Bla Bla Blog

Hmmm, hmmm, hmmm, what to blog, what to blog? I've had so much going on lately but my brain is a bit melted after all the focus I just put into my workout today. It was a milestone for me; the first time I have ever managed to do an entire hour workout video with the particular youtube trainer I like! I can't think of the last time I sweat that much but I had the windows open and I was a mess! It was fun though and I definitely think I'll do it again. You can click HERE if you are interested in trying it out for yourself.

This last week I suffered from really bad insomnia. Most nights I was going to sleep after 2am and one night I didn't go to sleep until 6am! Thankfully I found a cure and I'm finally drifting off closer to my regular time between midnight and 1am (I'm a night owl anyway). My cure came when Branden decided to stay up late and watch the Seahawks play the 49ers on Sunday night. The game didn't start until 11:30pm our time and by halftime, I was off in lala land, sawing some logs! Most people who know me, know that I loath American football with as much passion as a mongoose has for a cobra! As Branden watched on his laptop in bed, I laid back and pretended it was Thanksgiving, as I was full from some amazing food we ate at our Spanish friends' house earlier, and let the game lull me to sleep. Worked like a charm but I did wake up when it was over to find Branden as uptight as a small dog in a room full of stilettos due to the intense last seconds. He was happy that the Seahawks won though but this means I'll probably be drug along to watch the Superbowl for the first time in about 5 years...oh well, it will be at a pub most likely.

I finally took down our Christmas decorations in the house but now I have to find places for all the new decorations I made. We are seriously running out of space to the point that if you need to look for a pencil in a drawer it will look like a tornado ripped through the room along with you. We can't wait to eventually get out of living our whole lives in one room although these last (almost) 3 years have really taught me to not be a 'stuff' person.

We do have one more birthday video to share from a bit back. It was my bro-in-law's birthday in Dec and he is the biggest football fan I know (sorry Jared, please ignore my comments in the second paragraph) so we tried to come up with a football themed birthday video. This is what we managed:

Well, that's all my brain can muster up at the moment. I think I should go stretch again and spend the next hour on my hands and knees praying that I'll be able to move the rest of this week!

Happy 2014!

I can't believe it's the 6th of January already! Time to get back to writing! Here are some main points of the last few weeks.

• I survived the holidays, ate way too much tasty food, but my waistline seems to have come out of it quite unscathed and possibly even smaller. Wahoo!!
• Our nephews loved their needle felted Angry Birds that I made for them for Christmas and they totally believed that Santa picked them up from our house and dropped them off at their house. (A letter from Santa himself helped)

• I still have my decorations up with a hearty desire to keep them up because they are pretty and I like them. 

• I have finally realized that sugar is absolutely evil as every time I had a holiday meal and ate a significant amount of the wicked white stuff, which has been rarely part of my diet the last few month, it tried to kill me. Kill may be a bit strong but it zapped my energy and made me feel like I had a nasty cold and sore throat for 2 days after. I hate you sugar.
• Roast duck is a fabulous thing, even if it looked like a giant skinned bat.
• My new TV show addiction is My Cat From Hell and I can't get enough of it. I also can't get enough of cat shaming and you can click HERE to see my recent favorite compilation.
• We've had numerous wet and windy storms which would be called a 'hurricane' if we were Georgia and not Ireland.
• Branden and I got fabulous new glasses and we are really pleased with them. His are a dark greenish tortoise shell color and mine are purple and black. 

• I am still behind on all the recent birthday videos we have done so I'll leave you with Hunter's birthday video from November! 

Happy Monday and Happy New Year!

This is not easy for me

I am over at my other blog today sharing a very difficult story. It is Granny's Story, the beautiful story of her passing and you can read it HERE

*Note: bring your own tissues


And for you giggle for today, here is my tip of the day!

Tip of the Day:

It is not the best idea to put your makeup on while watching RuPaul's Drag Race.

More proof that we are crazy

Tis the season for cold and sickness, bla bla bla bla bla, bla bla bla bla *sniff *hack

I am slightly afraid I am on the verge of getting a cold as yesterday I had a scratchy throat, had no energy at all, and thought my head was going to explode at any moment. Today I am actually feeling a bit better and I'm hoping it was just due to having way too much sugar at a birthday party on Sunday. Branden and I don't really eat much sugar anymore so I think my body is experiencing a 48 hour sugar crash.

