Fa La La La Laaa My Favorite Songs

How’d you like that title?? Ha ha, damn am I creative!  The way this post is starting you should probably run now, it can only get worse from here. Ha ha!

I thought I’d share with you my favorite Christmas CD’s and songs today.  Every year but this year I am a Christmas music FREAK!  This year the baby makes me not like anything so I could care less about listening to any kind of music.  But in other years these are my most favorite Christmas albums.

First up, Carpenters Christmas.  I have listened to this album since I had it dubbed onto a tape from my uncle. No lie.  LOVE this CD.  It’s not Christmas until I’ve heard Karen belting it out.

I bought ‘Glee, The Christmas Album’ about 2 years ago.  It’s upbeat and different songs than most other collections.  And now I see they have volume’s 2 and 3, need to update my collection!

And this one, Josh Groban.  His geeky hotness gets my motor running.  Plus this album is just amazing.  I absolutely love it!

There are a couple of songs I look forward to listening to every year.  2 of them Andrew and I make fun of (in a good way) and the third one just cracks me up.  Take a listen!

First off, The Boss.  We love the Boss, so no nasty grams please!  Just cracks us up when he’s belting out “Too-oo TOOOWN”.  Seriously folks, it’s the little things that make us laugh and have a good time.

Carol of the Bells, one of my favs!  But this version?? Hilarious!  The guitar solo at the end gets really ramped up and my husband does an amazing air guitar to it.

And this one by Adam Sandler is just a great funny song!  A classic!

There you have it, my Christmas music favorites. 

Tomorrow is December 1st, that means 24 shopping days left!  How are you coming along on that?

Have a great weekend!

Erin

More Decorating

Somebody pinch me, is it seriously Thursday AND the end of November??  Time is flying on by!  Yesterday I finally got a little creative mojo flowing and worked on some more decorating.  I apologize for the cruddy photos, but you can get the gist.  Oh, and don’t mind the wood floor on the wall above the mantel (why is all I have to say to whoever did that).

I found the Merry Christmas sign at Jo-Ann’s Fabric this weekend and got a heck of a deal on it.  The ornaments hanging on the greenery are from my dear, sweet Grandma. They are antiques and I just adore them!  I pray they never get broken, I’ll cry for days if they ever do!

Somehow I’ve ended up with a  ‘country Christmas’ theme in the house this year, which I love.  I have burlap in a few different places and would have used it on the greenery in front of the TV (below) but ran out so I used some Deco Mesh that I had leftover in my craft closet.  Have you used Deco Mesh yet?? It is so easy to use!  I just love the stuff.  But I wish I had some red, it would have really spruced up the TV area.

OMG, I just read what artist was on the TV when I took that picture --  HANSON!!!  How do you like that, Miss Holly?  Ha ha!

So I have a little more sprucing up to do around here, will hopefully get to the store today to grab another greenery garland (I’m totally loving that stuff this year!) and then I can finish up around here.  It’s dragging on a lot longer than I want it to!

Oh, and a confession.  I didn’t get Melanie’s workout done yesterday.  No excuse, just laziness.  The good news is I’m not nearly as tired as I was a week ago, I think that part of the pregnancy is going away (yay!).  So hopefully I can get moving TODAY!

Have a great, wonderful, fantabulous day – especially if you are the winner of the ginormous Power Ball kitty!

Erin

‘Dynamite’ Shopping

Hello!  How was your Tuesday?  I had a great day shopping with my husband.  We laughed and laughed and laughed some more.  We always have so much fun together, the man is so much fun to be with!  Plus he’s cute, that never hurts!  Here’s a picture of us driving down the road. Ignore my 4 chins, I have a problem when taking a picture of pulling my head back, thus giving me an abnormal amount of chins. 

