Where My Heart Resides

That is the name of a blog I follow. Check it out here. This was a great entry I just read.

Favorite line: "Ignore the people who say you can't, and surround yourself with the people who know you can."

Glee-ful

Um. I just watched my first two episodes of Glee. Hello!!! Episode 1: Don't Stop Believin'. Episode 2: Golddigger. WHAT!!! Loving this. I actually got up and danced during Golddigger. Brett was in the bathroom so I could do that. It made me want to do the demo for the dancing game for Kinect. Seriously. Thank you Melanie for this Christmas present! What season are they on on TV? I need to know how much catching up I have to do...

So. Tomorrow is the last day of 2010. Wow. Driving home from work today I realized that Brett and I have been married for almost two years now. I was having a fake conversation in my car (you know you do it too) with someone I am meeting for the first time at a New Year's party tomorrow night. In my fake conversation I said "We've been married for a year and a half now..." and then I realized that statement is not really accurate anymore. We are less than three months away from our second anniversary. Time is flying! It's been two years full of life. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard, always abundantly blessed. I'm looking forward to 2011 though. You may have heard (I think it was on the news or something...) I'M TURNING 30THIS YEAR! Oh dear.

Hear is my thinking. I think that the first 18 years of life are about learning how to live. You get the basics down. How to put one foot in front of the other. How to communicate peaceably with your fellow man. How to persevere when life seems impossible. (Can anything teach you this better than high school?) The realization of an inescapable need for the opposite sex, followed closely by the realization that interaction with said opposite sex is tricky! I think college is about discovering passion. This looks different for each of us because we all have different passions. In college, I learned that I am passionate for learning, passionate for good stories, passionate for creating... college is also when we learn the importance of relationships. At least, it was for me. After college, I think your twenties are about learning to survive in the real world. Learning to be responsible. In the workplace, in a residence, in a relationship, as an upstanding citizen... all that jazz. Here is what I am hoping for my thirties. I want my thirties to be about combining the two, passion and responsibility. I survived my twenties. I want to LIVE my thirties.

I don't mean to sound like my twenties were tragic. I mean, I faced my fair share of struggles, but in the end, I am happily married, at a church I love, at a job that makes me happy several times a day, with amazing friends and family in my life, and I am not just ready for growth, I am growing! I want to keep growing.

I have 5 months left of my twenties. I want to use them well. I want to clarify some goals. I want to be faithful and steadfast so that God can move me. I want to be an active, rather than passive, participant in my life. I have a lot of goals that I am clarifying in my mind... I'm sure it will be a nice "New Years" post in a couple of days.

Brett and I are driving to Houston tomorrow morning to ring in the new year with our dear friends. I will be taking my camera because I want to take more pictures this year! He and I are going to do some heavy talking. Clarify some goals. We think we are going to have to renew our lease at the apartment one more time, but we are going to choose the short lease. We want to be ready to move when it is up at the end of September.

I think I will watch one more episode of Glee before I go to bed. Maybe do a bit more thinking =-) Look for a declaration post from me this weekend! Call them resolutions if you wish... they have been a long time coming.

Peace out playas!

Boxing Day 2010

WHAT A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY!!!

I can't believe it is almost 2011. Wowzers. 2010 was a great year, and the last two weeks will be weeks to remember.

Let me rewind.

Brett said his birthday was perfect =-) I felt a little wah-wah, because we didn't go anywhere grand, but since we are pretty laid back people, he wasn't disappointed. The bummer for him was that he had to work on his birthday, but it was SUPER helpful for me because it let me finish up his final present.

So. He turned 40, right? That's a big one! How can I not make a big deal out of a 40th birthday? But his birthday is December 23, and it's just a busy time of year for people. I started thinking months ago about what I should do for his birthday, and I really wanted to have a party. But with all of Brett's best friends living a good distance away, I felt like the only way to have a party would be to have it early... like pre-Thanksgiving. And even then, I couldn't guarantee all of the key players being able to come. When Scott's son passed away in October, I nixed the party idea. I just couldn't ask people to travel during such a crazy time.

So here is what I ended up doing: I knew that what Brett really wanted was the birthday recognition. For people that he loves and that love him to say "Happy Birthday Brett". So last Sunday morning was the first birthday surprise. I sang in our church's Christmas program, and we had to sing in the 8:45 service last Monday. Well, Brett and I don't go to church until 10:00, so I had a window of time to work with. I told Brett that I had to be at church at 8:00 (I didn't have to be there until 8:30) and I snuck out dishes to my car while he was still in bed, and then headed to Kroger to buy breakfast. I had bought decorations on Saturday after Weight Watchers and just left them in my car. So I went from Kroger to church and unloaded my car before we sang. Then after we sang I went up stairs and decorated the room, laying out breakfast for the class. I hung streamers from the door, so as soon as we walked up the stairs Brett saw them and said "Hey, who else has a birthday?". It was great =-) The class enjoyed breakfast, and everyone got to tell him happy birthday.

