Thank You For My Jack Snuggie, Branden!

Branden got me a Snuggie for Christmas. Technically it's a "Comfy Throw" but it's really a Snuggie and it has the various faces of Jack Skellington all over it. :)

I am getting absorbed into the Cult of the Snuggie. It really is a super soft fleece, it's really quite warm and my hands are free to type this blog. :P It's almost embarrassing to admit it but... Snuggies are awesome.

Return To City Museum

Today was the last day that Branden and I have off together before his new shift starts at work. We should still have one day a week off work together after his shift change but... Today is the beginning of the end of a great time. I'll be sad to see him so much less. :( Ok, enough crying for now. You'll hear ALL about it when I'm lonely.

Since we know that we'll be spending much less time together in the near future, we decided to make today special and go to the City Museum again. This time there are pictures so I will post some when we get them off the camera. It's impossible for me to describe this place to you. It must be seen to be appreciated. Feel free to follow the link, explore the site and wish that you lived close enough to take advantage of this amazing museum.

After climbing, squeezing, crawling, wriggling and sliding my way through tunnels, caverns, tree trunks, pipes, stairs, slides and pillars I am worn out. Both of my knees are bruised, my left elbow is rug burned, I have a few scrapes that I didn't have this morning, my legs ache... And it was so much FUN!! Tomorrow my knees will tell me how stupid I am. Tomorrow my left knee probably won't even bend. Today I had a great time and ignored the pain. I'm so thankful that we had a great day together enjoying that magical place.

Merry Christmas! (The 2009 Version)

Well, we made it to Christmas. :) Branden and I have opted to spend a quiet day at home enjoying our gifts- we both received Wii games, among other things- and relaxing. It's nearly noon and we're still in pjs and haven't done anything but open presents, talk to family and play games... What a lovely morning. We may go see a movie later but I'd honestly be fine with staying home and doing exactly what we are doing right now.

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday with the people they love.

Oh, yes, and we managed to have a bit of a white Christmas after all!

Nearly Ready For Friday

My Christmas shopping is nearly done. I just have one or two more things to buy but if I didn't buy any more I think it'd be ok. All gifts I have purchased are wrapped except the one that I need to finish creating tomorrow. Wish me luck because I'm going to try something I've never really tried before and I may mess it up big time.

All of my Christmas snacks are done and most of the plates that needed to be given away have made it to their owners. The final list: pecan bayou bars, mint chocolate brownies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, brown sugar fudge, chocolate dipped pretzels and Darlene's Christmas Chex snack mix. Branden's friends also received peanut brittle because they insisted that they wanted it even if the peanuts were a little scorched... Then they complained that the brittle wasn't burned ENOUGH!

I believe that I have four or so Christmas cards that need to be sent to a couple people who sent them to us. Thank you to all who exchanged addresses with me and sent me cards. It's been tons of fun going out to my mailbox and finding Christmas cards. What a wonderful treat to get something other than junk, bills or ads in the mail!

Christmas is basically two days away and I have accomplished more than I ever have in the past. I'm never this prepared or on top of things. It feels GREAT! :) Tomorrow I will attempt that gift and fill out and mail my last cards.

No Peanut Brittle For You!

I GIVE UP!!!!

I just re-made my peanut brittle. I waited until it was nearly done before adding the peanuts and they STILL burned! I'm starting to think it may have something to do with my pot since it's not a very good one and probably has hot spots, etc. I'm not going to try anymore. Maybe I'll make peppermint bark instead since that doesn't involve cooking anything.

I really CAN make candy. I even make GOOD candy most of the time. The peanut brittle I made last night tastes great and I'm sure this brittle tastes great as well but I just can't give anyone candy that has some blackened peanuts in it.

***Update at 8:55 PM*** THANK YOU, AUNT DARLENE! Your delicious and EASY Christmas snack mix (I don't actually know the real name) has renewed my confidence in my treat-making abilities. Oh, yes, and thank you, Mom, for giving me the recipe. :) I am still trying to motivate myself to dip pretzels in chocolate- probably can't mess that one up :P- and maybe make an easy fudge- which may destroy my faith in me again.

Darn It! Just One More Day I Won't Get Back

Well, most of today was wasted. I didn't sleep well last night so I drug through work. When I got home I had such great plans for getting things done. I did the dishes and got the kitchen ready for my next round of treat-making but then Branden called and said I had to go into the bedroom so he could wrap a gift for me- he wasn't supposed to purchase any more gifts!

So I went into the bedroom and cuddled up under the covers to read for a little while. After he was finished, Branden came into the bedroom and also crawled under the covers. Then Jiminy came in and wanted to cuddle. We all fell asleep.

