This is awesome.

hahahaha

Assertiveness

If you know me well at all, you know that I hate confrontation. I will avoid it at all costs. And the second I am in a compromising position, where I am uncomfortable talking with someone, I cry at the drop of a hat. I hate that I am so sensitive sometimes and that I cannot stand up for myself more often. Well, you could say that I am working on that. Tonight at work, something happened with my second shift manager that pushed me over the edge. I was so angry, I knew that this would the night I would finally stand up and say something to her, not only for me, but for everyone else that works with me on my shift. I was so mad, my mind was just reeling with things that I wanted to say to her. My adrenaline was pumping so hard, I felt like I was going to have an anxiety attack, and I couldn't focus on what I was doing at all. I just kept praying to God that He would help me stay calm, and have the wisdom to say the right things. I finally got a chance to get her alone in our break room with me, and we ended up talking for over an hour and a half. I won't get into detail about the situation but hopefully a lot of good will end up coming out of it. I believe that when we both left the room, no animosity was between us, thankfully. It just really needed to be done. I was sick and tired of constantly hearing people complain about her and other situations, but no one was willing to do anything about it. No one wants to stir up the pot anymore than it already is, or get on her bad side, even though they all dislike her, it just doesn't make sense. But anyways, I guess the point is that I am proud of myself! And I feel so much better now, and everything is out in the open. If people would just go straight to other people and be open and honest with them, and handle the situation directly instead of gossiping, the world would be such a better place! If only that could be a reality.

width="300" height="180" alt="What Kind of Blogger Are You?" border="0" />

Thanks Joe.

So much is going on!!

Wow, I cannot believe that it is already November! I am so sad October is over, we love that month and definately did NOT get to enjoy it enough!!! But I am so excited for Christmas!!
I had the day off today. I got to sleep in a little bit, and Chris was home this morning too so that always makes me happy. I had a meeting at work around 2 and then after that I went shopping for a bit. I went to Target and walked around for a while. I found a bunch of stuff that I want for Christmas which is good because for a while there I couldn't think of anything, after that I went and looked at all of the Christmas stuff, I think I am just so excited to decorate this year because we are living in our first house now and everything. And...Chris has NEVER had a real Christmas tree! I cannot believe that! I told him this year we are definately having one, it will be his first real tree in our first house. I have even already planned the day that we are going to get the tree and decorate and everything, I can't wait!! But anyways, so today I found this really inexpensive cute mat for the floor for by the door, which we really needed badly anyways. Bad part is that we'll only be able to use it during Christmas because it has a snowman on it, haha. After that I went to Hobby Lobby, I love that store!! There is always so much fun stuff that I find there. And they always have aisles and aisles of things for the Holidays. Alot of their stuff was 1/2 half, probably because it is so early yet. I got two very nice wreathes, which I have been thinking about that for like a month now (pathetic I know, I am such a dork, but I just love Christmas so much!) and since they were half off I could not not buy them, it was such a good deal, especially for how nice they were. The plan was to put on and each side of the house. But today when I looked at the house there really isn't room on the one side, so I might end up taking one back, we will see I guess.
It was so nice just being by myself and walking around looking at everything, not having to be in a rush, it was just a very nice evening.
Ok, enough about Christmas!
This past weekend was awesome. Friday night Chris and I went to "Food, Wine, and All That Jazz" at the Museum downtown. He has been wanting to go to that for a couple years now. I was finally just old enough last year, but we went on our honeymoon so it got pushed back again to this year. His parents knew that we wanted to go, so they gave us the tickets as our anniversary present, they are amazing I swear. But it was so much fun, I could not believe all of the food...and wine....Chris more enjoyed the beverages. I haven't been able to get myself to drink lately, I just do not enjoy it as much, not that I have ever been a big drinker. But any more than a little sip of wine and I am gagging, it is weird. So I definately was enjoying the food. Here is a couple of great pictures from that night:


Saturday consisted of sleeping in, cleaning, and me going on a baking frenzy as I sometimes do. We were having a family get together for lunch the next day, and house church that evening so I needed to make something things...I ended up baking two pumpkin rolls (this is what everyone knows me for, I have been making these since 6th grade, crazy I know), some peanut butter cookies with M&Ms in them...Chris has been wanting me to make these for him for weeks now, I just finally got around to it; and also another pie. This one was an Apple-Raspberry Crumb Pie. I was a little skeptical because the peach pies didn't turn out too great and this recipe was from the same book but it ended up being amazing and everyone loved it. I was so proud I took a picture after it came out of the oven...(I swear I am not copying you Angela, I was totally going to put a picture on here of my pie, you just beat me to it, haha!!)

That evening we went to The Haunt. This year was our fourth year in a row going, and we were looking forward to it, especially Chris. It has sort of been a tradition for us, since Chris took me there on our first official date. We usually enjoy ourselves, besides that fact that you know you are going to freeze your butt off standing in line.