Anyhoo, since my time away from blogland, we have had a number of birthdays in the family which means more crazy birthday videos!!! Today I'm going share our nephew Brady's birthday video that we made for him back in September when he turned three. He still loves for us to sing him "Little Bunny Foo Foo" but of course with our changes of dinosaurs instead of field mice, and the good turtle instead of the good fairy. Apparently my sis tried to sing him the original version and he corrected her and made her sing our version. For his birthday, Brady wanted a Cookie Monster theme so we adjusted our song to fit his birthday. 

Mucus, Divas, and Black Eyed Children

Never mention to someone that you don't get sick very often. The day after I said this, Branden and I came down with a nasty cold...oh joy! So that's where I've been all last week and it was a head cold so my head didn't work very well. My head is more clear today and I think I'm clawing out of this cold which is great as we have friends from the States coming to visit at the end of the week!

The good thing is that Netflix got all 4 seasons of Drop Dead Diva so I've been flying through them! Especially now that I saw in the news that it's been re-negotiated with Lifetime and will come back for a 5th season, which means that our Netflix may lose the seasons since Irish Netflix seems to only have shows that are dead or dying! If you haven't watched it, then you should as I love that it's fun, clean, and has a fabulous lead character who is plus-sized.

I don't like being scared AT ALL! I don't watch scary films, I'm not into scary stories, and I hate scare pranks. A couple of weeks ago, Branden's mom was talking to us on skype and mentioned the black eyed children. We had never heard of them before, and since my mom-in-law has always liked to tell tales of aliens, big foot, and other creepy creatures, she told us about some article she read on the web. When she tells stories of scary things I actually find it funny since it sometimes gets Branden and his brother all ruffled and bothered (especially big foot stories told in their sun room at night!). After we talked, I got online and looked up the black eyed children. Click HERE to see the website I read. I read a few articles on this site and then also looked around the web at other freaky tales and legends. Not a good idea considering it was night time! When I went to the bathroom I totally freaked myself out imagining some creepy kid with solid black eyes trying to see through our non-see through, warped glass window. Uncovered windows at night completely freak me out, due to something that happened as a kid, and eyes also freak me out, especially big open eyes.

When I crawled back into bed, all creeped out, I told Branden that maybe we should sleep with the side light on. He started laughing at me as he realized that I had scared myself and had become a big weenie. We watched something pleasant on Netflix to take my mind off of all the stuff I had read, but by the time I had to pee again, I was still freaked and made Branden stand in the bathroom with his back towards me, blocking the window so I wouldn't have to see anything out of it. He continued to laugh at me. When it was time to go to bed, I still hadn't calmed down so Branden's laughing and teasing turned to tickling. He rolled over and pinned me in the bed, poking at my sides while mentioning my pansy-like qualities. I was giggling when all of a sudden we heard a huge *BANG* to which I promptly screamed but also caused Branden to jump out of his skin and yell out as well! We then started to laugh again as we realized it was one of our housemates coming home and slamming the front door.

Still giggling but still a bit jumpy, I realized that Branden had jumped too! For all of his teasing me, he had genuinely freaked out just as much as I had and even managed to sucker punch me in the kidney when he jumped...thankfully not hard! I took advantage of this realization and pointed it out to him, which caused us to laugh more, and then even more when we wondered if our housemate heard our unison scream when he shut the door. Later we asked him and he said he didn't hear us, but he thought the story was funny.

The Quilt

When I was a kid, my mom and I liked to read Nancy Drew together. I'd crawl into dad's side of the bed, he was usually playing around in his garage or watching a movie, and we'd take turns reading chapters. On my mom's turn, I would listen along while I 'quilted'. Mom gave me leftover scraps of fabric which I kept in a bag, and when we read, I would sift through my bag and look for my next quilt square. I was just a kid and really had no idea what I was doing, so my squares were just cut out with regular scissors and hand stitched together. The squares weren't even very square or even the same size so my 'quilt' looked a bit wonky. Over a bit of time, I had a small, long rectangle that looked like a table runner made by a cat.

