Project Life 2015: Week 42

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I am finally getting around to photographing and sharing my recent project life layouts. And these next couple of pictures are all from week 42, which is the weekend we spent in Disneyworld for our family reunion. I decided to just incorporate this weekend into my main album, instead of making a whole separate album.

So I just focused on the highlights from that weekend: family pictures, character meet n' greets, and the Halloween party. 

All materials are from Project Mouse!

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Squirrel!

Lately, Link has been tortured by our backyard squirrels. They have been running up and down the roof, storing nuts in the lip of our chimney. I suppose this is to get ready for the winter, I'm convinced is not going to come this year.

Today, he might have succeeded in his attempts to scare them (or at least distract them), as one squirrel FELL into the chimney.

This afternoon I got an email from Adam while I was working, entitled FYI. When I opened it, it said,"Just FYI, there is a squirrel in our chimney, so I lowered a rope down, to give it a way to escape." That is one of the oddest e-mails I've ever received. 

Adam was pretty sure the rope trick worked, as the scrambling sounds quit.  But tonight we had to double check the chimney to make sure the squirrel had left.

I walked into the kitchen to find Adam having made a chair barrier, which lead out the patio door. I guess this was a road map for the squirrel just in case he came barreling down Christmas vacation style.

Link was, of course, standing guard near by (a.k.a. being useless), as Adam messed around up there with a broom. Luckily, we suffered no squirrel attacks, he had indeed left the chimney, and now I know Adam is a modern day Macguyver with his whole rope trick.

Although I should have already known this about him, considering the whole incident was reminiscent of the mouse in the window incident of 2011!  

This is home-ownership at its finest. 

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Holiday Memories of 2015

We just walked in the door from our Christmas road trip a little over two hours ago. Adam and I are sitting on the couch, watching the so far ugly Packers/Cardinals game, and eating pizza due to the desperation of having no food in the house, and no energy to go to the store. Let me tell you, I'm so tired of road trip food. I just can't wait to be back on diet tomorrow, I feel gross! 

I worked till 6:00 on Tuesday, and we got on the road a little after that.  It is an 15 hour drive to Adam's home in Wisconsin, and 8 hours till our typical stop in Lafayette, Indiana. This was our first ever trip with Link in tow, and we did not know how he would behave. I had given him a little Dramamine to keep him calm and prevent motion sickness. I thought that would totally knock him out! And while he yawned non-stop, he refused to sleep, he was too excited. But he was good the entire trip! And no problem at all. 

After a long 2nd day on the road, we got into Wisconsin that evening, and immediately headed out to finally see the new Star Wars. I am no Star Wars nuts. In fact, I just watched New Hope for the 2nd time ever last weekend. "Space" is just really not my thing, even if Star Wars is now produced by Disney.  But I really enjoyed the movie! It was funny and exciting. Adam had mixed feelings due to the "emotional" part of the movie, which I won't spoil. 

Luckily, it snowed Christmas Eve Eve, or we would have not had any white on the ground at all! Can you imagine a green Christmas in Wisconsin?!? Link had several new experiences this trip. He got to play in snow, which he loved!! He just kept running around and around and eating the snow! When we would tell him it was time to go in, he would look at us with heartbroken eyes! He also met all of Adam's family, who fell in love with him. 

Unfortunately, I had to bundle up and head into town because I woke up with a horrid double ear infection. I was counting on the clinic being a nightmare, but I got in and right out. It was awesome.  And got just the right kind of pain medication to get me through the festivities! 

In the evening, all of Adam's family joined us at his mom's house to celebrate. We did a white elephant gift exchange. We scored this awesome hot pink "Santa" boot and wacky glasses. We also did the regular gift exchange as well!  Link was so spoiled, I think he was given about a million toys! Adam looked good in the toys I bought him as well, let's call these his "nerd clothes."

Christmas morning started with a family walk through the beautiful, country side surrounding Adam's childhood home. Link loved it so much. We saw turkey tracks and cow tracks, and the cold air was invigorating.  

