Here's to completely chaotic love...

Here's to imperfect, unplanned, and completely chaotic love.

Happy Valentines Day

A Christmas Round-up

A much overdue post regarding this past holiday known as Christmas...

If you are the type of person that as soon as its midnight on Christmas you are taking down the tree and the lights, dont read this post. I like to hold on to the holidays for as long as possible. Hence holding these pictures tightly in my grasp.

I suppose the fact that new years is only like 2 days away is enough reason to finally post about christmas.

This christmas was full of new things. A new house and new feelings. Lets also not forget my first stab at fudge and mustache straws for christmas eve.

As a child of divorced parents, the past few christmas's have been a bit hectic. It always seems like there are so many people to please and so little time. I made sure not to complain though because I love every ounce of undivided family time. That may be a stretch...

Christmas eve: Spent at my aunts on my moms side of the family. My grandparents used to host it but with the passing of both of them in the past few years, we have switched locations to my aunts house. We wanted to keep Christmas light and fun this year and try to keep some of the stress out of the whole holiday. Ugly sweaters and white elephant gifts for everyone.

Christmas morning: Breakfast and opening presents with my mom, step dad, and brother.

Christmas afternoon: Opening presents with Dalton and his family. The place was absolutely covered in wrapping paper.I once again set aside my feelings of all the waste that was laying on the ground and all the time and effort put into wrapping every single present. There are a lot of people at that gathering. Sometimes it seems like Cheaper by the Dozen in this household.

Christmas evening: Spent with my dads side of the family. We used to do crab legs for dinner but wowza has the price of seafood gone up in the past few years. We swallowed our pride and had spaghetti and meatballs instead.

An Unexpected Brake

As I strolled through Target yesturday afternoon I realized that I hadnt really thought about blogging for quite some time. As of last Wednesday I am on winter break. The night we got home Wisconsin was dumped on by the biggest snow storm we have seen since 1992. Dalton was out all plowing all night and I snuggled in to wrap some presents. The next day was nothing but a lazy snow day. It felt fabulous.

It isnt that I havent had anything to post about, its more about finding the time to post. So many wonderful things have been happening in the past few days, including christmas. I have so many pictures and moments to share with my readers and I am looking forward to sitting down and recording all of this years holiday memories. But today is not the day.

I hope your holiday was filled with pure joy. Mine was.

Christmas List: Books

I found myself putting a lot of "coffee table" type books on my christmas list this year. Doesn't that sound all grown up? Im sure my mother was impressed. And should I mention I don't even have a coffee table?
Minor details people, minor details.

Go out and by someone a completely silly but oh so lovely coffee table book. Who knows if they even have a coffee table. Ah, whatever. The books are cute with or without a coffee table.

Favorite Holiday Fonts

Here are some of my favorite holiday fonts. Download away!
I thought they would be wonderful to make gift tags for christmas presents or for making your own christmas card. Or just to type your final paper in. Well, Im not sure the professors would enjoy a paper written in the Faux Snow font. Bah Humbug

These are the actual names and links. They are all free to download.
Think of this as my christmas gift to you!
1. Lavendaria
2. Christmas Card
3. Santa's Sleigh
4. Dalle
5. Faux Snow

via




Happy Friday

Mint Grasshopper

This is a great holiday recipe whether your entertaining or eating one out of a wine glass in bed. You can guess which I prefer.

2 scoops vanilla ice cream
1 shot creme de menthe
1 shot creme de cocoa

Blend and Serve.

We just used a gallon of ice cream and separated into thirds adding the shots as we went. We didnt follow the recipe exactly we just taste tested as we went. We ended up only using about a quarter of each bottle for a whole gallon of ice cream and they are perfectly sweet but strong. Let your tongue be the judge.

Whats happenin'

So, lots has been going on around here.
Hence the small amount of posts. Im not apologizing though because life has been just plain crazy.

I figured I would solve this by having slight diarrhea of the mouth and covering everything that has been happenin' in my life the past few weeks.
Lets say hello to monday together.

My cousin and I were in charge of making picture boards for my grandmas funeral. It was honestly so therapeutic. Not to mention we found out that my grandma never denied a party. Hence the dino sized bottle of champange in the center of the picture. Im guessing that also explains the glazed over look in my grandmas eyes. It was fun to see this.

My cousin, the picture board master. Also several months pregnant.

On a different note, Daltons mom's house is almost finished. The move in date is set for next weekend. Its amazing to see the building a house process. Way to many decisions for me. Ill stick to dreaming of an old farmhouse.

I ordered a gift for my mom from oh hello friend. I couldn't get over the adorable packaging. I would show the gift but I don't want mom to read this and find out. NO peaking before christmas.

