Happy New Year!!

It's been awhile I know. I feel bad for not having posted more often, but it's been a wild ride of the end of the year. I had to make all my Christmas cards (pic to follow of my favorite Christmas card made this year) and then my sister came in town for Christmas and every waking minute was spent with her and my parents, that is when I wasn't working!

That pretty much catches us up to today, a most amazing day. Today wasn't a special day, it was a pretty regular day but it was spent alongside a 7 year old friend of mine, Thomas Kennedy. He has been a big part of my life ever since he was born, but lately, I haven't had a ton of time spent with just him, so today was a great day!

We went to IHOP to have lunch with Mom and Dad and he amazed me with his most excellent conversational skills and reading!! I was in shock at how well he was reading!! We then made a stop at the grocery store to prepare for the nights activities. We made a Pizza from Publix pizza dough. Rolled it and topped it with sauce and mozzarella cheese and thick cut pepperoni (that was Thomas' decision and it was perfect!!). We also got sprinkles to go with the cupcake ingredients we had at home to make and ice cupcakes!! He had me cracking up the whole time we were in the grocery store. He has really grown!!

We went home to play the one thing I know he was dying to play. Super Mario Bros for the Wii!!! He is pretty good at it, but his commentary during play is great. I don't think I have ever had that much fun playing a video game!! We then got treated to a fireworks display off my back deck and that was pretty cool!! At one point it was quite a professional looking fireworks show (I think they hit their finale at that moment!!)

I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time. I'm really grateful for the day I got to spend with Thomas. He is growing up to be a great little man! Tomorrow should be fun too! We are making breakfast for Joe!! Pancakes, grits, eggs, bacon, and roasted potatoes!! He is quite the helper too!!

So, my sister who has been a vegetarian for the better part of my life, has started eating meat. Today was her first day ordering a meal that the main course was MEAT! She has been eating bites for the last couple months, but today she ate her first Burger in 18 years from In-N-Out in San Francisco!! Strange, but exciting for her at the same time, cause I know how much fun it is to try something new!! Here's to 2010 Erin!!!

So, in light of this change in my sister I'm going to use that as motivation to start my 2010 off with trying new things. I love cooking but I get stuck in my rut of meals I know, and well love to make, but I'm sure Joe and I really would like to try new things. So I'm going to cook one new recipe a week and also bake one new thing a week!! I really like to do both, and would love to stop eating freezer pizzas (however delicious they might be) and eat food I cooked. I would love to stop eating fast food, and eat delicious leftovers for lunches!! So keep a lookout for recipes and pictures to come!

I'd also like to take one of my days off a week and spend it crafting. I want to make more projects as well as make cards for all the holidays and I most definitely want to finish my wedding scrapbook!! It's started off so lovely, I can't wait to see where it goes from here. Oh and there is the poor honeymoon scrapbook that I have started and have to finish... See I need to make sure I spend that one day a week in that amazing craft room I share with my Mom! So stay tuned for pictures of those as well!!

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year!!! I hope 2010 brings everyone more good than bad, more fun than boredom and more love and happiness than ever before!!

Happy New Year!

Lisa

Well then...

Hey! It's been awhile since I posted. I have been pretty busy/tired/in a funk, but I'm trying to get back in my groove!

I have been working for the most part, and stressing. I have had my first car trouble in 10 years and it's been quite frustrating. It's come at a time when I'm making considerably less than ever and it just makes life that much more frustrating. I'm over it now, cause, well, it's my first car trouble in 10 years, I should be happy that nothing more has come up sooner. I mean I have had about 5 broken windshields in the last 2 years, but hey, that's what insurance is for! I actually got one coming home tonight! Nationwide, I'll be calling you soon!

I've been watching all these cooking shows and watching them cook delicious food, meanwhile I eat Ramen and frozen pizza! This is something I'm working on. I love cooking, when things go my way and when I understand a recipe. The trouble is, I work a 10 hour day and get home 12 hours after I left, and then making dinner seems to be the last thing on my mind, but that's gonna change. I started tonight. I made Pork Chops (my least favorite dish, but Joe's FAVORITE) with Homemade potato chips (that was an experiment gone ok, but not great) and then my favorite Green Bean Casserole and to finish it off I sauteed some mushrooms and onions! It was delicious! I still have a kitchen to clean, but hey the first step is getting the meal made! My big goal this week is to make Mushroom Risotto!! I LOVE risotto and I LOVE mushrooms, so I can't really see this going bad! I do make a pretty fine risotto too if I don't say so myself!

