getting caught up

Before I write the big post recapping my 2006, I should get caught up on my posts for the last few days (or week). I never posted about Christmas (other than my gifts!). If I had, the title of that post would have been: "You know what's good about Laura? She knows what is funny." That is what my sister said on Christmas day. Christmas was ok. Nothing too exciting. Just family time. On Christmas eve, mom, dad, and sister came over for dinner. Chris and I made tamales for the first time. (My sister blogged about this - so check this out for photos.) We thought since we really like tamales, why not try to make them ourselves. It took two days and teamwork and we managed to make 138 tamales. And they were freaking good. Our freezer is full (thank goodness for the foodsaver!), even after giving a ton to my parents. We will be eating tamales forever and a day. We hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house last year and it was really nice, so that's why we did it again. Chris and I did not go to the big family get together this year. There was drama with when it was going to be and it wasn't decided until the 23rd when we would have it. I normally enjoy these gatherings and Chris hates them. It's a sore spot in our relationship. Now that I think about it, enjoy is not really the right word. I go to them so that I can spend time with my extended family. Aunts, uncle, cousins, second cousins, etc. I usually only see them on holidays, because they live on the other side of town (over 25 miles away). So, we didn't go this year. On Christmas day, we went over to my parents house in the morning. Mom made the rolls that she has made every Christmas morning for as long as I can remember. Then we opened presents together. I like to take turns opening gifts and only one person open at a time. That way it makes the gift opening take longer. This however does make others too happy. I guess they would rather tear into their gifts and see what everyone else got later. But we do it my way and I like it. One thing I do not like, that happened more than once, is when someone complains that you spent too much money on their gifts. This, to me, is rude. If I didn't want to spend the money, I wouldn't have. Just appreciate what you got and the thought behind it and don't tell the person they spent too much. After gifts, we ate snack foods and played Yahtzee.
Funny things that happened Christmas day:
- My mom spent the whole day wearing the pearls my father gave her for Christmas. She was wearing a jogging suit and t-shirt, but still she kept the pearls on. Hours of entertainment...
- My sister stopped playing Yahtzee to go curl her hair. She had showered that morning and so her hair was straight. When I asked her why she curled her hair, especially since she was going to see no one other than us for the whole day, she answered that she curled her hair because she didn't like looking at it straight. Um, ok. She is so weird about that.
- My dad did not play games with us. He watched tv and ended up watching the rerun of the national spelling bee. Now it is fun to make fun of that, but I will admit that I watched the bee when it was on the first time. Why? I have no idea. So, I can't give him too much crap about it.
There are some pictures here. None of the sister, because she is still keeping her identity a secret and I respect that...

edited to add: I don't want to forget to mention our anniversary dinner! We went to The Melting Pot and OHMYGOD it is so good. We had been to another one a few years ago and loved it. So instead of gifts to each other this year, we went to dinner. I love the fondue. It is such a nice time. We had a great bottle of Flora Springs 2005 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. Very nice, since our main course was beef, chicken and seafood. Yum. Yum! Go to The Melting Pot if you can - just know that it takes a long time (we were there for 3 hours) and it is not cheap. But it is well worth it!

I did it

Here's the proof.



It looks sooooo much better. I am really glad i did it, but it feels so strange.
It kept the cut off hair and I am going to donate it to Locks of Love.

i'm freaking out

I am going (in 2 hours) to get my haircut. I haven't had it cut in over a year. I know it's really bad to go that long. My hair is my security blanket. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I know it needs to be cut and made healthy again. It's really frizzed out on the ends right now. I haven't decided how short I am going to get it yet... augh.

edited to add: here are the wedding pictures I posted last year, in case you wanna see them (or see them again).

thanks for all the stuff

to my family - thanks for all the nice gifts. I love them all.

What I got...

From Chris:

From my in-laws: holy cow-I know! A Coach bag! It matches the wallet they gave for my birthday.

From my sister: diamond hoop earrings and hello kitty stuff

From my dad: a 24 inch strand of pearls (He bought all us girls [mom, me, sister] a strand of pearls. This was a surprise to everyone, including my mother.)

