Cherishing this Christmas....

It's funny how Christmas bring about a lot of thought in people - thoughts about what's important, or more WHO's important.

About a month ago a good friend of mine from high school was killed in a car accident. The man that ran into her was a drunk driver, as my friend was driving to school to teach her 6th grade students he ran into her and she was killed instantly. My mom e-mailed this morning telling me that she ran into the girl' mother yesterday and all the girls mom had to tell her was to cherish every minute she had with us kids when we were home at Christmas.
This year has been a great year for me but unfortunatelly for many of the people that I love it has been the worst year ever.
I have gone to more funerals in the last 6 months alone that I've ever gone to in my entire life.
Most of them have all been funerals for people whose deaths were totally unexpected. They were the kind of funerals that make you say "they were way to young to die."

After receiving the e-mail from my mom this morning telling me what my friends mom had said it made me think about how lucky I am.
Many of my friends will be celebrating this Christmas without a brother, or a mother, or their father, and some of them will be celebrating even without their own children. It's got to be a devasting feeling to be a parent that out-lives your children.

I know I've been writing about the gifts that Steve and I have been exchanging and it's been fun but trust me - I do know what's important in life and it's not material possesions - it's people.
We should be cherishing every moment with our loved ones every day but for some reason at Christmas time - the time designated for getting together with family it just becomes more important and necessary. Holidays are like sacred time for many families.

As I go into this Holiday season, excited to spend time with family that I haven' seen in awhile and to be together with my family for the first time in a long time and also perhaps for the last time in a long time I do want to cherish every moment.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of those who I love that have lost loved ones this year.
I can't imagine how much harder that must make the Holidays but please know that you are loved and in my prayers.

The Final Gift....

Since we're leaving town early Saturday morning and we'll be really busy until then we decided to open our final gift for/from each other last night.
I like this being married thing at Christmas. I has worked out quite nicely for me.
I got Steve a Swiss Army watch he's been wanting for months. Actually he really wanted it back in October for his birthday but I couldn't afford it then so I've been saving to get it since then.

And he got me a gorgeous diamond necklace. I've never really been into jewelry a whole lot but I saw this a necklace a few months ago when we were out shopping and thought it was really pretty. I was very happy when I saw that Steve got it for me.
I'm not a material girl or anything but I don't mind a pretty piece of jewelry now and then either!


It actually ended up costing exactly the same amount as his watch I got him. It's funny how when you're married you think about that kind of stuff with finances. It was kind of weird shopping for Christmas knowing that the gifts I was actually buying for Steve was really coming out of his paycheck. It kind of took the fun out of it in a little way.

So now the presents are opened and the suspense is over. I love suprises and gifts but really more than anything I think I enjoy giving gifts to others. That's what REALLY fun for me. I'm looking forward to being with my family in Montana next week so they can open the gifts we got them.

That's all for now folks!

Starbucks Concert With A Cause

For any of you in St. Louis I wanted to invite you to special Christmas Concert this Friday (12/22).

It's a concert that Starbucks is putting on and al of the musicians taking part in this concert are local area Starbucks employees.
Tickets are only $10 and it's for a great cause and all of the proceeds will benefit the AIDS foundation.

It will be held at the Sheldon Concert Hall - doors open at 6pm and the concert will start at 7:30.

Fore more info or to buy tickets go to:

The St. Louis AIDS foundation

Hope to see you there!

The Gift Of The Day....

The gift of the day today....
The Devil Wears Prada! I thought this was a real cute movie so Steve got me the DVD for another one of my early Christmas gifts!

I sure do love this whole opening gifts before we're supposed to deal! It really makes it more fun because the suspense of when you could potentially open your next gift makes it all so fun!

So Friday is here and I'm ready to spread some cheer! I love the weekend!
We don't have a whole lot planned - tomorrow will be a horrible day of finishing up all that last minute Christmas shopping - no doubt finishing it up with every other last person in the St. Louis vicinity. I'm NOT looking forward to the crowds.
I am however loking forward to not working so if that means standing in a long line or in a shopping mall packed with people I will take it over sitting in my little cubicle working any day. I am not a fan of the office environment.

