it's just a bunch of hocus pocus

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! In this town we call home everyone hail to the pumpkin song in this town, don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!

-Danny Elfman

Halloween has always been a spooktacular holiday for me, but this year not only am I married, but I finally get to hand out candy to the neighborhood ghouls and goblins!  Although it will never come close to Christmas, I love any holiday that has great traditions and any possibility of "theming" anything out.

My handsome husband was the official "pumpkin carver" for our very first pumpkin as Mr & Mrs.  I couldn't help myself and had him carve a bow and eyelashes on our pumpkin (it's the one on the right).

I, personally, was very excited to help get all the pulp and seeds out of the pumpkin.  I have fond memories of helping my Dad when we were little kiddos and so Cassie and I dug right in (literally)!  We did have a helper...

Although no one was surprised when Penny loved snacking on our pumpkin pulp, she mostly looked cute and took a long nap.  I did learn something new from my information hungry hubby that I didn't know about pumpkin carving.  Apparently if you soak your pumpkin in a tub of water it hardens the pumpkin and keeps it from getting moldy.  

Looks lovely, but I will give Aaron credit because Cassie's devilish pumpkin (the scarier one in the first picture) was knocked over and gnawed on by our resident devil.

He may have been a bad little boy, but he is so stinkin' cute you just can't stay mad at him.  So the pumpkins were carved and perched on the front stoop and I was busy in the kitchen roasting the seeds.  After cleaning, buttering, and salting them into the oven they went.

I think it was the butter, but everyone enjoyed them, including my husband who was VERY skeptical as to how they would turn out.  Serves him right for doubting his wife's cooking skills...

Luckily, I had decorated the house early so we were officially ready for Halloween to begin...two days early.

In the meantime, I was a very proud sister at Cassie's volleyball game the next day as I watched her spike and serve her way to the top of the team.  

Halloween Eve was promptly celebrated by myself and my husband with dinner at Tomy Roma's (so yummy) and a scary movie.

It was a nice surprise to spend Halloween Eve with a relaxing diner-movie-date-night rather than at a party, guess that's what happens when you get married...you get boring.

After our date, we came home early (before 10pm, now that's boring) and watched a special on the history of Halloween.  Did you know that passing out candy started in the 1920s when housewives came up with the idea to keep neighborhood kids from vandalizing their homes?  Did you also know that the very first Halloween costumes were made solely out of paper?  Neither did I until I watched the special.

The scariest night of year was finally here and I got all dolled up in my very "spooky" light-up Halloween t-shirt and passed out candy to a sparse group of neighborhood kids.  Thank goodness my mom got fun-dip, candy I actually enjoy, so  I could snack on the extras.

Now to settle down with some buttery toasted pumpkin seeds and watch my all-time favorite Halloween movie, Hocus Pocus.

In the word of Winifred Sanderson, bye bayaiyai bye bye!  Happy Halloween!

it's the birthday girl!

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~Erma Bombeck

Cassie's birthday party was the first Aaron and I have shared as newlyweds.  I was excited to be part of the preparation and cooking.  My hubby could not have been more helpful and I loved that he joined my Dad at the grill.  I put my domestic skills to the test in the kitchen cooking homemade fettuccine alfredo.

I even got to wear the adorable apron Aaron got me for my birthday!  After the cooking was finished (and let me tell you cooking for 25 people is much different than cooking for 2), everyone came over and I couldn't help but catch up with everyone.  In the midst of my "socializing," I forgot the whole cleaning up part of cooking...oops.  Mom to the rescue!

It was extra special to be living in St. Charles with my husband joining in on a Delicath tradition (now a Weir tradition as well).  Although we are still at the kid's table, we got to catch up with cousins Tiffany and Kevin and their beautiful girls Rachel and Ally.  

Cake time, the best part of any birthday party, was extra yummy since Cassie chose the cutest Hello Kitty! cake.

Needless to say, she was the princess of the day and the cake was very yummy.  She received so many special gifts, including a beautiful pearl bracelet from our Daddy.

As usual I spent a lot of time with little Ally and Rachel coloring and playing with their new glow fairy wands (courtesy of my creative Mother).  We also watched part of The Little Mermaid which brought back memories of childhood Disney movie nights with Cassie and Tad.  

I'm pretty sure we even caught the girls' Dad watching some Disney princess action too...

Guess that's what Aaron has to look forward to if we are lucky enough to have our own little princess someday.  Speaking of kids, I enlisted Rachel's help in taking care of our kids and was reminded that we still have quite a few years before we start thinking about adding another member to the family.  I can't help thinking about carrying on the Diehr - Schneider - Delicath - Tibbs tradition.  

The party was a blast and being part of the cooking and the preparation was such a joy for myself and my hubby.  Makes me look forward to hosting our own Weir family gatherings.

In other news, I was lucky enough to get a job working for the company that created and owns Furminator; the special dog brush.  Penny got a new brush as a gift from the company and I was also invited to the annual chili cook-off at the office this coming Friday.  It is so wonderful to be welcomed so graciously into my new workplace, even though I get to work from home I love knowing I have great people working with me at the office. 

I am excited about my new job and even more excited it will fit so well into my upcoming school schedule.  Homework, homework, homework time is always on my mind when I think about school.

I am looking forward to my first work week and spending my first Halloween as a married woman with my husband.  So everyone enjoy a boo!tiful week and here's to a spooky Halloween and lots of candy corn (my personal fave)!  

comin' home

Home is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room.  ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

After spending a blissful year in Chicago exploring the city and enjoying our newlywed status we have moved back home to Missouri.  I am blessed with a beautiful, supportive family and I know we are both excited to begin building our home here as well as finding our place in the family traditions that were so much a part of my childhood.

This time last year we were in Chicago, "enjoying" the chilly, rainy weather.

We are now feeling nostalgic in this beautiful St. Charles fall!  I am most excited to carve a pumpkin and sit on the porch and hand out candy to the adorable little goblins in our neighborhood.  

I have to say the adventure of the week was sitting next to my wonderful husband as he drove a huge moving truck the 300+ miles to St. Charles.  Not to mention my obsessive compulsiveness in unpacked EVERYTHING in one day.  I think I drove a few people nuts, including my husband.  However, it is all unpacked and organized to BOTH our likings. 


Now that we are back in the city we are ultimately starting a home and a family in I am getting anxious, although I have my parents' adorable pups to snuggle, to get our own bundle of fluff.  

I am excited to add our own pup into the mix of family dogs.  However, my patience will have to hold out as we aren't quite ready for a dog.  I am excited to go back to school so I can start sharing my love of music with kids.  

So, we will see where this new adventure leads us.  Farewell Chicago, you weren't this couple's cup of tea.  Hello St. Charles!  We cannot wait to begin this stage of our marriage in such a beautiful historic city.

Beautiful Downtown St. Charles...

Family dinner tonight after a day filled with football and a trip to Petsmart.  It will be fun to laugh with my hubby as he discovers the cooky, crazy Delicath household in these next few months.  My little sister's birthday party is next weekend and I am the official chef for the evening's meal; for the first time AH!  Wish me luck and have a wonderful week...enjoy the beautiful fall weather!