Christmas Playlist Part 1

 

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving and since it is now officially okay (not that I haven’t been doing it for the past week and the stores for almost a month now) It is time to pull out all those old Christmas cds!! So here is Part one of my Christmas Playlist!

Baby It’s Cold, It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas, Belleau Woods, Must have been the mistletoe, Let It Snow, I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, Little Drummer Boy, Let There Be Peace On Earth, All I Want For Christmas Is You, Christmas

I Am Thankful!

I am Thankful for…. This tea… it is my favorite sleepy time tea mixed with magic for my stuffy nose. I adore this stuff

I am thankful…. That I’ve finally lived in Memphis for a year. It took a long time to get me here and now I am here to stay

I am thankful for…. my family. I miss them and love them all so much

I am thankful… that I’ve got my Penni Puppy in my life, she brightens even the most awful days!

I am Thankful for…. Netflix and Amazon Instant… I need them to get through my work nights.

I am thankful for….. Coke-a-Cola. I seriously think if you slit a vein on me coke would pout out not blood.

What are you Thankful for??

Nope, Never Passed Geography!

 

 

So I am definitely not the best at geography. In fact there is a story that Kensei LOVES to tell about the first time I drove from SC to TN to visit him. Piper and I were in the car driving to TN and we had been in the car for a while. It was about 12 at night and we crossed into Mississippi and I looked at her and asked Piper if we had crossed the Mississippi River yet (BTW I was the one driving) she looked concerned and said that we might have. I then started to freak out because I KNEW that Memphis was on the east side of the Mississippi River and we both were ABSOLUTELY positive that Mississippi was on the WEST side of the river and even though we were using a GPS we HAD to be lost. After about 15-30 min panicking we called Kensei to tell him we were lost and he very sleepily replied that no, we were not Mississippi was UNDER Tennessee on the east side of the river.

SOOO Point of that story – I am NOT good with Geography so I decided to do this thing that I saw online!

This Buzz Feed article asked a bunch of people to draw the US from Memory…. They didn’t do too well, So Then Nicole from Not Before My Tea did hers, and Kenzie from Life and Lemons did hers!! So I decided to do mine!!

I apparently don’t know ANY of the states in the Midwest, I did pretty well with both the east and west coast, (mainly because I used to drive through all the states on the east coast with family to visit family. ) Oh and my state lines are REALLY bad!!

 

I don’t know if you guys would be interested in trying this out, but I thought it was hilarious and enjoyed it, so If you DO decide to do it leave me a comment so I can check yours out OR toss your link in the list so that everyone can!!

CGSwaps Guest Post Swap!

 

 

I am so excited to be participating in the Guest Post Swap from CGSwaps! I love love love all of their swaps I have been lucky enough to participate in, and this one doesn’t cost a thing!

My partner is Megan from Here I Go With All My Thoughts. She has a wonderful swap post for you all!!

 

 

Nearly every single year, we celebrate Thanksgiving at my Uncle Kevin and Aunt Linda’s home. Kevin is my mom’s brother, the baby of their family. We gather at his gorgeous home in Lansing, MI. Every year brings a different attendance level, depending on who is dating someone new, who just had a baby, who had to spend Thanksgiving with other in-laws. But no matter what, it’s a fun day.

All the siblings, and now a lot of the cousins, bring something to share for the meal while Kevin handles the turkeys. My mom brings the green bean casserole. My aunt Tucky has the most delicious sweet potato casserole, and homemade pies. While the food is cooking and preparing, we munch on snacks, watch the Lions game, and sip on a beverage of our choice. (Read: Wine). Plus, there’s a little pile of paper cut out leaves and we are reminded by the younger cousins to write down what we are thankful for.

When dinner begins, we fill our plates with the delicious food and spread out at long tables. We say a prayer and the younger cousins read our leaves out loud. Some are funny- once my cousin Jack, just a little kid at the time, put “I’m thankful for cheese”. We all got a good laugh out of that one. Some are more serious or sappy. We try to guess who wrote what, it’s typically pretty obvious. And then we eat- and laugh- and share stories. It’s not often we’re all in one room, so we use that time wisely.

