Halloween and Other Randoms

 Gary and I have been doing really well lately. Nothing big and special, but we're just well and happy.

 We were able to do a little bit of Halloween celebrating too. Some friends of ours invited us to their Halloween zombie bash, so Gary and I decided to be a part of it Friday night. We were dressed as survivors from the video game Left 4 Dead. Gary dressed as Francis while I dressed as Zoey. We didn't have all the apparel of course since we decided on our costumes the night before, but still. It worked well enough. Anyway, there were a lot of people there and we had a blast. We played some games, sat around and chatted, and I ate lots of sweets. I already made a decision earlier I get to eat what I want when I attend a party. I had a 10-mile run scheduled for the next day anyway, so I enjoyed myself.

There were so many beautiful and spooky decorations! I definitely could tell this family loves Halloween. I got to know a few people in our ward better too with all the socializing. It was definitely worth going to. So, here are some pictures of the night.

Pill bottle and first aid strapped to me (though you can't see it). I love how I'm posing all cool and stuff (our actual 1911 gun) and there's a sweet family message and picture in the background. 

Awesome husband with our actual shotgun

 Obviously we didn't bring our real guns- so we went with Nerf instead. I mean, who doesn't love Nerf??

Mmm, brains

Zombie!!

How can you NOT eat that stuff??

Dead fish screensaver on television

How cool is that?

We're cool like that

Now a bit less serious

The after party. Figures, right? Haha. That's Gary with Luke, the host. Smashing it up with Super Smash Brothers.

 We got back semi-late, stayed up by ourselves for a bit, then finally crashed. As for my run the next morning? I guess you can say eating chocolate the night before isn't exactly the best fuel, but you can read about my workout stuff in my health blog :) .

Saturday, after my run and grocery shopping, Gary and I got to work on our weekly deep cleaning. We missed a couple of weeks due to being out of town and such, but we were prepared for this day. It took 3 hours! We cleaned out all of our filing cabinets, went through all of our documents, and even went through all of our electronic cables and such. Let's just say we put our shredder to good use (minus the electronic equipment, of course). We were drained by the time we were done, but Gary wanted to take me out to dinner. So we walked over to our Olive Garden and had a nice filling dinner. It was nice not being able to cook. I was pretty wiped from the distant run earlier plus the shopping. Since we had fuel back in our systems after dinner, we strolled around our neighborhood shopping center a bit and made plans on how to decorate and reorganize our home now that we're getting rid of so much crap. Here's the result of that cleaning (and yes, a couple of the bags are just shredded paper!). 

 So, it's getting better and cleaner around here. Plus, our weather has been beautiful. So beautiful that Gary and I also took a stroll around Bridgeport. 

 Okay, that's it for now! Time to get ready for a nice day at church. Later, folks!

Keeping Warm and Quality Time

 Ah, the cooler weather, which I have a love/hate relationship with. While the skies are gorgeous and the rain is nice, the sunshine still wins. I'm always happy when the sun peaks through the clouds. I'd be happier without the clouds at all, but this is still nice. A part of me is looking forward to colder weathers ahead, but a part of me is dreading it. I've been prepared beauty and health wise, so I'm pretty sure I'll survive. We're both scheduled for our flu shots this month as well as our routine physicals. But besides that, it's nice being able to snuggle up with blankets and hot cider (and live with a lower electricity bill).

This is actually what we've been doing- keeping warm with hot cider and blankets. Since I pretty much got rid of my fall/winter wardrobe due to my smaller body size, I've been able to purchase sweaters and new clothes lately, which is definitely fun. I also purchased new workout clothes meant for the colder weather.

Meals around here have been more hearty and filling too. Gary and I made some really delicious butternut squash soup in the crock pot, and I also made some yummy potato soup. So, soups are a hit right now.

As for our schedules, they've been great. I'm not working nights anymore and I'm back to days (except Friday nights). Gary and I have made a schedule for ourselves in the evening, so we don't just sit at the computer or television after dinner and kind of zone out on entertainment and such. After dinner and catching up on a couple of shows together, we break off and do our own thing around 6. I spend an hour sewing/attempting to sew, and Gary will generally play a game or work on his game programming. Around 7, we play a card or board game together (or go out), then around 8 or 9, we sit outside on the patio and drink hot cider. In order to help with the colder weather, we purchased a tabletop patio heater from Target. It's SO WARM! We love it. It's our version of sitting around a fire pit (there is a flame, too). We spend the next hour or so just chatting.

