One Little Word... What's Yours?

~ Bare with me here... this is a long post without many photos, but it's an important one! So, grab a cup of tea or hot chocolate and settle down with a fuzzy blanket and start thinking a little about 2009. Oh, and I've added a little color to this post to make it easier for you... :-) ~

There are so many cool things going on in the "blogosphere" right now! The amazing Ali Edwards is once again encouraging everyone to come up with "One Little Word" to focus on in 2009. Here is a run-down of the concept taken from her 2007 One Little Word post.

"Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in the next year?

It can be something tangible or intangible. It could be a thought or a feeling or an emotion. It can be singular or plural. The key is to find something that has personal meaning for you. This is not your mother's word or your spouse's word or your child's word - this is YOUR word.

One little word can have big meaning in your life if you allow yourself to be open to the possibilities. And here's one thing that is totally interesting: sometimes a word will pop into your brain and it will not make any sense to you right now. Give it some time. Let it percolate a bit. I have often found that our hearts speak to us in very unique ways. Maybe this is a word you need to hear but just aren't ready for it yet. Again, be open to the possibilities."

I encourage you to read the entire post to learn more about choosing your little word for 2009. Below is my list of possibilities so far... Let me know what you think. Which ones are good? Which ones are bad? Which ones describe me and which ones do you identify with? For a HUGE list of possible words (this will definitely get those gears turning!) check out Ali's list of possible words.

(The bold words are the ones that relate back to my New Years Resolutions post from yesterday... Weird because I made the list and the resolutions about a week apart and these 4 words were common to both!)

Absorb
Be
Breathe
Capture
Connect
Content
Create
Delight
Direction
Embrace
Enjoy
Explore
Give
Home
Journey
Laugh
Moment
Move
Observe
Play
Purpose
Quality
Quiet
Rediscover
Relax
Savor
Significance
Simplify
Together

---------------------------------------------------------

What, you ask, could be a good way to honor your word for 2009? Well, I have just the thing. Once I pick my word I will be doing this as soon as I can!


Stephanie (famous doodler and blogger extraordinare... hee hee) has offered to DOODLE your One Little Word for you so you can have it around all year and be reminded of why you choose it. You can order a custom doodle of YOUR word (plus a quote/scripture/verse of your choice) for $15 in PDF format or $20 framed. The best part? Oh yeah, there is a best part... Stephanie is going to donate $5 from each purchase to Autism Speaks. a charity that is near and dear to many of us... (and, if it's not near and dear to you now, get in touch with Amanda at instepforacure@gmail.com and ask her why it's important to support this wonderful cause!) Really now, how cool is that? Like I said, as soon as I choose my word, I'm ordering my custom doodle! You'll see it pop up on my blog a bunch! Yippee! All the details are on her blog so go check it out and also check out the other example doodles she has up!

So, what's your word for 2009? Tell me. :-)

New Years Resolutions

(The year of the Ox)

This is the first year I have actually taken time to write down resolutions for the New Year. So, here is what I'm going to focus on in 2009. Let me know what you think in the comments section because I'm pretty smitten with this list so far. :-)

- Create more... "Because it brings me joy."
- Live more... "What is wonderful about this moment?"
- Save more... "Do I really need this?"
- Move more... "Move your body girl!"
- Give more... "Walk my butt off to fight cancer... Bye bye butt!"
- Explore more... "If it doesn't seem interesting, look harder."

The 12 Photos of Christmas

As I mentioned before, my card reader has decided that 2009 is just not going to be it's year to read cards. Maybe it got tired of reading cards and has always wanted to write a novel... maybe that is one of it's New Years resolutions. Forget reading, he's going to WRITE now. Way to think outside the box reader...

Until I get a new card reader that is just happy reading cards and NOT aspiring to be anything else, I have uploaded a few photos (12) to share. I took A LOT more, but they are all on Jason's computer, which is in Vermont, with Jason and which happens to do a much better job reading my cards without my rebelling reader.

So, here they are, 12 photos that sum up my Christmas... more to come soon. :-)

(Click for larger, and better, view of the mosiac!)

