now that all of our kiddos have finally gotten their Christmas gifts from their favoritest aunt and uncle, i can share my special project. those who know us are aware that we travel a lot but we’re not huge on souvenirs. on our epic trip this past fall (am i ever going to post that travel log?), we were limited by time – the best destinations, Egypt and Israel, were crazy busy trying to see everything we possibly could – and packing space since i was very strict about our baggage limitations for the month overseas as i’m too cheap to pay for my bags to fly. we did make sure that we fulfilled specific requests, which were surprisingly few and highly reasonable. but we also had to bring back some gifts. for all the ladies/girls, we bought small pieces of murano glass from our quick tour of venice. my biggest thing, however, was that i wanted to have something meaningful for all the kiddos from the Holy Land. in our two days of frantic touring, we only had a couple souvenir opportunities and the nice stuff was either too big for our luggage space or too expensive (i really wish i would have bought that gorgeous olive wood nativity that i fell in love with in Bethlehem. we would have had to ship it back home but, in retrospect, it would have been worthwhile). my solution was to buy a bigger bottle of Holy water for hubby’s uncle (a special request from him) and use some of the water to hand-craft gifts for the kids. i ordered some cross-shaped glass vials and bought some jewelry cord, ends, and clasps. i couldn’t find any alpha beads small enough to fit in the vials so i ended up having to find some plain 3mm beads and write on them myself to form each kid’s name. i even did a couple of them with chips of wood which i felt gave it a really cool effect, considering that they were floating in Holy water. i’m a bit ashamed of how much cursing occurred during the assembly of these but we prayed over them when they were finished so i think that made up for it. i also prayed for each kid, individually, while i was working on theirs. i was really happy with the final product and i think all of the kids (well, all but the two infants) actually appreciated them.

of course, i wasn’t around for her real first Christmas but this was my day to shower her with gifts.  i can’t believe how much she’s grown since i last saw her (thanksgiving).  she’ll be walking when i see her again.  *sigh*  it was a great day of togetherness with my brudder, SIL, niece, and their friends/family.  technically, the cookout was a triple birthday party for brudder, his MIL, and me as our birthdays are all a week apart.  my little calligator was the only one who made out with loot though 😉

that's a heck of a chillin' nap	such rockin' footwear
ninja baby!	proud that i was able to give her her first fishing pole

i love that the cross is reflecting on her forehead

yesterday was our annual family disney day.  we’ve gone every Christmas season for the last twenty-three years that my dad had worked there.  last year was the only year we’ve ever missed, thanks to dad’s broken hip and five week hospital stay.  geez, you miss one year and the whole danged place changes!  there are new attractions and overhauls of old ones.  my favorite ride, the haunted mansion, had a ton of changes including some fantastic interactive embellishments to the line.  another great highlight to the day was the monster’s inc laugh floor.  if you’re not familiar, it’s an animated and interactive standup comedy attraction.  toward the end of the show, the monsters were joking with a kiddo in the audience and he asked the kid what you get when you mix a human and a grape.  the kid said he didn’t know and the monster said “we don’t either but there she is” as the spotlight flashed at me and i was shown on the big screen.  i laughed and laughed and laughed.  yay me for being part of the show!  arcanai: the human grape!  hee hee 😀  so, as always, it was a great day at the happiest place on earth with my terrific family.

we got to epcot first to ride the new and improved test track	we then made our way to the magic kingdom
we wandered around a bit before heading to tony's for lunch where my daddy surprised me with an early birthday cake	yummy cake
next we went to see the progress on the new fantasty land. we couldn't get into belle's place but we were allowed to look around at gaston's.	♫ everyone here wants to be you, gaston ♫
we checked out ariel's new under the sea ride	and hubby got to do it's a small world
even dumbo got some updates	there are now two dumbo rides - a long overdue improvement
reflections of neuschwanstein	cinderella's castle
and what trip to disney would be complete without a parking lot wheelchair race to wrap things up?

