Pumpkins are my thing...

I am not a huge fan of Halloween. Maybe because it's because I don't have kids to dress up and take trick or treating, or maybe because my office decorates the whole 11th floor with so many ugly decorations that it looks like Halloween threw up all over the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Anyway, the one thing I do like about Halloween is pumpkin carving/decorating. Below are mine and Kirk's carved from this year and then a stroll through my 6 years of our work pumpkin decorating contests. What can I say, I love to compete!

I love me some high heels, so I figured I would express that through pumpkin carving.

Kirk's was very cool too, we pretty much picked the items we both spend the most money on, shoes and vespas.

2004 Pumpkin Decorating Contest - Thanksgiving Turkey - 1st Place

2005 Pumpkin Contest - Rick & Larry (our Co-CEO's and Co-Founders) - 1st Place

2006 Pumpkin Contest - Bob & Larry Veggie Tales - 2nd Place

2007 Pumpkin Contest - Oscar the Grouch - 1st Place

2008 Pumpkin Contest - Wilbur - 1st Place

2009 Pumpkin Contest - Cheshire Cat - 3rd Place

I am not used to taking 3rd place, but I have to admit that the people who took 1st and 2nd this year were pretty darn good and super funny. I guess I have a year to start brainstorming ideas to get my 1st place back!

Fun with the Fitz Kids

One of the major perks of moving to the Viejo Village is living next to the Fitzpatrick Family. They are always down for fun and so are their kiddos. Below are some fun moments of Kirk spending quality time with Ben & Addie. Nothin' but good times!!!

Ben & Kirk at our house watching motorcycle racing: Ben asked me in the morning if he could come over to our house and watch tv with Kirk. I told him that it was a great idea because Kirk had a bunch of races to watch. Ben then informed me that it was "Soda Sunday" and that I should tell Kirk that he will be down there later in the afternoon with sodas for them to drink while watching the races...and he delivered!

Ben likes to put on Kirk's helmet and motorcycle gloves. Cracks me up, he looks like Bobble Head Ben!

This pic is from a while ago, Addie and Kirk playing with cars. I am so blessed to have friends/neighbors in my live with such great kids and am so blessed to get to watch Kirk play with them and have so much fun...makes the anticipation of having our own kids that much greater!

Words from LayGuy

Hey all...I have been reading this new blog (where I was introduced to the awesomeness that is Amena Brown) and found that his latest post really hit home for me.

Here is a snippet, but you should check out the link to get the whole post.
http://www.layguy.com/2009/10/26/tired/

"He knows my strengths. He knows where I suck. He knows the way my enemy wrecks me. He knows how to progress me forward and He knows what gets me down.
He knows everything. Even a casual reading of the Gospels reveals an all knowing, all perceiving God who knows everything about anything of a person life.
And because of this, I’m tired. Tired of my short comings. Tired of my failures. Tired of the consequences of my failures. Tired of the effect that sin has thrust upon me and those around me. And tired at my attempts, and the attempts of others to justify themselves in front of a Holy God.
Who the hell do we think we are?"

Good food for thought, and I am hungry for thought right now.

The Husbro is Back!

It's official, Kirker is back! And by back I mean, not studying at his office every night until 10:30 pm. This Friday and Saturday he took his SE exam and hopefully kicked butt! He said he feels pretty good about it but there is really no way to be too confident because the test is so hard and is graded on a curve to only let 30% of the people that took it with him pass. So aside from how well you do, it really comes down to who took the test with you and what level they performed at. We do not find out if he passed the test until February, which is a bummer...but I am just so glad to have him back. We are celebrating tonight by going out on our first date night in months. Headed to Houston's for dinner, Kirk LOVES their ribs, plus we have a gift certificate - I love free dinner!!! Praise GOD for this crazy busy and stressful season of his life to be over. I just pray that he passes so we don't have a repeat next year.

Frustration & Peace

Below are the things I would like to see less of because they bring me frustration...

- Dust all over my house

- Jon & Kate Gosslin

- My sharp tongue at times

- Spiders in the Viejo Village

- Barack Obama - Politics in general

Below are the things I would like to see more of because they bring me peace...
- My husband!!!
- Quiet times
- Home-cooked meals
- Family & friends
- Reading
- Worship Music

Bring on the PEACE!!!

Amena Brown

I was reading a new blog today and came across an entry posted about a woman, Amena Brown. She does Spoken Word poetry, which I have never really listened to. From what I read, Amena grew up without a father figure in her life and wanted to protect herself from being disappointed by a heavenly Father. So initially she was reserved in her faith. She dug deep into the Word and prayer and overcame this fear. And the result is really moving. Below are a few of the ones that I really liked. "YOU" gave me goosebumps as I was listening. Enjoy!

Oh Google...You Never Cease to Amaze Me!

