Seriously?

My sweet, smart, creative, loving brother has never been much of a packer.  I always am an over-packer. I want to be sure I have everything I could POSSIBLY need for ANY situation.  I make lists, I cross them off. I make new lists, I double and triple check.

My brother just throws stuff in a bag and figures something will work.

I will never forget a few years back, I helped my bro move out of his dorm.  We packed up all of his clothes into any bag we could find- suitcase, duffle, laundry bag- clean clothes, dirty clothes, whatever- then moved back to my dad's.

A couple of days later we were going to visit my mom in North Carolina.  We got to her house and the next morning, he comes in and says, "well, we need to go to the store and buy some underwear." 
"What? How can you be out of underwear already? Did you forget to pack it?"
He replies, "I didn't forget. I just didn't pack anything. I just grabbed one of the suitcases we moved out of the dorm and figured it'd have whatever I needed.  Oh and I also need a toothbrush."

I could never be that laid back about what I take on a trip.

So it should come as no surprise to see the socks he brought to my house for 5 days over Christmas.

Not a single matching pair.  Not even close.

He just reached into his drawer, grabbed a handful, and packed them.

Love him.

The Grass Is Always Greener

This year we stayed home for Christmas and planned to celebrate with my husband's family.  My mom and brother also came to celebrate with us- it was a blast!

We spend all of Christmas day at my in-laws house, so I offered to host Christmas Eve dinner to lighten her load and give me and my mom a meal to plan together.

So last Saturday, I woke up early to go to the grocery- with list and coupons in hand.  Then came home and immediately got to work.  The Dallas Cowboys were playing on Christmas Eve and the boys in the group intended to watch, so we planned a menu around "game" food.

I made my mom's chili, Autumn Corn Chowder, two types of cornbread, had a couple of appetizers planned, a plateful of Christmas cookies (all given to me by others), and a sweet potato pie (at my hubby's request). 

It was a full day of cooking, cleaning, and setting the dining room table (which of course was my favorite part).

I used my Christmas Spode (anniversary gifts from my in-laws), green anthro glasses, and silver chargers.

 It was a cute table, even though I anticipated the men in the group to be eating in front of the tv due to the football game.

So... I finished up EVERYTHING, set the DVR to record the game, and we left for a wonderful Christmas Eve service.

We returned about 6:30.  The weather had changed to misty and pretty cold.  We were all hungry and ready to eat.  As we turned into the neighborhood, something felt strange...

It was... totally... utterly... completely... DARK.

Yes, no power. none whatsoever. 

Until we hit our street.  Then (praise the Lord) I saw lights! Yay!! Anxiety drifted away.

Until we turned into our driveway, and I noticed that our house was totally dark.  In fact, our side of the street was totally dark.  Yes, the only lights in the entire neighborhood was the other side of the street.  The one block of houses facing us had light.  (It felt like they were rubbing it in our faces or something.)

Ok... time to go to plan B- get the food, take it to another house and eat. 

One problem, we only took our garage door opener with us, and that wasn't working now.  Yep. We couldn't get in the house.  Lovely.

Fortunately my father-in-law has a set of our house keys at his office, which is just 1/2 mile away. So he left to get the keys, came back, let us in, we loaded up the car with food (I didn't even bother with the appetizers) and headed to my brother-in-law's house.

The beautiful table setting was left to be seen by only YOU! 
and of course, with the power out, the Cowboys game did not get recorded. Which, after hearing the score, was probably a better thing to keep hubby in a better mood all weekend. 

After dinner my mom and I drove back by the house to see if the power was on yet.  It wasn't.  Which led us to say "the grass is always greener on the other side of the road! Or in this case, the lights are always brighter! Literally."

(About an hour later, the lights were back on.  We came home and opened presents and had heat and were able to cook the turkey just fine the next morning.)

It was definitely a Christmas Eve I'll never forget. 

Did you know?

Did you know that you can take pictures of your throat and actually see the "hangy-down thing?"

Well my throat was hurting recently and so I wanted to see what it looked like. And yes, I can get a flashlight and look in a mirror. But I had my camera in my hand, so I just thought "I'll point this into my mouth and see what happens."  I thought the results were hilarious! My husband just looked at me like I was nuts.  Typical night in our house.

Trying to be Trendy

I'm typically years behind the cool trends (uggs, skinny jeans, toms... all of these took me YEARS to embrace).  So this year I found a way to slowly embrace the dark black nails... (which of course started being cool LAST year), I found GRAY nail polish instead of BLACK.  I think I like it.

I've had it on for a week now.  Husband likes it, grocery store cashier likes it, a couple of friends like it, mom hates it. I think I like it on my hands, but it makes my feet look like they need better circulation or something.

Your thoughts?

