Last night Bryan and I went down to my parents' house in Novi to make some homemade pizza and do a little pumpkin carving.  Both projects turned out great.  I will post pictures later tonight when I get home from work!

Pizza - Delicious.  I can't wait to make our own, hopefully with some whole wheat flour. :)

Pumpkin Carving - Turned out great.  My dad purchased a drywall cutting knife from Aco Hardware and it worked so nicely.  It's now my carving tool of choice (since I do so much carving and all)!  It's not too sharp, but it's more accurate than your typical steak knife and MUCH more durable than a carving kit knife.

Katie carved a jack o' lantern face, I carved a cat in the moonlight, Bryan did "The Great Pumpkin," and Carolyn did something to do with seeing Russia from the US.  My dad's doing his today, so we'll see what he ends up carving.

Happy Halloween!

My husband and I LOVE our new wireless electric fence.  We have had it for about four weeks now, since the beginning of October, and it works for us! 

It's incredibly easy to set up, since there's no digging involved, and our two seven month old puppies caught on very quickly.  I would say within two weeks they were 100% used to it.  They also think it works well.  They like to have the collar on because they know it gives them freedom to go outside without being tied down.  We've even used it at his parents' house and my parents' house, and they understood the boundaries without the flags. 

The wireless electric fence works for us - it's quick and easy to install and it's portable!  :)

Here they are enjoying the outdoors, sporting their new red collars.

 
Beautiful Fall Colors

 
The "Tridge" (three-way bridge) in Midland

Bright Orange Tree!

Pretty Thatcher :)

Graham and Thatcher enjoying the Fall leaves

Walking through the woods with Graham

 
Yellow tree at the park  

My mom is featured today on Birds Eye Voila! Moms We Love.  Check it out!

This weekend was great (and incredibly busy)! :)  Jamie is now Mrs. Schram!  She was beautiful and glowing the whole day.

Here's a recap of events:

Friday - Nails at noon.  I love the french manicure! :)  The rehearsal was at 6:30, with the rehearsal dinner following at the Claddagh.  It all went well, and the dinner was very good.  Jamie gave us girls a very cute gift.  Thanks! :)

Saturday - Hair at 9:00 a.m.  The photographer arrived at her mom's house at 12:30 p.m., and then the limo picked us up at 1:30 p.m. to take us to the church.  The ceremony was at 2:00 p.m. and went by so fast!  There were lots of family pictures at the church, then the wedding party took the awesome limo to Downtown Northville for more modern pictures.  It was cold but a lot of fun.  I can't wait to see how they turned out; their photographer Monica seemed to be doing a great job.  We got to the reception around 6:15 p.m., did the introductions, and then dinner was served.  The rest of the night went by very quickly, and was a lot of fun.  There was lots of dancing and laughing.

Sunday - I finished up Jamie's scrapbook with the pictures from the weekend.  I am pleased with the results and hope she enjoys it as well!

Today Jamie and Ryan are off on their honeymoon, and I hope they have an excellent trip and safe travels!

This week I need to catch up around the house and carve pumpkins!  I think my dad and I are carving pumpkins tomorrow night..  It will be fun.

Life has been quite busy this past week!  We were going to Ann Arbor at least every other day, but thank goodness that Bryan's dad is now in good health and back at home in Grand Rapids.  Bryan and I went over to his parents' house on Sunday to help them with some fall clean up.  We stayed the night, and and I cooked dinner (lasagna, homemade bread sticks, and tiramisu) for them when they finally got home on Monday! 

Since I took a vacation day on Monday, that means this week is only a three-day work week!  Awesome - I could get used to this. :)  I am also taking Friday off for preparation for Jamie's wedding.  We have nail appointments at noon, and then the rehearsal dinner is that night. 

Four more weeks until Thanksgiving, when I am taking the whole week off.  Technically it's three vacation days and two paid holidays, so that's not bad.  Then a few more weeks, and I have the time between Christmas and New Years off.  The rest of 2008 is going to fly by!

Bryan and I have solidified our holiday plans.  It can be a challenge – our families are two to three hours apart, with his parents in Grand Rapids and my family in metro Detroit.

 

We will spend Thanksgiving here with my mom’s side of the family.  On Black Friday Katie and I will get up super early to do some Christmas shopping, then Bryan and I will head over to his parent’s cottage (most-likely).  In the event of bad weather we’ll probably go to their house.  We’ll stay there through the weekend.

 

For Christmas, we’ll head over to visit with his family either the night of December 23, or the morning of Christmas Eve.  We’ll go bowling with his parents, his sister Sarah and her boyfriend Brandon, and his brother Adam.  Christmas morning we’ll open gifts with them, then head over to Novi to celebrate Christmas with my extended family.  It will be a busy few days!  Luckily I have the week between Christmas and New Year’s off to relax. :) 

His family came up with a great idea for what we’ll do for gifts this year.  Each person will contribute $20, and then together we’ll donate money to a charity (still TBD).  My charity vote is for something small and local (where our small donation might make a difference), such as Canine Companions Rescue Center.  That’s where we adopted Graham and Thatcher.  In addition to the charitable contribution, we’ll also purchase a stocking stuffer for each person.  It will be a lot of fun, and easier than trying to come up with a nicer gift!

My father-in-law underwent open heart surgery at the University of Michigan hospital today.  The day started in Pre-Op at 5:30 a.m., surgery started at 7:00 a.m., and the surgery just finished around 1:00 p.m.  Talk about a long surgery!  From the sounds of it, though, it was successful.  Bryan was down there this morning at 6:00 a.m., and we'll be going back again this evening, and probably most nights this week.  His family's from the west side of the state, so there's lots of family present today, but I am not sure how many will be able to stay for the week until he's released, other than Bryan's mom. 

I went to college in Ann Arbor, and haven't visited very much since graduating.  It's nice to go back again, if only it was for something a little more cheerful than a serious surgery.  We went to The Pizza House for dinner last night (with the in-laws and Byran's Uncle Tim) and it was delicious as usual!  Driving around campus, I can't believe how much they've built in less than two years since I graduated! New buildings have popped up all over the place, some were in progress when I was there, others are 100% new. 

I hope that his dad has a very safe and speedy recovery!

Puppies excited to go up north:

Deer in our neighbor's back yard:

So... Bryan repainted our front door.  Apparently he did not get used to the bold dark teal, I don't know why!

So here's what it now looks like: