I got nothing

First of all- THANK YOU ladies for all of your sweet comments on the last post!! You guys made me feel so normal about the situation. And it is nice to know that even when my IRL friends are not being that great, I always have my bloggy friends to pick me up!! This is why I love blogging!!!

My new bloggy friend Misty asked what I thought would be good ways to stay in touch if the phone is not your thing. For me personally, I DON'T like talking on the phone that much.....but it is a necessary evil when you have distance in between you.

So, some things that work for me:

1. I have a phone date every Monday with one of my besties and we eat ice cream while we talk and we don't change the date EVER(well unless we really need to). This helps because we don't play phone tag with each other and we both know when we are talking. Also this helps with not having any distractions..since you know you will be talking.

2. I also try to call people when I am in the car driving somewhere. It makes it easy, you are in the car for a certain amount of time and then you get off when you arrive. This keeps the conversation from being too long and overwhelming. Sometimes, I get overwhelmed by feeling like I have to talk to someone for an hour for it to be meaninful. This is not true. So, the "car" talks keep it short and sweet.

3. Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. Use this technology to your advantage. It is a great way to let somebody know you love and miss them when you are busy.

4. Snail mail or email. I personally love snail mail. So great!

Anybody have any other advice...leave it in the comments below.

Basically not too much is going on and I really have nothing of interest to post!


So who is ready for Christmas???? I AM, I AM!!

I finished my Christmas shopping yesterday at the outlet mall. And let me just tell you the Banana Republic outlet made me FORGET that I was shopping for other people. I just wanted to buy for me!!!! But I resisted!

T-minus two days till I go visit my hometown and see my parents. Can you believe it has been two years since I have set foot in my hometown. Ridic.

Sour gumdrops

WARNING: DEPRESSING POST AHEAD.





Alright, friends, so this post is less than happy. And I debated about even posting it, but I need to get this out. And let's face it-no one's life is perfect all the time, right? So I can't be all roses, and daisies, and gumdrops now can I?





I have to be honest. My heart and soul has been sad for a while now about one certain subject.



Now, I am not the kind of girl who makes friends easy. I have TONS of surface level friends that I can hang out with and have a great time with. BUT, I can count on one hand the number of DEAR friends that I just have a soul connection with. You know the friends that you can completely bare your soul to and who will cry with you and hug you any time you need?


See I have a hard time making those kinds of friends. I am NOT good at being vulnerable.... and I kind of have a harder time letting people in. So when I do, you are usually a friend for life. As in you are not getting out of this friendship ever.


But moving away is not the easiest thing. Especially for the one leaving like me. Sometimes, people are not great at being on the phone. Such is the case with one of my friends.


She is definitely one of those friends that you see being the "aunt" to your future kids, being 60 years old and going on a girl's vacation, and having a friendship that spans several decades.


Or at least I thought.



And this is the part that hurts the most dear readers. I call. She doesn't answer. She returns my call........three weeks later. We talk for two minutes....she becomes distracted, then asks if she can call me back .....and doesn't. We talk alot...when she needs a shoulder to cry on....when she doesn't....the phone doesn't ring.



And basically, I am hurt and emotionally exhausted from all of the effort I have to put in. And every time this happens, I get my feelings hurt. Of course, when we see each other in person, it is like nothing has changed....and I see my old friend emerge.....but it is the cliche " out of sight, out of mind".



And I am sick of it. Do I continue being a great friend to her and take what she gives and get walked on? Or do I take a step back and let my heart heal and focus my time elsewhere?



I don't know...this has been weighing on me pretty heavy. Prayers are much appreciated.







And because I need a pick me up. For your viewing pleasure.

Brain Fart

Why yes I did just include the word fart in my post title! Because dear friends, it is the only way to describe how silly and forgetful I felt a few days ago. Let me give you the background.

One of my dear friends, M, and I were discussing a few months ago for her to come and visit in December. We discussed two different weekends, but after talking I thought we had decided on the 18th as the weekend that she would come. So I put it in my planner and began the ecstatic countdown.

Fast forward to a week ago, when I was talking to one of my best friends about coming to visit Lakeland in December. I opened up my planner and saw that the only free weekend I had was the 11th(this weekend). So we made the plans! I called some other friends from our old church and before I knew it, one of my dear friends was organizing a girl's night for a bunch of us in honor of my coming into town. Well I was very ecstatic and began the countdown for that weekend too.

