Good Days...

What a wonderful Christmas weekend filled with family and friends. We spent Christmas Eve with Tim's entire family (1st time in four years we've all been together), then Christmas day with my parents, grandfather, & aunt. It was a nice relaxing day too.

The next two days after Christmas, I decided to catch the stomach flu. I'm back ready to play today...so Andrea & I have been to some cute botiques, had lunch at a cute & fun restauarant, & have spent the afternoon playing on the Wii with 'the boys'.

Tonight we are having some friends over for homemade Chicken Noodle soup...yum!

Hope your past few days have been filled with love, laughter, and friendship. Happy Thursday!

Done!

That's right, three days to Christmas and I'm finished with my Christmas shopping! Woo-hoo!

My friend Amanda & I went shopping today to finish up those last few items. We had a great time braving the lines and masses of people together. The crowds weren't too bad earlier today. This evening is a different story, and may I just say I'm thrilled to be in my cozy home away from the lines in the stores.

Last night Tim & I exchanged Christmas gifts. He got me some nice running shoes for the gym, a fancy set of knitting needles (so excited about these!), some sparkly pink earrings, a belt, and a blanket.

Tonight we did stockings and he got me the Price Is Right DVD game!! I've already played it for an hour tonight...it's so much fun! Some other sweet gifts were hiding in the stocking as well.

I tried to keep to his lists and because of this I was afraid he wasn't going to be surprised by any of his gifts, but he apparently wasn't expecting most of them. :) (Most of them were boy things...battery charger for the Wii, games, pj pants, accessories for the camera, movies, etc).

We had a wonderful time exchanging gifts and watching each others expressions of delight.

Tim's Birthday Dinner

Last night we went to the Portland City Grill with two of our good friends, Ben & Amanda. We met them a few years ago in young marrieds group at church. (They got married one week before we did - and we've had a lot of fun getting to know them these last two years). Anyway, the four of us went to dinner for Tim's birthday. Here our some photos documenting our evening.

The food was fabulous - as always - we even went all out & ordered dessert. They brought Tim's dessert out with a candle, so we all sang to him & made him feel nice and embarrassed. :) It was a great way to end the celebration of Tim's birthday.

Happy un-birthday to you...and you...and you!

Happy Birthday Tim!!

HaPpy bIRtHdAY TiM! Today, my wonderful husband is celebrating his 32nd birthday. This photo was taken (by Tim) in May when we were in NYC. I wish you a fantastic birthday today Tim & a blessed year ahead. May it be your best year ever. I love you!

Happy Anniversary to Matt & Andrea! Wow - 9 years! Congratulations you guys.

What a lovely day for many celebrations! Happy, happy Wednesday to everyone.

Erin's Visit

My former roommate (& current friend) Erin M. came to town to visit for Christmas. She came over last night for dinner & it was fabulous to see her. I missed her last Christmas, so it had been 2 years since we'd been together. Tim snapped this photo in front of the tree, right before she left. So much fun to catch up with old friends over the holidays.

Hope your days leading up to Christmas are merry & bright!!

Laura's visit

As I told you earlier, Laura came to visit last night, so we decided to exchange our Christmas gifts. These are photos of Laura's purse. She gave me a white scarf that she knitted, (way to go Warla!!) a super cute jean skirt, and a cute lacy t-shirt. We had such fun hanging out with each other just being sisters.

Nicole's Purse

I figured out how to post pictures!! Woo-hoo!! Thank you husband.

Meet Nicole's purse. Nicole was the first one to receive her Christmas purse. I need it to be known that she (the girl that doesn't like to know what her Christmas gifts are) special ordered her purse, by telling me what she did & didn't want. My only liberty was to choose the color, which really wasn't my choice, since I know her favorite color is red. :) Just kidding Nicole - I'm honored that you were excited about the prospect of your purse & I hope you get lots of use out of it & enjoy it for years to come.

And, I should also note that Nicole was the sewer of the linings for the purses. I have a sewing maching that I've never used before (my aunt gave it to me years ago) so Nicole volunteered to come over this weekend inbetween concerts to help me sew purse linings. We set up our 'sweat shop' in the guest room & turned out 8 purse linings! She had also special requested a pocket for her purse, so she got to make some of her own dreams come true. :) Thank you Nicole for your help!!

I'm Still Here

Wow! Time flies when you're having ...fun? Where to begin...

Last week was filled with children lit up like Christmas trees with anticipation for break & the upcoming holidays. It was not an easy task to teach last week, but I think I accomplished a little bit of teaching. I am THRILLED to be officially on 'Christmas Break' now. I know, I know, most of you don't want to hear it, but it is a definite perk to the teaching profession.

