Why I Love the 'Burbs

I grew up in the suburbs of Michigan in a small town.  You know, the kind where you run into someone you know everywhere you go.  My parents were raised in the same town so no matter where we went, someone would recognize us as offspring of our parents or even our grandparents! 

I moved to NYC back in 2000 ready to take on the big city and tired of small town living.  I had a couple of roommates and loved city living.  That was when I was single and twenty-something.

Now that I'm married, with a child, and thirty-something, I am so happy to be back in the suburbs!  The other night we just went for a walk in our neighborhood with Marsh and didn't have to worry about where we could walk or if we were going to get run over by a speeding car blasting the latest hip hop out of their window.









Of course we had to carry the car back because Marsh wanted to be carried himself!

I can't wait for our first snowfall :)

~AKO

Favorite Time of the Year

I've always loved fall to the point where I kinda wish it was fall all year long!

The colors are amazing...


The food is awesome...


The decor is beautiful...


And the air is crisp and cool...


What's your favorite season?

~AKO

Back in Business and Some Family Fun

So you may have noticed we've been missing over the past few months.  Well, we finally closed and moved into a house last month.  There is still a lot to unpack and prepare before winter arrives, but the important thing is I now have my own washer and dryer!!  Granted we definitely need to upgrade them but not having to rely on the laundromat is awesome.

Anyway... more to come on the house once we get everything in order.

There have been so many great photos and adventures for the Marsh over the summer that I still want to share with everyone.  So, I'm going to do a Flashback Friday for the next few weeks with a different Summer 2012 adventure.

But... to get us started in the present... now that we are in the suburbs, I wanted to start taking advantage of some fun family activities for the fall season.  So, today we went apple picking!

I didn't really know what to expect from Marsh since he has the attention span of a flea, but he did pretty good and was engaged for a lot of it.  He even picked out his pumpkin at the end.  Here are a few photos from the day...

~AKO

Longing...

Well, maybe longing isn't the right word but I'm really REALLY ready for some nice fall weather. I thought we were finally done with the heat and humidity last weekend and then it got back in the 90's this past week. NOT COOL! I've been fighting the urge to turn the AC back on in order to keep our electric bill down but last night was hard. Even with the ceiling fans I was sweating!

So...I've been looking at some of my nice, pretty fall photos and reminders...









Go away Summer and let Autumn have her share!!!

~AKO

Hello to October!!!

October has always been one of my favorite months, if not THE favorite month. The air has officially turned into that rainy day, fresh air smell. The leaves are turning all sorts of pretty shades of red, orange, and yellow. MLB post season makes for some exciting television. Halloween decorations... nuff said there. And now, one more thing, our anniversary is in October. Yep... on October 25th we will have been married for one year. 21 days and we are no longer considered newlyweds.

So how can one not love the month of October? I put up my Halloween decor today and found that I have accumulated so much stuff that I couldn't put it all out! So I had to make the difficult decision to pick and choose what went out this year and what had to stay packed away.

Of course I had a little helper...





I'll be posting some pictures of my decor in a few weeks but here is one of the first ones. I was playing around a bit with the light and my new camera. I am very slowly moving to some of the manual functionality.





Happy October!!

~AKO

Fall Is In The Air...

While I sit here and procrastinate on my packing for a business trip that I'm leaving for tomorrow, I can't help but think how nice it is that we can sit here with all the windows open in the house. I love the smell of a nice breeze and not have to worry about melting from the humidity. In addition, the putties are all beside themselves with excitement in response to the open windows.

Have I mentioned how much I love Autumn? I think it is the best of all the seasons.

1. The Pumpkin candles are available again! I looooove the smell of Pumpkin candles!





2. The fall colors are amazing! I can't wait to get out there when things start changing with my new Nikon.





3. Best of all it contains the greatest holiday ever!


Halloween!!!




I love Halloween so much that one of my bridal showers was Halloween themed. My favorite animal... besides my putties... Spiders! I think they are very cool and interesting. I keep some of my more intricate Spider decor out all year. Just about everyone does their Christmas shopping for me around this time of year due to all the rockin' spider stuff that is out!

~AKO