What a wonderful Christmas

I am so blessed to have had  such a wonderful Christmas surrounded by so much love. 

It was so much fun to see the little prince on Christmas morning

Also, because I'm still in the Christmas spirit, I am giving this blank frame for FREE!

Just click here to download!

Enjoy, and you can find more of my goodies at NIGHLON

Letters to Santa

This time of year always makes me think of all the traditions my Mother held tight to every year. These traditions will always have a warm spot in my heart. We always colored an advent calendar; took food to charities; stood outside stores ringing bells; and woke to reindeer tracks and Santa’s muddy boot prints. However, I think what stands out to me the most would be our letters to Santa.

In case you haven’t noticed, my childhood was quite different from most. We have a strict, but very loving Mama who instilled in us many important values. Most of all, she taught us responsibility, manners, respect, gratitude, and thoughtfulness. Things were no different at Christmas time.

Every year, after the tree was put up; the old world Santas were placed around the house; and the Nativity scene placed on the sidebar, it was time to write our letters to Santa. We would sit at the dining room table with homemade hot cocoa and Christmas cookies. Mama would turn on Christmas music and bring out her box of stationary. Inside this box, was the prettiest Christmas paper ever! The best part, it was only used for our letters to Santa. She even had special pencils for us to use.

Now, my mama is a bit different from most when it comes to writing to Santa. There were rules involved. Not only did we have to use our best handwriting, but we also had to actually write a letter- no lists allowed! We were only allowed to ask for one thing. Most of all, we had to show appreciation. Our letters were to include a thank you for last years gifts; a thank you for being nice to so many kids; and what we accomplished that year. I didn’t understand why we did this, but now I am so thankful that my Mama did this. After we wrote our letters, we made Santa a gift- usually an ornament.

As I sit here writing this, I wonder what made her think to do this. Also, I wonder whatever happened to those years of gifts for Santa from three children with an amazing Mother. I have my suspicions that they were either given to family members, the sick and elderly at hospitals or nursing homes, women’s shelters, or even to random charities. I will ask her one day. These are traditions that I will definitely keep going with my own son!



At the following websites, you can find areas to let your children email letters to Santa, as well as receive a letter from Santa!

http://emailsanta.com/

http://emailsanta.com/email_santa.asp

http://www.aletter4santa.com/

http://www.northpole.com/

http://www.freelettersfromsantaclaus.com/free_printable_letters_from_santa.asp

enjoy these links!

Geek Meets Fall

Here I am with the HUBS... carving my very first pumpkin!

I even created my own set of 19 stencils. 

You can see my pumpkin soon, I promise!

Go to Nighlon  [my geeky/ graphics/ blog tips blog]

and grab the stencils and read the directions.

I had so much fun doing this.

I hope you enjoy my stencils.

Let me know how they turn out.

FALL LOVE

FALL: Noun; 1. Also known as Autumn;  2.  The season between Summer and Winter; 3. The months of September, October, and November; 4. Back to school,  Halloween, and Thanksgiving; 5. The best time of Year.

This is not the actual definition of Fall, but It is how I would describe it!

So many wonderful things in life happen in the fall. My husbands birthday, my little prince's birthday, HALLOWEeN, Thanksgiving, apples, PUMPKINS, the leaves change, trips to cherokee. The list just goes on!

Family seems to become more important to everyone, people get nicer (then winter comes, and the world is bitter again).

One of the true treasures of fall is being able to be outside in the crisp autumn air and enjoy everything. Just the other day, The LP and I were walking around picking red leaves for his Nana!

Sitting on the pourch enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee is pure joy!

My Favorite Fall Activities:

Picking colorful leaves and inventing crafts for them

Decorating for Halloween

Bonfires

Trips to Cherokee

Trick-or-Treating

Watching Horror Movies

Watching Christmas Movies

Enjoying Family

Baking

Making Pumpkin Butter

THANKSGIVING DINNER

This year is special-- I'm carving a pumpkin for the first time EVER


What do you do to embrace all the wonder of FALL?

Rant for the Day

First, let me say that I love and adore my husband. He is an amazing man and father, but sometimes I want to throw the xbox controller at him! I recently read a statistic that 15 percent of divorces are caused by the XBOX! aaaahhhh! I wonder if he would know it was me if it mysteriously broke?? Just a thought! As I write this post, my dear husband is playing a game.....

just saying....

Update on Supermomdom

*update to a previous post*

I have just been reflecting on how lucky I have been to be a stay at home mom, even if only for a year. My husband and I have recently made the decision for me to go back to work. It's quite bittersweet, but I know that it is for the best! Maybe it will enable me to become a better mother and wife.

My Journey to SuperMomDom

When my little prince was just a couple months old, I had a particular day where i didn't think I was ever going to get it all done. I had laundry that needed to be finished, a room that needed to be cleaned, a husband who needed attention, and a baby who just wanted mommy. I said to my husband, I'm supposed to be good at this, I'm a mom, shouldn't it come naturally. I said I'm the multi-tasker, the one who thrives on stress, and now it just makes me crazy. I told him that I am supposed to be supermom. He very sweetly told me that I wasn't and we moved on. I still had a nagging feeling that I wasn't doing enough. This feeling stuck with me, and I never have really moved on from feeling like I should be supermom.

