Christmas.

So it has been awhile.  I thought I would drop by to share a few pictures of our Christmas celebrations!  We seem to have managed to take a lot of random pictures.  There are a few of us decorating the tree and then some from Christmas eve and Christmas morning.  We need to get better at taking pictures... and at posting pictures.  Anyway, we had a fabulous holiday! Although we missed are families a whole lot!  Much love to you all!

I can't ever seem to get the pictures to end up where I want them to on here... oh well.  Thanks for sharing our Christmas!! Hopefully all of yours' were just as wonderful!

With love.

Thanksgiving and best buy.

This year we were unable to go home and see family for Thanksgiving because of my work schedule.  But we were very blessed to be invited to join some friends for the holiday.

Our Thanksgiving contribution.

It was wonderful not to have to cook an entire meal! I did make an oreo cheesecake that somehow got a little slouchy, some peanut butter fudge that was delicious, and some yummy broccoli salad crunch.  Some of you may laugh at my desire to avoid cooking an entire meal, but I have two fantastic reasons for avoiding it.
A- I am not an gourmet chef.
B- You see that picture ----> ? That is almost all of the counter space in my current kitchen. There is another small section of counter on the other side of the sink, but after you put the drying rack there it hardly counts.  (We also brought the raspberry dessert wine you see on the right there, it was pretty good and came in a fun skinny bottle (don't worry, I almost always choose wine by the look of the bottle)).

We had a wonderful evening watching football, playing video games, and planning black friday shopping.  It was nice to spend the day with some other couples who were also far from home and family.

Hubby and I decided to venture out for the Black Friday madness at midnight.

Winter gear for Black Friday.

L has been wanting a new gaming system since before our wedding (a year and a half) so I told him that if he checked the ads and found a great deal we could maybe get one for him for Christmas.  Of course Best Buy had X-box 360s on sale ($100 off!).  So we loaded up all of our winter gear with the intention of joining all the other crazies waiting in line for the midnight opening. Then, a few minutes after noon, Hubby got on the Best Buy website and found the same X-box deal and had to order it immediately for fear of missing out.  I was slightly disappointed in this development because I had never been Black Friday shopping.  So we made the executive decision to head to the store anyway for some smaller deals.

 

Part of our Best Buy haul.                                Creepy Black Friday line picture.

Black Friday T.P.

So we waited in line at Best Buy for almost an hour before we finally got in the store around 12:30 am.  We were able to get some good deals on some TV seasons and movies, and we also got a great sale on a new point and shoot camera (Merry Christmas! to: me from: hubs).

After Best Buy we headed over to Target where our best haul was a 12 pack of toilet paper.  Yay for toilet paper at 1:30 am on Black Friday!  (and no it wasn't on sale, we just really really needed it).  :-)

So that about wraps up our holiday adventures!  Thanks for sharing with us!  I hope all of your holidays were wonderful!

With Love.

proud.

Things have been a little crazy around here.  Last week was recital weekend!!!  All kinds of family and friends came to visit!  Jess and Jackie were able to come down friday night and spend the night.  Then Saturday all of Lukas' family (with the exclusion of his sister's family) and some of my family and our good friend Randi all arrived.  It was so great to see everyone, especially since we are not going home for the holidays!

Hubby had his recital at two on Saturday and he did a fabulous job.  I am an INCREDIBLY proud wife!  It was so great to have the opportunity to celebrate everything that he has been working on for the past few years!  In case you haven't heard, my hubby has a beautiful voice. :-)  We were able to skype his sister during the recital, which meant that I got to take a peek at my adorable nephew! (I really need to get in some cuddle time with that little guy soon!)

After the recital we were able to go to dinner with all of our family and friends and then spend the night with them outside of the city.  It was so great to get out of the city and to spend some time with people that we love!  All in all it was a completely fabulous weekend!  I only have a couple of pictures that I took on my phone, the rest ended up in Michigan, but hopefully I will have more to share soon!


                  A Cake for the Hubs...

And a very dark picture from the restaurant...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (We are heading to a friend's house this afternoon, more on that later)

With love.

construction and granny-carts.

So it seems that when we finally start doing things that might make semi-exciting blog posts I stop blogging.  Oops.

