Christmas Card Wreath

It's kinda late in the season, but I finally have a Saturday off with nothing to do! So I finished a project I  started several weeks ago-a wreath to hang my Christmas cards on. I saw a link for the project on pinterest, and it looked pretty easy so I thought I would try it. All you need is a wire clothes hanger, red beads, clothespins, spray paint and ribbon. For directions, go here. The only thing I didn't realize from the directions online is that you need more like 2 packages of clothespins. I used around 30. Also, the wire hanger I used was apparently a super hanger and the glue gun was not gluing that thing together, so i used duct tape and then covered that in ribbon. So far, it seems to work great.
Here it is!

Shopping Overload

I have procrastinated terribly with my christmas shopping this year. I still am not done, and christmas is 11 days away??!! Seriously, I have been making excuses and doing so many other things and time has just gotten run away from me. I have sorta "grounded" myself from all other activites (except work of course, although I really would like to ground myself from that too) and have been shopping every day after work for several hours at a time. Why have I procrastinated you ask? Well no good reason really, I just thought back in November that christmas was just soooo far away and that I had plenty of time! and that it would take me hardly any time at all to do my shopping! ha, yeah right. Turns out shopping actually takes a lot of time. Even when you know what you are going to get (because I already have a list of what I am getting for everyone). I do love getting presents for people, that's a fun thing to do, its just the execution of the shopping experience that I apparently have a hard time with. So don't go calling me a grinch or anything, because I absolutely love christmas and everything that goes with it. I just need to not forget this next year and be a responsible adult who gets their shopping done early. If everything goes as planned I will be all done by tomorrow, and then I can focus on other important things like my pjs, a cup of hot chocolate, and my White Christmas dvd, because let me tell ya, it does not get much better than that ;).

Christmas Party

Last night, we went to our Sunday School's Christmas party! It was a formal, so we I had fun dressing up. I feel like we just don't do many things where we get to dress up really nice, so I enjoy it when the opportunity comes around. We had a great dinner with cheesecake for dessert, played a "Finish the christmas lyrics" gameshow, and had an open time of testimony. The testimony time was really neat. We got to hear about all the awesome ways God has been and continues to work in the lives of our classmates. Some of the things we knew about already, and others we didn't. People have struggled with some pretty tough stuff this year, from postpartum depression, to a time of infertility. All throughout those times, God has been working and answering prayers. We are so blessed to be surrounded by this community of fellow believers and we are honored to call them friends. I am so glad that God has brought us to this church and this class that continually encourages and challenges us in our faith. Can't wait for what the next year brings!

Christmas Trees!

Wow where has November gone?? I just looked at the date of my last post, and was shocked that it has already been a month! Well obviously I have a lot of catching up to do, but I will save that for another day. Today was Christmas decorating day at my house :). I pulled out all the stuff on Monday, but have had some weird GI bug all week and just haven't gotten it done. But now we are all ready, so bring on December!!

Our UT-themed tree (burnt orange and white)

When the Boys are Away.....

The girls will play have a craft day!
Friday night, the boys from our Sunday School class went to palmetto state park for an all-men camping trip.

***Side note: there is no burn ban at palmetto state park right now, and that means it is the only state park within about an hour from Austin where you can make a campfire! Totally going camping sometime soon, I have just been waiting for that burn ban to lift somewhere so I can roast me some marshmallows over a fire***

Anyways, back to the main story. Girl's craft day. Good times. Also, it turns out that you don't even have to be creative or very crafty to have a great time. I just copied other people's ideas and ended up with some awesome results. (Thank you pinterest and Rachel!) It was just me, Rachel, Bonnie and Haley, and we had a really fun time. Rachel did some sewing projects for baby Nixon's nursery (fondly nicknamed ricecake), and Bonnie worked on knitting a hat for her hubbie. She is just now learning how to knit and is already making some impressive stuff. Haley decided to just hang out and visit which is always acceptable :). I made some lady bug hair clips for my sweet nieces, a picture frame jewelry holder, some ornaments for one of my christmas trees, and a christmas wreath for my front door. I didn't actually do all those on Saturday, I did some crafting on Sunday because I was so inspired and on a roll from the day before. And yes, I did just say "one of my christmas trees." I used to just have one tree, but recently acquired a 7.5 foot pre-lit artificial tree for $10 at a garage sale (!!!) so now I get to have a tree downstairs AND a tree upstairs. You can't ever have too many christmas trees in my opinion.
So here's my projects, I was pretty happy with the results:

now all my jewelry will be tangle-free!

In case you can't tell, the upstairs tree will be UT themed :)

These will be so cute on the nieces!!

Can't wait for the next craft day, I have plenty more ideas!

Alumni Band

I love going to UT games. We finally got to go to one this season. UT played Kansas last weekend and my parents came down and Michael decided to play with the alumni band. Also my BFF Brooke came and went with us to the game b/c my sister ended up not using her ticket at the last minute and stayed in Dallas (kinda long story how that happened but it resulted in my mom firing my dad as a parent lol). I actually remembered to take my camera with me so I have some really great pictures to share!

Sunday Projects

On Sunday, I found myself with a completely free afternoon and several projects to finish. After church, I convinced Michael to go to Lowe's and get the rest of the things I needed. I channeled my best DIY/HGTV knowledge to use as little money as possible.

1. Re-pot a plant
 About a month ago, a very sweet patient brought me a baby plant that was inside a little toy dinosaur. It was a really creative idea I thought, and I'm pretty sure its an aloe-vera plant.  If you knew how much aloe I end up using every summer, you would understand how excited I was to get this plant.

cute little dinosaur!

As you can see, it was getting a little too big for the dinosaur. I found a medium-sized flower pot, bought potting soil, and gave the plant a new home.

My Supplies: potting soil $4
plant, pot, gloves, spade: free!

(you can just barely see the plant sticking out the top)

2. Bookshelf fix

We bought a bookcase from ikea this summer and I put it together wrong. One of the shelves was facing to where the unfinished (ugly) edge was facing out. You may be thinking "well just take it out and turn it around silly!" but that won't work in this case because it was the only shelf that is part of the supporting structure. Unfortunately, I realized my mistake waaay too late to fix it. Well I probably could have fixed it, but that would have involved taking apart the entire bookcase. Good news is that it turned out to be a very easy fix, and only took about 15 minutes. I found an iron-on veneer and some wood stain, and now you can't even tell the difference between the shelf I fixed and the rest of the bookcase! 

Before the fix

My supplies: stain- $4
veneer- $3
sponge brush- free!
Iron (not pictured)-free!

After (see you can't even tell!!)

3. Garage Sale Treasure

One of my new favorite things to do is go to garage sales. Not every time, but sometimes I find some really great things. This chair is one of them. I have a keyboard that Michael bought me for Christmas last year but didn't have anything to sit on when I play it. I have been using either his desk chair, or the coffee table. I had an idea of what I wanted, but just couldn't find it (at a price I wanted). Then, I hit the jackpot at a garage sale. Here it is:

As you can see, it was in pretty rough shape. I could tell with just a little TLC, it would be a perfect keyboard stool. Plus, it only cost $2. How could I say no?

My Supplies: pledge (for cleaning)- free!
paint (sample size)-$3
Spray on Primer- $4
sandpaper- $2
wood dowel (for extra support)- $0.96
screws- $ 0.54
paintbrush- $7

Finished!

I pretty much love the chair now, and its just the right size and height for my keyboard. Yay for garage sale treasures!

That was it for the day. 3 projects and my total investment was $29. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon. 

Sick Day

Today is my first day to call in sick in a really long time. Sick days are usually not fun, and this one is no exception; trust me, I am not a fan of being sick. But right now, laying here in bed with my sweet puppies and a really warm heating pad, I am thinking that this day off with lots of extra sleep may be just what I need to get me through "hump day" and the rest of my week.  

Lately...

