New Year, Almost

Since this is my first post after Christmas, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Ours flew by pretty quick with Andrew working a lot of overtime.

 

I know it isn't quite the New Year yet, but I have to work tomorrow so today is my chance to post this. I'm not really a huge New Years Resolution person, mostly because I know I wont carry them out. I know, that is kind of a lame excuse, but I don't really enjoy setting myself up for failure if I can help it. While doing some reflection the past couple of weeks, I have come to a few conclusions about what I want to do in the new year. So, rather than making a bunch of small goals, I am going to use one rule of thumb for the year: does it make me happy (queue Sheryl Crow song here)? Now, before you all jump my case about that being a really selfish goal, let me explain.

 

I am a huge people pleaser, and I know I'm not the only one with this problem. Being a people pleaser isn't necessarily a bad thing, except when you are constantly compromising your own happiness for that of others. This is what I have learned after 15 plus year of therapy, and I don’t want to know how much money. I have gotten better at sticking up for myself over the years, and saying no when I would normally say yes because I didn't want to let someone down. But, I still struggle with a lot of the large decisions in life, and you would think those would be the easier ones.

 

One of my biggest motivators for this seemingly selfish goals is at some point in the next couple of years, we are likely going to look at starting a family (aside from the two children we already have, Buddy and Maya). Being a parent is the most selfless job in the world. So, while I can, I am going to take some final "me time".

 

In order to really start this hard look at the things in my life that do and don't make me happy, I decided to take inventory.

 

Things that make me happy:

 

My family: I love them all to death. This includes my immediate and extended family, my husband and my four legged children.

 

Coffee: yes, boys and girls, coffee is on this list because it makes me happy. When I can sit down with my coffee in a quiet room, that is Zen time for me.

 

Travel: I LOVE to travel, unfortunately money precludes me from doing it as often as I would like. Andrew and I both love to travel, so we try and make it a point of going on one big trip a year. The other day I announced to him that among the small things I want to do before we have a baby, I want to go to Paris.

 

Reading: Now, this is a hard one for me because it is something I haven't done in a long time. I was excited to graduate college so I could finally read what I wanted, but that didn't happen. In fact, I think I have now been on an almost three year reading hiatus. I can't tell you the last book I finished. Sad, I know.

 

*This is by no means an exhaustive list of things that make me happy, but it gives you a general idea.

 

Now for the tough stuff, and this made for some tough decisions.

 

As you have followed along with throughout the summer, Andrew and I have been on the go working on weddings across the state. It makes for some fun times, early mornings and late nights. It is really hard to explain everything that goes into these weddings, loading and unloading a trailer, leaving town at 5:00 AM to return home at 2:00 AM the following day, hauling furniture including sofas and hutches in and out of rooms, setting tables and chairs, etc. While it is rewarding to see the brides and grooms happy when they see everything come together, it makes for some really long days. Working full time, and being on the go all weekend took its toll on me. There were Monday's I had to take time off to simply sleep. Living of less than 10 hours of sleep in 72 hours doesn't cut it for me. At the start of this adventure, I was excited to work with flowers again. Flowers are one of my passions. However, it grew into so much more than just working with flowers. I literally felt like I gave up my whole summer. We were around most of July, but it was too hot to do much of anything. So while this decision is probably going to mean some hurt feelings, I think it is time for Andrew and I to step away from this adventure. In the end, the sacrifice outweighs the reward.

 

I need more time to be with family, work in the yard, work on the house, enjoy life! I want to take more walks with the dogs, take more day trips, and actually complete a few of the projects we want to. This next year, I want to actually finish a book, take a vacation with the dogs, get the house organized, get more work done in the yard, eat more ice cream, actually work out on a regular basis, have more picnics, and grill out more. What are your resolutions?

 

4 Days Til Christmas...

Christmas time in our house means baking up a storm and Andrew spending a lot of time at work.  "Peak Season" can sometimes be the phrase of death in our house.  Once Thanksgiving hits, I always joke with Andrew that I will see him again after Christmas.  It really isn't terrible, it just makes for a few long nights.  As you can imagine at UPS this time of year, things get a little bit crazy.  Christmas time means more boxes to ship, and thanks to the increase in online shopping things get a little crazier every year.  I think they saw a pretty big jump in volume this year from the Cyber Monday sales.  Although, this year it seemed like not only was there Cyber Monday, there were also a lot of Black Friday deals online.  Why not shop from the comfort of your home at 9:00 on Thanksgiving night rather than stand outside freezing your butt off with hundreds of other lunatics.  I use that word with the utmost affection as Andrew and I have been out there the past couple of years. 

Last year, we stood in the checkout line at Best Buy for over two hours just to buy the Harry Potter boxed Blue Ray set.  Yes, two hours, you read that right.  But, I love that set and it was worth every minute.  After we made our purchases at Best Buy, we headed over the Kohls to score a few deals there as well.  It took us ten minutes to find what we wanted and at least an hour of standing in line.  I remember being a Target and Best Buy the year before that, but for the life of me can't remember what was so important I had to get up at 3:00 AM for.  I think that might be a bad sign that it probably wasn't worth it. 

