Show and Tell - Painting Pottery

For this week's Show and Tell I am sharing pictures of our finished Pottery Paintings.  This was our first time doing this and it was really fun! I went to pick up our finished pieces last weekend and was pleasantly surprised. 

Abbey painted the fairy jewelry box for her mom.  I painted the purple polka dot vase. Steve painted his orange Kubota tractor. 

Here's a picture of my vase with beautiful Hydrangea's picked from our front yard! (I love Hydrangeas! Too bad they don't smell at all.  But I still find myself instinctly sniffing them.)

What I'm Reading Now

I just recently finished reading A.my Tan's book The Kitchen God's Wife.  I started on another one of her books, The Hundred Secret Senses, HOWEVER, I found out that Vince Fly.nn came out with a new book so I went out and purchased it!  I had to put the A.my Tan book aside (yeah, I know, how can I start a book and not finish it??  I was only a few chapters in) and started reading Vince's new book, Pursuit of Honor.  Vince Fly.nn is one of my favorite authors.  This is the 11th book in the Mitch Rapp series.  I love, love his books.  This series is about politics, intelligence agencies, counterterroism and covert operations.  (Kind of like the show 24).  Great books! (The only thing I don't like is there are some curse words in his books.  So, consider yourselves warned). 

Here are the Vince Fly.nn books in chronological order:

1. Term Limits (1997)

2. Transfer of Power (1999)

3. The Third Option (2000)

4. Separation of Power (2001)

5. Executive Power (2002)

6. Memorial Day (2004)

7. Consent to Kill (2005)

8. Act of Treason (2006)

9. Protect and Defend (2007)

10. Extreme Measures (2008)

(The hardest part is finding the time to read!)

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch last Friday. Steve and I were able to take off work early to go see Abbey's Halloween parade at school.  Afterwards, we took her to the pumpkin patch.  It was nice because it wasn't crazy busy so Abbey didn't have to wait in line for any of the moon bounces/slides. 

I love the expression on her face!

More funny faces on the hayride.

Petting the animals with uncle Steve.

(yeah, we weren't a big fan of the smell)

We all got a free pumpkin!

Moving on to Halloween pictures....

Abbey wanted to be Tinkerbell again this year. So we recycled her costume from last year and here she is...

Steve took Abbey trick or treating and I stayed home to pass out candy.  I got to see all the cute little (and big) kids in their costumes and of course, the babies in costumes too.  They were all so adorable!!

Top Ten Reasons Why I'm Enjoying My Break From IVF

Top 10 Reasons why taking a break from IVF was a good idea for ME (in no particular order): 

1. I can drink all the Diet Coke I want.
2. I can eat seafood and deli meats.
3. We can plan a trip without having to worry about dr. appointments. (We are going to enjoy Thanksgiving in NY (upstate) with Steve's family).
4. No shots in the morning and at night. 
5. No vagaegae cams and progesterone meds!
6. I don't have to spend money on pregnancy tests!!
7. No 2 Week Wait or wondering if THIS is the cycle that's going to work!
8. I don't have to worry about taking time off from work.
9. I don't have to pray for follies to grow, quality eggs & sperm, and embryo's to mature. 
10. No birth control pills to totally kill my mood!

Manic Monday

This is how I feel every Monday!  And today's no exception.  Even with the time change, I'm still dragging!  Does anyone actually look forward to Mondays? 

I hope everyone has a great week!

Why you no kids?

Whenever we go out with Abbey, people assume she is our kid.  She actually does look like she could pass for our kid, so we get that a lot. 

Abbey and I went to lunch yesterday at this Chinese restaurant in town.  We went up to pay the bill and the lady looked at Abbey and said, 'Oh, your daugther beautiful.'  I kindly responded with a 'Thank you.  She's actually my niece.'  Then she said to me, 'Why you no kids? You don't want?'  Boy, if only she knew how badly I want kids and how long I've TRIED to have kids.  But I didn't feel like telling her my whole infertile story so I just said, 'No, I want kids, it just hasn't happend yet.'  Then I quickly grabbed Abbey and headed out the door.

I usually get these blunt questions/comments from my extended family. But I wasn't surprised that it came from the Chinese lady.  Most asians I know are not very tactful at all.  They will give you their opinion, whether you ask for it or not.   

(I don't mean to offend any asians out there.  Please note, I said most asians I know.  No offense to anyone). 

Pumpkin Carving and Spider Cupcakes

We stopped by my brother's house yesterday to carve pumpkins with Abbey. And I decided to make spider web cupcakes with her.  We had a lot of fun getting in the mood for Halloween!

Steve had the fun job of cleaning out the pumpkin guts. 

Abbey put on her silly glasses.

Our pumpkins! The cat pumpkin is the one Abbey worked on with her dad. 

Then it was on to sweet part of the night, Cupcakes!

I made the spider web part with melted white chocolate chips and piped them on wax paper.  Let cool and it peels right off.  (I LOVE white chocolate).  The spiders are not edible, they're just the cheap plastic spider rings you can get at the dollar store. I just cut off the 'ring' part and placed the spider right on top. 

I had chocolate left over so I let Abbey play with it.  She wrote this on the wax paper.  It says, 'I love Hannah and I love Steve.'  How sweet!

I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween weekend!