The Christmas Kickoff

On Saturday night we had Christmas with Bon Bon, Don Don, Norma Jean and Mammie.

We had such a great time. Mom made an incredible candle-lit supper and we spent time enjoying each other. It was nice to just have time to sit and enjoy one another over coffee and dessert. Talking and laughing and just spending precious time together.

Then...it was time for presents!

We got some great stuff.

Worker Man got some camo pants, a Lowe's Hardware gift card, and a sweater. I got some of the coolest things. I got a great pair of new gloves, some replacement wallflowers from Bath and Body Works. I LOVE them! A Burberry scarf, Burberry perfume, a fabulous gerbera daisy umbrella, new towels, and new curtains!

I got wayyyyyy too much!

Here are a few pictures from the night:

Everyone at supper

Bon Bon and SL

Worker Man

Mammie just relaxin'

Sistas

My umbrella!

Bon Bon, SL, and Norma Jean

Me and SL

Los padres

Bon Bon and Don Don

After everyone was gone, we had a little ping pong tourney.
Worker Man and SL vs. me and Colby

Fun was definitely had by all!

Christmas Parade!

A few weeks ago we went to the Christmas parade in our town. It was a lot of fun.

We live close to Main Street so we walked up (in the freezing cold) to watch.

Here are a few pictures:

Here we are walking up there

We saw our friend M. You can't tell in this picture but she was pregnant.

The day of the parade was a day AFTER her due date.

She said she was going to try to walk 'em out.

Sidenote: She and J just had their precious son K on Monday. 8 lbs. 15 oz.

I think I'm in love.

You can't really see this from the picture, but that is the city's Shag Club. Worker Man saw it coming and tried to get me to look the other way.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to shag.

He's not so fond of it. I'm trying to talk him in to joining. Yes, even though everyone on that float is 50+ years old. (FMIL, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with being 50+)

Then there was a long string of "Hillbilly cars"

You know, the ones that backfire and have people in them that only have 2 teeth.

They were really fun...

Then, there were some random things.

Since it's a small town, they let anybody and everybody join in.

This came down the street and I didn't even know what to do with myself.

Just to make sure you understand, it's a car pulling a golfcart with stuffed animals all over it...

I thought that was pretty bad until I saw this...

Yes, it's a poop pumper. I think that is poop stain running down the tank to the left of the "S"

But, not only did they have this one, but they needed to display their new poop pumper as well...

Notice their slogan:

"We're #1 in the #2 business"

That thur is small town fer ya.

BooMama's Christmas Tour of Homes

It's here!

I've been looking forward to BooMama's tour but it has taken me some time to get pictures of everything and find time during this busy season to blog...

Welcome to our home!

Here's the front door.

(We have to come up with a new system for next year, but right now there are all kinds of cords running so we can't actually go in this door....whoops!)

Instead, we'll go in through the side door.  

I love this wreath!  My mom bought it for me a few weeks ago.  It's made out of jingle bells so it's a good little holiday sound to hear as we come and go.

My door mat outside the side door.

I love snowmen.  I can keep them up even into February!

Our Christmas tree.  

Very simple with a nice stuffed Santa on top 

(compliments of Worker Man)

The presents are kinda all over the place.  Next year I plan to use all the same Christmas paper.  A couple of rolls from Costco and I should be good to go.  It makes it look better if everything matches...

The kitchen table

Here's the centerpiece up close.

It's so easy and super cheap!

The fireplace

My mom bought me Christmas trees to go on either side.  They match our living room perfectly! 

Mom gave me this little Christmas tree to put in the kitchen.  It's really cute.  

She has so much Christmas stuff and since we just got married, she let me borrow some of her Christmas stuff :) 
I bought my mom and FMIL a nativity scene when I was living in Peru last summer.  I don't have a nativity scene so mom sent the one I bought for her home with me.  I really wish I had bought one for myself but I wasn't planning on being married and wifey by this time....
Thanks for stopping by!

It was so much fun to give a virtual tour of our new home at Christmas time.

Merry Christmas! 

lesson learned...

From now on, I will have to be a little more careful about what I post on my blog.

The speck and plank post….

Not such a good idea.

The next night I said something negative to Worker Man, he gave me the look and said,

“I read your blog post last night.”



Crap! I didn’t think he had been reading it!

I am just like my mother...

