we're alive!

You wouldn't know it by following our blog, but Nathan and I are actually still alive! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted! I need to stop making promises about catching up and just be straight with y'all- I would love to post every special moment of our lives on here and keep you up to date but with our schedules I just don't see that as being realistic! We're busy people. If our full time jobs weren't enough, our pottery biz has been keeping us on our toes, for sure.

Since my last post, we've done over 250 large carved pumpkins, almost 300 small carved pumpkins, more than 60 turkeys, footballs, and snowmen- plus we added a reindeer and Santa! And that's just our carved items! Each carved piece- including pouring, carving, and cleaning takes about 30-45 minutes- so as you can see- THAT'S why I haven't had much time to blog.

So let's see if I can briefly get you caught up on the things that have happened in our life- besides pottery in the last 3 months.

September

Dave and I both had a birthday! I am now a quarter of a century and Dave is 2 (no longer a puppy!) Nathan got me beautiful flowers that were delivered to my office. He's such a sweetie!

The sun started coming up later and going down earlier which has thrown off my internal clock.

I went to California with my aunties to see the Tim Burton exhibit. It was amazing and awesome and a welcomed break from work. It was so much fun having a girls weekend, that I decided to plan another one in February with my sister!

October

Nathan and I went to a Diamondbacks play off game. We had fantastic seats and it was one of the most incredible starts to a game I have ever seen. We are talking about getting a small season ticket package for next year.

I got a kidney stone! My first one since Nathan and I got married. 4 mm! It was the first one that I was able to catch and actually see for myself. It was nasty looking little thing- super jagged- no wonder it hurt so bad! The experience made us grateful for the awesome insurance Nathan gets through his work.

My best friend, Kassi, got engaged! She's getting married on leap day next year. So since I got this news I have been assisting in wedding planning and assembling an AMAZING bachelorette party in her honor.

I had the opportunity to participate in this mind blowing thing called the Landmark Forum. There will a separate post about this. I don't have time to explain it all right now, but it absolutely changed my life. Seriously.

Also in October, I signed up for and started receiving all kinds of catalogs. I know that this is unimportant and insignificant to you- but I am really excited about it. Maybe it's just getting things in the mail with my name on it-I dunno- but I just like looking at all the things!!!

We didn't do anything super awesome for Halloween- we passed out good candy (candy bars!) and when it was gone we turned off the porch light and snuggled up in bed and watched a movie.

November

Nathan had a birthday! We went out that evening with the whole gang to Red Robin and then went bowling. Nathan did pretty well- I was horrible! It was a good time though- even though I was super tired.

We participated in a holiday boutique- which kept me busy painting all month. Unfortunately we didn't sell much at the boutique which made my painting efforts seem wasted. But everything turned out cute nonetheless. AND Nathan got an iPhone so we can run credit cards. Mostly the iPhone is great for playing words with friends and watching netflix though.

I started trying out doing Bikram Yoga in the morning. Not gonna lie- getting up at 5:00am to make the 6:00 class is difficult and I haven't made it as often as I'd like. I am recommitting myself to going though!

A drugged out crazy person came into my office one evening when I was there alone and freaked me the heck out. I had to call 911... I think it's the only time I have ever had to. It was crazy! He came in thinking someone was trying to kill him. He tired to hide behind our copy machine and wound up leaving his shoes behind. (It's a much longer story, but that's the quick version!)

We spent Thanksgiving morning on Tempe Town Lake with my parents and my sister and her little family. It was way fun and I vote for that to be a Thanksgiving tradition!! Then later I made my first batch of homemade potatoes from scratch and we had dinner at Nathan's parents house. My parents got to come too- so that was pretty cool to get to spend the holiday with both sides at the same place!

Also on Thanksgiving we found out that we are going to get another niece or nephew! Yup, Marvin & Sarah are expecting their second little one- which of course, raised the question "When are you two going to have one?" My answer to one and all "Eventually." Obviously not right now. It is in the plans though....eventually!

Black Friday was awesome. I got to shop with almost every member of my family at some point during the day. I am super psyched about the gifts I got for Nathan. I am so excited that we aren't completely poor this year and that I was able to get him something good that he will enjoy!

So there you have it! Those are all the things that I would have blogged about, had I had time to blog! I will try to better now that things have slowed down a bit. Maybe I will even try blogging from the iPhone. I am really excited that even when I forget my camera that Nathan will always have a good one in his pocket! Hopefully having a camera handy will result in more pictures which result in more blogging! Love you all! Happy Holidays!

it's that time of year again...