In case you have been living under a rock the last week, it snowed... A LOT.  I think we got 13 inches of snow in town.  We lost a few rather large branches in the yard, but we count ourselves lucky since a few of our neighbors lost half of their trees.  None of our branches landed on the house or caused any damage.  Although, the large branch that feel in front of the house landed where Andrew usually parks his car, so it was a good thing he parked in the driveway that night.  Someone was watching out for us on that one.  There were a lot of people that lost power, and we also consider ourselves lucky to only have lost power for a short time overnight on Wednesday night.

This was Maya's first snow, and she loved it!  She wasn't sure what to think at first, but before long she was running around like a crazy woman in it.  She was batting at chunks of snow and burying her nose it it.  Of course, she also enjoys eating the snow.  Buddy can't get in and out fast enough, we think the cold is probably a lot for his old man bones. 

Those branches don't normally touch the deck

 

Buddy and Maya armed for the cold! 

Being snowed in meant time for me to spend baking.  Really I was planning to bake anyway, the snow was just a good excuse to not go anywhere.  I knocked out two batches of sugar cookies, sour cream chocolate chip cookies, cookies and cream fudge, Oreo balls, and peppermint brownies.  Andrew had a potluck at work today, so he also made a White Chocolate torte.  Andrew and I both took some treats to work to share.  We certainly don't need them sitting around the house!   


Today, I learned a valuable lesson.  For every time I may grumble about having a car payment again, I love my Rogue and I love sitting higher off the ground and having all wheel drive.  If the city considers what they have done plowing, I'm a little concerned.  But, I had minimal issues getting around thanks to my new set of wheels! 

Finally, An Update

I know my updates lately have been limited, but I have been working on something that I couldn't share until now.  Yesterday, my mom graduated with her Masters in Public Administration.  I am so proud of her!  I have been working on a surprise party for her.  Obviously I couldn't share any of the planning details until now since it was a surprise.  We tried to keep it a total surprise, but by last week she knew something was going on.  I think she was still surprised when guests started to arrive.  Thank you to everyone that came out and helped us celebrate. 

 

Way to go Mom! 

 

Our spread of food. I realized while looking through these photos that this is the only one I took of the party which is a bummer because I had some awesome arrangements that I wanted to take photos of.  The arrangements have since be re-homed in my living room.  It smells amazing in here from all the Christmas greens I used.  Here are a few photos of the flowers now. 

 

 

We had some orchids from the wedding we did last weekend, so of course I used those.  These babies are normally about $2/stem so anytime I can get my hands on them I use them.  Have I mentioned my love of calla lilies?  We had the mini calla lilies at our wedding.  I love the large ones, they look so amazing.  The last arrangement is white roses and evergreen, which I also love.  Sometimes the fewer flowers the better. 

 

We kept the food pretty simple.  I made some cocktail meatballs in the crock pot, which disappeared pretty quickly.  They are super easy to make. 2/3 C. bbq sauce 12 oz. apricot preserves and we used two smaller bags of frozen meatballs.  Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 2-3 hours.  We also had some cheese and crackers.  I used Cracker Barrel cheese, which was pretty darn good.  We also had some hot appetizers from Trader Joe's.  I have to be honest, I have shopped in the store before, but I think the only things we have bought there are some wine and maybe some cheese.  The appetizers were pretty good and also disappeared pretty quickly. 

 

I made the same super easy punch I made a couple of weeks ago at the Jewel Kade party I hosted at the house. 

Cranberry Champagne Punch

 

2 bottles of champagne, chilled

(you don't have to go expensive on this because it all kind of blends together)

1 bottle white wine, chilled

1 ltr bottle club soda, chilled

1 can frozen pink lemonade

1 can frozen cranberry cocktail/cranberry blend

1 can frozen limeade (you start with about 1/2 of the can and add to taste)

 

Mix everything up in a punch bowl and you have a nice adult beverage!

 

UPDATE:

 

I almost forgot about the desserts, how could I they were the best part!  We had some yummy desserts, cheesecake bites, mini red velvet cupcakes and tiramisu all made by a family friend that does an amazing job.  He makes Andrew's birthday cheesecake each year and did an amazing one for Andrew's "grooms cake" at our wedding.   

 

 

I think things will calm down a little now.  Of course we have Christmas right around the corner and once UPS and Fedex come to my door, I will have all my shopping done.  I need to get some baking done, so I should probably get on that too.  Christmas has kind of creeped up on me this year.  Anyone else feel that way.  I had a lot of good intentions going into the Christmas season.  I was going to get a photo done of the Andrew and I with the pups in front of the house to send for our Christmas cards, but that hasn't happened.  That is the only thing I can think of right now, but I know there are other things I wanted to get done.  Maybe once Christmas is over I can get started on my winter project list.  Andrew has some projects he will be working on too.  He is going to make some steps for the dogs to get on the bed so they aren't jumping on and off.  Maya I don't worry about so much, but that is a lot of stress on Buddy's old joints.  We need to keep our puppies healthy and injury free. 