Eventually our reading time dwindled away and my bag of fabric and 'quilt' went into my closet where it lay hidden away with other childhood bits and bobs. One May, in my teen years, I came up with something very special. I pulled out my old fabric bag and stitched and stuffed my homely little quilt into a pillow. I'll never forget how much it meant to mom when she unwrapped it for Mother's Day. She used to sleep with it and I think she had to stop as it began to fall apart. Hopefully I can stitch it back together for her sometime and maybe we can read Nancy Drew again.

I can't wait to see my mom when we go back to Washington in June for three weeks this year.

I get a lot of my humor from my mom and this photo was one of our random outbursts of oddness. We had a kitchen duel! It's not my mom's birthday or anything, I just am blessed that our parents have pulled their money to buy us tickets to go back to America and am thinking about all the family that I won't have seen in over two years.

Paperwork makes my brain go numb

Due to Branden finishing another chapter for his PhD, he's had time off so I have been MIA enjoying time with him and also ripping my hair out as we are messing with nasty paperwork and this year's funding for his studies. We also had a deep clean and thorough re-organization of our room which was much needed when all of our belongings and newly accumulated stuff has to all fit into one living space. It does make it easier to not buy new crap as there is simply no space, so that's a good thing. In between the chaos, the house has filled up again with our housemate from Botswana back from his Christmas trip, and a new housemate moving in who also happens to be a friend of ours and also an American. I cooked a big dinner last week of pork spare ribs (in Branden's own BBQ sauce) and then had sides of green salad, coleslaw, and focaccia bread (I didn't make the bread). It was great and it's nice that we can all get on so well. Another thing we've been up to is the making of another family birthday video!

My wonderful Mom-in-law turned 29 again this year (can't believe we'll be the same age in a couple of months!) and she is an artist so we made a very odd but somewhat artsy video for her. It's not the most flattering video, and it was very uncomfortable to shoot, but we had fun!



Thankfully none of our housemates were home as we shot this on our entryway floor and taped our video camera to the staircase rail. There was more detail at the bottom but with limited space and an unseen post that was in the way, you can't really see it. I did get the idea from that mom who would take photos of her sleeping baby after creating scenes around her with clothes, toys, and other random objects...it is definitely much harder to make it for 2 full grown adults!

Well, I have a load of clean laundry staring at me and smirking as it knows very well that I hate folding laundry...but I've got to leave soon so I better tackle the pile! (Oh goodie, socks! ...my favorite...)

Date Day & Taking Birthdays on the Chin

With a busy weekend behind us, yesterday was our 'weekend'. Branden and I slept in and then made one of my favorite breakfasts, cornbread pancakes. My mom has sent me Jiffy cornbread mix (which I love and miss!) and we made the pancake recipe that's right on the side of the box...with the exception that I always add about 2 big table spoons of honey to the batter! Then we headed to the cinema and saw Frankenweenie, which was cute, funny and my kind of 'scary' movie!

After enjoying the film, we headed to a nearby pub that brews it's own beer and had just hosted a beerfest over the weekend. They didn't have any beers from the festival left but we still enjoyed a pint of their regular stuff, which was a bit of a big deal as my tastebuds are only just warming up to the taste of beer. We ran into some friends of ours when we headed back into town and had a bit of a walk and chat with them. Then we headed to another pub that was supposed to have a live band playing. The Jazz Festival was in town this weekend so we were hoping to listen to a bit of music on the last day of the festival. When we arrived at the pub, it was packed and the band wasn't so great, so we left and noticed a new store across the street. It was an 'outlet' outdoor store but their prices seemed pretty dang expensive. Branden did need a new winter coat and we did find one that was priced alright, but we headed to the nearby TK Max (UK and Irish version of TJ Max) and actually found a nicer coat for over 20 Euros cheaper!

It started to get dark and we started to get hungry, so we headed home to make dinner, stopping briefly to pick up a cheap white wine to use in the fish pie I was going to make. After using some of the wine for the white sauce I put in my fish pie, we drank the rest while we nibbled on crackers and cheese with dates and capers (we didn't mix the dates and capers!). Dinner was the best fish pie I've made yet and I suppose I'll have to post a recipe sometime as it's super easy to make.

Branden and I had a great time together and enjoyed every bit of our relaxing meanderings together. It looks like we have another busy week ahead so yesterday was a perfect way to prepare.

