Amazing Halloween Pumpkin Carving Skills

I must start off by telling you all the WF and I have been known to get just a little crazy about holidays. In the next few months I will be posting our decorations for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We both love to decorate our house and this year will be the first time we get to do the our house together! Whooo WHO!

Last night we attempted to carve a pumpkin. I say attempted because when we went to the store to buy said pumpkin there were like three left and all of them were deformed AND they were out of the carving kits so we had no tools to help us out. So we when free style with our somewhat deformed pumpkin. I think we did a pretty good job. Here is the result:

I know you are totally blown away! Anyway, here are some other features of our Halloween decorations in the house. Remember this year we held back because of all the stuff that has recently went down in our lives. This is a reserved house for us:

This is our balcony, you cant tel but it looks awesome with our pumpkins!

This is our skeleton on our end table. It is complete with smoke effects!

Hanging on the door when you walk into the house is this scary guy!

This is us last night trying to take a picture of us with our pumpkin. You get the idea!

WF and I are taking my niece trick or treating this weekend, I am super excited. I will be dressing up like a pirate. We are also handing out candy too! I am pumped! I hope you guys have fun this weekend. Remember to be safe and don't eat any opened or shady candy! That's solid advice from this Yankee!

Weight Watchers Sin

In keeping with my religious theme I want to talk about my overwhelming guilt. (I am catholic, what are you gunna do? or as some of you know from last night a sort of Catholic) I woke up this morning feeling horribly guilty. Let me start off by saying I weighed in at exactly one pound away from my goal weight! Yeah me. So to celebrate, I went to the Austin Blogger Happy Hour.

Well in chatting and loosing myself in all the great girls that were there I lost all control of my mouth. I ordered a frozen margarita, queso, and flour tortillas. Things I have not eaten in MONTHS. I ate them all. It was wonderful and delicious and totally sinful. I feel so guilty about this today. Ugh I know I need to just get over it but I don't know why I thought celebrating my weight loss should equal consuming massive amounts of calories and fat. But in my own little world last night this was a wonderful idea.

I am going to just blame it on my sister. She had her baby yesterday! A baby boy, no name yet. He was just over 5 pounds and seems to be pretty healthy. My sister is doing really well and I can't wait to go see them both this weekend for Halloween. And again my guilt come back over me because I did not go see her in Houston last night, instead I drank and told wildly inappropriate stories about WF. What is wrong with me? Seriously?

Ladies, I had a wonderful time with you last night! I am excited about the next HH. BUT the next time I think I will order my usual MGD 64 and snack on a veggie plate. Maybe I will be a more well behaved Yankee :)

Weight Watchers Prayer

This morning I weighed in at one pound under my goal weight. Please god let today be the day when I finally weight in at my goal weight! I think I might give my left arm to have those 5 extra maintenance points a day. I wrote to you all about my goal to loose 5 pounds in 5 weeks. As of now I am down about 2. I am working hard to feel fabulous!

In the interest of loosing weight I wanted to share one of my favorite weight loss tricks. Fiber One chocolate chip granola bars. They are only 2 points on WW and worth 100. They fill me up for hours and they always make me drink so much water. I have one every afternoon around 3 when I get my usual sweet craving. They hold me over and I feel are a great trick for everyone like me who crave something sweet!

Ugh. I want this so bad! Maybe if I hit my goal this week I can even stop by the blogger happy hour for a little rita celebration! :) Wish me luck ladies.

UPDATE: Dear woman who keeps offering me halloween candy. I hate you. Love, Christine

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was the first weekend I had at home in literally months. It was so nice. I forget how much I love our cute apartment and just hanging out at home sometimes.

Friday I got home from work and began a ridiculous project. I switched over both of our closets from summer to winter clothing. Then ironed and folded the winter stuff and vacuum sealed the summer stuff. I have to say though our closets needed the refresher and they do look amazing.

Friday night we began with Movie Night. We watched the new Ice Age movie. Very cute and nice and short. We had our most favorite meal from Pei Wei, honey seared chicken (mine is veggie) and crab wantons. It was perfect of course. We did have a downer on the night. We tried a new wine, and BOOO it was gross. So we missed out on our usual Friday night drunk that both of us love so much. Sigh.