My amazing husband brought me Mother's Day surprises home from work friday, and with it was something I will forever cherish. This card means the world to me, and I don't think I will ever forget it, and I will forever cherish it! It was just what I needed in my beautifully imperfect life!

It said: 

For My Wife

conquering a heaping pile of laundry...

whipping up a meal in the blink of an eye...

being in two or more places at once (well, almost)...

remembering all the important stuff in our lives...

and still finding the time for a little one-on-one.. 

she's... SUPERMOM

I'm so lucky to be married to a real life superhero like you

this was just amazing!!!

More Adventures in DIY Hair

SO.... I'm a FREAKIN GENIUS... or so I like to tell myself. One of my latest endeavors could be considered not of this category!
I'm the kind of girl who had a standing appointment with a particular hair stylist ever so many weeks. SHE is a genius. She always knows what to do with my hair, and it always looks so amazing.
Lately, I have been trying to turn into a frugal fashionista!
This means... I decided to cut my own hair! Lets just say, I was a bit nervous. For the sake of my family and my dear husband's sanity, I did it anyway

I googled how to cut my own hair... I found some pretty great videos and advice. I proceeded with caution. With a little help from my Mother-in-Law with getting it even, I managed to give myself an angled bob. I am happy with the style and cut, but I learned why my hair stylist uses a razor when trimming my ends. It lays much better when the ends are razored.

What I learned from this: 1. I can do anything with the help of google 2. I have much more patience for hair stylists now.
Will I do it again: HECK YES!!!

JUNE

June is always so crazy for me. It was the start of summer for so many years, but as I've grown older, it has begun to entail so much more. Working at the bookstore, it was time to rearrange students' schedules and work up promotions for summertime travelers. Now, it entails so much more.

For some reason, as if June wasn't crazy enough, it tends to be when all the chaos piles in. We run around like crazy trying to accomplish things. Trips to Cherokee and to the lake are the norm, but this year it has been a bit different. 

June starts off with MY BIRTHDAY! Yay- I turned 27! Being the first weekend, it also includes our tradition of visiting Cherokee, NC on the first weekend. This was fun, the Little Prince enjoyed getting feathers, pictures with indians, and playing in the fountain. 

On to the next, its the Royal Couple's ANNIVERSARY! What a fun weekend, we grilled out, spent time together, and laughed so much. The interesting part was eating our wedding cake, as is tradition on a first anniversary! We ended up pretending to eat it, just for the pictures!
Then, came Father's Day. Just a weekend of relaxing, and eating buffalo chicken sandwiches, with my mother-in-law's special recipe! What a good weekend, hanging out with the family and relaxing. What could be better.
Our wonderful month of June ended with a fabulous visit with family from Canada. They only get to visit every few years, so it was a nice treat. I finally got to meet the Canada family, somehow I have always missed them. The Little Prince enjoyed playing with his cousins, and It was a wonderful visit.
To sum it all up, June was a crazy month, but we made amazing memories. Now, I can get to blogging regularly. June is so crazy 

Unpredictable

With everything going on this week; trying to get organized, doing my everyday stuff, and getting ready from the reveal from Carolina Paranormal Investigators, I had absolutely no intentions of washing our comforter until at least Monday. The Little Prince had other plans!
I was changing his diaper and then putting him down for his nap. He decided that instead of lying there and letting me change it without a problem, he would rather crawl around! The LP wriggled out of my grip and crawled around on my bed, stinky butt and all....
Looks like I will be washing a comforter after all! At least I know that the Knight will get a laugh out of this while he is eating his spaghetti tonight!

Reorganizing Life

Little did I know when I wrote my last post that I would be re-organizing EVERYTHING! This includes my blog. Please bear with me while I figure out what will work for me! I promise it won't be maniacal very long!

My Crazy Beautiful Life

Well, to put it mildly, life has been crazy. I have so many things on my to do list, and I just can't seem to get it knocked down any. So, I have decided that my first priority (besides the knight in shining armor and the little prince) is to GET ORGANIZED!
I'm slowly getting this done, and organizing my goals [one of which is to update my blog more often], and creating MY ULTIMATE PLANNER. YAY!!!!
This is very important because I was always the most organized person I knew, until I got pregnant. Pregnant brain or LAZINESS? probably laziness! I promise to share my progress!

Time to Get Crackin

My LITTLE PRINCE will be 9 months in 10 days. This means that I have less than 3 months to plan his AMAZING 1st birthday party. Of course, the theme will be prince! I'm thinking he should recieve a copy of THE LITTLE PRINCE as his special gift. There is so much to do. Step 1, find a party planning website. Step 2, learn to bake a lemon cake. Step 3, send invitations. and so it begins... wish me luck!

