Looking Forward

So, I posted the last year recap, now for the next year to do list-

Physically-
Spend alot more time in these-

(bad cell phone picture, I know)
Even if it means having to buy new ones soon!

Getting to the point where all of my pants, dresses and skirts for work fasten easily, without having to be stretched out or having to be worried about what underwear I'm wearing since things are a little tight in back these days.

Get my stomach ready for tanning season, just so that I can feel good about myself, I know it's stupid and shallow, so shoot me.

Basically, I've worn the same size since I was 19, have never been pregnant and want to keep things that way, but, I'm already (at 25) seeing a change in my energy levels and metabolism, so working out, here I come again!  I was running quite a bit when we were first down here, I ran daily from 19-21, and seasonally after that, then it hit triple digits every day, then work went crazy for the holidays, so now I'm getting back in routine, hopefully daily, not just 3-4 times a week so that when I have to skip a day I miss it, not am relieved to not have had time to work out.  I don't even care about losing pounds, or even inches, just keeping things tight.  If I could do that without adding any extra bulk though, I'd certainly enjoy it.

Spiritually-
Pray through the "Power of the Praying Wife" quarterly this year.  I'd shoot for monthly as there are 30 topics to pray over, but seriously, things come up that are specific prayer needs at times other than fitting into the cycle, so I'm leaving room for error. 

I've prayed through it once every 6-8 months during our marriage, so most of the topics are memorized by now, but I want to do them more regularly, using them as a base for all of my prayer times. Whenever I'm focusing on praying for my husband, selflessly, not just to change to stop doing things that annoy me, or to do things exactly how I want him to, I see a huge difference in our communication, and our patience levels with each other. And, I see a huge difference in my outlook towards our marriage.

Emotionally-
GET OVER MY IN-LAWS.  Yep, that's a big one, kind of huge and has always been an issue, but I need to get over the past stuff and be ready to move forward and just be myself with them without freaking out about what problems they're going to find in me and our marriage and my treatment of their son. HE LOVES ME, they can deal. I just need to get over it all so I can stop being afraid of talking to them, or being around them, and stop dreading anything having to do with them. I know those fears come across when I'm around them and I need to get over them.

Personally-
Perfect my manual shooting skills. Meaning, get myself fast enough and comfortable enough with adjusting my aperture and iso settings that I can start using them on living beings, not just scenery that doesn't move.  I've never done much with manual during portrait shooting except for seniors and sleeping babies, and I want to kick it up so that I can get those levels fast enough that I can improve all of my baby and children photography shots.  Thanks to Rachel for her I Heart Photography tutorials, because seriously, my husband's explanations didn't make nearly as much sense as hers did.  He tried explaining all the settings and numbers when I first got my camera, but I didn't get it, so I mostly just played around with trial and error, now I kind of feel like I know what I'm doing. I just need a few young test subjects to see if I really get it or not. :) 

Professionally-
Branch out and network and advertise my piano and guitar lessons somehow!  I seriously miss teaching full time, so even 6-8 students would be such a joy!  Of course I'd take more, like enough to quit my day job, but that might take another year.  Of course, who knows, once I took the leap of faith and advertised in NY I went from 10-25 in 3 months.

Offer a few free photoshoot opportunities and get the word out. I work with the children's choirs at church, we're part of a newlyweds and young families group at church, and I work with women all day, so seriously, I just need to open my mouth.  It worked in NY, so shooting for free for a month or two should be totally worth it. I booked most of my shoots in NY by word of mouth, so all I have to do is get the ball rolling.

I'm off to grab a shower and some lunch, and basically just reverse my run since my husband is off and that never means fixing healthy lunch food, but whatever, I'll run again tomorrow.

New Year, New Post and a Little Review

So this year has been a bit of a full one, kind of crazy, alot of unexpected things, alot of planned changes and a bit of drama.  I'm recapping today partially for the sake of documenting and moving on to a hopefully less hectic and more organized year, but really, I'm just in the mood to write. :)

January-

We were still in our townhouse in NY, surrounded by boxes and selling off or throwing away anything we hadn't personally paid any large amount of money for and preparing friends and family for our soon departure.  I was a numb mess, trying not to feel anything about the move for fear of being distracted from all of the tasks that had to accomplished before we made the actual move.  I really don't remember a whole lot about the month, mostly due to the whole "numb" thing.