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Sunday night when we opened the fireplace to light it we found a surprise in there.  Our Elf On The Shelf “Dynamite” dropped a letter with some candy canes attached to it down our chimney for the boys!  They were so excited to hear from him, they have been asking multiple times a day about when Dynamite will show up.  So this letter came at a perfect time and it told them he’d come in December (I can only come up with so many hiding places, folks, the fewer days he’s here the better!).  Here’s the letter (my dad wrote it, doesn’t he have neat handwriting?):

Last year I stuffed Dynamite in a box of decorations for safe keeping knowing the boys wouldn’t get into that storage closet during the year.  Luckily I remembered this before getting the totes out or we would have had some “splaining to do”.  Ugh, what a nightmare that would have been!  So I ran downstairs to sneak him out then thought ‘where can I hide him now?’  Here’s what I came up with:

He’s in my canner, looks like I kidnapped him, tied him up and threw him in a dark hole to die.  Poor Dynamite!  But the kids won’t look in there so we’re safe until Saturday!  Stayed tuned for pictures of where we find Dynamite throughout the month of December.  Hopefully it’ll give you some ideas for where to hide your elf.

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So I didn’t mention above that Andy and I finished up our shopping yesterday!  Yep, all done!  This is typical of me, I am an early shopper.  Now on to wrapping all those presents!  I hate having a decorated tree without presents under it!  It just looks bare and sad, which is partly why I take my tree down the day after Christmas. It just can’t stand to see it so sad. Today my goal is to clean this hell-hole of a house (seriously, how does it get so messy so fast?!?) and to wrap at least 4 gifts.  Oh, and to start a pregnancy exercise routine.  I’m going to use the Amazing Mel’s arm workout and make up some leg exercises, plus throw in some walking.  Send good vibes my way, I need all the exercise mojo I can get!  I want to be a healthy, sort of in shape pregnant gal.  Hopefully the weight loss journey on the other end of these 40 weeks won’t be as hard that way. 

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One more thing, my friends Holly and Erin are hosting a linkup tomorrow about celebrity sightings.  Since I have never had one of those I won’t be joining in the fun (boo hoo!) but thought you all might have and will want to join in.  Or maybe you just want to read about others’ celebrity sightings.  So here’s their awesome button, click on it and join in tomorrow!

Have a happy day, Friends!

Erin

It’s Kind Of Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas…

First I want to thank everyone for their congratulations and well wishes on my big news (if you missed it Friday you can read about it HERE)!  You’re all too sweet!

At our house we always get the Christmas decorations out the day after Thanksgiving.  So why be different this year?  Andy pulled all of the totes out of the basement for me and set them in our front room that we don’t do anything in.  And there they sat.  And sat.  And sat.  I just couldn’t find my Christmas decorating mojo!  I finally unwrapped all of my Santa’s and set them in a row.  And there they sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Finally Andy got home from the game so we set the tree up.  Actually, they set the tree up, I directed.  I was just not into it!  I couldn’t get a good picture, poor lighting, so will try again tonight so you can get a full shot. But here is the handy work and clustering of ornaments the boys did.  

The one ornament isn’t even hanging, it’s just laying sideways on the branch.  Sigh.  But since I didn’t help who am I to complain?

I finally mustered up enough energy to put up my dear, sweet Grandma’s tree in our front room.  This tree is ANCIENT.  Definitely an antique.  We used to laugh about how you could carry on a conversation with someone sitting on the other side of it because you can see right through it.  She gave it to me when we got married because ‘she was done with it’.  She was so darn cute.  Anyway, I decided to do it up like we used to when decorating it for her.  So here it is, in all it’s ugliness glory.

And the picture of how ‘see through’ it really is!  Ha ha!

So on Sunday a tiny bit of creativity struck and I finally did this.

It’s not too great, but it’s festive and I do love white lights wrapped in greenery.  And you can see 2 of my Santa’s. 

When I get my mantle and the rest of the house done I’ll get some pics of that and show them to you.

Going on a Christmas shopping date with my amazing husband tomorrow so you won’t hear from me again until Wednesday.  Have a good couple of days!

