Back at It . . .

Well, heeeeeeeellllllllllooooooooo there! Miss me? I missed you all!! The past six weeks have just been a pain-in-my-neck, and I totally mean that literally!

Apparently I pinched a nerve in my neck, between the C2 and C3 vertebrae. My neck muscles did not like it and started spasming like no one's business. I honest-to-God thought I was having contractions in my neck (thank goodness no baby came out because, even though I love them, I do not want another one of those!). When they started, I really thought I would go to the Doctor, get some meds, maybe a shot, and after a weekend of rest, I would be good to go. I won't give you all the gory details but after 12 physical therapy sessions, 11 prescriptions (some really good ones too!), six doctors appointments, three weeks laying on my left side on the couch, two ER visits, two deep tissue massages, one pregnancy test (no worries there) and countless (and I mean countless) ice packs later, I am back to about 90%! Neck is still a bit stiff but very manageable so no complaints here! So that's where I have been and I freaking missed my favorite month of the entire year.

We did manage to pull off a few holiday traditions but since I was looking at them sideways, I will just get you all a little caught up and then we will take it from there.

So here's to Halloween 2012 -

This is seriously how my house looked for most of October. Every time I would walk by this table, I would pick one thing off it and then stick it somewhere. My family also helped (a little) and would let me lay on the couch and tell them where to put the Halloween decoration (I do think I told my husband where to "put it" more than once this past month!). 

I think we managed to pull off some cute decorations. I love the eyeball salt and pepper shakers 

(from Cracker Barrel last year, I think) under glass.

Here's my ode to Edgar Allen Poe - spooky.

I did love how my mantel turned out. The electric candelabras have the flicker light bulbs.
I got those at Target in September. You have to buy holiday stuff when you see it or
it might not be there when you go back (right, mom?)!

These are the shelves in the guest bath. My oldest put the toilet paper in the hand and I just love it. The mercury glass jars were bought this year at Home Goods. I love their bright colors and the birds (being that Ravn is my maiden name, and yes, that is spelled correctly).

Entryway of our house. I like the witch vignette. One of these years, I am going to get a witch cape and shoes. The two set of spell books was a gift from my mom and dad for my birthday. Only I can be really happy to receive Halloween gifts in June!

At the end of the October, we always host my family for a Halloween get together and party. This year was not as fancy (we usually do a sit down dinner for the adults and everyone dresses up). Here are a few photos from that night -

I needed an easy and cheap costume so Rich and I were Forrest Gump and a box of chocolates. This costume did not cost us 1 penny! We were going to buy the Bubba Gump hat but decided to just print off the logo and I stapled it! My oldest is a football player and my youngest is Harry Styles from the boy band One Direction. We had ordered her a costume but it ended up going on back order and never arrived. She was such a good sport and she just grabbed stuff we had (note: the wig is from my husband's Richard Simmons costume from last year!).

See Richard Simmons right in the center? Halloween 2011

This is the whole gang. The camera was on a timer and it took us about 15 minutes to get it to work. If you are wondering about the man with Saran Wrap (yes, really wrapped and no air holes!), that is my uncle dressed like Bruce Jenner (hysterical!) and my aunt is Kris Jenner. My one sister is a Raven (yes, homage to our maiden name), her daughter is the prisoner in orange. My youngest sister and her husband were gender-reversed Publisher Clearinghouse winners. Their kids were a beautiful, tiny princess, a bat and a ninja. My parents were Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. I think EVERYONE outdid themselves. The costumes were great and we all had a blast even though my oldest niece and her dad couldn't make it, hopefully next year.

My first outing (other than medically related) in almost a month!
We went to out to dinner and then hit our local pumpkin patch.

We encouraged the girls to go BIG on their pumpkins because they were 50% off! They went home and carved them that night but I don't think we ever got a picture of the finished product!

That is a super quick recap of October. November has been a blur and I am trying desperately to get caught up on everything. The girls have all next week off and I couldn't be more excited for some down time. Then we are planning a four day trip to NYC for some holiday fun and a big concert but that is for another post!