February-

Was probably a tie for worst months in a long time......moving SUCKS!  Sorry, don't use that word very often, but seriously, it's true when it comes to moving and leaving the first 25 years of your life and half of your belongings and all of your friends behind.  The last 2 weeks of working with my students I seriously cried my way to and from most of my lessons, unless I could get ahold of my sister or mom on the phone to distract me during the drive.  My reaction to our last couple of youth groups was pretty similar. My reaction now writing this is pretty similar, so time to change subjects......

March-

We arrived in Texas to sunshine, warmth, a welcome home at my parents, a fantastic church family in our lifegroup and jobs that practically landed in our laps.  It came with my birthday, a ton of chaos from my husband's family (the only big YUCK that led to 5 months of my brother-in-law not speaking the my husband even and my in-laws all basically ostracizing me.) and our first month not paying rent and utilities and being able to start our massive debt payoff. **Tips may come in a future blog if anyone's interested, we're 75% paid-off with everything but my husband's Elim loans in 9 months.

April-

Finally saw Texas starting to feel natural, and like August in NY! It also brought the discovery that our car's A/C had died sometime over the winter months, in 90 degree heat, that meant some major money saving to put the $900 into it to get the air replaced.  It also brought my first MLB game, for free, 12 rows behind home plate, thanks to my aunt's fiance. :) Gotta love good connections!

The coolest sign in Minute Maid Park!

May-

Essentially started with out 4th Wedding Anniversary at the beginning of the month.....4 Years since this-

All I have to say is WOW! Has it been an adventure!

May was also when we found out that my sister was going to be giving us a niece! Lots of fun and excitement!

June-

The annual Walt Disney World trip. Goodness do I love the fact that my parents are seasonal cast members and have to work twice a year and can get us in for free :)

June also brought us our first consistent 3 digit temperatures.  That A/C was getting to be a necessity and we were getting desperate for the money to afford it! Too bad paying off the car, and one bank in NY both 4 months ahead of schedule and paying for our hotel in Disney were more fun :) 2 accounts out of 6 paid off!

July-
Was honestly so HOT I don't remember a whole lot of it.  Seriously, your brain stops working at about 106 degrees! Trust me, an entire month where it hits 3 digits by 10am will make anyone have temporary amnesia! My brother in law did finally propose to his girlfriend of 5 1/2 years, so wedding planning began in NY, and tension began in our house waiting to see if my husband was going to get the option of being a witness to his brother's wedding.

August-
Kind of the same as July, nothing major besides paying off our furniture debt and replacing our A/C! FINALLY!! We could stop sweating through our clothes before leaving the subdivision and were not embarrassed to go out in public because of the sweat marks that were visible in our clothes just running to the grocery store! Seriously, I wish I was joking, but we'd literally leave sweat puddles in our seats just running 2 1/2 miles to Target. Yeah, nasty!

It also was the month I got promoted at work, more hours, more pay, and at least emergencies only insurance. Still not full time, but that's fine with me!

September-
Brought me back to something I LOVE and was missing significantly in my life! See details HERE.

My life started feeling "normal" again! Whatever "normal" is :)

It also brought some crazy emotions when my brother-in-law decided to semi-reconcile with my husband-meaning, he started talking to him again, but never addressed the issue or apologized for anything, just starting acting like nothing had happened.  This was really really tough for me, because I had been majorly treated as the root of all evil, demon person and still haven't really seen any improvement in my in-laws treatment of me, except maybe from my mother-in-law who's only clingy and accidentally mean in her lack of thought before speaking.  She still isn't warm, but she's not nasty, the other haven't given me the time of day in over a year.  So, yeah, that's still an issue and yeah.....

October-
We finally got some relief from the heat! Our average temp was only 86. :)  Yeah, still felt like August in NY to me!  It also brought the start of hockey season, much to my husband's excitement.....

November-
Started a crazy two months of work drama for me, and hectic schedules with church events, extra hours at work, and trying to stockpile money before my husband goes into slow season at his work.  We put another $500 worth of work into our car and paid off half of a credit card, on top of Christmas shopping, not a bad month overall, just hectic.

And, finally December-

We're caught up, we had the arrival of our niece,

Christmas, craziness, and still 70 degree temperatures.

