Just thought I'd mention that I am blogging with my new laptop while sitting on the couch watching Season 1 of The Facts of Life. Life is Good.

What a Christmas!

Dan has really outdone himself again this year. He really does a great job of gift giving. I got lots of great presents, including my new 8 inch LCD tv/dvd player for the kitchen. Now I can watch tv and wash dishes at the same time. I won't miss out on some of my favorite shows. I also got THE JOY OF COOKING, some fuzzy socks, a cd, and perfume. And then I opened my last gift. As I opened the box there was a piece of paper on top that read: Sorry Honey, your gift is not in this box. Let's go downstairs to get it.
I couldn't figure out what he had planned....but my surprise gift was a laptop computer. We have been talking for awhile about getting me my own computer but I didn't think he would get one so soon. I am really loving my gift.
Yesterday evening, we went to my parents and celebrated Christmas with my family. It was alot of fun so I thought I'd post some pictures.




Griffin Garrett Natalie



Meredith


I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Modern technology is great...when it works correctly. I am really annoyed right now at the brand new celing fan that we put in the spare bedroom. We replaced the old one back in Sept/Oct. and because it's a room we seldom use, the fan hasn't been used very much either. Here's the problem: the fan we installed did not come with any pull chains to turn the light/fan on or off. Instead it came with a wall mounted remote that has the switches on it. Tonight I was working on a painting project in the spare room and when I left it to dry I wanted to keep the fan on but turn the light out. So, I pushed the light button on the remote and it went off. Something then happened in the next 20 minutes because when I went to turn the light back on, nothing happened. Dan and I both tried and tried but for whatever reason, the remote is not working and there is no other way to turn the light on. *SIGH*

This means, that Dan will have to take down this fan so I can try and return it tomorrow for a better model. ONE WITH PULL CHAINS!!!!!!

Why divorce is sometimes inevitable...

Check out this link to a page I came across. Pretty crazy. I'd call this one white trash in a wedding dress.


http://www.tenthousandframes.netfirms.com/phpbb/nfphpbb/viewtopic.php?t=44

What a week!

This past week I have realized just how thankful I am to NOT be Laura Ingalls. I've always loved that show and they make their life seem like so much fun. I always thought it'd be great to be a part of the Ingalls family. This week I was jolted back into reality when we were without power for 6 days. *Note to self* It was not fun!

Last Thursday evening when the storm hit, we were at home watching the tree branches fall out of our neighbors tree. Then my mom called to let us know they didn't have power, and that made me realize just how bad it was. It hadn't really occurred to me to be concerned about losing power, until I talked to my mother.

We finally lost power late Thursday night sometime around midnight. There wasn't much we could do about it, so we went to bed.

Friday morning, Dan went to work and left me in a cold house with nothing to do. I lasted until about 10am and then I called my neighbor across the street, that still had electricity, and asked if I could come over and spend the day with her and the kids.

When we realized that we weren't getting power restored anytime soon, Dan and I packed up and went to Matt and Diva's to spend the night.

Saturday morning was the realization that if we don't get heat in our house soon our pipes could freeze. We have the old hot water radiators and if that water froze we'd be in BIG trouble. So, we set out on the hunt for firewood. The plan: To build a fire in the fireplace and try and raise the temp. in the house enough so that it could sit overnight and not reach freezing. Well... that didn't work as well as we'd hoped. We got a blazing fire going, but it wasn't heating more than the living room. Luckily Dan's dad had gotten his generator going and he was going to bring it over to our house and let us borrow it for a few hours. Finally by 10pm we'd gotten the temp up to about 59 degrees.

So, back to Matt and Diva's we went to spend the night. After church on Sunday we located a generator at Sear's in Danville and so we headed over there to pick it up. Of course it didn't come with the right plug and we were already home before we realized that and every place that would carry them around here were out of stock.

