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Be It Ever So Humble!

Good evening!

Jason and I are happy to report that we have made it home from our visit with our family, safe and sound!! We were a little unsure that that would happen because on our return home, when we stopped on our way out of town to get gas, our car decided not to start! EEK!! Thankfully we have AAA and they were able to send assistance to us, and we were only delayed 45 minutes in total!! So, I say, I am soooo thankful that we have made it home safe and sound!!

I would love to tell you that since our return home, we have been productive, and unpacked everything and put it all away into it’s proper places, but that would be so untrue!! We got home at about 3:30, and then by 4 we were so zonked, that we decided to go take a nap, and have only just awoken within the past 15 minutes. So, our day is pretty much gone!! 🙂

Jason is in the kitchen cleaning up all of his baking evidence, as I sit in the living room, chatting with you, while at the same time, I have a virtual fireplace crackling on my television. It is strangely soothing. LOL! Does anyone else know what I am talking about?? Or is it just me who is loving this little “program”!?!? 😉

Anyway, I don’t actually return to work until Wednesday, which means I will have some active thinking and planning to do tomorrow. I have realized that my health life is spiraling out of control, nutrition and fitness-wise. I am not sure that I have actually taken the time to plan a healthy meal in almost 3 weeks, and the good Lord Himself knows when I have purposefully done any kind of exercise. That is soooo unlike me, and soooooo very UNACCEPTABLE!!! It is causing me to sit on the sidelines and watching my life go by because I am either too sore or too tired to do anything else.  SO, this has caused me to want to take a good hard look at what is working and not working in all areas of my life, so that Jason and I can have the life we want, and not the life that we accidentally stumble into!! I will keep you posted!!

Tomorrow may just turn into a vision board day! I will have to get creative on how in the world I am going to share pics with you because my camera is still on the fritz, which by the way, is very discombobulating!! (Ooh!! I love that I got to use that word, that may just have to be my word of the day!!!) 😉 Ok, so I digress!

“Either you live the life you create for yourself, or you live the life that someone else creates for you. You choose!” ~Me

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Last Minute Prep!

Good evening!

Whew! I am taking a break from listening to Christmas cartoons while wrapping about 1,000 little stocking stuffers for my family. Ok, maybe 1,000 might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but I am sure that it is only by an exaggeration by a tiny bit!! 😉

After I get all of those done, I then have to get last minute packing done, finish straightening the house (I have a rule about making sure the house is spotless before I go out of town, so that when I get home, I just get to unpack my suitcase, and NOTHING ELSE!). I then have to make sure the dogs get bathed so they are clean and comfortable while we are away (thankfully our friend, Don will be watching the girls while we are out, as always!!)! After all of that, I have the task of making sure that we all get into bed and get some sleep before we get up in the morning, pack the car, and then I get to work, hopefully on time!!! Mamma is gonna need some serious caffeine to make it through the day!! 😉

I have been working long days this week, so that Jason and I can leave for Roseburg for the Christmas weekend tomorrow at 1:30, and I am hoping to be on the road straight away!! I SERIOUSLY can’t wait!! 😉

I always have such a fun time hanging out with my family, I just can NOT wait to get there!! We have a full weekend planned of Christmas light seeing, church services, breakfasts, dinners, present opening, manicures, antiquing, and just all around hanging out with the family!! I am planning on taking a ton of pics all weekend, and I will do my best to share them all with you!! 😉

WHEW!! Now, that I have said all of that, I realize I am just SOOOO BEAT!!! As I zip off to get more of my to-do list done this evening…

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

 

A Lazy Sunday Evening!

Good evening!

