The "Long Catch Up" Post

Alright, Here it is- the long awaited (and promised) Post. This Covers quite a Bit so sit back, grab some popcorn (or whatever floats your boat) and get ready for a lot of scrolling down!

About 2 weeks ago I was in a Holiday Mood. So I decided to do some pre-holiday time decorating. Never mind that it was a week and a half before thanksgiving, I was in a Christmas mood. I took some white Xmas lights, and ran 2 strands of them around our large front window. I then took some Silver Bulbs and hung them with some holiday looking ribbon from the lights. I staggered them height wise, and it looks quite nice when you walk in the door, flip the light switch and it is warm glowing lights that come on and not just a lamp.

(Half of the Front window)

I also have a large collection of "mini" sized Christmas Bulbs. (they are silver, pearl and frosted glass) I decided to place them in a spare Martini glass and display them with our "Birdie Santa". Our Santa is on display all year on the table, but it now looks even more festive with some holiday spirit behind it. I also placed a few "mini pedestal compote" dishes with holiday Mint M&M's around the room (much to Johns delight!), and it really made the room feel like Christmas was coming.

Well John Had his birthday on the 20th, (a Tuesday) and I decided (on Sunday) that it would be fun to throw him a surprise birthday party. So I scrambled around and in 2 days I managed to pull off a party :) It was a lot fun. There was a nice size turn out, (about 11 adults and 2 kids) and it was a nice relaxed evening.

We had drinks, and food and john was excited to see the cake that he had been drooling over at Costco. It was a fudge Macaroon caramel cake thing.It was super rich, chocolate, and covered in toasted coconut, caramel and fudge hunks. Just his style :)

In the midst of the rush to get things taken care of (and be a good hostess) I didn't manage to get pics of any of the party. I did get 2 shots, but none that had John or the "partyscape". Sorry!

Then 2 days later it was Thanksgiving. We headed over to my parents house for dinner. It was a lot of fun, food and laughing. At the dinner was My parents, My younger brother (because to call him my "little" brother would be to ignore the fact that he towers over me at 6 foot 3), My younger sister, her boyfriend, My grandmother (moms mom) and my uncle (moms brother), John and myself.

And last but not least, my sister, her Husband and their 5 kids "joined" us Via Webcam. Us "kids" spent a good deal of time in front of my brothers computer so we could talk and laugh with them and see how the children reacted to being able to "see" us while we were talking to them. It was a great deal of fun to see them react to us in that way.

(John and I on Thanksgiving)

Both my brother and sister made pies for this thanksgiving. Usually I, or my grandma, is in charge of making pies, but this year I ducked out and (gasp!) purchased a pre-made pie pumpkin pie from costco. So my brother (who at 16 can bake as well as my mom and myself!) (sorry mom, but you have to admit that his Toffee is better than anything any of us has ever made!) So this year Chris made a pecan pie, and my sister made a peach pie. They were very proud to contribute pies this year......

Of course- they had different ideas as to who had the best pie.

(Chris and I after dinner)

My brother and I got a little loopy after all the turkey and pie, and somehow ended up in the bathroom for a "Zoolander" inspired photo shoot. Crazy glasses- check. Messed up hair- check. too much sugar and nothing to do- check. Crazy photos to last forever- check!

(THE "ZOOLANDERS")

The day after Thanksgiving was pretty Mellow. Yeah, John and I went out and did some shopping, but nothing really all that drastic. We are not the 4 am door buster types..... we were the 1:30pm- after a good night sleep and a tasty brunch- kind of shoppers. I think we did score a few good deals, but nothing that I would have woken up at 3:30 am to get.

Then the day after that (Saturday) we headed on down to Anaheim to go to Disneyland. It was a pretty nice drive and we got off the 101 outside of Ventura and so we missed a lot of the holiday traffic (if there was any). We got to our hotel (the Ho-Jo) around 4Pm and it was nice to get there and have time to relax before it got dark.

