Better out than in I alway say!

Last blog I mentioned I went to an Oregon State football game last weekend. Part of the fun of going to OSU games is that I get to see two of my best friends Lacey and Tyler. Lace and I went to Western together and Tyler is her husband, they live in Salem so I always stay at their house and go to the games with them. They are part of the MOST awesome tailgater ever! At every tailgate someone is put in charge of making mass quantities of jello shots for everyone to enjoy and for this game Tyler was the lucky jello man! He made close to a hundred red, orange, purple, and blue jello shots, which were pretty darn good! He made so many jello shots that not all of them would fit in the cooler, thus a fair amount were left in the refrigerator back at Lacey and Tyler's house to enjoy on a later date. Tyler, being the gracious host that he is, sent me on my way with about nine various colored jello shots (ironic since my favorite number is 9:) This is where my story starts for today...

Alicia and I were hanging around the house today, working on little chores in and outside, it was a beautiful fall day after all! My dad and Alicia's grandpa also stopped by to help with out with the "honey-do" list :) Falcon got her cage cleaned, I swept the garage and porch from the stupid tree that blows annoying grass all over the place and we now have working porch lights again! Around 2:00, after our helping hands headed out I thought it seemed like a good idea to bust out a few jello shots. Why not right? It was a no work day and jello is so yummy! Alicia opted for a red one and I chose a blue. Bottoms up! Well, turns out taking one of Tyler's jello shots, mid-afternoon when there is no other alcoholic beverage being consumed is like a kick in the face! I took mine and was standing near the sink and looked over at Alicia who made the best "ICK! dang that jello is strong!" face ever and I lost it. Yep, that's right I spit blue jello shot EVERYWHERE! Blue all over the sink, window, etc. Apparently Alicia said it looked like tiny blue smurfs flying!! What a mess to clean up haha, but the moral of the story is...sometimes there is just no room for jello:)

Whose your mother?

Who has two thumbs and loves Halloween? This girl! :) There is something pretty awesome about dressing up and taking on a new persona for an evening of tricks and treats. I spent Halloween a little different this year. The day started with fun, friends and Oregon State football in Corvalis, which I might add is a perfect start to Halloween considering I was dressed all in black and orange! Had great seats and don't forget a Beaver win too!



I made it back to Portland in time to quick change into my costume to head out to Kyle and Allie's Halloween house party. Over the past few weeks I have been toying with several costume ideas...from the travelocity gnome to Flo from the insurance commercial, among others. With the help of my roomie Alicia I finally made my decision. Drum roll please...(insert noisy drum here:) I decided to be Mother Nature from the tampax commercials. For those of you who haven't seen the many HILARIOUS commercials depicting this lady dressed in green who turns up with a red wrapped box just in time to give out "a lady's monthly gift" you should youtube it after reading the rest of this post because it's good stuff:) Anywho, I created my own Mother Nature and had a great time at the Hoelzer's party. Until next year Halloween!

A lot of people get married three times in two years!

In other news...myself as well as the rest of my family were FINALLY able to partake in one of my brother Josh and sister n' law Nicoleta's wedding celebrations! The two of them met in a whirlwind back in the fall of 2008 in Romania-Josh was stationed in Italy at the time, fell in love and were married in January of 2009 in a small civil service in Italy so Nicoleta would be able to go with Josh when he changed bases in March. That's one! They ended up moving back stateside in March of 2009 where they now live in Arizona and just this last month had not one, but TWO wedding celebrations, one in Romania with Nicoleta's family and one here in Portland with our family! There are two and three! Talk about a busy first couple years of marriage!

Their Romanian wedding was a full on church service and FaBuLOus celebration! We watched the 4+ hours of footage:) A day complete with beautiful traditions, lots and LOTS of circle and regular dancing, a HUGE cake as tall as Nicole in the shape of the Eiffel Tower with sparklers and of course many dinner courses and drinks. They both said it was a wonderful time with new family and friends.

Back in Portland...my grandparents flew in from North Carolina along with my uncle and aunt from Minnesota for a week of eating, talking, laughing and enjoying family. The wedding reception was on Thursday night October 21st and most definetely a night to remember. I'm so very happy for my little brother and welcome Nicole into our crazy family, even if it is almost two years late:) Congrats to the Fetrows!

My top pics from the week of Fetrow-family-fun!

father and sons

 Brothers

how we spent most of the gorgeous weathered week!

 Addy getting her hair done

 Hair...check!

Mom and aunt Becky "fussing" over the bride

 Fetrow siblings

 Ready for the party to start!

 Dancing with teacher Jessie!

 Who is older again??

 The new Lord of the Dance:)

 Totally expected this lol

 we have awesome dance skills

 One of my favorites from the night:)

 Alexis and Addy

 Everyone enjoyed the toasts

 happy couple

Mom and Sunshine

Big sister knows best, right? :)

Outside my window...is a gorgeous fall colored tree!


I am thinking...about Halloween shenanegans to come in the next few days!

I am thankful for...a fabulous family who loves and encourages me, a stable job that allows me to be on my own, a rabbit that acts like a dog and my actual pup Toby of course, my education, health, as well as all that I have learned in almost 28 years.


