Trials & Tribulations....In the shoe aisle

Last week Roy and I decided to hit up

the new Nordstrom Rack that opened nearby.

Overall I was most impressed with the shoe selection.

I love boots.

Boots. Boots. Boots.

Unfortuantely, however, this wasn't one of my best

boot-shopping endeavors.

But boy, did they have alotta boots.

So I started frantically snatching them up like

I always do when I get excited to shop...

Me grabbing boots=wild cheetah catching last-living gazelle

I lugged my catch to a nearby bench where I started

excitedly trying them on.

Pair # 1) won't zip-up..dangit. Oh, well..they weren't that cute.

Move on.

Pair # 2) won't pull all the way up...crap. Stupid boots. Oh, well.

Pair #3) Won't zip-up....now I'm getting frustrated.

Aaaand repeat that scenario about 15 more times....

The picture you're left with is this...

Me, sweating profusely...stragle-y hair hanging in my face and

sticking to my forehead....

hopping up and down on one leg in these tiny aisles

 while muttering profanities and grabbing every boot I

can get my hands on-whether in my size or not.

From elsewhere in the store Roy texted me and 

this is how the conversation went down:

Ok..so resorting to violence might have

been a bit extreme...

however, I'm apparently a woman of extremes

(as-in extremely large calves....)

So maybe I'm justified in my anger...

Oh yeah, and thanks a lot babe...for your kind

and reassuring words...

Tree Trunk

nice. love you too.

The moral of this story peeps....

my calves are freakin' huge.

Exhibit A

Notice how the tiny triangle-shaped piece of elastic

at the top is being stretched to capacity??

Would. Not. Pull. On.

Stupid.

Ya know those elastic waisted pants old ladies wear??

Well I need elastic waisted boots.

Exhibit B

I mean, what is this???

This my friends, was how all but 2 pairs

of boots fit me.

2 of about 20 pair I tried to put on.

How can my legs be so much bigger than the average

persons? I mean, surely shoe companies

take some sort of leg-poll when they're deciding

how big to make their boots?

So I did what any modern,

 red-blooded American woman would do...

I came home and measured my calves.

15.5 inches.

Sounds reasonable...healthy.

And then I googled 

'average female calf circumference'

The common answer seemed to be

13-14 inches.

But wait... theres good news folks!!

Shoe companies are beginning to make

"Plus-sized boots" for women with calf sizes

ranging from 15-23 inches.

Oh yippee!!

 I can't wait to go back and ask the

salesman where their "Plus sized" boots are.

I'm sure the selection will be fabulous.

I stand defeated. 

Make that....I stand very squarely-firmly-heavily...

 defeated.

Hmph.

Bathroom sneak peek...

Ok, People.

The faucets are in.

The granite is in.

Old tile is coming down.

The plumbing supplies have arrived.

Our plumber is coming over Tuesday.

I'm hoping a week from now this bathroom 

will be nearly complete!

Operation guest bath is underway...

Thrift Store Finds...

So I'm constantly looking for a hobby.

 I've yet to find one.

But I really WANT one!!

I've thought about sewing...

I've tried knitting, and I guess that was fun

until it got old...I mean, how many subsequent 

scarves can you really be excited to knit?

Anyways...my mom loves thrift stores/flea markets/antiques.

She's always trying to find hidden treasures.

So last week we went to a flea market not far from

my house and I got really excited about it!

We can call this my,

'remember when you thought you wanted 

to refinish furniture for a hobby' phase.

There was this great solid-wood dresser there for $40 that 

I totally wanted to buy to that I could repaint/refinish it..

What potential!!

My dear husband however, is skeptical of my

undiscovered refinishing skills...so he gave

the dresser a big 'NO'....when will I learn to

stop asking and just start showing up with stuff??

Oh wait, thats what I did with my other purchases!!

So I found this great old 12-pane window.

I started thinking that it would look so cool in our house

either refinished or left looking shabby chic.

My mom mentioned putting pictures in the frames,

and that got me really excited (cause I LOVE pictures)

 so I went ahead and bought it for $22!! Yay!

I haven't decided yet if I'm leaving it 'as-is' or if I'm going to refinish it.

I might leave the white side alone and refinish the brown-wood side.

I've been getting all kinds of ideas from etsy and the internet.

I'm excited!!

I also found this cool piece...and although

I wont be doing any work or refinishing with it, 

I still think it's a really cool find.

I'm planning on returning this saturday to look for more windows!!

Dee-layed....

Ok..so I always seem to be a day late (errr 4 days late...) and a dollar short...
but I still wanted to post pictures of our pumpkins we carved last weekend!

Kelly came over and we headed out on our pumpkin mission.
We headed by WalMart first...their pumpkins were awful (no surprise)
albeit cheap. We ended up buying our pumpkin carving kits there though.

So we headed to a church near my house where we found some amazing...
albeit expensive...pumpkins.
20 dollars and nearly 20 hours (we're both so indecisive) later we headed
home with our darling pumpkins.

I'm taking this one!!

Let the carving begin!!

Kelly's little mermaid masterpiece

rodeo pumpkin

Hoot! Hoot!

I have a whole new respect for those hard-core pumpkin carvers.

We spent like 4 hours carving pumpkins out on my deck.

