Finishing Up the Year 2009

Wow, I can't believe that it's the end of another year, much less decade...can you? It seems like just yesterday that I commenced working on my Project 365 scrapbook, and started taking a photo every day. It's still a work in progress but I've been looking back in it and fondly remembering moments and days that I would otherwise not have in print. I have decided even though it is a big commitment, and I may not finish it in a timely manner, but I will do a Project 365 for 2010. I considered doing a 52 photo version, but it's so hard to decide on a favorite photo for the week, so I just made things easier by ordering a Becky Higgins kit called "Project Life", check it out here. I actually ordered two in the hopes that my younger sister Lyne, who just recently became a scrapbooker will join me. So far so good. Anyone else doing this?

I also have resolved to make a few changes in my life for the new year. Hopefully all for the better. I have already taken a step towards being healthier by going back to the gym and working out with a trainer once a week. I plan on supplementing this with other workouts, classes and WII training. I recently gifted myself the new Yoga for our WII and have yet to find time to try it out. I plan on eating a lot healthier too. No more second servings when I am full, a lot more veggies and a lot less starch. We'll see how that goes...

In the organizational part of our lives I hope to finally re-arrange my scrapbooking room so that it is functional and I enjoy my time in it, not feel pressed upon by all my stuff.

I also plan on getting a birthday calender up and running in the first part of January so that I will not fail to mail out any more birthday cards and wishes. There are some other small things but I won't bore you with the details.

This upcoming week will be extremely busy as we are in the final stages of finishing our rental units. Just some countertops, a few electrical fixtures, doorbells, etc and then they will be ready to rent out. We are heading to IKEA, yet again, for some office furniture to finish off the downstairs offices, so that our bookkeeper will finally have a place to work. I plan on packing up our little bit of Christmas decoration that I did manage to put out prior to the holidays. I didn't realize how much that stuff really means to me until I saw my Mother-In-Law's Christmas tree. It kind of gave me a lump in my throat that we did not have one this year. Oh well, I guess there's always next year...

Oh and I wanted to thank everyone who so thoughtfully sent us Christmas Cards again this year. I did manage to squeak mine out just before Christmas and was amazed to hear that most of them even arrived before the holidays, even in Germany.

We are heading to Seattle to celebrate the New Year. I am looking forward to a nice evening out with my family and a fun start to 2010.

Happy New Year!

Pre-Christmas Shenanigans

The weekend before Christmas we attended the annual Christmas party one of our largest clients puts on every year. It was held at the Skagit Casino again. Some of you may recall the disaster last year where the whole hotel was evacuated at around 2 AM due to a broken/frozen pipe. Not so much fun. This year however things went off much more smoothly. The band was a bit late so dancing with the "PopOffs" did not commence till well after 8:30 PM and some grew a bit restless. The open bar helped a bit. LOL

We had a lot of fun and danced the night away.

The day after we watched the Seahawks get their butts kicked and had Troy and Ashton over for an early gift exchange since he had to go back home to his Mom's for the holidays. Grace & him played together for the afternoon and had a blast.

Christmas in Winthrop

Since my parents ended up spending the holidays in Montreal visiting my Grandfather, who had broken his leg just recently we decided to head east. After numerous discussions of when we would leave, (my hubby thinking as early as possible ie: Tuesday morning, when in fact I had Tuesday all booked up!) we ended up departing Bellingham on Wednesday at around 10:30 AM, which for us I must add, is quite a feat. With cooler, six-pack of wine, numerous bins of food, a huge cardboard box of presents and our suitcases we headed toward Winthrop. Of course there was a stop at the bank to get some cash for the road, a swing by Starbucks for the mandatory latte & scones and a quick detour to our mechanics place to drop off Adam's truck so it could be serviced over the holidays.
We arrived in Winthrop and immediately everyone went into Vacation Mode. Martin stopped answering his phone every five minutes, Adam was playing computer games, Grace hauled the contents of Grandma's toy box all over the living room floor and I went into last minute present production and wrapping. We were expecting Martin's sister Michelle and her boyfriend Jack, as well as my sister & brother in-law Melanie & Matt with their two boys Oscar & Riley. Grace was beyond excited to see her cousin Oscar and to play with him.

Grace did feed the reindeer again this year. She was so cute, called Grandma before we left to make sure she had everything to put into the Reindeer Food. Turned out it was a good thing, as Grandma was all out of tiny marshmallows.
We did a lot of unwrapping on Christmas Morning, playing games & cards, eating lots of good food and had a blast in Winthrop.

In Full Christmas Preparation Mode (NOT!)

GASP!

Normally we would be ready for Christmas around this time of the month, of course. But this year it's just not been going our way.

Well, until today that is...

Why do you ask? Well, we have not gone to cut down a tree this year, and my husband informed me yesterday that we will not be doing so this year... Apparently he is just too busy with work and I will just have to deal. It's nice to know that family takes priority for him, NOT! Well, I have tried to have him pick up an already cut tree somewhere but again that is hit and miss. So far only misses. Will keep trying, even if I have to drive the John Deere across the street to the tree farm myself. Didn't know it was so hard to find good help? LOL

Today though I found some small miracle in the form of a trip to the mall. What on earth do you ask is so miraculous about that? Well, for one a premium parking spot right out front of my favorite store. No line, (YES absolutely no line!) at the Verizon Wireless store. Not a single mother & child waiting to sit on Santa's lap for photos. A smiling girl sitting on Santa's lap and a perfect photo to show for it afterward. I found everything I was looking for at Victoria's Secret, in my size, and color, and even got a cool tote FREE with my purchase. Someone pinch me...I must be dreaming! At Gymboree the whole store was 30% off and with the coupon we got from Santa (apparently he gifts adults too, at least at Bellis Fair!), we received an additional 20% off our purchase.

