Merry Christmas!

Just a Few of My Favorite Things this time of year:

Wedding Photos

Until we get the official photos, please visit the newlyweds website for a few taken by a family friend of the bride and groom:
http://melissaandoliverswedding.weebly.com/pictures.html

TEXAS

"The stars at night
are big and bright
(clap, clap, clap)
deep in the heart
of TEXAS!"

Wish us luck! 3 layovers and 4 planes today!

5 days and counting!

Here are a few more pictures I found of the soon-to-be-newly-weds!






In other news, we are almost halfway thru December and we still have green grass! It's a bit surreal to have candles in the windows, evergreens on the fireplace, the front door, and stoop but no snow..... this must be what it feels like to live in warmer climates?

Family Wedding!

It's only 10 days away!!!! My brother's wedding that is :-)

As you can see, the countdown is ON!

I'm so excited and can't wait to be down in the warm weather on the beach celebrating. Matt and I leave in 9 days - so I have my lists going of everything that needs to get done before we go - whew! It's quite the list between getting xmas cards out the door, gifts wrapped and ready to go, laundry and packing, checking in with our house/ dog sitter, and all the tiny last minute things that crop up!

We'll be celebrating on South Padre Island, Texas. Here are a few pictures I found online with the help of Google. I will (of course!) share ours when we get back.

These two pictures are of my brother Oliver, his fiancee Melissa and below, their dog LadyBird.

I haven't seen them since this summer and can't wait to visit - I miss them like crazy!!

1 Year Adoption Day!!

One year ago today, Matt and I drove to Maine to pick-up Reese and bring him home.
He was such a skinny, scared little guy with a huge head and big paws.
His first favorite toy was a blue and white cow. He loved it to pieces. It has been replaced about 3 times now.
But, with some time, he started letting us see his personality

and he got comfy with sleeping in his now usual, but then odd positions. We gave them each nicknames as they happened: the ball, the dead bug, the twist, the stiff, etc.
He got to know family and became, at times, truly a snuggle-bug!
He loves to keep an eye on his yard, the neighbors, cars going up and down the driveway and the squirrels.
Never wanting to be far from his people, he will at times, sleep in the strangest of positions, that I can only imagine are truly uncomfortable!
He is still learning that not all cats want to play - especially the two that live at my in-law's
He loves coming to work and watching the cars and people there too. My co-workers have become people he keeps track off as well - which sometimes causes Reese stress when everyone starts going to lunch!
But, he has his special place where he likes to take his afternoon naps near my desk. And he loves that there are more people to chase him around the office and throw tennis balls down the hall. The hallway at work is about 4 times as long as the one at home, so he can really RUN!
He has also begun to 'watch tv' :) He still has a big head and large paws, but he's not so skinny and has put on almost 10pds of muscle! I'm working on teaching him how to dance.

Mostly, I can't believe it's already been a year! We have all fallen into our habits, morning walks, evening playtimes and weekend morning snuggle time. He is a funny guy with his own share of quirks, but I know that Matt would agree with me, when I say we wouldn't trade him for anything! He makes us laugh, sometimes cry (for those of you who know of the couch) but is always happy to see us and can't wait to play.

It's fair to say, he's family! Happy 1 year Reese!

Cyber Monday!

I don't know about you, but several websites I wanted to check out deals on Friday were completely out of order - crashed. caput. try again later. etc.
So today, I checked them out again and found some great deals!

Here are some coupon savings for you I found myself and through friends!

Old Navy/ Banana Republic/ Piperlime/ Athleta: extra 30% off. Code HUGECYBER

DSW: Code CYBER gets you $15 off any $74 spent, $30 off $149, $50 off $199 spent

Best Buy: Free $10 e card with $100 in store pickup orders totaling $100 or more

Pottery Barn: Code FREESHIP for free shipping on everything

Toys R US: Up to 70% off thousands of items

Boys R US: Up to 30%

Gymboree: 25% off everything, plus free shipping for orders over $50

Carter's: Take an extra 25% off entire order with code: CYBERSAVE

Ann Taylor: $50 off everything with code: MONDAY

Express: 30% off everything online

Ann Taylor Loft: 50% off everything and free shipping on everything. Code: Shop50

NY& CO: 50% off everything and free shipping. Code: 2129

Ralph Lauren: 25% extra off of their sale stuff

Happy Shopping!! (without the lines and crazy, shoving, angry people in your bubble of space!)

Happy Thanksgiving

Listening to the radio on the way into work yesterday, the radio DJ asked listeners to finish the sentence "It's not Thanksgiving until...." He talked about family dinners with huge amounts of food and football. My first thought was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
I know, it's kinda weird. But here's the thing, my mother always put on the parade while she cooked, baked, and ran around getting everything ready. It was the background of the morning. I did not grow up in a football house, so the TV was off in the afternoons - usually because we were off with family :)
But in the mornings, with the cereal and the sounds of the food processor, mixer and the oven door opening and closing, there was always the parade. The floats, the soap stars and celebrities, the bands, the flag twirlers and cheer leaders, the musicals from Broadway, the Rockettes, the big balloons of Snoopy and Garfield (and more recently Japanese anime characters as well as Family Guy and others), and of course we can't forget the giant turkey with the flapping wings and Santa's Sleigh that always closes the parade.
This year is a bit different. I've taped the parade and I'm not watching it this morning. Today is Thanks-me-christma-hannukah as we are celebrating with Matt's family all the upcoming holidays in one day.
Saturday will be my Thanksgiving day as I prepare a feast for my side of the family. I plan on watching the parade in the morning, as I prep all the food, bake pies and spend time with Matt and Reese.
I certainly have a LOT to be thankful for this year, not counting two Thanksgivings with family and friends. I wish you all the very best of Thanksgiving!

