Back to school!

Good news! 

Evan and I are going to go back to school in January at UAH. It'll be hard to try and balance work, school and parenting, but in the end it's all for a good cause.

Evan has filled out his application and is just waiting on his high school transcript. It sucks that he has to start all over because none of his tech school credits will transfer. Back to the basics and...his favorite thing to do...homework! HA.

     Regardless, I am VERY proud of Evan that he really wants to go back to school for Aerospace Engineering after he already completed Aviation Maintenance tech school with a 3.95 GPA and got his Airframe and Power-plant license and has a full time job at PPG Aerospace. Good for you, baby! I love you! And I know he greatly appreciates everyone who has helped him get to that point. :)

As of today, I have been accepted to UAH, so I am definitely happy and excited to hit the books again. What can I say? I'm a dork. I just dread the financial aid, registration process. I plan to finish up my degree in Marketing, take my LSAT and get into law school to become a lawyer.

Six Flags With The Hubby and Friends!

In honor of our friends; Ryan Savage and Luis Zuares, we celebrated their birthdays at Six Flags. And although our company with one another kept our spirits up, the Six Flags experience was a disappointment. All of the rides were tearing up and had "minor technical difficulties." We arrived at the park at 10:30am and didn't leave till 8:30pm and we only went on six rollercoasters; The Goliath, Ninja, Dare Devil Dive, Cyclone, Scorcher and the Mine Train.

The new Dare Devil Dive.

Even though the ride broke down like 5 times, it was a real fun ride.

Goliath



Frightfest was a total disappointment as well. Not what I expected. People have told us that it was awesome. Sorry to say, we were not impressed. We went to the Haunted House. That was funny. There were only like 12 people dressed up in costume around the ENTIRE park. It sucked. LOL. Also, the haunted mansion was closed as well. WTF? For the halloween experience, I would go to Netherworld instead.

Just when we were about to go on the Mindbender, the ride broke down. That was when we decided to call it quits and go to Guest Relations and tell Six Flags about the horrible experience. They gave us six tickets for $10 for 2012. Which was a nice gesture and we will go back next year.  After Six Flags, we went to the Varsity to eat and the night ended really well. All and all, we had a great time together.

Sophia had a great time with her grandma! IHOP, Shopping, and Grandma bought her a xylophone and Ryan won her a Tasmanian Devil. She is spoiled rotten! And that's totally okay.  :)

Nightmare before Christmas and Pumpkin Carvings.

 

 Enjoying the fresh air as mommy and daddy carve pumpkins! :)

 We got our Halloween decorations, our Jack-O-Laterns 

and we watched the Pumpkin King take over Christmas.

  We looked online for designs for our pumpkins, and once we decided what we could draw free hand, we drew our Jack-O-Latern designs. We rid of the pumpkin guts with these tools:

But we kept the seeds because we are gonna roast them tomorrow! :) 

Roasting Pumpkin Seeds:

Rinse seeds well. Soak seeds for a day in salt water. Drain water and put seeds in single layer on cookie sheet. Bake 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees F, stirring once or twice.

 

 

 

....And the finish product:

Family Fun at Tate's Farm in Hazel Green, Alabama.

The air is cool, the leaves are crisp, Halloween is creeping up...so to start off the season right, we went to Tate's Farm and picked our pumpkins. Look how excited Sophia is!

 We got three pumpkins: One for Daddy, one for Mommy and one for Sophia.

Sophia got to pet a little piggy! 

Our little pumpkin having a blast on the swing. She LOVED it!

We had a fun family day! This is what it's all about!

Trip to New York- 2011

Originally for a wedding, we went to the place I was born and raised; Long Island, NY. Even though the wedding was called off just a little less than a month before the date, we still went and we had an amazing time.

Sophia was EXCELLENT on the flight there. The flight on the way home was delayed because Air Force One came through to LGA, but we got bumped up to first class, which was unexpected and great. Evan had his share of alcohol and I had my share of Milano cookies.  Sophia was real tired and cranky for the first 30 minutes on the plane, but we eventually soothed her to sleep until she woke up when we landed. My friend Vicki was kind enough to let us stay with her for almost a week and we rented a Nissan Versa to get us around town. Biggest POS ever! But it served its purpose. LOL

We passed by my old house and I got teary eyed. My dad put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into that house and it made me sad that it's not there anymore.

          My house--2005.

My house--September 2011

The house is absolutely beautiful.

It meant a lot to me that Evan got to see and experience the place where I grew up. He's even said, "Everything makes sense now and I can understand why you and your family are the way they are!"
Evan got to meet a lot of my friends from high school and I was real happy to catch up with them and meet their babies! It was a nice feeling to see familiar faces again and talk about old times.






My friend Courtney had us over for lunch and I must say, she is quite the host. I wish I was more hungry! Everything was great! Evan loved the Italian cookies. I think he ate them all! LOL. My friend, Vanessa, also made me a whole batch of HOMEMADE rainbow cookies, which were fantastic!






I know I say it over and over again, but what makes New York great IS the FOOD.
Evan couldn't get enough of fresh Napoleons from the bakery, the crab ragoons and Sesame chicken at Hoi Ming, and Sicilian pizza.

We went out east in the Rocky Point/ Wading River/Port Jeff area to go apple and pumpkin picking and see the marinas. Definitely a lot of fun and right up Evan's alley. The North Shore of LI looks a lot like Georgia and Alabama. Lot of land, horses, old cars, farms, cute towns, tractors...we both love the North Shore. If we should ever move to LI...we would look into those places. :)

Evan HATED the city...he had an anxiety attack. Seriously. I felt so bad! Sophia was well behaved and content. Atlanta has NOTHING on NYC. It is a very overwhelming place if you have never been there before and you are driving there. My mother and I, on the other hand, were quite content. I wish we had more time to really get to experience and enjoy the city. We got a dirty dog, did some shopping and  bought Sophia her NY Yankee outfits. :)

 Overall, it was a great vacation and we all had a lot of fun. :) I miss New York and Evan said he would definitely visit again--just not the city. LOL.  Check out my album titled "New York-2011" for more pics.