Raw: The Muppets invade a Halloween edition of Raw - Next

Just in case you didn't have any plans tonight for Halloween you may want to watch some RAW!!!

Muppet Monday~Happy Halloween

Have a fun and safe Halloween!!!!

24 Days until The Muppet Movie comes to Theatres

89 days to go!

In about 89 days from now I will be experiencing something like this....

One of my Attorney's just gave me some advice to pass along to my husband too. He said: 1)Have him wear comfortable shoes, 2) The scene after birth looks like a cow was slaughtered.
I told him that Lars likes to eat his steaks medium rare and his most comfy shoes are flip flops so we should be set. :)

Muppet Monday~Halloween Costumes

Just in case you wanted to dress up like a Muppet for Halloween here are some creative ways to do it. You can also check out this awesome website that post pictures from their Muppet Costume Parade

This one is super creative, she called it a Muppet Hunter. :)

Friday...is a good day!

SO as per my previous post it has been a tough week. Last night was another sleepless night. My drive into work just made my more cranky. I swear my car must be invisible because so many people try to hit me all the time. Anyway, I was letting myself feel angry about stuff that was out of my hands which made me more angry that I was choosing to feel this way. But then something awesome happened. My phone had a voicemail pop up. I wasn't going to listen to it for fear that it might be dreaded information regarding work. But I listened to it anyway and to my gladness it was my best friend, Amy D. In the message she told me she loved me and shared a cool memory from high school. I cried I was so happy to hear from her. I immediately called her back and we talked all the way until I got to work. It made me so grateful. Her timing couldn't have been better. I told her that her call made my week and day. She asked me what else I was grateful for and I told her:

1) Two of our other best friends called us last night and shared outstanding news coming up their lives. I cried then too.

2) My brother's wife has been on bed rest for a few weeks now and in an out of the hospital with high blood pressure. I have been praying and thinking about them a lot especially this week. Last night they took her in for an emergency C-section. This morning I woke up to wonderful news that my sister in law and their new baby girl are doing great. I hope and pray they will have a fast recovery so they can all be home as a family together soon. I am an Auntie again to a cute little girl and this made me so happy.

3) For good friends and God's tender mercies and sending these good friends my way when I need them the most.

4) For Lars, he has been a trooper this week. Work and other ongoing things in our lives have been stressful for him as well but he always manages to goof off and make me laugh and smile. I love him so much.

Life is going to be okay. Today will be a good day. I am still going to press forward and make some needed changes in my life. One of them being eliminating things and people that make me mad or give me unnecessary stress. I really just want to surround myself with the people who matter most so I am going to be doing some emotional, physical, and mental house cleaning.

After my awesome phone call this morning these two songs played on the radio. I really liked them and wanted to share them. Guess they contributed to my new sense of "Let's make this great day happen!"

Have a nice Friday ya'll!

"That" kind of a week.

Just a forewarning that I am going to do some soap box complaining here. I don't like to complain...much, but after this week I deserve a cry and a pizza party so here ya go.

"I can't complain, but sometimes I still do." ~Joe Walsh

Every week I send a reminder email out to all my managers to collect their weekly reports, part of my fun admin duties, awesome right ;) I always include a quote in that email to be fun and spread joy. I usually try to stick with humorous or motivational quotes, but this week I went with the above quote because as far as work is concerned it has been "that" kind of week and just fit with how I am feeling.

We came back from our vacation a little less than two weeks ago. You know how that goes...you feel rested and refreshed and ready to take on the work world again. The first week was amazing, must have still been honeymooning or something. Certain peopled expressed their appreciation for me and how much they missed me, "glad to have you back" or "I am not sure how we will survive when you are gone on your maternity leave." Oh the joy and I just didn't have a worry in the world, things were good and when crappy things happened I just shrugged it off and got through it. Until about Thursday. Thursday have been the suck suckiest days of the year. Not all Thursday but on just about every Thursday of the year something happens. Whether it is sickness or the crap at work hitting the fan. When work wasn't so busy I would try to work at home these days just to breath and remain sane.

Anyway, Thursday came around and a bunch of annoying things happened and they just rubbed me the wrong way. Friday was a little better, but not much. I tried to relish in the simple things to get past it and not let any of it ruin my weekend. Monday arrived and the crap just continued to slide down hill. I will be honest. A lot of my current work grief comes from one source. A certain person who will remain nameless, we will call this person DH (you can guess what it stands for). DH could be nice, but is not. DH has a double standard and often lies or tells me one thing and another manager another thing. DH will be nice to my face and then steal credit or backbit later on. It would be simple if DH would just be honest and tell us all the same thing. But instead DH doesn't follow procedure, is never ever ever around to help when the going gets tough, and for the most part will be the death of me. Maybe its not that bad, but I don't like being played or lied to or to have to do more unnecessary work or DH's work (I don't get paid the big bucks like DH does) because DH is just....well I really don't have nice words anymore. I like people but have low to zero tolerance for people who lie to me and are just big fat DH's. I know every office has a DH, but man DH is the worst I have yet to find.

