It's December!?!

I have finally given in and have come to terms that this year has flown bye in what it feels like a blink of an eye. So I decided that I need to start getting into the holiday spirit being that it is December 1st.

I don't like to wait till the last minute to do my holiday shopping so I hit a few stores to see what I could find. Most of my family doesn't want anything specifically so I tried to find some things they may like and use. I did find gifts for many of my family members, so it was a good start.

 

Soon after returning from my shopping trip, my dad stopped by my house for a visit. Being that Sam is not much of a decorator, I put my dad to work. I love our tree because it's pre-lit and pre-decorated. All you really have to do is take it out of its box and plug it in, but I do have a few personal ornaments and garland that gets added.

 

While my dad worked on the finishing touches to my little tree, I started hanging lights around the front windows. I have no intentions on get on a ladder and hanging lights outside my house, but I figure having the lights around the windows is kind of festive. I think it turned out alright.

Once the light were hung my dad went home and then Sam and I went out for dinner. We met up our friends Mike and Ashley at a local OTB (off track betting) place just down the road from our house.

 

 I have never been to a OTB place before, but it was pretty fun and they had good food. Sam and Mike did some betting, while Ashley & I kept an eye on our husbands spending. The boys got really into looking at all the different stats and comparing all the horses.

 

 Ashley and I both commented that we hadn't ever seen them study something so hard, even when they were in school. No one won, but not too much money was spent- so I'll take that as a win for our wallet.

December has started off on the right foot and I'm excited for the rest of the month has in store!

Wanting to be Superwoman

Every so often I get this “itch” that I need to be very productive. It doesn’t happen that often because I like to think of myself as a laid back person (even if the husband would disagree). However, last night I got it in my head that I needed to get a lot of things done before I went to work today.

Thursdays are my late night at work, so I don’t have to be at the office until 11:00am. Having one morning free during the week is nice because I can get some stuff done (or not- and just sleep in). Most Thursday mornings I’ll get a few things done, but today I think I was trying for some kind of record. Let’s recap my morning from 7:30am to 10:30am-

Get up.
Shower.
Get dress.
Dry hair.
Eat breakfest.
Start a load of laundry.

 

Go to bank- deposit Sam's money.
Go grocery shopping at Dominck's
Go grocery shopping at Aldi's. 

 

Go to another bank- deposit our money.

Come home. Load groceries and put them away.

Move laundry to dryer.

Load dishwasher.

Make lunch.

Go to work.

All that in just a 3 hour span- I call that pretty good. 

However, since I came home I've only ate dinner, sat my butt on the couch, and finished writing this post. And I don't have plans to do much other then watch TV and go to bed.

All and all today was a great day. Even if I am not Superwoman, at least I can be productive for a part of my day.

Got to Love 4 Day Weekends!

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a good Turkey Day! So I was one of those lucky people who got a 4 day weekend out of the holiday. I have to say it was a much needed break. It was a great break because everyone knows that our office is closed and that meant I didn't come into a overly full email and voicemail boxes. Win!

This weekend consisted of many things and nothing all at the same time. It was great. Here a some shots of my extend weekend.

 

I started the weekend off by doing some laundry, catching up on my reality TV, and spending time with the "Dude".  I moved for one minute and he stole my prefect folding laundry/ watching TV seat.

I also did some decorating around the house. I just hung up some the wall art that I've been putting off since we moved in. I'm hoping to get everything up by the end of the holidays. 

I also was able to get in two movies over the weekend. I'm not sure when I saw a movie in the theaters last, but see two movies within two days is very unheard of in my life. Yes, I saw Twilight and I'm not ashamed, but I held out till I knew the mega fans weren't going to be there. 

We also can't talk about Thanksgiving weekend and not talk about the food. My camera was home on Thanksgiving, but on Sunday we went to Sam's parents house and we had his mom's homemade red sauce. Both days were filled with the 3 F's- family, food and football.

All and all it was a great weekend! However, I was ready to go back to work. I'm lucky enough to say the weekend didn't fly by, but I just really got to enjoy all the time off. 

Question: Did you do anything fun or exciting over the Thanksgiving weekend?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I know that November hasn't been my month when it comes to blogging, but now that the holiday season is here I have a feeling life & blogging will start picking up.

Currently I'm writing this blog post while watching the McDonald's (Chicago) & Macy's (New York) Thanksgiving Parade. I remember this being a tradition grown up and I still do enjoy in.

