Gifts

Here are the somewhat exciting things I got for Christmas:
A robe and long winter nightgown.

4 shirts to layer in winter months, plus they'd be great for wearing in summer months too.

A bunch of snowmen, electric toothbrush heads, some art tape, a Hobby Lobby gift card, a necklace and earrings to go with it.

Some poinsettias, an owl, another snowman, and a box of Godiva chocolates.

more snowmen, Sandra Lee Bake Sale Cookbook, and a pad of paper.

I also received a Kindle Fire. As much as I appreciate everything I got, it's nothing I need. My family knows I don't have a lot of money, it'd be nice for them to get me something I need some day. I had a strange dream last night, where I sold my Kindle Fire because I needed the money, funny thing is, I could totally do it, cause I don't have a lot of money.

I think next year, everyone's only getting one or two items from me. I need to stop spending so much. I will say, my mom's and my dad's gifts were the only things that were really expensive. I did most of my shopping at garage sales and thrift stores.

Also, my friend Loretta made me some cool hand soaps, gave me some hot chocolate packets and some tins filled with fun goodies.

How was everyone else's Christmas?

It's Christmas

Almost. My presents are all bought, wrapped, and under the tree:
My cookies are all made:

For recipes, go here for the Revel Bars (top right hand corner), here for Creamy Peanut Butter Bites, (middle right side), here for Chocolate Mint Creams (bottom right corner), here for the Red Velvet (bottom left corner), here for Mint Chocolate Chip (middle left side), and here for Tri Level Brownies (top left side).

My decorations are all up:

To see more, go here.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, here's what I'll be doing:

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Holiday Tour - The Family Room

The last room on our tour.
This is the third of our trees. It's slightly considered the ISU tree because of the hat, and the ISU Santas underneath it. It's also got red and gold beads on it.

This is the floor under the tree.

And here's a bookshelf.

I hope you enjoyed my little tour.

Have a good holiday season everyone.

Holiday Tour - The Living Room

Lots of pictures today:
This is our second tree, it's the main tree we put up each year. It's a lighted tree and we decorate it with Santa ornaments, as you can see it already has plenty of presents underneath it.

Here's our fireplace. You can see the stockings that my mom made for us many years ago. Each of the brass stocking holders fit what we collect: Santa for my mom, reindeer for my brother and snowman for me. My dad doesn't collect anything Christmas related, so he has a tree.

Here's the floor under the mantle.

Here's a chair next to the Hoosier, it has a cute Santa pillow, along with some holiday socks.

The wall above the chair. The Santa in the chimney stays up year round.

The Hoosier cabinet (this used to be in the kitchen for a number of years).

The floor under the Hoosier cabinet. There's another Santa spool here, and a rubber duckie Santa.

One of our round tables in the room (the tree is sitting on the other one). There's another nesting Santa here, as well as a driftwood Santa.

Here's the loveseat, with a collection of Santa pins on a pillow.

Another look at the tree.

Another table.

Another table. All the tables match in this room.

Tune in tomorrow for the family room.

Holiday Tour - The Dining Room

Short post today.
This is our dining room table. You can see Santa S&P shakers, as well as a box train. This is a little desk in the corner, on it are 2 sets of nesting Santas. There's also a Santa on a table underneath it.

Tune in tomorrow for the living room.

Holiday Tour

I love reading and seeing everyone else's decorated homes, so I decided to show you mine (or my parents, as I've already showed you mine). Here is our house from the outside. Notice no snow, we're in between snow falls right now. I live on the 3rd floor.
You can see our garland on the front porch. My mother collects Santas, so most of the decorations inside will be Santas.

Here is a look in from the front door, there is garland on the staircase and on the French doors to the left. You can also see a big Santa infront of our bench, and the first of the 3 trees we have up.

Here is a table mounted on the wall, to the right of the front door. You can see the Coca Cola Santa music box, and the set of Santa spools.

This is right under the above table. The bear is there all year round, but gets dressed up in the hat and cape for Christmas. The mouse dances and sings when you press his foot.

This is the stairway. Again, you can see the garland, as well as a bunch of paper Santas.

This is the bottom of the tall Santa and his friends.

This is our bench, it's built into the wall. The purple Santa, is a Mardi Gras Santa from New Orleans.

This is a shelf mounted above our radiator.