Erin

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

Good morning!  First off, how was your Thanksgiving? We had 2 great meals with both of our families, one left on Sunday.  I can’t get enough of the good food! Or the pumpkin pie! Ha!

So how many of you are crazy enough to brave the Black Friday crowds?  My sister went to Wal-Mart last night, they started having deals at 8:00.  She was there around 7:30, said she’d never seen the parking lot so full before!  And she said it was nuts inside, people grabbing armfuls of everything, then going through it and picking out what they wanted, leaving the rest where ever they could find a spot to dump it.  Rude people, at least have the courtesy to put it back so someone else can look through your leftovers!  I digress.  I am NOT a Black Friday shopper, I don’t have the patience.  My mom, sister and I always go the Saturday after Txgiving, not the deals but most times we’re not shopping for anything that is a deal anyway.  So that’s my plan for tomorrow, shopping!

Ok, enough blabbing, on to my BIG news!  Have you noticed I haven’t been posting about working out in the past month or two?  Well, that’s because…we’re going to have a baby!  Yep, you heard it right, I’m pregnant!  Baby #3 is due June 27.  This one is a little different than my boys, I had about 2 weeks of feeling erpy. Never got sick, just felt cruddy a lot.  And it was all day long, and especially after I ate.  Luckily that’s gone away, now I’m just hungry ALL.THE.TIME!  I can’t eat a lot in one sitting, but an hour later I’m famished again!  I’m super duper tired, more so than with the boys.  But that could be because I have 2 boys to keep up with now.  Or it’s because I’m not working like before so I allow myself to feel just how tired I really am.  Who knows.

So aside from that I’m feeling great.  We told the boys on Wednesday so they could share the news at my folk’s house that night.  They are very excited.  Aiden is so sweet, yesterday he asked me ‘How are you feeling with the baby?’  Now instead of exercise updates I’ll be giving baby updates.  I’m 9 weeks along, have a long journey ahead of me still. 

I hope you had a wonderful holiday and have today off to goof off, shop or put up your Christmas decorations.  I had Andy bring all of my totes up from the basement last night so I will be working on decorating today while he’s freezing his buttukus off at the Iowa vs. Nebraska game – GO HAWKS!!!  Yesterday it was in the 60’s, today mid 30’s and SUPER windy.  Brrr!  Suckers! Glad I’m not there! Ha ha!

Happy day to you all!

Erin

Lookie Lookie!!!

Guess what was in my mailbox yesterday!!!

BIRCHBOX!!!  This is my very first Birchbox delivery and I am SO! EX! CITED!!!  Here’s what came in my box:

(Isn’t it purty??)

Starting at the top left: Color Club nail polish (Put a Pin In It shade), Twistband hair band (both came in the purple box), Shea Terra Organics Whipped Shea Butter Body Crème (banana scent, not as bad as it sounds), ModelCo Fibre LashXTend Mascara, Oscar Blandi Pronto Texture & Volume Spray, and John Artisan cologne sample (for my man).  That cologne smells heavenly, BTW. 

Yay, yay, yay!!!  I couldn’t be more thrilled with my first box!  I’m already looking forward to next month’s box! 

Do you get Birchbox?  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a $10/month subscription where they send you samples of awesome products.  I was on a waiting list for about a month before I finally got word I was ‘accepted’ (they had room for me).  Then Hurricane Sandy came through and their shipping was delayed so it’s a little late this month (they mail them on the 15th of every month I think).  So here it is! 

In other news, thank you SO much to all who participated in the Turkey Trot Linkup.  I had so much fun reading all the posts and watching all the vlogs!  And I am SHOCKED at how many of you don’t actually watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!!!  I’m glad so many of you enjoy Pickle Wraps on Tgiving, they are at the top of my Yummy List. Mac and Cheese as a traditional dish?? That would be considered non-traditional in my house (and most of the Midwest I think).  Lots of Pumpkin Pie lovers (you have my heart!) and so many people who travel!  I am SO thankful this year that we live close to family again and do not have that hour long drive ahead of us this afternoon.

