More Snow...

Matt went to drive me to the van pool this morning, and we were greeted by another round of snowfall. When we got to the van and I only saw two ladies inside, I decided to bail. I don't want to get stuck an hour away from home in the middle of no where...

So I am at home today, and since I have used up every drop of accommodation leave, it is unpaid time off. Oh well - I am sure that it will be worth it. Safety first, right?

Today is the last day of November! WOW!

Yay December is almost here! Happy Tuesday, all. ;)

Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

It snowed Monday, Nov 22. Got the day off...

It snowed again on Tuesday the 23rd....took the day off again, as the drive was deemed to be unsafe out to the winery.

Snow, again on Wednesday the 24th - the day I decided to do a half day at work and we got hammered with flurries. I was SO GLAD to be home, sweet home, by Wednesday afternoon! I meant to write from work after projects were over, but my computer crashed. Again...

Thursday - more snow! My thumbs up of approval:
We ended up staying in town for Thanksgiving. Ate dinner with some friends locally, and cracked up over the funny grandparents present. A fun evening! I really missed family though. Four hour drive meant it was so close, yet so far away in the weather we had :(
Friday we decorated...got the tree up and some gifts underneath it already!
Here is my little elf helper. Or leprechaun, if you will...
I skipped Black Friday insanity, while Matt went to a few places with his dad. We ended up hitting up a Starbucks in the evening though, so he could do some homework and I could catch up on correspondence.
A Target store just so happened to be across the street, so as Matt finished up an assignment, I was pushing a loaded cart to a check-out stand. We are so grateful this year to be able to afford to actually buy a couple gifts. What a difference from last year.

FOUR glorious days off. I will always remember it for the snuggly movies we watched, the food, sleeping in, coffee with my husband, baking and cooking, and the snow shoveling. I have the most unreal pain in my shoulders from it! Great exercise too :)

So now the house smells like Chex Mix. There is a soft glow from Christmas lights and we just are so happy.

If you think of it, will you lift up a prayer for Matt tomorrow? As you know, he works at Amazon.com, and tomorrow is Cyber Monday - one of the biggest online retail traffic days. And please remember not to buy a Kindle for your grandma that does not know what wifi is. It will really help him out.

Have a great week all - I hope to be back online once I get a laptop upgrade at work!

The First Snow of the Season

When we went to bed last night, the first snow flakes had started to fall. By 6am, I knew there was no way that Matt, who is battling a cold, could deal with the roads to get me to the van pool. So, I took today off.
Matt still had to work though :( but, by the grace of God, he was able to go home at noon!
About 7 inches have fallen so far, and I have shoveled the driveway twice.
I think I will just stay inside...
...and Matt and I will eat some good home cookin' instead!
P.S. Marian - a HOBBY LOBBY just opened in town, and when I went to pick Matt up from work, I stopped in. It is glorious...can't wait to go with you! :)

Happy Monday, all!

Metal Head

I married a metal head.

He loves all kinds of heavy metal music. (There are many categories...)

For our anniversary, I got him tickets to a local metal show. He thought it would be fun to take me as his date. We got to meet some of the bands before, here he is with the band "Red":
Now, these guys were the more normal of the bands there. Here is the bassist for "Head" a band that has lead singer Brian Welch, formerly of Korn:
Hello zombie! Freaky! We were in the very front and a mosh pit quickly formed. Matt had to rescue me from the rowdy crowd of young folks. I grinned and bared it the whole night...
Plus, how can I say no to his sweet face? :)

In other news, it is supposed to get down to 12 degrees on Monday.

OH MY. I need to go get our sprinklers blown out, ASAP!

Happy Thursday all.... ONE WEEK until the FEAST! Whoop Whoop.

A Random Tuesday

I am finally getting to putting up a blog post...

What a doozy of a week. So, mostly random thoughts are what I have and share:

1. Matt's job. Good-ness. Matt does customer support for Amazon, in their Kindle department. He puts up with irate, mean, and computer illiterate customers all day. He comes home exhausted and beat. My advice for anyone thinking of buying their 94-year-old grandmother a Kindle: ONLY after they take a computer class first. Matt destroys his call time goals daily as he tries to help elderly customers learn basic computer skills. This should not be his job, and if your stats are not good you will be let go after the holidays. There is significant pressure to do well, and it is all a balancing act. The Kindle is wildly popular - which is great for business and Matt's job. But, I cannot help but wonder where good manners and decency has gone. So I guess this would apply to all folks working in customer service: lets treat them respectfully. They are someones husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father. Matt really loves his job and wants to keep it, but so far it is not looking good :(

2. Insane weather. I went outside to the car this morning and had to hunt down our yard waste bin, it had blown away into the back yard from the front yard. The good news here is that my leaf raking is over for the season. :)

3. Holiday craziness has begun! I am determined to do all my shopping online this year, so that I can avoid the stores. They make me forget what the season is all about. Thank goodness for Prime shipping with Amazon = free shipping.

