Christmas Tree Dilemma

If you know Sam and I, you know that we are pretty laid back people. Some people would even go with "lazy"- however, I prefer laid back. With that being said, last night it dawned on me that we are officially closer to Christmas than not. So here is my dilemma....

Yes, we that would a Christmas tree still up in our "living room". (I'm calling it our living room even though it's Sam's parents basement where the couch and TV are- close enough.)

As you can see this is current photo- baseball game on the TV and Christmas in the corner. However, in our defense neither Sam or I put the Christmas tree up in the first place. Sam's mom was trying to make our space festive for the holidays, but no one felt like taking it down and putting it away.

Being that we are now closer to Christmas than not... I feel like the tree is just going to have to stay. Plus, you always hear about "Christmas in July", maybe we'll just pretend that is something we are choosing to celebrate.  

Happy Birthday Husband!

Today is the husband's "golden" birthday.  And after 26 years, his mom still thinks of him as her baby. Here is the photo Sam's mom posted on his Facebook page this morning.

Isn't he cute? I have a feeling that our kids are going to have really big round cheeks. (But we aren't going to know that for at least a few more years.)

Sam's parents did his "birthday dinner" on Sunday, so he has already gotten his birthday cake and very sad sounding "Happy Birthday" song. No one in the family can carry a tune- oh well.

Currently, I can get the bad wife award because I have yet to get Sam anything for his birthday. But I'll figure it out. If  my plan is just to top what I got him last year, that shouldn't be too hard to do. Plus being that we both have the next two days off of work, I'll figure out something fun to do.

Happy Birthday Sam!
I'm so happy to be your wife! I can only hope that next year we can have a birthday party for you in our own house!

The Name Change Game: Part 1

After putting off changing my last name for over 6 months now, I finally took my first step to changing my name officially. One on the main reasons why I been putting it off for so long is that I hadn't have time off work to do it. The second reason- changing your name is a pain in the butt.

Being that I've never changed my name before and I'm the first one of my close group of friends to get married, I did what any girl would do- I googled "how do you change your name after marriage". Of course a bunch of websites popped up, but this website is the one I found to be the most helpful.The Knot helps break down the process into different steps, which I liked.

Step 1- Get your marriage license.

Being that we ordered copies of our license to be sent to our house when we originally applied for it back in October, step 1 has been done since November. However like I pointed out in this post- I knew that I wouldn't be changing my name very quickly. However today I finally took that next step...

Step 2- Change your Social Security card

With getting your name changed on your Social Security card includes completing an application and presenting the proper documentation. You have the option to mail in everything or you can go to your local Social Security office. Even though the S.S. office isn't very close to my home, I figured I would just take care of this step in person.

Lucky for me the wait at the S.S. office wasn't very long and I got to keep my passport and marriage license. Even though I went to the SS office, I still have to wait up to 10 days for my new SS card to come in the mail. But when I was given my receipt for turning in my application- it had my new last name on it. It was just so WEIRD!! See my name change on paper was kind of a surreal feeling. I can only imagine how I'm going to feel once I have to start signing new name to documents.

Once my new SS card comes in the mail- changing my diver's license will be next!

Summer Days of Fun: Family Time & Civil War Reenactment

I'm not sure if this is some kind of record but 3 trips to Michigan in 8 days is at least a personal record for me. However, this weekend's trip was definitely worth the drive.

On Saturday, my dad and I spent some time visiting with my grandma and family. One of the main reasons for the trip to Michigan this time was because my uncle Jerry from Orlando was up visiting my grandma and my dad hadn't seen him in ten years.

 We just watched some old home videos, had dinner, and just spent time together. Also while at my grandma's my dad fall in love with one of my grandma's cats.

I have to say that Mike (that's the name of the cat) is one of my favorites as well. He's a giant black cat who is so sweet, loveable, and just little dumb- the prefect cat combination.

The next day, my dad and I return to my grandma's and visited for another hour or so before we started on our journey home. Little did my dad know that I had additional plans for our weekend other then just visiting my grandma- we were going to a Civil War Reenactment.

Turkeyville is only a ten minute dive from my grandma's house and I got to visit with more family at this stop.

My cousin's do Civil War reenactments throughout the summer and the picture above is of their campsite. I have always seen pictures from their reenactments but have never been able to attend, so I figured being that this was so close to my grandma's I needed to stop by.

