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.

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.