Settle for a Slow Down

Has it really been over a week since my last blog? I didn't realize it had been that long. It has been a crazy week. Christmas was a great time. We went to my brother's house for Christmas and on Christmas Eve day my nephew who is 10 months old took his first steps. We were all so excited! He's a precious little boy and the cutest thing I have ever seen. He is such a happy baby. He will just smile and giggle over everything especially his sister. She can make him laugh like no one else can. It's really cute to watch. Santa was very generous with everyone this year and everyone was very pleased with their gifts. But now that Christmas is over I'm ready for the new year. I just now have to take down all my decorations. That's the worst job but I will be tackling that this week.

My brother and his family are actually on their way up here to Nashville as I type this. Every year he brings his youth group up here for a one night trip. My brother loves Nashville and is so proud of it so he likes to show it off. He takes them downtown and then they will probably head over to Opryland Hotel and then he lets them run loose at OpryMills. They seemed to enjoy it last year so I hope they do again this year. There are about 15 kids this year coming. All the boys are staying at my parent's house and I'm keeping all the girls. I think there are about 7 of them along with my sister in law and niece so I don't know I'm going to cram all those girls into my one bedroom apartment but we'll make it work. The thing I'm most worried about is the shower and getting ready the next day. That should be fun.

Saturday I went walking with my dad at a state park near his house where there is a walking trail. It's a 2 mile trail that circles a lake. It's so beautiful. I've walked there before where I've seen deer cross the path right in front of us. We didn't see one this time so we were a bit disappointed about that. But it's a beautiful trail. It circles a lake but the path itself is basically in the woods and so it's covered with trees. I've decided that it will be my new place to walk. Walking along the trail I noticed how peaceful it was. I couldn't hear any cars or sirens from the fire trucks or police cars. It was really nice. It made me realize that one day I don't want to live in the city. I was talking on the phone last night with someone and they asked me if I could live anywhere in the world where would it be. I didn't name a certain city, state, or country but I said somewhere peaceful. Somewhere where there are mountains and lakes and close enough to the city for the conveniences but far enough away where I can't hear it. I want to live somewhere where the stars aren't blocked by the city lights. This person basically said the same thing. I was born and raised in the city but the older I get the more I think I want to live in a place where my windows don't rattle because someone is playing their music so loudly I can feel the vibrations. I want to live someplace where I can't hear the firetrucks and police cars every five minutes and where there isn't a helicopter or airplanes flying over my apartment. I would settle for a small town. I grew up in a small town and it was more peaceful than where I live now. I loved the small town I grew up in. It's a pretty town. It's not that I don't like living where I do because I do but I think I'm just ready for somewhere a little more slower paced and peaceful. I was telling my friend last night that the perfect place in my mind to live is in a beautiful white house with a porch that wraps around it on some land big enough for a small lake or pond preferably at the base a hill or mountain. Wouldn't that be a great place to live? Maybe someday.

An Ode to Tammy Taylor

Today's blog is dedicated to one of my very best friends in the entire world, Tammy Taylor. Sunday is Tammy's birthday and I thought I would help celebrate that by giving you a glance of the type of person she is in my blog. So really this blog is just for her.

I met Tammy about six years ago when she started attending our church. She quickly became involved in the music ministry and quickly became a precious person in not just my life but everyone else whose ever met her. She has an unbelievable voice and can play the keys off the piano. I'm only slightly jealous of that. :-)

Somehow Tammy and I became friends very quickly. We realized that we had a lot in common. We both grew up in FWB preacher's homes. We both have one brother who we love with all our hearts but irritate us to no end. We both have one niece and one nephew who are the apple of our eyes. We both have a serious love for TV and movies. I mean serious!! I got her hooked on NCIS this past summer so now after every show we text each other to say what an awesome episode it was and talk about how much we love Mark Harmon and Michael Weatherly. She's my movie buddy. We always make plans to see them as they come out and drool over the hot movie star in it. We both have a love of reading...especially Karen Kingsbury's books. Awesome. She's also the fastest reader I have ever seen. Instead of her buying the books I've been letting her borrow mine. There was this series that we were reading. I was at the end of the series and she was just starting so I gave her five books to read. The very next Sunday she gave me two of them back. She read them both in one week!! I was astounded, impressed, and amazed! We also have a huge love of music. It is something that was part of our upbringings. We both have sung in church our whole lives with our families. We both still sing in our church and occasionally we are able to sing together in a trio with my mom. Tammy is also the one who introduced me to country music. She started taking me to the CMA MusicFest for the big concerts at night and I've been hooked for life. We missed last year but hopefully we can make it this year. But thanks to her I've been blessed to have Reba, Dierks, Brad, Keith, Carrie, Taylor and others all in my life. :)