(From left to right, starting at the top...)
1. Drove home to Vermont in a snowstorm.
2. Picked out a Christmas tree for my Mom's house. Jason cut it down all by himself. :-)
3. Mom & Dad's house all covered in snow.
4. Christmas with the Piette's included much Cool Whip eating by the little ones. :-)
5. Christmas Eve in Newport... Denise opening a necklace from Amanda (tears followed...)
6. Christmas Eve night: Erin and I bend Mom's icicle ornaments on the tree before going to sleep.
7. Presents under the tree Christmas morning.
8. Christmas pajamas all day! Oh, and Jake (the black lab) needed to be in the picture, upside down. Haha.
9. Erin opening her Red Sox tickets that Jason (cleverly) wrapped inside a roll of toilet paper.
10. Christmas afternoon at Grammy and Grampy's. Tori and Real were playing with my camera and some mirrors. I'll have to post the series of photos Tori took. They are really great.
11. First present opened at Grammy's = A Wii for Denise and a Wii for Donna! The look on De's face is priceless and you should have HEARD the SQUEALING when they saw them!
12. LittleMissMatched socks that I gave the girls. So cool. How awesome is that pic? It was Elizabeth's idea to do the star with our feet... turned out so great!

Quick update: I am back in MA, which is why I am blogging again, and heading to work tomorrow. I have my own cute little car now and I LOVE him! Pics coming soon... see below for why I don't have them NOW! :-) His name is Leo, named by Erin, and I got a new CD player for him from Mom and Dad which Dad installed (don't tell anyone he knows how to do that...) and I love that too! :-)

Christmas in Vermont

Howdy all!

I know, I know... the updating hasn't been the best lately. I have no real excuse either, because both my parents and my in-law's have (somewhat) high-speed internet access!

I have approximately 497 photos from the Christmas celebrations this past week. Unfortunately, my card reader has decided it's had enough of reading my cards, so I am struggling to get photos onto my computer (which doesn't read SDHC cards... humph.)

Anywho, here is a run-down of some of the more random things that have happened this past week. I promise to update with photos and (if you're lucky) more explanation later!

(What? Another list? Of course...)

1. We drove home from MA in a snowstorm last Friday... fun stuff.
2. I got my new car, and it's UBER cute!
3. Donna gave me a recipe for toffee that is AMAZING!
4. I have made mac and cheese for the Piette's twice this week (thanks Jess... mwah!)
5. I ate way too many of my Mom's "breakfast" cookies. Yummm...
6. I ate way too much. Period.
7. Got some really great gifts! Reading "The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster" right now... from Erin. :-)
8. Lots of crying this Christmas... good crying! I told Amanda that I'm going to do the Avon Walk with her this year, Erin got Red Sox vs. Yankees tickets, Denise got a beautiful necklace from Amanda, there was a wonderful acceptance of a few Wii's at Grampy's house, and Booger hasn't attacked anyone's face all week!
9. There has been lots of snow here... SO pretty. It really puts you in the Christmas spirit.
10. I watched ELF for the 4th time this month the other day. :-)

Ok, enough randomness for now. Like I said, photos later if I can ever get them uploaded... Grrr... Night!

Random Friday makes a dramatic return!

Just a few random tid bits...

- There is supposed to be a snow storm this afternoon in Eastern Mass. This means a few things:
1. On Tuesday, they posted signs on the interstate reading "winter storm warning, avoid travel on Friday"
2. They have been talking about the storm since Tuesday.
3. I have heard that we are going to be getting anywhere from 3"-28" in the next day.
4. Traffic this morning was non-existent.
5. State employees get the day off and I am just a little bitter.

- This morning on the radio (warning, this is another comment about the storm!) they said that originally they thought the storm would start midday to afternoon... but NOW they have revised that statement to say it will start midday to afternoon... with emphasis on the AFTERNOON part. Seriously. That's what they said.

- I am super excited about Christmas... and Mom's Christmas cookies.

- I REALLY wish I could find a clip of the radio ad Jason and I heard the other day. It went like this... see if you can tell me what is wrong:
"Hello. This moment of silence is brought to you by McDonald's new Cafe Lattes... *birds chirping & wind blowing*... Thank you."

Ok, so, the last time I checked the definition of 'silence' (which was about 3 seconds ago, here it is: absence of any sound or noise; stillness.) it didn't say ANYTHING about bird or wind! SILENCE DOES NOT INCLUDE BIRDS AND WIND!! The ad should have said "This moment of silence RUINED by McDonald's." I tell you, it's ridiculous.

