Halloween

I love Halloween.  

It is certainly one of my favorite holidays.  I love getting dressed up; and of course, eating candy.  My favorite costume of all time was when I was in fifth grade; my mom turned me into a bag of Jelly Belly, and she turned my sister into a picnic table.  I was wearing bright pink tights, and a clear trash bag filled with tiny different colored balloons, topped with a baggie tied to a headband on top of my head.  For my sister, she cut a hole in a tablecloth and glued all sorts of plastic food and utensils to it.  And she carried around a picnic basket.

It was awesome.

Nowadays, I like to cuddle up on the couch with B, eat some junk food and watch scary movies.  Gone are the days of dressing all skanky and going out.  Plus having to go to work the next morning is never fun.  Ahhh, the perils of being a grown up.

A pic of me and Lindsey from the last time we went "out" on Halloween.  Like three years ago.  I was so young.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Journey to the Top; a story of Fear.

Let me pose a question.  A girl that is terrified of flying couldn't possibly be okay with riding in an elevator 600 feet up to the top of the Gateway Arch, could she?  

Absolutely not . 

I was terrified of doing this.  Let me show you what we got to ride up in.

Oh yes.  A pod.  That fits only five people.  On a cable that has a clear see-through window/door.  And ifyou're taller than about 5'4", you're going to be sitting the exact way B and I are sitting.  In case you can't tell by the look on my face, I was only slightly terrified.  

 

 Door of doom.  There are 8 of these things.  It looks like a door out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  They open up, and it seriously looks like a spaceship.   

So then after about a four and a half minute ride up, you are up in the Arch.  And since you know, the arch, is well, arch-shaped, you can feel the pod as it zig zags to the top.  

And then you step out, walk up some more stairs...and see this.

FYI I look like crap because B and I were out till 2 am, and then woke up at 7am.  And I was scared as hell.

Dad and Carla.

Carla had promised that if I was good, I would get a candy bar when (if) we got back down.  So this is how I was on the way down...

Happy trip to the top of the Arch; something I'll never have to do again in my life.

I got a Milky Way in case you were curious.

St. Louis Arch

Before going any further, please be forewarned that there will probably be more pictures than you want to see of the Gateway Arch in this post.  

I can't help it.  The weather was perfect.  And it was so beautiful with the bright blue sky as the back drop.

Maybe too many pictures?  Nope, I don't think so.

This past weekend was a pretty interesting one.  We had B's ten year high school reunion.  Yes, ten years since graduation.  Completely crazy.  I was pretty nervous about this thing; I have my reasons, being a very self conscious girl, and amongst other things I don't want to get into.  Luckily for us, some friends of ours that we hang out with in Birmingham were there, and it made for a much better evening.  

This "reunion" was full of people who already hang out with each other.  It was, obviously, put on by the popular kids who regularly hang out with each other anyway.  There was one girl there that no one talked to, and pictures on the table of only a few people.  Over and over and over again.

It made me really rethink my decision to go to mine, because I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same way.

Rams vs. Packers 2012

Main reason for the St Louis trip?  Of course to see the Packers!!  From the minute we got there, we were inundated with Packers fans.  People have said that they are one of the best traveling teams, and you could really tell it from this trip.

My favorite quote from a Rams fan was "Are the Packers in town or something?" when we were leaving the Arch.  

There were sporadic "Go Pack Go" cheers pretty much every where we went.  The stadium was booming with them from the get-go.  And then of course, by the time the fourth quarter came, when it was obvious the Packers had the game in hand, it was as loud as I've ever heard it in an away stadium.  It probably didn't help that the Rams fans were probably outnumbered in their own dome.  I have never seen such a poor turn out for a home team before.  

I'm not such a fan of domes; I much prefer the outdoor atmosphere of games.  The few Rams fans that were there did get loud once or twice.  The Packers let them score a cheap touchdown in the fourth quarter, making the final score 30-20.  

Packers have finally gone above .500. And I am 2-0 at Packers games this season.  Go Pack Go!!

Project Inspiration Reveal!

 About a month or so ago, I linked up with Chelsea over at Life is a Sunset to be a part of this Project Inspiration . 

I thought it was such a great idea to get paired up with a complete stranger, get to read their blog and know a little bit about them, and then send them a card full of inspiring words.  I have taken my card to work, and I leave it in my desk drawer for those days when I absolutely need it.  Which seem to be coming more frequently nowadays, but no more complaints about my job this week.

I got paired up with Crissy over at A Berry Sweet Life.  I love her devotion to her faith, and her beautiful blonde hair.  So jealous.  I've loved getting to read a blog that I never knew existed, and of course she sent me a sweet card...

