Christmas!

What a wonderful time of the year... I am so happy to have been surrounded by family this Christmas! It really made me appreciate all the things that are good in my life. My side of the family came into town and we all enjoyed the celebration together with K's family! The best part about it all was how much EVERYBODY seemed to be enjoying themselves! Christmas day went so well that it was well past 11PM before anybody noticed the time! We ate a delicious prime rib roast, had cookies, played games, and watched 3 movies!!! Can you believe it? I can't either. Everybody was in the best of spirits.

I took about 200 pictures on Christmas Day and I couldn't be happier. I took my most portable setup, the camera flash on a light stand with a silver umbrella and a silver reflector. I'd have used soft white, but I knew I'd have to light large areas, so I needed all the reflected light I could get :) I'm still pretty happy about the pictures except for the fact that somebody's little sister decided to make silly faces in 90% of the pics she was in! And I forgot to set the flash to manual mode for a series of pics so the lighting is all over the place. But I can fix a lot of it in post processing. So all is well.

K and I spent about $200 over our budgeted amount for food this month, but man was it all so good! So many good cookies, breakfasts, and other meals left me wanting to eat more. Luckily, I was able to resist over-eating for several meals. I only went overboard on cookies. But hey, they taste the best when they're fresh :) I hope everybody's Christmas was as good as mine was. I am looking forward to a fun-packed New Year's celebration! Bring it on holidays!

a few things

1. I had an awesome Christmas. I got a new camera/laptop backpack that's friggin huge and has a ton of compartments and configurable storage. So it's pretty much perfect. I also got a 42" reflector kit with a stand. It works great especially since I still only have one off camera flash. I also got some cologne from K. So I'm sure I'll be smelling much better in the near future. My sister gave me some awesome gift cards and I now have 2 new sets of work out pants! Oh yeah, I had a lot of fun with my family and took plenty of time to contemplate the meaning of Christmas. Between playing with my new camera stuff ;)
   
2. I think I broke my truck. So when I am stupid and I forget not to use the parking brake when it's below freezing. My rear passenger wheel gets stuck. There are 2 ways to fix this. Well 3, but the third is boring. 1, you can stick the sucker in 4WD Low and gun it and hope you knock the wheel loose. And 2, you can bang at the drum brake with a hammer. I opted for # 1 today because, well I forgot about #2. And around my parent's house, they don't use salt so the roads really stay pretty slippery. So I drove about a block with 3 wheels spinning until my truck just decides not to move anymore. At that point I have my sister get out and she tells me that my front wheels were not spinning either. OOOPS. Guess I broke 4WD. So I call the tow company, they bang on my drum and get the wheel loose. I hobble it back to my parent's garage to let it thaw (option 3) My car made a nice squeeking noise the whole way, which was super fun. After the thawing, I drove it around and the 4WD seemed to be behaving again, but I'm still suspicious. So I'm taking it in before making the long drive home to make sure I won't die when my wheels fall off 100 miles out. So I'm stranded! yippie!
3. I can't wait any longer to get the gosh darn Camaro. If I had a fancy dancy new car. I wouldn't have these old car problems. I'd also be so much cooler. As we all know, a car is an extension of one's ego, and often is used to compensate for something. And for me it's to compensate for driving around in a gold compact pickup truck for 10 years! I want a car that I'm gonna love until I have kids. It may be my only chance and I don't want to miss out on this one. I want my gosh darn Camaro! When my truck broke, I got all excited and I prepped myself to overextend my credit prematurely so I could leave Iowa in at least a 2LT/RS Camaro! But just my luck, the dumb truck still drives!
   

(P.S. I'm actually grateful that my truck still runs. It's been pretty much reliable exept for the occasional brake freeze. So I'd like to keep it even after getting the Camaro. We'll see if the money tree lands on my roof anytime soon and I actually get promoted at work... here's to hoping!!!)

My Birthday

Was yesterday! And I'd like to thank everybody who made it special. I really can't say it enough that it really means so much to me. My family came out to visit me and they celebrated it on Saturday with me. Along with K, they made a super fun pirate party with homemade pizza. It was really unexpected and I really was taken back by how much they did for me to make me feel special :) Dino, our pet stuffed T-Rex got a friend named Carrot Nose who is a Triceratops. They've already been getting along great. ...and getting into mischief! Those crazy imaginary Dinosaur personalities sure are colorful! I also got an Ipod nano, which I really needed for working out. My wireless bluetooth headsets kept breaking so I needed another alternative to my cell phone MP3 player. K got me a toaster and a Blu-Ray movie. The toaster works great and it was just what I needed!

