The ornament debacle of 09

So most days my husband has a list. It helps us both (HIM) remember what all needs to be done. Since he is at home during this time it's mainly for him.
Wednesday was his shopping day. He went to world market for something and to Walmart to get us some more waters. His list said:
walmart
waters
vet
Poopers pills
world market
pistachios
blood orange soda juice
rubber ducky with santa
hat ornament
The list was on a tiny pad. I indented the second line because I ran out of room on the first line.
Here is what he brought home:

I promise I will not be bringing that to the ornament exchange. Scary. I'm surprised he even found anything remotely like that. ESPECIALLY since he was looking for "rubber ducky with santa" and also a "hat ornament". He came in and told me "No wonder we couldn't figure out what a hat ornament was". He's such a goober - that boy! He thought it was two seperate things so I got two seperate things. Eh. Back to the drawing board. And I think I will keep the scary ducky santa ornament just to remind myself why I married him! :)

Christmas time is here

The radios have started playing their Christmas songs! The teacher lounge at school has Christmas tablecloths up! I have my presents bought and wrapped! I'm ready!
A house in our neighborhood has had their lights up (and on!) for about 2 weeks now. I have yet to get a picture of it. I love the first house sighting of the year. Jeff has already told me I could put out Christmas decorations all I want but he refuses to put up the lights until Thanksgiving is over. I haven't gotten my decorations out yet though. I'll wait for him to help me :)
I can kinda understand about "don't ignore Thanksgiving"! But you know what? I can celebrate Thanksgiving even with lights on my house. I can celebrate Thanksgiving with a tree in my house and songs on the radio. None of that hinders my ability to visit with family and to be thankful for all that I have. It really doesn't.
I love everything about the Christmas season. I love the smells (already burning Christmas candles). I love the food. I love the sharing and the caring. I love that people are nicer (usually). I love that is brings people together and we can focus on one common ground - the birth of our Lord. I love that I get to decorate and shop and give presents. I love that it has it's very own songs.
* Except Jingle Bell Rock. I DETEST that song. Who made that? Yuck. *
I love wrapping presents and thinking about what my family and friends will say when they open their presents. I hate filing out Christmas cards, but I love that everyone who gets one from me will know I am thinking about them. And hopefully, for that moment, that makes them feel good.
I love making plans. I love making lists!
I don't love Christmas day. It's been getting better since I am not alot busier seeing Jeff's family as well. Christmas day is hard. We used to go over to my grandma's house. She had presents piled up to the ceiling and a giant tree in her tiny living room. Our family had to find seats anywhere we could. Mom, Marilyn, and I would sit on the floor (we still do!) We would get there at about 10 in the morning and leave at about 5 at night. It filled out whole day. I loved it! Now... it doesn't fill our whole day. Now we have time to think and to miss those not with us. I do not love that at all. This year I am going to miss my loved ones but I'm also going to focus on all the great things. Each year gets easier, but it will never be how it once was.
Wow... I don't want to end on such a sad note.
Here's a picture of my sweet girl.

(once I can get the darn thing loaded!)
And a picture of Raleigh all ready for Christmas. He sits in this basket constantly!

The tile is done!

This is from a camera phone so it's not as clear, but it looks so good! I even had us cleaning up and finishing it up because it looks so nice now. I love it!!



Jeff did a great job! All he has left is to clean the tile off a little better. There is still grout on some of the pieces. He worked so hard and I'm proud of my handyman :)

Tile is mostly done!!

Take a minute

So I wake up this morning still feeling stuffed up. My throat is hurting, my head hurts, I don't want to go in to work. I want to stay in bed and rest until I feel better. I get up and shower, though. I have testing today. I must be there for it! I get to my car and look at the sky. It stopped me. It was so pretty this morning. It made me feel a little better. I would have missed it had I stayed in bed. (not that I won't go directly to bed after work) I feel sorry for all of you who don't have to leave the house at 6:20 AM. You all missed out! Luckily, I took a picture with my camera phone.

What time is it?

It's tile time!

We are working on making our house a little prettier :) Right now, we are tiling wall behind the counter and stove. It's a pretty brown tile with lighter sparkle. We definately need to get some under the cabinet lights to accentuate it after we (by we, Jeff) are done tiling. I want to now tile behind the sink and maybe the bottom of the bar. Think he'll go for it? :)
Here is the begining stage:

Here it is almost done:

He was finishing it up today. Then we'll grout and get the cabinet lights and put everything back. More pictures to come. I think it looks really great!!

And now here is a picture of the most handsome almost 17 month old eating spaghetti :)

Where's mom?

She's in the shower bath. My dad cracks me up. He always calls it the shower bath. I guess it's a West Texas thing or maybe just a Max Watson thing :)

What she does all day

Picture of my "baby" while I am at work...such a tough life she leads

Seriously

Several things:
1. necklace
2. automatic sinks
3. weird dream again!!