     Oh my goodness, I CANNOT believe that it is October already!! I feel like time has just been flying by lately. This might be because I am getting older, but I really don't like to think about depressing things like that :). We have just been so busy that our weeks have seriously been feeling like they are only 2 days long instead of 7. It's kinda hard to complain about being so busy though when we are doing really fun things!
     This past weekend, we went to Dallas for a long weekend (no work on Friday!!). Since it was the TX/OU game weekend, we drove in Thursday night and stayed at my parent's house all weekend. On Friday, we met Lisa and Josh at the zoo to hang out for a little bit since they were flying to California for a wedding the next day. Hannah and Abby love love animals, so they had a blast. They are babbling like crazy and running around everywhere these days and not that I am biased, but I think they are pretty fun little girls. After the zoo, we drove to North Dallas to meet my bff from high school for lunch. Trey is hilarious and I really miss getting to see him regularly...I am hoping one day I can convince him to move to Austin! Friday night we went and watched my sister cheer at the football game. She is kind of a drama queen, which makes her a great cheerleader. Saturday and Sunday were easy-going family days. We watched the football game (so depressing, but OU still sucks anyways), had Katie, Ryan and the nieces come over to my parents house for dinner, and then had a family reunion with my mom's family on Sunday. All in all, a really fun weekend.
    Driving back to Austin on Sunday, we brought Phillip with us because he rode the bus up to Dallas earlier in the day for the reunion. It was really great because even though we both live in Austin, he has been working like crazy lately and we just don't see each other very much. The good news is that he is almost done with this project he has been working on in addition to his regular 40 hour a week job, obviously causing a lot of stress and leaving no room for a social life. I am glad he will be done with that soon. For a  good chunk of the drive, Phillip and Michael got to talking about politics and the issues surrounding the upcoming election next year, and it was a very good and interesting discussion. They didn't fight, and actually tended to agree with each other on a lot of points. I don't follow politics very closely, so it was really interesting hearing their opinions and learning a little bit about what's going on. Turns out I actually have more of an opinion than I thought I would, so maybe I should try to pay more attention to what's going on out there. If I am better informed, then maybe I will act like a real grown up. But who wants to do that anyways??
    Starting this week, we are going to be doing several updates for our house. We are finally replacing the drywall that got wet from the big AC leak we had over the summer. Turns out homeowner's insurance takes basically forever to write you a check for repairs. We are also getting the columns in the front of the house repaired since the wood is kinda rotting/disinegrating? Idk if that is correct terminology, but it makes sense in my head, so we will go with that ;). Lastly, the disgusting carpet upstairs is going to be replaced. This means moving pretty much all the furniture, books, and other junk from upstairs to the downstairs. Not a very fun task. We moved a few things tonight, and I think I may just not ever buy anymore books ever again. Ok ok, not really, but seriously I have a lot of books!
     Last week, we turned in an application the the English Springer Rescue of America (or ESRA) to be foster parents for abandoned puppies in the Austin/Central Texas area. Are we crazy to willingly bring another crazyily hyper 50 pound dog into our house you ask? Yes, yes we are. BUT I dare you to go online to the website and just try to say no to all those sweet and adorable puppy faces who are just begging for someone to love on them until they find a home! I'm pretty sure I cried after reading every single one of those stories. I will update you later on how that is going after we get our first foster puppy.
     It rained 2 inches in Austin this past weekend. No that is not a typo. 2. whole. inches!!!!! The air just smelled so beautiful with all that wetness! Other than the rain, it has been in the 60s at night which is just so pleasant and makes be believe that fall is really here! And that means that Christmas is not very far behind!!!! Ok, I won't rush Christmas, but its seriously my absolute favorite time of the year. You will probably get tired of me endlessly talking about all the things I love about it, so I will save that for later ;).
   So I will leave you with the only 3 pictures I took this weekend-which I know is so sad! I really need to get my act together and take more pictures, but I just get distracted when I am having fun!

Phillip and Jacob bonding during the reunion-so cute!

Gaius not loving the drive back home

DIY House Project #1

How to make a cross wall in 3 easy steps:


Step 1: Find a large open wall in your house, then go pick out a lot of fun crosses (mine were ones that I have been collecting plus some great ones from hobby lobby at half price). Lay them all out on the floor so you can choose what arrangement works best.

Step 2: Find some really awesome friends who are way more creative than you and really great at helping hang up the crosses on the wall. Grab some nails and a hammer, and get to work!

Step 3: Admire your beautiful wall!

Guity Pleasure

Last night was the premier night for Thursday night shows. I'm sure there were lots of good shows on, but the main attraction for me was Grey's Anatomy. This show is probably my number one guilty pleasure. I am one of those crazy people who have been watching since season 1, and I am completely hooked.

I know that the drama is ridiculous, and that no on can hear the advice I am yelling at them, but I do it anyways. I know that some of the medical stuff they do on the show is unrealistic, but I still love me some surgery watching anyways. I have laughed, cried, gotten angry, and been happy during many episodes (yes, I do know that this is just a show but I can't help it!).  Even during the writers strike when things were not looking so great, I still kept watching faithfully every week, just knowing that those writers would work it out and come back. They did, and have been giving fans like me great shows ever since.

The premier last night was not just the normal one hour show, but 2 hours of great drama. If you are not a Grey's Anatomy watcher, you should give it a try. But watch out, you might just get hooked. :)

Friday Five

Happy Friday! Here are 5 random thoughts from today/this week :).

1. There is not much going on at work this afternoon (the friday before the labor day holiday), so I have been playing on my new HP Touchpad. This thing is a pretty fun toy. Its basically like an IPad but with fewer apps, no camera, and it was a whole lot cheaper. It reminds me of a very large smartphone. In case you are interested, you can read about it here: HP Touchpad info

2. Wednesday we had Christmas in August at choir. I always love choir practice, but this week was extra fun because we worked on Christmas music and got to eat yummy food. Made me excited for December to come!

3. This weekend, some of Michael's family is coming to visit. They are coming tomorrow, and staying the weekend. It should be a lot of fun, and I am really glad they get to come!