This past weekend was spent in dress rehearsals & concerts. We did 3 performances with our choir (Tim & I) & I also had a solo. The pressure got to me a little bit Sunday afternoon, but after some changes in my thought processes, the concert Sunday night was great. :) (Thank you Nicole & Tim for your helpful insights). Our wonderful friends Tom & Mary and Ben & Amanda came on Saturday night to the concert. Tom & Mary took us out to dinner for Tim's birthday (which is the 20th) & then stayed the night to do Christmas with us. They always bring Christmas gifts for the 2 kitties as well. The cats loved their new toys & we were very happy to have Tom & Mary stay at our house for the evening.

My sister came down to the concert Sunday night & we had a great time playing afterwards. She came down alone (I don't think that's happened for 3 1/2 years) & spent the night. We exchanged Christmas gifts & took photos. I'll post photos later. It was so nice to be able to chat with Laura & just hang out.

Today was my official start to break. I slept in, went to Starbucks with Laura. Came home, picked up the house - then went to an hour massage (*sigh*). Afterwards, I came home & wrapped Christmas presents while I waited for my former roommate Erin M. to come over.

I hadn't seen her in 2 years, so it was great to catch up. I will also post photos from that visit later. (Basically, I'm confused about how to load photos to the blog now that I'm in the Beta - Tim, help me - please!!)

So, that's the synopsis of my past week and a half. Stay tuned for photos - coming soon to a blog near you...

Weekend Update

Is it really Sunday night already?! This weekend has gone too quickly. Here's a recap of what we did...
Friday after school we had our staff party. We left there, came home, changed clothes & headed out to another Christmas party hosted by one of Tim's co-workers. We had a nice time there, but I was very tired by around 9:30, so we came home. Saturday I went and got my nails done (horray for a French Manicure!!) & then I cleaned up the house. We left in the afternoon for a performance that lasted until the evening. When we were finished with our performances (we had 3 in a period of 4 hours) we went & ran errands. Sunday I admit, we skipped church to catch up on some much needed sleep. When we awoke, we hung around the house. I didn't get dressed until 1:00!! That never happens. We got ready & headed off to another set of 3 performances (these are all for the choir we sing with The Willamette Master Chorus). When we finished with that, we came home where Mark, Laura, & the girls met us. We had dinner and played around until it was time for the girls to go to bed, and they left. What a whirlwind weekend. Tim & I were both commenting earlier today that we need one more day because we don't feel like we got a weekend. Although...I may think that every weekend. :)

Thank you for your patience last week - this week I only have 1 concert for kids & 3 concerts for me (again, with the Master Chorus). Happy Sunday all!!  

Jess & Tricia

Tonight we had the pleasure of having our good friends Jess & Tricia come to stay. They moved to Illinois in August, and we were sad to see them go. It was so nice to have them around again - it felt like 'the good 'ole days'.

We went to Red Robin (or Red Rob Bob as Ethan calls it) for dinner. Then took a detour to Target. When we returned home, we all took turns playing the Wii.

It was a great evening & super fun to have them stay with us. Thanks for coming to visit you guys - we hope to see you again soon!! 

Look!!

Tim bought a new camera today for me to use!! We were at the grocery store yesterday afternoon & we needed some things from Costco, so Tim volunteered to go to Costco today. I received a phone call from Costco about a digital camera (I was having some problems with my other camera with photos etc.). I wasn't expecting anything, and he surprised me when he got home. I'm so excited!! Here she is: a Lumix FX07. By the way, this is the first time I've included a link in my blog - I'm turning into a computer...

I will try to take some photos tomorrow with her & post them - I'm sure you'll see a remarkable difference (& even if you don't you can pretend for me). :)

Happy Monday night -I'm off to bed...

Decorations!!

Saturday morning Tim & I decorated the house. I took a few photos of our decorations to share with you. I love decorating for Christmas. It was very fun to get all of the ornaments out & hang them in their special place on our tree. We decided to hang our stockings elsewhere this year, so that we can still enjoy fires in the fire place without the fear of scorched stockings.

A new addition this year to our decor is the front door wreath (thank you Mom) and the Santa sign in the yard. Yes, I know, yard art - but I think it's okay. :)

Today I ventured out to do some shopping with Nicole and I think the rest of the city had the same idea. I was able to accomplish all that was on my list (& then some) but the mass amount of people almost sent me over the edge. I'm very content to stay home in my little house for the rest of night, ignoring the outside world. However, it was also great girl time with Nicole!!

This week I have 5 (yes, I said 5) performances with my kids. Yikes!! What was I thinking?!? Anyway, I apologize now if I don't update the blog for a few days...bare with me, please.

Happy Sunday!!