my cousin has been doing roller derby for the last year or so.  this is something that i’ve never actually experienced so it has been eye-opening to learn about this sport.  we went to one of her practices last year and i was completely clueless about what was happening.  last night, we finally got to see her in a real game (bout? match?).  thankfully, there was a player from another team sitting next to me so she patiently explained things to me throughout.  i think i finally got it about figured out around halftime.  it was a fun time and i’m glad we got to see her before she went on hiatus. 

go cousin go!

number .38

soylent pink and me

when we were down here last, some random events led me to discover that an ex of mine goes to my sissy’s church.  i was amused by the happenstance of it and pretty much forgot about it.  this morning, we went to church with my sissy and immediately ran into him as he is now working as a volunteer in the church.  it wasn’t awkward like some chance meetings… i haven’t seen him in about a decade and it was just like yesterday.  it was nice to catch up and meet his lovely wife.  i wish i could have met his little girls as well but they were already in the youth service.  i was very happy to see him all grown up and an active member of a great church.  neither one of us walked with God in our youth and it’s just amazing to me how life molds us.  he was my first love and, despite the bad times we went through (very few but very bad), i feel nothing but love for him now.  i knew when he proposed to me in middle school and gave me his grandmother’s ring that we would never grow up to get married – he always wanted to be a cop and i knew even then that i wasn’t made out of military/cop-wife material – but it is wonderful to know that we both ended up on the right roads for our lives.  i have a fabulous husband who is my best friend and shares amazing experiences with me.  he has a wife who is also a cop so they share a greater understanding than i could have ever given him.  it’s nice when God shows you that “what might have been” doesn’t hold a candle to what you have.

we drove down to orlando last night so that we could be here first thing this morning for my sissy’s neighborhood’s 5k.  we did it with them two years ago, before they even lived in the neighborhood and had a great time.  the race itself is nice because it works it’s way through 3.1 miles of quiet, tree-lined neighborhood roads but the real draw is the cause… benefits go to the russell home which is a fantastic organization that houses and supports atypical children in central florida.  i think this was their fourteenth year of putting on this charity event. 

so, two years ago, i found myself racing a little old lady – had to be in her eighties – and unable to beat her.  this year, i felt confident that i could take the octogenarian 🙂  i never saw her but i also didn’t post a stellar time (though much better than that one, for sure).  i guess i overdid it on my stairs workout the other day because my calves are super tight.  even though i stretched and warmed up good before the run, i decided not to push it.  i did a leisurely 36 minute 5k and enjoyed myself.  and when i got to the finish line, i stuffed myself full of panera bagels with my family.  i appreciate that running events are something that we can enjoy together as a family. 

hubby and i decided it was time for some mid-week quality time together.  we walked down to the mall, which we haven’t done in forever.  *somebody* immediately hit up the frozen yogurt shop and then we walked all over the complex before ending up at five guys for dinner.  we walked, we talked, we held hands.  it was a great date night indeed.

my first week of being off the pill has been awful.  the hot flashes and night sweats have come back with a vengeance and make me worry again about my chances of conceiving.  since may 2010, i have been on pills with high dose estrogen to try to stave off early menopause.  thus, my very real concerns.  i’m trying, however, not to dwell on such thoughts.  i’m trying to concentrate on getting re-balanced and healthy and thinking happy thoughts for the future.  in the meantime, these hotflashes may very well kill me.  if they get any worse, i will be proof of spontaneous human combustion (poof! there goes another one!).  i also seem to be emotionally unbalanced suddenly.  i tear up at everything i see and hear.  if this is just going off the pill, what the heck will the hormones of pregnancy do to me?

nothing like cutting it down to the wire.  thirteen hours before the rental car has to be turned in, we finally drove off the lot with our new prius.  i drove it home while hubby drove the rental.  it is definitely going to take some getting used to.  it took me five minutes to figure out how to get it in drive.  crazy buttons all over the place.  but i like having the blutooth so that i could talk without a headset and listen to music from my phone.  and it was kind of fun scrolling through all the wacky animations they have to show how fuel efficient i’m being.  i might even figure out what they actually are telling me one of these days.  which would be no small feat considering the user manual for this thing is three inches thick – no hyperbole. 

