Oh my goodness...

...I can't believe Christmas is just right around the corner. We have been trying to get ready around here, but it just seems so much closer to Thanksgiving than it did last year...

The other day was rather interesting. A was home, not able to work because of the very very cold weather, and called me around 9 on Monday morning. The carbon monoxide detector was going off very loudly and persistently. Our furnace was going crazy apparently, and the flames looked like they could shoot out the front of the furnace any minute. So we had some furnace guys come and look at it - they said there is a hole in the burner. Great. My grandpa also came and looked at it (as he used to be a heating/air man himself), and he and A sucked a whole bunch of acid water out of the furnace, which was getting backed up instead of draining properly. Great. (Anyone remember our furnace troubles last year? What the heck. I thought we were done with this for awhile!) Anyway, even though Grandpa said the furnace would be able to last through the winter, no problem, we have decided to get a new furnace anyway. We are just done with having problems with this thing. So now we are in the process of trying to schedule a furnace installation around all the Christmas festivities we have planned also.



Our tree is up, our decorations are up, our cards have NOT been sent. Whoops. We are behind on that big time! Hopefully we will get them out this week so they can get to people BEFORE Christmas. You know, like they are supposed to.


We had my mom take some pictures of us and Yoshi to put in Christmas cards...here are a few we had to choose from.

(This is Yoshi's grumpy face...)

As you can see, it is not the easiest thing in the world to coordinate a very large, hyper, happy dog and two people who are trying to smile at the camera and control the dog at the same time. But all in all, it went better than expected. We did end up getting one that is pretty good (I think) to use. And we had a good time to boot!

Hopefully I will manage to be on here again before Christmas...but until then, enjoy your Christmas music! (I know I am!)

Christmas jigs and some projects

Well, I hope everyone had a fantabulous Thanksgiving. I know I did! (Although I'm a bit turkied out...)

Now on to Christmas! I have Christmas music going everywhere I run a radio. I just love that stuff. We put up the Christmas tree while listening to Charlie Brown Christmas and then Celtic Christmas music (how's that for variety?). The Celtic stuff would just grab us and we felt the need to dance a jig! (As if we really know how to do that...but I bet you wish you had seen that, huh?)

The cookbook at work is finally FINALLY wrapping up. I have bought supplies and am just in the process of proofreading and doublechecking and finishing up the details. It's going to come out cost-wise to be about .89 a book. I am just that cost-efficient.

And on one last note, I will leave you. I have seen the first installment of the Harry Potter 7 movie. Awesome! I have now started rereading the series for about the 10th time. And it is still funny and wonderful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's to hoping everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Enjoy your day!

All lit up!

We got our Christmas lights put up today, and just in the nick of time - apparently we are supposed to have some very cold weather for Thanksgiving. (I much prefer standing outside in t-shirt weather than freezing cold weather.) Now we are all set to turn those babies on right after we get done with all of our eating turkey!

Yoshi apparently thinks Christmas lights would taste yummy. Good thing we didn't put any in his reach, as I don't think they would have lasted very long. He will just have to wonder how those lights taste from afar.

4th of July Recap

Well I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Ours was busy, if nothing else.

Friday night we went to a local fireworks show, which was very good. Saturday we went to A’s parents’ house for a bbq and to visit with everyone (A’s grandparents came down to visit, too). Sunday was full of baking beer bread and cookies. We took some cookies to our friends’ that evening when we went to a bbq there and then to watch BIG fireworks. It was all very fun, but I was glad I didn’t have to work Monday so I could rest!

Monday A was off too, so we worked on cleaning the house and started putting knobs on the new cabinets. We got all of them on the doors, so all that’s left is the drawers. They look great! That afternoon we went to test drive some vehicles and to Menard’s. Yes, again. (You’d think we’d get tired of that place by now, wouldn’t you?) We bought a new ceiling fan for the kitchen and a new light to put over the kitchen sink. (The ceiling fan needed replaced because you can’t turn the fan on without the light or the light won’t come back on.)

I’m really liking my new kitchen...I will be glad though when we get the flooring put in, too, though and it will be finished. I’ll be glad for a break from home improvement projects.

Last night we got a cucumber, a bell pepper, a tomato and 2 cherry tomatoes! (We didn’t mean to pick the pepper or one of the cherry tomatoes…they just came off by mistake!) We should have a few more cherry tomatoes to pick tonight, too! I’m so excited that our garden is finally producing a bit more. I was worried about it there for awhile!

Oh yeah, and Yoshi is still growing in case you wanted to know. We had to expand his collar again this weekend, and now he’s so tall we can reach his head without bending over!

What's been happening!

Sorry I’ve been MIA for a little while. Not too much going on, and then a 4 day weekend contributed to my just in general blog laziness. So here’s what’s going on…

This past weekend my sister H was home from college, so Friday night I went with H and M to watch Valentine’s Day. It was good! I liked how the story played out with so many hidden connections. (I don’t want to give away too much!)

