Tales from a Pumpkin Carving Party

This past Saturday Paul and I had a pumpkin carving party. One of my favorite things to do on Halloween is to carve pumpkins. My family has been doing it ever since I can remember, and over the years our pumpkins have morphed from the generic jack-o-lantern, to some masterpieces reflecting our individual personalities. Last year Paul and I carved pumpkins alone, but this year we decided to invite some friends over to join in the fun.

The party was good timing too since Paul and his friends just finished their course in gastro-intestinology and nutrition. I have learned to capitalize on the weekends that come right after a test. The Friday night and Saturday following a final are the best days for a medical student's wife, because your husband can focus a little less on school and a little more on having fun. By the time Sunday rolls around though he is lost to another course.

Anyway, I have said it before and I will say it again. Paul has been very blessed in medical school. Not only is he doing very well in all his courses, and having a great time, but he has made some great friends. Paul doesn't have a single friend I don't enjoy being around, and I love that they are willing to drive the 45 mins off the island to come hang out at our house every now and then.

I had a lot of fun preparing for this party. I love themed food, and am so glad I discovered my latest addiction of pinterest to find some great ideas. If you don't know what pinterest is you should. It is basically a giant database of great ideas where you can save ideas you like by "pinning" them to your virtual pin board. I am slightly obsessed. Below are some pictures of the yummy goodies I prepared for the party:

note the beautiful flower arrangement in the middle of the table Paul got me. I also love when Paul finishes a course because I normally get flowers :)

 
We kicked off the party by cheering on the Oklahoma State Cowboys to an amazing homecoming win over the Baylor Bears (sorry Marybeth). It was a little bitter sweet not being able to go to Stillwater and enjoy the game and homecoming festivities, but glad we could enjoy the win with friends. I love my Cowboys and they are doing great this year!! Go Pokes!

After the game, we cleared the food out of the way and dug into our pumpkins. I scored tons of pumpkin seeds for roasting from the group. I loved carving with such a large group. All of the pumpkins turned out great, and I think everyone had a good time. I really think carving pumpkins is a great stress reliever; however, Paul broke 3 of those little carving saws that come in the pumpkin carving kits. I think he had some leftover built up tension from his exam.

Sterling, Mike, Julian, Paul and Bethany carving pumpkins

Bethany, Anna, and I carving pumpkins

Bethany, Julian, Mike, Me, Sterling, Anna, and Paul's pumpkins

Bethany's Tigger

Julian's Witch

Mike's Ghost

My Spider

Sterling's Batman jack-o-lantern

Anna's cat

Paul's shark

Group photo: Julian, Bethany, Mike, Me, Sterling, Anna and Paul

When the pumpkins were finally carved and displayed proudly outside, we came back in for a couple rounds of some board games. Marybeth arrived just in time for the girls vs. guys match up. First we battled it out in a round of Cranium which the guys won due to some lucky dice rolling. Then the girls redeemed themselves in a round of Trivial Pursuit.  It was a great way to end the evening.

I so glad everyone was able to come out and join in the pumpkin carving fun. I hope everyone had as good of time as I did.

Count Dashula

Have a very Happy Halloween!!!

Fishing, Painting and Board Games...The perfect fall activities.

Oct. 9-10th Paul's parents, little sisters and little brother came to Houston for a visit. Bethany also came over to hang out. We decided to split up into boys and girls and do our own thing on Saturday. This proved to be very fun. In my family when this happens there's only my mom and I in the girl group.

Paul, his brother, and dad took off and went fishing, while his mom, me and his sisters went to lunch and then to the Painted Potter to paint some fun pottery items.

Paul and his little brother

Paul's dad and brother

Bethany, Me, Jessica, Anne, and Megan at lunch

Jessica, Megan and Anne hard at work

Jessica, Megan and Anne

 Jessica made a turtle. Megan made a sheep, and Anne made a frog prince jar. Bethany and I both painted plates for Paul's mom for Christmas and Thanksgiving.  Bethany also had time to paint a spoon holder. The plates took a long time, but we all had a good time painting and enjoying each others company.

When we were finally finished painting we headed back to our house where Paul was grilling out burgers and enjoyed a family game night with a fondue spread for dessert.

Mexican Train Dominoes

Dasher didn't feel like playing games

Making fondue

Digging in

It was a good weekend, and once again I am grateful that Paul and I live in a place big enough for our families to come and visit us.

Kendra's Wedding

Wedding bells were ringing the 1st of October for my friend and old college roommate Kendra. I made my first flight from Houston to OKC for the wedding, and I was literally flying solo to the wedding since Paul had an exam the Monday after the wedding and had to stay home to study. It was definitely weird going somewhere without Paul.  We had been lucky enough up to this point that he was able to accompany me on all trips. It's a good thing my friend Beth and sister-in-law/friend Bethany were going to the wedding too. I have to say it was kind of nice being just the girls that weekend.

