Decade in review

I have seen this on a few blogs and I think it is a great idea so I'm jumping on board. Unfortunately with the switch from hard copies to digital photography during this decade I don't have posts for every year but I'll give it my best shot. If I get motivated enough, I will scan some of the older photos and update later.

2000: My sophomore year of high school. I was asked to the prom by a friend. My favorite thing about this picture is that you can see Dave at the table in the background (to the right).

2001: My junior year of high school. So many great things happened this year. My favorite by far was going to Washington D.C. for Close-Up.

2002: My senior year of high school. I have so many great memories with awesome friends.

2003: Freshman year of college. This didn't go so well. I liked the school and my major. I did not like my roommate and being so far from home. I decided to transfer to a community college closer to home and then to the state university after that.

2004: This year was pretty uneventful. I would say it was actually a low point for me. I was in an unhappy relationship and trying to discover who I really was. This is the year I started at SUNY Geneseo which was one of the best decisions I ever made.

2005: This is the year that I met my future husband.

2006: I'm sure I have a picture to go with this year but overall it was pretty uneventful.

2007: This was the most life changing year of my life. This is the year that I got engaged. I also graduated from college:

We bought our house:

Got married:

Went to Hawaii on our honeymoon:

And got Charlie:

2008: This was one of the hardest years of my life. This is the year that Dave was deployed:

While he was gone I was going to grad school, teaching full time (as a long-term sub) and working part time at Wegmans. Things were crazy.


In July, Dave surprised me for my birthday by coming home for 2 weeks R&R. While he was home, we were able to attend the wedding of a good friend.

In September I started my full time teaching job. These are the flower Dave sent me on the first day of school.

2009: January 4 brought David home. This was one of the best days of my life besides our wedding.

Our poor Charlie got hit by a car at the end of February so the next couple months were tough. He survived but he had a broken femur which had to be repaired with surgery. It was an expensive and emotionally exhausting time.


In April we went on our second honeymoon to Hawaii. This time we went to Oahu which I absolutely loved. I cannot wait to go back someday.

We were also blessed to go to the weddings of a few good friends.

In all, I would say that this has been a pretty good decade. I am hopeful that this next one will be even better.

I hope to follow up tomorrow with my goals for the next year so stay tuned.

Christmas haul

Dave and I are blessed with wonderful families who definitely spoil us. This year my parents said they were cutting back they were still incredibly generous. Here are some of the great gifts I got:

(image source: bestbuy.com)

Dave got me addicted to Rock Band when he got home from Afghanistan last year. I enjoy it because it is something we can play together too. I am excited to play this as long as I can tear Dave away from his gift (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2).

(image source: jcpenney.com)

I am constantly struggling to find a way to store my jewelry. Right now the stuff I wear the most has a home in a tiny box on my night stand. This is a great jewelry box because it hangs on the wall and it looks nice. I hate the look of normal jewelry boxes so this is a great alternative.

(image source: staples.com)

This is one of those gifts that brings me back to my childhood. I remember teachers always having these "smelly" markers. Now that I am a teacher these are a must-have. Unfortunately, I am too cheap ($14.99 for markers!) so I asked for them for Christmas. I am excited to use them when we get back to school.

(image source: wists.com)

These might be my favorite gift this year! My ankles get very cold in the winter so these are great. I put them immediately after opening them. I'm in love. (PS. I got these in grey)

I also got a few different bracelets (three to be exact), some gift cards and some money which I can't wait to spend.

I hope Santa was good to you. Merry Christmas!

Ornament Wreaths

Merry Christmas (almost). Every year I try to DIY some Christmas presents without them looking DIY. I do this for two reasons. First, I think they are more meaningful. Second, they give me something to do during my down time. It's also a bonus if they save me money.

Last year I made personalized ornaments. They turned out nice but I needed to try something different this year. I frequently lurk (and occassionally post) on The Nest message boards. This year one of the DIY projects that kept coming up was the ornament wreath. After seeing a post on one of the boards, I was inspired to make my own. The girl who posted it has her own blog and posted the directions. Since she did a great job writing up the directions, I will not repeat them. Here is the link for her how-to.

I made two wreaths. I made a brown and gold one for myself (please excuse the poorly painted windows).



Then, I made a red, silver, and green wreath for my mom.

I actually prefer how my smaller wreath turned out over the larger one. The larger one took so much more time and ornaments. It is a good idea to use shatterproof ornaments. I did not which was fine for my wreath but a pain in the butt for the other one. I got a few cuts and had to replace many broken ornaments in the assembly process.

