Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella!

Do you know that is actually the title of a Christmas song? Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella. Tara and I were at Target yesterday to buy the Toy Story 3 DVD and we were looking at a Christmas CD in the $1 spot and this was one of the first songs on the list. We laughed pretty hard. I mean, that's a rather ridiculous title for a Christmas song. But later I looked it up online and it's for real! And legit people have recorded it too like Downhere and Sufjan Stevens. I haven't listened to it yet but just wanted to share that with you.

We spent Halloween playing the Zombie game. Steven and I took Tara to Sushiland and then spent a couple of hours playing at Starbucks. It seemed like an appropriate Halloween game and Tara seemed to really like it. We also took the game with us to the Piehlers where we ate nachos, drank tea and watched the Sounders lose. We got to see some cute little trick-or-treaters though. The boys were all trying to play tricks on them, like holding out an empty bowl and asking the kids for candy when they came to the door. I thought it was a little funny but also not very nice but when you think about it, the kids are asking for it. When you say "trick-or-treat" you really should be prepared to receive either of the two.

Oh yeah! And we got our wedding gift from the Piehlers. Mrs. Piehler made us a big beautiful quilt with a bunch of our old T-shirts and sweatshirts. I had helped her with the quilt earlier in the summer before the wedding and it was so exciting to see the finished product! I'll have to post a picture of it soon. We really love it. She made us some super cute place mats too. I think I want to start quilting. First I need a sewing machine...

Have I mentioned that I'm a bit addicted to grocery shopping? Really, I think I might have a problem. I get SO excited about looking through the adds each week. I make a little list of what I want to buy at each of the stores (Safeway, QFC, Rite Aid, Walgreens and the Grocery Outlet) and mark which things I have coupons for. I love clipping coupons. Then I'll just go out and go to each one of the places (they're all with in a mile of each other -- ah, the simple pleasures of small town life) and buy all of my groceries and come home feeling so productive. I have gotten some GREAT deals! When How to Train Your Dragon came out, Safeway had this deal where if you bought the DVD, two boxes of Kraft macaroni and cheese, a box of Orville pop-corn and a 4-pack of Izzy drinks, the whole lot of it only cost $17!! Well we already knew we were definitely going to buy the DVD so it worked out perfectly because we basically got all of that other stuff with it for free. And then all of the sudden all of the big stores had Progresso soups on sale for $1 each and I think I purchased about 30 cans... it's just a little crazy.

I think this (above) particular shopping trip might have been my most fulfilling. QFC had all of these cereals 4 for $10 BUT if you bought 4 then they were magically only a dollar each! So we bought 8. Before all the discounts were calculated in our total was $40 but we only paid $8 because they were only a dollar each! How cool. Am I the only one who gets excited about this stuff? Wait. It gets better. When I got home I realized that the two boxes of Lucky Charms we bought were "specially marked boxes" and if you have two of them that equals a free movie ticket! I wish I'd known. I would have bought two more boxes so we could have TWO free movie tickets. I'm still searching for more boxes marked like that but I haven't seen any. Two boxes of Lucky Charms (normally priced $6.50 each) and a movie ticket all for just $2. What a steal. I know. I'm a total nerd. Anyhow, the closet under our stairs is so full of cereal and soup that I can't seem to find anything else in there.

(Papa and Grammi's lace-leaf maple in it's pretty fall colors)

The weather has continued to be gorgeous and the leaves are still clinging to the branches for dear life. My camera didn't pick it up very well but the leaves in the photo below were actually really orange and looked stunning against the blue sky. I love blue and orange together.