For example, back when I first met Molly, she wasn’t even engaged, let alone married with a baby and #2 on the way!!  And Angela was still living in Seattle and had only been married like, a year.  Now she and Colby are moving to Germany, doing In Vitro next month (sticky baby dust your way, love!) and coming up on their fifth anniversary!  My real life best friend Anne aka Brillig who was my partner in Soap Opera Sunday crime (yeah, I never did finish that one loooooooooong story.  Sorry guys.) doesn’t even HAVE a blog anymore.  I never thought the day would come!   Luisa had a baby who is now almost FOUR!!! There are tons more I want to name but it would seriously take me all day.  Lots of love and marriage and babies and new jobs and big changes and so maybe great people I’ve met.  I love that part of blogging.

And then there’s my life.  Since I started blogging waaaaaayyy back in 2006, just the day after our first anniversary, Matt and I have done and been through and experienced SO MUCH!  I’m going to bullet this list because HOLY CRAP there’s a lot!

• Celebrated five (soon to be six) more anniversaries
• Built a house
• Sold a house (gross)
• Moved (gross)
• Yearly family vacations to the sand dunes
• Yearly (AMAZING) girls trips
• Losses of friends (sad)
• My introduction to fine dining and subsequent food snobbery
• A trip to China
• A trip to Puerto Vallarta
• Countless trips to California with a couple Disneyland trips thrown in
• One job change and two promotions for Matt
• A huge promotion, a company acquisition, two job changes, a job loss and a contracting job for me
• A lead role in two musicals
• Starting to teach voice lessons
• A girls trip to Disneyworld
• Acquired a new sister (technically sister-in-law but who needs to get technical!?  She’s my SISTER!)
• The birth of NUMEROUS babies to my besties (I’m trying to count.  I think it’s something like 12?)
• Three pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages (boo)
• A new puppy!

I’m sure there’s a ton more given the plethora of posts between my three (!!) blog versions.  In spite of some downer moments, the last six years have been really good to me.  I’m pretty glad I started a blog because I’ll always have that fun stuff to look back on, and hopefully there’s years more to come!  Maybe at some point I’ll even get interesting again and return to my former blogging glory!!  Not likely, but I guess one never knows.

Thanks to those of you who  still read.  I know from my stats that there’s more of you than the comments show and I appreciate you coming back to make me feel like I’m at least a little bit interesting! I’ll try to step it up this year and see if I can make it worth your while!

We named him Dr. Watson and call him just Watson.  I think it will fit his personality as he grows up really well.  He’s so young he does all the normal puppy stuff but he’s showing signs of being loving, loyal and super duper feisty and stubborn.  Our first vet visit went great.  He weighs a whopping 2.72 lbs and other than the infected bite on his ear (courtesy of a feisty sibling the day before we picked him up) which is causing the ear to curl back instead of pointing up, he’s a healthy little guy.  He eats well, though I’ll be changing his food soon due to the fact that most dog normal dog food is made mostly of animal by-products and corn, both things that aren’t so good for him, or really any dog for that matter.  {Stepping down from soapbox now}

As I said, he’s oh so snuggly.  From the moment we got him in the car to bring him home he snuggled up in his blanked (courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa Murphy, aka Matt’s parents) and went to sleep.  As soon as we were home he explored a little bit and then climbed onto me, nuzzled into my neck and went back to sleep.  So there’s that amazingly lovable side of him.

Then there’s his stubborn, snotty side that will look at me, run into his crate and pee, just to show me that while MOST dogs refuse to pee where they sleep, he is the exception to the rule and he’ll pee wherever he wants, thank you very much.  It shows up other places too.  For the first few days he couldn’t get inside fast enough after his bathroom break.  Yesterday, he discovered sun patches.  He was outside for almost an hour yesterday, absolutely refusing to come inside (without force) and just hanging out in the sun.  He discovered the same sun patches in the (before now) never explored living/dining room.  Now it’s his favorite place to go hang out on the warm carpet.  I’d let him stay there forever except for the fact that I find him sneaking off to mess up my carpet every time I turn my head.

