Crazy Little Thing Called Life

Cards gone wild. Not really.

1.  Yesterday's journal topic was Christmas cards. 
We ended up doing our cards super easy this year...thank you Costco.  When you need 200 or so (Iz sends them to clients at work)...it's a whole lot less spendy that way too.
This was my Plan A:

But it was a lot of white...and Iz didn't really like it that much.  Fine.
Plan B:

Vetoed.  Again by my husband.  He didn't like the naughty or nice cirlce thingy.
And he wasn't crazy about the black & white photo.
We ended up with this one from Costco...
here's my page for yesterday:
 
Ta-da!
 
I added the dictionary page of 'card' behind the tree top.  I was just too lazy to take another picture.
I punched holes in a little card and journaled on the back of it:

It's not attached or anything...just loosey goosey. 
I can't tell you how many times I checked the spelling of our names on the card.
I was afraid to click.  And then it didn't help that it asked me if I was SURE my spelling was correct.  And then I had to check a box saying I had checked my spelling.
I broke out in a little sweat. 

2.  Now that I have 200 cards I suppose I should think about actually addressing and mailing them.  ugh.
We received our first Christmas card yesterday from friends in Iowa.  Friends that we basically keep in touch with through our once yearly Christmas card exchange.  But it's fun to see how their kids have grown. :)

3.  How are you coming with your Christmas shopping?
I'm going to run and duck in case you have some rotten tomatoes handy...but I'm about 85% done.  Wrapped and everything.

4.  Good luck to the Lions tomorrow at the State Championship Game!  
We're leaving bright (well, dark) and early as the game is at 10am.  I'd love to see them be able to win just one more. :)

5.  And finally, to the fine young gentleman on the bicycle yesterday who evidently didn't think I was going to stop for him as he DARTED out into the road...(I did)...
Both 10 year old girls in the van with me thought it was HILAROUS that you flipped the bird.
Oh, they acted all shocked and appalled...but they were quite giggly over it.
Me...not so much.
Next time you dart your little bicycle out in front of me, I'll try harder to give you something to be nervous about. 
As my husband likes to say...Good thing I don't drive a dump truck.

Happy National Dice Day!
(You didn't know that, did you?)

 
 
   

Day 2, thrift store success, and my naughty cat.

So yesterday's prompt for my Journal Your Christmas book was the weather.
Didn't we have a white Christmas last year?  I thought we did. 
It was cold enough to snow yesterday.  Brrrr.  I'm not ready for snow yet.

This was my page for yesterday.  My homage to all our lovely rain.

and the page behind it:

which is pretty boring...but it's got all that busy transparency stuff on top of it.
2.  Get it?  For December 2?  I copied Alissa.

My Thrift Store expedition yesterday was a success!
The item I wanted and regretted not buying last week was still there.
Oh that's funny.  I took this picture by my sliding glass door, and you can see the reflection of our back yard.  Just so you know our back yard isn't part of the Nativity scene.
 
I'm not sure why this Nativity snow globe/music box was on my mind all week, but it was.
It's so pretty.  And heavy.  The wisemen at the bottom go around and it plays O Little Town of Bethlehem.  I love it. :)
It wasn't in the same place as last week...so at first I thought it was gone.
Such a sad moment.
But then I found it.   And, as promised, I cradled it throughout the store.
Until it got really heavy, at which point I snagged the last shopping basket and put it in there.  
I also found a cute old book on canning and freezing, 2 records (I have plans for them...plans that don't require a record player.  Although I think my parents still have a functioning one in case my Plan A doesn't work out), and the book 'Shaggy Dog and the Terrible Itch' for Ian.  
We read it last night.  It's hilarious.

Ian celebrated Advent yesterday morning by opening up a pair of monkeys.
Argh.
I caught Romeo sneaking up behind Ian's pirate set-up and my Nativity creche.
He then proceeded to start gnawing on the stable.  
I was a little afraid my next blog entry would be titled 'The Cat Who Ate Baby Jesus'...so I shooed him off and told him he was naughty.  He doesn't like it when you tell him he's naughty.  He slinks away all sorry-like.  It's pretty pathetic.
He hasn't been back for seconds.
So far. 
For all I know he's up there all night long gnawing to his little heart's content.
Maybe I should go check if all my Nativity people are present and accounted for.   

Enjoy your Thursday...
Happy Birthday Kate!  (Or is it tomorrow?)  Gotcha!! 

Wednesday List-o-rama.

1.  Journal Your Christmas has begun! :)
The first page is your statement...sort of what you'd like for the holidays...what you resolve to do (or not do).  
 
This is the front of my first page.  I should add here that I resolve to finally take a picture that's totally in focus.  I am so tired of fighting with my lens/camera.  pfffft. 
Then again, it's not terrible considering the best light in my house after the sun has gone down is in my bathroom. :P
Here's the back:
 

2.  It's Thrift Store Wednesday!  Woohoo!
There's a little something that I should have bought last Wednesday when I was there.  But I didn't.  And I've been regretting it all week.  If it's still there (HA!!) tomorrow...I will snatch it and then cradle it all through the store.
I can't say what it is, because that will jinx me somehow.
And I'm not even a superstitious person.

