Overwhelmed.

Christmas has overwhelmed me this year, I've never felt as woefully unprepared as I do this year. I do a lot of homemade goodies, and there just isn't enough time this year to do all I want. I luckily made just enough Limoncello to give to family - there is not even enough left over for us! But they sure do look cute, huh?



It was a jam-packed weekend. Made a HUUUUUUUGE dent in our Christmas shopping (and our checking account - eek). We're down to just two more things we need to buy.

I have two - count em, TWO- holiday decorations up (one that I got from our "Dirty Santa" exchange at work). I feel like a major failure. No lights, even though I really wanted outside lights this year. :( Sigh. The mailman, our favorite neighbors and friends will NOT be getting any cookies. Sorry. I've wrapped exactly ONE gift.

But here is the good stuff - I will get to see SO much family! Going up to Ohio to see all my peeps, then two Christmases with Josh's peeps when we get home (one that we are hosting). I'm so excited to see my brother-in-law and sister-in-law who are coming in from Colorado. And you know what? The only person who is going to know how unprepared I am is me. So I better just get over it!

In addition to my whirlwind shopping weekend, I got my "hairs did".



(my face looks so skinny here. I'd be lying if I said I didn't love it!)

My hairdresser really helped to thin it out with layers (my hair is ridiculously thick and there is a lot of it), but it is still plenty long. So long in fact, that I had to stand up when she trimmed the back of it. Josh absolutely loves it and had to snap this pic of me with a dog butt in my lap last night.



Also, I needed a new coat badly, so I was thrilled to find this one at TJ Maxx that makes me look and feel super skinny.... for 24 bucks. Small price to pay for such a big ego boost, haha!



Wishing everyone in blogland very happy holidays!!!

What's been going on...

In no particular order:

This guy had a birthday:


My dogs are still cute (our Christmas card this year is similar to this):


We had a Halloween party:




I attended a cookie exchange:


My neighbors got a puppy (they say it's a chihuahua/terrier mix - who wants to break it to them that that dog is a boxer?):


I co-hosted a baby shower:














As you can see, it was bee-themed, as we don't know what baby will "bee" yet (though most of us are betting it's a boy)! We'll find out on December 29th!

Josh is overwhelmed with school and finals for this semester (after Friday he has about 2-3 weeks off, Hallelujah).

I feel overwhelmed by life in general. I am slacking in every area (not just blogging), even the ones I enjoy most (cooking, reading). I'm 2-3 months behind in my magazines, even - and you don't even want to look at my DVR... there aren't enough hours to watch it all!

In somewhat-uplifting news (?) I have been having increasingly intolerable stomach issues since July, and I may have finally found the cause! After more Pepto-Bismol than I want to recall, countless doctor's appointments (and three doctors who all seemed to really love prodding my stomach with their jabby fingers and making it worse), and several tests of all sorts... it's been determined I have a hernia. I am on a few different medications now, and my problems are much less severe. I've only had really bad pain from it maybe two or three times since my diagnosis. I don't know if that means the meds are working or if it's the side effect of not being hungry (and therefore not eating much to aggravate it) that is doing the trick. In any case, I'll take it. Plus I've lost about 9 lbs and that is a nice bonus. I deserve it after all those co-pays! ;)

Hope everyone is well in blog-land. I'm hopelessly behind on Christmas and everything that goes with it, and in 9 days we'll be starting our celebrations, so maybe I need to get with the program??