2009...oh what a year...

seriously - this year has FLOWN by, yet in some ways was extremely long. make sense? :)

it's been a pretty busy year in our nut house...we had a rollercoaster year...but I'm so thankful for God's blessings in getting us through all the bad stuff and creating all the good...


January - started my LAST officially semester at UHD...15 credit hours...that pretty much plagued my entire first half of the year...seriously -- what was I thinking with the 15 hours?

February - celebrated an awesome valentines day with my hubby and then off on a WONDERFUL vacation to Buffalo where I got to play in SNOW! Then bombshell when I returned of finding my furry baby, zucker, paralyzed...she has since {thankfully} had a full recovery.

March - lots and lots of school work...had a crazy week and survived on little sleep {i'm thinking that was the norm for this year}...reflected on a year without my grandma...started family tree'ing...became obsessed with Cable TV.

April - was stressed with school...celebrated my blogiversary...ranted...had a mini-easter vacation at the nuttier resort to get rejuvinated...school and more school...then the big one happened....our house was burglarized {I still feel violated from this...I guess that will never go away}

May - stress before finals...then relief to be DONE! Finally got to catch up with my old friends who I haven't seen in probably a year or so...

June - another quick trip back to Buffalo, NY before my LAST class started...had the teacher from h-e-double hockey sticks...got to see the Farnsworth Invention at the Alley...received my graduation acceptance letter...

July - attended my LAST undergrad class EVER...had a great time with my inlaws for the 4th...got my official 'you are done with school' e-mail...randomness.

August - had an incredible weekend getaway to galveston with my hubby...spent lots of time with my siblings {and my mom too}...became obsessed with Twilight and Julie & Julia.

September - finally started decorating my house after 7 years of living here...remembered hurricane ike...went to see BRITNEY SPEARS with my friend Ashley...and saw P!nk with my friend Debi & my goddaughter Sicily...celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary with my hubby.

October - started off amazing with a trip to the hill country with Paula {amazing vacation}...went to San Antonio though I didn't blog about the trip because my aunt had sadly taken her life...started my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days...broke down and joined twitter...received my DIPLOMA!!!

November - became obsessed with finding someone to take our pictures and on getting a new comforter...only one did I actually find...actually went to a Memorial HS football game...was extremely thankful...

December - started the month a little down and honestly stayed that way till Christmas...snow. in houston. in december...met the pioneer woman...freaked out cause I had too much to do {lol}...made more progress on fixing up our house...WALKED across the stage for my fake diploma...had an unbelieveable christmas...right now I'm enjoying having my sister here with us to ring in the new year!

Here's to a wonderful 2010!

christmas decor...

I have blogged about my tree, but I wanted to share some of the other Christmas decorations before I take them down next weekend...

{newest ornament on our tree :) loves it!!!}

{mirror is now covered in all the Christmas cards we received}

{sleigh was gene's grandma's...the ornament is one of my favorite we have acquired...the church is a gift from gene's dad last year which I now have 2 more of!!}

{bought these gorgeous nativity candle holders on dayspring}

{bought the Ho Ho Ho blocks a couple years ago...they are maroon and glittery...can they be any more perfect? got the cute gold deer at Kirkland's this year...still looking for the perfect wooden deer though.}

{entry way table which is actually an old stereo that was my grandpa's...started refinishing it, but like many of my projects was put on hold...got the sunflowers & statues are were my nana's (added the fun christmasy sprigs...switch them out with each season)...flower print was gene's grandma's...angel was gene's moms.}

grad photos...

I cannot figure out if I like these or not. I guess I will order a couple for my family, but I'm not their biggest fan...the one where they put me in front of the building is plain silly. I kinda like the one with the people behind me...I just don't know. Thoughts?

celebrate good times, come on...

{me & my awesome sister}

wow i'm tired. christmas is not technically over for us yet...but I figured i would share the fun (and the utterly exhausting) part of our christmas...let's start with this. i am a procrastinator. those of you who know me know this. those of you who don't be forewarned. {i was the person who would wait till the night before to write 20 page papers just cause i couldn't focus on it till the last possible minute.} so while i bought a lot of christmas gifts well before thanksgiving, i didn't wrap anything. i also didn't make a list of what i needed to buy and what people were getting till december 23rd. the list thing is something i will NOT procrastinate on again. it caused me to have to buy 3 gifts at the last minute and i do NOT like christmas crowds.

so december 23rd and i have ZERO gifts wrapped. ZERO. NADA. thankfully all of our christmas celebrations are spread over a week so i decided just to start wrapping things right before i needed them...i wrapped gene's gifts after work on the 23rd and the gifts that i needed to take with my inlaws on the 24th. told you i procrastinate :)

gene & i opened gifts at midnight on christmas eve...it was the only time we would really have on christmas/christmas eve to ourselves to be able to enjoy our gifts we got each other. i have to say my hubby ROCKED the gifts this year! I was never more happy/shocked/in awe of any gifts. ever. i do mean EVER!!!

He got me two pair of PHENOMENAL shoes!!

seriously...i stared at the box and teared up when i saw he got me those alexander mcqueen shoes i have been wanting since i first saw them at the store he works at! the other elizabeth & james shoes are to die for. i don't think he realized when he started working at a high end clothing store that his wife would have such a draw to amazingly awesome shoes...but hey, he's feeding my addiction so i guess all is good! :) {and not having to pay retail is a HUGE bonus}

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we left christmas eve after gene got off work to head to his folks...it's so relaxing at nuttier resort! we wound up watching some GREAT christmas movies...including one i had never seen before! we watched Going My Way {cannot believe i had never seen this before...new christmas staple in our house} and the colorized version of It's a Wonderful Life.

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christmas day was wonderful like always...super relaxing...breakfast, then presents (including a snuggie for me), then more relaxing & we watched Miracle on 34th Street (i had never watched this one either!!) late that afternoon we headed home...i had to finish wrapping the gifts for my cousin's kids...i headed up to willis to see them (g had to stay home cause he had to work the next day)...

my uncle donnie and his wife were in willis at my cousin jessica's...i love visiting with them...feels like old times when we would go to louisiana and visit with them. i wound up staying there a lot longer than i had intended too (11ish) but that's mainly because i lost my keys in my car before i headed up to see them. yes, i said IN my car. took both of us a good 30-45 minutes to find them in a gift bag. {see people this is why i prefer to WRAP}. anyway i headed from there and went straight to my grandma's house about 2 1/2 hours away.

i have to say thank goodness for buc-ees. seriously people. it was the ONLY thing open. i was able to get coffee & a ms.bairds pecan pie which kept me {thankfully} wide awake for the drive!! i finally got there about 1:30 after a brief deterance by a local law man who was kind enough to stop me because my tail light was out. seriously, i think he was bored. i visited with my cousin a little since he was the only one up and then went to bed. seriously a long day.

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i got up early and visited with my grandma the next day and then headed to town to see my mom...i stayed with them a little while then snagged my sister and headed to calvert to visit with my aunt & cousins who had driven in from south carolina! i wish my aunt samantha lived closer...though it gives me an excuse to go to south carolina soon!! :) her grandma was having their family's huge christmas celebration....so talk about a full house! we had fun though visiting with people i hadn't seen since i was a little girl. my sister played with our cousin cass while i got to visit with my aunt. so happy i got to spend a lot of time with them!

we finally headed home to see g and never was i more exhausted/tired and happy to be home! i think if food wasn't required i would have probably passed out the second i walked into the house!! we had a nice relaxing night and went to casa ole so how could it have been bad?!?!

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sunday {seriously people i haven't even made it through sunday and i've already had to take like 4 breaks writing this thing!!} we had a late start to the day...we wound up just tooling around town {went to highland village, drove around river oaks, ate dinner at barnabys} and then we had to go to yet another christmas celebration thing. i'm thankful we now only have ONE more christmas to do and that's with my family this coming weekend...though i don't think we've made confirmed plans yet...we do {sadly} have to take the girl back so it would be a good time for everyone to get together!

A little preview...

A preview of one of my amazing gifts I got for Christmas....more to come!!!


{Alexander McQueen}

merry christmas...

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas...the next couple of days have me traveling all over Texas to visit relatives who I don't get to see very often...I'm extremely excited to see my Aunt Samantha who is in Texas from South Carolina with my cousins...I wish she lived much closer...I cannot wait to go visit her this year and meet her wonderful husband and his kids.

