Happy Halloween!

Outfits this week

It's been this kind of week.  On the road!  Here is how I roll...

Top Left - Lilly travel pants in black with a green J. Crew painter tee and new Anthropologie scarf from the favorite things party last Saturday.

Top Right - Lilly travel pants in navy with a J. Crew ivory painter tee and an infinity scarf from last year.

Bottom left - J. Crew matchstick jeans with a J. Crew brown perfect fit tee and coral scarf from Handpicked that I can wash.  Airplane = wash everything.

Bottom Right - J. Crew matchstick jeans with a J. Crew rust long sleeve shirt and ivory infinity scarf from Nordstrom.  I got this scarf a few weeks ago when I was freezing in Salt Lake and I love it because I can wash it, not dry clean.  $26 for one or two for $38 isn't bad either.  I wish I had bought two.

And you can tell that I hate J. Crew and Nordstrom.  Haha.

New Shoes

Okay I know you guys already know about how amazing Nordstrom customer service is.  But can I please tell you that they took back a pair of shoes that I bought there in July 2013 and gave me a new pair for free?  Yes and they were $225 originally.  Yes.  Now you know which pair.  That, my friends, is why I buy shoes from Nordstrom.  I'm fanatic about when I wear expensive shoes - not in the rain, not on rocks or gravel and these still gave out.  It was valid that I asked for a new pair.

But before they did that and before I even mentioned the above shoes, I bought a couple pairs out of my comfort zone and I'm so glad I did.  I love them.  I got these Franco Sarto booties.  Booties are daring for me but you all look so cute in them so I needed to try them.  These are actually gray despite what they look like in the picture.  I like how they are dressy enough to wear with pencil skirts and tights to work or put them on with jeans and they kinda look like cowboy boots.  

Second are a pair of Toms.  I needed a casual pair of shoes I could slip on this Fall and Winter.  I do not care if it rains when I'm wearing these.  And I think they go with a lot and will be comfortable.

There you have it.  Out of my comfort zone.  Living on the edge.

New Flowers

Secret:  I love going to Lowes.  It was big time when I learned how to plant flowers and keep them alive.  I know, crazy.  I have a black thumb no joke.  But last year Kevin made a bet with me about some pansies I planted and by golly there was snow falling on those bad boys.  They were ALIVE!

So I've been planting stuff since then.  This past weekend was my time at Lowes to get some pansies.  I'm trying to spiff the house up for a big shindig we are hosting for family on November 8th.

And this time, I bought the correct mulch.

I put some violas out front below the light pole.  They are like mini pansies and look like velvet.  I decided this time not to spend $50 on flowers that looked awful come Fall.  I did that in July.  This time I only spent $20.  Kevin please forget what you just read about the $50..yes you were right and I was wrong.   

and next time I will hide the hose.

 I took out the summer flowers from around this thing and put more violas.

And took out the pink flowers and put purple and yellow pansies.  As you can see, the parsley and mint are still kicking it.  The parsley went CRAZY this year.  Any ideas on what to do with 10 gallons of it?  I guess I could freeze some in olive oil in ice cube trays.

This weekend I think I will spread more mulch.  Actually it may end up being during the week next week.  Actually I really have no clue when it will be.  My hours are limited majorly between now and Saturday, November 8th.  I'll figure it out.  1-800-CALL-JIMMY-MY-BEST-FRIEND-I-MEAN-YARD-GUY.

But I want the house to be spic and span for all of these folks.  We shall see.  

Favorite Things and Halloween Parties

Friday night I went to a Favorite Things party in our neighborhood.  I didn't take one picture.  Everyone brought something between $20-$30 and we went around in a circle and opened the gift we brought and picked a name out of a bowl who got your favorite thing.  It was fun.  I gave a wrap from Nordstrom and got a wrap from Anthropologie!

Saturday I planted lots of flowers for the Fall.  I'll try to put those on my blog this week.  Saturday night we went to another neighbor's gorgeous home for their annual Halloween party.  We were honored to be invited as they only invite 6 couples.  

She goes all out on the Halloween decor.  

The hostess with the mostess!

They had cups and koozies made for the party.  I love her Front Gate beer holder.  

Their porch mantel was decked to the nines too, of course!

I gave her that lil sign as a hostess gift.  I found it in Dallas at a lil shop and knew I had to get it for her.  "What happens at the Halloween party, stays at the Halloween party."

They got a tent to put up in the backyard.  Check out the scary purple bat up top.  They did not miss one detail...for real.

We carved in the tent. 

It was a contest with lots of prizes. 

Crazy haha.

I carved a crab true to my Maryland roots.  Truth be told, we weren't allowed to pre-plan our design but I had seen this in Coastal Living recently and thought it was cute.  I had just looked at a picture so it wasn't really pre-planning.  Ha!

This was the winning pumpkin.  Well kinda.  Another guy always wins so this was the next best haha.  

Kevin won for worst pumpkin.  Bless his heart.  This was his gift.  I gather he hasn't carved many-o-pumpkins in his day.  He had a fun time though and loved joking around about it.  Typical Kevin.

Some were set off by fireworks.  That was entertaining.  

Ohhh this stuff was the best.  Sweet candy corn and salty cashews.  

The gifts the hostesses gave each couple to take home.  Amazing things.  Monogrammed tee-towel, monogrammed candle holder, monogrammed notepad with our last name on it, scary soap from B&BW, the lil witch sign.  Unreal right?!  She's over the top and I love it!

