I'm Over Thanksgiving...

Bring on Christmas!

Maybe next year we could move Thanksgiving to August or September or something. There aren't any major holidays then, and we could enjoy Christmas longer. Now, don't get me wrong, I think Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. It's a great opportunity to really reflect on how much I really have in my life. That being said...I've moved on. I am so excited for Christmas. I always love getting the house decorated, but this year has been especially fun. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because we are in a new house, we're in a new town with new friends, or because we are going home to spend Christmas with my family in California. I'm sure it's a lot of things. We got a lot of the house decorated today, and tomorrow we are decorating the tree. I can't wait.

I have also been trying to think of good presents for some people on my shopping list. Yeah, I'm totally not one of those people who have all of their shopping finished and all of their presents wrapped already. Boring. Why miss out on all of that last minute Christmas shopping craziness. It makes the whole experience so much more fun. Or something. The other day I was reading the MMW blog and I saw this post. Pure Genius. What a great idea for all of those people who are really hard to buy for.

I'm thinking my parents might just need matching sets of these slippers. So, just in case my brother and sisters see this, I call dibs. You can't have this idea.

It's gonna be the best Christmas present ever.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I know I have so much to be grateful for. I can't even begin to list them all...if I tried this would be a crazy long post. I do feel very blessed and directed in my life. The Lord is looking out for us, which is probably one of my biggest blessings. Changes are coming. Big changes within my husband's company, which could mean major changes for us. Despite my worries about all of these changes, I'm not that worried. I am feeling really calm about everything, which really isn't like me. I know we'll be ok. We are being guided in our lives...that's how we got here in the first place. For that I am grateful.

So, I hope you all enjoy your family, friends, and eat lots of good food this Thanksgiving. I plan on doing exactly this. Have a happy day!

Tagged Again!

So, here we go kids. Shelby tagged me and I thought I might as well play along. This is a picture of my hubby, Mark. Yup. He's up in a tree. With a kite. We were at my parent's house, hanging out in the backyard. Their house is on several acres, most of which are full of walnut trees. So, we thought it would be fun to fly a kite. We thought we had plenty of room, but of course it had to go and get stuck in one of the trees. Darn kite. Stupid tree. Well, he climbed right up, and got the kite out...eventually.

Here are the rules: Rules are: go to your photos, take your 4th picture out of your 4th file, post and explain the photo.

See, it's so darn easy. In fact it's so easy, I tag Marge, Sarah...gotcha again, Cheyenne, and anyone else who wants something to blog about.

True Blue

I guess you could say that we are

True Blue Cougar Fans.

Since this was the biggest game of the season, we figured we might as well do it right and make a party out of it. So we cleaned house, decorated, and baked. All in honor of BYU football. I was joking with Mark as we were decorating this morning that I was channeling my inner Alicia. She's our sister-in-law and she throws the most amazing parties. Now, this was nothing like one of her parties, but it was fun. Despite our planning, decorating, and positive thinking, BYU lost to Utah. What the heck kind of game was that anyways. I mean, come on Max Hall...what's with throwing 5 interceptions?!? Anyways, despite the crappy loss, we had fun hanging out together. At least we had our party. Right?

It was so fun to hang out with these little future Cougars. They used to love to pretend to be monsters and dinosaurs, etc. Now when they jump on us and try to "get" us they are always Cougars. It's pretty funny.

*****

So...random story. Mark changed careers back in June and we moved in July. We ended up selling our house to a Utah football player (Steve Tate) and his family. They were just graduating and moving out to start his new job. We obviously aren't big Utah fans, but Steve and his wife are so nice. We have talked to them several times, and we wish we lived closer so we could watch some football games together. So, I guess you could say that after meeting them we weren't quite the anti-Utah people we were before. Anyways, my hubby was looking at our blog this morning and he saw the picture on my last post. He started laughing and he asked me if I knew who the Utah football player laying on the ground was. Of course, I didn't have a clue. I just thought it was a funny picture. He then tells me that it was Steve Tate. Yeah. Oops. So, just in case they come across my blog somehow from somebody in our old ward, I just wanted him to know...