Tune in tomorrow for the dining room. I will be doing one room a day, so I have 3 more days to do.

Where have I been?

Alright kids, I'm sorry I've been so lax in posting lately. Here's what's been happening since I last posted.
12/19/09: was supposed to work graduation for Hilton, instead woke up with stomach pains and felt crappy all day, drank lots of water, stomach pains went away by bedtime.
12/20/09: Worked two basketball games
12/21/09 - 12/24/09: worked and got ready for Christmas.
12/24/09: worked a 2 hr shift at library, went home had a quick Christmas lunch with Kevin and my family, opened my family's Christmas presents, went home with Kevin to his parents house.
12/24/09 - 12/27/09: Was home with Kevin ignoring the rest of my life, had a nice Christmas with his family.
12/28/09: Came back to Ames and worked
12/29/09: Worked at the library in the morning, took care of stuff at post office, went out to lunch with Karli, finished packing for vacation, worked at store.
12/30/09 - 1/12/09: Hawaii vacation.

I will be posting my 'journal' entries about Hawaii very soon. Also will be adding all my pictures with descriptions to my picasa online album and will put up a link here. That might not happen for about a week as I have been working at the bookstore since the 13th and will be there until the 22nd.

Hope everyone had nice and happy holidays

Is it Christmas yet?

WOW! I am so ahead on Christmas presents this year. I was wrapping some the other day. I have had mom's presents since January (and I didn't lose them, go me), I've had one of Kevin's since the middle of October, and the other day I went to Target and Walmart and saw some stuff for Kevin, Ross, and chocolate for the family. I decided I was already there and, unlike some of the people that come into the store where I work, I bought it then.
I don't get why people go into little locally owned stores to get "ideas" for Christmas. We're not the big stores, there's no guarantee we'll have those items when they come back to buy them. We hope we will, but we're always selling out of things and then we order new ones, but who knows when they'll come in. What's so wrong with buying them now, you can do what I did and wrap them as well and then you're way ahead of the crowd. I always wanna say something snooty when they don't buy at that moment. I have had a few customers come back with their lists and then the thing they're looking for isn't there and they get all upset. I completely understand little kids with their lists, but when it's grandma making the list (and of course, I know nothing about the customers), I don't see why you can't buy now. But, oh well, we get a lot of business around Christmas, because everyone buys toys for kids for Christmas.

I realized the other day, I am so ready to get away. For some reason, patrons are annoying the heck out of me. Like yesterday, I was working a bball game, and I watched a lady get out on one of our busiest streets. It was a totally reckless and stupid thing to do, the car stopped, in the middle of the street (next to the sidewalk, but in the middle) and the lady proceeded to get out. Thankfully, the person behind them stopped quite a ways back, but how lazy do you have to be to put so many people in danger just to drop someone off at a game. How hard is it to drive around the corner and do it at a safer place? I was completely appalled by it, and was tempted to say something to the lady once she got up the stairs, but we were busy by then and I didn't. If I had, I could just see her getting all upset with me and need to chat with my supervisor.

Falling in and out of love with you

I apologize profusely, I meant to write this on Monday.
I was all bummed I wasn't going to go to the Good Guys Car Show last weekend, but I did it to myself. When I learned that Kevin would get the 4th of July off this year, I asked if we could go, and he said yes. When I learned the 4th was on a Saturday, and he would get the whole weekend off, I told him we should go back to his parents place instead. A couple weeks ago, it looked like we wouldn't get to go because he'd be working. Friday morning in his message, he asked me if I was working that night. I wasn't quite sure if that meant he didn't have to work just that night, or if our plans were back on for the weekend. I called him after work on Friday, and he said he had the weekend off and asked if I wanted to go home with him, to which I gladly sad yes.
We left about 10pm that night. I just packed up and left, didn't tell my parents, didn't really care if they knew or not. Yesterday, I was talking to mom on the phone and she said I should have told them, because for all they knew I was kidnapped on my way from work. I was thinking, if you were worried, you could have called, which they didn't do all weekend, I think she just wanted me to feel guilty for not telling them. Not like it's any of their business what my schedule is. I don't live with them, it's none of their damn business.
We got to his parents house about midnight, and slipped into bed. Saturday, we basically lounged around hanging out with his parents, brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. About 3:30 (it felt later than that), we went to Texas Road House in Cedar Rapids, because I had a coupon for a free appetizer. After that we went to Menard's. I have never been to a Menard's and it was really really cool. I coulda spent about an hour or more in there. On the way back to his parents house, we got some custard at Culver's. Later that night we went back to Cedar Rapids to watch the fireworks, and we were treated to an early show from a guy setting off fireworks about a block in front of us. That was cool except for the cardboard raining down and the sulphur billowing back at us.
Sunday, was also a lazy lounging day. Kevin had to fix the brakes on his truck, so we went to town to do something with the rotors and get brake pads, we had lunch at a Chinese buffet restaurant, that had some pretty damn good cream puffs with whipped cream with taste. After getting back to his parents house, he worked on his truck while I watched TV. That night was also a loungy night with supper from Culver's. Monday morning, his brother, sister-in-law and nephew came over and his mom, sister-in-law, nephew, one of his brother's beagles and I went on a 2 1/2 mile walk. Shortly after that we headed back home.