For the rest of the day... Sam & I hope to get to the gym before it closes. We have been doing pretty good again when it comes to getting into the gym and getting good workouts completed. Currently, the scale hasn't reflected our work but these things take time.

Later this afternoon, we'll be heading to Sam's aunt's house to undo all the work we are going to do in the gym today by enjoying our Thanksgiving dinner. I'm not sure who is all going, but it will be nice to visit with his family.

Then- who knows what the rest of our night will include. I'm not a big "Black Friday" shopper, so I have no plans on fighting the lines and dealing with the traffic. Plus I still can't believe that it's already time to think about holiday shopping, so this a way I can stay in denial a little longer.

I hope you all have a happy & safe Thanksgiving!

Hello November!

Hi Everyone! I can't believe we are almost halfway through November already. After my anniversary marathon of blog posting, I needed to take little bit of a break from the blog. But I'm back! Here are some ramblings of what's going on my life.

Life is going well. Shamrock has settled in nicely to our little family.

We still haven't decided if we are going to change his name (probably not, but we'll see). Currently Sam has been calling him "The Dude" like from the "The Big Lebowski". Even though I haven't seen the movie, it seem like it's a pretty good nickname.

In other news- we finally have a washer & dryer!

Yesterday afternoon was spent with Mike & Sam in truck going into the city to pick up the washer and dryer for Sam's great uncle's house.  I'm excited that I won't have to keep trucking my clothes across town to our parents to wash them. Now, I just have to wait another day until they are hooked up and I can use them. Being that it's been over two weeks since I last washed any clothes, I see a lot of laundry in my near future.

Tonight Sam flexed his cooking muscles and he made us duck for dinner.

Sam is a good cook, but he always makes "fancy" food. And by "fancy" I mean he uses a lot of pots and pans to make our meal.

Sam made a glaze and a sauce to go along with the duck. We never had duck before at home but it was good, so it's was worth the mound of dishes I have waiting for me.

All and all things have been good around here. I have found a good balance right now in my life (work, family, friends, etc.) and I hope to keep it that way.

Have a good week!

My Anniversary Gift

I first want to thank everyone who wished us "Happy Anniversary". It meant a lot to me. Also, I didn't realize until late last night that the highlight video wasn't working. It is now fixed, so if you wanted to watch it you can check it out here.

For our anniversary, we didn't do too much. We got our license changed with our new address, we got lunch, we got a cat...

 
Sam said he had a surprise for our anniversary and this was it. He didn't have a cat picked out, but he took me to our local shelter and we picked this guy out. It was hard to pick between his guy and a kitten named "Batman", but I really wanted a cat who was laid back and his guy totally is.

His name is Shamrock, but I'm not sure how much I like it. I thinking maybe calling him Bob or Max or something other then Shamrock. He's 8 years old and he came from a home of an elderly lady who just couldn't take care of him anymore.

He loves to snuggle and get attention, but he's totally cool just sitting next to you. I also love that he was already declawed on his front paws, so I didn't have to worry about him destroying our new couch.

Currently, it seems like I have a bit of an allergy of to him, but I'm hoping it gets better after a bit of brushing. If that doesn't work, I also bought some cat shampoo to try.

I won't lie, I feel like I'm cheating on my first fur baby.

I love my Sammy cat dearly; and he still safe and sound at grandma's house (my mom's). However, he doesn't travel well, and doesn't do well in new places. The last time I moved him, it took him over a week to get used to his new environment. Shamrock- it took him a whole 30 minutes to check out the whole place and make himself right at home. Sammy will always be my first pet, but Shamrock is our family's first pet.

All in all it was a great anniversary! And my husband did good on his surprise and gift. 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

I can't believe that our wedding was a year ago today! This year has gone by so quickly.

I know many of the readers were at the wedding (yes, I know my friends stalk my blog and that's ok with me), but I thought it would be fun to share our highlight video with you.

This highlight video was the nicest thing my video/ photography company did for me, because I wanted something to show at my Michigan wedding reception which was only two weeks later and they were able to put that video together for me.

Now that we have a year of marriage down my belt, I can say that the first year was harder then I expected  it to be but we made through it together.

~Sam,

I love you so much. Thanks for making me the luckiest girl in the world!

Love Your Wife,
~Stacy