"One Little, Two Little, Three Little Indians"

(Okay, okay this post is long overdue... Story of my life ;)

So, I have never been a huge Halloween fan, but the last few years I have been slowly learning to become one. It all started when we were living with our dear friend AJ. We lived with him for two Halloweens and he was a movie guy so both of these holidays included movies. One year, we ordered  the movie Scream 5 from On Demand.... Yes, everything about that statement seems so wrong. Ordering a $5 movie on your TV and having said $5 movie be one of the Scream movies.... I am a tad bit ashamed to admit it, but hey! It made for a great memory.

The next year we watched the movie of all movies. Troll 2. We still laugh about this. It is absolutely the worst movie ever made, but the sheer "badness" of it makes it pretty entertaining. There isn't even a Troll 1. There is never a troll in the movie, only goblins. The graphics are terrible and the acting is the worst! It's all so bad! It's a great (non-family) halloween movie, however (if you wanna laugh). There was even a documentary made by the star of the movie called Best Worst Movie.. If you so desire, check out the amazingness of Troll 2 here.

We now live on Halloween street in our town. People go all out. Leave work early or even take the day off to decorate. This year I walked down the street and talked to some of the people who were out decorating, one lady said she bought 3500 pieces of candy and that the rest of the neighbors and her had been talking and said that would not be enough because of the nice weather! Wild!! Luckily, we live at the end of the street and this Halloween we only handed out candy to just over 60 kids...

Here's a pic from one of the houses that night.. It is dark, but gives you an idea of how many people were out.. PS this was taken around 8:45pm!

So like I said, I am slowly becoming a Halloween person. Having a daughter now is an even bigger incentive to get more into the spooky spirit (I even "decorated")

Avery Jane was just over 6 months for her first Halloween. She's not even sitting up without some assistance or her Bumbo (we have this one), so naturally she needed to wear a costume. It was really a no brainer what we chose to have her dress up as. She of course took after her momma and dressed up as little Indian baby.

She already had this pair of amazing moccasins that helped inspire the costume. For the rest of the costume, I decided to go simple and just make a tutu and a feather headband to go with the moccasins. Both items were super easy to make.

For the tutu, I just used some elastic that I measured around her waist (minus an inch or so) and sewed the ends together and then knotted the tulle around it. (I bought tulle by the yard – 1/8 of a yard in each color – because I knew I would not need as much as what comes on a roll. I cut it in strips and loop knotted to the elastic band.)

For the headband, I just used a brown baby headband and hot glued a strip of brown felt to it, hot glued the feathers onto that piece of felt and then glued another piece of felt over the top of the bottom of the feathers. Vioala! Avery Jane had a costume (that she wore for approximately 20 minutes). Our cute little indian girl :)

C+A is now C+A+Junior....

So, most of you know this, but there may be a few of you out there that don't know... Casey and I have moved.... and in doing so have inherited a roommate. You see I have a heaping pile of student loan debt that we have been trying to pay off.... But if we follow the "wonderful" plan of repayment that the lenders give us, we will be paying for at least 10 years!! Oh and not to mention paying thousands of dollars in interest!!  This just made Casey and I sick.... We really didn't want this hanging over our heads for the next 10+ years....

After much prayer and consideration, we decided we had to do something to try and pay this off sooner... This is where the "roommate" talk comes into play.... We started contemplating different options, and one day while discussing this with one of our good friends, we received an offer "Why don't you live with me?" At first, Casey and I didn't want to burden this friend of ours, but after a few more times of him offering we decided it was a great idea... You see... our super generous friend offered to let us live in his basement... for free! Thus allowing us to pay my student loans down in just over a year!! How could we not say yes?!

So... this is how C+A became C+A+Junior....

Normally after a year or so of marriage, most couples would introduce you to their new puppy or their new baby..... but for us.... well..... let me introduce you to the newest addition to our little family.... AJ Blain (we refer to him as Junior).

Most of you know AJ, but if you don't... you need to get to know him! He's a self-proclaimed rancher, a pilot, an oil man, loves cows, loves Diet Coke and LOVES making deals.

When you hang with Junior, you will most likely do something crazy like one of the following: fly someplace like Red Lodge for lunch or dinner while doing barrel rolls, rip around on an oversized four-wheeler wrangling cows into a trailer, go to some sort of auction, eat a buffalo chicken sandwich from the Brew Pub, take a boat out on the river or lake and likely break something, or watch a Chick Flick (mostly the one found on Lifetime or Encore Love).

He's just been so great to us and we are soooo incredibly grateful for this sacrifice he is making for us welcoming us into his home! He did not "require" any sort of payment from us, but we've decided to provide him with cable (including numerous movie channels) and a fridge full of food.... So, really it's a great deal all around and Junior is ALL about the deals!

You see... Junior and Casey are best buds (I think that's how guys refer to it... Ladies it's our equivalent to BFFs) so everyday is an adventure to say the least! Whether it's movie nights, Casey and AJ  punching each other for fun, lighting stuff on fire in the back yard (sorry Flidge), baking cookies, or just sitting around with Tensy and Jamie while AJ asks "What else?".... There's always something happening in the combined Blain/Ramage household....

Casey teaching Junior how to use his new iPhone.

I'm not sure how long we'll live with Junior, but we will make sure to enjoy it while it lasts!!  I will leave you with some recent Junior quotes.... (I will be throwing these in periodically in the blog.... which has now been referred to by Junior as the "house blog")....

• "Oh.... that just reminded me, I got in a wreck today..."--Junior
• "Did you get kicked by any cows today?"--Me "Yeah.... three."--Junior
• "You think it's weird when people touch your nipples?"-- Junior asks Casey.  Casey immediately makes fun of him.... Junior's rebuttal to Casey making fun of him... "Well... your new name is Nipple Boy!"

That is all for today.... 

Here it goes again...

So, I tried this whole blog thing back last January... Wrote a post... Never finished the layout... Because of this.... Or laziness (we won't spend too much time figuring this one out), but either way... it never got published. HOWEVER.... I was re-inspired this week to try again. So, here we go...

Well, I work at a church called Harvest as most of you know (haha "most of you" as if there is anyone reading this yet)... Anywho... one of our core values at Harvest is "Fun Required." So, today our staff spent the day at our GoKart track.... Having required fun. We began the day with some grilled grub, then geared up and hit the track. We formed teams of four, and spent the majority of the time running into each other doing whatever it took to win.... We are a competitive bunch.

Results of the day:
1) I may or may not have almost killed my boss, Vern.
2) My team took 2nd!
3) My husband seriously almost died by flipping his go cart. 

In the words of Casey: "Just another day at the office...."