Introducing...Mazee

We have had Mazee for a whole day and we can't get enough of her! (And I think Kenyan likes her a whole more than he'll actually admit.)

I gave into the whining & whimpering last night and went and laid next to her in the laundry room for a minute til she fell back asleep. Then I slept on the couch and set the alarm to wake me up every 2 hours to take her out to the restroom. She did pretty well.

We've had a few accidents....surprise, surprise. :)

We took her to Kenyan's sister's house last night and she met Kodiak, their chocolate lab. We have one tough puppy-she totally held her own and kept following Kodiak all over!! She sure is tons of fun!

The Newest Member....

We have a new addition coming to our family.....tomorrow (so obviously, I'm not pregnant.) We are getting a puppy! I am so excited! She is a schneagle. (Isn't that fun to say?!) A schneagle is a schnauzer/beagle mix. I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can. The picture below is a picture the seller had posted of her:

Mr. Do-it-Himself/Amazing

I love Kenyan-he never ceases to amaze me. He got me a ceiling fan for the family room-which I was very excited about!

He installed it one day while I was gone, without any help. He says it wasn't a big deal and that it's just a ceiling fan....but I still say, "He's amazing!" I love it, and it fits our room perfectly! (FYI: I always knew that ceiling fans could go different directions, but I didn't know that you are supposed to set it a certain direction for winter and summer. Did you guys know this? I found this out while reading the end of the instructions for installing-such a silly thing, but I had no idea!)

Another reason why I love Kenyan: Kenyan brought home a beautiful Japanese scroll from his mission...almost 8 years ago. I wanted to get it framed for him for Christmas, but we found out that it would cost a pretty little penny. Michaels said it would cost over $1,000!!

So, Kenyan decides....he can build a frame for it himself. And guess what, he did!! For how much you ask? Around $80! Take that Michaels! The final product:

The picture doesn't do it justice, but you kind of get the idea. He had to make it slightly deeper because the scroll has a thick rod at the bottom in order to roll it up.

Last year we had a fun time ringing in the New Year our own "Rockin' New Year's Eve" style. We decided we liked having a theme to go with so this year we went Western.

We found this new game called "Bang!" If you have never played it, I highly recommend it! It's a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it is a lot of fun.

Here's some pictures of us ringing in the new year with a "BaNg!"

Bernice & Sean-I love Bernice's skirt!Aren't we cute? (Except for my face, I'm not a very good outlaw.)Marci & Jeff-Yee haw!Josh & Crystal....supposedly they were "not informed" of dressing up...hmmmm.BANG!!

Let me ask if any of you are like this...Kenyan and I are constantly wondering what to have for dinner almost every night. Then we end up going back to the grocery store every night to get what we need for dinner. Just a pain to be running back and forth all the time.

So, the other day when I was at Target they had a pad of paper that had every day of the week listed on one side and a grocery list on the other side. Easy concept-but I didn't want to pay for it, so I made one for myself. Starting today, after getting the grocery ads in the mail, I tried to plan out meals around what was on sale and what we already have in the pantry or food storage for the next week. We will get our grocery shopping done tomorrow and be set with dinner for the next week. We are also going to try and buy a few extra cans of food each time we go grocery shopping to help build our food storage. We have "officially" started a food storage now that we have a place to store it and we started to stock up on the last case lot sale. Any other great ideas for food storage? I had a great time remembering dating cans of food for my mom after she went grocery shopping and I was doing it for my own food the other day.

My Dinner/Grocery List...Hopefully I can keep this up!

The start of our food storage...it's not a lot, but it's a start. Necessities: Yellow Death (AKA mac & cheese) and Ramen

New Year's Resolutions

If anyone even still reads this....and just in case you really cared, here's my New Year's Resolutions:
1. Make sure my diabetes is back under better control. ( I kind of slacked off amidst the business of getting a master's degree and everything else.)

2. Be on the Ellen show. :) I know this one sounds like a long shot....but I have something I've been working on.

Advent Calendar

Check out these cute cards I made on Heritage Makers. (Check out my website: www.YourStoryToday.com)

They are a very cute way to help your kids countdown to Christmas. Each card has an activity to do every day during the month of December, through Christmas.

If you would like to order a set of these let me know ASAP. They are $15.

I found the stockings I used to display them at Target. Another cute idea is to use mittens and clothespin them to some twine. There is a "To/From" card if you want to give them as an early gift to someone.

HeRiTaGe MaKeRs-CeLeBrAtInG ChRiStMaS!

The Heritage Makers Holiday Hits Sale! This is my biggest sale of the season! Let me help you cruise through this month and next knowing you have your gift giving under control -- especially your Heritage Makers gifts.

This week, Greeting Cards are on sale starting at $49.95 for 50 of them ! Contact me today to get this amazing deal!

To see this week's special, follow this link www.YourStoryToday.com

You can have your greeting cards directly shipped for only 64 cents a card!! You won't even have to touch them!

I just finished making a cute set of countdown cards out of our deck of cards. Each card has a day of the month of December printed on it and then an activity to do to help countdown the days until Christmas.

These are so fun to do with your family and would make great early presents to friends and family. Let me know if you want a set-only $15.

Happy Holidays!