TODAY I GOT A LOT TO SAY!!! (BEWARE....TOTAL RANDOMNESS AHEAD)

first, lemme say ((((BIG HUGS)))) to those that stopped by to give me advice or to cheer me up on my last post. i needed that and i thank you *very* much!!!

secondly, in case you were worried, i feel *SO* much better!!! i think that i have found the source to my moods and i'm hoping to take care of it tomorrow. not to mention that the sinus problem(?)/cold(?) has seemed to have left the building aside from leaving me with a very chesty sounding cough and severe drainage (eeewwww...tmi i know :) so that helps also.

thirdly, since the "illness" and moodiness have seemed to escape for a couple a days, i have gotten a lot done.

saturday i needed to get the heck outta this house. even though i feel like i have needed some peace and quiet, having it while you are sick and not really speaking to anyone for two days is a lil too much for me. so we decided to go run some errands and catch a bite to eat.

first we hit the coinstar machine in winn dixie. since last year around christmas time, i have been putting all of my change (and stealing some of michael's ;) into a jar to use this year. i wanted to see how much i could save in a whole year. i have never used a coinstar machine but knew that there was a fee but if you decided to get a gift certificate to an online store, that fee was waved. i thought that they would have amazon, but they didn't. so anyway, we all stood there as a i dropped all that change in with all of our guesses made before hand. michael thought that i had about $15 (there were a lot of pennies) and i thought i had around $20-$25. after it was all dumped, it showed a total of $70.79!!!!! can you believe that!!!! i got the gc for the disney store and once i got home i got a few more presents that i needed to get for some of the kiddos in my life :)

we spent the rest of the day hitting the dollar store to pick up some coloring books for santa wears a badge, going to various stores picking up a few christmas presents (mostly for fritzy...well i think all for fritzy), we hit home depot for some poinsettas (i had a coupon from homedepot.com which put the check out woman in a tizzy and ended up pissing me off. but they took the coupon (from both michael and i) and we left happy), walmart for some misc. bullshit, and then home.

once we got home we had pizza, s'mores, and hot chocolate while watching of my favorite christmas movies "home alone" and the my very, very, very favorite movie "the christmas story".

after the kiddies went to bed, i spent the rest of the night on the couch knitting a christmas present and watching law and order.

are you exhausted yet?
bored?
well hang tight i still have sunday to cover :)

when we woke up this a.m., michael made us pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
yum*may!!!!!

after that we knew that we couldn't hold out any longer, we needed to get the christmas tree up. so we spent the good part of the morning working on the tree. of course we had to get it done before the packer game....lol.


bella putting up her first ornament


silly mikey putting up his :)


and michael putting up his



and there's the final product!!! i'd love to do one of those themed trees or one of those fancy schmancy trees. or maybe even a vintage tree. but that tree right there has so many family memories and ornaments on it, i wouldn't even dare dream of replacing them. i have however, thought about getting a few mini trees to do theme up. i just don't know where i would put them.

and while michael watched the packers kick the raiders' ass, i worked on my december album. around november 30th or the 31st, i stumbled on this post from ms. ali edwards and thought it was such a brilliant idea. but why the heck hadn't i seen this post before, i have two nights to get 31 pages done....lol. well i belted out about 6 that night including the cover and back. for the cover and back i used decided to use small 45s (albums) and covered them with paper. i love though how ali used mostly transparencies.

brilliant!!!

i'll have to remember that for next year.

any*way (in my best elaine benice voice) since i have been feeling so icky, i wasn't able to work on them until today. but i am happy to report that i am all caught up until tomorrow and if i get 31 pages done and get this project completed, i will be one happy chickie!!!



cover


12/1


12/2


12/3


12/4



12/5



12/6



12/7



12/8



12/9

whew!!!

so whatchya think?

even though at first i was disappointed that there wasn't enough time to get all the pages done in advance, i'm actually kinda glad that i will be doing them on a daily basis. b/c i never know if i am going to have just journaling or a pic or both!!!!

is anyone else out there participating in this???

and so ya know, most of everything that i used so far (and what i plan for the future pages) are from the most fabulous winter kit ever. the noel mignon winter kit and the add on kit. i swear, i immediately thought of this kit when i saw ali's post. its absolutely perfect for it!!


well that is pretty much my weekend.
i've also spent a lot of time the past week or so thinking of 2008 and what i want it to be for me. i don't know if i am doing this b/c i am approaching 30 (and entirely too fast thank you very much) or if i am just beginning to "grow up". i really don't know. but i have this mental list going on of what i want to accomplish, what i hope to be able to do, how i hope to grow.

i'm gonna get this list on paper. i just have to. actually i plan on scrapping my list on a 12x12 lo and framing it and hanging it up in my craft room. maybe even putting a smaller version of it in my office. to remind me of what i want.

oh shit!

this post is so friggin' random and now i'm getting all thought*sy and such.
{deep sigh}
there isn't even a way to label this post.

:)

again, thanks for those that left me kind words and here's hoping that this week is a helluva lot better than last.

*smooches*