Speaking of this afternoon, Aiden has a Thanksgiving program and feast that Bren and I are attending.  I am pretty excited for it, they are singing ‘Over The River and Through The Woods,’ one of my favorites!  And we are sampling food they made (eek!).  Then around 4 we will head out to my folks’ house for Tgiving supper.  I can’t wait!  I have a pumpkin pie and a casserole to make this afternoon, too.  Busy, wonderful day!

I will be taking tomorrow off from posting (for obvious reasons) but please come back Friday, I have a BIG announcement!!!  And welcome to my new followers, leave a comment, a question or a funny joke or story for me!

Lots of love to you all and I wish you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Erin

Turkey Trot Linkup Part 2

What a morning this has been already!  Ugh! I hate technology.  Ok, I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t like me.  So it’s taken me much longer than it should have to get this up, so I’m putting it in a separate post. Just scroll down to my other Turkey Trot post from this morning to link up and get the awesome button that Holly’s husband made for us.

Please do not look at me in this, I rolled out of bed, slapped on a tiny bit of makeup and didn’t do my hair, so I look pretty awful. 

Have fun with the linkup!

Erin

Turkey Trot LinkUp!

The day has finally arrived!  My very first (joint) linkup!  Please join in on the fun!

<p align="center"> <a href="http://homemadehappenings-erin.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z468/suit1/turkey.png" alt="button" width="377" height="270" /></a></p>

1. What do you look forward to more: the food, football or parades?
2. What is your favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving Day dish?
3. After dinner, is it football or a nap?
4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Which is your favorite float?
5. Where do you go to celebrate and eat your big meal? Who is there (family, friends)?
6. What is your favorite turkey day dessert?

 You can do this in either a vlog or a post, have fun with it!  Can’t wait to see and read what everyone’s answers are! Just copy that button link above and the questions onto your blog, do yo thang, then come back over here and add your link. Super easy!

It’s Thanksgiving Week!

Happy Thanksgiving Week, Friends!  I am so excited that it is finally here!  I have a 2 day wait until I can devour a piece of pumpkin pie!  Yum!

Don’t forget to stop back by tomorrow and link up with me and Holly for our Turkey Trot linkup!  It’s going to be so fun!

Had a pretty mellow weekend, nothing wrong with that!  Watched some football, ran to town for a couple of errands, went to church, Aiden had Sunday School and I dinked around the house some.  The next 3 weekends are packed full of holiday stuff and a wedding so I’m glad we had a ‘calm before the storm’ kind of weekend!

I think I am finally saying goodbye to my Bonneville.  We are heading to the ‘big city’ tomorrow after the boys are out of school to look for something different.  I have my eye on either a Chevy Traverse or GMC Acadia.  We are wanting that 3rd row seat for some extra room.  I hope it goes smoothly, I absolutely hate dealing with car salesman.  I know they are just doing their job, but seriously, can’t they make it easier on us customers?  Cut out the middle man and give me the guy who makes the final decision.

We have some friends coming this morning for a play date. Brennan is so excited, he asks me every 5 minutes if Will is coming yet.  Glad he has a little buddy.  The funny thing is they don’t actually play together.  They both grab their own toy and turn their backs on each other.  Funny.  It gives me some adult time, though.  It’s nice having another mom to talk to.

Well, kiddos, time for me to get off this computer and get a few things picked up before our friends come.  I hope to see you tomorrow for the linkup!

Erin

Bonus Saturday Post!

Hey!  Hope your weekend is going great.  Mine is just starting, but so far so good!  Andy’s out shopping for me and the boys and I are getting ready to go visit a new baby girl (right after Pioneer Woman is over!).

