A good time was had by all!

Ah..another Christmas come and gone. I think the most exciting time of the year is Christmas morning. Even though I am 28 years old (counting the days until I turn 29 for the first time), I couldn't sleep the night before Christmas. Was it the chocolate fondue I had at my coworker's house...couldn't have been that! How about the coffee that I had to wash down all the fondue...nope, no way that keeps me awake... I'm convinced that I was just excited about Santa and all the other Christmas magic! I woke up at 2:30am on Christmas morning..and went out in the living room so I didn't wake Seth. I turned on the tree and was watching Christmas shows on tv...and who comes out into the living room but my sweet, sound-sleeping husband! He tried to go back to bed, without success, and was reading for the next couple of hours. I think we both had the Christmas spirit so badly we just couldn't stand it!

Anyway, we managed to wait until about 8:30am before we tore into everything. And what a fun Christmas it was! :) Despite the fact that we weren't with our extended families (this was the first year that we weren't with one or the other), it was a really fun time...and totally felt like Christmas!! We went over to our friends' house for Christmas (Day) dinner, and had spent Christmas Eve with one of my coworkers and her family...even though we weren't doing anything that we traditionally do, I think it felt like Christmas because we were together (and because it was snowing...hard!). Now, we're back to work, the leftover treats are all in the garbage (although I may have had a final bite of everything as it went into the can...), and we're anxiously awaiting another party where we can say goodbye to 2008, and welcome 2009!

We can't see the lawn anymore...

Here's a picture of Mrs. Claus for your Christmas enjoyment! From everyone I've talked to, it seems like the snow is hitting the entire country - or at least the entire Northwest! I know that it's creating havoc for all of the holiday travellers (and I really hope it backs off a bit and allows everyone to get where they're going for Christmas), but I just think it's so pretty! Maybe I'm able to enjoy it more because I'm not going anywhere, but I think the snow, this year, has put me in the Christmas spirit more than in years past. As soon as it started snowing, all I wanted to do was bake cookies and watch Christmas movies. I've already seen Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, part of A Christmas Carol, the Garfield Christmas special (which used to be my all-time favorite...and I hadn't seen it for years!!), some kids show called Cranberry Christmas, endless cheesy Christmas movies on Lifetime, ABC Family, and the Disney Channel, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas....can you believe I haven't seen Charlie Brown yet? In fact, I'm having so much fun with the whole Christmas thing, I'm finding it very hard to focus on work this week. Good thing it's a short one. I hope all of you are feeling as Christmas-y as I am!

The lawn!

Oh crumb. Apparently, it's been just under a month since my last post (just barely under!) At long last, I have pictures of the lawn. It's looking lush and green! In fact, I think it's likely the greenest lawn in the neighborhood right now. Still a bit patchy in front, but we're hoping that fills in better in the spring.

To catch everyone up on all the other odds and ends in our lives, we had a nice Thanksgiving (my parents came to visit for the week and we had some other friends join us for the turkey dinner on Thursday). Seth and my Dad deep fried a turkey (actually, 2 so we would have lots of leftovers), and did a wonderful job. The only scare was Thanksgiving morning when we opened the box to assemble the fryer and discovered the hardware and instructions were missing. Thank goodness for WalMart and their being open 24-hours that day! :) Other than that, it's been work, work, work. Our company Christmas parties are this weekend (one Friday and one Saturday), and we're going to dinner and bowling for both! The other exciting thing we did this week was booking our flight to Europe! We're going to Europe for 12 days next spring...and now we REALLY have to go because the tickets are non-refundable!

I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll try to be better about this thing!

It's been awhile...

Oops. So, I started this blog with the caveat that I'm not very good at journaling and didn't know if I would keep up with this. Apparently, I'm pretty good for 2 months (more than I can say for journaling). :) Here's the deal... I decided after my last post that my next one would involve pictures showing the progress of our lawn (which is growing and green, by the way). Since I haven't gotten around to taking pictures, I never bothered to log on here and say anything else...the best laid plans and so on and so forth... Lame. Instead of waiting until I got around to taking pictures, I decided to just log on and write about nothing if I needed to, because honestly, the guilt of not getting around to this is weighing on me.

