Top 2 Tuesday... Favorite Christmas Memories!

1) Christmas Eve: candle light service! 

this one was easy! 

My family is split but no matter if I was at Daddy's or Mom's we would always go to the Christmas Eve service! I love the story of the birth of Christ and singing Silent Night in the candle light with everyone holding their own candles (I will leave out the part that for some reason I always even now wanted to play with the wax! What is with that!? ha)

2)(As of 2 years ago...) Going over to K's parents house on Christmas Eve for dinner and then going to the Christmas Eve service at Church.  This is a very special time for K and I as this is how we met... 2 years ago this year!! :) (last year we weren't able to go to NC for Christmas so this year will be the first time since we met! SO EXCITED!!- this is when his family celebrates "Christmas" instead of Christmas day so it works perfectly because my family celebrates Christmas day!)

thats the night we met :) 

2)Every year on Christmas Eve my aunt Donna gives my brother and I a Christmas story that we always read  Christmas Eve before going to bed! I love getting together as a family even when my brother never wanted to participate when he was younger and reading a book! I hope to continue this tradition with our kiddos... one day! 

 

2)Not really a yearly tradition-- but everytime a new grandchild was born into my family we take a picture with the baby in the homemade stockings that my grandmother made for us all! (Donna you should take a picture of the picture so I can post it on here :)) 

2)Of course Milk & Cookies for Santa and me!

2)Opening one of our Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve!

2) Santa hiding my "BIG" gift somewhere other than under the tree so that when I thought I was done opening gifts, the morning just got even BETTERRRR!

(one year a wakeboard!! :) )

2) Meeting up with the rest of the family (cousins, aunts, & uncles) at my grandparents house! (wherever I happened to be- both sides of my family do this for lunch Christmas Day!)

2) Tracking Santa on the radar... Daddy used to get reallllly excited about this and convinced me (even now) how real Santa was! Usually we did this at Grandaddy's house (we would go there and eat snacks after the Christmas Eve service) then on the way home we would look for Rudolph in the air flying! :)

go to www.noradsanta.org on Christmas EVE to track him! :)

Daddy used to always tell me, "The year you stop believing in Santa is the year he quits coming!" 

I will never stop believing!!!

oh!!! watching that makes me SUPER excited :) !!!!

 (also, a fun site for kids is www.northpole.com)

2) Daddy and Charlie putting Daddy's "Special" ornament on the tree (its a styrofoam ball ornament Daddy made when he was just a tot) -- when my brother was younger Daddy would put Charlie on his shoulders and hang the ornament near the top of the tree in a place so its easy to see.  The last year Daddy was alive Charlie was 14 and too big to get on his shoulders and they pulled out a ladder and the two of them hung the ornament.  One of my favorite pictures of Christmas! (My brother and I also have "Special" ornaments that we hang every year also.

Number TWO was so hard to choose (as you can tell) because we have so many traditions that I love!

Head on over to Taylor's Blog and link up! :)

it's whats stuck in my head...

sing along if you know it, if not link up with what song is stuck in your head this Tuesday before Christmas or leave a comment with the link :)

miscellany monday!

write some randoms, then link up with Carissa at Lowercase Letters :)


1) Last night when the hubby got off work we were supposted to go to a friends Christmas party but he got off super late and by the time he showered it was 8:30 and we still had tons to do before today (and leaving town later this week).  We decided to get a quick dinner at Chilis -- we both got dressed semi-nicely and enjoyed a great simple date before getting to work!

Margarita chicken... decent- not my fav.

2) we are STILL writing Thank You's from our wedding! We were so BLESSED by so many people giving us awesome gifts it just seems like we can't seem to finish- we WILL this week becuase I refuse to send our Christmas Cards out without finishing the Thank You's first... so yea, thanks keeping me busy too!

3) I had to take my car into the shop today and drop it off :( SAD!  Hopefully I will get it back beginning of next year.  Now I am driving a seabring... Can't say its my kind of car lol.

4) We are STILL not done with Christmas shopping.... enough said.  (This year we are shopping online for 2 reasons. 1- I don't feel like messing with the crowds 2-this way we can ship everything without having to go to the post office- 2 birds with one stone right?)

5)My house will NOT get clean and stay clean and it is driving me C-R-A-Z-Y!!!
We leave for NC soon and I am wanting so badly to have it clean before we go so we can return to a nice house!

6) We are SOO excited about going to NC for Christmas! We will celebrate this Christmas JUST like we started it 2 years ago!! (K and I met on Christmas Eve!) Wow, I can not believe it has been that long but at the same time it seems like we have been together for 10 years :)

am I THAT old?

This past couple of weeks our school has created a board full of the staff's baby pictures.  They are all numbered with no names and there was a contest for who could guess the most pictures correctly.
It ended up that my kids got interested in this as well and couldn't walk down the hall without being mesmerized by the baby photos of their teachers and staff. I ended up showing them my 6 year old photo which they ALL looooved and ooo'ed and ahhh'ed over for minutes!
Then, one of my... can we say... rather mature students ....
looked at my photo for a few seconds, then looked at me saying,

"Oh my gosh Mrs. P!! That picture was you TWENTY years ago!!!! That's a LONG time ago!!" 

