Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from Velma & Fred!  We’re off solving mysteries with Mystery Inc. 

I carved the Scooby pumpkin last night from this template that I printed from the internet. 

And here’s what it looked like tonight.

And we had lots of roasted pumpkin seeds last night.  Yum!

All the kids that came to our door tonight to trick-or-treat recognized us.  Some of their little faces lit up when we answered the door.  That was super-cute and fun! 

The best thing about our costumes?  All thrift store finds!  They are real clothes, not costumes bought from stores/internet.  I couldn’t find orange knee socks, so I bought white ones and dyed them with Rit dye. 

And guess what?  Now I have Halloween photos to scrap!  Bonus!

Bates Nut Farm

Towards the end of September, I posted a status update on Facebook. 

“Oh Fall, you save me every year from buying scrapbook stuff. I don't dig fall colors and can't scrap anything fall. KTHXBAI.”

And then on October 7th, I posted another status update:

“Other signs I'm not a fall person: I don't get excited for Halloween and I don't decorate for it, and pumpkin flavored stuff doesn't excite me either.”

But then I started eating my words.   Even though there aren’t a lot of deciduous trees in San Diego, my work courtyard is FULL of them.  And I think they’re pretty.

And I’ve been drinking pumpkin spice flavored coffee.

I guess I’m making an effort at having a fall season, even though the weather around here doesn’t necessarily reflect it.  Even though my cold cold heart wanted to deny that autumnal things interest me at all.

And then on Saturday, we went to Bates Nut Farm, which has the largest pumpkin patch in San Diego County.  I don’t even know who I am anymore.  Next thing you know, I’ll be scrapping this photo.

My status update accompanying this photo on Facebook:  “Well, this is hard to believe. The "Fall-Hater" has turned soft. I've been drinking pumpkin spice coffee in my Keurig. I've bought some yellow, orange, and brown clothing. And now I've really gone over the deep end and went to a pumpkin patch. (However, it was 85 degrees at the pumpkin patch and I almost melted.) What has become of me?” 

We drove to Bates Nut Farm around 11am.  It was about a 45 minute drive into Valley Center.  It was 70 degrees at our house, but by the time we got out of the car in the GINORMOUS parking lot at Bates Nut Farm, it was 85 degrees there.  Yikes, I knew then that wearing long-sleeves and jeans was a huge mistake.  The drive there was pretty though.

The farm was a lot larger than we thought.  And there was a rather large crowd there.  It was like a seasonal amusement park or something.

There was hand-feeding of baby goats.  The baby goats were so cute!  I had never seen them before.

There was hayrides.  You know, in 85 degree weather in the heat of the sun.

We got a photo with Jack Skellington.

And we visited the Bates Nut Farm store.

There was a TON of people in there!  And a ton of nuts & dried fruits!

And homemade fudge.  Todd was definitely there for the fudge!

Todd got some chocolate sea salt caramel fudge, and some vanilla caramel swirl fudge.  We also got some apple butter.

They had some really nice seasonal displays in the store.  Like this fall harvest one.

And Christmas displays.  Already!

We decided to eat lunch on the way home, but we were hungry already and we had yet to pick out our pumpkins.  So homemade Mariposa Ice Cream to the rescue!

There was a hay maze there too.

And pumpkins.  LOTS of pumpkins.

And more backgrounds where you could take photos.

We picked out two medium pumpkins and then hauled them back to the car.  Did I already mention their parking lot is HUGE?  I’m glad we were able to find out car! 

We used the Yelp app on our phones to find a place to eat lunch on the way home.  We went to the Cenote Grill in Escondido.  It was absolutely and fabulously delicious!  I had the Agave Lime Shrimp and I had never tasted a sauce so good.

And remember this photo, the one from above?  What’s that in my hair you ask?

It’s a Halloween halo that I bought at Bates Nut Farm.  You know, because I hate fall & Halloween.  I love this thing and I’m totally going to reverse-engineer this and make my own seasonal halos for photos and stuff!  Seems so festive and fun!

Yea, I’ve totally “fallen” off the deep end.  ;-)

Digi Dares | Obsessed

This week’s Digi Dare is all about something that we or our family is obsessed with.  Something that’s uniquely us.

Here’s my page.

Credits:  Beyond Measure, Stay Tuned, and So Major by One Little Bird, Star On Top by One Little Bird & Amy Martin, Be Yourself Word Art strips by Giny Scraps, fonts are Blackout and MTF My Name Is.

Journaling:  On special occasions we are totally obsessed with the jumping photo.  Give us a tripod and a beach, and we will take a few jumping shots!  Whether it’s Christmas or our anniversary, there must be a jumping photo!

What is something that is uniquely you and your family and that you do all the time?  What are you obsessed with?

Around Here

I knew the fall season is always my busiest season, but I didn’t think I would have so much going on.  Between work and all my other activities, I haven’t been spending as much time on the computer when I get home.  That means less blogging.  I started to feel guilty about it, but then I stopped immediately.  Blogging should be fun and not guilt-ridden. 

