Happy Halloween!!!

I hope everyone has a wickedly sweet Halloween!

Light your pumpkins, gobble up some candy, then go scare a friend or two!

The Day I Loved Halloween

...and that certainly is every day! If you've been following my blog for the last month, you know I love autumn and I love the different colored leaves. Well, I'm here to tell you that Halloween is by far my favorite holiday! I plan, when Phil and I get us a house, that we are going to go all out decorating and dressing up for Halloween! Phil and I have loved carving pumpkins together ever since we started dating. I want to have Halloween parties too!

***Warning: Lots of Pictures Ahead!***

For this "The Day..." blog, I will show you lots pictures of Halloweens past where I celebrated for this holiday. Hope you enjoy!

Trick-or-Treat 1985 with my cousin Nate.

Trick-or-Treat '89 - a princess!

Two ninjas and a crazy cat - Trick-or-Treat '91 with my cousins Zach & Nate

My 5th grade Halloween Party with my two best friends - 1992.

My friend Heather the witch, with me the pirate! -Halloween 2006

Me as an evil fairy. - Halloween 2007

My rat pumpkin I carved at a pumpkin carving party, with the help of a handy stencil! -Halloween 2008

My pretty eyelashes! -Halloween 2008

My Hulk mask I wore to Cedar Point Halloweekends! We wore them for the picture on the roller coasters... it was funny and warm too! -Halloween 2008

My masked accomplices! -Halloween 2008

Running from the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man at Cedar Point Halloweekends! -Halloween 2008

Phil wanted to be a banana at Target! -Halloween 2009

Some of the girls in my class carved these pumpkins for the dental school carving contest. -Halloween 2009

Phil and I went to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV for their haunted house! I would like to just tour the asylum! -Halloween 2009

Halloween 2010 pictures soon to come!

Trick-or-Treat!

Smell my feet!

PPQ: Thriller

Thriller

Written & composed by Rod Temperton

Darkness Falls Across The Land
The Midnite Hour Is Close At Hand
Creatures Crawl In Search Of Blood
To Terrorize Y’awl’s Neighborhood
And Whosoever Shall Be Found
Without The Soul For Getting Down
Must Stand And Face The Hounds Of Hell
And Rot Inside A Corpse’s Shell
The Foulest Stench Is In The Air
The Funk Of Forty Thousand Years
And Grizzly Ghouls From Every Tomb
Are Closing In To Seal Your Doom
And Though You Fight To Stay Alive
Your Body Starts To Shiver
For No Mere Mortal Can Resist
The Evil Of The Thriller

Week #9

Welcome to Week 9 of my pic-a-day challenge! Hope you enjoy this week's pictures with the stories behind them!

Day 57: So this is what mine and Phil's pumpkins look like lit up! It has now been 3 weeks since we've carved them and I'm afraid to say that we got a little excited a little too soon cause they are starting to collapse a bit. Hopefully they'll hold out a few more days for Trick-or-Treat!

Day 58: I woke up this day sick. A not fun day that consisted of me mostly laying in bed and making trips to the bathroom, lots of reading and not too much eating. That night I had a temperature of 101.3, so this is a pic of my thermometer.

Day 59: I was still sick on this day, but I did venture out to my deck to get some fresh air and see what a pretty day it was even though I didn't feel too pretty myself.

Day 60: My mom brought in some hanging baskets this night cause she thought is was going to frost. This birdie nest with eggs was in one of the plants, and unfortunately the mommy bird was too, so we had to shoo her gently out of our house and place her nest out nearby.

Day 61: I was in the mood to decorate so I put some Halloween lights around our front door.

Day 62: Phil and I went to an old cemetery near Beech Fork campground today. Alot of the graves date back to the 1800s and many of them were babies. It was sad.

Day 63: Saturday night Phil and I decided to make these Oreo Truffles and dress them up with a festive candy corn. They were pretty yummy!

Hope everyone had a great week and was not sick like I was! Hope the upcoming week is good as well!

National Dental Hygiene Month

October is National Dental Hygiene Month!