An Attempt at Home Made Chex Mix

One of my favorite things about being a kindergarten teacher is the amount of homemade goodness I receive.  I have one sweet little girl who brought me a homemade goodie every week (until they moved into a new house and in the midst of the chaos her mom just hasn't had time to bake. I forgive them. But I expect them to be fully settled in and baking by the time we return to school in January.)

I absolutely LOVE chex mix- especially the home made kind.  A ziploc baggie full of homemade chex mix does not last past 9:00 am on my desk!

And since my mom and brother came in for Christmas this year, I felt the need to have homemade goodies lying around our home and definitely wanted to try out chex mix.

Here we go... the ingredients...

 I just used the recipe on the back of the chex box. 

First it says to melt the butter in a large roasting pan in the oven.  Well... I didn't feel like getting my roasting pan out of the attic, so I chose this 9x11 pan.  Bad move. Not quite big enough for all of the ingredients.  Oh well..

 In the mean time, I mixed up the spices... worchestire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and seasoned salt. 

 Then I measured out the dry ingredients... tip of the day- put your measuring cup in the bowl so when you spill (which I do constantly), it ends up in the bowl and not on the counter.

 Add in some garlic bagel chips, pretzel sticks, and mixed nuts.

 Butter is done!

 Mix in the seasonings... Note to self: in the future, double the amount of spices... I like my chex mix full of flavor!

 add in the dry ingredients in small batches and mix.

 Here it is all mixed up... now roast it!  for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.

 Spread it out on paper towels to cool (and be sad that it doesn't have enough seasonings.)

Next time, I would seriously add more flavor, but we have been eating it and enjoying it anyways!

Always willing to suffer for good food :)

I think we're ready

Every day this week the doorbell rang and I would find boxes on the porch.

Every day.

Sometimes twice a day.

I took this picture a little early... two more boxes showed up after this.

But I think we are ready.  All of the gifts must be here by now!  Christmas can come!

Okay- honestly... Christmas could come with our without the gifts.  We celebrate the birth of our Savior on Christmas, the gifts are just an added bonus.  The hubby and I don't even exchange gifts with each other- just isn't really the point of Christmas to us.  But we do enjoy giving to friends and family.  And we enjoy the gifts we receive as well! 

I just though the massive stack of boxes in the closet was humorous.  and I'm quite interested in knowing what's inside each of them!

Why do you know that?

We all know kids say "the darn-dest things."  But do you ever wonder how they figured out some of the things they can do??

For example... I subbed last week in a 1st grade classroom.  I had never been in this classroom before. I had never met these kids before. 

Sometimes you can tell just by looking at someone if they are "different" or "normal."  You know- you expect funny things out of certain kids mouths, while others will probably never say something funny in their lives.  That's just how it is.

So after about 20 minutes in this particular 1st grade classroom, a very NORMAL looking child came up to me.  Actually, it was a GIRL (which is important in this story). 

Yes a NORMAL GIRL came up to me after having just met her 20 minutes ago, and she told me...

"I can lick my arm pit. See, watch."

I was shocked. stunned. speechless.

And it didn't matter, she wasn't looking for me to say anything. She licked her armpit, turned around, and sat down in her chair and did her work.

Because that's what 1st grade kids do.

Spiced up Votives

Again, I'm copying my best friend and her cool gifts to  me. But hey- isn't that the highest form of flattery?  Mindi dear- I hope you don't mind!

So... take some plain glass votives, some starbucks wrappers, and some paint chips (I chose red).

 Lay out the wrapper...

 Draw straight lines on the curved wrapper. I used a ruler and traced both sides for even thickness on each candle.

 Wrap it around the glass votive to figure out the necessary length.

 Next, realize that you can see the Starbucks lady through the glass.  Be very glad you didn't glue it on yet.

 Use the (free) paint chip to cover up the lady.  Glue it on the back of the wrapper, trim the excess.  And be glad you have the excess to finish up the end of the wrapper. (Please do not take notice of the terrible quality of photos and lighting. It is night time.  I don't have a $1000 camera)

 Now, start wrapping again, but this time start with a line of hot glue.

 Use the hot glue again on the other side.

Admire your work and the pretty red interior.

Tie on some green raffia to complete the Christmas look!

The whole set all together!

These were so simple to make and with almost all free supplies.  But, Mindi gave me a set of them last Christmas and they are seriously my favorite candles!!  Enjoy!

Handmade Christmas Gift

Tomorrow is the last day of school before Christmas break!  This means that I am more busy this week than 90% of the school year!  The very first month of school and the last week of school are equally busy.  But I can't complain too much... since most of the year is pretty steady and then we do get the whole summer off :)

Anyway, I am trying to quickly get together a few gifts for my co-worker!  My sweet kindergarten teaching partner has been such a blessing this year!!   And, thanks to pinterest, I am all inspired to do handmade this year!!  Both gifts that I made for her are pretty close replicas of ones I was given last year (by my dear dear dear friend who I miss seeing every single day!)


