Recap of Variety Halloween Party

I have been busy this week so it has taken forever to get this post ready!!! 

 

This year I again got to be a part of the Covestro / Variety Charity Halloween Party! It is such a blessing to participate and spend time with the amazing kids and families that attend!!!  It was such a great time! I can not say enough about what this charity does for special needs children and their families! They provide bikes to children that otherwise would not be able to ride one and voices to those that otherwise would not have one! This party is their opportunity to trick or treat with other kids and not have to feel challenged or judged!!!

 

Click below to see previous years excitement...

2013
2014
2015
2016
2018

 

 

As you know, I enter the pumpkin contest every year. Last year I cecorated a pumpkin to look like a sweet little unicorn and I won first place!! YEAH!!!

 

So, this year I just went for what won last year...bling, color and sequins. Sadly, it did not work as well this year and I did not even place but it was SO fun!! Here is my pumpkin after I painted it red!

 

Then I drew on my cat face...

 

 

 

Added sealing lacquer paint and lots of glitter!! 

And finally sequin horns and a black furry boa...say hi to my cat devil pumpkin! HA HA!

 

 

The day of the party, the cafeteria looked amazing! I usually help decorate but with my travel for work I was unable to assist with any setup so it was all a wonderful surprise to me last Saturday!!! The theme was Disney this year! 

 

 

Soooo cool!!!!! 

Here are the adorable centerpieces. Covestro makes polyurethane so they produce little beads of many different colors that can be blended together. They used the beads inside the centerpieces along with lights to make Minnie Mouse heads!!! So cute and creative!

And Mickey Mouse - se, no bow!?!?! So super cute!

I just thought these were so cute and creative! 

This is the STEM location when they do little fun experiments with the kiddos! An Covestro employee built this entire wall, the toybox and blocks, etc. and painted it all. He is amazing! Shout out to Steven!!

Above is the right side of the wall and pictured below is the left. Is this not amazing??! Like a real life castle for the kiddos!!!!  Se that clock on the far far left? Well, Steven actually painted an Easter Egg into the display (Easter Egg meaning secret that you have to figure out). He made Big Ben (the clock from London) on the far left of the display with Peter Pan and he set the clock to 7. Get it?!?! Big Ben here in Pittsburgh is Ben Roethlisberger #7 on the Steelers!! Cute, hugh???

 

 

Here is table one of the pumpkins...see my devil face there?!?! HA!

And table two of the pumpkin competition. Every one of the Disney movie paintings was done by an art student at University of Pittsburgh. Every year; an art teacher assigns his class to make artwork for the party. So cool, right?!?!

Here is another of the artwork created...

 

And another….

 

These last three pictures are all from the picture room where the families get to get their pictures together... 

The art students do such a great job!!!!!!

 

 

I did not get nearly the pictures  usually do since I was busy making balloon animals and hats the entire time for both parties!! Here are our pre-filled ones we were prepping before the party! We were definitely the busiest table there!! Such fun! The kids loved the hats and animals!!! My favorite was Felicity who loved my cat I made for her even though it was a dog...she had it meowing the entire party!!! These children and their families truly are amazing!!!

Lastly, remember that dog that I made that was a cat....well, in between the two sessions we googled how to make a cat and learned how to make these! So, the second session when they wanted a cat ...they actually got a cat! HA HA!

Great to have a profession to fall back on when my job ends! HA HA!

 

Have a fantastic day everyone! HUGS!

 

What is your hidden skill?? Tie cherry stem with tongue? Balloon animals? Burp on command? Etc? Come on...you know you have one!

 

 

Mid-Week Updates

UUUGGGGHHHHH!!

I am so sorry to be starting this post off on a negative note especially since I am planning on linking up for Rebecca Jo's Thankful Thursday!!!.....but I am SOOOOOO frustrated!!! 

Some spamming idiot named Mark just left about 400 spam comments on my blog overnight!!! 

I tried to delete all of his annoying comments and ended up deleting all of your amazing comments! 

So, my sincere apologies that I did not even get a chance to respond to your comments from yesterday before they were deleted. UGH!!

Spammers and scammers - I hate them all! Why do so many idiots "get off" in life by annoying others and ripping off the hard working people in this world...