From a little after 6 until 8 I was asleep... And I have to work tomorrow and should be in bed by midnight at the latest. We haven't eaten dinner and I haven't made anything. Oh, and Branden is still in bed and probably will stay there all night from the sounds of things so I guess I just need to worry about feeding myself.

We have both been so tired recently that it's not surprising that we both fell asleep. Still, it's inconvenient and I feel guilty/frustrated that I slept when there are other things that need to be completed. Now, so I don't feel more guilty, I am going to make something in the way of Christmas treats.

***Update at 10:50 PM*** I made peanut brittle according to the recipe I had and some of the peanuts burned! *insert screaming and your own swear words here* I will have to try again tomorrow and add the peanuts much later.

The Right Chocolate

I have an awesome fiance! :)

At the risk of sounding ungrateful and food-snobbish I am going to tell you about this. I've been looking for some good chocolate for making fudge and dipping pretzels that I'm going to give to friends on a plate with other treats. I've asked all the people I know out here who make desserts and they've been trying to help me find it. I made the mistake of saying that I want to use it for dipping and ever since then I've been offered the WORST "chocolate." I mean, someone actually brought me almond bark that they found in the store and said that maybe I could use that! I know everyone is trying but... I just feel like nobody really understands what I'm looking for.

The fact of the matter is, "chocolate" whose first two ingredients are sugar and partially hydrogenated oil is not something I want. Half of those products only have artificial flavorings or maybe they have cocoa or something but it's so far down the list that there's not really anything chocolate-like about them. I want cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar, milk and not much else.

Then today Branden called me on his way home from work. I'd told him what I was going through so he stopped at Trader Joe's and found some chocolate... Some real chocolate. He read me the ingredients. He GETS it. I just about started to cry. It's not that I didn't already know that he loves me but somehow every once in a while it really comes through: He understands me.

I love him so much and I am so blessed to be with a guy who will go out of his way to help me find the right chocolate. It's such a small, insignificant thing but it makes me feel so good. :)

Best Store In Town

I've been meaning to write this post for a while and I think today should be the day.

I love Aldi. This store is AWESOME! A certain large chain store claims to always have the lowest prices but they don't have ANYTHING on Aldi. Oh, sure, sometimes I can go to that store and get great deals and that store also has some things that I cannot get at Aldi.

That said, Aldi has consistently better prices on produce, milk, eggs and meat. The first time we went to Aldi we had a coupon for $5 off our $25 purchase... We struggled to spend $25 and we left with 4 lb of butter, 3 dozen eggs, popsicles, milk, 7 bell peppers, stir-fry vegetables and more. One thing to keep in mind, don't expect to find name brands at Aldi. If you MUST have Wheat Thins you will not find them there, however, their brand of thin wheat crackers tastes just as good! I don't really have brand loyalties but there are some things that always seem to be better in the name brand so I was a little wary to try some of their brands. So far, we haven't been disappointed.

Another thing you should know about Aldi: they have cut out all the unnecessary bits to save you money. You rent your cart for a quarter and when you return it you get your quarter back. This is how they ensure that carts are not left in the parking lot, nobody has to go out an collect them from far corners or from neighboring stores and people rarely leave with the cart unless they are going to return with it to shop again. If you didn't bring your own bags/boxes you can purchase bags for your groceries or you can select boxes from a bin of empty cases. You bag/box your own groceries. The checkers are extremely efficient and all groceries are returned to an empty cart. You then take your grocies over to a counter to organize and box them up yourself.

There's no way that I can really tell you how much I love this store. I actually enjoy boxing up my own groceries because so few baggers do it right anyway. There are new things to find every time I go and I now have no problem spend over $25 because I'm buying almost all of our groceries. Eveyone should have a store like this!

I Am Not The Person To Ask When Trying To Buy Someone A Gift

I am terrible at buying gifts. I felt like I was doing really well a couple of weeks ago but now... I'm just not any good at this! Branden has no problem going to the store and buying me kitchen gadgets and Nightmare Before Christmas items. He says he's lucky because he knows that there are certain things that I will always be happy with. He's right: he is lucky and I will always be happy to have those things.

Unfortunately, he's not as easy to shop for. He wants clothes so I bought some but they're not exciting gifts! I purchased some other items he asked for but there are no big surprises. He claims that he likes it that way but I LIKE being surprised so I feel like I'm failing big time if I don't surprise him.

Apparently, I don't pay enough attention. I am SUCH a big fail. :( I guess that's just one more way that I fail at life. I only have 12 days before Christmas. Wish me luck in my endeavors!

