Living Blossoms

+ We just did devotions together for the first time in ages. It helps that I finally found my Quiet Time that went missing in September. It was under the couch... where Isaac and I had both checked more than once. Isaac prayed for our child who may already be out there somewhere and of course I started crying. There is nothing guaranteed to make me cry other than adoption. I wasn't this bad till we went to the orphanage in El Salvador. It's just so REAL now. I really, really understand why God placed it in our hearts to do this, and I feel much less defective for not having always daydreamed about being pregnant and having kids that look like me.

+ We finally took our Christmas stuff down today. The dining room looks so big without the tree in there! It's kinda sad to have it gone for another 11 months.

+ 4 more Swagbucks and I can get $25 in Amazon gift certificates! And Isaac's account has enough for $5 for Amazon or Starbucks. I'm planning a trip to Knoxville to get together with some friends (woo-hoo!), which I will need airfare for, so I may hold onto mine and keep saving for the $50 Southwest gift card. It's hard though. There are lots of things I could buy from Amazon with $25. If you'd like to earn things just for searching as you would with Google, sign up here! Then when you win, I win. And when the friends you refer win, you win!

+ I had a really unhealthy day today. I ate leftover shrimp and fettuccine alfredo for lunch and then thick crust white pizza for dinner. Good thing I went for a 5-mile bike ride yesterday and a 3-mile walk today! I really love walking to work. I don't know why I waited so long to try it.

+ Did I ever post on here that I figured out the savings from my CVSing? My Aug. 30-Dec. 31 CVSing total out of pocket cost was $50.51 and I saved $863.32! I would've spent over $77 on stuff like milk, gum, tissues, etc. anyway, and that's not even counting the makeup, tons of toothpaste, medicine, etc. that I have gotten that we'll use eventually. I've also made $10 of my out of pocket cost back from Ebay auctions and will be getting $27 back from rebates - so it's like I've only spent $13.51. And I have two nice blood glucose meters to sell on Ebay which will probably fetch another $10 each, so I'll come out getting all that stuff and having spent nothing. Freaking awesome.

+ Isaac came to work with me for 5 hours Tuesday night. We are in the process of switching the church's financials from Quicken to Quickbooks. I can already tell that it's far more user friendly, and I hardly know what I'm doing yet! We also began a bit of the year end stuff which has been stressing me out. I think it will actually be okay though, with his help. I'm so grateful for him. I could never have taken the treasurer position without him being an accountant and being kind enough to help me.

+ Seth has declared me the coolest sister ever. Not only did I buy him a case of Cheerwine in NC, but I also gave him a set of headphones for his phone (well, actually I traded for a 2GB micro SD card) and made him some ringtones. So basically? I'm the bomb. Hehe.

+ GO GATORS!!!

+ Happy Christmas Eve Eve! I've only wrapped two presents so far. I keep meaning to, and then other things come up - like today, when Mom called me and asked if I wanted to go to SnS for lunch. How could I say no?

+ I've been a crocheting fool lately. My first attempt at making the hat I mentioned somehow went haywire and I ended up with a slightly concave doily. LOL. So I tried an easier one and it turned out pretty darn cute. It's a little small, but it will work for my purposes. I may make another just because I am empowered by my success. Today I began working on a lacey scarf, which will be gorgeous when finished. It'll take me a while though - it's quite intricate.

+ Thank you to all who've sent Christmas cards. I've put them up on the part-wall between our living and dining rooms. I fully intended to send some of my own this year, but I didn't even get any out to relatives. I really do like sending Christmas cards, but oh well. Maybe next year. So yeah, if you were waiting for one from me, don't worry - it's not you, it's me. Hehe.

+ I went to CVS at midnight Sunday morning to get all the free stuff before it was taken. (Then yesterday I learned they offered rain checks for all of them. Heh.) That should've been quick and painless (and it was kinda fun CVSing in the wee hours of the morning; if only Angela was here to go with me!), but I was not the only person with that idea, and the cash registers were acting up. At least everyone was in a good mood. I got so many goodies. I gave some of my loot to my family Sunday night - that was cool. And I managed to get two bottles of laundry detergent, which weren't even on sale, for $1.50. Nice.

+ I keep forgetting to tell y'all my thoughts on the Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner. The shower certainly isn't sparkling (and we've been using it for about a month now), but it is definitely cleaner. I like knowing that it's cleaned and disinfected every day. I would say don't pay the asking price, but if you can get a good deal like I did, go for it. It's worth it to have to scrub the shower far less often.

+ I think we're going to spend the night at Mom & Dad's tomorrow night. We'll watch movies, eat some caramel corn and Doritos, and sleep in the living room. After breakfast we're going to go to the beach (it's going to be 80º and sunny!) and then probably go see Bedtime Stories. Then Dad will get home (he's working in the afternoon), we'll open presents, and eat dinner. Sounds like a great Christmas to me.  =o)

+ I think my dishwasher has officially died. It's been acting screwy lately, and after the last wash, which I had to cajole it into doing, none of the dishes were clean. Well, I suppose 2 1/2 years for a countertop dishwasher isn't too bad of a lifespan. I wish we had the money to redo our kitchen and just put in a real one.

+ I hate doing laundry. I usually put it off till we have a humongous pile. Today was just a medium pile, but I got it done. Bleh. I don't know why tags on cashmere sweaters say to dry clean only. I've washed all of mine in cold water on a gentle cycle, and they come out clean and even softer than when they went in. I hit a thrift store on Saturday and found my 2nd thrifted cashmere sweater ever. It's a lavender one from Ann Taylor, and it is so gorgeous and soft. It's one of my favorite sweaters now - not bad for $4. I also found a totally cute casual dress from Banana Republic for $2. I may wear it on Christmas, just because I can.  =o)  I went to the Ann Taylor and Banana Republic sites to find out the average price for those things, and basically I got them at at least 98% off original retail. Rock on!

