Life's Next Adventures: 2012

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Almost there, 4 days to go....

I have only 1 more book on my list for this year, and exactly 4 days to finish reading. I am committed now....Not to mention, I am totally addicted to this book now and wanna see how the trilogy ends!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

A Tidewater Christmas

Since Tiffany and Josh were not planning to come to Richmond for Christmas, we brought the Christmas fun to them. The whole gang was together and Corbin loved the attention and presents! Here are a few pictures from the day (mostly of Corbin, obviously).

Opening a present!

So much better at opening gifts than last year!

Daddy loves presents too!

Corbin loves his trucks!

Help me Mom!

Dad got a tool!

Gaga helping Corbin, or Corbin helping Gaga!

He loved his trucks!

more trucks!

TRUCKS!!!

Yup, he asked to be put up against the wall!

After the day, we went off to Norfolk Botanical Gardens to see the light show, it was super fun!

Dragon made out of lights!

Gingerbread house!

All in all, it was a great day! If I can get my act together, videos may follow :)

Bangs!

YUP, I took the plunge and got bangs!!! Merry Christmas to me! :)

Friday, December 21, 2012

ChristmasTown Fail!

On Saturday, we loaded (literally--5 people in 5 seats) up the car to head to ChristmasTown in Williamsburg for a fun-filled Christmas activity Only when we were in line to pay for parking, we say the flashing sign.....PARK TEMPORARILY CLOSED! WHAT? Are you kidding me? (Actually a few of us had been pre-warned of this happening but we were willing to risk it!).

So we quickly invented a new plan, go to Yankee Candle and grab dinner.

Anna and CJ in front of the Christmas Tree

Me and the Nutcracker

Aubrey being the Thinker!

Well we still were not ready to admit defeat, so from dinner, we decided to walk around Colonial Williamsburg for a bit and see the lights. Turns out there are not too many lights in Colonial Williamsburg (maybe they are keeping with the theme of no electricity during well Colonial time), so we really just walked through the cold streets singing Christmas carols and being goofy!

Kathryn and I in the stocks

Aubrey and Anna in the foot stocks

Kathryn and CJ in the stocks

The Williamsburg Inn

Anna and Aubrey in front of the Christmas Tree!

On my way home, I stopped by one last decorated house and wanted to document it as well :)

We might get a second shot at Christmastown before the year ends, we shall see....

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

12 days, two books...Challenge On!

I have exactly 2 more books on my list for this year, and the clock is ticking....will I finish these two books before 2012 is over?!?!? Tune back in!

List of books I have read in 2012

1. Five Love Languages
2. Sisterhood Everlasting
3. The Holocaust Diaries
4. Private #1 Suspect
5. The Fixer Upper
6. The Hunger Games
7. Catching Fire (book 2)
8. Mockingjay (book 3)
9. The Carrie Diaries
10. What Alice Forgot
11. The Purpose Driven Life
12. The Reservoir
13. Private Games
14. Mountain beyond Mountains
15. Hijacked: Responding to the Partisan Church Divide
16. Sarah's Key
17. I've Got Your Number
18. Private
19. There are No Children Here
20. Generous Justice
21. The Other Boleyn Girl
22. Kisses from Katie
23. Unbroken
24. A good and perfect Gift
25. Hope in a Jar
26. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
27. Lexapros and Cons
28. 3rd Degree
29. The 100 thing challenge
30. Wild
31. The Rape of Nanking

List of books I plan to read in 2012
32. The Girl who Played with Fire
33. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

Happy Reading!

The Rape of Nanking: So I am not really sure how I even heard about this book, but I am glad I read it. It is about the forgotten holocaust of WWII, when the Japanese army invaded the city of Nanking in China and literally killed HALF the population in horrible deaths. It was a real eye-opener for me. I have a hard time imagining people being so cruel to other human-beings and yet, it happens more often than we realize. The sad part about this atrocity is that the Japanese country has never admitted or apologized for these wrongdoings. So the victims are victimized again because their struggles were just forgotten. If you have a tough stomach and an open heart, it is worth a read...if not just to have our eyes opened to a part of history I knew NOTHING about before this book.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Friday Fun...

