The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

... BIRTHENTINE'S DAY!

And it's coming up FAST! For those of you who don't know (which most of you do), Birthentine's is the birthday/Valentine's day extravaganza arriving on the 14th of February!

I went grocery shopping the other day, and what did I see? Velvet, heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, colorful conversation hearts, chocolate galore, and reds and pinks in every shade.

Sighh... it made me happy!

why?

and why do I have ZERO comments in the last... like 2 weeks!?

HOME SWEET HOME

It still feels like home here, but it's very different.

We arrived in KS Friday evening, and have been enjoying our time here ever since. Yesterday we came to MO, and I've been able to visit with a few close friends! Jed even got to go to the Chiefs game... but we lost!

All is well!

Reasons NOT to live in the Brittany Apartments

Office hours are only 2 hours a day.
It is only single students, except for us.
You can hear everything in the apartments around you (thanks Mr. Cello Performance Major).
The walls are made from cinder blocks.
All lights are fluorescent.
They like to boot tenants' cars.
They apparently don't like to make money because they have four months of rent checks from us that they haven't cashed.
They STILL haven't given us a contract. (Might be good for us).
They don't fix broken fixtures.
They "patch" walls and ceilings with paint that doesn't match.
The carpet is at least 20 years old.
"Furnished" means unfurnished.
Everyone but us has a dishwasher.
The manager will steal your covered parking spot.
Everything is old, gross, and falling apart.
Undoubtedly, every time you do laundry, you will encounter a broken machine.

Reasons to Live in the Brittany Apartments
...............
They'll give you a door-crack-stuffer when all of your heat escapes.
The laundry is cheaper than a laundry mat.
You get one covered parking spot (even if your old, closer one got stolen).
You get to make interest on your rent check money when it sits in your savings account.
You are bound to no contract, so you could move any time.
Your tolerance for cold water increases.
You can bang the place up, and no one will notice.
With no furniture, it seems your have vaulted ceilings when moving in.
You get to hear a cello concert every night from your own couch.


....... and my hot water it ready. Time to shower.

Christmas Cookies

Every year, my mom would turn our kitchen into a cookie factory, pumping out HUNDREDS of Christmas Cookies each season. We delivered them to anyone and everyone we considered friends. When Christmas rolled around each year, we would start getting requests for or comments about the cookies. Mom always let us decorate them, but usually she told us exactly how to do it.

Stockings-- Red frosting, white frosting on the top of the stocking, and coconut sprinkled on the white part to give it some texture.

Stars-- Yellow, with sparklies.

Trees-- Green, with sprinkles as ornaments, with a brown chocolate trunk.

Angels-- White frosting and coconut again.. but they had little peach faces.

Santa-- Very realistic. Peach face, white/coconut beard. Red hat with little white pompom.

Basically, we were some sort of cookie decorating prodigies. Decorating was definitely fun, but the best part was delivering the cookies! Mom would always make me go to the door with a festively wrapped cookie plate, and everyone was always so gracious and appreciative!

I would love to do this with my kids It was always the highlight of the season, even if we did moan and groan from time to time!

An opportunity to help!

So, ever since hearing about the death of John Jones (the 26 yr-old medical student who died while caving exploring in SLC.. leaving behind a pregnant wife and young daughter), I have been devastated. I have no idea what his wife-- emily jones-- is feeling. I just cried and cried imagining myself in her position.

So, my beloved NieNie.. posted a link to an online auction benefiting Emily Jones. There are some really cute things, and You should go look!

More info here.

Christmas Memory 2

At my Mom's... maybe Dad's too...We, every year, documented our gifts. After the presents were opened, we would strategically cluster ours together.... juuuust right, and snap a timeless photo. Bremen would spend like 3 hours arranging his perfectly.. because that's just how he is. But it was always something I looked forward to!

Christmas Memories

First of all, if you have ever met my sister Maggie.. or know her.. or want to... read her blog because she is HILARIOUS. She is posting 31 stories (for every day in Dec) from the 2000's. They are so funny! And it's something I've been looking forward to reading every day.

She has inspired me to do a little reminiscing myself. While I'm not doing the same thing as she is (I don't have as funny of a life as she does), I would like to share throughout the rest of the month, some of my favorite Christmas memories.

I had the wonderful experience of enjoying two Christmases at two houses-- Mom's and Dad's-- each year. I always rather enjoyed it, but I did hate leaving one house to go to the other. I always felt sad leaving my mom on Christmas. Christmas was different at each house. At Mom's Santa left big presents, unwrapped, in the living room. All small presents were under the tree from "Rudolph," or "Frosty the snowman".. or Mom and Rick.. or whatever. She did the most amazing stockings every year. She always put an orange in the toe, filled it with nuts, candy, small gifts, and an innumerable amount of love. Things were always a little chaotic.
My Dad's was more organized, and a little low key. Our stockings consisted of one candy bar, and a check from our Grandparents on both sides (Step Mom's and Dad's). The gifts were neatly tagged "To Adrianne from Dad and Ann." To begin, we always organized the gifts by recipient... and I always had the most (I'm the youngest.. what can I say?). We would go around in a circle.. each opening one at a time.
Both were great. Both provide traditions I would like to incorporate into my home. and Both shared lots of love!