3.  They do not accept checks at Trade Secret in the mall.
They will, however, watch you fill out your check register with the date, store name, and check amount...and then proceed to watch you start filling out your check before they inform you of that fact.
Oh...and if you're there for the 'Buy one matte OPI polish, get one free' promotion...don't bother.  Unless you want green or white nail polish.  Because it's not ALL matte OPI nail polish on sale...just the special ones in the 9"x9" area.  And it's green or white baby.

4.  I have a new guilty pleasure.

Have you seen Pawn Stars?  It's on the History Channel.
I find that really, really amusing for some reason.
You can actually learn quite a bit.  It's kind of like Antique Roadshow meets Orange County Choppers...but in a pawn shop in Vegas and not as many motorcycles. 

5.  Enjoy your Wednesday.  It's early release.  woohoo.
That was fake.
Could you tell?
 

Because nothing says 'Merry Christmas' like pirates.

Last year I found a Playmobil Advent set...one of those after Christmas bargains.  Ian loved the Lego one last year...so I thought something different would be fun.  Honestly, I didn't even really look at the box.  I saw Advent...and it was a done deal.
I should have read the fine print.
Argh, matey.
Don't get me wrong.  I like pirates.
I like a good pirate movie.  I like saying 'swashbuckle'. 
I'm just not sure pirates and Advent go together.

Evidently they do now.  We will shiver our timbers, walk the plank, dig for buried treasure, AND celebrate Baby Jesus' birthday.  After all, Baby Jesus loves pirates. 
He loves everyone.

The box didn't say 'assembly required' either.  
Well, if it did...it didn't say it would be close to an hour.

All those little numbered boxes had to be hand assembled, hand stuffed with the little toys (following the directions, of course) and put in their rightful places.  
With the Lego set...you pretty much just open the box, and boom...there it is.
After yesterday...I can appreciate that.  

So happy first day of December!  Only 24 more days until Christmas. :)
Today starts my fun Journal Your Christmas class.  If you scroll down...she has Miss Alissa's album there. :) 
I'm off to run errands in Bellingham...enjoy your Tuesday!

holy cow...what a weekend!

A recap...if you will...
Last Wednesday I went to Belle's class.  They made apple pies...and did quite an impressive job, too.  After that, I met up with Alissa and hit the thrift store.
 
That's Steve.  Not Alissa's Steve...my friend Steve.  Belle's good friend Kate's dad...and owner of Callie, quite possible the coolest dog in the world.  
He was very excited to find that bamboo steamer he's holding.  And Alissa found some old metal frogs...those thingys that go in the bottom of vases to hold the flowers in place.  Except she's going to use them differently.  She's going to display cool scrappy stuff with them.  And now I want to find some old, metal frogs too. 

On Thursday we had a lovely Thanksgiving.  Did you have a good day?
My folks came over...

My dad is always trying to kiss my mom.  Drives my mom nuts...but I think it's sweet.
I hope Iz is still trying to kiss me when he's 84.
Dinner was yummy...

Peace and harmony abounded:
 

 I got up and did a little shopping on Black Friday.  
I got one of these:

yay!  That Twilight Woods stuff smells delish.  The bag and all the goodies was $15 when you spent $40...plus I had a coupon.  I was a woman on a mission.  I went right to the Sleep stuff that I love:

grabbed a couple of other things, got my bonus bag, and headed to the checkout.
Didn't even have to wait more than a minute in line.
I was out of there in about 6 minutes.
I couldn't believe the women that were wandering around aimlessly, smelling this and that...asking their friends, "Do you think this smells nice?  What about this one?  How bout THIS one?"  You have to have a plan, ladies.
A battle plan. 

Like I said earlier...I was holding out for a real Christmas tree, but the family caved.
Somehow we went from this:
 
to this:

with minimal fussing and fighting.  I love this little snowman family:

Saturday was our EARLY morning trek to Tacoma.  We played the 10am game...and I am happy to report that Arch Bishop Murphy is no longer a thorn in our butts!  The Lions won 38-14.  Yay!  Luke spent 3 quarters and 10 minutes doing mostly this:

but then the whole JV team got to go in for the last couple of minutes. 
Which was pivotal to the win. :)

Woohoo Lions!

We play West Valley from Spokane? I think next Saturday at the Dome at 10am for the state championship.

Today is the last day of November.  I have to say I'm excited for December to start.
Lots of fun stuff coming up...
Enjoy your Monday! :)

 
   
 

heading to Tacoma...

Good luck Lions!!  They play at 10am today.

In other news...
I stood firm in wanting a real Christmas tree.
I did.
But alas, when my children learned that we wouldn't have a tree for a couple more weeks, they caved and begged to put up the fake one.
So we did.
:)

Enjoy your Saturday...except yesterday felt like Saturday.
It's one of those messed up weeks.
But in a good way.

It's 5:27 am...

and I'm headed out the door for some Black Friday shopping.
I'm late this year.  But I only have a few places to go.
I have friends that met at Starbucks at 3:15...and will shop until late tonight.
They even go down by Seattle.  They're hard core.
Wish me luck.  I'll try and be back with an update.

***Edited to add:
I'm home! :)  I totally lucked out...got great parking spots...got in and out of the stores I wanted to hit.  Got my Bath & BodyWorks bag-o-goodies, got my socks at Fred Meyer.  And I didn't even have to wait in line at Starbucks.  woohoo!
Did you go shopping today?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends!
We're having a small group this year...just the 6 of us and my parents. 

Gotta run...we have church at 10...Ian & Isabelle are singing with the kids choir.
Happy Thanksgiving!