Happy Halloween From the Lofland's!

Happy Halloween from...

Rowdy the Jester!

Toula the Hot Dog!

William the Werewolf!



& Lyndsey the not-so-wicked witch!

We hope everyone had a safe and spoOoOoky night!

MUAHAHAHAHA!

Happy Halloween Eve!

I am happy to report my kids LOVED the Halloween bags I put together for them!





We have been going through some "attitude adjustments" lately, so they knew that if they did not earn all the letters to the word HALLOWEEN by today, they would not be getting their special prize. And considering today was the Friday before Halloween as well as crazy hair day for Drug Awareness Week, they were very well behaved!


Many of them also brought me some yummy Halloween treats - the perks of being a teacher I guess :)



(I may have had a Twix and some Bubble Yum for breakfast.)

Okay, I'm off to put my Martha Stewart skills to work and make some decorations for tomorrow! Oh wait, I'm just tracing some templates I printed off her website. Silly me :)

Bring on the ghosts and goblins....

I think we're ready!

Breathing in and out is a blessing can’t you see...

(I'm Alive - Kenny Chesney feat. Dave Matthews)

Love that line. It's a good reminder when one has a "case of the Mondays."

However, I do wish it was still Sunday so I could be enjoying more of him...

(he actually drug the cushion out there to lounge on his own)

and her...

(my little supermodel)

and them...

I am so blessed :)

It's October, Didn't You Know?

Saw this on the way to Target tonight....seriously? It's October 24th!

Maybe they're testing their outlets? Let's hope so.

Happy Monday from two cute and comfy couch potatoes!

Will and I had a wonderful "nothing" weekend. We left the windows open, cleaned the house, watched tons of movies, baked, grilled, and shopped a bit. It definitely hit the spot.

Movie Review:

My Life in Ruins - That was my Target choice. We didn't have high expectations for it, but I love a good cheesy flick so it didn't dissapoint.

Duplicity - Really good. It was like Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Oceans. Good combo in my opinion.

Couples Retreat - We saw this today and loved it! It had typical Vince Vaughn movie humor, but it was actually a sweet movie promoting couples with marriage problems to work through them instead of giving up. In a hilarious, romantic-y kind of way.

Saturday night we needed a movie snack so I made Glazed Apple Bars. They were heavenly. I got the recipe here. The perfect cold weather treat.

And they are even better for breakfast the next day :)

Kenana Knitter Critter

Isn't this a cute owl??!

It was on my front porch when I got home and it came all the way from Kenya! My sweet friend Anne Elise got it for me as a "classroom warming" gift, but I love it so much it might just have to stay at home with me! I keep thinking it would look perfect in a nursery someday :)


Check out www.kenanausa.com for more adorable hand-made knitter critters!

This and That

I know I've already posted pictures of my front porch, BUT all the rain we've had recently made my mums explode, and they are so pretty I had to post them again!

before...

and after!

This week is flying by and I am so excited for tomorrow night and this weekend! Tomorrow I'm going into Dallas to have dinner with some of my girlfriends, and this weekend Will and I finally have nowhere to go and nothing to do! We bought a couple movies at Target tonight, so we pretty much plan on staying in and vegging (is that how you spell it?!). I need to catch up on posting about last weekend, hopefully that will get done this weekend too.

Tonight is the first night I finally didn't bring home any work! I'm hoping I can stay on top of my game and have some free nights more often - I have been drowning in paperwork, workshops, grading, report cards, parent conferences, observations, etc. and I really needed a "nothing" night. Will took me out to dinner on the lake and we spent an hour and a half in Target. Not hard to do! I got some comfy winter pj's and....we got our Halloween costumes....what do you think??!

Hahaha, yeah I'm not going to be a banana, but Will did make me try it on. I got a slightly cuter outfit and Will's is scary! Hopefully it will spook the neighbors. We also got a fog machine, and I'm ready to test it out!

17 more days until Halloween!

Cupcake Love

You know it's a good day when your husband brings home leftover Society Bakery cupcakes from an office birthday party.


Love them, love him.

I'm Back!

Where have I been? I don't know, just a busy week I guess culminated by an even busier weekend. Things should start slowing down though so I'll have more time to blog. And breathe.

Friday. Friday was quite a day. I started out with about 4 hours of sleep that I justified with the fact that I was only working a half day and that I had stayed up late packing for our weekend. Too bad I actually got zero packing done and Friday was an exceptionally crazy day at school! It was our very first "spirit rally" at school (basically a time for the kids to watch their teachers humiliate themselves and to compete in screaming matches with other grades because they survived the six weeks). Not only did I have to participate in all of that, I had to speak in front of hundreds of children, teachers, parents, etc. about a new program we are starting at our school and I was terrified! I hate, hate talking in front of large groups but I think it went okay. I'm just not thinking about it, truthfully.

Friday is also test day, so I had to calm the kiddos down afterwards and attempt to regain their focus for three tests. At 11:30 I was out of there and racing home so we could get on the road! The next 3.5 hours we drove in the rain to Austin for our good friends Ali and Negar's wedding festivities.

This is Will enjoying his sports TALK radio on the way. This is me not enjoying it....

So we made it with about an hour to shower and get ready for the rehearsal. Ali and Negar had a traditional Persian ceremony with a bit of secular flair (ie: groomsmen, bridesmaids, flowergirls). Poor Negar didn't have a coordinator and was trying to direct everyone in two languages (English and Farse) -- it was very chaotic and took forever, but in the end everyone figured out what to do and on the day of it went much smoother! Me and Joanna (the bride from my previous post) were about to jump up and help direct because she looked so flustered! Too bad we don't speak Farse.

The rehearsal dinner was at Headliner's Club which is on the top floor of the Chase building and has the prettiest views of downtown Austin. We all relaxed and had a good time visiting and watching their slideshow. Slideshows are my favorite part of rehearsals - I LOVE the baby pictures!

At the rehearsal

Rehearsal dinner set up. It was soo pretty!

The new wives club! Me, Negar, Joanna!

My camera died at the wedding so I didn't get many good pictures, but hopefully Joanna will email me hers soon and I can get those up asap! It was a gorgeous wedding and we were sooo happy to help them celebrate!

Candy Corn and Pumpkins!

I fall-ed out our house this weekend. Our neighbors went nuts with the Halloween decorations so it intimidated inspired me to get going! I'm saving the actual Halloween decorations for Oct. 31, but I did set out a few seasonal things.


On the front porch I set out some orange mums and an assortment of mini pumpkins and gourds.

Today we got a pretty wreath for the front door. I had the day off for the state fair, woohoo! Will just emailed his secretary with an "I'm working from home today." NOT FAIR.

Simple but cute!

Dining room centerpiece! I got the idea for the candy corn candles from BHG.com and the fiesta plate pumpkin holder from Emily's blog.

I love fall!

Fall means football. And while I love all football, there's something about high school football that's much more exciting to me. It probably has something to do with the fact that I went to a high school that was ALL football, and we were good at it. I love the energy, the atmosphere, the competition - I know the NFL has some crazy fans, but have you seen some of the people that go to high school games? Have you seen the parents??

Friday night Will and I went to his high school's football game at their brand new stadium. It was exciting because his town now has two high schools and they were playing each other. Our team lost, but we had fun sporting our orange and black!

Some pics of the new stadium --

They are the Yellowjackets but their colors are orange and black. I don't get it either.

Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.

-Bill Shankly