On this Christmas Eve

Picture of Michael and I that I took before we headed out to Fordland for Christmas Eve. I heart him!!

Well, Christmas Eve has now come and gone and it is now really, really early on Christmas Day. Michael is already asleep but I decided I wanted to jump online really quick before heading to bed. We had a nice time out at my parents tonight. We always do homemade pizza and other snacky items. My mom makes the pizza crusts ahead of time and freezes them. . then we just pull them out and decorate them with whatever toppings we desire. We ended up with a ton left over, but that's ok because cold pizza is still delicious!

As usual, the guys disappeared into the computer room to shoot each other on the computers. Beth, my mom, Vicki, and I played a card game called "Hand and Foot", while Becky kept the kids out of stuff. Beth and I were on a team and my mom and Vicki kicked our butts!

Here are a few pictures that got taken tonight:

My parents Christmas tree. . . hmmm. . . which present is for me??

My niece, Taylor, took a while before I was able to get a picture that she was smiling in. After she opened her present from Paul, Vicki, and Oliva she had more fun playing with the gift bag and tissue paper than with her actual present. Why is it that we buy actual toys for kids when they are content with things like a cardboard box???

And it is even harder to get Trey to smile for the camera. . . I could not manage to capture one all night. My cousin, OliviaOf course Beth and I have to take a self-portraitBecky holding one of my mom's aliens. . . oops. . .I mean snowmen. My dad calls them aliens because they invaded my parent's house.

Well, I really should call it a night. We are heading back out to my parents around noon tomorrow to open presents and then for dinner around 5pm. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

Lisa

beth's birthday buttons

So I said I would try to post again and show what Beth's birthday present was. . .I bought her buttons. . .lots and lots of buttons. I am happy to say that I think she was thrilled with her present. Her first response when she opened it up was a very loud gasp, and then she exclaimed (again very loudly) BUTTONS!!

I know she likes buttons and then I found this nifty container on sale at Jo-Ann the day after Thanksgiving. Plus. . .she is very much a ROYGBV organizer, so of course I had to organize the buttons by that for her. After I gave it to her, she seemed very excited to go and organize the rest of her buttons into the container. You may think that sounds crazy, but not me. I had a lot of fun just buying and sorting the buttons into the container for her. And. . .to make it even better. . .I bought myself one also!! I hadn't let her see mine though until tonight after I gave hers to her. I didn't want her to think it was a good idea and go start her own. . .that would have ruined it all.

In other news, Michael and I just finished watching the newest Indiana Jones movie really large against our bedroom wall. He bought a projecter today. . . watching our normal size TV in the bedroom will never be sufficient again. Sigh. . .

I should go to bed now though. I only have to work a few hours tomorrow, but I still have to be functional for those few hours. Seeing as how it is after midnight. . .it is now Christmas Eve!! So Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!

Lisa

Christmas Break

Michael and I came home to our heat not working last night, which made for a very cold evening. He was going to call someone today to have them come and look at it, but he did not. When I got home from work tonight I went down and fiddled with the wires a bit that run between the thermostat and the heater. . . and it kicked on!!! That makes me happy because it will not be freezing in here tonight. We will still need to get it looked at and probably get the wire replaced, but hopefully we will not have to mess with it over the holiday.

I am so excited for noon tomorrow. Why? you ask. . . because I get off of work at noon and I do not have to be back until Monday. Yeah!! Although it is going to be **SO** incredibly busy I know it will just fly by.

Today is Beth's birthday. Most of the family got together out in Fordland, but I did not go. By the time I got out there after work it would have been too late. I am ready for her to get home though so I can give her my present. I am excited to see her reaction because I had a lot of fun getting it all together. Maybe I will repost again later after I give it to her so I can post a picture. I am going to go for now though because I need to get some laundry started.

And again. . . yeah for my Christmas break that is so, so close to being here!

Lisa

A short weekend

This weekend has just seemed incredibly short. After I got off of work on Friday, Michael and I met up and did some Christmas shopping and other errand running. We did get almost all of our Christmas shopping done!! There are just a few little things we still need to pick up. We also need to go look at coats and pick out a coat because we decided we were going to buy each other a new coat for Christmas. We looked a little on Friday. . .but did not buy anything.

