In addition to my post yesterday. No, they didn't come. Can you believe it. I called right at 9:00 to see where they were and the lady said they would still be a half an hour. So needless to say they rescheduled. Better luck next time......maybe! I'm not holding out much hope.

Morning all!! So, I'm sitting here waiting on the tile people to come and I thought I might as well right something today. Since our house was new when we bought it we get a year for them to come and fix things. Well luckily the only thing that needed fixed was some cracks in the grout line around some of the tiles. So they are supposed to come today. I love when they give you a time window. On Tuesday they said "we will be there between 8-12." Like I have nothing else to do but be stuck at home for 4 hours HOPING they might make it at 8 or I'd even be happy with 9 or 10. It's the Holiday's people... I have things to do. So on Tuesday I cleaned the house and then waited and waited and waited and around 12:30 they call to tell me they are running late SURPRISE!!! I told them I would have to reschedule that I had things I needed to do (imagine that). I think these people think we should block out the whole week so we are free all day every day so they can come anytime they feel like it. SO, today is the day I rescheduled for. They said "we will put you first on our list and will be there between 8-9." So here I am again, waiting. I have a lot to do today. James and I are leaving Monday for a week and I need to run some errands. Well everyone it is 8:49 and I'm counting down the minutes before I leave the house and tell them to FORGET IT. I got up early today on my day off, got ready really fast, took Toby out, not on his usual walk but just out fast so I could be ready by 8:00. I was really holding out hope since they didn't come Tuesday they would be here first thing this morning. WRONG!! Anyway, I'm trying not to let it ruin my day but I hate dealing with companies that give you that dreaded time window!! Happy Friday everyone.

Christmas cookies DONE

So FINALLY I'm done with my Christmas baking. I thought this year I would make a bunch of cookies and take them to some of our friends around here. I started at 9:30 yesterday morning and didn't finish until 6:00. I was EXHAUSTED!! My legs still hurt today from standing up all day on the tile floor. I didn't burn any which is good for me. I usually get bored with it after awhile and forget I have cookies in the oven. It seems to happen every time but not yesterday. I will never I repeat NEVER bake that many cookies at one time ever again. I also did sugar cookie cutouts with icing that are not in the picture. Next year everyone gets one cookie a person of the same kind :)

Christmas

I think one of the reasons I enjoy Christmas so much (minus the shopping) is due to the wonderful memories I have and the traditions that my family had as I was growing up. I can't wait to someday (soon hopefully) do most of those same traditions with my family. James and I do a few of them now and we have also started our own. I just wanted to write some of the memories I had growing up which started with my brothers and I making paper chains to count down the days until Christmas. I loved doing that and hanging them around our room. We also watched all those movies that are considered "timeless" now (that's scary) like Rudolph and Frosty. We always went to the mall to see Santa and ride the train. Going shopping for each other at a store that was meant for little kids in the mall and our elementary school also had a little shop where I always bought something for myself. The shopping habits start so young! We always begged my mom to do cutout sugar cookies. I know now she didn't like all the work ( I still beg her when I'm in) but we always did them. She also would make gingerbread houses. I love that to this day our family even though it has gotten bigger with wives, girlfriends, and husbands, all every Christmas Eve even if we have to take multiple cars, carivan around to look at Christmas lights. My dad always guides the tour. When we were little we did that went home to put out cookies and sugar for the reindeer and then went to bed. We always went out to get a real Christmas tree. My parents never complained (at least to us) about the getting it, hauling it in the house, decorating it, etc. Now that I do it myself I complain every year. What a pain to go through all of that for a few weeks. I love it though, when it's done. I like sitting in our family room now (in my house) with just the Christmas tree lights on. It reminds me of Christmas Eve at our house when I was little. I love this season for all the good memories, the ones being made every year, and the reason why we really celebrate this season. For the birth of our Savior and what that night meant for each of us.

Finally it's Friday for me!! I like my job here in Florida but itis always nice when it's Friday. I have been doing orthodontic assisting for about 7 years. I went to school shortly after moving to Baltimore to become a Certified Orthodontic Assistant. I really enjoy it but I always like to be home. Tomorrow I'm going to do some baking for Christmas. James and I are going to deliver some cookies to some of our friends. I'm also so glad I'm done Christmas shopping. I finally finished this past week. Just in time since we leave to go home to WV for Christmas 1 week from Monday. I love the Christmas season, the meaning of it, the tree, the baking, being with family and friends, and all the traditions that go along with it, however, I hate the shopping. Any other time of the year you can't beg me to stop shopping (ask James he knows) but Christmas time I despise it.

I finally ran my first race. Something I've always wanted to do. James has been running for a long time and has done several marathons.I've always wished I could do something like that. So finally I DID IT. This picture has James, myself, our nephew Ben, my sister in law Amy and her niece Blair. We ran it in WV over Thanksgiving. I don't think I will ever do a marathon or a half for that matter. I don't enjoy running that much, but I do hope to do another race soon.

I can't believe I turned 30 this year. I had mixed emotions about the big day. I think time seems to go by so much faster now.I remember growing up, summers seemed to go on forever, now they are over before I even realize it. On my birthday I thought of it as a milestone. I lost a lot (around 55 lbs) of weight over the course of the year leading up to it which I had wanted to do before I turned 30 so I was proud of myself. However I kept thinking if the next 10 years goes by as fast as my 20's did, I'll be 40 before I know it. Now that is SCARY!!

Our life in summary

For those of you I don't get the chance to talk to very often, I thought I would give you a run down on James and I . After knowing OF each other our whole lives, you see James is 5 years older than me so when he was 18 it wasn't "cool" to be hanging around me. I finally reached the age where it wasn't as bad to be dating. It isn't so bad when you're 25 dating a 20 year old but when you're 20 and dating a 15 year old that's a different story. So anyway, after a short dating period we got married in 1998. I can't believe how time has flown by. We lived in Parkersburg, WV when we first got married for about a year. James was going to school at the time and we ended up having to move to Morgantown,WV so he could finish school at WVU. We loved it there. We met some really good friends there that still to this day are some of our best friends. We lived there for I think 2 years and then James graduated and we moved to Baltimore. We lived in 3 different towns there all within the metro area. Our last house we had built which was just across the MD line into PA. We lived in Baltimore for 6 years. We only got to live in our house we built for almost 2 when we decided we would like to move to a warmer climate. We don't particuraly miss Baltimore but we made some very close friends there and we really miss them. Along with our friends both of my brother's live in Baltimore so it was a hard move. So now we have been in Florida for a year and a half. I can't believe it has been that long already. We love it here and have met some great people that I'm sure we will be friends with forever. So that is a summary of where we have lived over the past 10 years. Next will be what we have been up to over these past years :)

My first attempt.

Okay people, this is my first ever blog attempt. I am inspired by all of my friends who have such creative blogs and I can't seem to figure out how to get mine to be creative. I need help. I can't get good backgrounds or anything. I've avoided this for a long time due to my lack of experience in the "blogging" world but have decided I would try to do this since we live so far away from family and our friends we left in Baltimore. Maybe one day mine will be creative and look put together.