a nice surprise

Look what is blooming by my front door! AND IT'S ALMOST DECEMBER!!!!

Speaking of December, I did a lot more shopping today!! (What do you think of that, Robbie! haha!) My FIL was giving me a hard time about all my shopping of late. Anyway, it was all Christmas shopping, and I even did some of my mom's shopping for her, since she's still out of commission. I love shopping. If any of you want me to do your Christmas shopping, I'll do it for a small fee. :-)

I also went to Memory Lane to pick up my kit from the book club meeting I missed. While I was there I ran into Denise and her incredibly cute and vivacious little girl, who's turning 6 in 10 days, she informed me! Anyway, Denise is teaching a cool Christmas candle class tomorrow morning, so I signed up. I'm so excited!!

I'm really getting into the Christmas spirit now. Brian is on his way home, and it's not even 10pm yet!! I've got his Star Wars tree up, and we're going to try to put the ornaments on it tonight. Last night, while we watched The Biggest Loser (and I cried yet AGAIN), I put the stamps and return address labels on all 90 envelopes for my Christmas cards. Now I need to sign them and stamp the backs. I've talked Brian into writing a Christmas letter, and he's come up with a really fun idea for it, so hopefully he'll get that done tonight.

Ooh! He's home! Gotta go and order a pizza.

rainy days and mondays

I'm taking a little break from putting up Chrismas decorations to blog. We returned from South Carolina last night at 11:30!!!! What should have been an 8 hour trip took 10 hours. I have just one word: traffic. :-(

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a huge success! We had a wonderful time. I just love Brian's family--they have always made me feel welcome, even when we were dating. So I just wanna give a shout out to the extended Sox family--hey, guys!! I had no idea that they were all reading my blog! Crazy!

I did everything I could to get some good pictures of Emma, but she's just too quick for me. She smiles at the camera for a split second--not even long enough for me to push the button! As a result, I got lots of pictures of the back of her head!!

I just wanted to share a few pictures from our holiday trip. I've just spent about an hour trying to get the pictures into a nice format, but I just can't do it!! So they're all in a big long line, sorry. (click on a picture for a bigger image)
Aunt Stacie and Uncles Greg and Marty
Uncles Junior and Pate
Emma and Brian's sister Amanda (with Brian's mom, Christine, in the background)
Cousin Becca
Brian's dad (Robbie) and Emma
Brian's brother's wife, Angela, and Emma
Cousin Robert
Aunt Patsy and Cousin Kelly hiding behind her
Cousins Drew and Allison
Aunt Laurie
Memaw and Brian

thanksgiving eve

Well, I'm finally feeling better! I had to miss my scrapbook book club, and I'm so mad about it. But I felt like death on a cracker, so I figured I shouldn't try to go and infect the others. I'm going to try to get to the store today and pick up my kit. Thanks for the posts, Denise! I'll see you very soon!

Yesterday, I ran down to West Colonial Drive to do some errands. I had to get envelopes for my Christmas cards, go to the bank, pick up my December kit from the Scrapbook Shak, go to the grocery store, etc. Well, on the 429, you have to pay toll. It's $1. (There is a LOT of toll to be paid in Orlando.) Anyway, I thought about it as I left, and thought I had a few dollar bills in my purse. As I approached the toll booth, I realized that I did NOT, in fact, have any dollar bills. So I started scrounging for change. I had 2 quarters, 3 dimes, 2 nickels, and 10 pennies.

I got to the window and handed the lady my change. She said, "I need a dollar." I said, "That IS a dollar." She sighed and said, "But now I have to count it."

What the heck! Isn't that her job?! I mean, come on, she sits in a toll booth all day taking money!

This morning, I was reading all my friends' blogs, and I came across this hilarious post by Sara. It reminded me of my favorite McDonald's experience. OK, not my favorite, but definitely the one I remember most. Here's the story:

We lived in Atlanta, and I worked part-time for a scrapbook store. It was a Friday night, and I had closed, so it was like 10:00. I was famished, so I stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru for some dinner. I'll refer (as Sara did) to the drive-thru voice as McD.

