It's the most wonderful time of the year...

I'm bummed that it doesn't really feel like Christmas yet.

I think it has to do with me being so busy

And sick.

Finally finishished this semester up and it's still sinking in.

The only grade posted so far is for my Statistics class.

I got an A :)

I don't want to work in retail for the rest of my life.

But for a college student, it really makes sense.

You're scheduled the most when you don't have school: Weekends, Holidays, and Summer.

Because of us, we make weekends and holiday shopping possible for other people. But tend to miss out on those events ourselves.

I find my heart bordering on bitterness and logical thankfulness. I don't feel thankful but I know that I should be. I have a job! And one that is scheduling me a lot right now! I have family that I get to spend the holidays with! (Even making two or three extra Christmases to celebrate!) We get to go to Utah and have a White Christmas (I'm hoping). Sure, I have a cold, but there are many many people with much worse sicknesses this time of year. I'm not in a hospital. We have food and an awesome apartment that we've been blessed with. And we're not freezing this year!

I just get bummed when I feel isolated by school and work. No time for friends because they work during the day and I work at night. And having to make time for Doug and I to hang out. He was nice enough to stay up till 2 in the morning so we could hang out for an hour (I got home at 1), even though he had to be up at 8:30 to go to work. I'm looking forward to Utah as a chance for us to be together for 5 days straight.

This is just for a season of our life. We're always going to be busy. And probably even get much busier. We are truly finding that it is the little things in life. Like watching Mythbusters at 1 in the morning, snuggling on the couch, with the Christmas tree lights on.

Psalm 46:10

I always laugh at how I think things will wind down. I find myself saying that I'll get to stuff "after the semester is over." Or "after things at work die down." Yet that never seems to be the case. There's always so much to do and it doesn't stop. It's at the point where if I do have free time I feel stressed out cause I feel like I should be doing something. Just sitting still for a minute or two is distressing and unnerving. But it shouldn't be like that. I need to learn how to be still. To make time to be still.

I haven't been making time to relax like my doctor told me to. There's too much to do! School. Homework. Work. Dishes. Make dinner. Do Laundry. Clean the apartment. Make time for friends and family. And importantly, make time for Doug. And life will only get more busy.

I like feeling busy because then that leads to feelings of accomplishment.

But I need to learn to be still.

Jolly Old St. Nicholas...

One of the traditions that I brought from my family was the celebration of St. Nick's day. Growing up we always got our stockings filled on the 6th of December because it was St. Nick's day. It was our recognition of the person who inspired Santa Claus, and Christmas was about Jesus' birth (although we still got presents from Santa on Christmas too). Plus it stretches out the gift giving.

So Doug and I have carried on that tradition into our home. We set spending limits (he tends to get very generous!) and keep it to simple stuff. Life saver boxes, Mike 'n Ikes, peppermint bark, blow pops, deck of cards, books, and gift cards were what we found in our stockings this year.

I must say that St. Nick's day was one of the tip offs to the game of Santa. Why did Santa come to our house twice? And only our house? None of my other friends got their stockings filled early. But I liked the tribute to the generous man who put coins and such in people's shoes at night (although I'm glad we use felt stockings instead of smelly shoes now).

Now to the true "reason for the season"!

Oh, the Holidays...

The holidays are finally here! Although it doesn't really feel like it...yet. School and work have kept me real busy. And Doug is as busy as ever! Retail really picks up during the holidays (duh) so I have a lot more hours of work and school is getting hectic with finals around the corner (12 and 13 days away). So we have been busy!

My extended family was in town for Thanksgiving. We had a blast finding time and hanging out with everyone. Reagan liked playing bubbles and chalk this time. As well as anything doing with choo choos :) We got to visit with aunts, uncles, and grandparents. And Devonna and Joe. Lots of good conversations and laughs all around. And don't forget the food! I love our Thanksgiving feasts and the leftovers. Doug...not so much of a fan of the food. So his plate was pretty bare and mine was overflowing. At least he'll still love me if all that food goes to my hips :)

This week we made time to put up the holiday decorations. Last year I promised pictures of our decorated apartment but it never happened...this year I made sure to take pictures! I love decorating for Christmas! Joe gave me a peppermint scented candle so I've been burning that to make it smell like Christmas.

Doug did our chalkboard for this season

We busted our our hot chocolate and holiday mugs (plus our apartment is a little chilly!)

