Letter to me

Dear self,

It had been awhile since you've had the flu, but you managed to catch it again this winter. It always seems to come as a shock all the stages you go through, so let me just document them for you for next time so you'll know exactly what to expect:

Day 1: Slightly sore throat.

Day 2: Razor blades in your throat followed by fever, chills and body aches - don't even think about being anywhere but in bed.

Day 3: More fever and body aches...that part is almost past though...but now your nose is getting in on the action. Oh, and everything on your inside wants to be on your outside.

Day 4: Is your nose runny or is it stopped up? It's hard to tell...all you know is that you're blowing it a lot and you can't seem to breathe out of it. Oh yeah, and good luck sleeping without sitting upright or else taking some Nyquil to knock you out.

Day 5: See day 4. Except now you can't taste anything, so this day will not even have the enjoyment of food. No more happiness.

Day 6: OK, your nose is definitely running now...bring on the hacking and feeling like you can't take a deep breath.

Day 7: More runny nose...who knew that much stuff could come out of your face?

Day 8-15: Though the drainage and cough linger, you are mostly well...but still just sick enough to do something stupid like talk to yourself online for the world to see...

Here are some tips for next time:

1. PREVENTION IS KEY: in the winter, when you are prone to getting sick, get your vitamin C, don't get sleep-deprived, eat right, and don't give into all those sugary sweets taunting you at every corner - before you know it, your body is dragging, your immune system is down, and BAM, you have the flu.

2. Take some lysine every day...with your immune system down, you will more than likely get a fever blister just to add insult to injury.

3. Salt water nose spray (boil water, add salt and a pinch of baking soda) to help unclog that nose is your friend.

4. Drink orange juice as soon as you get the sore throat.

5. Hot tea and hot soup...steam helps clear your head and the warmth feels good on your throat.

6. Nyquil helps you sleep.

7. Stay home from work as long as it takes...going back too early just annoys your co-workers.

8. Drink more water than you can imagine...what you thought was a lot of water was actually not and you now realize that a ton of water would have helped immensely.

9. Don't expect to keep those 2 pounds off that you lost...as soon as your taste buds and appetite are back up to their full capacity, you will want to make up for lost time. Trust me.

Sincerely,

Your (mostly) well self

Bible Bowl Christmas Party

Lisa, the former Bible Bowl leader, very generously hosted a Christmas party at her house for all the coaches. It was fabulous with TONS of food and dessert, all homemade by Lisa. Just look at this spread!

We even got a visit from Everett (Lisa's grandson - see prior post), which was my favorite part!

Ben's favorite too! (you can really see how tiny Everett is compared to Ben!)

We did a white elephant gift exchange, in which Ben ended up with a box of old golf balls, and I (ironically enough) ended up with a golf club cleaner set. Guess that means Ben should go golfing!

Sock curls

I heard about sock curls on Pinterest, and they seemed too good to be true. I watched a tutorial on how to do it, and it seemed easy enough...so I figured, what the hey? Might as well try it.

The quick explanation is that you cut the toe out of a sock, roll up the sock so it looks like a scrunchie, put your hair in a high pony tail, and then roll your hair around the sock starting at the tip of your pony tail and ending at the base of the pony tail. Your hair needs to be slightly damp, but definitely not too wet or the curls will just fall out the next morning. Took me a few tries before I got the hang of it, but eventually got it to work for me. I found that putting some gel in my hair instead of water works well, then use hair spray as soon as I take it down so that it holds.

Here my hair is rolled up in the sock (I even did this during the day once and wore it out like this so my hair would be curly in the evening):

Please ignore that cheesy smile. And here it is as soon as I take out the sock:

Sometimes it turns out super-curly and I will put the sides up...sometimes it doesn't hold as well (I think it depends on the dampness of my hair beforehand or something) and so I just leave it down and it looks wavy and with lots of body...and sometimes I just throw it up in a pony tail.

So easy and quick!!! It's like sleeping in foam rollers, except it takes about 30 seconds to do and isn't uncomfortable at all! And, it only takes a few minutes in the morning to turn it into a nice style for the day.

P.S. - I wrote this post a couple days ago, then I got my hair cut a few inches, and now I can't really do this because my hair is so blunt on the ends and just short enough I guess that I can't get it to curl into the sock...poo! Maybe if I don't wash it a day it won't be as slick and I could get it to work. Hmmm...

Everett

So, I apparently have really bad luck throwing baby showers. I had to cancel one once before that I was throwing for my sister-in-law because she got snowed in in another state. This time, the shower I was throwing for my friend Ashley had to be canceled too! She ended up going to the hospital with some problems and they kept her over the weekend. Luckily, I hadn't bought any of the food yet though so procrastinating paid off for me for once!! :)

On a better note, Ashley had her baby a couple weeks ago - Everett Guy Gratto. He was a couple days shy of 37 weeks, so he was considered a preemie - 4 lbs. 10 oz! She was induced early due to the health concerns, but Everett was healthy and perfect and got to go home with them! He is amazing!

Christmas decorations

About the same as last year, but nonetheless:

Oh yes, and a tree at work, too! :)

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at my parents' house this year, which was great with their huge dining room because there were 23 of us! Mostly family, and a few friends as well. Here are a few pics.