Overall, this was a great project. I am looking forward to making more next year.

Crazy Week

This past week was insane. One of the kids in my class has severe behavior problems and has kept me on my toes. I came home from work almost every night completely exhausted. On Wednesday I was ready to go to bed at 7:00. One of the only things that kept me going was my secret Santa. She showered me with fabulous gifts like chocolate, diet Pepsi and nail polish. I had absolutely no idea who it was which added to the fun.

Monday, I finished up all of my Christmas shopping except for one gift card. Tuesday and Wednesday I had Odyssey Practice. If you have never heard of Odyssey of the Mind you should check out the website. It is a fabulous program that encourages kids to work as a team and think outside the box.

Thursday was a day like no other. David came home after being on the road for the week. He decided to fix a light switch that we've been having problems with. Apparently continually tripping the breaker was a bad idea because our main breaker ended up melting. We had to have the electric company shut off our power and had to call the fire department to make sure everything was ok. It was about 12 degrees out so I went to my mother-in-law's house to keep warm while David fixed it. We weren't able to get the power turned back on until about 11. Needless to say, I was pretty tired the next day.

Friday was David's Christmas party for work. It was fun but nothing too special. Yesterday I had Odyssey practice early. Then we had to go to a cookie exchange at his mom's house and a Christmas party later. I feel like I have not stopped in 6 days. I didn't get any pictures of the cookies yesterday but hopefully I will be able to make that recipe again before Christmas and post it.

Sorry this is such a long, rambling, picture less post but I needed to get it all out. I am currently waiting for some cookies to chill. When I bake them in a couple of hours I will make sure to post them. I am also currently working on an ornament wreath that I hope to finish tonight so I will post that when I am done too.

Snow Day Part 2

Charlie loves snow days almost as much as me. He gets me all to himself and he gets to go out as much as he wants. Let me tell you, this dog LOVES snow! He hates the rain but he absolutely loves running through the snow and burrying his nose in it. I decided to go out and enjoy it with him. I also snapped a few pictures

Here is Charlie with his coat on all ready to go out.

Here he is playing in the snow.

Face full of snow. I tried to get a picture of him with his head completely covered but he was too quick.

After running around like crazy, Charlie was ready to come in and warm up.

After all that fun, he was ready for a nap.

I have been pretty lazy this morning despite my huge to-do list. On the agenda for this afternoon: clean, bake cookies, and maybe some Christmas shopping later on.

Snow Day

I have been having a very hard time getting in the Christmas spirit this year. For me it does not start feeling like Christmas until we get snow. I live in Western New York so by the end of October our weather is pretty unpredictable. It is not unheard of to have snow on Halloween. This year the temperatures have been fairly mild and there has been no snow in sight. Until yesterday. When I woke up there was no snow but I turned on the tv and saw that school was closed. I waited for the official phone call and then went back to bed. When I woke back up there was a beautiful dusting. Today I woke up to this:

No this is not a bad picture...it was that snowy. We started off with a two hour delay but within an hour I got the call that school was closed again today. What a wonderful start to the weekend!

Stay tuned for Snow Day part 2.

Nail Polish Love: OPI Holiday Glow

Let me begin this post by saying that I have not always appreciated the many different colors of nail polish available. I used to always be a pale pink wearer. Don't get me wrong, I still love me some pink. However, I was inspired last spring by this post over at one of my favorite blogs All Things G&D. Most people around here do not wear bright, vibrant shades like those and that post showed me that it is ok to wear them.

My obsession started slowly with a pinkish shade for the summer. From there I decided that I had to have more. You see, nail polish is a fairly inexpensive way to change your look. If you haven't noticed, the economy sucks right now. I have heard that lipstick sales go up when the economy is bad. Nail polish is my version of lipstick.

Anyway, let me get to my real reason for this post. I have found what might be my dream nail polish. It comes from the OPI Holiday Wishes collection and it is called Holiday Glow.

(this picture is not in the best light but is a fairly good representation of the color)

This polish is a dark brown with subtle gold glittler. It is my answer for the perfect holiday nail polish. I am kind of over reds for the holiday so this is a nice alternative. It is festive without screaming Christmas.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. This is not my first attempt at blogging. The first attempt was not the most successful but I have high hopes for this one. I have many ambitions but have yet to master any of them. You can look forward to posts about my family (my husband David and our adorable dog Charlie), fashion, decorating, nail polish, books, baking and so much more. I hope you will stick around and enjoy my random musings.