Turkey Day 2014

As always, I am thankful for my family. This year, we all gathered at my parents’ house (every stinkin’ member of my mom’s side—23 in all!) for plenty of food, wine, and lots of family time. It was crazy, it was loud, and it was lovely.

 

Fam bam—with my cousin Caitlin...

and the ever-darling Nova, of course. She was Mimi's helper in the kitchen.

 

 

What a spread! Good work, Mama!

 

  The Scanlon fam

 

Love this little Boo-Boo!

And we all got to meet the newest member of the Christensen clan:

 

Baby Dean! Boy oh boy, is he darling! I kept telling my cousins to call Gerber—he could easily be the newest Gerber Baby. I mean....too cute!

Everybody loved Baby Dean…he got passed around to Uncle Lee…

 

and Uncle Clark.

With his Daddy-o, Chad.

We took a Christensen family picture—first one in a few years with everyone. With this many people, it turned out surprisingly well—eyes are open and almost everyone has a smile. Gosh, I love this family more than I can even say.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with family and many blessings!

April Festivities: Catching Up (Photo Overload)

It’s FINALLY spring! The “polar vortex” is over (don’t toy with me, Mother Nature…let's keep some springy weather around and let the summatime heat waves come in late June), flowers are blooming and the grass is greening up. While my allergies are in full swing (a pharmacist told me that this is the year of the “allergy vortex”…good grief), I am opening up my windows and soaking up all this beautiful weather with a Kleenex in my pocket and a solid stock of Dayquill in my bathroom cabinet. After all that snow and ice and bone-chilling cold, I’ll sneeze on my daffodils and let my eyes water as I lounge on my front porch and inhale deep, refreshing breaths of pollen and cat hair. Spring has sprung! I couldn’t be happier about it. And with this lovely weather comes a few springy events. (Note: this was written a few days weeks ago, so....bear with me as we recap a season that's pretty much come and gone.)

Several Saturdays ago, my Daddy-o and I put on our finest and headed out to the Down Syndrome Guild Prom. This year’s theme was “Bright Lights, Big City,” and was it a night to remember! I loved seeing all the attendees come in, walk down the red carpet in their prom gear and dance the night away. This is such a fun night for all who attend, either to help out or just to have a good time, and it makes me so happy that I was in town this year and was able to join in the festivities. (See last year’s celebrations here.)

{These two cuties showed up again this year--two girls I used to coach, Katrina and Lexi.}

 

 

{With my handsome Dad}

 

 

On Easter Sunday, my parents hosted a delectable lunch and we were able to celebrate with some good ol’ fashioned family time together. (And PEEPS! I ate three packages the week after Easter. That’s a lotttt of Peeps.) Nova is almost 18 months, and is too cute for words. She is mimicking anything and everything you say, and has such a big personality. I can’t get enough of this little boo-boo!

My friend Kelli, who I used to work with at school, got married at the end of April. Her wedding was beautiful and she was a stunning bride. It was such a fun, springy night (and the dress I ordered the week of showed up the day before, so there ya go). Congrats, Chris and Kelli!

{Guy friends are great when you need a date.}

{With the beautiful bride! (And Josh, photobombing.)}

{Coral is the color!}

And finally, althought this was in May, my gorgeous and sweet cousin Caitlin graduated from high school last weekend. We made the trek up to Nebraska to wish her congratulations. It's hard to believe she is already old enough to be heading off to college. (I mean, I used to change the girl's diapers, and now, she's 18?! Craziness!!)

{My Aunt Chel, Caitlin, my mom and me...just four blondes, hanging out}

And now! It's the end of May and we're heading into the official Summer Season. This weekend, I have a birthday to celebrate and some pool days to squeeze in. Happy Summer, everyone!

