Holiday Hiatus

We are still alive!  Just buried in the Holiday hoopla.  Heather with her house, Jody with her school and everything else in the mix....you know us.  I am sure all of you can relate.

We wanted to wish you all a very Happy New Year!  We hope you survived Christmas and are preparing your resolutions and getting ready to start fresh for 2013.

Heather and I will be on a little "Holiday Hiatus" but will be back after the New Year with more on the Venture!  

We hope you are holding your littles a little longer and a little closer these Holidays.  I know we are.

Thank you to all of our readers for visiting us this year.  2012 has been quite the AdVenture.....with many more to come!

Cheers!

 

Heartbroken

Where does one begin? 

There can't possibly be words big enough, strong enough or caring enough to express the grief, sadness and pain we feel for those that lost their babies, their mothers, their spouses, their friends last Friday.

Jody and I will never be the same.  We shouldn't be the same.  Our nation should not be the same.  We ask that the precious little lives that were taken not have been taken in vain.  Please take the time to make a difference.  Let's start addressing gun control and the mentally ill in our nation.  While we weep for those that will not hold their children again...smell their hair again...smile with them again....laugh with them again; let us not forget the parents that are right now living in fear of their own children.  Did Adam Lanza's parents try to get him help?  What were their options?  Did they have the health care coverage to pay for psychiatric help?  We know that his mother pulled him from school when he was young.  She must have known he needed extra care and attention.  Was it provided?

Thankful Much?

I know that you Blog or Facebook frequenters out there have seen a lot on this theme but what is Thanksgiving without a gratitude shout out?

I would have to say this is one of my favorite songs right now and so fitting for Thanksgiving!  Who doesn't want to spend Thanksgiving at HOME with family and friends.



At the beginning of this month I really wanted to write a letter to everyone I was grateful for,letting them know just how much I appreciated them all.  A LOFTY goal to say the least.  I may still pull it off but I am pretty doubtful.  For you readers today I thought I would do some quick "Thank You" notes Jimmy Fallon style.  Here is my rendition. 

Thank You, Poli-Sci teacher...for teaching me right out of EVER thinking of politics as a career path.

Thank You, wine...for making me feel sophisticated WHILE intoxicated.

Thank You, Heather...one of my best buddies in the whole world and calamitous partner in crime.  Someone I can always say "It could always be worse" to and be proven wrong every time.

Thank You, neighbors....for leaving your Halloween decorations out all through November...making me feel just a little less bad about not decorating much for this so neglected holiday.

Thank You, Days of Our Lives...for entertaining me while I work each day and for giving me just one more embarrassing skeleton in my closet.

Thank You, full time school/part time work/full time mom/entrepreneur status...for reminding me each and everyday that doing things backwards is REALLY REALLY hard!

Thank You, sweater weather....for hiding those five pounds that I keep "swearing" I am going to take off.

Thank You, kid kin-x and blocks...for gracing my floor with your presence each and every day.

Thank You, laundry pile....for providing a place for my kids to hide while playing hide and seek and a bed for my doggy fit for a king.

Thank You, hats...I have gotten a lot of use out of you the last few weeks.  I promise I will give you a break...soon(ish)

Thank You, scarves...for keeping me on my toes.  I have yet to figure out just how to wear you, but I will.  I am always up for a challenge.

Thank You, "Because" and "Actually"...the two favorite big words that come out of "B's" little mouth.  You help her get away with so much..for that she is grateful.

Thank You, inappropriately early Christmas music...for hitting the radio while we are still coming out of our Halloween candy comma. 

In all seriousness I truly am grateful for so much.  I am so incredibly blessed with an amazing family, kids, hubby, friends.  I have so much....life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope it is a great one for all of you.

Fab Find Friday

Sometimes I think that I might just have the best job in the world.  As the Marketing Director for an Architectural Firm, there are certainly days when I want to pull my hair out - usually when we are trying to meet crazy deadlines on proposals or explaining fact-based info. to the creative minded (herding cats I tell ya).  But, then there are days that I get paid to play!  Some of the research that I have to do, I would gladly do for free!  My Fab Find today is one of those things.

Have you heard of Houzz.com?  If not, jump over now:

HOUZZ

Serious!  Don't wait.  You need to see what you've been missing.

They describe their site as "Home Design, Decorating and Remodeling Ideas and Inspiration (Kitchen and Bathroom Design)". The best way for me to describe this site is to say that it's a combination of all things good on Pinterest, Google Images and HGTV's site. 

