Day 14: A Non-Fiction Book

I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't really read a lot of non-fiction. Looking back I know I read Anne Frank's "The Diary of a Young Girl" in high school. The most recent non-fiction book that I can think of is actually Tori Spelling's "sTori Telling." Haha! Don't laugh ;)




I think I got it at an airport bookstore because I needed something quick and mindless to read during a flight. I like her reality show, but I'm not a big fan of her acting; poor thing. But this book was kind of fun to read and get a look into how she grew up and stuff. It showed a more human (versus Hollywood) side to her.

It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

I was finally able to decorate for Christmas last weekend. It took me two days, but I think it turned out pretty nice. The colors I use are red and gold and I like SPARKLES!!!

By the way...Kahlua was not impressed by all the Christmas decorations, as you can clearly tell. Not even with her little snowman next to her! ;)

Filled the glass canisters with mini ornaments. Tar.get was having a sale on these mini ornaments. It was like 20 ornaments for $1! So I bought 15 packages and had more than enough to decorate with. I like!

Changed out the fall decor with gold decor.

Christmas basket.

Lighted garland in the entryway. I didn't do this last year but I figured out a way to hang it this time and I like the statement it makes when you first walk into the house.

Without the flash (and blurry! Sorry.)

Took out the pine cones that were in this canister and replaced them with ornaments.

Door decoration. I think I'm going to keep this forever because it's loud when you open or close the door. This way we'll be able to hear if our future teenagers come home past curfew. ;) Ha!

Replaced the pine cone and leaf that I had on each of these with an ornament. I used a larger ornament on one and a smaller on the other to make the differences in size more noticeable.

My glass trees filled with all kinds of ornaments!

Corner full of Nutcrackers! I used to be in the ballet production of the Nutcracker back in my dancing days. So each year my parents would get me a new Nutcracker for Christmas.

Closeup!

And here is our tree! I bought one more pack of red and gold ornaments this year, and I also bought a ton of "filler" for the tree. Mich.ael's was having a 50% off sale on all filler so I was able to get a TON of it for less than 20 bucks! Also, you'll notice that the top of the tree does not hold a star or angel. I wanted to try something new this year, and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I've seen some bloggers decorate the tops of their Christmas trees like this and I always liked how it turned out for them, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It takes some getting used to it, but I like it (and so does Kevin!).

See those gifts under the tree? You're probably thinking I'm really on top of things and I've already started my Christmas shopping and wrapped the gifts. So. Not. The. Case! This may seem a little much, but I just quickly wrapped the boxes that I had packed all the Christmas decorations in, but they're empty because all the decorations are put out. We have an artificial tree and I H-A-T-E the bare pole at the bottom of the tree that can be seen. So I put these wrapped boxes in front of it to cover it up (and to hopefully give the effect that I'm so ahead of the game on Christmas gifts. Ha!).

The island.

I still have to change out the bow on the chalkboard sign in the background.

And here are a ton of pictures of the front bathroom that I decorated as well. It's decorated in a snowman theme...

Subway Art.

And some closeups...










And per Kevin's request, he wanted to make sure you all knew that he hung the lights outside today. ;)

A decoration I have hanging outside of the house.

A wreath that my future MIL made me many years ago. Somehow I've managed to preserve it pretty well after all this time!

Now, some of you are probably thinking to yourself "Geez, she sure does have a lot of time on her hands to do all this decorating" and the truth is, that I do! Haha! We don't have kids (yet) so I'm just enjoying this while I can. I'm pretty much positive that once a little one gets added to the mix that all this decorating will be cut back by quite a bit. But for now, I enjoy going all-out!

I can't wait to see your holiday decorating ideas!

Day 13: A Fictional Book

A fictional book that I've recently read and really enjoyed was "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. Pretty much bawled my eyes out! Since I've been on my "happy pills" I don't cry very easily, but I sure did while I read this book, so it must've been sad! But it was a great book and it had a great message in it as well. I know Sparks has written a ton of other great books (most notoriously "The Notebook"), but if I'm going to cry reading his other books as much as I did this last one, I think I'll wait until I'm in the crying-type-of-mood until I venture to that genre again. ;)

Days 8, 9, 10 and 11 -- Playing catch up!

