Top of 2010....

As I've looked back on this year there are so many fun things that happened!
These are in no particular order, just the first "squeee"  moments that came to my mind.

Putting in our hardwood floors.  OMG, I swear there were days that I never thought that project would end (and honestly it still isn't 100% done, there are some areas around the kitchen that need one final trim piece to finish them out).  I cannot explain what an impact that made on our house though.  The old carpet we had in there was from the old owners, who had really big dogs, who REALLY liked to mark certain areas of the house. When we got the carpet up the stains from that were into the sub floor.  The hardwood was exactly the face lift the house needed. 

Getting to attend/participate in some of our best friends weddings.  I LOVED our wedding in 2009, I really did, but just getting to kick back, relax and watch people you love be, well, in love is so much fun!  This year 2 of Spencer's best friends from high school got married, one of my best friends from college got married, to another of my good friends from college! The parties and the plans and seeing them all so happy was fantastic!

Having our first Christmas at our own house as a married couple.  Last year for Christmas morning we were in Arizona with my family, which was fun (and we missed the blizzard that hit the Midwest so that was great too), but it was SO fun to wake up and be able to start our own family traditions at the house on Christmas morning. 

Taking some trips to Table Rock Lake.  We went down to the lake twice in 2010, once for Spencer's birthday with our friends Josh and Katie and then again in September for our first anniversary.  Big Cedar has so many fun things to do in all kinds of weather, we really had a blast celebrating down there! (despite the fact that in Sept I got super sick and spent most of our anniversary in bed sniffing)

Home improvement projects~!  We revamped the back and front of our house this year, it was LONG overdue!  We sanded and stained the back deck, and it looks like we brought it back from the dead to be honest. and then gave the front of the house a face lift.  It was a veryveryvery long couple of weekends, but totally worth it in the end!  Maybe next year won't be so incredibly back breaking?

Spencer enrolling in school again!  A few posts ago I went on and on about this issue so needless to say I'm pretty excited he's on his way to a new career. 

Me changing jobs!  The thing I really like about the company I work for is that its a huge corporation, there are a myriad of jobs/careers you can have within the company.  I changed from working auto claims to homeowners claims in May of this year and it has been such a great change!  I was getting pretty burnt out on my last position after 2.5 years of the same thing day after day.  Next year around this time I *hope* to be applying for our catastrophe team for a year or two before we settle down and start trying for kids.

Getting to meet my very first cousin.  I have lots of 3rd and 4th cousins 7 times removed or whatever it is, but we'd all  but given up hope that my uncle John would ever have kids.  He and his wife Teri welcomed Eleanor into the world on September 11 this year and Christmas was the first time I got to meet her.  She was so very precious and little and so expressive!  It was fun to get to spend some quality time with them while they were in town for the holidays. 

So there we have it.  The top "squee" moments of 2010 brought to you by me.

The holidays are almost over.....

Does it make me a Scrooge that I'm kind of excited?  Please don't get me wrong, I love the Christmas music, the lights, seeing friends and family from out of town, the vacation time I usually have.....but the holidays season makes me so super tired.  I am ready for real life to get back to normal.
I am useless this week! 
Monday I worked a little late to catch up at work from being off last week, got home and made a beef casserole *1lb of hamburger, some diced onion and green pepper, garlic and spices browned, melted a little bit of Velveeta in for creaminess, mixed a can of tomato soup and fat free cream of mushroom soup in it all and then added some macaroni noodles and topped w cheese baked 350 for like 20 min*  I got home by 630, and was ready to sleep  by 8pm. 
I planned to wake up early and head to the gym on Tuesday, totally didn't happen but after work I got a few miles in.  Tuesday Spencer was pretty excited, I  made one of his favorite dinners, baked ziti.  *boil ziti noodles, in another pan brown some spicy sausage and mix with a jar of spaghetti sauce, layer noodles sauce and mozzarella/provolone cheese ending with cheese on top, bake 350 for 30 min or until sauce and cheese are bubbly, serve with salad and garlic bread*
Wednesday was pretty basic, I cleaned the house up a little more from all our Christmas loot and started the deep clean that always accompanies us hosting a party.  I've discovered that I really don't mind cleaning, I just hate doing the floors.  We need to invest in a vacuum that we can use on hardwood and carpet, I think it would make my life easier......
Thursday is wine night with the girls!  Generally its "Wine Night Wednesday" but schedules being what they are we are flexible.  I got a super cute yard flag for Christmas from my mom that says "Group Therapy Practiced Here" with some wine glasses on it that will be on the fridge when we do our girls nights in from now on.  I don't really see myself putting it in the yard per say, I'm not a "lets put stuff on the front lawn" kind of girl for the most part.  Thursday was my short day at work this week, I flexed out my schedule so I could leave a little early and get a jump start on the 4 day weekend! 
More to come about our rockin new years eve party, Chiefs Playoff Party (not hosted by us, but will be attended and wildly cheered at) and the final countdown to me getting my butt kicked by this half marathon I signed up for~