And also this guy. Last year we missed a lot of holiday movies so we started early. Rudolph is always a classic!

This year we have end tables! And my parents gave us this nativity set last year from Israel that's carved our of Olive Wood. So we got to properly display it this year!

We put our holiday lanterns on our other end table. We were cracking up cause some of the stuff we unpacked, we didn't remember where we had gotten it the year before...like this basket. I love it, but can't remember where it came from...

Our penguin plate. And Target had the candy cane Hershey kisses right by the check out. And I was a sucker for grabbing them. But it was so worth it. They are really yummy!

Our newest addition of Christmas mugs. I'm a sucker for penguins. When I brought them home I showed Doug. And I told him that I got him a different type for him. He said, "Is it a snowman?" He knows me so well.

We put lights up on our "mantle" this year. We couldn't remember where we put them last year. Doug thought it was on the mantle, but I told him I remembered saying no last year...but since the paint is cheap we're not gonna be getting much of a deposit back anyways, so why not put some more holes in the wall? :) Oh, and Doug had left his hammer at youth group, so he hammered the nails in with a Zippo. haha. I love how resourceful he is!

Our potholders!

Towels. Go Target! They have the same ones this year. Gotta love cheap decorations!

Our "mantle" all lit up

Our tradition is that we get ornaments on our vacations as memories. That way everytime we put our ornaments up we can remember all of our great memories and vacations together. So far we have one from Kauai, Hume, Hershey Pennsylvania, and Disneyland. This year we went to South Carolina and Savannah, so we got ornaments while we were there. These are the two that we got! The one on the left is the state flag painted on a sand dollar. The one on the right is just clay.

Trimming the tree. Our tree is small but it fits our apartment perfect. It really just fits us :)

Our tree all lit up. Doug did an awesome job putting it up and making the branches stick out right, and putting the lights and garland on.

We've been playing Christmas music and I wrote our Christmas letter. I just have to assemble the cards, address them, and get our picture printed out. I love this season!

The age old question...

What would you choose if you could only choose one thing to eat for the rest of your life?

I finally have an answer to that question: Yams. Don't know what it is about them, but I love them.

Doug said pizza.

At first. Then he thought about it and said if he could only have a one-origin food it would be potatoes, cause he could do a lot with them. Smart answer.

Oh the battle of the carbs...

Things to remember

Sometimes it is awesome to just veg on the couch eating fruit and salt and vinegar pringles. Couple that with watching meaningless tv shows online and netflix. In my pj's at 4:30. Just what I needed for a Friday night! The only thing that would make it better is a husband to cuddle with (although he wouldn't stand for some of the shows that I watch haha)

The thing that makes me laugh is when I notice that the show's wardrobe is American Eagle clothing. Or when I go, "Hey, Doug has that shirt." Haha cracks me up.

Only 5 more weeks of school (finals week included).

But these next few weeks are going to be insane!

Here's to finishing strong! (and taking the needed veg session)

Slivers of Time

this past week has been crazy. But what's new? This week I have floor set at work. Which means that we re-do the store like elves overnight. Yesterday I worked 9-5; 9 at night till 5 in the morning that is. But it's hours at work which is why I do it, plus I like tasking jobs at work. I was supposed to get up at 7 this morning but my alarm didn't go off. It was set for pm instead of am. Oops. So I got to sleep in a little bit but then had to rush off to my other classes before getting to come back home.
Today is one of Doug's days off so we finally got to hang out for a bit. We watched Date Night, cuddled, and now have been watching Everwood. And we're making pizza from scratch with our pizza stone. I'm excited!
We've really had to make time to hang out with each other. It gets frustrating when I think about how our co-workers and classmates get to spend more time with us than we get to spend with each other. And our schedules are opposite much of the time, so we have to hold onto the few hours that we get and make the most of them.
I have work again overnight and then class tomorrow afternoon. This week ends with a Physiological Psychology midterm. Yuck. So somewhere between resting, school, work, and Doug I got to find time to study.
Here's to a busy holiday season and cherishing our time together :)

Happy Birthday Doug!/Devonna and Reagan visit!

This past weekend Devonna and Reagan were in town. My parents were in Greece, so I got some quality time with Reagan while Devonna worked on campaign stuff. The first day I took him to the mall to go to Target, my work, and we stopped by the Sweet Factory. He picked out two lollipops. Then I took him on the Merry-Go-Round at the mall. He liked it well enough. He got bored pretty quick.

