on the eve of our second snow

It's November!  We are gearing up (read making sure we have adequate breakfast supplies on hand) for our second snow fall of the year!  This one is supposed to be a foot or so starting at midnight, and JP is anticipating working from home...hence the breakfast supplies.  I've got a debate tomorrow in my genetics class, but other then that I am free all day!  I'm planning on taking the pups out for snow tromping, going to the gym, and coloring in my anatomy coloring book I just got!  Wooot.  Things have been nice lately, I only have a month and a half until I am done with school and I am dreaming of all the things I will need to review before I ever start PA school if I get in.  Tonight I scooted to the store all bundled up so I could make a special dinner for JP who has been having some frustrating days at work lately.   I ended up making spinach and parmesean stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in bacon and mmm were they ever delicious!  I should have gotten a picture, but we scarfed them up too fast!  I wanted to share some pictures from our first snowfall which was last week.  It was beautiful and peaceful and everything a first lovely snowfall is.  Isn't that funny how you can be so inspired at first and then a week into winter you are ready for some grass again?

 

 In the morning when we woke up there was snow all over, and I let O outside to pee.  I think he had forgotten about what snow was cause he was super cautious stepping out into it at first.  Then he started licking it and was SO EXCITED that he could eat this funny white stuff.  As snow was falling from the branches in clumps, he raced around the yard trying to catch all of it.  It was hilarious!  The above picture is our yard that is completely covered in Oliver tracks since no one else wanted to go outside.

  

  

  

We went out for a walk, and all the trees (which had just recently changed colors) were so gorgeous with their colors all covered in snow!  The next day when the snow melted there were almost no leaves on any branches at all so I was particularily happy to have seen it!

 

 

We took them to the reservoir where they usually run around, but I was afraid Oliver would be overzealous and run into the icy water to meet his feathery friends, so we just sat up there and watched the geese for a little while.

  

 My two Louisiana natives were freezing even though they were all bundled up.  JP is wearing the hemp scarf I just knitted a few weeks ago, it's amazingly soft and comfy.  I might never go back to wool.

 
And here are our sad pumpkins that were munched by the squirrels the night after we carved them.

pumpkin, pumpkin

Mmmm fall is in the air here for real, the leaves are changing and blowing all over the place, the air is crisp and perfect for lighting up a fire and listening to the wind.  It's my most favorite time of the year, and this weekend I didn't have to work or study or do anything in particular.  It was fantastic.  I went for a few bike rides (as you might have seen from my last post), shopped at some thrift stores, watched a movie, raked and of course made time for pumpkin carving.  I sure love me some pumpkin carving, and this year was no different.  Actually, it was a little different in that we had to contend with one extremely curious puppy who was eager to get in on all the action.  It was pretty funny to watch him try to sneak off with the tops of the freshly carved pumpkins, or lick the insides experimentally.  I think he might be a big fan of this time of year too!  While we carved, JP had some ribs on the grill, and did they ever smell delicious while we moved around the yard.  Mmmm hmmm.  It's nice to get some time to yourself once in a while away from the hub bub of normal life.  Here are a few pictures for you:

I think Yin was mostly just happy to have Oliver distracted and not jumping all around in her space, so she took the opportunity to sunbathe by the fence.

Our final products!  The pictures are pretty bad, but without flash my camera couldn't grab them very well.  We each did one and then did a collaboration on the one toothed one.  Of course, you can't carve pumpkins without roasting up some delicious seeds to chomp on.   So that is exactly what we did. Mmm.

In case anyone is wondering, I haven't heard from any schools yet.  And if you know me, you know that I am oscillating between feelings of hopeful patience, and extreme dread of the nebulous future that may not contain what I want it to.  Then I just take a deep breath and get on with it.

pumpkins!

I really love Halloween. I just think it is so much fun, and people come up with such creative costumes! It's always been such a great time, and this year was no different. Although this might have been my first "adult" halloween in that I didn't really go out or do anything very special but stayed at home and greeted trick-or-treaters. For some reason kids in our neighborhood were really excited or just craving that sugar rush? I don't know why, but our first kids came to the door around 11:00am with no costumes on. It was weird. After a couple of groups came by with only a mask or a hastily put on crown I was getting pretty disappointed, grumbling about "kids these days..". BUT then a little boy waddled up to the door with a homemade Thomas the Tank Engine costume that had a train around him made out of cardboard and secured with suspenders. It was awesome. He (or his parents I suppose) redeemed my faith. After that we did get a lot of kids that were decked out, so many that we ran out of candy! Another one of my favorite things about the holiday is carving pumpkins. My parents just sent me a package and on the top of it was a picture of my mom, Micah and I carving a pumpkin together and I couldn't have been more than two or three, and I look pretty delighted! My problem is that I always have trouble squeezing in the time for carving, and this year was no different. After organizing a night where people came over for the sole purpose of carving pumpkins, I was somehow left with five untouched pumpkins and no jack-o-lanterns in sight. This was last weekend, so yesterday JP and I took them all outside and went at them full force. We each carved two and had a lot of fun doing it. JP went traditional and I kept with the animal theme of the past few years and carved an owl and an octopus that maybe looks kind of like a spider. Afterwards we roasted the seeds and (with inspiration from my brother) made some tasty enchiladas. Yum. It was a pretty great holiday. On to some pictures:

Hope you had an excellent holiday too!!

a patch of pumpkins

It was a gorgeous pumpkin patch day, with the mountains right next to us, but I couldn't get a picture cause the sun was setting right behind them.

1.
My lopsided beauty.

2.
The bountiful spread.

3.
Jeremy claimed his method of determination involved standing on them to see if they could hold his weight..

4.
JP, loading up the wagon.

5.
Trusty stead?

6.
We only had room for three.

7.
Menfolk.

8.
All carved up.