Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween (a few days early)!!!

 I went over and helped Gav's class with their trunk-or-treating as well as a field trip to the hospital this morning. Look how cute Gav was as a Rockabilly Rebel lol! 

But before I went over to Gav's school, Courtney and I took a picture at work in our costumes. She was a girl from Alamance County (self-explanatory if you are from NC lol) and I am Hello kitty's #1 fan!

I got over to Gav's school and they were pretty excited to see me. Well, I did bring them candy (from the asian grocery store with Hello Kitty on it, straight from Japan!)

We got the whole class together, lined up and they all had a buddy. Gav's buddy was Rachel (we went to her b-day party in the summer, she's a blast!)

Gav's teacher was Sue Sylvester. She told me I was the only one who guessed correctly who she was. I was like high-5 for Gleeks.

Finally, we got outside and took the kids to the parent's cars who had decorated for the trunk-or-treating. It was sort of like tailgaiting, + candy, - alcohol. Rachel was Glenda the good witch, so her mom, Dr. Rorie had their suv decorated like the wizard of oz. Creative stuff!

A lot of moms had their babies with them. The one in the upper left (zoomed in on upper right) is only 18 days old. I told the mom that she was pretty amazing!

Oh, speaking of babies, yesterday Lauren brought in her halloween costume prego belly from a few yrs ago. We all pretended we were prego at work. Dang, we are some cute pregnant girls hahah! So we just went around like nothing was new with us. It was a hilarious afternoon when people saw us with our bellys.

Anyway...Back to today! So next we took the kids over to the place next to the hospital which is like a step-down, skilled nursing place (like a nursing home but for young and old ppl). The patients were all super excited to see the kids, and the kids were so happy people were so thrilled to see them. Cuteness for everyone :) It was awesome seeing the kids brighten the people's day.

Oh, so this little girl in Gav's class had the CUTEST shoes on today... they had a 3D metal bee on the toe part. She let me take a picture.

So that's it! I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween!!!

Pumpkin Carving

Where I live we have an annual pumpkin carving contest. I am competative when it comes to stuff like this, so you know I was in! The only thing is I have pretty much zero artistic carving skills. I have the pumpkin carving kit, and google image seach, even had a pumpkin, so here's what Gav and I came up with.

Because I knew it wouldn't be the 'best' or 'scarriest' I knew I could probably win some points for creativity. I am sure you have seen pictures of jack-o-lanterns with a smaller pumpkin  in it's 'mouth' but how about... an apple???

I turned in our masterpiece today. I hope we win something... even $25 would be awesome. I find out at 10am tomorrow. Crossing my fingers and toes!!!

PS remember I lost my kitty Miz? I got a call that someone had seen her yesterday! I called everyone I knew who lived in that area (exactly 1 person) and had her run over and look for her. No luck. Gav and I looked for her on our own and no luck. Oh well, maybe it was her ghost... it is almost Halloween afterall!!!

PPS Gracie is the sweetest kitty ever! She loves Gav and even lets him carry her around the house. cute!

A Blog Day of Silence for Daddy Butch {and Summer}

This is a special blog post for a special blog friend Summer, who lost her dad this weekend. Summer's blog reads more like a view into her heart and unfortuinately she's had more downs than ups. She is a gorgeous NOLA girl living in NYC and trying for a baby. She seems to always get bad news, but I feel so confident that she will get her baby. Maybe through adoption, maybe through... who knows, but this is what she wants most in life and I know it will happen. Please take a moment of silence for Summer's Daddy. He was very special to her and she blogged about him often. They said his cancer was gone, then it came back suddenly and took him away from her sweet family.

Summer's blog is without a doubt one of my favorites. She is an amazing writer, making each reader feel like her close friend. She takes pictures all around NYC and of her fun adventures. No one deserves to have so much bad luck. Especially not Summer.

NC State Fair 2010 - Volume 3: The Games and Rides

Because I had never been to the fair before, I didn't really know what sorts of rides and games to expect. It was everything I could have ever imagined and more!