Just wanted to make sure everyone knew where some of my past dental hygiene care posts were:

• Oral Hygiene 101
• Benefits of chewing sugar-free gum after you eat a meal!

And this is an article I found might be an interesting read called "10 Things Your Dentist Wants To Tell You".

Try to visit your dentist every 6 months and get those bitewing x-rays once a year! Those help the dentist to see if you have any cavities between your teeth that just looking in your mouth can't do!

October is a pretty important month to raise awareness for lots of different issues. Other than Dental Hygiene, there is also Breast Cancer Awareness, Domestic Violence Awareness, and you can go here to see the other observances in this month.

Stay healthy, educated, safe, and remember to be nice to all people, even if they are not like yourself!

The Day We Made An Alligator

One of my fondest memories was when my family would go to the beach when I was little and we'd make a sand alligator! I think we did this same thing multiple years in a row! I love this picture because it captures that memory PLUS it shows off all the lovely NEON of the early nineties!

I wish I could show you the other pic I have of my mom's bathing suit, but I know she'd kill me even though she doesn't know about this blog. It was a beautiful black one piece with neon green polkadots!

Have an awesome day!

Raindrops On Roses & Whiskers On Kittens...

This title was meant to lead into a post with some more of my favorite [wedding] things I've been checking out, so here goes...

Spode Blue Italian has been my choice of wedding china for as long as I can remember! I just love the color of the blue and that it seems like the each piece tells a story.

This cotton candy machine spins any hard candy flavor you want into cotton candy! I want this and I don't think I want to wait until my wedding! haha!

I like this idea of table number cubes for your reception! Makes it easy to personalize it to you and your significant other!

I would love to have green glass vases or bottles in my reception with a single flower in them, like this one...

I'm really not sure if I actually like these shoes or not, but I am kinda infatuated with them! Could never wear them cause they are way too high for me!

And finally, this is what Phil wants to wear for our wedding and I don't think I could get him to wear anything else! (I kinda like it though!)

• Do you like my favorites?

PPQ: Hiding

Hiding ©Mariah Smile
Behind closed eyes
I can’t see
Anything there
I don’t want to be

Nothing is there
As I hide under my sheets
If I can’t see them,
They can’t see me.

Week #8

Welcome to Week 8 of my Pic-A-Day Challenge!

Day 50: I went to a pumpkin patch with Phil and his family! I don't know how I have not heard in the last 5 years that we've been together that there was a patch 5 minutes from where Phil lives. I got a lovely green pumpkin that now, a week later, is orange. Oh well!

Day 51: Columbus Day was a lovely fall day! This is a pic taken while I was driving Phil to get his rental car.

Day 52: These are my new feather earrings (Adam!) I got at the Pumpkin Festival the weekend before and my new favorite shirt of the season. Today I went driving around with my friend Lee and we ate lunch in the park!

Day 53: I also got these concord grapes at a market the past weekend and they are so yummy!

Day 54: This is most likely the location of my wedding ceremony! Right there on that patch of grass in front of the pond.

Day 55: Phil took me out to eat to an italian restaurant we have never been to for our anniversary. This was a couple days after our dating anniversary, but it was on the day that marked exactly a year before we are getting married! This picture was in the bathroom of the restaurant and I found it an odd place to be (plus an odd place for me to take a pic!).

Day 56: We treated ourselves to some Maggie Moo's this fine Saturday! I got the kiddie-sized cotton candy that turned my lips and teeth blue, but it was pretty tastey!

Have a great week everybody! And don't forget to carve your pumpkins!

The Day I Planned A Wedding

And that day is now and has been going on for quite awhile, but today marks 1 year exactly until I get married! I've been scouting out locations around the area where I can have the ceremony outdoors and have the reception close by and indoors. I am very picky about where I want the wedding held, but I think I pretty much have my mind set on where it will be: Sleepy Hollow Golf Course.

I really love that it is called Sleepy Hollow and my wedding will be in October. I also like that there is a covered patio outside where I could have the ceremony if it should [heaven forbid] rain. What scares me about this location is that I can't have my own caterer come in if I don't like the food they prepare there. Phil has been there for a work party and he said the food wasn't all that great. I'm hoping it would be different for a wedding, so we'll see at the tasting.

