It's already November 7th! I know, I sound like I'm trying to hurry this year up (can you blame me?), but it's true. This year is almost over and we are already into the 7th day of November! Talk of Thanksgiving plans are already going on between my mom, sister and I. Last year we had everyone over at my mom and dad's house and that was just fine with me. My aunt is going to be in town, so it'd be great to see her and everyone be in just one cozy location. I suggested to my mom we do a Thanksgiving where everyone brings a dish. I insisted I make the mashed potatoes, my sister has insisted she makes a healthy green bean casserole she found, so I think it'd be a brilliant way to celebrate without putting the stress of cooking on one person. After Thanksgiving, there is Christmas, EEK! My FAVORITE (but you all already knew that). I would go as far in saying that I like Christmas more than Ms. Britney Spears likes her daily Starbucks runs. Yup, I'm THAT confident.
This got me to thinking about Christmas cards. A MUST in the California Dreamin household and I need to get on them ASAP. We did them last year and my other half wrote a letter to everyone informing them what has happened with us in the past year, and exciting things to come the following year. We even made it a shnazzy thing to do, and went to our local Picture People to get our holiday pics taken. So THAT got me thinking about if/when I'm going to do maternity pics. To be honest, I don't want to spend the money. Rather, I hate the thought of spending $150-$250 on pics that DO look beautiful, I am just cheap. So I've enlisted my sister to take some pics of me, hopefully next weekend, on some pretty country property near my parents house. I saw one of my girlfriends (who just had her beautiful daughter last week!) pics and I love the country theme behind it. While I was day dreaming about my Maternity "make me look like Heidi Klum" pics, I got to thinking how Nick and I need to take a couple shots for our Christmas cards. I'm fine with something simple, Fall themed and straight to the point. I picture us in front of a tree with all it's pretty fall colors and calling it good.
I went to Shutterfly's website to price a few things and actually stumbled upon this forum with an offer Shutterfly is announcing. This awesome offer - 50 free Christmas cards for bloggers! Click here to go there now and enroll your blog, because 50 FREE Christmas cards is a great offer. And who doesn't love to save some money, especially around the holidays?!
Workout today consisted of a nice 3.2 mile run with 30 minutes of upper body weight training
I wanted to say thank you to all of our servicemen and women out there. Especially to those who are far away this time of year. N was away for the whole holiday season when he was in Iraq and I'll never forget how sad it made me to miss our 1st holiday season together.
4 days till our favorite time of the year!!! Are you in the least bit ready?! I am- BRING IT!! But please, don't bring it too fast- I want to soak up every second on Christmas morning.
My family gave to me: a beautiful Christmas treeeeee
Trying to find THE tree
Maybe a tad too small
We found the perfect one!
We couldn't leave without a snap shot of Bunny boo with Santa Clause
Let the festivities begin! While my dad was putting the lights on the Christmas tree, Monica and Mack-a-tack, were hard at work making deeelicious peanut butter cookies
There she is! Before the decorations attacked her limbs
The lovely decorating committee
The beautiful disaster that was "organizing" the Christmas decorations we've had since me, my sister and brother were babies
Drum roll please.............
My dad is going to add the garland tomorrow, but I must say (in a totally bias opinion of course) it's a beauty! Easy on the eyes if ya know what I mean. Everyone had a good time helping out and Daisy Mae had a fun time with her kong, not helping out
Now it is time to relax by the fire and kick back with N and finish up the Christmas shopping from the nice cozy location that is the couch- the pic is dark but you catch the drift
Can't you just feel the coziness come through your monitors?
Hope you all are having a happy holiday season so far! I am doing really good with interviews and workouts. Last Friday I had my 2nd round of interviews with the same company I interviewed with on Thursday, and it went really well. The guy told me that he thinks I will be hired with no problem. He also told the first lady I interviewed with, that he really liked me and things went really well. I really hope I get this job. Not to get all yippity on you all, BUT I am about to. This just goes to show that a positive attitude will do so much for you. I have kept positive about the whole being laid off thing and just knew that God had something else in mind for me. I have my 3rd and final interview with the company tomorrow at 4:30pm and I will be a nervous wreck I'm sure since it's with the regional manager. The woman whom I interviewed with on Thursday told me that she is a really nice though, so I am not too worried about it. To unravel some of my nerves, I will be running a mile or 2 and going to spin class in the morning. Nothing like sweating all the butterflies straight out to the point of a blackout. Just to keep you up to date from my last post : Shredding and running 3 miles on average, have been accomplished everyday these past few days (snaps for Karli!) Then to keep my UNnervous self busy, I will be running to CVS to get N and mine's Christmas cards printed and at least ready to mail the next day. If the butterflies aren't gone by THIS point, I will return home shortly after I get the Christmas cards and catch up on all the important, soul nurturing shows such as Jersey Shore, Bad Girls Club, and my favorite Teen Mom. Guilty pleasures I tell ya!
Have a splendid week ladies and gents!
Umm why is it Sunday night already? It seems like I was just laying out my bib and running shoes for the Turkey Trot? Either way the last 4 days were as enjoyable as Gerad Butler's abs
Thursday was of course the Turkey Trot - I was up and at em' at the bright and early time of 7:30 since I had to be at the starting line 20 minutes before 9:00am. N was such a great sport about it. Being the die hard football fan that he is, I know it was hard to leave the bed at the time of morning on a day off, but also I know how upset he can get when football is on allllllllllll day and he can't watch every second of it live and rewind "did you see that?!" play's over and over again. Thank GOD for DVR! (I forgot to mention that in the "thankful" speech around the table!) So when N and I got there, it was PACKED! I have never seen any race like it. There were easily over 1000 people there which was touching since everyone who was there paid the $35 entry fee and that goes to a hungry family. I had my iphone loaded with my 5K running playlist and I even thought that running while taking pics would be a great way to distract myself and make time go by faster. Ummm, have you ever tried to snap a photo while feeling as though you are in Spain running with the bulls? It is hard!! So even though I wanted to bring you all a little more excitement than 1 photo, your just gonna have to deal. I was trying to beat a PR people!
