I finally carved my pumpkin...

...and I think it's pretty cute! :)





I'll post photos from the "trunk or treat" at church a little later! Right now, I'm suffering from a caffiene-withdrawl headache. Today was the first day I managed to go without soda. Plus, I'm drinking a lot more water. So, yay for that! I'm usually like this for about three days, and then I start feeling normal again. Christina's coffee idea is appealing...except that the way I take my coffee (like a liquid candy bar) would probably be no different than a soda! LOL

Let's see...I scrapbooked a little tonight. Actually, this page has been on my desk for about three days. I came up with the title because "So Happy Together" was our wedding recessional -- the Simple Plan version, of course!

Happy Halloween!

I want to point you guys to Christina's blog. Christina is a former student (now friend) of mine, and an AWESOME photographer. She posted the sweetest story about her pumpkin, Fred. Check it out! (And take a look at her photography while you're there!)

And while we're on the topic of pumpkins, I have yet to carve mine...I should get around to that pretty soon! :)

I'll leave you with a "scary" photo! I took this in the Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, WV, and then played around with it on Photoshop until it looked just plain weird! :) Enjoy, and have a Happy Halloween!

I was tagged!

So I was tagged by Danielle...which is cool since I've never been tagged before! So, the deal is, answer these six questions, and tag six people...here goes:

1. If you could have the last hour prior to reading this tag again, what would you do differently? I would have spent less time talking so I could have gotten home earlier, before Mike went to sleep.

2. You can go back in time for exactly one hour, where and at what time in history would you go? Civil War era to watch John Hunt Morgan on one of his raids. Why? So the next time my history-luvin' husband started talking about him, I could say, "Yeah, I was there." :)

3.You have one hour to make a handmade item, what would you make?
Something from plastic canvas (yeah, I totall rocked the plastic canvas back in the day...) :)

4.If you cold lose one bad habit, what would it be?
Worrying

5.In less than sixty words, describe your perfect Sunday night.
Actually, last night was pretty close. Mike and I went to the Arboretum, and when we got home, we watched our favorite episodes of The Office. I love spending time with him!

6. List sixty things you could do with that extra hour (after time change).
scrapbook, hang out with Mike, grade assignments, try a new recipe, take photos, clean the apartment, download music, play "shut the box", read next week's Sunday School lesson, go to Starbucks, watch The Office, catch up on lesson plans, call a friend, play around with photoshop, sleep, work on our budget, organize...and if I list anymore, I'll be using that hour! :)

I tag:
Christina
Tania
Inka
Leigh-Ann
Lisa
Jenny

I have to give a big shout-out to Tania, who had the coolest contest on her blog this week. A contest that I won! :D The prize?



Only my necklace will say "breathe". (Tania had us post the word that describes us or who we want to be -- yeah, mine was "breathe".) The necklace is made by the oh-so-talented Lisa Leonard! Absolutely gorgeous stuff! Definitely check it out!

Let's see...in other news, I'm giving up soda this week. Hopefully longer than that, but I'll start small. I drink more soda than I should, and lately I noticed my back hurts not long after I drink it -- definitely not a good sign! I gave it up earlier this year, along with most products containing high fructose corn syrup, and had very few cravings -- the first few days are always the worst, though. So, goodbye once again, Dr. Pepper!

I was a little scared to go to work on Friday -- Fridays in a high school are usually more chaotic than most other days. Add to that the fact that it was Halloween dress up day AND I saw a massive full moon on the way to work (I am convinced full moons wreak havoc on teenagers)! Thankfully, all was well, and there were some awesome costumes! And I'm so excited about work this week -- I'm teaching Photoshop to my freshmen and green mapping to my engineering class! Both topics I love! And my Design class starts building cardboard chairs. I'll share more about that project later -- it's a challenging (but fun) design project!

Okay...time for bed! Gotta make sure I'm alert fora all this excitement! Have a great day!

So I asked Mike for a favor...