As for the feisty side, it usually shows up at play time and is completely hilarious and appropriate, but it also shows up when it’s two in the morning and I just want to go back to sleep.  He would instantly fall asleep if I put him in his blanket in my lap but if I put him in his blanket in his crate suddenly he’s WIDE AWAKE and wants to play, which usually entails chasing my feet around and biting my toes, which actually hurts! As an example of the feisty, below is a video of him attacking a mag light.  Apologies for the length and for my horrible voice and laughter.

As you can see, he doesn’t really walk or run anywhere, he hops. This has been a constant since his first movement here at the house. Fortunately he gets more coordinated every day because at first he couldn’t take three steps without falling all over himself. We still have hilarious accidents involving walls, shower doors, sliding glass doors, nor realizing that when he scratches with one leg he really shouldn’t try to walk, and rolling off my shoulder in his sleep, doing a backflip on the way down. The good news is that he seems to be made of rubber and has yet to even wince when he falls or runs into something.

So there’s the puppy update.  We’re madly in love with him, though severely sleep deprived and walking around like zombies, but at least we’re zombies in love with the cutest dog ever.

I realized as I started writing this that I should really include some pictures from our Christmas and New Year…but they’re at home and I’m not and so no pictures for now.  Maybe tonight I’ll do a post that’s entirely made up of pictures…hmmm interesting concept.

My birthday this year was really mellow and really nice.  It was a rough year for babysitters so there were only six people who were able to make it to my party, but it was actually really, really fun.  We sat around the table eating and talking and laughing until midnight, when we realized we had one minute to get out the noise makers and fake champagne, so we hurried and did that and then we played Minute to Win It games until almost two.  It. Was.  Hilarious.  Whoever came up with some of those games deserves a medal.  If I happen to do my picture post tonight I’ll also include a video of the Bobble Head game.  I’m not sure I’ve ever laughed that hard.   As for gifts, I got some really fun trinkets and games from friends and family, Matt’s parents got me the most awesome professional style popcorn popper  I’ve already used it like five times, just for myself.  It’s awesomsauce.  Finally, Matt dialed in with a sweet surprise of two day park hopper passes to Disneyland, which I am SO EXCITED about.  I love me some Disneyland.  All in all, my birthday was a huge hit and helped end a pretty crappy year on a really high note.

New Year’s Day was spent being extraordinarily lazy.  We woke up at eleven and then didn’t leave the couch until three at which point we decided we needed some food before crashing back on the couch until bedtime.  It was an awesome day of sluggishness.

Yesterday, we decided we were done being lazy and we packed up the Jeep for a four wheeling adventure to Box Canyon, which is about and hour and a half south-east of our house, near a tiny town called Florence.  It was an amazingly beautiful 80 degree day and the trail was awesome.  There were only a few times I thought my brain was going to bounce out of my head and I stepped on a cactus branch in my flip-flops while trying to pee in the wilderness, so that was…interesting, but we really had a great time.  I love having our Jeep and we high fived yesterday on never selling it.  Go us.  We ended the day with delicious Cafe Rio (oh how I wish there were one closer to our house) and drove home.  It was such a fun day, I’m glad we decided to kick the laziness and go do something.

Today I’m back to work after two weeks of blah - I mean I worked during those two weeks but it was all from the couch..  It was rough getting started but nice to be back in a routine that didn’t involve hours of Netflix, pajamas and my couch blanket - aka Snuggie.  I’m sure poor Matt thought he’d never see me with make-up or normal clothes on again.  I guess I had to wash my sweat pants at SOME point.

I’ve joined a lot of people in skipping New Year’s resolutions this year.  I really just want to focus on loving my life and being happy, so I’m not making any specific goals, I just really want to keep my chin up and have a positive attitude all year long, no matter what happens.  It might be the hardest thing I’ve ever set out to do, honestly, but I’m determined to make it happen.