Her card was filled with Bible verses for whatever life might throw my way.  I absolutely loved reading someone else's way of coping when things aren't going exactly as planned.

And of course the card sang.  Can't hate on that ever.

Thanks for my card Crissy.  I'm sure that reading those words will get me through pretty much anything!!

St Louis Spouse Shoot

We were in St. Louis for yet another Packers game versus the Rams.  We came in on Saturday, left on Sunday and had so much fun in between.  The midwest is so gorgeous during fall.  I'm pretty sure it didn't hurt that we had the Gateway Arch as a back drop.  I'll do an entire post on the actual arch, but for now, just some sweet shots of me and my B.

Yep that is a piece of cheese on my sweater.  Go Pack Go.  Against the side of the Arch.

Gorgeous fall color.  Got to play with the leaves!  And wear my boots again!!  Hooray for fall weather every where else but here!

Sexy hubs.  One of my faves of us.  Sometimes we can come together and take a good picture.

St. Louis was so much fun.  I've never gotten to actually be in the city; only flew through it.  But we had a really good time with my Dad and Carla.  We've even decided that we will hit one Packers away game a year in a city we've never been in.  And actually take enough time off work to enjoy it. 

After Work Wind-Down.

As previously mentioned in earlier posts, I hate my job.  The only thing that makes it any sort of tolerable is the people I work with.  Like take tomorrow for instance; we have a girls night out planned.  All seven of us are actually getting together and going out.  All the girls in operations anyway.  

And then there's our Friday night decompression session.  We all leave exactly at 5pm, and head toward Flaming Cheese (aka Villa Fiesta) in Irondale for after work beverages.  Usually by Friday, we are all just a little bit thirsty.  Last Friday, Jesse decided to introduce Ingrid to Jager.  Oh yeah...here we go.

Yes, spouses and children are allowed to come.  This was the first time all four of us have gone together.  It's a fun little tradition.  Hope that we can keep it going.  These are the few people that I will miss when I'm gone.  They keep me sane; they reassure me; they make me laugh.  They are all exactly what great co-workers should be.  

Love you guys.

Little Donkey followed by something Sweet...

So we're knocking these out pretty quickly.  I am hoping that once all those places are crossed off that list, that it will be time to move to Austin.

Never have I been so angry at my place of employment as I was today.  So much so that I may be inclined to look somewhere else just for the short amount of time I'm here.  I am utterly disgusted at how little they care about their employees.  I never want to work for another company like the past two I've worked for.  I want out of this industry more than anything in the world.  

Maybe I'll go back to school and do something else.  I need to do something else.  If I'm destined to work in transportation, I might as well just lay over dead.  All jobs are not like this; and I know this because of B's job.  He likes it.  He actually likes his job.  I want to know what that's like.

Onto the food....this restaurant is brand new in Homewood.  It's a cute little place.  It's also of course, gotten pretty popular as every new place in  Birmingham does.  It's supposed to be authentic south of the border food, with a smoky BBQ flavor.

They make their own tortilla chips, and they were so good.  The sandwich I had was full of amazing BBQ, guac, and beans.  And then of course, they had this thing called the concoction with rice, beans, salsa, cheese and that's right, an egg on top.  Amazing town.  

And then there's a fun little popsicle place right next door, Steel City Pops.  They were at the Trucks by the Tracks festival, and B and I had no clue what it was.  We found out, and it was fantastic!

I had a caramel pop;  B had a peanut butter one.  They have all sorts of delicious flavors.  You can choose between fruity or creamy.  They had a maple bacon Bourbon flavor, that, unfortunately, they had already sold out of.  

So two fun places within walking distance of each other.  Amazing fun night in the Ham.

Kroll's -- After Packers Game Eats

After the Packers game, you are most likely going to want to eat.  And lucky for us, there is a place full of greasy amazingness directly diagonal from Lambeau.  Which made it more fun was that my dad actually had memories of this place; albeit, maybe not good ones, but they were still there.

I hope to build memories surrounded around something I like so much.  And if it includes food as awesome as this place, then I'm totally in.

My step-mom tried to photo bomb the picture of my dad's burger.  Which brings me to another story.  We were walking into the stadium.  Not going to lie; we had pre-partied just a little bit in the hotel room.  I mean, it was game day, right?  So we're walking into the stadium, and there were some people taking pictures on the stairs, and my step mom, Carla, totally jumped right in front of the picture.  

Calra turns around and goes to B, "I just love doing that."

B says, "How many times have you done this?"

Carla ::smile::