Like Cold Water In The Face

That is what this day has been.... like a rude awakening from vacation bliss. But let's start with a nice memory first. Yes... that is a polar bear behind us. No, we were not in the Arctic... close... We were at Brookfield Zoo in IL. We had an awesome awesome day there which a little while ago I was longing for and wishing I could turn back time.

But, you are wondering about the cold water right? Well, we had a lovely couple of days which I will fill you in on later, and headed home last night. We arrived home at oh... 3AM. When we are pulling up to the house we notice that both the front and back porch light look weird. They were like dim and yellow and kind of flickering. We thought it was odd that both bulbs would go out at the same time. Then we got in the house and find out the light over the sink is doing the same thing. This is when I got a sick feeling in my stomach because we realized something was really wrong. The living room light was on and suddenly it goes out... Now... let's remember that I was in our church building when it caught fire. It was an electrical fire. Things like the phone stopped working as we were seeing smoke and realizing there was a problem. So can you imagine where my mind is going as things around my home either won't come on, or are going off, or are dim and flickering. If we like turned on the overhead lights, other stuff would flicker. We turned on the TV and the lights dimmed and flickered. Scary stuff OK? Next we find out the water does not work and the fridge is not working. Everything in the fridge was warm. Freezer stuff was soft or melted.... This is not a good thing. We lost pretty much all the food we had in there.

Well Darrel goes up in the attic to check wiring, he starts checking breakers, he starts checking wiring in the basement... he/we are up until after 5 AM this morning trying to figure out what was going on and if it was safe to go to sleep! Around 5:30 we still didn't know what was wrong, but Darrel thought he knew what circuit was the problem. He had that shut down, and said we were OK for the night or should I say morning. He got 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep before he was back out there working on it. He had to pull our well pump to check it... that means pulling it up from the well like 80 feet below. He messed with wiring and breakers and tried different things all... day.... long. It was WAY stressful and emotional. I spent the day helping where I could, dumping food out of the fridge and freezer, and trying to unpack what I could. Finally at like 10 PM with the help of a friend from church, we discovered the problem.

Apparently there are two 110v lines that come into the house. That makes up the 220v needed. Only 1 of those lines was working so the house was pulling only 1/2 the power needed to operate. This was why when you turned on something, something else dimmed. Not enough power. So now we realize the problem may be with the electric company. Would you believe they came out to our house at midnight? Yay for Duke Energy. They came out and within like 1/2 hour or less... viola! Power! We also found another wire in that area that was not working correctly but at the moment, I sit here having both water and power at the same time! yay! What a luxury huh?

All day we thought the well pump had shorted out and was going to need replacing... um that is like $900! yikes! We couldn't get anyone out here till tomorrow, which turns out to be a good thing because once the power was fixed, the pump kicked in! It just wasn't getting the 220v power it needs to run. In the meantime though, Darrel was able to turn on our city water meter from our old trailer pad and use a garden hose to get water back into the house. Isn't he good?

So now.. tomorrow we need to get the pump back down into the well and we may finally be in business. I probably sound like a whiner, but I wasn't sure how much more I could take. I already have a pretty much gutted bathroom. We have 10 other projects in line to be done. And now we were both scared we were going to have to completely rewire the whole house and put in a new breaker box, etc.. and buy a new well pump.... Be very impressed I do not have an ulcer after today.

Like I had said earlier we had such an amazing time in IL I just kept thinking I want to go back in time 24 hours when we were shopping and eating at our favorite places and laughing and having a great time together. I was seeing my remaining 4 days (now 3) of vacation going right out the window and I WANTED that time with my husband. We were supposed to be cuddling and watching movies on Darrel's new Blu ray player. We planned to make chex mix together and be lazy..... I guess I'm stingy but I didn't want to give that up because he had to be out in the yard digging up a well or replacing wires... Probably sounds pretty whiny huh? Can't help it. I love, love vacation time with my husband. We are good on vacation. I am so thankful things are in better shape now and we should at least have the remaining 3 day weekend. Thank you Lord. Hopefully God will forgive my whining and meltdowns today too.... I admit it... I had a moment or two...

So hopefully tomorrow I can be back and tell you all about the zoo and shopping and the Vera B outlet and the awesome Italian meal we had, our great room... It was fabulous... But for now, it's 1:30 AM and we are both functioning on very little sleep... So I bid you goodnight and I wish you a Happy & Blessed New Year!

Merry White Christmas

We had an awesome Christmas. Did you? And it definitely was a WHITE one. So white that we had to borrow my Dad's 4WD truck to get home from their house (which is like way over the river and thru the woods...) back home Christmas Eve night. Even though we were heading right back there Christmas Day, we wanted to go home to have our own Christmas and see what Santa had left at our house. He was very nice to us... but of course.. I was a very good girl... Did you expect anything less? I have some pictures to share of my gifts from Darrel and my family, but that will have to wait for another evening when its not late and I'm not wiped out from 3 non stop activity days... I need a big ol' nap!

We were at my parent's on Friday and Saturday and on Saturday since we were all in one place at one time, we took the opportunity for a group photo. Here is one of the results!

Not bad huh? Do you know how hard it is to get that many people in one room at the same time, standing still AND color coordinated? Be very impressed...

Then for Sunday, we headed to have Christmas with Darrel's family. This was the first time this side of the family had been all together at once since I think a year ago last July? Wow... where does the time go. Here is the group shot for Darrel's side of the family.

Once again on all of the group photos, Darrel was the official photographer. Not to shabby for not only being the photographer but also being IN the photo.

We are now officially on vacation and yes... I am quite happy about that. We have some plans for the all important shopping tomorrow and will also hit some fabulous restaurants too! Can't wait.. I mean hey.. I have some Christmas money in search of a great new sweater or something you know? I bet I'll come across a clearance shoe rack or two too..... I also just remembered a little while ago that we are very near.... or will be... a Vera Bradley Outlet... It would just be way too sad to pass that up... Although I did receive no less than 2 Vera bags for Christmas. :) Happy Dance on that one. I also received those great Honora pearl bracelets I showed you earlier this month. My husband is just that good.

