I love the Holidays

It was a pretty crazy busy weekend, but isn't it always? I think I have excepted the fact that I just do not get to sleep in anymore, whether I like it or not. I miss it, but it's nice to get up early and get a lot done in the day. It makes you feel so accomplished and ambitious, haha.

Friday night after work I finally got to go and see Twilight. I was disappointed. I am not sure exactly what I expected, but the point of the matter is that the book is ALWAYS better than the movie. They are long books. There is no way they can fit that many details into a good movie. It was a little cheesier than I expected. And there were lots of tweens and teens screaming a lot, it was funny. I still liked it though, just because it was Twilight. I can't lie, if they make a second movie, I will see it. How can I not? I am too much of a fan and too curious.
I went with my friend Julie from work and her sister Katherine. It was fun, I went over to their apartment and they had made enchiladas and sangria. It was nice, just some girl time. And then we went and saw the movie. They also have the cutest little pug dog named Stoli, he is so cute!!

Saturday morning Chris and I had a monument appointment in Muskegon which went well, and then we met up with his parents and went out to lunch at Red Lobster. I always want to get their Alfredo Pasta with the crab and lobster in it. Sooo good but sooo incredibly bad for you. Needless to say I was good and got the grilled salmon with rice and veggies. When we came back home in the afternoon we switched vehicles and went to Romence Gardens and got our Christmas tree. This year we decided to upgrade and get the Fraser Fir instead of the Douglas. It looks awesome!! And the needles won't fall off so much, it's also a lot stronger and holds the ornaments better.
Once we got home we decorated.... the tree, the house; all the while listening to Christmas music. Creme de Mint Hot Chocolate and Egg-Nog filled rum...Christmas cookie candles...mmmm.. What could be better? It makes me so nostalgic. I love that we decorate and are creating our own Christmas traditions. It will be so fun one day when we have kids. Of course movie favorites are always thrown in the mix as well. White Christmas, It's a Wonderful Life, Elf....this year Chris wanted to watch Airplanes, Trains and Automobiles since it was almost Thanksgiving. He loves it, it is so ironic the things the characters go through. The 80's music is awesome too, it's pretty funny. We watched that, then between that night and Sunday after church I managed to whip up 6 pumpkin rolls. It's easier to just make them all that one time and freeze them. I would be needing them for various occasions in the up and coming week ahead. Sunday morning we went to church, did a little grocery shopping, came home and finished the pumpkin rolls. Chris decided to make green bean casserole for our dish to pass (along with a pumpkin roll) and we headed off to Lowell for our House Church Thanksgiving dinner.
It was pretty fun, everyone brought food and we all sat around and talked and laughed...just spent some time together. Afterward we played poker for a while and then the weekend came to end, just like always. It always goes by so quick!

This week at work has been good so far. I only have to work 3 days this week and I get a four day weekend. Chris is jealous. I feel bad for him having to work and everything. Tonight I have my bowling and tomorrow we are going to venture out into the craziness of the biggest bar night of the year. We will see how that goes I guess! Chris's friend Paul and his girlfriend Naomi are going to meet up with us which I'm looking forward to because they are really fun to hang out with and we just do not get to see them all that much. Thursday we are having our Thanksgiving meal with Chris's family before he has to work at 4, and then I'm heading down to South Bend to meet up with my family for the evening, and I believe we are going shopping on friday. That should be interesting, I have never ventured out to do that before!!

Well that is all for now...I should get to work!

Where did the last couple days go?

The weeks are flying by I swear! I can't believe it is almost October! One of mine and Chris's favorite monthes. So yeah, it makes me happy. Christmas is almost here, right around the corner. Good stuff.

