A Sad Bandera

Bandera always gets worried when a suitcase comes out of the closet. As Mark was packing his suitcase Monday morning, Bandera started to worry. She was laying on the bed while Mark packed. Mark asked Bandera if she wanted to go with him and next thing I knew, she was in the suitcase (Mark put her there, of course!). I had to get my camera and snap a few shots since it was so cute. Bandera didn't leave the comfort of the suitcase until Mark made her get out. I think she really wanted to go with him!

Cake Decorating Class #1

I had my first cake decorating class on Saturday morning. It was so much fun! I am taking it with a friend from work. She asked two of her friends from church to join us so it makes it lots of girlie fun. Our teacher is a lady with lots of cake decorating experience. She works for Wilton but gives us good tips that aren't Wilton related too.

It was a lot of information on Saturday and not a lot of actual decorating. We went through the cake decorating manual, examined all of our materials, learned how to make decorator icing (apparently different than icing I have always made), and learned how to properly put icing on a cake. We also then learned how to do the star tip. We practiced on the sugar cookies we were to bring to class. I just played around and after some practice, I wasn't too bad at it!
I think Mark must have taken a bite out of one of the "M" cookies because I didn't -- they were hard as a rock so probably didn't taste great. Slice and bakes never taste as good as homemade!

We have to bring 2 cakes and 2 batches of icing to the next class for we are learning how to decorate a cake! I can't wait -- I just hope I am OK at it and don't have something terrible to show.

Free! (or almost free)

I had a great shopping trip to Walgreens this week. I ended up with all of this for just $8. I needed all those Crisco bars and cake mixes for my cake decorating class. I figured I would stock up on sugar and flour while it was on super sale, especially since the holidays are coming up!

Homemade Bread

I have always wanted to make homemade bread. I felt inspired after deciding to make Mark a "welcome home" dinner on Friday night. Doug, Becky and Charlotte joined in the fun. It wasn't even that hard, just took some time. I felt like I pioneer woman as I kneaded the dough. None of us could get enough of the yummy bread. Even Charlotte liked it!

Free! (or almost free)

This week, my mom tipped me off to a Kroger location going out of business. The entire store (or what was left of it) was 40% off. An hour of searching every shelf allowed me to get a lot of items that I would normally never buy for just $28! I got a bit produce, a few organic frozen items, and some things that I don't ever have coupons for. I was thrilled!
I also got a $2 Panera Bread Company gift card in the mail (I took a 3 minute survey) and a totally free pack of gum!I also scored some great deals at Target this week but forgot to take pictures. I got a roll of gift wrap for 48 cents, some ribbon for 24 cents, and a box of 3D sidewalk child for Mark's nephews on sale for $2.48 (originally $10!).

Wedding Album

Most people get their wedding album shortly after their wedding, but not us! 1.5 years later, I finally completed the album and it arrived on our doorstep this week. I love how it turned out.My brother was kind enough to give us our wedding album as our wedding gift. I found a Groupon for photo albums and had my brother get it. It is called A & I books and they did an AMAZING job!

I had so much fun organizing it and picking pictures. It brought me back to my high school days when I was co-editor of the school yearbook. Gosh did I love laying out pages (yep, nerd alert!). I probably spent nearly 10 hours laying out this album but, it turned out just as I had hoped and it will serve has a wonderful keepsake of our wonderful wedding day!

Halloweenies and Vampire Blood

Mark and I joined forces with Doug and Becky this year to celebrate Halloween. We had a great time! Charlotte came over wearing her cat costume. She looked adorable though didn't really make the connection that saying "trick or treat" meant she got candy.

We really wanted her to go trick or treating on our street so we could enjoy her candy but she wasn't up to it this year. Charlotte did love her sour gummies and 3 Musketeers!

We set up on our driveway. We pulled out lawn chairs, put the pumpkins in the bed of Mark's truck, turned on the Rangers game, grabbed the candy and waited for the trick or treaters!

The guys grilled so we were able to eat while we waited. The former 2nd grade teacher in me resurfaced...I couldn't help myself but to name all of our food in the spirit of Halloween. We ate Halloweenies (brats and chicken sausages), Vampire Blood (red wine), skeleton's kneecaps (chips), zombie guts (ranch dip), and beans for brains (BBQ beans). It was a tasty meal and lots of fun to eat too! We laughed when Doug asked Becky for more Vampire Blood. I appreciated him getting into the spirit of things!

Charlotte was only really scared of one trick or treater who was dressed up as a headless man. It was the best costume all night. She liked tickling us with her cat tail the best. Mark was, of course, her favorite "victim."

I wanted Mark to take a Halloween picture with me, but he hates pictures so we didn't get a good one. I decided to be silly while Becky took a picture of us. Guess she caught Mark as he was about to eat some candy!

It was a wonderful Halloween spent with our great friends! And best of all (or worst of all, depends on who you ask!), we were left with only a handful or two of candy.