let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... (again)

Yep... it's official. I have found the first downfall to working from home... there are no snow days. I can't call in the office saying, "Sorry, just can't make it in today... there's just too much snow, and the roads are terribly icy... the schools are closed, and I just don't think the driving conditions are safe..."

Unfortunately, even though the roads might be icy... my little spiral staircase leading downstairs to the office appears to be perfectly dry... not a snow flurry in sight. Bummer.

However, it does make for a beautiful window view.

weekend festivities...

Here's what we were up to this weekend...

On Thursday, our friends Molly & Justin were in town to start my weekend off earlier than normal... I picked Molly up for a lunch date at Dooley's (the awesome pretzel place I talked about in the previous post). Our friend Allie met us on her lunch break as well... conversation swirled over yummy pretzel sandwiches, ranging from cold weather attire, to Molly's upcoming move to NY, to the circle of friends, to Fubu boots... no conversation is off limits when eating pretzel sandwiches.

Then Thursday night we met back up with Justin & Molly, John & Allie... and our new friends, Jason & Rachel (they moved from Louisville just as we moved to Louisville... I'm still a little bitter about this). We, along with the kiddos, ate dinner at Homerun Burgers... I'm in love with their cajun fries.

We then pulled a late night in the (ahem) classy (yet very empty) hotel bar where Jason & Rachel were staying. I have not laughed that much in a very.long.time. Seriously. My cheeks hurt, I think I peed in my pants a little, and before I knew it, it was nearly 2:00am. A great night.

Friday I put in a hard day's work (swear)... and then we were off to a birthday dinner for this special friend. We went to Jenny's favorite restaurant, Erika's German Restaurant... and I'm so glad we did... it was amazing. I almost felt like I was back in Waldkraiburg eating with co-workers. I had the jaegerschnitzel and spatzle... so delicious.

Saturday was fabulous. I slept in ridiculously late... like-a-high-schooler-wasting-away-their-summer-late... and it felt so good. Lance and I caught the afternoon showing of Voyage of the Dawn Treader... I strongly recommend. For dinner, we stepped into Martini's Italian Restaurant, which was the perfect cozy spot to escape the cold and the rain.

Today was equally fabulous... we woke up to a snow-covered ground, headed to church, then back home for Italian leftovers and a lazy day of ABC Family Christmas movies and chocolate chip cookies.

Could not have asked for a better weekend... What about you??

thankful thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

1) Our little 3 ft tree. I was pretty disappointed initially when Lance and I realized there was no way we would be able to fit a real tree in our house this year. But I have to say... our little 3 ft tree from Target is bringing quite the Christmas cheer. And there's another one downstairs! They came as a set of 2:)

2) My lunch date today. Today I am meeting this friend for lunch. I am beyond excited to see her, and am so glad we were reconnected via blogland. And... as a bonus we are going to one of my new favorite lunch spots...

3) Dooley's. Only the most amazing sandwich place ever. They serve sandwiches on PRETZELS! I mean, seriously... how genius? I'm sure they are not the first and only place to do this, but these pretzels are oh-so-good. Baked fresh daily, with different kinds... it puts any mall pretzel place to shame. (Oh, and they have bagels too.)

he & she

{photo via Eckland Court}

he is relieved to have completed his first semester of seminary.

she is attempting to decorate their little rental for christmas.

he is loving all of this cold weather and snow.

she is learning to dress in layers.

they have officially joined a new church.

he is following ESPN and all of the bowl game excitement.

she is watching ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas every chance she gets.

he is using his spare time to read and get ahead of the game for next semester.

she is using her spare time with paper and scissors, documenting the holiday season.

they are hoping to catch a couple of UofL basketball games this year.

he is very involved with our church's mercy ministry.

she is still traveling once a month for work.

he has mastered his mom's brunswick stew recipe.

she has successfully finished wrapping and shipping all of their Christmas presents.