It was a really nice weekend. No phone calls from my parents nagging about stuff, though I did say at least once a day, I was surprised my mom didn't call me to complain about something. I didn't realize that til later, and I so didn't mean to bring her up so much, but it really did surprise me, she didn't call and complain about something I hadn't done yet.

A note to people in cars at stoplights. Don't watch me (the pedestrian) as the cue of when to go. Within the past month, I've had 2 vehicles start to cross the street on a red light, because I was walking. I do walk against the light quite a lot, only when I won't be in the way of any cars. I had one vehicle almost get hit by an oncoming car because they were paying more attention to me than the light.

I got my brother's Best Buy gift card in the mail yesterday. Now I have a total of $550 dollars to spend in Best Buy. I know I mentioned wanting a new TV, but I also gave my parents and brother lists of stuff I wanted. If you're going to give me gift cards for that much, have them be for Fareway or Walmart or Target, where I can use them on stuff I need. Yeah, it'd be nice to have a new TV, because everyone has their shows in HD now and if there's any wording on the screen, it's guaranteed to fall off the edge, but there's so many more things that I need. I guess I could buy all the DVD's and CD's from my Amazon wishlist at Best Buy, I could even start buying the seasons of 3rd Watch that I heard were coming out on DVD. I just wish people would pay attention to lists instead of just deciding on their own what they're going to get me. Most of the time when they do that (at least when it's my parents and brother), they don't get something I really want. My friends and Kevin are way better at getting things that they know I'll like. The other thing I'm annoyed at, is if they want me to buy a TV, why don't they just buy it for me, then I can't (ok, technically I could) return it and use the money for something else.
I'm also a litter perturbed that I never got a cake this year. Yes, I know it takes me a long time to eat cakes, but I love getting cakes, it makes me feel that much more special. And, as long as I'm complaining about things I didn't get, I didn't get a card until I received the card from my aunt, and an ATC from my yahoo group in the mail. Ross also mailed me a card, actually his was pretty funny. He got it here, and it's the procrastination one. "Procrastination: Hard work often pays off in over time, but lazyness always pays off now." He said he thought it fit perfectly since he hadn't mailed my present on my birthday. It's a pretty cool site, you should all check it out.

I'm working on taking a picture of the frog pillow my mom made me. I've just been behind because I've been busy filling up my new computer with everything from my old computer, then I had to reset it to its factory settings, so when we have our garage sale in August, I can sell it for a giant profit, or at least a profit, as I didn't buy it.

AAAAH! It's Friday the 13th

So, Sunday night I spent the night at Kevin's house (that's when I got the other huge frog), and in the morning we went to Earl May (OK by that time it was more like afternoon, as we didn't get out of the house until noonish, and after making some trips to the bank and somewhere for lunch, it was well after noon) and look at their critters, and they had a cute little guinea pig, so cute. The lady said they received it on Friday, and it hadn't really been taken out and played with that much, and while we were there it never made a sound (important tidbit there).
That night, I go home and Kevin calls later saying he's bringing me a Subway sandwich and to meet him downstairs, I'm wondering why I have to meet him downstairs if we're just going to eat the sandwich here. So, I go downstairs and starts walking towards me with something in his hands, turns out his was holding the guinea pig we saw earlier. He said he was going to keep it at his house until Sunday (this being before he decided to go to the conference, mentioned in last post), and then give it to me, but his roommate didn't want her staying there. Apparently after dropping me off at work, he went in search of a cage and then went back to Earl May and picked her up.
Her name is Val, for Valentine's day and the fact that she's got bright red eyes. I've been missing having a guinea pig since my last one died. Val is ours, though she stays at my house.

