Thanksgiving in Puerto Vallarta!

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This exact time next week we'll be enjoying room service in this ship in Cabo San Lucas. We leave this Saturday for L.A. and will be cruising for a week in the Mexican Riviera and then will spend a few days in L.A. visiting with my extended family. We'll be cruising on Thanksgiving and spending the day in Puerto Vallarta. It is going to be great to have our Thanksgiving meal completely cooked for us on the cruise ship!

We're so excited for the trip and will be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary while we're there. We'll also be attending a two-day 20th anniversary tour Smashing Pumpkins concert as well! In fact when we scheduled this trip, it was the Smashing Pumpkins concert that made us go ahead with the trip. Around Septemberish I started feeling really ready for a vacation and was looking for good cruise deals. I found that if you schedule it right, you can easily cruise for much cheaper than most vacations. So I found a great deal and was having trouble pulling the trigger when I saw that the Smashing Pumpkins were playing in L.A. just a couple days after the cruise ends...perfect! :) This trip is so long overdue. It's going to be 12 total days of relaxation and fun and this is the first time we've ever been away from home this long. I can barely wait!

So cruise/trip preparations is what I was up to this weekend. I've got three bags packed already with just a few things that will need to be packed before we go. I spent the weekend spiffing up the house and doing laundry. I've got a cruise packing list that I got on one of the cruise tips websites and hopefully I'm a little bit over prepared.

Ciege worked all weekend. The consequence of being out of work for two weeks is that he is having to work tons of overtime in order to get a project out early. So he's stressed out and spent nearly all weekend with his laptop at his side. And when he starts stressing his insomnia hits him hard. He barely slept at all last night. But that's ok! He's only got 5 more days to endure and then we'll be sipping diet cokes and relaxing aboard our Mexican Riviera cruise! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

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We had a great time today celebrating my Mom's 50th Birthday. (Sorry Mom for announcing your age on the blog)

This morning I met my Mom and sister at the Owyhee Plaza's restaurant for some yummy breakfast. We had a great time chatting and enjoying each other's company. Afterwards, we headed on down to BODO (Boise Downtown) to shop for a new purse for my Mom. She picked out a really pretty purse from JUJU's (a local Idaho shop) that is patent leather and pink and brown. We had a lot of fun shopping but had to cut it short for the BSU game.

After shopping, I headed home to pick up CJ and we went over to my Mom's house to watch the BSU game. It was a snoozer of a game, but I think we've already established that most games are snoozers for me. I slept and cuddled with my sister's adorable little dog on the couch while the others cheered our team to victory. We had some great pumpkin cheesecake and got to watch as my Mom received 50roses from Jonathan. It was great and she was so surprised.

Now we're at home relaxing and I am trying to get some small chores done around the house. Oh, and taking a break from the chores to write this post of course. :)

We had a great day of fun and I'm sad because my weekend is already half way over with. Time continues to just fly by. We're only two weeks away from our cruise and we can hardly wait...but we still have so much to do with work and stuff to get ready before we leave. Time away from stress, our work, and our computers is so long overdue!

We Voted!

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CJ and I went on lunch and cast our votes. We moved since the last election, so we had to register to vote at the polling place, which went very smoothly. There was only one other voter there with us so the entire process was extremely easy and painless.

No matter what happens in this election, I am so thankful today that I am able to vote and that 88 years ago some brave women fought for my right to have a voice in this society. I feel so blessed to have the privilege to be able to voice my vote.

Once Upon A Family

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This weekend I had a few girls over for some fall treats and to make a fun craft. I bought some supplies at the craft store and we made time capsules. I got this great idea from a new home based business called "Once Upon a Family". This amazing company sells products that help you be intentional about your family life by building and keeping great traditions in your house and reinforcing strong ties and family values. I fell in love with their ideas and inspiring love for family a couple years ago at a scrapbook store which ended up going out of business. Recently I called to find a consultant in our area that could do a celebration during my craft night and found that there are no consultants in the Boise/Meridian/Nampa area, so since I love the products so much, I became a consultant. I figured that it would be a great chance to get some discounts on these products that I love and also would be fun to have celebrations with my friends and find others who are inspired to build strong family ties as well.

So for about half the night we looked at the "Once Upon A Family" products and the other half we made our own keepsake, a time capsule. CJ and I plan on using this family time capsule once a year on New Years Eve. We'll each drop a short list of resolutions and goals for the following year as well as reflect on previous year's resolutions. We'll use this time capsule as a fun way to reinforce our values and goals as well as keep track of what we're up to each year. New Years Eve is a great time to reflect on the past as well as make goals for the future. This year we'll have a place to put those goals and plan on keeping this tradition for years to come. Here are some pictures of the time capsule that I made...