I've also started the big push to make my Christmas cards! I have a bunch to make and not a ton of time to make them in, but I'm cropping this weekend and I hope to knock out a bunch!! Here is one that I have already made!

Crafting is so fun! Nice and refreshing and relaxing! I can't wait to share more creations!

Let's see, I've also been spending a lot of time with Sophie. She is proving to be quite the challenge, but the sweetest little pumpkin ever. I found it kinda funny today when she wouldn't go near Joe while I was at work! He had to open the back door and move away from it just so Sophie could get up the nerve to run outside. She is quite a girl! I have bought 2 alternatives to leashes to help her stop pulling on her walks, or to keep her from biting another dog! Yesterday she proved the halty was no match for her and ripped off her halty and tried to tear off after a little weiner dog! She made me trip over her and I fell on top of her and we both ended up on the ground on a big heap of each other! That was quite the embarassing moment in front of my neighbors! Thanks Sophie!! I'm hoping I can get her socialized cause I know she would like to go out and about more!

So keep checking back to see what creations I've got going in the kitchen and in the craft room! I wanted to make cookies tonight, but unfortunately I don't have smooth peanut butter and so there goes that fun! Maybe a plan for tomorrow night!!

Happy Day!

Lisa

Walking for a Cure and for a Friend!

Every year since 2007 Team Holbrook has walked in the Race for the Cure to support our friend Beth Ann Holbrook who was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in April 2007 at age 32! YIKES indeed. After a double mastectomy and chemo and radiation, she is now cancer free and has been for 2 years!! Happiness indeed!! This year the race fell on her 35th birthday!

Friday began the birthday celebration with a Tour of Homes in DT Charleston, the Queen street route to be more specific (last year we did Tradd St!). The homes are amazing! They are huge and most amazingly decorated! Though some houses were a little cluttered and we did get called "sporty" with a bit of a stink eye we had a BLAST! We toured 7 homes and 3 churches. There were two houses that really stood out. One was that of a well known landscape artist in Charleston and the other was no one that we were told was special, I mean they do own a house in DT Charleston that is open for tours so I call that special, and did I mention they had a pool in their backyard along with 4 Piazzas!! My favorite church was the Unitarian Church. The ceiling was a sight to be seen. i just stared at it while the man described all the renovations of the church, but all of it paled in comparison to that ceiling! If you ever get the chance to take one of the homes tours I certainly recommend it. It's amazing and a great way to learn some history about the city we call home!

This was night one of a 3 part series known as BA's birthday weekend! We then all gathered together to walk the Race for the Cure on Daniel Island. Well, they tout the race as a 5K, but this year they tried out parking us further away from the race site and hey here's an idea, made us WALK a good mile or mile and a half to the race starting line!! It was a bit chilly this morning, but there wasn't rain and for that we are grateful. We did the walk last year in the rain, and it was not ideal! So after the walk, we hit up the freebies and got to see some friends we hadn't seen in awhile (always nice!) and then we treked back the 1.5 miles to the car... Fun... So all in all we are thinking we walked a 5 K on Friday night at the tour and then a 10K today so we got some good excercise in for the weekend! I was so tired and in desperate need of caffeine that I headed home to a warm bed and a hot lunch!!

Tomorrow the Birthday weekend will conclude with an 8pm showing of Kathy Grffin at the Performing Arts Center!! We are really excited about this! Should be a BLAST!!

Let me tell you BA is worth a weekend celebration! If everyone could have a BA in their life I think the world would be a better place!

So here is the card I made for her, that I have been waiting to post until I gave it to her!!

Hidden inside is a coupon for a free cupcake at Cupcake!! If you have never been, you need to make it a priority to go. They are amazing cupcakes and have many interesting and delicious choices!! They even havea $30 cupcake that is HUGE!!

This was a great weekend spent with great friends!

I hoep everyone stays warm and has a GREAT rest of their weekend!!

Happy Day!

Lisa

How I spent my day!!

