plans

Monday was Halloween, so we got out of dodge to avoid kids coming to our house. Sheena mentioned hanging out, so I said we could see about taking over Brian’s parents’ basement. She requested I make burritos, so I did. We ate burritos, watched Paranormal Activity 2 and laughed a lot. Also, we yelled at Brian a lot to be quiet. MELK! It was fun times.

Tuesday was Circle, and it was just okay. I’m a little over Circle at the moment, and we did a crafty project for the Children’s Ministry, which is hard for me because I want all the things we make to look great, and they never do. It’s hard for me to turn in something that isn’t cute, but whatever. Some people just can’t make things cute. I’m glad our next meeting is our Christmas party!!!

Wednesday nights are booked up, but it’s all fun stuff. That’s what I’m talking about! I now usually have band practice and then come home to Modern Family, South Park, Nick Swardson’s show and American Horror Story. There’s a perfect break from 8:30-9 for me to shower so I don’t have to go to bed any later than normal. Perfect!

Thursday is probably going to be TV night even though I haven’t asked about it yet. If not, then I’ll work on stuff around the house.

On a different note, I have Cora’s curtain fabric in, so I will make curtains soon! Also, once I move some things around in the basement, I will be able to clear out that room and set up the nursery! I need to pick a paint color, paint that room, get the furniture in, and then we will also get new windows. That will be awesome!

GOOD THING: lots of leftovers to eat for dinner this week
BAD THING: indigestion! my throat burns

christmas weekend

Christmas has come and gone, and so has my tiny little slice of Christmas spirit for the year. It never came on full force, but it was enough to get me by.

Christmas Eve was fun – worked half a day, hung out around the house, went to Brian’s parents’ house for food and family time (his uncle & aunt come with their 3 adult children and 1 granddaughter – Lexi!), then church with the immediate fam. That was nice, and we got into the truck to leave at 12:09 AM. We took a short drive to see Christmas lights in the neighborhood, then went home. I think we finally got to bed after 1 or something.

On Christmas, we woke up at 6:30 AM to get our gifting finished so we could pack and head to his parents’ again before family comes before we leave for Georgia. Brian got me great gifts, and there is still one on its way. At his parents’, we also got great stuff. Brian has a new computer to build! It will be a PC and a Mac. He’s working on it right now. After that, we’ll have 3 computers, so I think our current big-monitored PC will move down to the basement because I am going to finish setting up my work area down there for jewelry making! We rearranged everything months ago to have a workout area, a tv/stereo area, and a work area, but I actually kind of forgot to continue working on it.

Anyway, that was good, then Brian’s aunt & uncle picked an extra early time to come over for breakfast, so we had to cut it short and eat & talk with them. It was fun the second time, too. They left pretty quickly, so we had another bit of close family time before Brian and I left for Georgia. We had to leave on the early end of our range because it had started to snow! My dad swore the roads were fine at the moment, so we headed out. The roads were all fine, but I’m glad we didn’t wait around because they weren’t as great that evening.

My parents had way more snow than Alabama! As soon as we pulled up, I said hello and borrowed some waterproof boots from my mom so I could drive to my grandparents’ and sled with my cousin. He’s the one that I always played in the snow with when we were in school, so it was cool to get to do it again – especially since it was Christmas. It didn’t work out so well! I think we’ve lost our touch, but it as still fun being out there. Then it was Christmas time! I always like Christmas at my grandparents’. We also got to visit with my aunt & uncle who live in North Carolina (and their 2 kids), so that was nice because I only see them once a year at the most. My cousin also brought her new little baby, but I didn’t even look at her up close because it seems like she was eating the whole time! Every time i saw her, she was eating or sleeping. My mamaw gave all the girls huge boxes of homemade jellies & stuff, which is what we told her we’d like to have. They’re delicious!

After that, we went to my parents’ and finally did Christmas there. We got lots of awesome things! I love every single thing I got – all day, for that matter. I got a super pretty dress, some videos I’ve been wanting, a sweet coat, and tons of other stuff. My parents seemed to love their gifts, so that is the best part. My dad cannot stop playing with and checking on his little weather station thing we gave him; he loves it! It was the big hit of the weekend, I think.

It ended up snowing probably 3 or 4 inches there because it snowed ALL day on Christmas AND the next day! wooo

Mostly, that just meant it was super gross and muddy the next day.

