War Damn Rodeo and the rest of our week

Happy Friday, y'all! I can't tell y'all how happy I am that it is FINALLY here.  And what a week it has been!!

First of all, I want to ask you to *pretty please* hop over to my new page on this blog (you will see the page options at the top of the page), "Rodan + Fields".  This week was a big week for us because I decided to start my own business selling a product that I really believe in: Rodan + Fields dermatalogical skin care lines.  The income potential with this company is amazing, and so far I have loved taking on this new project! I believe that a second income source for me could help tremendously in us reaching our financial goals.  I have also always dreamed of owning my own business, becasue there are so many personal and financial rewards (hello, tax deductions!).  I am getting my box full of sample products today and I could not be more excited! I could keep going on and on about it, but I'm going to go into more detail on the page I am dedicating just to my business.

All I'm going to ask is that you all at least read through the page and support me in my new venture...that means that if you know anyone that you think my products would help, please refer them to my website (which is http://amandabeck.myrandf.com/ ).  ALSO, if you know anyone that could use a second (or even first!) source of income, please share this opportunity with them and encourage them to talk to me! I am so excited about the potential that this product has and would love to help someone else be a part of the amazing team of consultants that I joined this week!

If nothing else...just check out my page to see the sweet discounts that I will be offering my first customers until June 30. :)

Second order of business:  We are entering Mason in the Lee County Humane Society calendar contest!

See: http://leecountyhumane.org/special/calendar.html

We have narrowed our entries down to the following pictures, and I would REALLY appreciate your input on which one we should choose!

Option 1: 

Option 2:

Option 3:

Email me or add your favorite to the comments at the bottom of this blog! :) Thanks!

The entry fee is $10 to enter if you have a great pic of your pup...not that we want any competition, BUT it is for a great cause! Also, the votes are $1 each and also go to the Humane Society, so once we choose a picture, we would appreciate your tax-deductible votes! Thanks, Tammy, for letting us know about this!

This weekend Chris and I and a bunch of other folks from the class made the trip to Auburn to participate in the Alpha Psi rodeo.  In case anyone is confused about the title of this post, we really need to get you up to date on Auburn! But, you (should) know how we say "War Damn Eagle"? Well...at the rodeo, we say "War Damn Rodeo".  So now you know :) Oh my gosh did I have an awesome time.  I couldn't think of anything better than being surrounded by old AND new friends, as some of my best girlfriends from Auburn were there! (Those that were missing...you know who you are! And I expect you to be there next time, if there is one, haha)

Here are some pics...but before you look, please read this disclaimer::: The rodeo is all in good fun and requires everyone to dress up as complete rednecks and act like complete rednecks for an entire day.  These pictures do not represent the values or lifestyle of anyone pictured, and do not accurately represent Auburn University, the US Air Force, or the state of Alabama.  Okay, maybe they do sort of represent Alabama, but they don't represent Lee County!

 Here goes.  And a special thanks to Chris Beck, Sr. and my sister, Jessica, for driving our rather large group to the rodeo in the back of your trucks...as well as to Aaron Braden and Drew Hull for driving us back when the shuttle line was way too long! Thanks to my parents for putting a bunch of us up, cooking breakfast, and taking pics.  Also, thanks Jess for taking care of wittle MayMay all day.  As you can see...attending the rodeo requires quite the support group. Y'all rock!

I scoured the internet for the perfect redneck shirt for the rodeo, and found it...I am going to HAVE to find an occasion to wear this gem again!

I feel like this picture belongs in a Nascar magazine somewhere...



I'm proud to say I actually made the shorts we wore to the rodeo.  Well I didn't actually sew them but I spray painted them.  Here they are in my yard last week. I used painters tape and cut-out stars.







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Have you ever seen such a good looking group of guys? Would you believe that on top of looking that good, they also defend our country in the Air Force? haha...yeah, I'm sure most other people didn't, either.



Here is my husband, biting into a whole chicken.  He really went all out with his outfit and the mustache and all.  Have you ever looked at your husband and thought "wow...I signed up to procreate with that person one day! ahhhh!"  I had my moment right there, haha. 


At the rodeo, the cool thing to do is nap under a raised truck...here Jon and Chris are, beating the heat.





And here we are trying to get in some rest in the shade!

  

Awesome moment of the day? Our friend, Nancy (also in Chris' pilot class) won VIP tickets to the Eric Church/Easton Corbin concert at the end of the day!! She got two and gave me one, so we got some AWESOME pics of the concert!



