If she had the proper words to say,

I'm taking just a moment from un-decorating the house for Christmas to post a little bit. I realized I had not used this icon this holiday season, and well... to let such an opportunity pass would be a shame. If nothing else, I know mostcurious will love it. *wink*

The boys and I were treated to lunch today in town by our sweet friends, the Paini family. They had "booked" us for lunch, wanting to thank us for everything we do for them. It was so very non-necessary, but we were so touched! We ate at Mi Mexico, and it was wonderful as usual. Philip worked last night and so was sleeping through lunch today, but he's not fond of Mexican food, either. He appreciates the gesture but considers the food a non-loss. Silly boy - Mexican fare is *always* a treasure!

A.J. and Jack helped me with un-decorating all afternoon and evening, and then we had leftovers from the parties two nights ago for dinner. It was nice to have our dining room table back in the center of the room again for this meal (we had pushed it to a far wall to make room for the boys' full-size tree this year), even if it was just leftovers. The only thing I have left to do myself at this point is strip the family tree of its lights and tuck it away. I've stacked all of the bins/tubs of decorations in the hallway by the garage for Philip to stow in the shed room tomorrow when he gets home from work. He will be very pleased to have missed all of these parts, though!

I've been deep-cleaning while I take things down, and it feels so vastly different to me already. I absolutely adore my Christmas things, but there are so many trinkets and statuary that I can't really dust around, so I enjoy a massive dust-and-clean session while re-decorating with our regular home decor.

For dessert tonight, the dear Painis blessed us again - with fresh "Snow Cream" they had just made! It was our first time having snow cream, but it definitely won't be the last this winter season. We've got plenty of fresh snow at all times, it seems, and this was just too tasty of a treat. From the "recipe" they gave me, it should be quite easy to make, too. I'm very jazzed about it!

Well, it's time to return to the task at hand and get those lights down. I think I'm going to plop down with a nice movie as my reward tonight, too. :-)

I began addressing my Christmas cards last night. Philip and I had run a few errands in town, including picking up the holiday stationery and envelopes. I've been buying a book or two of holiday stamps each time I'm in the post office (it seems to sting a bit less that way, you know?), so I'm getting there in the preparation. I need to process the boys' fall portraits I took in September (yes, I know!) so that I can print a picture to pop in the cards, and then I'll be set.

Well... except for actually writing the newsletter, that is. I'll have to crank that one out by this weekend or so. I always feel so dorky, yet folks continually tell me how much they adore my "newsy" newsletters. Oh, what I do for the people I love! *wink*

This afternoon, Philip and I finished up all the outdoor holiday lights and decorations. There is currently no snow on the ground, but there is a dusting in the forecast this week, and we got about 5" a couple weeks ago (which melted in 60° the following two days), so now is the time to beat the true cold and wind. Also, tonight is the first night you can officially have holiday lights on in base housing, so we were ready for that. The icicle lights on the roof were up during October as part of our Halloween decorations, so we only added the train on the roof, the moving deer (a doe and buck), and the yard stakes with red-white-green lights. We'll put our indoor decorations up on the 28th, and then the two full-size trees will shine brightly out both of our large front windows.

We completely finished our holiday shopping almost two weeks ago, and then I finished wrapping everything over that next week. I mailed out our first boxes of holiday gifts last week, and I hear that both have been received already. I still need to mail two more big boxes of gifts, and then the shipping part is done. I can't wait to have our trees up and decorated because I'm tired of storing all of our gifts in the closet! Even though they are already wrapped, I still don't want them out until the tree is ready. (It makes sense in my mind, I swear.)

Last year, we waited on all gift-shopping for our family because we were moving on Dec. 7th. We didn't want the movers hauling gifts, but we didn't have room in our vehicles for them, either. We finished up our friends and extended family before the move, but waited on our own things. This year, however, it feels nice to be ready ahead of the game. Two years ago, I took a picture on Nov. 4th of everything wrapped and ready, and this year we were on par with that. It sure makes for a sigh of relief as we head into the busy holiday season!

Meanwhile, we spent our nights this weekend while Philip was off watching movies. While doing that, I crafted tons more ornaments, and I'm over halfway done with the sets for the boys' teachers. I really had to step up my game this year since A.J. is in middle school and now has seven teachers instead of just one - eep! I will probably tuck some cookies into their gifts as well. (Naturally!)

And that's that. It's not just "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" around here... it's practically in full-swing already!