My Uncle Donnie is also in from Louisiana. Before this summer I hadn't seen him in over 12 years. We use to go spend lots of time with him & my aunt Judy in Lousiana growing up but sadly all of us grew apart...I will be seeing him at my cousin Jessica's house of whom before this summer I hadn't seen her in 12 years either...I am so glad that she is back in my life and I get to spend time with her and her wonderful 5 kiddos...one of whom I got to be at the hospital for his birth!!

I will also be visiting with my wonderful inlaws, my mom & siblings, my Memoe, my dad (maybe), and whoever else I run into in Bremond...

I guess Christmas is still hardest on me because of all the family I don't get to actually see...I pray they are all looking down on me and help guide me in my life, but they all aren't walking with us on the earth anymore....I miss my nana...both of my papas...my aunt judy...my great-grandpa popi...my uncle bill...my cousin brent...and sadly lots more relatives...

I'm thankful for the family I have left and look forward to making lots of memories with everyone.

the walk...

Sunday was pretty unbelievable! It was a crazy day, but with an amazing ending. I cannot tell you how excited/happy I was that some of my friends were able to walk the same time I did! I have had my diploma since mid-October...but I can tell you after walking across that stage it finally felt real. I have a COLLEGE DEGREE!!! Amazing.

{me, Jonna & Angelina - met them in my marketing strategy class}

{me & Irla - met her in my FIRST class at UHD...cannot tell you how happy I was to be walking with her!} also - sooooooo sad my pic didn't turn out good!

{me & Otto - met him in QDM -- UNITY}

I was a little sad that none of my family came into town, but honestly I understand...but I did have Gene there...which in a way this is his degree too. He had to put up with me being stressed, my lack of sleep and just overall exhaustion for YEARS!!



My mother-in-law was there too...her & my father-in-law have been instrumental in keeping me moving forward on my degree too. They opened up their hearts to me and I feel like they are my parents too...


Paula...what can I say about Paula? PF came into my life 3+ years ago and it's like we've known each other forever! She hired me away from Mustang and has been so supportive of me finishing school...yes, she too called me crazy for taking 15 credit hours while working 50+ hours a week...but I made it through it.


And last, but certainly not least...my crazy, wonderful friend Debi...mother to my goddaughter...helper of kicking people's butts at P!nk concerts...Debi! I have known Debi now for over 10 years...LOVE HER...she got me through some crazy times.


Sadly - I didn't remember to take pictures with Gene, mom, Paula or Debi...oops :)


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anyway...I just wanted to say thanks to ALL of my family & friends for all of your love and support throughout the years....I couldn't have made it without each and every one of you...

four...

seriously people there are only 4 days till christmas! i *think* i'm done christmas shopping, but honestly i have NO CLUE. every gift i have purchased is in a pile in my dining room, some in my bedroom, and even more in my office...do i have any clue what i have purchased? nope. that's seriously what i get for buying stuff throughout the year and NOT keeping a list. oops.

the only gifts that have been wrapped are already at my brother & sister-in-laws house...though it keeps cracking me up when i run across other presents i bought them. oops.

this week will be kinda nuts. lots of presents to wrap and a LOT of family to visit! i am seriously excited...i honestly think i'm double booked. oops.

monday & tuesday - working & LOTS of wrapping.
wednesday - 1/2 day at work (SWEET) and probably more wrapping.
thursday - after gene gets off work heading to the nuttier resort!
friday aka christmas - enjoy the day at the nuttier resort...head home that afternoon...me & maybe gene heading up to willis to my cousins house for some visiting with her family & my uncle donnie!
saturday - gene working :( me -- heading to bremond with a stop along the way to visit with my wonderful aunt who is in texas from south carolina!! YEA!! then seeing my mom & my grandma & dad. and who knows who else i might see...hopefully i will see lots of friends and family!
sunday - head back home with my sister in tow (who knows if a brother is coming back with me too...i never know who all i will get till i leave my moms)...we are super glad we will get to spend a week with her (or them)!

right now we only have ONE wrapped present under our tree (thanks camila)...seriously how sad is that! i am on a mission this week to put all of our presents under the tree before we take them to everyone else's house!!! (you can totally see the piles of unwrapped gifts in the background!)

fyi - i'm still working on my graduation post...it was an unbelievable day!

wow...

in just about 12 hours i'll be walking across the stage at minute maid park...insanity!!!!

how true...