For some random reason today I decided to Google some peeps. I have done this before, but I have never specifically Google imaged people. The first person I put into the Google search bar was Kirk...and this beauty pops up on the first page! How cute is he? The pic is from 2002 when he got his first race bike. From the look he is giving the camera, I guess he hated pictures being taken of him even back then. Anyway, I thought it was awesome that it popped up and figured I would share the adorableness with you all. Oh...then I put Mariah's name into the search bar...and below popped up! Oh Pye, you are such a little hottie :)

Ever Want to Punch a Baby?

Nope...me neither. But today was a day I could have come close to punching a grown human who acts like a baby. As you will read, I did not have the best day. It started with me leaving my house this morning at 7:00am only to realize while sitting in the rain at a red light on Alicia that I needed to get gas. Urg...I hate getting gas in the morning, I hate getting gas period. I wish I had a little gas fairy who lived in my car and magically appeared to fill er' up whenever needed. Oh, and she would also feed me bite size rice crispy treats and strawberry lemonade, YUM! I digress.

After gassing up, I hit the wet roads. I was very optimistic as it only took me 20 minutes to get to South Coast Plaza in the rain on the 405. I thought I was golden, I had over hour to go the next 35 miles to work. Well, it was like the heavens opened up and along with the rain, God poured down a big can of "suck it julie" onto the freeway. I hit a wall of traffic. After being on the freeway for a little over an hour I passed the sign a few miles before the 710 that said:
70 Minutes to LAX - my first thought was, "so much for making it to my 8:30 meeting." My second thought was "thank God for talk radio".

I finally got to work at 9:30 am (yes...2 hour and 30 minute commute) and of course our parking lot witch is in Egypt compared to its relativity to our office building is flooded pretty much everywhere. Nothing better than walking through puddles and potholes after that commute. Luckily I pulled in at the same time as my bestie Erin and we made the trek together.

So after the commute, missing my meeting and the walk from Egypt...that is not even the reason I wanted to punch someone...after all of that I was still in a pretty good mood. Without going too much into detail (I don't want to be one of those crazies that gets fired b/c they talk all sorts of madness on the internet and the wrong person reads it, sends it to HR and then I am on YouTube posting videos of "How My Tweet got me Fired"), I just have a certain coworker that could make Mother Theresa choke him. The bad jokes, dishing it out without being able to take it, the constant passive aggressive comments, the need for approval and ego stroking, the talking over me, the repeating my ideas as his own - right in front of me...the list goes on people. What do you do when you work with someone like this? I only ask because I can't even make eye contact anymore when this person is speaking because I know I am giving the look of "are you effing kidding me right now?"

People! I need to turn this beat around! I can't become a crazy person that wants to punch people at work.

Creme Bru-Julie

Last year a coworker of mine brought in her homemade Creme Brulee to one of our office pot-lucks. It was awesome! I immediately started pestering her for the recipe which she was hesitant to give me b/c it was her own special recipe. After a while though I broke her down and she gave up the goods. Creme Brulee is Kirk's favorite dessert, so I decided that I would attempt to make the recipe for his birthday this year. I must say, that although it is time consuming it was super fun to make and easy. I LOVED separating the yolks from the whites...it was therapeutic or something. Below are some pics from the experience!Here are the little beauties right before they were about to get torched!!!

Then I ran into a problem...don't know if you can see it at the bottom of the photo above in tiny font and in french...but it says "Butane non-inclus" - which I did not see when I bought it and only saw after I had a moment of panic as everyone is waiting for the dessert to be served and I was telling Kirk "well, they should put it on the box!" Shout out to all my 'Friends' fans!

I then tried to use a lighter to do the trick, it did not even come close to working.

Luckily Kirk came to the rescue for his own dessert and pulled out his Propane Torch from the garage, which we both thought was totally going to crack the dishes, but actually worked out.

Above is the finished product, not perfect...but pretty darn good for my first time. We had them at the Fitz' house along with our friends the Wood's and everyone LOVED them. I was so excited and am pumped to make them for more peeps in the future!

Mark & David were the first to finish theirs! Grey Goose Martinis and Creme Brulee!

Kirk and I enjoying the Creme Brulee success!!!

Love My Girls!

Last night I got to spend time with some of my favorite girls ever!!! Mya, Candie & the Twin! We are reading CS Lewis', The Great Divorce and then meeting for dinner and discussion/fellowship. It was such a good way to end a pretty crazy week for me. Work has been insane and stressful, I have not seen Kirk much at all because of his studying for the upcoming test and I just feel so grateful to be able to end the week on such a high note...with girls that I love, admire and care so much about. We had great food, discussion and laughter. In an effort to keep little AA asleep later in the night, we moved our lil' party to Starbucks...where we left the book discussion, got to catch up on the haps in Candie's life and then got a little loopy - hence the pics below.

Twin and Mya really took the cake on sassy and hilarious as the night went on. Below is a video of them which I don't even think anyone will understand or possibly even find entertaining b/c it is totally one of those "you had to be there" moments...but because I know the 4 of us will get a kick out of it, I posted it anyway. I love you girls!!!