Friday was a whirlwind of school, running errands, and then A.J.'s parade in town for marching band. I already posted about that, but I have so much to post from the rest of the weekend!

Saturday was crazy-busy cleaning day. We all cleaned together, each of us doing certain chores. We rewarded ourselves with a lovely, planned playdate that afternoon with friends and a very special snack: Banana Crunch Muffins, Peanut Butter Banana Bites, and Harry Potter's Butterbeer!

*geeks out*

Oh, it was all so, SO good. The kids were smacking their lips, and we were all on a sugar high - fantastic! The kids continued to play together for a few hours, and then A.J. received an impromptu birthday sleepover invitation for another friend. He left for that, while Philip and Jack went shooting with one of Philip's buddies from work. Jack came home with some shells and the things he'd blown up, and there were tales of the evening. I had made a yummy roast, and we had a cozy dinner with Philip's friend staying for supper.

On Sunday, we woke bright and early and drove down to Bismarck to visit the pumpkin patch. There's a couple small patches more local, but this one was rumored to be the largest around the west side of North Dakota. We were not disappointed! It was super-cheap to get in, and we all had a good time. Even after Jack "broke his butt," we kept on having fun. (That's a story in itself!) We played in the autumn spectacles, had lunch, played some more, had a snack of cookies and cocoa, then picked our pumpkins and headed home. That night, we had a warm beef stew waiting for us from Saturday night's delicious roast - yum!

Yesterday practically continued the weekend, I swear. With the exception of the boys heading to school, it still felt like it to me! Since we had already visited the pumpkin patch, I was in the mood to get full-on decorated for fall. Philip brought in all the bins from the storage room in the garage, and I busied myself putting up my fall pretties while waiting on the maintenance man to come fix my oven. It was such a treat to unpack everything - it had been two years since I last decorated for fall and Halloween (last year, we were moving, so we didn't decorate in that last month). I baked up a batch of cookies for a special order, and by 10:30am, I was STARVING. I think I inhaled my BLT for lunch while Philip played his new birthday video game. Heehee!

When the boys came home, they were amazed to see the transformation inside and outside the house. I had hung lights and put decorations in the yard - it was all complete. It was so fun to turn on my Halloween lights last night and feel really festive. Since it wasn't a "soccer night," I took the boys into town to a beautiful park and took some fall portraits of them. I'll work on them soon. :-)

Today, I finished up the pictures from that sweet, newborn baby boy I photographed last week. His mama was overjoyed with all of them, and I couldn't be happier! I burned a Raspberry-Vanilla three-wick candle on the table most of the day, and I watched Ginny (the cat) nearly try to light herself on fire when she tried to make sense of the dancing flame! I made fried chicken for dinner, and then after the boys went to bed, I settled in and watched the season premiere of GLEE. I saved this week's episode of Parenthood to watch while Philip is off these next two nights.

We're having dinner guests tomorrow night, and I think the day will be fairly busy, too. I need to head to the commissary, as well as prep something for dessert for them. My friend Valeen's husband is deploying to Guam for six months, and we wanted to have a farewell dinner with them before he leaves. Wednesday was the best bet since Jack has another soccer game on Thursday. He's in charge of snacks this week too, so I'll finish those up tomorrow as well.

I have literally TONS of pictures that need to be posted from this weekend. I'll never catch up!

Now I officially have to ground myself from the computer. I have so many things I want to do, so many things I'd like to have completed by weekend's end.

No more LJ.
No more FaceBook.
No more iTunes and movies.
No more Snood.
No more pictures to process (though that is one thing I really need to finish for someone).

No more computer. Not until Sunday night at 8pm (that's when the boys go to bed, so I will end my grounding then).

If you really need me for anything - anything at all - please feel free to call me or text me. You can find my info here.

*sniffles*

I'll miss y'all!

I'm so busy lately, and I keep meaning to update, but then have no time to do so. As a result, here are some bullets of the going-ons in my life as of late:

• Runza was burglarized on Friday, the 26th. No one was at the store at the time (it as early morning - about 6am), so we were all safe.


• But it's an "inside job," as someone used a key and also was able to open the safe to empty the contents (and said safe has a pretty complex code).


• This is causing me GREAT unease. I clearly don't know someone as well as I thought I did - whether it is one of us four current staff with such access (including myself), or one of the two staff who left in the last couple months (both of whom I consider to be friends).