You can search over 800,000 designer photos and save them to your own design ideas books.  The site is super user friendly letting you search by styles, spaces, products and key words.  There's lots of great professional articles and comments by other users.  And, the collection of photos is truly astounding!

Here's a peek at some of the photos in my idea books that I am using as inspiration on our new home remodel project (oh, yeah, that's STILL very much happening):

 

Traditional Dining Room design by Chicago Photographer Cynthia Lynn Photography
 

Contemporary Kitchen design by Chicago Design-build Airoom Architects-Builders-Remodelers
 

Contemporary Kids design by San Francisco Media And Blogs Lucy McLintic
 

Contemporary Living Room design by Austin Architect Cornerstone Architects
 

Contemporary Living Room design by Vancouver Interior Designer Claudia Leccacorvi
 

Eclectic Bedroom design

 

Can I just say that I am absolutely in LOVE with that first photo?!  I'm moving into that house....in my dreams!

 

Check out Houzz.  It's a fun fab find!

 

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ENOUGH Already....and Facebook Factoids

At this point you have to Google Election Results 2012...it is old news.  Here in Utah however (the Angry red state) it is still headline news....on Facebook at least. 

What got me started on the subject of Facebook(ers) Newsworthy facts?  This picture I saw posted today. 

Original Source of this image: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/

With this comment below it: "I am in no position to speak anything about american politics, and don't know too much about it... but I do know enough...enough to know that (and correct me if I'm wrong) I'm pretty sure this means Romney should have won! ?!?
Obama (blue)
Romney (Red)
~ Jenny (Proud Canadian) ;)"

It would be interesting to see how many times this image WITH this message will be circulated on Facebook without anyone (especially the one who posted it) even taking the time to look at the link to the actual map (with its accurate explanation) right below it.

When someone can Google the results of the election (popular and electoral vote results) in the same amount of time they can log in to Facebook.  How are people still posting and re-posting this kind of stuff???  Sadly enough many people also believe it....I personally have corrected three people this week that believed that Romney won the popular vote. 

Craziness I tell you.....and this is one week after the election.  My fellow Utahn's and Facebook junkies can vouch for the absolute insanity that blew up all over Facebook on election night.  

I think the only thing I saw worth while on Facebook during the elections was this:

While I can not promise I will be pulling the plug on my Facebook account anytime soon, I can tell you with certainty that it will never replace NPR as my news source.  ;)

A Story

I can't believe that October has come and gone already!
Would it sound weird to say that I'm still wanting an extra summer day?  Serious. 
I saw Christmas decorations out at stores a few days ago.  I am NOT ready for that!

Speaking of decorations, check out my killer Halloween decorations (score!):

 

Jody thinks the story behind its' acquisition belongs on reality TV....a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.  Haha.  I still think I just wasn't explaining things to her right.   At least she didn't liken it to Honey Boo Boo! 

Tell me what you think.  Here's the story:

When we moved into our new home and met our next door neighbor, she told me how Halloween was her absolute very favorite holiday and she goes "all out" with spooky decorations and a big neighborhood soup party before trick-or-treating every year.  I told her that I love Halloween, too, but she just went right on with how much it really means to her.  It is HER deal.....keep in mind that was in April.  We heard about the Halloween decorations at least once a month after that.

So, toward the end of September when I was deciding if I should decorate my window boxes "spooky" or just keep it "fall-esque", the hubby and I started thinking about how we wanted to decorate our new house.  We both have fun at Halloween and wanted to have some cool decorations.  We pulled out our old decorations and discovered that we must have a box buried under building supplies somewhere, because we couldn't find my sweet Halloween wreath (I WILL have it up next year) and some of our standbys.  We decided that we would have to buy something this year and looked at this great boutique by our house.

While we were there we saw some really neat spiders and decided that it would be fun and easy to build on an arachnophobia theme each year.  Just when we were deciding between a large brown recluse and something with a neon stripe, it occurred to me that maybe we should keep things tame because I had noticed that the neighbors' house wasn't looking as decked out as I was thinking it would.  She had put up some life-sized ghouls and ghosts and a spider on her front porch.  But, it was far from what we had expected (it was quite the let down).  I told the hubby that maybe we should wait to see if she was going to put anything more up, because I did not want to steal her thunder.  He thought I was crazy, but obliged.  We put a few purple lights and leaf garland up and waited.

