What should I tackle this year!?

I guess it has come down to the end of the year, and instead of procrastinating (like I have done a lot of in 2008) on my resolutions list, here it goes a whole day early!

- Lose 10 lbs AND be strong
- Get organized
- Hang out with friends more
- Eat less sweets! (key to the first item)
- Blog more
- Read A LOT more than I have been (maybe tackle a bunch of those books sitting around waiting to be read...hmm)
- Work on finding my talents and strengthen the ones I do have
- Become a more interesting teacher for my children

Another highly important item for the first half of the year is to not freak out while my husband is away and step up to the challenges that come our way.

P.S. If there is anything on your list you would NOT like to do this year that you would like for me to do FOR you this year, leave me a comment and let me know! =0)

Amazing Talent

I like to watch Regis and Kelly in the morning when I go to the gym. One day a few weeks (or months) ago they featured a man named Terry Fator. If anyone watched America's got talent - you may have seen him. He is a ventriloquist that does impersonations of singers. This is one of my favorite clips of his amazing talent. If you get kind of hooked on his abilities like I did, there are plenty more on YouTube. Here's his Kermit the Frog and Louis Armstrong impersonations!

So that is a pretty small image. It will do just fine for what I wanted to mention. I had a blast at IKEA and have so many little ideas for my home and my girls room that I just really don't know what to do with myself! The best part is, it is affordable. I love Pottery Barn and Land of Nod items, I just can't afford half of them! You can check them out here.

Merry Christmas!

I know that I am a few days late....
Our family was blessed enough to visit my family this year for Christmas. We try to alternate holidays to keep both sides happy. =0) This year was special because my sister Jamie and her little family flew out to visit too! Since Jeremiah had duty on Christmas Eve, we had a whirlwind of a 48 hour visit with my family before needing to be home for Jeremiah's duty day. It was nice to take it easy a little bit once arriving to PA. I needed my license renewed (joy of having a Dec birthday!) so we spent early Friday morning trying to get that straightened out. I am happy to announce we were in and out within a half hour! YAY! I got to go to the outlets to do a little shopping (found next year's Christmas dresses at OshKosh for $9 each)! Then of course went to Walmart to scout out potential great deals in the Christmas "leftovers". We hit terrible traffic on the way home Saturday and decided we would take a break from the monotony by stopping at IKEA to look around. That was the first time we've been in our ENTIRE lives. So, we definitely had fun and walked out with a few small items. All in all, the trip took 7 hours when it should have taken 4 1/2. That found us home about 10:30 pm still needing a small trip to somewhere that was open that late at night for a bit of milk. We were pretty exhausted. Overall, we had fun. I'll post a few pictures of our small family "photo shoot" in PA later when I get on my computer and mess with my camera. Stay tuned!

HOMEmade Family Pictures

We finally decided to just try to take some family pictures at home (again) this year. The thought of going somewhere to get them done terrifies me quite frankly. I almost want to scream my head off and get started on pulling out all of my hair. It's just so hard to get those two little girls to smile at the same time and make sure that we REALLY like the picture as we say yes to advance to the next picture (of 7?? or 8??) included in the sitting. Anywho - I feel as long as I can "doctor" them up a bit (which I still need to do to these) they can't be too shabby. One of these days we'll get a fabulous family picture done without me having to run and pose in 10 seconds or less! Maybe we'll get lucky and my brother-in-law can take a ton of pictures for us while we visit with family in PA!

The favor I am asking my readers is to vote for the one that looks the best in each Category (since it is my family -and my face- I tend to be a little overcritical). There are a few people in my family that would love a family picture more than anything - so I want to make sure they get a good one. Please help me out! Don't forget while choosing, I still need to cut/crop/and resize them a bit to make them look better. A quick little message with F: G: and J: with your numbers afterwards would be just fine. Thanks!

FAMILY
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GIRLS

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JEREMIAH AND JANICE A quick side note... Mel took these!!! She's got MUCH more talent than her poor Ma!

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Finally....

Decorated for Christmas. I've been so excited for Christmas - but I have been dreading decorating for two simple reasons. Melanie and Julia. I figured that if I decorated nice and early, everything would be destroyed by Christmas (or re-decorated 10-12 times). Since Jeremiah's leave ends this Sunday and he'll be on duty Christmas Eve until Christmas morning, we decided to move it a few days forward. In lieu of doing this, we figured we should decorate today so the girls had some things to be excited about before the arrival of Christmas.


"Merry Christmas to All and to all a Good Night!!" - Santa Claus

Another one of my favorite things at Christmas time is Nativities. The Washington D.C. Temple has a Nativity display every year. They display Nativities from all around the world. I never tire of looking at the Nativities, or the decorated trees for that matter. My mother has a special love for Nativities as well and has rubbed a bit of that love off on me. I decided a couple years ago that I would like to have a Willow Tree Nativity set. Each year when we go to the beach in the summer, I buy a different set of figurines to add to my Nativity. This year at the beach, I purchased the 3 Wise Men. Our display "area" is going to need some planning. We use what we can get for now as we are still acquiring things that we would like to adopt as a more permanent furniture/decoration piece.

