Bidding October Adieu!

We had an amazing Halloween weekend this year! Despite me working 2 extra shifts that is! Since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year, some cities did their trick-or-treating on Saturday, and some on Sunday. So Saturday evening we headed out to my mom's house in OKC where we had chili for dinner, then went around a few blocks for candy. Brad did good and walked almost the whole way!

After getting candy, we came back to her house and my two brothers and two nephews were there too. Then my friend Meredith and her family all stopped by to see us! It was nice to see everyone dressed up and getting into the "spirit" of things!

My mom's costume on Saturday night.

Brad and I getting ready to hit the streets.

Brad and daddy walking down the street.

Brock and Scott.

Meredith and Lexi.

My nephews Kavyn and Cameron.

Then tonight my brother Eric and sister-in-law Teri came over with bunches of snacks, and my mom and stepdad came over with brownies! I picked up a couple pizzas and we all ate then headed out to trick-or-treat in my neighborhood.

Our neighborhood had tons of people participating, and hoards of kids walking up and down the streets! It was so festive, and there were several houses with strobe lights and detailed displays set up on their porch. We all had a great time, and Brad got a HUGE bucket of candy! I gave him a few pieces along the way, but I'm sure his daddy will be making the biggest dent in it ;)

Now we are all winding down, and I am getting our stairs and upstairs carpets cleaned tomorrow morning! Yea! Oh and decorating for Thanksgiving!!

October Daze

In the Pierce household, we are all very excited about November getting here next week! We all love the holidays--the decorations, smells, food, family get-togethers, and weather. Nick and I both prefer the weather to be chilly and gray outside. I love the cooler nights where we can snuggle together to keep warm, and I can put little footed pj's on Brad.

A few days ago, Nick took Brad outside to "help" him with the car. Brad got to get inside and turn the wheel. He loved it!

Nick's parent stopped by to say hi, and we all had fun watching Brad run around everybody.

Yesterday I got in an order of 90 photos I had developed for scrapbooking. I am also going to put pictures of all the hats I have made into an album to take to craft shows so that customers can get ideas. I chose this album because it matches the colors we use on our table at shows, and because it was only $3!

Today I broke out the bread machine for the first time this season. I started off with Pumpkin Quick Bread. Man did it smell good while it was baking! I just took it out of the machine so I haven't sliced into it yet. I also have a recipe I will try later on for pumpkin spice cupcakes. Yum!

This week will be cut a little short for me because I switched my Saturday night to Thursday so that we could take Brad out trick-or-treating. Of course that was BEFORE Norman decided to do their candy night on Sunday, while pretty much the rest of the cities are doing it Saturday night. Oh well, maybe we will go out both nights! Our costumes will be a surprise--but don't be disappointed if Nick doesn't dress up. Sometimes he just likes to be an observer.

One AND Two Years Ago This Month!

October 2008 was a huge month for me--one of the biggest of my life. I had dreamed of getting pregnant for many years, and this was the month that I finally got to see my second line:

I wasn't one of the lucky girls who got pregnant all willy nilly--no, we had to work for it! 5 1/2 years and $15,000+ to be exact. But the result was so beyond doubt worth it, and I am so very blessed to have a little boy to call my own. Everyday I cherish his existence, and I know I am blessed to have him in my life. Here is our very FIRST ultrasound at 5wk!

Now fast forward another year to October 2009, and I got to actually HOLD my little one and smell his hair and kiss his cheeks. He was only 4 months old then, and was just starting to hold his own bottle, roll over, and eat cereal!

My my, how fast they grow! These memories will be with me always, and my little Bradley is truly the light of mine and Nick's eye.

My Competition

There is another girl in my husband's life....and here she is!

He is very excited to FINALLY have another old car to call his very own. His last "old" one was a '51 Chevy that had a tiny engine and needed interior. He ended up selling it because it was more work than we had time or money for at the time a few years ago. We have had a '68 Mustang and an '89 Firebird since then, but his true loves are the cars from the '50s.

It's funny how every little thing just fell into place like it was a sign from God for him to get this car! At first he wanted to buy it as a THIRD car...that was a no-go with me and we had talked about that before. But then his truck died and we actually got a good amount of money for it as a parts car. So with that plus other money we had, now he could kill two birds with one stone! He could get an old car that would be his daily driver.

He found this one but the price was way too high for us. He looked at a few others but they were wasted time because of people misrepresenting them in the ad. So Nick bargained and negotiated with this guy and ended up getting the car for a great deal, plus they towed it to our house! It does run and drive, but needs a gas tank installed to be almost complete.

It came with ghetto-fabulous lowrider wheels that Nick is going to sell and replace with more original ones. Otherwise he is beyond excited to have her in the garage finally! He can't wait to take Brad out there and start teaching him how to work on cars. I know that Nick will be very frugal with his work on it--he already knows where to get every part for it and how much they are! I love to see how smart he is with cars. That is one thing I have always been so proud of him for, and he knows it! I grew up with my dad working on our cars, and Nick knows that is one quality that is EXPECTED from me in my man! He definitely excels in that area, and has even surpassed people who taught him in the beginning. My dad is really the only guy Nick knows who can keep up with his car lingo, but it has been so long since my dad has really "dug" into a car that he is losing some mojo I think.

To drag out this subject a little more, I am saddened by the way that cars nowadays are built so that you HAVE to take it to a mechanic for just about anything. They put special adapters on things, or everything has a freakin computer chip in it. It's like there is this huge gap when you buy a car where you either have to get a really new one with a warranty, or a really old one that you can work on yourself. That is where we are at. And not to mention how expensive current cars are to fix or maintain! An old car you can go to a salvage yard and buy a carburetor for like $15 and a rebuild kit for like $10 and you are good to go. But with a new car you have no choice but to take it to a mechanic for a completely new whatever that broke. Ugh.

