Merry Christmas!

Christmas

Christmas is almost here. This Christmas season I've really been struggling. I've been doing my best to hide it and pretend everything is ok, but I don't know how much longer I can do that. I haven't been able to pull myself out of this funk I'm in. If I do it's for a couple of hours at most.

Usually I'm one who loves Christmas. Buying the gifts for everyone, wrapping them, making Christmas cards, decorating the house, baking cookies, decorating the tree, Christmas music. I usually love everything about Christmas. This year I wasn't even going to put up a Christmas tree. Jason insisted. We went and got one and finished decorating tonight. In all fairness, Jason decorated 99% of it, while I sat and handed him ornaments. Usually we put up every ornament, this year I went through and we didn't put up near half of them.

I don't know why I'm not enjoying it. I don't know why I'm like this and down all the time. I'm just not happy. I miss being happy. I want to be happy again. I don't know what will make me happy.

Where are you Christmas?

Where are you Christmas by Faith Hill.

Christmas Up North

Jason and I headed up north this last weekend to do Christmas with the family up north. Here are some pictures. *Disclaimer: I don't know what was up with my camera but the colors in most of these suck!*

As usual, you can click on any of them to make them bigger!

On the way up in the car. I thought the colors of the sky were pretty. Guess what I do when I get bored in the car? Yup, whip the camera out!














Jason driving.























Pretty colors!















Self-portrait! Guess what I need at 7 a.m. in the morning? Yup, my Starbucks fix!!! Mmmmm....boy was it yummy!






















We call this the stink plant. It's the place where they make gas for cars and boy does it smell! I thought the smoke looked cool though.














Sue's make-up. I love this picture!














Julie showing me a couple of the pictures that she drew in art class!

















Sue being all goofy!

















Julie getting ready to take a nap.























Sue straightening my hair.




















More straightening hair:























Finished product!




























And now Christmas pictures!

We had a great time up north! Brunch, watching movies, helping cook dinner, enjoying our time up there. Everything was great. :)

Favorite Christmas Song

This is my favorite Christmas song this year. It's Kenny Chesney's, "All I want for Christmas is a real good tan."



This year for Christmas, I just want to leave and go some place warm, not worrying about everything about here. But due to lack of money, that isn't happening, but a girl can dream can't she?

Thoughts on Christmas

Warning: This post is not one of those happy-go-lucky-Christmas posts. If you want to read a happy, enjoyable, heart-warming Christmas post, go elsewhere.

This year I'm not in the Christmas spirit and I'm honestly not really looking forward to Christmas. Usually I have all of my Christmas cards made, addressed and ready to send either the day after Thanksgiving or by December 1. This year I'm blowing Christmas cards off all together. With getting ready for the Craft Fair in November, I didn't make any. I thought about sending out store bought cards, but it didn't feel right to me, so I decided I'm not going to send them out at all.

Typically the first week of December our Christmas tree is up. Nope, we still haven't went out and bought one. My scrapbooking room had to be done first so I could move all of that stuff from the living room into my scrapbooking room. That didn't get done because we were going to do the cookie exchange on December 1 at my house, but that didn't happen because of conflicts, so it got pushed out to December 8. We needed my scrapbooking room (which really is the dining room) to set up tables and for more space because my kitchen is TINY. Things are slowly getting moved into the scrapbooking room, but honestly, I don't feel like dealing with it now. I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth getting a Christmas tree this year. The only Christmas decorations that are even out are the two advent calendars that I have made.

Ok enough about all of that.

This morning a message board friend asked me if I there was anything that I was hoping to get for Christmas this year.

My answer was in a nut shell, not really, and that I could do without getting Christmas gifts. I had a really hard time this year coming up with a wish-list for Christmas. The few things that I need or want, I tend to buy myself. Lately it seems like I'm all about simplifying. I don't want a bunch of stuff to deal with. I'm trying to simplify and get rid of what we don't need. The things that I would like are books and clothes. I'm so picky about clothes, that I didn't dare put any on my Christmas list. Once again, I'm rambling and going on about nothing again.

I love to give Christmas gifts. But it seems like there are so many "stipulations" to give a gift. I would love to be able to give gifts that aren't judged by whether or not I bought what was on their list, how much I spent on it, and where I bought the gift from. I would love to be able to make more gifts too. I don't care make many homemade gifts anymore because of how they were received in the past. I would *love* to do a homemade Christmas one year. Where every gift that is given and received is home made. Those the the kinds of gifts I love and cherish. That would be my perfect Christmas.

