How many days left til Christmas?

Ok, I seriously don't want to know the answer to that.  I am panicking enough as it is with the very quickly dwindling work days left in December!  I have so much to do and currently no help to get any of it done!  My to do list started with 27 items on it this morning.  When I left at the end of the day it was up to 29 items!  And I had crossed off some things!  I am seriously hoping to have that down to  manageable 10 items by the end of the week!  We shall see though.  Wednesday is evaluation day in our office.  I am first thing in the morning at 8:30 am.  Who will come out of it alive?  :)

Another packed weekend.  Hair appointments, shopping, cleaning, laundry.  Yikes! How will I ever get it all done?  Well, if I'm not home, I get really very little done.  I know.  But I hate to miss out of the fun stuff!  Like Sunday afternoons at my friend Jenny's house; having chili for lunch, watching the Saints football game and playing with the 2 boys.  Those boys would exhaust anyone!  I came straight home and put my pjs on and remained camped on the couch for the rest of the night!!  But we had fun!

 Phil making gift bags for the grandmothers and aunts/uncles. These were made by sticking those foam sticker pieces onto plain ole brown paper gift bags.  But I have to say, if those foam sticker pieces are non-toxic, they sure did stink!  We felt like we were getting high off of them!!

 Enjoying his Christmas red Oreo.  Not the best idea in the middle of a project.  Definitely had to wash the hands after having this one!

Santa picture frame ornaments.  These were made for Phil's class.  Pictures of the class will be added to each one.  Cute idea.

Christmas is fast approcahing!  Dinners, pot lucks, family, friends.  All soon to be descending upon me!  Sigh!  I must find some stress management and soon!  I did recently buy a bottle of the SkinnyGirl White Cranberry Cosmopolitan.  May be cracking that open as my "stress management" very soon!

Plus it is starting to not feel Christmassy again because the weather has decided to heat up again.  We are slowly climbing back into the 70s.  I know we don't get snow, but at least with the temps in the 50s it felt a little closer to being the holidays and not summertime!

But seriously, I am very much looking forward to what the upcoming next 2 weeks are going to bring. I see a lot of love, laughter and fun!

I hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season!

Have Officially Lost it!!!

I am here to report that I have officially lost my mind and have turned into a raving lunatic!!! 

The good news is that I have recognized this affliction and am taking steps to find my mind once again.  Between the holiday season, extra stress at work, and some personal issues, I am literally a raving lunatic! And I've been taking this out on an unfortunate person and I am so sorry for that!!!

I have piles of Christmas presents scattered throughout my apartment making it look messy and making it blatantly clear I have not wrapped one thing.  I need to get that done tonight or at least the items that are going out of state because we are mailing the boxes tomorrow or Saturday. 

My best friends are currently in the midst of the worst marital problems of their entire marriage.  And I am caught in the middle.  I had been talking to both of them until the husband got mad at me because I scolded him for telling his wife some things that I supposedly said about her, although I had not.  So now he is sulking over that. But I am not here to be a weapon to be used by him against his wife or vice versa because I told the wife the same thing! The wife is still talking to me and it hurts me to hear the pain in her voice and there is nothing I can do to assist her. And the kids.  I have no clue what they are thinking but the two oldest are definitely old enough to be aware of what is going on at the ages of 9 and 10 years of age.

A close friend lost her Dad this past spring and has been on a mission to not acknowledge this by keeping busy.  Thus I am always being invited over to do crafty things or baking or hanging out.  Which is fine.  I love being there for my friends but I know that in the long run this isn't helping her and once again I am feeling at a loss as to help. And I am gone so much from home that my poor Duke is lonely and starting to act out.  Like Tuesday evening, he purposely went into my bedroom, waited for me to come look for him and then peed right on the floor in front of me.  Oy!!!  What am I to do?

Then there is work.  My co-worker who was scheduled to go out on maternity leave towards the end of December went out in mid-November.  5 weeks early to be exact.  So all our good intentions of transferring information from her to me didn't happen.  I am trying to play some major catch up.  The only good thing is that I used to do the work she does so I do have that historical information to fall back upon.  But I am also trying to do my work also and it is creating some stress for me!

