First Attempt At "Photography".

Sure I've done your regular point and shoot photography, which have been great, but this is my first real attempt at playing the settings on my camera that I've had over a year. But with my unsteady hand it made it harder to get a photo I actually really liked. So I decided to use the timer but I still wasn't pleased with the outcome. In fact I only liked three of the photos, after I photoshopped them a bit, out of about twenty that I took. I am pleased that you can actually see the ring instead of a blur but I wish I had a betting setting or placement of my hands, something. I suppose when my batteries are fully charged I can make a second attempt. 

Back To The Normal Routine.

After four days of being off work it's going to be really tough to go back. Although I didn't get nearly enough this done at home that I would have liked to, such is life though. I suppose I'll try to sleep so I can be well rested for work but it's going to be difficult with a cat crying outside for the whole apartment complex to hear. 

Now I can finally relax.

After coming home from a long, exhausting, day at work I decided to check the mail and to my surprise I had a few pieces of mail that weren't bills. After noticing that they were Christmas Cards my mood instantly changed and I couldn't help but smile. Call me weird if you'd like but I love getting mail. All of the cards totally made my day and got me into the Christmas Spirit again. 

I will say though that I understand why people shop for Christmas presents right after ThanksGiving. The crowds, and people, are ridiculous this time of the year and I wish I didn't wait until the last minute to buy presents and get everything together. Before I'd laugh at people who said they shopped in November, but now I'm thinking they may be on to something. Plan for next year? Start shopping sooner so I'm not totally stressed, and frazzled, by the time Christmas actually comes around. 

Wrapped presents isn't that bad though but it did take me two hours to finish everything to my liking. I'm still not sure if they look good enough but it will do. I am pretty proud of my wrapping skills on the few presents that I wrapped but for the rest I re-used bags that I had given to me from last year. I even re-used the tissue paper and some of the bows that tie. Hey, call me cheap but I need to save all the money I can since I spent much more then I had anticipated. But I suppose when it's all said and done it will be worth it and I can always earn more money later on. 

Tomorrow we are driving up to his Mom's and celebrating Christmas with her since they have always done theirs on Christmas Eve. Then we are driving to my parents on Christmas Day and opening presents and eating lunch with them. My brother drove in from California today and will be staying for two weeks so I am pretty excited to see him again. Speaking of my brother I had the strangest dream the other night that he had a girlfriend. No, that's not the strange part. The girl that he was with was really skinny, cute and had short brown hair. Well he and a friend, a girl, drove down together and she was skinny, cute and had short brown hair. Freaky, right? Only thing is, she has a boyfriend. He has the worst of luck with girls, poor thing. 

Anyway, I suppose I'll sit here for a few more minutes while waiting on William to get off work and then I'll be going to sleep. We are planning to get up early and open our presents by ourselves here at the apartment and then head to his Mom's. If that actually happens it will be a miracle. 

Oh, and it will be a great Christmas seeing as how I will have four days off in a row from work. I'm really excited for that and not even sure what to do with myself. I'm sure I can find something to keep me occupied. Maybe I'll actually clean our apartment, top to bottom, since it's a wreck. 

Okay, Merry Christmas. Goodnight. 

Free Time Is A Luxury These Days.

I want to have more bloggers on here that I can read. Because I love this website I just hardly ever use it because I know no one really reads it. Plus, working a full-time job and trying to get ready for Christmas has left me exhausted. I should be getting ready for bed but I'm not because I've only been home for six hours. 

I can feel one of my wisdom teeth coming in and it's not very pleasant to say the least. My whole loser jaw is hurting so badly and it's causing me to have a headache. I'm not sure what room I have left in my mouth for four more teeth to come in but, hey, I guess I'll figure that out when I'm able to go to the dentist. Right now I'll just have to deal with the swollen gums, swollen cheek, and terrible headaches. 