Saturday we slept in and then after I got up I ran to Wal-Mart to get groceries. . . that place was crazy! I was so happy when I was done and finally able to leave. After I got home I had to make Baked Potato Skins because that is what I was planning to take to my Office Christmas party that night. The party was just us women in Finance and our significant others. We had drawn names for a Secret Santa gift and mine got me a Hobby Lobby gift card. Yeah! I can always use that. We mostly ate and played some games. After getting home last night I stayed up waaayy too late watching Friends and wrapping Christmas presents.

I have all ten seasons of Friends and it had been awhile since I saw any of them. I have been watching that a lot lately which is no good. I chose a bad time of year to get involved in that.

Today we got up fairly early and went to church. It was a good service with lots of Christmas music. After church we delivered tins of cookies to some friends and family. It was nice stopping by and visiting with everyone for a bit.

Now we are home again and I have tons of laundry to do. I would love to get it all done tonight, but I know that is not going to happen. I also have lots of dishes to wash, but that doesn't sound fun at all.

I actually kind of want to scrapbook, but 9pm is not going to be a good time for me to start on that because I will end up staying up way too late and I need to get a good night's sleep.

I only work 2 1/2 days this week so that makes me happy. Tuesday is Beth's birthday and I am excited to give her Birthday present to her. I think she will like it. . . and I had fun putting it together. I will let you know what it is after I give it to her on Tuesday.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we will be spending in Fordland with my family. Michael's sister and her family will arrive in town late on Christmas Day, so we will be spending the few days after Christmas mostly out in Pleasant Hope.

I am really going to try to start posting on here more frequently. Maybe that should be a New Year's Resolution. . . . speaking of which, I think I am going to do really bad on my resolutions for this year. . . but we'll save that for another day.

Lisa

I found a little Christmas. . concerts, cookies, and trees

Be prepared. . .I think this is going to be a fairly long post with lots of pictures. I guess that's what happens when I skip blogging for three weeks. I did have good reasons though. . .the first week I had forgotten the power cords to my laptop out at my parents, so my computer was dead. Then I got sick, and then I really wanted to get my tree up which meant some cleaning and rearranging. Plus. . .this time of year is always just so, so busy. But I love it!


Michael and I went to see Casting Crowns on 12/2. It was AMAZING! It had multiple other people performing also though, some of which I could have done without, but they were awesome. Casting Crowns has some really, really great songs and I think "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is one of my new favorite Christmas songs. It is beautiful! When we went to go see Casting Crowns, Michael started heading up to the ticket booth which really confused me because we already had our tickets. Turns out he had decided that he wanted to get tickets to go see Jim Brickman, who was going to be in town on 12/6. So he bought the tickets and we went to that show, which was also really great. He is such an incredible piano player. And Tracy Sullivan is also amazing on his electic violin. A couple of my favorite songs were The Gift, Coming Home for Christmas, and Peace. My only problem was I was already sick by that point and I don't really remember much of it. I almost made him find someone else to go with, but I decided I wanted to go. I am sure I looked like poo, but oh well.After being to those two concerts and listening to the (mostly) Christmas music, I was in the mood to put up my Christmas tree. So I worked on getting that put up last week. I worked on it over the course of a few different evenings after I got home from work. These are some pictures that I snapped yesterday before heading out to Fordland to work on cookies.

The three different shots were all took at the same time, just with different settings on. I think I am going to use the three pictures together on a scrapbook page for my Christmas tree. I really like the third one with just the greens being picked up in the picture.

For our annual Cookie baking day this year, Beth and I decided we were going to take more pictures of people and not really of the cookies because we have focused mostly on pictures of the cookies for the last couple years.

Taking a break from baking for a quick shot ( not so quick really. . .I think I took 4 before I got a good one)

Cole is always so somber in pictures. I tried. . . but I just could not get him smiling.

Laura and Shawn got a new dog, Betsy, that she brought over to my parents house while we were baking. My first comment to the dog was, "you are ugly", but I said it in a sweet voice so as not to hurt Betsy's feelings. :)

My mom **hates** having her picture taken, but I think this is a good picture of her.

