Happy Halloween

Halloween is one of the holidays that I am really looking forward to enjoying with children. I can only hope that seeing it through a child’s eyes will make it much more enjoyable.

Eddie really loves handing out candy to kids! Every year we buy a huge bag of candy, watch football and wait for the kids. The only problem is, we are lucky if we get five kids. I am assuming tonight will be similar, and we will be left with a bunch of candy to eat.

I did however get a spontaneous invite to a Halloween Party this weekend. Of course my costume was really un-original, but I still had fun. Jessica looked amazing as the Black Swan! And Thanks to Eddie for being my DD!

Me, Jessica, Rosalie, and Sha-Marie

The Little Things: Friday’s 5 things I love this week

Thank Goodness It’s Friday. We do not have any big plans for this Halloween weekend, and that is just fine with us. I think we are both looking forward to a lot of R&R.

1. Zion – The count down is on for Zion’s trip to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. He will be here for six days and we are so excited. We are looking for Volunteer opportunities for Thanksgiving Day, so if you know of any please let me know. They must allow a 12 year old to help.

2. Olay In-Shower Body Lotion – This is such an amazing product, especially during the winter in a climate like Albuquerque. I especially love it on my legs. It moisturizes them but does not make your jeans stick! 

3. Lavender and Mint hand soap – A few years ago my mother turned me on to the most amazing scent; Lavender and Mint. She gave me some very expensive Niven Morgan bath and body products. While I cannot afford $25 handsoap, I would still consider buying them. They are that good. Fortunately for my bank account they no longer make it. I recently tried to make my own. I bought lavender and peppermint oil and mixed it with Aloe hand soap.  It smells good, but will never replace the luxury that Niven Morgan is.

4. coconut-desserts.blogspot.com – I am in heaven. An entire blog dedicated to Coconut Desserts. Need I say more?

5.The trees and leaves changing – I don’t really love the cold mornings that now are, but Albuquerque is so beautiful in the fall. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Little Things: Finally Pulling out the BOOTS!

This Fall has been so beautiful that I have not felt the need to pull out the boots until today.

Check out those lows!

 My offices are so cold during the winter moths that I freeze if I am wearing anything but socks and boots, and it gets a little old come March. So while the weather was still nice I was getting as much use out of my closed toe flats and pumps as I could.  With the cool air this morning boots sounded perfect, and my feet are toasty. Now I am on the hunt for the perfect boots. I love boots, but I do hate that they are always double the price of other shoes. Some stores I will check out are dsw.com, victoriasecret.com, Dillard’s, and possibly Kohl’s. 

These might be the ones!

The Little Things: Mental Health Days

Sometimes the week as well as the weekend can be both physically and emotionally exhausting.  While a Sunday evening with a supportive husband, the best dog in the world, mimosas and homemade chicken soup can help, they may not always fix it.

So, when I woke up on Monday morning I was questioning if I should go to work. I checked my emails and with nothing too pressing, I decided to take a mental health day. I went back to sleep for a few hours, then leisurely woke up with my coffee and the Today show.  I finished cleaning the house, did some retail therapy, went to the gym and did not think of work at all. I may be regretting it a little today, but it was AMAZING!

I know there are many of you (especially two) that deserve your own, and I hope you get it soon!

The Little Things: Friday’s 5 things I love this week

This week has been so incredibly busy with hardly anything fun or exciting. We did however get to enjoy a much-needed ‘Date Night.’ We went to one of our favorites, Farina. There is nothing better than salad, pizza, beer and wine.

Eddie is loving his new job! In only four days he has been to Hatch, Laguna Pueblo, and a luncheon for builders and contractors at El Pinto. He is learning so much and already has a list of books to read.

5 things I love this week

1. Diego! We really do have the Best Dog Ever! I love him so much, and he always make hard days better.

2.  Getting an Awesome expression when photographing the boss’s son! Last minute I was asked to help photograph Eastern Hills Christian School. This was no biggie until I remembered that Paul’s son Corban attends this school. Knowing my luck I was sure I was going to get him in my line. Well … of course I did. Luckily, I caught one of his best smiles! I quickly deleted the two other shots, so the only one Paul will see is amazing!

3. I ate my Frog! There is a book named ‘Eat that Frog’ that is about procrastination. And I ate mine. For weeks, maybe months, I have been working on a Secret Shopper program for Kim Jew with Jacqueline. It did not have a firm deadline and so we kept putting it at the bottom of the list. We finally finished it and launched it this week, and let me tell you, it feels great!

4. Pinterest.com! This is my newest website obsession. It is an online pinboard that has pictures of everything. I can spend (waste) hours just looking at it. Now, if only I had the money to buy all the clothes I see; the time to cook all the food on there, and all of the DIY projects.

