special delivery...

from corrieberrypie aka corrie alvaro (corrie, her husband john jay, and son judah have been such a blessing to curt and i here in durham). anyway, corrie is super cool and way talented and a superb wifey and a splendid momma...you get the picture. she recently opened an etsy shop to share her many talents with the world...so i indulged and bought potential christmas gifts for the fam and maybe for myself ;) i just received my first five purchases...check them out...and if your lucky, santa may drop you a corrieberrypie original under the tree.

all of her earrings are hand crafted

i love this necklace...santa said i could keep it.

meet the artist corrie, along with husband john jay, and look-a-like judah

please check out her stuff...if you look to the right, you will see her link, and check back after thanksgiving...she will have lots of new stuff.

oh so happy...

for my great friend mary ellen...she is engaged to the lucky jay harden...WOO...WOO! i am so so so extremely happy for the two of them. it has been a blast watching them grow with each other over the last four or so years...lots of sweet and funny memories (i.e. like the first time they said i love you..ha.ha.). the invites will be perfect, the wedding will be fantastic, the bride will be breathtaking, and their love will be forever...i can't wait ;)

also, i am oh so happy for jessie and vince...one year of marriage...HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

and last, but not least, i am oh so happy because my in-laws came to visit. we had such a great time hanging out, catching up on sleep, eating fabulous meals, and exploring durham. and the best part is, we get to see them again in a week...Thanksgiving. thanks guys for coming to spend time with us...it was a much needed break.

our trek to bobbitt hole

although curt is barely treading water with school work right now, he did accept the life jacket I tossed him on thursday afternoon to take a well deserved break. we decided it was just the right time to head over to the eno river state park to indulge in the splendor of fall. the leaves here are spectacular right now; they are every conceivable shade of orange, yellow, red, and green. isn't fall lovely ;)

we hope you are able to soak up our scenic and captivating hike to bobbitt hole....and please observe the sky...it was so blue, it reminded us both of our wedding day.

and we're off into a sea of yellow...

we love self timers...

we met a friend on the way...

so yellow...

the reflection was awesome...the water was so still

we also met a family of five...the turtles were sun bathing on a log

bobbitt's hole...we made it...and the water was freezing..burrrrh

look what we found...a tree with a built in toliet

thanks for sharing in our first trip to the eno!

pumpkins, candies, and russell henry, oh my...

although our halloween treat bowl is still full...yes not one cute little trick.or.treater...we had a spook.a.rrefic halloween celebrating with our friends. and who is russell henry? well wonder no more...meet russell dressed in his sunday best...and his wife dr. holly warren.

russell and tom solving the world's problems

russell, cowboy tom, johann, brad

holly and i...she dressed as me (nurse) and i dressed as her (MD)

me, emily (she and brad dressed as mr. and mrs. pacman), jina, and holly

we hope your halloween was a boo.tiful day.

"jack's"-o-lanterns

what do sweatpants + potato soup + yummy candles + orange circular objects + red and orange leaves = BLISS, i mean FALL, which = FUN! oh, how we love fall in this house…beautiful foliage, cozy jogging pant comfort, mouth-watering cuisine, football season…i could go on and on.

yesterday evening, curt and i decided to kick off our first annual “jack's”-o-lantern carve fest…it was a chilly night, but the perfect one to create a dazzling pumpkin glow. despite frost-bit hands, we had a blast scooping pumpkin guts, whittling orange skin, and contemplating imaginative designs. please enjoy our pumpkin photo montage…we had an unforgettable night creating it.

curt working hard...and me playing

he forget to get his flu shot...

the final products...we are pumped over our pumpkins.

our perfect pumpkin glow.

after de-thawing and pumpkin admiring, we ended the night with roasted pumpkin seeds topped with seasoned salt, garlic salt, and good ol’ table salt…not bad for our first seed roast.

Happy fall ya’ll!

p.s. check back in a few days for Halloween photos…


p.s.s. did anybody pick up on the change...that is my hair...it is brown!

my heart is smiling...

oh how i love getting mail, especially packages, particularly packages from my friends/family in KY. my dear friend stephanie sent me a lovely "birthday" goodie box today full of a few of my favorite things (sung in my "Sound of Music" voice)...peanut M&Ms, heath bars, chap stick, pens, headbands. steph is so thoughtful, caring, genuine, faithful (i could go on and on) and always gives excellent gifts. i miss her face and her warm heart...if you know her you're lucky, if you don't, get to know her soon...she is WONDERFUL (and she always has a lunchbox full of yummy treats)! thanks steph for making my heart smile and thanks for the best gift you given me...your friendship.

I know...I know...

so another few weeks gone and no blog post…and once again, no excuse. Shall I receive your forgiveness once again for my slacking?

a lot has happened since my last post…we have had a dash of new flavor in our lives. my family came to visit, curt has had a break from school, we picked cotton, we milked a cow, we indulged in huge amounts of artery clogging fair food and we celebrated my birthday…i think that hits most of the highlights.

as many of you know, my family spent a week shacked up with curt and i. throughout their visit we were able to pinch in some eating, duke gardens, shopping, grilling, wii battles, movies, mustach creating, dodge balling…in other words lots of t-totally fun things. it was wonderful having them here with us and sharing our durham lives with each of them. we can’t wait until they visit again…and we can’t wait to see them in like 60ish days in home sweet KENTUCKY.

climbing trees at duke gardens

nick and michelle...climbing a rock....

nick burning up the dance floor

nick and his mustach...WOW!

mom washing dishes...her nightly chore :)

also, as many of you know curt has had the last week off…and no it was not a fall break, it was a “reading” week or aka catch the heck up week. he was very productive with his television watching, hebrew translating, journal writing, and eye resting…he managed his time well. oh yeah, some husband bragging for you, he received an A on his church history paper…and this is not just any old A, this A (according to his syllabus) denotes an excellence of quality approaching that of a PhD student at top programs….he is so super smart.

p.s. we forgot to tell you guys...curt is growing his hair out.

this past weekend we had the opportunity to indulge in some dangerously delicious, grease filled fair food. let’s see here…first there was roasted sweet corn (topped with lemon pepper), then the blooming onion, then some of tom and holly’s fried macaroni and cheese and mini sugar/cinnamon donuts, and then, curt had a double cheeseburger, and for dessert fried oreo’s and a funnel cake doused in powdered sugar…yummy in our tummies. after dinner we decided to venture off to view some farm animals and lo and behold learned how to milk a cow. never having milked a cow before, squeezing the ole teet was a quite an experience.

next thing on my list of post…my birthday and heaven, i mean the melting pot! my husband is the best and so is my family (mom, dad, in-laws, aunts, uncles, siblings)---thanks to everyone for making my b.day so so so special.

this is what i walked into wednesday evening, along with streamers flying through the air.

dessert...melted bliss

i almost forgot...cotton pickin...we stopped at a cotton field on our way to snow hill...where is snow hill? somewhere in eastern NC.

i promise to redeem myself with future post times and dates. until then, we hope everyone has a wonderful week!