By now it's about 7:30pm and Dan's dad comes back over to help him hotwire the generator. Finally at about 9pm they get the generator going. Now we have heat! Dan was able to get the right plug Monday morning at Ace Hardware. They'd just gotten a shipment in and he got there early enough to grab one.

The generator was such a blessing because we could run the heat and lights and pretty much everything we needed except the oven and washer/dryer. I was extremely thankful though when we finally got full power restored Wednesday at 4:30.

The men who worked in our backyard were from Florida. I'm sure they aren't used to this cold weather. The channel 3 news was even in our backyard too, but they didn't knock on my door to talk to me. That's just as well, I wouldn't have wanted to anyway.

So, now I can start my holiday baking and start preparing for Christmas. We are hosting Dan's side for the holiday's this year. I have alot to do before then.

Here's what it looked like out our front porch window.

I want to go to NYC so I can take a ride in the Cash Cab. That looks like so much fun.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, check the Discovery Channel for listings.

Oh, the disappointment

Dan's new tv was scheduled to be delivered today and I was actually getting excited about it. Well, UPS just dropped it off, but I had to refuse it because one side of the box was ripped open. I could pull the rip back and stick my hand inside-that's how big it was. So now, he'll have to call the company and get it reshipped, or cancel the order and start over. So now we won't get it till next week. The cable guy came this morning to hook up our dvr high def. box, and we won't really get the full benefit of it till it's hooked up to our new LCD tv.

The words of strangers

Ok, so today I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and get out and do some Christmas shopping. I had several people to buy for so I hit the mall. I wandered into Old Navy to look around and while I was in the women's section I noticed a couple of ladies. They were picking out clothes and I really didn't pay much attention to them until I realized they were looking at me. I thought, do I have something on my butt? does my hair look funny? Finally after what seemed like forever ( actually more like 30-40 seconds) they spoke to me. They wanted to know if they could get my opinion on something. They said they were trying to decide on an outfit to get their niece and and they couldn't decide on the two combinations of clothes they had picked. They said "She's about your age, 23-24". * That's right! They said 23-24 years old! * I said, " You just made my day because I'm 31". They both looked surprised.
I then helped them make a decision and I left Old Navy feeling much better about myself.

Now, if I could just look 20 pounds skinnier..............

God is good, all the time.

All the time, God is good.

Realization

A while back I posted that I had gotten my hair cut. I thought it was noticeably shorter. Dan, who never notices when I get my hair cut, kept telling me how much he liked it. It's been 2 weeks and not ONE person has noticed. Not even my own mother! I had to tell her and even then she didn't think it was different. I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I got my haircut because it was looking horrible. So if no one notices that it's shorter, does it still look bad???? *sigh* If I were a man, I could just shave it all off. That would be so much easier.

<> I guess if this is my biggest problem, then I really don't have anything to be upset about.

Just thought I'd brag and tell everyone that Dan sold his Playstation 3 on Ebay today for $2,650. After fees and shipping and taking out the cost for the item, we end up with about $1800. He didn't even have to camp out for 3 days to get it either. He actually got very lucky and was able to have one pre-ordered at Gamestop here in town. He wanted to get one so he could start making skins for it and selling them along with his Xbox skins. He has no reason to keep it, so we made a tidy little profit. What's he going to do with his money. Well, we'll tithe 10%, and then he'll get to buy the 32in Sony LCD tv that he's been wanting for a long time. He's a happy boy!

a new look

Some of you know that I've been growing my hair out for the last year. I get in this cycle where I cut my hair, then decide to let it grow, then get to a certain point where I just can't stand it any more and then I get it all cut off again. Well, I was finally able to let it grow and live with the changes and actually like the way my hair looked. That is, up until a few weeks ago. So Monday at my hair appointment, I got it cut. It's not super short, but kinda in between where it was when I got married and where it was on Monday. I love it! It's not a lot different from how I've worn it before, but it's a nice change. And Dan must like it because he complemented me on it 3-4 times throughout the evening.

Pictures to come later!