I just wanted to give you some more details on the joint link-up with my gal Holly.  It’s coming on Tuesday, I hope you’ll join us!

You can answer the questions in a post or a vlog post, your choice!  it’s always so fun to hear how everyone sounds and to see their mannerisms so I hope you’ll choose the vlog version!  Either way, join in the fun!  Here are the q’s.

1. What do you look forward to more: the food, football or parades?
2. What is your favorite non-traditional Thanksgiving Day dish?
3. After dinner, is it football or a nap?
4. Do you watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade? Which is your favorite float?
5. Where do you go to celebrate and eat your big meal? Who is there (family, friends)?
6. What is your favorite turkey day dessert?

I hope to see you all on Tuesday!  Have a great weekend!

Erin

H54F

Holla, it’s Friday!  Wow, this week flew by, didn’t it?!?  I’m glad, because I thought last week drug on and on and on!  I am going to celebrate Friday with a High 5 4 Friday post.  Here’s my list:

1. I went Christmas shopping yesterday and had a fabulous time spending money. (Hee hee!) 
2. While shopping I met a good friend at Olive Garden (yum yum yummo!).  We had a great time catching up, chatting and laughing.  Oh, and stuffing our faces!  I ate at least 1 1/2 bowls of their amazing salad.  You know how big those bowls are they bring!  Then I only ate about 1/3 of my entrée so I could bring leftovers home and enjoy them today. 
3. I am wearing my new leggings today!  I feel like an ass in them, but whatevs.  I’m hoping I look a little trendy.  Here’s the best pic I could get.  Some of you who take outfit pics for your posts need to give me some tips on this, I just couldn’t get a good shot.  I tried 4 different locations in my house.  So here’s the best I could do.  Critique the outfit, please.  I need all the advice and help I can get.
4. Wednesday night the four of us played our Mountain Sports Wii game together.  It was fun seeing who could do the coolest tricks on the ski jump and who could get down the bobsled run the fastest.  (My husband smoked all of us.) 
5. The best part of this week is coming tomorrow:  My husband is going Christmas shopping for me!!!!!!!  I am sooooooooooo excited!  He takes his mom shopping every year so she can get stuff for his dad and he can get stuff for me.  He always has the funniest stories about their day when he gets home.  They are having to do it early this year, I think the anticipation of seeing those wrapped gifts for over 5 weeks is going to kill me! I CAN’T WAIT!!!

How was your week?  Tell me one of your week’s highlights!

Happy Friday!

Erin

Another Shopping Post

Hey!!!  Sorry this is a late post today, I was out all day burning through some cash.  Christmas shopping!!!  I got everything on my list, I am well on my way to being done with this year’s shopping.  I found some good deals, bought way too much and now get the fun of pulling everything out, putting it into a pile for each receiver and making a final list of what I still need.  Phew!  But I love that part!

Can’t write much, have to head out now to grab my sweet little boys from school.  But I will be doing a post of what we are getting the boys and some stocking stuffer ideas for those of you needing some new ideas.  That will come after Thanksgiving, so stay tuned for that.  (Oh, and after we actually get the boys’ stuff!)

Yay, I’m so excited!! I got some shopping done!!!

Erin

Wedding Gift

Good morning!  Welcome to Wednesday!  This week is cooking right along.  A week from tonight I’ll be sitting at my folks’ dining room table enjoying some bird, dressing and pie!

I saw a neat idea on Pinterest for a wedding gift that I thought I’d try for a cousin who is getting married in December.  Here’s my take on it.

I started by taking their wedding invitation and cutting it into thin strips, anywhere from 1/4” – 3/8” wide.  I was lucky, their invitation came in a pretty envelope (above) so I used that, then just cut the lines with their names on it from the actual invitation.

I used a small cup to the hold the clear, plastic ornament to make stuffing easier.  I purchased the ornament at a craft supply store for less than $2.  I think Wal-Mart might even have them now. Just pull the top off to be able to put stuff inside.

To make curling the strips easier I used a pencil.

It took some finagling to get their names to be in front, just be patient.  I think I could have stuffed a few more strips in there, but by the time I had their names ‘just so’ I didn’t want to mess it up by adding more. Then to finish it off I added the red ribbon (their colors are black and red) and then added some red and silver rhinestones to the outside for a little extra punch. 

I hope this is an ornament they will treasure year after year.

Have a great day!

Erin

Christmas, Shopping and Immunizations

Hello, Friends!  And welcome to my new followers!!  I’m happy to have you!

I took yesterday off from blogging, my husband had the day off in honor of Veteran’s Day, so we dinked around the house and hung out together.  Aiden got out of school early so it was the perfect opportunity to get a couple of appointments scheduled for him.  His molars are in and our dentist likes to seal them, so we went to the dentist and had that done.  Next was the boys’ appt at the doctor for SHOTS.  Yikes!  I was so nervous all day, panicking that Brennan (who’s 3) would be a mess.  Aiden just needed a flu shot, but somehow Bren got behind on his immunizations (so angry about this) so he needed 3 of those plus a flu shot.  That’s a total of 4!!! shots!  Ouch!  Aiden did awesome, no tears at all (he’s 6 1/2).  Brennan, poor kid, had them in  his thighs, so we pulled his pants down, which I think panicked him a little since Aiden didn’t have to, and then laid him down on the table.  4 nurses came in so they could do them all at once (thank goodness!).  They each grabbed a pinch of chubby thigh, Andy and I held his hands and tried to distract him and they counted to 3.  4 pokes, Bren’s eyes got really big, they pulled out the needles and slapped on 4 fancy band aids (3 Garfield, 1 a red crayon) and then he started to cry.  But it wasn’t an all  out scream type cry, just big tears and sad cry.  Poor little Shmumpkin. But he got over it really fast!  I was so proud of those brave boys!  Treats all around!

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Anyone else getting excited for Christmas whenever you see holiday commercials?  The classic, it-wouldn’t-be-Christmas-without-it, commercial is the Hershey Kisses one where the kisses are bells.  I’ve seen that one a couple of times already which means I’m officially consumed with Christmas thoughts and I can’t wait to get my decorations out.  I do love Thanksgiving and am totally looking forward to that, too, just hard not to get in the spirit of Christmas when they have it all over the place now!

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Sunday it was a cold, rainy day here.  What to do with our day?  Oh yes, lets go shopping.  With the kids.  In the rain.  In and out of stores.  Duh, what was I thinking?  Good news, got a lot of Christmas shopping done (phew).  Bad news, while holding hands, running, with Brennan he tripped and I dragged him right though a big ol’ puddle.  He was SOAKED!  Luckily it was coming out of our last stop so I stripped his pants off him and covered his little legs with my coat.  I was so dang crabby by that point, good thing we were heading home.

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Next Tuesday is the big day!  Holly and I are doing a joint Thanksgiving link up!!!  Prepare yourself (and plan on joining in the fun!).  I am so excited to do this!  I can’t wait to see everyone’s answers!

Have a fantabulous Tuesday!  Oh, and FYI – only 9 days till Thanksgiving, 41 days till Christmas! 

Erin

Shop Locally

Yay, it’s Friday!  The week has gone by pretty fast but I’m still really happy the weekend is almost here.  Except for giving the boys and Andy haircuts this weekend we don’t have a thing planned!  Maybe we’ll take advantage and go to ‘the big city’ and get some Christmas shopping done.

Speaking of shopping, I hope you all make an effort to shop locally this year.  Even if you just make a plan to buy one thing at a locally owned shop that will help that store owner out and I bet that money will be put back into your own town.  So many small store owners are struggling, but those small stores have the neatest gifts!  I love walking through a little gift shop and finding a ‘gem’ of a gift that I know so-and-so will just love!  It’s so exciting to give those kind of gifts.  So please, shop locally this holiday season!

