Christmas Time

Holy cow it's only 25° outside!!!!! I'm sitting here in the florida room with the heat blasting. We still have our christmas tree up (it's fake) and all the other christmas decorations. I'm going to hate it when my mom takes them all down, because it will make our house look so bare. Drake is laying at my feet. He wakes me up every morning (and it's so annoying) but laying infront of my bedroom door and scratching/crying until I open it up for him. Then he'll take a flying leap onto my bed and move around so by that point I can never go back to sleep.



Drake, my family and I had a pretty good christmas this year! Once again the holiday came and went wayyy too fast as it does every year. I'm always doing last minute christmas shopping and I can never believe it's already the end of the year.

Christmas Eve I went to the 11 oclock service with one of my childhood friends, Shannon. Usually the 11 oclock service is still crowded, but this year there weren't that many people there. I just love going to the 11 service because it's peaceful, we light candles at the end and sing Holy Night and by the time I get home and go to sleep it's time for SANTA! I can tell I'm getting old this year (and I'm not a kid anymore) because I wasn't as excited about Christmas as I use to be. Don't get me wrong, I was excited about giving gifts to my parents and seeing their expressions when they opened everything but that wonderment and excitement about Santa and the magic of Christmas isn't there anymore =( I miss it. I want it back.

The first thing we did was open our stockings! Each year my mom puts out a stocking for my dad and I buttttttttttttt my dad and I ALWAYS forget to fill a stocking for my mom! So she's never had hers filled. Well this year I finally remembered to buy her stocking stuffers and when I went to fill her stocking it wasn't there! She said it was old and she threw it away since she's not use to having a stocking filled!? Sooooo I had to make due and put her stocking gifts in a paper bag and tell her this was meant for her stocking. She was so excited!
Drake was even MORE excited because I had gone to PetSmart and filled his doggie stocking with LOTS of goodies! He got some bones and a new monkey toy that has been his favorite since he was a puppy. I think he could smell his bone for a week in my bedroom so by Christmas morning he was trying to tear his stocking down.

This year I got a lot of clothes that I desperately needed. I had gone shopping at the outlets in Williamsburg (my favorite place to shop) before my birthday so the clothes I didn't get for my birthday my mom wrapped up for Christmas. I got 2 purses, lots of money and giftcards, shoes, and basically a lifetime supply of Polo Romance perfume. It's my favorite! I've normally just had one bottle ( which is still expensive! ) and since I'm running low my mom bought me this whole box set so I'm going to be smelling good for maybe the next 2 years! My one gift that I really enjoyed because I needed was a new Northface jacket! I've been using the same 2 for the last 3 years. This one my dad picked out and it's an interesting color. It's a salmon and dark brown (the denali style) so I'm excited to wear it because I've never seen anyone wearing that color!

My dad's big gift this year with the Kindle my mom and I got him. If you haven't heard of the Kindle before it's an amazing gift for anyone who loves to read. My dad reads A LOT and so we ordered it from Amazon.com and it's basically an electronic book. You can download any book almost instantaneously and it does all kinds stuff. It makes your print really big, has a dictionary and all this other cool stuff. My dad's been using it since Christmas day. He already downloaded some new Stephen King book that's out --that's supposedly 1400 pages or something crazy like that! And then he got clothes and giftcards. Ohhhhhhhhhhh but his favorite gift that I made him was a huge picture collage of Drake. He kept staring at it and holding it up all day showing everyone. Out of all his expensive gifts that was his favorite. It was cute.

I got my mom a big Vera Bradley bag this year and other little things. She lovvvvvvved it. She's never had anything Vera Bradley so she was definitely not expecting it.

Well we spent the day with my grandparents (My grandpa and I posed for a picture in our SNUGGIES with santa hats on... I'll have to post that on facebook soon) and we had a good lunch. I drank lots of wine and then was ready for bed by 5 oclock.

Christmas 2009 was a success! Now I'm ready to ring in the New Year with Fred. He's having a toga party at his house sooo I spent all day yesterday running around getting the perfect toga accessories. Look for pictures in the New YEAR!

PS. I don't know if I posted this but I've been working my butt off in my paralegal classes (i'm finally going to be done in the spring) but my grades for this past semester were 4 A's and a B! I was so excited. I even got an A on my 30 chapter exam!! WHOO HOO!!!