Speaking of the office though - yesterday I got contracts in on 2 sepereate listings of mine - good contracts at that. Both of them will close at the end of the month so it gives me encouragment as I head into the New Year with a great end to 2006.
I guess sitting in my little cubicle making money really is better than standing in line at Target spending money eh?

Are You A Peeker?

I was reading this article on yahoo today called "Sneeking A Peek and it made me laugh - it was saying that 1 in 5 adults sneak a peek at their Christmas gifts when no one's looking.

I can't say that I have that problem cause I know if I peeked I would have to fess up otherwise the guilt would get the best of me but I will admit that the curiosity kills me. Steve must get sick of all the questions I ask him about the gifts he's given me.
Last year after all my questions I had already figured out that it was getting a medium sized tan and white purse from his dad 2 weeks before Christmas. Of course I acted totally surprised when weeks later I FINALLY got to open my gift and it was just as I had imagined it. :)

So this year the questions started about 2 weeks ago and Steve has done such a good job about being sneaky. Last night he broke down though and declared that we each could open 1 gift from each other. I was almost scared to open mine cause I thought he might change his mind at the last minute just as I was getting ready to rip the wrapping paper off but I think the suspense about his gift was killing him as much as the suspense about my gift was killing me.

So we opened one of our gifts - his was a cool pub like sign with the Guinness logo on it (that's his favorite kind of beer) and mine was a Massaging Jet Foot Spa. We were both happy. Of course we know that Christmas isn't about getting gifts but it sure adds a little fun to the season!


















I'm still secretly hoping that Steve will get some pergo flooring for us to put in the dining room. I know it's probably sad that for Christmas I want stuff to improve our home but it's just the way I am. Does that mean I'm getting old when all I want for Christmas is pergo flooring?

Christmas and Family Affairs!

Christmas time is here!
It seems like it kind of crept up this year and now all of the sudden I'm realizing that I'm completely not ready for Christmas to be here.

Steve and I are going home to Montana to visit my family this year and I am SO excited! Not only has it been years since I've been home at Christmas but my brother and his wife will be there as well and I think it's been at least a decade since I've been home at Christmas with my brother there too.
I love my brother and even more I love his fabulous wife!

Apparently I'm not the only one excited either.....
I got an email this afternoon from my stepmom letting me know that she's already scheduled for us to go get family pictures taken AS WELL AS.....a sleigh ride! I don't think i've ever been on a sleigh ride in my entire life - nor have I really had the desire. Who wants to sit in a cold sleigh and ride around in the below zero weather and get your face frozen from the wind burn? NOT ME!

I will make the best of it though and I'm sure it will be fun. I must just be ungrateful.

Another note of importance for our Christmas that might seem odd to some is that ALL of our family will be together on Christmas night.
That means my mom has invited her ex-husband (who consequently happens to be my father :) ) and his wife (who consequently had an affair with my dad back when he was still married to my mother) over for a big family dinner. My moms ex-live-in boyfriends children (who consequently my father hates) said they might even show up too! So all in all we should be have one huge big old dysfunctional family reunion!
We used to spend Christmas Eve with my mom and then Christmas day with my Dad & Stepmom but now I guess since us kids are grown and married our parents have decided that they can act like civilized adults as well.
Hopefully things don't get to interesting.

As dysfunctional as my family is nobody can ever say that we're boring......weird maybe, but boring never!

Disorganized Organization!

Lately I've had such a desire to become more organized. Is that weird at the age of 27 I'll simply start getting organized? I thought that was kind of an ingrained thing that you're either born with or something that your parents teach you.

Actually organization is not necessarily the problem because I have always been a very organized person - just in an disorangized sense if that makes sense. I'll have a messy house but still get frustrated if steve cleans up while I'm away and suddenly all the mess is not where it was and I can't find all of my important paperwork. Is that weird? I think so.

So anyway all that said I've been having the strange desire to get organized - this time in a REAL organized way.