Steve, I had no idea. I swear!

Blue

This weekend is it. It's finally here. No, I'm not talking about the Twilight movie. I'm talking about football. The game we've been waiting for all season!

BYU vs. UTAH

It's the biggest football game of the year at our house, and Mark is so excited. Crossing my fingers and toes that we can pull out a crazy huge win. Should be an exciting game!

GO COUGS!

A Happy Ending

This my Jeep.

I really love this car.

I like this car so much that every week or two...

I take it out and buy it a drink.

My treat.

Isn't that nice of me.

It can have all the unleaded gas it wants.

Unfortunately for me, it used to be so spendy!

Like to the tune of $85 or more to fill it up.

But the service, it was great.

You see...here in Oregon they pump your gas for you.

It's illegal to pump your own.

That comes in real handy with all the rain.

Now gas is way cheaper.

I filled up last week.

$35.00

And the guy topped it off for me.

The End

I Play Well With Others

Mark and I like to play a lot of games...especially with our families when we are all together. I love it. We all laugh. A lot. We poke fun. We sometimes fight. Ok, we usually fight. We also have been known to throw game pieces at each other. That's what makes it so fun right?

Scattergories is a game that we used to play quite a bit back in the day. You knew this was a game was worth playing when it would cause a really good fight amongst the family. You know, when voting over random answers, it would always end with someone challenging an answer. Then the person who gave that incredibly insightful and creative answer would have to defend her honor and her answer. Not that I know personally how this feels or anything. People then have to choose sides. Then before you know it you are fighting over a stupid word. Gotta love it. Maybe it's just our families that do that.

Anyways, I am really not great about doing tags, but this one brought back some good ol' family memories. So...why not.

SCATTERGORIES...it's harder than it looks! Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things. Nothing made up! You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME: Katie
BOY NAME: Kiefer
4 LETTER WORD: Kilt
GIRL NAME: Klotid....yup it's real. I call dibs when we have kids.
OCCUPATION: King
COLOR: Khaki
SOMETHING YOU WEAR: Knickers
BEVERAGE: Kiwi Strawberry Soda
FOOD: Key Lime Pie
SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: Kotex
A PLACE: Kansas City, Kansas...double points
REASON FOR BEING LATE: Kissing
SOMETHING YOU SHOUT: Keep your shirt on!

Well, there you have it. See, I do play well with others. Just don't challenge any of my answers and we'll get along just fine. I tag Jamie, Alicia, my super cool sisters, Sarah and Emily, and anyone who feels like doing this. Enjoy!

Together We So Rock

Well, it's officially just me and the dogs until Thursday. Mark is working in Bend for the next few days. So, here I am left totally unsupervised, and unproductive so far. I have been so lazy this morning. While I was catching up on blogs, I came across this cool poster. I love it. I want it. They have tons of different posters you can check out here. Made me think of my super cool hubby. He's the best, and I really appreciate him and how hard he works. We aren't perfect, but together we so rock! Well, time for me to get kind of productive and at least get a few things done today. I guess catching up on shows on the DVR shouldn't count. Bummer.

Gray Skies

We were lucky enough to enjoy this rainbow on our way up to Salem on Sunday. It was nice to enjoy the color, especially when our sky is usually so darn gray. I do love living in Oregon, but let's face it...I need blue skies every once and a while. Lucky for me, it looks like today might be one of those blue sky days. That makes me a happy girl.

Did You?

Today is such a big day for our country...good ol' election day! A chance for the American people to speak their minds and elect our next President. I for one consider it an honor to take part in this historic election.

So did you vote yet?

Oops...wrong election. I meant this one.

Well, Mark and I voted today. It is very interesting living in a very liberal part of Oregon when you are a pretty conservative person. It is hard to feel like my vote is going to make a difference in this election, but I am grateful that we have the right to vote and have a say in who is the President of our country. It should be an interesting and potentially long night. Crossing my fingers and toes that the guy I voted for wins.