My flight landed just before 6:00pm Friday night, and my mom picked me up from the airport. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then rushed to the football field just in time to join the spirit line for Steven's game. I enjoyed the first half of Steven's game catching up with old friends, and hanging out with my Cousin's sweet little girl. At half time Kendra called to tell me that they were on the way to her house for the personal shower. I borrowed my mom's car for the weekend and headed to join in the wedding fun.

Kendra is my first friend to get married after me. It was sweet to listen to her talk about her hopes and fears for her new marriage, and good to give her some advice since I am now an old married lady. Beth and I stayed the night with her that night and got to help her pack/prepare for her honeymoon and wedding day. Then Beth and I stayed up way too late (like we usually do) and caught up on our lives. Beth and I always seem to be able to talk forever without end. I love spending time with her, but always know sleeping is something that won't occur.

The next morning, we woke up, packed up and took Kendra to the salon to get her hair and make-up done for the wedding. We also assisted her mom in picking up the cupcakes for the reception. Then we headed to Beth's uncles house to get ourselves ready for the wedding. It was great being able to catch up with Beth's uncle and family. In college Beth's uncle Dennis and Tim hosted a tailgate for every home game, and I have to say it was the highlight of my college game days.

Then it was wedding time. Beth, Bethany, and I were chosen to man the guest book and pass out programs. It definitely kept us busy until the ceremony started. The ceremony was sweet and a great length. I am happy to say Kendra had never looked happier, and she seemed at peace during the whole thing.

Beth and I at the guest book

Ceremony

Mr. and Mrs. Miligan

Kendra's reception was beautiful. Her colors were orange and navy. She had great food, a fun candy bar, and the cupcakes were good too. I have to say though what made the reception were the ladies that sat at our table. They were OSU fans (which is a plus) and just so full of life and fun. You could tell they had been friends for a while and were so easy to talk to.

Candy Bar

Cupcakes

Bethany and Beth

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Miligan

Toasting the bride and groom

Roommate picture

Me and the Bride

The Beths

The best table at the reception

Sending the bride and groom off

It was a beautiful wedding, and Kendra couldn't have looked prettier or happier. I wish them all the best in their journey through marriage together.

Fall = Football

Early in September it worked out to where Paul and I were able to go to Oklahoma for my little brother's football homecoming festivities. Paul was lucky enough to have a week off from school between his cardio/pulmonology (CVP) course and his gastro-intestinology/nutrition (GIN) course, because CVP was such an exhausting tough course. I am happy to report that Paul did very well in the course, and he is now on the downhill slide to the end of the bookwork portion of medical school. After GIN, he only has 5 more courses that are relatively short compared to CVP being 10 weeks long. I don't think he could be more excited to stop reading about stuff and start doing stuff.

I took off work the Friday of Homecoming and we drove up Thursday night.  It was nice to be in town all day Friday. My mom and I were able to go check out the new outlet mall in OKC for a few hours before heading back to Minco for the Homecoming parade.  It was fun to be back in my hometown in the fall. The weather was crisp and cool; perfect to get you into the homecoming spirit.

Cousin Julie as Homecoming Queen candidate.

Steven riding high on the firetruck...he is second to last.

My Grandpa, mom's cousin, Paul and my dad watching the parade across the street.

Dasher loved the parade, mostly because he loved sniffing out the candy that was thrown.

 We had just enough time between the parade and the game to go hang out at my grandparents and get to the game early to claim our seats. My older brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece were able to come down for the game as well. It was very fortunate that we got to hang out with them as well as cheer on Steven. As another bonus, Brett, Mark, and Nick came home from college that weekend too, and Brett and Mark brought Mallory and Kayla to the game too. Steven was well supported at the game.

Practicing for the big game.

Waiting to escort the queen candidates. Steven is #2.

Julie

Steven waiting for his queen candidate

Waiting for the announcement of king and queen.

The homecoming court.

 The bulldogs won the homecoming game, and Steven did a great job. In fact, Steven is having an amazing senior year in football, and the bulldogs are still undefeated with only 3 more games to go in the regular season. I am so grateful that Paul and I were able to make it up for at least one game. Living so far away is hard sometimes, but thankfully my mom has become a great texting sports announcer.

The rest of the weekend was spent with the boys fishing and playing video games, while the girls stayed home and watched movies, chatted and played games. My Aunt, Uncle and Cousin and his family were also able to come over Saturday for dinner. It was a great weekend visiting family, and I am glad that Addelynn and I got to play several board games together.

Mario Cart

Me and Addelynn

The very next weekend Paul and I hosted our annual Dallas Cowboy watch party; unfortunately, here in Houston they weren't showing the Cowboy game so the boys watched the Texans instead and cheered on the Cowboys through gamecast. During football season, Paul gets very frustrated living in Houston and having to miss Cowboy games. At least he got to use our new grill we got for my birthday.

the spread

pretty fall flowers

Go Cowboys!!