Now to tickle your funny bones! This is the last in our recent series of birthday videos, although Hunter will have a birthday in a couple of days so we'll be making a new one soon. The video below is the video we made for my Mom's birthday. It was a bit tricky to make as trying to get both of us to fit into the video was really tough and I do sort of move out of the shot a bit at the end.



For those of you who don't know, Sasquatch is also "Big Foot" or "Yeti", and more sightings of Big Foot are reported in Washington State (where we are from) than any other State in America...but I don't think Branden's chin contributed to any of the sightings   ;)

You may not want to ride this bus...

Our youngest nephew turned two at the end of last month so in typical, crazy Auntie Moo and Uncle B fashion, we made him a silly birthday video! Now, I am being extremely nice to all of you to let you even see this as I look like more than worse for wear. I had been out on the streets with my volunteer group until 4am, so only had a few hours of sleep and had on no makeup whatsoever.

I hope you liked it as much as he did (which he apparently cried when my sis had to tell him that he couldn't watch it over, and over, and over again!).

International Feast and a Bizarre Birthday Video

My cold is technically gone but it has left me with some nasty left overs that just seem to cling around and refuse to go away. Yesterday our church has its annual International Feast, which is a massive highlight and this year it was huge! There were over 70 dishes from over 20 countries. I made the same thing that I made last year, chocolate peanut butter balls.

It may sound normal, but peanut butter isn't a huge thing over here and all of the Spanish housemates we've ever had have thought the smell and idea of peanut butter was just nasty beyond belief. One of our pastors (who's Irish) even mentioned that the idea of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was just weird to him. I used to eat them every day after kindergarden and Branden still likes them. We estimated that I made over 80 peanut butter balls and they were all gone before the feast was over, so maybe I converted some people. There were some other amazing dishes as well. As I stayed at the American table with my dish, Branden loaded a plate with little bits of stuff and then brought it back for both of us to try. He did this 3 times and we still probably only tasted 1/3 of the dishes!

Our wonderful and tasty event even landed us in the paper which you can see HERE

Branden and I have a busy week ahead of us but I will be posting more weird and wonderful search engine hits, sharing our bizarre birthday videos we send to family, and a favorite recipe we like to make for lazy breakfasts.

To kick off the bizarre birthday videos, here is the recent video we made for my sis's birthday earlier this month. The inspiration for this craziness is from my sis's recognition from the Facebook group Muscle Mom. She's not a body builder or anything like that, but she has ran more half marathons than I can count, and keeps herself toned and fit...which should be helpful when chasing around my two nephews! So here's the video; we didn't practice or write out a script (which should be pretty obvious) and this is our only take.

If you are totally jealous of my 'sock hard' six pack abs, I'm not telling you my secret   ;)

Here we go again

There's nothing like cancer to kick you while you're down. My Granny, my namesake, didn't get the all clear in her latest cancer screening. Cancer is not necessarily anything new for her, as this will be her 6th time fighting it, all popping up in different places with this time on her lungs. She's not a smoker. The last bout with cancer was just under 2 years ago when Branden and I were back in the States and we were able to help her out and take her to her radiation appointments and such. With not plans or means to go back any time in the next couple of years, the feelings of hopelessness and frustration have been hanging over me these last few days since I found out. I understand that my grandparents aren't getting any younger and I will have to face losing them but for Granny, the thought of her losing her life to an evil disease that has hounded her throughout her life just eats away at me. I can't stand the thought of the cancer taking the final scene in her life and lording it's win over her when she's beat it so many times in the past. It's taken a toll already and a few body parts as well so I just wish it would be satisfied and let her live out the rest of her days in peace.

Granny and Hunter in 2009. I don't usually post photos of my nephews but Hunter wasn't even 3 here so he's changed a lot.

For those of you who pray, I would be very grateful for your prayers.

Double Whammy!

Yesterday was not only Father's Day but it was also my Dad's birthday! I was my Dad's fishing and hunting buddy, he always changed our oil and took care of our cars, I had a blast screaming for him and video taping his vintage motorcycle races (he was really good!), and nobody barbecues salmon like he does! My dad put up a lot with my sis, my mom, and me, like the time we dyed his whitey-tighties pink and hung them on the clothes line outside. 