Saturday we started off the morning with whole wheat pancakes and conversations about vows. I never thought I wanted to write my own vows until very recently. I am thinking it would be nice to write something together. Jason and Amelia did that together and it was so pretty. We are thinking about saying that in addition to our normal vows. In addition we worked on our guest list and realized we have almost 100 people invited to this wedding. NOT OK. I am sorry to say that we can not invite more than 80 and that is pushing it. We are having a small wedding for many reasons and the main one being we are paying for it ourselves and cant afford to have our second cousins there. Even if we do like them. So next weekend we will be working on cutting that list down. We also went over the budget. I have to say this is the most stressful part for me. I knew weddings cost a lot but I also thought I could be thrifty and pull off a cute wedding for cheap. But man money is spent quickly and I am just stressing out. We had to talk about cutting our rehearsal dinner way back and also maybe delaying a honeymoon. All things that bum us both out. :( But it could be much worse so we will not dwell.

In the afternoon we went super ghetto thrifty and broke into the Riata to wash my car for free. I used to live there and knew that they had these great car washing stations. I had all the stuff to wash my car inside and out, I am very much like Monica from friends in that way. So we got that taken care of and I was super excited. I literally could not believe how dirty my poor car was. Saturday night fiance worked. I took the puppy for a walk and then cought up on my shows on DVR.

Sunday we got up and I made french toast WW style. We then went to Crate and Barrel to register. Let me tell you it was awesome! The people there are so nice and I just love all their stuff. We had a checklist I got from Real Simple that really helped us stay on task. Even with that it took us almost three hours! After all is said and done I am very happy with it. We even registered for some furniture to hopefully be able to buy with the completion program they have! Some of the highlights from the registry:

(Amazing martini glasses that are totally impractical, but we love them) 

 (I have wanted one of these for so long)

(This throw goes perfectly in our living room)

(And this mixing bowls are just too cute!)

Sunday night we got sonic blasts, I know not WW friendly at all, and watched part of the new Transformers movie. We will hopefully be watching the rest tonight.

All in all this was a great weekend. I am so happy we got so much done!

Friday Night Movie Night

In attempt to continue "dating" while in conjunction save money WF and I started movie nights about a year ago. It is a fun way for he and I to share some time together that is totally stress free. We never do anything but rent a movie, get and snarf down Pei Wei and drink too much wine on the sofa in our PJ's together. It is something that sounds so simple but it has become a ritual for us. We love it. I look forward to it every weekend. Obviously if something comes up that is more important we miss movie night, but we are both always bummed about it. The last few weeks we have had a lot going on and have not gotten to do it.

Tonight we are having a real movie night. WF gets home from work around 9. I bust out the wine and Pei Wei for him by 9:10 and by 9:15 we are on the sofa in our PJ's enjoying snuggles from our puppy and the wonderful heaven that are Pei Wei crab wantons. I am so excited for tonight!

The rest of the weekend we are going to catch up on our wedding planning stuff. I will have an update for you all on Monday! Hope you guys have a good weekend!

Job Frustraition (Not Mine)

So I don't think it is much of a secret that my wonderful fiance is a really great guy. He really is a good person and I am not just saying that. He recently graduated with his master's in international diplomacy, speaks like 3 languages fluently and a bunch others conversationally. He is super smart and if people would just give him a freaking shot I know in my heart of hearts he will do such great things! But no, he is getting anything. No interviews, not even emails back. NOTHING.

He tries so hard and this has been going on for a year now. He took an internship at a really prestigious firm her in Austin last year and the loved him. Told him he was for sure going to get hired there and if not there they would help find him a job. Well then the economy tanked and it was every man for himself. He was then flown up to DC for an interview with the number 1 polling firm in the world. Got to the final two and then they decided to go on a hiring freeze! So in the mean time he took a retail job managing to help pay the bills. Well that place SUCKS too. He is now driving to frigging Bastrop from north Austin and is killing himself to do right by us.