First time:  “Just a common cold, here have some nasal spray!”

Second time:  “Hmm, still probably just a cold.  Maybe some prescription cough syrup?”

Third time:  “Well, probably a virus but just in case we’ll give you a Z-pac to knock it out if it’s not.”

Well, must be a freaking virus because nothing did the trick.  Insert heavy, more obnoxious than it already is whining HERE.

I swear I’m trying not to be a big, complainy baby here (ok that might not be at all true) but I don’t remember being sick for this long.  EVER.  And this is like, the best I’ve ever had it as far as nurturing an environment of healing.  I’ve had the luxury of being able to stay in bed almost all day every day during this whole thing.  That’s the awesome part about working from home.  No one on the computer knows I’m sick and they’re not going to catch it.  As long as I can make it through a few conference calls, I’m good.  So anyway, I’ve gone to bed early, used a vaporizer, downed enough Sprite and juice to sustain an army, taken every drug known to man, and it just won’t.go.away!  It’s like my immune system was sitting on the couch, watching season 1 of Lost when it got the phone call that it was needed and it kind of shrugged it’s shoulders and went “Eh.  This is a really good show.  I’ll show up when this episode is over”  Then it turned out it was LOST and it was watching it on Netflix and then found out that ALL the seasons were available (!!!) and couldn’t handle any of the cliff hangers and had to watch all six seasons, back to back.  No breaks, no sleeping, no helping a sick girl out for Christmas.  I’m just hoping it likes the ending well enough to GET OVER HERE AND MAKE ME BETTER.

I’m finally (cross my fingers) starting to feel like I’m on the upswing, but we’ll see how it goes when I have my annual birthday party/New Year’s Eve bash on Saturday.  I might just kick it back into action and be sick FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

So um, other than that…Christmas was great.  Matt and I were both spoiled rotten.  I got my much wanted enameled cast iron skillet and the Ray Ban sunglasses (woot!), a ton of awesome kitchen gadgets, a bunch of gift certificates to my favorite stores and a lot of other sweet stuff.  Matt got a super nifty hands free video camera he can mount on his ATV helmet or his Jeep and catch the hilarious moments (aka CRASHES) we always miss when we’re out riding, a really nice G-shock watch, a bunch of tool related things that go in the garage that I don’t understand and some shirts and sports stuff and other boy type things.  I seriously couldn’t believe my eyes when we doled out all the presents and I saw the amount that was left under the tree for just us.  Santa was much too kind this year.  I like to think we deserved it.  *wink*

So now all that’s left in 2011 is getting better, cleaning the house (which includes rearranging cupboards in the kitchen to make room for my loot) and putting together the games for the party on Saturday.  My big birthday present is the puppy, who comes home around the middle of January, but I’m still expecting a little somethin’ somethin’ from that husband of mine.  And what I mean by that is some jewelry.  Ha!  The theme of overdoing it might as well continue, right?  Because next year we just might get lucky enough to have a munchkin to spoil, or at the very least a puppy…so we may never get this chance again!  SPOIL ME AWAY, SPOUSE!

I hope you all had fan-freakin-tastic Christmases too, and I also hope you have a wonderful and safe New Year.  I’ll probably be be back before 2011 is over, but just in case I’m not, love and (mask covered) kisses to all!  XOXO

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

For me, the center of Christmas is the Savior.  I cannot say what I feel for Him and what He has done for my life better than Thomas S. Monson, the prophet of my church did in his Christmas Devotional earlier this month:

“Because He came to earth, we have a perfect example to follow. As we strive to become more like Him, we will have joy and happiness in our lives and peace each day of the year. It is His example which, if followed, stirs within us more kindness and love, more respect and concern for others.

Because He came, there is meaning to our mortal existence.

Because He came, we know how to reach out to those in trouble or distress, wherever they may be.

Because He came, death has lost its sting, the grave its victory. We will live again because He came.