A Few of my Favorite Things!

In an effort to cleanout old candles (and keep the house not smelling like dog), I've been lighting one jar candle upstairs and one down - I had quite a few in glass jars lying around with ends and or stubs of candles left. Getting them lit and cleaned out has been great since it gives me a bit more shelf space and makes the house all that much nicer to be in!
I did make one purchase for a fall scented candle (I'm thrilled with it) and wanted to share!
I'm usually not a fan of Yankee Candles, I find their scents too strong and sweet/artificial, but not this Pumpkin Spice! It makes the house smell like I'm baking pumpkin pie and have hot cider on the stove - I love it!

My other favorite 'thing' of the month is these roses in a silver bowl. The roses came from Matt and the silver bowl was found in Baltimore on a trip down to see Kelly. I love flowers for no reason! :)

some other upcoming projects include:
- cleaning out the closets for another Goodwill trip as the seasons change and we pull out sweaters, boots, winter coats, etc
- painting the front door a shiny gloss black. I have picked up the needed supplies and spoken w/ condo assoc prez (aka Kathryn, our neighbor) to approve the project
- and some small changes in my study as well!

Doggie Playdate

Reese has recently been playing more with our neighbors dogs - Scots' little terrier Tucker and Kathryn's tiny puppy Lily. The latter is hysterical as Lily's is about the size of Reese's head! I should take a photo for you.

Here is his usual spot on the living room floor. I took this while Matt was hanging the new shades in the living room.

This past weekend though, Reese made a new friend with this fluffy gold retreiver Prince. Prince is the dog of one of my co-workers and so I had met Prince at work, and she had met Reese the same way. (my office building is pet friendly and we we all have dogs, so there is a new policy that we can have 1 dog a day at work! it's great for the dogs and also keeps the stress level down at work too!)

Cassandra and I have been talking for quite a while on getting the two of them together for a playdate. We finally made it happen this past weekend :)

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of them - but they were constantly in motion running around in the yard and also around the couch! I only got these two blurry ones as they stopped for a few minutes to get some water.

Thank you Cassandra and Prince for a wonderful visit and the gift of tennis balls!

Layering Window Treatments

In the 'Big Plan' for the house, I wanted matching roman shades in all the double windows and then different curtains for the rooms. It would allow for privacy as well as the decoration that is curtains. However, having nothing but double windows causes problems as there aren't very many roman shades or rolloer shades that are wide enough.
I did find 1 roman shade through Country Curtains for our master, but that has now been taken down to be returned as it wasn't wearing well. Apparently, Country Curtains isn't offering wide roman blinds as they don't wear well and customers were returning them - just like I am this week!
So, no roman shades. But, roller blinds they do have and I found some lovely ones that do come in the wider width of 72"

I ordered them a while ago and they finally came in this past week! So up they went this weekend with the trusty help of Matt.

Here was the first one up and tested! Matt gave me a corny grin before moving onto the second one above the sliding door to the deck. We get a TON of sun through the double doors, and as nice as that is (warms up the house and natural ight is always a plus!) the angle sometiems hits you straight in the face as you sit on the couch.

So being able to roll down a blind until the sun passes by, will be SUPER handy! It also allows us more privacy on that side of the house. While we love our neighbors (no really, we do!) our sliding door provides a lovely view out over our yard, down their driveway and into their garage and family room! We plan to plant bushes/trees to block the view and provide both families more privacy in future - but for now? we have the lovely shade!

A third shade will also be going in the dining area, but for now, the third shade was put up into the master bedroom - since we had to take down the roman shade to return/exchange - so we aren't without a shade up there. The third one will hopefully be in and up befoe Thanksgiving!

In other news, it's hunting season again in NH and we've started to see the trail behind the house pick-up a few hunters. Makes me wish we had more of a natural 'screen' back there, but trees take time to grow!

Sicky - Icky Weekend

Last week I didn't feel well. I spent Friday sleeping and most of the weekend going from bed to the couch. Matt was at his brothers - probably safer with less germs! - so Reese was my constant companion. He napped with me and took a few walks to the mailbox and back. I think he even started to really watch TV with me too!







Such a good little guy! He was great company :)
But no worries, I'm back at work this week thanks to a weekend of sleep, soup, juice and Netflix insta-watch!

Happy B-Day Dad!

Happy November Everyone!

Only 22 days until the Macy's Day Parade

and family

and turkey

and mashed potatoes

and pie!