Category Archives: Family

I LOVE BOOKS!!!

Does anyone else have a possible love affair going on with their books?!! I do! Today, my sis-in-law came over and she helped me catalog the majority of my books. WHEW!!! We cataloged almost 900 books, and that didn’t even include any of my romance novels or my cookbooks!!! What a DOLL!!! We were having so much fun giggling, and organizing, and cataloging that the day literally FLEW by!! Man I am soooo sore! I know that I didn’t go to work today, but I really feel like I did!! I cannot wait until I get a place where we can house all of our books in one room!!! It is so close, I can almost taste it!!! A wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling cubicle bookcases that my husband has built for me!!! OH SWEETNESS!!! That would be sooooo FABULOUS!!!

My girlfriend asked me the other day, if you were given he choice between a small farm, or a building downtown, and it kind of stumped me. The old me would have said the downtown place in a heartbeat, but the new me realizes that it has become very important to me to have a place to grow some of my own food, and create out in the peace and quiet of my own land. You know, think David Henry Thoreau and his time at Walden Pond! I want my own slice of heaven that I can share with my friends, and family! Possibly raise a child there, start my business, plant some roots!!!

As I dream about that tonight,

Have a FABULOUS evening!

Good Day!

Today has been a very busy day, but a very, very good day!!!

After about 6 hours of rushed sleep, I met one of my besties at a downtown coffee shop, and we had a very pleasant visit catching up on our holidays! Then my sweetie and I rushed off to get to our sister’s wedding, and we enjoyed spending some time catching up with friends and family, before heading off to Border’s to do some serious magazine perusing!! Have I mentioned I LOVE BORDER’S???

Anyway, after a quick run to the grocery store, and returning home, my husband popped in our leftover lasagna from last night into the oven, got some drinks going – YUM, and my bestie, Dawn, came over to to have dinner and to watch a movie with me – thank you, Babe!! Jason and I then finished watching our last episode of Eureka off of our Netflix account, and now I am here telling you about my day!! LOL!!! That pretty much sums it up!!

So anyway, I am heading up to bed, I have got to get up early so that I can go to church tomorrow (yes, dad – I am going to church in the morning!!!) 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!

New Year’s Eve!!!

Good afternoon!

Here is the day! The last day to get whatever it was you wanted to get done during the year 2010 – if you haven’t gotten it done by now, you’ve got some work to do. As for me, I am getting ready to close the door on 2010, and start over – YEAH!!!!

This past year has been a year of ups and downs, successes and failures, laughter and tears, but all-in-all, I am so thankful to have made it to eagerly anticipate 2011. I have made my New Year’s resolutions – or more specifically my 60 Day Life Makeover goals:

  1. Lose 20 pounds
  2. Sock away an extra $1000 into savings
  3. Find a church home
  4. Clean, organize, and purge our entire home of unloved and/or unused belongings from top to bottom
  5. Purchase and refinish one piece of furniture to sell to get the ball rolling on getting paid to do what I love

These are my actual written goals for the next 60 days, but if I had the ability to wish for one thing, I would wish for happiness – whatever that looks like! So, my goal for the next year is to live my life seeking out true, authentic happiness. I want to laugh more, love more, dance more, hug more, smile more, and just BE HAPPY!!!

Do you have any New Year’s resolutions? I would LOVE to hear about them – please feel free to post them in the comments sections above. 😉

As for this evening, we have a small group of friends coming over for a casual and impromptu get together, dinner of lasagna (one of my favorites), games, drinks, and maybe a movie, but hopefully lots of fun, and memories!!! We are going to have fun ringin’ in the New Year!!!

To all of you, I wish you an extremely HAPPY and SAFE New Years!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

Good Morning!!

Heading back to work after a 4-day weekend is rough, but I am excited to see my co-workers and find out how their Christmas’ went!!

Christmas for us was much different than it usually was, and I was worried that those changes would be a little sad, but really !!! First off, we had a much smaller group than normal, which was nice, because there isn’t much room/seating at my sister’s place. For the most part, the day was quiet, and peaceful, which was a nice change for the norm. LOL!! We all slept in a little, and then got up, dressed, took down our temporary bed – it sits in the middle of the living room floor, and then my dad and his wife showed up, which meant – it was almost time to open our stockings!! YEAH! Stockings are fun!! After stockings, we popped in a Christmas movie, and then all of us girls got to work on starting dinner!!! My mom’s ham with brown sugar and mustard rub – YUM, mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, deviled eggs, celery platters (with cream cheese or peanut butter), meat and cheese platters, crackers, chocolate and peanut butter fudges, cookies, peanut butter crunch, chocolates, etc, etc, etc, etc!!! WOW!! How we all didn’t keel over after having our fill (plus some) – is in itself a Christmas miracle!!! 😉 I am sure we all must have gone home having gained at least 5 pounds each!!! LOL!!

We spent the day playing games, watching movies, snacking – you know, holidays!!! I had such an awesome time!!! I was glad we were able to see Alice and the boys too!! That was fun!! and those boys are the cutest little minions ever!!! 😉

Gifts were swapped, and everyone got at least SOMETHING that they ABSOLUTELY WANTED!! Including me!! I got my yearly Christmas Santa – I collect those you know!! and I even got a bonus gift when we got home yesterday, my sweetie had something shipped to the house, and I was soooo excited to see what it was!!! and of course, because Jason was the one who got it, it was PERFECT, it was the Percy Jackson series, by Rick Riordan, hardback set!! YEAH!!! I have been putting the series together one-by-one and was only up to 2 books, so – there you go!!!