All this has left me wondering why I have been avoiding the mall like the plague lately. It was quite pleasant and I noticed a bunch of brand-new stores that I had never seen there before...I hope this was not a one time deal...

Anyway, back to Christmas. I do have most of my gifts purchased and plan on wrapping soon as my curious daughter already had one in her hot little hands asking innocently "Whats this Momma?". I do also have a few decorations out and about our home, making it a little more bearable to be so far behind in my preparations. Plus Grace & I managed to whip up a batch of Sweet Potato Spice Cookies this Sunday. YUMMY!

Give-Away

One of the talented instructors of last year's fabulous scrapbook retreat "Inspiration Unlimited" is having a wonderful giveaway on her blog. I instantly fell in love with the creations she is showcasing. Go check it out : Tammy Mitchell's Blog.

Been busy starting more blog posts, but not finishing them. Now that the volleyball league is back to semi-regular hours I do not have the urge to blog at midnight any longer. What's a girl to do?

I will try to squeeze in some time between my workouts, Christmas decorating & shopping and all the other crazy stuff that's been happening in my life.

Hope to see you soon.

November Round Up

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
I must say I am starting to feel the withdrawal of not receiving my usual scrapbooking magazines in the mail. I really miss Simple Scrapbooks. What were they thinking when they discontinued this magazine? Really? I have also read a few books this month. Seems like it's been quite a while since I've had one that was noteworthy... But I did squeeze in the fairly new Nicholas Sparks entitled "The Choice" which is his usual twisty turny style but on top of it this one really makes you think... I also read a couple which I really had to force myself to finish. You know when you get past the point of no return and have to know what happens next? They were "Spandau Phoenix" by Greg Iles and "The Black Path" by Asa Larsson. I look forward to the release of Dean Koontz's new book "Breathless" next month.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month? Seems that with the holidays approaching, work picking up with the temperatures dropping, the start of football season and just being a lot busier we are not watching as much TV this month as we have in past months. We are still loyal viewers of "Survivor", "The Amazing Race", and my personal favorite "The Biggest Loser". I have been waiting to watch "True "Season 1 since I've requested the first two DVD's from Blockbuster, but have not found the time to do so. We did watch some BlueRay movies on our new player, including "The Taking of Pelham 123" which I thought was quite good. I would have to give a so-so rating to "Angels & Demons" since I am a big fan of the books, and the movies just don't live up to the books. I also wasn't thrilled by Sandra Bullock in "The Proposal", it just seemed a little contrived.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
I started going back to the gym to work out regularly this month, but this time with the help of a personal trainer. Her name is Charity and she works at THRIVE Fitness in Ferndale. I know it's a drive to go all the way out there for a workout, but it's worth it. The first week she worked me out, I was at the gym on a Wednesday and by Saturday I was still sore and hurting. Grace took a class through the local YMCA that she lovingly referred to as a "dance" class but was actually more of a "keep-the-kids-moving-till-they-wear-out" kind of deal. I tried to get her enrolled in a ballet class with some neighbor friend's kids but the class was unfortunately full. We'll try again next year...

Well, as you all know November is the time for turkey, family and all that. Even though we had two invitations from friends to join them for Thanksgiving we decided to forgo that and instead have some friends, family & neighbors over to our house. My parents even drove down from Canada to celebrate American Thanksgiving with us. Canada has their Thanksgiving early in October. Grace had a blast dressing up in her new sparkly dress and dancing around the house. We are still finding glitter in the most interesting places.

Did you take any trips or vacations or did someone come and stay with you at your house?
Martin & I had a weekend away without Gracie in Seattle this month. I had surprised him with tickets to see the "Trans Siberian Orchestra". Which neither of us really knew much about. Our seat mates at the Key Arena were raving on about it and highly recommended it, saying this was their third time there and they planned on going again next year. We were both pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the fantastic show. I even managed to shoot a few decent photos, despite the lasers & strobe lights.
We stayed at a boutique hotel in downtown called the Max and had dinner at the Space Needle Restaurant. Despite horrible rainy & cold weather we had a great weekend away.We also had Chris & Verena come and stay at our place for a night. They came out for dinner and then helped us stain the shop & apartment floors the next day. It was a lot of work but worth it in the end.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?
We took a trip to IKEA in Renton on a Wednesday to purchase our kitchens for the apartments & the shop. I believe we broke a record for most items purchased at one time. The cashier actually had to check out the first part of the order because the till quite working at a certain number of items. We ended up with 2 receipts and a total of 129 & 113 items combined, and about a dozen carts of stuff. This still left us with numerous out of stock items which we had to get on a second & third trip. What a nightmare. But it all resulted in three beautiful kitchens.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
About mid-way through the month Martin called and made me an appointment at the Doctor's office for my insistent headaches. It was getting to the point where i had a standing headache for a week, and couldn't function properly any longer. They drew about four vials of blood and did a bunch of tests without any results. Now they are wanting to send me in for an MRI...not sure about that.
We all managed to stay away from the flu, including H1N1. **Knock on Wood**

What were my accomplishments this month?
I accomplished some clean-ups around the house, not that you'd notice. But it did feel good to get rid of the Halloween decorations before Thanksgiving. LOL