In the last week and a half or so our lives have been a little all over the place (in a fabulous kind of way).  We were able to take a day trip across state lines to see a very dear friend sing with her choir.  Not only did she sing but she also directed one of the pieces!  She did an awesome job, very professional.  I meant to take pictures of the road trip and the concert but somehow only ended up with a couple of pictures of the hubs and I in the car. Oh, and one of the construction that has been going on for YEARS on a stretch of the highway.

Last week a friend and I both had Tuesday off so we decided to go SHOPPING!!  We went to this fabulous little fabric store with all kinds of unique little prints.  (I'm hoping to make a clutch with some of the fun fabrics that we found).  We also went to IKEA.  If you have never been to Ikea then you might be missing out just a little. They have all kinds of fabulous things!  I personally get drawn in by their lighting department.  I am a sucker for paper lanterns.  I might have brought just a couple home with me (only three...)...  We just might have hit up the mall on our way home as well... and I might have come home with some new lipgloss...  oops...  :-)

One of our other good friends had her senior violin recital this past weekend and it was beautiful.  She looked beautiful and played beautifully.  I am so excited for her.  The hubby has his senior recital in a couple weeks and I think he will be incredibly excited to have it done with.  A bunch of family is coming down for it and I can't wait to see everyone!  It has been far too long!

Ok, so maybe our exciting week wasn't really that exciting... I enjoyed it anyway. :-)  I might have to post some of the projects that I am working on soon.  I bought yarn yesterday to knit mittens!  I'm pretty excited about it.

With love.

oh!  P.S. I felt like a real city girl when I used my granny-cart to get groceries yesterday! Yay for fitting in!




...although I must confess that I only used it to get the groceries from the car to our fourth floor apartment... I'm almost a city girl...

pumpkins.

I said the other day that we carved pumpkins so I thought I would share a few pictures.

Hubby was working really hard on getting all the seeds out.

Lots and lots of pumpkin guts.

The finished products!!  Hubby and I made the Yoda one and our friends carved the Storm Trooper.  Such fun.

With Love.

pillow walls and crime shows.

So I survived my three days without the hubs last week (while he was on tour).  In the process I made two very important discoveries regarding my sleeping habits.  One, I am no longer used to sleeping in bed alone.  I finally had to create a pillow wall (to simulate my hubby taking over my side of the bed) in order to get any sleep at all.  Two, I love to watch crime shows, but should not watch them before I go to bed when I am home alone.  (Especially the episodes with the creepy home videos. You know the ones where it is dark and the video is all jumpy and people are screaming and you can't tell what is happening and then they all die? yeah, those ones.)

Hubby made it home safe and had a great tour.  He also had Monday and Tuesday off this week and I had Monday and Tuesday off this week which meant awesome together time!  Monday we drove out of the city and wandered around an outlet mall and did some grocery shopping.  Then we were able to have some great friends over on Tuesday for dinner, pumpkin carving and a creepy movie (don't worry, I didn't get too scared this time because Hubby was home).  It all made for a brilliant weekend!  :-)

So far this week has just been filled with work and rain.  We will wait and see how it finishes up.

With love.

catch-up.

So remember that time when we started a blog and then never actually blogged?  oops...  :-)

So here is a quick catch-up on our lives. Our summer has come to an end, although the weather around here lately doesn't seem to think so (80 degrees in October? really?).  Hubs started classes again and has survived through midterms.  He is working on finding student teaching placements for next semester, hopefully he will have them finalized soon.  He passed his Music Content test (Yay Hubby!) which puts him one step closer to certification!  He leaves this week for his fall tour, it should be a nice break from classes.

I was promoted.  Hooray for a regular full-time job with benefits!!  Unfortunately that also means my days off change, no more wonderful Friday and Saturday weekends for this girl.  My new weekends are Mondays and Tuesdays, which means lots of time alone while the hubs is at class.  In lieu of this, I am slowly becoming much more domesticated.  All kinds of cooking, cleaning and laundry getting done around here, not to mention craft and sewing projects.  Last weekend I made my first ever batch of chili (which turned out quite delicious) and I taught myself to crochet.  I even got up early one morning last week and made bacon and hashbrowns before Hubby had to go to class! (I even cleaned up after myself before heading to work).  We will see how long this lasts. :-)

With love.

welcome.

Welcome to our blog! We are so happy to have you here! Leave your shoes by the door and come on in!