Easton Corbin and his band

Eric Church! I'm so obsessed with him now and I have to see him in concert again.  He was amazing!

Eric Church was drinking out of this Jack Daniels bottle for a couple of his drinking-themed songs (after all...it is country music!)  haha.  I took a little potty break and when I came back, he had given it to Nancy from the stage! How cool is that!?



Sunday, we had a fun birthday brunch at the Moores Mill Club for Tammy.  Tammy hated Chris' mustache, so we came up with a good plan for her brunch.  When we got there, Chris walked up with her card over his mustache and she was like "did you shave it!?"  I know she thought he was about to take the card off his face and reveal a clean shave...but nope! He still had the bushy mustache! I know she was so dissapointed!  Then, once we sat down at our table, he excused himself to go to the restroom and came back with no mustache.  It was soooo nice to see the top of my hubby's lip again! However, I must say...the month and a half of scruffy Chris was so worth his look for the rodeo.  I mean, of all the rednecks there...I think he must have looked the most genuine!

Sunday night I stayed in Birmingham with my friend Meredith, who I owe big-time for introducing me to Rodan + Fields.  She had her launch party and it was so much fun...nothing at all like some other parties I've been to where you feel pressured to buy anything.  We basically just got a chance to sample the products, and after attending her launch, I (as well as 3 of her other guests!) were sold on the opportunity to join the business.

I worked in Birmingham through Wednesday.  The weather was rough for a couple of days...check out this picture I took outside my office building downtown:

I think I should turn this into the marketing department and they should run an add like..."When life looks stormy...you can trust Cadence!" Okay, that's cheesy, but that's why I don't work in Marketing!

Chris  has had a slow couple of weeks.  He was sick the past couple of days with a head cold, and there has also been some bad weather.  Today he finally got cleared to fly again! However, as I write this, I am looking out my window and see some cloudy skies.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate.  We are hoping that he will be able to solo next week.  He did get through his first block of training, which consisted of 6 intro (i.e. basic) flights focusing on aircraft control, landings, and stalls (what I refer to as free-falling...so scary! But not for him!) Now he's working on perfecting those skills and doing spins in the plane.  He has started studying about the instruments and doing simulators for those. Instruments are what you use when you fly in bad weather and have no outside visibility.

Here is a video that gives an example of what he is working on...still freaks me out, but I guess they get pretty comfortable with it! I mean just watching this makes me want to vomit:




I can't believe I am going to be 24 in 6 days! I remember what a special birthday 23 was...I actually took my fourth and final CPA exam last year on the 26th.  What a feeling that was! Literally everything that has happened since then has been a positive in my life.  Right after I turned 23, I graduated about 2 weeks later, got married and I feel like the entire year of 23 was nothing but fun, fun, fun.  I couldn't ask for anything more.  I am going to do everything possible to make sure that 24 is no different! I know this time last year I was probably hating my life while I tried to get through that last exam...now that it's over, I can truly appreciate the work I put into it.  I get my CPA certificate via certified mail on the week of May 14 and I can't WAIT to frame that sucker and put it on the wall!

As usual, Thanks for reading...and check out the R+F page please :)

A Time for Everything

I have taken another long break from blogging due to the past few weeks containing so many events.  Some have been very joyful, and some have been very sad.  That’s life, and it’s important to put into perspective the fact that no day is guaranteed to us.  Chris and I have always made it a point to take no day for granted. That was put to the test this week when we received some very bad news on short notice.

Before I get into some of the things that we have been up to, I would like to share that someone very special to us passed away this week.  Chris’ grandfather, Martin Beck, has been a huge role model and supporter of Chris throughout his life.  We were very shocked earlier this week when we found that he had come down with a case of pneumonia, which many of us already know can be very serious for older people. 

I have known Martin since I started dating Chris back in the 10^th grade.  He lived right down the road from Chris’ dad, and I always loved how involved he was with his family and how interesting and witty he always was.  He had so many interesting stories to tell, from his days as a Kappa Alpha pledge at Auburn to being a POW during WWII.  He was a very successful man.   He invented several machines related to turf farming and ran his own grass farm business before eventually settling into retirement and never letting a day go wasted.  If he wasn’t travelling to other countries, or even just to other states to visit his many old friends or spend a few days in Panama City, he was on the golf course.  He was also very generous.  He was absolutely the definition of someone I would call a “life-long” learner…he never stopped being interested in learning new things as he got older, and funded a lot of scholarships at Auburn.   He meant a lot to a lot of people, especially Chris and his brother, Warren.  I know everyone who knew him is sad to see him go, but the great thing is that we can look back on his life and see someone who had a lot of accomplishments and, more importantly, never stopped contributing to his family and community.  To me, this is very comforting during a time of grief.