- Have I ranted about McDonald's definition of 'silence' enough? I think so.

- I have SO MANY presents to wrap when I get home. I love wrapping presents. I am bringing home my own wrapping paper because I have an obsession with it.

This is hard.

T-Minus 2 days until we go home to the good ol' NEK

Sometimes I do this... When I haven't been home to Vermont for a while (since September this time, which is the longest I have ever gone without going home... ever!) I will listen to country music to get in the 'mood' to go home. This is my current favorite, which is weird because I don't typically like female country singers:

More Gift Tags

One of my favorite blogs posted about various places in the blogosphere (love that word!) to find printable tags. I printed a bunch yesterday and love them! Click here to get them.

More coming later... went to see the Chihuly exhibit at RISD with some friends this weekend... photos coming soon. Seriously. Awesome. Stuff.

Decided to focus on collecting things for the December Daily album and working on it when I am home since it looks like I am (gasp!) going to have some time to chill a little.

Getting SO excited for Christmas. Maybe there will be snow when we go home on Friday... I have my fingers crossed. Looking forward to getting Mom a tree, drinking warm apple cider on Christmas Eve, candle lighting and Silent Night in church, giving gifts (I L-O-V-E giving gifts!) and seeing how EXCITED the girls are at Grammy's. :-) 10 more days people. Mwah!

Potato Love

Amanda: I totally ate it with about 4 pounds of sour cream...
Dane: Sorry it's not mashed, but still... look at that!

PS - 'Potato Love' would be a good name for a rock band.

It's Friday again? Whoa.

A little change from my typical random Friday post:

Have you ever had a moment in time when you really can't believe what just happened? Something little that happens that you hope with everything you have someone else witnessed because no one will believe you when you tell them about it. I have had two of these moments in the last week or so. Here, I'll tell you about them.

Jason and I were watching Jeopardy. Sometimes I come up with really random answers to the questions on Jeopardy... just because I don't know the answer and I may as well make up a funny answer. Well, the question (or, because it's Jeopardy, I guess it's the answer.) was something like "This fossil found in Asia in the 1920's was named after the archeologist's wife" (or something like that, I totally butchered it.) Anyway, that was the question so I said "Lucy" and one of the people on the show guessed "Eve" and was wrong. The next person (OMGosh, wait for this...) guessed Lucy and got it RIGHT! That was the answer! I turned to Jason and asked if he heard me say it, which he did. I had to rewind the show to make sure I heard it right. Craziness! I'm SO glad that didn't happen when I was alone because no one would ever believe me. Heck, if someone told me that I wouldn't believe them!

The other time happened last night. My cat (Booger) was standing on the ottoman that is right next to our Christmas tree. Both my cats like to chew on the tree and knock ornaments off all the time, so she was just being normal. Jason and I looked over to her at the same moment and she had picked up a ornament by the hook in her teeth. She then turned and dropped it on the floor and went back to chewing on the tree. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this right, but she literally picked up the ornament off the branch with her teeth and dropped it on the floor. She didn't bat at it or anything. SO weird!

Ok, that enough randomness for today. :-)

Free Christmas Fonts

The Scrapbooking Inspirations Magazine blog (based out of the UK) posted some of the best Christmas fonts available for FREE download! Click here to see the post and download the fonts. I'm loving the "Christmas Wish" font. :-)

Amazon is amazing...

For those of you who enjoy shopping online (Sam raises both hands) you already know about Amazon.com. What you may not know is that I absolutely love this site... I am putting together a list of great holiday gifts which are full of randomness and fun for those of you who may need a little more of both in your life and I keep going BACK to Amazon for everything on my list.

Here is another reason why it's awesome... the other day I was browsing the site and one of the pages didn't load correctly. This is the image that came up:


Seriously. How great is that? Hee hee...

Late Thanksgiving and Mall Mahem

We got to go to Kristen's 2nd Annual Thanksgiving celebration on Saturday night. We had a great time and (of course) the food was amazing! Just a few great (and may I add, priceless) pics from the evening.

This is Tim + Kristen. I'm not sure who named the turkey Tim, but I was told he was delicious. As you can see, Kristen was quite excited about getting to eat him.


The base of the Christmas tree in the living room was a train and meerkats. Love the meerkats. Also, that colorful tree was made by one of Emily's co-workers... it's an origami tree and seriously, it's awesome. I need to find directions to make it.