I had a blast crafting, and shopping and lunching with Mom and Dad (well he lunched!!)!!

I got more done in the craft room than I thought I would granted we didn't get started til 3:30 due to the Pepsi debate 2009!!

Check out the baby shower card I made...

The Happy fall card I made

And the Halloween card I made!

Tomorrow it's off to a card class in the morning and then a baby shower at night! Fun weekend!!

Happy Day!

Lisa

Sophie Bear Russell

It's official. Sophie has been adopted into the Russell household. The adoption happened on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier to make her a permanent addition to our household. She is an amazingly sweet dog. She lives to be loved and to love you, her timing might be off on loving you aka when I'm trying to sleep in on a day off, but I still couldn't be happier!

When doing hte adoption, we realized she was not microchipped and so we went in to the shelter today to get her chipped. She was less than pleased to be returning to where she was surrendered. She was scared and reverted to the dog with the tail between her legs and trembling. I felt like a horrible Mom, but I knew she needed to be chipped. If she got out, then she would run!! She doesn't know our neighborhood well enough to be sure she would come back home, so it's WAY important for her to be chipped. Once that was done, she was ready to go and be on her way home. She is SUCH a good car rider. I hardly even noticed her in the car. She sleeps in the back seat and appears to be at peace in the car. She is the total opposite of Kahlua in this respect. Kahlua flys from one window to the other, doesn't lay down, nor does she posses decent balance for a turn or stop of any kind!

She is currently resting peacefully on a chair and happy to have a forever home! I love that dog and I'm happy for the positive changes she has made in the household. She has made Kahlua act about 5 years younger. They play with each other, with their toys and sleep together. These are things that I have tried for years to provide for Kahlua, but she doesn't respond to my toy interactions, doesn't play tug or fetch, but with Sophie she does it all and she is DARN good at it!! Two Two is still getting used to the fast pace Sophie lives, but she can often be found laying near Sophie on the bed. Give Two Two time to get used the the fast movements, and Sophie time to realize that we aren't going anywhere and I think that will be a sweet partnership!

Joe loves Sophie. More at night than in the morning. She wakes at the first sound and has a hard time going back to sleep, but I look at it as a way to get me moving earlier and be more productive with my day. Today is a prime example. I got WAY more done on a Thursday than I have EVER done since I started at the Shelter. I usually use Thursday as a lay around and take some time for myself cause I worked so hard during the week day!

So all in all I think Sophie is going to be the fresh step this house needs. Now, I'm not saying she's perfect. I hunt for my clothes that she has hidden throughout the house on a daily basis. She has no personal space boundaries. She has a thing for my favorite comforter, but her smile, her eyes, her face, her love makes all those silly things fly right out of my head.

I'm going to be crafting tomorrow. Starting early and hopefully getting a lot done before I have to go home!! I'll post what I work on!!

Happy Day!

Lisa

It's about time..

I got back in the craft room Thursday and Friday this past week! I needed that. I haven't spent that much time crafting in months!! I was going to work on my wedding scrapbook, but instead I chose to return to a passion of mine.. card making!! I made a card for my friend BA's birthday on the 17th!! And I made two fall cards. I was inspired by many things for these cards. Mom had been making a new format of a card, and so I wanted to play with that a little, and then we have an AWESOME paper pack that inspired the rest of the card. Here's the "Happy Harvest" card I made!!

I missed being in the craft room. I can't wait to go back. I have a card making class this weekend and I can't wait! She makes lovely cards and I can only imagine the loveliness that is to come!

One another note, I saw Pretty in Pink for the first time on Saturday night. Apparently, it's unheard of that I have made it to age 27 and not seen this movie. Well this sparked the discussion in person and on Facebook, what other classics have you not seen???

Well here are a few of the reccomended movies that I haven't seen and apparently NEED to see!

-Legends of the Fall

-16 Candles

-Say Anything

-Fast Times at Ridgemont High

-Better off Dead

-Weird Science (I think I have been quoted lines from this one...)

-Can't Buy Me Love

I'm sure there are more. Joe says I live in a bubble on a lot of things and I do believe this would be one of those moments! I have CHEESY taste in movies, but most times they are current and revolve around a current actor or actress being in them, not the plot itself. Case in point, My Best Friend's Girl starring Kate Hudson. HORRIBLY HORRIBLE movie... Erin can back me up on this one!! So I plan to add these to my Netflix queue and rating them as I go. I'll keep you posted!

