What's your flavor?

I may, or may not have stayed up until 12:3o the other night re-arranging ornaments on my tree. Am I the only one who does that? You get something new, and then you have to find a new place for it, and then you need a thick branch so you move some more stuff around, and the tree starts to droop so now some things are hidden, so you move some stuff around again...it just never ends. But I love it!

I was told I should open a Christmas present early Friday night, and rightfully so, because in it were 2 new beautiful ornaments from my Aunt Lisa :)

That's what started the ornament shuffling ordeal when I got home. There was no way I was going to wait until the next to put them up, I might be too busy! But while re-arranging/admiring all the ornaments on my tree, it got me thinking about my Tree Trimming Style. You know, everyone has their own "flavor" of tree trimming... There's the Christmas shop display tree type, the "my kid made everything on my tree" type, the "theme" tree, and so on, and so forth....

MY style of course is unique to me, and the boy, and the things we enjoy. I think you can tell a lot about a person by their tree..... Personally, my tree tells the story of our lives together. I don't have any of the ornaments I had growing up (long story), so when we moved into our house 3 Christmases ago I had to start fresh. I bought some plain ol' colored balls (which we NEVER had on our tree when I was little), and a few cute ornaments and went from there. That Christmas my mom made me some Macrame candy canes like the ones we had on our tree when I was growing up.

My little brother made me some reindeer and penguin bell/pom pom ball ornaments

and my mom also crocheted me some BEAUTIFUL snowflakes

which I adore! I got a little creative as well and made some bead snowflakes.

Each year I've added a few ornaments here and there and so our "theme", so to say, developed. Every ornament on my tree has either been hand made by me or someone in my family, a snowman (I love snowmans!!!), career or hobbie related to us, or my favorite - beachy Christmasy.... It's even MORE awesome if I can find a snowman that represents any of those things. Those are usually my favorite! Like my sandy-men and my nurse and firefighter snowmen that I shared with you when I revealed my tree here.

And I can't forget about our Christmas tradition of adding a dated photo ornament with a picture of us in it. I can't wait until our tree is FULL of these!

My tree was pretty sparse the first year, and mostly full of the glass balls. As the years have gone by, my collection has grown, and my tree is borderline "cluttered." The pretty kind of cluttered, but it's certainly full! I like it though, it suits me. It's how I remember my tree looking when I was growing up, but with MY ornaments that are special to ME. The showroom tree is just NOT my style. At all.

So, I guess that's my "flavor"... homemade/beachy/fishy/career representing/snowmen.

What's yours?

Ho, Ho, Ho-lloween?????

Yeah, so.... I should have posted this a few months ago. And some might say it's been so long, I should just forget about it. But, who doesn't like a break from all the Christmas posts anyway. Not to mention, my mom is so super awesome and talented I just couldn't resist sharing with you the fantastic costume she made me for Halloween!!!! (and Blair may have requested about a month ago that I share it with you and I couldn't disappoint her!)

Of course, starting from the beginning - no Halloween is complete without a trip to the Punkin' Patch!!!!

And some intense carving!

The finished products! Mines the smiling one on the right... I accidentally put his mouth on upside down so he looks a little goofy instead of scared. Whoops!

And... the big reveal! My awesome cave-woman costume my Mommy made!

I even got the boy to semi-dress up. He was himself, in 20 years, retired.... (He said he would just always be in board shorts and a fishing shirt because he'll just fish every day.) LOL

And me, with some of my favorite girls in the whole wide world!

My Grinch, in disguise...

So, aside from my new background, and un-centered header (grrr)... Did you notice that I added a new pic of the boy with his big catch I told you about? You know, the one that he got during our Thanksgiving Weekend in the Keys? Over there on the side... teeny tiny... under that header that says "My Handsome Boyfriend." No? Well here it is in biggie-size.

How awesome is that?!?!?!?! He was such a good sport for my Godparents, allowing them to have a photo-op with the santa hat :-) You'd never know he's really the Grinch in disguise!

Thankful.

So what if Thanksgiving is over... We should be thankful all year long!

Right now, I'm thankful because...

We got some bad news last week that her pathology report showed that her cells had become invasive and she would have to have surgery again to make sure the cancer had not spread. She went in on Tuesday for round two of surgery, and she kicked ass!!! Three lymph nodes were removed, and all came back NEGATIVE! My mom is cancer free and will begin radiation in January!!!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support.

I am thankful for you too!

The hall's are decked!

With my trusty companion by my side....

(though, she preferred not to be...)

I finished decorating the inside of the house over the weekend!

Not too much... just a few touches here and there....

and most importantly, the tree!!!

With it's new topper!!!

I haven't decided yet how I feel about the sprays of sea-life around it. Too much?

