Wonderful Weekend!

This past weekend we had a Halloween Party. So, Bob spent all week buying decorations, decorating and cleaning. He worked so hard on the party and did mostly everything. It was so stress free for me; what a great husband! On Friday we bought the food and started baking. I made peanut butter cake and deviled eggs. Bob made homemade meatballs and sauce, sausages, rice pudding, and banana bread. I baked first so we would not get in each other's way. He baked second until 4am! Most of the recipes were our family recipes we were trying out.

Saturday was the day of the party and a busy day with other events. I took TJ to the Dog Park in the morning for their Howl-O-Ween event. I dressed him in his Shrek costume and took a few photos. He did not want to keep it on though, so he did not wear it to the park. At the park, they had booths set up with music and a cute Halloween scene. I tried many attempts to get TJ in front of the scarecrow and the beware of dog sign, but all I got was him in front of a pumpkin. Close enough! Then, I went home to clean the house before the party. In the afternoon, I went to Tiffany's Baby Shower. Everything was decorated so nicely and the food, punch and cake were great! I did the games: we made a calendar, guessed baby food and played Baby Bingo. Saturday night was the Halloween Party. I was Princess Fiona and Bob was Shrek. Our friend Sam was Wonder Woman and her husband Ron was a wrestler complete with spandex, a speedo and a fake chest! We also had the Flinestones, a Greek Goddess, a Jester, Shaun of the Dead, a ninja, a samurai, and a friend in a straight jacket. Sam brought over a graveyard pudding and I made Spooktinis! Bob used blacklights in the garage for beer pong and the fluorescent paint looked really cool! Our friend James used dry ice for a fog machine in the garage, then he decided to play Mr Wizard to see what he could do with the dry ice. He made dry ice bubbles, contrained dry ice in a tupperware bin and also tried to blow up a water bottle. A pretty fun evening!

On Sunday, I went to FL Hospital to volunteer in the Physical Therapy Dept. I am applying to UCF's Physical Therapy Program. It is very competitive, but I have all the requirements, so I figure, "what the heck?" That night we celebrated my Mom's birthday at Houston's. It is a beautiful restaurant on a lake and every seat gets a great view. The food was delicious and the company was great!

Puppy Obedience School

TJ started his Puppy Obedience School Training last night. It was mostly instructions the first night. TJ would not sit still though- he is the antsy puppy in the class. The instructor has the best behaved German Sheperd- I bet everyone thinks their dog will act like him at the end of the class =) The class is 8 weeks and each week we will have a homework assignment. This week we have to think of rules we want to enforce with him and also work on walking with him. This morning I put chili pepper in our potted plants because he likes to play with the dirt- I'll see if there is any dirt on the floor tonight. We walk him a lot, but he is beginning to pull us. So, it will be work to get to him understand to walk beside us. We got him a training collar, so hopefully that will help us out. It was fun to be around the other types of dogs and owners. A lot of the other owners have the same problems that we do with jumping and digging- so it is nice to hear the instructors suggestions on how to stop these behaviors. Only 7 more classes until his graduation!

Babies

Last week I went in Babies R Us for the first time. I have 2 showers coming up- one for Bob’s cousin and one for a girl at work. Babies R Us is huge and so overwhelming. I had to ask several people where to find things. There were items I tried to find on my own, but I had to give up and move on to another item. There were walls of pacifiers, bottles and strollers, oh my! I guess this is good practice for when I have kids and I’ll have to go there all the time.

On Sunday we got to meet Summer Jewel Ward, Bob’s cousin’s baby. She is so cute; she is a premie! She weighs about 5.5 pounds! I could not believe how little she was- tiny toes and fingers! I got to hold her on the boppy, which looks like half of an inflated inner tube. Bob was a natural holding her. It was funny to see Bob with the boppy, pink was always his color! He even managed to still use his phone while holding the baby- he can’t let go of that! I even got to feed her and burp her. I was not the best at burping though, because I put her to sleep =) Next week is the Baby Shower and I am in charge of the games- should be lots of fun!

Weekend of Fun!

On Saturday, Bob, James and I went to watch the England vs. France Rugby Game. Actually, they watched it and I walked around the mall. Then, we went to Celebration’s Ocktoberfest. It is Disney’s perfect little town. It is very nice, but a little creepy because it is so perfect. We met my Mom and Dad there and had a seat outside of a deli. We could have walked around the main street to see the booths they set up and get some dinner, but it just never happened. Bob’s brother and Dad were there, and also his aunt and uncle. I never saw his aunt and uncle though because they were at the other end of street watching the concert, and I never left our cozy table. We started drinking wine and after a while Bob was not looking good. He went behind a building and sat down then fell into a bush. I had to keep myself from laughing, even though he did not feel good. So, I said I would get the car after I found James. James comes over stumbling, what a fun night! So, on the way home they both passed out and Bob had his head hanging out of the window for most of the ride. At the rugby game they were both drinking beer and some liquor, so the mixing of alcohol and not eating dinner led to an eventful night! We still managed to have fun though, it was great fall weather; the music and company were great! They even had fake leaves that blew out onto the main street, a pumpkin patch and hayrides.

