o Lord, you have searched me

and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise;

you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways..

.. Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there..

.. if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place.

When i was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body.

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139

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i carry your heart with me (i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it (anywhere

i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear

no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want

no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows

higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

ee cummings

Holiday Festivities

So I thought I would do a post this season about all my fantabulous Christmas decorations, from the finely strung twinkle lights gracing the outside of our house.. to the gorgeously glam, self-chopped evergreen tree from our backyard, with it's individually place tinsel.. to my magazine-worthy fireplace mantel and winter wonderland themed dining room.

Yeeeahhhhhh.... Not. So. Much.

We finally got around to pulling out my skinny, little (fake) Christmas Tree from Target, along with the rest of our Christmas decorations last Saturday evening. I started out with great expectations for how the night would go.. I had the fireplace ablaze, my favorite Christmas movie was on (White Christmas), and I was happily wrapping presents while hubby attempted to assemble the tree.

Let me say here, that I could probably have whipped that baby together and had her up in a matter of minutes. With my eyes closed. I bought the tree sometime in college, so by my calculations, have put it up for at least the last 6 or 7 years. I could count ours as my longest relationship to date (Sorry babe).

But I was busy wrapping and hubs wanted to do it. So two hours later (kidding, kidding), the tree is up and we have successfully strung some multi-colored lights.

And this is where our little night of decorating takes an ugly turn. No, no, nothing untoward happened.. basically I pulled out all of the ornaments and laid them out across the coffee table, then proceeded to take a break and chow down on the yummy pizza hubby had brought home. The carb overload got the best of me, and the rest of the night's activities could really only fall under the category of me laying around getting "Fat & Sassy." Hubs eventually threw everything back into the box and squirreled it away in our 3rd bedroom with all the other needless junk we must never get rid of. For some reason, his tolerance level for half finished projects laying around the house is much, much lower than mine...

So here is what I have to share with you lovelies:

1. A dinky Christmas tree that, I think I've decided, will not have a single ornament hung from it's branches this year. I'm over it.

2. Some nicely wrapped gifts, with purple post-it notes on them for tags. Yes, yes, I will eventually put on real tags- I do have some standards!

And that's it. We do have lights up outside, and of course our stockings are hung, but beyond that... meh. I must say, I do feel a tad bit guilty about the lack of festiveness in our house this year, but we aren't having any guests or parties and I think our 10 kids will work it out down the line in group therapy.

HA!

HAhaaaaa!

We don't have 10 kids, and so, the only one who might actually be affected is this guy, and I think he looks pretty content.



How are your decorations coming along?? They can't be any worse than this!

Modern Family

Hi, long time no see! No, I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth... just been.. BUSY.

Work has been super busy, which is good. And frankly I'm not loving the whole time change, which yes, I know, happened over a month ago, but it's really cramped my style. I don't like my evenings being cut off by darkness before I even pull into the driveway. You would think I'd be used to it by now, but no, no I'm not. I also haven't quite wrapped my head around the fact that it's December already! I am seriously not prepared for the holiday decorating or Christmas shopping...

Anyhoo, I was compelled back to the realm of blogs this afternoon by my friend Katie. She is a dedicated blogger- not one to be swayed by the changing seasons or lost daylight- unlike moi. Yesterday she mentioned one of her new favorite shows, Modern Family, and I just had to keep the love going. Seriously people, if you have not seen this show, you are totally missing out.

Here are a few clips, for your viewing pleasure:










See what I mean!!??

And I promise to be a better blogger! Pinky swear!! :)

Oktoberfest

Hello friends!

October has been a very busy month around here, hence my absence from blogland. This is the first Saturday morning in weeks where I've been able to sleep in to my heart's content and have no major plans. I love it except my body went rogue on me and decided to wake up at 7:30am. Definitely NOT my idea of sleeping in. Sigh.

So here is a quick pictoral shake-down of what I've been up to:

I decided that I would not fall victim to the retails gods yet again, and decided I could craft my own fall wreath. I was happy enough with it to make one as a birthday gift for a friend! Don't ask me to do the cost breakdown to prove how much $$ I saved, because frankly, I'm a little afraid that the warehouse workers in China might just have bested me. I'd just rather not know.