It was kind of cool seeing so many historical things in one place that wasn't your traditional museum. Plus, watching the battle (once it really got started) was pretty cool.

Those canons were really loud and would take you by surprise if you weren't paying attention. All in all it was a great weekend and it's always nice when you get to spend some of it with family. 

Personal Trainer = Very Sore Stacy

With my mid-week trip to Michigan meant I had to reschedule my personal training session, so yesterday I had my personal training session. All I can really say is that I'm hurting today. I'm moving like an old lady and my body currently hates me, but I know being sore means that I worked out hard.

So I'm off to Michigan, but I made sure I did get in a quick workout in before I hit the road. And like I promised here is my Saturday weigh-in.

I'm not too surprise to the scale higher from last Saturday, but my workouts were on the lighter side this week. This is how my week looked:

Sunday: Cardio
Monday: No workout
Tuesday: Cardio
Wednesday: Walking around the farm
Thursday: Cardio & lifted some weights
Friday: GOT MY BUTT KICK- with personal trainer
Saturday: Cardio

I know I do a lot of cardio, and I know that will not give me results very fast but I know it's good for my heart.

Well, I'm asking for prayers for safe travel and a good visit with my family. Have a great weekend!

Mid-Week Michigan Trip

I have to say taking a day off in the middle of the week really makes the week go by faster and it is a really nice break. There is a long story behind the extra day off, but in a nut shell, I have 5 personal days I need to take before the end of the month or I'll just lose them. With that said, I decided to join my mom, bring Sam along, and make a day trip to Michigan I see my family.

Our first stop was to visit my grandma. My grandma is now home, so we stopped her house to visit for a quick visit. I'm glad she's home and is feeling a little better.

After leaving my grandma's, we were off to my grandpa's farm to spend some time with him.

The weather was so nice that Sam and I went for a long walk down the property. We walked at least mile before we didn't have a path to walk on anymore, so we turned around. 

My mom's family has a tradition of meeting at a local lake for swimming and cook out every Wednesday night during the summer months. So we decided to join in on the fun considering we were already in the area.

I love when I get a chance to spend time with my extended family because sometime you do feel a little disconnected living 2 states away.

The major of our time was spent talking and letting a 9 month old entertain us.

 I can't believe how big Sophia has gotten. The last time I really got to see and spend time with her is when she was a newborn.

There was no holding of Sophia this time around. 1. She had way to much energy to sit still  2. She not a big fan of people she doesn't know.

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However, she had no problem stealing my water bottle from me and using it as her own toy. It was pretty funny, she just kept doing laps up and down the picnic table and we were there just to make sure she didn't fall off. It was a game of  "Catch the Baby".

I'm so glad that I got to see so many family members in just one day. And I'm also glad that Sam decided to come along for the ride.  However, it won't be long until I get to see some of my family again, because I think a another Michigan trip maybe planned for tomorrow. My uncle Jerry from Florida is up visiting my grandma and I haven't seen him in about 5 years, so I think a trip to see him is in order.

I hope everyone has a great and safe weekend! 

Wedding Shower- from the guest view point

Believe it or not- the first wedding shower I ever attended was my own. I kind of knew what to expect and what to do, but I just did what I was told because I really didn't know any better.

However, this weekend I attended my first wedding shower as a guest. It was for our friends Mike and Ashley, who will be getting married in August.

(Sam & Ashley - at our shower- I love the look she's giving him)

(Mike crashed our shower and he brought a fire truck with him!)

Their shower was lovely. Three of my bridesmaids were at the shower. I love that I have a large close group of friends and the majority of us have been friends since high school.

They had a brunch which was awesome because I love breakfast food! They even had an omelet station- it was so good. After the food came the gifts.

I went in on our gifts with my mother-in-law, so we got them a bunch baking stuff. However, the highlight of the gift opening (or at least for me) was watching Mike open the gift my husband wrapped.

If you look at the picture closely- the husband wrapped their gift in a brown paper bag covered in duct tape. It was the classiest looking gift on the table (yeah right). My mother-in-law had me carry it in because of how tacky it looked.

Mike was guessing that is was a case of beer (not a bad idea but it came after the fact- oh well) but it was just a cookie jar with a moose on it. Mike really likes moose, so we (really mean "I") couldn't pass on buying the cookie jar. I really hope they like it because I bought it over a year ago, so they can't return it even if they wanted to.

Congrats Mike & Ashley! One wedding event down- two to go!

Question: What is the funniest shower gift you ever seen?