October's Favorite Things

One of my friends has an adorable blog and at the end of every month, she does a favorite things post.  Such a great idea!  Every month I plan on linking up with her, because it's a perfect way to recap a month with some of the details I forget to write about . . . and then I get busy and forget.  Only this month, she's giving away a killer pair of earings, and linking up will increase my chances of winning said earings.  There's nothing like free stuff to motivate me to action.

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite things from October that I haven't blogged about yet:

1.  Gigi brought Kaden a "big spider" of his own.  His name, chosen by Kaden, is Scary.  I'm not going to lie, he totally freaks me out.  Kaden adores him.  Every time we leave the house, he waves to him and says, "Bye, Scary!  See you later, Scary.  Love you!"

2.  I flew to Washington state and spent a long weekend reuniting with some of my oldest friends (we graduated from high school together ten years ago--but have known each other even longer than that).  The reunion was sparked by the return of Emily from Brazil, where she had been serving as a missionary for the last eighteen months.  A reunion this monumental deserves a blog post of its own, but for now, to make a long story short: we had an amazing time!  I was reminded that time and distance away mean nothing in a true friendship.  We laughed and talked like we'd never been apart.  It was so therapeutic and fabulous.

As if that wasn't perfect enough, I got to stay with my Grandpa while I was there.  It was so fun spending time with him!

3.  My kitchen went from this:

To this:

To this:

To this:

And I could not be happier with the end result.  NOW to paint the second coat on the walls and TO FINISH THE FLOORING!!!  And eventually update the appliances . . . but all in due time.


4.  Some people in our ward own a fabulous NY-style pizza joint (no, seriously, it's fabulous.  If you live in Raleigh, go eat at Sergio's Pizza).  They had an oldie's night with $1 cheese slices, fun music, and balloons for the kids.  As if that wasn't awesome enough, the sweetest little boy restored my complete faith in humanity (which was previously crushed by a class of high school sophomores who stole the money their peers donated to the breast cancer awareness fund out of the jar on my desk while I wasn't looking).  There were a lot of kids at the pizza place, and most of them were waiting in line for a balloon.  Kaden sat down and was watching all of the action, completely fascinated, when this little boy comes up to him, hands him HIS balloon that was tied in the shape of a sword, and says, "Here, would he like this one?"  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  How precious is that?  Kaden's face lit up and he beamed a bright, "Thank you!"  We asked him if he was sure, and he said, "Yes, he can have it."  Somebody has awesome parents.  I don't know who you are, kid, but kudos to your mom and dad.  And kudos to you, too!


5.  Kaden's Halloween costume from last year still fit, and he looked as darling in it as ever.  He loved trick or treating this year.  He did such a great job saying, "Trick or treat!" at every house and remembering to say, "Thank you!"

6.  In a couple of hours, Halloween will officially end, which means tomorrow I start playing Christmas music, my friends.

It's been a good month.