From Santa (aka mom): Lots of scrapbooking stuff (including a new paper trimmer, rub-ons, adhesives, storage container and a neat daily calendar), Hello Kitty stuff (note pad, wristlet, magnets, stickers, etc), personalized note cards, travel things for our cruise and the cruise itself.

I got other stuff, but I don't really feel like listing them all like I did on my birthday. Chris got some good stuff too! Thanks again for it all.

not sure how i feel about this one...

the hotness in a white suit.
This is the photo that was supposed to be in PEOPLE's sexiest man issue, but never was.

Christmas time already?

I don't know what my problem is this year. I did not finish decorating our tree until last night. It was put up with the lights on it almost two weeks ago and it stood ornament-less for that long. I am ashamed. I am usually the decorator of all decorators. I do my own thing. Our holiday decor is very eclectic.(As you can see below by all the crap we put on the house.) But it's still very tasteful. I have none of those cheesy blow up things in the yard. Just lots and lots of lights. Anyway, my house is officially complete with all the decor inside and out. But Christmas is like, what - less than 5 days away. Why is Christmas such a let down? When did it stop being fun? One of my favorite Christmas memories was not being able to sleep on Christmas Eve and going and getting in bed with my sister. We stayed up most of the night. We were not even that young. I think she was in junior high or even high school. But it was really fun. We loved Christmas morning. I know that you grow up and out of that stuff, but I wish that you didn't have to.

the death of a friend

It's so hard to deal with the death of a friend. No matter how they die.
My friend Tarah was killed by a drunk driver on February 7, 1997. It will be 10 years this February and it still hurts so bad. I think about her all the time. I talk to her in my head. She was such a special person and brought so much joy to her friends. I miss her very much.
My sister's friend died last week. In a different way than my friend, but losing a friend is... losing a friend. I want to be able to console my sister. I know what she's going thru. But the circumstances with her friend is something that I can't wrap my head around. All I can do is be there for her. I am glad that my sister is home with my parents right now. If she was back at her home, alone, it would be so much harder for her. I hope she knows she is loved.

Edited to add:
This is Tarah (in the white t-shirt), along with my friend Elizabeth, at our senior party from high school.

big day

We just got home from Chris's work Christmas party. It was here and it was random. The food was quite tasty. There were a lot of people that I don't know. His office has grown so much in 2 years that I can't keep track of everyone.
But the party was not the coolest thing that happened today. And Chris getting his bonus check was not the coolest thing that happened today. And my makeup looking really good was not the coolest thing that happened today. (I love this mascara, btw. It is the best I have ever used.) The coolest thing that happened today is that Chris got promoted!!! He is now officially an "associate." It's a really big deal. He wasn't really expecting it. The average time it takes someone to make associate is about 5 years. He was been there 2 1/2 years. He deserves this promotion soooooo much. He works his ass off at that place. I am just so happy that he is finally getting the recognition that he deserves. I am so proud of him. You really deserve this.

paranoia

Since work has been really strange, I am thinking I need to move my blog and never access it from my work computer. I think that I will do this very soon. I feel like I can't write about how I feel about my job, because I am getting very concerned about who might see it. I know it really does sound paranoid, but my employer monitors internet access. I just have a bad feeling about this. I am gonna give fair warning to those 3 random people that read my blog. If you want me to send you the link when the new page is set up, email me at allmyownnow@hotmail.com. Family - I will email it to you when it's done. But anyone else who wants it, let me know.

Jesus Christ Superstar

The movie version was just on TV. Why did I watch this? It is freaking weird. I normally love all things musical theater (and most movie versions too), but this was weird. I have never seen the stage version and only heard a few of the songs. I can't get past how strange it is. It is sooooooooooo dated. I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be funny, serious or just sad. Sad, because of the story, but also because it is so strange that it's just sad. I can't explain it. Have you seen this movie or stage performance? What do you think?