I have so much that my sweetie and I have to get done before we can leave for our Christmas break this week, and in all honesty I just don’t wanna do any of it!! How sad is that??? We leave for Christmas break on Thursday afternoon, straight from picking me up from the office. I really can’t wait, which is why I think I am not motivated to any of the things I know I ought to be doing, but that is because I just want to get out of here and see my peeps!!! 😉

OH, I have just discovered that I have gotten my first pen-pal letter in the mail the other day!!! I was so excited when my sweetie handed it to me and said, “Oopsie, I may have forgotten to give you something important.” So, dear pen-pal, you know who you are, I will be getting my letter out to you ASAP!! 😉

What else? Well, my sweetie has two venous stasis ulcers on his leg (I think that is how you spell that). He has been dealing with them for quite a few months, and even though the are doing better then they were, Jason just showed me the bigger of the two and all I can say is “EW!!” I am not sure why he insists on showing me all of his boo-boos and injuries; I am sure it has to be some kind of a guy thing!!! 😉

Changing the subject, but some of you know that I am currently working on a goal to blog every single day for 365 days straight, and I am very happy to announce that I am only 2 DAYS away from meeting that goal!! YEAH!!! Blogging has been such a fun and rewarding experience for me. I have met so many new and interesting people, and I have been introduced, slowly and surely to a whole community of creative people in the blog world!! I feel like I have grown as an individual and blogging has helped me see my life from a different perspective; giving me the ability to see what has not been working, and continue to do what has been working!!

So there you have it!! 😉

I am ready to get this week started, I am so excited to see my family!! I am staying at my sister, Jennifer’s place,  but then all of us sisters are going to go slumber party-style-it  at our other sister, Alice’s house for Christmas even so Santa only has to stop at one place, and we can all open stockings and have a fun Christmas day at one place!! 🙂 Doesn’t that sound fun!! Yes, it will be a blast!! I will make sure to take a ton of pics, and share with you!!! 😉

In the meantime, I am going to spend some time with my sweetie, now that he has officially stopped working for the evening!! 🙂

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Hangin’ at the Manse!

Good evening!

I have had a pretty good day today!!

  • Had a yummy brunch with my sweetie!
  • Got all of the laundry done in the house – which if you would have seen our massive pile of dirty clothes, you would have realized what an AMAZING accomplishment that was!! 😉
  • Helped my sweetie pain on a Victorian doll house for a little while! (He has been contracted to refinish one for one of his clients!)
  • I have read a little in a romance novel I have been reading!
  • I have watched one too many episodes of tele off of our Netflix!
  • Had a GIANORMOUS, but extremely delicious dinner with my sweetie!
  • and am now sitting in my living room enjoying my family, while the Christmas lights are on, my sweetie is writing, and I am getting ready to spend a little too much time on Pinterest!! 😉

Talking of Pinterest, is anyone else as completely addicted as I am???? Oh-em-gee!!! I can open it up and start rifling through pics, and before I realize it 2 hours have passed!! I am sooooo ENAMORED!!! It’s all good though! I have always loved collecting photographs of all things inspiring – I have about 15,000 different pics on my computer – I know, a little obsessive, right?? But I have been collecting photographs online for about 5 years, so n average of 3000 pics a year – I can handle that!! Maybe I just need to be a photographer so that I can start collecting some of my own inspiring shots!!! 😉

Talking about photography, I am getting ready to sign up for an online photography class. It is not your typical, technical type class, but more about how to take more artistic and expressive pics using whatever kind of camera you may have available. Right now I have a normal point and click, but someday soon I hope to have a real big-girl-camera, with lenses and everything.  WOULDN’T THAT BE AWESOME????? Oh man, that idea just jazzes me SO MUCH!!! 😉 I can’t wait!!! Anyway, the class is given by Darrah Parker, and if you click on her name it will take you to a page telling about her class. I can’t wait!!

Anyway, I just noticed the time, and realized it is later than I thought it was (it is about 8:45 her, and I am an early to bed kinda gal!!), so I am going to skee-daddle to get ready for bed!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

 

My Rough Day Cure!

Good evening!

I had an extremely rough day today, and instead of dwelling on that, I have decided that I needed to focus on some blessings tonight; things that I am thankful for!!

  1. I’m God’s daughter
  2. My husband
  3. My dad
  4. My sisters
  5. My Aunties
  6. My Nieces and Nephews
  7. My friends
  8. My family who have passed on
  9. My puppies
  10. My little condo
  11. My well paying job
  12. My lovely Christmas tree
  13. My book collection
  14. My mama’s dresser
  15. My squishy bed
  16. The wet and green Pacific Northwest
  17. My piano
  18. My music collection
  19. My over-sized squishy couch
  20. My creativity

Aaaah! Now, I feel much better!!

