November Wrap-up/Happy December!

I wanted to write about my Thanksgiving so I'll remember it. It was a really good day. Aaron and I got to my parents house around noon, and while my mom was preparing food, we played a game called Phase 10 with Sarah. It's a mix of rummy and Uno, kind of. It was fun but frustrating! We were waiting for Daddy's coworker and his wife to arrive around 3 to eat. Dinner was ready by about 2:30, so as soon as they got there we all sat down! It was a nice dinner, good conversation, good food, and wine! Afterwards we sat around and digested, everyone else played some more games, but I enjoyed just sitting there NOT playing any games! After a while, we loaded up on leftovers and stopped by Aaron's parents on the way home. They had all his family up from Monroe, and they were long gone, but we'll see them at Christmas. That's about it. It was just a nice Thanksgiving!

P.S. It's almost funny how many times I've said this....but I started a diet yesterday! Aaron's doing it too. I'm counting calories and using an app called Lose It! to help me track my weight and cals. I want to lose 10 pounds this month, and if that actually HAPPENS, ha ha! I'll still have another 15 to lose. Then I'll be perfect! Just kidding. I found a great blog that's been inspiring me, it's written by a law student in Canada. I started reading her archives yesterday, her progress is amazing. She wants to lose way more than me and is very aggressive with the dieting and exercise. She lost 25 pounds the first MONTH! That would be nice, that's my entire goal! Working out isn't really part of my plan right now...my gym membership is expiring December 13th, I'm SO glad to be done paying the membership dues! Funny that that's how I look at it...but I need money right now.

Finished frame

Here it is!

FYI, these are the real colors, this photo was taken during the daylight.

Crafty!

Sarah is in town! I saw her on Saturday and it was fun! We did some shopping, ate, and ended up at Joann fabrics to get fleece to make no-sew baby blankets. I made one for Anna's baby Aiden, thinking I would bring it to the hospital when he's born, but I might wait until they're already at home. She'll have enough things to carry home from the hospital! Here's the pattern I chose:

The background is a periwinkle blue. I wanted to do green and light green, she told me a while back that was her plan for the nursery, but I haven't seen it yet. She is doing a jungle theme so I thought this was cute. I used a light aqua fleece for the other side. Here is the finished blanket:

I love it! And, I'm really proud of this! I had the idea to get ribbon to tie around it and make it look all pretty (I think):

Also while shopping we went to this store called Dazzle. I have heard about it but never gone in. They have the CUTEST jewelry! I got these rings. It's not the best-lit picture, but I LOVE them!


Next project: I'm going to decorate wooden picture frames for each of Amelia's kids with their names on them and stuff for Christmas. I bought some cute wooden jungle animals when Aubrie was born in July 2008, planning to make her something but I wasn't sure what. I'm just glad I'm finally using them! I'm almost done with hers, I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow. I know there are people on the edges of their seats!

I went to two baby showers this weekend! One was for my coworker Sarah, it's her first, and they don't know what they are having, and one was for my friend Anna, she's having a boy. Sarah is due January 6th, and Anna is due January 23rd. She has a feeling it will be earlier, like closer to Christmas! I'm so excited. I've known Anna since she was a senior in high school, she's 23 now. It's just so amazing! Since Sarah's was in Cambridge, about 45 minutes away, I gave Harwinder a ride. Sarah's house is SO nice. And the nursery, oh my god! It's cream colored, one wall has wide cream and light brown stripes, all the colors were so calming. She also had a cute little chandelier on the ceiling, and a matching lamp on the dresser! I would never think of these things! I want a house of my own to decorate. I don't know if I could ever make it look that good. The other guests were mostly people who used to work here so we all knew each other, it was fun. On the way home Harwinder and I stopped at a little store in Cambridge and I got started on some Christmas shopping! I also got a birthday gift for Aaron's mom, who turned 49 yesterday. I'm getting in the holiday spirit, I might get out some of my indoor decorations this week to get the house in the mood!
Anna's shower was in the condo neighborhood where her parents live. They really did a nice job and I think Anna got a lot of things she needed! I'm thinking about MAYBE making a fleece no-sew blanket for when her baby is born. I could take it to the hospital if I get to visit him when he's born! We'll see. They had a drawing to win a gift basket and they let the little 15-month-old boy draw...I was SO surprised, he drew my name! It was the nicest basket, chock FULL! There was a zebra wallet with a matching checkbook cover, a black and white patterned scarf, warm fuzzy socks, a fleur-de-lis picture frame, a bracelet, a rhinestone ring, decorative cocktail napkins, two bottles of wine, Godiva chocolates, two spreading knives from Pottery Barn....I know a lot of that stuff was from a store called Francesca's Collection, they have the most adorable gifts...I really had fun picking out gifts and wish I could have gotten them more! I'm so excited for this next crop of babies to be born!

I just realized I posted something from my supposedly cool blogger app on my iphone, and I don't see it on here. It should be right under "Good News!" So much for BlogPressLite. At least I learned I have a Picasa web album, it's a good way to get pics from my phone to the internet without posting them on Facebook or Twitter. Those were the only ways I know how to do it before.

Aaron and I have been talking about money so much lately, I'm sick of it! He wants to buy a house, I want to move, we go around and around about what to do. About our jobs, our living situation. The bottom line is we both have debts to pay off so we're not going anywhere anytime soon. It's kind of lame to wait every two weeks to make a tiny chip in it. We have to quit going out so much and start saving money. That's boring, especially when staying home means staying with our roommate, and sometimes his annoying girlfriend and her dog! :(

Another thing I think about all the time-BABIES. I want to have one right NOW. About a month ago we were watching Wife Swap and Aaron said "I want a kid." Of course we've talked about it in passing before, but that was the first time he made a bold statement like that! It made me so happy! That's a sure sign it's time to start being responsible, getting things paid off so we can buy a house and have a place to start a family.

Good News!

It's about time!
Especially this part: That didn't convince Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from South Carolina, who said the bill was a "dangerous step" toward thought crimes. He asked whether the bill would "serve as a warning to people not to speak out too loudly about their religious views."
My response to that (and there isn't an option to make the font big enough to express how I feel) HOPEFULLY!!!!!

Gmail stresses me out. I love the mail program, don't get me wrong. But my particular inbox causes me anxiety. I have so, so many old emails with websites to look at, or pictures to download, or free songs that my dad sends that I don't listen to. Sometimes I go through and archive communications that I have responded to, but the miscellaneous stuff is weighing down on me! I guess I should just say at a certain point, it's too old to worry about. But it's all THERE! My mom recently got in touch with a lady whose dad was on the plane that went down with Grandpa Lowe in WWII (I can't make that phrase not have a hanging participle-on the plane with Grandpa that went down?). She has some great stories about him and what he went through, and I read most of them. But there are assorted emails with pictures or links or attachments that I haven't gotten to. I also offered to scan some of the old pictures my grandma gave me to help out, I haven't done that yet. Maybe this weekend I can get to that, at least. So much stuff!!