Then there was a glimmer of hope. A job was opening in a local association. I knew he would be perfect for him and I knew all the right people to get a leg up on the competition. He has the background and the drive. I just needed to get him a foot in the door. And I thought I had. My wonderful co-worker, put in a good name for him. The hiring manager said he was really interested. All was going so well. And then today only 4 days after the job "officially" opened, I find out they hired some chick. WTF?!? Really like 4 days later and its done. And why then Mr. Hiring manager would you not say something to my coworker about the fact that you already hired someone? Come on! The false hope is killing me but most of all having to tell my wonderful brilliant man that our one glimmer of hope was snuffed out before he even had a chance is just about going to kill me. I am so sad right now, and I just don't know what the hell to do.

Stupid economy.

Officiant Idol

So we are currently auditioning for the roll of interviewing people to do our wedding. Our first meeting in next week and I am super excited about this. It is the first vendor I am picking that I actually don't already have picked out before hand. I am a little worried about this one too as I am kind of in a religious funk and am not totally sure how I want the ceremony to go. I feel like the chaplains may judge fiance and I for not going to church in years. Its not that we are not religious or spiritual we just have not been able to agree on how to get back into a church. I am Roman Catholic and he is non-denominational Christian. The two things although similar are very different. Plus, I mad the choice a long time ago to leave Catholicism and try out different religions. I just have a hard time in that church as I always feel like I am being told what to do when I go.

Anyway we are meeting with 3 potential people. One did our friends wedding last weekend and I LOVED it. I did not even know he was doing it and had contacted him before their wedding. So it was kind of fun to see him in action. The second is a chaplain who was recommended on "The Knot" message boards. I am super nervous about this guy because he has sent us a 35 page letter telling us all of the guidelines we should follow. Very intimidating. The third person is the chaplain who married our friend Kelly. We know he does a great job and he is a bit more on the "traditional" side. This makes me feel more comfortable, but I cont think it makes fiance feel too awesome.

As the great "Cher" said in Clueless, if we dont "mesh well together" then we will just keep looking! In the mean time we are going to register this weekend and work on the gues list. I think we are in good shape and are in line with where we should be in our timeline. If we have any fault its that we are too busy to schedual time to do things together. But as many brides have told me, its probably a good thing he does not know every detail. :)

5 Weeks 5 Pounds

So Fiance and I have our engagement pictures in 5 weeks. Actually a little more like 4 but 5 in 5 just sounds better. I want to look really healthy and happy in those pictures. I have been working hard to loose weight but I have totally stalled out. I need to get my butt in gear, literally. I will be so mad at myself if I don't look the best I can in these pictures. I am going to start myself on a work out routine and I am going to try my hardest to hit my goal weight and a bit more before Nov. 22nd. WW hard core with a combination of working out and just saying no to snacking. If I have to I will go to a WW meeting every day from now until then darnit.

We have not yet chosen out location for the shoot yet. But I am hoping rustic, elegant and maybe a little South Congress in there. Something like a combination of these pictures:

(South Congress Ave. Austin TX)

(Mandola's Winery, Dripping Springs)

(Texas Hill County)

I really want our pictures to reflect who we are together. I really want us to look super hot in these pictures as well. I need lots of support and I need lots of reminders of why I will be working so hard to loose 5 pounds in 5 weeks. Thanks guys!

Blogger MIA

Hey Guys! Sorry I have been MIA lately. I have had a lot going on in the last few weeks and I am just now able to take a breath.

First, my sister called me two Friday's ago at 5 in the morning to tell me her water broke. Normally this is a great thing but in her case she was 10 weeks early and alone in Houston. Her husband just happened to be here in Austin to you can imagine I jumped out of bed and drove him home. She is OK, but she will be on bed rest until she does have the baby. They are pushing for her to make it to Halloween as then the baby has a chance of not going to the NNICU. So my sister is now laying in a bed bored as all heck and I feel so bad for her.

Then I had my busiest week of the year for work. We host a meeting here in Austin to teach our REALTORS how to fund raise for the PAC I work for. Its so much fun but at the same time is totally exhausting and overwhelming. We made it through relatively unscathed. For the most part there were just a few issues. I am happy to say that a lot of hard work paid off.

On Wednesday night in the midst of all of my work craziness I received a phone call from my future mother in law. She told me my fiance's grandmother had passed away. She was such a great lady and fiance is super close to her and his grandpa. Needless to say I met with him and had a long talk with him about her. It was one of the hardest things I have had to do.