I'll start off with my dream before I forget it. So Jeff, his mom, and me are puttering around Dallas. We are kinda on the outskirts of downtown and I see this water tower. I see a little girl come out of a door on the tower and someone drags her back really quick. Jeff and I set out to explore... no idea where his mom went from here. We get up there and see the door and we go inside and see this family living there. There are like 20 cots set up without sheets just in a row (like orphanages in movies). This family put blankets on 3 of the beds. There is also a tiny bathroom and a super tiny kitchenette area. So we are in there. In my dream I have to pee, but can't figure out how to fit into the bathroom. All of a sudden, there is a knock at the tiny door and this boy who is about 8 or 9 is there. I ask him where he came from and where his parents are. He said they were Indians. So he stayed with us. I guess we stayed there a while. Next thing I knew, that little boy was dying. I wanted to take him to the doctor, but the family in the tower wouldn't let me. Otherwise, someone would find out that they were living there. So the boy died. They buried him under the floorboards. Then I woke up.
Seriously. What is the deal with my dreams this week. Is it testing stress? Is it my lack of being able to sleep? Is it the time change? Is it because Jeff ate my secret santa gift? Who knows.
My mom got me this great badge holder. It goes around your neck. It has a snowman on it!! I love it! I'm already wearing it. I need one for year round too, once the season is over! The only problem... it drives me crazy. Having something weighing down the back of my neck is about to make me nuts! I'm going to power through it though. Maybe I'll even upload a picture if I can figure that out!!

So on Friday I was at Region 10 training. We had just gotten back from lunch and I stopped to pee. I went to wash my hands and they were automatic hand washers. Each time I put my hand under the sink it would give me about a second of water. Well, I use a lot of soap. And I like to make extra sure I have all the soap off. So I take a bit to rinse my hands. I couldn't get it to work again after that second of water. So I went to the next sink with my soapy hands. One more second of water. Then nothing. So I went back to the previous sink. One second. Then to the other one. I must have gone back and forth about 6 times. Thank goodness classes had started back up... I must have looked like a goober. Really though. What is the deal with that? Why don't they give you a little more water? Do they really need to cut you off when they feel it's enough? :)

Dreams

I have weird dreams alot. Sometimes I remember alot of the details, sometimes I remember hardly any of it. Last night I slept horribly. I took a nap after church for about an hour (maybe hour and a half). That screwed up my already messed up schedule - thank you time change!! So I didn't fall asleep until after midnight. The neighbors dog decided to start barking at 2:45. Which in turn, made my dog start barking at 2:45. And of course, since she was up, she should jump down and pee too. So I was up then as well. So sometime in between 3:00 and 5:15 (alarm clock time) I had a dream about a hot tub.
I was at school working on testing stuff. I had my testing closet, but I kept putting cookies and peanut brittle on the shelves to save for test day. I had a giant office with a neat little waterfall. Someone came in to bring me a hot tub. It was huge. And made with pretty blue tile. They put it next to my waterfall. I had some people get in, but I didn't want to. There were piles of black stuff in it and I wanted it cleaned first. All of a sudden, me and a friend are touring some river in it. We are riding in the hottub in some touristy town that has water for streets (nope, wasn't in Europe). Our hot tub turned into a tiny raft at some point. We made it to some westerny looking hotel and got out of the hot tub/raft and went inside. We had to go up this giant red velvet staircase. There was an old timey wester lady in front of us and behind us. They were fighting and drew out their guns. I woke up. Boo on that.
Needless to say, I am TIRED!!

A tasty giveaway

http://megansmunchies.com/the-way-to-a-girls-heart-giveaway-jewelry-and-icing/#comment-8666
Check out Megan's site. Not post about tasty treats for us to try, she gives stuff away!!

Marriage

I've been thinking about this one for a while now. I even ran it by Jeff on Sunday while we were at lunch. So many people gush about how their husband is the best ever. Or how perfect their husband is (come on... really? We know that can't possibly be true. Boys are never perfect) It's just funny to me. I'm not a big gusher. I didn't gush when I got engaged, I didn't gush about any of the wedding details. I was pretty laid back about the whole thing.
Here's what I thought before Sunday. Of course we all think our mate is the best husband there is. Unless your relationship is rocky and struggling, you are going to think you picked the best possible person for yourself. I know I did. Believe me, I dated a bunch of people in order to figure this out (I should have won some sort of dating award!!). Jeff is the best person for me. He may not be as romantic or demonstrative of his love as I would like but he is calm for the most part. He is level headed. He told me Sunday that he actually is the best husband in the universe. Ha. But as we were talking about choosing the perfect person for you... I decided that wasn't right. I chose the best person to put up with me. (not who I could put up with). Shouldn't it be more like that? You chose the person who will deal with your faults. Who will forgive you for all the silly things you do. Who will yell back at you (even though they *claim* to be calm) but then wake up the following morning and not be angry anymore. THAT is what I did. That is how I chose Jeff. I knew he would be the best at dealing with me. I'm pretty tough to deal with sometimes. Just ask my family - moody, short temperered, my feelers get hurt quickly, over sensitive, etc.
Anyways, that's just my though on that. I don't meant to hurt anyones feelings ever.