Tammy and I always have a great time together and I know that when I'm with her I'll laugh until my side hurts and have tears rolling down my face. She is the one person that I'm truly myself around. She's the one friend that I know I can be myself around. She's also the only friend who honestly knows my deepest dreams, desires, and burdens. We can go one minute from talking about boys, books, music and movies to talking about what the Lord has done for us and what scriptures mean the most to us. I love it that we can be so silly and act goofy and then the next we are talking theology and how this scripture or that applies to whatever we both are going through at the time. That's a true friend.

Tammy is my sounding board. She's the one person that I vent all my frustrations to. Anything that has to do with church, work and other friends. She listens to every word and then helps me to see reason where I don't see it and helps me figure out a way to find a solution to all my troubles. Something I've learned is that she loves her friends and family and is the most loyal person I know. I know that she is always there when I need her. If someone hurts me she is like a spider monkey jacked up on Mt. Dew. It's rather humorous. When we found out that my mom could possibly have breast cancer she was the first person I called. She was such an encouragement to me and told me that everything would be alright, which it was. She is also single like me (not to pour more salt into that wound). So we always complain to each other about men and how much they are missing out on two quality Christian girls. Tammy would make an awesome wife (to someone who either travels or works nights...which ever works best for you) ;-). So men, if you are reading this, I can tell you that she is a girl worth having in your life and you just don't know what you are missing. Believe me, after certain conversations...you want this girl in your life. :-)

She's just the type of friend you always want in your life and you hope that you are the type of friend that she's wants in her life. Last year she lost her father to cancer and she is a self-proclaimed daddy's girl. It was a very difficult time for her and I had never felt so helpless than I did then. You always want to have the right words to say but all I could do was listen and pray and hoped it gave a little comfort during a dark time. I also learned that she is a very strong woman. Seeing her go through that I saw a strength I never saw before. Only the Lord could have given her that and I greatly admired her thought it all.

What I'm most impressed by Tammy right now is her determination. She recently went through a weight-loss surgery and has lost almost 50 pounds! I'm so proud of her. Her and I have talked in great length about our weight and she was determined to lose it this time and felt like surgery was the best option for her. She can only eat a cupful of food at a time and if you only knew how her and I ate before you would know that this was a drastic change for her. See, when we would have our movie night we always met for dinner before and we just didn't care what we ate. We were always trying out the newest places to eat. So to go from that to what she does now has to take so much determination and it only inspires me to make a change in my eating as well. Not as drastic as what she did but to at least do something.

I know these thoughts might have been jumbled and not worded in the best way but I wanted you to know a little bit about the person that I'm so privileged and honored to call one of my very best friends. So Happy Birthday, Tammy! I know that this year will bring you so much happiness and blessings that you never dreamed. Thank you for being my friend and for always being there in all my bad times but also in all my great times as well! Savannah, here we come!! :)

I've Got Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

It has been cloudy and gloomy for almost an entire week now. We are in need of serious sunshine. If it's not snowing then I want some sunshine! You can tell in people's attitudes also that they need some sunshine. It's just been really depressing lately.

I'm sorry that I've been sort of absent from the blog recently. I've been busy but I also I just wasn't in the mood to do some typing. The weekend was really good. Saturday night I went out with some friends to go see Twilight. It was an alright movie. I really don't see what the huge hype is all about except that they think the main character is a hottie. He didn't do much for me. Maybe it's because I'm not a teenager anymore. :) Every time the main character would come on screen the girls would scream and sigh loudly. Then after the movie the credits were rolling and there were a group of girls standing there looking at it and one said, "Okay, we can go. I just had to see his name." Ha! Please! I had no desire to see this movie since it was about vampires but it was alot better than I thought it would be. It was a very clean movie. It wasn't gory at all and there was only one scene where there was some blood. I think I might want to read the book now since the books are always better than the movie version.

Sunday morning was our church's Christmas Cantata. It turned out very well. I was pleasantly surprised. I was really worried because our last rehearsal was a bust but the performance turned out so good. We received so many compliments. I'm so glad its over with now and we can officially retire this program. If we never do it again, I'll be a happy person.

