Knee Deep In It

I feel like I'm up Christmas Creek without a paddle.

In July I start dreaming about decorating for Christmas. I always, somehow, forget what a beating it is. It's much like child birth I'm sure. Not that decorating is quite as painful, but it's just that you only remember the fantastic outcome and not the bad stuff.

The dogs are wondering what in the heck is going on.

I believe I can get it done.

Most of this tree is actually decorated!

Anyway, it's got to be done by Saturday for the big Open House. Or maybe I'll rename it the "Christmas Decorating and House Cleaning Party". You guys don't mind helping, right?

Do You Want to Come Over and Shop?

The Christmas decorations are coming out on Tuesday!

I have a good reason, really.

I am hosting the 4th Annual Holiday Shopping Open House at my place on Saturday the 21st.

So the house HAS to be Christmassy! I just has to.

These are pictures from last year's Open House. We have 9 girls setting up and selling their cute things. You really can get some great Christmas gifts here! To get more info, you can go to: http://www.holidayshoppingopenhouse2009.blogspot.com/

And if you live in the DFW area and want to come, leave me a comment with your email address, and I will email you my address. I would love to meet all of you in real life!

So, now I have less than 2 weeks to get all my Christmas stuff up, finish house projects, and bead and make one million things to sell. No problem.

Project #1: I am going to hang these mirrors in my hallway. Do you think I should paint them different colors or leave them all white? It's just a coincidence that they are all white, but maybe God is telling me that I have more than enough on my plate, so leave them already and go clean your house!

And I need to create something out of these beautiful beads:

Oh, look what I got last week:

I love it and it looks like it was made for my kitchen.

And milkshakes are Marcus's favorite food group.

So, it was meant to come home with me.

I have needed something for above my sink, because having a blank space was just killing me. So, the sign saved my life.

OK, DFW girls: leave a comment with your email address if you want to come to the open house. Try to leave me with the feeling that you are normal and NOT a serial killer. It would help if you had a blog or at least told me what city you live in.

And if you are a serial killer, Jesus loves you, but don't come over!

We Are Really Adults Now

On October 23rd, Marcus and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary. 10 years is a long time. We both say it's gone by quick, but at the same time we can't really remember being without each other.

We met each other in Jr.High. I never in one million years thought that he would be my husband. Not that he was thinking of marrying me back then either. He was the kind of guy that didn't give a flip about silly girls. He just wanted to have fun with his friends. I on the other hand, was BOY CRAZY.

So, we had mutual friends and heard what each other was up to through out the years, not that we cared though. When I was at Texas Tech my friend, James, wanted to come for up the weekend and he brought Marcus and another friend with him. I STILL didn't really even notice Marcus. We were not each other's type AT ALL.

After I graduated from Tech I moved to Myrtle Beach for a year and then moved back home in the summer of '98. I went over to see my friend, James, and he happened to live at Marcus's house. Marcus had just gotten his job at the fire department and suddenly I noticed him. We started dating almost right away and about 2 weeks into it we started talking marriage. We just KNEW. People always say you'll just "know" when it's the one, and it's true, but hard to explain.

God is so funny with his timing. I wish I would have know that Marcus was going to be my husband, because I could have starting dating him in the 7th grade and saved myself some heartache and regrets.

We are total and complete opposites, but I guess that's why we fit so perfectly together.

On our anniversary we took a train ride from downtown Grapevine to the Stockyards in Ft. Worth. The weather was perfect and we had the best day.

And I mentioned before that Marcus always buys my gift according to the Traditional Anniversary gift list. For the 10th year the gift is Tin or Aluminum. I would have been happy with a can of coke.

But he made me this frame:

It's from an old ceiling tin. He cut a space for a picture and went to Hobby Lobby and got some glass cut. Now just picturing him in Hobby Lobby makes my heart flutter. So cute.

We haven't just made the 10 year milestone, we've had 10 happy, joyful, grateful, loving, silly, funny, spiritual, action packed, adventurous, surprising, respectful, passionate and eventful years!

Show Us Your Costumes

Kelly's Korner is hosting a Show Us Your Halloween Costumes, past or present.

Mine are from the past. Like from the olden days.

You can tell it's from the olden days, because my Coke can had a "pull off tab" instead of the kind that you just flip back.

Maybe this costume is what made me the Coke addict I am today. All I know is that it was hard to skate in, but I managed.

The year before Coke, I was Snoopy. I always loved Snoopy.

Would you believe it if I told you that my dad made me these costumes? He did. He is the kind of guy that can make anything. He's super handy to have around.

After the Coke Can year it went down hill from there. My friend Kara and I dressed up as Wilma and Betty from the Flintstones. I think people thought that we were hookers though. So that was the end of my trick or treating career.

Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treat. Smell My Feet...

you get it.

On Sunday I took my niece and nephew to our Church's Trunk or Treat. They have been coming with me since they were teensy. I look forward to it as much as they do.

Ryan, the life guard and Morgan the HSM cheerleader.

And we happen to run into my other nephew, Jeddy, the pirate:

And my niece Melissa, she's the zebra and her friend Maddie, is the nerd:

On another totally different topic, not related what so ever...new ornaments!

I got them at Sam's and I LOVE them. You will get to see what I do with them soon enough.


And to continue my shopping spree, (if 2 things counts as a spree), I got a cute yellow dish towel at Target.

It has a cherry on it, so that automatically means that I NEEDED it. It's practically like my monogram.

And it matches my fridge. And it was just $2.50 for 2 of them.

On to a third unrelated topic:

I have been married to this boy for 10 years and 5 days now. Isn't that exciting? I"ll show you what made me for our anniversary tomorrow. Every year he gets me something from the traditional anniversary gift list. It's cute. He's always been a great gift giver. That works out perfect for me, because I love gifts!

Anyway, this is Marcus making me fried chicken on Monday night. We were having Courtney over for dinner and he asked what we were having. I said fried chicken tenders. I had planned on making them, but he did everything. He even made THE BEST mashed potatoes. And not the kind from a box, the real deal. So I just sat at the kitchen table and watched, and took a picture. The picture is for your benefit so you can show your husbands. Maybe they'll get inspired.

He made so much food, we had my parents over too. What a sweet husband.

Sweet nieces and nephews, new Christmas ornaments, a cherry dish towel, a sweet husband, fried chicken, friends and family...does it get any better than that?

Do You Need A Super Cute House?

My friend Sharon is selling her historical home in Ft. Worth. You can read about it here. I have always LOVED this house and I would LOVE to have it myself, but it's just too far from Marcus's work and our church. Anyway, do any of you want it? She is having an open house on Sunday.

Sharon is my talented friend that made these cute pumpkins that so many of you commented on. I bet if you bought the house, she would throw in a pumpkin for free!

Show Us Your Fall

Kelly's Korner is hosting a Show Us Your Fall Decorations home tour.

I have posted these pictures in earlier posts, so if you've been here before it's all going to look very familiar.

My fall stuff is living on borrowed time right now. My Christmas stuff is just itching to come down from the attic and sparkle up my house. So that's going to happen in about 3 weeks. And I don't want to hear from any of you Grinchy-Scrooges that it's too early. I have TONS of Christmas stuff to put out, so I have to start early. Plus I really wanted to do it in July, so really I am being good!

On Sunday I had the cute 9th grade girls over from church and we painted pumpkins.

Here is a Jonas brother pumpkin:

All 3 were painted, but I didn't get pics of all of them.

Happy Fall and now let's start the countdown 'til Christmas!