Tote Bag... started out plain and simple

 I wanted to make Ashley Ann's version... and I have a few totes left, so I still may.

But I went even more simple, yet super cute...

 I wrote "teach" in cursive in pencil. Then went over it part by part in glue (Alene's tacky glue)  and then put on turquoise sequin ribbon.

 This photo is without the flash so you can get a better idea of the color.

I think it turned out super cute!  I may make another just like it!  Or make one like Ashley Ann :)

The Perfect Ladder

Not sure how or why I came up with this idea.  Most likely I saw it on Pinterest.  Do I have any original ideas anymore?

Anways... I knew I wanted an old wooden ladder for the gray and yellow guest bathroom.  I found this beauty in Canton, TX at First Mondays. If you've never been to Canton- you must go!!  Quite an experience. 

and I just LOVE the ladder! It instantly warms up the room!  On HGTV, the designers always talk about bringing in wood to "warm" up a room. I never really understood that, since all of my house has hardwood floors, I guess all of my rooms are instantly warmed :)  But the moment the ladder entered the bathroom, I understood.  Feels totally different!

I like hanging current magazines on the bottom 2 rungs.   I have to say that the November issues of magazines looked better since the color palette (not sure if this should be palate or palette, spelling was  never my strong point) fit with the yellows.  But, it's still fun to rotate the magazines.

Yay for old dirty wooden ladders!!

Friends Thanksgiving

The Saturday before Thanksgiving was the FIFTH annual Friends Thanksgiving!  We LOVE this time with friends to eat and talk and enjoy the holidays before things get really crazy!

I love that this event is a potluck and everyone brings the most amazing food!! 

This year I only made the turkey and the drinks! Which meant tons of time to do the fun stuff- like decorate the tables!! (and worry about how to find enough tables and chairs to seat 25!)

The Dining Room

I had to add the folding table to the end of the dining room table to make it all fit.

And even though we use our nice china and crystal... I borrow from my mother-in-law and so it becomes a hodge-podge of really pretty stuff!  Love that!

I went simple with the napkins this year... I saw this in a magazine and loved it!  Just folding them into a rectangle and then cinching them with a pretty ribbon.  Maybe a thicker ribbon would have made a bigger impact, but I just used what I had in fall colors :)

Some tables had orange flowers, some had pumpkins!  Again, just a hodge podge! But it works!

The Sun Room- We used our normal round table (just added a couple of chairs) and then added this folding table as well. (Had to remove a big leather chair to make room)

I think this table was my favorite this year.  Loved the colors and the rectangle centerpiece.

This table was adorned with pretty placemats and a brass tea set.  (I need to remember to purchase a round fall colored table cloth for next year!)

In the kitchen... we took out our tall bar table to make more room.  The bar table is great for morning coffee, but not so great for serving food from.  So it went to the garage, and in came this folding table.   By this point I was out of tablecloths! SO I found a clean white sheet and added an embroidered table runner (made by my great-grandma).  The turkey and ham ended up here.

This sweet vignette sat in the kitchen all season. I really enjoyed it each morning, it's nothing special, but I liked how I (finally) put it all together on a white tray and it just tied it all together! So simple- but I just figured that trick out!

Since I did NOT have to do most of the cooking... I got to spend my time on fun things like this!  The food labels! I bought these pumpkin place card holders at Pier 1 after Thanksgiving last year (which meant huge sale!)  I cut up some yellow card stock, printed these cute Thanksgiving labels (thanks Pinterest) and hand wrote the food item. I had some leftover circles of scrapbook paper from the invitations, so I threw those on for more color.

The Drink Station- I always do this on the washer and dryer now! I love that it moves some of the serving action out of the kitchen.  I made hot apple cider (YUM!), I made some sweet tea, and I set the coffee maker to start at the beginning of dinner.  Done and done.

 My favorite chalkboard!  this greeted guests at the front door.

The Turkey!  turned out quite nice this year! I only ate a few bites because I loved all the side dishes so much!

all of the food! What a feast!

Honey baked ham and turkey! 

the BEST jalapeno creamed corn you could ask for! Great sweet potatoes!  Delicious dressing! 

Mac n cheese!  Green bean casserole! Salad! Rolls!  (are you hungry yet??)

The end of the night...  It doesn't look as messy in the picture as it did in real life.  But when I walked by I thought, "now THAT is Thanksgiving!"  Empty glasses, forks, napkins, etc all strewn about the table. love it.

This  year the party ended early.  Turns out our friends are entering into parenthood and have baby sitters at home or they were pregnant and very tired. So Ty and I were able to get the house cleaned up and get to bed at a very decent hour. 

It was a blast! I love how it has evolved over the years... we had 1 couple who came to our first feast and then missed all the middle years and returned this year.  The wife said to me, "Wow.  Last time we were here we all fit at the dining room table. Now you've added 3 more tables!! People just kept coming in!"  I love that!  Hoping for many more years of feasting to come!