On Sunday K's family integrated me into their clam chowder dinner and they even did an impromptu birthday song around a dump cake. It was a pretty fun cake. It was loaded with cherries, pineapples, butter and coconut! What a good weekend I had!

Thanksgiving

I finally moved into my house last weekend and besides the sewage pump leaking into the front yard, everything is just peachy! My family came over to visit and we all worked in our own way to help set up my house. I did a decent amount of landscaping before the snow hit so I'm pretty happy about that. My mom sewed me some curtains. It took her so long and she worked so hard on them I really appreciate that. My dad helped out all around and made sure we were all adequately fed. And my sister she did just about as much manual labor as I did!

I got AT&T U-Verse phone, cable, and internet the Thursday before thanksgiving and it was down almost every day for almost every reason apparently. They say 3300 feet from the hub is right at the threshold for the service. So I hope it will stay up this time! I need to remember to call them and get refunded for the time my service was down. There's no sense in paying for service which I didn't have.

I hung out with K most of the week so that was a lot of fun. We celebrated Thanksgiving with both families. All the food was delicious. I made sure to eat a big piece of all 3 desserts. There was chocolate cheese cake, pumpkin banana torte, and pecan pie. All made with tested recipies. So I loved all three! I ate way too much the last 4 days or so, but oh man was it great spending so much time with family. I really am thankful for all I have.

It's almost Christmas!!!

It's so much fun to spend time with your friends and family for the holidays even if you have to spend your whole morning shoveling the driveway :P I've been eating mostly cookies instead of meals lately. It's fun, but now I'm actually starting to crave un-sugar! Well I wish everybody a Merry Christmas!

No more vacation

It was a good run, but now it's definitely over. That's what I thought this morning as I scraped the frost off my windshield before heading off to work. During the last week or so of my vacation, I often found myself clueless as to what day it was and I'd have to reference a calendar to figure it out. It was a great feeling actually because that meant I had no pending deadlines and that all I had to do was have fun.

After Germany I visited my grandparents in New Jersey and celebrated Thanksgiving with them and a couple other relatives. But before that we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NYC. We really didn't plan on it, but we ended up just going to NYC on Thanksgiving day and running into the parade since it ran through the heart of Manhattan! We got close enough to be on the front lines of the parade and we were able to watch it in all its glory close up. After all that fun on Thanksgiving, we went to Atlantic City and enjoyed a casino buffet and a walk along the boardwalk. The last time I was there I was too young to remember, or take pictures. So I'm glad I was able to do both this time :)

We then came back home and visited Kristin's family and they served us some delicious food that I forgot the name of, but it was good. Our families got along really well and I was happy about that. I laughed when I found out that Kristin coached her parents before the visit to make sure it went smoothly. I don't think they really needed coaching to get along but it sure made the morning/afternoon go well.

After the family meeting, my family left and I was left all by myself to do whatever. And I found myself clueless as to what to do. So I just unpacked all my luggage and set up all the fun souvenirs that I bought and prepped Kristin's gifts for when she could stop by to pick them up. But then I finished all that, so I started cleaning. Yeah that's right, I cleaned almost first thing after my vacation. I think I'm crazy. I guess I just wasn't used to not having anything to do after all that time of going everywhere humanly possible in the short 2.5 week span I was on vacation.

Now I'm already used to being bored. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but last night I just curled up on the couch and watched TV. I then went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for stuffed mushrooms and chicken saltimboca, or however you spell that. It's listed in my blog, so if you're curious, look at my previous posts. After prepping all the food, I headed to bed. And that's my life.

stuff

The 4th was pretty fun, I got to watch Disturbia and then see the local fireworks up close. It was a lot of fun. I also learned that my community has a spa! I thought we only had a pool. I have been missing out!

On Friday Kristin made a peach pie. My family came to visit on Saturday and they all loved her pie. It is very good. Saturday, my family and I went on a 3-hour cruise on Lake Michigan and saw the Chicago fireworks and had an all around good time. I really enjoyed that. Sunday was just a relaxed day and I didn't get very much done, but I did get to put chicken wire over my pot that some bird/rodent kept digging in. That'll learn em!

Today I feel oddly unsettled today. Something just isn't sitting right. I just want to get out of the office, but I don't know where I'm supposed to go. I'm probably just upset about the whole house buying expense thing. I don't want to be here or anywhere today. I wish I had a life fast forward button again today.