Some of my favorite ornaments this year...

See our new photo ornament? It's so cute!

The outside got some holiday cheer too... but it's not done yet. I haven't gotten out there to hook up my snowmen! Gotta have some snowman's!!!!

Zoey's "Tucker Max incident"

If you've ever read, or seen, "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell", you already know where I'm going with this. If not, just keep reading....

Since I was gone for a week, and the Boy had to work some 24 hour shifts during that time, my sweet Zoey went to Grandpa camp for a week. Thankfully, Grandpa takes good care of her, but he spoils the crap out of her, literally. Someone got a few too many cheap treats and thanksgiving leftovers (neither of which she is ever given at our house), and came home with what I can only describe as a puppy stomach bug. Poor thing was apparently up all night leaking out both ends while the Boy and I were passed out sick in bed. He woke up to her banging against the wall, and I woke up to him saying "Honey, I hate to wake you up with this and leave, but we've got a "stinky" situation." Not even kidding, that's what he said.... That Boy's got jokes I tell ya.

So, I did a little "Fall Cleaning" yesterday. I moved furniture, mopped twice, Swiffered until there was nothing left to Swiffer, washed rugs and puppy beds, and scrubbed the puppy down too. Way more than any sick person should, but I was on a roll and was determined to get rid of the stench that was making me gag more than my usual snotty self. Apparently I over-did it a little with the Swiffer though because my gas detector detected a chemical smell, and the next thing I knew, my house alarm was going off. Whoopsy. I missed the call from the alarm company, called them back, got disconnected, called back again, and I'm pretty sure I finally got the message to the guy that "NO, I do NOT need the Fire Department" just in time.

See? I told you yesterday was eventful! Not much fun, but eventful! I'm happy to report that my sweet Zoey Monster is feeling much better today. She has actually picked up her toys a few times, and continues to try and recruit me to play with her. Unfortunately, I think I over-did it yesterday and I'm feeling pretty crappy.... I'm keeping up on the Emergen-C and fluids though, because I'm ready to kick this cold out and get on with the decorating! Tomorrow is December for crying out loud and the only thing I have done so far is put away my fall decorations!!!

With my little helper by my side... hopefully we can get some Holiday Cheer around here by the end of the week!

Honey, I'm HOME!

So much for posting from my way cool new phone. Whoops... I was a little bit too busy for all that!

I had a great time on my road trip with Lissa. She only almost killed us once, and only almost blew up the truck twice. KIDDING! Mostly.... I may have failed to mention that her new truck is a stick-shift, and she hasn't ever owned one of them things before! It was interesting to say the least. I'll spare you the random pictures of clouds and Welcome signs I took along the way, but I have to share at least ONE picture in this post! It's pretty exciting too, well, I was excited. The whole way through South Carolina I kept seeing all these billboards for this place called "South of the Border". I figured it must be an awesome restaurant or something. Nope. It's an amusement park. And it wasn't even in South Carolina. It was in North Carolina.

I was amused....

The rest of my trip was fairly un-eventful, but really awesome! I got to spend 3 days with my amazing family in Kentucky! I hadn't seen most of them in over a year, and it was great! We didn't really take any pictures, because we didn't really do anything exciting enough to take pictures of, but that was just fine with me! There is literally only one picture to prove that I was even there. I was watching Dora the Explorer with my 2 year old cousin. Okay, okay, you really want to see more than one picture in this post? Here you go.

See, exciting, right?

I came home with a nasty cold and felt pretty crappy on Thanksgiving. So much so that I missed out on most of the yummy food :( Thank goodness my mom promised to make me some of my favorites for Christmas dinner since she stayed in Kentucky and I had Thanksgiving with the Boy's family. His Momma is a great cook too, but I sure do miss some of the traditional stuff my Mommy makes! I better not get sick for Christmas!

The next day, we headed down to the Keys. But.... I spent the weekend in our hotel room while the Boy went fishing with my Godparents. I tried to go out on Saturday, but wound up having them bring me in because I was so sick. Grrrr.... There are some GREAT pictures of the awesome catch the Boy got, but.... not on my camera, so I don't have any.

This post is turning out to be rather lame, huh? I blame my sickies.

Today was rather eventful. Not exactly in a good way... but, eventful none the less....

You'll have to check back tomorrow to hear all about it though. Right now, I'm gonna go take some cough syrup for the first time in about 10 years and try to sleep away the sickies.

99 bottles of beer on the wall....

Take one down... pass it around.... 98 bottles of beer on the wall!

I'm not talkin' about beer though, I'm actually talkin' about followers. They're dropping like flies! I made it to 100, then down to 99, then 100, then 98. I can't blame them really. I haven't blogged in FOR-EV-ER. But, I'm gonna whine about it anyway. Though, I'm back to 100 today. Maybe I can actually keep them this time?