Poinsettia Festival

My mom came over today and we went to the Poinsettia Festival at Gardener's World. It was really neat. They have every different variety. Some that I had never seen before. I took lots of pictures of the poinsettia's and the other flowers that they have at the store. Go here for more.

what fell on my head - update

The redness has gone away, for the most part. But my forehead is still sore to the touch. People thought that it was a curling iron burn and it really did look like that after the initial redness wore off. The unmentionable bruise (ok - its on my left boob) is still nasty and huge. I also recently (yesterday) discovered a bruise on my left wrist. It's not bad and only hurts if you push on it. My nose was also bruised a little bit for my sunglasses getting pushed down. They didn't break (thank god! They are prescription and not cheap! You can't live in AZ and not have sunglasses.), but my nose is still a little tender. I am totally fine though. It's all just surface wounds that will fade with time. I am so flippin lucky.

super stinkin cute

Scarlett Aurora - 1 month

49th Annual Grammy Awards Nominations

The ones I care about:

Album Of The Year

Taking The Long Way - Dixie Chicks
St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley
Continuum - John Mayer
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake


Best Male Pop Vocal Performance

You're Beautiful - James Blunt
Save Room - John Legend
Waiting On The World To Change - John Mayer
Jenny Wren - Paul McCartney
Bad Day - Daniel Powter


Best Pop Vocal Album

Back To Basics - Christina Aguilera
Back To Bedlam - James Blunt
The River In Reverse - Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
Continuum - John Mayer
FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake


Best Rock Album

Try! - John Mayer Trio
Highway Companion - Tom Petty
Broken Boy Soldiers - The Raconteurs
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Living With War - Neil Young


Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance

Nausea - Beck
Someday Baby - Bob Dylan - Track from: Modern Times
Route 66 - John Mayer - Track from: Cars — Soundtrack
Saving Grace - Tom Petty - Track from: Highway Companion
Lookin' For A Leader - Neil Young - Track from: Living With War

ouch - it really hurts

Chris and I (well, Chris mainly. I was just there to get hurt, apparently.) were cutting down the obnoxious wrought iron gate at the end of our driveway. There was a piece of it that went across the driveway about 8 feet up and while Chris was cutting that down, I was supposed to be holding it. So much for that. Once Chris cut the last piece and it was free from the posts, I couldn't hold it and the steel beam fell on my head. Thank god that it didn't bleed or require stitches. No concussion or black out either. I was way lucky. But it still really hurts. I know the picture it blurry (I took it myself), but trust me - you don't want to see what it really looks like. There are more gashes under my hair that you can't see in the picture. The beam came to rest on my chest and I have big red mark their too. Couldn't photograph that one, sickos. Anyway. I am accident prone. We all knew that.

oh my

Controversial X-ray scan to be used at Sky Harbor

I do not know how I feel about this. I do like that they are giving people the option to use the xray or the "traditional pat-down." I don't travel enough to really care, but my theory on the whole security issue is that if someone wants to take down a plane or whatever, they will figure out a way to do it. I know that we have to take precautions to try to prevent it, but a full body xray? What in the hell has happened to our society people?

who are the lucky recipients?

A 4 pack of custom-designed greeting cards made by Cradle to Cradle (C2C). Each pack includes four different colorways of the JM (aka the hotness)-Snowflake design. C2C has developed a program that eliminates product waste – each card and envelope is made from environmentally healthy plastic and includes a unique 2-way return postage-paid envelope that allows the card to be safely reused rather than discarded. For more information, please visit www.cradletocradle.net.

How awesome! Can you see the guitars in the snowflakes? I will get better pictures once I get them in my hot little hands and scan them. I don't know if I will actually give them away. I might end up framing them if they are as cool in person as they look online.

www.worldaidsday.org

my sister-in-law's big day!

ooh - not good

I watched the first two episodes yesterday. It is not really good. It has such potential, but just falls WAY short. I might keep watching a few more episodes to see if it improves, but if you didn't catch it, you are not missing anything.

from Interview magazine

dear lord.
the hotness - even sleeping...
How can you not love this?
I want to forgive and forget, I just don't know if I can.