I just love my babies and the fun things that they always say that make me cry laugh! HAHA

I guess I really am getting OLD! :)

this is the picture of me at 6 years of age

MERRY (almost) CHRISTMAS!! 

ONE WEEK!!

WORST case of the Mondays EVER!!

Ill let the pictures do the talking for now because I'm exausted... but I'm safe thank Jesus!! :) 

All of this because some STUPID company had a broken NON-insulated water pipe that burst and was shooting into the air like a geyser and flooded the street making a nice 120 feet of ice on the road causing myself and about 10 other cars a HORRIBLE morning!

I am VERY thankful that I am okay but I am also very upset with someone being irresponsible and negligent!!!!!!!!!! thanks for nothing!

oh and after 10 cars wreck then you can come fix your pipes... cool. you owe me my deductible.  thanks! No really- I'm serious!

{did I mention we just bought a new car for K on Thursday??? and before that BOTH of our cars were paid off with NO payments....}

BAH-HUM-BUG!!

**on a happy note my sweet hubby brought me the MOST amazing hot chocolate from Starbucks that made my day!  AND he brought me home a beautiful orchid because my last one died...Did I mention how wonderful he is to me and how much I LOVE HIM?!**

4days.

No, I hope it's not so!

nooooooooooooo.... Do we really have to go back to work tomorrow?!? This weekend has been oh too sweet and flown by oh to fast! (i promise to end on a happier note!)

Friday night hubs and I did a little shopping after he got off work and then went over to some of our friends place to see the new house they just moved into! We watched Carolina play some soccer and just hung out- the guys talked soccer and Erin and I did some shopping online :) Her husband Kris plays on the same soccer team as K and they are best friends!

Saturday night was date night for K & I... it had been a long time since we had a real DATE!  We go out to eat pretty often to low key places but we never really "date".  Not a lot was different but with the title it made us more aware that we were out with EACH OTHER and that was enough!  We went to Snuffers for some amazing burgers and cheese, chives, bacon and jalapeno fries! mmmm!! Afterwards we headed home to watch a Christmas movie, Love Actually!  I of course fell asleep watching it haha but none the less I love that movie!

Today, K and I both had off and intended on getting our Christmas decor up and cleaning up the house some.  We went to the gym this morning (celebrate!- it was the first time I have been in 4EVER!) and met up with another of his friends, Forest.  We did some more Christmas shopping afterwards then met Forest for lunch at Jason's Deli.  We came home and he played some video games and I picked up and relaxed some.  We finally decided against buying a real Christmas tree this year since we have waited so long to put one up.  We set up the cute little "Charlie Brown" tree this year and it it just Oh-so-cute haha :) It was fun taking a walk down memory lane as K & I dug through our childhood ornaments and hung them on the tree along with the many "first Christmas" ornaments that he and I got last year! So fun!!  It seems like that was just yesterday! It's still hard to believe that we were married over a year ago! 

I will make sure to post picutres soon of the fun cute LITTLE Christmas tree this year! 

5 days left until CHRISTMAS BREAAAAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED I CAN HARDLY HANDLE MYSELF!!!!!!!!! :) 

New Design...

I have been wanting to have a new design for the holiday but I'm always afraid something will go wrong when changing templates.  Welllll low and behold I take the plunge and it completely messes up my fonts :( and it completely rearranged and renamed my blog lists :( (and all other gadgets on my page for that matter).
I think that I have them sorta back in order now (good enough) but I'm sad my fonts are gone... bummer!
I hope yah like the new christmas-y design :)

Off to a nice date night with my handsome hubby! Hope you are having a great weekend! :)

What I'm LOVIN Wednesday!!

Jamie over at "This Kind of Love" always hosts a "What I'm loving Wednesday" and I have seen other friends post about it but today was the first time I had visited her blog.  It is super cute and I hate I am just now following it- if you want a fun blog to read go check-it-out!

When I saw the post for today I knew immediately that I HAD to post on it....

Today I am loving... that I got to leave work at 2 o'clock today for a shopping day that my principal graciously gifted us. 

Today I am loving... my sweet precious hubby!!

Today I am loving... that hubby and I will BOTH be off on Sunday together!

Today I am loving... that there are only 7 more days of school until I am out for CHRISTmas break!! {and Friday is Polar Express Day where the kids wear their pj's, we drink hot coco and eat cookies all day, so that means tomorrow is technically Friday}

and last but DEFINITELY NOT least I leave you with this picture 
{sorry about the terrible cell phone quality}...



Today I am LOVING... 

K's new car!

 

 

 

 

 &

under the weather...

Last night I went to bed feeling fine but I didn't each much dinner last night for some reason.  I went to bed around 10:30 and could not for the life of me fall asleep until after 12:30... I tossed and turned for what felt like an eternity! Then this morning I was up and adam at 5:30... I couldn't fall back asleep despite my many efforts... I had a sore throat and a slight head ache.  As I got to school my headache took over me and nearly killed me all day today. I took some meds but nothing seemed to make a dent in it.  I came home and crawled under the covers to find out that I was also running a fever. BUMMER!! I ate a light dinner and have been vegging all night trying to get some of my health back. I feel like it is just sinus junk and the such (fingers crossed its not the flu!) I am feeling a little better now but as a friend said *and I couldn't agree more* "better to have it now than over the holiday!"
Hope you all are having a great start to this week!!

