picture overload and a favor to ask

I've never needed a ladder to decorate my tree. It's... different.

We decided to just go with a color theme with our tallest tree this year, since the tree downstairs has the sports ornaments, and the one in our bedroom {which I'm starting to think I won't get around to flocking this year} will hold all of our family and sentimental ornaments. We decided to go with a very non-traditional color combo of turquoise and silver. I. LOVE. IT. so far. Hopefully, all the up-and-down the ladder decorating will be over soon to show you the finished product.

We are starting with these cheap lovely Wal-mart ornaments and going on with ornament shopping from here.

Let's not forget that our fur-child needed his own tree sitting in the corner of the eat-in kitchen.

Complete with Christmas colored rawhide tied up with ribbon.

As well as the only doggie ornaments we had at this time. Hopefully Santa will bring us some more in his stocking ;)

Also in the eat-in kitchen, hanging above the bar area, is a little idea I stole from my mother-in-law.

I love walking in and see all the sparkle and magic these bring to the kitchen.

Nick thinks they're overkill. He might have mentioned that a couple of times along with the fact that he does not like glitter while I continued to work away at my project, which I loved and was getting very little respect for.. did I mention I didn't ask for his opinion? As I was putting up the last few, he asked if I thought they were overkill.

I may have snapped back a little something about "do you think I would work on this for 2 days and continue to add more if I thought it was overkill????"

If that man doesn't watch his step, I'll be testing the "shatterproof" claim that comes with these ornaments against his head! He now claims it looks beautiful.

*********

I may have got caught up in all the excitement and forgot to mention that I FINISHED PAINTING THE TABLE AND CHAIRS!!!!!!

So the place settings and tablescape were all kind of just thrown on top and very hodge-podged together, but I just wanted you to get the idea. I would still love to have a piece of glass made for the top of the table and there is still the small matter of painting the china cabinet.

I now must skid-daddle, working all the days up until and around the holiday leave me to pack for an entire week of traveling over 1000 miles for work and family gatherings.

But can my husband I ask you a big favor before I go?

Nick is working on a big project for grad school that needs your help.

If you have a few minutes, please click here and take this small survey for his class project.

 { http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=TMqvrAVgRJEChoYSWV_2baXw_3d_3d }

Nick, his final semester grade, and his loving wife would sooooooo appreciate your help!

NOW, go have a very safe and loving Thanksgiving! I hope to come back with lots of pictures and stories for the memory books.

white lights, huh?

It's been quite the day already.

Remember when Christmas threw-up all over the basement a week or so ago?

It's only gotten worse since. We are currently wading through the mess, slowly decking the halls, making our lists of what we still need want to buy for decor and checking it twice.

As for our little poll going on the right sidebar - it closed last night. The people have spoken and the lights shall be WHITE.

60 votes to 16 is a pretty loud aversion to colored lights. Both of our moms voted for color, and since they birthed us and all, I was thinking that they each could count as 20 votes a piece - and still the white lights would win out. What's the big deal here? Did colored lights ruin Christmas one year that I didn't hear of?

I'm now thinking of leaving more decisions up to you folks through blog polls like what color to paint the china cabinet, where to vacation next summer, when would be a good time to have our first offspring...

Some online shopping has been done and we are now eagerly awaiting the arrival of our newest addition to the scene, set to arrive ANYTIME now.

{Come on, UPS.}

I believe our little {10 foot} friend will make a nice addition to the forest growing in our home. He will be joining his two 7" brother and sister trees, as well as little bub and sis, the two 4" trees.

Nick already started on his own personal tree in the basement - definately the "brother" tree, chock full of sports ornaments, mostly baseball, as well as tiny poker tables and dartboards and lovingly decorated in the most appropraite fashion for our game and entertainment dedicated part of the home.

Almost finished... he may still need a woman's touch.

If I ever get the time for crafts outside of the furniture painting, house cleaning, prescription dispensing, and christmas shopping/decorating that will be going on at a very steady pace over the next few weeks, I hope to be making one of these little jewels. I love the colors in this one:

{Photo and tutorial, courtesy of GoodHousekeeping.com}

I will now be cutting today's post short because, as I live and breathe, I PROMISE you that our tree has just been delivered as I typed and my day has just been made.

Nick is already on top of getting it put together and it looks GORGEOUS! Thank goodness it looks good on it's own, I didn't know if I'd even have enough ornaments to decorate it properly this year!!

Back tomorrow for the rest!