I am so excited about my new spice organizers, I thought they deserved their own post.  Seriously how cute are these things?!?  And not to mention it gives me an excuse to showoff my Penzeys Spices a little.  I am on a mission to de-clutter and organize the kitchen this winter.  I am forever buying doubles of things because our cabinets are just a cluster of whatever I happen to throw in there at the time and after a while I cant see anything anymore.  So I consider this step 1 of 20 on the road to a more organized happy kitchen. 

What I did on my Christmas vacation....

drove.  back and forth between my family and Spencer's family. 
We are both so blessed to have our families close by and to get to spend good quality time with them over the holiday season.  I do really love spending time with our families, but boy are they exhausting sometimes! 
Spence and I both had the week before Christmas off, which was awesome because we got to spend a lot of time hanging out and lounging around the house.   It was also about the busiest week ever. Let me walk you through it.
On Monday Spence had to work so I got to finish shopping for his gifts, which were awesome BTW.

Tuesday we drove all over KC to deliver my grandparents gifts to them (2 grandpas in the KC area, live about as far away as possible from each other).  My Papa Nic gets a food basket that is full of home made goodies that my mom and I make up for him.  He seriously shouldn't have to grocery shop for weeks.  Then we deliver to my Papa Gene, who used to get the same thing but now gets something different as he is no longer living alone and has someone to cook for him.  I also got to take my little niece to see Tangled while her mom was at a job interview.  I do not spend a lot of time around kids, but she is a doll!

Wednesday was a lazy day during the day time, then we met up with out of town friends for dinner and then headed out to watch the KU game, that didn't start until 10pm!  We were out till about 2am because we waited for anther friend's flight to get in so we could see him.  (he and his wife live in San Jose and we see them about 2x a year)

Thursday woke up from our late night and met the same friends for brunch/lunch.  Then came home and cleaned the house from top to bottom because my in laws were coming up to take us to dinner that night.  Had dinner with the in laws and then headed to my parents house to greet my aunt and uncle and their ADORABLE baby girl. 

Aside from the awful photo quality, shes so freaking cute!  We spent a few hours with them and then went home to crash. 

The next 3 days are a blur of driving between Lawrence, Eudora and Lenexa.  During that time we got to see a ton of family, opened a lot of gifts, ate a TON of food and didn't sleep nearly enough. 

Spencer got me a bread maker for Christmas and I used it the same night (with the super cool delay timer) so we got to wake up to fresh baked bread the next day

My mom got me some spice organizers (she has the same ones and I have been drooling over them for a while now) so those went up on Christmas night so I could feel all cool and what not. I have pictures of the bread and spices but cant get them to load for some reason.....I'll just have to try again later!

Spencer got a home brewing kit for beer and some "sidewalk surfer" shoes (sandal soles with canvas tops, he was pretty excited).  We're both looking forward to getting to use our gifts!

Cellleeebbrratteee Good Times COME ON!

