2 words to sum up the day and time of the year...

FLANNEL SHEETS!

I know you agree :)

Happy Halloween!

It has been another rainy, cold, fall day here in Plainfield and I'm hoping we will at least have a few more nice days left before it gets extremely cold-but I dont know if it will happen! Over the weekend we carved our pumpkins. It was a lot of fun, but as always in this Standeford house we are competitive. Everything is turned into a competition-so with that-here are our pumpkins for this year. Let us know which one is better because obviously they are both well done, but one is clearly above the other!

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The book that we bought for our designs was a 'shadow' book-where you carve something on the front and something on the back to put a shadow on the wall behind the pumpkin. It worked out alright, I thought they were neat!

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Darlene, Zane, & Jake starting the carving process

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Jessica & Zane helped me clean my pumpkin out!

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Working hard on our designs...

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Darlene observing greatness happening! haha

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Jake's finished product...pretty good! Nice spider web in the background!

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My fabulous scardy cat! With the city in the background!

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Our awesome pumpkins we had so much fun carving :) Lite up outside our apartment! So...whos design wins? You decide...

I Married a Simple Man

This morning Jake got off work at 7 am and was home and in bed by 7:30, but we had made plans to go to a church that one of my co-workers goes to in Brownsburg that starts at 10am. So that meant that he could only take a small cat nap between working all night and the rest of the day. His only condition was that we stop at Starbucks after church so he could use one of his gift cards he recieved from his old co-workers when he left the Lafayette Sam's Club. I said, "Ok, but only because you twisted my arm..LOL". So after a great message and meeting lots of people we headed to Starbucks where he ordered a "venti bold with sweet n low and fat free milk" for $2.09!! I was thinking maybe a pumpkin spice latte or triple chocolate carmel macciato or something specialty, but I definately married a simple man and it works for me! After gasping that he wasnt getting something other than a plain ole cup of joe he then told me his reasoning behind it and it was that even though he has a gift card he wants it to last as long as possible and thats the cheapest thing he can get and he could get 10 of those rather than 4 specialty coffees! I'm amazed at his frugalty (if that is even a word!) and I love it!

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To finished out our day we headed to the Zeroniks house for the Colts game and homemade chili and beer bread by Brian-which was delicious. I also discovered a pumpkin dip from Target that would be awesome with cinnamon graham cracker sticks. After that, we went to John & Rachels to see them and the girls and we were just in time for 'Trunk or Treat' at their church! So, Ann & Nellie put on their lion costumes and we all headed to the church. Needless to say, 'Trunk or Treating' with over 15 cars and 2 16 month olds translates to Uncle Jake & Aunt Rox getting some nice candy! Snickers, Skittles, cotton candy, Hershey bars-you name it we could've had it! Ann & Nellie made out like rockstars with candy & half of it they can't even have! Nellie chewed her way through a mini Snickers bar and found herself something good, I felt bad that Ann wasnt eating anything so I opened a small Hershey bar for her to have. After suckers and more chocolate they were in heaven! How funny & Ann started going around to the trunks again :) Shes a smart cookie.

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Tomorrow, they will be on their way up to their new apartment for 2 months and we will miss them a lot, but we are heading up to Detroit next weekend for the game on Sunday. Overall, we had another great weekend! Pictures to come....be looking for them in the next post!

Our long journey to becoming debt free!

Since I have a job now and our financial situation has loosened up a bit, we have a plan to become debt free in 3 years. That includes our student loans and car payment! I started a spreadsheet showing all of our expenses broken down into categories such as beauty, gas, rent, etc so that we could detemine where we were spending the majority of our money. It has been an eye opener! Even though you think you know what you are spending.....you really dont unless you have some way of keeping track-hence an Excel spreadsheet. We have been making extra payments on Jakes loans & will have them both paid off by December! Yay! But, the negative side to it is that my student loans begin in January-which was why we are so adiment about paying his off before then. So, in January we will be paying extra on both the car payment and my student loans. The sad part of the whole situation is the money you pay, but then seeing the payoff amont and while it seems like you've been paying on them for a while-the bill really only goes down a litte because of the interest! Yikes!

We are going to stop using our credit card and only use our debit card since it is taken out as it is being used-makes the spreadsheet easier! Eventually, it would be nice to make it down to cash only, but I dont see that happening any time in the near future. It's nice not to have to go to the ATM everytime you need cash-but I guess that is one way of not spending money.

All this comes at a time when we are looking to purchase a house sometime next fall. We have already discussed what kind of house payment we would like to be making & the things that we would be looking for-when we actually start seriously looking in the spring.

If anyone has any tips on buying a house, becoming debt free, etc we could sure use the help! You might as well call us Dave Ramseys protocols! haha

Surprise!!

Last weekend we went to the Purdue vs. OSU game-which was awesome! Purdue won...for the first time against a ranked opponent since 2001! Thats HUGE! And it was The Ohio State University, so we felt pretty good about ourselves after the game even if we dont win another game!

Tailgaiting with Alex, Jackie & her parents before the Purdue game

After the game we had planned on surprising Jason for his birthday, by heading up and staying in Plymouth with them. We had to make a dash- after saying goodbye to Jason because he went to the game as well-for the car! We made it up to Plymouth about 30 minutes before he did and I think he was confused and surprised at the same time. Rachel and the girls made it up that afternoon and also stayed the night with all of us! We had lasagna for dinner and cake and ice cream to celebrate. We were entertained by the 3 toddlers we now have in the family! But, boy are they busy....never ending energy! Isabella, Ann, & Nellie played well together and even enjoyed playing with Bella's kitty a little too much. The kitty would let the girls pick it up and carry it around and of course they were holding it like a stuffed animal-but eventually it got tired of the chasing it and pulling it out of it's hiding spot. I tried once again for my "Aunt Rox" photo op, but as you can see (below) it hasnt turned out yet! But, I'm not gonna stop trying :) The pictures below show how adorable they each are-and thankfully they belong to my sister-in-laws because I'm not ready for that yet!

Ann carrying Sophie (the kitty) around at cousin Bella's house

Ann & Nellie finding and getting Sophie from her hiding spot!

Isabella on her horsey!

Uncle Jake & Nellie hanging out

Bella & I posing for a pic!

The cutest nieces ever!! Dont mind that they arent looking at the camera and are more interested in the Goldfish or monkey!

We had a great time up north, but Monday we were back to work. This weekend we are carving our pumpkins and relaxing-Jake works both Fri/Sat overnights so I will be cleaning and getting ahead at work-I start on my own Monday! Life is good :)

Registered and ready to run!

I just registered for the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini-Marathon on May 8th! I knew I would need a little motivation, so the cost of the race will make me motivated enough to at least be able to finish it! My goal is 2 hours and 45 minutes or a 13 min per mile pace. I think that is achievable-I hope it is anyway. Anyone else want to do it with me-Jake decided he didnt want to, but I think the cost really gets to him. He doesnt understand paying money to run! But I look at it differently. I'm more excited about this because over a year ago I set out to run the mini in October & it never happened! Wish me luck!

Forget about the Colts...we're LIONS fans again!

Just got word from Rachel that the Lions picked John back up again! That is great news-we couldnt be more excited! I'm sure he's excited too, although I'm sure it was nice for him to be able to see Rach & the girls for a while. Everything happens for a reason, I'm sure there was a really good one for the past month of happenings. Its even better because Ann & Nellie are going as lions for Halloween :) We were visiting them the other day-watchin the Lions game-they are working on their growls! We would say, "Nellie, what does a lion say?" her reply was, "Raaaaaaoooowww" as she wrinkled her nose! It was too cute. Now, we just have 18 days to get Ann on the same page! She didn't want to acknowledge that she knew how to do it!

Anyways, Congratulations John! We are proud of you, GoOo LiOnS!!

Pictures of Fun!

Before entering Crackers Comedy Club in Indy-where we werent sure after the first comic if the rest of the show would be any good. Turns out we only heard a crickets during the first performance. I guess 2/3 good comedians isnt bad!

On our bike ride Saturday morning through my favorite part of the bike trail!
Posing in front of a nice babbling brook with my sweet bike!

Gotta love sunny fall days :) You dont get many of those in Texas-Glad we stayed!

Jake speeding off with out me!

Later that afternoon, we went to Anderson Orchard in Moorseville! We had a carmel apple and hot cider after we picked out this awesome pumpkin! Its a nice one, but it was really muddy getting to it. Totally worth the mud! I cant wait to carve it.

Jake hulling my pumpkin to the car...Hes good at carrying things.

We had a great weekend! Wrapped up with the afternoon at John & Rachels visiting with them, the girls, and Jakes parents. Now, Jakes napping before he starts in Greenwood-I think hes nervous to meet all his new employees! I'll be enjoying my Sunday lineup alone tonight :) Have a great week!

Oh yeah, & we just found out Jakes cousin, Leslie & her husband Hanns are having twins! How exciting :)

Yay Fall!

A Fun-filled Day!

This morning I woke up, turned on the radio, and made pancakes for breakfast! It was so cold in the apartment that I lite every candle in sight since we arent turning our heater on yet. After making the pancakes and boiling some water for Jakes French Press, it started to heat up a bit. But I'm still in sweat pants, t-shirt, and my robe...brrr. At least its not raining today. It looks like its going to be a nice day & the leaves next to our apartment are starting to really turn colors. I bought some more fall decorations from Hobby Lobby yesterday, but those are in addition to the wreath and few other decorations I have from last years clearance event after fall. Jake completed the decorations with a gigantic pumpkin from Sam's Club! Its huge, when we get around to carving it I will post pictures.

Jake is on his way to get his drivers license renewed-its been expired for 3 weeks now & he's finally tired of everyone telling him about it. Meanwhile, I'm going to relax and get ready to go workout, then hopefully when he gets back we will go on a bike ride through the trails again today. This afternoon Jackie & Alex are coming to stay the night with us! We havent seen them in a while, and we love visitors. Our semi-constructed plan, which may not completely go through is wine tasting at Chateau Thomas (local winery here in Plainfield), dinner downtown, completed with a comedy show this evening. We'll see when they get here, but it never matters what we do-even if it's just sitting on the couch talking its always so much fun. In return we will most likely be taking a trip up to Chicago to visit them next month! Its great to have friends in neat cities!

On a side note: Jake starts in Greenwood Sunday night-hopefully things run smoothly. It has to be better than spending over $400 in gas each month! Yikes!!! Its out of control...Have a good fall day-I know we will :)

Getting Adjusted

In this Standeford apartment we are getting used to some major adjustments! I'm going on my 3rd week of work today (which means paycheck this Friday-Yay!) and things couldn't be better. My hours are a little different then what they will be when I'm finished with training, but they aren't bad at all now. I'm working for a company called HNT-Health & Nutrition Technology, its a medically supervised weight loss & weight management program that utilizes a group setting as means for education. Each week we see so many successes=very rewarding for an employee!

As for Jake, he will be transferring to the Greenwood Sam's which will cut his drive in half each way, but he will be working nights 9p-7a. Not my ideal schedule, but it will work for now! Some days I dont even see him! Last week I didnt see him on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday except to see him sleeping while I was getting ready. On those days, during training, I work 1230-930 so when he gets home at 8am he goes to sleep and at that time I am just getting up. then by the time I get home at 10ish he has already left for work! We'll have to work with our schedules so we can at least talk to each other at some point during the day. On Wednesday last week, I wrote a long note and left it on the island for Jake since I hadnt talked to him in a while.

Despite all the adjustments, we are absolutely loving Plainfield! I love being so close to everything-and Jake has enjoyed seeing lots of his old friends from high school that he hasnt seen in 4 years!

Update on the Haunted House I posted on earlier in September: we paid $26 for 3 attractions at Necropolis, it was worth $13 each, but not worth the original price of $26 each!! I was comparing it to a Haunted Mansion that I went to as a kid at one of the local high schools in Lafayette the whole time. Needless to say, it wasnt as good as the one I remember-they needed more people in there and tour guides because we kept catching up with the group in front of us! Jake was our leader! & you would be laughing had you known he really didnt want to go-his comment was, "you're gonna be holding on to me...who am I gonna hold on to?" So I can still picture him walking really slow, taking the corners wide to avoid the next scare! A good time-we might go to a corn maize later on this month with Z and Megan (friends from Jakes HS).

Things are getting busy around here, look for a post at least once per week-but I can't guarantee much more than that!

Thank You Indiana

Dear Indiana,
In the past week you have sent some pretty cold weather our way. I dont know if you are trying to act more like Alaska or what?! Two weeks ago the weather was perfect, it was beautiful outside, and I was much enjoying it. All of a sudden you reminded me of the primary reason why moving to Texas was such a good idea. I just wanted to say 'Thank You' Indiana for the reminder, brrr....its freezing outside!

Sincerely,


P.S. You could try acting more like Florida or Texas & I'm pretty sure I wouldnt mind!!