Adventures in DIY Hair

So, naturally, my hair is very dark brown, almost black. So, naturally, I wanted to go blonde.... fun!

One day, my MIL and I were watching our husbands garden, and truth be told, we were getting bored... which is NEVER a good thing! I mentioned something about going blonde, and she said follow me, which, agan, is NEVER a good thing. We go into the house and she hands me two boxes of platinum blonde hair dye. I'm thinking, my hair isn't very long, this should work.. NOT! I dye my hair, and its still brown, lighter, but still brown.

We go to the dreaded WalMart and look at hair dye. We find a really awesome product that is supposed to take it from black to blonde... AWESOME. I go home and dye my hair. I leave it on for the maximum time of 90 minutes... this should do it. NOT! Its blonde, but a dark blonde. If I'm gonna go blonde, I want to be BLONDE!

Frustrated, I get on the internet, which usually doesn't turn out too good for me, but this time it did. I find directions on bleaching hair with peroxide. Wahoo. I make the mixture of half water, and half peroxide and commence to spraying. Left it on for 25 minutes (it can really damage your hair,) rinse, and condition. It is a little lighter. I do sun-in for a few days, and then peroxide again. I continue this pattern until i used this mixture about 5 times. Getting tired of this, I decide to just use peroxide and that worked a lot better. I did this twice. Finally, It is about the color I want....
but...
My roots are showing REALLY BAD!!!!
Even though, I like the color that it finally is, I have learned my lesson. If I want to go blonde again, I will strip it first or go to a salon!

Crazy Week

Life has been a bit crazy lately, and I have been super busy with the little prince and other perfect life things. I will get caught up!

Can I Do It This Time?

So... I've decided once again to try and lose weight. I think that the reason that I have yet to succeed is that I have never had anyone/ anything to hold me accountable. By blogging, I'm hoping to be held accountable for what I do/ don't do.

I have several reasons to want to lose weight. Some of which are normal, health issues; however, others are more personal and vain. I want to be healthy, for my son and my husband. I don't want to develop the health issues as I age that so many in my family have. As far as the more vain reasons, I want to wear a bikini. I have never worn a bikini, and I want to and feel good in it.

I will make a plan and post it on my blog... hopefully I will succeed!

Things I Should Do

So, I wanted some change in my appearance, and apparently going from almost black to blonde wasn't enough of a change. So, I have some projects I want to get started on. Some are just a matter of getting it done, while others are really going to be a work in progress for a while.

• Take my hair to a platinum/ white blonde
• Put some crazy color streaks in it
• Pierce my lip
• lose some weight
• Cut my bangs
• Get another tattoo

I am going to right about these things here so that I will be held accountable. If I don't put it in writing, I will never do it!

Procrastination: My Favorite Past-time

SO.... I've always been the world's greatest procrastinator. This is not a theory, It is a fact. If there is anything whatsoever that I need to do, I will find anything possible to do instead, until the very last moment. With this comes my worst enemy: THE INTERNET!
For example, my Little Prince's first birthday is four months from today! I know, It seems like a lot of time, but given how fast the last eight have gone, I really dont think that four months is really going to be all that long. The only thing that i'm realy worried about is that I DON"T KNOW HOW TO BAKE! I know, I know, I could just buy a cake, but I'd rather not. I'd rather make myself go crazy and stick to what my mother and mil have done, and make the LP's first birthday cake. Not only am I going to make his cake, but decorate it as well (nothing but the best for my Little Prince). AND THATS NOT ALL... It has to be a lemon cake!!!! WTF am I thinking.

Back to the procrastination part:...
What I should be doing: Learning to bake
What I am actually doing: Blogging

The worst part about this is that not only am I blogging, but I wasn't sure how to spell procrastinating, so I decide to go to GOOGLE and look it up... and I can't just stop at finding the spelling, I have to click on PROCRASTINATION SITES... and find "my favorite procrastination sites" ... and I click to see these... I'm DOOMED...

I'M NEVER GOING TO LEARN TO BAKE IF I DON'T IGNORE THE INTERNET....

EVIL...EVIL...EVIL... INTERNET

Everyday Life

Sometimes everyday life gets to me, it seems like i get up and run. By the time i am caught up with everything i have to do, something else comes along that i have forgotten to do, or its a new issue. Today, i overslept, finally got us out of the house to go to the store, did the shopping, get home, unpack everything and sit down. Just then the little prince wants to be played with. I play with him, lay him in his bed, and sit down. My husband brings me a soda. The throat sighs! It may be hectic at times, but I LOVE MY LIFE.

Wahoo! Mobile blogging... Thats what im talking about!

Changes

I've always had outlets for my not so creative energy, but lately those don't seem to work. Being a mother and a wife, it has become hard to find time to make jewelry, to sew, and to do many things that I have always found enjoyable. On top of this, I am a geek, so I needed to find a way to combine technology with an outlet. BLOGGING it seems is the answer. Here I am going to document the many journies i am going through right now. One of which, is learning to blog. I have no idea what I'm doing, so this is going to be a learning process. Thanks in advance for following along!