Holidays are all about ...

Welcome Back!  We have been gone on vacation, or our annual trip home for the holidays.  There is something so wonderful about going home for the holidays.  I love flying, but that isn't what makes it so wonderful.  I love seeing all my favorite people.  Our families, siblings, friends.  It's just a fantastic time of year!  In 2010, we cut it close and went home the day before Christmas Eve.  Then we stayed until Jan. 2nd.  It's funny, you think that is a really long time to go home and you can get everything done you want to do, see everyone you want to see.  It's not.  It never seems to be enough time.  Some times our week is booked before we even step foot in the wonderful state of Pennsylvania.  Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Family party.  It gets to be a little hectic.  I love it!  It is the only vacation where I am up early (usually) and to bed as late as I can stand it.  I try to cram as much stuff into 24 hours as possible.  The thing I hate most?  The first week back.  Ugh, my desk is a mess.  The week tends to drag on and on.  My days seem so long.  Some people wonder if vacation is worth the heachache you come back to.  I think it absolutely is.  Everyone needs to take vacations, get away from the stress.  Our vacation home just tends to be a different kind of hustle and bustle than on our normal days.
Reflecting on 2010, it was a good year.  We did a lot of amazing things.  The years always seem to go so fast.  It was nice to end it on a good note, home with family and friends, ringing in the new year.  Here is to a fantastic 2011, I hope it can be at least as good as 2010, if not better.  Things to look forward to?  Lot's of trips home this year, our big "We are turning 30, and let's celebrate our 5 year wedding anniversary and our all hard work/weight loss in the Islands somewhere" with our great friends (I am going to have to shorten that title somehow).  And of course, we will end the year with our annual trip home for the holidays.  May all my family and friends have a fanstastic 2011 with lots of happiness and health. 

It's Missouri Christmas Day! :)

Today is December 18th.  Big day on many levels.  First, it's my beautiful niece Olivia's first birthday today.  I just finished skyping with the family to watch her eat cake (which she wanted nothing to do with) and then open presents...which kind of bored her once she found a box to climb and sit on.  It was cute.
But today is a special day because it's Missouri Christmas day.  Today is the day my hubby and I celebrate Christmas in Missouri.  Instead of lugging all our presents home to PA for Christmas with our families, we just celebrate Christmas here before we go home.  That way its less to travel with, and we get to open presents a little earlier.  :)  I got a lot of good things this year.  I must have been a very good girl. :)  But, we will get to that another time.
I wanted to blog about the gift I made J.  He half kidding (I think) made a statement two weeks ago that he wanted a Philadelphia Phanatic Christmas Stocking.  No sooner than he got the words out, the creative gears in my head kicked in.  So, I made him a Philadelphia Phanatic stocking.  The only store we have here in town with craft stuff is Walmart.  I didn't have enough time to run to Hobby Lobby in Columbia, but that is okay.  I found stuff that worked perfectly. 
First, I got some grey fleece fabric, which my friend Jenny G will be so proud of, because it was on clearance!  Perfect.  Then I got some felt, fabric glue, googly eyes, and some pom-poms.  I found a stocking pattern online, and I had to draw the Phanatic by hand because I couldn't find a large enough photo to trace.  All in all, it cost me maybe $10.00 for everything, and a couple of hours of time.  The face my hubby made last night when he saw it was priceless.  Which is exactly what I was going for.  Take a look at the pictures of my stocking making. :)  Hope you all have a very Merry Missouri Christmas!

The finished product :)

Ah, Christmas Time

I love Christmas time!  We have already decorated our tree.  It's so pretty.  We got a big tree this year because we finally have room for it.  We used to have a little 4 ft. tree, which we have now put in our bedroom. 
Today, my hubby and I went shopping.  It was so much fun!  We got almost everything done!  This is the earliest we have ever been done shopping!  It's nice.  Tonight I even started wrapping his presents.  See here in Missouri, we celebrate Christmas Deceber 18th.  Well, that is the day we are celebrating it this year. We celebrate a little early because we always go home for Christmas.
I am excited to go home for the holidays.  One, I get to see my family and my beautiful niece, who is turning 1 in two weeks.  And two, I get to see all my wonderful friends!
It is for those two reasons I love Christmas the most!  Nothing is better than spending time with family and friends and eating all the yummy food and cookies my mommy makes!  :)

