Tis the Season

Hey all, I got busy last week and didn't have/make time to blog .  I didn't want to NOT have one last post for the year and wish all of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.
Last Sunday, Todd and I went on our annual DFW Texas Toy Run  and it was a great time as always. It was a long day for us because our friends we ride with live in Ft Worth so we get a 45 minute ride in before it even starts. So how the ride works, we have a meeting place in Dallas and a meeting place in Ft Worth. At same time, we start our ride and meet at the same time in a middle city Arlington where our Cowboys and Rangers stadiums are.  It was estimated around 4000 bikes in attendance.
People pull over on side of highway to watch every year and we throw out candy to the kids. Todd wore a hoodie which was perfect holder for my bag of candy. LOL.  The weather was perfect and I was so happy it wasn't as cold as previous years.

helmet hair

THIS my friends is 2 bicycles strapped to a motorcycle with helmets

I have met Santa a few times recently.  I went to see a friend a few days ago who was selling her jewelry at a outdoor market . There was a Santa there for Santa Paws and you can take your dogs for a picture with Santa. I didn't know beforehand or I would have taken my babies for their pic.
I was able to grab a photo with Santa and my friend Shari.

Todd and I went to one of our metroplex Harley shops and guess who was there? Yep, Santa!! So what else is a girl to do but get picture with him again.  

And to top off some Christmas spirit, have you seen a truck painted with chalkboard paint and an inflatable snowman in the back in your town? 

I have really enjoyed the last few days being at home with Todd and the dogs and not getting up at 5:15 am.  Really really enjoying it!!  I hope that all of you are taking some time for you to soak up time with your loved ones. 

This is my last post for the year and I am so happy that I picked up blogging again in July after taking a few months off. I've loved catching up with my old friends and have made some wonderful new friends on blogs this year. Merry Christmas and  Happy New Year and i'll be posting soon. 

Christmas This & That

Well, are you all ready for Christmas?  I truthfully haven’t even started. Mostly because the main people I’m buying for are my nieces and I’m getting them gift cards.  I have a few people I have to get real presents for and I’ll do that this weekend I’m hoping.  I did get a few more decorations in place around the house so that’s good.

I still need to clear off my kitchen table and get the tubs out of kitchen and back into the attic. 

Here are some pics of my fireplace and mantle. It’s a mishmash of my Grinch collection and vintage Christmas.  A Grinchmas!!

Last Friday, my plans to go to downtown Mckinney got cancelled because my friend had a funeral she had to attend to. So we’re rescheduling for another time. I called up another friend and we went thrifting for a few hours and had a great time despite it raining all single day.

I bought a few cute shirts and some bags of ornaments and Christmas cards.  In my ornament bag, I was only interested in the small vintage santa and Mrs Claus that have been bejeweled. Someone wrote on bottom of one 1976. The bag cost 3.99$ and I was so excited!

A few nights ago, a few coworkers and I drove to downtown Dallas to have dinner and go to the Deep Ellum Art bar to show some support for our coworker Ray. It was open mic night and we wanted to see him perform and play his guitar. We had so much fun!!  Basically on open mic night, anything goes- rap, ballads, country, you name it!  Some good , some not so good but God love them it took guts to get up there !!  I realized after getting home a little before 11 pm and not in bed until later , I am old and staying out late on a “school night” is hard. HAHA! I was dragging all day yesterday and I couldn’t wait to get home and sit on couch.

We had our department Christmas party today at work and we did the white elephant game.  That was so funny because people bring some of the strangest gifts. One person ended up with a small package of double A batteries , another person ended up with a case of Bush bean cans , and there was a set of desk top trash cans for pens.  There were decent gifts too such as what I got and that was Starbucks gift card.  One gift was so creative- it was a box of 12 different soap bottles with a typed up note that was for Clark Griswold and his soap of the month subscription.  So cute!  We had lunch catered with turkey and dressing and twice baked potatoes and green beans with peach cobbler. So yummy!!!

I am working a half day tomorrow and then i'm on off until Monday. Yay for long weekends! 

How's everyone doing? The holidays can be hard for so many. I am on verge of tears quite honestly because i'm missing Dad. Tradition is tradition and I've spent every Christmas day with my Dad since I was a kid. This will be my 2nd Christmas without him and almost 3 years he'll be gone ( January). 

Just know that i'm thinking of you and you're not alone.  xoxo

Busy times...

