the weather has been beautiful lately as we transition into fall.  the windows are open and the air is nice and cool. now's the time to take advantage of the quiet, spend time outdoors, and savor the last bits of our last summer as just dog parents.

baby girl's room is so close to being ready for her.  i couldn't resist posting a few pics of her bed.  her room has such a chill vibe that we are loving, and i'll confess we have slept in there a few nights just for fun.

 we're also trying to get as much out of the summer veggies as possible before they stop producing.  a new, amazingly delicious recipe we've discovered is habanero carrot pepper jelly.  it's easy and so tasty with some cream cheese on a cracker.  the two of us have already eaten an entire jar!  it's just the habanero gold recipe out of the ball book, but with carrots substituted for the apricots.  so good.

 i've gotten a new pottery mug every september for three years now.  i'm thinking it's a good tradition to keep going, so here is this year's pick.

 great falls!  eric shows belle some kayakers.  look at that little butt roll!  god she's adorable.

 my man from the mountains is looking very mountain man lately.

 do anything and everything outside while you can.  that's our motto.  we met up with some friends for an outdoor artjamz painting session.  eric went with an aboriginal painting, while i did a zebra.  it was a lot of fun, and now we have two more paintings to store in our basement :)

 these two are heading to iceland soon (beyond jealous over here), so mark painted a volcano.  hope you guys get to see an eruption!

between it being our first thanksgiving as a married couple, and norah's first thanksgiving of her life, our meal was a little extra special this year.  with so much to be thankful for, we celebrated turkey day with our good friends aaron, rebecca, and baby norah.  

 eric prepared some delicious cornish game hens to go with the rest of the beautiful meal.  and like always (this is our 4th annual), we finished the day with a thanksgiving puzzle, coffee, and pies.

^^if there was any doubt as to why i bought this puzzle :)^^  it's one of my favorites with all of the little oddities that go unnoticed until you look closely.

we also had these two special guests for the weekend - cara's boys, cooper and brinkley.

i hope everyone out there had a nice weekend.  it wasn't long enough!

the leaves around town have been changing into the most beautiful colors over the last few weeks.  and now they are falling.  all of them are falling. 

and now our yard's got a leaf problem :)

 we've never had to deal with this many leaves before.  in texas and colorado they fall year round and you just mow over them.  i guess we could have mowed these into mulch too, but then we wouldn't have had a giant pile of leaves to play in.  and we wouldn't get to use the blower.

 the leaves seemed to make a comfortable bed.  they didn't try to escape.  and blowing the yard must have stirred up lots of good smells.  bella had her nose in the air most of time she was outside with us.  her little nose held up high and twitching to catch the scents is one of the cutest things she does.  you can see the bliss on her face as she enjoys two of her favorite things: sunshine and smells.

october is over, and this year was a particularly good one.  i had a two week furlough-vacation, people got creative for halloween costumes, we got lots of cute trick-or-treaters, and the month marked bella and my five year anniversary :)

somehow i missed posting our maryland waterfront oktoberfest celebrations during the actual month, but since it was das best oktoberfest, i decided better late than never.

first of all, the advertising was not false.  there were lots of boobs and there was lots of beer.  i myself am much more interested in the german food than the beer, and this festival did not disappoint.  between the food and the band, it felt like home :)  and did someone say funnel cakes?  oh my lord, yes.

we celebrated halloween last weekend with friends by going out for nightmare on m street, which was basically just us going out in dupont dressed up.  we met up before hand at elena's to finish getting ready and to get into the spiriting spirit.  hot spiced cider with applejack brandy was a-flowing.

i did sugar skull makeup and, though it took a while to get it on my face, it was a really fun costume to create.  i maybe should have used more colors, it kind of looks like a prettier version of my zombie makeup last halloween.

doing something to commemorate dia de los muertos made me feel like i was home in texas, but oddly not many people had any idea what my costume was.  still, i got a lot of compliments.

 eric was a handsome lumberjack.  i'm trying to get him to keep that beard growing so i can take a pic to submit to the beard collective.

the girls were the girls from clueless (except me and allie).  i think they look great!

while we were getting ready, eric made this lovely, obviously unofficial, commercial for simpler times, a cheap but yummy trader joe's beer.

 ^^allie, chris, and a blind ref?^^

we saw some pretty creative costumes throughout the night.  i was really impressed.  every once in a while i was able to stop someone for a pic.  some favorites below :)

^^these two were the best.  that girl was freaking us all out!^^

somehow during the two and a half weeks of time that passed during the shutdown, fall arrived.  before, i would wake up to daylight, wear dresses and sandals, and have plenty of evening to enjoy after work.  when the shutdown ended, i turned my alarm back on and woke up to a completely new type of workday (dark and short).  thankfully we have daylight savings ending in about a week, but then we begin our northeast march into the darkness of winter and get S.A.D.!!!

until that happens, though, we will enjoy fall.  the leaves on the trees are changing into beautiful and vibrant colors, and the crisp afternoon air is refreshing.  and fall means halloween! :)

around our house, the shutdown felt like it lasted for months.  i made paintings, took pictures, decorated the house, cooked a lot, ran a ridiculous amount of errands, and enjoyed spending unlimited time with the girls.  i also discovered a million new things i want to do/learn/make and realized that even if i were a stay at home woman, there would never be enough time in the world to do everything i want to do.

but to be completely honest, i was excited to come back to work.  i like working, contributing financially to our lives, having a purpose outside of our home, and having a daily routine with visible accomplishments.  i also like my job.

it's funny because when i was little, i used to imagine what i would be when i grew up (like most people do).  for an assignment in elementary school, we were asked to write a letter to our future selves describing what we thought our lives would be like at the time the letter was opened, which was supposed to be when we were 25.  i think i found and opened the letter around age 23 and by then i was supposed to be a rich medical doctor, married to my soul-mate, with 3 kids but wanting 5 kids by age 30.  whoa. someone should have given me a talking to.  i don't really remember writing the letter, but i do remember that whatever occupation i had, or how many kids were involved, over the years i have always imagined myself married, with dogs, and a family, and a house where we ate loudly, and cleaned with music blasting, and mowed the lawn together, and had family dance parties in the living room.

yesterday afternoon after work, eric and i were going to town on our yard - there are leaves everywhere and invasive chives are taking over!  after making piles of leaves that the girls would jump and play in if we didn't pick them up fast enough, we mowed and weed ate before heading inside for dinner.  at some point i was standing out there with the weed-eater, and the sun's golden light was throwing evening rays on the four of us, and i thought oh my god, this moment is what i have always imagined.  this moment, right now, is me, my love, our dogs, our house, we could start a family, we're happy, we have jobs, this is it.  there was just this moment full of gratitude and potential and i just had to stand there and take it in and make sure i gave it the full appreciation it deserved.

how many times in your life has something turned out like you imagined it could? for me that would be pretty much zero times.  things have turned out better and worse and a million other ways, but hardly ever do they turn out just like you thought they would.  it was pretty cool.

so i'm dedicating today, day 200 of married life, to the mindfulness of gratitude.  grateful that i found a partner that without knowing or trying lives up to my silly childhood dreaming in ways that i could and couldn't have imagined.