Winter

So I need to exercise. All this snow and staying indoors is making me bake which while is yummy is not good for my waist. I have however been making it into work. So far I've made a German chocolate cake (in defense it's my birthday cake) and lots of cookies. My house is now constantly stocked with butter, a rather unusual occurrence. I know it's the holidays and everyone is telling me that it's okay, it's the season. BUT I can't accept that. I've worked too hard to get to where I'm at to not stay here. I guess it's good that I'm maintaining.
Anyway the snow has been lovely (driving in it always stresses me out though)and I thought I would include some of the pictures I've taken of it from around my house. If you're interested I have more on my facebook. I'm going to go take more tonight because the trees down my street are incredible and I want to share them.
Love you guys!

Snow Preparation

So yesterday morning's Thundersnow was quite a shocker and scared my cats to death. I made it into work but left about three hours after I got there yesterday since it wouldn't stop snowing. All in all we had about 10 inches where I work and probably the same at my house (they're not that far apart).

But boys and girls that's not what I want to talk about today. No today I want to talk about jackets. As I was getting ready to leave yesterday I was perusing my jackets to see what would be suitable for this extremely cold weather. My Northface Denali was in my car and even in that I still get cold. So I found this really old and three sizes too big down puffer jacket. I have had this since high school and have I believe beaten the crap out of it. So I was talking to Carrie yesterday and she was telling me about her new puffer jacket (hers is purple and I'm jealous). So I started looking around but at this point they've been on sale (50% off) for a little while and supplies are running low. I luckily found one near me and they agreed to hold it until Saturday. I did not get purple but black which is another color for jackets I'm partial to. I actually went and got it yesterday when the snow really calmed down. I felt kind of bad because I had left work early due to snow but by 1-2 the highways were very drivable. Although (I'm reasoning with myself) I don't get paid for any missed time at work and who knew that the roads would be passable, right? However, I found out the coolest thing last night about my new jacket (thank you birthday money) when Isaac and I were taking a walk, it has thumb holes in the cuff so I can pull it part way over my hands. And as my friend Chris would say "Love it!"

Birthdays and Bears

So I have to say that having sunshine on my birthday is a present all in itself. The snow and ice however postponed me going to see my friend Rachel and I missed out on Tuba Christmas. I consoled myself by watching it on youtube though I know it's not the same. Why oh why do all the bad storms always seem to fall within a couple days of my birthday? Yes I know that my birthday is in December, I'm not deluding myself that much. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE snow but when I want to go somewhere it doesn't make it easy.
Instead this weekend Isaac and I ran some errands and I baked cookies. Okay correction I made the dough and I'm going to make them tonight. I'm glad I didn't need sugar yesterday because when I went to the store for other items there was absolutely none! Apparently everyone had the same idea I had yesterday. Isaac is also in the middle of redoing our back room so he can move his business out of our dining room (which I will be SO happy to get back) and he is developing a par system. Where he has it now is makeshift and rather chaotic and stresses him out. I think I'm rubbing off on him.
I'm also trying to convince my sister Carrie that every year from now on Eamon has to have a bear snow outfit (who cares if it scars the kid for life, it's hilarious) at least until he is 18. Look at how cute he is.

Fast Cleaning

So my house has been very messy lately. It's really bad. So last night when Isaac and I were getting ready to go to bed (I was doing laundry, for some reason the perfect time for me to do it is right before bed)we heard these really loud noises (like a drill or saw) below our bathroom where Jimmy's shop is. We thought it was kind of odd for him to be working out there so late. Then we had someone knocking on our door which turned out to be Dee. I guess that the faucet on our tub/shower is leaking water into Jimmy's shop. This is through no fault of ours. There have been multiple issues with water and pipes through the years that we have lived in our house and they have been all over the property. So Jimmy asked if he could come up tomorrow (that would be today) to check out our tub/shower. All I could think was, "Oh crap, I need to get up stairs and clean my house tonight." So that's what I did until 10:30 last night while Isaac went to sleep. Not everything is done but a HUGE dent was made. A lot of it is piles that Isaac makes and then leaves, never to clean up again which is frustrating me a lot lately. But I'm over it and instead of waiting for him to clean it up I was sorting and putting away or junking his stuff last night. But at least it's presentable for Jimmy to come in our house today. I just wish I would have asked for a double shot instead of a single this morning...