Since the day I knew that Spencer and I were going to get married and build a life and family together there has been one teensy tiny itty bitty issue.  His job.  His 55 hour a week, pay that isn't great or bad but just kinda "meh", drains him emotionally and physically job.  Now in light of today's economy I am glad that he has a job, please do not misunderstand me.  The issue I have with his job is that the hours can be unpredictable, he doesn't really like it at all, and the fact that he doesn't really like it means he is not happy when he gets home from it.  Selfishly this cuts into our time together and I get a little jealous of my time with my super amazing husband. 
So I have been nagging pushing   gently nudging him in the direction of going back to school to figure out what he wants to do. Over the years there have been lots of ideas thrown about.  His dad and I both think he'd be an excellent firefighter (I may be biased since my dad is a firefighter and I kinda like the idea of him working 9 24 hour shifts a month....) but he didn't really take to that idea. OK we'll try again.  How about the post office? nope.  He looked into teaching, but decided it wasn't his cup of tea.  OK no problem, kept looking, and looking and NOTHING seemed to spark his interest. 
*Now to any of you who are reading this and saying "jeez just let the guy alone its not like you are destitute* You're right, we aren't, at all.  Frankly I know couples who make it work on less than we make, but when you factor in starting a family in the next few years I ran the numbers, we need more than what we have coming in now to keep our lifestyle in what I like to call the "comfort zone". 
Well lo and behold he FINALLY found something that he thought he would like to do, radiology technician.  It's a technical degree, he would need to take some classes at JCCC (Johnson County Community College) and then apply for the program and would finish at MCC (Metropolitan Community College) and will take about 2.5 years to do it all, assuming he gets into the program.  Can I get a "thank you Jesus?" or perhaps a "Hallelujah?" I'd even settle for a "YES!"  Hold onto those happy thoughts though.....the saga isnt' quite done yet.
The other annoying awesome habit that my dear husband is blessed with is the gift of procrastination.  So just because he found something he though sounded great didn't mean he was all eager to do it yet.  It took about 6 months of me nagging pushing gently nudging him to get his transcripts from KU, and to actually go enroll.  BUT, as of last night my husband is a student again.  I am so happy you guys!  Partly because he promised me that he would be in school this semester and I was starting to get worried (classes start in 4 weeks) that I'd have to kill him be super upset that he broke his promise to me. Mostly though, because I cannot wait to have a husband who does something he cares about, enjoys going to work and isn't stuck in a dead end job that he doesn't enjoy. 
*happy dance at the lastnamehere house*

Bad Blogger

I have been a bad bad blogger lately.  It's not even because I've been that super busy.  I've just been lazy. 
Here is a list of things I should have been doing lately that I have not:
-Training for the 1/2 marathon.  Ya that is going to kick my ever growing butt in Feb, but I do have some time off coming soon so I'm planning to get back in gear this week.
-Cleaning my house. Its all picked up, when you walk in there is no "EWWWW" moment, but I need to do the floors, they are dusty in the corners.
-update the blog (check)
-Christmas shop.  Let me just tell you how much I really don't like to Christmas shop. Like a lot.  I remember thinking my mom was NUTS because she didn't like to go to the mall between Thanksgiving and New Years.  I would beg and plead and whine and beg some more for her to drop me and my friends off to "hang out".  Now, I see the off ramp at 435 and 95th street backed up onto the highway with people who are trying to get to the mall and almost cry in relief that I no longer work retail and have to be one of them. 
I have gotten Spencer's gifts (well actually purchased one and know what the other is) that boy is difficult to shop for!  If he wants something that is in our budget he has it, because he bought it for himself.  I'm the same way so I can't REALLY complain too much though. I know what I'm getting my mom and step dad, the new baby cousin is taken care of and I'm putting Spence in charge of gifts for his parents.  That's really about all the gifting we do, some small gifts for some of the girlfriends (more than likely some bottles of wine for our "Wine Night Wednesdays") and call it a win. 
-Cooking.  I make a food basket for my grandpa every Christmas, its pretty much 2 week worth of food that is home made by me (and my mom if I"m going to be totally honest).  He loves it because its home made and he doesn't have to find a place for another "thing" (apparently when you hit 90 you no longer look at stuff as a good thing, you look at it as one more thing you have to dust).  It all works out for the best.  I'm most of the way done with that basket, and will take it over to him next week when I"m off work.

I am off work starting this Friday and go back to work on the 27th, 10 days to get caught up on all the things I mentioned above.  Now all I have to do is make it through the next 4 days at work and I'll be golden!