Because He came and paid for our sins, we have the opportunity to gain eternal life…

May His precious Spirit be with us, and may He ever be the center of our celebrations and indeed of our very lives”

Merry Christmas to all of you.  I hope your day is filled with love, family and laughter.

“Shouldn’t we have won an extra iPad by now?  I mean, COME ON.  We haven’t won anything or had any great news in a long time.  This year has been crappy with a capital S-H and I THINK WE DESERVE TO WIN AN IPAD.”

I just started laughing and couldn’t stop for about ten minutes.  It was funny for so many reasons, the first being we haven’t entered to win an iPad so unless someone is delivering them door to door, it’s not happening.  Second, we HAVE an iPad and I’m absolutely certain we don’t need two.  I mean, I wouldn’t say NO to one but it’s not like I have this great urge to go out and drop the cash on a second one.  Third, Matt having a burst of emotion such as that is just plain funny.  I think, however, that I was laughing mostly out of 2011 exhaustion.  It’s that slap happiness that hits you at 3 am at a sleepover and you know you’ve passed the point of no return and all you can do is laugh.  That’s where I’m at with 2011.  It’s the 3am of the year, two weeks left, and I can’t do anything but laugh until I pass out from exhaustion and wake up in 2012.

I remember so vividly writing this post on the eve of my 30th birthday last year.  I was so very certain that 2011 was going to be the greatest year ever.  And frankly, it started off that way.  I got a new job, I spent an amazing few days with awesome friends in Disneyworld, I found out we were pregnant again and carried that little baby past 12 weeks and into what seemed like the safe zone…then around April everything just sort of fell apart.  The baby didn’t make it, the new job wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, I was a huge ball of stress and I had a good three months of invasive poking and prodding only to find out there wasn’t much wrong and we had no idea why my babies weren’t making it.  Then, in September it all sort of culminated in the official loss of my job, still not being pregnant and having a lot of spare anger and emotions to top it all off.  We are all very lucky I had proactively started on anti-depressants in April because BOY HOWDY was September rough.  Now, complete in fairness to 2011, the last three months haven’t been bad at all with two trips home to Utah, a wonderful Thanksgiving with my brothers and sister and a contract job that seems to be working out really well.  So all things told, five months of the year were the crappiest in memory, three months were not so bad and three were some of the best of my life.  It’s been a roller coaster for sure.

As always, the love and support I’ve had through all of this has been greater than I could ever explain.  In general, people have been SO kind and SO understanding.  There have been the random letters and statements telling me to “suck it up” but I think the people saying those things really hadn’t taken the time to hear and understand the entire story, and I know they were just trying - in their weird way - to be helpful.    I try not to hold it against anyone just as I hope that they won’t hold my recent strange behavior and attitude issues against me.  As I said, almost everyone has been fantastic.  Supportive, thoughtful, kind and willing to be there for me in whatever way I need.  I am so unbelievably grateful to have the friends and family I do and I wish that I could do more for them.

I’m still not quite to that point that people claim you get to where you can look back on your troubles and say you were grateful for what you learned.  I still struggle every day with trying to figure out how to be OK with some of the things that happened.  I’m struggling with finding happiness for others who have the things I’ve been denied.  I’m struggling with some feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy due to the job failure.   I’m struggling to find peace with the things that happened and move on.  In some cases the painful things were absolutely no fault of my own and in others, there are lots of things I need to think on to determine what I may have done to contribute and make sure I prevent that behavior in the future.   It’s a daily battle but I’m working so hard and I really think I’m almost there.

I’m looking forward to turning the page on this year.  I’m counting on a fantastic 2012, whatever it brings.  That might mean a baby, a new job, a promotion for Matt, a new house, a big vacation (Australia, anyone?!?!) or just a happier outlook.  At the very least I’m aiming for that last one.  I’m going to be happy in 2012…even if it means upping my medication dose.  Ha!  Just kidding.  Maybe.