We also had another set back. Isaac was finally going to get a sleep study for his sleep apnea. He was due to go in tomorrow night and we found out yesterday (without them telling us)that our insurance had not approved Isaac's sleep study. They require that you be on the insurance for a year. Well, with Isaac switching jobs we changed insurance, sort of. We still have the same insurance just a different branch. Our insurance ignored this information. Our old branch now has to send us a letter saying that we had their insurance so we can give it to the new branch of insurance and THEN he can I have his sleep study. Oh yeah, they will only mail the letter too. Sucky. So here's to more crappy sleep for Isaac.

Wicked

So Isaac and I have wanted to see Wicked the Musical since it first debuted. We have been mystified by the fact that it has never come to Seattle. So it is making another round and we are going to go see it in Portland in March. I'm so excited! I booked the tickets tonight but I wish it were tomorrow. With how time flies it probably will. :)

Who's Ready for Christmas?

Cause I'm not. One thing that sucks about getting older is how fast time goes. If they would have told me this when I was a kid (I'm sure they did) I wouldn't have believed them (and I'm sure I didn't). So this is even more annoying when it comes to Christmas shopping. I mean we're already at December 9th. I only have half of my shopping done, and I did that yesterday when I saw it was the eighth. I still need to get my tree up (need to clean the house first) and decorations hung. I guess at least I have my new kick ass advent calendar (I still have to hang that too obviously).
A bright and dark note is that it is supposed to snow all weekend. I love snow and it makes me believe that it's Christmas all the more. But the climate in the Northwest has really changed over the last couple years. It used to never snow and it has for the past couple years. The reason why it would be a dark note is I was planning on going and seeing one of my really good friends Rachel this weekend and if I snows I don't think I'm going to go. :( I haven't seen her in quite a while and I really want to see her. But I don't want to drive in snow and ice. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Good luck with your Christmas shopping!

Advent Calendars

So ever since I was little I've always loved Advent Calendars. One of my grandmother's made the one I grew up with and over the years we've lost a few pieces. So I've lately been looking for a fun advent calendar that I can use in my house for Christmas. Here's the one I found. I'm in love with it. I still have a lot of shopping to do though. Only 23 days left...

Home Again

Thanksgiving was great! It's always nice to see family and hang out with everyone. Besides give Corey a hard time about CTV (sorry Corey :( I love you) we had a lot of fun. We got to play with SCOUT!, see some stuff, eat wayyyyy too much and bake. We talked to Brycie in Japan through Skype and he showed us some really amazing colored pencil chopsticks that Lily had gotten for him. I did further research today and they're rather expensive. I told Bryce I wanted some but Bryce, please don't. I think they're too expensive from what I could understand. The website is practically all in Japanese and I don't even want to know what they would charge to ship to the States. I think the only practical way I would want them is if they really went on sale.
Corey and I had fun horsing around and Cor I am sorry if I came across as harsh I was just trying to play and tease you. You're so important to me and I adore you (I feel the exact same way about you too Bryce). I know I don't always do my best in getting it across and without getting too mushy I love you both so much and I get so excited when I get to see you. I just wish it were more often.
Getting to see my Dad and "Mom" was a lot of fun. There is always a lot of joking that goes on and a lot of laughter. There is also a lot of caring that I get from them that I didn't get (my perception) growing up. It makes me feel very special and loved. Okay, oh so done with the mushy stuff...
So I'm including a picture of Isaac and I at the Monument in Grand Junction, and a book that I just started reading. Bryce I know you would get a kick out of this book (you might already know a lot of this info too though). It's really well written and fascinating. It's called "The Story of Sushi" and that's exactly what it is. I had a hard time putting it down yesterday so it's a good thing I was in airports and on planes all afternoon and evening.