• The fingerprint dust from the detectives all over the office caused me to have several freak-outs. Too much of a trigger from the other robberies. *sigh*


• Because of the burglary, we have been piecing the store back together in the past week. I have worked a lot of hours. A LOT. And this past week contained the "end of month" stuff for my monthly bookkeeping role anyway. It has been a really heavy week.


• Next week looks to be about the same for the first three days. The four of us are also now required to travel to Lincoln, to the Runza National office, to be interviewed individually by a theft committee.


• We're still waiting to hear the final word on taking polygraphs. We were told originally that we would need to, we all agreed to do so, and then they decided, "No, not just yet. Let's do the committee meetings first."


• I received a lovely, super-duper surprise from mostcurious! She knitted me my very own, PoA-style Slytherin scarf! I don't have pics to share yet, though. :-/


• I got my hair cut on Friday night after work. I told the gal to do what she wanted, and it is VERY different! Again, no pics yet.


• The boys' school pictures came in, and they are both good. A.J.'s pic is PHENOMENAL, in fact. I was very pleased, and I've been working on getting them mailed out.


• I took family portraits for a friend visiting from Florida on very short notice, and she LOVES them. I'm very happy, and you can see those HERE, if you're interested. I still need to burn her a CD of the images and mail it to her...


• Today is my little godson's birthday! Only he's not so little anymore - he's now TWO! Happy Birthday, Douglas!


• It is OCTOBER already. How did that happen?! Seriously, Jack will have been 7 for two months already next week, and A.J.'s been 10 almost as long. That is insane! My little (not so much!) guys haven't yet decided on costumes for this year, though we keep looking...


• I still need to get Halloween decorations up. Jack has been begging to put them up this year (I didn't decorate last year at all, as October was a difficult time), and I was just too darn busy this week. I'm hoping to get to it before...


• bigbrain61 comes to visit on Wednesday! Dude, I'm so stoked! I've known him online for about 5.5 years now, and we'll finally get to meet in person! He'll be here from Wednesday evening to early Friday afternoon - I can't wait!


• Speaking of online friends, I passed my 6th LiveJournal anniversary on 09/22. Can you believe that? Craziness! Thanks to all of you who've made this such a great place for so many, many years. *hug*


• Aaaaannnnnd, in BIGGER news, Philip and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on 9/12. We marked the occasion by renewing our vows, and a handful of very close friends celebrated with us at our church. There were tears, of course, but for the first time in about a year, they were really HAPPY tears! Heather took a few pics for me, but I don't have them up yet, either...


• Also in the works, Philip and I are headed to Colorado in January for a ski trip! We will be gone for five days, and it will be only the second time we've ever been alone in our entire marriage (the first was for one night last December while we were in West Virginia). We've already paid our deposits, and we're really looking forward to it. Philip will be skiing and snowboarding, and I plan to veg out in the beautiful scenery with my camera, some tatting, and good hot cocoas. We'll spend our evenings in the condo with another couple, making homemade meals and chatting and playing games - I'm so excited!

I'm sure there's so much more I need to update about, but I've got to get moving and push some more laundry through. I've got leaves to rake in the backyard, laundry to put away, dinner to fix, and a mandatory full-staff employee meeting tonight to attend as well. Go, go, go - that's me!

Seriously, what are people doing for decorating this year? I'm so torn. I have a good bit of Easter decorations, but I also have a fair amount of St. Patrick's day decorations as well. But with only SIX DAYS between the holidays this year, it just feels like one (or both) are going to be gypped.

What are y'all doing, decoration-wise? Help me solve my domestic quibble.

As for the Oscars, I'm woefully inept to cast any sort of real vote. I have In the Valley of Elah here, but I've not yet watched it, so I can't say whether Tommy Lee Jones deserves the nod in the 'Actor in a Leading Role' category. Honestly, if he'd been a contender, I'd have chosen Casey Affleck for his role in Gone Baby Gone - that was an incredible movie. Sadly, instead he was chosen as a supporting role nominee for a movie I've not even heard of (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford).

For the females, I've got some input, but it is darn hard to choose between them: Ellen Page for Juno, or Julie Christie for Away From Her. Both were so good - both made me smile, made me cry, and made me think. The roles are so vastly different, too. It's like comparing apples and oranges, almost. Oh, but I'm not happy with Amy Ryan's nomination for Supporting Actress in Gone Baby Gone. Her role irritated me to the point of frustration. Then again, maybe that's what made her so good in it...

For animated movies, I'd have to go with Ratatouille. Though we own both that and Surf's Up, I've still not seen the latter of the two. Eep.

