Christmas Cookies at Sara's

I'm currently trying to decide what pictures to enter in the Army Photography Contest. You can only have three entries and that's making it very difficult for me to choose what I want to enter. I've already picked my categories. Place, Military Life and Object. Now I just need to figure out what pictures of mine I want to submit.

Decisions, Decisions.

Anyway...other than that I'm just training the new girl here at work. She's doing well, which is a big relief to me. I want her to be solid with everything before I leave.

Sean told me today that when he checked his AKO email account that several people in Italy had already contacted him. Mainly S1 wanted to know when we'd be arriving so they could get lodging set up for us and his platoon leader contacted him too. Sean seemed excited and suprised that we'd already been contacted. He said that hadn't happened to him yet.

I ran last night for thirty minutes. Ok...so technically I did run/walk intervals, but whatever. It still got my heart pumping. Especially since I ran on the 4% grade for an extra kick. Thankfully when I got on the scale last night at the gym it said I was back down from the extra weight I gained at Thanksgiving.

Whew!

Anyone watch this last night?

I love claymation! Especially when it's done by Rankin and Bass. Anyone else love it as much as I do?

Another Christmas question. Have any of you seen the new Nutcracker stamps? I got some today for my Christmas cards and they are beyond cute!

Here are a few pics from Sara and I's cookie night.

Sara has been hard at work baking all day.




Notice the alcohol and the mallet. Scary no?



Hard at work decorating my cookie.




The delicious gingerbread cookies



I couldn't help but snap a pic of Sara's tree.

21 Days Until Christmas!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

First things first, if you haven't entered my fabulous giveaway yet then go here and do that. There is still plenty of time to enter!

I forgot to mention last week that the wonderful Pink Chick gave me a blog award last week. Thanks you Pink Chick!

While reading Allison's blog last week I was inspired by her post of warm winter wear, so I ordered these for myself:



Flannel Pj's + Old Navy Prices = Fabulous Find!

Don't worry, I wasn't selfish with my find. I ordered Sean a pair for himself. Obviously not in pink though!

Last night I went over to Sara's house for some cookie baking and decorating. Of course we took pictures, but I have yet to upload them. Let's just say I'm never going to give anyone a run for their money when it comes to cookie decorating. Quite honestly I suck at it.

The cookies turned out amazingly though. Sara let me take a few home and I can't wait to dive into them. The taste-test I did of her Peppermint Chocolate cookies was heavenly!

The movers came today to look over our house so they could decide what was needed when they come pack it up next week. I think Saturday is when Sean and I are going to start organizing stuff and deciding what is going with what shipment. I also have to get everything together that's going back to Oklahoma with me. I've been keeping all the presents I already have bought together so they don't end up getting packed. Yesterday I got Sean's new IPOD in, so sometime before next week I'm going to do my best to charge it and upload some of his songs on it. Now if I can just do this without him realizing it.

Speaking of Christmas, what are your favorite Christmas songs?

Top 5:

1. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree- Brenda Lee

2. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year- Andy Williams

3. Silver Bells- Dean Martin

4. Sleigh Ride- I like the Ronettes or Johnny Mathis version

5. O Holy Night- Celine Dion

22 Days until Christmas!

I'm having a Christmas Giveaway!

That's right everyone, time for my first giveaway!


Here is what's up for grabs.

1. Glass Fleur de lis Christmas ornament from New Orleans
2. A copy of White Christmas or Christmas Vacation on DVD. Your choice.


Here's how it works. I'll give you until Friday December 5th at midnight to enter for your chance to win.

You get one entry for leaving a comment and three if you mention the giveaway on your blog. Please let me know once you do mention me on your blog.

Sound good?

December is Here!

I've never been looking forward to yet dreading one month so much in my life.

Obviously this month is going to be crazy busy, but in a good way.

T-Minus 11 days until we are out of the house.

T-Minus 36 days until we leave for Italy.

I'm so excited to go home and get to spend time with my friends and family. It's been about six months since I've seen most of them, minus my mom and dad.

Looks like Sean's Company Christmas party is this Friday. I thought it wasn't until after we left, but he informed this morning it was Friday. It's at the bowling alley, which I found a bit odd, but hey..whatever. It's been awhile since I've bowled so I'm sure it'll be fun. Let's just hope I don't do something like drop the bowling ball on my foot, we all know how accident-prone I've been lately.

Thank you to everyone who left kind words about my injury on the last post. I enjoyed reading them. I'm happy to say the thumb is feeling much better, but I'm still keeping the stiches covered. I don't want anything to hamper the healing of my thumb.

Sean and I had fun in Lake Charles on Saturday. We hit up our favorite sports bar where I enjoyed the most delicious Bloody Mary's and a shrimp frozia Po'Boy...which is just the best sandwhich ever. I also picked up some scrapbook stuff at Hobby Lobby and some Christmas cards. I let Sean pick out what Christmas cards he wanted and he picked....Thomas Kinkade. Um...I wasn't aware I was married to my grandma? I found it hilarious he picked those!