Tis the season to have sooo many things going on.  So my junk show last weekend ended up being much better than I anticipated and I am very happy about it. I just didn’t have time to prepare like I normally do and be completely ready. I had a huge project that I thought would be my “money maker” for the show and I didn’t even get to touch it. Now I have to wait until next year to do because I already bought the supplies and its Christmas related.  Oh well!! Maybe I’ll do them next month and have them done so not to worry about it later.  Todd always helps me take down and load up my trailer after the show.  He even commented on fast and easy it was to tear down and lot less to load so he was happy with my show as well.  My in-laws drove out to see me at the show which always warms my heart because it’s almost an hour aaway from them and they got lost this time due to some detours.  My friend Wendy also came who has never missed one of my shows.  I love my support system!!

This was one side of my booth

After the show, we had to rush to go to our friends Christmas pajama party.  I, of course, found some Grinch pajamas for Todd and I because that’s one of my fave themes. For anyone new to my blog, I have a whole collection of Grinch stuff for a Grinch display every year in my home for Christmas.  I really love The Grinch and have since I was a kid.

The party was a great time AND I won a gift card for best Pj’s costume.  Truth is , there was a tie between me and one of the neighbors dressed as a deer and we had to play rock, paper, scissors ( we cheated and kept doing the same thing) and then had to guess a number between one and twenty and I won.  LOL

Now that the show is over ,I can focus on decorating my house but to be honest, I am throwing in the towel. We have our tree up and decorated and its beautiful. I usually deck the halls, the mantle, the front room, and anywhere else and I have so many fun awesome Christmas decorations but I’m losing my steam.  I think just being so behind this year I’m starting to get anxiety and I just cant do it. I don’t have it in me. I just mentioned this today to Todd, I think I want to put all the tubs back in the attic and just stick with whats already out.  It will still look a little festive and that just needs to be enough. I did manage to replace my doll heads with ornaments and small bottle brush trees in my gumball machine though. I am glad I was able to get that done before I lost my steam.  I have 2 inflatables I need to get up in my yard and put some lights around our front door this week and that’s it.  How about you? Have you ever just called it quits because something was looming over you and the fun went out the window?

I’m taking this Friday off to go hang out with a friend at McKinney square which will help get me back in the spirit again. I try to go every year and see all the fun decorations and stuff. I’m looking forward to that and then just relaxing this weekend.  We shall see ….  We don’t sit still well. haha

Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello, how was your Thanksgiving?  We had a nice long weekend. Thursday was spent at the inlaws and we had a nice day. It was just our immediate group this year, Todd’s parents, Todd’s brother and his wife, and the 2 of us.  We watched the Macy’s parade while I made the hashbrown casserole and I grabbed a Starbucks earlier that morning.  I loved not having to rush and just appreciate the day.

I did not take part of any Black Friday shopping.  There’s just not anything that we have to have that is worth long lines and crazy hours.  On Friday, Todd and I went to our annual movie outing together and saw Bohemian Rhapsody.  Have any of you seen it yet? I genuinely loved it!! I thought it was well done and holy cow- the guy that played Freddie Mercury and the guy who played Brian May were SOOO good!   After I saw the movie, I went online to read more about it. The lead guy learned how to play piano and he also sang but they mostly dubbed in Freddie’s voice for the songs.

This is one of my fave Queen songs: Show must go on! 

On Saturday, we got the Christmas tree out of storage and got the lights on it and we put the decorations on it Sunday after church.  Saturday evening, I got to join my cousin and her 2 daughters to see the Nutcracker in Dallas.  It was Outstanding and I really enjoyed it. At one point in a scene, they had fake snow fall from the ceiling into the audience.  Great special effects for a Ballet!

When we first entered the Winspear Opera House, the backdrop was kinda creepy if you really looked at the whole thing.  I loved it of course because it had the eerie factor like Halloween. 

Sunday night , the 6 of us got together again at an Italian restaurant to celebrate my mother n law's birthday.  It was fun evening and a nice way to end the holiday weekend.  And then , it was time to get back into the work mode.  I’ve been really busy this week training classes and I’m off again tomorrow and Friday to prepare for my junk show I do twice a year. I am not ready this time.  Yall, that work trip to St Louis for 10 days seriously put me so behind on everything.  I am just going to wing it and hope I at least break even for the price of the entry fee.  Wish me luck!!

Thanksgiving 2018

Hey there, I just cant believe that thanksgiving week is already upon us!! Seriously it felt like Halloween was just last week ( it could be that I still have all my Halloween decorations up because I haven’t had time to take it down).  I get very excited to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.  I would watch it every year as a kid and never missed it. Then fast forward to when I was a freshman in college, I got to dance in the parade with my college drill team.  One of the most unforgettable moments of  my life!