Last night I finished the last book in a series that was phenominal. None of the books were tied together but it was a series by the author Debra White Smith. The series is called First Impressions: Austen Series. She has take some of Jane Austen's books and modernized them. They were really good. It makes me want to read Jane Austen's books. I've only read part of Pride and Prejudice. I'd like to read more of them now. Debra White Smith also has a series that I've started called The Debutante Series. I believe there are only three books in that one. I've read the first one called Heather and now I'm getting ready to start the next two. This series is about three wealthy friends who solve mysteries. They are also Christian books. They are a really good read. I'm trying to branch out on my reading as well with other authors. I tend to just stick with the one or two that I really like so if you have any suggestions on authors to read, please let me know.

Winter Wonderland

This is what it looked like at 6 pm last night here in Nashville. After complaining yesterday that Nashville doesn't get enough snow I was proved wrong! It rained most of the day yesterday but than about 5 pm it started snowing and a few hours later we had about 2 inches of snow on the ground. It was so beautiful! Around 10 pm last night I went out on my balcony and there were people from my complex out building a snowman and sledding down a hill.

I stayed in last night since it the roads were getting bad here. That's something that bugs me about Nashville. They wait until the snow and ice are already here before they decide to put the salt down on the road. In the north they start putting the salt down before the snow gets there so it doesn't have a chance to stick to the ground. But anyway, it was so wonderful last night. I made myself a cup of hot chocolate turned off all the lights except for my Christmas lights and nestled on the couch in pj's with a blanket and watched Survivor (which was awesome...I love Sugar!!). After that I watched a cheesy Christmas movie on Hallmark. It was a pretty delightful evening.

This morning I woke up and this was the aftermath of all that snow. It was beautiful. My apartment complex's parking lot was iced over as you can see in this picture but it wasn't bad to drive on. The main roads were all clear but the sideroads were a different story. When I got on the road that I work on I slid right through the stop sign. I work right across from a mall so I had seen a couple people from work had parked there so I just slid into the parking lot. I called my co worker to tell her that I was here I just didn't know how to cross the street to get to the building. Luckily, one of the men who work in a different department was able to make it to work and he crossed the street and helped me to the building. I felt a like a little old lady but at least I didn't fall. I wore boots today but it's not for snow...all fashion. :) It was a poor choice today but it's so cute with my outfit. Our work has our Christmas luncheon today so I had to dress a little cute. But now it's 9:04 am and the sun is out and the ice is starting to melt off the road so at least we won't have trouble getting across town.

Have a great weekend!

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

It is freezing today! I mean it is chilling me to the bone. It's been raining for the past two days. Man, if that was snow I would be in heaven right now. I wish it would dump a foot of snow here. I miss the snow. I'm originally from Illinois and I'm used to having snow every winter but Nashville hardly gets any. Oh we get the occasional flurry and we have had our moments of getting so much snow that people are stranded on the interstate for hours but we don't get enough down here. Now I'm not sure I could live in the north anymore. I have become more of a baby when it comes to cold weather the longer I live in the south. A few Thanksgivings ago we spent it with my mom's family in Joliet which is about 45 mins southwest of Chicago. My grandmother is buried there so on Thanksgiving morning we all decided to go visit her grave. It was a beautiful sunny day with no clouds in the sky but it was c-o-l-d! The wind was blowing at least 100 mph (not really but you get what I mean here.) Of course, I didn't own a "real" winter coat so I wasn't properly bundled up. I was numb from head to toe. Our family made fun of us and called us ...well, I don't think I could repeat what they called us but they thought we were pansies for complaining about the cold.

Today is finally a slow day here at work. We had board meetings all this week and then I also had to be a part of orientation for some new missionaries that we hired. But everyone has gone home and now there are only three of us at work today. It's really nice. Tomorrow our office is having our Christmas lunch. We usually meet for dinner at a nice place but this year we decided to have lunch and then have the rest of the day off of work. I'm excited! We are going to eat at Maggiano's Little Italy. It is an unbelievable Italian restaurant. The food is fantastic and the atmosphere is wonderful. We always have a great time when we are there and we are usually so stuffed that we need to be rolled out of the place.