For now I will bid you goodnight. May be back to update some more and give you some vacation news tomorrow night, but it could also be Wednesday before I can update so please tune in again! Hope your New Year's week is awesome! Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) Are you still out there or are you getting tired of waiting for me to update? No? Good... cause I'd miss you. :) Here is our official picture with Santa Claus.... I am thinking this is a big event since the last time I had my picture made with Santa I was likely um like 5 years old... Does it count since this is fake Santa? I decided it does. We took this picture on the 17th day of Christmas otherwise known as date night. We had quite a nice evening!















2) For date night we went to Santa Claus Indiana to see the lights and to check out the other Christmas stores and activities they had going on. First stop was at Lake Rudolph (which is a campground) for the "Story of Rudolph" light display.















3) The lights were pretty good...and they ought to be because it was $15 per car to drive thru. We thought this was a bit steep but for the sake of date night and Christmas time, we decided to splurge. Isn't Santa up there in the sky cool? Apparently Rudolph was not yet ready to fly with them....

4) One of my favorite parts of the light show was this cool lighted tunnel. All of the lights were blinking at different times which totally made the tunnel look like it was moving. It was very cool!




















5) After the lights we headed to Santa's Candy Castle. We had some yummy hot chocolate there which apparently they are known for. Well, mine was yummy. Darrel's not so much. I had a regular chocolate. He had cheesecake flavor. It was a little overpowering or something. We decided we were not a fan. I mean I hate cheesecake so why would I be a fan anyway right? I did not try his on purpose. When they gave us our cups, they told him his was mine and vice versa... I was happy to find out they were wrong once we finally figured it out. We bought this snowman ornament while we were there cause we both thought he was quite cute!

6) After the candy castle we stopped at The Christmas Store. They had like millions of ornaments, collectibles and um people.. .quite crowded. I believe Santa was there somewhere too. We did stop at their fudge shop in the back and enjoyed ourselves some very yummy giant cookies. Right next door was an ornament shop. They had an ornament that was called "brown haired princess" and Darrel decided I must have one since a) she is wearing pink and is sparkly and b) he always calls me princess... Awwwwww! Please don't gag on your computer. I think she is quite cute, but is in need of a very pink pedicure and some fabulous shoes.





















7) Here is our official Christmas tree photo. Pretty huh? I love the glowy look to the lights. I took this when we got home from date night and had officially hung our new ornaments on the tree... What is up with me and the word official today? Maybe this is my official 10 on Tuesday Christmas post? ha!















8) On Saturday, the 18th day of Christmas Darrel worked on the bathroom remodel and was busy repairing the floor. I was busy in the kitchen and got to work on my baking. I made cake balls... (well I started them and finished on Sunday) and oh my goodness... I forgot how good these things are. YUM. Please try to ignore my remedial dipping skills. Apparently I need a class or something. I decided adding the chocolate drizzles helped to hide the dipping flaws! I also made tiger butter, and chocolate chip cookies.















9) On Sunday, 19th day of Christmas, we had church and got to enjoy the men's choir singing We Three Kings. They were awesome. In case you are wondering, the cutest guy up there is the one in the white shirt and black and silver tie. After church we enjoyed lunch at La Caretta and then headed home. I did some more baking and made pecan squares and finished the cake balls. Darrel had to make a run to the big city for some wood working supplies for a gift he is making. A gift I just got to see which is way too pretty to give away. I might have to swipe it! I also got some fabulous gifts from friends. Lori made me these awesome pink hand warmers which I am in love with since I am frozen all the time. She also got us some great wash cloths for the new bath, a snowman plaque, and a giant K decal. Very cool! Julia spoiled me with some great Avon goodies like some cool pink lipstick and a necklace plus a bath & body works candle! LOVE all my gifts.





















10) For the 20th & 21st day of Christmas there was mostly work. On Monday we had our annual staff Christmas lunch at La Caretta. Nice of them to pick my favorite restaurant right? I tried something new off the menu and it may now be my new favorite thing! It's a grilled shrimp and chicken salad. Oh my... the others were like drooling on my plate and asking what it was. SO good. Today was work also, but things are winding down now for Christmas and vacation. yay! Apparently Darrel was not done stuffing my stocking because look what appeared on top today. How cute is that?! Love it and it talks and says Linus' lines from Charlie Brown Christmas. I also did a little more baking and made Peanut Butter Temptations.

And now.. you are all caught up on the days of Christmas at the Koontz household. One more day of work and then VACATION. Yay!! We are so looking forward to some time off together. Until next time, I wish for you a very blessed Christmas week!

Thankful Thursday & the 15th & 16th Days of Christmas

How cute are these little boxes. A sweet friend from church dropped them off to the office yesterday. They are filled with treats for the church staff. One has caramel corn from a local place known for their caramel corn and the other had homemade caramels! YUM. Wasn't that sweet? I love stuff like that around the holidays. Just makes me smile!

I am so thankful for the Christmas season and this year I feel I've been reminded to be thankful for all that God has provided for us and that we are able to buy gifts and have a tree and have food to eat and decorations and just every part of the holiday that is special to us. 2 years ago we were struggling a bit with less hours for Darrel at work. The last 2 years have been hard economically for a lot of us I think. Even so, this year I am reminded of the people Darrel met and ministered to in Haiti. I am reminded that there are people right outside my door that might not have gifts for their children, or a tree. I am reminded its easy to take a lot of things in our life for granted when that so should not be the case. This year we had the opportunity to buy gifts for a little girl that needed things like shoes and a coat. I don't know this little girl, have never even see her. Yet as I was picking out things like sparkly pink shoes, a coat, a doll, I found myself so emotional! There are many gifts under my tree with my name on them, things I probably don't "need" and here is a little person that doesn't have a warm winter coat or shoes. It really touched me so much. God is so amazing.















So for the 15th day of Christmas, the baking has begun! I was suddenly in the mood to make some cookies so I went with it! Ha. The first thing made this year was Oatmeal White Chocolate Chip Cookies. When Darrel came home from Haiti, his sister Renita made them for the mission trip group. They were quite yummy so I of course needed the recipe.

It would appear they came out pretty good right? Until I tell you that when I gave the first bite to my husband, he thought they were too gooey.... Well, OK, he was right... BUT I told him that he should learn that when your wife asks, "are the cookies good" you say YES. It's like the "does this make me look fat?" question.. Always answer no. Isn't that how it works? :) PLUS - he was the one who told me not to bake them longer because they should be chewy/gooey and then he tells me they aren't done enough... I did manage to make almost 4 dozen and they are quite edible and yummy even if they are 5 ww points per cookie! Must mean there is good stuff in there.


















