Finding the kid within

Every year around Halloween Bryce, I , Nikki and Julian always get together to carve pumpkins. We are such kids! This year was a different story. Way back when the rain was falling so hard in June, I went out to our garden to find a mysterious plant growing right in the middle of the garden. I knew I didn't plant it because I had our garden on a system. I decided I would wait patiently to see what came.


Somewhere in mid July I saw the first flower. I knew this familiar plant and I knew that it would should take over everything.. and it did. It was a pumpkin! That is weird I didn't plant any pumpkins but I in deed have one.. oh wait there was 2! I figured since all the bird transplanted a few of my plants they must've plucked it out of someone else's garden into our.. oh well fair game!

Somewhere in Aug I was talking to Bryce. We not only had 2 pumpkins but we had a 3rd one growing mysteriously in our cucumbers! Wow we did really well for not planting any at all. Then is all clicked.. this had nothing to do with the birds. Bryce last year had thrown our pumpkins out into the garden after Halloween and rota-tilled the garden. We must've gotten a seed or two back there and that is where the pumpkins came from.. odd, how did they survive the winter and the tilling and the plant and such???



By the end of September it started to get cold and we knew the garden was going. I went out and picked out the pumpkins and guess what?? There was number 4! Hiding! Wow. We kept them outside on our porch until last Tues. Nikki and Julian were busy and Debbie is gone on vacation so we went and picked up Grandma. She needs to find the child within her and we helped her out. We had pizza, pop, pumpkin pie, seeds everywhere and paint up the wall (not literally) It was fun but man were we exhausted! As you can see by the first pic. Grandma painted and we carve. The witch Grandma and I did together.

We had loads of fun and who knows what surprised we will get next year! As for right now I have a dirty house that has to be cleaned. Tomorrow we will have chili, homemade rootbeer, make carmel apples (sara wish us luck this year!) and loads of trick or treaters.

New Recipe

Ok so lately I know I have been abandoning my blog. I am tired, frustrated, exhausted, sad, overwhelmed, happy, tired, frustrated.. Ok I am repeating myself. This semester in school has definitely taken its toll on me (ask any who sees me! I am always fall asleep, yawning or crying out my frustrations.. really). I am trying to enjoy school but I just don't have the energy in me to keep up sometimes. Due to that my house is a mess, laundry isn't getting done, and food is missing out of our pantry! I have no idea where it is gone. anyways...

Bryce and I have come up with this brilliant plan to not only save money but to help with time restriction both of us may have. We are now planning our meals out two week in advance. 2 weeks is ALOT of time (well it is for me) and 2 weeks with only 1 trip to the store??? am I crazy??? So far (knock on wood) it has been a huge success and so far we are seeing as little as 10 dollars to 100 dollars a week in our pockets. I thought I was a scheduler before but I really have to be scheduled for this. I also have all of our recipes in my laptop so on Monday nights we go through and pick out our meals for the next 2 weeks, I make a shopping list, print all the recipes and post them on the fridge so Bryce can make that oh so amazing food I make! really, it takes skill (for the amazing food and organization) do I have you lost yet?? well lets get onto the recipe. I did not take a picture because it looks AWFUL but some of the best food I have had looks horrible so I thought I would post the recipe and let you try it before you see it. This one I got from my great Sister in law Alisha.. she is AMAZING when it comes to organization, cooking, and family time.. I want to be just like her. Here it is:

Chicken Tortilla Soup (the VERY VERY easy version)
1 rotisserie chicken - cut into chunks or shredded
1 can of chicken broth
2 cans of 'rotel' (that is the brand) stewed tomatoes with chilies.
1 can of no fat refried beans
1/2 cup of frozen corn

Throw all of it in a pan and simmer for 15 minutes
Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese and or tortilla shells.

it is YUMMY! and with the weather so crummy, it is a nice fast easy recipe. Even your hubby can do it!

Duckies

Today is one of those days that I do NOT have my ducks in a row. They are

Here

Here

Here

Here

and here

Dumroll...

Ok for the last 3 months I have been working hard on my decorating technique. Anyone who knows me knows and don't have a single ounce of style but I am hell bent on make our house a 'home' to make it ours! I convinced Bryce to let me decorate (starting with the kitchen) to prove that it makes things more 'comfy' and if he likes it then I can move on to the rest of our house. I know it has been a while but it took me while to find all of the stuff and bring it together (not to mention the spare money I had to save up.. this was definitely 'my project'). I decided Asian themed definitely fit us both. Bryce is a bit hesitant on red walls so I thought I would keep our neutral colored walls and splash red and green with black wood as our 'pallet' (our cabinets and table is a very soft natural wood). Lets not keep the anticipation going here it is.. (next will be new dishes.. hopefully we will have them in the next two weeks.. keepin my fingers crossed! They will be dark chocolate brown and sage green, squared.. I love square dishes!)

Our decorations on the main wall (come and try our gong! it is great!)


Another view of our main wall with our pot with bamboo in the corner.


Our cute pot with bamboo.. it is BIG

Our table with our place mats that look ugly but they are an cute green.


Some more wall hangings on the wall as you enter/exit the kitchen


Our cute little tree next to our wall hangings by the entrance.

Our Sensty candle that ties it all together!

Now normally we will have something very classy up above our cabinets but right now its fall time so I had to put up our fall decorations. So here they are.. love it!

Left to right, the skeleton is above our fridge. The fall is above our stove.

The boo is in a corner and the spiders are crawling down towards the sink. We don't have cabinets above the sink but on the other side there is some more..

The harvest is to the right of our sink (next that is a window and the our back door.) We are definitely feeling fall around here.