If there is any justice or karma...there better be a special place in HELL for these people!!! Mark...go to Hell!!! :-) 

Okay - rant over! 

I am thankful that this has been my dinner every night. Ruth's Chris is in my hotel and it is just TOOO convenient not to go there to eat dinner every night! HA! This is the grilled salmon!!! YUM!!! Not very healthy with all that melted butter but somewhat in the right direction with the choice of fish right!?!? HA!

I am thankful for this nightly ritual when I am out of town...I love face masks and eye pads but I can't wear them at home as the cats try to eat them off my face...seriously! As soon as they see one on my face they attack me to try to get it off...I think they think the are protecting me...anyway...I use these very night when I am staying in hotels!

And lastly, I am thankful that I have been soooo good this week with my exercise! I am going to the pool and swimming leisurely laps every night after dinner - sometimes even making time for a quick dip in the hot tub. My apple watch says I am burning between 750 - 1000 calories during my one hour of laps so that is pretty awesome! Especially since I snuck one night and got a lava cake to go from Ruth's Chris!!! YUM!!! 1000 or more calories though :-(

Here is how I hang my suit to dry each night - LOL! It is working well! HA HA!

Last night sitting in my hotel room I was craving bubble tea so I googled "bubble tea near me" and found an awesome little place called Bubble in Paradise. I drove there in the midst of a massive storm last night and found it is in the middle of the cutest little shopping town called Denville, NJ. 

Since it was storming and this is an outside shopping plaza I just got my bubble tea and left. Hopefully if the weather clears up tonight, I will be skipping swimming and hanging out there tonight for a little browsing fun at the cute little stores.

And lastly, here is my desk today at work!  Stuck in a closet today - UGH!! I should have stayed and worked from the hotel.

HA HA!

Have a great day everyone!

Thanks for all your great comments that I have deleted. Please leave more - I promise to better in protecting them in the future!!

Hugs to you all for visiting and reading...except Mark!

Anyone else have spamming experiences? Do they annoy you as much as they annoy me? UGH! Have you ever tried bubble tea? Do you like it? What are you thankful for?

Miscellaneous Monday

Hi guys! I am checking in from my home away from home for the next couple of weeks...Whippany, NJ!

I am traveling for work for the next couple of weeks and I will be hanging in Whippany, NJ. And, before you ask, it is not near a beach and it is not warm either...Boo....Hoo!!!

Enjoy this miscellaneous post of a bunch of miscellaneous pictures from my cell phone.

I found this little gem of a treat when I was in West Virginia last weekend! It is amazing! It is so good I am now going online to order some to give to everyone on my Christmas list! I swear this little jar was gone in 1 day!

I am going to try to re-create this adorable face on a pumpkin to enter in the pumpkin contest next weekend. I will show you a picture when I am done decorating next Friday night.

I decided I need to clean out all my water bottles so I bought a bottle brush last weekend and got to scrubbing....do you think I have a collecting issue??? I never thought about it until now - WOW...I have A LOT of coffee and water bottles!!

I also found this little gem last weekend in West Virginia. It was at a flea market for $5. We needed a mic stand for my meeting and this worked out perfectly even though it is supposed to be for a video game RockBand...HA HA! I scribbled the face for anonymity purposes.

My cousins daughter posted this picture. She is visiting this beautiful place - Interlaken, Switzerland. It turns out that this is where my Mother's side of the family is from. It looks so beautiful there!!! I now know why I love water!!

Like is mentioned above, I am working in Whippany, NJ for the next few weeks. These New Jersey drivers are crazy. I thought we were bad in Pittsburgh but we are great drivers compared to here. On my last trip; I almost got hit four times during a half hour drive from Newark airport to Whippany, NJ. So, this trip I chose this car hoping people will think I am a cop - LOL! It seemed to work a little I think...LOL!

Last, but not least, I pulled over to get this photo as I was leaving the hotel this morning.  Don't the dark mums look great with the yellow?!??!? I just thought this looked soooo pretty!!! They have these colors all over the town and it looks amazing!

That's it for me today. I am off to read your blogs!!! 

