More Great Pumpkin-Carving

Check out the newest additions to our family's carved pumpkins! The last 2 are my favorites!

Spooky Grave Scene:
Cheshire Cat:

E.T.:

Michael Jackson Thriller:

Pumpkin Carving Help

At our house, we love Halloween! We take the kids to the pumpkin patch every year, let them pick out their pumpkins, and then it's serious pumpkin-carving time! Need free stencils? I located some good ones here at the parenting.com website.

Or take the pumpkin carving quiz at Better Homes and Gardens and get some ideas for carving or decorating your own jack-o-lantern.  The quiz can be found here.

Our pumpkins so far this year:

Minnie Mouse:

Three pumpkins - Batcat, Evil face, Minnie Mouse:

Grim Reaper:





What will you carve?

Oh Baby!

We are expecting! I had my 20ish week ultrasound last week and...it's a boy! We are loving the name Zachary for his first name and then want to honor both of our fathers that have passed somewhat recently so Zachary will have two middle names: Phillip-my dad's middle name, and Edward-Bill's dad's middle name. After finding out the sex of our new little one, we registered for baby gear and all the things our little guy will need at Babies R Us. Picking out baby stuff is so much fun! Everything is so little and cute! I even created a website for family and friends to read updates and see pictures of the baby both in utero and after birth. Though there are several options for creating a free website, I used the baby-themed version at http://thebump.com/ . If you would like to check out my personal site, you can visit: http://billandkatiebaby.ourbabychannel.com/ .

Weight Loss Success With Sparkpeople

So, I have a few pounds I'd like to lose. Well, more like 50 pounds I would like to lose. I know a lot of people in the same boat. Even if you just want to lose 10 pounds, this site can help you do it! http://sparkpeople.com/ is awesome! My family doctor actually recommended it. There are many different ways the site can help with your weight loss, and I have lost 10 pounds to date so I had to share. There's a calorie counter, suggested meal plans, fitness tracker/calories burned tracker, blogs and articles on fitness, health, nutrition and other things, as well as a whole support network community with message boards where there is the capability to make your own "sparkpage" and add sparkfriends.

I have really found the calorie counter on sparkpeople very helpful. I mean who knew there were so many calories in a bowl of ice cream, well I didn't until I started using the counter! You can set goals for yourself and share your progress with others, if you desire.

Best of all, membership to sparkpeople is FREE! I wouldn't share this info with you unless I really felt like this was a truly helpful website. By the way, feel free to add me as a sparkfriend if you join, username: Kalschmi . Have fun while you lose weight! You can do it!

Fashion Advice on Lookville

So you bought a killer pair of peep-toe wedges, like these from Dolce & Gabbana, and can't decide if you should wear them with your new skirt or wide-leg dress pants. Decisions, decisions. Well, now you can get advice from other fashion-savvy people at http://lookville.com/ . You can create a free profile, upload photos of your best looks or whatever you need some fashion advice on. Get honest feedback from people who are also into fashion. You can also visit the Lookville blog while you're on the site for sound advice and tips.