New Moon Mania

Matinee movie ticket... $7.00.
Popcorn & licorice... $0.00 (mooched off my friends).
Hearing the collective female intake of breath upon the shirtless state of a certain werewolf...
PRICELESS!

Loved the movie and was NOT disappointed! ;0)

I couldn't be more excited!

It's silly really, but I cannot wait to see New Moon with my best pal and her mom this Saturday! What a great way to reward myself after a really stressful and busy week at work!

What's even sillier is how many times I have now read the entire Twilight series. I think it's too embarrassing to admit! Then you will all know that I really don't have a life!

So, what are you looking forward to this week?

Artisan Bread

A couple of years ago Joel found a fantastic recipe for artisan bread in Mother Earth News magazine. I don't know about you but I'm a bread lover and it doesn't get much better than a piping hot loaf of crusty goodness! Fortunately, I have this great husband who loves to bake bread since I am baking impaired (well, to be truthful, I don't really apply myself to baking; too much mess to deal with).
I'm also not a good "how to" blogger so I'll give you a little visual tour of the process and then you can check out the specifics here!

The ingredients are pretty basic.

You let the dough rise in dutch ovens with plastic wrap on them for at least 8 hours, preferably 12 hours until it's all sticky and bubbly on top.

Dust with flour, cover with towel and let rise 1-2 hours. NO kneading required!

Cover and bake.

Mmmmm... go ahead, you know what to do next!

R U Ready to ROCK!!!!

We went to the Skillet concert for Joel's birthday and they were amazing. Skillet puts on such a good show! Inspiring, passionate music that freakin' ROCKS! The only downside was putting up with the obnoxious moshers on the floor. Perhaps I'm a bit too old for the mosh pit you say? Nah, it was totally worth it to get up close!

And thanks to our dear friend Becky, we had an awesome, kid-free date night!

Because we are super special (and paid lots of extra money) we earned the dubious title of "VIP" and as such were herded like cattle onto the floor to participate in the Q&A session. Interesting, but hardly worth the extra cash, not to mention the 45 minute loooong wait outside in the cold. I felt a bit like a NSVIP (not so very important person)! Joel and Zach actually got some face time with the band on Friday morning at a meet n' greet at the Red Letter Book and Cafe. Zach got a t-shirt signed by the band and Joel said they were quite impressed with Z's curly locks. I just asked Z what he liked most about meeting Skillet and after a thoughtful pause, his response was, "They gave me a high-five!".
This girl was an incredible drummer!
And this guy rocked the violin!
Who are these crazed Skillet fans???? Our friends, Rhonda & Rob! Rob is a maniac when it comes to getting the best seat in the house! They were right up front and center against the rail. You crazy kids! Thanks for all the great pictures guys!

Here's a little taste of what's cookin' in the Skillet!

Catching up on fall...

I'm a bit behind on my family updates! We've had a lot of fun!

Squash Harvest

Corn Maze (See our fearless leaders! I of course was hopelessly lost!)

Happy Halloween!

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye!

When we went costume shopping Noelle told me "I'm so tired of fairies and princesses! Can I have a transformers costume like Zach?". How could I say no? ;0) She was so proud of her tough girl costume!

Zach's preschool party! I was so glad to be able to get away from work for a few minutes to surprise Zach at his party. Here he is telling his beloved Miss Robin about his costume!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch (still fun even though he has dozens of pumpkins at home!).

Our fun trick or treating group in the Quinn's neighborhood. We had a great time!

And last, but certainly not least... we had an Elvis sighting! He was a bit shorter than expected.