Yesterday I volunteered at our little church gift shop.  They were having their Christmas Open House this week and yesterday was their big day.  I was swamped!  It was so much fun!  And because I only volunteer once a month I don’t know what all they have, so every time someone brings something up to buy it’s like finding a new treasure!  And it was all decked out for Christmas, with pretty Christmas music playing lightly in the background – heaven!  I took a couple of pics to share with you.

I love Santa’s, and this guy really spoke to me.  He said “take me home with you!”  I didn’t, but will be asking for him for Christmas for sure!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, talk to you soon!

Erin

Making New Friends

OMG!!!  This story is totally why I love blogging and the blogging world!  Yesterday I was sitting there at home, minding my own business, when an email popped up from a Lora.  I thought, “who the heck is this?”  Then I saw my blog name in the subject line.  Oh awesome!!!  A new commenter!  I never get new commenters!  So I opened the email and read a nice comment from Miss Lora and at the end she said “New follower  here!”  I was so totally stoked! (Sidebar: I never say I’m stoked, where the heck did that word come from?)  I made myself wait almost an hour before replying so she didn’t think I was a total loser with nothing better to do than sit there waiting for new emails to come (so true, tho) and when I did reply I put on a pair of giant coconut balls and asked her how she found me. <----- Why did that take such guts?  Should be a natural thing to ask, right? But me, I feel like I’m being nosey. Duh.  Anyway, so I asked and she said she found me through Holly!!!  And I was like “Oh my Gah!”  How cool is that?  I mean, that’s pretty much how I found all the blogs I read and follow, but still, I thought how cool that this little blogging thing we do brought 2 new people together!

Another email and I asked her if she blogged and she does! So I checked her out and I just LOVE her!  She is too.darn.funny!  I think we’d be instant friends if we met in real life. So now I have a new blogging friend!  Miss Lora from Raising Steppe Sisters.  Please please PLEASE go check out her blog (if you don’t follow her already, which I bet some of you do!).  Thanks, Holly, for inadvertently helping me make a new blogging friend! 

Today I’m thankful for blogging and the connections it has helped me make! 

Love to you all!

Erin

I Am Thankful For…

It is hard for me to believe that 2 weeks from tonight my family will be sitting down together for a Thanksgiving meal.  2 WEEKS!!!  How nuts is that?!?  For as long as I can remember we have had a Thanksgiving meal on the Wednesday night before the actual day of T.giving.  My dad wanted our little family of 4 to have our own meal together but didn’t want 2 big meals in one day, so we did it the night before.  That tradition has continued to stick since we grew up, moved out and got married. 

So, 2 weeks!!!  I can hardly believe it!  I have to share how cute my little Brenner-man is.  When you ask him what happens on Thanksgiving he says “You watch football.”  I have no idea where he heard that, although we do watch football after our big dinner.  I have finally gotten him to add “eat turkey and watch the parade” to his list. Silly boy!

Everyone on Facebook is posting what they are thankful for every day.  I have no jumped on the bandwagon this year, mostly because by day 15 it’s getting trickier to come up with new things.  But I thought I’d share a quick list with you just for kicks.

I am thankful for…

• my husband and his ability to make me laugh every day
• my Aiden boy, he is such a neat kid and comes up with some of the craziest things to talk about, which makes conversations fun
• my little Brennie, he’s still young enough to want to give me smooshy kisses and snuggly hugs
• my health, enuf said
• having a nice house to call my own
• extended family
• all of you!

Happy Day, friends!

Erin

Clothing Advice Needed

Ok, Lovelies, I need your help.  In this picture below, are these leggings or tights?  And where do you find them??  I LOVE this look and want to wear it so bad, just need help in finding the pieces. I hate to shop for clothes and am scared to go into ‘cute’ stores because I’m afraid people will look at me and think “she’s too old to be in here!”  So I need some help from you trendy ladies. 