Reagan with his blue lollipop

Riding the Choo-choo

Short video of him riding it. He actually got to ride it twice cause a dad came with his two boys and paid for a ride for them.

He tried riding in his car again. He seemed to understand it more. We still had to keep reminding him that he needed to press the button in order for it to go, but he didn't get out of the car this time. Progress!

He finally liked it!

We also played with Chalk on the sidewalk. And took pictures of ourselves.

That night we had a party for Doug's birthday. We had a bunch of friends over for cake, poker, and Quelf! (And the Aristocats, since that's what Reagan watched)

Playing Poker

Doug's Charger Cake (That's what it just turned out to be, not quite planned)

It's just not as satisfying buying the number candles. Then it's like you're only 2 again.

I love my man

Playing Quelf haha

Reagan dancing. We have videos of Devonna dancing just like this. So funny.

Doug and I got to dress up for the first time this Halloween. All previous Halloweens we were celebrating Doug's birthday with other plans. (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOUG!)

We were "Beauty and the Geek". We had to get creative since we couldn't afford to buy any other costumes. Doug even had a little kid point at him and yell "nerd!" and then run away.

We went to our friend James' house that night. We helped pass out candy and laughed at all the kids who didn't know what they were dressed up as (what?!). Then Devonna, Reagan, and Doree showed up and we took Reagan trick or treating. He couldn't quite say "Trick or Treat." He was dressed as a Tiger though and we would ask him what a Tiger says and he'd growl. At one house a little girl, probably about a year and a half, kept giving him more and more candy. He had a lot of candy that night!

Reagan the tiger! (It has a hood with ears on it)

Playing with his trucks

He didn't want to take pictures, he wanted to play with my phone

Not quite sure what he was doing, but it was cracking me up

Doug and I took Reagan to the park on Tuesday night after his nap to help tire him out (since he slept till 5!) Reagan was a lot more explorative this time, running around like crazy. He was scared of the slides though and didn't want to go down without one of us holding him on our laps.

Running around the park



We had a lot of fun and am looking forward to Thanksgiving when the whole family is here!

Pumpkin Carving 2010

It has been a crazy couple of weeks but a lot of fun moments. I've barely had time to update our blog! Last week we carved pumpkins with our friends.

They never knew what was coming...

The table with all of our fixings. Pumpkins, cookies, candles, Charlie Brown, and carving utensils.

Speaks for itself! Although it didn't work that well for me...

Carving on our porch. I think it's the one time we use our porch a year haha.

Some of us finished a lot quicker than others. I always take a long time (it's a well known fact)

Picture of people taking pictures of their pumpkins

The slow pokes. Haha. Sammy and Elyse were designing for a lot longer before they actually started carving. I had no excuse (I started first)

Allison came and kept me company. I think everyone else was watching Dr. Horrible

Elyse carving her Ace of Spades

It was Sammy's first time carving a pumpkin. Crazy! And he was a natural pro!

My pumpkin!

All lit up!

All of our pumpkins lined up

One half of the pumpkins (Elyse's, James', Andrew's, Kaity's)

The other half (Sammy's, Kaity's mini pumpkin, mine, Allison's, Doug's)

Doug was a carving of James. Haha it was really funny when you looked at it, it just didn't light up well enough.

Light's on

Of course we roasted the pumpkin seeds. And didn't eat them. It always seems to be just to do festivities whether or not we will actually eat it. But it wouldn't feel like Halloween if we didn't roast the seeds.

The fun thing about Fall is all of the baking that you can do! Last year Doug and I found Halloween-ish cookie cut outs, so we decided to make some again this year. There's a Frankenstein head, a pumpkin, a cat, and a bat. Doug had a long day yesterday, even cleaning the apartment while I napped! So he rested while I finished them up :)

If you know me, you know that I don't have much patience when it comes to rolling out cookies (Doug even reminiced to one of the Christmases where he got stuck finishing the cookies cause I got frustrated and quit), Last night I became a pro though and got my technique down! Or it could have been that this new recipe that I found online didn't suck so much.

Ready to bake!

Cooling!

Glazed! They were supposed to be iced, but I put too much milk in the powdered sugar and we ran out of powdered sugar last night. Oops. I think they were still ok though.

We also had a yummy dinner of chili and cornbread last night. Such a Fall dinner! And now that I've seen this picture, I want more...