Life-Catch-Up-Blog-Post-Part-Two/Three/Four/I know, I’m a Bad Blogger

Turkey Day:

My fam gave thanks with our typical festivities—my parents hosted all of my mom’s side of the family for a full day of food, drinks, laughter and lots of loud conversing (the Christensens are known for their voices that carry. They’re also notorious for mixing up names of family members of various age—Chelley, I mean Morgan, I mean Caitlin…). I may be biased, but my mom’s Turkey Day spread is the greatest meal of all time. And who doesn’t appreciate drinks before noon?? We toasted each other, gave thanks for our blessings, and took a moment to remember those who we missed. No matter how many years pass or how our family changes (we had several new faces in attendance this year), Thanksgiving remains a constant reminder of how amazing my family is and how blessed I am to have them.

 

Did I take any pics of the fam-bam? Not really. Oh, but I did make a homemade apple pie! I know, WHAT? My domestic pal Kelly gets all the credit for that one. A few pics to prove the homemade goodness:

 

Novy’s Birthday:

Speaking of very important family members, someone celebrated an inaugural birthday over Thanksgiving weekend. Miss Nova turned the big ONE! This little turkey baby is quite the ham (see what I did there??) these days. She is walking, talking, fake-coughing, singing; you name it, she’s doing it in the cutest little way. I might be biased, but I do believe that she is THE cutest one year old. Ever.

{Her first taste of chocolate, on her actual birthday...it went well. Notice how she's pulling her daddy-o's hand toward her...}

{CAKE! She was ready for round two at her party...I'd say her sweet tooth has come in.}

{Too adorbs, right? Love you, sweet girl!}

And the rest…

Andddd now Christmas has already come and gone, and New Year’s, too. A winter collage of the last holidays of 2013:

{Snow for Christmas}

{So blurry, but all the Christensen cousins (minus Drew) and Grandma in the middle.}

{With my cousins, Carolyn and Caitlin}

{New Year's! I didn't end up in Canada. (If you couldn't tell.)}

{Did you know the word of 2013 was "selfie"?
Aside from weeping for our culture and humanity (at least it wasn't "YOLO"),
I figured I should jump on board. Hence, my New Year's selfie.}

 Lots of family time, lots of friend time, lots of memories made. Hey 2013, you weren’t terrible. (You weren’t super great, either.) But 2014? I think it’s gonna be good. #2014isouryear, if you will. Yep, I hashtagged like it’s a word. I'm making my own rules in 2014. Cheers, friends! May the new year bring you many blessings and lots of love. XO!

How Western Kansas Celebrates Halloween

I love Halloween. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays. I think the time of year definitely has something to do with it. It’s no secret that I love fall. Like, X’s and O’s, doodling “I heart fall” on my notebook, day-dreaming about pumpkins and gourds kind of love. And so, I thought that this decoration that I spotted while in Kinsley, Kansas deserved a post on the ol’ bloggity-blog. It really put me in the spirit of all things Halloweeny.

First of all, yes. This?

This is real.

Second of all, I made my training partner drive by this house no less than three times because I could.not.stop.laughing. And I proceeded to giggle every time I looked at the pic on my phone for the entire 40 minute drive home…each of the three days we drove back to Dodge City. (My trainer friend was not as amused as me. Boys.)

I would just like to point out that

A.) this has to be reconstructed roadkill from several different animals (those legs! They look way too big for whatever bird that was. Also, the buzzard-y beak thing kept making me think of a pterodactyl.)

B.) these people added feather-boa wings to said reconstructed roadkill (if they had added a bowtie, I would have knocked on their door and asked to shake their hand, because that is just too much. Toooo much.)

and

C.) they took the time to climb up on their roof to proudly display what I can only hope is décor for the Halloween season (and not a permanent fixture on their roof), right in front of their redneck weathervane-slash-cable antenna.

Ohh, Kinsley. Thanks for putting me in the Halloween spirit and adding a little laughter to our trip. (PS—the training went well! I felt much more confident and one of the pharmacy techs told me she couldn’t believe that this was only my second training. She said she would have thought I had done it for years. Next up—Sweet Home, Oregon. Wish me luck!)

Happy Heart Day, Take Two

Okay, I take it all back! Can’t be grumpy when I see a sweet little Valentine like this one! XOXO, Nova!

