Merry Christmas!

 

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a fabulous 2008! We will be traveling, with the cats, to spend the holiday with my family - we hope you are surrounded by those you love as well.

Shopping...bah humbug

I hate to say that I'm completely behind on Christmas shopping, but I am. I had high hopes and aspirations of completing all my tasks early, but the Christmas spirit just didn't kick me into gear early enough! Monday night I decided to make a couple of stops - for items I needed to finish homemade gifts that were going out - and was very discouraged. Thank you has apparently become an obsolete term and competitive retail grabbing should become a new Olympic sport. The ability to decisively maneuver the shopping cart is now essential in the race around the store and when looking for the quickest line to cut in.

I must admit that I have relied on the ever-faithful UPS and USPS men and women to provide front door service for a good chunk of my shopping and while I used to enjoy the last minute hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and picking up a few items on Christmas Eve - I don't know if I'll be venturing out this year.

Has this holiday become so stressful that smiles are replaced with frowns and a friendly welcome replaced with no response? Maybe less should be more - more time to enjoy a holiday moving curled up at home sipping hot chocolate with family, more time personalizing Chistmas cards, more time enjoying a special homecooked dinner with family and friends - and less shopping, running around, and stress!

New Year's Resolutions...

It's that time of year to begin thinking about the past year and the promises of 2008! I don't think I came too close to hitting most of my goals this year - especially when it comes to the blogging world - so, I think my 2008 goals will be entirely different.

I am trying to simplify my life so I have more time for me. Creatively, I want to look for more inspiration and do more things - more on this later. I would like to write more letters and catch up with old friends and really let those people in my life that mean so much, know it. I would like to fall in love with my husband each and every day - remembering why I said "yes" to a man when I never thought I would get married - and enjoy every moment that he spoils me.

There are of course the regular lines of....I need to lose x number of pounds, exercise more, quit visiting starbucks so often, etc. While I hope I can work on all of those, I think they will come as the important items listed above get accomplished and renew my spirit and mental well-being.

So, while I don't necessarily belive in resolutions - I don't think it's bad to have some idea of where you want your next year to go and look like after 365 days.

Will you be setting any resolutions this year?

Since I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up...

I thought I would let a random "game" tell me the answer I've now been searching for since high school - I think I'm still looking! :)

You Should Be a Social Worker

You are deeply caring and empathetic. You are able to take on other people's problems as if they were your own. Sensitive and intuitive, you understand human emotions well. Helping others gives you the most joy in life. You feel like it's your purpose in life. You do best when you: - Have a lot of responsibility - Greatly impact someone's life with your work You would also be a good philanthropist or stay at home parent.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

My first "tag"...

I must say THANK YOU to VDog for the tag and getting me out of my blogging slump! So...here are 5 things you may not know about me (and quite frankly, may never have wanted to know)! :)

1. I took piano lessons for twelve years and now my piano sits in my dining room with a layer of dust on it...I'm sure my mother has the warm fuzzies when she thinks about her investment and what's become of it!

2. I don't do the whole meat on a bone thing...that means no ribs, chicken wings, etc. I've never really gotten the whole let's chomp on a bone for some meat like cavemen thing. My husband is a total caveman, so I think my resistance to such things is wearing down. I have never minded someone else digging in to hand-held meats, but just prefer to have a fork and knife. (yes, I know, completely retarded)

3. I have lived in five different states in my 31 years on this planet; South Dakota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and now Indiana.

4. I hate feet! If they weren't a necessity to my two-legged existence, I would totally have them removed! :) Lou and I have been together for almost six years and I have just begun to allow him to touch my feet and I will rarely touch his. Yet, for some reason, I have no problems getting pedis done...that's where the whole pampering and pretty toe nails win over my disgust!

5. I have become a Starbucks addict - I can't get enough chai in my life or enough of their yummy ice teas!

Ok, so maybe these are not the most earth shattering. I may need to slowly creep my way up to some shocking confessions...baby steps for now. I am tagging only two people, Amy and Patty. While this may be breaking the rules, I unfortunately don't have 5 other blogging friends - hey, it's Indiana, things come our way a little late! :)

More than a little overdue!

This is VERY late and VERY overdue! I feel like I'm in a little bit of an out-of-control spiral right now and don't have very good footing! I am getting ready to head off to San Francisco on Saturday to spend a little time doing work and then the rest playing...I'm fortunate enough to be going with one of my closest friends and coworkers, Angela. We plan to visit China town, have made dinner reservations at the Stinking Rose and afterwards will see Beach Blanket Babylon afterwards. We have also rented a car for the day to do some wine tasting and will see a SF Giants game on Friday before we leave.

