Finally...

Chrismas Pictures!!

My "woodsy" tree complete with cranberries and brown satin ribbon from Carter's Gallery & Gifts and pinecones and limbs from our own backyard. (We may rethink the pinecones next year b/c a certain puppy kept taking them off of the tree.)

Aprons I had made for the girls, aren't they cute! This year my goal was to do my Christmas shopping here in town. I didn't get it all, but I did about 75% locally, so that was pretty good. The aprons above and mom's bag all came from Creative Sensations. (located across from Go South)

Holli's 50 year old cookie jar came from Resurrections Antique Mall on the square.

Next year, and I need a head start, I would like to do more of my shopping Downtown and encourage everyone else to visit all of our new shops that have opened up this past year and spend your money locally.

A Merry Christmas

I intended today to post pictures of Christmas with my brand new camera I received from my DH, but its not wanting to load onto the computer, or I'm not doing it right. Probably the 2nd. So I will come back and post some pictures later. But, we had a wonderful first married Christmas this year, and I am so blessed to have such wonderful husband, family and friends to share it with. I didn't do a lot of decorating this year, but I'm pretty proud of my "woodland" tree (pic to come) and next year I hope to get started a little sooner on my decorations and do what I had intended to do, instead of just being done with it because that was about the 5th (and last) tree I was going to decorate. I hope everyone also had a wonderful Christmas and I hope 2009 will be a Blessed New Year for you and your family!

Umm...

So i realized i haven't blogged in a while. oops. I completely missed November! So here is my blog for November. Although it was busy, but mainly uneventful, we had a great Thanksgiving with my family and lots of great food! I didnt go all out decorating for fall, but did manage to put a wreath on my door, and its not Martha Stewart worthy, but this is what it ended up like after trying to do the ribbon 7 times! (its a little battered from the storm the other day)

The highlight of November came on the very last night of the month. Someone had dropped 2 puppies at our house. We had pulled in the driveway and saw something on our porch. We backed up to shine the light on it and 2 little faces peeked out. This is the following conversation:


me: "WE'VE GOT PUPPIES!!"


steve: no we dont.


me: yes we do!! we've got puppies!!


steve: nu huh, no we dont.


me: uh huh!! we've got puppies!!



Anyone notice the difference in punctuation in our sentences? So we found a great home for one of them and here is our newest member of the family, Annie.

I call her our Lil Orphan Annie, but we really named her Annie Oakley. Our other dog is named Cowboy, so now we have Cowboy and Annie Oakley.

Merry Christmas everyone and God Bless!!

Keeping Busy

I've seen this on a few other blogs, and its neat to see what's keeping everyone busy. I hope everyone else will do this too, especially my sisters who have been a bit behind on their blogs.

Things I have been up to lately:
~Coaching our 10U team in fall league
~Showing lots of homes
~Working, working, working
~Still arranging and settling into my new home
~Hunting with my husband

Things I am excited about:
~My fall wreath I made and getting more decorations on the porch before fall is over
~Soup and chilli weather
~Maybe having the house ready for Trick or Treaters
~Gas prices being so low
~Our first married holidays

Things I look forward too:
~Upward basketball
~Fishing in the spring
~Jackie's wedding
~Having kids
~Decorating for the holidays

Things I try not to think about:
~That the candidate I didnt pick will win
~My husband hunting in MO for a week
~Gas prices going back up (whenever they do)
~Bill paying and how it stresses me out, I'm not good at it yet
~Having kids - I have baby fever and need to be a patient a little longer:)

Ballot Time

Early voting began earlier this week and I just want to encourage everyone to please go out and vote during this election. I realize not everyone will have the same opinions and beliefs. But please consider your decision. Please weigh the pros and cons of each candidate and realize there are extreme differences between these two men. Experience, faith, patriotism and attitudes are just a few important things that set these two candidates apart. I also ask that you please pray before you go to the polls. Pray for the candidates and their families, pray for us as we elect our next leader, and pray that we will do God's will for the country and go in the direction He wants us to go in. Also encourage those around you to go vote with you. So many people are registered and never vote at all. Please let them know how important their vote really is.

Campaign Pains

So we have been hearing about this election for a year, if not 2, now. This will only be the 2nd time I have been able to vote in a national election and for the most part, I'm still excited about voting. But, after watching another debate last night, I am beginning to be very frustrated about issue and facts that don't seem to have much attention.

1. I have heard that a guy on Obama's campaign worked for Freddie/Fannie and was connected to fraud. Who is this guy, whats his actual connection with Obama, and was he guilty of the fraud?

2. Why did Barack change his name and when?

3. He's not black, stop calling him that. He may not be "white" but he's not black black. He's mulitracial or whatever another term is, but he's part white and I think his dad is Hawaiian? Anyone know for sure that can inform me?

4. Sarah Palin may be new to government, but obviously she is doing something right. She didnt come from money or politics and has continued to be elected into positions because she is making a difference and serving the peoples best interest.

5. Why do people (dems) bring things up about Bush starting 8 years ago. He was re-elected 4 years ago so there shouldn' be any problems brought up about the first 4 years.

6. I've never been polled so it makes me wonder who they are surveying and how accurate they are.

7. This is for Obama: (in case he ever reads my blog, ha.) Small biz's can't afford to pay for the healthcare that you want to make them carry. They do good to pay all of the other things required of them and if they have something else they have to pay, they won't have any employees to cover.

8. I'm still concerned about the Obama's patriotism and his intentions in office. I don't know why, it just lingers in the back of my mind for some reason.

9. I don't think McCain is perfect, but I think he has the country's best interst in mind. He's in his 70's and still serving and has never acted like the usa owes him anything.

10. I have a McCain Palin sign in my yard. It makes me feel proud and involved in whats going on. I have learned more and more the last several months about politics and people and really feel more educated this time around. Its not because I agree with things my husband thinks all the time, but that he explains both sides of the issues and lets me decide for myself. After seeing both sides of the candidates and what they stand for and their intentions, I feel confident in my vote and that I'm choosing the best option for our country.

More pics!