Halloween Costume Shopping

It’s my favorite time of year and that includes shopping for a Halloween costume. Just purchasing a cheaply made packaged costume just won’t do for me. The best part about Halloween is being creative with the costume and to assemble it yourself. So, tonight we went to Saver’s (for you WI people it’s like Goodwill) to look for the items we need to assemble our fantastic idea. Since it’s not Halloween yet I will save the costume idea for when I post pictures after Saturday. Anyway, as we were perusing the aisles and talking about what we can do to this or that item of clothing I looked around at all the regular shoppers there. Andy and I both started to feel guilty for discussing our costume and talking about how we were going to damage the pieces of clothing while these people were actually shopping for clothes. I looked down and noticed my Coach purse, Andy’s new bright white shoes and nice shirt and then I really felt awkward. I just wanted to leave as I felt really out of place and maybe kind of like we were rubbing it in that we don’t shop there. We quickly paid and then we went over to Party City to get the accessories we needed and that’s when we heard a father tell his young daughter that they were only there to look because he doesn’t get paid until tomorrow. Again, feeling a little guilty and bad for another struggling family, so I was ready to just call it a night. If I could help out every struggling person out there I would, but I can’t and it was just a sad night while we were out shopping for our Halloween costumes. Will post pictures after our night out on Saturday.

Two Signs I Am Getting Older

Besides getting rest and recouping from a week of being sick we did get out of the house. On Friday night I went to a Tastefully Simple party. These are not known here like they are in Wisconsin, so it was interesting to see the host explain what Tastefully Simple is. I found that kind of funny because the host never has to explain that in WI. Anyway, I was exhausted from the sickness, but I still managed to attend because I said I would. I also managed to purchase plenty of goodies. I can’t wait for my hot cheese dip to arrive because that was amazing. I am never a fan of these female parties, but when there is food tasting with wine that is always a huge plus. This got me thinking when the days of Friday nights of getting ready to go to the bars at 10pm turned into womanly parties where I purchase goodies just like my mom used to always do. Mmmm…just another sign of getting older.

On Saturday night the Scottsdale Center for the Arts was having a re-grand opening since they remodeled their theatre and we got tickets to the event through my work. I am always up for a night of dressing up and attending an event, but not this night. It was just the wrong weekend for an event like this since we were both still getting over the sickness. I mean the last thing we wanted to do was cough all night at our dinner table or during the show. Imagine the stares we would get. Oh well, I packed plenty of cough drops got all dressed up and away we went. It was a beautiful event that started with valet parking which is where we noticed we were super young for this event as everyone rolled out of their vehicles with their walkers (ok, that might have been exaggerated), we then continued onto the open bar, hors d’oeuvres and silent auction. Of course we did not bid on anything since it seemed as if the minimum bid for everything was $150 and I do not roll in dough so we just people watched during the silent auction. Following the auction was dinner where we sat at a table with other people from my work. There was good food, more wine and truffles for dessert. After dinner everyone headed into the theatre like cattle for the first peak at the renovations and for the big show which featured Kristin Chenoweth. She was really good and you might recognize her as she is a Broadway star, on television and film. I recognized her most from the movie RV; however, that is kind of sad that is how I remember her because this woman is very talented and has won many Tony awards and I believe an Emmy too. Her tiny little self put on an amazing performance as this woman can sing like no other. Her performance made it worthwhile for us to get all dressed up and go out even when we were not 100 percent. Following the show they had more performers in the lobby with drinks and more food. By this time Andy and I had hit a wall from being sick and we snuck out to the valet to get my car. That’s when I realized we were the second car to be picked up. I don’t think I have ever left an event that early before in my life and not even if I was sick or not. When I was younger I would never let a cold get in the way of having a good time, but on Saturday night I was thinking it was best to get home and rest so I can get healthy. Mmmm…that makes two signs this weekend that I am getting older.

Badger Weekend Ends With The Sickness

I know I haven’t written in a while, we have been busy, then we went to Wisconsin and now we are both sick. Yup, that’s what we brought back from Wisconsin…the flu. How can you not when that state is absolutely cold and everyone is complaining how they don’t feel good. Anyway, we arrived in Wisconsin a week ago and when we got off the plane we were greeted with cold and rain, but we were not shocked by this instead we were reminded instantly of why we moved to Arizona. I spent Friday with my mom and grandma before I headed to dinner with my sister and drinks with friends. Saturday was the big game against Iowa and the whole reason we flew home. Every year we go home for at least one Badger football game and meet up with our friends. This year is the first year in a long time that every one of our friends was able to make it back to Madison, which made it a ton of fun. We started out the long day at 9am downtown with all the other Badger fans. My mom asked me what we do that early in the morning. I was shocked that she even asked because I assumed she knew that we were drinking at 9am, but she had no idea. I mean what else do people do at 9am before a Badger football game? This is Wisconsin people. We made it to the game to watch them lose against the Hawkeyes, but that’s ok because we spent all day and night with all of our dear friends. It happens once a year and the best day all year long. After a long day of drinking I was surprised to get out of bed in the morning to spend Sunday with my family. Anybody who knows me understands that I have a tough time the next day after a full day of partying, but not this time. I was good to go and excited to spend the day with family. Once you move away from home you realize how important family is and so I enjoyed the three hours I got to hang out and catch up with family members. I got to watch Sunday night shows with my mom and then off to the Milwaukee airport on Monday with Andy to head back to warm Arizona. Once we landed in AZ I started getting sick and by the time we picked up the dogs from daycare and headed home I had a fever and was heading south pretty fast. Unfortunately Andy and I woke up on Tuesday morning with the sickness. Of course I was monitoring my fever all day, as I stayed home from work, to make sure I wasn’t walking around with the swine. I never got over 101 and the fever broke in 24 hours so we were both swine free. We are both still struggling with getting healthy but I guess that is what happens when you travel from 100 degree weather to 40 degree weather. Our bodies couldn’t handle the torture!

