Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I <3 the Holidays!

I feel EXTREMELY spoiled this year....after receiving massive amounts of presents from my parents (and more to come after we have moved), hubby and I agreed that the Wii would be our only gift to each other.
Mostly for financial reasons (moving fun/expenses start TOMORROW), but also for the simple fact that we don't need much right now. Our time together is gift enough. =)

WELL...hubby can't exactly stick to agreements. On Christmas Eve, I put together our stockings. In my mind it didn't count as "gifts" because the stocking is supposed to be jammed full of goodies! After convincing him to open his (and mine!) stocking after our yummy Christmas Eve dinner, he pulls a GIANT box out of another box in the closet (sneaky little shit) AND a smaller package that he called "my stocking stuffer". The stockings that I put together consisted of magazines, flashlights, camera accessories, an alarm clock for him, cute underwear for me, candy, and other little things. He LOVED it! My stocking stuffer for him was a pedometer! I've been dying to buy one, but couldn't ever justify spending the money. The only time I ever mentioned it to him was a few months ago when we were shopping at REI...what a memory he has! haha I can't wait to try it out.
After that we cracked open a couple cold beers and settled in for a night of movies.
I have been struggling with being away from my family for this long, especially around the holidays, so there were some tears and many many phone calls...the sweetest being a conversation with my youngest brother who tried to make me feel better but only succeeded to make me cry more by telling me how sad he was that we weren't together on Christmas. A midnight call home (they were all up still playing Catchphrase - it was 1am their time) tucked me in for the night after hubby had been asleep for almost an hour.

Hardly slept in at ALL Christmas morning...I can't help but be eternally 5 years old. We didn't open gifts right away. Instead we made a yummy breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage, and coffee. I immediately wanted to open the big gift that hubby had hidden from me...it was a CROCK POT!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!! I pretty much immediately shoved meat and veggies in it....delicious. My mom and dad definitely spoiled us...a couple new sets of bed sheets (including FLEECE ones...wtf it's like sleeping in a cotton ball AMAZING), several sets of etched wine glasses, ornaments, warm socks for both of us, coffees, slippers, etc...we felt very very spoiled and when I informed my mother of this, and how much we loved everything, she told us she wanted to spoil us because she couldn't be with us. GAH I melted into tears. My family is awesome. My best gift this Christmas is still the picture of our proposal spot. I cannot wait to hang it up in our NEW apartment!
The rest of our Christmas consisted of not leaving the apartment at ALL and playing the Wii until after midnight. We briefly thought about leaving the apartment to see some friends, but couldn't come up with a decent enough reason why it seemed like a good idea...we were having too much fun.

Now the holidays are over, my tree is down and packed, and we are getting ready to move out of our first home together into a new (and MUCH MUCH bigger) home...it's all very bittersweet. Hubby thinks I'm nuts for even thinking about missing this apartment, but I will....only because it was ours together and there are a lot of memories attached to it. I will be sad leaving. I might even cry. haha

More to come!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas Survey!

A little nugget of boredom

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? definitely wrapping paper, but I have recently become a big fan of decorative tins for putting awkward/hard to wrap items in....i.e. my puppy's Christmas gift will be arriving in a bone shaped tin with a big bow on it!

2. Real tree or artificial? ARTIFICIAL...one less thing to clean up after ;)

3. When do you put up the tree? *shameless grim* November 14th this year! =) I COULDN'T WAIT!!

4. Do you like eggnog? YES YES YES

5. Favorite gift received as a child? My parents spoiled us as shamelessly as they possibly could, but I have to be a sap and say that my best Christmas present ever was my little brother (born 5 days before)...even though I wasn't a fan at the time (shut up), I ADORE him now =

6. Do you have a nativity scene? I do not. Nor will I ever.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad...but somehow I manage to pull of something good every year!

8. Easiest person to buy for? It's a tie...between my husband and my youngest brother...my husband is a man of few, but very serious, interests so I stick to that and I'm good...and my youngest brother shamlessly parades his wish list around all year, I never have to wonder

9. Mail or email Christmas cards? ummm neither =/ haha it's my first Christmas on my own!! cut me some slack!

10. Favorite Christmas movie? The Polar Express, and thanks to my dear Zach for introducing me to it

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends...this year I started at the end of November since we had to ship everything...I sent out the last card yesterday!

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? oh crap...is anything and everything an appropriate answer???

13. Clear lights or colored lights on the tree? Clear lights on my tree! Hubby wanted blue lights on the porch though...

14. Favorite Christmas song? NSYNC Christmas...ALL SONGS...the ONLY cd I brought with me on the cross-country move...

15. Travel or stay home at Christmas? I wish wish wish I could travel this year...it's my first Christmas EVER away from my family...but we are staying home and I'm kind of loving that too =)

16. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? FO SHO

17. Angel on tree top or star? We have a sparkly silver star

18. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? MORNING, and maybe ONE gift on Christmas Eve

19. The most annoying thing about this time of year? I can't even go Target for NORMAL things without getting plowed over by Christmas shoppers

20. What I love most about Christmas? I love the feeling...it's undeniable happiness and peace...I also love the fact that this is my FIRST Christmas with my amazing husband, that's my best present ever!