 

I will try to do a better job keeping up with things on here, I don't know where the last month has gone. 

 

 

 

Long Time No See

Once again, I'm slacking on the posting.  There for a while, I had a lot of stuff to post about.  When we were doing work outside this summer, it seemed like every week there was something new.  There was always wedding stuff to post about this summer.  We are coming up on our last wedding this weekend and then we are done until the spring.  Winter just seems to be the general slow time for wedding season.  Andrew wanted a winter wedding, but with the Midwest weather being so insane and unpredictable, I couldn't commit to that.  Of course, with the winter we had last year I think we would have been fine.  Oh well! 

Last week I hosted a jewelry party at my house, so I spent most of the week getting ready for that.  Thank you to all those that came, I enjoyed seeing you all!  After the party, I really had no motivation to do anything house related.  My lack of motivation seems to have carried into this week as well.  I get home at night from work and I am dead tired and all I want to do is sit on my rear and watch TV.  I know many of you can relate.  Just when I think I can do just that, sit down and do nothing, I remember there is dinner to cook and dogs to feed and laundry to do and bills to pay....

For those that don't know, Andrew and I work split shifts.  Sometimes I find it difficult to deal with him not being home at night, but it does have its perks.  For example, if I leave a load of laundry or two out, he will do them for me.  If I had a crock pot recipe I want to get going, he will start it for me.  He takes care of the dogs and keeps them company.  Today, he cleaned up the kitchen for me.  Don't you wish you could come home and find the laundry fairy came to visit? 

A few of you have asked me how Maya is doing and how Maya and Buddy are getting along.  As of yesterday, Maya is six months old!  You can totally tell she is still a puppy too.  She and Buddy are getting along quite well.  They love to chase each other around the house and around the yard.  Buddy can keep up with Maya when he wants to, but most times he is content to outsmart her and run the opposite direction to meet her.  Last month, Maya was spayed.  She was such a good girl and didn't like at her stitches, so we didn't have to put the lovely e collar on her.  No cone days for Maya!  The same day, she also had one of her last baby teeth removed to make room for her adult teeth to come in, and she was micro chipped.  She did great with the surgery and has made a full recovery, with the exception of the hair they had to shave.  She still looks a little odd with some of the hair on her belly shaved off. 

The ongoing issue we have had with Maya are her ears.  When we first got her and had her checked out, she had a pretty bad yeast infection in both ears.  We have since been able to get rid of the infection in her left ear, but she still has a mild case in the right year.  For Beagles, ear care is a pretty big deal.  Their adorable floppy ears are prone to infections.  Our first course of action was a medicated drop/spray a couple of times per day.  Maya got pretty good at sitting still and letting us put it in her ears.  When that didn't clear things up in the right ear, we added a medicated rinse.  We were doing the rinse a couple of times per day and the other drop once per day.  It was quite the routine.  I think we finally have things cleared up now; she doesn't seem to be scratching like she used to.  She does really well when we mess with her ears and just goes on about her business when we are done.  Buddy, on the other hand, hates when we go anywhere near his ears.  We try to clean his out with a general rinse every couple of weeks.  When we do that, it is followed by a couple hours of him going back and forth across the living room rubbing his ear on the floor.  You would think we were torturing him, poor duder.  We can't help but laugh when he does it because it is just so insane and Maya just stands there and looks at him like "what is your problem, dude".  

Our doggies keep us on our toes, but we wouldn't trade them for the world.  When Andrew calls me at night to let me know he is headed home from work, they are waiting by the door for him when he comes home.  Maya loves to share her kisses with him and Buddy will take all the tummy rubs he can get.  They are pretty amazing.  Sometimes, they make me want to pull my hair out though.  There was the night I came home and found poop on the living room floor (courtesy of Buddy) and Maya's food container tipped over with food pouring out.  No telling how much of Maya's food Buddy actually ate, but he was a little messed up in the tummy for a few days.  I think he learned his lesson, because he has left her food alone since.  There was the morning that I was drying my hair and came out to find a piece of aluminum foil shredded to bits all over my freshly vacuumed floor, that was courtesy of Maya.  There are of course the million toys they have destroyed.  There is the fact that I can't eat a meal without them staring at me like I am their last meal, or the fact that they are right at my feet when I'm in the kitchen.  Our lives have certainly changed with two dogs in them.  So, for those of you wondering when we are going to get  arond to having kids, as you have read we already have two. Until Maya is a little older, I don't think I could handle adding two more feet to the eight I already have chasing me around at night. 

What would we do without our pets!