Another Post on Super Cute Toes

Yesterday was the day to go into the nail salon and get my toes done up. I was initially going to get a red and white design for the Badger game next weekend against Iowa since I will be there for the game, but I changed my mind as I was driving to the salon. On my way there I realized it’s going to be pretty friggin’ cold in Wisconsin next weekend so my toes will not be noticed by a soul, so I should just do something “fallish.” As I started to go through their designs as I waited for my chair I noticed a board with 30 Halloween designs on them. Since Halloween is my favorite holiday I was intrigued as what might be on that board. I love Halloween, but I don’t want my toes to scream Happy Halloween, so the pumpkins, bats and ghosts were out. That was way too Halloween and childish for me. I opted for the design with the black background, white stripes and orange flowers. This was a more subtle Halloween design and super cute that I just had to share again. I know the toe posts are not the most favorite posts of all my readers; however, I do enjoy showing off my super cute toes. Enjoy!

Oktoberfest Ended in Crazy Cab Ride

On Saturday we decided to go to Oktoberfest with our friends Mike and AJ. Andy and I have never gone in the four years we have lived here, so we decided to check it out. The bad thing is that it’s in Tempe, so that is about a 35 minute drive from our house. We get down to Tempe about 8pm and it was just chaos as there were people everywhere. Part of that was because the ASU football game just ended and that is near where the fest was located. We stood in line to have our I.D.’s checked and then we proceeded to stand in another line to purchase tickets so that we could buy food and drinks. Soon after we bought tickets we were faced with the longest lines I have ever seen to get a beer. These lines were so long that it was taking an hour just to get a beer and the only plus was that the band was good to listen to. If we didn’t already purchase a ton of tickets we would have just left, but instead we stayed. We knew our friend Tom had already been there for a few hours and we knew there was no way in the world he would stand in these lines, so we called him to see what the deal is. He guided us to a beer stand where the line was no more than five minutes. This was like hitting the jackpot until we realized why the beer stand was empty. The downfall to this was that it was in the Polka tent where the music was just blaring polka and you had your die hard Oktoberfest patrons decked out in German garb. It was kind of entertaining, but it definitely got old after a while.

Midnight approached and the festival was closing, so we did the mature thing and decided to catch an expensive cab ride home instead of driving ourselves home. Well, let’s just say that I could have gotten us home safer than this cabbie. AJ talked this cab driver into a deal to get us all the way north and then I realized why we got such a deal, nobody else would take a ride from this nut job. First, this woman was completely cross-eyed and couldn’t see straight, but we all got in the cab anyway. Second, this woman is from Jamaica and has been living here for 24 years, but for some reason can’t speak or understand the language. Third, the nut job was driving 50mph in a residential neighborhood and blew through two stop signs. Fourth, she also blew through two stop lights. Fifth, she kept turning around trying to talk to us in the back seat which made the cab go all over the road. I was at the point of just hoping and praying that we would all get home safe and sound. That was absolutely the scariest cab ride I have ever had in my entire life, and the festival was not even worth the near death experience the cabbie gave us.

Look Out Mountain

We have been living on the side of Look Out Mountain for two years and four months now and I still haven’t hiked it…until today. I have wanted to, but due to health reasons I was unable to for all this time. I am doing extremely well now so it was time to tackle the mountain. We normally take the dogs with us when we go for a walk, but we decided to leave them home this time. As the dogs watched me tie my tennis shoes they got really excited because they expected to go with us and they seemed kind of mad when we walked out without them. I told them they could come with next time we do our hike. As we were heading to the entrance of the mountain I realized how out of shape I am as I was having a hard time breathing, but what do you expect from someone who couldn’t work out for more than two years. At this time we decided not to hike to the top of the mountain, but to take the trail around the mountain until I get back in shape. It was kind of disappointing, but it was the best decision especially since I am still in healing mode. As we walked the trail we came across a woman and a dog that looked just like Madison, but this dog was a purebred Rhodesian Ridgeback. We were walking behind her and noticing how this dogs behavior was just like Madison and every time this dog looked back it was like Madison was looking at us. At this point I was determined to talk to her. I wanted to find out if her dog was just as naughty as Madison and I figured we could swap war stories. We caught up to her and of course I made a comment about her dog which then opened up to more conversation. I learned her Ridgeback is just as naughty has Madison. Her dog has chewed up so many things that she has a designated area in her house just for him to hang out in to make sure he doesn’t chew anymore items. She said his favorite thing is the remote control and I guess she has gone through 20 remote controls from being chewed up. Her bed spread was just ripped apart the other day and I told her I could relate. I told her how we got Izzy to help with Madison’s behavior and it worked. She too tried the same approach, but it back fired on her as now she has two naughty dogs. After that conversation Andy and I headed down the mountain and back to our house while we talked about how thankful we are that our plan for another dog worked and didn’t back fire on us. Then we walk into the house and are welcomed home with this mess.

This was my US magazine that I bought at Target last night and planned on reading after the mountain adventure. I had it on the kitchen counter pushed way back against the wall so the dogs couldn’t get it, but somehow they managed to get it and rip it into little pieces. My thought is they were mad that we went for a walk without them and this was payback. The dogs got put outside while we cleaned up their mess. Andy then went to the store, which he already planned on going, and picked me up a new magazine while he was there. I think the next walk we will bring the girls so we don’t face our consequences when we come home.