The other big thing in my life right now is that I'm preparing to be president of the service sorority I'm in, Tri Kappa. Our officers have met and I think we're ready to go with a great year...I just have to pull the last minute pieces together since our first meeting is the Tuesday after I get back! I'm really fortunate to be part of this group...sometimes I get bogged down with the negatives, but when I started writing my notes for the newsletter, I couldn't help but be happy with the wonderful relationships I have gained through the past six years...I think I've even found my long lost twin (Heather)! I have just finished taking orders for our famous Tri Kappa cheeseballs...one of our big fundraisers. On Oct. 27th, I will be knee-deep in cheese as we make 2,000+ balls of cheese....and we actually get them made, packaged and fill orders in about 4 hours!

So, that's the quick update. I have managed to fit in a little fun...I spent a Saturday in Chicago with friends at a scrapbook convention. While the back of Sharon's SUV may have been empty when we started...the three of us had NO problem filling it up by the end of the day! On a side note...we managed to hit the 80/94 road closure on the way home...our 2 hour trip ended up taking 5.5 hours...the 1:00 am arrival in SB was a killer!

Tragic Loss

This week our community suffered another great loss...as a one-year remembrance service was held for one of our fallen officers, another was killed senselessly in the line of duty. Last night the community came together in a show of support by placing a lit candle on their porch for those officers on duty to know the community stands behind them.

As I drove home late from a meeting last night, I gave pause as I saw the candles flickering on so many porches in our neighborhood. We placed our candle out and even though it was a windy night and there was rain, our candle stayed lit through the night and was still burning this morning. Please pray for our community and for all of the men and women serving our nation as true heros; giving of themselves to make our world a better place, making the greatest of sacrifices for our comforts and safety that we take for granted each day.

The gatos...

I was looking through some pictures that were on the camera and thought these were just too cute. These pictures would be post-catnip time. Beatrice likes to roll all over the paper plate we put the catnip on and usually ends up wearing a good portion of it...basically defeating the idea that we won't get it in the carpet. Bigsby on the other hand would just prefer to stick his nose in the catnip jar and sniff away. Oh...to be a cat...somedays that would be the life.

As for what's happening in our house...well, I am getting ready to head off to our Tri Kappa State Convention this weekend in Indianapolis. Even though there will be hundreds of women there, it will be great fun to catch up with officers from the other chapters I have gotten to know through our regional conferences. This year I served as Vice President and will be heading down state with our current President. I'm hoping to get alot of good ideas to use as President next year.

While I'm out of the house, Lou will be picking up my brother and going to some kind of beer festival/tasting thing in Munster, IN. Lou always loves trying something new out and the weather is supposed to be great this weekend....so, I'm sure the guys will have a great time!

Deadlines...

I have just submitted our taxes...I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute! I have no idea why I procrastinate with this...luckily we don't normally owe anything, so I really have no excuse. But like most things I do, I seem to work better under pressure of a deadline.

The next deadline I'm impossing on myself is to refinish my craftroom. For those of you that don't know this, Lou has been kind enough to let me have the upstairs spare bedroom as my eternal junk room...or my little piece of heaven. I have my computer and ALL of my crafting supplies, ranging from card making to scrapbooking to knitting and soon to include my new sewing machine mom gave me for Christmas! I've decided to try to complete a home project each month and before April is over, I plan to have a very girly pink room (thank you Amy for the great idea and inspiration)! This means I need to begin the daunting task of going through all of my supplies to decide what stays and what goes. Currently I have piles on the floor and my "organized" chaos isn't looking too good. This is something even I won't take pictures of and admit to! So...hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be posting some proud pictures of my accomplishments...keep your fingers crossed that I don't procrastinate too much longer on this project!

More vacation...

These are a few pictures from our trip...I actually didn't do too good at taking pictures this trip! We traveled up to Salvang and Lou and his father were patient to let Laura and I shop in all of the cute places. Salvang is a very touristy Dutch community, with great views of the mountains and lots of home baked goodies! The picture of Lou and I was taken on the beach when were heading home, just outside of Santa Barbara. And Lou's trip to California would not have been complete if we didn't make a trip to Hollywood and visit Canter's deli with his friends Chris and Mike. It was really a great trip, but of course not enough hours in the day to get all the visiting, site seeing, and relaxing in!

Elvis is in the room...

While in Vegas, we enjoyed a great Elvis show late on Saturday night in the old downtown. Steve Connolly had the audience laughing and singing the whole time. I must admit that I was a little less than enthusiastic at the first mention of doing this...but am the first to admit that I had a great time and loved the show! Frank and Chris, along with Christine (from ND) made the night a great one...but when the show was over at midnight, I think all of were starting to feel the effects of not getting to bed until 6am that morning!