Finally, there is an former friend who has re-entered my life. This person was a good friend at one time but it ended pretty badly between us.  I've always wanted closure on the situation (and getting closure from a man is like pulling teeth!) but I am still not sure if I will ever get it or want it anymore. See, I am crazy!!! I  don't know what I want.

I certainly hope I can take steps to regain myself.  Because who I am currently, I do NOT like!

Good Intentions...

Lately life seems to be all about good intentions.  I intended to do that.  I intended to do this. But the intended?  It never seems to get done!!!

Today was the Ringing of the Bells.  My friend Jenny and I went to one of the local department stores at the mall and "rang the bells" for 2 hours this afternoon.  Of course today was the day that it was in the 40s!  Probably our coldest day this winter!  I am so completely bundled up with layers of clothing that I could barey move and I was still cold.  Jenny had on her two pairs of socks and her Minnie Santa Hat which she said kept her quite warm!!! We immediately went to Starbucks afterwards to get coffee to warm up!

I have to say I was not going for a fashion statement.  I was completely thinking of being warm only!!!

Doesn't she look like she's having a good time?

It has been so cold the last few days that I've even been putting Duke into his winter gear.  It is the only time of year that I can get him to wear clothes!!!



I'm impressed with my self this evening.  I came home and did the dishes, washed two loads of linens and hope to tackle wrapping some presents.  This is much better than the last few nights when I have come home and done absolutely nothing because I've been so tired from work! I must confess, I am trying to keep myself distracted.  No time to think and get into trouble!!!  For those who know me, they know that when I begin to ponder too much, trouble seems to follow! Which is another reason why this is my 2nd post in just a week!!! Most times, busy is good!!! Especially during the holidays when so many emotions pleasant or unpleasant can be brought to the fore front!

Now if I can only get myself motivated to work on the rest of my Christmas presents for my Sister that I am making for her.  So close to finishing but know that if I don't put my mind to it, they won't be finished!!!

Let the busy season begin....

And begin it has!!!  I am so far behind in my blogging that I hope to remember all that I had wanted to blog about!

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was a quiet one for me.  My parents and I had plans to visit my sister in Texas for Thanksgiving but I was unable to go as I had to work starting Sunday after Thanksgiving. It would have made a round trip to Texas a very short one so I could be back in time to work.  So, my Dad made a complete dinner for me, including a fried turkey, before he left so I would have a meal.  It was quite yummy!  All I had to do was re-warm everything. 

Black Friday
This year I went Black Friday shopping with my friend Jenny.  This was my first experience.  Not her, she is quite an experienced shopper who goes every year.  Our adventures began at 7:30 pm on Thanksgiving evening.  We started out at Michaels for all of our holiday crafting needs.  From there we headed over to Toys R Us to get in line because it opened at 9 p.m.  We stood in line for about 20 minutes ( a line that wrapped the building once, and they were only letting 50 people in at a time) before abandoning that plan to walk over to the Walmart as they were already open.  That wasn't the best plan.

Walmart was insane!  Because it  never closed on Thanksgiving day, people had buggies of sales items and were waiting in line to check out at 10 pm when the sales began.  You could barely move in there.  I stood in the women's underwear aisle with a pile of toys as Jenny went racing around trying to get what she needed from there.  I didn't need anything myself from Walmart.  Once that was done we were in line for at least 20 to 30 minutes to check out.

Then it was back to Toys R Us.  Once again we got in line to wait to get inside.  It wasn't too bad.  The line was only halfway around the building and moving adequately fast.  While in line some women who had been in the store came by and suggested that since there were 2 of us, that one stand in the check out line while the other shopped and just swap back and forth.  At first we thought they were nuts, but upon entering we found out that the line for the check out started at the beginning of the store, wove through half of the store to the back and then back again up to the front.  I saw at least 2/3 of the store that night standing in line.  We were in line for at least an hour.  But we did get what we needed. 

Jenny when we finally reached the check out stand at Toys R Us.