Our Hotel was RIGHT across the street from Disneyland (no joke- our balcony view was Tomorrowland and the Matterhorn) and so we admired the view and then went out looking for food. We ended up at Islands. It is a great Grill and we do not have any around where we live. I have only been there a few times, and it was a favorite of John's when he was living in LA, so it was a perfect place to go and unwind (With a tall mug of passion fruit Iced Tea of course!).

One nice thing that has changed about Disneyland since we were last there (in May) was that the "finding Nemo" Ride had finally opened. It was a LONG LONG line, and after it looked like it had died down some we finally got in line.
It was "only" 75 minutes before we got to get on. Lucky for us it was a warm but overcast day- I know that I would have not been able to stand in the hot Anaheim sun for that long for just 1 ride. The ride was a update of the old yellow submarine ride, and for the last 3 years we have been going, this is the first time that they have been up and riding around- the ride was closed even from view- and it was nice to be able to see the blue lagoon again with the yellow submarines riding around.

I also saw this sign, and my first thought was "Yeah- that is always a good Idea" no matter where you are. They should post these on every roadside- not just at Disneyland.

"Always a Good Idea"

While waiting for the Firework show to begin, I decided to play with the slow night speed on my camera.
I set it for night shots, focused on some lights in the distance, and was playing around with making "light storms". (this happens to be the Top of the "Carnation Cafe") I got a lot of cool shots, but this was one of my favorites..

On the way home, we were stopped at a red light and I looked over and look what I saw! A Bobs Big Boy! Those are SOOOOOOO hard to find. I used to go to one here in town when I was quite young, and my grandparents would take my family and I out to breakfast from time to time.
I remember that my grandpa purchased a Bobs Big Boy Piggy Bank for me, and I still have it (somewhere) to this day.

The BBB in our town closed years ago, but John and I still go to eat in the cafe where it used to be, and I am always reminded of those "good ole days". It was nice to see that they are still around in some places (even if the Bob statue is smaller, and is considered a "express") :)

Well- That is about it for now.... I need to go get ready for bed, Put the flock to bed, and make sure that John doesn't stay up to late working on his PC.

I hope you liked all the photos, and I will try to not take so long to update things so that you do not have to spend 20 minutes trying to catch up :)

Good night!

Button Love and Random Thoughts

Yeah- Buttons are kinda random- but I was Flickr surfing today, and I found these pics to be cute :)

Well I have a lot of blogging to catch up on. There was John's Birthday, Thanksgiving, a Trip to Disneyland and I STILL need to post the photos of the decorations that I made more than a week ago. I am pretty tired from our trip, but as soon as I upload my photos I will try to post about all the above subjects.

Here are some random thoughts for today:

1. I really want a sewing machine- I am also scared about getting one because I have no idea where I will find the space to hold yet another "craft" in the craft room- it is bursting at the seams already.

2. I am really excited about the holiday season- but the #1 item that I get most excited about (the Christmas Tree) I am not excited about yet. It will probably hit me all at once and I will be ho-hum about a tree one minute and then the next moment I will have a "all consuming" need for one- but that is just me I guess :)

3. I am so excited for bubble baths right now- How can you not love a tub of hot water with pretty smelling bubbles and a book- that is my fave way to spend the nights right now.

4. I am about 70% done with my Christmas cards--- well 70% done MAKING them- I still need to make another 30% and then write and send them all- (so there goes the bubble baths- I need to spend my evenings working on those instead!)

Anyway- I need to get back to work- but I will really work on getting things more updated around here :)

Happy Birthday John!

(note: I did not make this cupcake, but I will try the cute decorating idea sometime)

Happy birthday to you honey! (He is 38 today- but I didn't tell you that!)

I have not posted lately- but I have been busy and I have a few things to do before I can post again (get photos off the camera, edit and crop them, etc.) but I will try to post again soon!

With Johns birthday, thanksgiving, decorating the house for Christmas, working on Christmas cards, and getting some shopping done I have kept myself busy- We are also leaving on Saturday and heading down to Anaheim.

