Fall 2012 - highlights

This past August we celebrated our 2nd anniversary! yay!  We decided to keep it low key since I was so busy at work still and just had a quiet fun night at home.  In keeping with the traditional "cotton", Danny got me pajama pants with army on them and a "I love my soldier" tee.  He got some new army clothes he's been wanting (sense a theme? lol).

Danny also surprised me with these gorgeous flowers!

In September, Danny was full swing into school while I stayed home catching up on some projects around the house and helping him with school (and still working on some health issues).  We were able to spare a long weekend to go up to Allen and visit my parents for my mom's birthday.  It was a nice little break and enjoyed our visit.  I was even able to go shopping and find a gorgeous formal gown! very rare for me.  We also visited the Dallas Arboretum that had lots of things to see:

... some very beautiful gardens;

... a pumpkin village with fairytale homes; ... some neat houses that represented famouse artists (including Van Gogh, Monet, and O'Keeffe);

... and some cool but kinda bizzare glass art installations.

At our friends' annual halloween party - I had been working on a different set of costumes for weeks, but I just couldn't finish in time (perhaps for next year), so we rumaged through the closet and found these.  We went as 50s poodle skirt girl and nerd.  It worked out nicely in a pinch (esp. considering the skirt was part of my costume when I was in third grade!), and we had a lot of fun at the party, meeting new people and helping pass out candy to our friends' neighbors.  We'll really miss these parties.

I also wanted to decorate for the holiday, but given our tight budgets and even tighter storage space (esp. with all the moving we'll be doing), I decided to try a homemade route with flatter decorations (pinterest ideas, of course, lol).  I must admit, I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It was really easy and simplistic but had a great effect and got lots of compliments.  And it was a lot of fun just cutting out paper freehand.

Thanksgiving we got to spend with my parents again (but sorry, I didn't get any pictures... we're not exactly a shutterbug family).  It was nice to get a break from Danny's busy schedule and have time to just relax.  Black Friday sales were a bust this year, but that's probably for the best anyway, lol, and it was still fun going out with everyone.  I did get some really cute argyle socks though. :)

Danny's semester was super busy and crazy, getting his last few classes in.  ROTC actually took most of his time.  While he wasn't stressing out as much about passing LDAC anymore, the seniors take on a more administrative role in ROTC.  Danny's job was supplies, which meant he was up at school all day long and then working on spreadsheets and calling people all evening.  It kept him really busy but he enjoyed it too and did a really good job (the following semester, when they get different assignments, they had two guys in charge of supplies, just to be able to handle all the work).  Plus, of course, term papers and finals.  It was definitely nice when winter break finally rolled around.

The Wilde's annual Christmas party, complete with the traditional white elephant gift exhange.  Last year we ended up with an old physics textbook, some chocolate, and a snuggie with monkeys on it.  This year we got a mug from the highway patrol with a huge box of hot cocoa, and Danny got a dreamie (which is like the snuggie, except it's like a blanket/sleeping bag... um, yeah).  It was fun to see what people brought.  One really funny thing, we brought an old 3D puzzle, and another guy did too (luckily a different one), but then he actually ended up with ours! lol.  All in all, it was a nice night, and we'll miss our friends in San Marcos.

Nov 24 - Thanksgiving

(Yes, I'm getting behind, but isn't that just how life goes? hopefully I'll be getting caught up soon though, now that the semester is over. So, still trying to finish up 2011 stuff.)

For Thanksgiving this year, Danny and I were able to go visit my family up in Allen (since we would be spending Christmas with his family).  ... none of us really take many pictures, so I only got a few at the last minute. But we had a lot of fun for the week.  We did a lot of the usual, spent time together talking, playing games, baking, shopping, etc.  We also got to go bowling which was a lot fun!  I actually beat Danny and Dad one of the three games we played (Mom just wanted to watch), and I got my first turkey (getting three strikes in a row)!! fitting for the holiday, haha.  Though by the third game, Dad had a really good streak while Danny and I were getting really tired.  By the time we were a few frames in, we realized how behind we were, so then it was just a matter of Danny and I getting a combined score higher than my dad ... and we still lost! by one point! lol. something like 183 to 184, so we weren't really bad, Dad just had a great game.  It's still a lot of fun to go bowling when we visit my parents.