Me with Sasha. . . this little girl makes me want to have a baby. . . oh, Michael. . . Also, we had to retake this picture because the first one caught my mom in the background licking her fingers, which doesn't look so well when we are making cookies to give to people (in actuality, she was licking her fingers on her way to the sink where she then washed her hands. . .I think)

Becky and Laura with Cole and Sasha after her nap, I had another picture like this with Beth in the background giving them distant rabbit ears, but the Laura and Becky didn't look good in that one. . . too bad.

Poor Beth. . .just wanted to give us more work to do. Just kidding. She hurt her foot at a friends house on Friday night and didn't think she needed to go to the doctor. By the time she got to my parents on Saturday morning, her foot was swollen, bruised, and she was in a lot of pain, so my dad ran her up to the Doctors clinic in Fordland. He said it may be fractured, so she now has crutches, is not supposed to put any weight on it, and is supposed to keep it elevated as much as possible. Since she couldn't stand and bake, she got to do the menial tasks like unwrapping the chocolates for the candy and rolling cookies in sugar. . . I don't really think she minded too much though. I am sure that she feels at bad for not being able to really help us much. . .at least there is a strong chance she feels bad. . . at least a little

Another picture of Sasha

Becky and Hugh were going down to Silver Dollar City last night with his family, so she cut out early from the cookie baking. She did already have 2 of her 3 kinds done though, and the third one was a work in process. Shane and Trey are so loud when they are together and *so* cute here hugging each other bye. I missed it the first time and then we had to convince them to hug each other again so I could get a picture. Trey was very excited about going to Silver Dollar City and was ready to head out the door.

These are all of the cookies that we made. . . 14 different kinds ( was supposed to be 15, but with Beth being injured we cut out one of the more complicated ones she was supposed to do. . .the pinwheels). This is my tray of cookies that I am taking to work tomorrow. . .assuming the weather does not keep me at home. It is supposed to ice and snow on and off for the next four days. . .starting sometime this afternoon or evening.

In addition to the tray I am taking to work, these are all the tins of cookies that I made up to give to people. I was so ready to be done with cookies yesterday after baking all day and then making up the tins. Luckily, Mama helped me with the tins so I could head home.

Well. . . I think that is about it. Now I really need to get off of here and start cleaning my house. My kitchen, bathroom, and living room are fairly clean. I just need to straighten up a few things, but the two bedrooms are a disaster. I was hoping to get then straightned up and then do some scrapbooking today, but I am not sure that is going to happen. The back bedroom (office/craft room/my clothes depository/wedding collection/junk room) is really a horrible mess. . . Beth walked up here the other day and was like, Oh My Gosh! because it is so bad. I am really feeling like scrapbooking right now, but since that is the room I scrapbook in. . . the mess would just be zapping my creative energy. You may say BS, but its the truth. I cannot scrapbook in a messy area. . . I can make it a mess while scrapbooking, but even then it gets to a certain point I have to clean up before I can do another page.

So I guess I should go clean. . . Hmmmm. . . . where to start???

Lisa

Oh, and I am also kind of freaking out because yesterday the "6-months to our wedding" date passed and I do not feel like I have nearly enough accomplished.

And, I found out yesterday, Laura started a blog so I need to find out what her site is so I can look at it.

Now I am really going. . . .

Too much food!!!

So as usual. . .Thanksgiving came and went with tons of food. Michael and I had three Thanksgivings to go to this year. . . one of them was last Sunday, and then two on Thursday. This is a picture of Beth and I on Thanksgiving Day out at my parents. (I'm happy my hair is all curly. I have wanted hot rollers for awhile and I finally bought some!) My Uncle Jon and Aunt Jen came down with their four kids, so there was a full house! (and of course I was taking some pictures in the car on the way out to my parents)

This is a cute picture of my oldest nephew, Shane, and my youngest cousin, Sierra. They are both hams and like to have their pictures taken. And this is my absolutely adorable youngest niece, Sasha. She is so cute!