Choxie loved playing with Rosie, so they had a super fun time. All they do is constantly play fight for 3 days, so when we get home, Choxie is really tired. Score!

GOOD THING: We made it everywhere we wanted to go safely.
BAD THING: I need to clean my house BIG time.

father’s day

This past weekend, we went to visit my parents for Father’s Day! We had lots of fun. We went out to eat, hung out, watched some TV, rode around and played putt putt. I had the most fun on Sunday when my dad took me on a motorcycle ride on some of the prettiest roads in Murray County (on the way to Carters Lake), and then we rode over the mountain into Ellijay and the surrounding areas. It was beautiful and so fun! There are some gorgeous places around there, and I’m jealous because I never appreciated it while I was there (as it always goes). Anyway, it was fun, and it was perfect for Father’s Day.

What we did most of all was play with the dogs! That word is plural because my parents have a new puppy! This was the first time we met her. Meet Rosie!

She is so adorable and sweet! Choxie and Rosie played so hard and so well! I was very impressed with how Choxie handled the little puppy. She is so tiny and really young, and along with that comes obnoxious and annoying. Rosie constantly jumped in the air to grab onto Choxie’s jowls (ouch!), neck skin and tail with her puppy-sharp teeth and hang by those body parts. Choxie just stood there and let her for basically 3 days! She never once growled or snipped at her. They are best friends! Rosie learned lots this weekend from having another dog around. We watched her try to copy Choxie’s actions, and she learned how to bark really loud compared to the squeak toy noises she’s been making. It was so cute watching them that we stayed outside on the front porch watching them both nights until we were too tired to stay up anymore. Here are the new friends:

birthday

My birthday was way better than I thought it would be! Brian always does a great job of making holidays special and fun, so he of course did a great job, but my coworkers really made the day awesome! I cried when I got to work Tuesday morning because it seemed like everyone at work had put something in my office. I had flowers, balloons, a stuffed animal, a homemade cake!, several cards, a candy bar, a t-shirt nightgown from White Flowers and a note saying lunch was free waiting on me when I came in. Later that day, I was given a cupcake from Dreamcakes and all kinds of birthday wishes. Work was so fun! I love my work friends. I even got a card in the mail at home from a former coworker! Oh! And I got a gift from Brian’s coworker Emily, who sent me a sweet necklace from Africa! I love it. I had a great and delicious dinner that night when I went out with Brian and his parents. Afterwards, we had ice cream cake from Dairy Queen! That is my favorite ice cream cake in the world, and Brian had a hard time getting one for me, but he did it! He always tries really hard to do special things for me. I didn’t mention it earlier, but he left me the sweetest and cutest note that I found on the mirror that morning, too. Earlier in the week, we went shopping, so I picked out my own gifts from him. Most of them were things I needed (well, not NEEDED, but they were things like pants for work and shorts to exercise in, and they were all on sale or cheap to start with). He also got me a cute card. His parents got us dinner and gave me some money for my mission trip coming up this summer. So did his sister, and she also gave me a Zappos gift card! My parents mailed me a card and some money that said it was NOT for Bolivia and to use it for myself. I will get my gifts from them next weekend when I go visit.

I don’t care anything about getting tons of elaborate presents, but the fact that everyone tried hard to make me feel special felt so nice! Lisa stayed up way past her bedtime to bake me a cake AFTER board meeting Monday night. How sweet is that? I expected NO gifts at work.

Anyway, I didn’t mean to give so many details, but I got carried away. Sorry!

GOOD THING: Tomorrow is Friday!
BAD THING: stomach is kind of weird this week

nothing new

I have checked my Bloglines a million times today, and no one is doing new blogs! With that being the trend today, I decided to do a blog of my own so you will have at least one lousy blog entry to read today.

Today is my first day back at work, and it isn’t bad. It’s almost 2:30, so the day is going by fairly quickly, and I have had plenty of work today. Tonight, I have to go to someone’s house for dinner with the rest of our church’s Circle chair(wo)men. I am not super excited to have plans tonight, but it really should be kind of fun. At least I only have to work 2 more days this week!

Yesterday, I went shopping for some after-Christmas sales and found some ornament sets for my tree (decided this year I needed another set of glass balls of another color, so i got silver/white/gray) and some giant gold ornaments to decorate a giant tree outside our house next year! Everything I bought was 50% off. The only thing I’m missing for the outdoor tree is the lights, but I can get those sometime in the next year. I haven’t decided if I want white or colored.