Dane had lots of mashed potatoes. I'm not sure if you know this, but Dane REALLY likes mashed potatoes. That bowl... full of them... with corn on top. This picture is totally candid, this is the look he was giving the potatoes all night (well, kinda... haha!) (For the record, I think "Smitten Potatoes" would be a good name for a rock band.)

This is Jeremy. He is a great guest. Wanna know why? Instead of bringing cheese and crackers, or just picking up some wine for the party (eh hem, that was me) he brought an ice-cream maker! Seriously, he made HOMEMADE pumpkin ice-cream for dessert! Seriously. Kristen also made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies which were beyond amazing... and the combination of the ice-cream and cookie was to-die-for.

This is the huge pot the mashed potatoes were made in. Seriously, Kristen made 10 pounds of mashed potatoes and there wasn't even that much left for Mia. Poor Mia couldn't get to the bottom of the pot to lick it so Kristen got on the floor and helped her out. :-) Mia likes mashed potatoes too.


So, I'm sorry that I only have one photo related to this event, but this pretty much explains the day anyway. Amanda and I met up for lunch on Sunday at the mall. This photo was taken after we had lunch (wine and margarita included, of course) and couldn't freaking find our way back to the parking lot! I took the picture in case we got lost again and couldn't find another map. I think that Amanda's sense of direction rubs off on people... or maybe it was the fact that I'm ADD and kept seeing things I liked in stores. Haha. Also, Amanda lost her credit card in the mall. Here is how the event went down:

Amanda: I lost my credit card.
* We sit down and she checks all her pockets, I check my pockets, and the bags we are carrying. We start back-tracking to the stores we just visited, asking if they have seen it. They haven't, and we check pockets and bags again, this time while sitting down. Amanda checks pockets in her new jacket that she didn't know she had. We finally get back to the last place she used it. *
Amanda: Have you seen my credit card? I lost it and this is the last place I used it?
Dude at the kiosk who wasn't all that nice to us the FIRST time we talked to him: No. It's not on you anywhere? I sure I don't have it.
Amanda: Ok, thanks.
* We walk away. *
Amanda to me: I found my card
Me: Where???
Amanda: Hold on. Let's go in this store.
* We duck into the Hallmark store.*
Amanda: Of course I needed someone to ask me the most basic question ever in order to find it. It was here in my front pocket but I didn't want him to know I lost it in my pocket!

Moral of the story: If Amanda lost something, make sure you be SPECIFIC when asking her to look places. You never know if "go through your pockets" will get translated to "go through only your back pockets because I obviously want to put 3 more miles on these shoes inside the mall today walking around looking for the credit card that is in your pocket" to her. :-) Hehe. <3 We had fun though... I'm not sure the wine/margarita helped us in the search for the missing card... Haha.

Cute Gift Tags

If you are looking for some uber cute gift tags to print out and use on your gifts, here are some free ones I came across that I am in love with! (I especially love the maze one... a-dor-able!)

From Living Locurto:
From Martha:

She makes me smile :-D

Amanda's away message tonight:

December Daily - Day 2 Photos

Hanging ornaments... (love my purple lights!)


Jason and I have been collecting ornaments from the places we have traveled together. This one came from our honeymoon in Aruba.


The look Booger gave me when I told her to stop eating the tree.

The three spiders Grandma made for me are the photo below. These are, by far, my favorite ornaments on the tree. Here is the legend that goes along with the spiders:

"A long, long time ago, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year ... Christmas Day. Not a speck of dust was left anywhere. Even the little spiders had been banished from their cozy corner high up on the ceiling. To avoid the housewife's busy cleaning, they finally fled to the farthest corner of the forgotten attic.

Finally, it was Christmas Eve. The tree was decorated and the children delighted. But the poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for the magic of the season. The oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could wait until everyone had gone to bed and then sneak through the crack in the door to see the wonders of the tree. The little spiders silently and carefully came down out of their attic corner and across the floor to wait in the crack on the threshold.

Pretty soon all was quiet, so the spiders quickly crept into the room. The tree towered so high that they couldn't see the ornaments on top. In fact, the little spiders' eyes were so small that they could only see one ornament at a time. They all scurried up the trunk, out along each branch, filled with a happy wonder at the glittering beauty. The spiders loved the Christmas tree. All night long, they danced in the branches, and every place they went left a trail of dusty, gray web. When at last they had inspected every bit of the Christmas tree, it was shrouded in the dusty gray of spider webs.