Lots has been going on since I blogged last. Wait, what the heck was the last thing I even posted???? Oh yeah, Pink firetrucks. Anyway....

I plan on getting back into the swing of things, especially since I should have lots to talk about over the holidays. Actually, I've HAD lots to talk about, just not enough time to talk about it. Here's the quick re-cap. It'll probably go faster in list version...

• I didn't get a high enough grade in my class to proceed to the next, and therefore, I'm out of school until January. Don't get me started, I'm still pissed. I didn't actually "fail", because I didn't get an F, but nursing school has high standards. Apparently you are supposed to be really freakishly smart to save lives and junk. Who knew?!?!?! (kidding!)
• Halloween came and went. My mommy made me an AWESOME costume. Maybe I'll do a re-cap soon to share some pictures :)
• My friend Priscilla who recently moved out of town came home for a whole week and I got to spend tons of time with her!
• I went wedding dress shopping with my friend Jenn - she found her dream dress, and she's pretty sure she picked our bridesmaid dresses. So exciting!
• My little brother turned 15! I know, I can't believe it either.
• I realized everything happens for a reason. And my reason for being out of school was to be able to be with my mom over the next few weeks. She was diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Mom had surgery, all is well so far. Pathology results should be in soon to confirm that it's all gone, and radiation should start in 5 wks. Prayers are appreciated.
• Melissa came home from Afghanistan. This happened prior to the others, but right now, she's down in FL with me :-) Another "reason" for being out of school - more time with Lissa Ann!
• I decided to be spontaneous. I'm driving back up North with Melissa this week, and then flying into Kentucky to see my family who I haven't seen in over a year! Another opportunity I would have missed had I been in school.

WHEW! I think I got it all down. See, told ya I've had a lot going on! And I thought I was gonna be bored while I was out of school. HA!

Oh, oh, another exciting thing happened.... last night the boy took me to Best Buy to pick up my early Christmas present - a brand spankin' new HTC Evo! *woot woot* so excited. You know what's even MORE exciting????? It has a blogger app!!! I can actually write blogs and post pictures DIRECTLY from my phone! Now I have NO excuse for not blogging. Unless of course I'm still lacking in time... but there's always bathroom breaks, right?

Anyway, I'm out for now. Time to go pick up 'Lissa and go whip some car salesman booty. She's had some serious issues this week. But that's just WAY too complicated to even attempt to blog about. Even from my way cool new phone :)

P.S. In case anyone was wondering... I haven't completely fallen off the face of the bloggy world. I've still been reading blogs daily. I promise.

Did I mention I have a really cool phone now??

Pink Fire trucks!?!?!?!

Do you care enough to wear pink!?!!?!?

It's that time of year again.... Although it should be on your mind all year long, it's almost October, and that means - Breast Cancer Awareness!!!

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to see the Pink Heals Tour in action. If you haven't heard about them before... click on that link and check 'em out!! I had heard about these pink fire trucks before, but never figured I'd ever get a chance to see them in person. Turns out, I was wrong! The tour came to town and a local Fire Department hosted the event down on the beach. Breast Cancer awareness is important to us, and we love us some firemen, so the boy and I went down to check it all out and support both! Unfortunately, it was dark by the time we made it down there, and we didn't get very good pictures...

(it was IMPOSSIBLE to get a picture without a bunch of people in it...)

There are 4 pink trucks that travel all over the U.S. promoting Breast Cancer awareness. They pull this trailer with a HUGE diamond-plate ribbon, and the trucks are covered in tributes that people have written on them in marker. It was very touching, and so cool!!!

The local fire fighters even wore pink uniform shirts for 2 weeks prior to the event to promote it. They had a Mammo-bus available to the public for screening information, and other health promoting booths as well.

The boy convinced me that my Aunt Lisa would like to see me with a fireman in pink gear, so I just had to take a picture with this guy.

Promoting Breast Cancer is always important to me.... For many reasons! First of all, I lost my great-grandmother to breast cancer many years ago. My Aunt Lisa is a survivor, and so is my Great Aunt Brenda. Oh, and I'm a nurse. It's my job to promote health!!! I am a firm believer that everyone should take Breast Cancer seriously. It's important to get checked regularly, and don't brush off any sort of abnormality. Nobody ever wants to be the one to be affected, but almost everyone will be affected by Breast Cancer at some point in their life. If it's not you, it's someone you know. Be aware, and be supportive.

Making the best of things...

This weekend could have been bad. In fact, it could have been horrible. It didn't start off too great, but it sure did turn out pretty darn good!

I had my very first test for this semester on Friday, and when I left I sure didn't feel good about it at all! I was exhausted, and bummed, and just in a really foul mood about the whole thing. I kept myself busy until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and I went to bed.