this wasn’t a fun car shopping experience. we were under the gun because we had to have a car so it was stressful and i didn’t really fall in love with anything. i made this choice for practical reasons and i’m hoping to fall in love with it over the coming weeks. every other prius owner seems to heart theirs so i’m sure i will too. heck, i already adore the fact that it’s not rusting to pieces. don’t get me wrong… i do like it and i feel good about my choice… i just need to put the stress of the hunt behind me so that i can really enjoy it.

so another change in the last year and a half is my hair. first, i cut off all the length so that my curls would stand out. next, i decided to go purple. i started in 2011 by doing purple streaks throughout my hair and loved it. in 2012, i decided to go all the way with it.

blond is so not my color!	but i could totally pull off a helena bonham carter look

i love my purple hair! i get so many compliments on it and it just makes me feel good about me. there’s a lot to be said for that 🙂

for the third straight day, we made the long and arduous journey across the bridge to visit car dealerships in town.  this time, we had it narrowed down to two vehicles and we were just going to sit in each one a last time to make our decision.  it was down to the honda civic which is an awesome blue color and has some bells and whistles inside (super cool digital display and back up camera) and the toyota prius which is just much more spacious and kinda fun in its kookiness.  shocking my hubby, i chose the prius.  sadly, when we went back to talk business with the guy, we found that the car he had been showing us was not the one he was trying to sell us and that they would have to drive to alabama to get my car.  that isn’t a deal breaker but hubby, being the master negotiator that he is, tried to work the deal down to what he was getting quoted on the phone at other toyota dealerships today.  they actually let us walk away over $300!  hubby was appalled.  i was appalled that i opened up the search parameters for the guy and gave him a way to make up that $ gap and he didn’t even try.  seriously, if my livlihood depended on making sales and a customer told me that they would be interested in widening the search, i would jump all over those new criteria to try to close the deal.  i guess i should have chosen the civic.  it was right there on the lot and i could have driven it home tonight.  and it’s such a pretty blue.  maybe the toyota folks will call in the morning when they’ve realized that they lost a deal over a measly $300.  or maybe hubby will just

today is day one of being officially off the pill.  twenty-four more days and i would have been literally taking them for half my life.  the hubby and i have decided that it’s time to see whether or not we are meant to propagate.  we are actually going to wait until april to start trying so that there’s no chance of pregnancy interfering with hubby’s ironman but i’m giving myself a few months to let my body regulate after nearly sixteen years of tricking my hormones.  this is going to be a crazy ride.  i am terrified and hopeful and trying not to get my hopes up too high.

good or bad, we posted a CL ad for the deceased xterra before heading into town for more car shopping this morning.  hubby’s phone did not stop ringing all day.  we actually had people waiting in the parking garage to look at it when we got home tonight.  craziness.  and yet my furniture that i’ve been trying to sell on CL for the last four months… crickets.  so, after fielding calls, texts, and emails all day while trying desperately to find our new car, our xterra is now gone.  sold for more than we asked for it (which doesn’t surprise me so much since the volume of response must mean we way underpriced it). 

so long, old friend

she has been such a good car

she has carried us (and housed us) all over this country

and now the pressure is really on for us to find something.  and i learned something very interesting about the auto industry today… turns out most of the big name dealerships are closed on sundays.  while i generally respect a corporation that holds on to that kind of value, i was a bit shocked about it in this industry since it seems to me that most people only really have time to car shop on weekends.  i guess maybe that’s just us though.  anyhow, we could only find two dealerships open today and one of them took up almost the whole afternoon.  we test drove three more cars and still don’t know what we want.  we’re all over the place.  i think the current front runners are the hyundai elantra gt, honda civic lx, toyota prius ii (hippies!), and volkswagen jetta.  all over the place, i tell ya.

we headed to town at 10:00 this morning and didn’t make it back home until 20:00.  we went to five dealerships, looked seriously at about a dozen models, and test drove eight.  i am exhausted and i don’t know that we’re any closer to knowing what we want.  hubby is pouring over numbers and working his analytical magic.  we have a rental car for a week so we’ll definitely need to pick a winner quickly.  it’s not fun car shopping when you actually have to.