In the midst of all of this fiance's best friend Jason of "both shall row..." got married this weekend. He decided to stay for the wedding and be there for Jason. The wedding was so beautiful and I felt like it was a good way to honor his grandma who raised him to be supportive of his family and friends. Jason and Amelia had the most beautiful wedding and heartfelt. Seriously, I want to borrow their families for our wedding. They all made us feel so welcome. We all shared in loving this couple who they themselves can not seem to love each other more. Both of them are amazing speakers and spoke from the heart during and after the ceremony. The decorations and location was flawless. You could tell that these two, especially Amelia put in so much time and effort to make their day special.

Fiance and I drove them to the airport and headed home for a quiet afternoon nap and some reflection on the last two weeks events. Although we can not go to the services for his grandmother I know she lives in our hearts. Parker was there for her all his life and I know she is watching over him now.

I hope the next few weeks we can catch up on the rest of our lives and have some time to enjoy eachother. We are currently interviewing people to marry us!

Fluffernutter Awesomeness

So, fiance and I like to ask each other questions as we lay in bed falling asleep. I find it a good time to ask silly questions and talk to each other. Last night I asked him the question, "If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?". He told me Gummy bears. He loves gummy bears, could eat them every day all day. In fact there is very serious discussion of his grooms cake being a huge gummy bear!

So he then proceeded to ask me the same question. After some serious thought I came up with the best sandwich ever made known to man. The Flufernetter. If you are not aware of what this is I shall explain. It is marshmallow fluff and peanut butter on two slices of bread. Amazing really. I seriously could eat one of these everyday for the rest of my life (if calories did not exist) and never get bored with it. In fact I ate one of them every day for my entire 7th grade year. My mom used to joke I would turn in too a fluffernutter sandwich one day.

Then he and I started talking about my second favorite thing in the world, Nutella. Again if you do not know what this is it is a chocolate and hazelnut spread. Taste like heaven. I put that stuff on everything. My favorite desert is strawberries and whip cream with nutella.

So I think we may have been really tired because we then started thinking what if you could dip the fluffernutter into the nutella? I mean does that not sound like the most fantastic idea ever? Like what if you could smash together amazing and heaven? Hevmazing! That's what you get! Man, now I really want something sweet. I wonder why?

Anyway, what do you think you would eat for the rest of your life if you could only have one thing?

Blogger Award!

Rules:
1. Thank the person who nominated you for this award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who nominated you for this award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might not know.
5. Nominate 7 Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know they have been nominated.

Thanks so much Victoria for nominating me! I was really surprised. My little blog is very new and I am still learning the ropes. So thanks for the shout out! Can't wait for the next happy hour!

7 Things you might not know about me:
1. I am not technically a Yankee. I was brought up in Chicago and then moved to the north east right before college. I was informed by a true Yankee friend that "Yankees" are only from New England. Guess I am busted.
2. I am in love with crappy reality TV. I love Real World, Road Rules, Shot at Love and Tool Academy. The list goes on.
3. I can't spell at all. I am horrible with grammar. This is actually the main reason I did not blog until recently.
4. I don't really like ice cream. I know I am weird, just like Ross from friends. Its just to cold in my mouth, it hurts my teeth.
5. In real life blogger Kelly is a bridesmaid in my wedding. And yes, she is as funny in real life as she is in her blog.
6. I am obsessively clean. I hate dirt and things out of order. I have gotten better at this, due to living with a boy.
7. I have a VERY short temper. Recently, I almost got into a fight with a guy at the Jason Mraz concert for telling my fiance to "keep his B**ch on a shorter leash". NOT OK. I have been known to have too much to drink and shout things like, "I am from Philly and I will cut you!"

I nominate:
For the Love - I dont know much about her, yet, but I just love her blog. So cute and happy!
Jenny - I fell in love with her engagement pictures and have been following since. 
Just Another Day - Her post when her husband cam home from his tour od duty made me cry!
Kelly - Just because I love her. She is one of the best friends a girl could have.
Better Together - I love her style. So much fun.
Miss Amelia - Because she is getting hitched, and she is another wonderful friend!
Jennifer - Because her blog makes me laugh. Just awesome. 