 

Happy Heart Day

It’s Valentine’s Day. I have day two of parent-teacher conferences. This is about how I feel.

 

{Meh.}

 

 

I know, I know. Today is about love and flowers and candy and Xs and Os and all that. Sigh.

I do like these sentiments, though…

{Blah blah blah DRINK!}

If that is real, it is awesome.

 

Hope everyone has a lovely V-day!

2013: A Fresh Start

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down and written a true blog entry. There are plenty of excuses I could give—things have been busy; I’ve had a few areas of my life that have been “rearranged;” other things took priority. But—rather than dwell on the past, I figure 2013 is a fresh start, so I’m looking to the future. But before I plunge on in, here are a few pics from New Year’s Eve. To be honest, I didn’t even really want to go out and celebrate, but hey, I’ve got fun friends. We decided to shake things up and try something new, so we headed to the Hangar 9 party at the downtown airport. It was quite a spectacle--there were several planes on display, arial dancers flowing from the ceiling, and around 1200 people packed in!

{Lotsa sparkle!}

 

Instead of resolutions this year (let’s be honest, who truly keeps those all year long?), I’ve decided to think about just a couple “changes” I want to make in my life. Believe me, these two I am going to share with you are not the only changes I’ve been thinking about. But, I felt like posting these two on here would keep me honest. Hopefully, these are things I can manage and address each day, and “changes” don’t sound as daunting as “resolutions.” I’m going to break these down separately, since they are kind of longer than I thought. So, here we go, with “Change #1.”
 

Change #1: Embrace Optimism

There are a lot of areas of my life that I think I can apply this change to. I’m trying not to get into the clichés and overly used idioms here, but quite simply, I need to realize the good, happy things around me, and let go of the negative thoughts. There are a couple of ways I’m approaching this change, and I feel like I am really trying to open myself up to the idea of happiness. I know that no one is happy every single day, all day, but there are little things I can do to promote optimism. I’m going to try and laugh (like, really, truly laugh) at school at least once a day. I tend to get caught up in and dwell on stressful situations at school—kids who are rude or disrespectful, grades I need to get caught up on, other colleagues who annoy me. (Wow. That sounds negative!) But, there are students who are funny, and bright, and who work hard. There are curricular units and assignments I’ve created that I am proud of. And there are plenty of people at work who I count as friends. I need to spend more energy on these things, and let go of some of the things I can’t change. Outside of work, I have many dear friends and a wonderful family who love and support me. I want to spend more time with these people, and really appreciate the positive things I have in my life.

Merry and Bright

{Christmas Sparkler}

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Merry Christmas to all! In the past few days filled with family, food, gifts and laughter, I have been reminded how blessed I truly am. 2012 held many changes for me, and at times I felt like nothing could go right. However, as the year draws to a close, I can easily see how lucky I truly am. I wish much love and blessings to all of my family and friends.

Happy (Early) Turkey Day



{Thankful}

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Happy (early) Thanksgiving! I'm so thankful for all of my dear family and loving friends. Hope everyone has a wonderful time with loved ones this Thursday!



Happy Heart Day!

{Pretty hearts on a line}

 ***************************

Happy Valentine’s Day! As Cupid’s arrows fly through the air and flowers and chocolates are delivered all around town, I figured I better suck it up and write a post about the holiday of love. Luckily, I found a few valentines that I got a kick out of on Pinterest. I am loving these retro designs!

{Blow a Fuse Valentine}



{Cagey Valentine}

My fav? Don’t blame me for being corny…

{Corny Valentine}

{Tweet Nothings Valentine}

And I had to laugh at these “sweet” sentiments…

{Moustache Valentine}



{Sandwich Valentine}



{You'll Do Valentine}

So who is my Valentine, you may ask?

Duh. No surprise here!

Rascal and I had a photo session and I attempted to recreate the Jason Wu cartoon kitty with his pretty red bow. It lasted for a few snaps, and then…

off it came. But, you gotta admit...

he is a handsome devil!