McD: Can I take your order?
Me: I want a hamburger, PLAIN, with pickles only.

**Let me interrupt myself. I must explain, again as Sara did, why I order my hamburger this way. If I order it with pickles only, I will get it with everything. So I must say PLAIN first, so they get it, then casually add the PICKLES ONLY after. I hate all condiments, so scraping them off is not an option. You can still taste them and the bun gets all soggy from ketchup or whatever. Yuck!**

McD: We no have hamburger.
Me: (thinking) What? This is McDonald's!
Me: (talking) Are you out of burgers?
McD: No.
Me: OK, then, I'd like a hamburger, PLAIN, with pickles only.

Now this goes on for a few minutes, with me repeating my order, him saying, "we no have hamburger," me asking if they are out of burgers, and him saying no. UGH! Finally, I said, "I'm just going to pull around to the window."

I pull around, roll down my window, and the guy grins and says, "We have hamburger."

WHAT!!!! I can still remember how mad I was. I don't even remember if I got a burger! LOL

ANYWAY! It's the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm quite excited to see Brian's family. I LOVE his brother's crazy wife, Angela. The Sox family is notedly quiet, and Angela and I can really bring some noise to the room! We both talk up a storm, and she has the BEST southern accent! We are going to have so much fun with the fam!

Now I have to do a few more quick errands, bake a cake, pack our clothes, and clean the house. I hate coming home to a dirty house when I've been out of town! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

sweater weather

Will I EVER be able to wear a sweater in Florida? Right now, I think not. Maybe in January. Right now it's 78 degrees and climbing! It's hard to think about putting my Christmas tree up while I'm wearing shorts and the A/C is on!!

But it looks like it will be in the 50's in Greenville this weekend, so maybe I'll be able to wear a sweater while we're there for Thanksgiving. It will be great to see Brian's family! Angela, Brian's brother's wife, is pregnant with a boy! Another nephew! And we'll get to see our niece, Emma. I'm sure it will be a relaxing time--I always feel very relaxed at the Sox home.

This weekend, I've been SLAYED by an enormous headache. It developed on Friday afternoon, and though "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was a fabulous movie, I couldn't enjoy it to the fullest with my head pounding! Saturday I mostly felt fine, but I woke up with the same headache on Sunday and it did not let up ALL DAY. And guess what--it's back today. I nearly died when I woke up this morning and it still hurt. I just spent about an hour laying completely still in the dark, breathing deeply, and it's a little bit better. Hopefully it will continue getting better, because I have my first scrapbooking book club meeting tonight, and I will be REALLY disappointed if I have to miss it!

praise for good things

I read an article the other day that said something like this: we sure do a lot of complaining/talking about bad things that happen to us. We do so much of it that sometimes we are afraid to tell people about the GOOD things that are going on--because we don't want to upset someone who's having a hard time by telling them that our lives are good at the moment.

That, as my dad would say, is hogwash. I'm ready to talk about the good things. Everyone has crappy days and rough times. But face it: we have a lot more normal days than bad ones. Let's celebrate those.

Today, my mom FINALLY had her appointment with the specialist, about her back. After 2 cancelled appointments and 1 rescheduled one, it was about time! They are either going to give her epidural steroids in her spine or do surgery. She's got to find out from her eye doctor if the steroids are okay. There's also a possibility that part of a disc has broken off and is laying on her sciatic nerve. Wouldn't that be wonderful! Then the doctor would just have to take out that little piece. Either way, if she has surgery, it won't be too invasive: a one-inch incision and everything done through a tube. Praise God! Relief for Mom is in sight!

















I spent yesterday with my fab friend Leslie, and her husband and son. They were wonderful! I haven't seen Les since my wedding! Anyway, we talked about scrapping and remembered our college days and wondered about old friends. It was a great time. We played with Joshua a lot, too. He is the cutest thing! Great big dimples, and a winning personality. Precious! His newest "game" is covering himself up with his blanket and then giggling like crazy when someone says, "Where's Josh?!" It so hilarious!


