bring on the rain

Yesterday was Saturday, and a productive one at that. In the corner of our garage was a stack of things.

things that needed to go somewhere.

things that we (I) just let sit there for too long.

SO, before i took off and got my new project started, Dave and I cleaned. for the most part, the "things" were boxes of my life.

boxes that my parents would randomly give me to take home after i got married and moved out.

boxes that pretty much held all my past.

photographs, letters, momentos, more pictures, scrapbooks...you name it!

poor dave continued to clean the garage while i would pop up from behind the boxes of stuff and say

"look dave, OH MY GOSH, you have to see this...it's my pager from like forever ago..."

and

"DAVE! Look at this picture of me and Katie! We were like 15, and at the river..."

and

"Dave, look, have you seen my first car? the blazer? you must have before! right? well look, it's a picture of when i first got it..."

Dave would patiently (at first) humor my trips down memory lane, until the minutes turned into hours. He was a good husband though! I finally condensed my past into 1 smallish sized box. i couldn't help but feel a whole bunch of emotions, and actually a little guilty about getting rid of so much.

Anywho....

On to more happy things! after cleaning up yesterday i started on my new project

.reinventing a coffee table.

dave got me all set up in my new work station. i forgot to get a "before" picture, but here's a "during" picture.

Today, i've picked up around the house, am lounging in comfy clothes, and watching the dark clouds roll in & rain start to fall. I'm ready for some heavy rain. The kind you can hear in bed at night and that makes you want to put on a fire and make some hot cocoa :)

For tonight, i'm letting something else do the work in the kitchen

If weather permits and isn't pouring too hard tomorrow, i'll see if I can get more work done on my project. And that's going to be possible because I'm OFF! Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King!

twenty-ten

If you're like I used to be, you may just kind-of 'skip' reading the posts that don't have pictures. And if that is you, I don't blame you! I mean, really, what fun is an update minus the pictures?! SO, i will add a photo or two. And maybe a link, just to make it worth your reading pleasure.

With the new year, usually comes resolutions. We had a great FHE with our group last week talking about new years "goals". We each wrote down the things we wanted to do or accomplish this coming year. Most of our lists got pretty long, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that i probably won't focus on more than two. I thought, it was probably more realistic for me to focus on a few. SO i narrowed it down for myself. I won't bore you with my personal goals (actually, some of them I just don't want to publicize) haha. BUT i will tell you that I have some things I will be starting soon that I am excited to get moving on!

Also, I wanted to share my favorite blogs of 2009. I know you all have your token "read daily's" so, i thought what better way to begin 2010 but show you those that i discovered in 2009.

• Life In the Fun Lane
• The Lettered Cottage
• Fly Through Our Window
• Aura Joon
• Our Suburban Cottage
  

So go, visit, read, be inspired, browse their older posts for hours (what? Me? NO!) & enjoy!

In other news around here:

• My very much needed new flat iron is waiting at my doorstep (or so my UPS tracking says)
• I got 5 loads of laundry done on Saturday!
• My nail polish is going on 6 days with no chipping! (are these getting too cheesy?)
• My bed that we thought was sagging and defective was just sagging due to a broken support underneath! It's like sleeping on a new bed! Ahhh.

life round here

December was buuuusy! I think we had an event every night the second week, and this past week with Christmas & New Years has felt the same! So, even though it is a bit late, I can't pass by the opportunity to blog about this....Yep, you guessed it! Dave was Santa. He braved the red suit and handed out presents to his brother Mike's GF Jenna's family Christmas party. (got that last part?) Dave was so kind and good with all the children and family! And of course, i got a little photo op with Santa at the end of the night! Christmas was great, we got to spend time with both our families. I was also able to take a few days off this week, which started out with a very busy Monday! I was off and decided to grab a manicure before a scheduled appointment for our new FRIDGE was delivered between 1 & 3. I was pulling into Ralphs to grab some burger makings to feed the missionaries that night, when the delivery guys called. EARLY! I mean, really, who ever has their appliances delivered early?! So i made a U turn, dashed home, and as I was frantically unloading my old fridge, get two calls from Katie...hmmm...I thought i should take it seeing as how she was due on the 4th with baby #3. I answer the phone and said "Are you having a baby?" to which she answered..."I HAD a baby!" She had delivered about an hour before! So i filled up my new fridge, and dashed to Whittier to see both of them! Mallory Jackman is gorgeous, and was so mellow while I held her! I can't wait to get over there soon and see her again! The rest of the week has been just as busy.
We rang in the new year with some great friends we've made since moving to RSM. We ate dinner in San Clemente and played a little poker with the group at Kirk & Chelsea's house. It was so much fun to be with all the couples, and thanks Schillings for hosting!!

So here's to 2010!

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

-Oprah Winfrey-

Cozy.

On the couch. Happily wearing these.

While watching this! (The Holiday...one of my faves!)

I'm so glad it's the season for this movie, even though I can watch it anytime!

Julie's big birthday bash!

A group of 5 of us girls celebrated Julie's birthday today by doing dinner at Benihana's and then dashed (and by dashed, I MEAN dashed!) to see the Nutcracker Ballet! Dinner was, um, an experience?! Lol. No, really, it was fun to chat with the girls, see the classic "onion volcano" and get free dessert due to a little 'vent condensation' mishap. The ballet was so neat, seeing as how it was my first ballet experience! I still am in awe of how these people stand on their toes and look so darn graceful! If i tried that...well, first of all, i wouldn't. So i'll stop at that! :) Now i'd like to see an even more "professional" ballet and expand my experiences! I even saw two of my little preschoolers during intermission. It was a great evening, with great people, and was happy to have a reason to do it all!

Happy Birthday Julie!!

Deck the halls

It's was pretty late, but we couldn't wait!

Last night we bought our tree with Leslie, David & baby. When we got home tonight we turned on the Sirius 'holly' channel, turned up the heater, and got to trimming the tree!

900 lights, many ornaments and a few yards of ribbon later, ta-da! I love it. It feels great to be getting in the holiday spirit! I hope your holidays are under way too!

{Baby checking out their tree}

{Our tree!}

A little Saturday yardening

Saturday was a fun day. We went to the swapmeet with the Andersons, then lunch at Wahoos, and in non Sarah style, skipped shopping at South Coast to come home with Dave and do some yardening. Yes, i think i've used my new word here before. Yardening. Not quite yard work, not exactly gardening.

Back in July for my birthday, Dave gave me a gift card to work on a section of our front yard that needed love. Well, alot of it needs love, but we decided to start with the patch in front of the front door. It needed some shrubbery, something to add a little privacy, seeing as how we're a corner lot. It was sprinkling a little, but we grabbed a cart and got familiar with the "boxwood" section.

Before

After!

We had a good time, the weather was great, and now our front yard is looking much improved! Oh, there's much more to do, but it's all about baby steps!

Now bring on the Holidays!!