But WAIT...then I get a voice message from my dear friend M that she couldn't wait to see me the next weekend(which would be the 11th for those of you that are not keeping track!).

HOLD THE PHONE...WHAT????

Panicking, I call her back....Are you sure it is this weekend? I thought you were coming next weekend?

Alas, she is coming in this weekend! Of course, I feel like the WORST friend ever because not only did I get the date wrong, but it kind of looks like I was so NOT excited for her to visit that I didn't even know when she was coming!! And to top it all off, I had to call all of my Lakeland friends that I had made plans with.

Imagine how that conversation went: " I know I said I was coming and all....but JUST KIDDING......haha wasn't that a funny joke I played on you!"

Yeah readers-let's just say they didn't think it was too funny!!( in all honesty they weren't mad, they were just dissapointed)

Golly- royal screwup of the year- RIGHT HERE!!!

Christmas with the Howards!!

In the spirit of Christmas approaching, I promised a quick peek at our decorations for Christmas!! I personally don't think we have enough Christmas decorations...so every year I try to get more, which I am sure my husband just loves! Let me just say that we DON'T do sophisticated Christmas decorations here. (not that there is anything wrong with that). I am just always attracted to the cheeky, child-like part of Christmas...so that is what I buy! Here is what we have accumulated over the past three years!

Frist off-the OU Santa in our bathroom. His list says that we want the best football team in the land. Maybe next year, Santa, maybe next year.....




Hubs decided he wanted in on the nutcracker fun. Here is the start of my collection....I love them so much!!! Must get more!

Our little nativity set. We get a new piece each year!

The is a little reindeer training center that my grandmother painted. I love it!! It cracks me up that little reindeer up on top learning to fly!

I REALLY like reindeer too!! And this one is covered in glitter! :)

Reindeer plate that is now filled with candy!

Onto the ornaments.....

One of my favs..this really glittery and beautiful snowflake.

Just got this one this year..the Lord's prayer.

My fav childhood ornament..the nutcracker...love this ballet and ornament.

Gingerbread couple from our first Christmas married.

Pottery Barn frame ornament. We got this last year..I need to put a pic of us in it!

Our Just married ornament...this is adorable!

My dining room table!

Our mantle with our stockings......which reminds me I need to finish making Jonathan's personalized stocking this year so we can get rid of the generic stocking!

Our tree skirt....needs more presents on there...that is just sad I know!

And for the finale......our Charlie Brown Christmas tree....complete with colored lights!! YES!!!

And that about does it!!! Nothing too crazy....I want to be that house someday that completely tranforms at Christmas time..but I have a ways to go!!!

See ya Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving holiDAY and let me just emphasize the day part of it. I had to work on Wednesday and Friday, so I was only at the in-laws for a day. But we had oh so much fun thought like we usually do. Every year we have an annual Howard touch football game that we play. It is always so much fun and it makes me feel like maybe I don't have to feel guilty for the 3200 calories I just consumed in one meal. We make shirts for each year and it is just great.

Our bad to the bone team pic is below.

We also always exchange Christmas gifts since we won't see the in laws at Christmas. And this is the BEST part of Thanksgiving. There are about 16 of us crammed into Nana's tee-niny living room and we clap and yell through the entire opening of the presents.

We do the presents one by one and do a slow clap as the person is struggling to open the present. As soon as they get the wrapping off and the present is revealed, everyone in the room fist pumps both hands in the air and screams like they were just told they won the lottery. readers....IT. IS. THE. BEST. AND. MOST. HYSTERCIAL. THINGEVER.

Don't believe me? See this picture below.

We were yelling and chanting "Put in on, Put it on" about the jersey my BIL got from us!!! It is seriously the most energetic Christmas you will ever see.

Unfortunately, I failed at taking pictures. FAILED. As in my camera wasn't even charged up so I got not one picture. The above two were stolen off of Facebook. Sigh.

I was, however, a crazy person and ever so determined to get that bargain, I headed off at 2:45 in the morning on Black Friday in search of it. But unlike the rest of America, I had to be at work at 6 that morning as well. Ha! Work won't slow me down! This woman WILL shop!

Kinda sad to see Thanksgiving go but also glad that I can start celebrating Christmas. I mean honestly who's idea was it to make Thanksgiving so close to Christmas? T-giving always gets the shaft!

Can't wait to show you all the pics of our Christmas deocorations! So stay tuned for that!