4. Matt's dad is staying with us until January. (His mom had to fly back to work until mid-December, sadly) I love that he has a sweet tooth, because I can count on mooching something from him when a sweets craving hits! Also, now Matt has someone else to talk to about guns, ammo, camo, and ballistic vests...

5. I am so excited about getting to stay put for Thanksgiving. Four days off in a row and 12 empty bins to get an organizing project started with = WOOT!

6. Starbucks goodness - From 2-5pm from Nov 18-21st you can get their holiday signature drinks buy 1 get 1 free. Mini date for Matt and I, coming UP!

7. Car insurance is a great thing, too. The little fender bender that Matt got in a few weeks ago was decided to be a total loss. So we will pocket the difference after getting it fixed ourselves. In the meantime, I am loving getting a ride to the van pool by my sweet hubby...

8. I have two packs of earplugs in my purse for a Christian heavy metal concert that I am attending tonight with Matt. I am not a heavy metal fan, but I am a fan of Matt, and well where he goes, I go...

9. The bottling line at the winery I work at is running double shifts for awhile to keep up for holiday demand. So, when you pop open a bottle of wine or bubbly this holiday season, think of the person that ran the labeler, the cork machine, the glass conveyor, the filler, the packer, and all the machinists that keep it going. And there is me, I put information into a system that tracks everything. Behind the scenes, and I don't even like wine! ;)

10. I totally got a "I can't talk, Oprah is one" line from my mom this week.

11. I need to get to her blog soon!

12. I've purchased two Christmas gifts already. What about you?

Anniversary Weekend & Memorial Dinner

Whew. What a whirlwind. We are still catching our breath, but feel really blessed that we were able to make it over to the west side this past weekend.

Friday afternoon Matt and I left for the four hour drive to where his grandma's hospice was. We arrived just a half hour after she passed away, and was able to be with grandpa and other family as the funeral home came to take her away.

Watching a man say goodbye to his wife of 68 years will change you and your own marriage. The tenderness of it made us all teary. "Take care of my baby" grandpa said to the attendant as they wheeled her away forever.

His next words were, "I wish I had treated her better" as he felt that rare occurances of impatience in her later years hurt her somehow.

I looked at Matt and realized with all our years ahead together, that I can do one thing right: treat him well. Love him lots. Be the best helpmate that I can be.

Being a part of all of this on the eve of our first anniversary is something that I will NEVER forget.

Next we were off for a little getaway about an hour drive away. Snoqualmie Falls is so gorgeous!
We had an insane 6-course breakfast on Sunday morning.

I loved this little coffee service! SO cute!
Was having a big hair day thanks to the steam from the spa pools we lounged in!
It was a wonderful and memorable anniversary. I have one amazingly special husband! (I still can't believe that I get to say that: Matt is my husband!)

Next we went to Grandma's memorial dinner on Sunday afternoon. Since so many folks were in town, the siblings put together a dinner for everyone to be together.
What a striking couple. Gladys "Juanita" and Ralph met at work during WWII. She had lied about her age to get a job - and they married when she was 17 and he was 19.
They had four kids, and now have six grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.

We left around 4:30 and made the looong drive back home again. Exhausted from our third weekend away from home in a row, we both took Monday off to recover and get some house work done. I finally did some grocery shopping, yard work, and laundry!

I am still processing the whole weekend, but will say that it was just overall amazing. Talk about a perspective check...

Happy Tuesday, all!

How a Year Flies By...

Whhhhheeew what a week!

I wanted to post a little update on my blogging hiatus to celebrate our nearly one year of marriage. With all the crazy family stuff going on right now, this is something we are not letting get lost in the shuffle.

Matt's grandma is still with us, but on nearly 9 or so days with no fluids we are expecting news soon. We had a very memorable, precious weekend with her at the hospice. It was very special to us and we are so glad that we went.

Matt's parents are here, and it has been really great to all hang out together. We are really enjoying their delightful company!

So this weekend will mark one year of matrimony. We are going on a little getaway, and boy do we need it!
I never knew it would be this awesome. So so so wonderful hanging out with my best friend every day!
We have definitely had some interesting challenges this past year, but I think we handled them really well! I am so grateful for my wonderful, sweet, funny husband!

I love you, Matt!

I hope to visit a few blogs before we skip out of town again. We've been gone every weekend for the past month it seems.

Hopefully, I will remember to take some photos on our little getaway. In the meantime, have a great rest of your week everyone!