Christmas pictures maybe coming, but definitely light pictures.

Here's to an easier 2011!  Happy New Year Everyone! 

Or, rather anyone reading, comment if you're reading, I'm curious who's still keeping up with my inconsistant blogging.

Christmas in words....

Pictures to follow when I get around to dumping to the computer and sorting.....

Christmas Eve I was actually off, a MIRACLE in retail!  So, alot of baking and cooking went on.  Chocolate Snowflakes, Cutout Sugar Cookies, Thumbprints, Russian Teacakes, Cocktail Meatballs, and Veggie Pizza.

My Cousin Tommy and his wife Shannon came to the giant Christmas pageant at our church, seriously, this thing was HUGE!! I should have brought a camera, but in my rush to get and shower, dry hair and makeup on in the 35 minutes I had when I realized I was still washing dishes and we were leaving in 35 minutes, I forgot to find a memory card, so the camera was worthless.  But, anyways, HUGE!! They had live sheep, camels, a donkey and oddly enough, an ELEPHANT in the play! I don't know about you, but I've never seen a nativity seen with an elephant in it before, but whatever, it was still cool looking.

After church they had planned on having a sledding hill going for the kids, but the whole 50 and raining turned the hill into a mudslide, so I didn't get to go see any snow :(  I just wanted a look, really, even if I am one of the few people in the city with actual snowpants, I could deal with the 12 and under only thing, really!

Christmas Eve my aunt and her fiance (long story, but I'm the only one who won't call him "uncle" after they've been together almost 20 years) joined her son and his wife at our house for hors d'oeuvres and cookies and "It's a Wonderful Life".

We started our Christmas morning as late as I can ever remember, with Apple Cinnamon Muffins and Caramel Lattes and presents around 10am.  I love adult only Christmas mornings for that whole, sleeping in and coffee first set up!

My husband paid attention to my hints and shopped at James Avery, and my mom added to my kitchen collection with a set of LeCruset bakeware.  I got my pots and pans for our second anniversary, in the royal blue, and now I've added the Caribbean bakeware to my collection. :)  Can't wait to get my own kitchen again!

We got my parents a webcam for Christmas, and I must say, I topped everyone else's gifts! My mom cried, I was happy.  Later Christmas day we were able to Skype with my sister and baby Vivien (who slept through the entire call) and my mom is dying to use it again. 

Later that evening we went touring Christmas lights and to my aunt's house for dessert. I'll post picks of the lights later, seriously, Houston lights are like no other lights I've seen!

I worked day after Christmas sales, but today we cashed in our Christmas money (which we still get from some of my family, totally didn't expect it!) on our own modern TV.  We'd donated our old tube TV's to the Youth Group we'd worked with in NY and had been using a 19" hand me down tube TV since we'd moved down.  We decided to browse open box deals for the fun of it this afternoon, thinking maybe we'd get lucky and find some 32" whatever brand LCD for $400, and somehow, miraculously, stumbled upon a formerly $1100 37" LED for half price! Needless to say we scrounged the difference up from another savings fund we'd started for an expense we knew was coming next summer, and grabbed it up! 

So, Merry Christmas to us! My husband can now see his sports and video games again, happy happy joy joy :)  I need to find a book series I think!

Well, I'm caught up on this week, so I'm off to try to drag my husband away from the XBox and ESPN and to bed, wish me luck!

Some Christmas Cuteness.....

It's better than my grumpiness from everything else!

Vivien dressed up in her Christmas Dress from me!

Just about enough to make me un-angry about work garbage, and being way too far behind in my cleaning and baking, and having had a constant headache from not having enough time to drink enough coffee and dealing with too many stupid people in the store and driving in the WORST TRAFFIC ON EARTH and everything else this week.

Going to go find some chocolate, and make a latte, and make some cookie dough, and do some laundry and wash some dishes. All before bedtime, and it's already 8:20.

Happy December.

Okay, more cuteness required.  She looks so much like Allie! Lucky little baby girl!

I'm an Aunt!

Vivien Grace arrived at 2:48pm, Thursday December 9th.
8 lbs, 8 oz, 19inches long. 

Somehow my eternally skinny sister and her equally skinny husband got a chunky baby.

Can't wait to meet her one of these days, Minnesota's a long way away!

Congratulations Allie and Stephen!