Here comes my Real Housewives moment.  Jody and I just happened to be talking to each other on the day and time that I decided that waiting to see if my neighbor was going to put up more decorations was absolutely ridiculous.  It went something like this:  Who cares, right?  She doesn't own Halloween....I can love Halloween, too.....And, we can decorate our house however we like....it would be crazy for us to NOT decorate because we thought her decorations were just okay.....AND, hey why can't I have a cool Halloween house?  In fact, I'm going to buy the really awesome spider that is on a motion detector and lunges downward when someone walks by!....Oh, I can decorate cool alright!

The price of the spider on a motion detector held me back and I ended up leaving the boutique without anything.....again. 

At this moment I feel like I have to say that I was very sick and so very tired.  That's my excuse for even going there with the Halloween decorations.  :)

I let that spider lie and moved on.....until we saw this beauty:

When Jody and I took the girls to Gardners Village we saw it for sale at Celebrations (GREAT store!).  I was sure its' price would keep me from it, but not only did it fit into our Halloween budget, it was 25% off!  THEN, I found the huge web at another store just before we left.  It was up the next day!

I have absolutely loved that the house looks really decorated and it's only two things!  We put it over the top with lots of spider webs through the front yard, a few smaller spiders and a black crow stuck in the web.  Haha.  I liked that touch by the husband.

I agreed with Jody and thought I had to have been having some sort of RH moment when I started talking about neighbors and decorations.  That would be so "Keeping up with the Jones", right?  And, truly once I got a little sleep I laughed thinking that I would think our neighbor would even care about it one way or the other.........

Yeah, you guessed it.  We are pretty sure that our little arachnid house peeved our neighbor.  She would not say a word about our big spider.  Even when her daughter kept telling her how cool it was.  Tight lipped.  Oh, boy. 

So, now we will have to decide if we build on it next year, or wait to see what the neighbor does.  :)

ANYWHO, Halloween was great.  Always is!  We hit our friend's annual chili party and then went trick-or-treating with new friends......including the woman we bought our new house from!  CRAZY!  I'll have to blog on that next week. 

 

M was Cinderella, C was a lion and I was a lion tamer.

 



The husband was....well....hot?  haha.  He really WAS hot.  He had planned a great spooky costume for Utah fall weather.  Then, we broke records at 75 degrees.  UGH!

I have to point out that the black mark on my little lions face is some of hubby's makeup.  NOT a bruise. 

Hope you guys had fun, too! 
What do you think about my Spider story?

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This is Halloween.....Halloween...Halloween

I wish I was more of a Halloween enthusiast.  Pretty sure I got it from my parents.  Growing up we had a giant box of costume accessories and every year my parents would say....."See what you can put together out of the costume box".  None of this, costume every year garbage.  We had to use our creativity and rarely did anyone know who we were ;). 

I guess with these childhood Halloween memories you either over compensate and go over the top for Halloween or....like me you continue the "cycle" of 'Halloween' abuse.  Yep, that is where I am at.  I am dressing up in my "LBD" ONCE AGAIN as Audrey Hepburn from Breakfast at Tiffany's and I had the "Coyster" buy a hat and find the rest of his costume in his closet.

Even better than our homemade costumes was our Halloween photographer.

Attempt 1:

Attempt #2:
Attempt #3

Nothing like scrounging up costumes and photographers (love ya' dad ;).  These are better than last year however.....last year ALL of our heads were cut off.

I am topping off the holiday with THE candy that the trick or treating kids despise.  BULK CANDY MIX.  Yes I think I have officially massacred Halloween :).  

I can possibly promise I will do better next year....possibly.

Happy Halloween everyone.  I hope you have a great one!

 

Jody's TOP TEN FALL MUST DO's:

I think every season must have a "MUST DO" list.  Of course, for the self proclaimed Fun Junkie this has to be a FUN list.  This is tailored to Utah, so for those outside of Utah you should consider a Fall trip one year.  Fall is AMAZING here!

Here it goes....

JODY'S TOP TEN FALL MUST DO'S:

1. Fall Mountain Biking Trip:

I haven't been mountain biking for YEARS, not since I was charged by a moose during the moose rut (a whole other blog post) to be exact but it was AMAZING!  We hit Rock Canyon campground at the top of Provo canyon and rode down.  It was rocky and intense but worth the sore legs and hand cramps. 