Saturday I plan on doing my Christmas shopping. That's right...I haven't even started yet. I need to make a list of what I want to get everyone and hopefully I can tackle the entire list on Saturday. I hate waiting until the last minute but I couldn't do it any other way this year. Sunday is our church's Christmas Cantata. I'm not looking forward to it actually. I wasn't very happy about doing this because it was the same one we did last year and frankly, we stunk! To be honest, we still stink but not as much as last year. Last night at church was our last rehearsal for it and it didn't go very well. But I'm sure at the last minute we will pull it together and it will be fine. I just hope we don't do this again next year. If we do, I'm boycotting. :)

Big Baby

*I wanted to post this video directly onto this post but I couldn't figure it out. If you know how to do that could you let me know? Thanks!

I saw this video on Yahoo and thought it was hilarious. I didn't watch this game so I really don't know the circumstances surrounding this. I'm sorry but if you are getting paid millions of dollars to play a game I don't want to see you cry because a teammate yelled at you for playing crappy. Just my opinion. Enjoy! :-)

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Glen-Big-Baby-Davis-lives-up-to-his-nic?urn=nba,127483

Fabulous Weekend

I had the best weekend! Friday night I went over to my parents to help my mom decorate her house for Christmas. I pretty much shaped her tree for her. It took me forever. Her tree is one of those where you have to put every single branch on there and then you have to shape it as you go. It took awhile but it looks really good.

Saturday my mom and I had plans to meet a friend at noon and we went to tour Cheekwood. It's a mansion in the Belle Meade section of Nashville and it was gorgeous. We ate at the Pineapple Room Restaurant first for lunch. Their food was wonderful. While we were we saw a lot of red hatters there. It was a sight to see all those women wearing purple sweaters and red hats. They were laughing and carrying on. They seemed like a fun bunch. After lunch we went on down to the mansion and took a tour of it. They had it decorated nicely for Christmas. All their Christmas trees were themed. The time you could take pictures were in front of the trees. The second floor was more of an art museum. It wasn't that interesting to me but they did have some Faberge Eggs on display. They were exquisite. After touring Cheekwood some members of my church and I went on a Christmas Lights tour. We went to some very nice homes in Brentwood and Franklin and they were decked out in lights. They were beautiful. I just enjoyed seeing some of those homes. We went to homes that were worth close or over $2 million. I can't imagine living in a house that big. We ended the tour at George Jones's home. He had nice display of lights but I wasn't that impressed. Everyone seemed to have a really great time. We sang Christmas songs and laughed with each other. It was a great night. The only thing missing was a cup of hot chocolate.

Sunday night I missed church (gasp!) to go to the Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood concert. I know it was so bad of me but I never miss church...ever. A friend of mine had an extra ticket and asked if I wanted to go so I went. It was awesome. We had really great seats. I mean you could see their faces we were so close to them. The music at times though were more loud than the singers so that was a little disappointing but it was still a great concert. I was able to get some good pictures.

It's been busy in my office today. We are having board meetings this week and we also have two new missionaries that are being approved during this meeting. Tomorrow they will go through orientation and I have a part in their training session. The ladies in our office will be going over to our General Director's wife's house for lunch tomorrow. I enjoy going over there. She goes all out for these things. She's a talented decorator and her home is gorgeous so I can't wait to see what she's done for this luncheon tomorrow.

I'm meeting my parents to go walking. I made a New Year's resolution for 2008 to lose weight so I better get started on that. :) Actually I make a resolution to lose weight every Monday morning but that's usually blown by breakfast. I'm determined though to lose weight this time. I went grocery shopping yesterday afternoon and bought only healthy food and have vowed not to have carbonated drinks. Now if only I can get myself off of sweet tea when I go out to eat. That is my biggest weakness. Maybe if I say it outloud and tell the whole world I'm trying to lose I will be kept accountable and really work hard at it. I really do want to lose weight so I'm determined to change my lifestyle to do it. After I finish walking I have Bunco tonight so I'm prepared to not win another prize. :) I never win but that's okay. I go for the fun with the girls.

Santa Baby

My sister (in law) called me the other day with a story that has bothered me all week and just broke my heart. I mean it just hurt my heart and made me so sad. The other night my brother and his wife took their kids to downtown Northport for a Christmas festival that they were having. I guess they go all out with people dressed in Victorian garb and all the stores really deck their shops out in Christmas decorations. She said that it was really nice and so beautiful. Well, they were supposed to have a Santa Claus there as well. My niece, Anna, will be three in February so this is the first year where she really understands the whole asking Santa for things and believing in the whole magic of Christmas. (Yes, I know as Christians that isn't the reason we celebrate Christmas, but she's 2!!) Anyway, Anna Grace was so excited about seeing Santa because she wanted to ask him for a Barbie purse. She's really into Barbie this year. She was so excited to see Santa to ask him for this one and only one thing.

