Cutout Sugar Cookies

I am usually a good baker. I love baker and most of my baked items turn out very good. However, I've never been good at cutout sugar cookies. The other night I wanted to you my great Halloween cookie cutters and sprinkles and make sugar cookies. I couldn't remember how my mom used to make them, so I went to my trusty Better Homes and Garden Breast Cancer Edition cookbook.

They turned out terrible. The dough never did get hard enough to roll out-even with a whole night in the fridge. So, I made regular sugar cookies and they are very bland. Yuck! They look more like dog treats. Oh well, I'll not use that receipe again.

Anyone have a good receipe for cutout sugar cookies?

Sick!

Although I love this time of year, I always get sick towards the end of October.

This is me-all day long!

Just got chills..

...and not from the cold outside.

I just happened to check out a blog and "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman was playing. Mr. McB prerecorded this song for our unity candle song at the wedding. Now I get chills every time I hear it. What a great husband! I just love him!

A good start to a truly fall morning

Yawn!

Welcome to fall. I wake up this morning to cold temperatures. This is nothing new, but I find out the temperatures are not going to increase much during the day. Welcome to fall!

Although I love fall, I have a hard time transitioning from summer to fall wear. Anyone else have this problem?

Today, I feel like I look too wintery, but I don't have a lot of outfits to wear during fall. Also, where we live, we have to park far away and walk a ways to work-this will be better once we move and I'm done with graduate school. So, I don't get to wear the cute trendy winter shoes. I have to stick with ugly flats or I'll bust my butt. :)

On a lighter note, I am having yummy coffee my boss brought in. She made coffee and brought in pumpkin creamer. I usually like my coffee black, but I can't resist the pumpkin creamer. :)

Stay warm!

Blog Giveaway!

Looking through my lovely posts today, I come across this great giveaway at My Journey Toward the Fabulous Life of a Housewife-http://glamlifehousewife.blogspot.com/2008/10/yummy-giveaway_20.html

This pan is adorable-I dream of making pumpkin bread in it. :)

Books and Giveaway

As we all know...I can't resist a good giveaway. So stop on by this great blog-http://myhome-mylife.blogspot.com/ for a giveaway.

Of course I had to this one because it involved a book. I love to read and I love new books. Any recommendations. Leave me a comment about your favorite read.

A Perfect Fall Night

Monday night was an amazing fall night. Mr. McB and I got to spend the whole evening together-this doesn't happen very often since he has work and I have work and classes to finish up my Masters degree.

Mr. McB started off by picking me up at work. It is always nice to not have to fight the traffic with my P-O-S car. Unfortunately, there are too many people and not enough roads in our town. That's another topic for some other time.

Then, we made a quick run to Kroger. I love that our town bulit a brand new Kroger so close to our place. We picked up a couple of things and headed to our place.

For dinner, we had fried chicken, green beans, and fresh cauliflower. Although I love fried chicken, I never eat very much of it. So, my main dish was the yummy cauliflower we bought at the fall harvest festival for such a good price. I can't believe how much cauliflower we got for so cheap. We made half of it and had plenty. Even better, Mr. McB made a nice creamy cheese sauce to put over the steamed cauliflower. What a perfect fall dinner.

After dinner, we took our dog, Kona, on a walk through the neighborhood. She loves walks, but we don't get to take her on them very often.

When we got back, James put on Saw IV. I was the one who always liked scary movies, but recently I just can't watch them anymore. However, James has been in a scary movie mood. I've seen all of the Saw movies and this one was by far the most confusing. I was totally lost by the whole thing. Oh well! Anyone care to explain?

I'll end with a couple of pictures of fall.

Country Roads, Take Me Home....

Adorable gourds-but I love pumpkins more!

The entrance to our place. I love the bail of hay and mums. On the door is a Halloween wreath my mom and I made. We each have one and I think they are adorable.

Our adorable pup with the fall decor. She didn't want Daddy taking her picture.

The pumpkin Mr. McB carved. I need to carve mine, but I'm not very good at such things.

Happy Fall!

My Mild Obsession with Pumpkins

I don't know why, but I've always had a mild obsession with pumpkins. When I was little, I requested a pumpkin pie instead of a birthday cake. Since forever, I have loved October, fall and everything that comes with that time of year.