2. Hit your local ski resort for a Fall Colors scenic lift ride:

My local resort.  SUNDANCE!  I LOVE Sundance.  It is one of my favorite places to be in Summer/Fall and this lift ride did not disappoint.  

3. Hit farm country.....bonus if it has a pumpkin patch: 

Our local farm country is a place called Hee-Haws.  A family fun farm clad with a petting zoo, corn maze, hay rides, pumpkin patch, slides, swings and games.  We had a blast! 

4. Pick up a Pumpkin Spice Latte:

Photo: http://www.starbucks.com/menu/drinks/espresso/pumpkin-spice-latte

I have to admit I CAN NOT get enough of these this fall.  I think I had four last week alone.  Check out the nutritional info on these puppies....It is KILLING ME in the weight management arena :). 

5. HIKE HIKE HIKE...need I say more? 

The canyon just up the street was teasing me with it's intense pop of red!  My motto for this fall was "hike to the red".  We made it...and it was AMAZING!

 6. Enjoy some Harvest Ale

Photo: http://draftmag.com/

I am more of a wine gal myself but I love me a good harvest beer.  This is one on my list that is still on the "TO DO".  I WILL surely take care of this one before we hit winter.

7. Enjoy a night out with the Witches (and great friends)

Here in Utah Gardener Village is the place to be on October.  The Witchfest is in full swing.  If you live in Utah and have not been, I strongly recommend you stop by and see the witches.  

8. Get Crafty

Something about Fall turns on my inner crafty....it is about time!  We kicked off our Fall Craft central with some Rustic owls.  Stay tuned for some "How To-sies".

 9.  Make/Enjoy/Indulge yourself with Carmel Apple.....YUM

Photo and Recipe: http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/caramel-apples-10000001540364/index.html

10. Throw yourself some type of Harvest shindig...whether it be a tailgate party, a Halloween party or host Thanksgiving.  Just do it.  There is nothing like the Fall and it is even better when shared with family and friends.

Here are my Fall "Must Do's"....what are yours? 

Fab Find...Sunday

I am thinking "Better late than never" is quickly turning into my motto of the month....unfortunately.

My Fab Find Friday has turned into my Fab Find Sunday :).

This week I got a STEAL on Halloween costumes for my girls!  Old Navy is always my place to go for baby gifts and when I was there last they had a clearance rack full of Halloween costumes.  Little "B" picked out the butterfly one. 

 

 Warm, fleecy and cozy all for just 12.99!  I was stoked. 

The Fab Find got even better when I got home and showed Indiana.  She just HAD to be a butterfly too.  Girls Halloween costumes....Check.

 Look at those cute little butterflies!

 The pants didn't quite make it on..I think they were in the wash :)

They have already been able to wear them with a Halloween shirt.  Another bonus.  I don't know about you but I HATE buying Halloween costumes.  I feel like it is such a waste of money every year. So when I pick one up for just over ten bucks, it is warm AND they can wear the pants before Halloween night I consider it a total fab find.  Yep I am that interesting.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Notes From the Binder

1)  When Mitt Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, if he truly went to women's groups and said "Can you help us find folks?", would that not be akin to Affirmative Action?

2) Well no need for Republicans to worry about that, he really did NOT go to women's groups saying "Can you help us find folks?"  It was MassGAP, a bipartisan coalition of women's groups dedicated to increasing the number of women appointed to top government jobs, that approached Romney (and his Democratic challenger)  and pressured them to sign a pledge to appoint more women if elected.

3)  It is shocking that after 25 years of experience at the very highest levels of corporate America, that Mitt and his crew needed Mass GAP's help.  Why didn't he come to that position with qualified women to fill cabinet positions? 

4)  "Does Mitt think that women won't know how to find out if he had any top level positions filled by women at Bain Capital?"  Pretty sure we can handle that task (during a Sex in the City commercial break, of course).

from "Welcome to My Binder Full of Women" GQ Magazine

5)  Buffoon, noun:
     1.  a ludicrous figure:  CLOWN
     2.  a gross and unusually ill-educated or stupid person

6)  It's 2012......not 1912.

7)  The percentage of women in senior-level positions in Massachusetts government declined under Romney.

8)  www.bindersfullofwomen.com

9)  Funny:

 10)  Mitt Romney refuses to say whether he would have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.


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