We put on our "Christmas" family best. I wore a new dress, and Link had a vest that his grandma got him for Christmas. I think we make a pretty family.

We had a huge dinner and played board games (rotten apples and Dr. Who clue). We also watched the Dr. Who Christmas special, which has become a Christmas tradition for us.

It was a lovely Christmas.  

We left to come back the next day around noon. We made a quick stop in Green Bay, at Lambeau Field, to hit up the Packers' Pro Shop for new fan gear (yay for new socks and fuzzy dice).

I so wish tomorrow wasn't a work day, but at least it's only a three and a half day work week, before a long weekend.

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Notes from the Week

Adam finally got in late Friday night, and man oh man was I happy to see him. I had the most stressful week, and it didn't help that I was so off routine due to Adam not being here. But although this week almost killed me, there were some definite highlights. 

Link stayed with my mother during the weekdays, while I was at work. He got spoiled like crazy. We never give him any kind of human food, as we are mean parents. But I was constantly getting text messages about how much he loves blueberry muffins and cheez its. Ugh. He went on tons of car errands, and he was exhausted every night when I picked him up. I think he had the best week of all three of us. 

We had our Christmas party at work this week. We always do it pot luck style, and I brought my grandmother's broccoli and cheese casserole. We decided to do a sock exchange. We drew names, bought that person some socks, and filled the socks with little stocking suffer type gifts. It was a lot of fun, even the guys got into it!

My friend Jenny and I go all the way back to 6th grade (yikes!). She is recently back from studying abroad in England, and she joined us for our usual Monday night trivia. And somehow we ended up with terrible service, like didn't even ever get our entree service. But it was alright, we had fun, and filled up on chips and queso! Yum.

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26 Days

In 26 days, I will be running my first ever marathon in Disneyworld (where else would I attempt it). And I would be totally lying if I said I wasn't uber nervous about it! I have been hitting the pavement hard lately. So many late night long runs. I love running in the evening. It is so peaceful. Just you and the road, a good podcast, or a fabulous playlist (has anyone else ran to Christmas music, while looking at Christmas lights, IT ROCKS).

 I'm up to running 15 miles and I plan to hit 20 by race day.

And yes, I know 20 miles is not 26.2 miles, but many marathon training plans only have you train up to mile 20, so I'm hoping it will be OK. Heck, I don't even care if I have to walk some of it. I just want to finish. It would be my crowning achievement on this whole life style transformation I've taken on! 

But I've mentioned I've had some hardships lately. Hormonal issues have caused me to have some persistent health issues, that put me in an anemic state, and forced me into minor, outpatient surgery. So while I didn't notice it at first until it hit me over the face, I definitely haven't had the energy I had a few months ago. But I'm starting to feel better. 

But if something happens, and I don't finish. I won't give up, I will just sign up for another one. It took me two years of running before I ever completed a full 5k  race running, so I know a little bit about not giving up. Running is such a mental game. Yes, you have to put in the time and the miles, but if your head isn't in it, it matters not.

So here's to a month full of running like crazy. Hopefully, I will be sharing soon that I completed my first marathon, and then spent a joyous three days in my happy place! But win or lose, I'll be in Disneyworld. Home of Mickey Mouse and the Carrot Cake Cookie. So you know, it won't be that bad!

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It's Christmas, All Over Again

We have now been in our home a year and a half (say what?!?), and I think the one thing I love most about being a home owner is decorating for Christmas. We don't have a ton of stuff yet, but little by little we are adding to our collection. And we are planning to hit up some stores after Christmas to stock up on more decor next year. I love that Adam is just as in love with Christmas and decorations as I am.

This year we again strung lights outside, and hope to do more next year. But it truly looks lovely. We put out Adam's childhood Christmas village collection that I love! Link got his own stocking this year, and I decked out the table with a sparkly reindeer and the wine glasses I painted a few weeks ago.

And this year I had the idea to string lights and garland up the stairwell. It looks pretty magical I think.

And my favorite part of Christmas decorations is of course the tree and the ornaments. We typically add a few each year to mark memories or from our trips. This year we have Link's first Christmas, my half marathon finisher medal, travels to Harry Potter World/Carsland/Disney, and our first Christmas in our new home ornament that Adam's mom gifted us last year. 

