loving...

...my toes. a friend of  mine has a girl at her church that does pedicures for ten dollars. ten dollars!!! this is my second one and i just love going. we get to sit and talk AND get my feet taken care of. love! 

...my laptop. rob got it for me for christmas and i have already gotten his moneys worth out of it. i use it all. the. time.

 ...my new chandelier. i have wanted this thing for a couple years but, being at ikea, i never wanted to spend the money on it when i actually had the chance to go. my aunt was going to one and said she would get it for me if i wanted it. she called and asked if i was sure i wanted the big one, because it was pretty big, and i assured her that it was the big, not the smaller one, that i wanted. it arrived in the mail, we put it together, and i had giant light remorse. big time. but the longer it hung there the more i fell in love. 

...my glass coffee mugs. i got these in texas at crate and barrel for $1.50 each. sad thing is i only got two of them. stupid, stupid, stupid! i love how big they are. i love their shape. and i love that my hands fit so nicely around it.

...my burt's bees chapstick. i thought i would always be a blistex girl. i had been for many a year, but after we started down the healthier living road i learned of many not so great things in it. i am a chapstick girl. i always have to have it on me so i was a little intimidated trying to find a new one that had natural ingredients and wasn't waxy as i am a very picky about my lip balm. hellooooo burt's bees. everything i wanted and more.

...my mantel. i'm not good with decorating. i know what i like but have a hard time getting it to translate around my house. this took me almost two full days(sad i know) but i love the way it turned out and it makes me happy every time i look at it.

hodge podge

--rob and em were out the other night and she tells him that she is so glad we live where we do because if we are ever hungry we have so many places to go eat like "walgreens(?), j.b.'s, jack ons." what? he told her that it was jackSon's, as in the shell station around the corner. she said she thought the squiggly line in between was to separate the words.

--in going over things in my head for our trip i have come to realize that i still have the same bathing suit i wore on our trip 6 YEARS AGO! i don't wear it but tit's still in my drawer. note to self:get rid of 6 year old bathing suit.

--i found two more chairs for our dining room table at the youth ranch yesterday. chairs by themselves have been super hard to find. i was walking around the store and came upon four chairs that weren't marked. i was almost afraid to ask how much they were cause the youth ranch can be a little pricey but they told me ten bucks a piece. sold! i took the best two and brought them to their new home.

--rob got me a laptop for christmas. probably my favorite present, aside from the gurgle pot, but it has been both a blessing and a curse. i love having it downstairs on the counter so i'm not constantly running up and down the stairs all day to our other computer. however, having it on the counter all day leads to spontaneous, all day sessions of facebook, pinterest and craigslist. must get that under control.

--i'm on a no meat kick again. i watched the movie forks over knives and coupled with food inc. and super size me i never want to eat anything but veggies again. i am in the process of making the next two weeks menu and so far there's no meat in sight. i've also gone to almond milk instead of cows milk and am trying to limit the amount of dairy in general. eggs, butter and sour cream might be a little harder to limit but we'll see. everyone but austin seems to be ok with it and, hopefully, he will come around too.

--we got snow shoes, from santa, for christmas and decided since it finally snowed that we would take them out last saturday. we didn't really know where to go and the spot we chose wasn't very good. and it rained. and we had sadie who sunk to her shoulders every time she took a step. a memorable first trip if nothing else.

so excited!

the hotel is booked and we are headed to the happiest place on earth the last week of march!!! 

woohoo!

i am so excited! it has been six years since we last took the kids. i can hardly believe it's been that long.

but here's the thing...

it's a surprise!!! 

we have talked a little with the kids about going back but we haven't told them that it's a sure thing. so if you see them around please, please, please don't say anything to them. 

i want to do something cool like wake them up the morning we leave and tell them where we're going. 

we still have a couple of months so i have time to brainstorm but i would love to make it a huge surprise.

it also got me thinking about our last trip. i haven't even scrapbooked it yet. must do that before march. seriously...time to get my butt in gear.

so that's our big news.  here's hoping we can keep it under wraps for the next two months. 

first snow

it has been a dry year so far this winter. very little rain and no snow. but that all changed today. it started snowing at 7:00 this morning and it's still going strong. we've gotten about three inches so far and i don't see it ending any time soon. as much as i dislike the snow it's kind of nice to see it today. as long as it is gone by tomorrow :o)

the stroke of midnight 2012

here's to a fabulous 2012!