Favoritism

Ok, so with my birthday and Halloween being in October, yes, I'm kind of partial to this month.  Can you really blame me?  Fall colors, sweatshirt weather, football, apples and cider, costumes and candy and another reason to decorate my yard?  Yes please!  So this year I got my craft on and partially revised/partially re-invented parts of my outdoor decor.  My mom gave me these sweet lights and inspiration to find an old branch and turn it into a Boo Tree.  I found the adorbs ghosts at Meijer and brought out my old mouse house as well.  The side yard also has a small cemetary, with new graves for this year. 

And then there's the matter of my little doggie.  Yes, she wears costumes.  For about 10 minutes, long enough for me to snap her picture a few times, and then she's out of the costume and back snuggled into Eric's lap.  I'm a horrible stage mother, I know.  It's a rough life she leads.   

The life of this doggie maid is truly rough.  Especially when they her as an actual duster...

Ok, here I am looking cute, now could you please give me my treat and move on?

Happy October!  Hope you're enjoying yours as much as I am mine!

Halloween Fun

Now that's how you do it.  Enough said. 

RK-Delightful

Styling in our custom-designed t-shirts



It's the same thing every year.  Oh boy, here we go with this camp stuff again.  And I think, eventually, I'll get tied of this place, right?  I'll have done my time and I'll move on.  Right?  It hasn't happened yet.  And how could it?  With the counselors that sign on, with the kids and their amazing insight and faith, why would you ever want to miss a minute of this experience?



The power of VESPERS!



Another year, another amazing group

Onward and Upward!

I never get tired of this view.

There's a few things I feel have to be done every summer.  And heading north with a tent in the trunk is definitely one of them.  So off to a different state park for Memorial Day, we headed to Mackinaw.  One day this will be easier because we will have a larger car, but in the meantime, the Civic Coupe gets packed to the gills with everything and anything I could possibly need for our outdoor excursions. 

Parade time!

 We made the most of our 3-day weekend by taking in the Memorial Day parade, doing some shopping, and of course, a trip on the ferry to the Island.  We had a lot of fun riding bikes around the Island and picking out our dream houses. 

Taking photos while riding a bike is an art form in and of itself.

My thumb is turning green!

Gardening and landscaping has never been my strong suit, but every year I try to learn a little bit more. This year I planted flowers in all of the beds in the front yard, and I'm trying to re-grow some grassy dead spots.

Impatiently waiting for the impatiens to bloom

The excessive rain hasn't really helped with that, but spring is here so I'm planting my stuff anyway! I've also expanded my garden to herbs and vegetables. I even built my own raised garden bed I was pretty proud of myself.



Red pepper, yellow squash and zucchini are in the new garden bed.

 And it looks like I may even know what I'm doing, because it looks like things are actually starting to sprout. Bring on the spinach salad!

I'ms strongs to the finish 'cuz I eats me spinach...

Black and Yellow Fever

Everyone hates a winner, at least when it isn’t them. So we got a lot of flak for cheering on our Steelers as they made their way to yet another Super Bowl. Yes, I know that they did eventually lose the big game, but up until then, we were just hoping that they'd keep going, and we enjoyed the ride. And we somehow managed to luck out and get some amazing seats to their first playoff game in Pittsburgh and it might be one of the most amazing experiences of my life. So I put together a homemade Miller jersey for Eric to wear over his coat and we were ready to go.

Eric in his homemade Heath Miller jersey.  Yes, I made that.

The intensity of the crowd was unbelievable. Being surrounded by all of that black and gold was amazing and even when they were down and they started playing Renegade on the sound system, the crowd went nuts and it gave me goosebumps.



Fandom



And of course, it helped that they came from behind and won the game. It was the coolest place to be and we hope to be able to be a part of it again in the future. Fingers crossed for no lock-out next season!



Sporting our team colors



Home and Away for the Holidays

When it comes to the holidays in my family, you can't just meet everybody for one big gathering. It takes a bit to hit all the hot spots and hand deliver holiday cheer. But we managed to see everyone at some point between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. We spent Thanksgiving with my brother and his family in Ann Arbor then moved over to see Eric's parents for Black Friday, which in the Zuzek household, is a holiday in and of itself.

Christmas was spent in various spots in Sturgis to visit with my family, including a birthday celebration for Miss Violet and a visit from my half-brothers.



Violet turns 1!



We traveled back to see the Zuzeks (and their local Chinese buffet) before getting away to Cleveland (of all places) to celebrate New Year's and take in the Steelers last regular season game. The game was a cold one, but with a brand new Steelers blanket from Eric's parents and a blow-out win, it was a little more tolerable.



It's very cold in Cleveland in January...just in case you were wondering.