Merry Christmas!

So, as a child I would never sit on Santa's lap. I don't know why, but I was scared. I would even go the long way around his spot so he wouldn't see me! My mother does not have any pictures of me with Santa, except one. Storytime...

My sister and I are shopping at the Eastridge Mall in Gastonia. Michelle was 18 and I was 12. She spots Santa (who was young), decides he is cute, and proceeds to force me to go with her.


Thanks to my sister, my mother has one picture of me and Santa. :)

Choices have been made~

This month has been pretty exciting in regards to the house progress. Our cabinets were installed this week. It was pouring rain, and the cabinet truck got stuck. Matthew hooked up his F-250 to help, but proceeded to get his truck stuck. Tow trucks were involved, and everyone lived happily ever after. ^_^

The granite people came out and made a template of the cabinets. It was up to me to choose a kitchen faucet, so they would know how many holes to drill in our pretty slab of granite. After a phone call and internet research, I ordered a Delta faucet (see photo below).

I was able to actually get my "stuff" together and choose lighting. Thanks to the internet, I did my research, typed up my list of favorites, and then got pricing info. The other nice thing was being able to go to the showroom and look at these in real-life. Matthew and I chose the Hendrik series from Kichler lighting.

This is our dining room chandelier.

And this is one of 3 mini-pendants that will hang over the kitchen bar.

We will have Brushed Nickel versions in our Master and Guest baths.

Matthew and I, also, spent 4.5 hours choosing our tile. It was worth it. We got some great ideas, and the tile above the stove is going to be very unique.

The details are coming together! Next step... wall colors!

Birthday Adventure

My sister and her family live in Charlotte. Her youngest son, Josh, almost shares a birthday with me. His birthday is Dec. 5 and mine is Dec. 6. He is one day older than me. So, yesterday, we celebrated his birthday at Chuckie Cheesee (as mom calls it). ^-^

If you have never been to C.C., it is an experience. I am going to leave it at that.

So after walking into the overstimulating, ADHD world, you find your child's table. You look up and see this...

Animatronic creatures that blink and "play" instruments. Yeah, it kind of creeps me out, too.

Then I see Josh, and he is ready to play games!

This is a picture of my other nephew, Stephen. He turned 9 last October. I still can't believe how big he is getting.

Stephen is also quite the athlete. He plays baseball, basketball, and golf. Just look at that form!

Josh loves playing games. His friend, Jake, and him played this one for awhile. This was a good game for them because it keeps going when you run into walls (which happened a lot). :P

After some coercing, Josh decided to blow out his candles.

Josh received a Nintendo DS and a few games. Here, he is contemplating how much time he will spend playing these games.

I stayed a litte longer, and Mom and dad gave me my birthday gifts. I got a nice watch and a Fossil belt. Our new tradition for birthdays and Christmas gifts is to go shopping together, and we pick out presents and go ahead and buy them. It's really fun! Then we open our presents and act all surprised... "How did you know?????"

Stephen drew a card for me and sis gave me my "giftcard". ^_^ (Her birthday was last week, and I gave her one, too.)

Then it was time to go back up the mountain. Matthew and I went to a friend's housewarming party for a bit. It was a great time, especially when our friend, Rhonda showed up. She is on leave taking care of her new little girl, Kenly. (See Nothing But Real Life blog, very cute).

After a little socializing, Matthew took me out for Thai food! I can't believe how Hendersonville has moved up in the world by getting 2 Thai restaurants! Now, if we could get a good Indian restaurant...

Anyway... we ate some yummy Thai food. I ordered Duck Pineapple Curry, and Matt ordered Pepper Steak marinated in papaya. I ordered spicy on a level just above mildest... oh man! We commenced to trading plates, traded back, and then one last time. I thought the flavor of both dishes was great! The duck was "crispy" (which I loved), but Matt thought it was burnt.

We came home, I stayed up and felt very fortunate to have received a birthday wish for almost every year of my life!

Overall, I had a good birthday. I am continuing my celebrations by going to the movies with my friend, Kelly. We are going to see "Twilight"! Yay!

My orchestra's Winter Concert is a week from Tuesday. After our concert, we have 3 days of "fun" stuff, and then Christmas break for TWO WEEKS! I am looking forward to it.

Well... I'm off to pick out some lights for the house! I hope my readers have a great day!

60 Days?

House update:
Matthew met with a guy who is going to finish the rest of the drywall! WOO HOO! I don't recommend doing your own drywall, but at least I have had the experience.

We are going to give ourselves a goal of 60 days to get our final inspection. The wasy time is flying by... that will be here before we know it! We still have a lot left.

Finish drywall & prime
Kitchen cabinets & countertops
Gutters
Bathroom vanities
Finish the plumbing (toilets, faucets)
Flooring
Finish HVAC
Finish electrical
And more that I can't think of right now...

I will, of course, keep you updated!