I need to just keep saying over and over again,

I am blessed!

I am blessed!

I am blessed!

Oh, and lest I forget – TOMORROW IS FRIDAY!!! YEAH!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Taking Time with My Sweetie!

Good evening!

This is going to be a rather short post. I feel a little like the white rabbit, saying, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date!”

Tonight, after getting some chores done, my sweetie and I are going to spend some quality time together, and for that I am supremely grateful! With me being sick, and him getting busy in his work life, we haven’t had a whole lot of quality time together lately!!

After work today, we stopped and had a lovely dinner together, where we could just catch up and check in with each other! I knew that I was going to head up to snuggle down in bed early tonight, but I also knew that I have some chores that need to get done, who doesn’t have those, and I also knew that I wanted to spend a few moments enjoying my Christmas tree tonight. So, I am doing that now while I am getting my posting done!!

Chores:

  • Swap laundry
  • Sweep
  • Vacuum
  • Clear off stair
  • Load dishwasher
  • Tidy up bathrooms
  • Change bedding/make bed

On another to-do list type note, we are almost ready for Christmas – Whoo! Hoo!! I have just one more person on my list to shop for, and then my sweetie has got to get all of the fixings so that we can put together goodie baskets for all of the families, just like we do every year!! He is a phenomenal baker, and I always love helping him in the kitchen wherever I am needed, even if that is just to make sure he doesn’t eat all of the goodies!!!! Hmmm…I wonder what we will make this year?

  • Marshapine
  • Peanut butter crunchies
  • Peppermint bark
  • Peanut butter fudge
  • Mini chocolate chunk cookies with butterscotch chips

That should please the masses!! I know that will please us!!! YUM!! I can’t wait to get cooking!! 😉

What else?? Well, not too much! Now that I have freed up my head with my lists, I really am just itchin’ to get my chores done, so I can squiddle down in my freshly made bed, with my sweetie, my girls and a great romance novel! Yes, that is the genre du jour!! It will be SA-WHEET!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

 

Sunday Update!

Good evening!

I have spent a good portion of my day sleeping my cold off today! 🙂 I was certain that I would have been back to my normal healthy self by now, but apparently that is not the case. Bummer! However, my husband has been very sweet and has taken great care of me today! Thank you, Baby! I sure do love you!!!  🙂

I am ready for my work week this week! We have a few Christmas activities this week, so I am hoping that it will be a rather fun week!! 🙂 I am so ready for Christmas this season. I am ready to be sleeping over at my sister’s house, laughing, playing games, watching movies, playing with the kiddos, and just having a great time!! 😉

Ok, so maybe I am just dreaming of a nice long, and I mean loooong vacation! I would LOVE to be able to find a log cabin, up in the woods, where there is snow on the ground, and my sweetie and I can hang out with a roaring fire in a fire place, cooking sweet meals, reading, snuggling, that would be PRICELESS!!! 😉

Ok, so I digress! Since I have spent most of my day sleeping, and yesterday wasn’t much more productive, I don’t really have anything new to talk about tonight!

So, with that being said, I will make sure to do a better job of coming up with topics of conversation for the rest of the week!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! 🙂

Ready for Thanksgiving!

Good evening!

I have had a pretty darn good day today! It completely helped that today is my Friday to a 4-day weekend, I got off work a little early this afternoon, and that my sweetie has been completely and totally charmingly helpful this evening! What a gem he is!!!

Not only that, but he has single-handedly prepped everything for Thanksgiving dinner, so besides the actual cooking, everything that can be ready for Thanksgiving is ready. WHEW!! Although he did get enough groceries to feed an army!!!  LOL!!

Tomorrow, we are expecting our very good friends, Dawn and Errin to join us for our Thanksgiving !! I am so excited, I really can not wait!! I am also planning on making the calls to all the family to make sure that the family is doing well, and enjoying their Thanksgivings as well!! I just need to make sure that I don’t get so busy that I forget! SHEESH!! That would make me bad daughter/sister for the year!!! 😉

What are all of your plans for Thanksgiving? Are you planning on spending it with your loved ones?