This is Darrel laughing as I am giving him a hard time about not saying yes the cookies are good... However he was wrapping my presents so perhaps I should have been nicer to him? Kidding... I'm always nice... honest. :) He was sitting in our bedroom floor to finish after wrapping for like hours.. makes one wonder what he was up to?! I mean one present is in a big box, which usually tells me that 9 boxes later inside there it will turn out to be the smallest present... when he is doing the wrapping never trust the size of the box to give you a clue on whats inside. He is sneaky... You will notice in our bedroom the 2 Vera purses sitting on the chair because as far as I am concerned all well stocked bedrooms should have at least 2 Vera purses sitting on the chair at all times...




















Check out my stocking. He has apparently filled it or um should I say STUFFED it... When one runs out of room when filling a stocking he thinks the thing to do is to then start hanging stuff off of it... how cute is that? Plus, I can spot like 4 kinds of Godiva already... YUM..




















Just so you don't think I am too spoiled.. I had to show you that he didn't fare too badly in the stocking department either... Do you know how hard it was to cram all of that stuff in there? I keep waiting for the stuff I crammed into the top to go springing out of there like jack in the box...

For the 16th day of Christmas I had quite the productive day. I seemed to manage a whole day with feeling healthy unless a headache counts. I walked almost an hour on the treadmill, dusted, vacuumed, did 3 loads of laundry, made chicken and noodles for dinner, made a list of the rest of my baking and ingredients needed, gave myself a very pink manicure, and managed to walk back and forth to the spare room for a shower without slipping on the ice and breaking my behind... I found out these shoe spike things I bought from QVC work quite nicely.. Mine happen to be pink.

For date night tomorrow we hope to go to Santa Claus Indiana... why? Because doesn't that just sound like where one should go for a Christmas date night? There are some Christmas activities going on that we'd like to check out. This is assuming the roads are not an issue by tomorrow evening. If that plan fails I am thinking Christmas movies at home and some kind of yummy carry out is a good alternate plan.

So for now I bid you goodnight. Hopefully by Saturday I will be back with an update. Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) So finally... I am back. How on earth did a week go by? Been trying to get my blogging caught up for 3 days now.. but this illness I am fighting would not cooperate. Sunday morning I felt OK, but achy like with the flu, but no other symptoms. Sun afternoon, had a fever. Better by evening. No fever Monday morning, but had a rash.... lovely. NOT... By the time I got home, had another fever, aches, chills. Today fever is down, but rash is still here. DR says I am likely fighting something "viral" and it should take 3-5 days to run its course. Let's hope since today is day 3... we are about to be done with this. I don't have time to be sick.... do you?

2) Back to December daily. The 8th day of Christmas was somewhat uneventful. I had work and walked on the treadmill and got ready for the big Christmas shopping event coming the next day. Getting ready for shopping involved switching to the proper most comfortable Vera purse... picking out a matching outfit, and getting some kind of plan on what I would be getting for my husband and where I needed to go to get it. A task that was made much easier by a newly typed Darrel's wish list which was much more legible than the previously handwritten one. During the planning I went online to check stock on a few things I was considering. This was a GOOD thing because the main thing I wanted was not available... Took care of that rather quickly by ordering online and having it shipped. Very glad I did not run all over town before discovering this.

3) On the 9th day of Christmas I met up with my Mom, my sister Jennifer and my sister-in-law Stacy for the big annual girls Christmas shopping day. One must head to the big city for this which is convenient since my sister lives in the big city. I caught the picture above as they were all standing in line to use their JC Penney's coupon for $10 off of $10.... We hit the mall, Target, and several other places I can not mention by name so as not to ruin anyone's Christmas surprise. We had a very nice lunch at Penn Station and later some dinner at Ihop. Have you had the Cinn-a-stack pancakes or french toast cause yum..... I managed to get allll of my shopping done and was quite happy about that. I left the house at 10:30 AM and returned home about 10:45 PM... I am thinking that is quite the marathon shopping day. Darrel had his work client Christmas party that same day which means he did not return home until after midnight.

4) The 10th day of Christmas was date night and boy were we ready for a relaxing pizza and movie night at home. Darrel was supposed to have a vacation day due to the extra work the day before, but alas... he had a deadline to meet and ended up working a 10 hour day! Had he had the vacation time, he planned to head to the big city himself and finish his Christmas shopping and then bring us home a pizza from Turonis. Instead, I got the movies, he got us a pizza from Bobes.. oh and of course I got the all important movie popcorn and candy. We watched Eat, Pray, Love and the Expendables. Darrel really wanted to see that, and actually we both enjoyed it. Was not wild about Eat, Pray, Love. I wanted to like it, I wanted to like the woman in the movie... just didn't. For me as a Christian, it had some scary new age themes about it that just didn't sit well with me. Her final conclusion about finding herself seemed to be that God lives in us and we are God... I completely do NOT agree with that. I believe God lives in us as Jesus when we ask Jesus into our hearts and life. We are sooooo not God...

5) on the 11th day of Christmas we were mostly at home. Darrel put in a lot of work on the electric in the bathroom. We now have a new light and exhaust fan installed as well as new light switches and outlets. I need to take a picture of that for my book for the 11th. Quite exciting to push a button/switch and have the light go on or off... ha ha ha... I did a bit of relaxing, some laundry, cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen, did my nails, did some Zumba and pulled a muscle... it was a fun day. :)















6) On the 12th day of Christmas we had church. During our morning service, our children performed their Christmas programs for us. It was awesome. The little ones were SO cute. One was dancing during the singing. One was so distraught about being up front he put his arm across his head and laid himself down on the stage... very dramatic. He did fine after Pastor Mark came and sat with him. During the older kids program I got a surprise... The kids were showing ways we could help one another for Christmas.. Babysitting for someone, helping clean someone's house when they are sick... or... helping the church secretary, Deanna... Yes... this little girl came out playing her part which was to be me! She was dressed in PINK from head to toe! Oh my gosh.. it was sooooo cute and was cracking us up! She also wore her cardigan, glasses and had a folder under her arm... I've never been a character in a play before.. Does this make me famous?