they are thrilled to be traveling to Houston this year for the holidays.

~~~

Disclaimer: I totally stole this idea from Elise's blog... she is a creative genius. You can read my first "he & she" post here.

top 2 tuesday

This week's Top 2 Tuesday is your favorite Christmas ornaments.

1) My cheap plastic red ball ornaments. I'm pretty sure I bought these at Wal-Mart a few years back... nothing really spectacular about them. But for the past 2 years, theses are really the only ornaments that have made it out of storage and onto our tree. We have been in a different house the past 2 years, and this year I hardly know where all of our Christmas decorations are. Kind of sad, I know. But I have grown to love the simplicity of these ornaments... and they look fabulous on our little 3 foot tree:)

2) Our First Christmas ornament. Every year I try to find an ornament that is meaningful for me and Lance. Something simple that will remind us of that year together. This is obviously from our first Christmas together in 2004. This year I want to try documenting the meaning behind each ornament... something maybe to include in our December Daily:)

Visit Taylor's blog at The Undomestic Momma to link up and share your own favorite Christmas ornaments!

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I actually live in a place where it snows. So weird. I don't think it snows a ton in Louisville, but definitely more than anywhere I have lived in the past. Don't get me wrong... we would typically get 1-2 snows a year in Habersham... but it's just different here. People don't freak out here. They don't go to the grocery store to stock up on bread, milk and eggs, for fear of getting snowed in. They don't cancel all schools at the sight of a single snow flurry. They actually know how to drive in this weather. It's quite amazing actually. And it's really, really pretty. I'm not sure if I will be saying how pretty it all is come February. But for now... it's beautiful.

These pictures were taken just around the corner from our house. Don't they look like they belong on a postcard? Maybe with the lyrics of "over the river and through the woods..."

december daily {days 21-31}

The last few pages of my 2009 December Daily...

{day 21} On December 21st, Jenna and I decided our bodies simply couldn't handle any more snowboarding lessons, so we set out to do something that we both knew we were already very good at... shopping, of course! I created the filmstrip by using a Pages template on my computer and just trimmed out the photo portion.

{day 22} This page just included a few simple photos that were taken from the car window of our drive from Colorado to Kansas. I did my journaling directly on one of the photos with a silver gel pen. I used the same paper and same reindeer cut out that I used on day 21 to tie the two pages together.

{day 23} On The 23rd, I used a plain piece of red cardstock for my background, then added three photos from our day (with rounded corners, of course) and a tag with a bit of journaling. Then on the opposite side I used one photo from our shopping trip and included my receipt in an outside pocket.

{day 24} Christmas Eve was extra special this year, because my cousin and his wife had their second baby... little Tanner! So, I did a small layout using a picture of mama's preggo belly and big sister Paige. On the next page I used a page protector that was supposed to be for wallet photos or business cards and trimmed it down to the size I wanted. Our tradition is to open family photos on Christmas Eve, so I included some of these photos here.

{day 24 cont} The backside included a few more photos from our present craziness. I also punched holes directly in the church bulletin from our Christmas Eve service.

{day 25} As you can see, day 25... as in the Christmas Day... as in what probably should be the most important page of this entire book... is very incomplete. I'm thinking this page will be very simple... one, maybe two photos, and a bit of journaling... or maybe just a simple Bible verse. I really want to focus on the purpose of the day.

{day 26} Many people choose to end their December Daily books after day 25... which is perfectly fine. I wanted to continue through the entire month of December, because we usually still have so much going on, and I knew we would still be celebrating Christmas with Lance's family. So... I used day 26 to document our day at the bowling alley. A few photos, some fun cut-outs, a small journaling tag, and my personal favorite, the "bowling" cut-out. I had been holding on to that piece for a few years and was so happy to have a reason to finally use it!

{day 27} This is actually a long green envelope adhered to half of a sheet of red cardstock. I used the green envelope to hold my list of thank you notes that I wanted to write to friends and family that thought of us over the holidays. I also attached my plane ticket coming back from Denver to Atlanta.

{day 28} No pictures. Just a little bit of journaling talking about how excited we were to see Lance's brother and sister-in-law and our twin nieces! The fun swirly design was actually a sticker that came in a holiday package I bought last year.

{day 29} I used another one of the clear plastic album pages (like what I used on day 14 & 15). I had a zillion pictures of the girls opening their presents, so I created a little accordion style pull out for each girl...

{day 29 cont} I love this page. There are more photos on the back... because you can never have too many pictures of these adorable girls... really.

{day 30} Again... not quite finished. But I don't really have any photos from December 30th, so this page will probably be mostly journaling. We went to see Avatar, so I might just print up a write up about the movie... not quite sure yet.

{day 31} Obviously... need to work on this one too. I will more than likely include a few photos from my New Year's Eve with the girls and my plane ticket to Little Rock, AR.