Mr. McB has been extra great this fall. We are both very busy, but he has made time for us to do special things together this season. It began with football season and watching our favorite team-WVU-at every home game and even on one away trip. Unlike a lot of girls, I like football. We have also been to a couple local high school games. Mr. McB coached baseball and one of his plays football. We've been to a couple of those games and been able to take advantage of the beautiful new high school stadium.



Then last weekend, Mr. McB took us to a local Italian restaurant for a nice dinner. Puglioni's is probably one of my favorite restaurants in our town and I got to enjoy a nice pasta dinner with their garlic butter sauce. It was excellent-since they use a lot of garlic and make their own pasta. I also love their bread with butter and fresh garlic poured over it. Yum! After the WVU game on Saturday, we traveled to our home town to be with family. For as long as I can remember, it has been a tradition for my mom, aunt and I to go to the Pumpkin Festival about 30 minutes from our hometown. I couldn't do without going this year. So Saturday night, we got to enjoy our favorite Mexican restaurant with my mom and the in-laws. Then Sunday, my mom and I headed to the Pumpkin Festival. My aunt and Mr. McB and the in-laws met us there. My aunt got us a great personalized giant candy corn to hang on our door and my mother-in-law got us a great smiling pumpkin for decorating. I enjoyed a loaded baked potato and some pumpkin ice cream at the festival. Mr. McB pretty much only enjoyed the food and the birds from the wildlife refuge.

This weekend, Mr. McB watched as I participated in the Homecoming Parade for work.

Then Saturday, we attended a tailgate by one of Mr. McB's BFFs. Lookup's-that is his name and he's 6'7"-parents were in town for the game and wanted to have a big tailgate party. We had a blast and luckily WVU won. Here are Lookup and his gf (also our good friend).

Then yesterday, Mr. McB took me to a Fall Harvest Festival at his favorite orchard. We had so much fun driving along looking at the beautiful leaves. I took pictures, but they don't do the beautiful scenery justice. We got to the festival and it was super crowded and hot, but we still had a blast. We went through a corn maze. Mr. McB found me....

Here is my adorable husband-Mr. McB.

We took an awesome hay ride to the pumpkin patch to pick out our favorite pumpkins.

Here we are picking out our pumpkins.

After yummy apple cider and pumpkin roll, we picked out various things we wanted from the fall harvest festival. I got a brown sugar and cinnamon covered apple. Yum!

On our way home, we stopped at an Italian restaurant. I was not that impressed. My eggplant was great, but it was not all it was supposed to be. Puglioni's is still my pick. :)

Thanks Mr. McB-for making my fall the best ever.

Entertaining

Although not properly displayed through the blogging world, I love to entertain. Entertaining friends and family is something I truly live for. Unfortunately, with work and graduate school, I have been unable to entertain as much as I would like.

Are you interested in entertaining? Check out this new book by Matthew Mead-available in bookstores all throughout the U.S. and Canada.

This book is a display of entertaining at its finest. Without all the expensive hoopla, Michael Mead shares a great way to entertain. Don't believe me? Check out Michael's website: http://www.entertainingsimple.com/index.php?option=com_flippingbook&book_id=2&Itemid=1

Now I'm off to begin planning my next entertainment venture-a fall/Halloween party. Don't these look nice and festive?

Now go check out that book and this great blog: http://restyledhome.blogspot.com/ :)

Giveaway

Recently, I've been branching out in the blogging world and reading more and more blogs. I love reading about people and their lives.

Today, I came across a giveaway at http://wanderingdc.blogspot.com/. What a great blog and an even better giveaway.

Enjoy!

Eat, Pray, Love

I finally finished reading "Eat, Pray, Love." I don't know how I feel about the book-didn't love it, but didn't hate it. Overall, I thought it was interesting and had a lot of good insight toward life and religion, but I didn't necessarily agree with Elizabeth Gilbert's persception of religion and her god. However, I did enjoy reading about her travels to the three Is-Italy, India and Indonesia, especially her account of falling in love. At times, the book seemed to be too in depth for the type of reading I was looking for, but her eloquent writing made me continue reading. In the end, I find Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love" an enjoyable book, but think I will stick to chick lit for the next read. Have you read it? What did you think?