7) After church we went to La Caretta which was quite yummy and then headed home. The weather was not good on Sunday and actually got progressively worse. Despite this, my husband decided to go do his Christmas shopping. After my fever went down and I got to feeling better, I wrapped Darrel's gifts and got our Christmas cards ready for mailing. So happy to have all that done! Darrel got his shopping done, but by the time he headed home, roads were so bad, a 1 hour trip took him over 2 hours. Thanking the Lord he got home safely.

8) For the 13th day of Christmas there was mainly work... getting a hair trim... trying to pick up my dry cleaning, but being too poor... and then coming home and getting sick again. The dry cleaning thing was because I had like $10 cash, and my debit card but had just used my last check to pay for my haircut. The dry cleaner does not take debit cards... the bill was like $12.. so I had to leave without my 2 shirts that it has already taken me forever to remember to pick up in the first place. Darrel is going to try round 2 on that one tomorrow..

9) Was especially bummed about being sick because its messing with my whole having an organized non stressful Christmas plan! The nerve right?! Ha! I planned to get all kinds of office work done this week at work during the day. In the evening, finish up the last of the wrapping, and cards and then... lots of free evenings till Christmas to bake till my hearts content right? Well so far, day 2 of when that plan should have taken effect and I am just getting behind here... Let's hope tomorrow is the start of improvement on that one!

10) For the 14th day of Christmas I have been home sick. Planned to sit in my recliner with my pj's and my blanket and work and all I managed to accomplish was sleeping a lot. I will concede this was a good thing though. About 5:15 I got a notion to check tracking on Darrel's last gift that was supposed to be delivered tomorrow and found out it was sitting on my back porch! Had to jump up and get that and get it wrapped before Darrel arrived home in like 20 minutes! That was a close one.

So now I thank you for your patience and am glad to be caught up at least here! ha! Let's hope tomorrow is back to the plan in all other areas too huh? Hope your Christmas has been blessed!

Still sick...

thought I was better... fever back today. NOT feeling good... hope to be back to posting tomorrow. I have so much to tell you and I am going to have to start making notes so I don't forget! Ha! Hope to get caught up tomorrow. Blessings.

I have not fallen off the face of the earth

I have not forgotten my friends in blogdom.... Life has just been very busy and today when I was going to get all caught up on my days of Christmas... well then of course I feel yucky and run a fever all afternoon... But, there is hope. I am feeling better. I am ready for a new week. I am in good shape Christmas wise... and I am looking forward to posting tomorrow and filling you in on the past week. Please tune in then! Same time, same station. :) Until then, Blessings!

Ten on Tuesday for the 7th day of Christmas

1) So how about a peek of another picture from our little photo shoot on Saturday. I am liking this one more and more... wondering if we should have picked it for our card? Nope... going to be happy with our choice and embrace it. I thought of showing you the card... but then if you get one in the mail well then there would be no joy of opening it cause you'd know what it looked like right?

2) Got a new pair of boots today. They are tall black boots from Avenue. Did I need tall black boots? Um no... well yes... to complete this outfit I have in my head that includes a black knee length skirt and tights. But like need or I'd die with out? Um no. However, they were on sale for $79 and then I got a coupon in the mail for 50% off an item and free express shipping. Plus they were wide calf boots... which is a good thing. See pre-weight loss, not even wide calf boots, especially tall boots would fit. Can you see why it might be cool to get to indulge a bit now? So I got $130 boots for $39!! How could I pass that up? I mean don't clothes and shoes just feel nicer when you know you got a smokin' deal? Ha!

3) I asked my husband for a Christmas wish list to aid me in my shopping on Thursday. He complied... however... he at times has this tiny little writing... that his wife cannot read. I could guess at it, but I am thinking when we are talking about tools and woodworking stuff that I have no clue what they are called or what they do... it would not be a good idea to guess.. He plans to rewrite and/or type his list this evening, or at the very least, provide me with the translation for the language he was writing in.

4) Have I mentioned my husband had some schooling for architecture and when he needs to he can print so perfectly it looks like the computer printed it. I believe there is some type of template involved, but still... I am thinking there must be a happy medium between perfection and gibberish... ha ha ha

5) Love Coldwater Creek clothes but um not so much on the prices there. I think everything I own from there was ordered thru their outlet or bought on clearance or with a coupon. Their outlet online can be a dangerous place... I mean look what I found last week. This fuchsia velvet vest!!! Oh my gosh I love it. The first day I saw it, they didn't have my size. Bummer... But I have learned with their outlet to check back again because sizes and colors available seem to change! The next day they had it! I think.... slightly concerned by some of the reviews which say it runs small. The vest is on its way, but we will see if it fits. I hope so... It would be so cute with my black skirt and boots...

6) For the 7th day of Christmas life was mostly uneventful. I did receive a Christmas gift! My boss gave me a Christmas CD that was made by his daughter's church choir. I heard their last CD so I am thinking this one will be awesome. Other than that, life today consisted of work, home for a quick dinner alone, back to work/church for a meeting and now home in front of my pretty pink laptop blogging to you with some oreos by my side.

7) Wondering how many of my scrapping friends own a cricut? I know Lori does and Lisa has a silhouette. I do not own either. I've considered it. I like the pink one that was only available like at Michaels last year, but it was like $329? Too pricey and really not sure I'd use it all that much. Then this year on black Friday Walmart did Cricut Expressions for $185 and in 4 different colors. I thought that was cool, plus they had like a stencil design on them. I saw them still available in a store last Friday. One of the color options is plum. I thought this would be purple, but on the box it looked more pink.... Hmmm .... See now that had me thinking again. I have a sizzix big shot and lots of alphas and rarely use them... so still thinking this would not be a good purchase for me. Would I use it?? Opinions?