This is sadly the life of a designer. Found this video on Used Wigs that sums up the design process to a tee :)

cider goodness...

in our building we have a Seattle's Best Coffee shop...all I have to say is the Carmel Apple Cider makes me melt....

progress...

when we moved into our house 7 years ago we knew it was a fixer-upper. we finally have started working on it and noticeable changes have been made!

first thing we started doing is replacing doors....here's our new pantry door & door knob (look the kitchen is painted too)...{shocker}

the most noticeable/drastic change is taking place in our upstairs spare bathroom. we have removed the sliding glass/gold door that is was in the tub...stripped wallpaper that was under the texture & peeling...changed out the door to enter into from the hallway versus the bedroom! still lots to do like re-texturing, floor, painting, replace counter tops...but we are getting closer!!

i cannot wait for us to get new floors downstairs...that is going to make the HUGEST difference in our house!! hope they can be done/installed right after the new year!

in my head...

you know how much i {heart} glee...this song has been in my head since they sung it on the show...and now it's on loop in iTunes!!!

smile by the glee cast {lily allen cover} link

countdown...

seriously people...the countdown has begun...

5 days till I walk across the stage for my fake diploma (aka GRADUATION)!

10 days till CHRISTMAS!!!!

I am starting to freak a little more now...still lots to do!!

Still looking for a Christmas present for me (lol - I kid...but it would be great for a cook)?? May I suggest...

Le Creuset Oval French Oven - I have seriously been coveting it since I saw it in Julie & Julia...I want to make Julia's Beef Bourguignon in it!

some success...

I've made a bit of progress on my to-do list this weekend!!

• so graduation invitations are in the mail today! yay! yes I know its in less than a week...but still - success :)
• dogs were taken to the vet - though it was a struggle the entire 2 minute drive because zucker felt the need to open the window over and over and over again.
  
• no more roots for me!! YAY!
  
• upstairs bathroom now has a new door and the old door is almost patched up! still have a bit to do...but almost there!
• maids are scheduled for a house cleaning! cannot tell you how happy that makes me!!!!
• bought gene's christmas gift!

still lots to go. gonna be a busy week!

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on a side note - I'm in awe of the traffic my little site has gotten since The Pioneer Woman put a link to my book signing story on her blog Sunday...My stat counter said there were over 432 pageloads on Sunday...Wow...welcome! :)

seriously...

ok when you pay crazy amounts of money for what are supposed to be invites for graduation and then you open them and see this....



color me annoyed.

eek...

seriously - the stress ball time is happening right now!!! a) I'm too much of a procrastinator...2) I am super behind in things I'm not even procrastinating on...d) we are 15 days till christmas & 10 days till my college graduation! Eeeeek!

:::things i have to do::::

• design & mail graduation invitations {{seriously why am I having a hard time doing these???}}
• haircut/hi-lights {{can you say roots?}}
• dogs vet {{hey why are they getting pedi's and not me??}}
  
• mail out our almost 200 christmas cards {{oh yeah & address/label/stuff as well}}
• finish upstairs bathroom before said graduation {{eek - gene}}
• try and put a floor in downstairs bathroom before said graduation {{am I a glutton for punishment??}}
• get pregnant {{is anyone even reading this??}}
  
• hopefully get our whole downstairs flooring ordered/installed also before graduation {{um can you say pipe dream?}}
• house cleaned before company that is coming for graduation & christmas
• still buy father-in-laws gift
• still buy gene's gift
• figure out gifts for my family {{which will not meet till new years}}
• finish corrections for a website I'm designing so we can get our flooring {{double eek}}
• get a website live for our plumber so we can get our plumbing done {{website before end of year -- plumbing won't be done till after the new year}}
• logo designed for my friend's new business
• wrap all gifts
• schedule/plan for my sister's visit
• see my aunt when she's actually in texas visiting!!! {{cannot miss out on that!}}
• and now work has gotten busy so lets add even more stress {{triple eek}}
  

I'm quite sure I've missed something - I'm too tired to think.

O Tannenbaum...

