New Chairs

We FINALLY did it!!!! After talking about it for over a year, we painted our chairs! It took lots of patience, muscle, and good music to listen to, but we finally got it done. Here are the before pictures:

 

 Stripping off the old paint took FIVE hours, and ummm... Steven probably did most of it (do you like that sweater he's wearing? That was my christmas present to him. I quite like it. )  and it didn't even come off completely... even when I sanded it after. This was the most annoying part of the process. I hope I never have to do it again. I mean... watch Steven do it again. It was exhausting.

Yesterday we painted into the night... And this is what we got:

 Voila! New, pretty white chairs that match!

We are sooo happy with how they turned out. They may  have a few spots where the paint dripped a bit or we didn't paint as smoothly as we should have, but we're still proud of ourselves. My mom thinks I should've picked a fun color (I kind of wanted to do green), but I figured neutral was best since it goes with everything.. and I'm really glad I did because I can't imagine painting these chairs again after moving to a new place. And now I can go buy cute new chair pads! Anyone fancy a trip to pottery barn?

Who knows...after this, maybe we'll get around to painting the table?...

A quick Christmas review

Needless to say, we had a fabulous Christmas this year. We went to Steven's aunt and uncle's house for Christmas Eve dinner which was sooo delicious and then we spent the night at my parent's house. We had a great time and got some good stuff this year. I got a new camera, lotsa cute clothes, the first season of gilmore girls (which I have been enjoying much of this week), and other lovely things.

I'm kind of sad it's all over, I feel really Christmasy this week and I feel like I need to celebrate still. So, maybe I will. By shopping. And baking. And singing Christmas carols in the shower. Those are good way to celebrate, right?

This is my mom's nativity (she added someone new this year...)

Christmas Eve

I can't explain it... but I woke up feeling a little sad when I remembered that Christmas is tomorrow. Who gets sad about Christmas?? Honestly...

I guess I'm sad that this month went by sooooo fast and I hardly had a chance to enjoy it. It feels more like December 17th than Christmas Eve to me.

However... despite the fact that the month went by way too fast... I really did enjoy our festivities we had last week. If there is one regret I have this Christmas, it's that I didn't celebrate the whole month. But dwelling never does any good... so I'll just share with you a few favorite Christmas things of mine:

First - one of my FAVORITE songs that totally gets me excited is "Here Comes Santa Claus" with Gene Autry.

Here comes Santa Claus!
Here comes Santa Claus!
Right down Santa Claus Lane!
Vixen and Blitzen and all his reindeer
are pulling on the reins.
Bells are ringing, children singing;
All is merry and bright.
Hang your stockings and say your prayers,
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight.

Here comes Santa Claus!
Here comes Santa Claus!
Right down Santa Claus Lane!
He's got a bag that is filled with toys
for the boys and girls again.
Hear those sleigh bells jingle jangle,
What a beautiful sight.
Jump in bed, cover up your head,
'Cause Santa Claus comes tonight

My dad ALWAYS played this on Christmas Eve when I was little. It makes me feel like a kid again. 


Second: here is one of my favorite Christmas stories that President Faust talks about. You should all read it. It's about a Japanese music professor who asks to bring his choir to the American army base to perform on Christmas Eve (Not too long after World War II). such a good story. It just shows how powerful forgiveness and love can be.
http://lds.org/ensign/2004/12/the-power-of-peace?lang=eng


I hope you ALL have a very Merry Christmas and that you get everything you wanted tomorrow!! :) MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 


 

Done!!!

 Hello everyone! I'm sorry for my long absence... I have been busy with finals, papers, and more finals and papers. Oh, and grad school applications. A word of advice to fellow students: don't take two super crazy writing classes at the same time. Unless you're an English major, then... I suppose you really don't have a choice. 

I decided that making yummy food is key to helping you not go insane with finals. Ok... not really, but making it is fun. I have to share these with you to convince you to make them, because they are soooooo yummy.  These are some of the things I made:

Ohhhhh my gosh. this pizza was heavenly. Divine. Delicious. And so simple. I made this with Nicole while we studied together. This miracle of a pizza included pesto instead of regular tomato sauce, plus fresh mozzarella, parmesan cheese, and tomato slices. that's it. Sooooo good. You have to make it. Makes studying so much more fun when you have good food to look forward to.

And then, there was trifle. Triple Chocolate Peppermint Trifle to be exact. Chocolate cake, chocolate pudding (homemade and super easy), and white chocolate-peppermint mousse. ooohhhh my word. this changed my life.  I stole this recipe from Martha Stewart and made it for my work party last week and I think I need to make it at least one more time before the holidays are over (Thanks Lisa for the bowl, you will get it back, I promise!). 

Now that I am done with school, I just realized that christmas is ummm.... like 8 days away. And I don't feel very christmasy! :( I don't know what to do. What do you do when you don't feel christmasy?

I am pretty excited for the Christmas break though. I have plans to shop, cook, sleep, and catch up on fav shows and movies (I will also try to keep up with the blog more).

commitment

Listen up everyone. I am making a commitment here and now to grow out my hair at least 10 inches longer than it is now. Maybe even longer. Yup. It will be the longest my hair has ever been.

This has been a life long goal of mine, and it's one I never fulfill because I get sick of my hair once it gets passed my shoulders. But I'm growing it out, for reals this time.

I'm announcing this on my blog so that everyone will know about it and when I have the temptation to cut my hair you can all tell me, "No Annie! Don't you dare!" I need a support system, you see. Cute, short cuts are so very, very tempting to me.

When I reach this goal, I plan on cutting my hair (at least, when I am done enjoying it) and donating it to Locks of Love. See, I'm doing it for a good cause, and gives me more motivation!

So there it is. My commitment. And this marks the beginning of my long hair growing process... wish me luck.

Everything

Ok, so I know I said I would post twice every week, so I'm slacking a little bit in the blogging world. But honestly, things have been hectic. Why is it that EVERYTHING happens in December? The holidays (which involves parties, temple squar-ing, baking, decorating, gifting, etc), grad school applications, and FINALS. I am not lying when I tell you that I have to write some of the hardest papers I have ever had to write in my LIFE this semester.

I am taking a class called Family Belief Systems and we have to write 2 "learning analysis" papers this semester. The first one we get back and have to revise, and for one of the first times in my college life, I can't think of anything else to write! Usually my ideas come easily to me. but nope, not anymore. There's a road block in my brain preventing me from coming up with any new, amazing ideas. I've tried all my usually tricks to get me thinking: outlining, brainstorming, eating chocolate, wasting time on facebook (ok this doesn't really help but it's often what I end up doing). So, I have to revise the first one and then write the 2nd one. I hope that road block is gone before I write the 2nd one!


Another paper I have to do, my research paper for Families and Social Policy about Sex Education for teens. Interesting, but... I just don't want to do it. Nope. No more. I'm sick of writing. Which is funny because the final for this class is writing two essays... ha ha.


Although, despite how hard this semester has been, I have really loved my classes. I have learned quite a bit from them. My family belief systems class has taught me about the nature of our beliefs and why we "believe what we believe" which has helped me be more open-minded to others. Families and Social Policies is the class that finally made me look at the government and see how their policies affect families and individuals- very interesting stuff. I don't think I could ever be a politician though. ugh.

With all that being said, I am super excited for the break! I don't have to work OR go to school. So, what are my plans? here are a few:

-catch up with old friends
-make martha stewarts triple-chocolate-peppermint trifle. YUM
-paint our chairs, for reals this time
-sleep in
-shop!!!

If you read through this whole post, thank you for listening to me vent about paper writing. I hope you had a good thanksgiving and I will post something happy soon!