Michael and I are back out in Fordland today to hang out with my family and play games (the guys playing computer games and the girls playing board/card games). Beth just taught us two new card games recently that she learned from her friend Matt. . .so we are all into those games right now. Nerts and Hand & Foot

I wanted to take pictures of the food this year and do a scrapbook page with the traditional food (because we always have the same delicious food). Unfortunately, my camera died after I got just a few pictures. I thought I had charged it. . . but I guess not. Maybe next year.

I had also wanted to get a picture of Michael and I together, but he really isn't that big on having his picture taken. . .I think I will have to make more of an effort to get some pictures of us together.

We went shopping on Black Friday, which was CRAZY! I did buy some stuff and only some of it was a special price, but it was still fun.

Well. . . I am going to go play some games. I'll try not to let another week pass before I am back on here.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Now we only have 4 weeks until Christmas. Yikes! I need to get some stuff done. I love the season though. . . the music, the lights. . . it all makes me happy. Anyway, I am going now.

Be back soon,

Lisa

I think I have scrapbook fever. . .

I have completed two more pages in the last few evenings, and I still feel like doing more! This first one is about the carving that Michael made in the road (which I blogged about back in September). The second one is from a girls night out that Beth and I had back in June. . . which reminds me that it is way past time for another night out with just the two of us.

I don't really have much to say right now. . . I am going to plan some more scrapbook pages, I got paid today so I need to pay some bills, and I really need to make a grocery list. . .so I guess I should get to it.

yet again,

Lisa

Random thought. . .my title makes me think of a song about cabin fever off of Muppet Treasure Island, which you should watch because it is HILarious! You might think I am crazy. . .but there are a few out there who know what I am talking about :) I have not watched it in forever, so if I go out to my parents this weekend I might just have to watch it.

2007 Album Finished!

For the most part I am a chronological scrapbooker, but I do occasionally skip around some. There are a few pages over the years that I have been scrapbooking that just got skipped over, usually because I did not have the pictures I needed to get from someone else. My parents 25th wedding anniversary is one of those pages, as is Laura and Shawn's wedding, and part of my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. I know, right, big events that shouldn't get skipped. When I finally get some of these pages done I will be so happy.

Anyway, there was one page in 2007 that I was waiting on a picture for and I finally got the page all finished last night. This is random shots of my nephew Trey over the course of 2007. I did a page for the other nieces/nephews also, but I have had those done for awhile. I am planning on scrapbooking some more tonight. Michael is gone for the night. He went up to see a friend in Kansas City and he will be back home tomorrow.

I am going to go scrapbook. . . after I clean up a little of my mess from last night. Oops!

Lisa

I hate boring little guest books!

I now have 5 pages done for our wedding guest book! Each page is 12x12 and people will just sign in the white boxes, then afterwards I can just slip the already completed pages into our wedding album. You don't have to say it. . . I know I am a genius :) I worked on it some last night and then some more tonight. I think that is a good chunk for one weekend.

Makes me want to work on some scrapbook pages that are something other than red, black, and white. Michael is going to be gone on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights this week so I think I am actually going to try to get some done on my scrapbook. I talked to Madeline and Audrey last weekend (my future nieces) and they want to see my scrapbook at Christmas because they are bringing theirs to show me. (I bought them 8x8 scrapbooks and some supplies last year for Christmas). I think I have only completed 3 layouts since Michael came home in June, so I have quite a bit that I want to get caught up on prior to Christmas.

In other news, Michael and I drove around and looked at houses for a couple hours after church today. We found a couple that me might try to go look at by this weekend at the latest.

Also, I am suddenly starting to kind of panic about wedding planning. I have a little less than 7 months, which is still a while but with the holidays it will be Jan 13th before you know it and I will be down to 5 months!! I am excited, but there is still so much to figure out and plan. I am thinking about sitting down and compiling the timelines I have pulled out of random wedding magazines into one that will actually work for me.

Michael finally asked Pastor Jim at the church where we are having the ceremony to verify it was fine to bring in our own pastor. We figured it was but Michael verified and then talked to Ed today about it. . . so we now have an officiant set for sure. Yeah! Michael and I talked about it some over dinner tonight and decided for sure on his best man and talked about some other details. I am ready to get some more planning done and out of the way.

