I can hardly contain my excitement!! Hardly!! Fall is so close I can almost smell the fresh, crisp air. In my opinion, fall is one of the best times of the year. I have thought this since I was a little kid. There is nothing like a fall in the Midwest, Illinois to be exact. It is gorgeous there! The vibrant colors of reds and oranges and yellows. There's just something so welcoming about the cool, crisp air. I love being bundled up in sweatshirts and blankets just sitting around, or sitting around a fire roasting marshmellows. I know, you can roast marshmallows at any other time during the year, but this is just THE time for it. Another favorite thing is the apple orchards in fall. They have THE BEST apples. Honey crisp. Yum! Along with apples comes apple cider, apple cider doughnuts, sweet potato butter... Mmm. The list goes on and on. Fall just tastes good!

We have had a little bit of a cool front down here in Oklahoma, and I'm welcoming the thought of all things fall. I don't mind raking leaves. I need to pick out a great big pumpkin for Chase and I to carve. Football starts soon. It means busting out my boots, jeans, and sweaters. A good excuse to cuddle up next to my husband (it's hard to pretend you're cold in the blazing heat).

I just L-O-V-E fall. What's your favorite season, and why?

Lovely

Well, we were awoken (at 3:30 a.m.) to the world's WORST odor. I. KID. YOU. NOT. Tater got sprayed by a skunk, and it stunk up the inside of our house without Tater even coming in.... Ahhh! How many more days until we move into the lovely, clean smelling new house?

Our new goal is to finish packing the house, rid the house of the skunk odor, quit gagging from the odor, and spray lots of vinegar so we don't transfer this stench to the LOVELY new house!!!

In less than 24 hours we have:

- made 3 trips to Wal-Mart

- made 1 trip to Pet Smart

- bathed Max 2x

- bathed Tater 3x and sprayed him down with Nature's Miracle Skunk Smell Take Away stuff (it smells like alcohol and is quite welcoming compared to what he smells like now)

- eaten out 2x since our house stinks so bad

- sweated off a lot of weight

- opened all of the windows that we could in the 107+ degree heat (and add the heat index on top of that)

- bleached the bath tub and then cleaned it with comet

- poured baking soda on our carpet, and vaccumed, repeated with baking soda and iodized salt, and vaccumed

- lit a lot of matches

- inhaled a lot of fumes

- not slept very much

- sprayed my purse down with vinegar and water because I was in a store and noticed that I smelt like a skunk

- just about vomited on numerous occasions

Tater just finished his 3rd bath... Time for bed?!?!

P.S. I think my prayer at 6:30 (yes I went back to bed at 6:30 am) this morning consisted of "Dear God, why, why did you make skunks? They stink and are awful. They can't be very high up on the food chain. They stink. I just don't know why. Please make my house smell better." Pathetic, I know.

P.P.S. The bright side of all of this... CHASE WAS HOME FOR THIS DISASTER! I was/AM SO relieved about that. I'd be sleeping in my car and bawling more than likely.

Hope your weekend goes well and please don't judge me if you come over in the next 5 days and my house stinks, or if I have a lingering scent in public... it's just skunk!

One Week From Today

One week from today and we will be the PROUD new owners of 1001 Harvest Dr. (in Yukon). I just cannot wait. I have a bundle of emotions that are going with that new ownership. I'm excited because Chase and I are buying our first house, and we've worked hard to get everything in order for it. I'm relieved that I no longer have to live in the awful house we are abiding in now. Believe me, just about everything that could go wrong in one house has gone wrong. It's been an interesting year.

With this new house means a trip from my parentals, which is always welcomed and loved. They will come down labor day weekend to help with some projects. I know, it's a new house and I still manage to have projects for it. It will be ever changing, I am sure. I will make sure to take lots of before and after pictures! Do not worry.

I laid in bed last night thinking how I'm going to arrange the furniture and what-not. I. Am. A. Typical. Girl.

I better finish packing......

P.S. And on a totally separate note... anyone that listens to country music, do you know a song about "that's my kind of beautiful". I don't know the title or artist, obviously, but Chase wanted me to look it up and neither of us could find it.... Just thought I'd ask!