I hope you all have a great week!!! 

HUGS to you all!

Blessed!!

Had to pop in and let the world know how blessed I am!!!

My birthday is this weekend (Sunday to be exact) and since I took a vacation day on Friday, my co-workers surprised me with a decorated cubicle today! How cute is this!?!?! LOVE IT!!

I was sooo excited when I walked into the office today - they made my whole week!!!

 And this is my awesome cake!! I may, or may not have, had a ginormous piece of this fudgy goodness for breakfast along with my spinach and beet shake!! LOL!!

 They even left me some amazingly awesome gifts!!!! Jenna got me the Buxom collection - she knows it my favorite lip glass on the planet! 

The Popcorn is from Sheila whom I have known and worked with forever (she worked with my father years ago too)!!! It is chocolate covered popcorn!!!!!!! YUM!!!!!!!!

And on a final adorable note:  My baby bluebirds at work are ready to fledge which means they will leaving the nest within the next few days!! :-(   

WOW!  Off to a good start - successfully fledged 5 baby birdies this year so far!! When they leave, I will go clean out the old nest and hopefully mom and dad will be ready to make 5 more!!!!!!!! I LOVE nature!!!

Thank you to all the vets that gave ALL for our freedom and country!!!

I hope yinz have an amazing holiday weekend!!! 

GROW UP

Not even sure what to say today so I decided to participate in The Hump Day Blog Hop!

Yesterday sucked!!!

From work to personal to food to diet, etc.

I know - and yes - it was as bad as I made it sound.

Was sent an email accidentally (negativity about myself) which only made it all the better. Seriously, I did not even know that there are adults that behave like that!!!!!

I did great drinking my shake for breakfast but food went down hill from there ALL DAY~snuck a donut at work and then had pizza with co-workers for lunch and then had a hotdog and fries for dinner...BAD BAD BAD!

Plus, NO WORKOUT! I went out near Clarion to a viewing for a friend of mines son that passed away.  The whole drive home I thought about how I don't have kids and everyone else does...weird I know...but I was in this whole pity party funk for hours!!!!!!

So, never again!! Eating ON PLAN!!! From here on out and feeling better about myself already!!!! No matter what those peons at work think or say about me - I ROCK!!!!!!

Happy Almost Friday

I have got to share a really fun video that I got to do at work with you!

It is an informaitonal video on network usage and it was soooo much fun to do. I am the girl in the video - hee hee!

Did I mention I love my job!!!!

CLICK HERE!!!

Also, here is a cute pic of the babies that are currently renting space in a hanging plant on my patio...I think they are sparrows....sooo stinking cute!!!

It's almost Friday - yippee!!!!!!!!!

Baby Birds Soon!!!!!!!!

I am a member of the wildlife Sustainability Team where I work.
Basically what that means is every year we get two blue bird boxes assigned to us to monitor for new nests, eggs and babies.
We record all the information in a database and it is such a great way to get a little escape and relaxation at work.
This year I have the same boxes that I had last year.
If you read the older posts, you will see that we had eggs and baby chicks last year but they never fledged.....something ate them :-(
Such is nature....however, hopefully, this year that has been remedied! We added a nail to the latch system so if it was a racoon that got in, he will not be able to get in this year!! YEAH!!!!
So , here is a little photo journal of what I found last time I checked my boxes....Tuesday of this week!
This is the nature walk at work...about 1/4 miles down this path is where my blue bird boxes are. They have cute signs all the way to let you know where you are, milage, etc. The whole way around is a little over a mile.


This is just a view up ahead as I was walking.....it is soooo pretty down here...never know you were at work!!!
They also put in these signs along the way with exercises, etc. to do while you walk.....sooooo awesome.....this company really supports employee fitness and wellness!! Love it!

Here is what I saw in my box.....it is hard to get the camera in the box without disturbing the eggs so this is as good as the picture gets....

This is a blue bird nest!!! perfectly made....neatly...using only straw...nothing else....beautiful, isn't it?!?!?!

This is the box that had the eggs...the other one had a wasp nest that I proceeded to clean out.

And this is just another view of me walking to other direction on the path......

love it here....love my job.......love my company!!!!!!!!!!!