So for some randomness:

It has been a really rainy week here in Oregon, matter of fact, I am wondering when it is going to start flooding here, if it hasn’t already! I absolutely adore rainy days, which is one of the main reasons I live here in Oregon.  I was reading today that 2 of the top 50 healthiest US cities for Women are Seatlle, WA, which is #15, and Beaverton, OR/Vancouver, WA are #30, which makes me happier about living here, but makes me think about the possibility of moving up north to either Portland or Seattle again. Anyway, I am not sure where those thoughts came from, but I am just keepin’ it real here!! 😉

Anyway, I am off to enjoy the rest of my night!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

 

My Tree Is Done!!

Good evening!

It has taken me three days, but I have finally finished decorating my Christmas tree!! WHOO! HOO!!! I know it is early, but I really have needed a little Christmas spirit early this year! 😉

I wasn’t going to put up our tree this year, because I was thinking that it is an awful lot of work for just my sweetie and I, and we aren’t even going to be here at Christmas, however, when I expressed my thoughts to my sis, Alex she convinced me that even if it was just to enjoy the Christmas tree while I am reading on a quiet evening – it would be worth the work!!! 😉 She was absolutely right! AS SOON as I got the Christmas lights on the tree I was IMMEDIATELY put me in the Christmas spirit! It also helped that my sweetie helped my put the tree up this year, which I REALLY appreciated it!!

My theory on decorating my Christmas tree is to basically put EVERYTHING and ANYTHING that I LOVE on the tree!!! Which means that every single solitary inch of that tree has something on it!!

I love to tuck little treasures and momentos into our tree too. I especially LOVE pictures of my sweetie and from various different Christmas’!

We are such babies in this picture. This is one of our first Christmas’ with my sweetie’s family.

I also have lots of little signs, and this little red bird. One of my pastors, growing up, used to tell me that the little bird in her tree would wake up every evening and fly to the north pole to report to Santa whether or not we were behaving or not. Even though we don’t have children, I sometimes wonder if our little red bird flies to the north pole while we sleep and give a full report of our behavior to the man in the big red suit too!! 😉

Oh, and with my love of Santas, how could I not at least have one or 10 Santas on my tree??? 😉

Here is our Christmas star. Everyone always makes fun of me for this topper. Apparently it isn’t quite as flashy as the rest of our tree, however Jason and I bought this tree for our very first Christmas almost 17 years ago and every year I pull it out and PRAY that all of the lights in it still work. Every year, I am always amazed when they do!! WHOO! HOO!! 😉

When I describe our tree to anyone who has never seen it before, I always say that it looks like a jewelry box exploded ALL OVER our Christmas tree!! I still think that is pretty fitting!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

PS. Thank you, Alex, for cheering me on when I was having a moment of weekness!! I dedicate this blog posting, and my lovely Christmas tree, that has made me ABSOLUTELY SMILE to you!!!You were 100% right!!! I love you, Sissy!! 😉

Reading!

Good evening!

As most of you may have noticed, but I am quite the reader. I really love falling into a great book, and this week, I had the pleasure of falling into a total of 3 great books. The Magic Thief, The Magic Thief Lost, and The Magic Thief Found.

These are great books that tell the story of a boy named Connwaer, he is a thief and a guttersnipe, who inadvertently becomes a wizard’s apprentice, after trying to picpocket a wizard of his locus magicalis, which is a wizard’s tool for casting spells. These magical books take you on an adventure as Connwaer tries to figure out how to save the magic that inhabits their little city of Wellmet; if the magic dies, then the city dies as well.

Anyway, I read all three books of this trilogy, this week; mostly by waking up early and reading on my lunch breaks. It is amazing how much reading you can get done just be squeezing in a little reading during your normally wasted time!

Ok, I am hopping off of my literary soap box now. I am not sure what I am going to read next, but I can guess that I will have chosen a new book to read by the end of the evening!

In the meantime, I have got some chores to get done before bed tonight!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