I just feel that the true meaning of Christmas is lost. It all seems so commercialized and this year, I'm just really struggling with it this year. It also doesn't help that I haven't really felt myself for the last month or so either.

Design Team Project {{Christmas Trees}}

I made these Christmas Trees for my Design Team project this month. They are made out of the styrofoam cones, rolled paper, buttons and pins. TONS of PINS.

New glasses!

I picked up one pair of my new glasses last night after work. These are my everyday pair. I'm still waiting for my sunglasses to come in!

Aprons

I love aprons. I'm sure that means I'm such a dork, but I seriously love them. This weekend we got the paper and I seen this apron in the World Market ad.

I had to go and get it. There were only two left this afternoon when I was there! I know I put aprons on my Christmas list, but with World Market, you never know how long they are going to have something, so I bought it for myself for Christmas. But you can never have enough aprons! I love them. :)

Isn't that apron adorable?

Changes!

I have had glasses since second grade. I am now 24 so that means I have had them a few years. :) My eyesight is so bad that I can hardly see anything without my glasses on. If Jason moves my glasses when I'm in the shower, I can't find them again. Because my eyesight is so bad, that means I have to get annual eye exams. I was up for one in October and I never got around to it.

Lately I have been getting headaches and noticed that things are blurry again and made an eye appointment for last Tuesday. I had to make sure Jason was available to take me there because I have to have the glaucoma test and my eyes have to be dilated.

I was so excited that this year I didn't have to get the puff of air in my eye! They did drops for that this year, and then used a BRIGHT Blue light to check it out. That was so cool. The dilation wasn't a huge deal, but it was kinda funny trying to look at frames and see how I look in them with not being able to see the best, lol.

Speaking of trying on frames, I think I tried on close to 75 pairs of frames. YIKES! I miss the gal that has been there for the last couple of years helping me. She always found frames that fit my face shape. This gal, I kept telling her that I didn't like square frames and that's all she kept having me try on. I did try them on, but they looked so funny on me!

I really wasn't finding anything I liked, which wasn't a huge deal, because I *love* my black pair of glasses that I got last year. I was just going to get the lens replaced in those and possibly come back and order a new pair since I have money in my reimbursement account. The very last pair that I tried on, I really liked. Jason really liked them, and the gal said that they worked with my face. Then they had a buy one get one free pair deal going on. I decided to get a pair of sunglasses for that. I figure that would be a very good idea. I got a cool pair of those, at least I really like them. Once my new glasses come in, I will be ordering glasses for the pair that I wear all the time now. As a back-up pair and since I love them, and since I have money in my account.

But the best news was MY EYES GOT BETTER. Yes, you read that right, after years and years, of my eyes getting worse, THEY GOT BETTER!!!!!! Can you tell I'm just a little bit excited about that? My prescription went down by two steps she said. She thought that part of why my eyes got better was because I have a new job and am not staring at the computer monitor all day ever day. I still can't believe my eyes got better. She said my eye glasses should help with my headaches as well, since my current prescription is too strong.

Now to wait two weeks for my glasses to come in. :) I can't wait!

Recent Cards

Here are some cards that I made recently. Someone off of a message board wanted me to make five birthday cards. I ended up making 10 so they could have some choices. Here are the results.

Weight Loss

Lately I haven't been feeling good about how I look, yet again, and figured it was time to get back on Sparkpeople and tracking/watching what I eat. Since July I haven't been tracking my food and I've been trying to make healthy choices, but I know that I've really slacked off and can and should do better.

I've been putting off weighing myself, but figure since I'm going to start tracking my food again, I need to see how much I've gained. In those 4 months I've only gained 3 pounds! Granted, that is weight I shouldn't have gained, but from the way I was feeling it felt like a TON more than that. I'm so happy. Now to get those three pounds and some more off. Time to get serious again. :)

Saved $51.51 on groceries!!!

I've gotten into couponing quite a bit, and finding the best deals and stocking up when things are on sale. Saves money in the long run. Our budget for groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. is $200 a month. I thought it would be hard to plan meals on that, but since moving to using cash it's been easy.