So fast forward to the finish line: N was there which made me sprint my way across that finish line. I dunno what it is, but there is something about seeing that finish line that kicks you in the rear, and puts you into fast gear and you sprint until your legs feel as though they are going to disconnect. Since I really wasn't in the mood to stand around and browse the swag stands, N and I decided to go home so I could shower and take a nap before our big duck dinner. Once we got home, I was checking the website literally every 5 minutes to see if they had posted results. FINALLY they did, and what did I see?! MEEEEE!! I beat my personal record too!! When I crossed the finish line, N said he tried to time it and he thought I finished in 30minutes (my PR WAS 34:37 btw), but I couldn't believe it. BUT, guess what...HE WAS RIGHT!! That N is so smart- I finished the race in 31:11 AND I placed 54th out of 500girls! Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Even though I was dehydrated like a mo fo after the race, I still had N snap a pic of my sweaty self just for the blog :)
Saturday we FINALLY celebrated the big turkey day since my sister and bunny boo got back into town on Friday. So I woke up and watched my mom stuff the most delicious turkey ever! That woman sure knows how to stuff em' (That's what she said).
I decided to stuff something to my own liking into a little thing I like to call the oven. NOTE: THE OVEN WAS NOT ON DURING THE MAKING OF THIS PICTURE. I LOVE MY CAT SO DON'T GET YOUR PANTIES IN A KNOT.
Now the big news (as if it could get any better, sheeesh!), N and signed papers on an apartment!! We will be moving in either January 9th or 12th and we couldn't be more happy about it! It is so so so nice and we are so glad that we didn't sign papers with any of the other ones we looked and at believe me, we looked at them all. Amazing location, granite, some hardwoods, and it comes with a 37 inch flat screen for the bedroom (N's 55 inch will be going in the living room of course), wood burning fireplace and really nice grounds. We couldn't be happier. Home sweet home
I have been so excited about the holidays, I rushed to Petsmart and Target in search of the perfect Christmas outfit (and new holiday sweater) for my Daisy Mae- What do you think?
There was absolute bird madness going on in the house
That was my holiday. It was wonderful! It is now time however for the week to come to an end and this little lady to hit the gym once again. I haven't worked out since the run just out of pure laziness. I hope your holiday was great- I know mine was!
I am most def ready to eat some turkey, although my turkey day is going to have to wait until Saturday. My sister and Bunny Boo (my niece for those who are just joining us) are in North Carolina for Turkey day so Bunny Boo can see a horrible "man" whom she calls her father (all I'll say about that!). So since my mom and dad also just arrived home from their little getaway to their condo in Mexico, we thought it'd be best to wait until Saturday. So tomorrow we will be eating something less festive, BUT it is still a bird. What could it be?!
I'm claiming the beak!! Num num num! I'm just joshin, what kind of woman do you take me for?! The duck will be there, but the beaks will have been removed well before I dig in.
Prior to Ms. Carnivore here eating some deeelish duck, I will be participating in my 5K!! The day has come, the iphone is loaded with some pretty vivacious tune's that are guranteed to keep me moving for 35 minutes (thinkin positive). I went and stood in line for 20 miunutes after my holiday party at my bosses house and picked up my race packet complete with my bib, running chip, and the overpriced $35 hanes tshirt that I'm proudly gonna rock at the gym come Monday. 
Oh and did I mention the gorgeous(AND FREEEEEEEEZING, and asthmatic's nightmare!) trail I get to enjoy while running?
I'll be sure to take pics on the trail. I won't be blogging tomorrow and barely any on Saturday (my REAL turkey day), but I will be back and I'll fill you in on everything from my run to the duck dinner and the black Friday sales I find!
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!
Let's get Thursday here all ready. Its Thanksgiving and we all have the day off!! I have so much to be thankful for this year and yes I am going to name a few so get over it, this is my blog after all LoL! I am so thankful for my husband and how God has blessed me with such an understanding and loving man. I am thankful for being with my family and friends again and how God provided jobs for both N and I and quick at that. Yes ladies and gents God is good.
I am so ready for Thursday to get here. I didn't run this weekend and I didn't run today after work, BUT rest assured, that I WILL be getting my hott butt up at 5 AM tomorrow morning so that I can get 3 miles in before work and then I will be running after work and probably shredding it up with Ms. Jill too. So no worries :D Then Wednesday, I'll probably only do an easy 1 mile run so I don't burn myself out. If I run up to the day of a race, I am NOT wanting to run. I gotta baby myself. In fact a little bit of this looks great right now
And on that note, its time for beddy by and Twilight (the book) - total peer pressure
Thank you Starbucks for informing all of us that the holidays are amongst us with those red cups! I have said it before, and I'll say it again, I LOVE THE HOLIDAYS!!! I cannot wait! First we have Thanksgiving which I have to reveal, I signed up for the turkey trot here in my area and I will be running that at 9:10 AM sharp! Have some mixed feelings about it for various reasons, just because my last 5K, I was regretting it right when the gun fired, BUT I loved it at the end and was so glad I did it. I just hope I can stay excited about it. I AM excited that I won't feel as guilty when I eat a piece of pie that night though :D Back to the holidays, after Thanksgiving, we got Christmas!! My favorite by far! The lights, the decorations, the Christmas spirit. Oh I love it! What's your favorite holiday out of the two?
Oh and on a side note, we had a little visitor at work today - I think N has some competition. His name is Bosley
He sure knows how to work that camera
