I Am Thankful for....

Family:

I shared Thanksgiving day with my family and we feasted together! It's comforting to be home for the holidays!!

Friends:

I got together with some friends that I haven't seen in years over the Thanksgiving break. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone!

Health:

As I spent time with both friends and family, I realized that how thankful I was to have everyone around me in good health, and prayers to my Grandma Schuld who is not. I hope for her to have peace very soon!

Massages:

I went for a massage on Saturday and it was just what I needed!

Vacations:

I loved having five days off from work and I don't want to go back!

A Job:

As much as I don't want to go back to work, I thank God I have a job during the difficult times our country is facing.

My friend Siobhan will return to work tomorrow from her maternity leave. I haven't been able to visit her and the baby at home yet, but I hope to surprise her with this little gift for Baby Gianna!

I Miss Paradise!

As the holidays sneak up on us and we are surrounded with snow and cold, I realize how carefree things were just one month ago. All of the wedding stress was behind us and we were laying on the beach in St. Thomas. What I wouldn't do to be back there!!! I remembered that I still haven't shared any photos, so I thought I would. Most of them are of the scenery and not us, but we are just not the type to walk up to others and ask them to take our photo. Thank God for self-timers or there may not be any of us!

A pool shot....we LOVE this pool!

In front of one of the fountains after dinner our first night...

There is a waterfall behind him, but you'd never know it!
Enjoy the 'other' pool post-hurricane...anxiously awaiting tha swim up bar to re-open....and enjoying a fabulous margarita!

A look at the home of David Letterman - or at least one of them! (white building on the cliff to the right)The view from my lounge chair at the pool...

The view from the balcony of our villa....

The sign for the building that our villa was part of....

Our villa....

I'll try to share more tomorrow.

This Week I....

...read this AWESOME book. You HAVE to read it! It's a sequel to The Christmas Shoes. Although it is $14.95 at Barnes & Noble, I'll let you in on a little secret. I got it at the Christmas Tree Shops for $3/2 for $5!! It's an easy read, it's heartwarming and very inspirational!!!

Updates

My friend, for whom I requested your prayers, did not have the surgery yesterday. She is not feeling well and in order to remove her bone marrow for her daughter she must be in tip-top shape. They will try again on Saturday. Please remember her, her baby girl and her family...

***Edited: I found out today (11/14), that my friend was doing well enough for them to go ahead with her surgery yesterday morning. The removal was successful, as well as the transplant to her daughter. We must now continue to pray that the baby's body accepts the transplant. This will prove to be a great deal of waiting and praying... The little one is just like her Mommy and the strength of the two of them combined is a force to be wreckoned with!

In happier news, Lucy will get her birthday treats tomorrow morning~hopefully! We had a minor set back with a flooded basement today, so things are moving slowly around here.Danny tasted them and gave his approval, so we tied them up tight and got them ready to be delivered to the birthday girl! We just need to make the drop now.

While Josh and the plumber were working away, I decided to get started on my parent's long overdue anniversary gift. I figured I should at least give it to them within the the same year they celebrated it! We'll see how this goes.

The first one already frustrated me and I planned on doing about eight more. You may remember the photos I took around my parents home last year at this time. I decided we would all appreciate them more if they weren't stuck in my computer, but hanging somewhere in their home instead. I am using some of those wonderful frame/shadowboxes that my father-in-law and his wife sent to me. Josh will be glad to see them out of the basement, and out of our house altogether for that matter!

Two down, too many to go!

Happy Birthday Lucy and A Request For Your Prayers

Lucy, Nicky's baby girl (dog), is five years old today. Danny and I are making her something special!!! We'll share later!



One of my best friends will have surgery today to try to save her daughter's life. I have not put a picture up, nor will I share their story, until the recovery period has passed. This is out of respect for her and her family. Just please know that there is a story and pray for a miracle!

It's Only Been a Month?!

Today we celebrate one month of wedded bliss!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, one month of marriage anyway...

I thought I would share the link to our wedding photo gallery in celebration. It should only take you...forever....to look through all of the photos Paul took. He did a wonderful job and I highly recommend him if you live in the area.

I've learned two things in one month of marriage:

1) I am incredibly lucky to have found a man who loves me the way he does....

2) It's not going to be easy!

For example, look what almost caused a divorce within the first month:
The lovely Mr. strolled in the door with this zillion inch flat screen one night after work. The day after we returned from our honeymoon, no less. Shouldn't we have agreed on that one before hand? Worse yet, he put it in our bedroom! Mwwwaaaaaa!! (That's just me kissing romance goodbye!) Hmmm....if that isn't the epitomy of the phrase "the honeymoon is over", I don't know what is!

New Cabinet and Blogger Tea

Just over a week ago, Nicky and I hit the road for this little place. We had planned to attend a Blogger Tea that Vicki had organized. We were able to meet a few other upstate bloggers and share conversation and a wonderful lunch with them. Along with Nicky and Vicki, Mary Ellen and Barbara were there. It was a quaint little group. My photos did not turn out; however, click on any of their names to see their photos and posts. After 3 1/2 hours of chatting and eating, oh and drinking the most delicious tea called "monkey picked tea", we headed out into the cold for some shopping. Nicky and I nearly made it through the entire barn without giving into our unnecessary wants and desires. Don't act like you don't know what I mean. Anyway, the second to last booth found us both as weak as ever. Nicky came home with some gorgeous theatre seating, which not only am I jealous of, but the fact that she already owns a set of four of these makes me just plain envious! I imagine she will post on them soon, as I struggled to find a good photo to share.I ended up purchasing this old talking machine, which I need to do a bit more research on. My apologies for the bad photo, as it is gloomy here today. (I probably should have removed all that wood on the floor next to it and behind it, as well. The kitchen floor awaits it completion....still.) The cabinet was somewhat affordable, but I now know why. First off, it doesn't talk because it's been gutted. But I knew that before buying it. Secondly, if you refer to the photo above, you will notice that the two doors are missing on the bottom of the cabinet. That is because they are too small and have about a one inch space between them when you go to close them. For this reason, I plan to run to Walmart this evening and get a small tension rod to hang a piece of fabric in there and hide all my dining junk....or umm, liquor. Uggghhhhh, I get so mad when I come home with things and find out that the seller misrepresented them in his or her booth. It seems to be quite common though.