Surprise number 2 was lunch with my family. We love my family. We also love the burgers at Pappa's Brothers BBQ. They are the best in town, in our humble opinion. So mid-week I told him I had a craving for a good burger, and as luck would have it, my entire family was free to meet us there. So that was fun! My parents gave him a little birthday money and the Throwdown cookbook, which he was SO excited about!

That was it until birthday. My final surprise, other than his presents, was a birthday book. Since I couldn't throw a party, a few weeks ago I sent an email to tons of his friends asking for birthday wishes. Wow. He has amazing friends. They totally came through. Most of his best friends, and lots of good friends, and all of my family of course, sent the sweetest messages. I had pictures printed of everyone who sent messages and printed all of the messages in fun fonts and put them in a book. It is nothing fancy, but he said it is the greatest gift he has ever gotten. It made him feel younger =-) I had long lunch breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday because I opened and closed the school, so I worked on it then, and then I got up on Thursday at 6:40 when Brett left for work. I was finished by 11:30.

Other than the birthday book, I gave him 3 graphic novels that he wanted, a book of our favorite graphic artist's sketches, 2 movies that he wanted on Blu-Ray, 2 Dr. Pepper t-shirts and 2 Bill Cosby cds. The cds were kind of random, but I bought them because when we had satellite radio, Brett always had the comedian station playing on his way home from work. It wasn't worth it for us to pay for satellite, but I thought he might miss the comedy. Bill is his favorite, so I got him a couple cds.

When he got off work Thursday, he opened his gifts (all except the book) and then we went to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. He wasn't thrilled with his meal. He chose a seasoning for his crab that ended up not being a winner. We had talked about going to see Tron, but he was pretty tired, and it came up during lunch that there was another gift at home, so we headed home. He opened his book and loved it, and then we had some ice cream cake. He has always wanted an ice cream cake, so I got a little one at Baskin Robbins. We finished it last night! Then later we picked up his fav for dinner: Hooters Hot Wings. And that was that.

Christmas was awesome. My dad's side of the family always gets together for a big dinner on Christmas Eve. This year my sister Melanie was the hostess. The kids had a blast! The adults (as in my parents, aunts and uncles) draw names and buy gifts for one person. The kids (as in my sisters and cousins and me) bring a $40 gift card and a $10 movie and do a gift exchange. And everyone buys for the grandkids. When I was a kid, it was SO fun to open that many presents. Now that I am grown, it is SO fun to be able to provide that feeling for the kids in the family. I love it.

Christmas day we slept in and went to my parent's house at 11:00. We opened presents and ate a light lunch. Then we headed to Brett's mom's house to open presents with her and have light lunch number 2. Haha. Last night we just rested. Brett played Epic Mickey while I sorted through my gift cards and made a list of where I wanted to shop and what I wanted to buy. I am about to head that way. I think one load of laundry today will be sufficient. Brett has decided to stay home and not shop today, but I feel like I can get a LOT done in a couple of hours, so I am still going out.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with people they love. Mine was ridiculously blessed. One last time... Merry Christmas =-)

HOLIDAYS ARE HERE!!!

I love Christmas. I love the fall, but I LOVE Christmas. When I met Brett, my holiday traditions expanded quite a bit though, because now, in addition to celebrating Christmas in December, I also celebrate Brett's birthday and his mom's birthday. So Christmas has always been a busy time of year for me, but now... well, busy may just be an understatement.

I am so, so, so, happy to say though, that I am very happy to be working at the school. Anytime you add children into the equation, a "busy" holiday can become hectic. It's true in families, and it's even more true in a school. We have been gushing Christmas at the school for about a month now. We put up the tree two days before Thanksgiving! But it has been wonderful. There are Christmas lights outside, Christmas displays in the office, and Christmas decorations on everyones door. This Christmas lover has been very happy indeed, as have all of the little ones who smile at the little Santa on the way out of the door each evening, and point at the lighted tree outside, every single day! It has made for a busy few weeks, but also joyful.

The Christmas play was last week. I am the only person in the entire school who didn't get to see it, but I heard it was wonderful. Then, last Saturday was our Christmas staff party. SO much fun! We did Secret Santa for two weeks at school, and then the secrets were revealed at the staff party. My Santa was AMAZING! She TOTALLY read my mind, which is amazing because she barely knows me! But the first day, I got brownies. Chocolate iced brownies! The entire staff enjoyed them, and I only had to bring home a few, so I indulged, but not overly. My next gift was lotion, which was crazy because I TOTALLY needed lotion that day! How did she know? I also got some awesome candles, two Christmas ornaments, which are dangling from my tree as I type, my favorite magazine, holiday slipper socks, a mocha frappaccino from Starbucks, and my all time favorite candy, peanut M&Ms. And then my big gift at the party was a $25 gift card to Michael's! Hello! I love to craft! These were all perfect gifts for me! It was so much fun.