We ended up watching the OSU/OU game at Pappy's and it was so much fun. I was of course disappointed that my Cowboys lost to OU, but I thought for the most part they played really well against them. The only weird part of the night was when the husband of X couple showed up which was a bit odd. I mean I know he knew we were there, but I didn't expect him to drive over an hour to join us. He spent most of the night complaining about his failing marriage. Can we say awkward?

I'm off to lunch with Sara here in a few, but here's a few pics from this weekend.



Yes...I'm a little tipsy in this photo.



Boomer in his new fleece hoodie we bought him. Isn't he the cutest?

A Visit to the ER and Thanksgiving

Some of you might be puzzling over the title of my blog, so I'll get right to it.

Wednesday night I went to the ER for only the third time in my life. I got stitches for only the second time in my life.

Here's the scoop:

I had just started on making ahead some things for dinner on Thursday. Spinach dip was completed and I was starting the potato casserole. I opened a can of chicken soup, went to pick up the lid and sliced my thumb open. As soon as I did it I knew it was a bad cut. I tried to wash it off and put pressure on it, but my thumb had other ideas. It would not stop bleeding! Twenty minutes goes by and my thumb is still dripping. I finally told Sean we'd have to go to the ER.

Once there I noticed the bleeding had finally stopped, but it still needed something done to it. My thumb was throbbing too from the cut. The ER doctor looked at it and decided they would just glue it. Ok..fine with me. Then the clean it and it starts bleeding all over again. After another 20 minutes they check it and it still hasn't stopped so they opt to just go ahead and stitch it up. Oh..and did I mention they gave me a tetanus shot?

Two shots in my thumb of deadening (which is now bruised) and he stitched me up. Ok..last time I got stitches was when I was 2 or 3 and I don't remember the stitches being that painful. Let's just say I winced every time a stitch went in. Four stitches later they bandaged me up and on my way I went. Thank goodness Sean had some leftover Loritabs from when he hurt his back because they were a lifesaver! I can honestly say I can see how people get addicted to those things!

It hurts a lot less now, but it still looks ugly. I'm due to get the stitches out in about a week.



I sincerely hope this is the last time I hurt myself for awhile!

Thanksgiving was great. We had tons of food, lots of people and a ton of fun. All my food turned out great, even the homemade crusts for my pumpkin pie. The pumpkin pie tasted just like my grandma's, so I was very pleased.

Sean and I slept in today and basically have been eating and laying around watching TV. I swear I've already gained a couple of pounds, but I plan on remeding that when we go to the gym tomorrow before we head to Lake Charles.

I think I'm going to watch a couple of holiday movies tonight. White Christmas anyone?

I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and a great Black Friday if you ventured out!

Morning Shenanigans

It's too bad ya'll weren't at my house this morning, because you really missed out on quite a show.

Let me explain.

Ok...in the mornings while I'm getting ready, Boomer and I like to run around and play. I'll chase him, he chases me, I throw his toy, he fetches. You get the picture. Well this morning I was in our spare bedroom and throw his toy down the hall. I decided to hide from him in the closet. Bad idea. On my way to the closet I step on a bag that had parts from Sean's Class A uniform in it. There just happened to be a large pin that goes on his uniform with two large prongs on the back that are very, very sharp.

Yeah...those went in my foot. All the way in my foot might I add.

Talk about painful. Thank god I have no children so they didn't hear the stream of words that came out of my mouth.

I successfully dripped blood on the carpet on my way to the bathroom to clean up my foot.

Oh..and did I mention this is the same foot that I injured twice last week?

Thanksgiving food is bought as of last night and now I just need to clean up a bit around the house, make a few casseroles tonight so I can just pop them in the oven tomorrow and I'm golden. I'm just praying the turkey turns out well. If it doesn't then I'll just blame it on Sean, since he's the one cooking it.

I hope all of you out there have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Crescent City in pictures!

Here's a small sampling of the pictures I took this weekend.



Starting the trip off right with a Bloody Mary (spicy of course!) and a Mojito.



My soft-shell crab Po'Boy.




Sara clowning around.



A small courtyard room off of one of the shops.



Jackson Square



Another shot of Jackson Square



Sara trying on one of the ever-present masks.



The most famous street in New Orleans



Beignets at Cafe Du Monde



Enjoying my beignet



View of the river



Lafayette Cemetery in the Garden District



Wrought-Iron fence in the Garden District



Ann Rice's home (which is for sale)



Sara's idea of torturing Jagger



The Palm Trees decorated for Christmas



Our Haunted History Tour



Check out the orbs. (Ok...so I think it's the light, but our tour guide was convinced otherwise....)



Scary shadows at night!



Check out this crazy art exhibit. Yes...those are grills.



This was interesting art too.



Sara and I and our art that we bought.



My Elton John inspired glasses.