Martin loved reading this blog and even asked about Mason when he was in the hospital and not doing well or talking much.  I heard him say several times that he thought Mason belonged in commercials. I’m glad that Mason got to pay him a visit a couple of weeks ago over the Christmas weekend. I know Martin is glad to have been able to watch his oldest grandson graduate from the Air Force Academy, be appointed as an officer, and get married.  

 I wish I would have found this earlier, but I was poking around online after hearing of his death, and found this copy of his original patent for a grass planter (as well as some other articles about this history of turf farming that mentioned his name for the other invention of his that I mentioned above).  I found it so inspiring and a perfect example of how brilliant he really was:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3159121.pdf

We will always remember Martin fondly and I know we are both so glad that we got to know him and that he was a part of our lives.  Please keep Chris, his brother Warren, dad Chris,Sr., and Martin’s wife, Virginia in your prayers.

Us with Martin and Virginia a couple of nights after we got engaged.

I must say, since Chris left Tuesday for his month of training in Pueblo, Colorado, I already feel the pressures of being military wife since I have been working in Birmingham this week and had to make special arrangements for Mason to stay with our friends Meredith and Ryan King during the day.  Still trying to figure out what I’m going to do with the little guy while I’m at work all day since he’s used to his daddy taking him out to play.  Oh, the trials of single motherhood!  For the first time since I started blogging I admit that I am just too busy this week to gather all the pictures I took together to post...especially since Chris has half of them on his iPhone.  Maybe I can get them up next week!

The last couple of weeks, we have really been busy.  Christmas was a special weekend since it was our first together.  We had the opportunity to spend some quality time with many of our family members that we don’t see as often, although I’m sure we would have spent longer with them if we would have had the time.  The good news is, it’s finally 2012 which means I get some vacation time! So maybe next year’s holidays won’t be so short.

We were especially glad to see Nancileigh and Matt, Chris’ grandparents who live in Florida.  We had not seen them since the wedding.  We also went to Phenix City Christmas evening to see some of my extended family.  We weren’t there for very long since we then came back to spend Christmas night at Chris’ dad’s house, but it was still nice just to pop in and say hello to everyone there. To be honest, I’m sure there were tons of things I was going to share about Christmas, but things have been such a whirlwind since then and so many other things have happened, I’m afraid to share too much because I don’t want to leave anything out J

Last week I took a week off of running to spend more time with Chris since I knew he would be leaving soon.  We packed up Thursday to go to Atlanta for the weekend to go to the bowl game.  Thursday night while we were getting dinner ready, I got a call from someone who is a super-special friend of mine (since the 7^th grade, plus we were roommates for all of undergraduate college at AU) with a surprise announcement…yes you guessed it, but I don’t think anyone was as surprised as she was.  My friend Hannah is engaged to her boyfriend, Chase.  They are another couple a lot like Chris and I who started dating in high school, took a little time apart in college which (apparently) made them realize that they couldn’t do without each other, got back together and, alas, they will be joining the married people club sometime soon. 

The bowl game weekend was awesome.  Friday night, we met up with another of my closest friends, Lauren Emily (I call her Ellie) and her fiancé Matt (they got engaged over Thanksgiving break…yay, another couple for the married people club!)…and also, with Sara and her boyfriend Aaron who spent the weekend in Atlanta with us…we went to this restaurant that I’m a big fan of in Atlanta, called Dante’s Down the Hatch.  If you love fondue and Pirates of the Caribbean, you should be a fan of this place.  There is a big boat in the middle with a real alligator in it (or maybe it’s a crocodile?).  

I am eternally grateful to Ellie for keeping Mason over the weekend! She is from the Atlanta area, and her house was just 20 minutes from our hotel in Buckhead.  We got into a real bind with Mason because all of the boarding facilities we tried to use were full.  Ellie volunteered to keep him and we could tell he had an awesome time because he so tired after the weekend was over! He got to play with her and Matt’s dogs (Mason loves to play!).