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Yeah, so I'm waaaaayyy behind!  But here we go anyways.....

I haven't been in retail in 5 years, so I'd forgotten how exhausting Thanksgiving weekend can be.  Not smart when planning your baking list and Black Friday shopping list. 

So my baking list looked something like this.....

We didn't get to any pictures of us because Thanksgiving dinner with two people over the age of 80 goes REALLY FAST!  I'm used to Thanksgiving involving multiple generations and households, and starting when people show up to help cook at 1:00, and then eating around 3:00, then laying around stuffed and talking and playing dumb party games until you realize how late it is and serve dessert around 8:00 and then cleaning up and leaving sometime after 10:00 and then getting up at 4:00am to shop.  This year it was more like, show up at 4:00, eat, clean up, eat dessert, clean up, leave at 6:30.  Yeah, a 2 1/2 hour Thanksgiving.  It was interesting, and I got the most sleep I've ever gotten before a black friday, as in some.

Speaking of, my shopping list involved Best Buy(new cool person phone for FREE), Target, Walmart, Bed Bath and Beyond, Ulta, Office Max, Staples, Mardel (local Christian book store) and a handful of clothing stores, all of which were highly successful stops, we got everything and then some on our lists, and all in time for me to come home, shower, eat and get to work by 3:00. 

Work was fun too, our new District Manager, is not a nice person.  She decided at 6:11pm on Friday that instead of being open until 8:00pm, we should stay open til 10:00pm, and didn't have a say in it.  Also, instead of opening at 9:00am the next morning we had to open at 7:00am and stay open until 9:00pm instead of 7:00pm, and then on Sunday we had to be open from 10am til 8pm instead of our usual 12-6pm.  Yeah, NOT FUN!!!!  Especially since I was working all of those days. We won't even start about her visit to our store during my shift last night......basically, she makes me think some very not nice things that I'm at least slightly ashamed of.

Anyways, off to do more baking for our Sunday School class Thanksgiving/Christmas potluck.  Pies are mostly done, but I need to get all my extras finished.  And get more coffee, coffee first!

I'm making a list.....

Of ingredients that it!  I've been grocery shopping around the stores for the last two days for ingredients for-
Chocolate Fudge
White Chocolate Fudge
Oreo Fudge
Molasses Crinkles
Cut Out Cookies
French Crumb Apple Pie
and Pumpkin Pie

If you can't tell, I run the desserts for Thanksgiving.

Food posts coming soon! Followed by Black Friday deals!

Some Seriously Festive Workout music!

 

I'm going to admit, I'm not the speediest of runners, probably because I'm not consistent enough.  I tend to run 4 times a week for 3 weeks, then take 2-3 weeks off, then run 3 times a week for a month, stop for 2 weeks, 5 times a week for 2 weeks, etc....you get the idea.  Well, I've found my motivation for running this Christmas season! 

I just ran to this for 15 minutes, and ran 1.67 miles! Seriously? I wasn't watching the distance tracker thing, because usually it's just depressing, but when I checked 15 minutes in I was so shocked! Usually that would be like 1.2 miles!  Trans Siberian Orchestra it is for me! 

It's time for a date.....

With a few of these guys....

 

And then maybe one with my husband later this week :)

Because.....

I missed the fall leaves in NY this year I couldn't help changing my background. I'm still trying to figure out blogspot's new template designer, hopefully they will have better things for Christmas, otherwise I'll need to find another template somewhere. Anyone have any tips of easy FREE templates that work right on blogspot?  I'd used "cutest blog on the block" before, but it didn't seem to work right anymore, or maybe I just need to read the instructions better :)

Anyways, for now this will have to do. :) Makes me want to take pictures and drink lattes in a park!

Today's Loves..........

Actually having an entire Sunday off to go to Sunday School AND Service!

Leftover Pizza and Sale Fliers

Walking around an Outlet Mall that just opened new wings and have new stores and extra sales, with my husband and a Venti Caramel Machiatto!

LOVE the red cups being back!

New Casual Sneakers- for $20!!

They totally remind me of 4th grade!

French Toast and Bacon for Dinner with homemade Hot Cocoa on a rainy night!

Fresh Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies!

And and Ocean's movie!

It's been a good day!

Giveaway alert!

