My Secret Santa at work is so awesome!

In addtion to bowling + pirate hook = pirate bowling, today I got a really cute scarf and gloves! These are all THINGS THAT ARE AWESOME!

I can't wait to find out who it is!

In other good news, I am getting a replacement gift (and hopefully the right one this time!) shipped to me, and since it was their fault they didn't ask for the other one back! Woohoo! I wont' say what it is here, but it is something I can use for myself. Merry Christmas to me!

It was my schedule day off today, but I actually got a lot done today, considering yesterday my biggest accomplishment was watching 3 movies.

I finally got our Christmas tree put up, and it looks pretty good even though half of a strand is out. It's not easy to replace because it's a prelit tree. I got frustrated with it, but I will try replacing some of the lights here this week. I mailed my Christmas cards (woo!) and did a whole bunch of chores, as well as some Christmas shopping. My parents and brother are coming down on Christmas day and we are going to see Sherlock Holmes so I got the tickets for that too.

I ordered a gift online, and it arrived today, and it is totally NOT what I ordered. *sigh* I hope I have time to return it before Christmas.

Work tomorrow but at least it's a short week :)

Today was a good day. I went to my friend Carla's house to finish making Christmas cards, and do some scrapbooking. We had a good time and I not only finished my Christmas cards, but I did 2 scrapbook layouts! Woot! While we were at Carla's, Dawn found a little dog that was wandering around like it was lost. Dawn knocked on a few doors with her daughters, but no luck. So we brought the dog inside so it could stay warm. It was a cute little dog! A shitzu I think Dawn said. Anyway, as I was leaving, a older lady came walking by who looked upset. Carla asked if she was looking for a dog, and she was! It was her dog, who apparently is hardly ever out of her sight. She was very upset, so I'm glad we found the puppy's owner!

After crafts I did some shopping, and when I got home I finally got all my Christmas cards in their envelopes! now all I have to do is decorate the house and we will be Christmas-erized.

I have been getting some awesome Secret Santa gifts at work! Not only did I get some Christmas decorations, but I got a mini bowling set, and a Pirate hook! This had led to the invention of pirate bowling, in which you must bowl using the hook! It is great fun :)

Also, my new Christmas icon rocks!

Why is it so cold outside??? I don't even want to open the door to let the dogs out. It's FREEZING!

Why is my family so hard to buy christmas gifts for??? I never have any idea what to buy anyone, and they won't give me any ideas. Gah. So I've only bought 1 christmas gift so far!

And I haven't mailed my Christmas cards yet either. Gotta do that! Most of mine are made, although I think I'm going to make a few more this Saturday :)

My guitar recital was on Friday. We had a practice in the afternoon that same day, which went really well and I was feeling pretty good and hopeful about it. My parents came down and we had dinner with them before hand, which was cool :) When we got to the hotel there were a lot of people there! Much more than the last one we did. And I had some friends from work there as well. I was in 2 different trios. Our christmas carols trio went really well, but the other one was not as good as our practice. A little disappointing, but such is life! Most of our mistakes were ones that probably only we noticed! I'll post some photos on facebook soon, my mom got a few good ones I think :)

I'm not sure how much longer I will be taking lessons anyway. I sort of feel like I'm not learning very much any more, just practicing songs. I'd really like to teach myself piano, since I have one. Or maybe take lessons for that instead of guitar. I just need to get the piano tuned. That would be another good project for me to do!

It was really cold today. I wore a new hat. Honestly. I wear a winter hat with puff balls on top and on the ear flaps, and I am the "weird" person at work. Obviously these people have never lived in Seattle.

I have a guitar recital tomorrow. I'm not super jazzed about it because our informal recital on Monday did not go very well. And it's not because of me! The 2 guys in my trio couldn't get their shit together. Soooo yeah, I guess we'll see how it goes. My parents are coming down to have dinner with us before hand, so that should be good :) However it was only about an hour ago when I realized MY PARENTS ARE COMING DOWN. Which means I should probably clean up a little bit downstairs... and I realized I have to go from work, to practice (which will hopefully resolve Monday's problems), to dinner, and then to the recital. When will Sara have time to change clothes? What the hell shoes am I going to wear? I am suddenly feeling unprepared. Shocker, I know.

