Make-A-List Monday

I'm ready for the Holiday season!  Who cares that the high today is 80 degrees?  But before I can fully jump into all things Holiday, I need to do a little prep work.

5 Things to do Before the Holidays

1.  Review people's addresses - make sure you have the

correct address for everyone on your card list.

2.  Clean - before you decorate, give your house 

a thorough cleaning. 

3.  Determine your go to Party outfit - this can save you time

and money buy having one outfit for all your parties!

4.   Workout - try to hit the gym or go for a walk a few times

a week... it's more of a preventative measure :)

5.  Relax - don't stress yourself out yet before the Holidays even

begin! Take time to do things you enjoy.

Tomorrow I will be baking carrot cake cupcakes.  I will post the recipe for these delicious treats, as well as pictures.  Also, I fully intend on putting together a few ideas for holiday outfits to inspire you, so look for those pictures in the next few days.  Oh, and Wednesday will be Pie day (not 3.14 day) but pumpkin and pecan.  Hopefully you'll find something helpful, or find my attempts at pie-baking amusing.  

The Cycle/Make-A-List Monday on a Thursday

It's almost Thanksgiving!  My boyfriend and I are going to have Thanksgiving with his brother and sister-in-law at their house.  Therefore, myself and the sister-in-law are going to split the cooking load.  I love cooking but I tend to get anxiety when preparing meals for anyone besides myself.  Perhaps only cooking part of the meal will keep my anxiety to a mild panic.  I'm in charge of cooking a pecan pie, pumpkin pie, carrot cake cupcakes and mashed potatoes.  I will post some recipes and my outcomes next week!
But for now, something has been troubling my mind.  It seems that every year by now, we see previews for the Holiday movie that "is the next classic".  Now, I watch a lot of TV and see movies at least once a month and I have yet to see anything resembling a Holiday movie.  I'm pretty upset because I'm in need of a movie to add to my Holiday cycle.
Not just any movie can make "the cycle".  Just because there is some Holiday undertone in the movie doesn't mean I'm adding it to the cycle.  There is a difference between a "cycle movie" and a movie that I'd watch if it happened to be on TV.  Here is what is currently in "the cycle":

It's a Wonderful Life

White Christmas (this is my FAVORITE!)

Elf (newest addition)

Miracle on 34th Street (new and old)

Christmas Vacation

A Christmas Story

While I love each and every one of these movies, I could use a new addition and Hollywood is seriously letting me down.  I'm a fan of the made for TV movies seen primarily on ABC Family, but I don't think they stand up to It's a Wonderful Life.  So while I continue watching the movies in my cycle, I'm hoping for a great new Holiday classic to hit the big screen!  

Visitors!

Hello! It's been a while!  I know I've been slightly erratic lately and I am going to stop that.  But it has been busy the past week.  Here's an update on what has been going on...
My parents came for a visit over the weekend!  It was really great to see them.  My dad had not seen Waco yet, so I was excited to show him all the sights (aka my dogs).  We had a great weekend though and we even did the introduction of the parents!  I made a lot of food (I think my parents were impressed), we took the dogs and parents to the park (with little incident, except for a run in with some horses), and we introduced my parents to kolaches.  All in all, it was a really great weekend.  I was sad to see them go back home on Monday morning, but I know Christmas time will be here before I know it and we'll be heading up to Cincinnati!
After my parents left, we had to do some chores around the house, like laundry.  Easy enough, right?  So the boyfriend was kind enough to do the laundry because I was feeling down about my parents leaving.  On the last load in the washer, we suddenly hear a terrible grinding noise.  He goes to check it out and low and behold, the rinse/drain cycle will not click on.  We try everything we can think of, but I mean, the washer is sitting there full of half washed clothes  in dirty water.  Eventually we had to take out all the clothes and put them in the bathtub because they were soaking wet.  Now our washer is sitting there full of water.  
This was annoying but we called a repair man and scheduled an appointment for tomorrow.  Last night, though, this annoyance became a problem.  I was lying in bed with my dogs watching TV and all of a sudden, Gabby got up from lying by my side, walked to the end of the bed and peed.  Not a little bit.  But like she hadn't been outside in 12 hours and drank a gallon of water kind of pee.  I didn't know what to do except stare in wonderment as to where this all came from.  It went through our comforter, through both sheets, pad, and onto the mattress.  After changing out all the sheets, we both realized that we have no washer...  Tomorrow can't come soon enough!
That's pretty much been my week.  Cleaning for the parents, cooking, entertaining, visiting, and spending some time with my boyfriend and our doggies.  Now I promise I'll be more dependable in my blogging!  Happy Wednesday though and just think, this time, next week, it will almost be Thanksgiving!!!!

