Home shopping

As we were putting away our Christmas stuff I didn't want to put everything away in the exact same place. So I put everything I would put back on the dining room table. Then I went around and gathered more from various places in the house. I took this opportunity to do some dusting. It was much needed.

Then I started working on new displays. The one over the tv cabinet is my favorite.

Since we were tearing apart the house I decided it was a good idea to straighten up the bookcase. We filled one box of books to give away and then I took every last book off, organized, dusted and reassembled. Last bookcase re-do I opted for look over function. This version is more organized by genre. Gardening is together, fiction together, historical stuff together, etc.

There is even room for a few more!

Sure, it's not the prettiest or the best styled. But it holds our books and that is what matters at this point.

Blue man

On Sunday we decided to take Roux for a walk on the V-E trail. She had a bump removed and has had staples this past week. She'd been getting restless and I wanted a change of scenery.

We might have walked further than we should have, but it was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoyed it

New Years Organization

Every year about this time I get the extreme urge to clean and organize everything in my life. Maybe it's because the holiday season is so crazy and jumbled that afterwards I want to make everything orderly. I've found that the last few years its the same.

Last year I bought cleaning supplies for the entire year (we still have plenty and haven't even touched some of it yet!). This year I want to take EVERYTHING out of its storage places and re-organize and clean out.

Bryan, prepare yourself for the most crazy, OCD organize fest you've ever seen. I've set my sights on the laundry room cabinets, the pantry, all the drawers in my closet and some of the office, all the kitchen and dining room cabinets. Finally, if I still have energy, I'm going to tackle the bookcase which has gotten totally out of hand. We have a book problem.

I've been doing some organizing on the small scale as well. This is the second year that I've put my cleaning scheule on my Google Calendar Task lists. I've spent several days making tasks for the rest of the year. (It's well over 360 tasks, oops.) I've also spent time putting things like the books I want to read in one organized list instead of 3 different places with no particular method to the madness.

Last night I backed up music and photographs. I've also completed my 2012 Project 365 photobook. Still need to put the finishing touches on the 2012 general book, but it's close too.

Anyways, so I thought I'd confess my weird cravings. This weekend I hope to tackle some of the laundry room cabinets and put away our Christmas decorations.

2012 Review

I suppose now would be the time to look back at this last year. It's been a doozy of a year. When I think about where I was a year ago and what I might have expected to see in the next year I don't think I ever would have imagined what happened. Some things I knew were coming, but there were a couple of curveballs thrown in there.

I haven't been shy about complaining about how awful this past year has been. Seriously, I cried more this year than I have in my entire life. It was rough. But there were some good things too.

Good things to remember this year by:

- Bryan's sales improving and his future in sales is amazing. I can't wait to see what happens.

- Three trips to New Orleans, spending time with Allyn and Josh in Franklin, our Virginia trip

- The amazing friendships I made with my Skyline girls

- Implimenting our garden in the backyard!

- Our lovely bathroom!

- Roux!

I know it's going to be a good year. I'm being super optomistic about it and trying to take things a little more lightly. (One of my main goals for the year is to drink more Champagne for heaven's sake!)  Sure, there are still areas in which our lives can improve. (My career, I'm looking at you!) But after what we've been through in 2012, I know we can make it through and come out a little bit stronger.

What I'm looking forward to in 2013:

- Trips to Bourbon country, New Orleans, and maybe even the beach

- Planting spring crops in the garden and watching it grow

- Learning. This year I hope to read more non-fiction and practice my photography skills

- Learning more about myself.

- Curtains. This year I am for sure going to have curtains and window treatments in the front four rooms of the house. I'm hearby implimenting my self-imposed deadline of March 31st.

- Kitchen changes. As our Christmas and birthday presents from my parents we are getting some changes done to the kitchen island. I hope this sparks a design direction for the ktichen so we can start moving that way.

- Family bonding. I hope that in the next few weeks our family of 6 will bond a little more. Tigger and Roux are still not buddy-buddy.

Snow 2012

The morning after Christmas we woke up to nearly an inch of snow. I still had to go to work, but it was a beautiful ride.

One More Christmas Post

This Christmas was packed with lots of family and gatherings. Here is our schedule along with a few more pictures.

We kicked off the holiday weekend on Friday, I stayed home from work to rest up and ended up at the Harvest Christmas party.

Saturday I cooked all day and Sunday after church did some more cooking. We had the Grubbs family over for a good pasta dinner.





Saturday morning Bryan and I opened presents we bought for each other.







The Baddorfs came over for brunch at 10:30. We kicked them out in time to go to the Christmas Eve service at Independent. Afterwards we went to Panda Garden for the required Mitchum Chinese feast.



Christmas Morning we woke up early as we had a big day ahead of us. We did stockings and Santa presents for the kids before showering.





Poor Roux was a little confused, but Motley knew what to do. (Tigger was hiding in the guest room.)



After getting our stuff together we went to my parents house to do our Christmas with them.





We then went over to Gram and Gramp's house to open presents with them. Afterwards we went to Bo and Lisa's house for my favorite meal of the year.

Due to an earlier meal we were home a little after 5 pm and had the evening to ourselves which was really nice.



It was a great Christmas, busier than I would have liked, but good. We have so much to be thankful for.

Grubbs Christmas

Sunday, two days before Christmas, we had the entire Grubbs clan over for dinner. It was a fun, relaxed night to just hang out and not have to worry about presents or schedules and whatnot. I didn't take pictures. Oh well...

We stopped by Gram and Gramp's house Christmas morning to see the fam and open presents.