Time

Time to get posting!  Sorry, I know you have all missed me.  I have been slack-a-lackin' on my blog postin' lately.  For that, I apologize. 
I have been very busy lately.  Between class, assignments, observing and other random activities, its just been a whirl wind.  I love to volunteer, my hubby tells me I volunteer too much.  It makes me feel good to volunteer.  I just love helping out and spending my time doing things that hopefully help others.  I have met a lot of great people doing this.  Just recently I was on a planning committee for our big fundraiser event.  It used to be linked to American Heart Association, but we pulled away from them this fall, and the fundraiser was to raise money for a project that will stay in our own community.  There is an organization in town that is trying to bring 50 AED's through our county in the next five years.  I am not a life saver person, not a nurse or a doctor, but these things are really pretty neat.  And they can really help to save someones life who goes into sudden cardiac arrest.  An AED is an automated external defibrillator.  The ones that they are investing in are really pretty dummy proof.  You attach the "paddles" and turn it on.  The computer does an assessment of the persons heart beats and decides if they need to be shocked or not.  It continues until EMTs arrive and take over.  Its really pretty cool.  So I helped to put on the event to raise money.  Its a formal event, so I had to dress up for the evening.  Thanks to my friends getting married, I already had a dress to wear.  :)  Perfect.  We have a silent/live auction, dinner and dancing.  However, when you volunteer you really don't get to "have fun", as you are really working behind the scenes to make sure everything goes well.  We had a great committee, the evening was perfect, and it being November...the weather was awesome as well!  I am not sure of the final total, but our goal was $40,000.00 and I am pretty sure we came close to $53,000.00.  Which is awesome.  What helps is we live in a smaller community, with a TON of medical staff (we have a medical school right here in town). 
Here is the coolest story of the night.  There is a doctor here in town, who also owns a winery.  Not only did he donate all the wine to our event, but then during the live auction he was bidding on the child's play house we had up for auction.  This play house was awesome.  I could easily stand up in side, with a good foot above my head.  It had a front porch and mail box.  It was just so cute.  I could have lived there, if it had a bathroom and a kitchen. :)  Anyway, he and another Dr. were going through a bidding war.  Well, the wine doctor won it and then GAVE it to the other doctor who was bidding against him because he knew they had young kids and he did not.  AMAZING right?  I mean, I just thought that had to be the coolest thing ever!  It just gives me the warm fuzzies knowing there are those type of people still in the world today.  :)
On another note, I hate this time change.  I am so tired.  I know you are supposed to gain an hour of sleep, but I feel as though I lost sleep somewhere.  It gets dark at like five o'clock now and that means winter is fast approaching.  I hate cold.  Well, if spring starts in March, I guess I have only five more months.  Ugh.  :(

Just another Monday

Today is Monday.  I am not a big fan of Monday's, means the weekend is over, and well...that just sucks.  Even worse, no Phillies game to look forward to, so Monday is just another Monday.  I started my first class tonight for school, well my first "I have to actually go to campus and sit in a classroom class".  It was okay, the professor went over our syllubus and then let us go.  Nice.  :)  Then I went to my Zumba class...and it was canceled!!!!!  I couldn't believe it.  The one thing I look forward to, and it was canceled.  BOO.  So I had to actually work out the non-fun way today.  Boo!
But, I did get to the post office today.  Put a cute little package in the mail for my beautiful niece.  :)  Its a cute little something for Halloween.  I cannot wait for them to get the package.  :)  I miss seeing my niece, it has been way to long.  By the time I see her again, she might be able to talk.  I am not sure, because well I am not sure how this whole baby thing works.  When they can talk, and walk...who knows.  It's such a science.  :)
On the bright side, tomorrow I get to leave work early to watch my Phils.  Let's Go Phillies!!!

Fall Fun

I love October.  First, playoff baseball happens in October.  Which, for me has been exciting as the Phillies have made it to playoff October for the past few years.  They are there again this year!  Second, I love Halloween!  It might be my favorite holiday, next to Thanksgiving and Christmas of course.  :)  And lastly, it cools off enough that I finally can cook.  I love cooking! 
I have been seriously back on weight watchers for a few weeks now.  So last Sunday, it was a whole weight watcher day.  I made two new recipes, mac & cheese and banana pancakes for breakfast.  The pancakes were awesome!  I also made Krusteaz fat free fudge brownies.  They were also very good.  I highly recomment them!  Here are the other two recipes.
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/09/banana-nut-pancakes.html

and for the mac & cheese

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/05/lighter-baked-macaroni-and-cheese.html

Then the next day, keeping with the healthy theme...I made ziti.  Here is that recipe, because it was awesome!
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2010/09/low-fat-baked-ziti-with-spinach.html

Now tonight, its back up in the 80's here, so we are grilling.  :)  Chicken and rice for dinner. Yum!

LET's GO PHILLIES!  I love October!

I Love A Parade!

Today was officially the end of our softball season.  How do we finish, well we have a parade of course!  It is Kirksville's homecoming tonight.  So as middle school softball team, we must line up with other sports/clubs/classes and go straight down Franklin street.  Little kids line the street looking for candy, and waiting to wave to my co-coach, Coach Dub.  They just love her!  She teaches Physical Education at the Primary in Kirksville.  She must be one heck of a teacher.  The kids eyes light up when they see her.  Almost like they are seeing Santa.  Or the castle at Disney World for the first time.  Most wave, some give fist bumps or high fives, some taking a run leap expecting Coach Dub to catch them (which she does).  They almost always jump up and down and yell "Coach Dub".  Then today, they told her they saw Coach Wagner up there.  The soccer coach is her mentor and co-teacher.  He was ahead of us with his soccer team in the parade.
I always think I will dread the parade.  Today was fun.  Our girls were pretty calm actually.  They were getting cars/trucks to honk at them on the way from the school to the parade route.  They actually made signs that read "honk if you think we are hot".  Surprisingly, not everyone honked.  :) Then they got upset.  But would cheer when the next car driving by would honk.  They are crazy. 
It was fun, but sad.  My 8th grade girls who I have been coaching for the past three years are all moving on.  I will still have most in the summer, but it is still sad.  I cannot believe they are going to be freshman next softball season.  Makes me feel old.  :)  Especially because they remind me they can all start driving next year.  Great! :)

Here is a picture of our team on the float today.

And me & coach Dub.

The two best coaches around! :)