Christmas-ing

So I know I've been slacking on my picture posts lately. This week started by finishing Christmas preparations and working three days. So we were pretty busy. And then we hit the road to see lots of family. I'll post some pics posted soon (because I have a fair amount). In the meantime, have a great time celebrating with friends and family, as we will be doing.

Scrapbook Sunday V

This week I've completed two mini albums that I'll be giving as gifts at Christmas. So I thought I'd share a pic from each. (I wish I could share different pages, but I don't want to give away who I'm giving them to.)

I love this paper! You can't tell very well, but it's glittery!

First page of the second album.

I'll have to share more later after I've given these away!

Best mail day

So today had to be the best mail day ever! (It completely crushed yesterday's mail.) We got 8 Christmas cards in the mail and that was it! Granted one of these "cards" was from Comcast (who I dislike very much), but it was still a card that said "Season's Greetings". See for yourself...

To the people who's cards we received today - thank you for sending them when you did! It definitely made me smile. I love all the pictures too!

Friday

Today was a good mail day - a package and a couple Christmas cards!

Thursday

Today I was preparing for our small group Christmas dinner. We made ham along with one of my favorite dishes - corn casserole. I love this dish and it seems like I only have it a few times a year. The funny thing is that I didn't even like or eat corn casserole before my junior year of college. I tried it when some of our friends gathered for an Easter dinner at my friend, Holly's, house. And I've loved it ever since.

All about me

Wednesday

Today I went to do some work at the Caterpillar plant. We recently started a new project with them. So it required myself and another guy to do some inspections before I start the actual engineering work. So I had to pull these uncomfortable things out - my steel-toed shoes.

We found out that it works better to do the inspections next week, so we'll be back for a few days next week (before the holidays really start). After today, my feet were so sore from standing/walking on them most of the day. It's crazy that my feet were used to this torture when I worked at the plant full-time. Previously my feet would be tired, but nothing like today. Hopefully they can get used to it again, but rather quickly.

Tuesday

This was my attempt at staying warm on my windy and chilly walk with Maggie tonight.

Christmas wreath

I like this wreath a lot. Right now it's hanging on our front door. My mom was kind enough to give it to me since she didn't want it anymore. (Thanks Mom!) Free things are always the best!

I can't believe it, but Christmas is just right around the corner.

Scrapbook Sunday IV

I did a couple more pages in Maggie's book this week. Here's one of them.

I love the letters with the little dogs. And the pictures are so cute because they're from when Maggie was a puppy. Look how small she is!

I thought I would also post a pic of something else I've been working on - two mini albums. I'll be giving these to people at Christmas, which I'm excited about. These are the first ones I will be giving to someone. The recipients will be able to put in their own pictures and, if they want, writing. I'm only partially done with them now. I just have to finish tabs on one and putting stickers, embellishments, and pieces of cardstock in both.

I know it's going to be a busy week and a half with putting in more time with work before the holidays (because a new project was just released, yah!), finishing Christmas presents, having a party, packing, baking...the list goes on. Here's to this busy but joyous time of year!

Hidden images

Do you see what I see?

A heart! I didn't even notice this until I looked at the picture on my computer. When I saw it on my walk with Maggie today, I just thought the mixture of rocks, water, and ice were neat. I'm glad I decided to take my camera on our walk today. I was kicking myself yesterday for not taking it because the ice looked cool on the pond yesterday when the sun was shining bright. It was really cloudy today, but the neat ice formation were pretty much still there.

Friday - Grandma's french toast

This morning I decided it was time for something different for breakfast instead of the normal cereal, bagel, or oatmeal. So I decided to make french toast. And not just any french toast, but the way my Grandma used to make it (or at least similar) - butter in the pan (instead of cooking spray) and granulated sugar (instead of syrup or powdered sugar).

Wow, did this bring back memories while I was eating my french toast. It reminded me of the days when I would eat 4, 5, 6, or more pieces! (I was probably about 10 years old or so.) When I was younger, I also remember my grandpa cutting my french toast for me into squares in such a systematic way - cutting it very fast into a grid. It just took me back to my grandparents kitchen and remembering even more things about them and my time there. It's amazing how something small like this can bring a flood of moments to mind! I recommend trying something like this that will bring back memories from years ago.

Picture Update - Fudge, snow, fashions

I've been slacking this week on keeping up on my pictures. Here are the last few days of pictures.