Countdown until Christmas Break:
9 Days of school!!

Gift Ideas?

Everyone keeps asking what I would like for Christmas and almost every year I say the same thing... "Oh, I don't know... I don't need anything!" and I don't!
I want everyone to understand that I do NOT need ANYthing. I have more than I need and wouldn't mind if I didn't get a gift this year, BUT most of you don't like that idea. haha So here goes...

Again, these are just some ideas-- I will post a picture and a link to where it can be purchased!  What's easier than online shopping?  I seriously almost bought a couple of these just sitting here because it would be so easy ;) 

{warning... picture heavy and loooong post!}

First off I love John Hart- and would be happy with almost any bag with my NEW initials... I am still using my bag with my maiden initials... oops. ha! 

I especially love the makeup case, mini makeup, grande, Baylor University koozie, curling iron cover and the left bank (my current bag).  I like all the items in either fuchsia, black, or navy.  All with the "hot stamp" (but again, I would be happy with anything from their website :) ) 

BOOTS!! I have several ideas: 

These from Aldo

or these Madden Girl boots:

I have heard great things about these Lafco Candles-- I would love to try the Cilantro Orange, Iris Lavendar, Mint, Gardenia, or Amber Black Vanilla

 

CLOTHES!! 

Some from American Eagle:

rugby striped sweater

 cable knit trapper hat 
(in pink! They also have matching scarves!!!)

dolman sweater

flannel shrit

flannel shirt

raglan tee

 rugged bomber jacket

Rubbish Marled Open Front Cardigan
(Nordstroms)

 

Rubbish Boyfriend Tunic

Soprano Striped V-Neck Top (either color)

Absolutely Cotton Dolman Sleeve Sweater 

 Amici Studded Shopper (any color but white)

Krochet Kids "Betty" Cap 

(I really love the blue and white)

Vera Bradley Weekender Bag in Hope Garden (on sale!)

Max&Chloe Monogram necklace 

(in gold plated or silver)

These darling UGG Bailey Button shoes 

(Chestnut, Blackberry Wine, or Sand) 

(American Eagle also has a similar pair for less $)

This beautiful Kitchen Aid Mixer- it does not match my kitchen but I can't help to keep drooling over it especially since this was our wedding color... ahh love it! - i guess white would be okay too! {this is just me dreaming...}

Vinturi Wine Aerator

A Sentsy Warmer
(one of my friends Danielle has her own store online!)

Versace Versence (my wedding day scent- everytime i wear it hubs seems to comment on how nice i smell even though he never makes comments on the others i wear... he didn't even know he was always liking the same one ha! Time to get a bottle!)

AE skinny Jeans
Size 10  Regular- would go great with any of my new boots :)

or some AE Favorite Boyfriend Jeans, same size... really I just need JEANS ha!

AE knit Dolman Sweater

AE Cable Knit Cardigan
(pretty much any cardigans or TUNICS, perfect for a night out or for work!!)

 

Audrey Jewerly Boxes (loooove the suitcase in ivory/blue! oh and don't forgot my new monogram!)

Makeup bag set from Pottery Barn (I can't get away from their website! I'm loving it!)

 

Tag Jewerly 

(nothing specific- love it all! Maybe something like this with the letters AKP est 2010? for K & my anniv??)

Scarves... love them- this is just an idea

Reusable Bags for shopping (any pattern but this one is really cute!)

Our pottery (my aunt Donna has it)

Anything on our registry: 

www.macys.com (esp our silverware)

www.bedbathandbeyond.com

Tom's Shoes (for every pair purchased they donate a pair to a child in a developing country- we wore these at our wedding reception)

either pair ;) (or the burlap's)

 The Taylor Swift "Speak Now" CD

Real Simple Magazine Subscription

or Better Homes and Garden

or Southern Living 

or Coastal Living

or Good Housekeeping! 

Chord Wrappers

Any Flats from target! 

And some cute rain boots (any cute style)

Any sweater dresses and leggins- perfect for work and play :) 

The movie (gasp) The Blind Side... yes I asked for a movie- thought this was something K and I could both enjoy :)

I'm going to throw this out there but don't expect to get it (nor anything for that matter- like I said I don't need anything) 

but... 

my original iphone is just about d-e-a-d... so I wouldnt reject the iphone 4... i'm serious ya'll im still running on the original iphone haha  and I love it but I'm afraid its going to die soon :( 

and this case to go with it!!

Gift Cards work too! To places like

pottery barn

ulta

old navy

american eagle

target

victorias secret

and almost anywhere!! :)

There are a couple of other items on my previous posts :
http://livingtheadventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-2-tuesday-wish-list.html
and
http://livingtheadventures.blogspot.com/2010/11/reward-for-my-hard-work.html

of course- I am open to any other ideas I just thought I would have something to throw at you when you asked now haha these are just ideas! Love ya'll!