Baby News! (no, not me)
Bob’s cousin Tiffany and her husband Joe are adopting a baby girl and it was born Saturday night! I can’t wait to meet the new addition to the family. Her Bridal Shower was set for October 27th, so now the guest of honor will be there. Yea!

Halloween Horror Nights

Last night, Bob and his Dad and I went to Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. It is a family tradition for Bob's family, they have gone almost every year since it opened. I am not a haunted house fan, but it is a family event, so I go along. Last year was not too scary and not very well organized or decorated. This year's theme was "Carnival of Carnage" and featured Jack the Clown which they had in years past. New this year were the characters Freddy, Jason and Leatherface. They had 8 haunted houses, 4 shows and about 5 scare areas. I must admit I was scared to go in the haunted houses; I was counting them down until we were done. We saw the Bill & Ted show, which was so funny! They make fun of celebrities, TV shows and movies. They had a bald Britney, jailbird Paris, and a druggie Lohan. We also saw the Freak Show, which had a Scottish regurgitator, very interesting. He swolled fish- he has too much time on his hands! The third show we saw was a Rocky Horror Picture Show Tribute. I have never seen the movie, so it did not make sense, but it was a pretty good show. We saw all 8 haunted houses. They had a clown house with 3D glasses. I decided to go first in our group and face my fears head on. The glasses made things pop out and it was pretty neat. One clown popped out at me and I grabbed the guy in front of me, haha! After that I let Bob lead and I held onto his shirt. I did get surprised by several scare actors. I do not scream, but I would run into Bob or move the other way if they came at me from the side. They had a house for Freddy (Friday the 13th), Jason (Friday the 13th), and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The other houses themes were The Thing, Mary Shaw, Psychoscarepy (Home for the Holidays), and a Vampire Club. For several houses, they used the studios, which are pretty big. In the Homes for the Holidays house, they had a little person running around, which scared me because I wasn't looking down. All in all, it was a very fun time, even though I was scared. The haunted houses were much better this year, so it looks like we will continue to go each year. Now I have one year to prepare for next time!

I'm a Loser!

I am down 4 pounds- yea! I couldn't believe the scale this morning. We got this really cool, new scale that tracks our weight. So, when we step on it says how much we are up or down. I guess counting points and walking is paying off!

Weekend Wrap-Up

On Saturday we went to Chrissy and Adam’s Housewarming Party. They live about 5 minutes from us now and have a nice, new townhome. We ate, drank, and socialized and watched some crazy kids run around.

On Sunday we went to SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular. It is mostly a trick or treat event for kids, but we have passes until the end of the year, so we figured we would check it out. They did a really nice job with the trick or treating and it looked like they were giving away tons of free candy (and apple sauce, very funny!) Definitely something we will come to when we have kids. We went to the Beer Tasting and tried about 4 different beers. The guy was very generous and I couldn’t even finish all my beer, another sign of getting older =) The weather was pretty nice because it had rained early in the day, but man was it packed there! I thought the rain would make people stay at home, but I guess they all came for the Halloween event. We ate dinner at Cricketer’s Arms Pub, an authentic English pub in Orlando. I have to brush up on my English food to prepare for our trip to England next April.

This weekend I also started organizing a Family Cookbook. I am going to send it out as a Christmas gift to the family. It will be nice to have all of our recipes in one place.

Disney Day

On Sunday Bob and I used our Disney passes we received as gifts for our wedding. We started the day at the Animal Kingdom. We thought we would get front row parking, but the car in front of us got the last spot, so we had to go all the way to the end of the next row. We definitely got our walking in yesterday. We went on the newer ride, Expedition Everest- which was fun, but not worth a long wait. We got the Fast Pass so that we didn’t have to wait. We also saw the Nemo Musical- which was a bit strange because people carried the characters around on stage. I wonder what the kids thought when they saw people holding Nemo. We ate at the Rainforest Café, which is a really fun place to eat. Although the service was very slow.

Then, we met up with Bob’s cousins at the Epcot Food & Wine Festival. We went to a Wine Seminar and tasted wines from Langtry Estate in California. Then, we headed off to the World Showcase to see the different countries. I tried some American Wines from Napa and New York. I also had Sushi in Japan, a sorbet from France, and an Apple Strudel in Germany. Yum! For dinner, we ate in Mexico. I had a steak with an enchilada and a beef flauta. We also went on the boat ride in Mexico. They redid it to have the Three Caballeros. On our way out we got a chance to see the fireworks and make it to the car without being trampled by everyone leaving. A very fun day with lots of food and wine, back to the diet today!