We also of course spent Thanksgiving day with football, parades, lots of food and more family, Michael and Meghan were able to join us too.  A fun part about this Thanksgiving was we kinda made it potluck.  I made the desserts (pies, of course), Mom made the turkey and rolls, and Michael and Meghan made all the sides.  It was fun to try a bunch of new sides.  They brought stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato and parsnips, and green beans.  It was all so good and a nice change to the usual, plus it helped ease the cooking burden from Mom too.  We had a really nice day with everyone.

So, of course, my famous pies - it just wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving without them.  I got a new ceramic deep dish pie pan (the red one in the back) on clearance for only a few bucks.  It bakes really nicely, and I just thought it looked great with an apple pie in it.  The pumpkin pie turned out well too (I really need to buy some mini fall cookie cutters, it's getting pretty old always trying to cut them out by hand), but I wasn't thrilled with the pecan pie... tried a new recipe from my Lion House Desserts book, just to see if it was any better than the BHG pecan pie I had made the previous year. ... definitely not.  It was much harder to make with odd measurements and instructions, plus it just didn't taste very good. oh well, live and learn. ... I really need to figure out a way to make a smaller pecan pie, a whole one is just too big I think.

... pretty much the only pictures took all week... don't I look so thrilled? I was just tired after all the baking and shopping :)

... hmm, yeah, my side of the family definitely doesn't do pictures like Danny's family does, wait till I post those, lol.

another Thanksgiving must - Black Friday Shopping! :) I got all this with totalling nearly 70% off original prices. yay for great sales! (and haggling with cashiers ... well, not really haggling, but we did have to fight a bit for the men's shirts, because in the ad they looked labled for $9.99 each and we found them under the $9.99 each sign, but they claimed they were $19.99 each.  Usually I don't like to bother with double checking prices, but luckily they let us get them at the lower price).  Danny was such a trooper while my mom and I tried on dozens of sweaters and shirts, and browsed tons of other different sale items.  We were planning on going to a few stores, but we had such great success at our first stop, Kohl's, we didn't even bother trying any other stores.  Dad of course hit up a few other stores and got some really good deals on electronics (we got the all of the Lord of the Rings dvds for only $4 each!).  ...this is probably the only day of the year that I actually look forward to shopping.

And a little bit more fall stuff, some extra decorations for halloween - I just thought the felt witch hat for my bear turned out really cute for making it in under ten minutes with a few scraps.

Thanksgiving and other November stuff

Since most of Danny's siblings went to their respective in-laws for Thanksgiving, Danny and I joined my parents up in Allen for the holiday.  It was quiet, but it was really nice to get away from life in College Station and be with some grown-up family (aka, no kids for a while).  We did all the traditional Crookston things - bake, eat, shop, play games, watch movies.  Simple, and but so much fun!  (btw, none of us, especially me, are nearly the shutterbugs as Elena or other family members, so here are a few pictures we got)

the lovely traditional Thansgiving feast

and of course, it just isn't Thanksgiving without nearly a pie per person! lol.  I just love pie too much to pick a single flavor, plus everyone has their favorites.  We went with a store bought apple pie (groan. -_- ), but I did get to try making a pecan pie (huge success! and really easy! plus, I LOVE my new glass pie pan, though it's on the big side for fruit pies...), and of course the classic staple and my favorite, pumpkin pie! yum!

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A few other things of note during the month of November:  One of my friends, Kate, who had graduated the past year and moved to Houston got to come up for a night and stay with us.  The reason for coming?  Harry Potter 7, pt 1 midnight showing!!! We are both huge Harry Potter fans, and when the sixth movie had come out a couple summers ago, we both went to the midnight showing.  When it came close to the next movie to come out, she gave me a call and basically said, "you're the only friend I know that loves Harry Potter as much as me and would want to go to a midnight showing of the new movie! wanna go?" well, of course!  and we let Danny tag along too.  Unfortunately, despite making plans three weeks in advance, the first 8 showings at our local theater were already sold out!  So we bought tickets for the 12:51 showing (they ended up having 14 showings within the first three hours).