On Tuesday 10/15, we had dinner with one of our good friends Dan.  He was in town for a conference and we had dinner together at Urban Solace.  I decided to be good and have a salad.

Todd had the chicken and dumplings, which is one of my favorite things there.

So fun to get-together with old friends!

I’ve had to take the last two Fridays off work, because I’m bumping up against my maximum vacation accruals and if I don’t take days off, I lose them.  So last Friday 10/18 I took the day off and spent some me-time.  I went to lunch at Rubios.

And I went to Target.  But I thought I had entered a time portal back to 1988.  What’s with the clothes??!  I mean, Bruce Springsteen “Born In the USA” and Def Leppard?

Weird colored and patterned (almost acid washy) jeans?

And big cardigan sweaters??

Made me want to tight-roll my jeans.

Did you know that Target now makes their own brand (Archer Farms) of k-cups for the Keurig?  I tried the Pumpkin Spice coffee and it was delicious!  And because I only put in two tablespoons of coffee creamer, it’s only 70 calories versus the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks, which is WAY more calories.

I’ve been working out with weights twice a week for three weeks now.  I feel like it’s making a difference with more toned muscles and less fat, but the scales haven’t moved as much as I would like.  It’s ok.  I love it and I’ll keep going.

Todd went to a nerdy science-fiction book convention last weekend on Sunday.  It was called Conjecture/ConChord. 

I re-organized my washi tapes.  I used to have them in a divided plastic container like this.

I now have them all on a pants hanger than I wasn’t using.

Todd made this Thai Steak Salad and it was really amazing.  So flavorful!

I got to spend some more “me-time” this week.  The 3rd book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth came out.  I had pre-ordered it on Kindle as soon as I finished “Insurgent” back in September.  It downloaded to my Kindle around 11pm on Monday night.  I haven’t read as much this week because I’ve been busy, but I’m so excited to read it.

I suppose this is some me-time.  It was time for a mammogram for me.  It’s really not a big deal and takes only a few minutes.  The actual squishing/uncomfortable part is only a couple of seconds at a time. 

And then Wednesday a “me-time” that I did not enjoy:  an orthodontic consult.  I had braces 12 years ago as an adult, mainly because my teeth were wearing down unevenly due to them being crooked.  It was totally worth it, because my smile is so much better now and I love smiling.  (As Buddy the Elf would say, smiling’s my favorite!)  But I noticed that my bite has changed over the last two years.  I thought it was TMJ-related so I had a TMJ consult back in June.  Turned out the TMJ specialist told me it was my bite that was really the problem, and referred me to ortho.  So anyways, I went at lunch on Wednesday and my bite really is very off.  And it will cost thousands of dollars to fix it, and 7-12 months of braces again.  I am NOT happy!  :(

I took yesterday (Friday) off work again.  Not working two Fridays in a row is kind of awesome, although I think next time I will take Monday off.  I hadn’t had a haircut since May, so it was time for a trim.  I took a couple of before photos.

I haven’t had hair this long in a while, and I still like it a lot.  So I didn’t have a lot of length cut off, maybe just an inch.  But all the layers were re-cut and re-shaped.  And now I part my hair on the left side, because my hairstylist said my bangs naturally want to go that way.

And this is the back.  Lots of long layers.

I really like it.  It’s actually really easy to maintain compared to short hair.  I tried short hair once in 2002 and it was a lot higher maintenance than I realized.  With long hair you can sleep and wake up and it looks ok.  With short hair you wake up with horrendous bed-head and have to either wet it or wash it to style it.  And having the option of just pulling long hair into a ponytail is way better for me when I exercise than having short hair on my neck when I sweat. 

After my haircut I went to Old Navy and tried on skinny-fit jeans.  Normally I hate trying on skinny-fit jeans because they never fit me and make me feel like I have the biggest thighs and calves in the whole world.  But I’ve lost some weight so I thought I would try it again.  Miraculously, all three pairs I tried on fit!

The weird thing was, since they were different washes, they were THREE different sizes and they all fit me!  I tried on sizes 4, 6, and 8 and they all fit in those different washes/styles.  So the moral is, don’t just try on one-size at Old Navy and think that’s what you are.  You could be three different sizes, like me.  Well, I think it has more to do with their quality control than anything else.  But I guess on my fat-feeling days, I can pull on the size 4 and revel in it.

Obviously, no update could be complete without some cute Noodle photos.

I found him in a basket under my desk a few days ago.  I had never seen him in there before!

And a common sight around here when the weather gets cooler?  Noodle sleeping on Todd.

And then the other night, he slept on Todd’s chest while Todd played on his phone.  Cutest sight in the whole wide world!  ♥

I can’t believe that October is coming to a close!  Todd and I decided on our Halloween costumes.  I hope it works out.  We won’t be going anywhere, just handing out candy to kids.  Hopefully they’ll like our costumes.  :)