Wow, where did October go?

We're already in the last week of October and I'm scratching my head. It has truly been a monumental month, needless to say. I turned 30 on the 11th, got a job in another (non-customer service) department and am transferring next week, soccer season just ended, and work has been incredibly busy lately.

With all of the craziness I decided I would start cooking again anyhow- I got into a mood to cook and pulled out this binder thing I am subscribing to (Great American Recipes or something) and made a few of their recipes. Of the few I made, Chicken Stroganoff and Spaghetti Lasagna were our favorites. The weirdest thing? I hate mushrooms. Now? I like them. It makes no sense at all, but I'm rolling with it. Miss Finicky (my daughter) even likes them, which surprised me as well. Now that it's getting colder, I'm getting in the mood to cook. It'll be no time before I pull out my good ole Crockpot Beef Stew recipe and make that again as well.

We're up in the Pacific Northwest, and I'm noticing that apples are more expensive this year (particularly my favorite- Honey Crisp) and that pumpkins are still green. It's very bizarre. We went to a local pumpkin patch a few weeks ago and we could not find a good pumpkin this year. We're probably going to pick up one at the grocery store. I read that it was just abnormally cold this year which is why the crops for pumpkins and apples are late bloomers this year. In any case, I cannot wait until Friday- and can I just reiterate how excited I am that Halloween happens to fall on a Friday night? How fun!

The frost is on the pumpkin

Yesterday morning while on my way to work, it was 34°F. Brrrrr. I had to put my winter gloves on to drive, the steering wheel was freezing. This is typically my favorite time of the year but with the funk I've been in, I haven't been enjoying it as much as I would like to. However, there is one exception to that, and it's HALLOWEEN, which falls on a Friday this year. How excited am I? How excited is my daughter? We're going to take her trick or treating (which we have never done because it usually falls on a school night or something else was going on) and probably to any other community event going on. We love Halloween. My daughter will be dressing up as Raven from Teen Titans, found a costume online, which looks like this:

I will be dressing up as a devil, well, kind of. I got the horns, pitchfork, a bowtie (which I knew wouldn't fit around my thick neck) and a tail. In the beginning of the year I had always said I wanted to dress up as Roz from Monsters Inc, since I could do a wicked impersonation of her.


It wouldn't be that hard to pull off that look. LOL. Maybe I'll be Roz next year.

We'll be going to get our pumpkins soon and do the whole horror movie thing as usual. As you probably already know, I'm a sucker for the original Halloween (don't get me started on Rob Zombie's vision, well at least the second half of it!), so of course that'll be one I watch.