The next morning, the Boy came home from work and woke me up so we could head down to the Keys for the day. If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you should not find it unusual that we would just up and run down there for the day... And if you do, you haven't been paying very much attention!

Anyway, I was still not quite awake and ready to take on the day, but I just hoped it would get better... and it did. Halfway down I was able to get on the Boy's spiffy new Evo and check my grade - I passed! Finally, my day could go on! We had a fantastic day on the water with my Godparents. We caught 15 Blackfin tuna, and quite a few junk fish that we threw back.

Unfortunately it takes FOREVER to clean so many fish and we got a late start heading back home. I drove, and let the Boy sleep... It was pretty brutal, but had to be done. He was back on shift again today! He's been working tons of hours lately between overtime, his second job, and working shifts for friends so that they will work for him down the road. Between my school/study schedule, and his work schedule, I feel like I haven't hardly seen him in weeks! Sure was nice to spend a whole day with him out on the water....

Being that I passed my test and all... I felt that I could afford to spend most of the day today slacking off on my studying and spending some much needed time with friends, so I headed off to Ft.Lauderdale Beach.

We soaked up some sun, downed some yummy frozen drinks, and had lunch at Hooters.

I got home just in time for the afternoon rain to start comin' down hard... and I'm back to the books for the rest of the week!

September 11th is a sad day, and I sure am glad that I was able to make the best of it. I do know one thing though... I'll never forget...

My prayers are always with the heroes of our country, as well as their family and friends. I pray for my Boy, that he will always be safe when he leaves me for his 24 hour shifts to serve our community. I pray for my best friend Melissa, that she will stay safe while serving our Country and come home soon and safe. And I'll always remember my friend Chris...

The Wine Rack...

Oh my gosh... the things they come up with these days!!!

Perfect for bringing your beverage with you "on the run", literally...

The Wine Rack

And for the men?

The Beer Belly

I couldn't make these things up if I tried.

And.... we're back!

We are back from our third, and final, trip to the Keys this summer. This time we stayed with Ed's sister and brother in law at a friend's condo. We fished... we lobstered... we snorkeled... fished some more, and had a fantastic time!

The first day of fishing was productive... At first, all we caught were these teeny tiny tuna...

But we progressed to some big ones after that and came in with 3 nice Black Fin for dinner. YUM!

The next day we went lobstering.

Then snorkeling at a reef.

These fish just come RIGHT up to you! It's the coolest thing!!!!

We fished for a bit after that but didn't catch anything dinner worthy. Just some big low quality tuna that we kept for bait.

On our last day we parted with the siblings and my Godparents joined us for the day. We went almost 30 miles offshore and had a fantastic day of fishing!

The weather was pretty gorgeous for most of the day. The water was smooth as glass, and we brought home a Wahoo, and 7 Black Fin!!! Unfortunately, a big huge storm blew in while we were out there so we got wet on the ride in and didn't take any pictures.

We loaded up the boat in the rain, drove home in the rain, lost the tread off our trailer tire in Miami and had to change it on the side of the road, got home at like midnight, and cleaned fish and unloaded until about 2 am. Thank goodness I got to sleep in the next day! The boy on the other hand had to get up early and go on shift at the fire department. I'm pretty sure he's still trying to recover....

Sadly, I'm back to school on Monday... and my summer adventures are over. But we are looking into going back down within the next few months and staying at Hawks Cay because they are discounting their rooms for "local heroes". I can't wait!!!!!

Did ya miss me?

Did you even notice I was gone?!?!?!

Maybe not... but in my absence, I've been a busy little girl!

I started my first semester of RN school.

I took a crazy busy trip to the Keys for Mini Lobster Season in the middle of my semester.

And I PASSED my first semester of RN school. YAY me!

I'm sure you're much more interested in seeing pics from the Keys though, right?!?!?!

Yeah, I thought so...

We travel in style - can't have just one boat!

Nope... we brought two!

One for offshore, and one for the flats - DUH!

Spent some time at the private beach watching the sunset where the Margaritaville Frozen Concoction Maker made an appearance and Mango Margaritas were had by all!

The catch! Day 2 of Mini Season

(I actually traveled back home mid-week for school, hence why it was "crazy busy", and missed the first part of Day 1, so I have no pictures. Sadness!)

Saw a gorgeous sunset while coming in from fishing 30 miles offshore!

(we came in with empty fish boxes, but at least we saw a cool sunset!)

Sooooo pretty!!!

And then we came down the canal to the house right as it was disappearing....

It was a gorgeous end to a wonderful trip!

Good news is, I'm out of school for 2 weeks, and I'm going back again this weekend! Ha!