Happy Halloween and War Eagle!

I am a little late writing my blog this week, but I wanted to be sure that I had some pictures to share of my Thanksgiving decorations.  They are not a finished product...I still have some areas I would like to "do up" a little more...but I may or may not be able to accomplish this since NO stores around are selling any Thanksgiving/harvest decorations! They have all skipped straight to Christmas.  This weekend we are headed to a wedding in Fairhope (my old coworker, Kristi's, wedding) and so maybe we will get a chance to stop by the magnificent Hobby Lobby when we are there.  I'm sure they will have some stuff.

My Thanksgiving table...still looking for some turkey/fall looking napkin holders...if anyone runs across any, let me know! :)

I'm also looking for something to go where that little wagon on the left is that "goes" more with everything else...finding harvest decorations is so hard now that all the Christmas stuff is out! I will have to keep that in mind next year.

My mom made those pilgrims a lonng time ago! A lot of my Thanksgiving decorations are hand-me-downs, but I kind of think that's neat.

This turkey is probably my favorite Thanksgiving decoration.  I don't know why, I just...like him.

Also wanting to do some work on my little shelf to make it pop a little more.  I have my eye out for something noticeable that is skinny enough to fit up there. I miss the deep, 4' shelf I had at my apartment! It was so great for decorating!

I am hoping/planning to host a Thanksgiving feast this year for some other couples, I just want to find a night that I can find enough people to come to make cooking that much worthwhile.  I LOVED throwing my Thanksgiving feast every year with my roommates in college...I always looked forward to it.  I have all these pretty Thanksgiving serving pieces I want to use, plus I don't think you can beat a southern Thanksgiving, what with all the casseroles and hospitality.  I am looking forward to coming home for Thanksgiving so much, but it just won't be the same if I don't get to do a little hostessing of my own.

Last weekend was really fun because Chris had two friends from the Academy, Scott and Ed, into town to go to the football game with us in Auburn.  We won the game, and had a really fun weekend.  I also enjoyed getting to see one of my best friends, Hannah, who I have only seen twice now since the wedding.  She is a teacher in Dothan, so I don't get to see her as much as I do some of my friends who are still in Auburn.  I kind of miss the days when I could just hang out with my friends and not constantly be "doing" something...it seems like every time I see them it is a complete whirlwind and usually a lot of things are going on.  But believe me, I'm thankful for every opportunity and I know there will be some better opportunities for truly catching up once the excitement of football season is over.

Hanging out at Warren's apartment Friday night.

Chris, Scott, and Ed in front of Jordan-Hare before the game

Long, long after the game at Little Italy (pizza place) with Sara and Aaron

Chris and I got quite the kick out of the fact that his friend Ed and my sister Jessica are both left handed gingers (i.e. redheads)

Couples pic with my sis and her boyfriend, Jason

Me with the guys at the game

This Monday was Halloween, and Mason got to wear not just one, but two costumes! I guess he just has too much cuteness to fit into just one :) Tammy gave him his Halloween present on Sunday when we had lunch with her, which was a toy just for him to play with when we go to her house, and the most adorable bee costume you have ever seen! I was actually a bee for Halloween once when I was little, so I guess it runs in the family.  I was also abnormally hyper and remember getting in trouble for "stinging" people after they gave me candy.  But anyways.... Here Mason is as a bee...

The cutest part, if you can see it, is the little stinger on the back! But Mason is so good, he would never sting anyone :)

 And here is is opening his other Halloween gift, the cutest little toy! I am going to have to buy him one like it.  I saw a bunch at T.J. Maxx today that were Christmas themed, so I was thinking of getting him one for his stocking.

For Halloween, I bought myself, Chris, and Mason all coordinating outfits so that we could hand out candy "in style".  I was super excited because I have never had trick or treaters before, and as we know I thoroughly enjoy holiday traditions.  So I dressed Mason in his bee costume for the first of the night (it didn't match the theme, but he just looked too cute "flying" around with the little wings on his back) and then changed him into his costume that matched our old western theme.  Chris wore a plaid shirt and a cowboy hat.  I also bought him a toy gun.  He's not much for dressing up, but I think once he tried on the hat and the gun, he decided it might be worthwhile to have one costume that he was willing to wear, so I think in the future we are going to add onto it.  We need to add some boots, for sure, and maybe one of those leather jackets with the long tassels that hang off.  I was an indian (get it, cowboys and indians?) and Mason was a bull with a bull rider on top.  Here he is...

Unfortunately, we only had like five trick-or-treaters.  Apparently they all go to the "nice" neighborhood on base (where they have big yards and screen in porches...a lot of Academy grads don't get them because they all show up at once, so there is usually a wait list).  I don't know why, because I'm sure the candy I bought was just as good! I am thinking Mason probably preferred his bee costume, but I was thinking if we really wanted to go all out next year (maybe we would actually have a Halloween party to go to, or at least I will know enough people to throw one myself), we could get Chris a bee keeper costume and I could be a flower.  Or honey.   I'm all about themes....

The rest of this week has been pretty uneventful.  I have done some cooking, and want anyone who ever bought me a cookbook for the wedding or anything else to know that I use it! I have used all the cookbooks I've gotten...I cook at least half, if not every night of the week, and I usually try to pick recipes from a couple of different cookbooks each week.  It's fun trying new things! And with my couponing/stockpiling, I usually only have to buy a few "extra" ingredients.


I was pretty excited this week because I got my official letter from the Alabama AICPA that began with "Congratulations...You are now a Certified Public Accountant!"  I changed my exam credits from Georgia to Alabama because the AICPA dues are cheaper and my current job experience should count towards the two years I need to be a "real" CPA but seeing it in print they way they mailed it (the address said "Mrs. Amanda Wilson Beck, CPA") made me feel very accomplished and glad that the part of my life that I spent studying for those exams is OVER!

This weekend at the wedding I am looking forward to seeing my old Clothes Rack coworkers...I miss them soooo much! This is the first wedding I'm going to since our own, so I'm sure it will bring back lots of memories...and I will probably be very glad to be just a spectator in this one! That way I can go have all the fun without having to deal with any of the stress!

Xoxo,

The Becks

P.S.A cool feature I noticed about this blog website, which may or may not interest some of you, is that if you click on the picture, it goes into a slideshow of bigger pictures where you can flip through all the ones I posted.  Some of them are kind of distant, so that might help if it's too hard to see, for example, all the lovely turkeys in our house :)