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Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

On our last day of our trip to Disneyworld, we visited the Magic Kingdom with the whole family, and then Adam and I had tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that evening (which is a hard ticket event). I was so excited, I have wanted to attend this party since I first heard about it.

I also wanted to note that this was the day of the three outfit changes for Adam and me. Adam insisted we wear our Packer's jerseys (since it was a Sunday and a game day)! And then we posed for family portraits with our matching shirts.I also bought Nightmare before Christmas shirts to wear for the party.

I would be lying if I said I grew up loving The Nightmare Before Christmas. I'll be honest, it seems kind of "out there" and a little crazy to me, when I was younger. But as I watched it as I got older, I was so in love with it! My number one character meet and greet goal at the Halloween Party was Jack & Sally. I even wore this headband to the party.

We waited over an hour for the privilege to meet these two. And I just did not even care, I love a good character meet and greet. Plus, while we were in line, we were monitoring the Packers/Chargers game. And that was one crazy game, that kept Adam entertained. Everyone in line kept asking us about the score during the game!

When it was finally our turn, I was pretty pumped. Jack & Sally had a completely creepy way of walking over to greet us. Sally loved my headband, and she asked if I made it myself (I WISH). Who knows what Adam was talking to Jack about, probably the Packer's game. Before we left, Sally told me that she hoped that me and my beloved got to stroll through the graveyard together before the evening was over.  

Next, we got down to the main event, trick or treating. I haven't gone trick or treating since I was about 18 (when my friends and I went as joke). So now at age 29, I got to trick or treat at Disneyworld! 

We got so much candy. But poor Adam, he is so picky, and very rarely would he get any candy that he liked! We would see them handing out candy he liked, but when they would scoop up some candy from the barrels, he got none of it. It did become a running joke between us.

We got a seat in frontier land for the Boo to You parade. It was the highlight of the whole party for me! It started out with the headless horsemen, which was awesome. Then the most infectious song played throughout the entire parade, "Boo to you and you and you." I loved the grave diggers and the hitch hiking ghosts. I wish I could watch it again and again.

I took a little video if you want a taste of the parade.

We were pretty beat after the parade, although we did manage to  go for a spin on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I have never ridden it at night, which is a totally different experience.

We headed back to the hotel, watching Hallowishes from the monorail. I would have loved to see the whole thing castle side,  but we had a long drive home the next morning.  I think it is good to leave some things undone, it gives you a reason to come back!

 

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Holiday Date Night

This morning at the annoying hour of 6 a.m., Link and I dropped Adam off at the local airport to send him on a work trip out to California for two weeks. Although I have been known to love my alone time, I have been dreading him leaving. December is such a fun month, and we both love Christmas, so it just sucks to be missing so much of this season together.

I also don't want him to leave for a myriad of selfish reasons. I have to take care of all the household tasks myself, and I can't share the responsibilities of dog care with him. etc. And one of my favorite things about Christmas is coming home from work to the lights ALREADY on. When I complained about that, Adam ran out and got timer for the lights, so I could still have that joy. He can be so sweet.

So we decided Friday night that we would have one good holiday date before he left.

We decided to head downtown and check out the Tinsel Trail. This is a free event at Big Spring Park, which has over 200 decorated Christmas trees. It was so pretty out there, and some of the trees were decorated so creatively. I also learned Adam never read Dr. Suess growing up, when I was talking about the "Thing 1" tree! I was shocked, how is that even possible?

After walking the trail, we did a little Christmas decor shopping. And Adam surprised me with the Inside Out DVD, which is my favorite movie of 2015. I love me some Pixar, and I can't wait to watch it. Then, we got pizza at Mellow Mushroom (we are such pizza people), and I had a peppermint Popsicle from Steel City Pops for dessert.

I really enjoyed those couple few hours with Adam, and it was a perfect Holiday date night. And while I always miss him terribly, I'm going to soak up as much fun from this season as possible.

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