Saturday, I went with Mom, Grandma, and H and M to shop for M’s junior prom dress. It was lots of fun! The colors are so much more vibrant than they were when I started shopping for prom dresses (about 6 years ago!). I love love LOVE the bright colors and the ‘princess’ dresses are beautiful! She found a beautiful dress and we had lots of fun having her try different styles on.

Sunday, aka Valentine’s Day, A surprised me with a trip out to eat at the Cracker Barrel. Yes, I know, that’s not typical V-day fare, but I LOVE the Cracker Barrel. I always eat breakfast food…and always eat way too much. But since I’m only ever there for special occasions, I don’t feel too bad about it. Every time we go, I tell A that next time we should order something off the regular menu and branch out…and every time we go I order off the breakfast menu. What can I say? I am a creature of habit.

Yesterday was a holiday for me and A had a snow day (which he was bummed about. He is always disappointed when they can’t work because of the weather.) so we messed around the house for a while, did some laundry, and then….went grocery shopping!

I like grocery shopping and don’t really view it as a chore as long as I have a nice span of a few hours to devote to it so I don’t feel rushed. I like comparing prices and ingredients and comparing different stores prices on different items. Plus, it’s a nice time for A and I to spend together without worrying about chores! We have always enjoyed shopping together…I’d say 85% of the time we were dating was spent going to Walmart! (Just ask anyone!) Yesterday was a particularly successful trip. We paid very close attention to the value of the coupons we were using and the actual prices of things, and managed to get more food (or it seems like it from the look of our overflowing pantry and freezer!) for about $100 less than we usually spend! Wahoo for savings!!

That’s been the extent of our long weekend pretty much. I hope you all had a fantastic one as well!

A bit of this and a bit of that

Here we are again (been a little while, hasn’t it?). Christmas is over, and I hope everyone’s was fantastic! Mine was filled with fun, family and lots of good times, a quilt rack, a clothesline, and some other awesome games, books, and clothes. Excellent Christmas all around.

And now we’re getting ready for the new year. Everyone’s making resolutions, many of which will be excellent in theory, but will never make it past the first week or two. I generally prefer not to make resolutions…I think it’s important to change yourself for the better whenever possible—not just when the calendar flips. If the opportunity for expanding your horizons, or getting in shape, or just making your life better comes along, I think its important to take that opportunity when it comes along, not wait a week until January 1st to make such great dreams and opportunities reality. But that’s just me.

Here’s an update on some recent events:

--The freezer is at our house (hooray!) and despite some initial setbacks (you know, like a plug-in that will actually work with it) we are almost set to go. We still have to clean the inside with baking soda and level it up, but then we should be able to plug it in, get things nice and cold, and take off with filling it up!

--Pretty sure the whole photography thing will just be a passing fancy. I’ll snag any information I can, of course, when it comes my way, but I don’t have the drive it would require to actually make anything of it at this point. Maybe someday…

--A and I are starting to make some VERY tentative plans for what we will do with our tax credit when we get that back. We need fences, a dishwasher, sidewalks or SOMETHING outside, and just some random other things that aren’t absolutely necessary but would be nice to have. I think we’re probably going to invest a lot of it back into our house to try and raise the value (and so we can get a puppy! Thus, the need for fences.) instead of save all of it. We could get more good out of it that way, and make some improvements we would not otherwise be making—money and all that being required.

--Our house is starting to look like a home, instead of just a place where we live! We have pictures on the walls, and are starting to get curtains and things like that around. I have to say, it’s probably about time. (We put that off awhile so we could get our feet under us, but it’s wonderful now!) Now, if only I could manage to get that last bit of stuff from Mom and Dad’s so that I would be officially COMPLETELY moved out… 

--New Year’s Plans? Probably the same as always, though it’s not set in stone yet. We usually go to the church get-together, and then to A’s parents’ house to play canasta. Hopefully my luck runs a little better than last time….last time I played canasta I lost horribly!


And…that’s all I can think of for now. Feel free to let me know your New Year’s (or what the heck, Christmas!) traditions! I love hearing how everyone celebrates holidays…

Toodles!

Whoopee for Christmas cards done!

Well, we finally have tinsel on our tree! And our Christmas cards are DONE! Minus 1 address, which I will be trying to find tonight. I counted the cards we did to see how many stamps we would need and well, we kind of went overboard. Just a little. Or a lot. But we are just saying we’ll send a lot this year kind of saying hey, here we are, here’s our address, etc. and then next year we will only be sending cards to those folks who send us one. Which sounds kind of Scroogy now that I think of it. But really, 81 Christmas cards is a bit extreme! Even for a Christmas enthusiast like me! (Yeah, I said 81. And we had them done before we knew what we were doing!) Next year I’m aiming to tone it down a bit.