Thursday

I made Paula Deen's Dummy Fudge for small group last night. I wanted to find a simple recipe since it was my first time making fudge and this recipe really is simple. Click here for the recipe. I used almonds instead of pecans and I substituted peanut butter chips for the butterscotch ones. I think it turned out wonderfully for being so easy!

Wednesday

We had more snow today and the snowflakes were absolutely humongous! It was also very windy - about 40mph with stronger gusts. There was snow flying everywhere (along with a little bit of trash). Maggie and I braved the weather for a short walk. I wasn't going to run (mostly because of the wind) but Chris convinced me I would be ok...and I was ok. (I think Thursday's run actually ended up being worse because it was colder and it was still windy.) I ended up taking a lot of pictures today - here are some of them. I couldn't pick just one!



The funny thing about this picture is that I accidentally caught Maggie in the background of this picture pooping. I'm glad I was able to crop her out (to spare you all) and still have a great picture.

Tuesday



We had another fashion show planning meeting tonight at McAllister's Deli. (The show will be this coming May 15th here in Lafayette.) It was pouring tonight. I'm glad it wasn't 5 to 10 degrees colder or else I may have been snowed in.

First snow 2009

It's official. We had our first snow here early this morning. Only an inch, but that will do for the first one. I know there will be more to come. This was taken from the back door, inside the house. I didn't venture out until I ran right before lunch. By that time, all of this beautiful stuff was pretty much gone. So I'm glad I at least captured this much.

I couldn't believe how many accidents there were down in Indianapolis this morning. I guess the salt trucks didn't get out early enough because the roads were like a sheet of ice. I have a feeling they will be more prepared next time.

Scrapbook Sunday III

So this year (yes I started this past summer) I've been working on a scrapbook of Maggie. Right now I'm on a section called "Maggie's Favorite Things" - these are all things that Maggie appears to love. I decided to go back to Maggie's book this week and complete the pages in this section. The page below shows a few of her favorite things.


After this section will be another section called "Memorable moments" - just a mix of some favorite pictures and some interesting stories from Maggie's life.

Go here for some pictures of ealier pages in the scrapbook.

Exterior Christmas Decor

Friday

A view of some exterior lights at our house...



Saturday

There are several of the Christmas blow-up yard characters in our neighborhood this year. I personally find them a little annoying and unnecessary, but at least they're not sitting in my yard. When we were in college, we drove by a house (a nice one in a nice neighborhood) that had about 10, and some of them were duplicates!

Anywho...Maggie sometimes goes up to these (especially when they're deflated) and just sniffs them and probably doesn't really know what to think of them. I thought it was funny when Chris told me that Maggie gave an extra special glare to this particular character.

Interesting

So recently I've been doing more activities that require me to be creative, such as scrapbooking, taking pictures, looking for craft projects, etc. These are all very right-side-of-the-brain oriented. It's just ironic to me since I went to school to become an engineer. Maybe I've been honing in on the creative side of me since I've been away from it for a while and didn't get to be creative very often while I was working. I don't know. But I do remember that in 7th grade when they make you take one of those tests to see what you should do when you grow up, one of my top three was an interior designer...interesting. (I don't remember what the others were.) Now even as I'm scrapbooking, though, I find myself being meticulous about placing everything on my page. But maybe that's just the perfectionist side of me and not the left side of my brain. Don't get me wrong, I like doing civil engineering work, but maybe I just need a way to express the right side of my brain every once in a while.

comfy sleeping position

She loves her football.

deck the halls

a simple decoration...

...Hello December

I thought it appropriate to post something involving Christmas on the first day of December. This is one of Chris' ornaments on our tree that he received because of his love for running. Yesterday Chris got the tree down and setup it up, and then I picked out the ornaments and put them on the tree. I've also got most of the Christmas decor up inside the house (although I think I'll make a few things to put around the house) and we even put up some lights outside this year! (Thanks honey for doing the lights outside.) I'm sure there will be more Christmas pics this month.

So recently I realized that I forgot to post some news that involves running. So it's appropriate that I post about it now, given the picture I posted...Chris and I have signed up for next year's Indianapolis Mini Marathon! This was the race that I ran in this past May for the first time. Chris started running again seriously this past summer and he decided next year he wants to run a mini marathon and, I believe, also a full marathon. I told him I would run the mini again, but I'm still not sure about the entire 26.2 miles. Part of me wants to do it because next year would be a good time in my life to run it and then my brain kicks in and says, "you seriously want to run 26 miles?" So I think I'll wait until the spring to make my decision about the full marathon and see how things are going with training to improve my mini time from this year.