As dinner wraps up and dishes begin to pile in the sink, we all layer in warm clothes and head outside for a touch football game. We divide ourselves up and hilariously waddle through the mud, snow, or grass, depending on how the weather is that year. Some of us take it more seriously than others. Those not able to play stand on the sidelines to cheer and take pictures. This is my favorite part of the day. We just let loose and have fun.

We’re all exhausted after playing and usually collapse onto a couch or chair sipping coffee or hot chocolate. (or, more wine) and eat a slice of pie. Some play board games, others sit by the bonfire, some just continue their chats.

We usually leave around 7, but it feels much later. It’s been a long day and we’re tired. Once home, I flip on a Christmas movie or cuddle up with a book, smiling as I realize how grateful I am for my family.

The Thanksigivng I just described to you is a pretty clear picture of how you can find me celebrating Thanksgiving. Rarely do we stray away from this routine. And I honestly love it. It is probably my favorite day of the year.

What are your traditions? Does it change every year? Do you do anything special/unique?

Little Known Facts About Me!

So I noticed that a lot of people have been posting the Facebook tag that has been going around. You like someone’s status and they give you a number, then you reveal that amount of little known facts about you. So Here goes mine!

I got the number 9: So here are 9 things not well known about me:
1. I must must must wash my hands at least twice after touching change... the smell that change leaves on my hands makes me sick..
2. My first crush was Han Solo, my second was Prince Adam from Beauty and The Beast.
3. I desperately wanted to be an actress when I was younger. I would audition for any play I could get a ride too.
4. I think my singing voice is not the greatest. but that doesn’t stop me from singing all over the place!
5. I still listen to the songs from the VERY first cassette tapes I every got. Julie Brown's Goddess in Progress and New Kids On The Block.
6. I have serious stress issues that I cause myself because I feel the need to stress and worry about everything and everyone.
7. I do not have a proper mental-mouth filter; I tend to speak way before I think.
8. I was a Vegetarian for a while as a child and still enjoy some of the vegetarian foods!

9. I name my electronic devices and my cars… I have never had a computer without a name or a car, my currents are Malina (Laptop) and Nikki (car)

 

Your turn!! What are 4 little known things about you?

I Am A Klutz…

 

I am and always have been a Klutz, a really bad one in fact. In highschool it got to the point where one of my teachers assignened me a papper on the acient greek philosiphers: Crippulus and Hanidcapilus. (he was joking) and another teacher asked my friend in the hallway after I was absent for a class if I fell down the stairs yet again. The really bad thing is when I am in my Klutz moods I don’t just fall, trip or faceplant; I get hurt. Usually only minorly but half the time it is seriously. (if you don’t believe me take a look at my Tales from the ER posts!

But my Klutz-ness struck again last night. I was leaving work at about 11:20 pm about to go home, eat dinner and crash for a few hours until I had to be back at work at 6:30 am, and I am not completely sure what happened as I walked through the parking lot, I stepped into a dip and twisted my ankle really bad, faceplanted down on the asphalt.

Resulting in:

It is still swollen and has turned a nice pretty shade of dark purple with green accents.

If I…

 

Today I am going to join in with Blogher’s

If you found one million dollars in the morning and had to spend it by nightfall, what would you do with the money?

This isn’t super hard for me honestly. I am a pretty god shopper so I know what I would do;

1.)  I would buy a brand new Civic Si Coup with all the features           35,000

Then I would buy Kensei his Mazda RX7 and a new Chevy Truck

probably averaging out about 100k

Then I would buy us my dream house, on my dream lot,

Then I would totally Pretty Woman it up and go and get an all new wardrobe, no more 5-8 year old clothes for me!

Then lets see, I would pay off all of my bills, and all of my school loans.

I would buy about 1 thousand dollars worth of lottery and 1thousand worth of scratch off tickets, and see if I won anything.

I would buy a couple thousand dollars worth of meal gift cards and give them to the shelters and battered woman's centers so that they can go and get good meals.

and what ever was left would go to a no kill shelter for dogs, which I would have probably already emptied out and taken the puppies back to my new house.

 

What would you do with a million dollars you had to spend in one day??