THIS is My Life: December 2008

Thursday, December 18, 2008

not even apologizing

I'm going to stop apologizing for not blogging. I'm sure that people are tired of the apologies anyway. Here's what I've been up to-

1) weddings have finally ended (yay!) but last Saturday my company's Board of Director's had a planning retreat - so I was there most of the day. We got done an hour early at 3:30 - so I used that time (wisely) to go Christmas shopping.

2) I am trying to fit Christmas shopping into any free time. I am pretty much done except for Alex and his dad. I tried shopping online a lot this year - that worked out well. Although I learned a valuable lesson. That is, if you buy online for people who are out of town - just have the items shipped directly to them. I didn't think about that until I received the 2.5' wide x 10" high x 3' long box containing the gift for Bret's step-kids at my house. Yeah, they live in Tallahassee - so now I have to get it there somehow. Smart, Shaleen.

3) Baking things. I can't help myself, I love to bake at Christmas time. I tried some new things this year. I covered a pound of pretzels in white chocolate and sprinkles. I also made peanut buttery rice krispies which i rolled into balls and dipped in milk chocolate. I'm going to fill tins with each of those cookies for some friends, co-workers and the majority will go to the teachers at our preschool - they LOVE food and candies.

4) Cleaning my house - about a month ago we fired our cleaning lady and I've yet to replace her. So I have been cleaning a lot more often. Tomorrow a woman is coming to check out my house and give me a price. So today I had to thoroughly vacuum and mop in preparation. I know that sounds crazy. But seriously, my floor was gross, I refused to even walk on it barefoot b/c of the dirt on the tile (caused by the dogs, but mostly Miles). I honestly think that if she saw my house the way that it looked about 3 hours ago that she would charge us more to clean. We only have someone come twice a month - but it's a big help so that I only have to do the maintenance cleaning in between. That means that I usually vacuum twice a week on my own, swiffer once and do a real mopping once a week. If that sounds like a lot of cleaning - you're right. I think in part b/c we just like our house to be clean and also b/c Miles gets the floor so dirty that it is really necessary.

So there you have it - nothing too exciting.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Thanksgiving Update

This is my most shamefully long absence from blogging. Who knew that taking a week off of work would wreak so much havoc. It may not have really been the week off, but for whatever reason, since Thanksgiving Alex and I have been SO busy. My work is super busy - and Alex just finished our winter wedding season and now he has to do post-production on all of those weddings.

However, we actually took pictures while we were away - so I definitely want to post them. We took a couple of days to drive up to Asheville for Thanksgiving w/ my mom's family. We left on Friday headed to Greenville where we saw one of my oldest friends, Emily. We met her at the Greenville zoo and had a nice day out. Then we went to my cousin's house and had lunch with my sisters in law (who took a break from shopping) and my cousin and their daughter, Ashley.

So it was kind of a speedy trip, but we felt like we still got to have lots of quality time with friends and family.

Aaron and Bret with our cousin Paul - they were headed out to go 4-wheeling. We are obviously a squinty-eyed family...