Tonight, EA is taking all the employees (and families) to the Universal City Walk to see the new Harry Potter movie. I'm so excited! Brian and I LOVE Harry Potter and we've been waiting for this movie release. We never thought we'd be able to see it for free at such a cool place!

Brian has to work tomorrow, so I plan to spend the day scrapping and working on Christmas stuff. I spent most of today cleaning so I won't have to do it tomorrow. I still have to vacuum before I get ready for our night out, but I took a little break to have a sandwich so I won't be tempted to eat a ton at the theater. Of course, just walking into the kitchen causes the cats to run over and beg. I don't know why they do this! They have fresh food and water! So they ended up feasting on some ham. I'm such a pushover! Now they are taking mega-baths.

Which is what I'm going to do, after I vacuum. Happy Friday, everyone!

a bit of shopping

Today I went to the Florida Mall and spent around 4 hours or so in Sephora. It is an AMAZING store, and I went with no makeup on so I could play. They have testers of everything you could possibly imagine makeup, body, and hair-wise, and they have little stations all over the store with lighted mirrors, tissues, a variety of makeup applicators, water, cleanser, sanitizer, etc. Kelly and Yanttze (pronounced Yancey) helped me--they did my eyes in lots of different ways, made my lips shiny and kissable, helped me find proper skin care products, found me an incredible foundation, and loaded me down with tons of sweet-smelling samples. When I finally left I was pampered, shimmering, scented in pink sugar, mai-tai, pina colada, and cotton candy--and my wallet was quite a bit lighter! But it had been awhile since I had paid that much attention to myself, so I figured I deserved it. Brian agreed--he encouraged me to make the most out of this time while I don't have a job. :-)

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things I bought:

Urban Decay Shadow Box 2






DuWop Little Stars Lip Venom Glosses








Vincent Longo Liquid Canvas
Dew Finish Foundation




I also bought Stila eyeshadow, Smashbox brow tech, Philosophy cleanser, a brush set, and many other beautifying and pampering products. I LOVE it all!

When I left the Florida Mall at about 6:30, I headed to The Scrapbook Boutique on Sand Lake Road. It was a beautiful store with lots of new stuff. I'm quite proud that I only spent $11 in there--on ColorBox Fluid Chalk cat's eye ink pads (thanks, Sera) and some Christmas paper.

Brian was still working so I went on over to the Mall at Millenia. It was a FAN-CEEEEE mall! I went in Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Pottery Barn (of course), Crate and Barrel, Tiffany and Co., Betsey Johnson, and many more stores that were way too expensive to buy anything in!! :-D I did, however, notice that Macy's was having a sale, so I ran in there and bought some awesome $70 shoes for $25! Nothing like a bargain! The shoes are brown pointy-toed sling-back heels. They are awesome. (Tara would be proud.)

AND....now for the big news!! My wonderful piano-playing friend Leslie is in Florida! Leslie and I were piano majors together at MVNU. We also lived in an apartment on campus together for 2 years. She and her husband and their adorable son are staying at the Jupiter Beach Resort, which is about 2.5 hours away from here. Scott is there on business, so Leslie and Joshua are just vacationing--and I'm going down tomorrow to visit them! I haven't seen Leslie since my wedding (!) and I haven't even met Josh, so I'm super excited! I guess I'd better get to bed so I'll be decent company tomorrow! But first I'll have some ice cream and watch America's Next Top Model. I'm lovin' all the drama! haha!

One final thought - my life certainly isn't perfect, by any means. But I'm so thankful that I've made the decision to be happy. Brian and I are deliriously happy, even though we miss our friends in NY, Brian has to work lots of overtime with no extra pay, it's hot, etc.--the list of complaints could go on and on. We all have many things to complain about, don't we? There are always people who are better off than us, it seems. But Brian and I are happy TODAY, in the small things. And just the thought of that makes me happy.