Great Place to eat!!

If any of you are fairly new to Norfolk (we are as far as restaurants are concerned!! However, we've been here for a little over 3 1/2 years already!) here is a great place to add to your restaurant list!! No Frill Bar and Grill. They have a little bit of everything on their menu and according to quite a few people "Everything Tastes Great!". I can attest to that statement from the Pita that I ordered. Come with an appetite though. I was seriously full for the rest of the day and still couldn't finish everything that was brought to me! It's a little confusing on how to get there, so DEFINITELY Map Quest it before going. Thank you to everyone that was there - I had a BLAST!

Click here to check it out! (or copy and paste)
http://www.nofrillgrill.com/default.asp

For those of you who have tried it, what did you order and what did you think?

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party was the evening of the 12th. There was tons of food, performances from the children and the youth, and Santa Claus. Yup, you heard it. That man thought our ward was important enough to come in the flesh! ;0) Here are a few pictures.


Nativity given by the children. It was SO cute!! The younger ones (hidden in the back) were given a nice little tug by one of the Mom's behind the Nativity to put them exactly where they were supposed to be! Notice all the neat animals as well with the Donkey being played by none other than DONKEY from Shrek!! =0)


A bit of a better view of some of the wise men and that cute little angel!! Played by Gracie.


The youth held pictures that symbolized Christmas time and each read a little bit about their picture. There were more youth than the few pictured here, we included the picture of my girls favorite YW!!


First picture with Santa this year! Melanie wasn't quite sure where Mom was.


Julia, always interested in the "treats". She is definitely eyeing that candy cane she just received and doesn't care at all about the picture trying to be taken! She promptly broke her unwrapped candy cane on the floor (by accident). SO silly!

Dress and Short Narrative of our Evening

Dress

Me modeling the dress for the first time. I think I could have made some alterations - next time will be better!

Me and Jeremiah. Sorry about the fuzziness, my relatives are photography challenged.

Ice sculpture of Jeremiah's ship. Pretty cool, eh??

Views from our room in the A.M. Can you tell that I am SO used to getting up with my girls??? See the sunrise in the distance. They've totally ruined sleeping in for me.

Jeremiah sleeping in.

Each year they give us glasses with the ship initials on it. Dwight D. Eisenhower. The glass style has been different every year.

More views from our room and on the way out of the hotel. SOO pretty - that's something I love about being in the Navy. We will almost ALWAYS be close to water!!!



Last, but not least. My birthday present from the Ike.

Quick Catch Up

I'll have to post some pictures later, when I can get on my own computer (I'm on Jeremiah's now). Starting December 1st, I was a girl on a mission. I had to finish a party dress by December 5th for my husband's Ship Christmas Party. The party would also be the start of his leave time with us. He will be on leave until Dec 22nd.
I dedicated most of Monday to my dress and completed the skirt. Then I did a little more sewing on Tuesday evening to get the parts for my top cut out and ready to sew. I sewed my top together on Wednesday and learned how to do button holes from a friend. (I am SO glad someone showed me, I would have never been able to figure it out on my own!) By Thursday afternoon I had completed the dress with just a hook and eye left to hand sew. I spaced it out so that I wouldn't get too frustrated and accomplished my goal! I wanted to add a little bit of lace around the neck line, but I couldn't find what I wanted. Maybe I will add some later, and it can become an entirely different dress!!! HOORAY!!
At the party I even got a few compliments. Although I attribute it to the fact that I wasn't showing as much skin as 99 percent of the other girls and they were appreciative. So, my first ever attempt at a dress of any kind turned out to be a success!
The party had quite a few raffles that were done and quite a few people won some fun things, Tara and James won something as well. The night drew to an end and we thought we would walk away prize-less. Then I get a call from Tara saying that I had won a prize downstairs. I was so excited! They told me "Merry Christmas" as they handed over the prize and I thought to myself, "No, Happy Birthday!!!!"

Black Friday..........anyone???

Well, we sure took a shot at it! We woke up very early this morning (earlier than seminary students, we'll just say that) to head to Virginia Beach for some shopping. Due to the early wake up time, I did not grab the camera to come along. We mostly were interested in the DVD deals they had going on.
Walmart was our first stop. It was a ZOO (only about 100x worse)! I am SO glad they price matched the ads. It helped us skip a store in our line-up. The hard part was finding all the DVD's.
Next stop, Target. They weren't open yet, so we waited around for about 10-15 minutes, then followed the HUGE line inside. We picked up more DVD's and a few luxuries.
Then, off to Bed Bath and Beyond! I had a coupon for $10 off $30 or more. We got a much needed kitchen accessory and used the coupon. I got it for $20!! Yipee!
Off to what wasn't planned as our last stop, but was.... Haynes. After the demise of our mattress set when we moved to our current home (LONG story) Jeremiah and I haven't been sleeping as comfortably in our bed. So, we took the plunge and bought a new set today (the first set we've purchased - we were blessed to get a bed and mattress set handed down from family when we were married). We even got to take it home with us today too! Already we have taken the opportunity to have a short nap on it, and it is WONDERFUL! I dare say it will be a very good choice.
As a side note, the girls came along with us this morning and were SUPERB!!! I couldn't have asked for more well-behaved children!
I seem to get so excited about Black Friday that it has rubbed off on Jeremiah a bit too. We have big plans for next years' big shopping day. WATCH OUT EARLY RISERS!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning! This morning is such a special one, and we are very blessed too. Jeremiah had duty YESTERDAY and not TODAY! That is something to definitely be thankful for this morning. I want to take a few minutes to make a short list of the many things I am thankful for. After all, I don't have all day to write this, and you don't have all day to read it!! =0) Here goes it:

- My husband, who also happens to serve our country and protect our freedoms
- My beautiful daughters, and that they are healthy and smart
- My home and my vehicle, without those my basic necessities wouldn't be met.
- My family (extended) for their love and support for me growing up and now
- This country, to have these freedoms and to have such opportunity! What a blessing
- My health.
- My friends, I don't usually get to spend Thanksgiving with them, but they (you all) are thought of often as I go throughout my holidays
- The gospel, without it, we would still be in the dark ages
- The atonement, our way back to our Heavenly Loved ones
- The prophet, to constantly remind us where we need to strengthen our forces
- Books, I love to read whenever I get the chance
- Food, to keep my body going (although I think I eat a little more than necessary)

There are many more things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving, (i.e scriptures) don't forget to give your thanks. I'm not sure if I'll find any candy corn, but a good friend of mine told me of a tradition she does in her home. Each plate has 3 candy corn on it before the start of the Thanksgiving feast. Each person takes a turn around the table and says one thing (so it circles the table 3 times) they are thankful for. After each thing said, a piece of candy corn is eaten. Once they are done, they say prayer and eat their feast. I think it's perfect to get everyone in the mindset of being thankful. Enjoy your loved ones and this VERY important day!!

Our first "Snow".....

FLURRY! We had our first snow flurry today and I am so excited! I hope that we enjoy a White Christmas (along with a lot of our Mountain Standard Time friends and family). I know that is the big one on my list for Santa this year!!

It's not too late....

Hello all! I wanted to remind those of you wonderful ladies out there about the Book Club at Belinda's house Friday night. I have gotten into my Sheri Dew book this week and am LOVING it! (Not hard to do with her books, I know) I wanted to encourage you all to get that Sheri Dew book off your shelf or borrow a friends so that you can be there Friday night to talk about them! I'm excited to hear the input and spend the evening with you ladies. I hope to see you!!

Winning the Lottery

If only we could win the ACTUAL lottery! Unfortunately, we don't play. Oh - but if we did.... we have BIG plans! I'm writing about a different kind of lottery tonight though (..or this morning?? Whichever you want to call it I guess). My dear sweet husband was supposed to come home yesterday from an underway. So, as always, we get geared up to receive him home with pretty much everything that is important being cleaned. (Hey, I have two children) Dinner time was fast approaching and I hadn't heard anything from my other half. I finally got an email stating that they wouldn't be home due to weather conditions. They were hoping the weather would cooperate for the following morning (Saturday morning) so that the crew could be with their families this weekend. WHAT!!??? Saturday afternoon approaches, I check my mail AGAIN - to find out that they should be home soon. He finally comes home to us at 3:30 this afternoon. YAY! We have him for a SHORT time until he has to leave us again. Once he gets back from this one - he will be home until the New Year! HOORAY!! So, we won the lottery. I am SO glad that Heavenly Father allowed the weather to cooperate and bring my husband home. (THANK YOU!!!)

When....

My girls do things like this, I LOVE being a mom. When they are scratching and kicking each other - that is a different story. We were having a movie night together when they both wanted to cuddle with Mom. Then, they started hugging on each other and being so sweet, I just had to take a pic! I obviously need a bit more practice so that my pictures don't turn out so fuzzy. BUT...What mom wouldn't love to see their little ones doing a little bit of this?

NO Firetruck!!!

Playgroup this morning was held at the Firestation closest to the church (at least as far as I am aware of). We went there last year and I wasn't able to get pictures of the girls. It was great for the girls to go today. Julia was so excited to do anything that was offered to her, while Melanie hid in a corner (almost literally) afraid of the Fire equipment and the big shiny red truck. She kept telling me "NO Firetruck!!" However, she went in the truck once, and climbed on the front. Here are the best pictures I got of the activity today. For those of you who missed it, we missed you too!

Firetruck #14

Mel and her hat

Two gorgeous girls in our group

Julia with her hat AND sticker!

All of the children in our group this morning (minus an active boy and a few younger children).

Happy Veterans Day!

Happy Veteran's Day! I know that not all veterans are as old as this fellow I have pictured here. My husband is a veteran for crying out loud! Anyway... I wanted to wish you all a wonderful Veteran's Day and to especially give a little "shout out" to all those military service members too! Thank you for keeping our country safe and defending our freedoms!