Oh how I have missed thee...

Did you miss me too!?!?!?

I took an un-announced and un-planned blogging hiatus. I have come to the realization though that I don't know why! My brain is obviously still in blogger mode because I do things, or I think of things, and in my head I say - I need to blog about that. I think I felt like I didn't have the time, and then I had 8 weeks off from school and I still didn't make the time so that probably wasn't true. In any case... I think this is about to change, but don't hold it against me if I don't live up to my own expectations.

I have learned that not every post needs to be thoroughly thought out, and not every post needs to be long... I'm hoping that these new realizations will help keep me motivated. I usually study for about an hour, and then I take a 15-20 minute break before getting back at it. My new goal is that when I break, I do something productive, like write a blog post!

Thanks to all of you that have stuck around! Be back soon!

While you were freezing...

While most of you were probably freezing your behind's off this past weekend... the high was about 75 degrees around these parts, and we spent a gorgeous afternoon out on the water! The day started out pretty chilly and boring...

but things picked up a bit in the afternoon and we brought in a 150-200 pound MARLIN!

Most amazing fish I have even witnessed being caught...

We put our underwater camera to use and got this spectacular (and HILARIOUS!) shot of our friend PJ who was REALLY excited about reeling this monster in!!!!

There was even an article published in the local paper about it all!!!!! Apparently it's very rare to catch one of these babies... especially where we were, with the bait we were using, and more importantly, by not even trying!?!?!? We were definitely not set up for such a big catch, but it was SO AWESOME!!!!

Stay warm ya'll!!!!!

The bang disaster of 2011...

So today I went and got my hair cut by the same lady that has been cutting my hair since I was five. Now, I have to tell you, I've been debating cutting ties with her for a while. For one, sometimes she has her off days... and two, the snotty salon she is at these days keeps jacking their prices like we AREN'T in a recession or something! Well today was the icing on the top of the "off day" because she completely and totally messed up my bangs beyond repair, AND charged me $11 more than normal! What the heck dude!?!?!?!

I tried to have her fix them, and it just came out worse, so I gave up. I came home and washed my hair only to discovered that she angled them the opposite direction of how they lay when parted!

(can you tell I'm un-happy!!!??!!?!?!?!) Who does that!!!!

So desperate to get a fix to this mess, I stopped at the only Hair Cuttery I know of around here that has employees that speak English. Insert: emo hair 2011.

What's a girl to do at this point except wear clips and headbands, use lots of hairspray and gel, and wait for it to grow out...

::sigh::

I hate wholesale warehouse shopping.

But I sure do love the deals!!!! We have a membership at BJ's Wholesale, but I despise going there. We usually go (together!) about once or twice a year and stock up on paper goods and stuff, but it really is one of my least favorite things to do, no matter how good the deals are. Seriously, it's gross, and inconvenient. It smells, smelly people go there, it's kindda dirty, everything is HUGE (and I'm so little, hence why we go together), it just all pretty much sucks. But - I've finally found a solution! Amazon.com Subscribe and Save. Have you heard of it? It's amazing. Wholesale prices from the comfort of my home, and they deliver to my doorstep in just a few days, for free! Seriously, how can you go wrong?!?!?!?! No crowds, no smelly warehouse, no smelly people... it's fantastic! They have all kinds of stuff too, not just paper goods. They even have food products! So far I've only ordered paper goods and stuff, but check out these prices!

Charmin Ultra Strong - 18 MEGA rolls - $20.96

All Small and Mighty Laundry Detergent - Case of 4, 96 oz. bottles - $53.44

Bounty Huge Roll Select-A-Size - 12 count - $32.24

Yeah... I'm sold... with it just being the 2 of us, this stuff lasts us FOREVER.

The way it works is - you sign up here, and search for the items you are looking for. If they qualify, it will say so... then you pick the quantity and select how often you would like this item delivered. You get an email before the item ships, and you can change the frequency at any time. So basically, there is no "contract." Just because you set it to ship every 6 months doesn't mean it actually has to. In 6 months, you'll get an email, and if you aren't ready for it yet, you go in and change it not to ship for another 1,2,3, or 6 months. Sound like an awesome deal yet??!?!?!? Just wait, it gets better... When you subscribe, you save 15% off the price, and they ship for free with Amazon Prime membership. Whats that? You don't have Amazon Prime? That's okay... anyone with a .edu email can get Amazon Prime membership free, for a year! Which means fast shipping, for free, on TONS of stuff! Not just Subscribe and Save items. Seriously, it's amazing. I take advantage of it all the time. Then you just sit back and wait for the awesome UPS guy to come, and if he's cool like mine, he'll even bring the heavy stuff inside for ya ;-)

Now, I know these prices aren't really any better than wholesale stores... but the convenience was the selling point for me! Especially since our BJ's is shutting down anyway. Amazon didn't offer me anything at all for writing this... it's just one blogger sharing a good deal with another blogger. But hey, Amazon, if you're out there, feel free... because I love me some Amazon!!!!

Five Favorite Friday

In following with the theme of my blog, and my life... I'm going to give you a post that is over a month late. Yup, that's right, I'm about to write about Christmas. Don't judge. I'm a nursing student. I have no life. Plus, I just can't seem to document things out of chronological order, which means I can't tell you about my birthday, or school, or anything else until I get Christmas out of my bloggy mind. I'm just crazy like that.

Soooo, in an effort to get this out of the way so I can continue.... I've narrowed my Christmas post down to my Five Favorite things about Christmas this year. In no particular order....

1. Friend time! and cookies! Yum!!!!

My friends and I got together for a girls night were we ate entirely too many cookies, drank some wine, played some fun board games, and exchanged recipes! Good times :)

2. Evenly dispersed family time. Instead of having to cram time with all of the family into one day, we were able to kind of break it up a little bit this year. The boy got lucky and was off on Christmas Eve, and day! So we did dinner at my parents house on Christmas Eve, and dinner at his parents house Christmas day! Now don't get me wrong, we were still running around all over the place and crazy stressed for 2 days, but at least it was 2 days, and not one!!!

(my little family..)

3. Cheesiness. In the form of matching jammies and goofy family shots :)

4. Presents!!!! (My parents got us an AWESOME waterproof camera!!!! We will be putting this to LOTS of use!!!) and I'm still lovin' my early present from the boy... my Evo :)

5. Decorations. And my mom.

My mom didn't have just one tree this year, she had at least 7... and they were GORGEOUS! She had so much going on at the end of the year, including 2 surgeries, and a holiday party.... but she just couldn't resist putting up all of her decorations.

Love you Mommy!

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!