I was pretty excited to put my pumpkins out that night....

aaaand this is what I woke up to the next morning...

WHAT!!??

The little bastard chipmunk who lives under our porch

did this...he's currently missing under the witness 

protection program for rodents.

I mean, how does a little animal the size of my palm

eat this much pumpkin??

Maybe I shouldn't be one to talk--cause this girl can eat too..

____________________________________

On Monday we all wore wigs to work.

I found this beaut courtesey of Wally World..

Roy asked me if I was supposed to be Betty Rubble 

or a Chinese Lady.

I'm open to interpretation.

The gang of hooligans

The truth is that wigs make everything more fun..

this includes working!

Friday Phone Dump

So lets be honest, I'm a blogging novice.

I just FINALLY figured out what this 'InstaFriday' 

business was all about.

I downloaded the app and I've been loving it!

It makes my boring old iPhone pictures look a lot

 cooler than any pictures I could normally take.

Unfortunately, I still don't know how to 'link' my

blog to any other blogs-which is something I see

everyone else do when they have their 

'InstaFriday' posts....oh well...

forgive me bloggy world--I'm merely a babe in blogging.

Here's my dumping of photos from the last week...

#1-3) My sister's barrel race last weekend...

which btw, ended in me having an asthma attack

and having to leave before I even got to see her race...lame.

#4) New granite in the guest bathroom! I'll finish these

stupid house projects if it's the last thing I do!!

Update:

I think I might have figured out how

to link my blog to something....

this is human evolution in progress folks!

(oh wait, I don't believe in evolution..hehe)

Well than it's Beth's technological evolution in progress!

I'm beaming like a proud girlscout who just 

sold all her cookies...

Yippee!!

To Surprise or Not to Surprise...birthday woes...

My husband is turning 30.

Wow.

I mean, holy crap that sounds old.

How did this happen?

He was only 19 when we started dating!

The thing about Roy, is that he could

care less about birthdays.

It's definitely been a learning curve for us

over the course of our relationship.

I like my birthday to be acknowledged-celebrated
...while he would probably forget his birthday (or mine)

 if I didn't remind him!

So, the problem lies with me trying to figure

out what to do for his 30th!!

I mean, in my mind a big surprise party is a MUST..

but....is that what he would really want??

Or am I just trying to do for him,
what I would wantdone for me??

And this is where I've been stuck for

like 2 months.

Initially, I wanted to do a Friday or Saturday night

party at someplace like Dave & Busters....

aaaand then I found out how much it costs....

aaaand then I imagined Roy freaking out
when I told him how much I spent.

Scratch D&B's

Scratch bowling alley

Scratch Power Play

All WAY too expensive.

But I'm still holding onto the idea of a surprise party.

The poor guy has NEVER HAD a birthday party...

much less, a surprise birthday party.

And I really want to do this for him.

So...

I found this cute place downtown 

called Nica's 320.
And they have this really cute back-room
that you can reserve.
Sounds perfect right??
NotSoFast...
 they have a $2,000 minimum for a
weekend party reservation.
Again...Not Happening with THIS budget.

BUT...
If I had a Sunday afternoon,
say.... 3pm party...
they could work with my measly budget.
Does a 3pm Sunday afternoon get-together/party
sound totally lame?
I mean, I never intended or expected
 this to be a big drunk-fest.
Maybe a laid back Sunday afternoon celebration
with friends and family would be the perfect combination
of low key meets cool surprise??
Ugh.
Pulling. Out. My. Hair.
I really just need to decide and pull the trigger
on something....
because his birthday is less than a month
away.
Crap. Crap. Crap.

To surprise or Not to Surprise?
That is the question....

fRiDaY NiGhT

This is what I saved all of my calories for today...

It was ah-mazing...and oh so worth the wait...

The truth is, I'm one of those lazy people who instead of exercising,

 rather starve themselves for a day in order to eat what I want!

Healthy right??

Anyways...Kelly and I had lunch together,

 and then later this evening I went and visited her at work.

Her job is putting on their annual,

"Night of the Living Farm" event.

Side note:

In general, I'm not a fan of Halloween. 

I mean, I get why people like it...I liked it myself as a kid.

And seriously, kids in costumes are freakin' cute...

but sometimes I just have a moral dilemma with the roots of Halloween. 

Maybe I'm taking it too seriously or looking too deep, but

every year about this time, I find myself fretting over how I'm

going to handle this 'holiday' when we have kids someday.

I guess I'll just pray about it and cross that bridge when it comes.

...No sense in putting the cart before the horse...

ooookay now I sound like a 90 year old woman...

Anyhoo..we spent the evening hiding in the woods waiting

for the hayriders to pass by. We managed to at some point 

become the main attraction. Go figure.

Kelly had a chainsaw and an insane clown mask (Ew)

and I had some old decrepid man mask that I'm sure had been

worn by more people than I care to think about (double Eww).

Well it seems that Kelly is one bad-a$$ clown with a chainsaw, 

and I'm apparently a pretty terrifying ogre 

cause I made a little girl cry on my first go-round 

...and proud of it..

Insane Clown Kelly

(wearing a sweater that says 'cowgirl')

aaaaand

Nasty old man ogre...(in a vest, no less...)

So although the vote is out on Halloween as a whole...

I vote 'YES' for scaring the crap out of little kids.