Fall

I love fall, despite the fact that after fall comes my least favorite season, winter. The changing leaves, the smells, the cooler weather, hearing football games in the stadium behind our house. But then old man winter comes and ruins it all. I hate the cold, sure the first snowfall is pretty but after that I'm basically over it. Here are some of the fall things we've done this week.

We went to the Circleville Pumpkin show (after sitting in about an hour or more of traffic), they have HUGE pumpkins there, as you can see. Its basically a street fair with lots of pumpkin flavored stuff including tacos, ice cream, burgers and funnel cakes.

We also carved our pumpkins this week, this one is mine of course because I'm not very creative with pumpkin carving. Last year we went and picked pumpkins, but it didn't seem like we had time this year. Every weekend we've had something planned.

Andrew's pumpkin always seems to look really angry. Last year it was a cyclops and I swear it had the same mouth....

This weekend we're hosing a birthday party for my dad and Sunday is the Halloween party with Andrew's family. What fun fall things have you done?

What's been going on

Its been crazy around here yet again!

This past weekend we threw our first "birthday party" at the house for Andrew's sister-in-law. His family has a little party for everyone's birthday and I thought it would be fun to host one at our house since not everyone had seen it yet. The party was a success, I made 3 pizzas from scratch with whole wheat crust and we had a nice salad and lemon marange pie. Sunday we headed to my parents house to watch the Steelers vs. Browns game and feasted on lots of game day snacks. My dad made his amazing chicken wings and we went home feeling tired from all the food.

Yes, we are those people that have an inflatable Steelers man that we put up in the yard!

This week I've been busy working on my portfolio for my internship which I'm about half way done with. I have to evaluate where I've been working, my supervisor, write a paper about the experience and put together a portfolio of all the work I did while I was there. I've got about 3-4 weeks to get it all finished up.

I also started applying for jobs yesterday and there are already two that I would love to get!

I'm going to try to get better about my blogging again come the end of next month when I'm finished with school!

5 weeks

Five weeks ago fall quarter at school had just started.

Now, five weeks later, I'm halfway through this quarter and about to take my midterm.

And five weeks after that I'll finally be done with college.

It may have taken me 7 years to get here, but I don't care. The road has been hard and painful at times, but I also met some of my best friends here and those good memories will never fade away. The loves and the losses, the late nights and pizza boxes on the floor, early morning classes after a night of dancing, the projects, tests and weekends going home. I'll never forget this place.

I haven't decided if I'll come back in June and walk at my graduation or not. Its not like I'll know anyone in my class anyways. All I care about is finally holding that diploma in my hands and feeling like those student loans were finally worth something.

Fallen off the wagon

I haven't posted about my weight loss much because it's currently the "elephant in the room." We haven't been super strict about following our diet, I haven't been working out because every ounce of my free time is spent doing homework, meeting with my tutor and for a few hours each night I get to spend time with Andrew. I haven't been cooking horrible things at home and I've been trying to cut back on our carbs, but when we aren't at home we both tend to cheat. Andrew goes out for meals with people at work and we went out of town this weekend meaning that we snacked a lot and ate out a lot.

I really want to loose this weight, but sometimes it seems that I talk myself out of it. Its not that I want to weight this much or not fit into those size 10 or even 8 jeans again, I just feel like I'll never get there. I spend more time crying about it than I do actually doing something about it. When I see a picture of myself I get sick and become tempted to un-tag it on facebook or delete it all together.

I'm not sure what is wrong with me, why I'm so unmotivated is a total mystery. Sometimes I don't feel like Andrew is very supportive. Instead of being encouraging, he makes little comments that to me sound like insults and I get annoyed and shut him out. When I get depressed I want to eat and I don't know how to break myself out of that cycle. I've always been the "skinny girl" but not anymore. I just need to figure out how to get myself back to that place.

I'm not happy with how I look and I literally feel like I've fallen off the wagon which was on the road to weight loss. I know that might sound corny or dumb but it's true. Anyone have suggestions? Maybe I just need a push in the right direction or a little encouragement from my blog friends :)

Indiana Weekend

Our trip this weekend was great! The weather was beautiful with highs in the mid 70's, lots of sunshine and lows in the mid 50's. We arrived late on Friday night and had some drinks, chatted and rested up for the next day. Saturday morning the boys went out to Loon Lake hoping to catch a Muskie, but didn't get anything. Then we all headed out to explore the other lakes, get bait and much to everyone dismay look at boats (Andrew really wants to get a bigger boat when I get a job).