And anyone who knows me, knows what that means..... That's right! DISNEYLAND!!!!! (whooooooo hoooooooooo!) I have not been there since mothers day when we met up with my family there for the day (we had been at a wedding the day before down there, and my fam was on the way back from a vacation). We will be in DISNEYLAND on Sunday and maybe a bit on Monday morning before heading back home.

But I will try to get with it and post all the stored up stories and photos soon, I promise! :)

Lots of fun stories and photos to soon follow!

Tuesday Mosaic

Here is a Mosaic for today. I just wanted to share a few photos that I thought were cute :)

Enjoy!

"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

They are BACK!

YES! I love love love my eggnog lattes on a cold weekend morning! Ahhhh- so cozy, so warm, so..... christmasy!

Even a Tall Straight Eggnog (straight eggnog-no milk) with 1 shot is enough to give me a happy day.

(sigh)

It really IS the most wonderful time of the year!

"Brew me a cup for a winter's night.For the wind howls loud and the furies fight;Spice it with love and stir it with care,And I'll toast our bright eyes,my sweetheart fair." ~Minna Thomas Antrim

Beware the "Curse of Palm Desert"!

That is right- "The Curse of Palm Desert". I seem to have this curse attack me each and every year for the last 5 years, and this year was no exception.

My parents (and any siblings still living at home) travel to Palm desert every year at this time to stay for a week or 2. My dad has Business seminars to attend and they make a vacation of it and usually stay a bit longer. I have never been, but I get a "special" treat anyway.

I am not usually a person that has "issues". Yeah, I have my own set of problems like anyone, but for this 2 week time period every year, some disaster strikes me in one way or another.

The first 2 years my family went to Palm Desert, I got a infection, was stuck in bed at home for a few days on antibiotics. This only happened once a year, and each year was during the week they were gone. I thought that it was kinda funny, and joked that maybe I am cursed when they go away.

Skip ahead to one year later. A few days after they left town, I was having dinner with my Boyfriend and I started to feel funny in my chest. It became a sharp, crushing pain. After laying awake all night in pain, (thinking that I was maybe having a heart attack since it runs in the family) I felt all fine, and went about my life. Later I was to have a full check up (EKG included) and nothing bad happened, but it still scared the bee-geezus out of John, and when he filled in my mom on what happened, I was nearly in big trouble with her for not going to ER when I was in Pain. Once again, we laughed about the Palm desert thing, and wrote it off.

Skip ahead another year. I had lived in a large walk-in part of my parents attic for awhile a few year before, and they wanted it cleaned out of all the other stuff that I had left in there. So one hot afternoon, I was up there cleaning it (a few days after they left for Palm Desert). Since it was so hot- and I was alone in the house- I took off my shirt and was in my jeans and kinda skimpy undershirt (and I am not skinny, so it was not super attractive) but I didn't think of it since I was alone and inside. Well I went down to the kitchen to get some water to drink, and somehow the attic door locked itself from the inside (it does that sometimes- I am not sure why) and we don't have a key that works. So I walk out to the garage to get a chisel and hammer to take the door off it's hinges so I can get back in and finish up in there. I go to get back in the house, and I discover that the door from the garage back into to the HOUSE is locked. My keys, shoes, and shirt are all inside. That door is NEVER locked, but they locked it before the left, and it is one of those doors that you can open from the inside even if it is locked. after all- all i was getting was a few feet from the door and didn't think that it would lock behind me.

As fate would have it, I had my cell phone in my pocket, but the ordeal was not over. They had just changed the locks on the house the day before they left town, and so NO ONE had a spare key (I was the only one). So I then decide to check and see if any of the doors or windows were unlocked that I could crawl thru. I walk outside to the side yard where the dog lives, and I look over the railing, and see water gushing out of a retaining wall that runs under the driveway. I then get confused and call my dad. Turns out that the water main to the house had broken, I was going to have to be talked thru how to turn the main off at the street. So here I am, barefoot, sweating, in a ugly and revealing undershirt, bending over at the curb outside as traffic goes by, trying to turn off the water main. After I fix it, I am still faced with the "how do i get back inside where my shoes, keys and purse are?" (and since I drove to my parents house, I cannot get my car, because it is locked and ALL my keys were in the house). and to top it off- the attic was still locked upstairs as well.