I mentioned that my family tree is sort of all over the place, with divorces and extra parents and all that jazz.  This meant that my siblings and I were in a different location for Christmas every year.  We rotated between my Dad’s current home (wherever that happened to be at the time until he got married then it was Pennsylvania), his family home in Ohio, our home in Utah and my Grandparent’s home in California.  We had a total blast but traditions were not so easy to keep.

All of our set and attempted traditions come from my Mom or her side of the family.  Dad’s side is a little more focused on Thanksgiving so Christmas traditions were never much of a big deal to them.  As for our little clan, my mom sure tried to introduce new traditions to make the holiday somewhat consistent for us.  One year she decided that we were going to collect pieces of a Christmas village, one each year.  My Grandma, who is OBSESSED with Christmas,  got wind of this and the next year our present from her was an ENTIRE VILLAGE.  Hmmm.  Next she tried a nutcracker theme, with a new fancy nutcracker every year.  This one lasted about two years and then Mom forgot.  No more nutcrackers!

For food, our big meal has always been on Christmas Eve.  Apparently when my Grandma was growing up the big dinner was always on Christmas day and she said she always felt bad for her Mom and the other women (eventually I’m sure herself included) who had to spend all day cooking instead of enjoying their gifts on Christmas.   So, when she got married she decided the big meal was always going to be on Christmas Eve.  She also gets some breakfast casserole ready to be warmed up so that on Christmas morning, the only cooking you do is breakfast (which is already mostly prepared) and then spend the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying family.    As for the actual meal, we are pretty weird and picky about our our holiday recipes.  It has to be just the right stuffing, creamed corn and sweet potatoes.  Sometimes we mix it up with the meat and have ham or prime rib, and we are allowed to try new mashed potato recipes, but so help you if you mess with the stuffing, creamed corn or sweet potatoes.  Well, it’s not like we DO something to the person who introduces a new recipe, we just feel like the holiday wasn’t complete and make the dishes that were missing within the next day or so.  So basically either way we always get our favorites whether it’s on Christmas or not.

One tradition (at least when we were with Mom) was that on Christmas Eve, we read her favorite Christmas story, This is the Christmas. My mom spent a good chunk of her childhood living in Belgrade, Yugoslavia - now Serbia, and has a deep love for the Serbian culture.  This story comes out of that area and involves a Serbian family and a small Gypsy boy.  I’ve posted before so if you’d like to read it, you can find it here.   It really is an amazing  story and I’m glad that this is one tradition that stuck.

Another awesome thing our family did that I haven’t seen much was that my Mom somehow convinced Santa to put our stockings on our beds.  And our stockings were AWESOME.  They were always filled with games and small toys, markers and coloring books.  We had HUGE handmade felt stockings that fit a bazillion things and they were still overflowing with stuff.  The genius in all of this is that when we woke up at the butt crack of dawn - which we almost always did - we had tons of stuff to keep us busy and allow the adults to sleep in until at least seven when we were finally allowed out into present land.

So, now that I have my own little family and home, I’ve been trying to figure out which traditions we want to keep from my family, which we like from Matt’s family and which ones I want to introduce as new.

We try very hard to set aside at least a few hundred dollars every year to donate to a charity of some sort.  We usually do it through our ward (aka local branch of our church) as there are always families who need a little help.  I think as we grow our family I’d like to do something that’s a little more obvious than writing a check, so in the future I’m thinking the Twelve Days of Christmas or spending time volunteering at a food bank or something will be in order.  My Mom was great about making sure that no matter how poor we were, we always did or gave something to a family who was worse off than us and it’s important to me that we do the same thing.

Matt’s family and mine have a little “conflict” in that their big tradition is to do appetizers and shrimp cocktail on Christmas Eve and then watch a movie together.  While I love this, I feel torn because I tend to agree with my Grandma that the last thing I want to do on Christmas Day is spend all day in the kitchen.  So we’ve gone back and forth on this.  I am pretty sure we’ll end up with our tradition being a big dinner on Christmas Eve and the Murphy Appetizer Party on Christmas night, but that one is still being decided.  I love the Christmas breakfast tradition so I’ll keep that, but I think I’ll try different recipes for a few years until we find THE ONE.  It will probably have something to do with french toast.