Buying The New Tires I So Desperately Need Today

I took my car to a shop to get the oil changed and some things looked at this morning. We have to have it inspected by the end of this month and we're trying to get a rough idea of all the things we need to fix before we take it in and the car fails miserably.

I knew that one of my back tires was going to need to be replaced. Turns out that both of them need to be replaced NOW. The guy at the shop said he'd be surprised if the one on the right side lasts a week as it's seriously showing cables. GREAT! You know when you know something but you're able to put it out of your mind until someone else tells you that thing? Yeah, now I'm scared to drive my car.

They wanted to do my tires for $95 each but I said, "No, thanks." And proceeded to come home and call around. I now have an appointment with a tire place down the street for 2 this afternoon. There goes another $130! I guess it's better than $200, though.

They also tried to tell me that I needed a new radiator but I said, "Oh, no I don't. That radiator is less than a year old. If something is leaking then we'll fix that but it's not the radiator." The guy seemed surprised when I said this and quickly backtracked. I know I'm a woman but that doesn't mean that I'm just going to look at you and say, "Oh, ok, just fix it." I'm not an idiot!

UGH! I hate having to spend money when we're just getting back on our feet. I know it's necessary but... I just want to get back to being financially stable.

"I'll Have A Blue Christmas..."

But in this case blue refers to my Christmas decorations rather than my mood. For some reason, I'm not really a fan of red and green decorations so our Christmas tree is decked out in blue, silver and white.

For the last couple of years I've promised myself- and last year I promised on my blog- that I would take pictures of our tree and prove that it really does look as if Jack Frost has vomited on my tree.

Keep in mind, our tree is about three feet tall and Branden insists on putting five or six stings of lights and three strands of shiny beads on it. It is also covered in bells. No, we don't love bells, we just have two cats who enjoy trying to get into the tree and the bells work as an alarm system for us. Add to that the stars and other unbreakable decorations that we put on it and well... It's a little much. Please also forgive us for not being the kind of people who can make a tree aesthetically pleasing. All that said, behold our tree:

I still haven't managed to find a lighted star for the top so I put a little star ornament near the top in the mean time.

Here's a side view. It really looks less messy in real life. Honestly, this is almost embarrassing because I know that most of your trees are bound to look far nicer than mine.

I love this snowflake. It's the biggest ornament on our tree.

Here's a picture of the lit tree. Most of our lights are blue. The ones you can really see are the white LED lights.

There you go. Now that you've seen mine there's no reason to not post yours!

I Know It's a Little Late But... Here Are Pics From My Trip To UT

WARNING: LOTS of pictures to follow!
The Reception
It started with Chantelle sitting on the floor watching her wedding video.

Katie and I joined her for a little while.

Here's the wedding cake.

Cutting the cake...

And feeding each other oh so sweetly.
First dance
James eating cake and sporting Chantelle's tie choice
Rick giving Mom a hug good-bye. Note the slightly longer, blonde hair.
Pizza Night
Mom is our pizza chef
Allan and Stacy
Melissa Bass and... Katie. Don't ask. There's Dad in the background as well. :)
Allan and Kysa
Paxton with his teeth missing. I can't believe how big this kid is getting!
Rick... WOW! Look at that hair! Not blonde now!
Let's take another look.
I know this picture is fuzzy but I love it anyway.
I awoke Sunday morning to hear a small child doing something in the kitchen. Where's Josh?
OH! There he is!
I thought it was HILARIOUS that he came up with this and was waiting for someone to find him.
And finally, Mom, Dad, James and Christina. Aside from myself, these two are the last unmarried kids in our family. They are also the last two at home. James will be going on a mission this March so this is the last time I'll be seeing him for a while.

This Year I WILL Send Them!

I never send Christmas cards. I always plan on it. I even have three or four different styles of cards which I've purchased with the full expectation that I will send them. Somehow I just never do! I get busy with life and work and never take the time to do the things I actually was wanting to do. I've decided that this year will be different.

I don't have the crafty talents required to make cards so I opted to purchase them instead. Now I have yet ANOTHER style of cards but I really am not keeping them this year! I've started signing our names and writing names on envelopes and all I have to do is get some addresses and some stamps and mail them off! The stamps will be purchased today when I mail things to my family and the addresses... Well, that's partly where you come in!

I would like to send Christmas cards to you, my five loyal readers! Send me your address on FaceBook or leave me a message here- DON'T include your address- with an email or some way that I can reach you and we will work things out. I also suppose you could send me a text if you have my phone number. If you don't read this until closer to Christmas- or even after Christmas- and you feel like it'd be cool to get a card, don't worry, I'll still send them out!

Anyway, it's my day off so I'm going to get out of here and get some shopping- and shipping- done!