Here's to a spooky week for each of you! ;)

Five on Friday - Mills, Grilling, Bunko, Lunch

Lots of five on friday pictures today but I'll try to make it quick!

ONE - Mills loves these lil goodies for when it's just a quick reward.  Target doesn't carry these anymore...only Wal-Mart.  I hate that place but glad to find the goodies that Mills loves.  His new thing is "big goodies" which are the big boy ones.  His Nannie and Poppa (aka my parents) who facetime with him almost every night love to ask him if he wants a Big Goodie.  Presch.  And PS - it doesn't hurt that his face is on these goodie boxes! ;)

TWO - All about Mills.

Homeslice is all boy all the time.  

And PS - ignore that cable running through the yard.  Yeah getting the irrigation lines in wasn't easy - they hit and cut the Time Warner line.  And the new one hadn't been buried yet.

This was this past Sunday..probably his last pool outing of the year.  

MUD!

Then a bath for the bubba.  Kevin put our good blanket on him because he said his back legs were shivering in the 68 degree weather with the bath outside.  Oh my.

I looked down the other morning and saw him like this next to me on the floor.  This was at 3am.  My socks were off ha and his head was under the bed and he was quite comfortable!

THREE - sooooo Kevin taught me how to turn on our grill a couple weeks ago and I am so excited about it.  I know how to do the gas shut off and everything. 

I made shrimp fajita quesadillas this past week.  It was awesome weather, Mills could play outside and dinner was so easy.

FOUR - I made Christina's Pumpkin Dip for bunko this week.  So good.  

Chris hosted and the end of her driveway was spooky!

We played Left Right Center and so the $1 bills were flying everywhere!

FIVE - just a lil pups chewing sticks and playing with dirty tennis balls!

FIVE AND A HALF - Lunch with these two sweet gals - April and Megan!

Planning a Trip

I've been in a Lilly frame of mind recently because I've been thinking about where to go to celebrate Kevin's big birthday coming up in February.  

via

We have some requirements:

 - Must be warm in February

 - Must be under 5 hours of flying 

 - Only 3-4 nights

 - Must be nice (this is my requirement ha)

 - Would love to use Hilton points

And Kevin can't know where it is until we are at the airport and about to go through security!

Throw out any ideas you may have!

Sacrifices

A couple of you all asked a bit ago how I do it all.  I'm not sure the real answer to that but I know this is a big way I get it done:  

Kevin and I have made a lot of sacrifices this year.  

And I'm not going to lie - it's been hard.

Him buying his new agency has been A LOT of work.  They say two agencies are the hardest to own...not one or three, but two.  And we agree!  He keeps saying, "well I've put myself on the train tracks, now I have no choice but to go."  And he's right.  He has no choice but to make this thing work.  And I have no choice but to be his cheerleader (and I want to be!). 

I also have a full time plus traveling every week job and I'm crazy busy with that.  It's something I love doing and want to do.  It's something that is really important to me.  Something I've worked for with five years of engineering school at NC State plus two years of consulting plus almost eight years at my current company.  The people at my company are my second family.  Heck, I spend more time with some of them in a week than I do Kevin!  And I love what I do.  So it's not something I'm willing to scale back on very much.

How do we make our family and careers work?  We don't go to a bunch of social events every week anymore.  We have had to reprioritize our calendar.  This was a lot easier for Kevin than it was me.  I felt like I was giving up times with friends.  The truth is, real friends will still stand by you and pick up where you left off next time you see them.  And let's be honest, we still have a good time. But, sometimes we have to pick errands, grocery store and chill time versus a party.  Happened this weekend...wasn't fun...but had to happen in order to function this week.

Basically we are busting our tails now so we are fully prepared for children and the life we want for them and us.  If we want to run off to a beach house, we want to be able to.  If we want to take them to see Hawaii, we want to be able to.  If we want to jump on a plane and go to Maryland to see my parentals, we want to be able to.  You get the picture.  

So yep, we are making sacrifices and trying not to apologize for it!  I'm way too used to saying yes to everything so learning to say no has been hard.  But I'm a constant work in progress.  Aren't we all?  Gotta do what's best for you and your fam at the end of the day right?

Weekend

We played catch up on life most of this weekend.  Very necessary.

Had Kevin's parents, brother and niece over for dinner on Friday night (Brittany was working).  The weather was gorgeous so we hung out outside for appetizers while we grilled steaks.

Little Mills loved the steak leftovers, which there were very few of.

Our beds got replanted this weekend but they aren't finished yet.  I should be able to show you completed pictures later this week.  Grass was also put down so hopefully this irrigation system will start to pay off.  

Nails with Gigi and her Mama!  This marks the day I fed a baby for the first time...in Polished nail salon haha!  Sarah was very kind to let me do this with her precious girl  She gave me all the good instructions a taught me a lot.  Now I know!  Could she be cuter?  I think not!

521 BBQ dinner date and Wal-Mart.  We are exciting, I know.  We just need the down time and I was thankful for it.

One of our very favorite things to do (which we do almost every weekend) is drive around and look at houses and certain neighborhoods.  This house does Halloween right!  ...sorry for the terrible pic...was trying not to be too stalker-ish.  Kevin and I both love real estate (both commercial and residential) and we are always dreaming of our next house haha.  But I think we will stay put because we do love our home and neighbors.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!