Saturday morning, Sara and I did some light shopping before meeting up with the guys to go to lunch in downtown Atlanta.  From there, we tailgated for the game at an RV tailgate that Dusty invited us to.  RV tailgates are so fun, I kind of want one! Anyway, the game was awesome and we won by way more than any of us thought we would!

After the game, the 6 of us (Ellie and Matt met back up with us) went to Gordon Biersh in midtown Atlanta.  This wound up being the most perfect plan, although I wasn’t sure how it would turn out at first.  I was concerned that if we tried to go to any of the Atlanta bar/clubs to ring in New Years that we would get lost in a huge crowd and spend way too much money on the expensive cover that most places had because of New Years.  Plus, I was afraid we would spend the “clock-stroking-midnight” moment waiting in line somewhere.  Plus I knew we would be hungry.  So, even though Chris and I love going out in Atlanta, we decided to take a different approach by making a reservation at Gordon Biersh at 11:30.  I really liked how we could make reservations that late on a website I use called Open Table, so we knew that we would have a guaranteed seat.  When we got there (about 11:45 after taking the Marta from the GA Dome), the restaurant was practically empty and we got served champagne and lots of food very quickly.  The restaurant was quiet enough for us to all talk and have a great time, and there were TVs everywhere where we could keep up with other games.  Did I mention the food? Football makes me hungry! Ellie’s sweet dad even picked us all up from Gordon Biersh and took us back so we didn’t have to wait forever on a cab or take the Marta back. 

Unfortunately, on the way home, that’s where we received notice that Chris’ grandfather was not doing well.  We changed our plans from going back to Columbus Sunday to going to Auburn.  Chris prepared some things that he wanted to tell his grandfather in case this was “it”.  Luckily, he got a chance to say those things and I know that now he is very glad that he got to.  We left Auburn feeling very encouraged that Martin was going to recover, because he looked well and acted positive in the time we spent with him.  However, we all know that it is not God’s will for us to live forever.  I do not claim to be familiar every verse in the Bible the way I probably should, but one that I am familiar with is in Ecclesiastes 3 and it has brought me comfort over the years during sad times. As it says, there is a time to be born and a time to die…a time to weep, and a time to laugh…a time to mourn, and a time to dance.  Chris and I have had many good times in the (almost) 6 months we have spent married.  Right now is a very difficult time because in the wake of Chris’ loss of his grandfather, he is far away in Colorado and will be unable to return for the funeral.  I am deeply saddened by Martin’s death, as well, and the one person I would really like to be able to comfort and to have comfort me cannot be here.  However, I know that the good times will come again and that the family can find comfort in each other and in his memory, and that Chris can have the relief of knowing he got to say goodbye before leaving to train.  Martin will be very much missed.

Goodbye Thanksgiving, Hello Christmas...

This past week was full of its ups and downs.  Of course, we were thrilled to see family and friends for the Thanksgiving holiday.  As usual, we spent Thanksgiving lunch with my mom's side of the family.  They are from Montgomery, and Thanksgiving is the only holiday we usually get to spend much time with them.  That meal is always huge and really good.  Afterwards, my sister and I cuddled in the lazy boy and discussed our Black Friday plans to get up early to seek out some good deals.  That is something we always used to do before Auburn and Alabama started playing on Black Friday.  This is the first year in several years that the game has been moved back to Saturday. 

My cousin, Corey, who is a sophomore at Auburn, had a job last year working with the football team.  He brought his championship ring for us to see...Chris was very excited to wear it, but as you can see, it didn't quite fit.  That is the closest I have been to one, so it was pretty cool to get to see it in person.

Something that I find very exciting, as a result as my perpetual greater-than-necessary interest in other peoples' lives, is that one of my best friends and one of Chris' best friends have united together in boyfriend/girlfriend status! Hooray! I love new opportunities for double dating.  And what better time than Thanksgiving? Lauren and Jordan joined us for Thanksgiving dinner at (Pops) Chris' and Lisa's house. Here is a picture of the happy new couple with nephew, Mason, asleep in his Auburn jersey.

Lauren took care of Mason while we were on our honeymoon.  He wrote her a thank-you note afterward to show his appreciation of her patience with him...despite the fact that he was not quite crate-trained or potty-trained when she kept him, she still loves him to death!