+ Does it annoy you guys when I write about my thrifted finds, or do you just skim right through? I just realized the other day that it may come across as bragging, but that's not at all how I mean it. I'm usually just thrilled that I found such great stuff, so I want to tell you about it. Still, I could stop it if it bugs you.

+ Well, I'm gonna go keep crocheting and watching Supernatural season 2 with Seth and Isaac, and then it is off to bed sooner rather than later. I've had a sinus headache all day, and sleep is the only way to put an end to it. In case I don't get on here again in the next few days, I pray you all have a fantastic Christmas, celebrating the birth of the Savior!

+ Ah, Monday. I actually like Mondays because I don't have to go to work till Tuesday. The only thing I don't like about Mondays is that Isaac has to work. Thus, I am momentarily husbandless.

+ I finally got to see Twilight on Saturday! I managed to convince Isaac to go with me since we had to go all the way across town anyway, and we have a gift card for a theater over there. (I'm sure the proximity to Steak 'n' Shake didn't hurt either.) I think he actually liked it. I liked it even more than I expected. All my friends have been saying a few parts are incredibly cheesy, but even those parts didn't make me roll my eyes. (I mean, if I'm going to a movie about vampires, I'm already suspending mucho disbelief.) I think I actually like the movie better than the book because in the movie you can pretend Bella & Edward's relationship is actually based on something tangible. Charlie cracked me up. Edward started out SO UGLY but got cuter as the movie went on - I think it's because they laid off the makeup? I loved all the Cullen casting, and although Bella is too pretty, I like that actress too. She was a believable Bella. I'm looking forward to New Moon though, because I love Jacob. I thought the kid they got to play him was a great choice.

It was fun watching it in a Jacksonville theater, since Jax is mentioned so often. I hadn't even thought about it until the first time Renee said, "You'll love Jacksonville, Honey." A bunch of people in the theater yelled, "Yeah!" and "Woo-hoo!" When Bella said, "I don't want to go to Jacksonville!" we all booed. LOL. Actually, the Cullens could do quite well here. Yes, it is sunny most of the time, but if they lived in Riverside or 5 Points, no one would think anything of the sparkling. They could just tell people they're living art, or flamboyantly gay, or something, and everyone would just accept it. And if they wanted to go to the beach and people asked why they were sparkling, they could just say that they live in 5 Points, and people would be like, "Ah, I see." LOL.

+ Saturday we also did a photo shoot at Isaac's office. I got some business-y pictures that I really think will work for a more commercial comp. card. I hope to get a shopping one and perhaps a working out one pretty soon.

+ We walked to church yesterday! That was pretty cool. It was pouring afterward though, so we hitched a ride with my parents. I also ended up singing with the worship team, spur-of-the-moment again. We sang the first song and they were vocally very quiet because they had NO sopranos and were down the loudest man too, so at the greeting time I asked the worship leader if he would like me to sing. He said that was probably a good idea, LOL. Isaac said it was much better after I went up there because you could actually hear the melody! Heh.

+ I'm going to Charleston, SC this week! My mom has business up there, so she, Grams and I are going up Thurs.-Sat. None of us have ever been there, so we're quite excited. We'll have just about 2 whole days there, so hopefully we can see quite a bit. I also hope it's not as FREEZING COLD as it was when we went to Savannah 2 years ago, but I'm bringing a scarf and gloves just in case.

+ I went to a MAC Cosmetics store Saturday to get some freckle-hiding foundation that actually matches my pale skin. They actually had one! I've never spent that much on makeup before though. Oy. To think some people do that all the time! I've now used some department store brands in this process of finding a foundation, and can officially attest that Mary Kay's is just as good as those are - at half the price. If only MK had a really thick-coverage foundation like MAC, I'd be using theirs and happily saving money.

+ I had just a short CVS run this week. I guess after giving away the whole store on Black Friday they decided to tone it down this week. I just got 4 cans of Febreze Air Effects for $1.29 total. And apparently I have more ECB than I thought, thanks to BF. I went into the store on BF (well, actually, we went on Thanksgiving) with 27 ECB, spent $4, and came out with 50.39 ECB, 2 Cover Girl makeup items, 1 Maybelline makeup item, 1 King Size Reese's, 3 Gatorade G2, 1 Philips ear buds, 1 Johnson's Softlotion, 2 Loreal lip gloss, 1 Sally Hansen nail polish, 2 Colgate Total, 2 Aussie conditioner, 1 Garnier facial scrub,1 Playtex tampons, 2 Altoids, and 1 Shick Quattro razor/trimmer! They basically paid me $20 to take all that stuff. I. LOVE. THAT. STORE.

+ We put up our Christmas stuff last night! That's always so exciting. Last year we didn't put it up till December 9th because we were too busy. November 30th is much more acceptable. I do so love the Christmas tree lights and the nativity scene. It's funny too because I always think I have more ornaments than I really do, so when they're all on the tree I feel like some are missing. It's because one of my family's Christmas traditions was that each year my bros and I would get a new ornament. When you have 4 kids with at least one ornament from each year they've been alive, plus all my parents' ornaments, that's a very full tree. Now it's just mine and the few that are Isaac's. Speaking of which, I need to order his for this year. I know just what I'm going to get him.

+ There was more I wanted to say, but I've forgotten. So, I'm off to make lunch. Have a great week!