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Christmas and my vacation. ARE. NEVER. GOING. TO. GET. HERE. EVER.


Hope all of you were able to be home with your families on Christmas Eve!! Happy Holidays!! See you in 2009!! (eek..holy cow)

It's the Final countdown

3 and a half more days until we pack up and head to SOONER LAND!!!! We are leaving on Christmas Day and will be getting there at noon. Hooray...i can't wait to see my in-laws! I love them tons and miss them and I am excited to get to do Christmas with them for the very first time. (I am sad that I won't see my family.......:-( sad face) One of my dear friends Erin is getting married on the 27th so it will be a big reunion with all of my friends!! So excited and can't wait.....still on the quest for that perfect little black dress though.....

LBD

Little black dress ......this is what I need. I am in another wedding the weekend after Christmas. I am in the house party. We are supposed to wear solid black dresses. I am pretty sure that all of my black dresses either have some other color on them or are helplessly out of style. I need something that will not break the bank either this close to Christmas. Here is what I am thinking....what do you think?

Jingle Bells

Last night the hubster and I volunteered to ring the bell for the Salvation Army kettle. We signed up through our church and because I am a serious over acheiver, I automatically signed up for it despite my protesting husband. Yesterday of course wast the longest day at work ever and so of course I couldn't even go home and had to pick up my husband and go straight there. Let's just say we were both regretting my decision to sign us up for this.( I know we are terrible) But it actually turned out to be a blast. I got some much needed QT(quality time) with my husband. We made it our personal goal to wish every person either a Merry Christmas or a great night. This was so fun. Who knew that wishing people Merry Christmas would make you feel so good. Oh yeah and we turned it into a competition of how much money we could collect. Although we really don't know what anyone else collected...I feel confident that we were on top. Anyways the point of this post was to say that the Lord really can turn things that you are not that excited about doing into blessings. It was a blessing to hang out with my husband and a blessing to talk to a bunch of strangers. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Not the only one...

I found this link on You Tube and found it so adorable. Jennifer Love Hewitt is my new favorite. Here she is talking about how much she loves watching The Hills. It is so cute and I love how animated she gets. The second clip she talks about how much she loves Lauren Conrad and how she could never go up and talk to her. See, celebrities are so normal....I LOVETHIS!!!!! :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y6AtsJaRM4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPd9IKmsZw

Watch these...they will make your day. I thought I was the only over the age of 19 this obsessed with The Hills! :)

Weddings!

I LOVE weddings! I mean I really love them. I am pretty sure that becoming a professional wedding attender could be in my near future. I definitely could go to random strangers weddings and even throw in some crying for good measure. THAT is how much I love weddings. They make my heart so happy. Oh and it doesn't hurt that I love to dance and don't do it that much so every wedding is another opportunity to shake my groove thang. This weekend is one of my dear friends Theresa's wedding. That is Theres and her man. They were engaged for well over a year. And I don't know how they did it. 11 months was too long for me. So I am super excited for it. I am her matron of honor(sidenote: isn't that name just hideous???? MATRON....why, why, why do I have to be the matron....seriously it makes feel old and unattractive.....) But she is doing some really fun things for her wedding. She is getting married in this really great barn..... and she has this tree branch thing on all of her centerpieces that looks like this:

Isn't that great for a winter wedding. And she is hanging crystals from the branches. Also she is doing this fun idea with pinecones...love this for a winter wedding.
I will take lots of pictures for you guys to see the real deal. So adorable and I can't wait for her wedding. Now I just have to plan my toast...EEK! :)

Rockin it

Last night the hubs and my boss and I headed over to the House of Blues in Orlando to hear this XCELLENT Christmas concert that was raising money for Toys For Tots. If you remember this is my super awesome Christmas gift from my boss that I wrote about in a previous post. So the line-up was Natasha Bedingfeld, Gavin DeGraw, Colbie Callait, and David Cook. It was absolutely incredible. The entire show was acoustic and I LOVE acoustic shows. There is just something about taking away the majority of the music and being able to completely hear the singer. So anyways, I have always been a fan of Gavin's( um hello i have seen him live three times and we are so on a first name basis), and I have always enjoyed Colbie Callait and Natasha Bedengfeld's music. But now i think I need to immediately go buy their albums. Their live voices are INCREDIBLE!!! They both completely rocked it out. And I am always somebody who will support someone actually being able to sing well live as opposed to sucking. And David Cook was incredible! We had a fantastic time despite being smooshed in between a very lively threesome on the left and some very public lesbians on the right. But that dear friends is a story for another day!