Anyway, Christmas is over! It’s time to think about New Year’s. I have no idea what we’re doing yet because there is a family wedding on the first, but we’re not sure if we’re going. Our neighbors also invited us over for brunch that morning, and we missed it last year since we weren’t at home when they came over to invite us. For New Year’s Eve itself, we have zero plans yet. We don’t ever do too much.

After New Year’s is over, it’s time to look forward to the new year! I think 2010 is going to be awesome. I can just tell!

GOOD THING: work is kind of almost over for the day
BAD THING: had to pee a million times today

birmingham

We’re back in Birmingham! We had lots of fun in Georgia, but I’m glad to be back at home, too. I can’t wait to sleep in my bed tonight! It was great taking a shower in my own shower and washing my clothes and being able to put up some of my gifts. I can’t wait until Brian lets me take down the tree! I put about 10 ornaments up, but he stopped me and wants it to stay for a while. That’s really fine because I surely didn’t want to do it all right then, anyway. I’m just ready to get my living room back to normal since it’s rearranged temporarily for the tree.

Hopefully, this week will be decently fun even though Christmas is over. I am off work Monday, so that will ease me back into working. We are supposed to go get dinner and hang with Dan & Carrie either Tuesday or Wednesday night, and Brian’s sister is still in town until at least this coming weekend. There’s a family wedding this Saturday at the lake, so that is another thing on our plan list. Surely work will be fun this week since everyone is still in the Christmas spirit but now has some stories from the holidays (hopefully).

Today, we went with my parents to Five Guys for their first time. I think they both liked it, but my dad didn’t get enough food. He needs to order 2 burgers next time, I think. The one in Dalton isn’t set up anything like the one here in Homewood, but the food was just as delicious. I missed sitting upstairs, and the music sucked at the Dalton one, too. It was still “classic” rock, but none of the songs were so classic. Maybe next time! We followed it up by getting milkshakes across the street from Steak & Shake.

Choxie almost got hit by at least 5 cars in about 24 hours, so we have to figure something out with her. She is now interested in chasing & barking at passing cars and trucks, and she has no concept of the road being a dangerous place. I got scared to death today, so we have to have a plan next time. Brian is going to research good ways of teaching her not to get near the road, and we can practice next time we go. It won’t work doing it here because it’s just so different here. No cars go down our road, which is awesome, but that is why she doesn’t get it. The speed limits are so low here, too, that it wouldn’t help, either because no car is scary going 25 mph. Anyway, we’ll figure it out. She’s super smart so I know she can learn, but we have to be the smart ones to know what will work for her. It’ll be fine!

GOOD THING: burgz today were yumz
BAD THING: indigestion!

merry christmas!

Today is Christmas! I am so sleepy, but the day has been good. I seriously hope I can sleep late tomorrow, but I’m not so sure the dog will let me. She gets pretty pumped when we’re at my parents’ house. We went to Brian’s cousins’ house on Christmas Eve for dinner before going to the 11PM candlelight service. After that, I still had to make Brian’s Christmas card and pack some more, so we ended up not going to bed until 1:30AM. Then, we got up before 7! We’ve been to Brian’s parents’ house, then drove to my parents’ in Georgia only to get directly in the car to go to my grandparents’. It was actually pretty fun because someone had the idea to play charades. We finally left and came home to MY parents’ and opened more gifts! I’m typing this on my new laptop! Tomorrow, we’re going to my uncle’s for my dad’s family Christmas. I will hopefully get to see my cousin’s new baby!!! Anyway, I’m too tired to talk much now. I hope you’re having a great Christmas!

GOOD THING: hopefully get to sleep some tonight
BAD THING: nothing!

sparse

I haven’t been updating very much lately, and I bet you are pretty sad.

I took 2 days off work last week to shop for Christmas gifts, and I was somewhat successful, but I still have more to do. I can’t finish until I come up with some ideas, though. I also was supposed to shop for things for me (I had a dollar amount), but I really can’t find much in stores right now that I want. I need roughly $75 more of stuff for me, but I just can’t find anything. If I don’t soon, I will just opt for money and save it for something I really want later. I’m thinking it could offset some of my Salvation Army buys in the future.