A is currently making a trip to Walmart to get a desperately needed shelf for our utility room. I am way too excited about this shelf. I CANNOT wait to get it put together so my detergent can go somewhere besides the top of my dryer…

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

This weekend I finally (FINALLY!) updated my driver’s license information. Yes, I know, 2 months plus after the wedding is probably a teensy bit late, but I had to take off work in order to be able to make it to the courthouse before they closed…and it’s a good thing I did! (As opposed to changing it over my lunch hour at an unfamiliar place.) It’s also a good thing I live less than 5 minutes away from it.

First I got there and forgot my marriage license. Which was kind of the whole point—to change my name. So I rushed home and got the license and came back. And found out that I had to have something with my new address on it to change my address. I searched frantically through my purse hoping I had SOMETHING in there…but my new purse just is too clean! There was nothing! So I went across the street to the post office (hoping some mail had come for me) only to find A’s bank statement…but nothing for me. Sigh. So I rushed home AGAIN and got MY bank statement and went back to the license office. To find a line of 4 people where there had been none. Double sigh. I finally got back to the counter, where the same woman I spoke to before did not remember me (are you kidding? This is the tiniest town ever!) at first. When we finally were getting down to the business of updating information, she had no clue and had to enter all my information 6 or 7 times before it would work! But at least I got to take a new picture, which turned out at least a little better than the previous one.

Christmas preparations abounded this weekend, too! Friday, before the license-changing debacle, I got all my shopping done for A. Woohoo! Saturday, after a marathon house-cleaning event, A and I took off for our yearly marathon shopping event. We got 95% of our Christmas shopping done, and all that remains is the wrapping! We also got a tree topper, tree skirt and two stockings. We have prospects of enjoying finding stocking stuffers, and A superglued the antlers on my reindeer (they were completely falling off and crooked). We hung the rest of our ornaments on our tree, so all that remains is the tinsel, and WE GOT OUR OUTSIDE LIGHTS UP! I’m super excited about that, because everyone else around us had theirs up and not having any of my own was making me sad.  But now I can be happy and cheerful! And I’m sure A will appreciate that I’m not bugging him about them anymore.

We were busy busy busy all weekend, but now we are festive and just need to work on our Christmas cards!

Thanksgiving (and some other stuff) Recap!

I feel as if this entire weekend has been spent running around! Hardly any time for relaxation at home…but we were at least running to fun places.

Thursday was Thanksgiving at my parents’, Friday A had to work and I went to see New Moon (again!) with a friend, Saturday was Thanksgiving at A’s parents’, and Sunday was Thanksgiving (or pizza! Yum!) at Grandma’s house.

I have had enough turkey now, but it sure was tasty at the time!

Yesterday was back to work after a long weekend….which usually means that the day will be fairly long and frustrating. It was, but it was not as bad as it could have been. At least I was able to keep my cool with the frustrating phone calls! (Seriously, is it really necessary to call me 3 times in a half hour period? Get your act together, get organized and THEN call. Much more will get accomplished and everyone will be in a better mood! Ok, rant over.)

We also got our Christmas tree up Sunday evening! It took a little longer than it probably should have….because we had to make an emergency run to Dollar General in the middle of it because we realized we didn’t have any ornament hooks, and we couldn’t find the extension cord to attach the lights to…Plus, all the branches had to be completely spread out because it was a new tree and the lights had to be stretched a little because they were new (and we still have sparser lights at the top than the bottom). But we got it done and listened to Christmas music and it looks wonderful in our sunroom! I just love Christmas…

Now if only A wasn’t sick with a cold and it wasn’t really cold outside so we could get the outside lights up…

Turkey Day!

You all probably won't be hearing from me for a few days, because I plan to enjoy my Turkey Day and destress a bit!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving, and that we all remain truly thankful for the important things. Jesus, family, friends, and the blessings that make up our luxurious (compared to many) lives.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Some of this and some of that...

Today has been a rather crazy day. Actually, it hasn’t…now that I think of it. Just feels like it has been crazy. (Probably because both A and I were running late this morning so that made us feel rushed so we were running around like chickens with our heads cut off to make it on time so that made my entire day feel crazy! Did you get that all in one breath?)

Today is also my mama’s birthday! She is of course, the best mom in the entire whole world. Or at least, that’s what I think! (Happy Birthday, Mom!)

A and I have set a deadline for our thank-you’s…this weekend! We are on the downhill slope for getting those done, and I think we just needed the extra PUSH of a deadline to get us to buckle down and just do them! (I’m super excited to get them done so I feel free to move on to Christmas cards! Yay for Christmas!)

We also get our first houseguest this weekend (which I’m pretty positive you already know because I think I may have told you once or 5 times…but I’m telling ya again!)! Hopefully my sister M does not mind sleeping amongst boxes…because although we have completely uncovered the bed in the spare room, there are still some boxes waiting to be unpacked. But we are definitely getting somewhere in that department!

I think 75% of my family had breakfast for supper the other night. Just a random thought. I love breakfast food for supper. MMM!

And now that’s probably enough rambling…for now anyway! 