Well I dressed warm because by now I know better, and I hate being really really cold, not to mention that it was 40 degrees out that night. Well when we got there they were running things differently, which we did not know. And of course we were dumb for coming on a saturday night, also the last in October, so pretty much one of their busiest evenings. We waited in line for FOUR HOURS!!! We were so mad, they had this stupid VIP line going and people kept upgrading their tickets after seeing how long the line was...well the line is always that long, but usually people just wait, but no, not this year, and SO many people were upgrading that it took forever for them to finally keep letting our line in, it was ridiculous. We got there around 7:45 and didn't end up getting home until like 1:30 am. We were so angry, the Haunt totally stole our entire evening from us. Four hours of standing outside in line, barely moving...in 40 degree weather. I just kept thanking God that it was not raining! And also, it was horrible this year. We are not sure if we will go bad again next year, which is sort of sad. Oh well!

Sunday was an interesting day. My alarm clock decided to "Fall Back" an hour like it always does by itself and we ended up waking up an hour late. We didn't even know it until Chris looked at his phone...then went and checked the Tivo...he was late for church, I didn't end up going because there was no way I could get ready that fast. But I mean, COME ON! No one told my alarm clock that the government changed it to this weekend, not to mention that I had no idea...haha. I guess that is what I get for having a super intelligent alarm clock. =) After Chris came back and picked me up we went to his aunt and uncle's house for lunch where we all enjoyed his Uncle Ted's famous lasagna that he makes for us all sometimes. And then we came home and house church ended up being at our house which we did not expect until early that morning but it worked out well.

This week went by super fast again, like it has been lately. I had yesterday and today off so that was nice. Yesterday I went to Muskegon and did my new consultant training for Mary Kay. Then I hung out with our friends Adam and Amanda for a little while, and then went out to eat with my in laws and came home. We have to work this weekend, so not much of anything will be going on.
Tuesday I had my interview at Mars for the Kids Ministry. I will be volunteering in the Baby Bay helping with the two year olds with my friend Erica. I am excited, this sunday is my first, I am nervous but looking forward to it!

Our friend Joe (Erica's husband) also took some "family pictures" of us on friday afternoon. They turned out so amazing, I will be posting a couple soon!

all set for the snow!

I swear he keeps getting cuter!!

bummed out.

I could totally be leaving on a plane for Florida tomorrow to hang out with two of my friends for a couple days! I am sad, I know it would have really been a lot of fun and probably one of the last trips I could go on with friends before we have kids. Chris of course is happy that I am not going because he was so jealous, haha. There was just no way I could get off of work on such short notice, I knew my boss would be sooo mad at me so I didn't even bother asking. Plus it probably wouldn't have been smart because I would need to spend a little bit of money here and there but come on! It was a round-trip ticket from Lansing to Florida for only $60!!!! And I have never flown before. I know I will regret not going, haha....
Oh well....

mmm..pumpkin pie.

Chris brought home a pumpkin pie this week from Russ's. We've been eating it since like thursday or something. He kept telling me how good they are, well everyone who knows me well knows that I am like the "pumpkin queen". I've had my fair share of pumpkin pie so I was a little skeptical, it had a lot to live up to. But he was definately right, they are so good!
Speaking of pies, I made my first one ever yesterday. It was "Peach Crumble". I wanted to take something to my Skin Care Class for MK, so I was going through this little recipe book I bought a couple monthes back. It had all of these great fall/Christmas goodies in it and I love to bake this time of year so I had to have it. It actually turned out pretty good, I was kinda proud of myself. I will be making another one very soon because I bought waaaay too many peaches so if anyone is interested....it goes really great with French Vanilla ice cream too.
So yeah, yesterday I got up and went to the store, did some laundry, baked a pie....and right as it was almost finished, and I had the last load of laundry in the dryer...oh yeah and I was just about to get in the shower...our power went out. So frustrating! So I packed everything up and went to Muskegon sooner than planned and just got ready there. Thankfully I have amazing in-laws who let us treat their home like our own. I packed up the laundry and finished drying it there too. There is nothing worse than wet laundry sitting in the washer or dryer. I did that on accident once. It didn't smell so great the next day, haha.
The drive to Muskegon was amazing as usual. I actually believe that it is more beautiful this year than it was last year, the trees are so gorgeous. If it hadn't been raining on and off it would have been the perfect drive. The weather was sort of nasty the past couple days.
I ended up going out to eat with Chris's parents before my MK party, we went to a little place called Hearthstone. They have some really good French Onion soup. The first question Chris asked me when I got home last night is if I got the FO soup, I was like Of course!!! And then he asked me if it was better than Panera's. I actually didn't think so. Surprisingly.
My Mary Kay class went really well. We had four women from Chris's family show up, they were a hoot and everyone did a lot of laughing and talking...it was fun. And I made some money, which is always great too, haha. It was just nice to talk and hang out and get paid, I know that once I get busy doing this that it is going to be such a fun job!! I know working with Mary Kay is going to end up being a huge blessing in my life, it already has been already! God is good!