Sheena graduated! We went to her party Saturday night, and it was good.

Tonight was A Night in Bethlehem at church, so I went with Brian, his mom and his sister. I was dressed in costume last year and volunteered as a census taker, but this year, I was merely an observer. I think it was way less amazing this year because I saw it last year. If we do it next year, I’m not sure I’ll go – especially if it’s on a Sunday night because I don’t like doing anything on Sunday nights.

I have to go back to work tomorrow for a full week this time, so that kind of stinks. My parents are coming to visit and to go to Brian’s parents’ party Friday night, so that will hopefully be fun. They’re leaving by lunch on Saturday, so they won’t be here very long. We’re going to go visit them a week later, though, so that’s no big deal. Plus, we were there last weekend.

Choxie surprisingly hasn’t bothered our Christmas tree at all. She watched me put the lights on and didn’t even pay attention very much, so I went ahead and put some basic ball ornaments on that she also hasn’t bothered. She noses them around a little bit every once in a while, but she never tries to bite them. I still haven’t put some of our ornaments on, but it looks like it has enough. I left the little and fragile ornaments off just in case.

I did find myself some new workout pants from Academy this week, and they’re so awesome. They’re for cold weather, and they really are so warm and comfy. I put them on when I got home from lunch today just because I was cold and wanted to feel snuggly, and guess what? They made me want to go out for a walk! I walked the dog today in the misty rain, and the pants are awesome. They also have great pockets that are
deep. They get an A from me.

GOOD THING: got some Christmas shopping done
BAD THING: need some more ideas – especially for my dad even though I’m excited about one thing I got him so far

past, present & future

This past weekend: visited my parents, went out to eat at Red Lobster, went to the town’s Christmas parade, went to watch a drive-in Christmas song/light show, hung out, visited my grandparents’ and other family for lunch/dinner Sunday afternoon

In the very recent past, I went to the Salvation Army this evening to get a chair I found today at lunch. It was gone. I am let down, but it’s okay because I’ll find an even better one in the future that is more awesome. Also, while I was there, I found a great Christmas gift for my dad! That is so hard to do, so I’m pretty pumped.

While I was out, I also had to deal with Office Depot because a box of 250 envelopes I bought today at lunch only had 210 in there, and I needed them all. So, I went back this evening to straighten it out. Guess what? They had NO more envelopes that size except for a pack of 25, so they gave it to me for free. I will just try and scrounge up some envelopes just like them at work tomorrow. I think I have a few, and I can shave my need down to like 240 probably.

Presently, I’m obviously typing a blog entry, but I’m also cooking dinner. Basmati rice is simmering as we speak. Since my plans for dinner got nixed last night, I’m instead doing my Meatless Monday on Tuesday night.

In the future, later this week, I am going to possibly take off work Thursday and Friday to use the rest of my year’s vacation time, go to Bible study Wednesday night, go to Emily’s house for family dinner and the Muppet Christmas Carol movie, and a weekend involving Sheena’s graduation party! Also, Ann is coming home for the holidays either this Thursday, Friday or Saturday! She’s driving, so she doesn’t have concrete plans.

Anyway, that’s a lot of stuff happening, but it’s all good. I also ordered Brian’s Christmas gifts today, so that’s taken care of. I still have to buy for my parents and Sheena. I will also assist Brian in helping find his sister’s and his mom’s gifts. I think he’s taking care of his dad. Anyway, yay!

GOOD THING: found an unlikely gift tonight
BAD THING: lots of work still to do at work tomorrow

short week

Today is my last day of work this week! That is exciting. Brian has been off all week, but he’s actually been working more than ever because he’s doing tons of work around our house and his parents’. I’m starting to get nervous about cooking half the Thanksgiving dinner this year because I just really want it all to taste so good. I hope we have fun! Oh yeah – Ann is coming home for Thanksgiving! It’s going to be awesome. She and I have planned lots of fun surprises for Thanksgiving Day, and we can’t wait to see what everyone else thinks about our ideas. I cannot WAIT to sleep late on Friday after everything’s over. I think we’re also going to the lake on either Friday or Saturday to hang with Ann & her friend Ellen. I’m thinking the next few days might be the highlight of the year’s holidays so far.

I have to cut this off because I need to call my Mamaw and get recipes for Thursday.