8) Saw these bracelets in a Helzberg email. Isn't that a pretty set? It just might have found its way onto my Christmas list. ;)

9) Darrel would like me to make a correction to my Christmas trivia from a few weeks ago. On number 6, I mentioned how I tended to pick out like a 9 ft tree. Darrel says this is a gross underestimate. He claims the trees I picked out where easily like 15 ft! I told him hey, when you are 5'2" they all look 15 ft to me. :)

10) I cannot tell you the last time I looked at a Creating Keepsakes magazine. I used to not miss an issue and I stalked the message boards. Somewhere along the way my subscription ran out and I kind of didn't realize it. I picked up an issue Friday night to see what I'd been missing in the scrapping world. There is an article on scrap trends for 2011. It says the next big thing will be "prairie chic." Um prairie as in little house on the prairie, home on the range kind of thing. This will include textures like burlap, wood grain and rope; fonts as seen on milk crates and feed sacks; Colors like classic Americana red, white and blue, barn brown, wheat gold and whitewash along with grass green and denim blue. Finally there will be prairie chic patterns like plaids, microflorals and ginghams and prairie chic motifs such as "cute little farm animals." OK.. some of this like the colors and textures sound interesting to me... some of it seems to be reaching a bit for my taste.. I guess we will see in 2011.

Until tomorrow, Blessings!

On the 6th day of Christmas

Well I must truly be ill because I voluntarily did the gift wrapping this evening. Trust me... this is a big deal. I do NOT like gift wrapping. Darrel doesn't mind it and usually takes care of the majority of our wrapping at Christmas. However he has plenty on his plate between work and the bathroom remodel so I need to handle all of the Christmas details I can. I got everything purchased so far wrapped and under the tree! I love the wrapping paper I found at Target! Like last year it has a Kraft paper background which I LOVE. I still have some from last year so figured it would coordinate. Love how my tags look too! I took this picture without the flash hoping the tree lights would give it a nice look which it did!

Stayed home from work today. I was sick during the night and am also fighting a bladder infection so it was not a good Monday morning. After resting for much of the morning and afternoon was feeling better by supper. Darrel had a meeting so I have been working on printing some pictures for my DD album, working on my Christmas list (cause Darrel is going Christmas shopping Friday) and waiting for Darrel to get home. Currently he is trying out the new vacuum. We bought a Dyson online from Walmart on Thanksgiving. They had a good deal and we had an OLD $80 vacuum which was not so much functional anymore. So... my turn to drive the Dyson so I shall leave you for now. I hope you are having a blessed Christmas season and a great week so far! Blessings!

On the 3rd, 4th & 5th Days of Christmas

On the 3rd day of Christmas, my true love and I headed out for date night in the big city. We had a yummy dinner at Logan's and then hit the mall, target, Gordman's and Walmart for some Christmas shopping. We usually only get to go the one time, and I really didn't think we'd make such awesome progress as we did. We got all but 1-2 things on our list, and for those, I took care of them online as soon as we got home. The only shopping I have left to do now is for Darrel! Do you know this means that by the end of this week, it is conceivable that I will have all gifts bought and wrapped? I am liking this plan AND have been quite happy with our gift finds. They seemed to come easily this year and that was a good thing! This is our official Christmas shopping photo! I will use it for my DDA for Dec. 3rd.

While we were at the mall, I determined that apparently I am physically incapable of walking past the clearance shoe racks at Macy's. And see... its a good thing I didn't cause look what came home with me?! The heel is more than 4 inches, and its a platform. The heel and platform are black stacked wood, with the rest of the shoe patent leather. They were $60 marked down to $23! LOVED that deal and was excited to wear them to the Christmas party on Sat. night.

On the 4th day of Christmas, my true love and I had a hot date for the company Christmas party. We had an amazing morning and day together and got to take our time getting ready and getting to the party. We left early so we could spend some time taking pictures that we could use for our yearly Christmas card. The one above is the picture we decided to use. Very happy with it. The photographer? Well that would be my husband. He put the camera on the tripod, set up the pose, set the timer, and managed to get himself in the shot without tripping over the tripod. He is quite talented like that.





















Here is a full length shot of me so you can see my dress. Loved the necklace and wrap and how they ended up working well together. Necklace was from Avon. Velvet wrap from Coldwater Creek. I hadn't really worn a "wrap" before and was surprised a) how warm it was and b) how well it stayed on.



















Here is a shot of us at the Christmas party. A lady at our table offered to take it for us. She didn't do bad huh? We had a nice appetizer hour with really good meatballs, little quiche, rumaki, veggies, fruit, that kind of stuff. Dinner was a buffet with pork roast, turkey and roast beef and all the fixings. For dessert I had something called chocolate walnut pie. It was yummy! Kind of tasted like pecan pie but with chocolate and well adding chocolate is always a good idea!















This was the banquet room we were in. Isn't it decorated so pretty? When we first got there we were in the line for the regular restaurant and this lady in front of us was talking to her husband. In mid sentence she said "what a beautiful coat." I liked that. Had several compliments on the necklace, and also on the purse. One lady told me my purse would never go out of style and was an investment. See now I like her thinking. :)















After dinner they had a cornhole tournament. Here is my date in mid throw. He did well, but sadly, did not win. The prize was a gift cert. to the restaurant of your choice so that would have been nice!

On the 5th day of Christmas, we had church and my true love had his first solo in church! He sang a song about Joseph and he did AWESOME. I was very proud. I have a video, but will have to wait to share maybe tomorrow. After church we headed out to the favorite La Caretta. We had a very nice lunch there and then home for the afternoon. We pretty much crashed from there on out. Life has been busy! I did spend an hour or so making these Christmas gift tags. I saw some at Target Friday night. They were kraft paper and just a punched scallop shape with an eyelet and ribbon added. I figured I could do that! This is what I came up with. Kinda cute huh? Plus, what a great way to use up like 40 eyelets sitting in my stash forever. Here is a closer view.















So another task I can cross of my Christmas to do list! Yay! Can't wait to tie them on the gifts and see how they look. I am hoping I made an extra to keep in my DDA. Love to keep one of our cards, the tag, and stuff like that in my album.

Time for bed! Hope your weekend has been good. Hope to be back tomorrow for the 6th day of Christmas but I have meetings the next 2 evenings... so time will tell. Until then, blessings!

Thankful Thursday on the 2nd Day of Christmas

Are you wondering what this is? Can you tell? My tablecloth has a hole burned thru it and I am feeling very thankful today for God's protection.

Several years ago, shortly after we moved here, Darrel and I walked from room to room in our house and prayed for the blood of Jesus to cover our home and protect it and us. We prayed the same prayers for our property around the property line. It is like the story of Moses in the Bible. God told them to paint the blood of a lamb over the door posts of their homes to protect them from the Angel of death. In my mind, that is the same way Jesus' blood (shed for us) protects us and our home.

