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.

Hello there

So, I missed a few days, this week has been crazy, and hectic, and draining, both mentally and physically, work related and personal.  It's just been a bit nuts for me this week.

Sunday Adam worked, I had church on my own and then deep cleaned my mom's house with her and cooked all day for her Lifegroup Social from church. We literally took apart all of her light fixtures and washed them, dusted the ceiling fans, scrubbed the baseboards and tile floors by hand, washed the kitchen cupboards, steam cleaned the carpeting, the works.  I was a bit wiped.

Monday I was originally scheduled at work 11:30-4, nice short Monday, ended up getting called in to cover at 9:00 and stayed until 4:30.  We'd been prepping for a review by the NYC visual team, so it was a lot of physical labor rearranging and cleaning the store, plus, I was the solo sales person for 2 hours while everyone else dealt with the 24 cases of new merchandise that came in that day.  Monday night was also when I taught my first guitar lesson in Houston. The preparation was definitely mentally draining after a 7 month break from teaching, but it was so worth it.

Tuesday I opened at work again, and stayed almost an hour late, as usual.  Adam had football Tuesday night as well, which went really well for him, they won, he got one touchdown, but let through the only touchdown by the other team.

Wednesday was normal work, I left on time, ran a bunch of errands went back to work to meet the NYC review people who were crazy late and I couldn't wait for, went to kids choir, led my kids in singing in service, ran normal choir had my last kid get picked up 35 minutes late, and went to Ladies Fellowship at Starbucks and got home at 10:30.

Today was more work, and cleaning, and tomorrow I need to deep clean our bedroom and bathroom and then work the close shift at work.

It's been a long week.

Also, it's been a weird week emotionally.  My husband is back on total speaking terms with his brother after our whole blow up disaster of name calling, swearing at, telling off and everything else this winter. Part of me is happy for him having his brother wanting to be back in his life, and the other part of me kind of hates that they're so friendly after all his brother did to me.  I really feel like to an extent, my husband not getting an apology of some form out of his brother is like he's saying what he did doesn't matter anymore. Or, it's coming across to his brother like he didn't care that he threatened and called me every name in the book and then some and disowned my husband and told him he was dead to him until he got away from me permanently. Part of me is happy that they've reconciled because I can't imagine that kind of anger from my sister and I know how that would hurt. But, part of me wants an apology. I can forgive him, but I can't trust him not to just do it all again. This was the third similar episode, the third without any admittance on his side that he was ever out of line, and really, I just get sick of being bashed by my brother in law and then reamed out by my mother in law for not begging his forgiveness and promising to stay out of he and my husband's lives. I get sick of being afraid of what this does to our marriage and I just really feel safer when he's not speaking to us. I know my husband's on my side, he's told his parents so, he's told them and his brother that they're out of line and treating me horribly and shouldn't even think that their words and actions could be appropriate, yet he forgives them and forgets. I'm getting good at forgiving, but the forgetting part is hard. 

On top of that my husband's had jerky members this week and horrible tips and has been moody about that, so I've just kind of been internalizing all week and am getting tired of it.  Sorry for the vent, especially on a "Thankful Thursday" but really, I don't know what else to say today.

This is me....

Children and music are officially back in my life! These are two of the things that make me happiest.

I started my first official, long term Houston student tonight and I couldn't stop raving about it to my mom the whole way home.  I've missed teaching so much!  I've missed their silly answers when they don't know the real answer, their trying to distract me from a song they haven't practiced, their cute little messy notes and buzzy strings and crazy goofy made up songs, and most importantly, their joy when you tell them how well they did.  I miss my musical kids in NY, but hopefully soon, my student roster will grow and I can start making new memories with kids here. No one will replace most of my NY students, but I need these emotions and feelings in my life on a regular basis.

Since September 2002 I've continually had students.  What started as one family, transitioned to 3 within 3 months, which grew to 7 withing 6 months, 10 within a year, and eventually 51 students. Over the course of my 7 years in NY I've had the opportunity to influence 73 children with one on one lessons, and I feel like after not teaching for 7 months that I've been missing a piece of me that's finally back.

At the beginning of September I started working with a kids choir again. In September 1999 I started accompanying my first kids choir, in 2002 I was assistant directing/accompanying, 2004 co-directing, 2007 choreographing special services for church with kids, and before all of that, I grew up participating in kids choir since I was 5.  Also, a huge part of me that's been missing.  It doesn't matter how bad my kids are, and how many times I have to do the "music teacher clap" I love my choir nights.

Kids and Music, this is me.

Friday Fail!

So basically, I should just plan on messing up at this point, seriously, I stink at Friday posts.

This week was filled with new TV show nights!

Monday we checked out "Hawaii 5-0", which was really pretty good. We were big fans of "Las Vegas" on NBC a few years back and Scott Caan is alot like his dad, who made "Vegas", so I enjoyed it quite a bit.  Plus, I grew up on re-runs of the original so that made it even better because it wasn't nearly as corny.

Tuesday we had both NCIS and NCIS:Los Angeles which are ALWAYS PHENOMENAL!!!!

Wednesday we were show less, though I may try to find something online to check out the pilot or season opener for to start watching next week, any suggestions??

Thursday I had my ever wonderful "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice". I've been with them both since the beginning, and as pathetic as it may be, it's as if I know them.  Thursday was also "The Mentalist", which, if you've never seen the original "Thin Man" movies, I highly recommend finding them in a library somewhere, classic William Powell and Myrna Loy from the late 30's.  "The Mentalist reminds me of them somewhat.

Friday we're also showless, but that's okay for right now.  I meant to check out "Blue Bloods", did anyone else watch it to give me a review?

Still waiting for Sunday for "Brothers and Sisters" though I'm a bit worried that it will lose me this year with all the good couples killed off or destroyed and only the scary gay couple left.  Besides being massively Biblically wrong, I'm just not a fan of men making out with each other on my TV and I usually fast forward their scenes on Tivo.

So, I've raved about my shows, what are your shows?

Thankful Thursday

This week has been pretty decent

I've had Starbucks 4 times this week....major happiness!!!!

It's been cool enough for jeans every day this week (by cool, I mean below 90):)

My husband and I had 2 half days, and one whole day off together this week!!

My husband successfully replaced the fuel filter in our car for $45 instead of $125 by doing it himself!  It took 3 1/2 hours instead of the half our the instructions said because they stopped making the exact part and he had to make new fittings to make the new filter fit, but he did it and I'm very proud of him for him industriousness!

Grey's is back! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  And my husband even watched it with me tonight.

I'm a happy girl!

Wordless Wednesday

 

 My morning, until the rain and black clouds came.......

 

I hate it when the weather man is actually right, especially when he's only right about a few minutes worth of weather that are just enough to mess up your plans.

I am a happy girl!

I worked this morning and got off on time for once!

I had lunch from here.....

Went shopping here.....

And got a "Duke Blue" Sweater, yes, it is a color to me!

I got to spend the afternoon running errands with my husband.

Make homemade Macaroni & Cheese for dinner.

Buy one of these.....

And go watch my husband, play, win and not get hurt at flag football with church while only getting three mosquito bites!

And now I'm going to shower the bug spray off of me and eat one of these.....

For dessert. :)

Oh, and NCIS and NCIS:LA  are waiting on my Tivo!!