Christmas 2013

Hi guys! I know this post is only hours after the last one, but this one is about what we've been up to, if you are curious about that.

The kids' last day of school was the 13th and they still have one more week of vacation (yes one more week of vacation for me as well). I'm so thankful for the opportunity to homeschool and the freedom it has brought us. Our time off is always up to us, and I love that.

So monday the 16th, having no school, my plan was to go to the commissary and get everything that I would need for Christmas dinner. I forgot however, that the commissary is no longer open on Mondays, so I drove all the way to the good commissary on Bangor, only to have to drive all of the way back. I ended up shopping at WinCo foods, and that place was pretty good. The prices were close to commissary prices, and the only draw back was that we had to bag our own groceries, but that's what the boys are for right? They loved it! I held back the bread and eggs, than let them go at it, and they did a pretty good job. I did however get some pretty interesting looks from the other shoppers there, yes I'm the crazy lady with all of the kids.

We saw the movie Frozen on the 21st (yes the first day of winter, very appropriate). It's a great movie! The story and character are very touching and lovable. Olivia loved the movie so much that she bought Frozen character barbies and a nightgown with some of her Christmas money

See! Gotta love the bed head in this picture :)

I got to Skype with my family that next day (the 22nd), they were having a football / white elephant party. It was fun to watch. After the Skype call Jeremy and I ordered pizza! Jeremy's sister gave us 4 free pizza coupons for Christmas (she works at a Papa Johns, and knows that we love pizza). So we log onto the website to place our order, and low and behold we have enough reward points for yet another free pizza. So yes, we got 5 pizzas that night, and it was wonderful. The way I see it is, I didn't have to cook for 2 nights (AWESOME!).

Christmas morning was wonderful. I feel like we picked out awesome gifts for the kids, and it was a very relaxing day. I know I've said this before, but Christmas day is my favorite day out of the whole year. I get to reward my kids, for just being mine, I get to eat great food, and I get to sit around in my pjs all day.

This year Jeremy surprised me with an awesome gift, he bought me a Kitchenaid Mixer. I have been wanting one for a long time. With it he bought a whole bunch of boxed cake, cookie, and brownie mixes (he was thinking with his stomach that day). My friend Jessica who lives in southern California, is probably gagging right now because "Those boxes just have junk in them." and she is right, and I do have recipes that I make from scratch, but it's nice to be lazy sometimes.

Our chickens finally started to lay eggs (well we think two of them have anyways). This happened on the 27th. We woke up to find 2 eggs in the coop that day, and have gotten 1 egg each day since.

Our 2 eggs (from the first day)

Our chickens... this is Sunny, 

Scrambles,

Yolkie, and Omelet

So yes once again Christmas is over, it came and went so fast. I'm grateful for another wonderful year, and I'm also grateful for one more week off of school (yes we don't start our school work again until next Monday the 6th), I'm going to need it. :)

How does 3000 miles feel during Christmas?

Getting asked this question is never easy, and most of the time I have no idea what to say anyways. How does it feel to live so far away from your family and friends during the holidays. For me it's just our way of life. It's something that I've had to deal with for a while now, and you just get use to it. The independent person in me likes to say that I like my privacy, and love the freedom of being able to do Christmas my own way, and that is partly right. Every now and then though the feeling creeps up on me, the feeling of why can't I be there with them, and the feeling of that not being fair. I have learned a long time ago that life isn't fair. So how do I deal with that feeling, of missing friends and family that live thousands of miles away?

When my grandfather was in the hospital, and my family was sure he wasn't going to live much longer, my dad said something to me that I have never forgotten. He told me that even though poppop wouldn't be with us anymore, we would still have all of our fond memories of him, and that when we missed him we could just think of one of them, and it would be like he was still here. I was 15 when he died and this really helped. I had a lot of great moments with him, he is still to this day one of my most favorite people (and I have meet a lot of people). So I still use that technique, and just relive some of my favorite memories with some of my favorite people.

like...
-My little sister coming to visit me in San Diego
-Jessica and I eating oranges and watching the Mythbusters
-Talking with Sarah in her kitchen watching her make cinnamon raisin bread
-Baking cookies with my Grandmother
-Working on my old VW with my dad
-Flying home, and surprising my Mother
-Playing Phase 10 with my brother and his wonderful wife
-Staying up way past bed time, and talking with my older sister
-Walking my kids to school with our neighbor Courtney tagging along
-Putting highlights in Dawn and Becky's hair
-Tricking Jessica into picking out her own birthday present
-Arriving in BWI to my dad alive and well after recovering from his accident
-Kandi and Amanda showing up at the hospital offering to take care of Darien and Nathaniel, so I could stay there with Zach

... the list could go on and on.


That's what I do. I makes me feel extremely blessed to have such wonderful memories. Now I know a lot of you may not be fan of the twilight series, but in the prologue of the first book, there is a quote that is just one of my favorite quotes

"When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

I really do feel like God has really blessed me with a lot of great experiences even if they didn't last as long as I wanted them to. I like to think about this every time I feel upset about where I am, and how much I wish I could live in my favorite city, instead of here (I know, I really shouldn't say that).

I really hope this helps anyone who is maybe missing someone this season (or any season). Don't forget to count your blessings.

My go to hair styles

So Friday I posted this picture to Facebook

I've been growing my hair out for two years. The last time I cut more than half an inch off was right before this picture was taken...

I haven't have a lot of pictures posted of how long my hair has gotten since then, so I had a huge reaction to the top picture, and many questions of how I do my hair now that it's long. Also just so everyone knows, I do not wear fancy hair styles like the one in that picture everyday. That would really be to much.


So an easy style that I go to all of the time in the Lace Twist.

I like to do it on the very front section of my hair, just to get it out of the way. So usually right after I wash my hair, or on days that my hair isn't crazy and frizzy, I'll wear it like this. (oh and go easy on me, I'm not wearing make-up in any of these :P)

Next go to in the Waterfall Braid

This is also another great one to just get that front section out of your way. So as long as the back of my hair looks great, I'll wear this one.

One that I do A LOT is pigtails. Yes I know, I'm pushing 30, and I still wear pigtails. I really don't care.
So I know we have all seen the braided pigtails right? Like this...

But have you seen the Rope Braided ones?

Or the Fishtail Braided ones?

Yeah I like to switch it up a bit, so that way even though it is pigtails at least it looks interesting. :)
Also pigtails are awesome because if you have to wear a hat (because it is really cold outside), the hat won't mess up your hair style.

So next is the Katniss Braid

 
Have you seen the Hunger Games? The main character Katniss Everdeen wears her hair like this, and I love it. I like to do this one, when my hair is to lumpy and frizzy to leave down.


Yes so those are my favorites! I hope this helps all of you long haired girls, and maybe some short haired ones too :)