After Toys R Us we tried to go to Target. There are 2 Targets in our city.  The first one we drove by, we couldn't even get into the parking lot. The streets were backedup at least a 1/2 mile all around the store.  The 2nd store was further out away from other shopping areas so I thought it might not be that bad.  We got into the parking lot quite easily but that was the end of the easy time.  There were no parking spots left, well, legal ones that is and the line to get in the store was so long, we couldn't even see the end of it!  So we decided to head to my parents house for a quick break and reassessment.

After the break, we decided to go to Kohls.  We implemented the same plan we had at Toys R Us.  One stood in line for the check out and the other would shop.  Once again we were in line for at least an hour. We did have some purchases but I blame those mostly on my exhaustion at that point in time. 

Now I'm not sure if this little story was really funny or if I was just so tired at that point that anything would have made me laugh.  We had just left Kohls.  It was almost 3 am in the morning.  We were headed back to my apartment for a nap.  We were just leaving the parking lot of Kohls when we saw these 2 girls running with their carts full of stuff.  Now why is this odd or something even noticable?  Well, these buggies were from the Toys R Us in the next parking lot over.  Toys R Us had a very interesting security feature on their buggies.  As you approached the end of the parking lot, the buggies front wheels would lock so you can't leave the parking lot area.  So once again, we saw these 2 girls RUNNING with their buggies full of purchases as they headed to the end of the parking lot. Before you could blink, the front wheels locked and the girls pitched forward over the buggy!  Jenny and I laughed so hard we were crying.  I blame it on lack of sleep!!!

We were back at my apartment for 3 am and slept for 3 hours.  We started again at about 6:30 am and went to several more stores.  I did get treated to breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, which if you have never tried, is quite yummy!!!

One of the items that we did find while we were out, but didn't get (but totally want!!!) was this HUGE package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Each cup is 1/2 pound!!!!  Yummy!



We finished shopping around 11 am.  I was so tired but couldn't take the chance of taking a nap in fear that I wouldn't wake up in time for the LSU Arkansas football game!  I actually didn't go to bed till 10 pm that night.  How?  I have no clue.  Delirium???

New Orleans

Starting that Sunday I worked a conference with Jenny in New Orleans for 4 days.  It was a huge conference, bigger than I am used to.  It had almost 2000 registrants.  Over 100 vendors, so probably about 300 or more representatives.  It was insane but I have to say that Jenny did an excellent job planning it!  While we were there we ate some very good New Orleans restaurants.  For a conference, it was a fairly enjoyable time!  Even though I was out of the office Monday thru Wednesday, back in the office on Thursday with a meeting that lasted 4 hours so not much was done in the time I was in the office.  I took off Friday because by the end of the day on Thursday I had already worked 50 plus hours.

Christmas preparations

I finally managed to get my little tree.  Augie's stocking made (my sister's new dog). And all of my Christmas shopping complete. Yep, I'm on top of it.  At least that part I am.  I even mailed off all my Christmas cards yesterday and tonight I signed a whole box more to be sent overseas to the military.  On Wednesday, Jenny and I will be ringing the bells at our local mall.  All to get into the holiday season!!!

 Too funny how Duke knew exactly which stocking was his!

I made this snowman myself!!!  Not sure what I'm going to do with it.  I have more I want to make.  The idea is to put wire on them and make a wreath.  We shall see if that gets done!

LSU Football

For those who don't know, LSU is THE #1 team in the country, undisputed!  We are 13-0 and are headed to the National Championship game in New Orleans.  The two previous times we have played the National Championship game in New Orleans, we have come away with the win.  We will be up against Alabama again.  Not very happy about that, but should make for an interesting, nail-biting game!!!  But having 2 SEC football teams in the National Championship means that the SEC will have won for the 6th year in a row!  So now it is time to stock up on some new LSU gear and wait, as patiently as possible, for January 9th to roll around.

Ok, I think I have covered all that I wanted to.  Sorry for it being so long.  It has been quite a while since I blogged.  Maybe in the New Year I will take more time to sit down and blog!!!

Some more Pinterest

Let me preface this latest entry:  I had very little sleep last night.  Probably less than 3 hours.  My mind was racing all night and would not quiet down enough for me to fall asleep. Follow that up with a very long day at work where I traveled to another city an hour away for some convention planning.  I am one tired girl! So I apologize if anything I type doesn't make sense.