I have seen Him protect us several times. From tree limbs, big ones that fell the other way and NOT on the house, from a potpourri burner that caught on fire in our hutch, to a live electric line that fell in our fence line. This happened just after a storm and prior to that storm, we were practically in drought conditions. The storm may have knocked the line down, but it also wet down grass and leaves that were dry as kindling. How about the time a semi truck lost control on the highway in front of our house. The driver passed out and left the road in front of our neighbors house. You could see the tire tracks where the truck was climbing the bank up into the yards as it went. AT OUR FENCE LINE the tire tracks turned and went down into the road and he ended up in a field across the street....

So what happened today? I lit a candle in a jar. It was sitting on the table in our kitchen, on a little table cloth I got at an antique store. There were actually 3 candles lit. I've lit candles in jars around the house millions of times. Never had a problem. After I lit it, I noticed the wick needed trimming and it was popping and cracking a bit, but not that bad and it usually calms down after burning for a moment. I went to the bedroom to clean and when I came back I immediately see what I thought was a mark on the tablecloth. My first thought was that the glass had cracked and wax had run on the cloth. When I looked closer, there was a big hole burned thru the cloth! It had been on fire!! Somehow it put itself out rather than to continue to burn the whole cloth. My kitchen could have totally been on fire!! I've been in a fire once and trust me, I wouldn't recommend it. I felt kind of shaken seeing that. The candle was burning calm and normal. I blew them all out at that point and just kept looking at that hole. I left it till Darrel got home so he could see it. Neither of us can figure or see any physical reason that the cloth did not continue to burn. I believe with all my heart... that God protected us as He has before and will continue to do. No one could convince me otherwise.

I believe in His protection and provision. Every night when I lay down to sleep I say the verse "I lie down and sleep in peace for you alone O Lord make me dwell in safety." I am so thankful today for His promises, His protection, His care for me and my family. Thank You Lord.

Other specific things I have been thankful for this week:

• Christmas!
• Having the decorating done
• The beautiful Christmas tree and snow globes in front of me
• A great thanksgiving with family
• 4 day weekend last weekend
• a very nice gift I received in the mail last week
• my new beaded Vera purse!!!! LOVE!!!!
• getting my housework done today and meeting my goal of a clean house and decorating done before date night
• yummy pizza and movie date night last Friday
• La Caretta lunch on Sunday
• my job
• the salad bar at the grocery store
• walking and the fact that I have kept up with it and am improving
• my Kindle.. I love that thing... I get excited when the new commercials come on cause I feel like hey I am one of those Kindle people!
• Chinese Wok take out for dinner last night. Shrimp & Broccoli was good stuff!
• making pumpkin pies for my husband and seeing him enjoy it so much.... he's on the 2nd one...
• my new coat. LOVE that coat.
• 2 advent devotionals I have been reading
• reading the Bible on my Kindle... very cool.
• my friends. they are so good to me. One took it upon herself to dig thru all the tissue packs at walmart to find a pack that included a pink box.. just so I'd have one for my office... don't I feel special!
• grandma's Christmas stuff
• progress on the bathroom
• Christmas music
• my pink Christmas tree!

For the 2nd day of Christmas I went and walked 3.5 miles outside in the cold. It is an odd sensation to be both freezing and sweaty at the same time. I did well and had a great pace. Have really been improving that over the past month or two and I am liking that. Came home and did some cleaning and laundry. Darrel made us a homemade yummy pizza for dinner and then he spent the evening installing the exhaust fan in the bathroom while I continued to finish the laundry. After that I gave myself a manicure so I am now party ready for Saturday. Used 2 shades of OPI polish, both the favorite pompeii purple (which is fuchsia pink) with a coat of light pink glittery polish over top so I look more sparkly for the holiday. :) That was the plan anyway... Hoping I don't look like I'm 13 and just painted myself with glitter polish! ha! Oh my gosh... just checked the name of the 2nd polish. It's called Princesses Rule! Perfect! I believe Darrel bought it for me and put it in my Christmas Stocking one year. Didn't do anything too Christmasy.. but it was a good day. No progress on the DDA... hope to get moving on that this weekend before I get too behind.

Tomorrow is date night. We plan to Christmas shop so I am looking forward to that. We have the work party Saturday! Hope I will have some pics to share with you.

Hope your week has been blessed!

On The First Day of Christmas

... Deanna was already behind on her December Daily Album (DDA) because all she managed to do was take a picture and contemplate scrapping it... At least I accomplished something right? :)

For December 1st I am going to journal about having our decorating done, and that we have already purchased our snow globe for this year! We bought it maybe a month ago at Hallmark while on date night in the big city. It's the one just behind the little snowman globe with the black hat base. This year's globe is Peanuts and it has the Peanuts gang dressed up like the nativity and Sally is an angel on the top outside of the globe. It has a little button you press and it plays "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and sounds just like the Peanuts singing it on Charlie Brown Christmas! I love that!!!! We were sold the minute we heard it.

This...is one of our earliest snow globes. It cost about $1.98 at Eagles grocery store and I think we bought it on grocery night. It has this cute little pudgy angel inside and... see that little knob on the bottom right? That is a pull string. Yep! You pull it out and let go and it makes the snow swirl inside.... very fun and yes, I must play with it every year. It has somehow survived several nieces and nephews yanking on the string.. so I am thinking this one is a keeper. I am remembering however Uncle Darrel repairing said string at least once or twice. As you can see, it is also in need of some fresh water before our little friend becomes un-submerged...... Fortunately, you can add water to this one.















Here is the nativity scene that Darrel brought home from Haiti. Getting it out kind of brought back so many memories and feelings from the week (8 days) he was over there. It kind of put me right back to those first few days he was home with his luggage strewn across the living room, him full of stories from his experiences there, feeling like I wanted to hold him and never let go because the distance was so hard while he was away. I think it was somewhat of a life changing experience for both of us.

A few random things before I go for today....