Santa smiled as he thought of the happy spiders seeing the tree and how much they liked it, but he also thought of how sad the little mother would be over the dusty tree. He reached out his hand -- and just then the sun came through the window and touched the tree. All the webs started to sparkle and shine turning into shimmering, sparkling silver and gold. The tree glistened in greater beauty than ever before!

According to legend, ever since this happened, people have hung tinsel on their Christmas trees."

We hung only 3 strands of tinsel on our tree; one for each of our spiders. I absolutely love tinsel and would love to include more, but I know my kitties will end up eating it. I have already lots a number of ornaments that were hung too low because of Bruno and his love of batting a ball around the apartment. :-)

Playing Ketchup

Because I like lists and have a lot to say:

1.) Started taking photos for my December Daily Album yesterday. Took some photos of the mall decorated (which I LOVE.) Thinking about how I am going to journal the album since I am really bad at actually writing journaling. Thinking of using this block which I downloaded here:


2.) Craft weekend with Kristen was AWESOME! The boys played Tanks on the Wii (for what seemed like the ENTIRE weekend...) I made Mac & Cheese from Jess' recipe (SO yummy!) and we, of course, did some crafty things... the wine glasses turned out SO cool! Even Booger got crafty on the carpet. (See Kristen's post for some great pics of how much of a pain in the butt my cat is.)


3.) Thanksgiving was fun. The menu was Spiral Ham, Mac and Cheese, Baked Potatoes, Corn, Peas, Squash, and Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert. Turned out all right, considering my severe lack of baking skills. Jason "carved" the ham:

Our uber formal Thanksgiving dinner in our living room... we watched Private Practice. :-)


4.) I became one of "those people" and put up my Christmas Tree on Black Friday. It's the first time I have had my own tree, so I just couldn't help it! All the ornaments aren't on it yet. I have LOTS from Grandma that I still need to put on... my favorite being my spiders... I am waiting to put them on so I can put some pics of them in my December Daily Album. You will see... they are amazing.

Love this little tree. It's not real, but it will have to due for our little apartment. I picked it up at Target with my sister in January for $2.00! Yeah, that's TWO DOLLARS! How amazing is that? I also got some tinsel for nineteen cents. So great.


5.) The first Christmas present of the season was given to Amanda from Jason. It was a carved nativity scene to replace one we had gotten her that fell off a shelf. :-( Jason really wanted to give it to her early... I'm sure if we got it in March he wouldn't have given it to her around April. As is customary for Amanda, there were good tears upon opening the gift. :-) (Please excuse Jason's pajama pants in this photo... he hates it when I post pictures of him in his pajama pants because he doesn't want everyone to think he is always in them... hee hee.)


6.) We went to Salem on "Grey Saturday" (that's what I call the day after Black Friday) and bought a new TV. This is the first of our "big 3" purchases we have coming up. We want to get a new couch, a bed for the guest room, and a new TV. Of course the TV came first because it's the most fun. Haha. We got it at BJ's and were bringing it out to the car and Jason was saying (under his breath) to the people passing us "My wife loves me more than yours does... hee hee hee." He was really excited! It wouldn't fit in the car, which I thought was hilarious... so we had to (seriously) take it out of the box and put it on the backseat of the car and then break down the box to get it home. Check out what it looks like next to our old TV (which is now in our bedroom.) It's SO much bigger!


Mmmmm.... Gotta L-O-V-E the HD goodness.


7.) The kitties were cuddling on the chair for like 4 hours the other day. Makes me want to cry it's so cute. :-D They pretend to hate each other then they go and do something like this:

Still on Blog hiatus...

... in the meantime here are four things:

1.) The best ever Christmas CD is The Rat Pack Christmas. Seriously. The. Best.

2.) The best song on said CD is Baby It's Cold Outside by Dean Martin. Click to listen. If you are anything like me you will listen to it over and over and over and over... (see where this is going?)

3.) Much things to talk about when I return from hiatus. (Craft weekend with Kristen, Tanks, Kitties Cuddling, Thanksgiving, December Daily, Grey Saturday, and lots more...)

4.) 'Hiatus' is fun to say.

That is all. :-)