Ornament Traditions

I remember growing up one of our Christmas traditions was to go and pick a new ornament for our tree. My mom would have the ornament engraved with our name and the year. In the beginning, Mom would select the ornament for my brother and I but as we became a bit older, we were able to select our own. I never really understood how incredibly special this tradition was until I moved out on my own. I had a collection of then 25 ornaments that I could decorate my own tree with. Each year as I unpack my decorations, my heart swells with excitement and pride as I carefully unwrap each ornament and gaze at the markings on the piece. I can remember the exact thing I was into at the time with almost every ornament. I know that at one time, I loved horses and had selected an ornament to represent that temporary obsession. I also remember when I begged my mom to let me have a dalmation and she compromised with this...

PS. I got my dalmation but it was several years later!
Each ornament holds so much meaning for me. My Daddy would sing jingles to my brother and I in the morning to wake us up for school. His specialty, the Howdy Doody theme song! The year I lost him, I knew there wasn't any other ornament that was more fitting than this.

We eventually moved on from the brass ornaments to special Hallmark ornaments. I also began gifting my Mom and Dad with ornaments so that when my brother and I moved on, they would have something to decorate their own tree with since we snagged all the ornaments!
As I grow up, I still receive an ornament each year from my mom. She gifted us this one when we moved in our new house

I love this ornament tradition and I am looking forward to continuing it with my own son or daughter one day.

Here!

I was thinking about the past and something came to mind, being present. We, well I, often find myself thinking about the past and longing for it and even asking myself what's next. I plan ahead for everything, from meal planning for the month, to picking out my clothes for the week and I caught myself in the middle of a conversation the other day thinking what it would be like if I were in the moment. I think we all know someone in our lives who lives in the moment. The person never plans ahead for anything, well it doesn't seem that way. I don't think my brain knows how to stay focused on the here and now however, I want to be that way in some circumstances of my life. I want so desperately to be 100% present. I've decided, for my family, we are going to adopt a no cell phone policy after 7. I will plug my phone in to the charger and let it sit until the next morning. I will no longer check emails or social media after 7 either. I just need a break. I need to get back to what is really important. Finding out the latest scoop from my old college friends can wait as can those many emails. I want to feel more present, especially with the people I love most. How do you stay present?

Bittersweet Ending

It's that time again, time to say goodbye to yet another summer and start a new school year. This summer is especially hard to say goodbye to. I think I've had more fun this summer than any other in my grown up, out of college days. We didn't take a vacation this year because we simply couldn't decide where to go. I did go on a little trip with some girls from work but otherwise, I was home every day. In June, I made a little to do list and some of those things got crossed off and well others, are still waiting their turn. I did manage to make a little extra money tutoring this summer and babysitting too. I also went to Zumba every single week, faithfully. I hung out with my bestie and had THE. MOST. FUN. EVER. We could just drive down the street and find something to laugh at. I'm going to miss the carefree days of summer. Staying up late, sleeping in, lunch dates in the real world, 1:00 naps, shopping trips every day and making appointments whenever they have an opening! Some of those things sound really grown up, guess that's part of it though. Tomorrow, I go back to work. Back to 5:30 wake up calls and 15 minute lunch breaks, back to the day in and day out, back to testing data and parent teacher conferences and even though I'm teaching something totally new this year, a bit of me is excited for the unknown and a bit (a large bit) is scared. I'm with a whole new group of people to work with, a new classroom, new curriculum and much, much bigger kids. I'm going to give it a shot though and try it out (besides, what other choice do I have) and I'm going to have a good outlook on things. With all of that, I will have some awfully good memories to laugh about and help get me through to the next summer which if it's anything like this one, will be a blast!

Keeping the Faith

With so much going on over the summer, I think we tend to get wrapped up in pool dates and lunch dates and just have the ease of the summer in all parts of our lives. While this time is so full of fun, we have to remind ourselves to not ease up on our relationship with Christ. I never really post much about my faith on this blog but lately, I have felt it on my heart to share. I have been through some very trying times recently and I have to continue to keep the faith that things will work out and that I have to continue to turn it over to Him. Prayer is such an integral part of my lifestyle and I hope it is for yours too. I know that I will continue to trust in His word and know that His ways are best for me even though it may be challenging, I know that His promises will lead me to a victory.


"Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24, NIV)

Commenting Challenge Day 4- Hobbies

I'm a few days behind on the commenting challenge but I'm planning to catch up before the weekend is over. In fact, my goal is to visit every site that linked up! So today's topic is hobbies. I have lots of hobbies. I'm always trying something new and wanting to start a new project before my first one is finished unfortunately but I'm working this summer to finish up all of my incomplete projects.

My real love is sewing. My mom, aunt and both grandmothers did lots of sewing. I guess I came by it honestly. I learned a little from each one of them when it comes to the basics of sewing but when my mom bought her latest sewing machine, I knew I had to learn how to applique. I logged on the computer and searched for all kinds of tutorials on how to applique and just figured it out by trial and error. Below are a few things that I've made!

I'm hoping to open an etsy store in the next couple of weeks. Right now, I have done things for friends and family but just by posting some of these things on Twitter, I've gotten lots of feedback and a couple orders too. Hopefully that etsy site will give me more advertising. I would love to be able to quit my job one day and sew full time!

If anyone is interested in a custom piece, let me know, I would be happy to work with you!

Social Media

While I love social media, I do not have any social media connected to my blog especially since it is so small. I do have a personal Twitter account and LOVE it! I deleted my FB account over a year ago and honestly haven't missed it at all. I do miss being able to catch up with my high school and college friends but luckily a few of them have blogs and twitter.
My real love is Pinterest. I love how easy it is to find things that I previously had to hunt down. I like finding new ideas for my classroom, new recipes to try, new things to create and just about everything else. I have even created a pinboard of pins that I've tried and jotted down adjustments that I've made to them. I have been using Pinterest for over a year and just simply can't get over the fact of how wonderful it is. Since I quit FB, I had to have something to do with all of that free time and Pinterest seems to have done the trick!
I visit lots of websites every day. I usually wake up and check my email and then I check my twitter account. Reading tweets for me is like reading the newspaper for my husband. I follow CNN and People and Us so I have all the bases covered as far as news is concerned. Often times, I know the scoop before it ever comes out in the newspaper which really aggravates T but I secretly love it! I also check flash sale sites like Zulily, Rue La La and Very Jane. I like to find good deals and occasionally these sites have things that are unique or hard to find but they also have well known brands like Kitchen Aid, New Balance and Cuisinart. Most of the products are typically 50-75% off retail prices but they have a limited supply and are only available for a limited time on the site, hence the fact they are called flash sales!
What sites do you check into daily? Any more flash sale sites I should check out?

Why I Blog

I started blogging in 2009 at the urge of a few friends from college who wanted to keep up with my life since I moved far away. I encouraged my family in South Carolina to also blog since I wouldn't be seeing them as much since I moved to what seemed to be, across the country. My blog stayed active for about 6 months then I closed down that blog due to some personal issues and resumed blogging again in 2010. My blog has undergone several changes, including it's now 3rd domain name. I'm hoping to keep this name as it just fits my style, you rarely see me without my latte these days!

I typically blog about my day to day life, new recipes that I've tried, products that I love, things I have created and just general life. We have been TTC for almost 5 years off and on and I occasionally share those struggles in hopes of finding some comfort and support. My mother is in the middle of a move back to SC and I will utilize this blog for her to keep up with things here, even though I'm sure our daily phone calls won't cease, it will be nice for her to read about life here!

Hope you will follow along as well!

Picking Up and a Comment Challenge

So, I changed my blog name and domain yet again, third time if you are counting. I just needed something new to get me going again and I have a new page design on the way as well. I am hoping with all these changes, I'll be ready to blog more often again!

Beginning today, Jenna is hosting her annual commenting challenge. Today's topic is About Me so here we go...

If you haven't visited my blog before, I'm Chea and I live with my husband Tom. We have spent the past 7 years traveling and enjoying being married. I teach Kindergarten and Tom teaches PE and coaches soccer. We have a sweet dog, Maggie and a fun cat, Ham. We are still awaiting a baby to come into our lives and hopefully that will be very soon!

