Exercise!

I have always known that exercise is good for me physically. But almost more importantly, exercise helps my emotional state and always improves my attitude and mood.

That is why I jumped at the chance to go to the gym when a friend offered me a free 20 day pass. I have been having so much fun! We go together and I have gotten to take spinning classes, a TRX class, and a body blast class...all an hour long each! I am VERY sore but it has been fun getting into shape and sweating alongside other people helps to keep me motivated!

Blah....

I guess I was due for a little cold but I still am not happy about it. We have been running around to so many parties I guess I am worn out. Last night, instead of staying up to watch the ball drop, I went to bed at 8:30pm. Kira woke up at 6am but Tom graciously got up with her and let me stay in bed. I slept until 9:30am! Yikes! But I still didn't feel good when I got up so we made the decision to stay home today instead of going to another family party.

It is unfortunate since I only see this side of the family once a year. :-( We will have to visit for the 4th of July party I think to make up for missing this one...

Blah item #2 is my car is acting up again. Boo. I become emotionally attached to whatever car I am owning at the time and am always disappointed when it breaks down, as any car will inevitably do! I don't care what the car looks like, I just care that it gets me from point A to point B safely and economically. In this instance, my car started sputtering and chugging on our way to my sisters party this last Monday. But on the way home, it seemed fine and we drove it for a couple days without another incident. However, Friday rolled around and it started sputtering and chugging away again, accompanied by a ominous and suspicious smell. So I drove it directly to a nearby mechanic who ran a quick diagnostic before closing his shop so I could get an idea of how bad the situation was...

Diagnosis: my car is only running on 3 of its 6 cylinders! I will find out what else is involved on Monday when the mechanic is able to look at my car again. Until then, we are a 1 car household!

Christmas!!!

Christmas time has finally come and once again lots of running to and fro...

This year, Kira was old enough to appreciate additional "stimulation" so on Tuesday, I, along with "momma d" took her on the train into Philly to see the Macy's light show, Dicken's village and the comcast show! She enjoyed everything and didn't fall asleep that night until late, she was so excited!

Wednesday was the church staff party. Even though I have been on staff since 2002, I have only attended for the last 2 years. We have lunch together and then do a pollyanna where everyone takes turns opening their present. Our church is getting so big, there was close to 25 staff at the party!

This year, we went with Tom's Dad and family to get a real Christmas tree. It was a nice experience, because it was one of those tree farms where you get to walk out and pick your tree and then they send someone to cut it down for you...although I would have happily cut it down myself to get to use a chainsaw again!

Christmas with Tom's Dad's family............................

Tom and his Grandmom wearing her Christmas present!

Kira got a wetsuit for Christmas....Daddy is VERY excited about this! Lol!

Kira always wants to see pictures whenever I pull out the camera!

Kira and Aunt Sammi

Christmas morning tradition at Tom's mom's house, tom and his sister's looking for the Christmas pickle! Julie found it this year...that is her facing the camera!

Kira getting a Christmas ornament, this girl sure got a lot of presents this year! Yikes!

Kira and Tom's sister, Aunt "Kiss"

All the grandkids on Tom's mom's side. From left, "Jojo," Keeley, Bobby, LJ, Katie, Kira, Joey, Shawna and Frankie.

Tom's cousins Kelly and John playing with Kira, she is miss popular at this party because she is the first great-grandchild.

Rolling around on the floor...

We still have two more party to go to (my family), will post on that a little later!

Thanksgiving

I realize I have not blogged since early November and so much has happened, I will have to make a few posts to catch you all up on everything! So we'll start with thanksgiving...

I always look forward to thanksgiving, because it means that there will lots of parties and catching up with family. And even though I am an admitted introvert, I love going out to parties and socializing! This thanksgiving we had a party every day for four days straight...

Thanksgiving day we always celebrate with Tom's Dad and extended family. The next day (black friday) was spent with my Mom and Dad, sisters and all the grandkids! Then saturday, was another party for another side of the family. Finally, the fourth party was celebrated with Tom's Mom's side at a restaurant. It was very fun but it took a toll on Kira this year. She came down with a fever on Friday afternoon and I had to keep her home all day on Saturday so Tom went to the Saturday party without me.

She loves to play with Naomi, whom she calls "Ni-Na" when she sees a picture of her! :-) They were having fun playing with Dad's exercise ball!

All worn out! Poor thing!

Fun with dirt

I am realizing when you have a house, the list of projects is endless. I find that no sooner have I crossed the "to do" items off my list that I discover a few more things that need doing. Ahhhh, such is life, and it is good to keep busy with projects anyway...

I have been wanting to make some changes to the front of the house but needed serious direction with what to do since I am a gardening newbie. So Mom graciously offered to come and give me some advice and help.

Last Tuesday both Mom and Dad came over on their day off to help me rip out the railroad ties and re-edge the new garden.

It was nice of them to come over on their day off. It was such a big help! I think they had fun though, Mom said at one point "I like digging in the dirt." Maybe that is partly why she is so slim. "Many hands make light work."
Saturday Mom and I drove out to her favorite local nursery to pick out some plants that would be appropriate for the front of the house. We got a crape myrtle for the corner (this should grow to about 20 feet) and liroipe (variegated ornamental grass) for behind the crape myrtle to give year-round color. Next to the liriope are 2 Euonymous flowering bushes. Then we planted winter pansies in front of both windows. We got all this planted on Saturday. We were able to get it done b/c Tom was able to help me with moving the two arborvitae that were in the front (see previous pic).
Then yesterday (Sunday) I laid wet cardboard down first, then mulch over top that. According to my mom, you can pay money for expensive black matting to prevent weeds or you can use cardboard. Since we just unpacked the last of our boxes from the move, we had plenty of cardboard on hand and so I just used that.
We also got 3 knock out rose bushes...one will be bright fuschia and the other two will be pink....

a little person...

What we've been up to...

Both Tom and I joined a Bible Study group...my ladies Bible study meets on Tuesday nights and is studying Philipians. It is a Kay Arthur study and I am really enjoying digging into the Word in this way again. Tom's men's group meets on Mondays and he is also enjoying getting to know some of the men in our church a little bit better.

Kira is continuing to grow up too fast! She is a little ham and she knows how to "pose" for the camera when we tell her to "say cheese" she always obliges with some funny face!

Bath time fun!
Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese!!!!!!!!!!!!!


In other news, I took a little break from completing my project in the basement to work outside while the weather still allows it. Mom and Dad came over on Tuesday and helped me get started by edging out the front garden. Mom and I will be going to get a pretty flowering tree to put on the front corner of the house so I hope to put some pics up soon to show you what's going on there. This is truly a learn as I go process b/c I really know nothing about gardening but I am getting lots of good advice and encouragement from my folks so that helps me get motivated about it!

More of the basement...almost done!

No pics this time around but yesterday I painted another section of the unfinished side so now I have completed 2 out of 3 sections! Whohoo, almost done! I'll post a pic when I am completely finished.

Other than that, things have been semi-quiet here lately. Just puttering away on little projects with the house. Dad came over recently and finished the shelving for the hall closet so I was able to fill that up with my extra towels, linens and toiletries. Tom and I also worked on organizing what we call "the great room" in the basement on Sunday. It is at a good point now where we are both pleased with how it looks. No more cluttered unpacked boxes, everything has a place now and things that could go in storage were moved into the attic. Once I finish painting the floor on the unfinished side of the basement, our next big project will be the great room. We already talking about some ideas for that room and it is kind of fun to think about what it could be with a little TLC.

Had homecoming weekend at PBU over the weekend and got to see some friends I hadn't seen in a while.