4. We went grocery shopping this week. You are probably thinking, "ok, so what?" But this is kind of a big deal because we are trying out this new thing where we don't buy any new groceries until we eat all the food in our pantry/fridge. Why you ask? Well, I feel like we are really big food wasters. And I really don't like throwing away leftovers or other random things in the pantry that eventually go bad from never using them for months and months. It just feels like a waste of money because we were doing a lot of throwing away. So since we are trying to be a lot more diligent about our budget and saving for some things that we really want to buy/trips we want to go on, grocery shopping is going to become a once a month trip. At least that is the new goal. The only exceptions to this is for things like milk and eggs that are used very frequently. I tried to make a very good list and make a rough meal plan so hopefully this works out!

5. I got my wedding book in the mail! Finally after a year and a half of marriage (procrastinate much??), my BFF Brooke helped me organize all my awesome wedding pictures into a book on snapfish. It looks really really great (at least I think so)!


Hope everyone has a fun and relaxing Labor Day!

Blueberry Pie

One of my favorite things to do in Michigan is to pick blueberries. I don't even like blueberries all that much, but fresh Michigan blueberries are pretty tasty. When you stop at a U-Pick place, they give you little buckets to either carry or tie around your waste with a string and you can just pick to your hearts content. Most of the blueberries I pick end up in my bucket, but Michael always ends up eating waaay more than he takes home. Needless to say, we came home with several pounds of fresh blueberries, so I decided to make a pie out of some of them.

Ingredients:
5 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
2/3-3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Double crust pie (homemade or I used the refrigerated pilsbury pie crust)

Directions:
Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl. Add the berries and cinnamon. Gently toss the berries until they are fully coated. If you use frozen blueberries, let the mixture sit for about 40 minutes to defrost. Put the mixture into a pastry-lined pie plate.

Next, put the remaining crust on top of the pie, poking holes in the top. You can also cut the other crust into strips and make a lattice pattern (which is what I did). cover the edge of the pie with foil to prevent overbrowning and cook at 375 for 25 minutes (or 50 minutes for frozen fruit). Remove the foil and cook for an additional 25-30 min. The filling should be bubbly and the crust brown. 

Enjoy!!

New Floor!

I have wanted to replace the downstairs carpet ever since we moved into our house. Right after we moved in, we got Titus. Potty training a puppy in a house with carpet is not the best idea. Especially when your carpet is a light cream color like ours was. I mean really, who thinks its a good idea to put cream carpet in a house?? Needless to say, our carpet after a year and 4 months of living there was pretty disgusting.  I just love hardwood, so we have been saving for awhile and finally got new floors! We ended up getting engineered hardwood instead of laminate because it should hold up pretty well with the pups.

Here is a picture of the living room before (quite a while before, looked a LOT dirtier before we put the wood in):

This is how it looks now:

We LOVE it!!

Vacation part 2

The whole group and my favorite picture of the week 

After our oh so relaxing week in Michigan with the pups, we drove back to Texas, re-packed, left the dogs with aunt Julie and drove to Colorado. We stayed at Horn Creek family camp with Michael's sisters and their families. The elevation there is about 8,500 feet so it was gorgeous weather.

This camp is a pretty cool place. They have little cabins where individual families can stay and they serve you 3 hot meals per day and they do all the cleaning! At night, they had a little mini worship service with a speaker. Our speaker was from a church in roundrock which was pretty neat.

We had a ton of fun and did a lot of different activities. On site at the camp, we took small hikes with the kids, played on the water slides, and bowled at the activities center.

Braeden at the water slide

Horn creek peak

On Thursday, me, Michael, Ryan, Braeden, and Josh went on the big peak hike. The horn creek peak is at 14,000 feet elevation. We left at 6am for this hike. Now I would like to think that I am in decent shape (a belief based on the fact that I have been exercising regularly for about 2 months). However, I am in terrible shape for mountain climbing. This hike was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I am proud of the fact that I made it to the tree line and was able to see great views, but I will NEVER do that again. I had great ambitions of making it to the top, but turns out that there is basically no air at 12,500 feet elevation and I just couldn't get my breath to keep going. Michael was sweet (or tired) enough to wait at the tree line with me while the others attempted the peak.

view from the tree line

Tuesday was white water rafting! So so much fun. The only downside was me getting slammed against a rock and having a very nice bruise on my thigh. Totally worth it though. I loved those rapids.

Rafting group

On Wednesday, we all drove out to the Royal Gorge (about an hour away) and met Uncle Brian. The gorge is huuuuuuge and we got a ton of great pictures.

Needless to say, it was a really great vacation all around, and we really hated to come back to real life. I'll end with a couple of really cute pictures of the girls from this week, just in case you haven't looked at enough pictures yet ;)