Back in the Saddle

Ahhhhhhhhh..... I'm back! I haven't blogged in a VERY long time (see my previous post and you'll see the date), but I think I'm ready to start up again. Why the hiatus?? Well, I didn't really feel like I had much to blog about. So I thought about all the things I love and things that I would want to share with others and I've finally come up with something. Drum roll please! Cooking. I love all things involved in cooking. I watch Food Network and The Cooking Channel on a regular basis. Rachael Ray and I are friends (she doesn't know it, but we are ;) I love trying new things, new recipes, new restaurants and what not. So I thought I would share my love of food with anyone who visits my page. Stay tuned for my first post!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Holiday Spirit

The tree was up before Thanksgiving... but I'm just getting around to uploading a picture.
The madness of wrapping that filled our office is almost all cleaned up now, but it was a little scary there for a minute. Watched some Christmas movies with my guys last night, we have just about every Christmas movie on DVD. Next weekend is my office Christmas party so I bought a new dress, pea coat, jewelry and red lipstick... should be fun ;) Today is my Mom's birthday so I'll head over there in a bit with gifts for her.

The Tree...it's not finished, but it will get there

The mess...it's almost gone

Crazy Days...

Things have been super crazy around here lately... My Dad had surgery on Nov. 2nd and stayed in the hospital for over a week. My husband had surgery on Nov. 4th and even though it was out patient surgery, he was down for about a week. Although he did manage to take me to out to dinner and to see Phantom of the Opera on Nov. 6th because he had purchased the tickets months ago. He felt horrible but really wanted to take me out, what a great guy!! Then on Friday the 13th I had my tooth implant placed! Painful? Not really, but very cool to watch. While all of this has been going on I have managed to complete almost all of my Christmas shopping and I've also finished Mason's birthday shopping for Feb! Look at me go! I'm in the mood for the holidays and I just want to enjoy them with my family this year instead of worrying about buying gifts and what not. I do that every year so I thought I would try something new this year. Plus we've cut back a lot. Christmas around our house had gotten a bit out of hand... I always want people to have a ton of gifts to open so I buy like crazy. I didn't do that this year and I have to say I feel good about that. I'm ready for Thanksgiving too! My sister and I have decided to take over the Thanksgiving meal this year so that my Mom doesn't have to worry about anything. We bought a Honeybaked Ham and we're making all the sides ourselves, I'm bringing my famous homemade Macaroni & Cheese...YUM! Plus I can't wait for Thanksgiving because that means I get to bring out all the Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving night after we get home from our folks, and get to work on getting my Christmas on ;) I can't wait! In the meantime I better get a move on wrapping these gifts.... I have more scheduled to be delivered next week :)

The Great Pumpkin

I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! We sure did.  

How about this little blue eyed beauty?!

She's having her birthday cake and eating it too.

Happy 1st Birthday Baby Audrey!

Allergies and a nose job??

Well... my husband is having some minor surgery. A nose job to be exact. Rhinoplasty. Why? Because he can't breathe. It's not actually going to be noticeable from the outside but it's supposed to make a HUGE difference on the inside. Along with the surgery he also has to keep his allergies under control, an issue that has plagued him his entire life. He had allergy testing done when he was younger and had the allergy therapy...blah blah blah. We did another allergy test on Friday and the results were shocking to say the least.... He's literally allergic to everything they test for. Everything. And not just a little allergic either, we're talking severely allergic to most things. They measure on a system of 5 being the lowest you can score to 13 being the highest you can score; my husband scored 13+ on almost everything and a lot of them were off the scale. The surgeon came in to discuss the results and said, "Wow! I've never seen anything like this before!" He broke the office record as the most allergic patient they have ever had. Go big or go home, right? So what do we do now? Well the doctor said that he doesn't feel comfortable recommending the allergy shots because most likely it would send him into anaphylactic shock. So instead he put him on allergy drops, a lower dosage of the things that he's allergic to...immunotherapy. Surgery is scheduled for November, so we'll see if my sweetie can breathe by December.



On another note: Mason had school pictures last week and I always take a few before he leaves for school just in case the school pictures don't turn out. Here's what we captured this year...

Handsome, right? I think so :)

It's about that time again....

Spent Sunday morning with my favorite kiddo Mason... getting our Halloween on! That's right. We baked spooky cookies and displayed some of our goulish decor. I love this time of year and I can't wait until the television stations start playing Halloween movies. 

btw... I actually do wash my cookies sheets.... they just get a lot of use ;)

The hubs and I now share a "workspace" in our home office. 

Here's a picture of my half of the desk...

Here's a picture of his half of the desk...

I Want....

I want to watch this wicked storm roll in over Miami...

I want to look for seashells on this beach...

I want to walk along this pier...

I want to drink iced tea on an unusually hot day by this old building...

I want to look down this alley way at the beautiful beach...

I want to sit on the end of this old pier with my husband and relax...