Before putting it on an actual table

During our last camping trip, we realized the blessing of just spending quality time together without a screen in front of us. We always spent the evenings watching the stars and chatting away. Gary mentioned how nice it was and how we should do it more often, thus the reason we made this new schedule for ourselves. It's as if we're having a date night every night- no electronics. We still have our weekly nice dinner out somewhere, but this is amazing as well. It's also a nice way to get rid of the stresses of the day since we both work all day and come home around the same time. I encourage you married people to just take a night/evening without electronics- family and kids included- and just sit around and talk. Such a blessing.

Anyway, that's the update for now. Nothing big or special, but an update indeed. Now time to get back to those blankets. If I can get them back...

Busy! Projects! Sewing!

 So, what have the Pollocks been up to?

 Besides work, which is going just fine, we've been pretty busy!

 I've had the past couple of Friday nights off, so we spent last weekend camping. The weather was perfect for camping and just right at night- no freezing this time.

This weekend was nice of course as well- because of General Conference! It was so nice being able to listen to the prophet and receive council from the many speakers.

We've also been involved in projects around the home, which has definitely been keeping us busy- with awesome results! As you know, we've been in this place for a few years- and over time, things start to build up. Sure, I tidy up and do my best to clean, but stuff happens. Gary has his full-time job and I have my part-time, a little under full-time job. Gary has been a tremendous help when it comes to chores and keeping the place clean. He vacuums and mops the floors daily, cleans and scrubs the bathroom most days, and does a lot of the smaller deep-cleaning areas around here (he's scrubbing the tub right now- I told him to stop and take a break!). I can't tell you how awesome it is to have help like that. I do the main laundry, dishes, keeping the place tidy, dusting, etc.  And Gary, being a perfectionist, does a really good job and spends way more time on cleaning things than I ever do; unless I actually plan to devote that much time (which I don't).

So, what projects have we been doing? Well, Gary suggested every Saturday we deep clean an area of the apartment. Two Saturdays ago we cleaned out our walk-in closet. I mean, we really deep cleaned and reorganized the whole thing, clothes included. This included 4 black lawn bags and 3 normal trash bags to Goodwill- not to mention the many things we threw away. It's like another world in there. Yesterday, for another project, we focused on the deck and storage closet outside. We cleaned out our entire storage and reorganized (another Goodwill trip there), and deep cleaned the patio. Now there's so much space out there! Gary even swept and mopped the patio floor. We dusted down everything out there, cleaned and shined up the grill, and trashed items as well. Next week? We're cleaning out the front inside hallway closet and reorganizing and going through all of our documents. This includes our filing cabinets and other documents we have sitting around. We're going to get ourselves a new filing cabinet since this one is old and the handles have broken off. Another Saturday will include the bookshelf in the bedroom, the bookshelf in the living room- you get my drift. Not only is our place looking so much better, it's enjoyable to be doing such teamwork together. It's really bonding and nice. Plus, when we do decide to move out, it will be way less stressful.

Speaking of projects, we're also starting up something new together- sewing. This might be rather sad, but Gary knows way more about sewing than I do (probably because his mom does a lot of it). My knowledge? I can kind of sew a button- at least it stays on, right? I really didn't know what I was getting into, but I agreed it would be a smart decision. It really is a valuable thing to learn- something that can save us lots of money. So, yesterday, we purchased our first sewing machine and materials. We took the little desk we had sitting out on the patio and put it in an empty corner of our bedroom- that's our sewing area. Gary doesn't just want me to learn, but he wants to learn it all as well (probably more so than me- but I just need to convince myself I'm capable of learning something so foreign to me).

Husqvarna E20 Viking. We got a good deal which comes with a 10 year warranty. So if anything malfunctions for any reason, we get it fixed at no cost. Not from the manufacturer, either, but from the store we bought it from (a little sewing place here in Valencia). There were too many good reviews from those around town and online, so we went for it.

And here is our sewing corner in the bedroom.

Mr. Handsome working away

 Anyway, we'll see how it goes! Hopefully my skills will improve with time and practice.

But, that's about it for now! Enjoy the next week!