One night last week I bought some bananas. The next morning I threw one in my purse to eat for a snack at work. The day after that, I threw a banana in my bag for a snack. When I pulled the banana out on the second day, I started thinking about whether I had eaten my banana the day before. I couldn't remember if I had actually eaten it so I looked through my bag and couldn't find it. So, I assumed I had eaten it.

During the past week I have pulled multiple things from my bag and caught a whiff of banana. I thought it was strange but figured that maybe it smelled like that because I had been carrying bananas in my bag to work.

Today, I realized my bag was a little out of control. It seriously had to weigh half a ton. So, before getting out of the car to meet a friend for lunch, I grabbed a full water bottle out of the purse to at least take out some of the unnecessary weight. When I grabbed the bottle it felt wet and I just knew that water must have leaked all in the bottom of my bag. I felt around the lid on the bottle but it was tight. But, everything I pulled out of my bag had this liquid on it. I smelled it and all the sudden it hit me, it had to be the banana. It smelled like banana.

I knew it had to be in there but I couldn't find it anywhere. So, I took everything out of my bag and started pulling the inside layer (which is black) out of the bag.

And there it was.

Stuck on the bottom of my purse.

Camouflaged with the inside layer of my bag (BLACK).

THE BANANA.

As I reached for it, I actually had to peel part of it off the lining.

I can't imagine when I have kids. There's no telling what will be in my bag.

so many lessons to learn...

Worker Man and I have been married for about 5 months now and it has taken me this long to begin to realize where part of the difficulty of marriage lies.

I have never been one to be super judgmental. I am loving towards most people and have very few people in my life that I do not get along with or enjoy spending time with. I have tried to remain pretty aware of the verse:

"And why worry about the speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own" --Matthew 7:3

I don't want to be judgmental or condemning of a friend because I know that there are so many areas in my life that are far from perfect.

Well, this has not been the case with Worker Man. I have begun to realize that I am so quick to point out things that he struggles with or frustrations that I may have with him. But all the while, those are only "specks" while I have a huge log to deal with. There are so many things that I can do differently as a wife that would make marriage easier and less frustrating but instead, it's easier to point out his small faults.

This is definitely something that I need to work on....

jenny's here!

Last week Worker Man and I went to a funeral for the grandpa of one of my S&C girls (KC). The funeral was almost three hours from my house so she was not really expecting us to come. Worker Man and I wanted to be there so we left that morning to surprise her and offer support in such a difficult time.

There was a visitation in the fellowship hall before the service so Worker Man and I went to see the family. When we walked in, there was a long line of people that wrapped around the room. As we started making our way to the end of the line, I looked back trying to get KC’s attention.

When I got her attention and waved, she burst out crying.

As I was still walking past all these people to get in the back of the line, I was looking back at her waving…

And then,


I walked straight into a wall.

I mean, slap into the wall. Like, the side of my face as well at the rest of my body ricocheted off the wall. (Keep in mind I’m walking right past all these people in line who are facing me and who are now laughing at me or looking at me with sympathy for being such an idiot)

I look back at KC and she’s laughing hysterically.

When we finally get to the front of the line, all KC’s mom could say was “Jenny’s here!”


Leave it to me to provide a little unplanned comedy relief.

professional help....

Last night, my mom came to my house and we went Christmas shopping. We stopped by Ross and while we were there, we figured we should browse through the books (We’ve both really been wanting a Paula Dean cookbook—[oh gosh, I’m getting old…]). One book caught mom’s eye that had to do with your horoscope or something. We don’t believe in that stuff but we thought it would be fun to look up our birthdays to see how close the description was.

She looked up my birthday first. It gave the favorite day of the week, month, color, number, and a lot of other useless information and then there was a paragraph that explained what my personality should be like. For the most part, it hit it dead on. Both my strengths and weaknesses were accurate. There were a few parts that were off (like me being a loner) but for the most part, it was accurate and uplifting.

Of course, we also had to read Mom’s. Her paragraph was off from the start. It had a couple of things that were right but the rest of them were just weird. And all of the sudden, she started laughing hysterically. She read the next sentence which stated:

“You might consider seeking a professional to help you with this problem…”

…………………….

Later on, we were talking and she mentioned how she couldn’t decide if she should attend this banquet thingy for work. Here’s how the conversation went:

Mom: Well, we could go but…

Me: Wait, who’s we?

Mom: Again, laughing hysterically.

Me: Maybe you should believe what that book said and seek some professional help.

Mom: Nah, I used to be schizophrenic……..but now we’re okay.


I think I might just start believing in those horoscopes after all.