I'd like to see Atonement win something, though I've only just started watching it (need to finish that soon, actually), and I want Pirates: At World's End to win for make-up purely because it's the only nominee in that category that I know. Surely Enchanted will win for Best Song, as it makes up 3/5 nominations. I hope so - I really liked that movie, and I've been wanting the soundtrack just for the sweet, cute songs.

For Best Picture, I'd pick Juno easily. It's the only one I've seen! Barring that, it was also just. so. wonderful. It was real, it was honest, it was funny, it was touching, it was an artistic masterpiece. I saw it in the theatre by myself, and I loved every minute of it. I was brought to tears a couple of times, but the points of the storyline that hit closely to home were just. so. well. done. I've had the DVD for about a month now, and Philip really enjoyed it as well. For a guy to like a "chick flick" just proves that it really does deserve to win. ;-)

It's only one month until Valentine's Day - crazy! We need to start shopping for valentines for the boys' classes fairly soon, as I like to have them done earlier. And it's easier on all of us if the boys aren't stuffing the little sacks with goodies the night before, too.

I guess I should look into getting out my Valentine decor soon as well. I never did get my New Year's stuff up this year (all I really have is a few vinyl clings), but I've got a fair amount of stuff for Cupid's Day.

We received four cards today, including ones from tabbyfoo, redwink and desertmommy. Thanks, guys! The fourth card, however, was for the old occupants of this house. That amazes me, seeing as this house had been vacant for almost six months when we moved in (due to the renovations they needed to do on the house), and you'd think the previous tenants would have given everyone their new address by now.

So I'll be putting that one back in the mailbox tomorrow.

And my roof lights went out again this evening. I don't know what's causing them to go out, but both times were nights of wind and a bit of rain (the only two nights with such weather, I should add). I reset the breaker, and I reset the outside outlet. I got them to work, but they will only continue to do so if I plug in just one of the cords into the outlet. One will work - either one, and they both control different lights - but the second trips the breaker every time. So I finally settled on the cord that controls the front and side roof lights, and I've left the back roof lights unplugged for now. It's not ideal, but it is the most I can do at the present time.

I'm not sure what to do with myself this evening. I've got nothing pressing that needs to be done, and no organizing or anything of the sort to do. I'm done. The house is done. Christmas decorating is long done. Christmas cards have been done for a few days now. Papers are filed. I even made a list last night of cleaning chores, and I plan on making up a calendar of sorts to give myself a few things to do from the list daily.

Why, yes - I practically *was* twiddling my thumbs last night - why do you ask?

Oh, but I am behind on pictures. I only have a handful in my November gallery here on LJ, meaning that I've not posted hardly anything. And I don't think a December gallery even exists! Maybe that's what I'll work on tonight...

Last night, when I was trying to remove a miniature Ron ornament from its packaging for placement on the tiny tree in the bathroom, his head ripped off. So I can hang just Ron's head on the tree now - festive!

When I woke this morning, I noticed that NONE of the roof icicle lights are working. They were ALL working last night when I went to bed. Everything else on the roof and yard is working, but the icicles provide the most light. As Philip left for three weeks yesterday morning, I don't see how the roof will be repaired until he gets back. I'm so bummed about my Christmas lights. Lights are probably my second favorite thing about the holiday season, and now they're not working. :-(

Wooo-eee! Philip and I just popped open a bottle of sparkling red grape juice that we bought for the Thanksgiving holidays. I love this stuff! And thanks to Heather, we have a bottle of white as well! (It was a housewarming gift, and I picked it up this week and was so happy!)

The outside of the house has had lights up for most of the week now, but we began decorating the inside tonight. We've started with our large Christmas tree, and we'll begin putting ornaments on it as soon as the boys get out of their bath. Then I'll continue putting the rest of the decorations up after they've gone to bed. I love the way our house looks at Christmastime.

And speaking of decorating, I'd been itching to get Runza's holiday decor up as well. I asked Ryan last week if I could come in sometime and decorate, and he gave me permission to do so. Morgan and Kris volunteered to help, and we met at the store today at 2pm to get things dolled up. I'd bought a package of ornaments for us to write each employee's name on, as well as ornament hangers and a strand of white lights for the tree. We found a few decorations, three small trees and some poinsettias, and we spruced everything up. I took in homemade Snickerdoodles to share with my fellow decorators, plus all the regular folks who were working at the time. It was a fun couple of hours, and Runza looks festive now!