Yesterday I had the day off. I had to go to meeting at work at 10 am. Nothing annoys me more that being forced to drive all the way over there on my day off, I guess it's different if I go on my own terms, which I actually do quite frequently, to visit residents, bring Niles along to see them (they love that!) or see my coworkers, whatever. But anyways, we have these mandatory meetings, but atleast we get paid for them. It's always the same old crap we are talking about though, I with they became more useful. We were informed that if people keep abusing their 15 min. breaks that we get paid for that they are going to get taken away. It's same couple of people that keep doing it, and they are ruining it for everyone else. I don't even get to take my 15 min. breaks, most of the time I am too busy. Plus I don't smoke, so people don't expect me to push it, which personally isn't fair. But I don't complain. If we have a good night and everything goes smoothly, most of the time I get everything done somewhat early, which means we hang out in the living room and work on the infamous puzzles. So yeah, I don't complain. But these meetings are still an annoying hindrance on my day off.
After that my friend Stephanie came over and did my hair, I love it!!! I always feel bad asking her to do it, because, to be completely honest, I'm somewhat of a brat about it. I just know exactly how I want it colored, and cut, and sometimes it is hard to express that to someone else, that is why a lot of times I end up coloring it myself. Especially when the whole time I know exactly what she is doing. I know I just need to have more trust in her, especially since she always does an amazing job. I will post some pictures soon. Chris is so happy, he loves it when my hair is brown, and he keeps telling me how much he loves it. =)
Steph brought her little puppy Pudge over. He is a little cutie, he is half maltese/ half shitzu, black and white, and only weighs 6 lbs. We thought him and Niles could have a litte puppy playdate. But nope, Pudge was SO afraid of him, I was kinda surprised!!! I mean, I know he is hyper and all, but Pudge wouldn't even let him sniff him, I felt so bad because she was here for like almost 6 hours and pretty much the whole time I had to keep Niles in his crate. Anyways, we didn't finish my hair until like almost 6 pm. I had such a huge mess to clean up, we seriously cut off like 7 inches of my hair probably? It was getting so long and blah, I need a change! After that I did some grocery shopping, it's amazing how much stuff I bought and spent and I still feel like we don't have any real food, I hate that.
I went to Erica's last night and hung out with her and our friend Andrea (these girls are in my house church), it was so fun!! I miss having close girlfriends that I can talk to about anything. I love hanging out with you Erica and I'm so happy I met you guys! We told some funny stories about talking and walking in your sleep, and also discussed some funny things that have happened with elderly people at our jobs (she used to work in a nursing home too). Good stuff. Anyways, I promise to be posting my list soon of and huge number of random facts about me. I could work on it right now, but, it's already have noon. And I need to get ready and I want to bake some cookies! Not to mention that I need to eat some food. Watch for my list, coming soon!

I can't wait for tomorrow. Chris and I are doing the Aids Walk downtown, and then going shopping at Macy's. When we were in Chicago we were walking to the Navy Pier. I was looking around at the ground, probably thinking about how much litter was everywhere and how people need to recycle more, and low and behold, there was this macys card on the ground, with a receipt in it that told the remaining balance. My Dad was like, you know you have to try to return it to who it belongs to, I was like yeah I know!! So when we got home I called customer service, and they said that there was no way to track who it belonged to unless you had the orginal receipt of who purchased it and it had a credit card number on it, so they told me that I got to keep it!!! There was $222.00 on it!!!!!!! I feel so lucky. I was like, Thank you God! This is such a blessing! I mean, why me?? Why did I find the giftcard? There we so many people walking around, anyone could have saw it, but I did?! So yeah, tomorrow me and Chris are going to go shopping. It is going to be our little date day, I am excited to spend some time together!

