It's OK Thursday

I recently stumbled across an adorable blog called Brunch with Amber.

She holds a linkup on Thursdays called "It's Okay Thursday" which seemed fun, so I thought I'd join in!

It's OK...

...to be completely finished with your Christmas shopping when December rolls around.

....to "track" your new t.v. that is being shipped to you multiple times a day to figure out when it will arrive. 

...to be a couple minutes late to work after turning around, driving back home, and running inside to make sure I turned the stove off.

...to become annoyed when your husband can't seem to keep track of his travel mugs and you just bought him a new one (which he already lost...).

...to feel guilty that I don't have to dress up for work and to realize that it is a big deal when I wear jeans to work. Perks of nannying, I guess.

...that I planned to start working out with the husband last week and still haven't yet.

...that my home was sparkling clean on Monday and now it is quite opposite of clean.

What's OK with you today?

This Week

• We had some of our wonderful friends, Kevin and Carly, over for dinner on Monday. We have so much fun with them. We laugh, tell stories, drink wine, watch How I Met Your Mother and have the men prepare our meals. We switch off between our places each time which is just perfect. It was our turn to have them over and Stephen made Risotto. It was to-die-for. Creamy, delicious, filling, amazing. I just love being married to a chef!

• I am consuming lots of Airborne and vitamins. One of the girls I watch has been sick with the stomach flu and a high fever. I can't afford to get sick.

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• The hubby received his number one choice for his culinary school externship! He interviewed on Monday and they loved him. He will be doing butchery and charcuterie- two things he is very interested in. I am so proud of him.

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• We are soaking in everything about the holiday season that is upon us. Our home is decked with lights, are beautiful tree, stockings, and cute decorations I have started to collect. One thing I love the most though is having the ornaments I have collected throughout my life on our tree. My grandma has given me a Hallmark angel ornament each year of my life.  I didn't grow to appreciate these until a few years ago when I realized I would have a these special ornaments at my own home when I got married. Last weekend, I picked them up from my mom and had so much fun going through them and hanging them on our tree. There are still a few that I am missing which are somewhere in our storage unit. But they are so special to me. What is neat is that Stephen's grandparents also gave him an ornament each year- his are not all one type of ornament though. We will be picking his up from his mama this weekend and adding them to our tree and collection, too! 

These are just three angels out of my entire collection. Someday I will probably have to have my own, smaller tree just to hold all my angels so we have room for our future children's ornaments...

• I am constantly reminding myself to be grateful for the job I have. Some days I get sad that I am not in the classroom teaching like I would love to be, but I know that I should be happy just to have a job right now.

Decorating Christmas Trees

I am a nanny for three beautiful little girls.  They are just getting old enough to be interested in crafts and coloring, and I am loving it! Yesterday, one of the two year old twins asked me if we could color.So instantly, I got an idea. I went into the office where they keep their craft supplies and found construction paper, scissors, and glue. I cut out a tree and a star for each of them and had them help me glue their pieces onto a white paper for the background. Voila! Now they had a Christmas picture to color. They loved this project. It held their attention longer then I expected and they even colored the back, too! 

My plan is to hang them in one of their large windows overlooking the street. Very cute!

The success of this project has made me eager to find some other cute inspiration for Christmas crafts. So, naturally, I turned to Pinterest. Here are some things I am planning to make with the kiddos:

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I cannot wait to get some supplies and make these adorable Christmas crafts! Happy crafting.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It certainly was not me who hid behind the bathroom door in the hall bathroom in hopes to scare my husband. And it was not my husband who squealed and laughed because he knew I was going to jump out and scare him. We are grown up and mature and never play such childish games.

I made these yummy Gingerbread Cookies on Sunday. However, it was not me who became so consumed in writing my blog post about our crazy Christmas Tree Adventure that I burned one pan of them. Nope! Not me! My husband did not look over at me and say "You took the cookies out of the oven, right? Because, if not, they are definitely burned by now." It was not me who opened the oven door to see smoking, black, crispy cookies. 

What about you? What have you not been doing? I'd love to read your posts if you would be so kind to leave your link for me. Happy Monday!

An Adventure: Christmas Tree Style

My husband, Stephen, was a boy scout growing up. So, when discussing where we should go to get our tree this year, it didn't surprise me that he suggested going to a local boy scout stand (like where we got the tree we put it my apartment last year) and supporting a group like that. We ended up going a little out of the way to a 4-H group that was selling trees for a very great price. All in all, we didn't end up cutting down our own three this year (that's okay with me) but it was freshly cut. 

This is the cute little place we picked out are tree at. The one we picked was huge, but more on that later. They also had a huge truck filled with more trees. But out of the ones leaning up here we picked the tallest, greenest, and prettiest one. Stephen has a small pick up truck, however, his tags are expired and we are in the process of getting new ones. So we ended up having to take my small car to get our tree. We though we would put it in my trunk and have it stick out a bit (my trunk is huge) but with the large tree we picked it was not going to go inside the car no matter how we tried to put it in there. 

So we moved to plan b. I was a little nervous about putting the tree on my car (my baby) but it worked out fine. Stephen tied it down and it didn't move an inch. We had a 20 mile drive home and we were totally fine. 

Once home, hubby untied the tree and carried it inside. Then the problems occurred. What a story we have about our first tree. First of all, we didn't realize how tall it was and this because more of a problem because we couldn't get it all the way inside our (cheap) stand because of the many knots down on the bottom of the tree. Also, hubby doesn't have all the right tools yet. We really could have used a hand saw (note to self: that would be a good birthday present next year). He thought he managed to work the knots off but the first time we got the tree up, and walked away, we heard it fall over. Ugh, really! Then I realized that Stephen had already put water in the stand so this was going to be a real mess. We laid it down, stood it up, turned it this way, that way, spilled water everywhere, said a few not-so-nice words, and used many towels to mop up the mess. But finally, we got it. 

Now, remind me to buy a better stand during the after Christmas sales this year. Thanks! 

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We found our tree....

Vampires, really?

My 15 year old sister was into Twilight before I was. There once was a day when I never thought in a million years I would ever read a series about vampires and werewolves. Ever. I mean, I couldn't think of anything more lame to write or read about- how could these books possibly be interesting? Man, was I wrong. 

The first time I read the series was a year and a half ago. I was nannying for one little girl during the summer who litterally slept 4-5 hours a day when I was there. So needless to say I had a lot of time on my hands. I decided that I should spend my time doing something meaningful while I sat there and got paid, so I decided to give Twilight a chance. I was hooked instantly. 

I don't know if it is the love story, the suspense, the werewolves, or the mind boggling interactions between an ordinary clumsy human and a blood thirsting vampire that really draw me in. I know what happens in the end. I know who Bella ends up with because I have read this before. But even the second reading this series, I am just as intrigued in every little aspect of the novels. Stephenie Meyer really knows how to write and a good, solid story at that.

If you haven't read Twilight you must give it a shot. I am not a reader. Well, I should say I used to not be a reader. But now I love these books and many others too. "The Host" by Stephenie Meyer is another must read. She has such a creative mind. 

 My hubby is out with the guys tonight. I just got home from hanging out with a girl friend and now I am going to cozy up in my jammies, crank up the heat, light some candles, and read my book. Happy weekend!