From MISC

From MISC

I covered a wine box that I purchased from the craft store with cute scrapping paper and some modge podge. The paper had some cute coordinating decals which I modge podged right on and tied a pretty matching rope to use as the handle. We'll proudly display this time capsule on our mantle each year and hopefully this fun new tradition will help us be more intentional about our goals and aspirations. If nothing else, it will keep us accountable to each other.

So the craft night was great and it was so much fun to hang out with the girls. What I loved most about it was that we got a chance to chat about our families and what we're doing to make sure that we're cherishing every moment together and keeping family ties close. The "Once Upon A Family" products are so cool and if any of you local readers would like to host a celebration at your house, I would love to chat with you about that. No pressure from me...but I think once you see these great ideas and products you'll be hooked just like I am. And even if you aren't local to Boise but would still like to order, just let me know. I'll be happy to submit an order for you and mail it to your house. For the local girls, since I'm the only consultant locally, you're guaranteed to host a party that has products that most people haven't seen before. I'm so excited to do many more things in my family like the time capsule and excited to be more intentional about my family life.

My Boys on a Saturday Afternoon

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Halloween Recap

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• Woke up this morning to the most beautiful fall day you've ever seen. The leaves were blowing on the ground yet it was a warm 75 degrees out at 8am this morning! This weather instantly put CJ and I in a great mood. It was a little bit cloudy and windy but super warm.
  
  
• Went to work and laughed so hard at some of my coworker's great costumes. Ciege and I were "duds" and didn't dress up, but it was great trying to have a meeting this morning while my coworkers were in costume...
  
  

  From MISC

  
  
  
• Worked for about half the day and then took the rest of the day off. I LOVE taking half days on Fridays and today was the perfect day for it.
  
  
• Ate lunch at Los Betos Mexican restaurant. We have a love/hate relationship with this place. CJ and I love it because they have yummy authentic food for really cheap. But we hate it because it always leaves us feeling sick later in the day....price you pay for good Mexican food or do we need to venture out to other Mexican food establishments???
  
  
• Dropped CJ off at home (he had some work to do) and I headed off to the DMV because we were one day away from our car registration expiring. And every time we need to renew, I always wait until the last minute to do so. I HATE the DMV! And that makes me procrastinate going even more.
  
  
• Also had to get my car emissions tested. I HATE this too! :) And for some reason, the service was really bad and I ended up spending about 30 minutes trying to get the stinking test done. I politely expressed my dissatisfaction to the attendant and they gave me a free emissions test! Cha-ching - that is $15 that can go toward fun stuff! :) I guess it really pays to speak your mind every now and again.
  
  
• Headed over to the Craft Warehouse to pick up some supplies to make time capsules for a little gathering I am having with a few of my scrapbooking buddies. More to come on that after tomorrow....
  
  
• On the way home, I heard Michael Jackson's "Thriller" song and thought it very appropriate to fling my arms wildly in the car while driving and dancing to the song. I had a lot of fun and laughed as I noticed cars passing by giving me the stink eye.
  
  
• Went over to Craig and Nona's house for some dinner & pumpkin carving. Well they were having dinner and I needed to carve our pumpkin, so I brought my pumpkin over there and worked on it while Craig Sr. and Craig Jr. played "World of Warcraft". The Craigs have been very much into this game lately and it is cute to see them so excited about the game.
  
  
• I had a pumpkin carving kit which had a bunch of templates. I decided to choose the hardest template in the bunch because I thought "How hard can it be?". So 3 hours later, I ended up with a modified version of a spooky Halloween tree....
  
  

  From MISC

  
  
• Drove home with Ciege and enjoyed his company.
  
  
• Set up my newly carved pumpkin with a tea light, lit it, turned all of lights off, and squealed with joy at my creation. Ran down stairs to get Ciege (who was already on the computer playing World of Warcraft) to show him how cool it looks. Even he was surprised!
  
  

  From MISC

  
  
  
• Setup for my scrapbooking night tomorrow.
  
  
• Hopped on the computer and checked out my Facebook page. I'm really loving that silly Facebook. It took me so long to adopt it because I thought it was just for the myspacer teeny bopper kiddos, but I'm really loving being able to connect with people. Just yesterday I added a friend who I have been talking to on the phone yet have never met in person. It was great to see her family photos and put a face to her voice. I'm loving that Facebook is connecting me with lots of people and keeping me constantly updated on what other people are up to. I think social networking is a good thing after all and think that any tools that help you connect to people are really cool.
  
  
• And phew! It's 12:57am and WAY past my bedtime. I'm so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open, so I'll retire to bed. I wonder how long the hubby will be fighting his villains in the World of Warcraft game! Also, I am excited because today is November 1, which means that we are only one month away from seeing the Smashing Pumpkins live in concert for their 20th anniversary tour...AND we'll be celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary at the same time. But more to come on that later...

Love you all and hope you all had a great Halloween.