Was browsing the Amazon Kindle Facebook page and discovered there are several web sites that help you to know about the free Kindle books that are available. So far I have checked out Pixel of Ink, and Daily Cheap Reads. Looks like there are several others too. Apparently I am slow to catch on because I knew nothing of these sites! Very cool. I swear the more Kindle stuff you learn and find, the more you love your Kindle even when you are sure you couldn't possibly love the thing more... and have I mentioned... I love that thing! Been reading my Bible on there lately and have gotten several free Christmas Kindle books over the past few days... very fun!

My Tivo picked up a scrapbook show I had never heard of before. It was on PBS and was from Spotted Canary.com? Has anyone heard of this? I liked the show and had to check out their web site. Looks like they have all kinds of crafty stuff. They reminded me that I own tons of markers and yet I rarely use them... I could be doing all this fun doodly kind of stuff and cool writing. I used to do that all the time. How is it that I rarely even think of my markers and pens any more? Must correct this immediately. I am the girl that needs all of the BIG boxes of crayons remember? I feel the same way about pretty markers and pens.

Martha Stewart was making different kinds of Brittle this morning. It reminded me that I used to make her peanut brittle recipe every year. It is the best recipe! I pulled it out of her magazine years ago. Not sure why I got away from this but wondering if we need some again this year. She also made cashew brittle. It had cayenne pepper in it though.. I am wondering if I can make the peanut brittle recipe I like and just put in cashews instead. Sounds like a good plan to me. :)

While I was on Martha's site.. I spotted these Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Wow.. those look yum.. might need to add those to the baking list! Oh my look at these Toffee Millionaires... What like a million calories in those? Lots of cookie recipes here too...

Goodnight for now. Tune in tomorrow for Thankful Thursday and the 2nd day of Christmas! Blessings!

Ten On Tuesday

1) The pink tree is officially up and in place and making me smile! I just love it. Pastor Mark... who seems to have a thing against pink.... he even admitted it was pretty. I am thinking this is a good thing.

2) We finished the decorating at home tonight! yay! I have a grand plan that by date night, I will have all decorating done, and a clean house. I am about 1/2 way there at this point and I am home on Thursday so perhaps there is hope this plan will succeed.

3) When decorating the tree, it is always important to hang all of my favorite ornaments in direct view of my chair. This is not the least bit selfish right? Just a way to enjoy the Christmas season even more. My favorite ornaments include a handful of my grandma's antique glass reflector and tear drop ornaments. Love, love, love those and they are precious to me.

4) Downloaded some new Christmas tunes from itunes last night. Purchases included Sarah Mclachlan's Wintersong album. Had not heard it before but love it. Very peaceful and relaxing and I love her singing style. I also got Chris Tomlin's Glory In The Highest. Love Wintersnow on that one and how Chris has taken carols and done them in a worship/contemporary style. Very cool. I also got a few off of Fernando Ortega's Christmas album.

5) Was having a good hair/sweater day so had to take a picture to commemorate the event. I was not however having a good make up day. Why can good hair and make up never seem to happen on the same day? Is there some sort of conspiracy? Make up was OK in the morning. However my eye was having major allergy issues and spent most of the day running... this is not conducive to good make up.

6) It was a good sweater day because I bought this sweater last year from CJ Banks on clearance. I never wore it. Too many bumps and bulges showing... not liking that. This year? It fits and looks OK! I consider that happy progress. The collar is called a "Marilyn" collar causing me to wonder does one get to look like Marilyn (Monroe) on the days the sweater is worn? Cause if so, I am thinking this is a good plan.

7) I hit the borrowed treadmill today after work. I watched another episode of Thirtysomething while walking/running for 47 minutes (or the time it takes to run 1 episode). Yes... running. Going to try to run/walk as much as I can to hopefully build up speed and endurance. I read today that this is a good plan. It felt good! I am ready to go again. Wow... exercise... feeling good... who knew?

8) While walking on the treadmill and watching the DVD I was alone out in our spare room. The episode was the one where Elliot and Nancy get separated. I was literally yelling out loud at the DVD because Elliot and his behavior was getting on my nerves.. Is it seriously abnormal to yell at your DVD while walking on the treadmill? Rest assured that I was not under any delusions that Elliot could actually hear me.. it just made me feel better.















9) Oh my gosh... my Vera purse came yesterday! I cannot believe I almost forgot to mention that! How gorgeous is this purse? I am in love. Seriously. I might need to carry this everywhere just so I can look at it. The embroidery is beautiful, the beading is beautiful and some of the flowers have stones mounted in the center like a ring setting would be. I am SO glad I caved and made this purchase. It is the cutest little size too. The inside is quilted, it is fuchsia pink satin and it even has a little pocket like all Vera purses do. Cannot wait to use this on Saturday... perhaps I'll carry it to work tomorrow just for practice! ha!!

10) Can you believe Wednesday is Dec. 1st?! Time to begin the December Daily Album. How did that sneak up on me? I do not feel the least bit prepared. I guess I am slightly. I bought an art journal kit from Evalicious to use for my base. However I have barely taken it out of the bag. Better get with it. NOT a good thing to get behind right off the bat. I have learned this in the past. Hope to keep up with each days events here on the blog, because I have found that is quite helpful when one does get behind... say a year behind.. cause um I haven't finished last year yet! ha!

Goodnight! Hope your week is going well and that you are already having a blessed Christmas season. Blessings!

52 Layouts Challenge

Yes, finally we have a glimmer of hope with getting back on track with the 52 Layouts challenge because LOOK... here we finally have a completed week 9. The challenge was to use 7 of something on your layout. Can you spot what I used 7 of?? Well, believe it or not, there are 7 different patterned papers used on this layout. Yes.. I counted them several times to be sure.. I am OCD like that... shocking I know.

Lots of the product here is from the My Minds Eye's Lost & Found line. It was girly, it was glittery, it was PINK... how could I resist. I purchased this from The Doodlebug back in September during the weekend retreat! So what if I'm slow about using my stuff... I get around to it right? I took the little sticker "happy" banner, mounted it on cardstock, cut it out, and the sewed it on the sewing machine to have a real little banner I could "hang" at the top of my photo like that. I think Heidi Swapp posted that idea on her blog at some point... to give credit where its due! The large butterfly in the upper right there is a Jenni Bowlin rubon. I liked the look of just using 1/2 of it on the edge of the page like that. (oh my gosh... while I was grabbing the link for that rubon, I spotted this JB DT layout... wow.. LOVE the sewn hearts on that first one...) OK looking at that JB stuff makes me want to run to my scrap room and make something!