I just wanted to let you know that my blogging intentions ARE good, I have just been a bit busy these days! See:

It's that time of year again! Custom carved season! And what you see above is literally just a small, small fraction of the pumpkins we have done so far- and it's only August.

My front room has been over run by cleaning and carving tables...

...and there are pumpkins everywhere!

We've also been doing a lot of custom footballs, but I forgot to take a picture of those. PLUS all our regular Halloween product.

One thing that we are really excited about, pottery wise, is that we got some new molds! And just replacement molds either- brand spankin' new molds that we never had before. We are testing out some new custom carved products:

A ghost

and a Reindeer!

I will probably post other pictures of these guys once we get them painted up- but what do you think? Pretty stinkin' cute, eh?

So like I was saying, I have been pretty busy- but I do intend to document all the events that sitting in my camera right now- it's just a matter of finding the time! Who knows- I may not be caught up until next year at this point! Because as soon as pumpkins are over- we have turkeys, and snowmen!

photo scavenger hunt

A while back we decided that it would be a fun date night to do a photo scavenger hunt- so we called up Nathan's brother and his wife- and that exactly what we did. Each couple made a list of 25 things then we exchanged lists headed off to see who could get the most of the 50 items.

A car parked in a handicap stop that doesn't have handicap tags:

An upside down pyramid building:

Someone in your group feeding ducks:
(This is me feeding the ducks the rest of my left over burrito because it was the only food we had with us!)

Someone in your group on a bridge:

Your group under a picnic table:

A fake marriage proposal:

Someone from your group on a golf course:

You with the Arizona and US flag in the same picture:
(Nathan's pointing is a little bit off! lol)

You with an anchor:

Someone in your group with a bronze statue:

You in the cell phone lot at the airport:

Someone in your group at the airport ticket counter:

You at a splash park:

A boat:

You in a casino:

A speed limit sign that doesn't end in a 0 or 5:

5 out of state license plates:
(For some reason I only found 4 of the pictures...maybe we only needed to find 4, I don't remember, it was a long time ago)

A snowman:

You with the Mesa temple:
(Yes, we live only a few miles from the actual temple, but we were running out of time!)

Someone in your group folding laundry at a laundromat:

Headstones with the names Robert, David, and Michael:

You with a farm field:

A waterfall:

Someone in your group with a taxidermied animal:

Someone in your group sitting on something pink:

It was a ton of fun! I can't wait until we do it again with more people! I think next time we will make an entire day of it.

journaling

I have always really enjoyed the idea of journaling, but I've never been very good at practicing the act. So, while I was browsing Amazon the other day, I came across this:

Q&A a day: 365 questions- 5 years- 1825 answers

A five year journal with minimal time commitments! There is a question every day, with 4 lines to write answer! I love it! And I think it's going to be totally fun to see how my answers change from year to year- I am interested to see if any answers stay exactly the same.

Periodically, I will throw the question of the day and my answer in with my blog- and when I have nothing else to blog about, or I want to blog, but I am short on time I'll just consult my handy little daily journal. I am seriously so excited about this little book!

Yesterday's question: What question do you love answering?

My answer: What are your dogs names? I love the little smirk or laugh people have when they realize we named our dogs after a restaurant. =D

Today's question: If you had to spend 5 years in prison, what would you finally have the chance to do?

My Answer: Work out all day long and lose some weight! Also, catch up on some reading.

I wonder what I would have done to spend 5 years in prison though....

it's been a while

So.... for the the past couple months I have been drafting blogs in my mind- I just haven't gotten around to typing them up and posting them yet! We have been soooo busy, but that just means that I will have a lot to post once I get around to it.

We must be doing it right- Adulthood SUCKS sometimes. Nathan and I are both working full time jobs AND running our pottery business- filling large, regular orders for 3 major customers all while trying to keep the house somewhat it in order, eat out less often (eat healthier,) and keep in regular contact with our families (family dinners/get togethers and such.)

I am really going to try and be better about my blogging. HOPEFULLY I will get at least couple posts done this week, and each week after.