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Have you voted yet?? I know, we’re all sick of hearing about it, but really, it’s so very important to get out there and do your civic duty!  Even if you don’t ‘love’ or fully support either candidate, vote for the lesser evil.  I do support one, I won’t tell you who, and I will be voting with my  husband (our election day tradition) as soon as he gets home from work.  We have never missed an election, big or small.  It is such an important right, one us women have not always been given!  So get out there, rain or shine, and VOTE!!!

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Had my hair trimmed up today and it feels so darn good!  Who doesn’t love getting their hair cut??  And this gal I found is A-mazing!  I’m so glad I found her here in this tiny little town.  She’s big-city, for sure, and could make an ass-pile of money if she wanted to live in a big city.  And she makes me feel like a major failure as a hair stylist and I hope, if I get back to a salon someday, that I can take some classes and become as awesome as she is. 

Happy Election Day!  This time tomorrow we’ll know who will be leading our country for the next four years, hallelujah!

Erin

Christmas Cards

Question:  Do you mail out Christmas cards or family picture cards, send a mass email to everyone in your inbox or skip it all together?  Andy and I have been married 10 years, and over the 10 years we continue to get fewer and fewer cards each year.  I think it’s sad.  I love opening my mailbox during the month of December and finding a card or 2 in it!  I used to mail out over 40 cards, now I’m down to 23.  My rule of thumb is if I don’t get a card from you, you won’t get a card from me.  At the end of the month I go through the cards we received and make my card list for the next year.

This year I made my cards.  Since having the boys I have always sent out a picture card, but this year I decided that a.) no one cares to have a picture of my kids unless they are family, and if they are family they already have a picture, so why stress myself out over getting a ‘perfect’ picture of the boys?, and b.) why spend so much money on the picture card when it’s going to just get thrown out?  So I went to my scrapbooking supplies and picked out some paper that would work to make a bunch of cards.  Here are the 3 designs I ended up with. 

I’m pretty happy with how they turned out.  Now on to addressing the envelopes and signing each card.  I do write a personal note to a few people so will need to get working on those, also.  Seriously, Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away!  That means I’ll be mailing these babies out in about 3 weeks!  This month is already flying by!  I’m actually starting to get stressed out that I am so far behind on my shopping!  I am not a last minute shopper, this is the farthest I’ve ever been behind!!!  Yikes!

Heads up, Miss Holly and I are going to do a joint link up about Thanksgiving later in the month.  Details to come soon! 

Have a great week!

Erin

H54F

Yay, it’s Friday!!!  Here is my High 5 4 Friday list.

1. November started!
2. We had conferences at school for the boys last night, they are both doing fantastic! Aiden is the only kid left in his class to still have 100% on all of his spelling tests!!!
3. Sunday we stayed home all day and watched football, it was wonderful!
4. I signed up to do a blogger swag swap and got my partner’s name and info yesterday, I am SO excited!  I love giving gifts!  Hi, Karie!
5. I’ve started watching Ally McBeal episodes again in the afternoons.  They crack me up!!!  And make me a little sad.  But mostly I laugh.  And laughter’s a good thing!

That’s my week in a nutshell.  What are your plans for the weekend?

Erin

Happy Halloween

I hope you all had fun trick or treating (heavy on the treats, light on the tricks!).  The boys had a great time at their school parties and getting out and about last night begging for candy.  Here are my ghouls!

Aiden was trying to look scary, thus the cocked head.

As I write this I am in the process of removing all ghosts. goblins and skeletons from the house and getting out some turkeys and pilgrims.  I am so excited it’s November!  3 weeks from today we’ll all be snarffing down huge amounts of food, kicking back to watch some football and the all-important Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and hopefully catching some quick zzz’s.  OMG, I am SO.DARN.EXCITED!!!!  Bring on the pumpkin pie!

Catch you all later!

Erin