Well, I should really head to bed considering the time and the fact that I have to be at work in 9 hours. In closing, here are a few pics of the mess I made working on the guest book pages. . . but I did clean it all up already!

Lisa

Weekend fun

Last night Jess and I went over to Brandy's and we had a girls night. We had some drinks, had some food (including the amazing ribs that Brandy made), talked, watched TV, and played some games. It was a lot of fun and I did not drink a ton, but it was still the most I have drank lately. It was fun and delicious though. Today I slept in quite a bit. It was nice, but I did not get as much accomplished today as I had hoped. I did get another scrapbook page done. Yeah! I have had this page halfway done for about a month, so I am very glad to finally get it finished up and off of my desk.

I have pictures for a couple other pages, but I think I am going to start working on the pages I am going to do for our wedding guest book. I am feeling inspired to do that right now, which I have learned means I should definitely work on it right now. :)

If I intend to work on it though I should get to it considering it is already almost 10 and I need to make sure I am up on time for church tomorrow.

Until then,

Lisa

CW Love!

Seeing as how today is Thursday and Michael is at barbershop, as he always is on Thursday nights, I think I am going to settle in for what has become my Thursday night ritual.

And what has become my Thursday night ritual you ask?

Watching the TV shows that I never manage to watch on Monday, two of which are from the almost always entertaining CW. I love that they post their Monday episodes on the web by Thursday!

So the next approximately two hours will be spent watching. . .
Gossip Girl
One Tree Hill

and then my favorite comedy show. . . How I Met Your Mother. (which is not from CW)

I should clean my house instead but what fun is that. I am going to sit here, watch, and think about what I want for Christmas. I have already been asked by a few people and I hate having to think of something on the spot, so I need to compile my thoughts on that topic. . . .

be back later

I Voted!

As I am sure you are all aware, today was Election day. I can say was because the polls closed about an hour ago here in Missouri. I am so happy that the barrage of negative political ads is over with. . . now we just need to see who won.

Surprisingly, today was the first time I actually voted. Some people have just assumed in the past that I did vote so I didn't correct them. I know, shame on me, considering my age. I have been registered to vote and able to vote for almost 10 years now, but this was my first time actually following through. It may sound corny, but it feels good to know I have done my part. Now hopefully my candidate wins!

Look at me all happy with my "I Voted" sticker. You don't have to say it. . . believe me, I know and I don't care. ;)


I should get off of here and get something done. My desk is a mess. I have a scrapbook page laying out that has been half finished for a couple weeks now. I think I am going to go play on my Wii Fit though instead. I love that thing and am so glad I finally caved and bought it! ;)

Lisa

Ole!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween! We just got home from a Halloween party that we went to out in Pleasant Hope. Before we went, Beth and I had fun playing around with our cameras. I think this is my *favorite picture* of the ones that we took. Beth was an Indian.

I was a 1920's flapper.

And Michael was a Mexican, complete with a sombrero, a poncho, and chaps. And lets just say that he was feeling a little breezy with the chaps on. :) Ole!And here it looks like the cop (Andy) has caught himself a prostitute (Waylon), a convict (Tiffany), and a Mexican (Michael). Put your hands against the wall and spread em.
It was fun to get all dressed up again, especially with Michael and Beth also involved this time. I think next year though I want to have my own Halloween party. Hopefully, we will be in a house where that is a feasible option. Michael had drill again this weekend, so we didn't stay at the party very long (and we got out there late because of his drill), but I was already ready to go. Nothing against the people who hosted, but I was never much fond of parties with drinking games and really loud heavy music.

On the way home from the party Michael, Beth, and I were discussing next Halloween. They both already have an idea of what they might want to do, but I have no clue yet. Plenty of time to think about it luckily!

I am sitting here right now drinking some yummy hot chocolate and thinking I should really head to bed. I need to get up in the morning and get some things done tomorrow (such as laundry and dishes, bleh!).

Well, be back soon.

Lisa