Day 8: A Photo That Makes You Angry/Sad

As I've mentioned before, my Grandpa Telfer has Alzheimer's and now lives in a nursing home. This photo makes me sad because he is just a shell-of-a-man now and I also get angry at what this disease has done to his mind. This photo also makes me smile with sadness at how happy my Grandma Ruth and mom are sitting there with him. *sigh*

Day 9: A Photo I Took

I am by no means a good photographer, but I do like to catch moments that make people smile, laugh or just say "awww." This is one of those moments. Kevin's brother got a cat back when we were in college and his name is Hank Williams; Mr. Hank for short. I'm not much of a cat person, but Mr. Hank is the coolest cat around! He's also pretty lazy, as is evident by the picture I took below. Love this photo!

Day 10: A Photo Taken Over 10 Years Ago of Me

My senior portrait photo shoot back in my high school days!


Day 11: A Photo of Me Recently

This photo was taken on Thanksgiving!

Day 12: Something I Am OCD About

Ummm....this pretty much applies to everything I do. Not necessarily being obsessive or compulsive, but it's more that everything I do, I try to do it to perfection. Which is pretty much a lost cause because of course nothing is ever perfect. But I try my best to make sure that whatever I do, that I do it perfectly.

An example is cleaning. I enjoy cleaning and when I clean - I really clean. I've lightened up a bit as I've gotten older, but I used to be really bad back in college. I'm pretty sure every roommate I had had a love-hate relationship with me. They loved me because they lived in a spotless place, but they hated me because I'd get ticked if they ever made a mess. Ugh! I hate admitting that last part. But I used to be bad. I'm not as bad about it now, thank goodness. When things are clean, it just makes me feel better. Also, I do some of my best thinking while I'm cleaning! Ha!

Another example is organization. I am such. a. stickler when it comes to being organized. And if someone else isn't organized it pretty much makes me want to gnaw on my shoulder. Everything in my house and in my cubicle at work has a specific place. It just makes life easier for me. I always know where to find things because I always put it back in it's place. If something is misplaced I feel like I'm losing my ever loving mind! So needless to say, I'm pretty particular about how I organize things. Luckily, Kevin just lets me do what I want to do in this respect. I think at this point he knows better than to not mess with my cleaning and organizing "quirks."

PS: I have a bunch of days to catch up on, so I'll be doing that tomorrow. :)

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. I'm quite behind on my blogging because I took a nice little break the past few days, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Last Wednesday I was able to get off work early and Kevin and I headed to Salinas to spend time with my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. To sum it up, our visit consisted of puzzles, cornhole, eating, drinking, visiting, eating, watching movies, drinking and more eating. Ha! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Brother and Dad wrapping and dressing the turkey.

The puzzle that took us four days to finish!

Kevin and Kahlua watching football ;)

Hattie hoping and praying that I'll drop an apple peel that she can snatch up!

The makings for a Dutch Apple Pie.

The turkey cooking away.

Cleo and Hattie keeping watch.

Cornhole. The guys played this a lot.

Still cooking.

My pies: Dutch Apple Pie and Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie. They were so good!!!

All done!

Mom and me!

Grandma Ruth and me :)

Table setting.

*love*

Grandma Ruth and Mom working on the never ending puzzle.

The amazing stuffing in pumpkins that my dad made. It was so good! (This picture isn't posted right side up for some reason.)

We finally finished this puzzle on Saturday morning. The one missing piece that you see on the right was eaten by Hattie.

Kahlua sporting her new sweater. I'm not a big fan of dressing her up, let alone in pink. But it's been really cold and her trusty black fleece is slowly falling apart. She sure does look cute though!

I helped mom decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

So we took a family photo in front of the tree for my mom to send out their Christmas cards. It took A LOT of takes, but we finally got a decent one. Here's one of the out-takes...

Oy!

And here's the final photo...

Good enough!

Snuggling with a sleeping Hattie. She's a great cuddler!

What I was most thankful about this year was that Grandma Ruth was able to spend Thanksgiving with us, and that she's slowly, but surely, getting better. We also saw my Grandpa Telfer (which was really hard and emotional) and my Grandma Hank. I'm very thankful for family.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!