EVERYONE was walking around with 4 ft high Hello Kitty's (and other stuffed animals). I really needed one bad. We went up to a game that looked easy... $5 to throw 3 balls into a bucket and win a 4 ft. Hello Kitty. Sounds super simple right? Wrong. But the good news is that because Gav is so charming the creeper carnie with the molester moustache let Gav take a turn and sure enough, he won me a hello kitty! Not the 4 ft one, but I was so happy! The creeper carnie man rang the huge metal triangle and shouted "WE HAVE A WINNER!" It was a proud moment for Gav and me.

PS I also really wanted a Hello Kitty air-brushed hoodie. It seemed like an awesome idea at the time. Good thing it was just the crazy sugar talking (NC State Fair Volume 1: The Food post here). I mean really, where would I have ever worn it? Back to the fair?

The rides (ok everything) was super expensive, but it was lots of fun watching people because it was all so colorful and exciting. Sort of like being in Vegas... well ok not at all. There were lots of lights everywhere. More like being in Time's Square. But not. Ok, hard to describe the fair, but it's fun and not as trashy as people make it sound.

One thing that we did pay to do was to go see Tiny Tina, the world's smallest woman. Don't get mad that I went to a freak show and was exploiting her, she was cool and nice. She was from Haiti and I feel like by paying my $1 to see her, I was supporting the earthquake victims, because I know she's sending the $ back to help her family... right? Maybe? I went to see Tiny Tina with Lauren. Lauren is one of those people who can have a conversation with anyone about anything and make them feel happy and comfortable. So she had Tina cracking up. Oh, and Tina had on a NY Yankees toboggan and a sweatshirt and some pants. I don't know why I imagined her in a tiny victorian dress...lol!

Oh! Here are some interesting pictures I took. So I was a little worried about the fair bathrooms. They were actually super well kept up and had an attendant. I thought I was at the club (kidding!) but really they had everything from lotion, to perfume, to trashy romance novels on the little table in the bathroom. Funny stuff!

Courtney and Lauren don't have kids, so they helped me out by taking turns pushing Gav in his stroller. I told Gav to kick everyone who got in our way so we could get around easier... and he did.

Ok well that's it for the fair. I took a zillion more pictures but these 3 posts covered the most exciting stuff. PS I have to leave you with my favorite picture of Gav ever... I am putting this on my holiday card... seriously!

Pure joy. "Dream come true!"

NC State Fair 2010 - Volume 2: The Ferris Wheel

Would you believe me if I told you I've never been on a Ferris wheel? well I hadn't... until last week! I totally feel like I've been missing out. When I told Gav we were going to the fair all he talked about was going on the ferris wheel. Now his dream has come true.

No really, as we were getting closer to the ferris wheel Gav grabbed Lauren's hand and kept shouting "Dream Come True! Dream Come True!" Hahah

We got our tickets $4 each, even for Gav, and waited in line. It was about 9pm at this point. We knew the fireworks started at 9:45, but thought we should go ahead and ride the ferris wheel now, and maybe ride it again closer to the time for fireworks if Gav did okay.

He of course loved it! Lauren... not so much lol!

At the top of the ferris wheel we could see the entire fair. It was so pretty all lit up at night.
We tried to take pics, but it was sorta hard, also the little car-thing we were in (basket?) kept rocking and scarring Lauren and Courtney hahah.

Oh yeah, Lauren made a phone call because I think she thought her life was ending.... but then we heard a loud boom. The fireworks had started! We had timed it perfectly! We were at the very top and the ferris wheel had stopped to let people off, so we could enjoy the fireworks. It was so special to see them from so high up!

We got to watch the fireworks all the way back down and got some pretty cool pictures.

Tomorrow will be my post all about the games, other rides (that we didn't go on) and Tiny Tina... world's smallest woman!!!!!

NC State Fair 2010 - Volume 1: The Food

Can you believe that until last Friday I had never been to the fair? That means I've never had an elephant ear, kettle corn or (gasp) a fried snickers bar. I'm from Charlotte, so the idea of driving 3+ hrs to Raleigh for the fair is unheard of, plus we have Carowinds right in our backyard practically, so who needs a fair when you have a theme park? Well all I can say is man, I have been missing out!