...and he drew a name for me!



Congratulations, Lisa! Just send your address to bekkabess@gmail.com, and I'll send your buttons out soon! (ETA -- I promise that's not and exta "i" on the end -- the ink was smudgy!)

I have to do this again very soon -- I wanted all of you to win! :)

Rainy days...

It's been raining since yesterday afternoon. The grass actually looks green! Yay!
I don't like driving in this weather, but we needed rain so badly that I don't mind.

Oh, before I forget...this is post #50!

Finally. :)

Time to celebrate with a giveaway! I love to play buttons and stickles (glitter glue), so I made a bunch of stickled embellishments as the prize. Blogger seems to be a bit weird about showing photos, so I hope these show up!






Just leave your name in the comments below and, just for fun, tell me what you like to do on rainy days. I'll randomly choose a winner in a couple of days!

For the record, I always get the urge to make soup when it rains. Yesterday I made chili. Tonight I'm eating the leftovers.

More pumpkin fun!

Don't you just love that look on someone's face when they find their perfect pumpkin? I think I'm going to make a layout dedicated to that idea. Here are a couple of pics from today:





Fall break is over...I go back to work tomorrow. I had a lot of fun these last few days -- I needed them. I'm hoping I'll return refreshed -- I should go to bed now so I really can feel refreshed! :) Good night, all! Have a great Monday!

And now for tonight's REAL post...

My car is tuned up, my brother has been visited, and my LSS class has been postponed until next Saturday. Can I just say that my weekend has been fantastic? Because it has.

First of all, I got to see my little brother on Friday. He's sporting the scruffy look -- a true college student! :)



And I got to see colorful leaves!!! I've been missing out on that around here -- the weather has been so hot and dry it's really messed with the leaves -- they've gone straight to the "falling off trees" phase.



Last night, Mike and I got to hang out with the awesome Amanda and Jed. We all went to college at the same time, but never got to know each other. Mike and Amanda now work in the same district, and got to know each other during last week's Williamsburg trip. They cooked homemade spaetzle -- yummy! It was so much fun to reminisce about common experiences from college, and to get to know another childless, married couple our age. (Our numbers seem to be dwindling!) No pictures from this event -- I hate to freak people out too soon with my obsessive photo habits! :)

However, I more than made up for last night's lack of photos this morning. Derek and Jeannine totally get that my camera is an attached to me! We went to the pumpkin patch with D & J, along with J's brother and sister. Here is our haul:



(I like to call this one "the one that didn't get away") :D






Here is Mike with our pumpkin! Can't wait to start carving tomorrow!

I'm excited -- we have another trip to another pumpkin patch tomorrow, which of course means more photos!

Fun...

I posted about this site a while ago, but I needed to create an image for a facebook group, and I needed a place to post. :)

Not as busy as I thought I would be.

My LSS postponed my scrapbook class for this Saturday. :( The materials for the class did not arrive on time. On the plus side, I can sleep in.

I can't wait to visit my brother tomorrow! I hope Zack has enough time in between classes to say hi! If not, I'm more than happy to wander around campus with my camera.

While I'm on campus, I will be taking my car in for a tune-up. It needs one. I never thought I would consider taking my car to a mechanic who is located over an hour away, but he is that good. And he's trustworthy -- totally worth the drive (or occasional tow -- thank goodness for AAA!)

Oh, here's something fun and unexpected -- my friend Jenny invited me to her 25th birthday sleepover! How much fun is that going to be?! She said she never had one as a kid, so she decided to go all out for her 25th! I'm so excited -- it's been a good decade or so since I've been to a sleepover!

It's almost time for The Office -- I'll write again soon. I'll leave you with another fall pic -- this one is from last year's Sunday School trip to the pumpkin patch!

Fall Break and other things...