I am working on...finishing my Masters in Education and curriculum, securing a job for next year and finding an awesome man:)


I am going to...fold some laundry, shower, take Falcon to my parent's house, and head to Salem for OSU Beaver fun tomorrow!! Go Beavs!!
I am reading...only linguistics presently, but can't wait to get my hands on the new Percy Jackson novel!!


I am hoping...for an amazing weekend full of tricks and treats:p
I am hearing...the wonderful sounds of silence.

Around the house...Alicia and I are getting things settled and in their places.


One of my favorite things...snuggling on the couch with somebody special or a great book.


Plans for the rest of the week: Well, it's Friday now so I have nothing, but fun things planned for this Halloween weekend! Not limited to attending an OSU football tailgate and game, Halloween parties, fun with friends and of course Sunday kickball!

Pic of the week:

3rd times' the charm Josh and Nicoleta!

Taking it old school...but with brand new CRAZY rules!

Kickball is back and super cool! Well, maybe not super cool, but it sure is TONS of fun! Myself and some dedicated and might I add awesome people decided to put a team together...we call ourselves The Grasskickers. We have yet to kick major "grass" yet (haha:) but we are enjoying our first season. The rules sure have changed since playing during recess in elementary school with crazy bouncing pitches and funky strike zone rules. We've won a few, lost a few, but I can say this...we are having a great time on Sunday afternoons! A shout out to my team: Siphavy, Keli, Andy, Brandon, Bridget, Chris, Mouse, and David. You guys RULE! Please enjoy some pics from our season so far.

Keli, Siphavy and I post game

Heads up Andy!

 We are pretty good buddies:)

 First team pic of the season!

 Although I look awesome, this is NOT how you kick the ball lol

 Strategizing

 This is how we do!

 Mouse and V!

 Awesomeness!

 Grasskickers

 Little V!

Spectacular shoes

Today was one of those weird days when the unexpected happens. Totally caught off guard, you are forced to re-evaluate a previous made decision. This can happen with anything really, but for me, it of course had to deal with a man. I'm as SHOCKED as you are!! 


So, I am currently dating as my sister refers to it, but I like to think of it more like shoe shopping. It puts a fun, new flair on dating don't you think? :) SO, when it comes to picking out a new pair of shoes I can be crazy indecisive! Most will say I'm the pickiest of the pickiest with new shoes. I can and do find fault or refuse to see faults in said shoes. 


Picture, if you will, me sitting on one of those shoe benches with a cool new pair in front of me. I put the what I am sure will be glorious shoes on (let's face it, for me to even pick the pair off the shelf they have to be something special), and I walk around in the shoes, check them out in the mirror and all while I'm doing this I am picturing all my various clothing complementing these shoes. Does anyone else do this when they shoe shop? 


Picking out a good man is done in much the same way as strange as that sounds. I won't just date any man. He must be special, put a sparkle in my eye if you will:) Once I think I've found a good one, we try each other on (but not like that!) What I mean is we spend time getting to know one another, likes, dislikes, family, friends, activities, beliefs, goals, etc. Is this person someone I enjoy being around, do I WANT to be around this person? I usually know if the fit is right early on in the "trying on" phase, but I have been fooled a couple of times. 


One such "shoe" flew under my radar (yes, my shoes can fly:) I chose this shoe, put up good effort to get this shoe out of the store, but it almost didn't seem worth it having to dig through boxes looking for my RIGHT size...this guy was a challenge. FINALLY, got the right size on and headed out the door with plans for me and these shoes in the near future.  I went for a "stroll" (for Sunshine, a date:) in my new shoes. It was easy and fun, but something about this pair seemed, off. It took awhile to get my strides in sync. But by the end of the date (stroll), I knew I wanted to wear these shoes again, at least to try them with a few different outfits. (Is anyone still following this :D) However, for some reason these shoes did not make my normal rotation and I nearly forgot about them.


Until today. I peaked under my bed and what did I find? That good looking pair of shoes calling out to me! Same spark! (I am literally laughing out loud as I am writing this! :P) I'm ready to give this pair another go round! To be continued...

"Some people are settling down, some people are settling and some people refuse to settle for anything less than butterflies." Sarah Jessica Parker

I'm so excited and I just can't hide it! (Well, I probably could, but what would be the fun in that?"

Ooooh geez, I apologize for being absentee in blog land as of late, but my life has literally turned into the movie Groundhog Day. You know the one where Bill Murray just keeps reliving the same day over and over and over again, with a few minimal changes with the hopes that something interesting might happen? Welcome to my life right now:)
The school year is only about two weeks in and payroll is literally dragging their feet in putting my paperwork in so I can be in the "new fangled" substitute system so I'm going on month three of no work. Most people would be excited about this, but believe it or not, I actually enjoy having a difference between my weekdays and my weekends:)
I thought instead of sharing all the AWESOME things that are NOT going on right now in my life that I would share all the super-cool things I'm OOBER excited for in the coming months...
1. September 28th...moving in with Alicia!
2. Kickball Sundays through November 6th...GO GRASS KICKERS!
3. October 21st...Josh and Nicoleta's wedding reception and week of family fun!
4. November 9th...My 28th birthday!
5. November 19th...Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 movie out!