I want my husband to have an old car, and I want my son to grow up remembering his dad showing him how to work on it. And hopefully Brad will grow up with the same respect for classic cars that Nick has, and maybe get one of his own some day!

Oh, one thing I am doing for Nick is taking pictures of each step of his car along the way so that he can have his very own photo album for it!

New 'Do

Yes I chopped it off! I tried bangs...that helped but was still bored. I tried taking off a few inches...helped for just a week or so. Finally I made my mind up--it was time! It's what I do every 2-3 years so I am just about right on schedule!

I think it was just about a foot that they cut off. I asked the salon if they took hair donations, and they did but it couldn't be colored hair (which of course mine is). Oh well!

I have gotten pretty good reviews from people, so I think everyone else likes it! I am happy with it, just trying to get used to how fluffy it is now that it is short. I am also trying to figure out the best ways to style because I am used to just throwing it up into a ponytail. Now all I can put it "up" in is a nubbin!

My Second Craft Show

I survived another craft show! My mother and I split a table on Saturday at a church craft show. We set up our table Friday evening, then the show was Saturday from 8am-4pm. I am very happy with how our table turned out! Looking at the table, my stuff was on the left and hers was on the right.

I had baby shoes, crocheted hats, and decoupaged coasters. She had baked goods, monogram coasters, and bookmarks. She also took the time to make my very own banner for the front of the table!!

She thought of everything, from snacks to drinks and coffee (including our own coffee pot and flavored creamer). We had a fun time just hanging out together being girls and chatting. It was kind of slower than we had hoped but the church is small and this is only their second show ever. But we are still happy with how we did, and of course we didn't do it for the money!

Our next craft show is in December at the fairgrounds here in Norman. That one should be huge! It is very well established and will have a ton of vendors. At least it's a couple months away and I can relax for a bit before then! I am looking forward to doing some crafting for myself now!

In other news, my hubby's truck is dead. It was partially expected--I mean the poor thing had over 250,000 miles on it! It has had transmission problems, but we didn't expect the engine to go first. However it did. It is not too big a deal right now because with our current schedule we can get away with one car between us. But when his parents heard this, they insisted we keep one of their extra vehicles to use for emergencies when the other car is gone. So now we have a very large truck in our driveway. Of course we are appreciative of the gesture :)

The timing is actually perfect because Nick just sold something for a very large amount of money! God knows what he is doing! We also have a big chunk in savings, so we are going to combine that and get him an old car that he can easily (and cheaply) work on and drive to work after he graduates. Purely temporary car of course until we can afford a newer one down the line. We will probably just sell his dead truck to a local salvage yard that can come pick it up.

Back From Chicago!

Sorry it took so long for me to get around to posting! Things have been nonstop around here since we got back Tuesday night. I have a craft show all day tomorrow so I have been a little distracted with that.

********************Notice my new layout?**************************

In a nutshell, we had a great time! We were pleasantly surprised by how nice and clean everything was there, including the subway! We never felt in danger, and the people were nice and helpful.

Our flight there went good, and we were able to navigate O'Hare airport and find the subway to take into downtown. That was about an hour ride and involved transferring to a different subway line a block away, then walking a few more blocks to our hotel. The map I had printed helped us a lot, and in the end it was worth it to not have to worry about bringing the carseat!

When we got to our hotel and checked in, we could not believe our eyes when we walked into our room! It was like an apartment! I had only booked a regular room with a queen bed, but we got a suite with a full kitchen, dining room, living room, and separate bedroom! It was beautiful. They quickly brought up Brad's crib and we set that up in the living room. He slept great in it the whole time with no trouble. It was nice to put him to bed around 8pm then just hang out in the bedroom and watch TV and talk until bedtime.

On our first evening there, we were pretty beat and upset to find out the cafe at the hotel was already closed. They had a steakhouse there, but we (mostly Brad) were not in the mood to have to sit and wait an hour for overpriced food. We asked the desk clerk where some cheap fast food was and he pointed us down the street to some cafe....a cafe that did not seem to exist and we eneded up turned down random streets until we found a grill. They had burgers, hotdogs, and all sorts of fun quick stuff! I tried out a "Chicago" style hotdog and it was pretty good! We brought the food back home and ate there, then relaxed the rest of the evening.

The next day was our full day to explore. We started off in the morning on a long walk to the Navy Pier. It had just opened at 10am and we got there around 11am so we did not have to battle crowds! We rode the 150ft tall Ferris Wheel and got some beautiful views of the city and water.

On our walk back to the hotel for a nap, we passed a lovely little park right off of Lakeshore Dr. We stopped there and let Brad swing and play for a bit. Then it was naptime!

After his nap, we went up to the roof of our hotel and hung out on the sundeck for a bit. Then we got our things together for a evening exploring some more sights!

The first place we hit was right next to our hotel--the John Hancock Observatory! We got some awesome views of the city from the 94th floor. After that we went further down the street to my mom's alma mater--Moody Bible Institute. She graduated from there in 1977 and lived in Chicago right were we where for 3 years!

After all of that walking we were ready for dinner! We headed a popular local joint called Gino's Pizza and ate our little hearts out. When we were done, we headed back to hotel for relaxation and bedtime. The next morning we ate at a little pancake place, then checked out of the hotel and hit the subway again toward the airport. After being at O'Hare airport for 5 hours, our flight was delayed and they lost our luggage on the way home...but all is well and we got home safe!

We got our luggage back the next day so that wasn't too bad. I caught up on cleaning and housework Wednesday, then Thursday night I had to work. Tonight is when mom and I set up for our craft show. Then tomorrow is our craft show from 8-4 and after that I have to work all night again! Busy girl!