Where I've been

I've been MIA for a few weeks on here for a few reasons. 1. I didn't really have much to say, and 2. I've been painting and painting and did I mention painting.

Last Sunday, Dan helped me move everything out of our office so I could finally get around to painting it. It's the last room in the house that still looked exactly like it did when we bought the place. So I started on Sunday with cleaning the walls and woodwork and then I got everything primed. On Monday I was able to paint all the trim and it only took me 5 HOURS!!! Ugh. Then on Tuesday I had to do it all again because 1 coat of paint was just not going to do it. So finally on Wednesday I was able to put paint on the walls and then I had to give it all a 2nd coat on Thursday. I was so glad to get the room done. It was a big job for one person, but I really like the way it turned out. It feels so much better in there. Here are some before and after shots.



I did the walls in two colors. A light blue -gray on top and then one shade darker on the bottom. The chair rail was already there, but it had been painted the same as the walls before and it wasn't really noticeable. We are also planning on getting our radiator cover professionally redone and it'll be white. Right now it's a reddish brown and it's in bad shape. We have shelves on one wall that we decided to live with because they aren't coming down without damaging the plaster walls. So Dan is going to make doors for it and they'll match the other doors that are on other built-ins.

Some of you reading this might wonder why we painted over the woodwork. Well, even though it doesn't look bad in the picture, it really wasn't in the best shape. At some point during the 50's or 60's the homeowners stripped the original woodwork and gave it a "pickled" finish. I personally don't like that finish and some of the woodwork in the house had already been painted, so we update the feel by painting all the woodwork white.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Are you wearing a wig? Your hair isn't that long." ---mom

I tried enhacing the natural curl that's in my hair. I'm not going anywhere today so I thought I'd play around with a new style. It's ok, I don't mind it, but it actually takes me alot longer to do it this way. I have tons of curls when wet, but after it's dried, it kinda looks like a bad perm. I have to use a curling iron to tame some of it.

Anyway, mom stopped by earlier and I had to convince her it was my own hair!! LOL. It was too funny.

Good thing mom doesn't know how to get online and read my blog.... she may not think this is funny!

ROADTRIP

Last week Dan and I got in the car and drove through 9 states in 7 days. Starting in Illinois we went through Kentucky, Tennessee, and arrived in Atlanta, Georgia. We stayed there a few days and then drove to Charleston, SC where we stayed for 3 days. On our way home, we took the scenic route through North Carolina, Virgina, West Virgina, back into Kentucky, Indiana and finally home. Here are a few highlights from our trip.

Swan house, Atlanta, GA

Dan and I at the World of Coke, Atlanta

Chick-fil-a!!! Our goal was to eat here at least once, Long Story... The Avenue Oaks, SC. So beautiful!!!

Dan and I sitting on a 300+ year old Oak tree















A church cemetery in Charleston. We did a walking tour that told about the ghosts that "haunt" the area.

Vickie, this one's for you

Apparently, Kentucky is where you need to go to find a husband.

Don't make The Kitty angry...

What's wrong with this picture?

Here's a picture from the IKEA fall catalog. Can you find something that is wrong with this photo? If you think you know the answer, send me an email. I'll tell you if you're right or not.

39 more years to go...

until Dan and I catch up with my parents. Saturday mom and dad had a party to celebrate 40 years of wedded bliss. Their actual anniversary was Sept. 4th. We (the kids) threw mom and dad an anniversary party and Kimberly was nice enough to host at her house. Mom and dad didn't want a huge party, so we just invited their brothers and sisters and their spouses. I think everyone had a good time.

We also took lots of pictures because my 93 year old grandma was able to come. She lives in an assisted living facility and doesn't really get out much anymore. So we all took pictures with grandma...

Here's one of my favorites. Kraig handed us Elmo as a substitute for the child we don't have yet. It was so funny, as you can tell from my face!

Grandma looks like she doesn't even want to be in the photo.

Here's another one of the whole Ryan family: