30 Day Project/Challenge: Day 6

I do not really want to end the year on this post...but I do not want to start it with this one either. So I guess I will end it with this. I have had a pretty rough day already so I don't feel too cheery or upbeat so I guest it works?

1) Something you hope you never have to do?

Lose a child(ren). Whether it is as an adult, teen, pre-teen, child, toddler, baby or even while I am still pregnant with that child. I do not think there needs to be any more explanation on that one. See why I didn't want to start the year off with this??

2) Someone you love

now this is better

Ya....gotta mention this bugger

Nicole and Adam (friends from college) on their amazing wedding day

Sedge, Hess, Phil and Jim and Nicole/Adam's wedding

My best friend from Ireland, Jess. She kept me sane :)

Toddy :)

Allyson and my adoptive babies at church

There are obviously more but they won't fit all in one post. I am a lucky girl

Christmas recap

Brian and I have never done Christmas on Christmas morning. The first year together he got me so pumped up about it I think we did it a week early. The next year our work schedules got in the way so we did it a couple days before and this year, our third year, we did it Christmas Eve Eve.

I had been coming off a 4 day weekend and we had completely run out of things to do. We were supposed to go to Florida to see his parents but we really didn't have the money and Brian was tired of going somewhere on his days off and wanted to enjoy just being at home. I have learned a lesson....do not set up a tree 3 weeks before Christmas and if you must do not put presents under it until Christmas Eve. Sure they make it look pretty but you will get Brian begging to open them each night.

So I was to work Friday day (Christmas Eve) and we were planning on doing Christmas after work as Brian and I both had to work that Saturday. Well Thursday rolls around and we have done everything there was to do, had run out of Top Gears to watch and just completely bored out of our minds. So we opened our presents. It turns out to be good timing as we were too busy Friday night making the turkey to do anything else.

I am still impressed though, this is the closest we have actually gotten to opening presents on Christmas we have ever gotten. It is shocking to me though since I was not raised to open them before hand. We had strict rules at my house. You had to get sleep till 7am and then you could open your stockings. After that you had to wait till Mom and Dad woke up, opened their stockings, ate breakfast and THEN you could open your gifts....one at a time. Brian tells me he had a similar tradition.

We had a wonderful Christmas. I got some shirts, Christmas PJs, slippers, a couple books, some money which I am using on my Shutterfly photobooks, an ornament, a movie game, 3 pearls for my Add-A-Pearl necklace from Brian, a gift card to LL Bean that I have already spent, and a couple cook books. Brian got Christmas PJs (we have to exchange the pants), money for work clothes, a book, a Tagine (indian cooker thing), a cook book, an ornament, and Season 1 and 2 of Good Eats and 3 thermal shirts from me. I feel like there was more but Brian and I cannot think of them... :( Sorry, I am know we loved them we just can't think of them

A small but very useful and practical Christmas. Brian and I have worn all of the clothes more then once and are trying to find the best way to soak our Tagine so we can use that too. Brian had a very successful trip to Men's Wearhouse but that is going to be it's own post. I have already started putting my photobooks back together so Shutterfly will be very pleased with it's numbers this quarter :). I LOVE my slippers! SO comfy...they are half slipper/half mitten if that makes ANY sense and are in the Mary Jane style. I LOVE Mary Jane's. And I cannot wait till spring to wear my new LL Bean T-Shirt.

Thanks to everyone who was so generous with us this year, we really appreciate it!

30 Day Project/Challenge: Day 5

Day 5:

1) Something you hope to do in your life?

I hope to get married, have babies and stay at home with them. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a mother for as long as I can remember. Nothing makes me happier then holding and playing with babies and seeing them grow up. Just ask my boss :) haha. I have had baby fever for as long as I can remember and it is only getting tougher as it is getting closer to becoming a reality. I am so grateful for everyone who has had babies and have let me play with them. Brian is immensely grateful as I am not coming home as often bugging him about babies as I am getting my baby "fix" in a way.

I do hope to stay at home with them for several reasons. My main reason is that I am the type of person that throws 110% into what I do but I do not share my time well. Brian has taken a back seat to my job (and jobs in the past) more often then I would like to admit. He was fine as we needed the money but family/social life definitely takes a back seat to work. And I also get frustrated with things outside of work affecting my ability to do my job well.

I know that once I have a baby something is going to get neglected. I am not the type of girl who can do it all...have a great career and be completely career focused and raise a family with home made meals, going to soccer games and everything else I think is important when raising children. I wish I could do it all but it has proven to me already that I cannot and I haven't even had the child yet. Every parent has a hard time leaving their children to go to work but they can also balance work and family a lot better then I am able to at least naturally. I watch my co-workers and have the utmost respect for them as I watch them with their child(ren) and then watch them come to work and put everything into their work. They are able to give 110% percent at work without sacrificing their children. I do not know how they do it. I can just envision what it is going to be like for me. Either I am not home for my children or I am not there like I need/want to be at my job. Each scenario makes me sad, I don't want to ignore/ neglect either. I want to be there 110% for each and I know I won't be able to it like I want too and I know that it will drive me nuts. I am sure that if I do have to work I will find a way to adapt but if I don't have to I don't want to. It is just another thing on the list of reasons to stay home if I can. My thinking is that once the kids are in school I will take a part time job to get myself out of the house but still give me the time to be with them when needed. Again, in my dream world...we will see how things play out

2) A photo that makes me laugh

There are many so I will try to keep the list short.

This is Jess my best friend from Ireland. I tend to laugh when I see any picture with her in it. I miss her tons and she would be second of two good things to happen if Brian and I were to move to Cali.

She fell at a park in Ireland

Me being sacrificed by Erin at the sacrificial altar in Blarney (another Ireland pic)

Only in Ireland can you kill a terrorist

Courtney killing an IRA terrorist

Last but not least, Mange at Tammy's bday

30 Day Project/Challenge: Day 4

Day 4:

1) Something you have to forgive someone for

This is really hard for me. Being so stumped by this question has been part of the reason why this is a couple days late (the other parts relate to snow and Christmas). My goal with this was to be really honest about myself and since I couldn't immediately come up with an answer (whether I liked it or not) I wanted to take a bit to really think about it. I can't think of ANYTHING. I do not hold grudges. I HATE grudges. I do believe people make mistakes and can change and that their past should not be held against them. I know I am not the same person that I was in High School and would hate it if my classmates were still holding grudges against whatever I may have done (I am not perfect, I don't think I have done anything to make anyone upset or mad or at least stuff that I haven't already apologized for and resolved, but who knows) in the past. I am also a believer that you cannot move past something if you haven't forgiven that person and given up your grudge against them. To me holding a grudge is exactly the same as not forgiving them. If you haven't moved past it you are, to an extent, letting them control your life which is not right. The only person who should be controlling your life is yourself and God if you are of the religious mindset. Definitely not another person and let alone a person you are mad at. Now I am not saying that you should be friends with someone who has hurt you past your breaking point of friendship. Forgiving someone is not the same as forgetting. Don't forget, just forgive...it makes your life so much easier and you will live longer.

Stating that, there are people in my life who have hurt me. I don't think anyone can say that they have never been hurt by someone. About 99% of the time I forgive/forget/move past things VERY quickly. One of my classmates in HS always said I was like a duck, I let things roll off my back like water rolls off a ducks back. Instantly. There are very few people who I have had a hard time forgiving but I always have. Things happen at work that I appear to get over MUCH quicker then some of my co-workers. Not that they handled it wrong or should have been able to forgive/move on faster, it is just a difference between us. Things happen in friendships that have been forgotten/moved on from very quickly. Holding a grudge is just a waste of time

My ability to quickly forgive/move on has many positives to it. Fights/issues that would have ended most relationships haven't ended mine. Heck fights/issues haven't even happened because as soon as something has happened (intentional or unintentional) I have forgiven and moved past it with the other person involved, more often then not, not even realizing he/she did something to upset me. This ability does have drawbacks as well. I have forgiven and forgot that forgiving doesn't mean forgetting and therefore prolonged relationships that should have just ended. It also has led to me not standing up for myself for the sake of keeping peace. I need to stick up for myself more. It has also lead to a general feeling of resentment, sometimes, of always having to be the wrong one in arguments that have happened as I was the one who backed down first to "save" the friendship. It also led to me feeling like I am the only one who has any understanding or ability to forgive in a relationship. I have to, and usually do, understand their side so I back down and forgive them for whatever they have done but since no one ever seems to back down and let me be "right", no one is bothering to understand me. Also by backing down I have felt like the other party never fully forgave me so in future disagreements I am always afraid they are going to bring something up from the past that I thought was resolved and had moved past. This just leads to me backing down and forgiving even quicker to avoid this.

These feelings are fleeting and only really surface when I am mad at a friend and haven't moved past it yet. Outside of that I don't think about them unless asked and I am sure most of this is just inside my head. I am sure that my true friends forgive and understand me just as much as I do them. I do not think, or at least I hope they aren't, people are still holding grudges against me for the mistakes I have made. And as I get older, every once in awhile, there is someone who backs down and honestly forgives me faster then I can forgive them.

So for someone who doesn't have anyone to forgive, this got long huh?

2) A photo of a place you'd like to visit

Well I would love to go back to all the countries and places I have visited except for Savannah, Ga and Mexico. You have all basically seen the pictures of everything I have been too so I will not reshow those. What fun would that be? There lots of places I would like to go to so I will try to keep it short and list the countries I would like to visit as a whole

France: they call me Rachelle

Scotland: men in quilts ooo la la! ETA: Kilts not quilts though that would be funny

Alaska, I would like to go to TONS of places in the US but especially Alaska

Germany: Beer and Brats yum!

Canada: Lumberjacks and Moose are a great combo

Poland: Pierogi's and Kielbasa yum!

I could go on, I can't really think of a place I really do not want to go to. but I would say these six are in my top 6 places that I really don't expect to get to without actual planning. Most of the places in the US I could theoretically see especially if/when we move. As we live in towns/states we will explore what is near us at the time before flying some where else. This way if we end up moving again we have at least seen what was close to us. Hence why we have toured Florida, Georgia, Virginia and North Carolina and haven't visited Nebraska for example. I do not expect to ever live in Alaska so that would be a planned trip. There are lots of things within each country I would like to do.

Fort the list I provided here:

-France: skip Paris and visit the country side
-Scotland: spend a little time in each major city
-Germany: Berlin wall, WWII sites and restaurants
-Canada: Vancouver, Quebec, PEI, Toronto, Ontario especially Niagara Falls
-Poland: WWII sites and restaurants

Kinda, almost, maybe a late white Christmas?

So it did snow. Didn't stick at all but it did snow. At 8am it was a very wet snow and then stopped for an hour or two. Around 11ish it started back up and snowed for the rest of the afternoon. It did not snow enough to get any real pictures but I do have some videos with sound :)

What it was doing at 8am:

Noonish: I am talking with one of my maintenance men

So to all of you that got snow: know this, I am incredibly jealous!

So you sure they were born within 2 weeks of each other?

So as I have been bragging about there were 4 babies at work born within 2 weeks of each other. Carly, the only girl, was about 6 or 7 lbs...normal for a girl. My coworkers baby boy Xavier weighed in JUST under 11lbs. Big boy! He has continued to get bigger as well. My coworker brought him in to see us Christmas Eve and I got to play with him. He is SO sweet, SO cute and SO mild mannered! He didn't fuss at all and even fell asleep in my arms! 

They are both just over 3 months old in these pictures

He is wearing a 9mos outfit

So dainty!

He is LONG as well as big

I had to zoom to get good pictures of her

I almost had to take a step back

You can hold her in one arm, basically

No, Carly's Daddy didn't shrink :)

And a man we never thought we would catch holding a baby

I had SO much fun holding and playing with Xavier! I did have to share him as he was there to meet all our favorite monthlies but so fun! My arm started to hurt which was interesting to me. He is very long and lean though I know it doesn't look it. I had to use both arms to hold him and when he was sleeping his head was past my my left side and his legs were hanging off my right.

I love it when they bring babies into work and let me hold them :)

It is beginining to look a lot like Christmas!!!!

Not really.....

They wonder why I do not get into the Christmas mode when it looks like this outside:

Those are not our professional pictures. I snapped those today with my own camera. It may be Christmas but I cannot seem to get in the mood down here when it looks like this!

Christmas is supposed to look something like this:

Maybe some years not so snowy...but you know winter! To be truthful, it was 47 degrees out today in Myrtle Beach so while my pictures can/do make you think it was hot...it really wasn't (if you count 47 as being cold) that hot.

But Brian and I made lemonade out of lemons, this years Christmas tree and Christmas dinner

For some reason I cannot turn it, oh well

AB's recipe w/o rinsing the turkey after the brine and adding more onion/apple/spices

White Christmas in Myrtle Beach, SC?

Well...if it actually happens it would be a couple days late. The Carolina's are apparently due in for a snow storm. NC is supposed to be hit MUCH MUCH harder then we are but there is a decent chance we could get snow.

Now it has snowed in Myrtle Beach and no it has happened since Hugo circa 1989 (As a result of Hugo they had a huge snow storm, we are talking 15 inches). And I know snow. I am not a southerner by any means and I know snow is more then a snowflake every 5 hours. I am from the North, now there are lots of people who are further North then I was and got more snow. That being said,  I know snow enough to know not to drive where there are Southerners trying to drive in it (sorry...driving in snow is different then driving in rain and if you don't know how, as you shouldn't being in the South, it can be quite dangerous) and what constitutes snow.

Last year in February (the opening of the Olympics in Canada) we got snow. Yes, snow snow. The whole town got up in arms and canceled a marathon although it was going to be FINE and was fine the next day. The thousands of people here for the marathon were not happy. I, however, was SOOOO excited. As my father accidentally drunk dialed all his friends when the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl, I drunk dialed my friends. Accept I wasn't really drunk...just very excited.

What don't believe me?


During the night:

Snow on a Palm Tree???

More snow on a Palm Tree????

8am the next morning:

So this is Myrtle Beach huh?

Aren't you glad you came down to relax on the beach?

Are you sure we are in Myrtle Beach?

Really now....

Brian's car

My car thinking we had escaped this mess

Maybe I don't have to move to the North to get snow

But in South Carolina fashion it was all GONE by 9:30am. I wanted to get pictures of snow on the actual beach but it had all melted.

But supposedly on Sunday I am going to have to make two folders within my "snow in Myrtle Beach" folder...one for Feb and one for Dec. I am working Sunday morning so if it is snowing you better bet there will be pictures!