Well, they found a Santa. Jenny said that he looked homeless though. She said he looked so scraggly. He was making kettle corn and just looked terrible. Anna went up to him and said so sweetly, "Hi, Santa!" Well, the man just ignored her!! That hurts me more than anything. I can just picture her all bundled up and looking as cute as can be and so excited to see Santa and then he just ignored her. I wanted to drive down the 4 hours to Northport and strangle this idiotic man. How can you ignore a little child who is obviously excited to see you because you are dressed as Santa? If you do not accept the responsibility of the meaning of the coat you are not worthy to wear it! So Jenny grabs Anna and says that he wasn't really Santa and they will find him a little later. They finally spot a Santa walking towards them and Jenny stops him and says, "Can you talk to my daughter?" So the guy who I was told looked to be about 20 years old squats down to get eye level with Anna and proceeds to pull down his beard and says, "Hi there!" What?!? You have got to be kidding me. No, "Ho! Ho! Ho!"? No, "Have you been good this year little girl?" No, "What would you like for Christmas?" Just a simple "Hi there!" Please. Again...if you can't handle the responsibility of the coat...don't put it on. So Anna didn't get to tell this Santa either that she wanted a Barbie purse.

When they got in the car to go home Anna started crying that she didn't get to tell Santa that she wanted a Barbie purse. At this point in the story I almost started crying. I was so sad for my precious niece. Jenny told her that she went back and told Santa that she wanted the purse and Anna exclaimed, "Thank you, Mama!" But I was so sad for her. Luckily, last night they took Anna Grace to the mall and let her sit on Santa's lap and yes, she did ask for her Barbie purse. God bless us, everyone!

One..Singular Sensation!

This blog may only pertain to the single gals out there today but it may entertain others. If you've ever lived by yourself then you probably feel my pain but I've had two instances happen to me since I've been living by myself. Things that I never would have thought twice about when I was living with other people.

The first thing happened to me in October. We were having a bridal shower for a couple in my church on Sunday night. We were all supposed to bring finger foods. Well, I found this really great beef and cheese dip that you serve in a bread bowl. It is fantastic! I absolutely love it. You can make it low fat and no one will even know...or you can make it real fatty and it tastes even better. Anyway, one of the ingredients is mild pepper rings. So I've cut up all the other ingredients and have put everything together except for the pepper rings. I go to open the jar and I can't get it to budge. I wipe my hands and the jar of any wetness and still nothing. I mean I am moaning and grunting and still...nothing! So I grab the slip grip thingy and use that. Still nothing. I mean this thing is not wanting to give at all. I did everything I could to open this stupid jar besides throwing it up against the wall which is what I felt like doing. I was so upset. I was upset because I felt like this little weakling. I was upset because I'm 31 and should be married by now so I could make a man feel empowered because he could open a jar of pepper rings. I was upset because this is an important ingredient to the recipe and now I couldn't add it. So I just said forget it and the useless jar of pepper rings is still sitting in my fridge! Every time I open my fridge door and spot this crappy piece of junk I get mad all over again! I should just throw it away so I don't lose my religion every time I look at it. If you are wondering about the dip. I didn't add it. It was a little dry than it usually is but it still tasted good. My mother noticed though. She was like, "What's missing from this?" I couldn't bear to tell her that she birthed a girl who was beaten by a jar of pepper rings. You are probably saying, "Janice, why didn't you go to a neighbor?" Would you?! I was embarrassed enough in front of myself let alone a complete stranger! At this point I still hadn't met any of my neighbors. I've only met one couple and that was this past Tuesday when I literally ran into them on the steps. Anyway, they are a nice older couple who live on the third floor. Wouldn't you know that the gentleman is the man who wakes me up at 5 am every morning revving his truck up! He's really nice and friendly so I can't complain anymore. :(

So the second thing that has happened to me happened this morning. I was curling my hair and I don't know how I did it but I rolled a piece of my hair in the curling iron and when I went to undo it my hair was stuck in the iron! I looked like Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond when she was getting ready for the ESPY awards and got her hair caught in the curling iron and her husband left her there because she was late. Very funny episode. But anyway, I about started to panic because I was afraid I was going to burn a clump of my hair right off my head and then I would have a bald spot on the crown of my head. That would have been so beautiful! :) I tugged and twisted the iron and finally it released my hair. I did pull quite a bit of hair out in the process but at least I didn't burn my hair or my scalp in the process. Now, this happens to every girl at one point or another in her life. But why I thought having someone else in the house with me when this happens would be better I don't know. It's not like anyone else could have done anything about it except make fun of me and call out my stupidity of getting my hair stuck in my curling iron.