But when I got my pony for my birthday, he put up all the fencing and made a shed for her, if the dog got sick and pooped all over the garage (where she slept at night), dad shoveled it out while we all pressed our ears to the door and giggled while he loudly gagged, and if it snowed, he would make amazing sled runs with jumps down our hill. He'd send us flowers sometimes when we were high school because he knew how much we loved it, and then we'd carry them around all day for everyone to see.

My dad's the one who taught me that I never have to grow up, he's the one I get my bright blue eyes and long eyelashes from, my stubbornness, my soft heart, and the wisdom that I don't need money or things to be happy. As long as I have God, I will have true joy and everything else will be provided. Thanks for showing me that Dad. I never would have realized then how much it would mean now!

Since today is Music Monday, you are all going to get a peek at a family tradition that my Dad does whenever it's one of our birthdays. He always sings (a slightly modified version) The Beatles "Birthday" song. Branden and I made him a video for his birthday, and I actually think it may be less embarrassing than last year's video! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Good Question!

I'm over at my other blog With a Meek Heart today so you can join me by clicking HERE. For those just looking for the funny, I have a good one for you today.

We were on skype with my sis and her two boys yesterday and my sis told us that she went to a store that sold cow's blood and cow's bile. My 5 year old nephew responded to this by asking, "How do you make a cow throw up?" at which we all died laughing! I told him that you just stick your finger down it's throat but I'm not sure he bought it. That kid is a kick!

I love being an adult

To say that I am not a morning person would be a serious understatement. I LOATH mornings! The only way I would like them is if they started at noon. Friday is the one morning that Branden and I can sleep-in together (since he or we have to get up at a set time every other day of the week) so I am not a fan if our one morning of being sloths gets interrupted. I woke up at 9am this morning just to go to the bathroom and crawled back into bed, expecting to doze for at least another hour or so...but the doorbell rang. Everyone else in the house is gone by this time so Branden nominated me to answer it since I just got up.

Looking like disheveled road kill, I answered the door to the postman who handed me a package with my name on it! I squeaked out a "Thanks so much!" in my best "no, I have been awake for hours and this is my normal horrid sounding man voice." Getting back into bed, I ripped into the box as quickly as I could since I saw the list of package contents taped to the side, and it read "Girl Scout cookies"! We don't have Girl Scout cookies here in Ireland and we keep being horribly taunted by our US friends and family back home who keep singing their praises on Facebook. Being the responsible adults that we are, we ate Thin Mints, Dulce de Leche, and Samoas for breakfast in bed! Now that is my idea of a great morning! I even happily got up again to make coffee, spurred on by the high sugar content that was now in my system.

All this to say, THANK YOU! to my sister, bro-in-law, and nephews for the wonderful package this morning! As an added bonus, I even got a new pretty bracelet made for me by Hunter (my 5 year old nephew). It's so sweet and I love it!

Thanks for the Memories

It's Valentine's Day! Branden and I are going to be headed off soon so I should make this short. I wanted to share another bundle of Valentine's Day memories that are blessed to exist in my mind because of my dad. Every year for a long, long time, he cooks a special Valentine's Day dinner for his girls. This includes my mom, my sis, myself, and my Granny (mom's mom) since she has been widowed for over 20 years. Dad goes all out to spoil us and typical dinners include lobster, steak, his specially bbq salmon, king prawns, a big tossed green salad, garlic bread, and then something absolutely decadent for dessert. He dresses the table to look all nice and makes sure that we don't lift a finger. My sis and I won't be there for this year's feast but Dad will do it anyway because he still loves to spoil his girls and mom and Granny are well worth spoiling.

Happy Valentine's Day Dad! Thank you for all of the wonderful memories and I can't wait for when I get to enjoy another one of your feasts some day!

Another thing that I wanted to note is that I will be officially launching my new blog "With a Meek Heart" on Thursday (so just 2 days away!!!). I'm very excited and can't wait to get it started because so much has been happening and I've been learning so much!

Happy Valentine's Day and mark your calendars for Thursday!

