Halloween 2012

What a night!

A few days before Halloween we helped some friends of ours move from one side of town to the other. While driving between the houses, I remember seeing a sign that said something about a Halloween Festival. I knew nothing else other than what the sign showed, which I had to read quickly as I was driving down the road at the time.

Fast forward a few days and Halloween is here! Kids are all dressed up as is my husband and myself. We were off to go trick or treating for a little bit and check out the festival to see what it was about.

We went to my Aunt Gwen's house first as we weren't sure how long we would be elsewhere and my cousin Stacie wanted to see the kids before she went out to a Halloween party. The kids of course went for the king sized candy that was in the candy bucket. HAHA

Off we went to the festival to check it out. It was FREE. I was surprised. There was horses, inflatable bounce houses, food, treats, and more. It was fabulous to see something like that where you could go as a family and have a good time. The kids had a blast and they even rode the horses. It was their FIRST time ever riding a horse.

We were there for a little bit and then decided to go trick or treating down Harrison Blvd. OMGOSH, let me tell you, it was CRAZY. If you've seen the movies/shows that have thousands of people, that's what it was like. I'm not kidding. There were lines down the sidewalk up to the doors of the houses. It was like rush hour traffic, stop and go, stop and go.

Once we went up the street a couple blocks we headed back down to the car. It was about 7:45pm when we had arrived and almost 9pm when we left due to how many people were there. The kids had a blast though, they enjoyed it. One house had 130 pumpkins, CARVED, on their front porch. I wish we had my phone or camera at the time, but due to the mass amount of people and not having a purse, I opted not to take either.

Our final stop was at our friend's house. The ones that we helped move a few days prior. They only had two trick or treaters... so the kids made out like bandits. They got so much candy from Rik and Gillian, they were so happy. Little do they know, there's a candy tax for us taking them out. HAHA

This year's Halloween was by far one of the best Halloween's ever! I think if they continue the festival we'll go year after year and we'll most likely go to Harrison Blvd. again as well.

Our little Vampire and Simba the Lion. 

This was Boo @ the Zoo! 

Halloween: First stop Aunt Gwen's. 

The whole family! 

Record Keeping...

I know how to balance a checkbook. I'm kind of clueless on the "easiest" and "best" way of keeping record of my finances when it comes to my business.

I have several items I have to purchase and there is no set time frame of reorders on those products like a restaurant may have.

I have several places that I get those items as I've shopped around to find the best price.

I accept several forms of payment; check, electronic and cash.



How do you keep track of the money you have coming in and the money you have going out?

Do you use a spreadsheet? A program? Maybe you keep a handwritten ledger?

What kind of work do you do? What categories do you have for where your money goes when going out?

Do you do an overview weekly? monthly?


If you have any tips or tricks on how you keep track that you would not mind sharing, I would be grateful and appreciate them all.

Didn't start school as planned!

For those that know and those that don't... I was supposed to start school on October 8th for the nail tech program.

I showed up at school all ready to go, walked in and was the only one there. I thought it was odd and wondered if I was late, though I was sure I was early.

FUNNY story... I wasn't late, I was in fact EARLY. Yup, I was early by approximately a month! HAHA

I didn't know that though. I had gone in on the 25th of September to fill out paperwork and that showed the start date of the 8th of October.

Little did I know and the person that was doing the admissions paperwork that they moved the class start date to November 5th. SURPRISE!

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise in more ways than one. It has allowed me time to get used to working and get familiar with how things are going to be when I start school. It has also made it possible for me to do Boo at the Zoo with my children and go Trick or Treating on Halloween with them too. SUPER WIN!

I'm so excited to be able to do both of those things this year. We've never done Boo at the Zoo as we've not been close enough to a zoo to participate before. We're in a new neighborhood this year for Trick or Treating so I'm anxious to see how it will go. I am pretty sure the kids will have a good time. They both know how to say, "Trick or Treat"!

Good things are happening and I couldn't be happier!

"Finger Painting with Water Colors"

Yes, that's what I'm calling polishing my nails water marble style!

So, I learned about this way of polishing your nails a few weeks ago. Watched some videos on how to do it as I was so intrigued.

I'm happy to say that I actually took the time to do it for myself last night! They're not perfect by any means but they are pretty cool!

I used a greyish/white color, with a shade of green and black! Turns out those colors together almost look like camo!

I did my right hand first as I'm right handed. I realized after doing my right hand that I left out an important step which helped me with doing my left hand! I forgot the tape, tape is necessary for easier clean up!

Here are just a few photos of my adventures of "finger painting with water colors"! haha!


Colors I used:

A photo of before:

My right hand:

My left hand:

Holy gas mileage!

So, the family and I recently took a trip back home to Oregon. We left Boise Friday in the early morning (around 2am) and went back to Bend for the weekend.

We stopped in Caldwell at the Flying J (exit 29) and filled up with gas. We didn't make any stops for gas again until Sunday evening.

Going the speed limit is fabulous for your gas mileage. I read a tip on saving money from Pinterest and was a bit skeptical on it. It appears as though it is pretty accurate though.

Considering I speed a little (approximately 5mph over the speed limit in town (some times) and a little more on the highway/freeway, and normally don't see 400 miles to a tank of gas. I'd say there is a lot of truth in going the speed limit does save you money!

I can't believe the kind of gas mileage my car got! I haven't seen over 411 miles to a tank that I can remember, EVER. Not even in someone else's car.

My husband calculated the mileage that we got for the trip. It was approximately 31 miles to the gallon! Crazy right?!

Before filling up on Sunday I was wanting to go around the block a few times to see just how many miles I could get to the tank before my low fuel light came on. However, we didn't have time to do so. So the last record I have before getting more gas is 446.9 miles.

Here is a photo that I recently posted to my personal Facebook page. A friend of mine asked what kind of a car I have, while another asked how many gallons my gas tank held. My car is a 2007 Kia Spectra and the manual states it is 14.5 gallons for the tank.

As you can see there is 400.5 miles on the tripometer and about a 1/4 of a tank left to go. 

The next photo is the last one I took right before pulling up to the gas station. Notice the numbers and the fact that the low mileage light is NOT on :)