Yes, being single and living alone is very adventurous and entertaining. Oh, I have one more story. I can't remember if I've told this on here or not. The weekend after I moved into my apartment I was sitting on the couch watching TV when a movement on the wall caught my eye. It was a the biggest blackest spider I had ever seen. I hate spiders. I'm not as afraid of them as I am wasps but I hate them. I didn't quite know what to do. The spider had crawled up the wall behind my entertainment center and then onto the ceiling. So I do what every girl does. I screamed and then called my mommy. I was like, "MOM! THERE'S A SPIDER ON MY CEILING! IT'S BIG AND BLACK!! WHAT DO I DO?!?" (I use all caps because I'm screaming on the phone. She says, "Kill it." Really? Thanks, mom! I could have thought of that. I also at this point didn't own a fly swatter so I didn't know what to do. So I took a dining room chair and a flip flop to try and do battle with this spider. Now the spider is directly above the entertainment center so there is no easy way for me to get to this spider. So the genius that I am I climb up on the chair and took my flip flop and threw it at the spider. Now during this throwing I managed to somehow come up off the chair and turn it on it's side. So here I am mid-air and I realize that I will be landing on this chair. So I did what most girls do. I screamed and then landed on the chair kicking over the coffee table in the process. Don't ask me how I managed to do this. I bet those poor people below me thought I was either coming through their ceiling or Nashville was having an earthquake. I landed hard on the chair but I was okay. I was bruised for several days but nothing was broken. Did I kill the spider? Eventually. I managed to kill it with Windex. I sprayed the web out of that spider.

Oh Christmas Tree...Oh Christmas Tree...

Today is just one of those days that I want over. It has been a long busy day and I didn't know if I would have the chance to blog today. My work has a board meeting next week that I'm trying to get ready for and today is a day where people are easily irritating me or I should say the men in my office are easily irritating me. I just don't have the patience today to deal with them and all their questions. I think it's because I have so much to do and when I'm extremely busy like this I don't like to be bothered. I just want to do my work and go home. Today they have been at my desk every five minutes asking me about email addresses and other non important issues. In my boss's defense we do have a conference scheduled in February for our missionaries and we have been trying to finalize things with the hotel this week but today isn't a good day for me to stop every five minutes to answer questions I answered several months ago.

Anyway, last night my parents brought my Christmas decorations over to my apartment and my mom and I put up my tree and decorations. It didn't take too long. :) My parents have a small pre-lit tree that they used when they first moved to Nashville but after we felt it was too skimpy to use in their house several years ago they bought a much larger prettier one. Since I'm broke they took pity on me and gave me their skimpy pre-lit tree. But in my apartment it isn't skimpy at all. It's the perfect size and and it's beautiful. Now I don't have a tree topper or beads, garland or tinsel to put on it but with the ornaments that I bought through the years it looks very pretty. I should have taken a picture of it to post on here. Maybe I'll take one tonight. I went over to my parent's to have lunch with my mom and when she went to Wal-Mart earlier today she bought me a tree skirt. It's very pretty and very traditional.

When it comes to Christmas I'm very traditional in the decorating. I only use the reds, greens, golds, and silver. I also love Santa Claus. I own about seven 2 feet tall Santas. Every year I get a new Santa for Christmas. A few years ago, my dad took a trip to Germany and he brought me back a Santa. That one is probably my favorite. But I don't like any old Santa. It's the old time Santas or the Santas that have a curly beard and rosy cheeks. I'm not for the Santas the are cartoon looking or the Santa that are bar-be-queing, laying in a hammock or vacationing on a tropical island. I just like the traditional looking Old St. Nick. So anyway, my apartment now feels really cozy. I love to at night turn off all the lights except for the tree lights and the lights that I have wrapped around garland that I put on top of my entertainment center. It's very cozy. Now I need to get a Christmas smelling candle. That would be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake.