My good blog friend Sarah is hosting a giveaway over on her blog "Loving Life as a Mommy and Wife".  Jump over HERE to join in the fun!!

Wow, a month, really?

So, I lost track of my blog, again! I've still been reading all this time, but I just never found anything perfect to post about. 

Do you ever have times when everything is either too serious, or might offend someone, or is too cheesy, or doesn't seem like it would be interesting to anyone, or is depressing to write about? That's been my month.

I honestly haven't taken a picture in close to a month, haven't tried any new recipes, haven't really gone anywhere, so, there haven't really been many topics that I thought could interest anyone.  I've been dealing with some more figuring stuff out with my husbands family and trying to let go of things and forgive people who won't apologize, and/or let myself trust them enough to not still be distant, so that's high stress and depressing to write about.  I've wanted to just sort of journal/vent everything on here, but as much as usually I'm very open, I'm trying to actually think about people's perspectives and not offend anyone. (If you know me, you know this is not usually my style!) I can honestly say I've forgiven everything, I'm just having trust issues with fixing the relationships, but I'm working on it.

Work's been crazy again, more shifts, more shifts in positions and power in my store, and just different chemistry than usual to get used to.  My husband's work has been crazier with end of season events, so now that his work is finally slowing down, mine is picking up for Christmas, figures! 

I'm totally having a hard time getting psyched up for Christmas while wearing shorts! Christmas shopping in flip flops while listening to Winter Wonderland is just comical to me!  I am making headway though, mostly because I love to shop and love the extra excuse! I finished my sister's family so that I could ship everything up with the presents for my soon to be born niece and save on postage.  Now, on to my in-laws since their presents have to be shipped as well. 

Anyways, I'm rambling! Tomorrow I write something real, maybe even with a picture! No promises, but I'll try! The weather's been beautiful (65-85 and ZERO clouds!) so I really don't have too many good excuses!

The Covenant

Why is it that so many marriages fail?

Because too many couples think of marriage as a contract-"you do this, I'll marry you", "you say this I'll love you", "you do this one specific thing in one specific way at a specific time and I'll be happy", "you never tell me this and I'll stay", etc. They think make these lists of perfect conditions they want in life, no matter how reasonable or not, and as soon as those conditions change they leave.

But marriage isn't a "contract", it's a "covenant", made before God, to God and your spouse.

When my husband and I got married we did something people argued against, on top of our unity candle, we took communion in our protestant ceremony, just the two of us.  We lit our unity candle as a dedication of our individual lives to each other.  We took communion as a dedication of our one life together to God.

Not everyone agreed, saying communion is supposed to be a community fellowship event, but we didn't care.  I think if more couples saw marriage that way, the divorce rate would go down.  Even if as humans we fail and break promises to other people, I would hope people would think twice before deliberately breaking a promise made to God.

Just a thought......

Because I think it's important

I'm posting the next three posts because these are the video studies we've been working through with our Lifegroup at church and I really really feel like they're incredibly relevant for alot of people. They're only about 3 minutes each, (just an overview of each 25 minute lesson in the real curriculum) so, give them a minute and let me know what you think.

If you want more references or notes on anything, let me know, I've got them all.

What are Trials? (1 of 6)

Why Trials? (2 of 6)

What to do With Trials (3 of 6)

Oh look, it's Friday!

Not that that means it's the weekend, cause for me, it's not, but, it means I'm actually accomplishing something HUGE, a post on a Friday!!! This seriously almost never happens, like NEVER!

So, Fridays were originally supposed to be food posts, but seriously, how often have I stuck to that schedule? I have food stuff to throw in, but I'm in the mood to ramble. (this is what happens when I get 6 1/2 hours of consecutive sleep instead of 4, then 2.)  Also, the really big cup of coffee sitting next to me helps that mood, just a bit. :)

Anyways, yesterday was nice, like really nice get lots done feel good about yourself and even have a good skin (definitely not hair, that's what skipping the blow dryer does) day nice.  I was off, and home alone all day yesterday, and my time line went something like this-