As for a wedding dress, I love lace! Other than that, I think I'm going to have to see what style looks good on me when I get there.

I also like this one, but would rather have long:

I also LOVE this necklace and earrings I found on Etsy (my new addiction)! They are actually made out of real leaves and dipped in silver! They also have ones in copper, gold...etc.

For bridesmaid dresses, I like the idea of this dress:

But if my girls do not agree, I'm okay with all black and most styles. I like this one though:

Okay, I'm done being wedding OCD for the day, but I will most likely run more ideas by you later!

I Got Tagged!

My friend Miranda over at Hangin' Loose With The Tucci's tagged me with her little question/answer thingy! Here they are:

1. What is your daily routine like? What time to you get up, go to bed, dinner routine, etc.

• You all probably don't wanna see this, but during the week I usually get out of bed around noon. I was going to lie and say around 11am, which is sometimes true I guess, but more than likely it is noon. I love my sleep and I don't usually have anything to do early anyway. I am a night creature and looooove staying up late and go to bed around 2am. Obviously this will chance once I have a job! During the day I am usually looking for a job, planning my wedding, going to the Y, and/or hanging out with my mom. On the weekends, I am with Phil since we don't get to see eachother during the week very often. And believe it or not, it is the weekends that I get up fairly early (for me anyway) cause Phil and I like to go go go!

2. What are things you do with your family for fun. And for those of you with children, what fun things to you like to do with your kids?

• I love to travel with my family. My fondest memories are ones that involve the beach, skiing, or going on any trip! Family birthdays always turn out to be interesting too... my Aunt Marcia has seriously used the same wrapping paper for presents my entire life and most likely longer! Thanks old Lazarus!

3. What are your FAVORITE holiday traditions?

• My favorite holiday traditions are: carving pumpkins with Phil, going to haunted trails/houses/hayrides/places for Halloween with friends, decorating the Christmas tree, waiting (or trying to wait) until midnight on Christmas Eve to open a couple presents with my mom, dad, and Uncle Abbie, eating and filling up the living room with wrapping paper with my entire family on Christmas Day, and dying/hiding/hunting Easter eggs.

4. What do you do when you want to relax and have some "me time" ?

• I usually get online (here), watch some TiVo, or read a book.

5. What is one of your favorite books you've read so far?

• This is sort of a hard question. My answer I always have given before has been "Every Living Thing" by James Herriot as my all time favorite and I'm pretty sure that still stands true. His books could be counted as a series but I like that one as it stands on its own. My favorite series would have to be the Sookie Stackhouse Series by Charlaine Harris. I could also say my favorite mystery book is "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie.

6. What is your biggest guilty pleasure?

• Ice cream. That was an easy one :-)
  

Now I have to come up with my questions for 6 lucky readers:

1. What is your favorite book(s) of all time? <- I liked this question courtesy of Miranda :-)

2. Do you have any pets? If so, tell me a little about them! If not, is there a pet that you would like to have?

3. What is your favorite color and why? <- kinda lame but I'm curious!

4. If you are not blogging, what is your favorite website you like to visit?

5. What is your favorite vacation destination or one you'd like to go to?

6. Do you have any wedding planning tips for me??? <- anyone can comment on this one!

The 6 lucky readers I am tagging are:

Kelsey Claire @ Lavender, Leopard, and Lace

Jennifer Fabulous @ I know, right?

Hutch @ Be Awesome Instead

Sarah @ Princess & the Blog

JMJE @ Making Stuff is Fun.....

Not Quite Awake @ Reality Faker

Do this only if you want, and anyone else who wants to do it, please do!

PPQ: I Believe

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."


— Audrey Hepburn

5 YEARS

Before it turns midnight and the day is over, I just wanted to let everyone know that Phil and I have been together now for 5 years! There have been ups and downs, along with distance due to my schooling and because we don't live in the same city, but we have made it work and I love him with everything I am. I cannot wait to be his wife 10-15-2011!