Love is in the air?

I hope you all are getting ready to celebrate Valentine's Day or Friday the 13th, whichever strikes your fancy, or both, that works too.
I have already received all my presents (and there were a bunch of them too), as Kevin is out of town at a storm chasers conference in Denver, CO. I was telling him he needed to bring me back something and suggested they should be giving away stress balls shaped like tornadoes. I don't think I'm getting anything though, oh well. You wouldn't think I needed something more after you see what all I got for Valentine's Day.
Last week he started by giving me this giant frog. He's at least 3 feet tall.
And after (or before, I don't remember which), he gave me this little one.

And this week he started (with something else, but that will be in my next post, as I haven't quite figured out how to upload more than 4 photos per post in the order I want them) with these guys, he picks me up from work Tuesday night with these 3 (or 4, depending on what you're counting) in his truck.

And then yesterday, we had to go out to his house to pick up the rest of the lot before he went on to CO.

Plus, the caterpillar

That equals 11 (there's another one at his house), well that's weird, I thought for sure there were 12, wait a minute, I forgot the one that's still attached to the mug he's in, guess there are 12. And the giant caterpillar, and.... Oh you'll have to look at the next post (or previous as it comes up on my blog) for that, it's the best present out of the lot.

Where you are is where I belong

Here's hoping y'all had a good Christmas and aren't planning to party too hard tomorrow night.
Christmas for me was pretty good. I got plenty of new snowmen, some Fareway gift cards (those will help out immensely), a new DVD player (I was really hoping for a VCR as my DVD player works somewhat and my VCR is totally down for the count), 2 toaster ovens (this is becoming a tradition, last year I got 2 vacuum cleaners), some frogs, 2 new coats (I'm favoring the one Kevin got me), new gloves, and a plaque at the new alumni hall on campus. Like I need a plaque, if you're gonna spend that much money (I don't know how much it is, but I'm guessing a pretty big chunk), spend it on something I need.
I'm trying to continue what I started last year, going to Kevin's parents' for Christmas and celebrating with them. I really hope that will be a lasting tradition.
I had my family Christmas on Christmas eve.
(Ya know I had this nicely planned out an hour ago, I don't know what happened to it)
A couple years ago, I received a Toshiba Gigabeat MP3 player as my graduation gift from ISU, the battery has become shot on it, and now at full battery power it lasts 30 minutes. It's so nice that things nowadays are built not to last, are built so you have to buy a new one every few years.

Go celebrate with your mother, or at the least give her a call. She's the reason you're here today.

It's time for a meme again

Here's my other present from Kevin

(It's not an engagement ring)

Finish the sentence with the first thought that comes to mind.
I know I’m sick of snow
I believe in love
I fought winter, and winter won
I am angered when people talk before thinking
I love Kevin
I need food
I take what is mine
I hear the whirring of my computer
I drink too much pop
I hate looking for a job
I use mixed media in my art
I want a job
I like my new ring
I feel hungry
I wear pajamas
I left my pig in a stinky house
I do art
I hope my ring is more than just a Valentine’s Day present
I dream of having a long life with Kevin
I drive never
I listen to my heart
I type random stuff
I think happy thoughts
I wish for a job
I regret encouraging certain people to do things
I care about Kevin
I should not have sat in front of my computer all day
I am hungry
I said hi to Ralph a second ago
I wonder when I will figure out the point
I changed my socks
I cry at sappy movies
I lose my concentration
I leave too much crap on the floor

Happy Heart Day to all

Kevin gave me some really cool gifts for Valentine's Day:

A cute stuffed frog

My card

And another gift I can't show you for a week, but you're gonna love it, I sure did.