5:45am, get up with husband, fix him breakfast, send him off to work
6:15am, get back in bed and pull up the comforter (we haven't turned the furnace on yet, but it's getting cold enough at night that the house is 62 when we wake up!) don't set an alarm :)
9:25am, wake up the second time, make a cup of coffee, get back in bed with lots of blogs, and celebrity gossip and online movie trailers picking our date night movie for next Monday.
10:45am, make myself get out of my bliss and take a shower and put on real clothes and run errands (which of course included more coffee at my Starbucks stop!) to the mall, ULTA (to use my coupon) the bank, my store, Grandma's and the grocery store.
2:00pm, get home from errands, clean the kitchen, sort the laundry, make Sugar Cookie Dough :)
2:30pm, husband gets home from work, feed him, enjoy peace and quiet some more while he naps away on the couch and I get a THIRD cup of coffee :)
6:30pm, make dinner, swallow down a little bit of the hockey kick of while waiting for Grey's (!!!!)
8:00pm, Grey's Mentalist and Cookies :)
10:00pm, clean kitchen again
10:45pm, climb in bed with Iron Man 2 and my husband.
11:35pm, fall asleep......

Not a bad day at all!  And, to wrap it up, a few pictures....

 

Dough ready to be cut into pretty leaves.

 I LOVE using real icing colors!

Waiting to be frosted!

Ta da!!  I do these every, single, year!

 One of my least favorite things about Texas is the quality of produce. Maybe it's a Houston thing being so close to the gulf, but the Apples stink, Bananas are always bright green then turn in two days, Broccoli is double what it was in NY and the texture is different, potatoes only keep for 4-5 days, corn season is like 2 weeks long and berry picking isn't really an option unless you drive at least an hour away from the city and get up at 4:00am because it's too hot out by 7:00am.

But, do you see what I found all the way down in Houston Texas yesterday?  

 Let me zoom it in for you.....

 Oh my freakin goodness I was excited!!! They're a bit soft from the shipment, so they'll be getting turned into sauce tomorrow night, but seriously, you have no idea how psyched I was to find these! Even if they were in the "import produce section" at $1.98 a pound.

 Oh, and these were the main course of our dinner. Nothing to write home about unfortunately. I'm still having a hard time buying meat down here. I'm thinking a Costco membership may be in the my near future because BJ's was always the best in NY, because it seems like you have to pay $17.99 a pound to get a good steak at Kroger, and HEB's meat is better, but just as expensive, so last night's $7.99 a pound sirloin just didn't cut it, or rather, didn't cut in some places.  Hmm....I'm thinking of texting around to see if anyone wants to let me go to Sam's or Costco this week with them to try one of each, because really, a membership required discount club might be my only shot at a good steak that costs less than a week's worth of groceries.

Anyways, off to the grocery store, again, forgot sugar yesterday and since I scraped the canister dry for the sugar cookies I'll be needing some more before I can make my banana bread.

Have a great weekend!

Inside My Mind

So, my mind is everywhere this week. I haven't had a chance to think of any kind of structured blog or any theme to write about, so instead I haven't been writing at all, but I think if you just bear with me for one little (or not so little post) I could probably get back to some form of normal mind set, or at least an organized mind.

Work's been a zoo lately, even though when most days our numbers are down and things are slow business wise, it seems like on all of my shifts something breaks, someone doesn't show or calls in, or a shipment comes in three times bigger than expected, or a computer dies, or what not, it's just always the unexpected on my shifts it seems.

My sister's getting closer to her due date so my mom's in even crazier baby mode, which is okay, and expected, but it's also kind of making me the oddball, because, as much as I'm excited for my sister, I'm so not into the whole baby thing. 

Which is another thing, my husband and I are on the "no babies ever track", which doesn't seem to be very well accepted or respected and no one really takes us seriously.  Just because we're young, got married young, and have been married for a few years, doesn't mean the only purpose of our marriage is babies and starting a family.  With all of my nannying, and students, and our youth ministry stuff, we have sooooo many "kids", we're totally content with that.  We have enough family issues with his family too, so bringing kids into that kind of terrifies me. 

And speaking of his family.....I'm kind of freaked out about having to go back to NY in March for his brother's wedding.  I haven't actually spoken to any of his family since February, and that whole prolonged waiting period is just making that reunion scarier.  And, it doesn't help any that as far as I know I'm still being ostracized by my brother in law, and that hanging in limbo scares me.

Anyways, I'm late, for choir and ladies night at Starbucks, which are some of the only things I am sure about these days, so it's good, but I have to run. I'll try to prep for something more readable tomorrow when I'm off work.