Arts and Crafts

In an attempt to save money and give meaningful gifts this year I decided to make the majority of my presents. Here they are...

Box for Jake's little sister.


My mom actually made these for my friends. It's an apple cinnamon pancake mix.


These are so easy and inexpensive to make. They're just plain wooden frames from the craft store and pieces of scrapbook paper.


Frame for Jake's other sister. She came to Vegas for her 21st b-day.


Photo album for my mom filled w/ pictures of me and Jake.


Painting for Jake's mom.


I had a lot of fun making everything and I think everyone enjoyed their gifts. That's all I have to report for now. I'm too tired to think of anything else.

T-shirts that I must have

All of these are available at cafepress.com. Feel free to purchase them for me. Thanks.

The Day Hell Froze Over

Here are some pictures of the biggest snow storm in Las Vegas since 1979. Most of it melted the next day, but it was fun while it lasted!

Snow on a palm tree....not something you see every day.

Me and the sister.

Me and Jake

He took a pretty hard fall.

So the family is gone now and Jake left for California today. I'm all alone :( We had a good time with the family and pets. I had Monday and Tuesday off so it was nice to have a mini vacation. Also, my mom cooked and did laundry the whole time she was here so that was nice too. We had a nice time just hanging out and relaxing (no touristy things). We also went shopping and my mom got me these boots:

http://www.stevemadden.com/item.aspx?id=46682

Well they are pretty much like this except they don't have the cuff at the top. They are my new favorite thing. We also went to Marshall's and got some Nike running clothes for super cheap!
That's all for now. I must clean up the house before the Christmas slumber party tomorrow.

Things I Want

This Chair

http://absolutelybeautifulthings.blogspot.com/

This ring (and earrings)http://www.kabiri.co.uk/jewellery

This cupcake

http://www.thecupcakery.com

Christmas Survey

Candy Cane Questions
1. What is your favorite Christmas Movie? Home Alone 1 & 2
2. Favorite Christmas Song?All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey
3. Favorite Holiday Memory? Well every Christmas we get a piece of fruit in our stockings and one year the fruit happened to be apples. After unwrapping all of our presents we looked over to see one of our cats eating the apple! I realize this sounds silly, but I'll always remember it. He ate a good chunk of it.
4. What kind of cookie/treat do you like to make? I'm not much of a baker, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas unless my mom makes her cream cheese cookies

5. Have you ever made an igloo? No, I think the neighbor kids and I tried to make a fort out of snow one year, but I don't remember it being too successful.

6. Do you love Starbucks? Gingerbread Latte or Eggnog Latte? I haven't had either one...
7. What makes the perfect Snowman?it it comes to life and sings songs
8. Best gift you have ever given? I gave my mom a Kitchenaid mixer. It was for her b-day, but it tops any Christmas gift I've ever given.
9. Best gift you have ever received? Super Nintendo in the 3rd grade. Oh, and my hot air balloon ride last year.
10. What is the snowman's name on Rudolph? No idea
11.Silver or Gold? Silver
12. What is your favorite Christmas decoration? my advent calendar type thing-cause there's candy in it.
13. What's your Christmas decorating style? traditional red and green. it works well since our walls are green and we have red drapes.
14. Do you hang stockings? Well Jake's is hanging from the coat closet door and mine is at my family's house
15. How many days do you celebrate Christmas? Well this year it's like a 2 week ordeal.
16. What do you want this year? running socks...for real.
17. What was your favorite ornament on the tree as a child? One w/ a mouse sleeping in a tea cup
18. favorite food you eat on Christmas day? no favorites

Weekend Update

I originally had scheduled a vacation day to be used tomorrow knowing that I would need an extra day to recover from this weekend, but I had to go to the dentist last week, thus having to waste my vacation day. I kind of wish I'd just not gone to the dentist b/c what I thought was a deadly gum disease that I was sure would cause all my teeth to fall out turned out to by mild irritation of the gums that has since disappeared. So I will now be at work tomorrow, but I will be exhausted from all of this:

Grandma arrived on Friday. I drove home from work, picked Jake up, and we went to pick her up at the 4 Queens. This was a nightmare. It took us an hour and a half to get downtown. Add the half hour I was in the car on the way home from work, plus the half hour it took after picking her up to drive to the Bellagio and I was in the car a total of 2 and 1/2 hours. The reward was worth it though because we got to see

It was really amazing, but completely different than

Both were amazing and they make me wish I could be an acrobat.

On Saturday I picked Grandma up and we went to Mandalay Bay to pick up my race stuff and then we went to Town Square. We walked around and then went to see Four Christmases. I'd like to personally thank the movie rating team for giving this a PG 13 rating. One would think that PG 13 would be just fine to see with your grandma, but in case you haven't see it and you were considering taking a grandparent or something, DON'T DO IT. It is so inappropriate! I mean it's not a bad movie and it's kinda funny, but I felt more than a bit awkward during the entire thing.

On Sunday I woke up super early to go run the Las Vegas half marathon. It was my first and a lot of fun. There was a big fireworks show at the very beginning of the race and Robin Leech was the commentator person! I'd trained up to 16 miles, but the 13 seemed a lot harder. No time to rest though, Feb. 28th will be here before we know it. Here's a picture w/ my super cool medal. Somebody forgot to bring the camera to the race so this was taken after we got home.

After breakfast w/ Grandma we came home and rested for the rest of the day and then met her for dinner. So now it's almost 7 and I'm wishing so much that I didn't have to go to work tomorrow, but I'm poor and must go make some money. Oh well...

Comments

Hi Mom, I fixed the settings so you can leave comments now. Have fun.

First Post

I've decided to start a blog. Yay! I've become a blog stalker lately so I thought I'd give into the trend and start my own. I encourage everyone to start one (if you haven't already) so that I'll have something to read.

As for a life update:
Nothing too exciting going on. Jake has been busy at work and I've been busy trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. Actually, I think I have an idea, but there aren't many job openings w/ the economy in shambles so for now I'll slave away in my cubicle doing the same thing over and over. A boring job is better than no job!

Jake and I will be pretty busy the next few weeks so hopefully I'll have interesting things to write about.

• This weekend my grandma will be in town to watch my half marathon
• My family will be in town from the 14th-17th
• Jake leaves for Nor Cal on the 19th
• I'm hosting a Christmas slumber party for 3 of my favorite people on the 20th
• I leave to join Jake for x-mas on the 24th
• Jake's dad is coming the first week in January to go to a ZZ Top concert with him
  

I'm sure I'll be exhausted around the middle of January, but I'm excited to have lots of family/friend time. Speaking of friends/family, I'll be in g-vine Feb. 26th-March 1st to run the Cowtown Marathon. I expect lots of supporters to be there w/ signs/pom poms/megaphones (Emily and I are going to needs lots of encouragement in order to survive 26.2 miles). Well, that's all for now, time to start cleaning and getting ready for visit number 1.