Things that make me sob into my coffee

I don't know how it happened and I am so frustrated that my sis and bro-in-law just ALLOWED it to happen! Their baby isn't a baby anymore!!! I love it when my sis posts new photos of my nephews, and I love seeing their faces on Skype but the "baby" got a haircut and now just looks like the world's smallest man! He is walking less like a drunk zombie and is even starting to talk less like one too! How could they let this happen!?! It was bad enough that they let their first child get all the way up to 5 years old, so you'd think they could have at least put more effort into keeping the other one little!

And yes, I admit that the photos of them with their fake mustaches were really cute but it's just going to encourage them to become old enough to grow their own! *sob* I just want my babies back!!! It's just going to get worse as I am not going to be able to get away with telling them random fantasy crap that I make up and having them actually believe me. They will realize that I'm not necessarily their "fun Auntie" but more like their "crazy Auntie", and they will begin to pray that their genetic link will be more of their dad's side!

I see myself playing in a cardboard box when I'm in my 40's and they will just be giving me that raised eyebrow look that their mother will have taught them so well, and they will decline to join so they can just go play video games with their cool Uncle Branden. I probably won't be "Auntie Moo" anymore and I'll get demoted to "Aunt Maggie", which thankfully since I'm not a "Margaret" and just a "Maggie", gives some hint of youth and fun.

Of course in the many years to come, I'll have my own kids who's young minds I will get to toy with, and their youthfulness will give me more time to play on the floor like a fool...but my nephews are my first babies and now they aren't even that anymore. Soon they will be handsome grown men who will be much taller than me and much smarter than me.

It's amazing how you never really realize how fast time goes by until you invest your heart into a child. Then the time just seems to fly.

My sis and Hunter. When he was still little.

6 days to go folks!

Less than a week until Christmas!!! That means my nephews probably won't get their toys in time because we are finally getting in to the post office today...oops! Bad Auntie Moo and Uncle B!

Hunter wanted some more needle felted dinosaurs to go with the two that I made for his birthday. I had a bit of fun making them and I think he'll really like them too.

The yellow one is my attempt at a brachiosaurus and the blue one is my attempt at a triceratops. Here's another angle of them.

For Brady, I made him a stuffed penguin that he can chuck at his brother, bite its head, or stomp on it if he wanted to.

I just hope he doesn't pull the tail off as soon as he gets it. The red blotch by his tail is a heart. I had to put some mushy Auntie thing on it.

Oh and as for the gloves I made out of an old sweater, which I also made the penguin out of the same old sweater, here's a shot of those.

Branden had to tie the bows because I suck at bows. Anyhoo, I hope you all have a fantastic week leading up to Christmas and my shared music today isn't the normal music type thing. It's actually a really cute video I saw on a friend's facebook page but it does have a cutsie song at the end so I'll call that close enough. This is a video of the Christmas Story told by some adorable Australian kids. I couldn't get over how sweet they were, how cute the sheep were, and how miserable the poor donkey must have been! I hope you enjoy it! We got a bit of a laugh out of it!

Overjoyed and a bit Overwhelmed

After much excitement and a bit of waiting, my new laptop has arrived! It was also an exciting morning as our Christmas box from my in-laws arrived so Branden and I felt a bit like kids on Christmas morning today! We also got our first Christmas card in the mail. It was from my grandparents which was sweet. I have always been close to them and it's always hard this time of year to be away from them. From the time I was born, every year my family would have Christmas Eve dinner with my grandparents and dad's family, go to the Christmas Eve service at their church, and then spend the night at their house so we could have Christmas morning with them. Since my sis and I were the youngest of their grandkids, they loved getting to continue the fun of having Christmas with little ones. We always had so much fun and Grandma and Grandpa loved to sit back and see Katie and me get all excited over our toys. We had the year when I was 3 that we got our kittens, then a bit later we had the year where we got our baby buggies, and then a little later we had the year that Katie and I confused all the adults by eating the cookies and drinking the milk before they did...so much fun and so many memories. I spent Christmas Eve night at their house every year until I was 22 and at that age, I lived only 2 houses down from them but still walked over to keep up the tradition.

After Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa's house, we would then drive over to my mom's side of the family to enjoy more presents, food, and fun with my Granny, Aunt, Uncles, and cousins. We were quite close to both sides of my parent's families, especially since most of them lived in the same area, and I feel very blessed for that. Now we are all grown up and have a slew of little ones taking up the next generation. My grandparents on my dad's side have (if I am counting right) 24 great grand kids and Granny on my mom's side has 6. We are a bit more spread out now but we still have a deep connection filled with lots of great memories.

Fun with some cousins: (from left to right) Me, Bonny (our Irish Setter), Colby, Katie, Jennie

This will be my second Christmas in a row being away from family which is a bit tough since I do miss them a lot and we had such a great tradition of being together at Christmas. Branden and I won't be alone though. We will be spending Christmas with friends and their families so we do feel very blessed this Christmas as we did last Christmas when a friend from the US stayed with us. As some of you may have figured out by now, I love Christmas music and one of my favorite Christmas albums is Third Day's Christmas Offerings. There is one song at the end of the CD though that manages to make me cry EVERY TIME I hear it! It's about adoption but it always makes me think of how my parents must be feeling to not have me or my sis home for Christmas and so I can't help but lose it knowing how much they miss us. Dang! I can't even write about it without losing it!

*tissue break*

Anyway, I do feel very blessed this year, especially now since I'm sitting on my bed, surrounded by blessings bestowed on me by such wonderful people and the mail service didn't dropkick through my front door! It's been a tough year for Branden and me but we have grown so much, made such wonderful new friends, and seen miracle after miracle and blessing after blessing. If you get to be with your family for Christmas this year, give them some extra hugs. There are a lot of us out there who wish we could simply do that on Christmas day.

Oh, and if anyone thinks that I have turned into a Country Music lover, I will chuck a candy cane at you because Third Day isn't actually a country band (they can just get a bit twangy every once in a while!).

It's a Marshmallow World

It's about halfway through November so I can't contain it any longer. I can't resist Christmas music anymore! My mom-in-law is an artist and she just had her huge Christmas sale at her art studio over the weekend so I've been looking at wonderful Christmas foofoo for weeks now (she's shared lots of fun photos with us). Normally around this time of the year, I start creating festive decor like a mad woman. I am a paper chain freak, although I use more than paper. I will make a garland out of almost anything as long as it is the right color scheme. This year is a bit different though. All of our Christmas decor is still in Edinburgh with our friends who also were our neighbors. Even if we did have the decorations they would be taped up in a box and crying for me to let them out. The sad thing is that we have no place to put anything. We had a mini tree and lots of mini decorations, but now we have everything we own in our one bedroom so space is just not available. All of our surface space is taken, and even though I make nice looking containers to hold all of our things, Branden and I still feel like things are cluttered and driving us crazy! It can't be a good sign when you feel like you need to purge your one room.

I have tons of Christmas creative urges rushing through my mind and not a thing I can do with them. I suppose that means that all of my Christmas spirit will need to be poured into Christmas music then. The song I'm sharing today is one that I actually had never heard until I met my mom-in-law. I love classic Christmas songs and don't know how this one slipped by because it's fabulous! My mom-in-law LOVES Christmas. She really decks the house out, and being an artist, she makes amazing holiday decor! 

My mom and dad-in law last Christmas at their home

For a number of years, Branden and his family would drive over to Leavenworth, a Bavarian styled town tucked away in the Cascade Mountain Range, and stay for a weekend before Christmas to get them in the spirt of things. Around Christmas time, the town turns into what my mom-in-law described to me as a festive snow globe. Our first "Married Christmas" together, Branden and I flew back from Scotland to be with family for almost a month. I got to join his family on their yearly trip to "snow globe city". It was absolutely breathtaking and Branden's mom got more and more like an excited child the closer we got. The first day of the trip, we just drove over to the Seattle side of the Puget Sound to do some Christmas shopping and get a night's sleep before heading into the mountains.

The second day, we arrived in Leavenworth and it was absolutely incredible. There were kids sledding, carolers on the streets, smells of gingerbread and spiced drinks, and adorable bundled up families taking it all in. 

Outside of our hotel that was right across the street from the above photo...talk about a view!

My mom-in-law, who I call Momma Bean, was so excited to finally have another girl on the trip, so as we enjoyed snoop shopping, the boys could go enjoy some sledding. We also got to go up to a lodge for some sleigh riding and dinner. It was beautiful!