I took a zillion pics of everything because it was just so amazing, fun, bright, and different from anything I have ever seen. This blog post today is going to be just about food because, well... I don't even know where to begin with the crazyness of the fair, but the food seems like a fun place to start.

I went to the fair with my 2 good friends from work Courtney and Lauren and also took Gav. We left after work on Friday, drove an hr to the fair (we are in Greensboro) and got there about 7pm. The 'hot' item that everybody was talking about was the Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger. Yes, it's real and yes we got one and split it into 4ths. It is the most un-vegan thing ever, i know, but this is something I could not pass up trying!

 It was not as gross as it sounds. It sort-of reminded me of breakfast: donuts, bacon, cheese, hamburger (sausage-taste sorta). I had one bite and was done. Gav LOVED his 1/4 so he got my 1/4 too so he ended up eating 1/2 of it. Hilarious!

Next, I felt like I needed Gav to eat some kind of protein that was reasonable healthy, so we went to this mediterranean place. We got chicken on a stick and it came with hummus and this good garlic sauce for dipping.  It was only $3 which seemed like the best deal there (PS the Krispy Kreme Burger was $6, I know you were wondering). Gav didn't really like the chicken on a stick because it was char-grilled, but he ate a little of it. But... if I had been being a good vegan at the fair (which obviously I wasn't) this place had lots of healthy options. Oh well, good to know hahaha.

Next we went and had the BEST thing ever... this Bangin' roasted corn. OMG. It was dipped in butter and had parmejan cheese and garlic salt. YUMMM

After that we walked around for a couple of hours, did fun stuff I'll talk about in the next post, fast forward until it was time for... fried deliciousness!!!! We had deep fried chips ahoy (I liked them, no one else did. reminded me of a cookie right out of the oven), deep fried oreos (reminded me of chocolate cake, I think they should have used double stuffed), and deep fried reeses cups (like a peanut butter cookie).

Unfortuinately (or fortuinately) my belly was pretty full after all of that so I couldn't eat anything else. But that didn't mean that I didn't sample what the other girls got!

Courtney LOVES kettle corn! I am not really a fan of the buttery/sweetness but I did try a little and I can see how if you like sweet and salty this would be super good. They were cooking it up right there, so Courtney got a little bag for us to all try and a big bag to take home to her family.

Another co-worker had told us about Elephant Ears... not to be confused with funnell cakes. An elephant ear is this big fried dough with cinnamon sugar. You can get toppings on top of that if you want too. They just got it regular and it seriously tasted like cinnamon toast crunch cereal! Gav was pretty much on a sugar high at that point... and yes it was like 11pm hahah. Ok wait, Courtney and Lauren were on sugar highs too lol!

The last thing we didn't really eat, but got to hold/smell/pose with was the 5 lb gummy bear and gummy snake! You could buy these for $25 each which we totally didn't (gross!) but it was fun to hold them. They smelled soo good!

I looked a little too excited to be holding the gummy bear, ok, well gav does too... and so does Lauren. The sugar was really getting to us!

Last thing, we didn't try this, but I had to take a picture for my sister sarah... they had fro-yo in a cute, tiny truck. hahah yay!

Tomorrow I'll talk about the ferris wheel... or maybe the side-shows... or maybe the games... I just don't know yet !!! But I did lose like 2 lbs this weekend. I guess my body was shocked by the friedness and just shut down lol.

We got a new Kitty!

Miz has been gone for 2 weeks, so I think it's safe to say she's officially run away/been taken in by someone else/expired. Last weekend when I was driving back from Charlotte and Gav was asleep in the backseat I had a vision. I 'saw' this sweet gray kitten named Gracie. Anyhow, so I got home and decided it was time to fully accept the loss of Mizzy Girl and move on.

When I got home I got out my phone and started to post on FaceBook to ask if anyone of my friends knew of a gray girl kitty that was already fixed and needed a new home. I was getting ready to hit 'update' and my phone started ringing. It was Lauren! She said she had a question/needed advice from me on... kitties! She said that she had been to the shelter that day and found the sweetest little girl gray kitty. I totally felt like I channeled this sweet gray kitty to Lauren. I told her that the kitty's name would be Gracie and all about her. So the next day, I went with Lauren to get her new kitten! Here's the post on Lauren's kitty. Check out the extra toes!!!!