So now... finally I hope to move on to finish up week 11 and move forward. Challenge 11 is to incorporate a page from a book, or sheet music on your layout. I totally already have my subject and pics printed for this one.. Just need to sit down and do it! Hoping I can get back on track now, but also wanting to do a December Daily this year again... so we will see how that goes. I guess we all know how all consuming the Christmas season can be. Hope you will hang in there with me.

Finished this book today. It was a fairly quick read, and as usual for a Richard Paul Evans book, it was good and heart warming. Very good story with some unexpected twists. Something new that went along with this book, was recipes! There were a few things mentioned in the story and recipes for those items are found on the author's web site here. If you click print, it will give you the pdf version. Now I am trying to decide what to read next and am considering this one. (I have it on my Kindle) Was also wondering if I would prefer a Christmas theme book for now... so haven't quite made up my mind.

We put the Christmas tree up today. Well... after the all consuming.. lets try to act like we like each other as we get irritated with each other time of furniture moving... We always think we have the perfect arrangement all figured out in our head. Won't take any time at all. We will just get up and move things in to place, get that tree up and Viola! Done! What a nice fantasy.... soooo not the way it works out. First you find out the furniture doesn't fit as nicely in the room as it did in the picture in your head. Then you realize as you start pulling stuff out that you have to move all the stuff you have stacked next to it or behind it... then you realize OK, now we need to vacuum and dust too..... Usually we try 9 different ways that will NOT require moving the TV and all its components and wires until we finally break down and just move the TV and basically end up with things right where they were last year. WHY do we not start off with this? You will be happy to know we now have the tree up, the furniture in place, AND we are still speaking to each other. Quite an accomplishment!

What do you say we close today with a little bit of little known Christmas Facts about Deanna? A top 10 Christmas list if you will.... Are you on the edge of your seat? I thought so... I mean its still fun even if I make up my own questions and answers right? Who better to answer my own questions than me? :)

1) Favorite Christmas Song... are you thinking Silent Night? Joy to the World? um no.... would you believe "Santa Baby" the Eartha Kitt version.. I am thinking gifts are her love language too... Ha! Something about this song just makes me smile and feel all girly... I know... humor me that you still like me OK? (oh my I just listened to the Taylor Swift version... sorry... just NOT going to cut it...)

2) Favorite Christmas Movie... Bells of St Marys? White Christmas? The Nativity? BZZZZ wrong answer... The correct question would be What is Scrooged.... the Bill Murry version. See now I am thinking you are just sitting there with your mouth open thinking I don't know Deanna at all..... perhaps I am introducing you to my dark side? Ha! I also like One Magic Christmas.

3) I am either secretly OR not so secretly still a big kid when it comes to Christmas. I love gifts. Getting gifts.. giving gifts... opening gifts.. did I mention getting gifts? :) I love all of it and love love sitting in front of the tree with my husband opening lots of presents! (she says with a squeal of delight in her voice...) See... this must directly correspond with #1...

4) When we first got married, we would host a Christmas Party open house every year. I loved cooking 19 things and decorating every nook and cranny of the house and inviting everyone over. These days? Well I got tired... now we have scaled back on the decorations, and I am very happy to have my tree, my snow globes, and my snowmen... and sit in my recliner and admire them.

5) At one time, perhaps in a former life (kidding) I was such a Christmas nut I had like Christmas light earrings, jingle bells for my shoes, Santa hats and ugly Christmas sweatshirts and sweaters. And yes, I would wear all of those at the same time of course. These days, I am quite happy with a nice chic red sweater... or perhaps pink... and my little antique Christmas bells pin. Isn't it funny how our tastes change over the years. I am not sure if I got older and classier.. or perhaps just old and boring...

6) For most of our married life, we would trek out in the woods, the day after thanksgiving and cut ourselves down a big tree. Darrel always thought it was quite hilarious that I would pick out what I thought was the perfect tree, only to find out it was 9 ft tall and didn't have a hope of fitting in our home. Now? I am quite happy with my artificial sometimes pre-lit tree that does not require picking needles out of the carpet or standing on your head to water it.

7) Baking... seems to be an all or nothing kind of thing with me. I either get nothing baked, or I get started and then end up making 101 things. Why can I not be happy with a batch of cookies or two? Instead I have to have like at least 6 kinds of cookies, and if I do that, then I must also make fudge, toffee, chocolate pretzels... and my newest addiction... cake balls.

8) I am 44 years old and still recall quite clearly the first Church Christmas program that I was in. I am not sure how old I was... but it was less than 4 I think. I had a part to say, and the church program lady who was helping all the kids say their part, started to say mine to help me. Apparently I stomped my foot at her... .yes while on stage... because excuse me but I knew my part and could say it my own self thank you very much. Are you surprised to know I could still recite it for you now?

9) my favorite Christmas memory would have to be our engagement... but I doubt that is a little known fact. Just can't leave that one out of a Christmas top 10 right? Our engagement was awesome. Christmas time, downtown Chicago, night time carriage ride with the Christmas lights twinkling, and the bells on the horse jingling, and my husband down on one knee in the carriage. Perfect, perfect moment!

10) Maybe you are wondering why I get so into getting all dressed up and excited for work Christmas parties? I've been thinking about that lately. In high school, or grade school for that matter, I was not the popular girl, not the dating and party girl.. nope. I was the outcast, bullied and made fun of girl. Not much for dating. No one asked. Never went to a school dance or to prom or anything like that. Then my husband walks into my life and sweeps me off my feet right? He makes me feel beautiful. He makes me feel like someone would want to get all dressed up with me and go to a party or a dance. Well by that time, too old now for school dances... we aren't club kind of people.. so what do we have? Work parties, weddings, etc! It's like the one time of year to get dressed up and feel like you might feel to go to prom or a dance or something... of course what would I know about that since I've never been to one! ha!! Well whether I am right or wrong about how it feels, for me, that is why I love getting dressed up and going out with my husband.... It all makes sense in my head... scary I know. ;)

And now... I must get ready for bed so I am ready to face the week and all that entails.. groceries, decorating, cleaning, working, working out... and countdown to the party and Christmas card pictures! yay! Have an awesome Monday. Blessings!