Black Friday was a pretty successful shopping day.  My sister and I didn't buy many presents, but we did buy a bunch of stuff for ourselves!  I kind of feel that the stores have ruined Black Friday by changing it to Black Thanksgiving Day Night.  Sorry, but I'm not interested in waiting in line at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Kohls or anywhere else on Thanksgiving night.  Apparently that's when all the steals were this year.  Don't get me wrong, there was still some good stuff left over, but all the really great deals were gone. I was happy to get the Nike running shorts that I wear to work out in on half price...I NEVER find them on sale, not even online.  So that in itself was worth it.  I got a pair for myself, and my sis got me two for Christmas.  I also found us some light up deer for our front yard for cheap at Big Lots (the ones I really want, I hope to get on sale after Christmas at Lowes).  Also on Friday, Aunt Bette was kind enough to let us use a gift certificate she had received from Wares to get a couple of Christmas serving plates.  I hope to find a night where we can have a Christmas party (with a crowd like the Thanksgiving feast) and we can use all of our pretty Christmas plates and serving dishes. 

One thing that I had been looking so much forward to was having a girls night on Friday night.  Girls nights are pretty few and far between these days, since everyone has relocated and has boyfriends/husbands.  It's easy to get together as a group, but usually we have the guys with us.  Friday night the guys went their separate way to brew beer with Greg while we went out for dinner.  Then we met up with them later (along with Tammy) for some karaoke fun at a restaurant/bar in Auburn.  I had to prepare Tammy for the fact that, although I love karaoke and am not stage-shy at ALL, that doesn't mean I'm as talented as say, my sister.  In fact, saying that I am talented at all is probably a stretch.  The only talent I have is at being shameless and choosing songs that people like enough to sing along to and ignore my voice.  We all sang some karaoke, and I even sang Summer Nights with the guy running the show.  Chris always gets a kick out of it, but he won't sing with me.  I think he just needs some extra encouragment, don't you?

Chris' favorite for me to sing, "Any Man of Mine" by Shania Twain ;-)

Singing "Friends in Low Places", which became an instant classic at our wedding.

Friends are your best backup singers...in my case, that saying is quite literal.  I have friends who are VERY passionate about backing me up!

Saturday was great up until about 2:30 pm.  As expected, our beloved Auburn Tigers didn't quite pull off the miracle we had hoped, and we were beat pretty bad by Alabama.  I hate losing to Alabama more than anything.  At least the tailgating was good.  We had a fun tailgate with Lauren's parents, and a lot of people were able to come....here are a couple of pictures. 

Girls picture! I always get excited about seeing Tori since she moved to Atlanta and I don't see her as much as my Auburn friends.  The little "bunny ears" belong to Lauren's nephew.

While we were walking to the game, Chris made friends with this little girls puppy.  He literally laid down on the groud and let it run all over him.  I guess he is still just a little kid inside :)

I don't think Mason would be very happy if he saw this!

As you can see, the blog is now "decorated" for Christmas.  I had hoped to post some pictures of the Christmas decorations in our house by now...unfortunately, in the fiasco of our Uhaul being too small back in July, we left pretty much all of our Christmas decorations back in Auburn.  We didn't realize this until we got home Sunday night to put them up.  I have been in a total funk ever since.  Decorating for the holidays is a hobby I take very seriously.  No kidding.  I was going to try to work in Birmingham today because Tammy had offered to bring them up for me.  Then I faced communication issues at work and never got approved to go.  Then I thought about shipping them.  I don't know how much that would be, but it would probably be expensive.  Luckily, today I got instructions from work that I will be working in Birmingham tomorrow and Friday...my dad just so happens to be working in Birmingham Friday, so it will all work out. He's going to bring them up for me.  I can spend the weekend decorating and have my pictures up next week! Crisis averted.  I know all that drama probably seems silly to some, but just know that when something tries to come between me and decorating for Christmas...things get serious!

This weekend, we have plans to decorate, take a picture for our Christmas card (once the tree is finished), and do some actual Christmas shopping (for other people...not just ourselves haha). The most exciting thing is that Chris is going up in the plane of one of the pilots he met at work.  He hopes this will prepare him (i.e. his motion sickness) for IFS starting in about a month. I really hope it does! I know that was hard for him to overcome when he flew at the Academy...but he did overcome it (with the help of his special combination of gatoratade and PB&J) and wound up being the first person in the whole class to solo (fly alone).

Check back Monday or Tuesday for my Christmas pics! So ready to have the house decorated! :)

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 :)