Blink. October is Over?!?

OK seriously, the last month has been a complete blur.  The only reason I'm sitting down to blog now is because my Mom has reminded me like 5 times in the last week that it's been over a month.  Sigh.  I know, I'm a slacker and if you* visit us I'll make up for it with baked goods galore!!

Now to re-live this crazy, tragic, sometimes almost magic, awful, beautiful month.... in a nutshell:
(Deep breath)

• We kicked off October in Northeast Iowa where my biggest fundraising event of the year takes place.  I put Kurt and my family to work as volunteers and my Grandma & Grandpa Westra even came to participate this year.  I was ecstatic to see months of hard work pay off with a record breaking Walk to End Alzheimer's!  (Donations are still being accepted, every little bit helps in the fight against Alzheimer's disease!)
• We traded in Kurt's old (and stinky) car and are now the proud owners of a way more useful Jeep Cherokee.  Although it's new to us it's nowhere close to being new but it meets our needs and fits our lifestyle so much better than the beat-up, manual, tiny car we had before!  It's great to actually be able to travel comfortably with our dogs and to actually have a reliable vehicle to pull our boat with.  :)
• We took Cedar Falls by storm and celebrated UNI Homecoming, alumni style.  It was a fun-filled weekend featuring some of our favorite people, lots of panther spirit, tailgating, bar hopping, huge burritos, patio drinking and live music.  As a result of all this craziness I managed to lose my good camera (this is the awful part of the month), which happened to be full of pictures outlining our attempt to be college kids again (this is the tragic part).  I'm going to change the subject really quickly now because I'm still upset about the whereabouts of said camera.  
• I baked, a lot.  We enjoyed some super delicious chocolate oreo cupcakes with homemade cookies & cream whipped cream topping, along with a batch of Snickers cupcakes topped with carmel buttercream frosting, and recently some plump peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.  I also whipped up some snickerdoodle cupcakes with sugar-sprinkled cinnamon vanilla buttercream and some ridiculously tasty "loaded grahams" for an Alpha Phi fundraiser.  Plus some wanna-be gourmet white chocolate dipped and drizzled pretzel rods for my Walk volunteers.  I gotta admit that I'm really loving this new hobby. So much in fact that we're scoping out gym memberships to counteract the possible side effects! Ha!
• We spent a couple weekends back home in WL where we watched my not-so-little brother play football, worked on Kurt's firebird, enjoyed time with our family, took a hay rack ride, played with our nieces and nephews, went out with friends and even rode in the combine with Grandpa Simon!
• Last but certainly not least:  Kurt got a new job!!  He started this past Monday at Wayne Engineering as a Welding Technician and he's loving it.  He's pumped to be out of concrete work and is excited to be adding this skilled trade to his resume.  He essentially gets to build trucks all day.... Kurt's dream, right?!  I think the best thing about his new job is the hours.  At his old job we never knew when he would be home and he often had mandatory Saturdays.... now he works 7am-3:30pm and has the choice to put in 3 hours of overtime a day.  We have both been on cloud nine all week because we are finally able to have a LIFE (this is the almost magic part of the month). This has truly been a game changer for us and we're extremely happy to be starting this new chapter in our life.  =D

So there you have it, you're all caught up!  Here's a few pictures (courtesy of our old, crappy back-up camera) to fuel your imagination.

My first combine ride!

Making progress on the Firebird.

My October baking adventures!
Not pictured: Oreo Cupcakes...because we ate them the day I lost my camera. :(

On that note, have fabulous HALLOWEEN weekend!  We, sadly, are not busting out any costumes this year.  (Gasp!)  We're attending a wedding on Saturday and they weren't too keen on the idea of guests in costumes... dang.  I guess we'll have to make-up for this monster disappointment by getting some sort of a theme party on the books, like pronto.  Stay tuned for details.  :)

For once, my jack-o-lantern is cooler then Kurt's! HA!

*You must fall into the BFF or Family category if you're actually considering an impromptu visit. :)  ....You never know who's reading this stuff, a little disclaimer is always helpful, right?