We got our Secret Santas at work today. I've had mixed experiences with Secret Santa. Last year my Secret Santa, G, was awesome! One year my Secret Santa didn't leave me any gifts until the last day when I got one huge gift of things that were not remotely something I'd want. FAIL. I am hopeful that my Santa will rock. On my slip where we list things we like I wrote, among other things, THINGS THAT ARE AWESOME. I mean really, how can that go wrong? I'd better get some awesome things!

With the induction of facebook into my life, I don't seem to get on livejournal anymore! Pretty sad really. I can't really blog anything on facebook, and when I do log on here and see nothing it makes me kind of sad :( I always liked writing in my LJ!

I guess nothing super exciting is really going on right now. I've been applying for any jobs that I come across, but I haven't had any luck yet. Halloween was fun, I dressed up as a really cute devil :) Thanksgiving was just last week. We had a mixture of Mom's and Dad's family, which was pretty fun. Rich had the day off for once, so he got to come this time!

Been pretty busy getting ready for my guitar recital. I made the programs this year, and I'm helping Bill get everything organized. And since I'm in the trio group, we've been having a lot of extra practices. My recital is this Friday, so it will all be over after that!

I've joined WeightWatchers at Work, so I get to go to my meetings during lunch once a week. I've been enjoying it so far :)

I haven't done hardly any Christmas shopping... but I've still got 23 days left :D

I gave blood yesterday (my 2nd time!) and I'm still feeling really tired. I'm not sure if it's that or if I'm not sleeping enough. Probably both. Do I ever sleep enough? Not really.

Are you kidding me.

I'm watching  I didn't know I was pregnant.  Most of these stories are pretty valid.  But check these people out...

They didn't use birth control.  She misses her period, she gets swollen feet and a few other pregnancy symptoms but never suspects she could be pregnant.  DESPITE NOT EVER USING BIRTH CONTROL WTF?!

Then when she goes into labor during a camping trip, her man says  "all i saw was blood and tissue, I thought it was her intestines to be honest."

*face desk*

I am ashamed to be a human being.


edited to add:  now she has the baby in the bathroom and it falls ON THE CEMENT FLOOR.  Nice.

I've made this casserole a few times now and it's really tasty and healthy!

Grains and Veggies Casserole

Prep: 25 min   Bake: 55 min   Makes: 10 servings

 

5 medium carrots, thinly sliced

2 cups frozen corn, thawed

1 medium onion, diced

1 cup quick-cooking barley

½ cup bulgur

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

3 cups vegetable broth

1 can (15 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 ½ cups (6 oz) reduced-fat shredded cheese

 

1.      In a large bowl, combine the carrots, corn, onion, barley, bulgur, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in broth and beans. Transfer to 13x9x2 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

2.      Cover and bake at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until grains are tender, stirring once.  Sprinkle with cheese. Bake, uncovered, 3-5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

 

** This makes a LOT of casserole, I usually make a half size casserole from this recipe, and I use a 2 ½ quart baking dish.  I also have used dried parsley instead of fresh and chicken broth instead of vegetable, and it works out just fine :)

 

Nutrition facts: ¾ cup equals 226 calories, 5 g fat (3 g saturated fat), 12 mg cholesterol, 741 mg sodium, 38 g carbs, 8 g fiber, 12 g protein

Okay.

I think I start every post with Wow I haven't updated this thing in a while!

*headdesk*

I suck.  The end.

The summer has been relatively busy!  I haven't gone to the gym in quite a long time, which is sort of depressing.  But I have been busy doing crafts and spending time with friends :)

And Rich and I just got home about a week ago from our trip to the UK, which was sooo awesome!  I have yet to post pictures on Facebook, I must do that today.  
 

This weekend has been pretty low key, which was nice.  Did some scrapbooking and made a bunch of cards with my friend Jessica yesterday. And we had sushi at the new place just down the street. It rocked!  I <3 Sushi.