Then fast forward to adulthood, I think it was 8 or 9 years ago, I went with a friend and was a spectator in the crowd in NYC to see it firsthand.  I still get chills when I see the Rockettes perform and I get so much joy watching the parade.  We’re heading over to the In-laws for lunch and I’ll be bringing my cheesy hashbrown casserole as per tradition.

I am so very thankful for many things! Here is my list:

I am thankful for my husband, my grandmas, my cousins, my mom, my dogs, my health, my job, my church, sweet tea, music, books, my friends, my blogging friends, music, nieces, starbucks lattes, Mexican food, the stars, sunsets, sunrises, my boots, my day planner, cheese, mascara, eyeliner, spray lotion, fuzzy socks, granny’s quilt, long purses, comfy bras, my favorite rings, music, social media.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!! Be Safe and be kind.

 Blue October is one of my favorite bands and this is from their new album. 

I hope youre happy

Work in St Louis and Hill Country pics pt 2

So today is a week that I've been in St Louis for work.  Before I left home, I checked the 10 day forecast so I would know how to pack. Yall, the whole forecast Changed once I got here. Snow was NOT in the forecast, just some rain and temps dipping to 37 at night. So I packed a jacket and some gloves. It has snowed like crazy for a few days and I am not equipped with my warm winter coat, boats, and beanie hats.  I bought a scarf at Goodwill over the weekend.
Work has been crazy and I had to work on Saturday which is part of the plan for a conversion. What makes things nice is that I have a handful of good friends here so i'm able to have dinner with them.  I don't get to see them often at all and it beats hanging in hotel alone every night .
I have a team member that is also good friend of mine that got sent to Kansas City on this project. On Sunday, we both drove 2 hours each and met in the middle in Columbia, Missouri.  We had breakfast and did some retail therapy at the local mall. There was a Ronald McDonald display /fundraiser and there were lots of super cute gingerbread houses that we found out were all made from school kids. Some of them are so dang good!! It was such a fun day and I got to see a little countryside scenery on the way.
I am very ready to go home on Friday! I miss my husband and my 2 dogs like crazy. I am on a quick break so i'm keeping this short and I don't like to skip a week if I can help it.
Here are some pics from St Louis and also some more pics from our bike trip 2 weekends ago:

Captured the Arch from plane window as we flew in

Did you know that toasted ravioli's are a THING from St Louis? They're on every menu. Some are better than others

My setup they did for me here- card table stuck in the corner

These stripper shoes were on random bench in front of restaurant the other night. Cracked me up and I had to take pic

army caravan heading to border

probably close to 100 army vehicles

This was in our bathroom at motel. Don't see that everyday!

Fence with boots as memorial

Pray that my plane does not get delayed on Friday due to the snowstorm we're supposed to get tomorrow.  Have a great rest of the week!

Hill Country ride 2018

Hey there, so its about to get crazy busy so I thought i'd post now to get one in this week. Last Friday, Todd and i hosted a ride to one of our fave places in Texas with some good friends and new friends.
Todd has made some friends in his work industry that are riders and he rode to Georgia back in July and went on long ride with them. Theres a big work convention that takes place every year and this year it happened to be in Dallas. It changes every year. So since the guys were going to be in town , they also rented bikes and extended their stay to go with us including a couple that live near us and our very good friends of ours.  So there were only 6 of us total - 4 bikes which is a nice small group that is manageable.
We went on the same ride last April with a much larger group and we had so much fun but its hard to organize large groups on bikes- with gas breaks, eating , etc to be on same schedule.
We ride all back roads and stopped at one of our regular stops when we're in that neck of the woods for some awesome BBQ!  We also happen to come across a very very long caravan of army trucks, Humvees, etc heading to the border. In fact, it was so big, they also went long way on back roads because it would be a huge media storm if they went main highway. Todd asked them on one stop if they were heading to the border and one soldier replied he wasn't at liberty to confirm but he didn't deny. Then sure enough, it ended up on the news later that night that Trump had released 1000's of troops to secure the borders.
We HAVE to include a stop to Luckenbach when we're in town . Its soooo fun and i love the vibe of being there. Live music, beer and wine, fun atmosphere.
I have tons and tons of pictures so this may have to be in a few separate posts.
I really enjoyed the ride and it was perfect weather! Id much rather wear a jacket any day then ride in the hot hot sun.
I flew into St Louis last night and i'll be here for the next 9 days to support the conversion here. ( remember i just did a conversion support back in August in Salt Lake).  This is the last one for the year and for the company until we tackle our sister side in Canada.
So here is picture overload:

Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX

An old phone booth

Have a great day and i'll try to post again soon.