Weekend re-cap

Friday night, me and my mom went to eat at Cracker Barrel, where we enjoyed some delicious chicken and dumplins... there's nothing like a warm bowl of chicken and dumplins on a cold, dreary winter night.  After that, we went back to her house and we watched a movie.  I had gotten "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" for Christmas, and so we decided to watch that movie together.  It was good but super sad.. I'm just going to leave it at that.  We have watched several movies recently, and 2 that I really recommend are "Something Borrowed" and "This Means War".. both TOTAL chick flicks!! :) It was so nice being lazy after being so busy at work for the past few months.  I love my parent's Christmas Tree...

 Cozy Slippers to watch the movie in...

On Saturday, I went to go see Les Miserables at the Monaco Theater at BridgeStreet in Huntsville... I just LOVE going to the Monaco.  I definitely had my reservations about this movie.. I'm not exactly, umm..how do I put this nicely?  Not the sharpest tool in the shed and I thought this movie would be over my head.  I decided to google "Les Miserables for Dummies" and I got a great synopsis of the plot.  It really made the movie make sense to me and it was so so good.  It was a beautiful movie, from start to finish.

After the movie,  my boyfriend and I shopped around BridgeStreet and it started snowing!  We rarely get snow in Alabama, so even when there are flurries I get SOO excited!

Sunday, I was sick so I ended up going to the doc-in-a-box and turns out I have bronchitis and an ear infection. Boo!  It was SO crowded, took me 2.5 hours just to see the doctor, but I'm glad I have some meds and hopefully will feel better soon!!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year's eve!!!

What I Got For Christmas...

I'm not going to bore you with everything I got this year, but here are the highlights:

THIS gorgeous Kate Spade bag...

This ring from my boyfriend.. inside he had gotten it engraved and it says "I love you to the moon and back"

These pandora Charms...

I apologize for the picture, but I got 2 different angels, Cinderella's carriage, a bird (because I am slightly obsessed with birds, a snowman to represent Christmas, and a gorgeous pink Swarovski crystal pave round charm.  I just love my Pandora bracelet, and they are reasonably priced, too.


This hat, which my sister-in-law made just for me.  I LOVE homemade and thoughtful gifts.  I had sent her a link to this hat and had asked her if she could possibly make it for me (I had no idea she was going to make me one for Christmas) and it turned out beautifully!! I LOVE it!

Hope you enjoyed looking at a few things I was blessed to receive this year for Christmas!

Christmas Season

Our Christmas festivities started on Sunday, with the Hoover family... we played Dirty Santa, ate, talked and watched a precious video my cousin made of my grandparents.  There were lots of tears shed, but it was a beautiful tribute to both of them.  Here is a pic from that night:

On Christmas Eve, we went to church and then went to my parents house to open Christmas gifts from each other.  Check out how cute this little angel is:

                                            I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!!!

Sometimes I really am busy....

Soo... Hi.  What's new?

I know it has been *awhile*  since I have updated my blog.... okay, technically, quite a big longer than "awhile", but I really have been busy.  No, really, it's not you, it's me.

So... where exactly have I been?  Well, the short answer is that I've been really busy.  Life happened.  But I know you want more details than that.  I know I talked about how awful 2011 was, but now that I look back at it, it wasn't really THAT bad.  I don't know where I get the dramatic gene... I blame my mother.

2012 was filled with many ups and downs... I lost 2 precious grandparents, I gained the most beautiful nephew and have loved watching him grow this year, I spent a LOT Of time with my family and grandparents and I'll cherish that time forever.  I know I will see them again one day and I know they are with their spouses and the rest of our family that has gone on to be with the Lord.

Today would have been my Nanny's 90th birthday.. I wonder if they have birthday parties in Heaven?  I kind of like to think that they do.  She went to be with the Lord 3 years ago tomorrow, and this time of year has been hard ever since she left.

Here is a picture of her, isn't she beautiful?

I am going to start updating this site more often... No, really, I am!!  Thanks for reading!!

xoxo,

Rachel

2011 Can Kiss my Ass

Sucks To Be You, 2011

I keep running across blog posts and tweets and articles summarizing last year, all of which can be condensed into three words:

2011 Totally Sucked.

That's pretty much my assessment, too.

Having lived through far more difficult times, I can't say that 2011 was my Worst. Year. Ever… but…… it definitely ranks in the top five, possibly the top three, at least in terms of stress and annoyances and situations going sideways.

Seeing how we experienced nearly three hundred and sixty-five days of illness (both of human and pet variety..including but not limited to 7 ER visits, a week in a hospital, 4 MRIs, one dislocated shoulder, 2 broken ribs and a concussion in a pear tree), professional catastrophes (oh, hi, job that doesn’t let you take a day of vacation from October to March), and overall worst case scenarios (car totaled, insurance problems, my dog I've had since 3rd grade died), I planned to ignore the holidays and start fresh in January.

I decided I'd skip decorating/baking/shopping/entertaining and all the other assorted bits of holiday crappery because I just couldn't get behind putting a (pom-pom awesome pinterest stolen idea) bow on the shit sandwich that was 2011.

I was resolved.

Jared was not.

I'm not sure how, exactly, but he somehow morphed into the unholy love child of Martha Stewart and Clark W. Griswold, playing the Bing Crosby Christmas channel 24/7 while slapping LED lights, garland, and glitter on every item in his home that didn't move.

Like I said, I have no idea how he did it, but I sure do appreciate him taking the crap-tasticnes of 2011 and turning into a joyful experience.

So what I'm saying, 2012, is that Jared is running the show now so you'd better represent.

Or this guy's going to go all 2011 on your asses.

(Full of Christmas spirit or batshit crazy? 2012, I wouldn't take my chances if I were you.)