So this past Friday, I had my plan laid out....DON'T PLAN ANYTHING! Stay home with the dogs, go to bed early and relax. Well, I got a text from my friend, Elaine, asking what I was up to. Turns out when I said absolutely nothing, she had another plan in mind!

Needless to say, I was forced to shower and get out of my PJs that I had already put on to go downtown. We were meeting up with her work buddy, but we got there a bit early so we explored the James Center and checked out all the lights....

I can't get enough lights this Christmas!

Elaine and I in front of the Tree!

Elaine mails a letter to Santa!

All in all, I had a fun time and was glad I went, even though I was still lacking on sleep. It was fun to see the lights, hang with her, and meet some new people! Hope everyone had a great Friday night!

Monday, December 17, 2012

Tacky Lights Tour

Every year around Christmas time, there are crazy people who find the need to over-decorate their house for the holidays. And I am sure glad there are some crazy people that do it because I love going around to look at all the houses. My phone camera really does NOT do them justice, but here are a few samplings....

This house had, by far, the most lights but it is really hard to tell that by this picture. The whole backyard was done up too with its own Santa!

CJ with Santa!

Me and Santa!

Its real hard to see but there is a Duke dog in the lower left corner--GO JMU (just for you Anna!)

This whole street decorated!

Lots of colorful lights!

This house was awesome and synchronized complete with a Santa Claus sneaking around in the upstairs middle window!

For your viewing pleasure, here are two of the 4-5 videos I took while on this excursion!

(as a side note, please notice that I learned how to turn my videos the right way up--Thanks Google!)

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Project Runway, Jr.

So a couple of weeks ago, one of my youth group girls mentioned that she was in a "Teen Stylin" Competition. Of course, my first thought was, what in the world is that? Well she explained it to me and I said, "Oh, like Project Runway!" Not sure if all the contestants want to be compared to that but in all honesty that is what it was. A little version of Project Runway, except instead of all the behind the scenes drama and rush, we just got to see the finished projects of 60 of Virginia's finest youth designers. I did not have high expectations for this, honestly, but after going, I was WOWed! I also was super proud of my girl, Grace, and her outfit. It was definitely the top 10% of the designs there.

So the challenge, to go to the VMFA (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) and take inspiration from a piece of art and recreate it into a wearable outfit using any materials that are not fabric. Here are her results:

Her Model working that runway!

Grace and her model standing beside her inspiration (the gold bell/glass thing in the background)

Proud Momma!

Three of the girls in the youth program!

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Lazy dog days of winter...

Awww sooo cute!

Well after my week last week and the party Friday, I decided I was going to stay in most of the day Saturday (you know me I really cant stay inside the WHOLE day). So I packed up my stuff and headed back to the southside. The parents were leaving for yet another cruise and I was dogsitting for the next 9 days. So I arrived about 11:30am, and did some crafting and had some snuggle time with the dogs. I watched probably 6 hours of television (this is more than I have watched in the last month probably--I am cable-less once again at my new place), so it was nice to relax and have some quiet time. I had a few errands to run so I left about 4 and was back about 2 hours later. Needless to say I think the dogs were in heaven with so much snuggle time and so much petting! They were sad to see me out again on Sunday!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Christmas Party

Nothing like a last minute Christmas party to get you in the holiday spirit! On Tuesday of last week, I decided to have a Christmas party on Friday because obviously that is the sane thing to do! Well in my case, timing just worked out! With a few set-backs last week, the party went off without a hitch! Lots of great food, great company and great times! At some point in the evening I just stopped taking pictures, so sorry for all those people that showed up after like 7:15pm--WHOOPS! What are you doing to get in the holiday spirit?