Saturday night we went out on the boat with the spotlight and saw some fish, lots of muskrats, raccoons and turtles. We had a bonfire and cooked some brats and it was a really fun night.

Sunday we went to a channel of about 3-4 lakes that was beautiful. You could see all the way to the bottom of the lake and there were swans everywhere. I have always thought they were beautiful despite how mean they can be. We left around 4 and got back to our house around 8:30. Today I'm getting caught up on homework, cleaning and laundry. We're having a birthday party here this weekend for Andrew's sister in law so I've got a lot to accomplish!

Photos from the weekend
View from the backyard of the cabin, this little channel leads up to Big Lake

Lilly pads

We all hoped to catch a big fish, but no one did.

Bridge we went under to Little Barbee lake, where we had lunch.

Tunnel to my favorite part of the lake.

I don't even think I need to explain why this was my favorite spot :)

Crazy

This week has been nuts. Andrew has worked two 10 hour days and a 12 hour day. He was supposed to have today off, but had to go into work because all hell basically broke loose there this week. I've been spending a lot of time doing homework and catching up on stuff for my internship. It was also Andrew's birthday this week, I made a nice dinner (Chicken Parmesan) and made him a pumpkin pie too, which he wanted more than a cake.

But this weekend, we're off to Northern Indiana for some relaxing, fishing, boating and a few drinks. I can't wait to relax together. My brother and his girlfriend are coming with us and I think they'll have a lot of fun too! I've got mostly everything packed, lots of yummy food planned and my iPod charging for the drive.

This is the view out my backdoor I'll have this weekend (inspired from yesterdays Writers Workshop post)
I'm sure I'll have a re-cap post after this weekend - it looks like the weather is going to be perfect with sunshine, warm days and cool fall nights! See you all on Monday!

Looking out

I love living in the country. I love the quiet at night (despite living on a slightly busy road) and how things seem to move slower. This is the view I have from our "side yard" and beyond that is the high school, where in the fall we can listen to football games on a Friday night. The house way off in the distance there was just torn down and became vacant a few months after we moved it. We went and took pictures and figured out the place was at least 150 years old.

I walk the dog in this grassy field where one day and elementary or middle school might be built. Its nice to know that no other houses will be built around us. When we first looked at the house I don't know how much attention I paid to what was around the place. Plus it was the middle of winter and I didn't want to stomp around the yard. But now that we've been hear for nearly two years, I have fully taken in the lovely views we have.

So, what can you see out you're front door, from your side yard or your back door?

Head on over to Mama Kats and link up! This post has been brought to you by Mama Kat's Writers workshop.

Project Smile

So I've been a very bad blogger - I'm still going to use my excuse that I've been busy with school. But I saw this blog idea on my friend Maya's blog (which is AWESOME) and wanted to write up a post! I know I write a lot about my life and things I've done that were fun, but its been a while since I've written about things that make me smile and with my brain wrecked from Math, I think this list is a GREAT idea! You can link up your own post at Maya's blog that I linked about till October 6th!

Things that make me smile

Thinking about the future: The last five or so months of my life have been consumed with school and my wonderful internship. As happy as I am to be completing my degree I can't stop thinking about what the future holds after I'm done! I can't wait to be doing a job I love, advancing in the workplace, making good money, getting married and paying off my loans! I know I probably sound crazy saying all that but it's true!

Andrew: Sure we might drive one another crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world! He's been so wonderful about me being in school, sometimes he can surprise me and be sweet out of no where and he can always make me laugh. I love our time just laying around and relaxing together and I cherish it so much!

Cooking & Baking: I haven't been able to cook as much because of my schedule but it's something that always relaxes me! I love the way the house smells when dinner is cooking and trying new recipes is always fun. Baking, well I can't do much of that due to our diet but I did make an apple pie and just this weekend I made a cake totally from scratch for the big birthday party for Andrew's family (they all have birthdays from October 3rd to the 7th).

Fall: This summer was a hot one in Ohio and I was happy to see the weather cool down a little (although I didn't expect to be turning on our furnace this morning). I love watching the leaves change color, hearing the football games at the high school behind our house, making apple pies, carving pumpkins and celebrating a lot of October birthdays. I have my house decorated for Halloween already and I'm throwing a little Halloween/birthday party for my dad at our house this year!

My smile with an attitude tattoo - it from the Bon Jovi CD "Have a Nice Day"

So what makes you smile?