life
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Daily Dose of Cute
This week has flown by. I am really surprised Friday is just a few hours away. Not that I am complaining. It’s definitely better than when a day or week drags. Anyway, I haven’t done much this week so I’m gonna just post a cute pic of Julio.
~k
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2012 – A year in review
I’m not really sure how to follow up my last post. I mean where do you go? How do you follow what happened?
In light of recent events, I’ve decided I am going to recap 2012. List out some highs from each month. I’ll link to the original posts.
January – I received a nice little “gift” from my company. According to the letter I received, I was not automatically enrolled in our 401k once I became a full time employee. My company matched what they thought I would have contributed over the course of the last 3-4 years. SCORE!
February – We got paint! I’m not really sure there is much more to be said. Matt and I had our main floor repainted. Best. Money. Ever. Spent!
March – Oh March….My wonderful in-laws took the family on a cruise. So many fun memories from this trip. And now, it means even more.
April – Seems like this month was filled with home improvement projects. We painted and planted and added some light.
May – May was a pretty big month for us. It started with Matt’s new car that he bought like 2 days before our anniversary trip. Then we spent our first anniversaryy weekend in NYC.
June – not much happened this month but Matt did win the best husband award for this little beaut.
July – the big home improvements were completed in July when we got new carpet!!!. Clearly I still love our new carpet! It looks and feels great!
August – was pretty darn boring. Aside from baking my first loaf of bread not much happened. I did realize I have some wonderful friends who send you flowers just because your day sucks.
September – we celebrated Matt’s birthday with another cake fail, my parents moved to Cary, my first big sewing project and I had surgery.
October – we finally bought a new bed and mattress. We also gave our front yard a little make over.
November – Mr Julio turned 3! Matt and I hosted Thanksgiving and I made a wonderful, made from scratch apple pie!
So that’s our year in review. 2012 wasn’t the worst year but it wasn’t the best either. Here’s to 2013, may it bring more love and happiness.
~k
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With love
The other week when the Sandy Hook shootings occurred, the only thing I could think about was all of the families that would have unopened presents under their trees. Presents for children who would never return home. Little did I know that our family would face the same fate.
Sunday Matt’s parents called to let us know that Patrick, his younger brother, was sick with food poisoning and they were headed to ATL to see him. He wouldn’t have enough time to come home since he was sick. Their plan was to spend Christmas morning with Patrick and they would meet us at their house later in the day. This seemed to work well for us since we had planned to spend Christmas Eve with my parents, have Christmas morning with the two of us, and head to their house a little later in the day.
Yesterday Matt and I had a few errands to run before my parents came over. We got home around 2 pm when Matt received a call from his dad. I could hear Steve through Matt’s phone. He said he had bad news, then I heard him say Patrick was gone. Almost immediately I saw the tears.
Once Matt was off the phone I grabbed him and hugged him. He laid on me crying while I called my parents to let them know what had happened. Mom and dad couldn’t believe the news and I told them I’d call later.
Matt and I laid on the couch for awhile. I finally managed to get him to go upstairs and lie down. I called my parents and told them to come over. I couldn’t sit in the house in silence. And truthfully, I wanted them there. They came over a little while later and we talked for a while. I filled them in with what I knew but it still wasn’t much. At this point, it looked like Patrick had slipped in the bathroom and hit his head. An accident.
A little later Matt came downstairs and we talked and had a few drinks. I attempted to make dinner and we opened gifts. It really helped to keep out minds busy. Matt managed to get some our clothes washed and dried and put away. Anything to keep busy. After dinner mom and dad left and Matt and I busied ourselves with house work. We finally agreed to open gifts so we could leave first thing Christmas morning. Matt thought we should drive to ATL to be with his parents.
Neither of us slept much last night and around 7 this morning we got up and got ready to leave. We left Raleigh around 9 and made it to ATL by 3pm. We talked to his parents and they recounted the events of the day before. Then we headed to the hotel lounge for a few drinks. We talked and teared up and finally managed to eat a little.
Tomorrow we will go back to Patrick’s and pack his things, then we will head back to Jill and Steve’s house in Thursday.
The past day has been filled with tons of fb posts from Patrick’s friends. There’re are tons of heartfelt posts all saying the same thing, what a great guy Patrick was and how much he will be missed. The words are so hard to read but at the same time it’s wonderful to see how many people’s lives he touched.
We love you Patrick!
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Countdown to Christmas
Is it sad that I use Angry Birds as my Christmas countdown? I love they make the seasons Christmas version a day by day play. Sort of like an advent calendar only you try to kill the piggies. 😉
But seriously, there are only 6 DAYS till Christmas! Whoa! Where has this year gone?
~k
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Family Christmas Weekend
Now that my parents are back in NC and my cousin and her husband live in Greensboro, I thought it would be fun for us to have a “family Christmas”. The weekend of the 15th worked best for everyone so the ladies started planning. Matt and I provided the turkey and we split up the side dishes.
Everyone arrived at our house around 1:00 pm on Saturday. Matt already had the turkey in the fryer and I was just about done making the rolls. We stood around and talked for a while and then mom started pushing people to open gifts. My dad had carried a large box into the house but I had no idea what it was or who it was for. Mom told me it was for me and Matt (but mostly me) and to open it. I was super surprised to find a 3 ft tall nutcracker in the box! WOO HOO! Last year I decided I wanted to start collecting them and then a few weeks ago mom and I saw one and I mentioned how cool it would be to have one beside the fire place. 🙂 (PS I’m on instagram set to private but you add me I will accept – aukelly)
After we opened our gifts, we started cooking dinner. We planned it perfectly and the turkey was cooked and cooled just about the time the side dishes were finished.
I’m not super crazy about my table setting. I think it needed *more* but I love the reindeer I found at Home Goods after Thanksgiving. My plates were from the dollar store a few years ago and I found red placemats at Wal-Mart on Friday. I used ornaments I had laying around for a project as place cards for everyone.
All in all I think everyone had a wonderful time. It was great to see my cousin and her husband for a few hours since Matt and I will head to the beach on Christmas day.
~k
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God bless the children
I normally don’t post about things in the news but I can’t help think about the parents of the children who were killed today in Newton CT. I can’t imagine going to pick your child up and being told he or she would never come home. The presents sitting under Christmas trees that won’t be opened.
It makes me sad and angry that people think this kind of behavior is okay. 🙁
May the bastard rot in hell!
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The day I was on CNN – flashback post
Today some coworkers and myself were talking about various things and the subject came up of “being famous”. I chimed in that I had been interviewed for CNN. So with that, I’ll leave you with a #flashbackfriday post from 2010 when I was published on CNN. 🙂
Originally posted 11-18-10
I was so excited that M was home last night it made my head spin. Literally. I went to lay down with him and the room started spinning. Nothing says “Welcome home” more than, I have to vomit now. I woke up this morning still feeling ill so I called in to say I’d be out.
I finally moved to the couch in hopes I would start to feel a little better. I started surfing the net and saw a post on the DW board about a bridal shop in Chicago burning down. Then on FB there was a link to a google doc where you could put down your information if you had a dress you could donate. Gee, there is one in my closet. I immediately signed up and linked to pics of the dress. Within minutes I had an email from CNN asking if they could use pics of my dress and would I mind doing an interview. I responded that I had uploaded pics to the site and I would be happy to interview. A few minutes later my cell phone rang. OMG CNN is calling me. I spoke to the reporter about why I would donate my dress and how I would feel if that had happened to me. She said she would send me a link to the article once it was up.
I immediately called M, who didn’t answer. Next I called my mom, who didn’t answer, so I called back and told her the story. M finally called back and I explained to him what was going on.
A few minutes ago I got an email with a link to the article. And what is the first thing you see? MY DRESS! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I’m quoted on CNN! How amazing! And more amazing are all the girls willing to help and donate their dresses. I know not many people read this but I am including the link to the article which also links to the google doc.
If you have a dress please consider how you would feel if, before you wore it, it was destroyed in a fire. Help other brides.
http://ireport.cnn.com/blogs/ireport-blog/2010/11/18/acts-of-kindness-for-brides-who-lost-their-gowns
~k