My friends and I have delved straight into the latest craze called Pinterest.  This past Friday, my friend hosted a baby shower for another one of our friends.  Once again it was inspired by ideas found on Pinterest.  The decorations, some of the foods and favors.  We love our Pinterest!

 Pumpkins made from burlap!

Pumpkin seeds as favors!

 The tablecloth was made out of a drop cloth!

I made the guest of honor two presents.  One was a bib with her baby's initials cross stitched on it with a monkey alphabet.  I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of it.  The second was a hooded towel.  I love the colors in it! The picture is kind of dark but I was in a hurry when I took the picture.

As I stated before I have been doing some stitching.  I had been working on Mirabilia's The Kiss.  I've worked on it off and on for the last few weeks.  I made some good progress on it. Sorry for the hoop ring, I'm bad at remembering to remove the hoop each night after I am done stitching. 

I've put the above project away to focus on another project.  I'm back to stitching on my sister's Christmas stocking.  Will I finish it?  Who knows.  There are only 3 more weekends of football left and that is when I tend to get a ton of my stitching done. It calms me down especially since my Tigers are on the path to the National Championship! However, I do have Thanksgiving to stitch all that I want.  My parents are going to spend the holiday with my sister so I shall be home alone.  So Duke and I will have a little celebration of our own and I will rest up for shopping on Black Friday. 

I've only had one experience with Black Friday and the best part of it was the breakfast at a local restaurant called Frank's (the best biscuits in town!).  This year I have been invited by my friend Jenny, who is a SERIOUS Black Friday shopper.  She's already given me a list of items that I will need for a successful shopping trip. All our ads with the items we want circled, walkie talkies (couldn't we just use our cell phones?), a back pack, and dress in layers as the day will start cold and the stores will get hot.  I obviously have no clue what I am getting my self into!  We shall see how it goes!

It Has Been Awhile...

I hadn't realized that my last post was back in September!  How time flies when one is busy!  I always had good intentions to sit down and blog but, something was always been going on!

Weekends in October
I was blessed a couple of weekends this past October to spend time with my two nieces and nephew.  We had sleep overs, trip to the zoo, football games, costume shopping. Lots of activities packed into just a few days!

Being a big girl, coloring in her Hello Kitty coloring book, while LSU plays! 

 I'm a Tiger!  Beware!

I'm too cool to be riding the zoo train!  (He's growing up so fast!)

A Pinterest Inspired Party

During October I also spent many evenings and some weekends at my friend Jenny's house.  I was helping her make decorations for her youngest son's 1st birthday.  All of her ideas for the Monster themed party came from Pinterest.  If you haven't discovered Pinterest yet, STAY AWAY! Just kidding.  It is just completely addicting and one can spend hours on it! 

 Monster marshmallow pops.  Super easy! 

Monster cupcakes and cake.

Came out better than we expected!

Dum-dum topiary!

I'm particularly proud of this wreath as I completely made this one all by myself!

 



 Halloween

This is the first Halloween that Duke had a costume.  Only took me 12 years to get it together!  He was a pumpkin!  Isn't he cute?

On Friday evening, I took him to the dog park. They were having trick or treating for the dogs.  It was cute and there were so many cute costumes!  Lady bugs, turtles, race horses!  I wish I could have gotten more pictures but it was hard as they would not sit still!

This dog was Charlotte, as in Charlotte's Web.  Her friend was a pig but he wouldn't sit long enough for me to get a picture!

On Halloween night I went over to my friend Jenny's.  They have a huge neighborhood party with lots of food, drinks and of course treats! 

On to November

Now it is November!  I have no clue where October went!  The holidays are right around the corner.  I have some stuff already finished for Christmas but a list a mile long of other things I need to get done!  I can feel the Holiday Stress coming on. 

I've done a little bit of stitching.  Not much.  Nothing to report.  I did have one finish, a baby bib, but I forgot to take a picture before I gave it as a gift.  I hope to have some other pictures of what I've been stitching on here and there soon!

Friday  night was a baby shower for my co-worker. I have pictures as the hostess also used Pinterest to help inspire the decorations. 