I still plan to enjoy the cabinet just the same. It is becoming a wine/liquor cabinet, slowly but surely. Yes, I do already have one of those; however, one does not seem to be enough for some reason. I put one of my new PB napkins, from Lindsey, up there and some dried stems from a bouquet that my friend Meghan sent me just before the wedding. I think it looks really nice, despite those damned doors.

What do you think? I'll try to share another photo - post curtain makeover.Here is the top of the other wine/liquor cabinet....very full!

Lastly, the goodies that each of the wonderful ladies from the Blogger Tea gave out. Such wonderful little gifts, from really talented women! This first one is from Susan, who was not able to be there. Don't you just love that little mirror made with vintage wallpaper?! I will add it to the other vintage mirror in our guest room and start a collection, I think! An acorn needle sharpener from Vicki, who does it all with the sweetest little twins on her hips!! *And I should note, those hips have all but disappeared desite the twins birth being only a couple of months ago. Vicki, you look great!!

Pin cushion from the Mary Ellen...too cute!
Cute little glass jar from Nicky, filled with pink M&M's in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness, I believe! And a crown tag, for all of us queens!!!
Another wonderful pin cushion, this time from Barbara...fun, fun, fun!!

I really MUST learn to sew!

I gave out ornaments to help all the ladies get into the holiday spirit...

Edited: I hope I didn't offend anybody by sharing those over-the-top costumes in the last post. If so, I apologize!

GrosgrainStore.com Grand Opening & Giftcard Giveaway!!!!!!!!

GrosgrainStore.com Grand Opening & Giftcard Giveaway!!!!!!!! Go check it out!!!

Stop by the store, too! - Grosgrainstore.com

It's Clean....Mostly!

I have been working on the dining room/wedding clean-up since Friday evening. Wow! It wasn't necessarily more work than I had imagined, but it definitely took more time than I had imagined! Maybe I'm just moving slower these days??? (Yes, those are shoes on the table! Sorry! They look so pretty next to my dried bouquet and Josh's boutinierre...I wish I had a place to display them. Hmmm??)As you can see, I tried to get some use out of all of the leftover gourds and wheat jars from the wedding. I ended up with more than I knew what to do with, though I'm not proud to admit it. I'm sure if there was one more inch of space left in our house for decorating I could have come up with something, but we are really crowded here.... Though I did manage to put together, well really throw together, some sort of arrangement in the front yard with some of the hay from the wedding along with gourds, mums and one of the wagon wheels we used at the church. My mums are dead already. How does that happen? I thought they were hardy???? But I always seem to kill them!I was able to dust and get things put away - hopefully to sell on ebay or the knot. I have to make that a priority this week, along with those hideous dresses I want to sell.

I also salvaged these leaves from some of the centerpieces that the florist put together. The flowers were beyond dead, but the leaves still have some life left and they go great with the beeswax candle Josh's stepmother and father gave us. I will do my best to be back tomorrow with some other views of the dining room clean-up and my new liquor cabinet!!!!!! I leave you with these half finished place settings. I say half finished because I only have two leaf plates from Walmart's clearance last year. I saw them there again this year, so I need to go back and get two more. I added napkins today and our wine flutes from the wedding. I also want to put on the silverware pockets my mom made for the wedding. The pumpkins were our cake toppers! Nicky decoupaged those letters on them for me. Aren't they cute?!?!?

Halloween and A Mess....

I have so many things I want to post about and not enough time, so I seem to be avoiding it altogether. One of the reasons for this is that I sat down and spent about 45 minutes last Thursday producing a post and when I pressed publish post this damned blogger ate the entire thing. It vanished into thin air and was nowhere to be found, regardless of the periodic saving that took place as I typed. I was so disheartened that this is the first time I have been able to log back on. I am going to try to keep each post semi short while addressing at least a couple topics in each.

First up: my brother and sil's Halloween party last Friday...Josh had this costume, from about five years ago, that he bought to attend another party we never made it to. I hope none of you are wondering what he is there, as I'm not willing to repeat it!!

I thought I'd follow in his dirty footsteps, but in a cute, low key way and be "hung like a horse"!!!!!

McAllister - Geek Squad and Nicky - poodle skirt wearing, hop attending girl were our dates.

And the evening would not have been complete without Martha. I made these Lady's Fingers from her Halloween Book. They truly look like fingers, but taste like a pretzel or dough-y breadstick. I usually bring them to Halloween parties that we attend. They always seem to be a hit!
We got into a little trouble with these eyeballs. They are made of some sort of glubbery, snotty material. We decided we'd race them by throwing them against the wall and seeing whose slid down the fastest. Sommmmebody accidentally got one stuck to the ceiling aaaannnd it didn't come off. Needless to say, we'll need to bringing my brother some flat white paint to patch that spot up.

Next up is the reason I'm too busy to post:

This is STILL the leftovers from our wedding...

It looks as though our wedding threw up on our dining room...

Some parts of the mess actually look pretty....
...others not so much!

It's all very overwhelming!

I am trying to work on it a little at a time. I give a few things away here, throw a few things out there. It's just not cutting it! I need to take a day off and just knock it out....

There's always the three days we have off for Thanksgiving, right?!