Okay... no more extremely long December Daily posts. Promise. Well, at least until I finish my 2010 December Daily:) I do love this project though. I am hoping this will become a little tradition of ours...

santa claus is coming to town...

Or at least to the super ghetto-fabulous mall by my office. I was a little disappointed in the Santa at the Gwinnett Place mall this year. There was absolutely no one waiting in line to see him, he looked incredibly bored, he sounded nothing like Santa (and didn't even try to sound jolly), and his beard was entirely too short.

But... I still needed to let Santa know what was on my Christmas list this year... so, my favorite co-workers and I ventured over for a fabulous photo opportunity. It was a great lunch break to my last day at the office before I flew back to Louisville. And don't you think this photo will look great on day 2 of this year's December Daily album?!?!

thankful thursday

This Thursday I am thankful for:

1) The fact that it is December. I love this month. The month of December gives you full rights to celebrating Christmas. No more worrying about skipping over other holidays... full freedom.

2) Upcoming visits from friends. I have some very exciting visitors coming to Louisville over the next week. Tomorrow, one of my very best friends and old college roommates/teammates, is driving up from GA for the weekend. I am super excited to show her my new city. Then a few days later, these special friends will be making a pit stop in Kentucky... cannot wait!!

3) Soup. There is just something about a big bowl of hot soup on a cold wintery day. I am a huge fan of potato soup and vegetable soup... you just can't beat it. Soup, football and cold weather... they just go together.

december daily {days 11-20}

Can you believe that it is already December-flippin'-1st? I can't. I mean, December... already... I love it.

Seeing as it is December 1st... I will officially start recording my days for this year's December Daily. Who knows... maybe I'll even get a crazy and start putting of my book together in 2010...

But first thing's first... here are days 11-20 from last year's December Daily. (You can see days 1-10 here.)

{day 11} On December 11th, I shipped off all of our wrapped Christmas presents to Kansas, so we wouldn't have to fly with them... So for day 11, I included a photos of our wrapped gifts all ready to go, right before I taped up the box. There is a little bit of journaling, along with my number 11 sticker.

{day 12} The first part of day 12 was simply the invitation to my company's holiday party. I just adhered it directly to some red cardstock.

{day 12 cont} On the back of my party invitation I included a few photos from the company party with a little bit of text. I used several circle cut-outs from a gift tag package I purchased last year.

{day 13} There was a song that came out last year, called "Give this Christmas Away" by Amy Grant and Matthew West that really spoke to me... I loved the lyrics and wanted to include them in my December Daily... so I just printed up the words to the song for my day 13. Pretty simple.

{day 14} My parents still have me send them a Christmas list every year (hey, no complaints here)... so for day 14 I included a copy of the email I sent to my mom & dad with my very own wish list on it. I put the email on some fun scrapbook paper, then adhered the whole thing to a plastic album cut-out. I love how this page is really thick... and I really love those WISH letters.

{day 15} Every year Lance and I try to purchase Christmas presents for a family in need. So, for day 15, I wrote a little note about why this tradition has become so important to us. I tucked the note along with the family's wish lists inside a square red envelope. I used some sparkly letter stickers to spell out "give" on the flap of the envelope and tied a few strands of ribbon on the other end. I love this page.

{day 16} Every year I try to make some homemade chex mix (or Texas Trash, as we call it) and take it into the office to share. Lance helped me make two huge batches last year. I used a 5x7 black and white photo on the top and wrote my journaling directly on the picture with a gel pen. I included a few more photos on the bottom of both the process and the finished product. Oh... and I added a little recipe card right in the middle of my album with the Texas Trash instructions:)

{day 17} Okay... so day 17 isn't exactly completed yet. But I have it all planned out in my head. I will use the magazine page shown above as the background for the layout, then will add a little bit of journaling talking about my sister and I planning for our trip to Colorado. See... all planned out.

{day 18} This little page was so simple... but I love the way it turned out. I cut out a strip of snowflake paper and just journaled where I had space... I attached a little snowflake with some ribbon tied on top... added the number 18... and called it done.

{day 19} Do you remember the number cut-out page I used for day 4? Well, I trimmed a "1" and a "9" out of my leftovers from that paper to use as my "19." This was the day that Jenna and I flew to Denver, so I included our plane ticket and a little bit of journaling about our trip and our lovely dinner.

{day 20} Day 20 starts with a fun green chipboard tag that came in one of the holiday packages I bought last year. I added a photo of me and Jenna from our Steamboat trip, along with the date.

{day 20 cont} This is quite possibly one of my favorites. I used the backside of the chipboard tag for my journaling. I had typed out my journaling for this day before I really knew what the layout would look like... so I got the idea to just trim out the text, line by line, and just adhere it directly to my chipboard tag. I love how this turned out. The Steamboat page I created mostly on my computer. I used a Pages template to add my photos and text, then trimmed around the edges so I could place it on top of some sun snowflake paper I wanted to use. The green Steamboat sticker was a souvenir I picked up from our trip.

Days 21-31 coming soon...