A Christmas Story (2011 version)

Here's our Christmas story:

Our Tree before opening gifts

Our tree after opening gifts

Can't wait for garbage day

Guess who got a camera!

And who became obsessed with his new Kindle ;)

Then we went to Grandma's for breakfast...

And to open gifts!

While Larry played with his Kindle

Then we went up to Clearfield, where we watch TV..

...And eat ribs

While Larry played with his Kindle :)

Then our favorite baby came to play

And everyone couldn't...

...Wait to play...

...With her

Larry decided to show everyone his Kindle there too

Oh and more gift opening

The Kittie's found a new favorite toy

He smiles for the camera :)

My favorite gifts
(Ice Cream Maker, George Foreman Grill, Our picture frame
Of Cailyn and family, A Flip recorder, and messenger bag)

Look how cute she is!

And she loves noisy toys

I think I'm a little obsessed with her :)

This is the face she always gives Larry.

This is my favorite picture, she's copying his expressions.

Overall a very successful Christmas, I don't think I could have asked for a better one :) Hope everyone had a great one too!

I did it!

Oh my gosh, I feel the ultimate relief right now! I decided to check the exam site to see if my score was up and ...

I am officially a Certified Professional Coder with the AAPC!! I just have to get my externship for it to be official to the school, but I could get a job now and there would be almost no difference. I have to say I'm even more relieved because that was a LONG test! We had to sit for 5 hours and 40 minutes, I got it done in 5 hours 20 minutes and decided to just accept what I had instead of using the extra 20 minutes to check my answers. There's no way I'd want to sit for that again, so it's nice to know the past 7 months were good for me and not just a waste. Also, sorry the picture isn't the best, paint isn't being my friend tonight.

Only 4 more days till Christmas now :)

Birthdays

I realized today that I've never once posted on Larry's or my birthday. I was always told after you turn 21 birthdays really just don't mean as much, and it's SO true, but we still like to celebrate, even if it is a bit on the "smaller" side than when you're a kid. Seeing as how I can't really remember what we did for Larry's birthday I'll have to cover that next year, sorry babe.

I just celebrated my 24th, which is weird, to me it's mid 20s, but that's not the weird part. The weird part is they were right, after 21 they really just don't matter (heck, half the time I can't even remember how old I am anymore). This year I stayed in my pajamas and watched That 70s Show (Larry's gift to me) all day, cleaned a little, did laundry, and then went to dinner with mom, Will, and grandma-Training Table. We used to go there all the time on my birthday and then stopped for some reason, so when mom asked if I wanted to do dinner earlier in the week, that was my first choice.
I got some pretty cool gifts at dinner:

I got this awesome watch and pedometer set from Mom and Will

I also got this cute workout outfit from them (I actually hate "mirror" pictures, but Larry was

asleep, so I had to rely on myself for the pic.) It's awesome because I've been trying to keep up

with working out so I need all the motivation, and a new outfit will do just that for a little while.

And then my grandma got me this AWESOME luggage set. It's REALLY cool because I really needed a new set, my last ones were so old the zippers broke off and it hardly held any clothes for any trips anymore so we end up using one of Larry's duffel bags, but this set is so nice I think we'll be able to use it for a long while.

Overall it was a nice, easy, relaxing day for me. Just as birthdays should be :)

And now we have less than 7 days till Christmas and I could not be more excited, if only because I think I did REALLY good on gifts this year so I can't wait to see what everyone else thinks! Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to you all out there!

You're a mean one...Mr. Grinch

So now that I'm done with classes I'm finding I have quite a bit of time on my hands, at least so far I have. I've been so excited for Christmas and all the wonderful-ness that comes with this time of year and I guess I'm making up a little bit for the last few holidays I couldn't go full swing on. I don't know what's gotten into me, I'm usually not a "creative" person by any means, but when I saw this:

I knew I wanted to try and make those letters, it really became a mini obsession. So anyways, I went to a wood store and bought the kit, which started out looking like:

And after approximately 4-5 hours of painting and drying (and some other stuff in between), it ended looking like:

Hopefully you can see I also added the little light bulbs (in the G, R, and C). I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. It wasn't the easiest thing to paint and I still kind of have to do in the arms on the Grinch character, but for the most part it's finished and I'm extremely happy about it.

Also we got the tree all decorated and looking good too:

We got it all decorated, finally got the star to stick on the top (don't know if you remember how sad it looked last year with it next to the tree), and added a skirt and presents. I'm SO happy with how that turned out too.

So needless to say I'm all ready for Christmas to be here, but I'm FULLY enjoying the holiday spirit/season (and that I'm CLEARLY not studying for my test ha ha). Hope everyone is having as good a time as I am :)

Cause for Celebration!

I did it! I finished my medical coding and billing classes! I'm not officially certified yet, I still have to take my national exam (which is the 17th) and then get my 80 hours in an externship taken care of, but after that I've got it all done. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am to finish, 12 months ago I made myself a promise; I was going to take my life in my hands and not let ANYTHING become an excuse, I wanted to see what I could do once I really put my mind to it, and now I see, I can accomplish A LOT! Seven months of hard work, of having absolutely no time for anything else, of sleeping, breathing, and thinking classes, homework, and tests non-stop and of early mornings followed by late nights (which involves a lot of juggling around) and I'm there! I have started my future, I have done something (pretty big, to my standards at least) to help my future family and, hopefully, something I can gain a career out of!

All the awards I won so far!

I just have to say one thing...GO ME! Ha ha. Of course, now that I've just finished the classes, this is when the real work begins!

Christmas Decoration Time

We finally got a chance to clean and put up Christmas decorations this past weekend. Here are some before and after shots:

Living room (couch is to the left of the shot)

Living room (pt 2-TV is to the right)

Dining area (table cloth courtesy of mom and the dish
Cloths were a gift from grandma, but we don't have our
Own stove so they go there for now).

My reading/laundry area (the box
Is a little "fort" Larry made for
The cats ha ha)

Our lit up tree, but I still need to add more ornaments and
Get a tree skirt. And we need to add our gifts ;)

No idea where I got this little guy, but he was cute and
I found him in the boxes so he came out :)

I love the countdown blocks!

We don't have a chimney downstairs
So stockings are hung on the hope chest
With care!

That's all I've done so far, but we also went to the Festival of Trees and I found a few craft ideas I think I'd like to try this year:

The red sign says "Wish Upon
A Christmas Star"

This says "Believe in the Magic of Christmas"

I am absolute obsessed with the Grinch blocks!
These will be my first attempt.

I'm so very excited for Christmas time each year, it's my absolute favorite time of the year! Hope everyone is having as much fun as me :)