I've also been into getting rid of crap.
Last week Steve and I went through our "storage room" in the basement and I threw away 5 rubbermaid storage bins of crap - sentimental crap that is.
I am such a pack rat but I realized as I started looking through some of these boxes that the crap I had in there had literally been in the same box since I moved here to St. Louis 5 years ago! Since then I have moved 3 different times and still the crap has never found a home in any of my homes so I figured rather than sit in a box I might as well get rid of it.
As hard for me as I thought it would be it really wasn't all that bad. Probably because I"m using the rest of the crap that I DIDN'T get rid of that I should have trashed as well as a reward - kind of like "well you got rid of all this other stuff so for that you can keep this other trash." How odd is that? More....how odd does my mind work?

Anyway enough about that. Besides the whole getting rid of trash part does anyone have any extraordinary ideas on getting more organized in a more organized way? I really want to try.

PS.....here's a recent pic of steve and I - I know it really has nothing to do with my blog entry but I just realized that I hadn't posted any pictures for awihle so I figured I'd show you how I'm styling my hair as of late - all right I know it's not any different than how I was styling my hair six months ago but it's the only good picture I could find that we've taken lately so i gotta work with what I got.
PPS.....check out the cool new hat that Dale & Missy gave Steve. oww!

Long time no blog......

Hello Blog! It's been awhile!

Life has been busy but at the same time boring so I haven't had too much to report.
I've had a lot on my mind lately. Weird stuff actually.
For one thing I've been missing Texas....not in a "I want to go visit way" but for some reason I've really been wishing that I lived there again. Besides some good friends there's not really a whole lot that could draw me back to East Texas - it's not excactly the land of opportunity and neither Steve or I have any family there but still I've been really missing it and have actually even been having dreams that I was there.
No....we're not planning on making a move but I've found it odd that I've been wanting to move back there so badly lately now that I have finally been so happy with settling down.

Today I had an interesting experience. it sound stupid writing about it but I can't figure out why this bothered me so much.
I was working at the sbux early this morning and my manager called. Apparently a regular customer of ours - who also happens to be a really nice guy that I like a lot called to complain yesterday.
Here's the scenario - he came in with a business partner and I proceeded to make his "usual" I called out his name a good 5 or 6 times and his drink sat on the bar for a good 5 minutes or so waiting for him to pick it up. The whole time he was just standing there talking to the guy he came in with. I'm not exactly a quiet person so i'm not sure how he could have missed me yelling out MULTIPLE times that his beverage was ready to be picked up.
So he called to complain that our service was too slow.

When I got wind of this it really bothered me. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because he's a customer that I really like and it bothered that he was acting like an asshole. It's not like I'm concerned about my job. I could care less that he called the manager because honestly I pretty have her wrapped around my finger and can do whatever I want there. It's not like I'm afraid of losing my job (not that I would over something stupid like that anyway) because I only work 10 hours a week as it is pretty much for the stock options and because I really like the job so it's not like the money (which is only about $200.00 a MONTH) is what's keeping me there.
More I like it for the people. I like having a job where I don't have to act as professional like I have to in Real Estate and I like the fact that I have the ability to make people smile during that part of their day when they can step away from the office for a second. As cheesy as that sounds I really love that part of my job to me it's more that just pouring someone a cup of coffee.

So back to the subject.....I can't figure out why it bothered me so much that this guy complained.
I know that I was right and HE was wrong so it's not like I'm feeling bad, because I know his complaint isn't justified.
I think part of the reason that it bothers me is because I feel misunderstood. One of the things I hate most is being misunderstood.
I hate it when I feel like people are painting a picture of me in their mind that I'm not. It makes me feel so judged and like I need to defend who I am.
Half the time when Steve and I argue it's over something that I said that he misunderstands. It's a horrible feeling.

I wan to be known for who I REALLY am - not for who someone MISUNDERSTANDS me to be and it makes me feel worthless when I feel like people jump to assumptions and don't see me as valuable enough to take the time to try and understand me.

Is that completely self centered of me? Maybe, but i'd like to think that I give others the benefit of trying to understand them so I would hope they would show me the same courtesy.

So I still can't figure out why it bothers me so much to be misunderstood by someone I hardly even know. That one I'm still mystified by but at least I know part of the reason that it ticked me off so much is because i was feeling misunderstood.

Sorry for my ramblings and thanks for letting me vent.