Vacation Pictures....Lou's Birthday Surprise!

Lou flew into Vegas a couple of days ahead of me to prepare for his presentation at the Political Science convention on Friday morning. As soon as I arrived Friday morning, that meant it was time to have fun! While on vacation, Lou turned 34, so I planned a small surprise gathering for him at a restaurant at the Monte Carlo. His best man, Chris and Chris' father flew in from LA to surprise Lou. It was great to see Lou's reaction as the hostess took us to our table and the two of them were there. We were then joined by a few other friends from Notre Dame that were at the conference and a friend that lives in Vegas. The restaurant did a wonderful job on Lou's cake, it was a perfect way to end the meal.

Baxter the dog...

Easter Sunday we traveled to my mother's home and met up with my brother and his girlfriend. Mom is currently remodeling her kitchen, so when we arrived there are no cabinets or counter top left...so, we did the next best thing and headed out for a very late lunch. While it wasn't a typical Easter brunch, we had a great time catching up with everyone over burgers at Red Robin. While we were at home, Baxter decided to model his new leather coat...he's just too cute! Hope you had a wonderful Easter with family and that the Easter bunny was good to you!

Wine Tasting

Even though the snow was flying and the temps were cold on Saturday, we had a great time doing a little wine tasting with our friends Angela and Dan. After a great lunch, we headed to Lemon Creek Winery and then to the Round Barn Winery for some very yummy samples. Not a bad way to spend the day...good food, drink and friends!!

Catch up...

I have not been doing such a great job on keeping this up-to-date...so much for that New Year's resolution!

Lou and I returned from a wonderful vacation in Las Vegas and then California. Pictures will be posted soon! When I got back to work, my girlfriend called and asked if I wanted to make a spur-of-the-moment trip to the Longaberger Homestead...of course I couldn't say no. So, at 7am on Saturday morning we headed the car east to Ohio to enjoy a couple of days of shopping. We knew we were in trouble when we left the new Factory Outlet store on the property and each of our bags took up the seat next to us on the shuttle! We managed to squeeze in a wonderful lunch at their tea room and a quick trip to Dresden before called it quits for the night and headed to the Longaberger Hotel. We were up again the next morning to continue shopping and made it home Sunday night.

This weekend, there will be no trips and hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow me to get the gardens prepped for planting flowers and vegetables in May.

Off to Vegas...

We will be heading off to Vegas next month and I can't wait! The temperature currently is 57 there and it makes our 1 degree seem like a heat wave!

Lou will be heading out early for a political science convention and I will head out on Friday to spend the weekend there. After that we will drive to sunny California for a visit with his family and fly home from there. My mother will be babysitting the cats - so I'm hopeful there will be no problems with our two and her two living together for a week!

And even more snow...

This may seem a little odd to blog twice about snow, but hey, we live in Indiana and weather is a big deal! These are pictures from Tuesday evening after I got home from work. As you can see, the snow is not letting up and we are supposed to get another good shot tonight yet...ugh, the one time the weather guys are actually right! I don't know...maybe I see a snowblower in our future...I would venture to say that Lou has gotten rather sick of all the shoveling!

Sunday Morning Snow....

Much to Lou's dismay, we awoke to a winter wonderland on Sunday morning. We have had such a mild winter, so I think we had it coming! Lou made many trips outside to get wood for the wood burning stove. With that running all day, the heater doesn't run and Bigsby thinks he is in heaven!

Included is a picture down our street, a picture of the side of the house and Lou out doing the second shoveling of the day. This was the only time I made it out all day to snap a few shots.

For our family in warm CA, are you sure you don't want to come and visit right now?!?!

Crafting...

I have spent a good portion of the past two weekends working on my craftroom. It always seems like there's either not enough time, or not enough room for everything! I am hoping my organization will present me with much inspiration for the coming dreary months. I will be getting ready to travel in June with a friend to a scrapbook retreat in Michigan, Cropping Daze Retreat...I can't wait. As most friends know, I live for being pampered! Here is a link to their website (for some reason I couldn't get the pictures to upload) http://www.croppingdaze.com

Is Christmas really done?!?!?

I can't believe that Christmas is over, the decorations are down and 2007 is already off to a crazy start. We enjoyed Christmas at my mother's home in Merrillville, IN with my brother and his girlfriend Tricia. Lou decided that we should take the cats along since we would be gone for three days...so, I was stuck in the back seat of the car serving as referee for the trip! This is a picture of Beatrice showing off her new "boa" collar she got for Christmas an Lou and Bigsby relaxing after Christmas dinner.