Fall break is here!!! Sooooo happy! Things have been pretty crazy at school -- so many behavior issues last week. I think we ALL were ready to get away for a few days. Here are the events I have lined up over the next few days:

• check out the new Big Lots that I think is now open
  
• work at the scrapbook store for a few hours
  
• take my car in for a tune-up
  
• visit my little brother at college -- maybe I'll watch him in action as "Beverage Guy" in food service. (Although I'll feel like the "old" person if I eat there! Ha!)
  
• hang out with some fellow Berea alum that we just recently got to know
  
• teach an album class
  
• go to my friend Leann's wedding reception
  
• visit the pumpkin patch
  

At some point I will sleep. :D

I've lost count where I am with my number of posts...I had to delete a few drafts that I never posted, and realized that I'm not as close to 50 posts as I thought I was. So I'm going to try to post my daily activities over break, and get myself back on track to 50. The contest is coming, don't worry! :)

Oh, I've joined Flickr! Actually, I joined a while ago, but I was just too intimidated to post anything. Well, I got over that, and uploaded my monthly limit in about a day or so! I'm asking Mike for a subscription for Christmas! Check out my Flickr bar on the side of tha page! I'll leave you with a favorite fall photo of mine that I took last year.

I am caught up! Yay!

I am finally caught up with my journal! Take a look:

For this page, I had to list 27 things I wanted to do before turning 28. This was fun, and a lot easier than I thought it would be.




This one was a challenge -- I had to doodle a whole page. I'm not much of a doodler, so I kept it simple, but I kind of like the result.




This was an early one that I kept putting off...scrapbook your hobbies. I finally got inspired when looking at my self-portraits, and realized that my love of photography led to my love of scrapbooking and travel.

Catching up on my journal...

Something I collect...












My purse, and what's inside it... (oops...just realized I left off the apostrophe!)












and my deepest, darkest secret... :)

Fun things always come at just the right time...

I got a fun package in the mail today from Inka!!! (Definietly check out her blog!) I decided to wait until I got home from my grad class tonight to open it. (I had to photograph everything!) Since Mike is out of town, I took all the pictures myself -- they might be a little blurry. So far, I've tried the milk chocolate bar -- Finnish chocolate is wonderful!!! I'm going to save the rest to share with Mike when he gets home tomorrow night.

And check out that sweet bag -- that button is even cuter in real life! :)

It came at the right time -- rough day at work (nothing affecting me personally -- just had to deal with an outburst of teenage male pride/angst/poor decision-making in my classroom today, and it shook me up a bit).

Thank you, Inka, for the fun mail that made my day! :)

Friday Button Fun!

Inka suggested a while ago that I post some of my button collection...here are a few of my favorites for your enjoyment!














Mike is working a football game tonight -- because it's not enough that he teaches all day -- he must also spend his Friday night selling tickets. Ah, the lesser-known joys of being a teacher. :P Anyway, little known fact about me -- I tend to go into "dance party" mode when I have the apartment to myself. Meaning I crank up the ipod and dance around the house with wild abandon. I don't think I mentioned that I can't dance. That's why I wait until I'm alone. :) I must have reached a new level of boredom today, because I decided to take pictures of my dance party. This one cracks me up -- I look like Cousin Itt from the Addams Family!


















I'm looking forward to spending tomorrow with my sweet hubby -- he leaves on Sunday for a few days of history training in Williamsburg, VA. No idea what we'll be doing -- I just hope it doesn't involve a great deal of cleaning and packing! :) Have a great weekend!

Fun mail day!

I received these awesome buttons from Martha today! They're going to look so great on my purse! Super huge thank you to her! They are so cute!





Yeah, I'll admit I got a little confused on the meaning of "button" (see a couple of posts ago). But hey, it sparked a little creativity!

Oh, and while we're on the subject of prizes...I'm getting closer and closer to 50 posts! Stay tuned.

Five Odd Things (about me)

Last week's This is Me challenge was to scrap five musts/must nots, habits, oddities...whatever category best applies. I thought about this all week, then realized that they were listed on my Facebook profile. :)