This week will probably be busy like always. Tonight we have church and our choir is practicing for our Christmas Cantata. I'm not really thrilled with it this year but oh well. There isn't anything I can do about it. Tomorrow night I have got to clean my apartment from top to bottom. I've let it go for far too long. I really hate cleaning but I'll throw on some Christmas music and power through the hatred. Friday night I promised my mom I would help her decorate her house and tree for Christmas. Then Saturday my mom and I are meeting a friend and we are going to tour Cheekwood. I've never been and I've always wanted to go so I'm really excited about that. Then Saturday night we are going on a tour of Christmas Lights with some people in the church. Earlier in the year our Ladies Prayer Group went on a tour of Celebrity Homes. It was fantastic. It was just alot of fun. Our driver was the best. He was nice, sweet and funny. He also had very interesting stories to tell about each home we saw. I have pictures that I should post on Facebook. Anyway, our tour guide was telling us that their company also gives tours of Christmas lights. Some of them are of celebrity homes. I'm just excited to see Christmas lights...good Christmas lights. That was one of my favorite things to do growing up. We would each get a cup of hot chocolate and pile into the car and go drive around town looking at Christmas lights. So I'm very excited and can't wait. Maybe that will keep me from being overly irritated at work this week. ;-)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

I meant to blog yesterday but I was so busy for the most of the day and then I went home early because I had a dizzy spell come on and I was good for nothing. I was upset about that too because last night I was supposed to help my mom put up the tree and decorations at her house and then tonight she was going to help me put up my decorations over at my place. But since I got dizzy I did nothing but lay on the couch all night. I hate it when I get one of those.

Anyway, yesterday was such a pretty day. It actually snowed here. Well, I should say it flurried here and quite heavily at times. It really is starting to look like Christmas around here. I think besides the Fall season Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. It's so pretty with all the lights and all the bustling going on. It also gives me time to watch all my favorite Christmas movies. My favorite is White Christmas. I have to watch that movie every year and I probably watch it at least three times. I love Danny Kaye in it more than anything else. I had the hugest crush on him even though he was old enough to my grandfather. Then I have to watch ELF. That is such a funny movie. It's been on TV twice already and I think I've watched it both times. I also have to watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. Those kick off the Christmas season for me. :) I have seen those movies dozens of times but I still laugh at all the same spots. It's so funny. This past weekend I went and saw Four Christmases with Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon. I wasn't sure how that would work with those two in it together but they were quite cute. I thought they were matched very well. The movie was pretty funny also. It was a very clean movie with limited bad language if at all. I laughed out loud several times.

Thanksgiving went very well for us. My brother and his family came up for it and we had a great time. The kids were as cute as ever. My niece is so funny. Now that she is almost three she is very fun to be around. It's a fun age because you can really interact with her and her imagination is so big. Her and I sat for hours under the dining room table playing "restaurant". We watched on Thanksgiving night Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. I had never seen it. It was really good but not as good as White Christmas. The Friday after Thanksgiving we met some friend at a Mexican restaurant and then tried to brave the crowd at the Cool Springs mall. Let me tell you. We barely lasted an hour there. With five adults and two kids an a double seated stroller you cannot work your way through the mall. It was crazy!! My mom, Jenny, and I along with the kids stopped at the Children's Place. Jenny had the stroller and got trapped in the back of the store for at least 10 minutes because people would not move for her to get through. Then we tried to go to Kirkland's (one of my favorite stores) and the same thing happened except to me because I had the stroller. Then while sitting there Luke grabbed a stand full of pins and dumped them all on the floor. It was a nightmare being there. We decided to just go home. It was so crazy. They say that our country is in a recession but you surely could not tell it on Friday. I had never seen so many people at that mall and they all were carrying at least 3 bags a piece full of items. Here are a few pictures I took of us during Thanksgiving.

My mom called me yesterday saying she got the results back from her biopsy. She does not have breast cancer!! We are so excited. I had a feeling all along that everything would be okay but there is always that chance that it could have been cancer. It's a huge relief for us and now we can really enjoy the holidays. We are so grateful for all the prayers for my mom and for our family. I realized through all this that we take our good health for granted. Mom also said last night that when you are faced with the possibility at being at the end of your life you look at what you have and have not done for the Lord it makes you want to do better. You want to serve Him more than what you do already. I realized that also and have decided to take steps to serving our Lord better than what I already do. We can all do better. We should never be satisfied with our walk with the Lord and how we serve Him. We should always be striving to be closer to Him everyday. That is a big lesson I learned through all of this.