A preview of blogs to come: picnic, photo scavenger hunt, family reunion in Tahoe, our trip to Yosemite, our trip to Vegas, an update on the pottery business, all the crafting and redecorating I've been doing, baseball games... AND MORE!! Stay tuned.

fascinating and disgusting at the same time

Nathan emailed me this article this morning- since we don't have facebook right now, I decided to blog it!

Human Belly Button Home to Hundreds of Never-Before-Seen Species

Call it a twist on the study of gut bacteria. Scientists sampling DNA strains from the navels of volunteer donors have found 662 microbes

that are apparently new to science, showing that the human navel is apparently a ripe environment for bacteria.

The Belly Button Biodiversity Project, run by scientists at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, has been analyzing navel swabs from a host of volunteers, as New Scientist explains. So far, they've found 1,400 distinct bacterial strains, nearly half of which have never been seen before.

The project was meant to interest people in microbiology and assuage the public's concerns about microbes causing disease -- but it's also yielded plenty of new data about the human "microbiome," the array of microorganisms that live inside (and on) us.

The skin is still not that well studied, and researchers led by Rob Dunn and Jiri Hulcr at NC State wanted to examine belly buttons because, well, they're harder to scrub than the rest of your body.

Science writers Carl Zimmer (who blogs at Discover) and Peter Aldhous (from New Scientist) each donated a swab, and while Aldhous' sample failed to yield bacterial colonies, Zimmer's sample was apparently flush with life. Some species in his microbiome have previously only been found in the ocean, he writes. Another one, a species called Georgenia, has only been found living in the soil in Japan. Zimmer has never been, he writes.

"It has apparently been to you," Dunn told him.

The researchers have recorded a large number of new microbes, but most of them are found in small numbers, New Scientist reports. About 40 species account for around 80 percent of the bacterial populations of our belly buttons, Aldhous writes.

Something nice to think about the next time you're sunbathing -- your swimsuit has plenty of company.

girly time!

Holy cow- time flies when you have a job, a calling, and are trying to run a business all at the same time! I haven't blogged in what seems like FOREVER! Here's something that happened back in May... I think... I don't think it was as far back as April... yeah- I am pretty sure it happened in May.

ANYWAY- I got to spend sometime with my sister and nieces when Nathan went on the Fathers and Sons camp out with my dad. (I spent time with the ladies on the Lunt side of the family about a week before- but I am lame and forgot to take pictures. Amy blogged it though- you can read about it here.)

We had bunches of fun in the 24+ hours that we spent together- we had all kinds of adventures...

For example, I let the girls do my make-up:

After the girls went to bed, Jessica and I made a home-made pizzookie!

We had been looking forward to eating this all day- while it was cooking, we kept talking about how we would just devour it once it came out of the oven.

This is how much was left once we got full:

Maybe next time we shouldn't eat so much pizza and wings beforehand! Lol

Jessica and I stayed up late watching movies and playing games and laughing and being silly just like we used to when we were teenagers.

The next morning, while Jess was getting ready for the day- the girls discovered something while they were running around like maniacs...

Aunty Tarin's wood floors are very slippery! And what is more fun to do on a slippery wood floor than to put on your uncle's sock and play slip n slide?!

After that, we went and got breakfast at Dunkin Donuts

THEN we went Tempe Beach Park so the girls could play at the splash park there.

One thing they really enjoyed there was this:

A bucket that filled up and tipped over and spilled on top of all the kids. They never knew when it was going to fall! Here is Bethany getting out of the way just in time:

It was a pretty warm day- they had fun playing in the water.

Later they came with me to look at couch we found on Craigslist (and eventually bought) and on the way there we saw this place:

TWO HIPPIES MAGIC MUSHROOM BURGERS

We thought it sounded like a fantastic place to get some lunch.

This is what it looked like on the inside:

It was hippie-tastic! So much so, that they only took cash. Which was kind of a pain- but acceptable once we tasted the food!

The girls were silly while we waited around back for lunch.

Jessica and I both got a yummy burger with swiss cheese and guacamole!

And I got a black cherry soda- because for some reason I am on a crazy black cherry kick right now. At my girls night with the Lunts- I got a black cherry smoothie from Paradise Bakery- which was SUPER delicious.

The girls are picky little eaters, so they didn't get a burger- they got a quesadilla instead.

It was seriously one of the best burgers I have ever had. Nathan and I will have to go back some time for date night.

"If it doesn't get all over the place- it doesn't belong in your face!!"

A good time was had by all!