Jason and I typically do our grocery shopping one day, and we shop for two weeks. If things are a really good deal or we are out in the area we do shop more than that. But typically it's once every two weeks. Tonight we ran out to eat and I had printed some Target coupons that I wanted to match up with the sales they have going on. Now, this isn't our typical shopping trip, we have food and meals planned out through the end of the month and I still had $60 left over. I figured I could stock up on some unnecessary items.

We bought the following:
6 bags of Cheetos (9 oz size and up)
12 bags of 14 oz M&M's
5 boxes Stove-Top Dressing
1 container Sour Cream (16 oz)

The normal retail value on the groceries is $60.36
With the sales going on the total was $30.10
After coupons we paid $8.85!!!

THAT IS A SAVINGS OF ABOUT 85%!!!!

Jason is thrilled, we is stocked up on Cheetos and M&M's. Now we normally only buy these items when they are on sale anyway, but with the coupons, it was an awesome deal!!

The Cheetos were 50 cents a bag. The M&M's were 28 cents a bag. The Dressing was 29 cents a box. And the Sour Cream was $1.04.

While we were there, we picked up a printer for me for Christmas. I need a printer hooked up to my laptop, and I also looked at the ink. Target has a special going on if you buy 2 single packs of ink you earn a $10 gift card. For the ink it was actually a pretty good deal since the ones for my new printer were marked down anyway. The $10 gift card is now going back into the Christmas money to buy more gifts.

Autumn Walk

Today I decided to take a break and take my camera, ipod and go for a walk. I managed to take 130 pictures in about 45 minutes. Here are my favorites.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12086456@N02/sets/72157603097656999

If you can't get the link to work, let me know. Comments are appreciated.

Been a while

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have a few pictures that I wanted to post for a while but haven't.

First I need to start out and say I am now officially part-time!!! As of October 31, I was part-time. My first actual part time day was Friday. I was in class in the morning and then at noon I was done for the day. I walked home, since I figured I could beat the bus home and I was right. It took about 15 minutes. The exercise is a good thing. :) I figure as long as it's not too cold or snowy I will walk home when I'm done at noon or 1 and when I work at noon or 1. My back-up plan is to take the bus. This next week I 1 1/2 days only! Plus I'm off Thursday, Friday, and Monday and don't have to take any PTO. I'm so looking forward to being part time and being able to take care of the house and Jason more. :)

The other day I was really wishing that I had a fall looking table cloth, napkins, and placemats. I didn't want to spend the money to buy one, and figured that I would just use my black & white one a little longer. Jason was upstairs cleaning out the extra bedroom, which turned into the storage room and pulled out a box. In it was the tablecloth that you see below with matching napkins! What perfect timing! I also pulled out my fall decorations. I haven't added anything to them, so the same as last year. I really like the small pumpkin on the kitchen table.















I made a couple of *very* simple cards for a wedding and for my niece's birthday. Jason said that she really liked her card and her favorite gift seemed to be the chapter book we gave her. She is just getting into chapter books and I got her a Junie B. Jones book.
















This week we went grocery shopping. I managed to get a couple of really good deals. For $6.88 I got 4 Pillsbury cake mixes and 4 Pillsbury frosting's, 1 jar of Jiff Peanut Butter and 1 box of Hungry Jack Pancake mix. I thought that was pretty good. Hy-vee had a great deal going on, where if you bought 10 products on a page, you got $5 off. Plus I used other coupons to get it lower. I'm planning on going back to do this one more time. Since I got more coupons. Ma you need any cake mixes??? :D

While we were at the store, I seen a whole row of pink cans. I thought they looked so cool I had to take a picture. I really think I embarrassed Jason this time. But I had to. How often do you see pink and white soup cans???













Jason and I also went to Target and other places today to get some Christmas shopping done. While at Target, there were some awesome clearance sales 75-90% off in the linen area. I can't tell you exactly what all we got, but if you have a Target it is WELL worth the time to go and look. We left there spending under $20 and with a cart full of stuff.

Let's see, I went to the Scrapbooking retreat last weekend and had a blast!!! I still need to take pictures of the altered stuff that I made, and need to finish up a couple projects. Expect pictures soon.

Oh and my business cards arrived!!!! They look AWESOME. WELL worth the money. I love them. They are perfect.