At first I thought I was just making big deals out of nothing and putting too much pressure on myself to do everything because honestly I am anxious to start my maternity leave and would love to never return. All I can do is my best and die knowing that I rocked it and have some integrity. I try to keep that in mind and have a good attitude. Don't get me wrong. I do love my job and love the career I have started, but I think I am wanting to slowly close the book on this chapter in my life and feel like I should be moving forward to a new chapter for a few years and then reconsider when and if I want to reboot my career. Is this just my womanly mother instincts talking or something that I can really make happen? Can I let go of this chapter or will I get bored? I think I would rock as a homemaker. Either way if I am ever able to no longer work then I would like to leave on good terms, which I will. But some days I think to myself, if DH is still in the picture then I will be strongly negotiating other options.

Believe me I am making the best of all this and just working through it. Like I said I don't like to complain much. I love to make the world's gosh darn best lemonade from the lemons life throws at me and I always drink that lemonade with a little gig and prance but I still think I am allowed to complain from time to time as long as I don't let it own me in the end.

There it is off my chest....Man I feel better....moving on.

Being preggo is awesome!!!!

Our vacation back home to Utah was one of the best, will post pictures and stories soon.

We finally hung up some pictures in our house. It has transformed our apartment into a lovely home. I even framed some of my art work from my High School art portfolio to hang.

This weekend I am hosting a Pie Party. I really just felt like getting festive and making pies. I am a killer pie maker and make my own crust from scratch. I am going to make like 50 pies so I invited anyone and everyone to come over and help me eat them. Lars is making his homemade root beer. You can come too if you like. You probably deserve too if you read this post from start to finish. Ha Ha!

Have a super de dooper day and if life is throwing you lemons join me in my drinking lemonade gig prance :)

The Muppets: Cårven Der Pümpkîn

For Muppet Monday I tried to find a video that had the Muppets with a Zombie theme in honor of The Walking Dead Season 2 Premiere last night. But I didn't find anything. SO to celebrate Halloween lets learn how to carve pumpkins from The Swedish Chef.

Next week I will show you awesome Muppet costumes and later on we will have a special interview with a star from The Muppet movie. :)

Letter to The Muppet Movie Makers

To Whom May Concern:

My name is Stephanie Barlow. I am a Muppet fan. I wouldn't say that I am the biggest Muppet fan in the world, but I feel I am certainly an enthused fan. I have a blog that I try to update each "Muppet Monday" with a featured video, article, or thought about The Muppets. I do so to pump up the world for the newest Muppet movie coming out this Thanksgiving. The Muppets have been apart of my husband and my life since we were youngsters, it brought us joy and laughter.

I am an Anaheim resident and normally we go home to Utah to visit our families for the holidays. We go to the movies, play games, and eat lots of food together. However, this holiday my husband and I will be unable to travel that far because I will be in my 3rd trimester of our first pregnancy. We are having a boy! :) We are still planning on seeing The Muppet Movie as a family, as small as it is, to celebrate our holiday on our own. You can make our holiday all the more merrier by allowing us to see The Muppet movie at it's premiere. I would love nothing more than to start introducing our little boy to the Muppets as early as possible so he can participate in the same laughter and joy we felt as children.

Thank you for continuing to spread Muppet joy to all and thank you for your consideration with my request.

Smile and Staycool,

Stephanie Joy Barlow
Enthusastic Muppet Fan

Kick off to the Fall

This free picture slideshow created with Smilebox

Saturday night we went out with our dearest friends Brandon and Melissa and played at the Thanksgiving Point Corn Maze/Pumpkin Festival. It was a blast! There was lots to do and see. I feel like Fall is really here now that I have participated in some of the festivities. Besides the maze they had tons of activities for kids and some scary activities for the adults. It was a NASA/Space theme so they had exhibits and a telescope to look through. I loved it all and couldn't stop soaking it in. Plus it was a hoot with our goofy friends and our ongoing jokes. They had two phases to the corn maze and we spent hours in the maze playing and hours at all the other activities. Afterwards we went out for yummy shakes from JCW's. Loved the time we had there and recommend checking out this place. Totally worth it!!!