at whatever function you’re going to looking exactly like someone else in an identical costume. Isn’t that the worst? I always attempt to make my costume or at least piece it together to avoid this at all costs.

Now, I’m speaking of Halloween as a very important time and to me it is! Ha! Captain J had no plans of a costume and it was driving me bonkers. I mean, was he completely unconcerned? As promised, he pulled it together and came up with what he called his alter ego:

Don’t you think I should put this photo in a Christmas card and send it out to everyone? Drifter and Holly were my little reindeers. They went along with my Cindy Lou Who costume quite nicely, but not so much with the Gene Simmons/Ace Frehley look. Oh, well…maybe one year we’ll all have coordinating costumes.

We definitely weren’t the cutest trick-or-treaters around though. Just take a look at my niece and nephews-

And the most beautiful witch I’ve seen. Cousin Aster-

I can’t wait to be around all the young’uns next year and see them dressed up in their Halloween fun. Until next year, this motley crew is signing out-

Scared to Death

Image at Scientific American

If you know me at all, you know that I love, love, love Halloween! There have only been two times in my life when I’ve missed trick-or-treating. Once was in high school in an ultimate, effective grounding situation. I won’t get into what trouble I got into all those years ago, but I will say that it totally broke my heart to not be able to trick-or-treat OR go to the big rivalry game in football that Friday evening with my friends. The other time I skipped out on scoring some free candy was last year when we were out of the country. This means that when my friends were hanging out at bars on Halloween nights in college, I was hitting up the local well-to-dos and getting huge bags full of chocolate. Yes, that’s my weakness.

I could go on forever on my love of dressing up, getting candy, watching scary movies, and mingling with other costumed weirdos on this day, but I have a question to present to you-

Can someone really be scared to death?

I was watching Sorority Row on Lifetime earlier and it got me thinking about this very thing. I decided to do a little research on the topic and I wasn’t very surprised with what I found. In short, YES! one can absolutely be scared to death. Although extremely rare, Dr. Martin A. Samuels says, “some people do have the potential to suddenly drop dead from fright.” According to this sudden death expert, the phenomenon “has to do with our normal fight or flight response.” Our bodies prepare by pumping adrenaline in and causing the heart rate to elevate. Muscles tense, digestion slows, and the surge of adrenaline can cause problems in the major organs in some individuals (Reference here).

This is the point that my nervous system starts getting all outta whack because of my lingering PTSD from an undergraduate class in neuropsych. Kidding, of course. I was bloody brilliant in that class, too. Anyway, I do recall studying synapses and the various neurotransmitters that flow through these. According to this source, copious amounts of the neurotransmitter, adrenaline, can be toxic to our visceral (internal) organs.

There you have it, folks- It’s completely feasible to drop dead from fright so in the words of Antoine Dodson you may want to “hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husbands cuz” they all very well may be susceptible to being scared to death!

A Halloween How To

Howdy partners! You were probably expecting the second half to my New Zealand story today, weren’t you? Well, tough cookie. You see, my computer (where all the photos for that post are located) is acting all finicky so I’m afraid that post will have to wait until I can get the problem fixed. In the meantime, I’m posting from Captain J’s wonderful computer (Note: you have to pet and praise your computer often if you want it to keep cooperating with you). Anyway, in the spirit of Halloween, I thought I’d spread some halloween cheer with you and show you the cute lil card I made for my hubby.

I found this idea somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where so I decided to make my own version of it. I took some photos each step of the way and I’ll try to be as specific as I can with directions, but I’ll be honest…I was wingin’ it.

First, take an 8×8 portion of card stock paper and fold it in half (like a hotdog, please).

Then, cut out two black circles and two white ones.

Place the black circles towards the bottom of the white ones (to make them look like eyes) then cut the remainder of the extra paper off.

Then get some white card stock paper and cut strips of white for a mummy look. Don’t worry about them being even or the same size or anything like that because HEY, no mummy’s perfect. 😉 hehe

Paste or glue the strips onto the card at an angle.

Next add the eyes…

Then you’ll want to add some writing to the front side of the card. I used my handy, dandy cricut again, but if you don’t have one then simply writing in fun letters would be cute, too.  I cut out letters that said, “Some Mummy…”

and on the inside, “…Loves You”

And Voila! Isn’t this the cutest thing you’ve seen in your whole life?

Okay, maybe not the cutest, but it’s up there! 😉 I hope you enjoy Halloween! It’s Drifter’s birthday so you can bet your cutie patootie we’ll be celebrating!

 

My Only Flaw

I’m sitting here listening to some praise and worship music on Pandora, trying to block out the barking symphony my dogs have created with the neighborhood dogs outside. I refuse to bring them in if they’re barking at nothing aside from boredom so in go the ear phones and out with the stress those furry friends of mine bring. I can’t wait to get to some warmer weather so that every time I take them on a walk, I don’t have to get walked in the process…they always seem to pull me along the ice instead of the other way around. Enough about them. Let’s talk about me…

It is my blog after all. The other day, Mama M. suggested I give proof of my freakishly tall toe. I decided I’ve already told you about it so I don’t have much to hide now, but please don’t be alarmed. I swear I don’t have fingers for toes–it just might look that way to you. Are you ready for this?

There it is. There you have it- my only flaw. Ha! I kid, I kid. And now for something else weird-

Need a cheap costume? Be Cindy Lou Who! I am. Captain J and I are trying to save money this year so I didn’t have the time or the moolah to spend on various parts of the costume idea I coveted. I’ll save that for next year! 😉 Instead, I got a styrofoam cone, floral wire, and a pretty pink bow and called it a day. I already had some pjs that were pink so I threw those on and fixed my hair around the props I bought. I’m sure I’ll put much more effort into this costume on Halloween, but this is the trial run photo (I just re-read that and realized how dorky I am).

Moving on…

I’ve been searching for housing at our new duty station and I’m getting excited. I regret that I’ll be leaving all the friends I’ve made here, but I look forward to being within driving distance of my old ones! I am elated that I’ll be able to actually decorate for Christmas this year instead of only breaking out the charlie brown tree of last year. When I was in college, my condo had three large trees and two small ones so to say that I miss decorating is a bit of an understatement.

We don’t have many must haves on our list for our new home aside from a fenced in yard. We really need that! Otherwise, we’re pretty open. On one hand, it’s exciting to be able to start over. On the other, it makes me feel all icky thinking of all the stuff that has to be done. I’ll keep you posted on these developments, but I can tell you that our orders have arrived and we’ll be saying goodbye to Alaska in less than a month. Goodbye Alaska, Hello Georgia. Am I ready for that? I know our poor Alaskan huskies won’t know what hit em…