Matt’s Mom introduced an awesome tradition to us.  Every year she gives us a few Christmas children’s books.  The point is to get 25 and before December 1st, wrap them all up and then open one each evening before bed to read as a family.  I love love love this and I can’t wait to start doing it whenever the babies decide to grace us with their presence.

I’ll still read the special story on Christmas Eve, and I’d like to also read the story of Christ’s birth from the bible.

I’ve been hearing a lot about The Elf on the Shelf lately and I’m undecided on that one.  I think it’s a really cool idea and a good way to help your kids focus on being good in December, but it seems like a lot of work for the parent (if the things I’m seeing on Pinterest are any indication.)  Also?  That thing is kind of creepy in a clown-like way and I’m not sure I’d feel safe in my own home.

At some point in my life I’m going to be better about Christmas Cards.  I spent HOURS making one this year that’s clever and cute but now I feel like I don’t want to spend hours printing, addressing and mailing it.  I’m such a lazy bum.  I’ll still probably end up doing it but right now it just seems like more effort than I want to put into it.  I’m sure when we have kids I’ll be better about family pictures which make cards a lot easier, says me.

What traditions do you have that you’d be willing to share?  I’m keeping a list of ideas to try out over the next few years and I’d love to know what works for your family.

Just writing about this stuff got me all excited for Christmas again!  I love it!

It’s always a conundrum for me because Matt and I are at that D.I.N.K. (dual income, no kids) point in our lives where if we want something, for the most part, we just buy it.  Obviously that doesn’t apply to big ticket items and ridiculousness but in general, it’s pretty true.  It is great to have the things we need and want but then the holidays come around and it gets a touch difficult to come up with things that fit the Christmas budget.  Meaning, I’d LIKE  a new car (who wouldn’t!?) but that’s not happening for a list of reasons a mile long.  Matt would LIKE a Polaris Razr, but again, not happening for oh so many reasons.

We have a lot of people to get lists to.  I come from a family tree with lots of branches so I have two Moms, one Dad, one set of grandparents and a sibling exchange to come up with a list for just on that side.  Then Matt’s parents and brother always need a list as well.   That’s a lot of lists.  And if you’re like me, you want to provide several options so that you can be surprised.  You also don’t want to provide the same list to different people because then you’ll end up with multiples and the chore of returning.  Sheesh.  So complicated!  Then I have the added challenge of ANOTHER list for my birthday.  Yet another time when I really wish someone could have made sure I was born in June.

This year I tried (wasn’t easy!) to come up with a variety of things in different categories.  Things I need (the hardest one), bigger ticket items that I wanted, medium ticket items that I wanted, and a few things I REALLY WANTED (this list usually goes to Matt).  I thought in case any of you were looking for ideas, I’d share some of the items on my list.  Some of them are frivolous.  Don’t judge.  That’s what Christmas/my birthday is for!

First things first, the practical.  I cook.  A lot.  And I  love love love me some enameled cast iron skillets.  Now, I’m not hoity toity enough to assume ANYONE is going to lay down the cash to get me the Le Crueset brand, so I found an awesome alternative.  Costco, y’all.  This baby is decently priced at $59.99 and looks just as good as the fancy pants brands.  Done and dizzle.

 Next up we have my newest workout obsession, Lululemon.  Their stuff is speeeeennndddyyy and probably not something I’d be able to throw down for on my own, so why not ask for it for Christmas!!  I specifically love this awesome Yoga tank.  It’s long enough that you won’t spend your whole practice yanking it down, it’s got a built in bra so you’re not wearing a gazillion layers AND it’s so freaking cute!  Spendy, as I mentioned, at $64.00 but I think it’s a good, Christmassy kind of splurge.  My only question is if it’s going to be unflattering on my not so small hips.  If I get it, I’ll let you know!