We got there around 11:15 that night, and they had already started seating!  Luckily, we found three good seats together and while it felt like eternity waiting for it to start, we had a bit of live entertainment while we waited.  A group of at least twenty or more all came dressed as different characters from the book, and some of the more obscure ones too (like Doby, or the portrait of the Fat Lady, or Mr Lovegood ... don't even remember seeing some of the more main characters, like Hermione, lol... oh, and the group happened to be sitting in the two rows in front of us).  Well, they had several skits planned that they put on throughout the night, including one huge one were a death eater came to the front of the theater and proudly announced that all was right in the world now that Lord Voldemort had finally risen to power, then a guy decked out in full Voldemort attire walked in, followed by a bunch more death eaters.  Then, the guy dressed as Harry Potter ran to the front and made a dramatic scene of his scar hurting, and then all the people in front of us, aka the entire order of the phoenix, all jumped up and started a pretend wand battle with the death eaters.  ... pretty thought out, to say the least, and fun to watch.

On top of all the fun beforehand, the movie was AWESOME!  so incredible, definitely one of the better ones.  While when I first heard they were splitting the seventh book into two movies, I was kinda annoyed, I'll admit, now I'm really glad.  There was just so much in this movie alone, and they even had to squeeze it to the bare bones, but I really agree with what they kept and left out and think they made some great directing decisions.  The one downside? having to wait until stinking july to see the rest of it!  But it'll be EPIC!  Totally having a Harry Potter marathon this summer!

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Another thing for November was our RS enrichment.  Thanks to my friend Rachel being in the presidency, she put in a good word to them about my creative card abilities ... um, sure.  Anyway, for the November enrichment (or homemaking or additional RS meeting or whatever they call it now), they decided to have it be about Christmas on a budget.  So, they planned for a think-tank panel, so to speak, with people representing all the stages of life (a newlywed, a young mother, an older mother, and an empty-nester grandmother) to answer questions and spur discussions in the group on ways we can keep and make traditions for the holidays that don't add stress or bust our budgets.  It was actually a really good meeting.

... as for my part.  The presidency asked me to do a short display/presentation on making cute Christmas cards on a budget ... hmm. okay. sure.  So, over the next couple weeks, I thought a lot about it, drew up some ideas, bought supplies, thought some more ... finally it came to the day of, and while I had dozens of ideas and some direction as to how I wanted to present it, I still hadn't made a single card.  ugh.  (I'd been sick for a good amount of late October/November (and most of December, I might add, but that's another story), and things just caught up to me, I suppose).  So, that morning I knew Danny had school all day, so I had free reign of the office, no interruptions.  I basically cut, glued, hole-punched, drew, traced and tied as long as I could.  I didn't get all my ideas done, and some of them I threw together with a lot less care or patience than I would've hoped for, but I knew I had to get something to show, and not just a few, as many as I could!  As I finished a card, into the box and onto the next one!  ...I guess I wasn't really keeping track, but I kept thinking, "I have more ideas, I need more to show!"

... So I finally have to stop because I need to leave, I went and at the end of the table discussion, I gave my presentation.  And I just kept thinking to myself, oh I guess I made quite a few cards, huh?  Then at the end, they all politely clapped, and said they liked the ideas I shared.  Then one lady asked, "when did you make all these?"  I simply answered honestly, "uh, today...?" ... to which I was faced with a few second speechless stare which then become a standing ovation! :O  I was shocked to say the least.  (oh and my friends told me later I turned beat red).  I even got offers to come and make their cards, haha.  Though I have to say, in my defense (and theirs), I had no school, work, or kids, so of course I have plenty of time, whereas all of them had at least one of those if not all three filling their days.  Anyway, now I have a couple dozen assorted blank Christmas cards ... and I didn't even send cards this year! oh well.

my christmas cards