Tuesday, December 30, 2008

A Fabulous Christmas!

I will admit that one of my favorite parts of Christmas are the presents. Of course I like to receive gifts, but I LOVE to give gifts. I love to watch people open them with excitement on their face and know I found the perfect present. I do take the easy route sometimes and give people gift cards, especially when I don't know them very well. But for the most part, I spend quite a while thinking about and shopping for the perfect gift. For example, this year we bought my dad a side table made from a huge tree root. It was absolutely gorgeous and I knew that he would appreciate all the time and care that went into making it. I wish I would have taken a picture of it, but I did not remember until it was packed for shipping and I took so long to pack it so that it would not get damaged that I would not even think of taking it out of the box.

Anyway, my favorite gift to see opened this year was actually the stockings my parents sent to our dogs. They were so excited and I wanted to share it with my parents, so I taped it. In a way it is like watching our "kids" open their Christmas presents.

Friday, December 26, 2008

The Bestest Husband Ever!

Rommel always has a difficult time deciding what to get me for Christmas and my birthday. The fact that my birthday is just three days after Christmas makes is even worse for him. This year he mentioned that Zales has a new Hello Kitty collection. We checked it out, but in the end I decided against the necklace I adored because I just could not justify spending the money on it and chose a new camera instead.

He totally surprised me by getting for me anyway. I still feel a little guilty about the price, but not as much as I would have if I told him that was all I wanted for Christmas. Yes, I might have secretly been hoping for it, but I did tell him not to get it for me several times.

Anyway, I absolutely love it! Some may consider it childish, but I could care less. It is adorable and I love Hello Kitty. It always reminds me of a little plastic, pink purse I had as a kid that my sister and I would fill up with sand from the sandbox and carry around. I have no idea why we would do that, but they were good memories! Picture courtesy of Zales.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Apparently the universe is trying to tell me something.

And what is it trying to tell me? Slow down! I have had so many things happening lately that are literally forcing me to stop rushing around like I usually do.

First were the changes they made at my workplace. Instead of getting rid of employees, they are cutting everyone a few hours. Luckily I will still be working forty hours a week like I have been, but I have to avoid accruing any overtime. I am more than fine with that; it helps keep other people employed. The problem is that I am always early and I mean always. I show up to work thirty minutes early every morning and get myself situated. I also haven't taken a whole hour for lunch in years. Now I can only be five minutes early at the most and must take a whole hour for lunch. This is only the first week that these new rules have applied and it has completely threw me off. I woke up five minutes before I was supposed to be at work last Saturday and ended up being twenty minutes late. I have been late coming back from lunch. It messes up my day when I get to work and I don't get settled in. It may be completely coincidental, but I was also late for a dentist appointment and a massage this week, which never happened before.

It may sound stupid, but being early is part of who I am. I don't like sitting around the house in the morning waiting to leave for work or anywhere else I need to be. I like to get out of bed, throw myself together, and walk out the door. At lunch, I run errands or grab some food and head right back to the office.

So I guess I need to learn to relax and enjoy that extra time, but I think it is going to take me awhile. It just doesn't feel right.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

We will all miss you Aunt Dee.

My Aunt Dee passed away at 10:35 this morning after a long, courageous battle with cancer. She was surrounded by loved ones and not in any pain. My dad said that in the end she seemed at peace.

Now I just hope for good thoughts to surround my uncle, their children, and grandchildren. I keep glancing at a picture of my aunt and uncle from their wedding day. It was printed on the front of the cards they gave away at the sixtieth wedding anniversary party. They always seemed just as happy as they were in that picture.

She will be desperately missed.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

My Sunny Bunny

Sunny loves anything that squeaks, including this duck. I bought it for her after the whole pigeon incident because she behaved so well around the bird (meaning she did not maul it). She has been carrying it around with her ever since. She brought it into the bedroom the other day and laid down with it. She looks so cute yet so protective of that duck. Thank god Simba has no interest in toys. Otherwise we would have a continuous war in our house.

Why I deserved that $4 cupcake.

The first thing I did Monday morning was to mail out all of my family's Christmas presents and another special package, which was addressed to Making Memories in Seattle. Making Memories is an organization that sells used wedding dresses and wedding accessories at conventions all over the United States. All the profits go to granting wishes for breast cancer patients plus research and education. My dress and veil have been hanging in the back of my closet for almost five years and I am not one of those women who want to save it for my daughter to wear when she gets married. Who knows if I will ever have a daughter anyway. So I decided to donate it because it is was still in such great condition and they really needed modern style dresses.

I decided to take a few pictures before I packed it in the box so I could reminisce if I wanted to. I forgot how pretty the dress was. My favorite part was the beading on the bodice and the hem. I hope someone else falls in love with it and feels beautiful wearing it.

After mailing the packages I went to lunch with a friend from work. We decided to drop by this new bakery called Crumbs on our way back. I had seen the sign that they were opening a few weeks beforehand and it advertised milk and gourmet cupcakes. I have been looking for an opportunity to stop by since then and this was the perfect one. The Oreo cupcake I picked out was a little bit pricey for me, but it looked so good. It was chocolate with Oreo crumbs in the frosting (and there was a lot of frosting) with an Oreo on top. SO GOOD!

I came home and headed to the garage to get our Christmas wrapping paper. The dogs went straight for the recycling bin and I knew something was up. They usually head for the yard to see what has changed since they were last out there. It turns out that they were cornering a pigeon with an injured wing. I shuffled the dogs back inside and filled a small plate up with wild bird seed hoping the bird was not too hurt or exhausted to eat. Then I kind of freaked out because I did not know what to do with it. Of course I wanted to do whatever I could to save the poor thing, but humane societies and vets do not usually take in pigeons. I checked out the Internet and all I could find were ways to nurse them back to health. I happened to have a large bird cage, so I gently picked her up and set her in the cage. She immediately began to eat the seed, which was an excellent sign. I took my chances and called the Pasadena Humane society. Thankfully the vet tech that happened to be working sometimes takes home injured pigeons. Once he looked at her, he told me that she was not hurt to badly and that she should be fine.

At the end of the day I just kept thinking that I did more than my one good deed and totally earned my $4 cupcake.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Montrose Christmas Parade

In an effort to make it seem more like the holidays, my husband convinced me to go the Montrose Christmas parade. We were there an hour early and the place was already packed. Blankets and chairs claimed different families' spots up and down the entire street. It was almost movie-like with all the white lights in the trees and little kids running around the sidewalk waiting for Santa. We grabbed our coffee and something from the bakery and found a seat on top of a brick bench area where we were above everyone else. The perfect spot! I took some videos of the parade, but they are definitely not the best videos. They are kind of shaky and blurry at times, but there are a few good points like when the huge blowup duck fell off the back of the truck it was on.

First there was the Pasadena Humane Society with a bunch of adorable dogs, some even wore antlers.



There was also this group that did fire breathing tricks, etc.



Finally, the big duck. The people around us just kept commenting on where the guy was sitting, which you might even be able to hear.