It's Red Hot!!!

I had to post this recipe in time for all of your holiday parties you may be hosting! It's a really good apple cider that my principal made last week! I couldn't get enough! Red Hot Apple Cider 2 quarts apple juice 2 cups red hots- the tiny little candies, not the cinnamon disks Using a coffee pot, put the red hots where you would normally add your coffee and make sure to use a filter. Pour the apple juice in like you would add your water. Brew! You will absolutely love that you made this yummy treat! Now, I halved the recipe and did make it in my coffee pot, because well I don't have one anymore since I got my Keurig. I just used the stove top to heat the juice to a boil and added the red hots and stirred like crazy until they melted. Let me know if you try this out!

Random Acts of Christmas Kindness

I have been tweeting about my Random Acts of Christmas Kindness and my attempt to do 25 things this month. I've been asked about my method and what all I'm doing so here is my schedule and how I went about things.

I started off creating a list of people that I deal with each day. Everyone from the crossing guard at work to the Salvation Army bell ringer made the final cut! Then I created a numerical list 1-25 and made my notes of kindness that I would do each day.

1. Take Ms. Joy (the crossing guard) breakfast.
2. Buy coffee for the person behind me in line at Starbucks
3. Pump gas for someone while they sit in their car
4. Buy the Salvation Army bell ringer a cup of hot cocoa
5. Deliver homemade cookies to the neighbors
6. Send cookies/treats to T's coworkers
7. Order pizza for the neighbors- I know they have lots going on Wednesdays so I thought it would be helpful to already have dinner ready for her. She was very thankful!
8. Send my brother who lives in Tennessee a box of his favorite cupcakes from a local bakery
9. Drop off a few poinsettias for the lady at the post office
10. Take donuts to a friend
11. Tape a dollar to the front of the coke machine at work- I have done this before and it always makes someone's day
12. Leave candy canes and holiday cards on the cars in the parking lot at the grocery store
13. Adopt a family/child for Christmas. We do this every year and I love it!
14. Drop off hot cocoa for the kids who wait at the bus stop in the morning
15. Leave holiday books in the play area at the mall
16. Make Christmas treats for my volunteer moms at school
17. Make a donation to the animal shelter.
18. Leave a gift for the mailman in the mailbox
19. Take my husband's car to work today have it washed on the way home! (yes, I have to work on this day and he doesn't)
20. Take Christmas treats to the nursing home
21. Meet our pool man outside with a cup of coffee and breakfast- he always comes early and I'm never home to do anything for him.
22. Clean out our closets and make a donation to Helping Hands
23. Hand out Starbucks gift cards to people in line. Just a fun twist on buying someone coffee!
24. Deliver Christmas treats to people working late on Christmas Eve. (drugstore, gas station, etc.)
25. Deliver treats to the hospital employees who have to work on Christmas day.

I'd love to hear any other ideas you may have! Hope you have fun speading Christmas kindness and cheer!

Happy Holidays!

I found this 20 questions survey on something a while back and thought it would be fun to post it on the blog. Feel free to copy it to your blog and let me know so I can see how your answers compare to mine!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Since I’m not really an egg person unless it’s in a cake plus I only eat the white actually if it’s cooked. I’m just gonna go with hot chocolate. I love to drink hot chocolate with whipped cream on top and some sprinkles. However, I’d prefer caramel apple cider any day or my favorite Espresso Truffle (hot cocoa with a shot of espresso)!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Wrapped of course, unless they are too big to wrap, then they need to be hidden. I love a good surprise!

3. Colored lights or white? Just a personal preference but I prefer the white.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No - but I might this year.