Can you believe it is December already. Its almost 60 in Wisconsin today. We aren't used to this kind of weather in December. Im kinda missing snow (shhh don't tell anyone I said that)

Is all of your christmas shopping done? I just have a few people left. The hard ones of course. Then its wrapping, wrapping, wrapping for a few days. Its one of my favorite parts of the holidays. I love wrapping presents. Ive thought about being one of those volunteers at the mall who will wrap your presents for free. But then I figure I would get one of those obnoxious shaped boxes from victoria's secret and have absolutely no idea where to begin.

See my two favorite december desktop calendars here and here. They're tied. I just cant decide.

It's beginning to look a lot like christmas...

Its becoming that time when I get really excited about the holiday season. Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday but I really enjoy the christmas season as well. I love the music, the food, the movies, the decorating....

We added some festivity to our room. I didn't want to breeze right by thanksgiving so I left my fall thermos out and and put a thankful message on my blackboard.

Im really enjoying it....

Lets catch up over a box of thin mints

A lot has been going on. Lets catch up. Feel free to indulge in a box of thin mints like I have already covered.

Its about that time to sign up for classes for next semester. I don't understand why this process becomes so stressful. They give you a time and a date that you can register and its a mad dash with people running across campus to get to a computer. It also seems to be that your computer completely malfunctions when you click "add" next to that class that has only one seat left. So at 11:00 on thursday, be thinking about me sitting at my computer having several small mental meltdowns. (say that 5 times fast)

Also on thursday, Dalton and I are headed to Madison to see the Broadway Musical Jersey Boys. Im surprisingly really looking forward to this. His whole family is going and we are going to have a nice dinner and get all dressed up. I like occasions to look fancy. Dalton on the other hand is not very excited about the "dressing up portion."

In other news... The dorm building that Dalton and I live in had the most bizarre thing happen this weekend. Someone was cooking meth in their dorm room. Yes. Cooking meth in a dorm room. Supposedly its the latest fad to cook meth out of a liter water bottle but I don't think that the end result is supposed to be a fire in a trash can followed by 600 residents having to evacuate at 2am. All that and now he gets to spend some time in the slammer. I guess dorm life may have prepared him for that life? Nah. I don't think so.

Daltons mom's house is really coming along. Its amazing how quickly everything goes once the drywall is finished. It has been so much fun being apart of the process. This weekend Dalton and a few friends worked on laying some of the wood flooring.






His mom has the best decorating taste and she found some old barn boards from a farmer. I almost fainted when I saw the finished product.


We also carved our names into the concrete while it was still wet.




Dalton let us get in the lift and he hoisted us up over the lake.





Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I haven't seen too many black friday ads yet but I am excited to create my plan of attack on that crazy morning. Do you know any websites that share the ads early? Im impatient.

And I will leave you with a picture of my step dad in honor of Veterans Day. He's the best. Thanks Jim.





Im linking up here.

A letter to you {3 years}

Yesterday we celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It was as ordinary as any other day. Just the way we like it. 3 years have passed and nothing would have predicted all that we have been through. It is a bond stronger than my heart has ever felt. It's scary, but exhilarating. This love has proved my inner strength, I am stronger everyday because of you.

It hasn't always been rainbows and butterflies, I think that is a testament to the strength of our friendship. We understand the quirks about each other that no one else will ever understand. We just seem to "fit." It's strange and equally hard to explain in words. You make me smile, you make me cry, you make me happy. You accept that at times I am emotional and hard to handle. I have learned to accept that it wont always be easy to love you. Im willing to accept the hard times because the good times, they make it all worth it.

We have so much to look forward to and be thankful for. A new house, our trip to Jamaica, a good education (even if it takes us 6 years), and most importantly we have our future to look forward to. Lets not forget though, how important it is to live in the moment. Im working on cherishing the everyday moments that we share together.


So thanks for doing life with me.
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Love always.

Well hello, November

Source

Things to look forward to in November...
Continued over-wearing of chunky sweaters and boots
Christmas list making
Christmas shopping. Hopefully most of it
Gingerbread lattes and peppermint mochas
The fact that Starbucks begins using the red "holiday" cups
Hopefully signing a lease for next fall
The obvious; Thanksgiving, over eating, black friday insanity
Planning for Jolynn's baby shower
Pinning way to many fall/holiday recipes that I will never get to.

Things I am not looking forward to...
Being dark at 4:30 pm. Ugh

Halloween 2012: Hello Monday

Hello to a new week.
You don't seem so daunting after a great weekend.
















Im linking up with Lisa for Hello Monday