Halloween in our home...

We have no kiddies to dress up, and my husband would rather cut off his own arms than dress up the dogs! This means that our Halloween pretty much consists of pumpkin carving, seed roasting, eating all the candy we buy for the neighborhood kids, and of course, pumpkin beer!

This year I was the "designer" of the team, and J was the carver. I just envision trips to the ER for stitches if I am the one doing the carving.

I am quite pleased with our final product!

This is one of our batches of pumpkin seeds. I did one batch with salt and garlic powder, and my second batch was chili powder and paprika (thanks to Maggie's suggestions!). Both are yummy! I have been eating them non stop!

And then there's this...we just can't stop. Good thing we only had about 6 trick or treaters tonight!

Happy Halloween!

Menu Monday

My meals:

Twice Baked Potatoes and Roasted Asparagus

Why are twice baked potatoes so delicious? They always hit the spot!

Chicken Enchilada Soup

This is a new favorite soup in our home! I found it via Pinterest, and we were both so happy with it! As it was cooking I was a little afraid it would taste too much like chili, but not at all! It has it's own Mexican flavor.  I also topped ours with avocados in addition to the suggested corn chips and cilantro. Avocado was a good call! 

J's Meals:

Bolognese Sauce over Spaghetti

As always, this meal was delicious. I love a good red sauce and pasta!

Red Pepper Risotto

Picture does not look too appetizing, but trust me, it was goooood!

And just for fun: 

This is my Trader Joe's find of the week.  They were sampling this White Cheddar at my TJ's last week (along with chocolate covered potato chips...oh my!). This cheese is so sharp and tangy. I want to buy some apples and slice them up to pair with this cheese. It would be a match made in heaven! Anybody else love cheddar and apples? Such a strange duo, but so delicious!

Christmas Cards

For two years in a row now, I have used Shutterfly as my go to for Christmas cards. They have a great selection, adorable cards, and their prices are great.  Here are my cards from the past 2 years...

Christmas 2009

Christmas 2010

We're excited to add Rosie the wolf dog to this year's Christmas card picture!

I have started looking around for options for this year's card, and already, I'm feeling overwhelmed. The choices are just so cute! It may take me awhile to narrow it down to just one!  

Here are three choices I am loving in this year's collection:

Seriously...how cute are all of those?

If you're interested in checking out all of the options that Shutterfly has for this year, go here!

• Christmas cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards 
• greeting cards http://www.shutterfly.com/greetings/index.jsp
• Christmas gifts http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-gifts
• holiday cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-cards
• photo books http://www.shutterfly.com/photo-books
• Christmas photo cards http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

In addition to getting to choose my own card, I have 3 coupon codes that are good for 25 free cards from Shutterfly.  The first three bloggers to email me will get those codes! (innosimplelaguageATgmailDOTcom). Sorry, I've given all 3 codes away already! Thanks for the interest!

And...just in case you weren't aware, only 55 days 'til Christmas!

Note:  I will receive holiday cards as compensation for this post.  All opinions are 100% mine though!

scarf swap!

I recently signed up for a "fall scarf swap" over on Mrs. Smith's blog.  I signed up along with some other girls, and then she paired us up to "swap" scarves.  J thought this was the goofiest thing he'd ever heard of. He asked me why I would spend money on a scarf for someone else, only to get one in return. One that I might not even like since I wasn't picking it out for myself. I guess he just doesn't understand the fun of a swap!  I live for ornament exchanges at Christmas time. This is like the fall version of that!

Anyhow....I got paired up with Mrs. Smith herself and just loved the scarf she sent me!

It is so not something I would have picked out for myself, but I love it! I tend to steer toward floral prints.  This fun geometric design is a fun addition to my scarf collection! 

I wore it on Friday for parent teacher conferences, and I received many compliments on it.

Scarves might be my favorite part of fall! Well...only after pumpkins and apple cider!

Thanks again Mrs. Smith! 

You can visit her blog to see what I sent her.

Blog Your Heart

I loved doing this post last month and linking up to Stephanie Howell's blog.  I'm feeling the need to participate again this month.