So, we are home, the girls are happy, Jason is happy, the Christmas tree and decor are still up – and may be up until March, since it is just so pretty and sparkly – it always makes me a little sad to take it down!! All is right with the world, and I am now going to head to work!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 🙂

Home!!

It is true what they say, “There is no place like home!” As much fun as I had hanging out with my family, I am so thankful to finally be home, with our two girls, and lying in our own bed – oh yes, I have said it before and I will continue to say it again, it is the small things in life that bring me the most pleasures!!!

Anyways, I will tell you all about our weekend tomorrow, as for now my sweetie and I are planning on doing sone reading in bed with the girls until we fall asleep!! HEAVEN!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉
-Christina

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Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to you all! I pray that you have had a FABULOUSLY memorable Christmas day, and that you go to bed tonight with a happy smile on your faces!

Have a FABULOUS evening!
-Christina

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Christmas Eve Magic!

Today has been a pretty GREAT day hanging out with my sisters. We have shopped, gone to lunch, played multiple rounds of Wii, taken a short nap, went to a late night Christmas church service, came back to my sister’s, prepped last minute goodies for tomorrow, and all watched “Despicable Me” together – I know, not very Christmassy, but laughing is good for ANY season!!!

Let me tell you about the church service we went to at the Redeemer’s Fellowship Church this evening. My sis, Jennifer was invited by a friend of hers and so we decided to go together! We didn’t really know what to expect, we weren’t sure if it was a play, a normal church service, or what, but let me tell you, we were in for a VERY PLEASANT surprise!!! The church itself, the building, the people, and the service was AMAZING!!! It was entertaining, fun, thought provoking, and such a blessing!! Even Jason was singing it’s praises – and that is saying something!!

This place is exactly the kind of church we have been looking for in Salem – I really hope we can find it. In the meantime, we have decided that if they offer a Christmas Eve service again next year, we will go again, creating another family Christmas tradition, one that we will enjoy for many years to come!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉
-Christina

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Good Morning!!

It is Thursday morning, 2 days before Christmas day! It is my day off, but I have still been up since the pre-butt-crack-of-dawn, trying to get some last minute things done before my sweetie and I head out to my families’ place for Christmas!! I am tired, and crabby, and I am really worried about one of my dogs.

Faye is getting old, and has constant skin issues. UGH! She is balding – again – I am telling you, it is not pretty!! our vet says that she just has anxiety, and she chews on herself kind of like a nervous tic, but she does it so much that she just makes her skin super unhealthy. His prescription is to stay home with her for a week or so, to help ease her anxiety. Sad! She really is the saddest little sweet dog you could ever hope for. The day that I have to put her down is going to be a really dark day in our lives!! Anyway, she is bathed, medicated and set up with clean bedding, he little sister is also bathed and prepped with clean bedding too!! So, I think they will be fine while we are gone for the next couple of days – I am just thankful that our sis, Alex, has agreed to come keep them company while we are gone. Whew!!! Thank you, Sissy!! 😉

I do have to say thank you to one of my little sisters, Jennifer! I had so much fun hanging out with her the past couple of days, we went out to dinner, watched a movie and spent a few hours painting some salt-dough ornaments I had made last weekend! She is so funny, and she just has a natural tendency to make everything more fun – like she brings a kind of joy to everything she touches!! It helps that she can see the funny in any situation!!! I really do love that girl!!! She is also very considerate, and took all of our Christmas presents down to her place when she left last night, so we wouldn’t have to pack any of it, isn’t that sweet??? No, wait – I am pretty sure she took all of them just so she could shake each of her presents to see what she might have gotten!!! LOL!! I am just kidding, Jennifer!!! 😉

After my sis and her husband left last night, Jason and I headed out to our other sisters’ places and delivered baked goodies and Christmas gifts, that was fun! I really miss those guys!!! 😉 Only one thing worries me, and that is one of the households had confirmed cases of strep throat, and the other house was full of sickies too, they just hadn’t been tested for strep throat yet, but since they hang out together all of the time – it is probably inevitable! I just DO NOT WANT TO GET SICK!! I have already been sick 2 times this season, which is already a lot for me, let’s not do this again!!! Especially since I get an 11 day vacation starting next Thursday. Vacations are just too sad when you spend any time of them being sick!!! 😉 I love you, I hope feel better soon, family!!

On a totally different note, did I tell you that Jason got his haircut yesterday??? Oh MAN!! I know that my husband is hot, but he was rocking the hobo-chic look for a while, and it was getting really out of control. Well, we took him to our friend Keven, and Kevin did an AMAZING job on his hair!!! Jason literally looks 10 years younger, thinner, more awake, and the cut really brings the attention off of his once mop-of-a-style back to his AMAZING baby blue eyes!!! WOW!! I wish I could get a haircut to do that for me!!!! 😉 I love you, you hot, sexy, hunk-of-a-man!!! 😉

I have some more packing and chores to do, Jason is getting his last minute baking done, and then we are heading out!! We have to have everything done by 9:30 this morning – let’s see what kind of mad time-management skills we have!!! 😉 Anyway, I had better get on that!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!

Playing Santa’s Helper!!

Got outta work half day for a 4 day weekend: check

Spending time painting ornaments with sister: check check

Good baskets of baked goods put together:  check check check

Christmas gifts placed in bags for transport: check check check check

Delivering said goodies to family for Christmas: PRICELESS!!!

We are waiting for our brother-in-law, and then we are on our way!!! YEAH!!!