7 Quick Takes- Why I Love This Month

This edition of Quick Takes will be dedicated to my love of this month. I don't just love it because it's October (though October IS in my top three favorite months), but also because it has been and continues to be a wonderful month in general!

--- 1 ---

Let's get the fall related stuff out of the way. I used to not appreciate fall. I was a spring and only spring kind of girl. Well, part of it was that where I used to live, there was hardly any color change, and I was in college, so I only viewed fall as a means to get to painfully colder weather, and an influx in football. Ew. Now that I see beautiful colors in the fall, and I'm not completely surrounded by college football, I can focus on pumpkins and warm drinks and cooler evenings and changing leaves. I've become a very big fan of fall.

--- 2 ---

Steven's birthday is this month. The all you can eat shrimp offer at Red Lobster lines up with his birthday every year, so this is the 7th annual shrimp birthday bonanza (it will be my 3rd). I sort of hate it and sort of love it all at the same time. But since I'm writing about it here, that must mean I love it more than I hate it. I don't do well in large crowds of the male type species, but his best friend who just got married will be bringing his wife (strength in numbers!) AND I just started liking shrimp this year. The last two years, I paid for overpriced chicken. I'm excited and nervous to join the competition this year. Oh, I didn't tell you it's a competition? It's sort of a "beat the group's previous record" versus "beat each other" so that's good. But kind of gross.

--- 3 ---

My group of friends from high school tends to see each other about once a year for special occasions. This year we have two weddings and two baby showers- YAY! This weekend, the last of us is getting married, so Steven and I are headed to my hometown for the wedding. I just love weddings, and I find that I'm much more emotional about them since our own wedding. I guess I sit there thinking about how amazing our day was, and I get so excited for the couple getting to experience that! I'm glad to be able to spend some time with my parents, too. We don't get to go much since Steven tends to work weekends. I just packed The Newlywed Game for Saturday night when my brother and his new wife come over!

--- 4 ---

We have really been learning how to be homeowner's this month. Sometimes, that's a bad thing. But sometimes it makes you feel really good! We looked into and bought the stuff to insulate our hot water heater. It's under the house, which is good if it ever explodes, but bad for losing lots of efficiency when heating water in the winter. So we bought stuff to insulate the hot water line and water heater. It feels good taking care of our home! Steven also edged our driveway so that our grass weeds are no longer growing onto the concrete, and it is a big improvement! AND we painted the porch, which hadn't been painted since the house was built 6 years ago, and wasn't painted well the first time around. It looks SO pretty now and we actually had fun doing it! Next up.... cleaning and staining the deck, and picking out a shed.

The left side of the porch, freshly painted! 

--- 5 ---

We had our six month wedding-iversary and had such a good time celebrating! Steven surprised me by taking me out to Tir Na Nog which is where we held our rehearsal dinner. Their food is SO good and the atmosphere is quite unique. I felt all sentimental celebrating six months in such a meaningful place!

Forcing a picture before dinner. We hardly take pictures together anymore!

--- 6 ---

I've never made a pecan pie but I'm a huuuge lover of it. I decided I wanted to make an extra special dessert for after dinner so I started looking around for ideas. I was trying to be frugal but make something new, so when I happened across shortcut chocolate pecan pie and only needed to buy two ingredients (pecans and chocolate chips) I got really excited. Until I got to the store and saw that the store brand of pecans was almost $7. So I got walnut bits (cheaper than pecan halves by far and a bit cheaper than walnut halves) and hoped for the best. I have to say.... it was DELISH! Pecan pie... I mean, chocolate walnut pie, definitely makes it feel like fall!

So it's not a photogenic pie.

--- 7 ---

You know what tops this month off? Steven always takes the week of his birthday off. Since he works varying hours, I always get excited when we have guaranteed evenings together. Well not only do we have 9 of those in a row coming up (starting tonight), BUT I also took Monday and Tuesday off, so we have 4 entire days of us time coming up! YAY! Have a great weekend! 

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