Here's what's real in my life right now:

• I went back to my retinal specialist this week. Things with my eye are okay, but not wonderful. If things don't progress, I'm likely going to need injections in my eye.  I got a new drop to try out and I'm really praying that it gets the job done.
• I dragged J to the retinal specialist with me because I was too afraid to go on my own. I was so nervous about what the doctor was going to tell me since things aren't getting better. Having him there with him helped me keep me at ease. He is one keeper of a husband (and he made us spaghetti when we got home!).
• I quite often go through out the week with chipped finger nail polish. I am that girl.
• I am finding that meeting new friends isn't as easy as a grown up as it was as a kid or even in college. This isn't something "new" to me, I guess I've just noticed it a lot lately being in a new place. However, I feel so fortunate for the internet. I have met some great girls since moving to Charlotte who I met through blogging and tweeting. I feel fortunate to call them my new friends!
• I would love a pair of new boots from Frye...I'd really love that. But I also know that shoes that expensive are just not where I should put my money right now. So what do I get instead? Boots from Target. And you know what? I got compliments all day on Wednesday when I wore them. Who says $30 can't make you look and feel great?  Am I still jealous of all of the gals I know in their $300 boots? Definitely. But am I happy in mine? Yes.
• My little sister just got hired for a job that's about a million times more awesome than mine. She's the Marc Jacobs rep for Bloomingdales in NYC. And in case you forgot, I still teach 4th graders. She is way cooler. But I wouldn't trade.  
• I turn 28 in about a month. I can't even wrap my mind around that right now.

Revenge Questions

Like many of you, Wednesday is now one of my favorite days of the week since I have Revenge to look forward to on TV.  This show is my newest guilty pleasure, and I am fully sucked into all the drama!

BUT....there are two things about this show that drive me crazy, and I just have to ask if anyone else feels the same way.

1.) How is Emily's childhood dog, Sammie, still alive? I am guessing she's about 10 in the flashbacks and around 25-30 now?  There's no way this dog is still alive and acting like a puppy. Anyone else pick up on this?

2.) I find it really odd that no one recognizes her from her childhood. All of the people she is interacting with knew her as a little girl. How has no one caught on as to who she is?


I know, I know. It's just a TV show, but these two things have been bugging me. My mom watched the show, too, and we were talking about these things just the other day. I began to wonder if the rest of you had picked up on it, too.  

Thoughts?

Menu Monday

My Meals:

Pumpkin Sausage Pasta and Roasted Broccoli

I made this pasta about a year ago, and I remembered it over the summer. I've been waiting for a cool, fall evening to make it again.  It is one of my favorite meals for fall!

J's Meals:

Pork Chili (this is his own recipe....lots of beans, lots of tomatoes, some beer, and a big piece of pork)

and Pumpkin Corn Bread

 (yes, I put goldfish in my chili)

Lighter Spinach Lasagna

A New Hampshire Wedding: Part 2

I shared some of the "details" pictures from my BIL's wedding on Thursday, here are some pictures of the actual event!

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner....

With our nieces...they're so shy and hate the camera!

The day of the wedding, I went out with J's other brother and his girlfriend and we bought some rain boots to wear to the wedding.  As beautiful as the wedding site was, it was also a little muddy.  These boots were worth every penny.  By the end of the evening, we were all muddy but I didn't care!

My new SIL is a veterinarian.  This is her dog Bo (doesn't he look so much like Layla?)...love that he attended the wedding and wore the wedding color!

Hamming it up before the ceremony began...

Me and my date waiting for everything to begin...

Here's our other niece, she was one of the flower girls...

The bride coming down the aisle. She was just gorgeous!

These are all of the ceremony. I took so many...it was all just so pretty!

J with his mom

This is J's cousin who had her sweet baby just 4 days before the wedding. We were so glad they came and we got to meet sweet baby Adara!

A few shots of us...

And then one of the only pictures I have from the reception, their first dance!

A New Hampshire Wedding

I shared last week about how beautiful my Brother in Law's wedding was in New Hampshire over Columbus Day Weekend.  Here are some of my pictures of all the "details."  Fall weddings are just so lovely. Decorating with pumpkins and wild flowers and hay bales. I love it all!  

My Sister in law (love that I get to call her that now!) had such simple taste in all her wedding decorations, but simple was perfect for an outdoor, October wedding in New Hampshire.