One another note, Today is my Half Birthday!! 6 more months til my birthday!!! I would like to thank Mrs Vogel for teaching me about this wonderful holiday. Though no one ever remembers, I do, and that's what counts!!

Happy Day!

Lisa

Joe, please don't leave again!

I'm not going to appologize for being behind on writing I'm merely going to explain to you how I spent my week.

Let's see.... Joe went out of town for work on Monday morning not to return until late Thursday night. At first I thought, cool, I can have the bed to myself, watch cheesy TV without fear of mocking, that was not how this plan played out.



Monday night I realized started a new season of TV shows, mainly House, but there were a couple other cheesy shows that I'll get to in a moment. So I got home, thankful for an accident free house from Sophie. Settled down on the living room couch with my Totino's Pizza and House on the TV. Great episode byt the way! No spoilers from me, just a real good episode! Once that ended I decided to go and read a little. I'm currently reading Shoe Addicts Annonymous. GREAT book!! It's really funny and well written! I was going to get in bed all comfy like... Yeah, Sophie peed on the comforter... So instead of relaxing I had to change the sheets and take the comforter off. More of a process than I intended when going to relax and read. Well the fun, doesn't stop there. Come bedtime, Sophie started barking and staring into the hallway like there was someone there. There was not. All doors were locked. So I started off with turning the Living room light off all the way. I had it dimmed a bit since when I'm home alone I like a little comforting light from another room. So I rolled over and went back to sleep. She started at it again. This time I thought, ok I'll shut the bedroom doors so she can't see into any other rooms. Rolled over and went back to sleep. She went at it AGAIN. This time I assumed she must be hearing something, so I turned the radio on. Rolled over and went back to sleep. She continued AGAIN. So this time I thought fine. I'll turn the light on, so you can see clearly, whatever it is you are barking at and realize you are cooler than it, thus should not bark. This seemed to be the ticket cause when I rolled back over to sleep at 1:30, she followed suit.



I got home to yet another accident free night. I ate my dinner while watching the other shows I TiVo'ed from Monday night... Cheese and Cheesier. I watched faithfully One Tree Hill it's entire run, thought Monday night's episode will be my last. It has been horrible and it's just getting worse. I hate when a show is dragged on beyond it's time. Doesn't end well. Anyone an ER fan? 2 seasons too long! So we watched our TV shows, then went to go outside and play only to find that Sophie had not had an accident free day. She decided to pee on the doormat by the back door. This I'm not as upset about because it's A only really for decoration, and B can fit in the washer and dryer, something my comforter cannot. So that night we go to bed and the barking begins again. Thank goodness I learned from Monday night. I started with turning the light on Tuesday night. This worked. I was even able to turn the light off in the middle of the night so that it didn't have to be on all night.



Tuesday night I got the amazing news that Mom and Dad had smoked a whole ham just for me!! So on my way home I stopped to pick up this amazing gift! Wednesday night is my FAVORITE night of the week! So You Think You Can Dance is on and it's followed by one of the best shows of all time GLEE!! Happiness for 2 hours straight. This was a good sleeping night too. We all managed to get good sleep and I also believe Sophie was truly accident... oh wait.. nope she wasn't. That's right...



Thursday was a super day. I woke up feeling hungover, though I hadn't had a drop of alcohol. Then I got to go to the dentist. A place I normally don't mind. My dentist however got a new hygenist and let me tell you, I hope she is gone by the time I go back in 6 months. Lectures, I do not need. Tell me once and at 27, I'll do with it what I want. You certainly don't need to repeat yourself and poke me with your sharp tools just to prove your point. I get it already. AGAIN, I'm 27 and able to take in words and comprehend them, and choose to do with them what I want. I have been going there for 10 years... you have worked there for less than 6 months...



After leaving the dentist, I still felt hungover and then a little aggravated, so after a yummy lunch of leftover smoked ham, I took a nap! So as you can see not much time to blog.



I promise something fun to talk about this weekend though. It will not revolve around Sophie. I promise. She is sweet, but she has taken over my life these last few weeks!!



Happy Day!



Lisa