Monday, December 21, 2009

YAY presents!

Got it =) Here is my sweet present from my amazing husband!

Time to Play Catch-Up

I basically suck at remembering to get on here...
We FINALLY got Christmas shopping completely done and I mailed out the last card today! Hubby's family is so big we just did a name-draw, so that was nice and simple...my family was less simple but easier this year than other years. They actually gave IDEAS!
We got the gifts from my mom and dad about a week ago (they went soooo overboard, but I love it!), and I came home to them being arranged under the tree! So pretty! My hubby knows how miserable I am being away from my family at Christmas and he's being so great. We didn't have any ideas for each other, so we bought a Wii bundle as our gift to each other...brought it home and he decided he needed to "make sure it works". I promptly turned that idea down. He willingly wrapped all the items (about 8 total) so he wouldn't be tempted and they joined all the other presents under the tree!
This past weekend was a difficult weekend, and my honey surprised me with my Christmas present early because he said he thought I needed it more then than on Christmas morning. It was AMAZING and I completely melted into tears. I want to post a picture, but I'm computer illiterate...woops. He had a picture of the spot he proposed to me at blown up and framed. WTF when did MY husband become sentimental??? I LOVE IT!! He promptly took it back and said I could have it back at Christmas when he gets to play the Wii. Turd.
2 more days of work (once today is over) then it's time for CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I may watch Polar Express tonight, and every night this week. =)




Monday, December 7, 2009

She Needs a Reality B*** Slap

OOOK time to vent.

A (former) good friend of mine...friends since my freshman year of college, reallly good friends starting my jr and sr year, was with her the night she met the love of her life,....has hit a MAJOR nerve, whatever.
Basically, once her relationship got serious she dropped off the planet. Stopped returning my texts/calls, would randomly comment on facebook pictures but that was the extent of the friendship. Her life revolved around her boyfriend and his son...whom she affectionately (and really psychotically) referred to as her "stepson" since they started dating. She also gave the boyfriend a diamond ring brochure in the first year of their relationship. Ahem...weird? Maybe? I feel the title of Stepmom is not something you take on without the permission of father and child. Am I wrong??
Anyways...we got engaged in May, proudly posted our news on facebook and within minutes I received a text from said friend telling me I better not have gotten engaged without telling her (!!!!! followed the statement). Whatever. I only went out of my way to tell my family, and he did the same. We decided to forego the wedding chaos and simply elope (way more our taste)...(also to avoid any religious conflicts, as his family is Mormon, mine is Catholic, and we are non-practicing in either faith). Everyone was so happy! Except said friend who chose to drill me with questions and proceed to annoyingly tell me that she no longer believes in marriage and won't be marrying her boyfriend ever. It's simply "just not for them". Um ok...I still remember the diamond ring brochure...shortly after I was deleted and blocked from facebook. WAHHH! lol
Well we weren't about to let anyone ruin our happiness.
A few months later, I was getting ready to move to Utah to FINALLY live with my hubby, and my amazing friends decided to throw me a going away party. All of our friends were invited, some couldn't come for their own reasons and that was absolutely fine! The going away party ended up being a surprise post-wedding bachelorette party =) how amazing are my friends?! Well said friend was invited and announced via facebook that she would not be coming because she had an "event" that was planned before "this party thing". HAHA find out via facebook later that night (god bless smartphones) that the "event" was watching a movie with her boyfriend's son.
She proceeds to tell us that her "stepson" is more important than I ever will be...and at that point, being a few cocktails in, I lost it. I told her I saw no ring on her finger giving her the right the claim that title and let her know that we all (which we did) thought she was a glorified babysitter (her boyfriend was out with his friends at a bar)...not so nice, but I still don't care a lot.
Oooooh so the couple who doesn't believe in marriage just got engaged this weekend and are blowing the world up with their "happy news". I could vomit.

What makes people think they have the right to cut someone down for their decisions (ESPECIALLY regarding marriage) and then turn around and do the same thing.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Movin on up!

Literally to the east side! haha

We found the most fantastic apartment on the east side of Layton, and it is LITERALLY on the side of a mountain! The view is AMAZING! We can see all the way down to Salt Lake City, and the lights at night are gorgeous.
The apartment is triple the size of our current apartment...SAME RENT. WTH. Our new landlord is extremely nice, after talking with us for about 20 minutes he didn't even mention a credit/background check...we were given full details about all of our neighbors (it's a small, like 8 apartment complex...he's the manager and maintenance staff haha), and when he learned that we are military and Mark is active duty, he even lowered the rent!
We have been stuck in a crummy situation with our current apartment and almost lost the chance to move...new landlord agreed to hold the apartment for a month so we could move in and not be TOTALLY screwed!
Long story short, current apartment is a shithole, new apartment is pretty and NEW!!!

Hooray!!! Now we just have to find furniture to fill all of this fantastic space!! =)