October, Continued

October was filled with visitors! In fact, we had visitors for 14 out of the 31 days this month. Here are some pictures of the other visitors:

Aunt Katie and Uncle Boston came to visit early in the month, when the weather was a beautiful 80+ degrees. We were even able to set up the Illinois tailgating tent, bags, and play outside. It was great!

It was so nice, we even made a campfire in our fire pit, complete with yummy smores!

There may have been a challenge put out to Katie to see if she could eat 34 marshmallows. She only got to 23.

Weak.

The weather in October was really pretty awesome. We took Gizmo outside as often as we could, and she loved playing in the leaves, chasing her ball, picking up rocks, opening and closing the fence gate, and swinging.

Gizmo also had a legendary bad hair day - this is what happens when mommy forgets to take out her pigtail! (Sorry for the crooked picture - I really miss working on my Mac!)

Finally, Aunt Winnie and Aunt Sarah came to visit at the end of the month. We had a great time with them, shopping and exploring the Twin Cities, as Sarah had never been here before.

Do you recognize these women?

It's Tina and Snooki at the Minnesota Wild vs. Chicago Blackhawks game tonight!

October, In No Particular Order

I'll start by saying that this blog post took me FOREVER. Lately we have had some computer problems at Fifty Below Zero. Mitch's PC turned into a paperweight earlier in the month, and my beloved Mac is on life support. On top of that, I can't find the cord that connects my camera to my computer, so all of my great pictures from the month are stuck on my camera until further notice. So, this post was done on Mitch's second, super-small, fingers-don't-fit-on-the-keys computer with a flash drive of Mom's pictures from when she and Dad came to visit.



With that said, here is cute little Gizmo enjoying her first pumpkin carving, trip to the zoo, and outdoor fun with Grama and Pop -

I Will Blog More When....

.....I'm not working 35 hours in three days this week.  (Thank you, parent-teacher conferences!)

.....It's not a parade of guests through the house.  (But we sure are having fun!)

.....I have time to upload my pictures from my camera.  (See reason #1 - downtime during conferences = Tina catching up with computer work!)

.....I can remember all of the stuff we've been doing lately!  (Which is a lot - we are enjoying the beautiful weather we're having.)

Until then, check out the blog roll.  They can keep you entertained.  

Getting in Touch With Her Italian Roots

I spend a few hours each Sunday cooking for the week.  Usually I make four or five entrees and sides, dish them all up in Tupperware, and they are ready for the week.  There is nothing I hate more than coming home to cook on a weeknight when I would rather be playing with Gizmo.  

This past Sunday I spent extra time making chicken parmesean and spaghetti.  (Chicken parm from scratch, spaghetti sauce from a jar.  Hey, I didn't have that much time.)  Sunday we all had it for dinner, including Gizmo, who had never had spaghetti until then.  She really enjoyed it -