5. Changing over and cleaning out your closet! This is one of my favorite semi-annual projects. I just love it. Sometimes I forget about some of the clothes I have, and I love making room for the new clothes and shoes I am going to buy this season. I have 2 trashbags full to give to Goodwill. Eddie hates this and never sees the point. I tell him it is because he is from LA, and never really had to do it.

I hope everyone has a fun, relaxing and enjoyable weekend!

The Little Things: On to the next one…

Friday was Eddie’s last day with the Isotopes! It was pretty perfect as they had Golf scheduled for the afternoon. Thanks to Eddie’s ex-co-workers for meeting us at IVB Canteen for happy hour. We had a great time, and we know it is not really goodbye!

Today, Eddie started his new job at Williamson Restoration. He was up and out of the house before I was even up. My, how the tables have turned. I hope he has a wonderful day, and I can not wait to hear all about it tonight.

The Little Things: Friday’s Five Things I love this week

1. & 2. Audrey and Landon - Until I have my own (and after I’m sure) I will be the doting Aunt. Last week the kids came in for their yearly pics. Here are a few favorites.

3. Paycheck Friday’s – This one is probably more of a love hate relationship. While I love having money on the weekend, sometimes we spend too much and have to be pretty frugal towards the end.

4. Bud Vases – Once I again, I am loving fresh flowers all around the house. It is actually very economical if you use bud vases. Your $4 bouquet can go quite far!

5. Craft Beer – This year Eddie and I have taken quite the liking to Craft Beers. I can not tell you how much I am looking forward to meeting up with friends after work for Happy Hour. Yes, the friends are fun, but the Beer is the driving force.

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The Little Things: Girls Night In

Since Fall is here and I love soup I decided to host a Soup, Salad, and Bread party. Thank you Renee, Jamie, Jessica, Rosalie and Samantha for coming over and for bringing goodies! I always love getting together with these girls. All of the food was delicious, the wine was flowing and the laughter lasted all night.

I made a Wild Rice and Chicken Soup. It was good, but very rich. Probably because of the stick of butter and 2 cups of heavy cream the recipe called for. It has potential, but could use some tweaking to make it a little healthier.

Here is the recipe, but I left out the pimento peppers:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/wild-rice-and-chicken-soup/detail.aspx

Thank you Eddie for doing all of the dishes, even though it was to get out of future chores!

The Little Things: Friendship

I am so blessed to have so many good friends in my life. I am proud to call my husband my best friend, and to have a sister who means more to me than she will ever know. I love friend date nights, where you catch up and are truly there for each other. The best friends are the ones that confide in you, see you at your best and worst, and are there for you no matter what. Cheers to amazing friendships! 

 

The Little Things: Pumpkin Anything

Eddie and I had a pretty low key and relaxing weekend. There was plenty of football, chores, and pumpkin food! On Friday night we enjoyed a growler of La Cumbre’s Pumpkin Ale. Yum! And on Saturday I made the pumpkin cupcakes I saw the really easy recipe for. They were a hit. Oh yeah, and the pumpkin spice latte watching the balloons with Katelyn and the kids on Sunday morning made it much more enjoyable. Thank goodness for fall! I hope you all had a great weekend too!

 

The Little Things

 The Little Things

I finally cam up with a name that I love for my blog: The Little Things. It truly is the little things in life that make it so great.

Here are a few little things that I love right now:

a very rainy fall afternoon

new soft squishy mats in front of the sink and the stove

a fall morning sky polka dotted with hot air balloons

pumpkin spice candles

 

 

fresh flowers everywhere

Great American Beer Festival and Denver … We will be back!

For our One Year Anniversary trip we went to Denver for the Great American Beer Festival. We had an amazing time. We actually volunteered at the event by serving 1 oz pours. Yes, we worked a little, but it was very fun, and we got to drink on the job! Enough that you actually left a little drunk. Eddie has a new beer crush, Rivertown Brewing Co. based out of Cincinnati. The brewers could not have been nicer, and it helped that there Roebling Porter was one of our favorite at the Festival. If only they distributed to New Mexico. We will just have to figure out how to get some. On Friday night we did get to enjoy GABF as patrons and had a wonderful time. Chris and Kara were so much fun to hang out with, and Chrissy (who lost her ID that afternoon) was missed. 

Thank you Kara for the pretzel necklaces.

We are the ones in the green shirt. Do you see us?

Eddie's new Brewery Crush

Eddie and Chris

On Sunday, we rented a car and headed to Boulder. It is a great little town. We walked around the University, bought some t-shirts from CU Boulder, and met Rachel and Nate for dinner. It was so good to catch up with them. 

Thanks for meeting us Rachel!

A really cool staircase at CU Boulder

Relaxing on CU Boulder's campus.