Hubby got the FANTASTIC news of a great new job with an amazing company, so we went out for a little celebrating.

I don't mean to make it about me or anything, but I'm thinking I could seriously use a full time hairstylist! Sheesh.

We had a really fun girl's day for my very pregnant friend S, instead of a full-blown baby shower.

(It's her second baby and the etiquette police were breathing down our necks.)

This is the little Moses basket I gave her, stuffed with diapers, wipes, onsies and other cute little baby items. It was really fun to put together.

Here are my toes, post-pedicure. Much needed.

We visited a pumpkin patch, like all good Americans, and selected the best looking, high-dollar gourds we could find.

After a few pics, we promptly put them back and headed for Aldi, where I picked one up for $2.50!

Hubby started demo on the shower in our master bath... ugh, what to say about this. It still looks like this, after 2 1/2 weeks, how's that? I'm very thankful that he's been home to deal with the contractor, plumber, etc. All should be completed by next week and I can't wait!

I decided to get risky in the kitchen and attempted some stuffed peppers. The lesson here is to make sure you have all the ingredients called for before starting to cook. Also, making substitutions is best left to the professionals or at least those who cook more than once or twice a week.

Even this picture gives me away- the focus is on the store bought cheesy bread rather than the main course!

To hubby's credit, he ate one and a half of these baby's and said they were great.

Above mentioned friend S had the baby!! A healthy and perfect little boy. We were very excited to meet him.

My concern here is that she has now used 2 names on our favorites list... Grrr. :)

However, she had no idea at the time, since I never tell the baby names I like and her kids are just stinkin adorable so it's hard to be mad. Plus, she's one of my best friends in the world!

Is dibs-ing even allowed with baby names???

We went to a U2 concert! It was awesome. A little chilly but lots of fun.

The Black Eyed Peas opened for them and put on a great performance- very high energy.

My camera battery died, so I have no pictures of U2!!

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Okay! I think you're up-to-date!! I've also been working on a few projects here and there, but nothing completed to show you today.

Have a great weekend!!

Sunday Drive

This weekend we attended the wedding of some friends. Hubby went to college with the groom and was a groomsman, which meant I got to see him all dressed up and more handsome than usual, if that's possible. Wink, wink.

The wedding was a state away.. only a 3 hour drive or so, but boy was the ride fun! Our destination was nestled in the Ozark Mountains and it took me right back to childhood and all of our trips to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Table Rock Lake.

The three of us kids would pile into the back seat, making sure not to "cross the line" into someone else's personal space. Sitting in the middle was typically for losers and the unlucky, but as soon as we reached the Ozarks, it was the coveted spot.

Those curves and dips were better than a roller coaster and Dad knew just how to speed up at the right times. I was the only kid who never got car or motion sick, so this was perfect. I just loved looking out at all the gorgeous green trees and lush, covered hills.. I remember letting my eyes glaze over sometimes while staring out the window and seeing all the colors melt together, then switching to try and really focus in on the tree trunks and details, just sure I would see a deer or some wild cat hiding back there.

It was especially beautiful if it happened to be fall while we were traveling and all of the leaves were turning or already deep red and orange. If there was one thing I could change about where we live now, it would be that spring and fall lasted just a little longer.. especially fall. It's definitely my favorite season.

I loved snuggling down into my seat, leaning against the window and reading for hours. When I wasn't reading I was staring out the window, daydreaming. Some of my first memories of really just letting my mind wander and daydream were here.

I loved it.


After a few misturns and lots of gorgeous scenery, we made it to the hotel. It was an old, reportedly haunted place that I found a bit more on the creepy side than charming. Particularly the strange old lady with the black wig, who cornered us in the lobby and wanted to have a full out conversation about the owners of the hotel and their dead cat. She also made an unforgettable appearance during the couple's first dance, but I won't get into that right now..

The hotel sat very high up and did have some beautiful views.

It rained the whole day, but they didn't let that ruin their wedding. Luckily the bride is pretty easy-going and the planned outdoor ceremony was moved inside. It was small and quick and perfect. Just like our little trip.

(I cropped the creepy lady out of this pic!)