*******************

It's almost time to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!

holiday spirit

OK. I'll admit it. I'm listening to my Christmas music RIGHT NOW!!!! I get in the Christmas spirit in about October. It's been different this year, what with it being 9,000 degrees, but my trip up north changed all that! One day it was in the 20's! Yay! It TOTALLY got me in the spirit. I'm going to start decorating this week, mainly because it will take me awhile to go through all of our Christmas decorations and assess any damage from the move. Also, many of my Rubbermaid bins containing decorations were damaged in the move, so I'll have to replace those. AND, we're going to be in SC for Thanksgiving this year, and Thanksgiving weekend is when I usually decorate. And I go ALL OUT! I usually have anywhere between 3 and 7 trees! I bought a new one last year for Brian's Star Wars ornaments, so this year I'll have even more! And all of this will take even longer since it's our first Christmas in this house, so I'll have to find places for everything. I'm SO EXCITED!

My Christmas cards, all NINETY of them, are finished and just need to be put in envelopes, addressed, and stamped. I'm heading to the PO in a few minutes to get holiday stamps. I've also been doing lots of Christmas shopping! I had planned to shop some today, but the day has gotten away from me, so I believe I'll go tomorrow after my haircut at 11:30. My hair hasn't been cut since like AUGUST, which is unheard of for me, so I'm way past due.

Every year when I get out my Christmas CD's, I have a little personal celebration. Christmas music has special meaning to me. Some of my Christmas CD's remind me of certain times in my life, and when I listen to them, I'm taken back to those times. Others are just so beautiful, they bring me to tears--like Michael W. Smith's "Christmas"--the first time I play it each year I am moved by how exquisite the music is.

I want to finish with the words to a favorite Christmas song. These words capture what I'm feeling right now, and what my prayer is at Christmastime and all year through.


"Welcome to Our World"
written by Chris Rice

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking,
How we need to hear from God.
You’ve been promised, we’ve been waiting,
Welcome, Holy Child--
Welcome, Holy Child.

Hope that You don’t mind our manger,
How I wish we would have known--
But, long-awaited Holy Stranger,
Make Yourself at home,
Please, make Yourself at home.

Bring Your peace into our violence,
Bid our hungry souls be filled,
World now breaking Heaven’s silence,
Welcome to our world--
Welcome to our world.

Fragile fingers sent to heal us,
Tender brow prepared for thorn,
Tiny heart whose blood will save us--
Unto us is born,
Unto us is born.

So wrap our injured flesh around You,
Breathe our air and walk our sod.
Rob our sin and make us holy,
Perfect Son of God--
Perfect Son of God,
Welcome to our world.

holiday part 2

I have prolonged my trip! Yes, folks, I'm still in Albany, hanging out with my friends. We've been scrapping up a storm and I have completed 70 Christmas cards, and I'm almost finished with the last 20. I'm hoping 90 will be enough!!!!

Anyway, here are a few more pages of Braden I did over the weekend. Click on them for larger images. Mom, these are for you--I know they'll cheer you up!

b

This is my favorite page from the weekend. :-)

holiday

In my British books, they call vacation "holiday." They say things like, "I'm taking holiday in Paris," or "He's on holiday for the next week." Today, that word has double meanings for me, because I kind of AM on vacation. I'm still in Albany, hanging out at Sera's. And it feels like a real holiday, because I got up and she was cooking, so the house smelled great! And Jeff is off today, so he's watching tv, and the kids are out of school for election day. It's great! It feels like Thanksgiving.

The Crop-a-Lot weekend was grand. We had a lot of fun complaining about the lady who made "announcements" (obnoxious comments) over the loud speaker. And we complained about the extremely, annoyingly loud COUNTRY music pumping through the room. I did most of THAT complaining, because I despise country, except for the Dixie Chicks, Shedaisy, and one or two more.

We got a fair amount of scrapping done. OK, I did like 5 pages in 20 hours or something like that! Not so great, but we did a lot of talking and laughing, so it was worth it. Sera was not feeling her best on Saturday night and Sunday, but that's a whole nother story! Maybe someday I'll blog about it. But not today.