Chris's Birthday and an update

So yeah, today was Chris's birthday and he turned 27....crazy! I have known him since he was 23, I met him right before his 24th birthday, It's weird because at the time I was only 19, and he seemed so much older than me, and now I am almost 23!!! It's insane! He was actually at my house in Lansing hanging out so I was with him on that 24th birthday...we had gone to Warp Tour at the Silverdome the day before, and we got home late that night...then midnight came and it was his birthday, but then he had to go back to Muskegon obviously. It is just cool thinking back on it.
I had the day off today which happened to work out well, and Chris had to work this morning. His parents and his Aunt Barb, who's birthday was also on tuesday, came to town tonight and we went out to eat at Louis Benton Steakhouse downtown. We have always talked about going there but there are so many places to go in GR that we just finally got the chance. It was pretty good, my salad and steak were amazing! I feel bad though because our night went so fast...it was like Chris didn't even get a chance to enjoy himself. He finally got a carrying case for the laptop, and also Frasier, Season 9 which he has been wanting for forever! I bought the cutest card in the shape of a boxer for him. I was so creative, hahaha.....I dipped Niles little paw in some mud and stamped it on the inside of the card and wrote "Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you!! Niles" It was so freakin cute.....I guess you'd have to see it. I thought it was a good idea anyways... =)

Things have been a lot better at work lately, a lot calmer too. The resident that I wrote about previously, the one who upset me so badly...well he is gone for good. A lot of crazy things happened last week...he just went off the deep end. I knew he had his bad days here and there but a day turned into four and before we knew it he became unmanagable. He was refusing to eat (for days on end) and eventually was freaking out so bad that he was threatening to hurt himself, which then turned into threatening the staff, so yep, he is gone. Which is OK by me anyways. We could not help him in the ways he needed. He needs psychiatric help, and we are not trained to provide that. It is still beyond me how they could have ever possibly thought that it would be in his best interest to let him live there when there was no way we could have given him the mental and emotional stability that he needs. Well enough about that.....

I went to Target today. I am totally hating their photo department right now. I spent a good half hour editing and cropping prints and then walked around the store for another 45 mintues while I was waiting for them to print. When I finally went to pick them up they told me that the printer had broke down and wouldn't be fixed for who knows how long. I couldn't wait any longer b/c I had to come home and get ready. I waited almost 3 hours, called there, and the repair guy still hadn't even called to come to fix it. So Chris's aunt didn't get half of her bday present, I was so mad! In a hurry I drove to the Meijer in Grandville to quick print off the two picks that I needed just for her, and their machine was broke too, and the print them off normally I would have to wait another hour, well I didn't have time so yeah that didn't work either and I made a trip for nothing. But anyways, when Target gets their crap together we are gonna have some sweet pics from the wedding. I should have had some put up way before now but I guess I was just procrastinating digging through them all, choosing the ones that I wanted and editing them all, it's such a pain!!

We are going to Chicago over Labor Day weekend with Chris's parents and my parents. We are getting on the train here in GR and taking it over there, I am so excited!! I didn't think that we were going to go there this year...we didn't go last year b\c we went on our honeymoon....for those of you who don't know Chicago is like "our litle place that we like to go." Chris loves it there, and he took me there for the first time ever once we started dating, that was also where he first told me that he loved me. =) We went there again for our one year anniversary, so we haven't been there since Oct. of 2005. Then he also surprised me last week and was like, Hey I think we should go again for our anniversay, which is in October so we would be going twice within 6 weeks!! We found a really cheap hotel downtown and one of his coworkers told him how you can drive down to Michigan City, IN and take the train there to Chi-town and it's only $12 round trip! So cheap! So yeah, we booked the hotel but we are deciding if we are going to keep it or cancel. Since we are going there over Labor Day...I kinda want to do something different. We have always wanted to stay at the Amway Grand downtown, and if we booked it now...you can get a room for $150 which isn't much more than what we were paying for our room in Chicago....we will see I guess!

Christmas is going to be here before we know it!!! I can't wait!
For all you who don't know....I LOVE Christmas!
I am totally that person who has their radio station on Star 105.7 24/7 during the Holidays. I know like every word to every Christmas song. People begin to hate me...haha!
I can't wait to put our tree up in one of our big windows, it's going to look amazing! I keep thinking about it already, pathetic huh? I wonder how Niles will do...he will probably knock it over and break everything, I would be so mad......haha. Anyways! Enough about Christmas, summer isn't even over yet! =P

p.s. I am lovin me some Mary Kay right now!!!!

Well I guess that is about all for now. I will post some new pics soon.