 Next up, lately I’ve been really loving small, understated necklaces with one charm.  I have a knock-off Tiffany cursive “k” and a neat feather I’ve been wearing a lot.  I found a few others I’d like to add to my collection.

RedEnvelope has this really cool horseshoe that I’d love to own.  It’s not somuch cheap so I’m not planning on getting it but I’ve been looking for a knock-off or similar necklace elsewhere.  Sorry for the horrid picture.

Next up, Nordstrom carries a really cool line of jewelry called Dogeared and their jewelry is all really sweet and simple and inspirational.  There are quite a few things from the line I’d really like but I honed in on two this year.

First, the New Beginnings Necklace, which I’m hoping to find in silver.  It’s a tiny lotus flower and the quote on the card says “make a wish and put on your necklace.  the lotus flower grows up through the dark and out into the light of the sun.  let your necklace be a reminder of the incredible beauty that can come from change.  grow and believe!”  I like this for SO many reasons.  This one is $54.00.

The second Dogeared necklace I love is the Happy.  It’s a small smiling Buddha and I love it so much!  With my time spent in China and some studying I’ve done I have a great love of the Buddhist philosophies and I love the message on this card “make a wish and put on your necklace.  the happy buddha symbolizes the good life…happiness, health and longevity.  whenever you see his smiling face, good luck will follow.  wear your necklace as a reminder to keep him close!”

There are several others I love including Luck, Karma and Memories.  I could probably have a collection of all of their necklaces and be happy, honestly.

Next up we have one of my guilty pleasure requests, these aviator Ray-ban sunglasses.  Ever since I had my eye surgery and I can actually WEAR sunglasses, I’m obsessed.  This is the first pair of aviators that don’t make me look like I’m a cop who’s trying to hard.  They’re $129 which is pretty steep but I do love them so.  I asked for them in silver but a mysterious text message from my husband last night seems to indicate that despite my showing him these two months ago, he waited too long and they might not have the color anymore.  We’ll see if he can figure it out.

My biggest splurge request this year is some Tiffany jewelry.  They have a line called Diamonds by the Yard and I LOVE how simple and pretty it is.  Ideally I’d like the sterling silver single diamond necklace and bracelet but I’m not so sure that’s going to happen.  I’ll cross my fingers and hope!

 So there’s part of my Christmas list!  Now tell me what you want Santa to bring you!!  Ready?  Go!

I don’t have it in me to write it again so I’ll sum up.

We went to Utah for a week, had two Thanksgivings, plenty of fun, plenty of family drama and too much food.  It was great to be home for the second time in a month but it was also great to be back home in my own bed.

I’ve had a half-cold for about the last month and I’m really wishing it would go away.

We are getting a PUPPY!!  He is a French Bulldog, mostly white with a black ear and two black spots on his back.  He was born November 13th and we should be able to bring him home around December 31, so Happy Birthday to ME!  We haven’t decided on a name for him yet so we’re taking suggestions.  We’re looking for something on the funny side because we are of the opinion that all bulldogs are hilarious  and French bulldogs are poshly hilarious. I would publish a picture but I think that’s what broke the last post so I’m going to avoid it until next time.

I cannot believe this year is almost over.  Most of me is relieved since it’s sort of been the year of hell for me, but I  feel so old admitting that it feels like just yesterday that I was turning 30 at my big birthday ball!

I’m working a lot, but on my own terms and my own hours which is great.  I’m looking forward to spending the holidays at home and just spending some time with Matt.  His parents will be in town but staying with his brother so they can be with the grand-baby on Christmas morning.  I’m sure we’ll have a big dinner and hang out a lot, which will be great.

I think that’s it.  I can’t believe how utterly boring my posting has been lately.  Ugh.  I’m in a boring rut.  Bring on 2012!!