Anyway, since returning to Sera's, we've done quite a bit of scrapping. I did several pages of Braden, of course, and a few others for my 2005 book. I'll be posting some eventually. Today we're going to scrap, as soon as we're ready, and then Sera's having a Stampin' Up! party tonight, with Meg demonstrating. I finally get to see Jenn! And Sara's coming, too. And my friend Kerri Catalano. It'll be great to hang out with everyone! And buy some stamps!

I'll probably start on my Christmas cards today. I know it seems early, but do you realize that Thanksgiving is in 2 weeks and 2 days??!! I was hoping to have all of the Sox family's gifts done by then, so we can take them instead of shipping them. See, we're spending Thanksgiving with Brian's family and Christmas with mine. It's different than what we've done in the past, so we'll see how we like it.

on a roll

OK, I'm totally on a roll making Christmas gift tags! They are so quick and fun! Instant gratification! I really need to be preplanning pages instead, but I'm hooked. I've finally closed up shop for the night, though I have a few more ideas for tomorrow.

I went in the kitchen a minute ago and noticed that Max had a drinking straw. He was carrying it around and playing with it. Upon further inspection, I saw that he had gotten into the pantry and gotten it out himself! I guess he felt he had run out of toys!!?! At least he's not in here walking on my stamp supplies.

Brian's snoring on the couch in my office, so I guess I'd better turn in. Maybe I'll plan a few pages first! :-)

book talk

OK, it's time for another post about books. As many of you know, I'm an avid reader. I'm an even more avid listener of audio books. At any given time, I'll be listening to one in my car, listening to another one at home, and reading at least one. Sometimes I even have TWO going at home: one in my bedroom (I listening while I'm in the shower and getting ready) and one in the kitchen (I listen while I cook and clean, and sometimes I move it around to whatever room I'm in).

I know, I'm crazy. But I'm a definite multi-tasker.

ANYWAY, awhile back I started listening to the Bailey Weggins series by Kate White. These are murder mysteries, but not humorous ones, like the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. (Last week I finished the latest one in the Plum Series: "Eleven on Top." NUMBER 11!!) No, Kate White's books are very different, but very good. They keep you guessing. I love it! Her first one was "If Looks Could Kill," and then "A Body to Die For." I just finished reading the third one, "'Til Death Do Us Part" and it was great! I've already reserved the fourth (and newest) one at the library: "Over Her Dead Body." Here's a link to her website.

Right now I'm listening to "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" by Elizabeth Berg. Her books can be a little strange at times, but they're always very interesting. They are mostly just stories about people, but they are really well written and the story lines are wonderful. When I finish this book, I will have read all of her books and then I'll start waiting for her new ones. :-) I've also read all the books by Jan Karon and Marian Keyes, and I anxiously await their new ones all the time.

Ooh, and I also continuously wait for new James Patterson books in both the Alex Cross series and the Women's Murder Club series. Both of these series are excellent--I would highly recommend them, if you're not easily scared by stories!

headachy thoughts

Brian and I both have headache syndrome lately. I personally felt like crap all day Sunday, and when I started feeling better around 6 or 7:00, Brian started feeling bad. Today I've had a headache all day, which is bad, because I really need to pre-plan some scrapbook pages and pack some supplies for my trip to Albany this weekend! But all I feel like doing is laying around on the couch.

So I'm going to Albany on Friday to visit my awesome friends, and coming back next Wednesday. I cannot wait! We're going to Crop-a-lot in Saratoga. I've seriously got to get packing! I'm a little concerned about bringing my precious scrap supplies on the plane, so I think I'll pack the irreplaceable stuff (i.e. pictures) in my carry on. This is going to be a great weekend! Don't worry, I'll post pictures!! :-D

One good thing from this rainy, sickly day: I bought tickets for Brian and I to go to the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular in December! No, not in NY. This year they're traveling, and they're coming to Orlando, and we're going! On December 14th. I can't wait! I LOVE Christmas!!!!