The staff party was at a country club, where we had a delicious dinner and insane chocolate cake. Then we went to the owner's house, which I had never been inside before, and we did the reveals and then played two games. I won first place in the first game (Christmas movie trivia... um, hello!) and got a Best Buy gift card as my prize! Then they gave us all gifts, and it was a long sleeve t-shirt with the school logo in Christmas colors, and a really cute wallet that I love! It's going to go perfect with the purse that I want at Target. I plan to buy that purse the day after Christmas with whatever Christmas money I get. I could just ask Brett to get it for me for Christmas, but I have already told him 2 things, and that is enough!

I also got a few gifts from parents this week, and that was really touching. This jewelry set is CRAZY cute. I can't describe it, but I will try to take a pic in it this week and post it. And our choir teacher gave me this beautiful angel as a thank you for helping them in rehearsals. I just took it out of the box... she is lovely!

Getting gifts is fun, but I absolutely LOVE giving gifts. I love the shopping, I love the wrapping, and I love the giving. I am actually about to wrap a couple of gifts when I finish this post. I almost feel spoiled that I get to wrap presents for the holiday AND two birthdays all in one month!

I feel pretty good about Brett's birthday. He is turning 40 and I really wanted to make a big deal out of his birthday, but none of his closest friends live in the area, and it's not a good time to ask people to travel, so I came up with a few ideas, and I hope that he enjoys it all. I want to post about it, but just in case he reads this tonight, I won't just yet. But it should be fun!

I am off to wrap a couple of presents and then find an outfit to wear tonight. It is our Christmas concert. I feel like I have found the right attitude about the whole choir thing. I have been in choirs my whole life, but being in a choir at a new church has been quite lonely. But our concerts are tonight and tomorrow and then it will be over and I am going to email the guy about getting in the praise team rotation. I will know a couple of people there, and it will be easier to befriend the ones I don't know because it is a small group. AND if I am just in the rotation and not on the weekly team, which I won't be because he already has 3 singers for that, then it means practice once a month, not once a week. Perfecto!

I hope everyone is having a blessed season so far, and that this week brings tears of joy and lots of laughter!

P.S. I have lost 24.8 pounds so far. The last 2 weeks have been really good. The new WW program is a really good fit for me, and having the reset was a nice refresher! A fresh start before January 1st! Nice!

Craft Fair Fun & Time is Flying!!!

Wow! The craft fair was 4 days ago! I have had zero time on my computer this week! Sorry I am just now updating!

So... it was fun =-)

Last year, there wasn't a ton of traffic, and not many people bought things. This year, there was only slightly more traffic, but almost everyone bought a little something. My yarn ornaments were a hit! I ended up making a pretty good amount, so I still have several left, but they are going to look awesome on my tree! I had a couple of things sell out, and a few things that I expected to sell well that didn't, but some of them are cute enough that they will be gifts! I am so happy that I participated again this year. I probably broke even, but at this point, I am not regretting it. I had some really good feedback, and I had a good time! Only one friend came (thank you Jenina =-) but several family members came.

I am exhausted. Last week was seven days of late nights. Particularly, Friday and Saturday night. Friday, I stayed up until 4:30 and got up at 9:00 on Saturday morning. Saturday morning I stayed up until 2:30 and got up at 7:30 on Sunday. And then this week has been a little later nights than usual. It's just that time of year... not quite enough hours in the day. Or not quite enough days left in the year! I can't believe that Christmas is in 15 days! I'm feeling surprisingly unorganized this year. Not shopping on Black Friday seriously threw me off. But I know that it will all get done. It may even all get done this weekend!

Tomorrow is Friday and it's going to be an awesome weekend. Brett and I will be enjoying a low point dinner at Jason's Deli tomorrow night and then doing some shopping! I want it to be a productive shopping trip, so I hope we have some time to organize before and at dinner. Saturday night is our staff Christmas party, but the day will begin with a WW meeting, where I should have a decent loss, and then I will be relaxing with my baby.

Actually, hold that thought. My mother-in-law came to the craft fair (of course... she is one of my biggest supporters) and a few of her co-workers requested some of my items! I need to make 17 more Christmas tree pencils, which will take a WHILE! They are simple, but a little time consuming. Especially for a $1 product. But I also have one set of ornaments to finish, and someone requested three sets of note cards and another person requested 3 bookmarks. Thank goodness the bookmarks are done!

So... it will definitely be a busy weekend, but I am 100% determined to make it a good weekend. It started off well tonight! Brett and I tried a new restaurant tonight where I had the best tortilla soup I've had, maybe ever, and then I went to Lane Bryant with Jennifer, where I put a healthy dent in that credit card, and gave my wardrobe a HUGE boost!

I'm so tired. I've got to go to bed!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! I will catch up on blogs soon!