It Happened... at the in-laws

Greetings and happy Monday!  Great news... I have a new power cord and I am back in action.  I've been lost without my computer.  But never fear, after a quick trip to Houston and $80 later, I'm back.  And yes, we only bought one of the two power cords we needed because they are $80 each!  Enough about that....

I'm not someone who gets embarrassed that easily.  Mostly because I find whatever happened to be more funny than anything.  But this weekend, something happened that was a bit embarrassing.  My boyfriend and I traveled to Houston for his nephew's birthday party and the Texans game.  Of course we have to bring our dogs, so we pack up all their stuff, all our stuff, gifts, football tickets, phone chargers, I had to bring my ruined computer chargers... we were like a traveling circus.  

We arrive at my boyfriend's parents house and we all decide to go to dinner that night. Now, by no means, is this the first time I've met his parents.  I love them and I really do feel at home with them.  He has a wonderful family and they all make me feel like part of the family.  So me, my boyfriend, his parents, and his cousin are all at dinner having a nice evening.  I can't recall the exact sequence of what lead up to this, but something someone said triggered a horrifying realization in my mind.  It was so sudden and out of the blue, yet completely true, that I couldn't help but blurt out in the middle of the conversation, "I forgot underwear!"
Yup, I just shouted out in the middle of dinner, in front of my boyfriend's dad, mom, and male cousin that after tonight, I would have no more clean underwear.  Guess what the topic of conversation/butt of the joke was the rest of the weekend... my underwear, or lack there of.
Before you get your panties in a twist, yes, I did go to Target and get new underwear.  Nonetheless, I was embarrassed.  Luckily I bounce back quickly because now I find it a funny story to share with everyone!  Enjoy your Monday and I hope you find some amusement in my embarrassment.

My life has been pretty normal lately.  I have been trying to train my new puppy, which is proving to be harder than I anticipated.  But on a positive note, I've become really great at cleaning up puppy pee-pee and poopy.  Luckily she is so cute that I still love her.  Gabby did do some things though, that have caused me to go a little off my rocker.
Maybe 10 days ago, before we had the whole cage situation taken care of, I left her and Vedder out while I ran a quick errand.  I thought maybe she'd pee or something, NBD, I'll clean that up no prob.  But, I came home and found she had chewed through my computer power cord.  Now, my main computer doesn't work because I cannot charge it.  And, because I live in Waco, there is no Apple store to run over to and grab a new one.  
I do have my old computer that I can use until I am able to go to an Apple store.  So while I was annoyed, I kinda felt like it was my fault for leaving her out and all I needed to do was get a new cord.  Plus I have a back up, so I could blog! Oh, and pay bills, which I guess are important.  But blog then bills is my priority level.  
Last night, while I was finishing up dinner, there was silence in the living room.  Uh oh... that means the dogs are up to no good.  Suddenly, I heard a static noise, but it wasn't coming from the TV.  I peered over the couch and there, sparking on the sofa as Gabby tried to eat it, was my other power cord.  Before you call the SPCA, Gabby has 9 million toys/cheewies at her disposal.  Yet she chooses the electricly charged cord.  
So today, I'm updating my blog, paying my bills, and making sure anything else that needs to be done online is complete because I have no more back up computers.  And I still live in Waco with no Apple store LOL.  Luckily we're going to Houston Friday so you can bet I'm stopping at the Apple store.
I'm not sure what is more pathetic... that my new puppy is out of control, or that this has been the most "exciting" thing that has happened to me recently.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not like unhappy or anything.  It's just that things have been pretty normal and good.  I'm hoping to do a craft project this week that invloes family photos.  If it turns out how I want, I'll share this with yall!  

Animals vs. Humans: Puppy Addition
Gabby - 2
Humans - 0 (or negative $100 to replace power cords)