SNOW

This past weekend 2 feet of snow was dropped on the lovely city of Arlington, Virginia. It was beautiful and I couldn't believe my eyes we were actually getting that much snow! Luckily, I left Richmond bound for Arlington early Friday morning so I did not get stuck in the snow storm with my car. However, I was snowed in until Monday morning --- and even then I had to get the boys to help shovel me out. I was so nervous my Volkswagon Beatle would not make it up the steep hill in their neighborhood. I kept telling Fred I was scared that Daisy (my car's name) was going to slide back down the hill when I was driving up it.

Still, the snow was beautiful! Friday and Saturday night I was snowwwed in with my amazing boyfriend. Even though we were getting stir crazy we had a lot of fun watching movies, drinking beer, and enjoying each other's company with friends. Fred and I also did Christmas this weekend since I won't see him again until next Wednesday.

I got Fred an Ipod Touch ---he loved it! His Ipod was stolen our senior year at Bridgewater so he was pretty excited to have a new one. Plus, it made me feel so good inside to see his face light up with joy. The minute after he opened it he played with it all night long.

And Fred got me a giftcard to Victoria Secret's (he hattttttttes that store, so I'm pretty shocked he managed to stand in line in order to get me a gift card). Why does Fred hate VS? Well, because when he was younger his older sister would drag him in there all the time and it scarred him for LIFE. Plus he always points out bras or fancy lingerie in there and asks, "Why don't you ever wear that?" and I look at him and tell him that the bra he's pointing at is about $50 and I don't have 50bucks to spend on ONE bra (I usually get all my bra's on discount from Marshall's and Target ... who the hell pays $50 dollars for a bra?!?!) SO yeah, Fred got me a $50 giftcard so now I don't have an excuse as to why I can't buy one fancy bra.
Fred's second gift was a pair of gorgeous matching earrings and necklace from ZALES. The stone is my birthstone (blue) and little diamonds around it. It's very pretty!! It's one of the nicest pieces of jewelry I own. It will look great with a nice dress or with any suits I may be wearing at the law firm... one day.

SO this weekend was a success! Even though I got snowed in and missed the a9/b9 tacky sweater party we were supposed to have in Fredricksburg. I really wish I could have seen all my girlfriends (because I really do need a girls weekend) but spending time with my boyfriend who I hadn't seen in a MONTH was a plus.

I hope everyone had as enjoyable of a weekend as I did!

DISASTER!

Ontop of being stressed out from school and tired from staying up til midnight studying .... the most worst thing possible happened tonight at the Hall residence.

My parents were gone and I was left alone with Drake (my 11month old springer spaniel) for about 4 hours this evening. He curled up next to me in my bed and slept while I was studying Torts. He slept the entire time and was such a good boy UNTIL I needed to jump in the bath (because I really wanted to shave my legs). Even though Drake can be mischevous he's usually pretty good. I thought I had closed my bedroom door all the way (but I guess not). I wasn't in the bath for more than 10min - when I opened the bathroom door Drake was laying there, looking up at me, with BLUE PERMANENT MARKER ALL OVER HIS MOUTH AND PAWS. My stomach dropped. As I stood there with a just a towel wrapped around me I could smell permanet marker everywhere.

I thought to myself please... god I hope the marker is not stained anywhere else.

I took a few steps down the hall and to my horror Drake had BLUE permanent marker spots all over MY MOM'S NEW CARPET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was like a scene from a horror movie where blood stains have dripped everywhere. Ofcourse the biggest stain from the market was right in the middle of the new carpet.

I didn't know what to do! I turned around and noticed the blue marker all over Drake's paws and legs. Running around my house half naked I push Drake outside and start crying as I dial my parents cellphone to break the news. My mom handled the situation okay even though I know she's devastated. My dad won't talk to me. We JUST had this new carpet and furniture put in the living room. I don't know what to do?!

I looked on the internet and it says hairspray & rubbing alcohol will do the trick. I'm not so sure. Our carpet is a beige and the ink is set in. I hope it comes out. My mom and I are going to try and keep dabbing it for the next few days. It's terrible. My parents were silent the rest of the evening. You can't even watch tv in the living room without your eyes going directly to the permanet marker stains.

If anyone has any suggestions as to how to get this stain out... PLEASSSSSSSSE HELP!

I'm 24 now....

A lot has happened within the last few days.

I turned 24,

and I've been running around doing birthday shopping with grandma, birthday dinner with friends and inbetween all of that studying for my exams next week.

My birthday turned out WONDERFUL. Even though I wasn't as excited about my birthday as I use to be when I was a little kid.

I'm terrible about putting pictures on here, but I will soon (maybe after the Secret Santa party I'm going to next weekend)

BUT here are some of the wonderful things I got for my birthday:

Fred got me a this Northface rain jacket I've been wanting. The weather here has been terrible these last 2months, we've had NOTHING but rain and I don't own a rain jacket. I've been using my Bridgwater umbrella (ella) everywhere I go.

My UNCLE Fred and his family got me a pair of diamond hoop earrings from Kay jewelers. I was really surpised when I opened the box, I wasn't expecting that much from them! The earrings are lovely and they called to tell me that they decided to "splurge" this year since I've been workin hard to finish my paralegal certificate.

Awhile back my mom and I went shopping down at the outlets in Williamsburg (my favorite) and I picked out some clothes so I got that from her

I received some other giftcards and money from co-workers and other family

But my MOST favorite gift was my great-grandmother's engagement ring!

My grandma is still wearing the wedding band that goes with it, but since my mom doesn't wear a lot of rings (because she works at the hospital and is always washing her hands and can't have a lot) she decided to pass it down to me! She had the ring sized and cleaned and it's beautiful! I love it. I just don't know what finger to wear it. I usually just wear two rings. One that Fred gave me last year for my birthday and my college ring. So the only finger I have available to put it on is my ring finger (but people say that's bad luck) so I guess I'm going to have to alternate between wearing the diamond ring and my college ring on the same finger

Altogether, I had a great birthday! I can't believe another YEAR has flown by. THIS MEANS this time next year I have to be moved out of my house. I can't be 25 and still living at home. People would think I was a freak! Plus Fred won't come visit me in Richmond until I have my own place that he can crash at anyways.

Well I'm off to work and I'm not looking forward to these next few days. I have so much studying to do and it's stressing me out. I've maintained an A in all of my courses thus far so hopefully I'll do okay, but I just get nervous when my tests are cumulative and one of them is 30 CHAPTERS long! Pray for me.

The upside of next week though is that I get to see FRED on Friday!!! I haven't seen him in a lonnnnnnnng time and I miss him A LOT. Then on Saturday, I am going to see a few of my girlfriends from Bridgewater for a Tacky Sweater Christmas Party at Erin's new townhouse in Fredricksburg! So, as much as I hate that exams are coming up, I wish they would be over so next week would get here faster!

Until then, I hope certain someone's have enjoyed reading my blog. I'm terrible at updating this thing. I promise pictures will come in the future! I'm just not savy enough to figure out how to do that on here like my friend Denise.

BATTLE STUDIES

If you didn't already know, I absolutely love John Mayer. The first time I saw John Mayer perform was when Iwas in 8th grade here in Richmond. I've been hooked ever since. I remember tickets for the show were maybe $10. Now they're a whopping $74! (I should know, I just bought tickets to see him not ONCE but TWICE this coming February and March).

Recently his fourth album came out; Battle Studies.

I love it. It's very similar to Heavier Things - his second album.

It's soothing, quiet, intimate and this is the first record he's recorded in his home studio. He produced the album with his drummer Steve Jordan.

I love everything about his music. He writes all of his own music. I am able to relate to each and every one of his songs and his voice is amazing. Plus he's pretty cute..actually, he's the sexiest guy in the world. (needless to say, my boyfriend hates him)

If you haven't heard any of his albums, I would recommend buying all of them; Room For Squares, Heavier Things, Continuum, and now Battle Studies.

Here's what I'm listening to right now:

http://www.johnmayer.com/blog/permalink/5368

the song is called EDGE OF DESIRE. it's a live, solo version that he recorded in his apartment and it's one of my favorites.

I'm laying here in the dark with nothing on but the 2 christmas candles glowing in my window and I am at peace. John Mayer does that to me.