I love our tree...last year we had to break down and buy a new tree after our old hand-me-down tree kept falling and breaking ornaments...usually my ornaments...my favorite ornaments. I digress. We bought a pre-lit tree from Home Depot which I cannot say how happy I was to put it up. Gene brought down all the old lights and I'm like - nope - don't want those. The tree is in 3 pieces and took me maybe 15 minutes to put up and spread out the branches. Easy as pie.

Oh yes...that's a stuffed reindeer on top of our tree. lol - my favorite thing to put on top of our tree is an angel - gene's is a star. This year I decided not to pull either out (since I lost the power cord to my angel) and saw the stuffed reindeer and put him up there! I like it...it's quirky.

Here are some of my favorite ornaments...

{from pier 1 - one I had to repurchase after our old tree broke it}

{what tree is complete without coffee???}

{reindeer from crate & barrel}

{love my gumdrop ornament...got it at a cute little shop by my house}

{these are my absolute favorite...we have only 3-4 ornaments in tact that Gene's mom made...these are 2 of them.}

{fun snowflake looking one from a shop in Navasota}

{from pier 1 - I guess you can tell I like snowmen!!}

{from pier 1 - another snowman}

{from pier 1 - simple elegance}

I'll share the rest of my fun decorations with you soon...I {heart} christmas!!

gifts galore...

{love this Tiny Terrarium ring though the shop is all sold out!}

I {love} buying christmas gifts for people - below are some of my favorite things I would love to give {or receive}.

for the gadget geek - Apple TV - great way to watch/listen to all of your iTunes downloads...It's a great way to store your library as well! Can't wait to get one and try it out! ...$299
for the bookworm/dog lover - Dachshund Bookends - Seriously - how cute are these? Great way to display your books with a little style! ...$39.99

for the glam girl/fashionista - Michael Kors Darcie Booties - So cute & sassy with the exposed zippers which are HUGE right now! ...$195

for the jewelry loving person - By Grace Alone Necklace - Love this! So elegant and classical! ...$42
for the graphic designer/artist - Pantone Colored Pepper Grinders - talk about a way to spice up your kitchen! A pantone color chip combined with a pepper mill...so cool! ...$29.99

for the home decorator/unique gift loving person - Royal Animal Candles - So unique, yet cool. I think this adds a little bit of quirkiness in an unusual way! ...$19.95 each

{i love christmas!!!}

boxers or briefs...

I laughed hard when someone actually asked The Pioneer Woman whether or not Marlboro man wears 'boxers or briefs'...and funnily she answered!! Saturday my friend Ashley and I went to the book signing for Ree Drummond's new cookbook - and yowzah there were a TON of people there! I thankfully got our book signing tickets on Thursday, but we were still in the 8th -- yep you heard me 8th -- color group to get in line!!!

We hung out there for a little while where we met Jana and her BEAUTIFUL little girl. Seriously, I'm like Ree - they should NOT be able to bring babies to the signing...my ovaries were screaming!

We hung out at Georgia's for a little while, but decided that after an hour and only TWO color groups being called that we would go and do something else and come back since it was taking around 30 minutes PER group to go!

So we ran to Memorial City Mall to Macy's to pick up some stuff for Ashley since she had an event that night...well they were having a sale at Macy's for 25% off anything so we, of course, looked at shoes...ah shoes. I found {of course} a pair of Michael Kors shoes that were marked 50% off of $99 {normally they are $140} so 25% off of the $49.50 was a deal TOO good to pass up! Ashley snagged a pair too! Love SALES!!!

We headed back to the book signing and there were still 4 more colors to go before ours...which meant at least 1 1/2 hours...we headed back to my house since Ashley {sadly} had another event she had to be at by 6 pm. She unfortunately wasn't able to go back to the book signing with me...however she DID get to experience a Wii!! {that was at least a plus}

So empty by this late in the game!!

I took her book with me and got it signed for her. I wish she could have met Ree too. But I told Ree about her and she actually inscribed "Missed you" in her book which was cute! And she loved that her cat had actually chewed on the book...lol
I got my picture with Ree which was pretty awesome! She was super sweet and very personable which was so surprising after she had been signing books for over 5 1/2 hours at this point and NO end in site!

I cannot wait to make EVERY recipe in her amazing cookbook.

oh yeah her answer was - 'boxers, if anything at all' :) Ree cracks me up!!