Well I remembered there was ONE open door in the house- my parents balcony door was open to keep the house fresh. The Balcony door that is 3 stories up the side of the house. I had to drag a HUGE heavy latter to the exact opposite side of the house, and set up the ladder, and climb all the way up and crawl over the side of the somewhat shaky railing (barefoot) and get in the house. By that time, John had made it over and he was able to take the attic door off it's hinges and get my stuff out of the attic.

Since the water was still off- I had to melt all the ice in the house and use up the Reverse osmosis water just to be able to water all the pets. Once again- we laughed about the Palm desert thing. (it was less funny this time)

Now move onto this year- My parents were supposed to leave for Palm Desert on Saturday- but postponed it for 2 days (they leave tomorrow).

Well- yesterday was proof that I am not nuts about this Palm desert thing.

I was at In-&-Out for lunch yesterday. I stood up to get some napkins and ketchup- and there was water on the floor unannounced to me under our table. As I took a step forward, my back leg slid out from under me and went backwards. My left leg collapsed and my knee down to my ankle and toes made full contact with the floor (getting cut up on the grout and concrete tiles). In that position, i was doing a half split with my back leg, (I cannot do splits and so that didn't feel so nice). they came out and cleaned up the water, and I didn't think of it at the time. 2 hours later my ankle and foot were getting pretty puffy and it was throbbing pretty well. We went home and iced it and I was on the couch for a few hours resting it. The swelling went down, but it still hurt.

John then walked in the house and stated "I stabbed myself". I leap (wobbley) off the couch, and hobble to him. He was using a sharp screwdriver and it slipped and it jammed into the flesh under his thumb and only stopped when it hit the bone. Of course, his hand are covered in grease and gasoline and are super dirty. We both hobble\walk to the bathroom and I try to wash his hand off as well as I can. At the site of the puffy gash bleeding all over the sink, he needs to lay on the couch. I hobble off to get rags and something for him to drink to bring his blood sugar back up. I call my mom and between her advice, WebMD and me, John and I decide to head off to the ER. (for a tetanus shot if nothing else- but I thought he would need some stitches)

So we go off to the ER. I hobble in with a ice pack on my leg, and him with a towel wrapped around his hand- we made quite a picture- and after about 25 minutes we went into have his hand looked over. They decided to not give stitches (because he may have some zinc bits in his hand), the cleaned it well (twice actually) and gave him a shot and we got to go home.

So- people laugh when I mention a Palm desert curse- but I beginning to think that if my parents keep going to PD that one of these days it is going to kill me :)

UPDATE: My Dad says this is probably the last year they will go - Thank goodness! I may make it yet. But I still have 2 weeks to try survive this last trip they take- I am worried about what can go wrong in 2 weeks :)

Here is John and I in the ER. I had my leg still elevated with a ice pack while sitting next to him, and John was still holding the rag to his hand while we were waiting for his Tetanus shot. We made a pretty sad pair :)

**Thoughts for Today**

I am SO excited that John is coming home today! He has been gone since Sunday, and this is the only time during the year that we are not together every day. He had to go on a business trip and he is also happy to be heading home. His plane will be in around 5 tonight, and he will be home in time for dinner ( I am making one of his favorites- BBQ Chicken Pizza with purple onion)

Also- talk about some good marketing. I was listening to Pandora Radio, and a song came on that I thought was pretty rocking. I then started thinking about Chocolate dipped fruit, and how tasty that sounded. I did some research on the song, and it was the song that Verizon played on the commercials for the new "chocolate" phones over and over again. (the ones with the phones rising out of melted chocolate). I thought that while I never payed any attention to the commercials, it obviously had some merit, because "chocolate" came to mind- Too bad that the image that came to mind was chocolate dipped fruit and not the "chocolate" phone :) LOL, Oh well!

I am also glad that it is the weekend. This week I have been feeling really tired and worn down- but that may be because I do not sleep as well when John is not next to me. Funny how that makes such a difference.

Anyway- Have a great weekend all!