5. When do you decorate for Christmas? As soon as I can! Usually the day after Thanksgiving but I love Christmas so much and since we are on the go so much, I often don’t get to enjoy my decorations so I would love to decorate November 1 if my husband would let me. He doesn’t like to rush the holidays!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish, excluding dessert? I love when my mom makes a pumpkin roll. However, I guess that is considered a dessert but it has pumpkin in it! I also love my Aunt Jan’s macaroni and cheese. It’s very different than what you are probably used to.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Probably spending Christmas at my grandparent’s house. We would always go over there on Christmas Eve and open gifts right at 6:00. My Nanny is German and that was a tradition that they had when she was growing up so we stuck with it. Christmas morning we would open gifts from Santa as soon as I woke everyone up bright and early then we would head back to my grandparent’s house for lunch!

8. When and how, did you learn the truth about Santa? What? Santa isn't real? He's still bringing me presents.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Since I have grown up and gotten my own house, I like to have themed trees. The first year we lived in our house I put up 2 trees, it was a beating and I said never again. I do have one main tree in the family room that is decorated in gold and brown and animal prints. I also have smaller trees all throughout my house that are decorated with sentimental ornaments.

11. Snow. Love it or hate it? LOVE IT - but I don't want to have to drive in it.

12. Can you ice skate? Really slowly holding on to the wall. :-)

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Gosh, there have been so many favorites throughout the years. I can’t really narrow it down to one.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Spending time with family and remembering why we are celebrating. I'd also say that I'd rather find ways to help others or give to the needy more than I enjoy receiving gifts. I think this time of year helps you to remember how very blessed we are.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Chocolate delight. What’s better than chocolate, cream cheese, pecans and cool whip?

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Heading to church on Christmas Eve for the candle light service. That is my favorite service of the year!
17. What tops your tree? A bunch of glittery sticks and stuff.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Definitely giving. I love finding just the right gift for someone and truly surprising them!

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? I have SO many I don't know if I can name just one but I guess I would chose Silent Night. I remember singing this when I was a kid at our church Christmas program.

20. Candy canes. Yuck or yum? Yummy! I love peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks and peppermint ice cream! Plus, Bob’s peppermint candy is the BEST!

Helping Out Society

Over the Thanksgiving break, we went out and did a little shopping. We ran across this adorable little coffee shop and stopped in for a treat. Next door to the shop was the cutest little bakery, Society Bakery to be exact. Apparently, the bakery is well known and was even voted Top 10 Cupcakes by The Ellen Degeneres show. Well, we had the gluten free brownie and a chocolate chip cookie. Both were absolutely incredible. I didn't really want the gluten free brownie but the sales lady who happened to be the owner's mother, convinced us that it was really the best thing under the counter. I believe she was absolutely right! The cookie was amazing but that brownie...Oh My!!! It was to die for! So if you are ever in the area, stop by Society Bakery and help yourself to a treat. One thing that I also love about this bakery is that they donate back to the community. I will definitely be stopping in to help out society and my sweet tooth!

Staple Item

I think everyone has that one staple wardrobe item that they could wear with anything and everything. I have found my fall/winter staple this season and I have just fallen in love with these.

I was in desperate need of a new pair of boots for the fall and after many hours of searching and trying on and trying to figure out what pair looked just right and felt great, I decided on these. I have two pair of Frye boots in my closet that I have had for roughly 10 years and they still look wonderful so I knew the brand was great but I wasn't 100% sold on the style. I tweeted about them and received some great comments on how well they would look with jeans and dresses/skirts so I knew I could dress them up or go more casual with them. I've had them for a couple of months now and have worn them every chance I have had. In fact, I love them so much, I went and got a black pair too!

It's What You Have To Do Sometimes

I have always enjoyed the Real Housewives shows. I like them all..Orange County, New York, Beverly Hills, New Jersey so basically if it says housewives in the title, I probably have it on my DVR. Well, I watched RHofNY and Bethany kind of stuck with me so I watched Bethany Ever After too. I decided to go out in search of her Skinny Girl margarita and found it and liked it. Then I heard that there were two more in the Skinny Girl line that I needed to try. Before the Amica Gala, we all met the night before to decorate and set up the ballroom and we each brought snacks and wine to share. I brought the white cranberry cosmo and sangria. They are equally as yummy as the margarita and maybe even a tad better. I think I've found some new favorite beverages!

Mud Pie!