Here's the good news about waiting awhile for a post, a lot has happened since the last post. The bad news? When I get on here to write, I can't think of anything in particular. It's like when you were a kid and one of your friends would ask "What's the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?" Umm....well...(cricket, cricket)...can't really think of anything... Does that mean that nothing embarrassing has ever happened to me? Uh, no. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I do recall an incident in college when exiting a Chem 101 lab (in full dorky freshman lab gear...coat, goggles, the works) I tripped up the stairs of Fulmer Hall (yes, up) and ended up sprawled out on the ground in the courtyard outside the building...good thing it was lunch time so the courtyard was full of students eating lunch. That was fairly cool of me. :)

Anyway, there it is. I did it. I posted something! The other good thing about not posting for a bit is that nothing bad has happened. Seth and I are just plugging along with life, and really I'm very fortunate to be able to say that. I know there are a lot of people that have daily struggles with health, finance, family, work, etc. and I really have it very good. Especially on this day, Veteran's Day, I want to say thank you to all of those who have served our country (including many of my extended family members, friends, and my dad). If it wasn't for all of you, I wouldn't have the opportunity to have this life, in this country, in which I am truly blessed.

Trick-or-Treat

I don't know what it is about Halloween that makes me want to be a kid again so badly. Every year I have this overwhelming desire to dress up (and eat candy...but that's not just on Halloween). It was always such a fun holiday at our house - and we had a unique trick-or-treating experience. Since we lived on a farm and our neighborhood encompassed about 10 square miles, trick-or-treating was an all night thing. We would get home from school, have dinner, dress up and head out in the car with Mom and/or Dad to make our rounds. Each stop on our route meant not only getting candy, but we "went visiting" and were at each house for at least 30 minutes. Better yet, since Andy and I were the only kids in the neighborhood, we didn't get little fun-size bars....but KING size! :) How fun is that for a kid? One of my neighbors always made popcorn balls - and every Halloween, without fail, I have this craving for a popcorn ball!

Now that I'm older, I enjoy seeing all the kids stop by in their cute, little costumes. There are some very creative people out there! Until I have my own kids, my poor doggie has to deal with my love of this holiday. Last year she was a bumble bee, and this year she has her choice between a rooster or a pumpkin. :) She hates it. Happy pumpkin carving!

Distracted!

Today is my company's open house for our new office. When I started, we were located in a cute part of town, in a very old building where we kind of had make-shift "offices." While it was fun, and "eclectic," we were happy to upgrade in July. Now, we're away from the excessive traffic, and right by the river...where I'm noticing the view gets better and better as the fall leaves change! Now that we've been here for 3 months (yeah, it takes us awhile to plan a party....in fact, I think this was the first year we actually had our summer party before it snowed) we do know how to have a good time.

Because of the party planning, I'm not doing very well at staying billable this week (which is not so good, in my line of work...). I have spent many hours getting ready for a big presentation I have to make next week, and spent most of yesterday shopping for office accessories with one of my coworkers! How can I help it that we have good taste? I mean, SOMEONE had to decorate! :) So now, I'm 13 minutes away from the start of the open house (i.e. schmooz-fest), and I can't seem to make myself do any work of value. Instead, I enjoyed my first Starbucks Doubleshot (in the little cans...and my goodness, how do they get 140 calories and so much deliciousness in such a small can), blogging, thinking about how much I don't like wearing tights, and trying to figure out what kind of picture I want to hang on the wall in my office. Here's to a productive week! :)

Six weeks to a greener, weed-free lawn!

So, we made it! About an hour ago, our lawn was finally hydroseeded!! I swear, Seth and I have been spending every waking moment (when we've not been at work) raking, piling leaves and branches, spreading dirt, weed-whacking, mowing, power raking, etc.....until this moment. For the first time in a month, I have no idea what we're going to do tonight....I'm sure the inside of the house could use some attention, but maybe I'll put that off for a few more days.

It's been difficult getting things ready, but I'm proud of the fact that we did it. If our original plan had worked (where we were going to hire someone to help us do all of this...and he bailed on us...) we wouldn't have had the satisfaction of doing it ourselves! :) We spent last night making the finishing touches...and I had to go do an emergency raking of the backyard at 11AM because the wind was blowing leaves off the tree. Whew.

Now, our lawn is green for the first time in....well, ever (even though it's just a green dye that will fade in a couple of days). The hydroseeding company is expecting us to have approximately 3" of growth in 6-weeks! For those of you in the Treasure Valley, if you ever need any hydroseeding done, let me know and I'll be happy to recommend this company. Also, if any of you are looking for landscaping assistance, I will also give you the name of the guy who bailed on us....don't use him! :)

I think Maggie will have the hardest time over the next 6-weeks. We've put up a temporary fence to keep her trapped in one section of the backyard when she's outside. Although it's plenty large, she realized this morning as she went tearing after a squirrel that she cannot get through the fence with her face.