ACL Recap

It was muddy. It was awesome. I am exhausted and I think I may have a stress fracture in my left foot from walking 27 miles (more like 5) back from Zilker to my office after night one, in flip flops.Stupid horrible cab drivers! Other than that the music was great and I had fun spending the weekend roughing it out with WF.

Thanks to Janet's list I was pretty well prepared! :)

ACL Prep

So I am not a huge concert goer. I like to go see live music but I am not like some of my friends who go to these tree day festivals and camp out. I am just not that "hard core". I picture myself going to ACL with my lawn chair and drinking some beer in the back of the crowd and just chilling out. Well little did I know I was going with a group of serious concert goers who have all sorts of cool gear and plans for time of shows and such. This made me very nervous, as I don't like crowds and I dont like not being in control. So in the sprit of ACL and hippies everywhere I am going to make an effort to just go with it this weekend.

My friend Janet sent me a VERY detailed list of things to bring with me for ACL and I thought I would share it with all of you. I have already begun to prep all of my outfits and gather all the items on her list. Janet was my Yoda for my first float trip and has not steered me wrong yet!

From Janet:

It's Christine first big ACL adventure, so excited!! Like the float trip here is my 1st timers guide. I may add to this later this week :-)

What to Bring:

- Camel Pack, Bag, Purse or Backpack that is comfortable, not too big and not heavy and in this carry the following:

* water bottle - believe they allow 1-2 per person, you will down it just waiting in line to get your wristband

* a small pouch w/just cash (they have ATMs but lines are long and fees are big - try $30-40/day, think of buying at least one meal and drinks/extra water)

* ID (they do card for booze)

* wipes or Kleenex (TP runs out real quick!)

* cell phone - good to have, but b/c of the # of ppl service is wonky the whole time, so don't rely on it

* chap stick

* extra hair band

* Band-Aid (you never know when your feet will blister)

* sunscreen (may not as big of an issue this year w/the potential rain)

* poncho (super cheap, good to have if it happens to start pouring)

* snack bar - technically you can't bring food in (I think), but you can totally hide a granola bar or 2 at the bottom of your bag

- OPTIONAL - Chairs - this is totally optional! Note that the people who use chairs have to sit further back in a designated section, Ben & I aren't doing the chairs this year b/c it's a lot to carry all day, but it's a preference thing

What to Wear:

- Summer dress, tank and skirt or anything that doesn't show sweat & is super comfy (you will sweat your butt off even if it's cooler b/c of the crowds)

* I'm planning on wearing my summer dresses and bringing a wrap to sit on during the day and use to wrap me at night since it's going to get down in the 60's

- Comfortable shoes (I typically wear flip flops, Ben wears tennis shoes, I want to buy crocs sandals for this year - http://www.crocs.com/crocs-cleo/10043,default,pd.html?cgid=women-footwear-sandals)

What to Expect:

- BIG, HUGE crowds and LONG lines - this fest is sold out, Zilker really isn't that big. There will be a long line for food, water, bathroom, etc.

- Awesome shows! It's fun to get out there and try to listen to bands you haven't even heard of, part of the fun is discovering new music

- Some mud - haven't actually been to an ACL when it rained, so think "would I mind this getting super muddy or dusty?"

- Easy security - when you enter the fest you have to open your bag, they barely check anything which makes it go pretty quickly. . .why mention this? If you want, you can sneak a flask full of your favorite drink of a granola bar or 2. Food/drinks are expensive, this is when I don't feel guilty being a little sneaky.

Getting There:

- The best approach is whatever you think is easiest for you - honestly there isn't a best way unless you know someone super cool who lives w/in walking distance :-)

Miffed at Chipotle

So what's up with a $13 meal from Chipolte I had yesterday for lunch. REALLY? $13 for three tacos, chips and guac? REALLY? I just had to vent about this because I was blown away when the guy rang me up and gave me my total. I could not believe it. I am sure he knew because I made the worst face at him and stomped off. I could have gone to Taco-C and gotten that same meal for like 3 bucks. GOOD-ness.

Ahhh I feel better.