Why am I updating? Because I want to write but I feel as though I have nothing to say. I should be putting together our Christmas Cards but I'm putting that off yet another day. I wish I wasn't such a procrastinator but it's hard to change habits I grew up with. 

I never realized how stressful Christmas was until this year. In the past I've never bought presents and if I did I used my parents money. But having to go shopping with these crowds and spend my own money almost puts a damper on being excited for Christmas. Which makes me feel like I'm turning into a grinch but, honestly, I just want to get it over and done with. I have most of my presents bought already but I still have a few left. The ironic thing is I don't get paid until two days before Christmas, talk about last minute shopping. 

Well this was boring and un-fulfilling but I've got a big day ahead of me at work tomorrow and I've still got to clean up a bit so I'd better hop off here and get started before I end up staying up until 2am, again. 

Christmas Is Right Around The Corner.

About a week ago we decided to put up our Christmas Tree that my parents brought us. We went and bought all the decorations and though I didn't intend to I made a theme of black, silver, white and blue. I really liked how the tree turned out and the ornaments that we decided to buy. Since this is our first Christmas, and first tree, actually together it's pretty exciting for us. I also bought a "Our Christmas Together" ornament, which is a heart, and I really like it. Since we didn't have the traditional tree, or colors, I decided we should get an angel to put on the top. The only thing left is to get a skirt for the bottom and then put some presents under it. 

 Christmas has really snuck up on me, I thought I had more time, and now I'm hoping I will be able to get everyone their presents in time. It also really hasn't felt like Christmas, or even Winter for that matter, and I suppose I blame that on the weather. For the past week it has been 70+ degrees during the day. A cold front finally came in and has lowered the temperature quiet a bit, right now it's 33 degrees, and it's starting to feel like Christmas. Although I wish the beautiful leaves of vibrant oranges and reds weren't falling off just yet. It would be nice if we had snow but I would hate driving in that so I suppose it's a good thing.  

I also bought stockings that we hung on our fireplace, but it won't let me upload it on here, and mine his Silver and Williams' is Black. They are both velvet and have a lot of bead work on them and are just gorgeous. Perhaps at a later time I will be able to get a photo of them uploaded to put in my blog. 

I'm Your Average HomeMaker.

My parents came up for a visit and dropped this off for us since we have washer and dryer hook-ups in our apartment. It took a bit longer then expected for them to get here but they had to stop and get a part for the dryer, which we've had a for a few months, and then some hoses for the washing machine. My Dad hooked up everything for us and found out that we have a leak on our hot water faucet in the laundry room so I'll have to call the office tomorrow and have them fix it, along with the hole they left in our ceiling. Oh, the joy of apartment complexes.

Anyway, I'm sure it's probably "lame" that I'm overly excited about being able to do my own laundry but to me it's a huge step in my our life. Although, I will miss driving to his Mom's every two weeks to do laundry and visit but I'm glad we will be able to do our own wash and not having to wait a week to be able to have clean clothes. And even though it's not a brand new washer and it has a few scratches on it, it doesn't really matter because it's ours and it works perfectly well. Eventually, though, we will be purchasing on of our own when this one decides to give out.

But I feel pretty lucky to have parents that will bring me a washer, and dryer, because I can't afford to buy one on my own right now. All we have to do now is get a hose for the dryer and we will be ready to wash and dry clothes. They also brought us , what I believe is, Thomas Kinkade
, wall art that I plan on hanging over the fire place and mantel. Now our bare white walls won't be so bare and it will feel more "home-y". They also brought, they were full of gifts this visit, a 6' inch Fiber Optic Christmas Tree that William and I will put up after he gets off work tonight. Instead of having the blinking colors of red, green, white, yellow, etc., I had my Dad put in the White lights only and have them stay on continuously, instead of blink. I may also decorate it with a few strings of lights and then some ornaments but I haven't decided yet. Well, that's my exciting news for the weekend I guess I should go wash down the washer before we put it to good use tomorrow, I just hope that our water bill doesn't go back up.