The Big Game

Last night was "The Game of the Century".  For those who don't know what I am talking about, it was the match up between #1 LSU vs #2 Alabama.  I am a die hard LSU fan.  Bleed purple and gold, probably always will!  This game was so stressful.  Not only was it LSU fighting to hold onto the #1 spot but it was also the decisive game as to who would win the SEC West and be in the SEC championship game the first weekend in December.  LSU won it by 3 points, in OT!  Now all LSU has to do is win the next 4 games and they should be in the National Championship Game which is in New Orleans.  Our last two wins as national champions came in New Orleans as well! 

Hello!

It has been over a month since I last posted! Where has the time gone?  It seems to have flown by!  September has been filled with birthdays, football games, and work. 

I've been busy mostly with work this month.  I have worked the last 13 days straight.  I am tired!  Today was my first full day off of work.  It was bittersweet.  It was nice to be home but I had so much to catch up on with the household chores! 

How about those #1 LSU Tigers?  Woo hoo!  My team is #1 in the AP poll!  (We won't discuss the silly coaches poll).  While it is still early, I hope that my Tigers can hang onto this spot.  Or maybe just hang out in the top 5?  That would be good too.  #1 is too much pressure!

Yesterday was Homecoming at one of the local high schools.  My friend's two sons were attending and asked me to come out and take some pictures. At first it looked like I wouldn't make it as I had a board meeting in a town 2 1/2 hours away but I finished up in just enough time to "fly" back in time for the pictures.  (Thank goodness there were no cops on the route!!!!)  Here are a few of the pictures I took:

I've also been doing a little bit of stitching.  I try to pick up a project whenever I have a few minutes available. I am currently stitching on the Mad Tea Party but I have no update picture yet.

I had to re-start Snow White.  I flubbed a BUNCH of stitches so this is my re-start of it:

This is the project that my sister requested I do for her.  She doesn't know that I am working on it.  :)  It is a secret.  It is the Thomas Kinkade Peter Pan and Tinker Bell picture:



My latest obsession?  Pinterest.  Have ya'll found this website?  http://www.pinterest.com/  It is a place where you can gather all your favorite projects, web pages, etc and it is accesible from anywhere.  I find it hard to describe but if you can get an invite from a user, you should try it out.  It is addictive!

On Friday I went with my sister to see The Lion King.  It hadn't changed any from the first time I had seen it.  Although the 3D was pretty cool.  But as I was sitting there watching it, I realized how violent this movie is!  Wow!  Lots of death!

Hope all is well in your worlds!  I hope to find more time to blog in the future!

Boo! Back to Reality!

I was just lucky enough to have spent 3 days at the beach.  Unfortunately I had to come back.  Blegh!  And reality hit like a ton of bricks on this Monday.

The trip to the beach was much needed.  The weather was hot but it was great otherwise!  The sun was shining.  The Gulf waters were free of jelly fish and not that much seaweed.  I was lucky enough to spend 1 1/2 days doing this:

I was able to get two books read during this time!  Woo hoo!  Nothing like a good read!  I also managed a pretty decent tan, for me that is.  I didn't think I had gotten much color but it was nice to hear my co-workers comment on how "tan" I am!  :)

Went to Lulu's one night for dinner.  This is Jimmy Buffet's sister's restaurant.  I had an awesome fried green tomato and bacon sandwich.  It was delicious!  If you ever make it to southern Alabama, this is a definite place to visit.

Managed a morning of shopping at the outlet in Foley.  Finished my Christmas shopping for my niece Cassady.  Only a few dozen more gifts to get.  But it is nice to have one person complete!  Also picked up a stroller for Duke.  Now he can join me on walks!  Can't wait to use it! 

On the way down to the beach, my mom and I stopped at Robert Morris' Christmas Town & Village in Mobile.  This place was awesome.  Talk about sensory overload.  Christmas everywhere!  We spent about 2 hours in that store.  It just kept on going and going and going!  I did manage to pick up an ornament for Parker, now I only have two more to pick up for the nieces! 

I am so ready to go back to the beach! I love living in the south but I wish I could live closer to the beach.