I knew Lauren's kitty was her kitty, they are perfect together! Both so sweet! And plus, her kitty didn't look like the Gracie I had in my mind. I thought I had channeled Lauren's super sweet gray kitty to her, but I couldn't get my Gracie kitty out of my mind. Where did I come up with the name Gracie? Well, I knew it was a Gray kitty I had to have and my sister's middle name is Grace... so Gracie just seemed like the perfect name for the kitty I had thought of.

That night when I was checking my mailbox, I checked the signs that I had put up for Mizzy. I saw next to one of my signs was a sign about... kittens! They were a litter of Gray tabbys that had been fixed, had gotten their shots, etc. I called the number, but got a VM so just left a message and didn't really think anything else about it.

Yesterday at work (several days later) my cell phone rang and it was the lady with the gray kitties! She said that she works for the Greensboro Ferrell cat association and is a foster mom to strays she finds in the area. She had recently taken in several gray tabby kittens and was trying to adopt them out. I told her the story of how I had put Mizzy Girl out and she had run away and the lady said she'd keep an eye out, but also invited me over to take a look at her kitties. So yesterday after work Gav and I went to her apartment.

I wish I could have taken pictures. It was kind of amazing. She is a real life cat-lady. Not like on animal horders, but this lady had an entire cat-room with 5 litter boxes lined up, a lot of cat carriers, crates, a zillion cat posts, toys, climbing things. Plus... It was absolutely spotless. I can't even say that about my own cat area, so trust me this was amazing. Anyhow, Gav and I sat in the cat room and she brought in kitties one at a time. They were all pretty scared and ran to hide. "Charlotte" was the first, the cat lady said she would be the best for us. As soon as I saw her I knew she was my Gracie. She is just exactly what I had invisioned.

We looked at some more kitties but ended up with Gracie (who's name was now longer Charlotte). I wasn't expecting to take her home right then, but the cat lady hooked me up with EVERYTHING from a baby kitten carrier to borrow to a cat 'house' this nylon, fold-up thing, to toys, food, food bowls, pet bed, a baby litter box, litter, even Advantix flea treatment stuff... apparently she gets this stuff as donations from the ferrell cat place.

(The kitty teeth pic is for my mom and also Mary hahah. Yes her teeth are perfect).

 I was hoping the kitty would be free, but the cat lady said for me to take her home for the weekend and if it worked out she would be $50, just to cover the spaying and all the shots/kitten check-up stuff  she already had done (she's 5 mos old). So Gav and I took her home right then and got her set up in her own mini cat room at my house (aka my closet, but it's really big, like bigger than my bathroom).

 The cat lady told me to keep Gracie confined to one small room and gradually let her out into bigger areas. Well that sounded great and all but I wanted to play with her and gav at the same time and the closet isn't exactly a fun place to hang out. So we took her into Gav's room and while we played restaurant, Gracie sat up in the window and looked at us.

Then Gav wanted to watch his 'shows' aka Nick Jr. so I carried Gracie into the living room and set her on my lap. I think she liked it. Then Gav wanted to hold her, so of course I let him. She might as well get used to a 4 yr old sooner than later.

She did pretty well with him...

Or maybe she was paralyzed in fear. Either way it was all good.

And she didn't run away and hide so that's a plus.

I think she looks calm and happy, right?

Maybe?

Then it was time for me to take my shower and stuff so I put her back in her room (closet). I went to check on her and didn't see her, so I looked in her bed in the mesh thing and...

So yeah, I think she's fine and adjusting well. I let her have free reign of my closet/bedroom and bathroom today while I'm at work. I know she likes to look out the window, so that way she won't be in the closet all day.

Oh! I forgot the most hilarious part. So she came wearing a cute pink collar with a pink bell. The cat lady, when she was giving me 1/2 the stuff in her cat room, asked if I wanted a leash. I was like Uh...???? but she said that I could hold her on my lap with a leash and she wouldn't run away. I thought it was kinda odd but when I got home I tried it! And here it is. yay for breakaway collars hahah.