STolen

So my brilliant hubby found a seriously great CD the other day for FREE. I stole what he wrote on his blog because I just knew that all of you would want to go download your free copy today!! This CD is incredible if you like "beautiful, makes your spine tingle" worship music.

Looking for some great worship. Check out "Canons" by Phil Wickham. in fact, if you will go tohttp://philwickham.com/singalong/ you can download a free live album. It's just Phil, his guitar, and 3,000 folks singing their brains out for Jesus. "Canons" is on the album, as well as songs from his first and second albums.

Great Find Honey! ;)

Loser

Seriously. I am a big FAT Hairy loser. GAW my hubster and I completely missed our chance to get National Championship tickets. It was announced this past Sunday that OU would be playing in the big game. On Tuesday, we started facebooking everyone we know still in school to see if they would get student tickets for us. They had already done the tickey sign-up on MONDAY!!!! AHHHHH!!! we missed it by one freaking day. Oh yeah and for those of you who don't know we now live in Lakeland, Florida where we are approximately 5 HOURS from Miami and the big game. GAh....see I told you. Loser.

PS. Did I mention it sucks to live in Florida right now and hear about how "great" the Gators are?

Prayer please

Today is one of those down in the dumps days. Nothing seems to be going right at work. I have averted a handful of minor disasters which have left me feeling like I am going to puke. I just found out that I will probably be working tonight and tomorrow during the day. And the hubby and I had planned to go to Sea World before our yearly passes expire. Looks like we won't be able to go now. :( I am sad. Maybe my weekend will be better. TGIF!

Boomer!

I have to say that I am just so stinkin proud of my Sooners!! They have been playing so great lately!!!! We are going to the National Championship for any of you sports challenged readers out there!! We are playing the Gators and I do have to say I am nervous!! They are pretty stinkin good!! We will see on January 8th. Can't wait!!

Sam Bradford for Heismann!!!

Better than a ham

Ok I have to brag for a second. I officially have the greatest boss in the entire world. He called me into his office yesterday and handed me two pieces of paper and said Merry Christmas. I opened it up to find that it is two tickets to go see Gavin DeGraw, Natasha Bedingfeld, FlyLeaf, and Colbie Callat(not sure if that is how you spell her name)this coming Sunday!! I mean first off how many bosses actually know and remember what kind of music you like and secondly a concert??? This is so awesome!!!! I am so stinkin excited!! I do have to say that it is much better than a ham!!! haha!!!

JIMMY!

Just wanted to share with you guys the CD I am OBSESSED with lately. You need to immediately leave your computer and run to you nearest music store and buy this CD. Jimmy Needham is the singer and let me just tell you he is not only an incredible musician, but he has the most incredible passion for Jesus and you can tell in his lyrics. I love that his entire CD challenges us as believers to think about things deeper and not just go through the motions of our Christian faith. But to really make a difference. I feel like I learn so much when I listen to his music. And it is good. This CD has seriously been a joy to own and listen to. Oh and it would also make great stocking stuffers!! Oh and I have uploaded a song of his to my play list. It is called "Hurricane" and it is off this latest album. Listen to it and see if you like him. I can pretty much guarantee you will!!

Reality Check

This time of the year is the time of the year that everyone begins to realize how thankful they are and how blessed Jesus has made them. This year is no different for me. At church we are doing this gift tree in our Sunday school class. The entire gift tree is for one family who has stumbled into some incredibly difficult medical issues that are taking a huge financial toll on them. So this entire little tree was filled with their wish list items.
Begin tangent:
I just absolutely ADORE gift trees!! My parents are the most generous people known to man( I mean seriously they are givers) and every year from the time I can remember, my mom and I would pick several "ornaments" off of a random gift tree and we would then go shopping together and pick out the gifts. Now this was one of my favorite Christmas traditions and it really taught me to be generous with giving. Can't wait to do this with my future kids.