My friends on Twitter have always talked about Mud Pie and I have seen these cute baby things in stores and have even bought some for gifts. However, I have always been thinking about what my first Mud Pie purchase would be for myself and I actually got something recently that is absolutely perfect. Here it is...Santa Paws by Mud Pie

Maggie has her very own Santa Claus collar courtesy of Mud Pie. I'm happy and so is she!

Deck the Halls

As much as I love Thanksgiving, I also love when it's over because that means I can decorate for Christmas! I actually cheated a bit this year and got my tree up earlier in the week. It's just nice to get it done while I'm off during the week and not have to stress about getting it finished the day before I go back to work. Growing up, we always decorated the day after Thanksgiving but since I've been on my own, I always have slowly started putting up my decor inside during the week of Thanksgiving. I think I can enjoy Thanksgiving and my Christmas decorations all at the same time! Here is a sneak preview of my decorations. I'll be back later on with more detailed pictures!

Black Friday

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I know our Thanksgiving was wonderful. I got to spend time with my niece who is expecting her little boy in April. I can't wait to hold that sweet baby and spoil him. I also ate and ate and ate but luckily for me, I will be working it off really soon. I'm about to head out for some Black Friday shopping. I have no idea what I'm looking for but I just love the rush of getting up early and heading out to find that awesome deal. I do not camp out in front of stores like I've seen other people do though. A lady and her mother and little boy have been camping out in front of Be$t Buy since Monday here in Dallas. That is just crazy to me! I don't think there is any deal worth that but maybe there is! Well good luck to all of you who are fighting the crowds, I hope you end up with some great finds!

Christmas Photo Shoot Sneak Peek

We set out after Thanksgiving lunch for my step dad to take a few pictures for our Christmas cards. We toured my parents neighborhood and I think we ended up with some great shots given the short amount of time we had and the fact that we all were freezing! Here are a few shots from today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love the no pressure to have the right gift or send the perfect card. I love that we just can enjoy each other's company and eat some awesome food. I have hosted Thanksgiving once. I decided it was way too much for me. I will now stick with making some yummy sides and going to my parents and in laws for lunch and dinner. Thanks to blogs and Pinterest, I've found some great recipes that I have tried out over the year and I'm actually taking some for lunch/dinner today. However, I'm also sticking to some family favorites and traditional dishes that we have always had. I'm including a recipe for one of my favorite family traditional dishes that we usually have at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
This is my Aunt Jan's famous, well almost, baked mac and cheese. It's very different from your traditional creamy mac and cheese but it's equally as good.

Aunt Jan's Macaroni and Cheese
1 cup uncooked elbow macaroni
1 egg, beaten
1 large can evaporated milk
12 ounces grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil macaroni until al dente but do not drain (this is important). Meanwhile, grate cheese. Combine milk and beaten egg and add cooked macaroni. Pour into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Add cheese and mix well. The mixture should be incredibly soupy, if it is not, add water from pasta. Bake for 30 minutes or until slightly brown around the edges. Enjoy!

Well, Well, Well

After a few of my twitter friends and a few emails and even some real life friends begged and pleaded for some new posts, I have finally made room on my crazy busy schedule to blog a bit. So, here you have it, words from the wise!!! Ha!!!

What I have been up to in the past month...apparently taking tons of iPhone pictures. I had 637 pictures to download before I could blog. I will not post them all or maybe I won't post any of them. Many of them are school stuff that I'm sure no one cares to see but it's things that I wanted to remember. Also, there are several Pinterest projects and ideas that I took screen shots of because that app dislikes me...alot! If I take a screen shot, I can easily go back to it without having to fight that app to work. Anyone else have this problem?

Other than that, I've just been working. Working at school, working at home and working on all kinds of junk. I've been told I have a hobby in every room of the house! Which unfortunately is a little bit true.

I plan to do a little more blogging. I haven't blogged much because I don't bring my laptop home from work very much anymore because it's on it's last leg. It makes a horrible noise and I've been told to back it up because it may go out at any time. Awesome!

So, I'm hoping to blog as much as I can from my iPad and we shall see how well that works! Thanks for sticking around through my many weeks of no words!