Oops - One more last note - my mom is delivering the OTHER 7" tree, one of her old ones, tomorrow. I am dieing to have a flocked tree, which is the purpose of this specific tree, but have no experience in that area what-so-ever. She said I can throw the whole thing away if I really screw it up =)

Any advice out there? Anyone know a good product to use to make it looked heavily snowed? I appreciate whatever I can get! {Won't it just look precious in our bedroom with the white bedding?! Can't wait!} Thanks in advance!

no shortage of hot air here

A few weeks ago, I was getting ready to leave for a few days of work away from home {as always - just as I am right now in fact}, in route to lug my suitcases out to the car when my husband ran in from outside and said "Wanna see a hot air ballon?".

Well, of course I do. But I also want a 100% sane husband {since I'm not and somebody's got to be around here}, and I totally thought he was nuts. Was this a ploy to keep me at home just a little bit longer? Naw... couldn't be, he only helps me load my luggage each time to get me out the door even quicker ;)

What the heck, then?

Out to the back deck we went, Nick, my visiting mother-in-law and me, to see this grand illusion my wacko husband had just spotted in the sky above suburbia.

As soon as we realized he wasn't hallucinating, Karen and I both grabbed our cameras and started snapping away.

Hey, it's not everyday that a hot air ballon drops in your neighbors backyard.

Perhaps, as the balloon captain (??) began to realize he was low, he spotted our house and naturally thought I would be able to help - being full of hot air and all - and decided to stop and fuel-up.

So I huffed and I puffed in their general direction while simultaneously catching all the action on film.

In no time, I had the crew back up in the air where they belonged.

I was pooped.

{Full contrast made for a fun freaky picture!}

We're so glad he didn't land on top of any houses and that no one was hurt.

As you can see, it truly was a close call for these people, the trees, power-lines and the small yard they landed in!

Bye-bye balloon!

I kicked myself later when I realized I could have just jumped in the basket with them and floated away on a cloud instead of hopping in the old Camry and driving for hours to my work destination in the middle of nowhere.

Darned hindsight.

Christmas threw-up

...all over my basement.

My dear husband went downstairs to the storage closet this morning and got all the boxes out. That's nearly one-fourth of the battle. I got super excited ripping open each box, seeing the vintage family stuff, re-discovering all the new things I bought on sale after Christmas last year, and making note of what we would like to add to the Christmas regurgitation that's about to happen to every wall and every corner of our house I can possibly cover.

And what to my wondering eyes did appear? Our family Santa hats. A traditional Santa hat for Nick, leopard print for me, and Hendrix's elastic strapped doggy version. We all wore them for the remainder of the hour of Christmas mayhem we had in the basement this morning.

Think it's a bit early to be bring out the red and green? Most people would. I'm from a family who waits till the more accepted time of year, after Thanksgiving, to decorate for the season. However, I have always been the oddball of the family and this year, I will begin my Christmas decorating TODAY - which is actually later than I planned =)

Being on the road the majority of the time and doing last minute Christmas shopping in December means the decorating has to be done now, allowing us to enjoy it and get totally sick of it by the time we take it down. I'm guessing we'll be really sick of it before we have that time, seeing how we're leaving for Disney World {YAY!} on December 30th and I never take down Christmas before the New Years.  Between the unpacking and getting back to work/school after the trip, we'll have approximately ZERO time for getting the house back to normal.

Maybe I can decorate the tree for Valentine's day???

However, I do love our fall decor and it does make me sad to put away my beloved pumpkins. Perhaps they can stay out - they still look pretty sweet next to the poinsettias.

I also have a little shopping to do - there's the matter of our first Christmas in a house {instead of that box of an apartment we were in last year}. Therefore, a little investment in strings upon string of lights is about to take place. I personally love the fun of the multi-colored while Nick comes with a little more class and loves the white lights.

We both agree on white lights for the tree, but how about helping us decide on the outdoor lights by voting in the poll, located on the top right of my sidebar? We truly appreciate the input.

Finally, we're thinking of having some friends over for a tacky Christmas sweater party and I just gotta' get that dining room furniture painted and looking snazzy before the gathering. Crossing my fingers it will get done in the next month!

{I primed the last chair, of 6, and the table today! The first coat of black has now been painted on the table since this picture was taken. The very last HUGE HILL to climb will be the china cabinet which I have still not decided on a color to paint. Decisions, decisions.}

I'm not worried though. I asked Santa to send me some of his elves to help. They should be arriving any time now...