Anyways, so I walk up to the tree expecting to see the usual wish list things on this tree. You know the toys and random fun stuff, mixed in with some necessities like clothes and a new coat. As I looked through the tree though I was overcome with sadness at what I saw. I picked out three ornaments to give and just to give you an example I will tell you what is on my three. For the 6 year-old, they were requesting art supplies. For the 16-year old boy they were requesting an electric toothbrush, and for the the entire family gift they were requesting Double A batteries. I couldn't believe it. There were not toys anywhere on the tree. Everything was an extreme necessity that most of us take for granted when buying it. Talk about feeling extremely grateful for the things that I have. My entire Christmas list is full of wants. Not needs. There is not one thing that I need because I have all my needs met and then some. Anyways, the husband and I are so stinkin excited to buy this family gifts. We have already talked about how we are going to buy the presents they want but also tons of other FUN things for this precious family!! I can't wait. This is what Christmas is all about. Blessing others. I just wish that there was a gift tree all year round. I urge anyone reading to go find your nearest gift tree(usually Salvation Army has them and I did notice that Applebee's looks like they are hosting one). You won't regret it and you will most likely be more blessed by doing it than the family on the receiving end!! Merry Christmas!!! :)

Night and Day

So last night was one of those nights that don't come around very often. They don't advertise them in wedding magazines, no one tells you when you get engaged to expect it, and you certainly don't think about it on that big wedding day. But all of my fellow married women can agree that it does happen! Well IT happened last night! What is "IT" you may ask. Well the night that you are yet again reminded that men and women could not be any more different from each other and this fact alon makes cohabiting together feel like torture sometimes! (haha a little harsh...love you babe) But seriously, you ever have those nights where you feel completely not on the same page, but maybe even in two completely different books? Last night was just no fun! The husband and I got into a fight. I started crying( which just always seems to happen, I wish i could get the water works under control) and then the crap hit the fan. After talking through things, we kind of had an epiphany. Maybe it is not an epiphany for others but it was the first time we had really sat down and talked about what we needed from the other person to feel loved. Now me, I am all about you telling me how great I am(haha). But seriously I need lots of encouragement. I need my husband to tell me what it is that he loves about me. It is not enough just to hear that he does...I need to know why!!!! And he could care less why. He told me it doesn't matter. So here I have been the past year and a half trying to love him the way I want to be loved. So I am always telling him what it is about him that I love.....but found out last night that I have been wasting me time! :) Ok not really, I STILL need to do those things. But he really loves it when I respect him. That is when he feels most valued and loved. To quote his words" I don't need you to stroke my back and tell me you love me. I need you to say"You have what it takes and I will follow you wherever you lead me." ( Actually very poetic and true words-good job babe) So now I know and he knows and hopefully we can move towards understanding how to fulfill the other one a little bit better! A good lesson to learn.....but not a very fun process!! So honey if you are reading this " Know that you DO have what it takes and I WILL follow you to the ends of the earth...no questions asked". And for any of you reading....leave a comment...you know I love to hear why you love me!! Haha only teasing! :)

Reindeer Games..

I saw this on some random person's blog and thought it was fun!!!!

