Now that Christmas is over.....

Its time to put the Christmas music away.  At least until next November when I cheat an start listening to it on November 1st.

Some of the songs are registering over 400 plays in my iTunes.  Yeah.

Its time for some new stuff.  I went through some songs I already had and added some new ones.  I keep a small playlist of my favorite favorite songs.  The ones I can't go anywhere without.  The 'just in case the song on the radio stinks' or 'they're playing Carrie Underwood again' backup plan.

So whats trending on my iPod/iPhone these days?

Really loving Ray Lamontagne and Brandon Flowers.  I had no idea Brandon Flowers was the lead singer for the Killers.  Explains why I can't get enough of the songs on his new album.  Helps that he's hot too.

And that obscenity laced tribute to heartbreakers can be blamed on Cori.  The clean version just wasn't good enough, I had to go all the way.  I've changed a few words and its now a tribute to my college boyfriend.  

Throw in some Glee and I'm a happy girl.

Change of address

I've been contemplating this for a while.  I love this blog but I cannot make any changes to the parts that I want to change.

So I moved.  You can find me here:

Still traveling....

There is a Follow Me link on that blog as well.  Everything you see comes from the Echo Park Digital paper pack found at Jessica Spragues' site.

Its the Neverending Story.....

Rain.  And lots of it.  This are the days when I'm glad I don't work outside the home.  I don't have to drive in it unless I absolutely have too.  And who needs to grocery shop anyway?  Healthy food is for fools!

I've got enough snack food in this house to last at least a week.

The forecast as of last Friday.

Sadly it didn't look like it was getting any better.

As of today there is sun in the forecast.  I thought for a brief moment this morning that it was over.  And then 20 minutes later it started raining again.

Looky there!  I see more raindrops there.  Its not over yet!

(to take a screen shot on your iPhone hold the Home button down and press the top button at the same time.  I just think this function is cool.)

Christmas Break Day 1

Recap

Watched Polar Express for the 1,00th time this week.

It still makes me tear up at the end and there is some small, teeny tiny part of me that still believes in Santa. There.  I said it.

Its raining here.  Thats rare for this time of the year.  Usually I'm still in shorts and flip flops struggling with the fact that I really want to be wearing some cool sweater and jeans and sitting by the fire.  I *could* light the fire but I'd need the air conditioning running and I'd still be wearing those shorts......

This is what the forecast has looked like for the past week.

Its going to rain until Wednesday.  Possibly Thursday too.  I love the rain except for one thing:

I have a restless 3 year old home with me for the next 2 weeks and this was NOT the weather I was hoping for.  He needs sunshine and fresh air.  Thats so not happening this week.

And the dog.  Poor Rascal. This spoiled pug:

He doesn't like to get his paws wet.  He's kind of a priss.  So the whole going potty outside in the rain?  Not happening.  I've had to find covered areas for him and even then I have to go out with him and stand there while he does whatever it is he needs to do.  His motto:  If I have to be out here, so do you!

Nicholas thought it would be funny to lock us out once.  Mental note: start carrying keys with me.  That or I need to have about 20 spare keys made and stick them all over the place.  Just in case.

By the end of the first day, we'd engaged in two battles of the wills and I'm pretty sure the 3 year old won.  At some point while he was 'stamping my ticket' for the imaginary train this afternoon, he broke my printer.  The one I print ALL of my invoices on.  So tonight, when my poor husband came home from work, I shoved his child at him and went to work.

That printer that I rely on, my Canon Pixma i470 didn't want to work.  I found all sorts of fun things stuck in the gears and rollers.  Certain I removed everything (including a wood mounted stamp), I tried again and it still didn't work.

So at 10:15 pm, I headed out to Best Buy.  They have holiday hours you know?  I would rather think of them as the 24 hour pharmacy for electronics though.  No seriously, they were open until 11 pm.  I ran in, grabbed the cheapest Canon printer and ran out.  All in the torrential rain.

So now I'm the proud owner of this upgraded model:

Thats right folks, your invoices will be printed on this shiny new bad boy.  It was a good printer and it lasted one year.  I pretty much ran that sucker into the ground though and I'm sure the shiny new one will be up to the task.

Family Photos

I realized that we haven't had 'family' pictures taken since 2008.  I take pictures of Nick all the time but there are none of the three of us.

I had to rectify that.

And then I saw my former boss post on Facebook that another girl we used to work with had a photography business and she had pictures done.  They looked fabulous.

I've known Eva for several years.  We worked at the same company for 5 years together.  Crazy right?  I still can't believe that this year was 4 years since the layoff.

Anyway, she has her own gig now so I scheduled a meeting with her.  She did a fabulous job documenting our little family.  Too bad Rascal wasn't in on the action.  I think next time I'm bringing the pooch.

Just a few of my favorites.

And our Christmas card.

Thanks Eva!

Elf on the Shelf, Tree and other holiday musings

Again, now that the holiday is pretty much over, I'm sharing it.  Oh well.  Better late than never right?  (Its probably good to tell you now that my December Daily cover is done.  The rest of it?  Not so much.)

We did Elf on the Shelf last year but Nick didn't really get it.  This year, he gets it.

We read the book to him and officially named our elf.  Meet Ziggy.

Ziggy moves around from time to time, but not every night.  He mainly keeps watch over the brand new (and very expensive) train that circles the bottom of the tree.  Nick is very into trains.  Like, he dreams about them.  (When he's not dreaming about trash trucks.....)  This train, he saw it at Costco and HAD to have it.  My parents got it for him.  But its one of those really good trains.  Bryan knows all about it because he had one too and it takes a genius to set up. 

Look, I can build a computer, fix a computer whatever.  But I can't put this freaking train on the tracks and get it to run right.  So I'm 'special'.  

The actual set up of the train went like this.

First.  Dig out the fake tree.

Start putting the sections together all the while adding bits of wood here and there to even it out.  My dad is a bit of a perfectionist engineer and well..... anyone who knows engineeers can figure out the rest.

Getting there.   We have to check the lights.

Ooooohhhhhhh. Ahhhhhhhh.

With a little help from his assistant they got it all figured out.

Another little adjustment on the other side.....

Finally, the train got set up.  Oh yeah, the tree skirt is in the storage unit too so we used a red tablecloth.  Pretty inventive eh?

And this is where he stayed all day.

and into the night.....

still there.....

And then we got up the next morning and did it all again.  He roped Rascal into sitting there watching it with him.  Rascal just wanted to know if he had food.

Kind of reminds me about their first Christmas together.....

Getting crafty

I snuck in a few minutes to create some advent bags for the tree.  We kind of buried the tree ornaments in our storage unit so its going to be a handmade Christmas.

I bought penny candy bags from Michaels and decorated them using the Echo Park Everybody Loves Christmas line.

Those cute little numbers?  I made them using some number stamps and shrink plastic.  Yeah.  Shrinky Dinks.  They made the perfect little numbers on the bags.

Lots of Stickles and cute 50 cent ribbon from Michaels.

Inside each one is an activity or toy.  I bought some stuff from the $1 spot like stickers, candy necklaces, ornament kits (you know, so we could decorate the tree) and a few other odds and ends.

Christmas Crafts

I really have so many to share that its going to take me til New Years!

I made a wreath.

I used the Echo Park Wintertime papers because I'm not much into red and green.  I think I might have been Jewish in a former life because I LOVE blue and silver.  I mean LOVE.