Just Popping in to Say...

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!!!

Enjoy your holiday!!

Twenty-Three...

I just celebrated my birthday, and thought I would share some pics!

I actually spent most of the day Christmas shopping, because I was woefully behind due to finals (which are O-V-E-R!!!).

This year (like every year before it since I was old enough to shop for others) I have vowed to never put off my shopping until the last minute. I say this every year, but I know perfectly well that next year will be exactly the same, if not worse (since I will *hopefully* be attending a new school at a higher level).

Later that night I met up with family (my grandma & grandpa are also in town) & we went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant. Then we walked around a lit-up garden/nursery (which I blogged about here).

After dinner, we went and enjoyed a family favorite, the "strawberry jello cake". (A cake made by mixing jello pudding mix into the cake batter, yum yum). My mom puts a very delicious twist on it, and it has become a birthday staple in our family!

Santa, Baby...

Today we went to a little holiday party that my mom has each year for the dog club that we belong to. We have a lot of fun taking our dogs to play and socialize, and have met some awesome people there.

AAAAnnnnd, if this particular Santa looks vaguely familiar...

It's because it's none other than my hubby in there!

The lady who was hosting the party asked Russ if he would dress up as Santa.... OMG, I was just dying over it. And since I'm a Harry Potter nerd myself, I have to comment that he looked a tad like a white-bearded Hagrid, don't you think?

Russ was such a good sport about it, it was a lot of fun.


Also a strange sight - my hair in a ponytail. I really don't like having my hair pulled back, but as finals approach and deadlines draw near (ONE....ESSAY...LEFT!) I find this happening much more often. I guess I'm turning into a true college student.

Elf Yourself!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

In which I again apologize...

For being a terrible blogger.



Next week is finals, and I'll be pretty busy for the time being. Then I will have plenty of free time, YAY.... at least until next semester starts. I am hoping that next semester will be my last before I transfer, if all goes as planned.

To give a small update, I have simply been studying, doing homework, hunting rocks (for my Earth Science Lab project). That Earth Science Lab class is my most difficult class this semester... and it is worth ONE UNIT, yet it's required so the measly one unit must be suffered.

It also snowed here on Monday, which is a very very rare occurrence where I live. It does get quite cold here, but it doesn't usually snow. I think I've seen it snow here twice in my life now, and the first time I saw it snow it didn't even settle on the ground before melting.

Hope everyone is staying warm and dry in these early winter/technically late fall days!

Wonderfully Wordless

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving. Enjoy your time with family and/or friends... and remember the many things that we all need to be so very thankful for.

And of course, enjoy your turkey!!!

God Bless!

New Moon...

We went to go see New Moon yesterday, and really enjoyed it! Like most people are saying, it is pretty apparent that this movie was made with a larger budget than the first movie, the effects were just amazing.



Also, obviously apparent was Taylor's (Jacob's) hard work getting in physical shape for the movie... WOW... just wow...I was pleased with the actors too... I can't believe I'm saying this... but I think even Kristen Stewart did a better job in this movie (at least compared with the first movie). Her odd screaming fits kinda weirded me out though... and even Russ asked me what she was doing... I think they were supposed to be nightmares? I don't know. That could have been left out, IMO.

Overall, we really enjoyed it! More humor in this one, and more going on. And the next one is only seven months away, crazy!

Apple Hill

I think I have mentioned before that we love to go to Apple Hill in the fall. It's basically just a huge bunch of orchards (not just apples, though that's the main product there) on a beautiful... well... hill.

Apple products (cider, pies, apple donuts, apple butter, apple wine... etc etc...) are sold there. We scooped up some apple butter and our favorite apple donuts. It's also fun to go pick your own apples at some of the orchards too!

Here are a few pictures from our trip this year!



Above: home of one of the angriest German ladies I've ever encountered. Delicious food... though the secret ingredient is resentment... especially if you don't pay with cash.

Veterans Day...

Just a quick entry to say Happy Veterans Day to all of those who have and are serving our country! Thank you for your service!

A special thanks to my sweetie, who served in Iraq for most of 2005! Thank you, love!!

Above: A great pic Russ sent me in Iraq



Above: A beautiful homecoming in 2005, unfortunately it's a really small pic :( but you get the idea

On Saturday morning, Russ received a phone call from his dad, letting us know that Russ' grandmother passed away the night before...

I was so very sad to hear this... I only had the opportunity to meet Russ' grandmother once (she lived in New York). I really enjoyed the time that we spent there, his entire family was welcoming, and his grandma was just as sweet as could be.

She was also Russ' only living grandmother, so my heart just aches for Russ. I know how hard it is to lose grandparents (both of my father's parents also passed away from cancer). I know the feelings of regret and sadness over not spending more time, or making more phone calls to our loved one that eventually passes.

So everyone, give someone you love an extra hug today, or give them a call to remind them how much you love them. No doubt, they most likely already know (as I'm sure Russ' Grandma certainly did), but who on earth doesn't love being told "I love you"?

Frustrated...

*Warning, total rant ahead*

As I think I've mentioned before, Hubby and I currently rent our house. We decided to move to a house about a year and a half ago, back when I was still working and not in school. Clearly, we had quite a bit more money then.

Lately we've really been feeling the crunch at the the end of the month when our rent is due, and every month I regret that it's another month that we are paying someone else's mortgage rather than our own. Really, it's pretty ridiculous.

My husband is a veteran, and there is a home loan program that we hope to get approved for. Long story short, it would probably be a few hundred dollars cheaper a month for us to buy a little starter home.

To make matters worse, we lived here for about a year and a few months with a vacant house to our left, and an older couple to our right (who were as wonderful as could be). Now, we have two families on each side, which is wonderful, but these newer suburban houses are almost literally stacked on top of each other, and sometimes it's just loud.

And then the new neighbors that moved into the vacant house... well, frankly I don't know what's wrong with this guy. I think you guys probably know that I'm a bit of a nature lover, so you can imagine my heartbreak when he cut all the branches off of his lovely tree in the front yard (he was upset that it was dropping stuff on his car - insert eye roll). I was upset, but I knew the branches would grow back, and well, it isn't my front yard (though the tree is about a foot away from mine).

But one day when I woke up and came into my living room, I felt like something was missing from the room. When I realized what it was, I was so sad.

I mentioned before that our houses are VERY close together, well, we had this lovely vine covering our fence right outside our sliding glass doors (the only windows in the house with something pretty outside of it). The lovely vine, that flowered every so often and smelled so lovely, and provided some privacy from the house next door was gone. He had removed it, and now all I see when I look out the door is my fence, and through the fence, my neighbor's backyard, which means they can now see inside my house just as easily. Needless to say, my blinds are now shut.

Sorry for the long rant you guys (and I very well may delete this later). It has just been super frustrating and need to get it all out. Part of me knows I'm being completely ridiculous, but I guess I'm just ready for a *cheaper* place to call our own.

Wonderfully Wordless

Happy Halloweenie!!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Here are some pictures of our pumpkin carving... I'll update this later with pictures of them lit, but we don't have the right size candles right now.

Russ made a puking pumpkin... and mine is an owl :). Well... at least I tried to make an owl (using Martha Stewart's example). He looks a bit like a Furby though.





And here's a little video clip that I took the other night when we brought home the pumpkins. I think I've mentioned before that Delilah is pretty mellow and quiet (Thank God.) and she doesn't bark often....

But when she sees pumpkins, she just goes crazy. We think it's hilarious... but we're pretty easily amused ;)