1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Heck yes wrapping paper. There is nothing more fun than coordinating paper, gift tags, and homemade bows. I just love it. But I will probably have to do lots of bags this year because we are flying and they take up less room. :(
2. Tree--Real or Artificial? Artificial....really don't understand the love of real trees(does that make me strange) I like for my trees to look cute and the real ones are always missing half of one side!!
3. When do you put your Christmas tree up? Depends...usually the first part of December but this year i put it up the day after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Ummmm....would probably leave it up till March if my husband let me....I LOVE THEM!
5. Like eggnog? YOU BET!!! I already had a bottle of it in the fridge BEFORE Thanskgiving.
6. Do you have a nativity scene? yes two......love them so much......but why is is that Baby Jesus is always reaching His hands up like he is about to speak??? Never understand that......
7. Favorite gift received as a child? oh gosh...I can't even think...ooooh wait I do still remember when i got a Barbie Doll house complete with elevator and work out gym....it was sweet.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad....he is the type of person that buys what he wants when he sees it and so he never really wants anything when Christmas comes around...and HE ALWAYS guesses what you got him before he opens it....so annoying! (love you DAD)
10. Worst Christmas gift? oh gosh......i don't know...i am pretty easy to please. maybe a gift card....don't get me those for Christmas...it seems like a cop out to me.
11. Mail or email a Christmas card? MAIL...speaking of which I need to mail mine today....
12. Favorite Christmas movie? A Christmas Story...I love it and I love the 24 hour showing of it on Christmas Eve. " You'll shoot your eye out"
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Early...i get stressed out waiting till the last minute
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Heck yes....I have and I will probably do it again.
15. Favorite food to eat on Christmas? i don't know...i never wanted to eat. it always delayed the presents because my family always made us eat breakfast before we opened presents on Christmas morning...me and Christmas breakfast..yeah we aren't friends.
16. Lights on tree? well usually white but my husband and i picked out colored last year for fun and they are growing on me.
17. Favorite Christmas Song? Can't pick....but the Alvin and the Chipmunks record my mom has always brings a smile to my face(i know but don't laugh it is tradition)
18. Travel during Christmas or Stay home? I wish I could just magically wrinkle my nose and be there...but we have to travel on Christmas day:(
19. Can you name Santa's reindeer's? of course..... I am an American after all.
20. Angel or Star on Tree top? right now I have a huge bow.
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? we always opened Christmas presents on Christmas morning...but I REALLY like the tradition of getting pajamas on Christmas Eve.... I think I will start that on Christmas Eve with my future kids.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People getting caught up in the material and not being thankful for the precious gift of Jesus.
23. Favorite ornament? my nutcracker ornament I got when I was a kid...I still remember the feeling of excitement I got when my parents gave it to me....
24. What do you want for Christmas this year? a vacation...and I am getting that..so it should be a good Christmas!!! :)

I tag anyone who reads this blog to do this...so fun!!!

Stressed

Today is not a very happy day on the job front. I am super panicked today. Our team screwed up. I know we did. And now I have to try to explain to our customer how we let something so important slip through the cracks the way we did. I mean I even had recurring nightmares about it all last night. It is no fun being in charge sometimes. I mean sure getting to come in when you want, take long lunches if you want, and delegating are fun. But not having to be the one to own up to the screw-ups of those you supervise. I REALLY do not want to get yelled at today. And I aboslutely HATE dissapointing people(the people-pleaser in me). So I need this day to be over and quick. Yuck what a very bad, no good, rotten day. Please shoot a prayer up to the big guy for me if you think about it. On a lighter note: it is almost the weekend.

Dream Team

OU IS PLAYING IN THE BIG 12!!! I am so excited!!! I hope that we dominate those Missouri
Tigers!!! I love my alma mater!!!!!!! Take a look at this article. Man this guy is smart!!!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/notebook?page=notebook/onthemark1201


Boomer SOONER!!

one great holiday

My Thanksgiving holiday was terrific!! I hope everyone else had a lovely one as well. I hosted my very first Thanksgiving dinner at our place and I cooked everything!! And it was actually good......I say this with surprise because I am by no means a cook and can manage to mess up anything. But everything went off without a hitch and my entire family agreed that the meal tasted just like Mom's. (What a great compliment...just what I was going for) I had a couple of scares....for example...I accidentally grabbed the sweetened condensed milk out of the pantry instead of the evaporated milk and put it into my pumpkin pie. Well as soon as I found out, I started crying.(Yeah yeah give me a break...I was stressed and hormonal) But after giving it a taste test, I think I am on to something. It was VERY good. So if you ever do this do not fret. That little mistake works wonders for you pumpkin pie. But all in all it was a fabulous weekend.We had Christmas with my family and my family once again spoiled us rotten(not that I mind)!! Can you believe though that I did not take any pictures??? The entire weekend. Geez I don't see my family ever and I forgot to take pictures!! Oh well I guess we were just having too much fun!!