Hey ma, look what I got!

It's been going around, floating in the blogworld air, reading about it with every click, the subject of every post. It seemed like everyone was getting it and I was being left out of all the fun.


Well it's here. I can now join the club.

No, not swine flu, silly-nillie.  

Whatchu talkin'bout,Willis?



It may be only a matter of time with my occupational hazard of seeing hundreds of patients with the flu each day in the pharmacy, trampsing around the aisles with them as they ask me to recommend over-the-counter drugs for every symptom under the sun... though as of yet, neither Nick or I have contracted the dreaded gut wrencher.


Instead of H1N1, I got this fun little blog award from sweet Audrey. A far better trade, wouldn't ya say? Run over and see her new guest bath redo I'm admiring - it's gorgeous! She used the faux board and batten project I've been dieing to apply to the guest bedroom. It's darling in the bathroom and got me thinking the matching guest bath may need some love too...

But it's not all just fun and games with this award - there's questions you must answers and rules you must abide:

-use only 1 word

-pass along to 6 favorite bloggers

-tell them you did so!

How in the heck does anyone expect ME to answer a question with just one word? {I'm sure lots of friends, family, and coworkers would love it if I could keep the chatter to a minimum, but it's just not me.} Gotta love a challenge! 

1. Where is your cell phone? charging

2. Your Hair? RED

3. Your Mother? entertaining

4. Your Father? kind

5. Your favorite food? spaghetti

6. Your dream last night? diabetes (?!?)

7. Your favorite drink? *carbonation*

8. Your dream/goal? Heaven

9. What room are you in? #721

10. Your hobby? decorating

11. Your fear? loss

12. Where do you want to be in six years? motherhood

13. Where were you last night? CVS/Hampton Inn

14. Something you aren't? doormat

15. Favorite Muffin? banana-nut

16. Wish List Item? mercedes

17. Where did you grow up? Prestonsburg

18. Last thing you did? Wal-mart

19. What are you wearing? scrubs

20. Your TV? Mr & Mrs Smith

21. Your Pets? love

22. Friends? precious

23. Your Life? sparkles

24. Your Mood? acceptance

25. Missing Someone? everyone!

26. Vehicle? shopping

27. Something your not wearing? chapstick:(

28. Your favorite store? hobby lobby

29. Your favorite color? blue

30. When was the last time you laughed? 07:12:52 pm Saturday, November 7, 2009

31. Last time you cried? weeks

32. Your best friend(s)? riotous

33. One place I could go over and over? homehomehomehomehome

34. Favorite place to eat? El Campestre

6 bloggers that I am tagging:

A Love Worth Waiting For... 

Durec Family Nothings 

The Pettijohn Family

The Kelley Eight  

The DeYoung Family

Kentucky Mama  

 Disclaimer: These are all glorious reads. You must know that you if you click on any of these links, you will get sucked in and spit out 8 hours later. Maybe set an alarm before you go... something I should do before signing into Blogger each and everytime... it's a thought.

 Onto sweet slumber and dreams of home. I've been on the road since Sunday. Home with Nick only for Wednesday night and not scheduled to be back till near midnight on Monday.


My heart absolutley. can. not. wait.

Halloween recap

Nick and I had our real Halloween experience with fear and fright on Friday night when we ventured out with friends to some very scary haunted houses.

Then last night, Halloween night, I spent far too much time having lots of fun with dry ice.

Have you ever played with this stuff?

I personally think it's awesome.

Besides the time I spent with the dry ice, we also handed out candy to trick-or-treaters, Nick carved a pumpkin...

and I successfully baked pumpkin seeds for once. Anyone remember last year's failed attempt?

All a glow - he did a fantastic job!

Lastly, I had too many comments and emails asking where the "I Love You" hand came from featured in our master bedroom post to not address it.

TJ Maxx of course!

They had lots of other hands doing other things, not really sign language per se {or flipping the bird for those of you whose mind I know was wondering} but I picked this one to surprise my husband. He wasn't as excited to open it up as I wanted him to be - which I sort of understand when it's all white and kind of looks a bit "corpse-ish" when you first see it. But it brings up lots of wonderful memoried of us flashing this sign as we parted or just in times when it wasn't appropriate to speak but we felt the urge to communicate our love.

Anyway, I love it and I'm glad you do too.

Those of you who were looking for it, I believe I saw it at Home Goods as well.

I'm off to east Kentucky to work a few days and luckily using the occasion to visit with my parents tonight =)

Have a great week!