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day

They don't need a man

It doesn’t feel like the day after Thanksgiving, as I have to get up early (ok it’s not really early) and work. I’m wondering why I agreed to go into work at 10AM, gonna be on my feet until 6 (a fun 8 hr day).
Wednesday, I came home ate supper with my family and sat down to watch TV for the night. My brother informed me I have been going over the ‘family’ (because my mother doesn’t have a sprint phone) plan’s minutes for the last 3 or 4 months. I’ve been using around 400 to 500 minutes. My dad said I had to have an estimate to how much I’d been using, but I really don’t. Nobody complained, so how am I supposed to know. I knew having a boyfriend made a person talk more on the phone, but I didn’t realize we were talking that much. Yes, I talk to Karli and my mom in there too, but most of it is talking to Kevin. I did feel rather bad about it; I didn’t mean to go over. So, anyway, we were going to watch Die Hard 4, and then Kevin called, and we chatted, then I went back in to watch the movie, my mom had switched chairs and I decided since Ross was being his usual annoying self, I wasn’t going to stick around, so Ross and dad figured I was just upset about not getting the chair. Ross never thinks he’s wrong in the way he’s acting, and dad just doesn’t notice. I figure it’s a typical sibling thing.
Yesterday was good, I was surprised no one called me early asking me to come down and help, but mom knew I was upset with Ross, so I think that helped a little. We finally ate around 1PM. After lunch we spent the afternoon watching My So Called Life. I was kinda miffed that we didn’t play Apples to Apples as dad made such a big deal about doing that instead of watching TV all afternoon. It was kinda like old times, all of us sitting around the television watching a TV show together. I was intrigued how well they portrayed teenage life, because we all know most TV shows about the teenage years aren’t really how it actually is. I left around 9PM hoping Kevin would call me last night, but he didn’t. I’m ok with it, I was just hoping.
And now it’s the day after Thanksgiving, and I’m expected to be at the shop in a little more than an hour, to help with the big rush. Crossing my fingers we’ll actually have a big rush and make a lot of money today.

Six years old and you take a nap

So, if you haven't heard the news, James Brown is dead. He died early this morning in . If you don't know who he is, look him up here, and don't mention it to me. He was called the Godfather of Soul, and I remember him best for his performance as Reverend Cleophus James in The Blues Brothers (one of the greatest movies ever made, which you should not watch with me, as I know just about every word) and from a performance he did on a TV show called New York Undercover, in the 90's, he played "It's a Man's World" which I had to go and buy right after I saw it. Another great singer is gone.
So, I hope you all had a good Christmas and got all (or quite a few of the things you wanted). Some of the things I got include: quite a few snowmen (as I collect them), Ice Age 1 and 2, the Jason Aldean CD (Which I've already put on my mp3 player, as well as the music video of Hicktown, that came on the CD), some cardstock, and various patterned paper for me artwork, a few things from Alaska (as my parents went there this summer), things from Mexico (my mom went there last spring), a shirt, some Borders giftcards, some local grocery store giftcards, and a chocolate Santa. My friend Carrie, gave me some chocolates on Sat night (which I ate for breakfast Sunday morning).
We had some nice meals the past few days, porkchops with potatoes and carrots last night, and seafood pasta with salad today.

Once again, I hope you all had a good holiday

Merry Christmas y'all

Happy Holidays Everybody!

A little bit of this, A little bit of that

I hope you all had a good, fun, safe 4th of July, whether you were in the USA or not. Mine was fun, interesting.
Went to the pancake breakfast with my friend, Karli, her mom, and her mom's boyfriend. And I decided while standing in line, as well as while eating pancakes, my town has a lot of good looking firefighters. One, in particular I liked, kinda wish I knew who he was, he was young looking, maybe my age, nice blue shirt, nice mirrored sunglasses, only the ones that are colored, like yellow and pink, ya know what I'm talking about, I think his name was David or something, I got a glance at his name tag, but it wasn't head on, so I don't really know. Gobbled down my pancakes and watched the parade, wasn't that exciting, I was rather amused at the heating, plumbing, and air conditioning truck as well as the tow trucks that were in the parade. Why you'd want those in the parade is beyond me. Also, got to see a few nice cars, a Challenger and a Corvette Stingray.
Went back to my house, gave a little tour to my guests, opened my birthday gift from Karli, a flag pin, and a cute little porcelain (?) hanging about friendship. Settled down and watched tv, drifting between the 2 COPS marathons, finally went for a walk about, 6 or so. Found a dog on my walk, returned it to its owners, only to find it again a little while after, and returned it again. They wanted to give me money, but I didn't want any, though I did give them my name.
Came home and watched more TV. Exciting huh?

This is our Independence Day