Bundled up on the sleigh ride

However, I did find thoughts of exploring the surrounding winter wonderland a bit terrifying after I found this in the entryway of the lodge.

It was a magical little weekend and really put the Christmas spirit in us! This year will be different with not much of a chance to decorate and with us staying in Ireland. Next Monday I'll have to share the wonders of Christmas in Edinburgh! It was incredibly beautiful and festive at Christmas time which we ache to be missing out on this year. But this year is a new adventure, so I am excited to see what Christmas will bring. Either way, Branden and I are just so happy that we get to be with each other for the holidays.

So without further ado, and without Thanksgiving to hold me back, here's the fabulous Dean and Frankie to wet your Christmas appetites. They are having way too much fun singing this! I love it!

One Big Sensitive Dog

After sharing some stories about my parents yesterday, I had ever intention of blogging about my in-laws today...not an easy thing to do. Branden and I have been sitting on the bed brainstorming about how on earth we can even begin to introduce his parents. I mean this is a good way. His parents are wonderful and I love them to bits, it's just they are some of the most random 'characters' I have ever met. After throwing around some sasquatch, pirate, and alien invasion stories, we couldn't decide where to start, so we changed our focus.

I don't know why his dad is making this face but I love this photo! If you look in the background you can see lots of hats hanging on the wall. This is one of our favorite restaurants because you get to wear random hats through your dinner! This was last Valentine's Day. We were with them and had a blast!

Today you all get to meet Beauford instead. He's their 210lb. purebred St. Bernard. After you hear about his character, it will put into perspective how his owners must be even more complex!

He is the biggest baby of a dog I have ever met! Despite how huge he is (he has walked past me and hit me in between the shoulder blades with his tail!) he is absolutely petrified of Chihuahuas and ducks, and he used to have a fear of puddles but thankfully he got over that one! There are some Chihuahuas who live next door and when they started coming up to Beauford's driveway to bark at him, Beau didn't want to leave the porch for a week! He will start whining and shaking if he hears them barking.

He was such a cute puppy! I wish I knew him at this time!

Beauford may have some odd fears, but for the most part he is a happy dog who takes 2 hardcore naps a day and loves peanut butter sandwiches. Branden's parents have a big projector screen in their basement that is like a mini theater. Beauford loves to watch movies and gets very involved sometimes. I remember one time we watched "Wall-e" and Beauford started chasing the cockroach around the screen. He has his own movie that is basically some random footage at a dog park. Beau will go nuts jumping up after sticks, barking at the yappy dogs, and seeing how many butts he can try and sniff. There is one part though that we have to fast forward because he gets really upset over it. It's a scene of a male dog that is standing over a submissive female and barking like crazy at her to keep her laying down. Some other males come over and bark at the poor female too and this drives Beau nuts! He tries to bark the males away, and when they don't go away he goes up to each of us and tries to make us go stop them. He'll either nudge us, bark at us, or even softly take our hand in his mouth to 'lead us' to where the poor female is. Since he gets so upset, we just end up fast forwarding to keep him from stressing out.

In the snow, he goes into "rescue dog" mode!

Beauford and I quickly became buddies. He likes women anyway, but he has lots of fun dragging me around in my socks across the floor when we play tug of war. When we Skype Branden's parents, sometimes Beau gets really frustrated because he can hear my voice but he can't get to me. He will bark and bark at the screen and grab Branden's mom's hand in attempt to make her go get me. The other day when we were talking to Branden's mom, she put her laptop on the couch (facing towards the room) so she could go get something in another part of the house. When she left the room, I saw Beauford just laying on the floor, attempting to snooze. I started calling him and he soon got up and started groggily looking around. His first reaction to my voice was to go directly to his toys. When I didn't just grab a toy and start playing with him, he walked to the door to go see if maybe I was in another room. I called him again, so he turned around towards the computer, saw my face on the screen, and walked over to sniff my face. Obviously not smelling me (despite being able to see me), he walked away to go get Branden's mom to get me out. Branden and I were cracking up but also felt a bit bad for him since we got him a bit excited.

He loves it when I crawl on the floor with him!

So that's my intro to Beauford Clarence (he has a middle name!). My big hairy buddy. I'll start on how to introduce my in-laws on Monday!