The dining room, set and ready for 23:

The dining room, filled up:

Have to show off the ceiling of the dining room, which Dad just vaulted, added beams, made absolutely amazing, as usual:

The dessert table (just imagine how much food there was with this much dessert!):

The Mays (what a cute family!):

Some music from my brother and me, with Nana dancing along:

Nana had to get in on the action as well:

And some games, of course (dominoes here):

Lillian Skye

My mother-in-law and I threw a baby shower for my cousin-in-law Brooke in October. It turned out great! Lots of food:

...an adorable centerpiece by Deena:

...the BEST CUPCAKES EVER from Carmen's Cupcakes:

...great gifts:

...and great people!

Then in November, Lillian Skye was born, beautiful and healthy!

Ben and I visited last week and she is absolutely perfect! Brooke looked amazing and made us a great dinner (I know, she had the baby, and she had US over for dinner!!). We had a great time, and Ben got his baby fill in for the day. :)

Cooking

I made some fun recipes the last couple months. I had my parents and grandma over for breakfast one day which included a breakfast crescent ring and fruit salad stuffed into oranges carved like pumpkins:

How cute are they?? Just cut a hole in the top, scrape out the insides, carve a face on the front, and stuff with fruit!

I also made pizza with a cauliflower crust (yes, cauliflower!):

I've made this a couple times, and 4 different types of pizza. One was buffalo chicken, one was steak and blue cheese, one was chicken alfredo and spinach, and one was hamburger. The first time I made the cauliflower crust it turned out great - it was really thin and crispy, but easier to eat with a fork than to pick up because the toppings were heavy. The next time I made it, it turned out really mushy and impossible to eat without a fork. Not sure what the difference was...maybe it needed to cook longer to get nice and crispy. Either way, it was good and a great way to eat carb-free pizza! Give it a try! Don't be scared by the cauliflower...all the garlic and oregano gives it a nice flavor and you don't even realize it's cauliflower.

Ghyslain

My sister and I had lunch at a new French bistro downtown called Ghyslain. They specialize in chocolates and desserts but they serve lunch as well. Jenn had a chicken pot pie with beet salad:

I had a chicken curry wrap with mango chutney and mint cole slaw:

We didn't care much for the beet salad or the slaw (didn't even taste minty), but the main dishes were good. And then we had the pumpkin cheesecake:

...and it was DE-LISH! I'd definitely go back for dessert or chocolate.

Crafts

Hello again! With school over, I should finally have some more time to keep up with my blog. In the meantime, I'm behind! I thought I'd share some crafts I've done over the last few months, where the ideas came from and the changes I made from the originals.

Over the summer, I made this book page wreath:

I used an old book from undergrad (The Plantation Mistress), cut the pages into spirals to make flowers, and hot glued the flowers onto a Dollar Store wreath. I already had the frame and tulle. I know those things all cost money at some point, but to me, this felt like a $1 project! Making those roses took forever though...not gonna lie! I got my inspiration here. The original is so perfect looking, but I made mine with different sized roses to add some interest.

Halloween rolled around, and I made this witch wreath:

I followed this tutorial. I actually bought the stuff for it last year (tulle, ribbons, felt, wood plaque, and paint) but never got around to making it. Again, pretty cheap, the plaque was like $2, I bought cheap paint, the spray paint was about $7 I think, but again, I have used it for several things and still have a lot, so well worth it. Probably about $20 all together, but I have lots of ribbons, paint, and tulle left over for other projects. And, as you can see by the name, I decided to give it to my sister since she loves Halloween! The blog I found this on said to glue the tulle to a wreath, but I just left the wreath out to save the expense and glued the tulle to the plaque.

I also saw this neat pumpkin and had to make my own:

This was a Dollar Store pumpkin and 3 packs of Dollar Store gold thumb tacks, so a total of $4. Those were 300-count packs of thumb tacks, so again, time-consuming! Also, slightly heavy from all the tacks! Here is a work-in-progress shot:

If I were to do it again, I would probably spray paint the pumpkin first so the orange wouldn't be as hard to hide, and I would work from the bottom up because apparently the angle at which I push in the tacks is a bit upward and the pumpkin actually looks a lot better turned upside down. Oh well, next time!

I decided I needed more stuff on my walls (and still do...they are still pretty bare after 3 years living here!), so I made a starburst mirror:

My inspiration was from here. The picture is of the mirror sitting on the floor because I hadn't decided yet where to hang it when I took the picture (ended up in the master bathroom). The mirror was a mirror candle plate from the Dollar Store (did I mention I love the Dollar Store??) and the skewers were a pack of 100 for $1 at Wal-Mart (I do NOT love Wal-Mart, but I couldn't find them anywhere else). Just hot glue them to the back of the mirror! The blog said to cover the mirror when done to spray paint the skewers, which I did, but next time I will just spray paint the skewers first while they are all lined up together because spraying the skewers all fanned out on the mirror I think wasted a lot more spray paint. I just glued a piece of cardboard on the back and cut a little notch out (notch not in the picture) to hang the mirror:

I plan on making 2 more of these to hang next to it, and I'll cut down the skewers on each so that all 3 will be different sizes. $4 for all 3 starburst mirrors, not including the spray paint from the other projects.

And finally, Ben got to dress up for Halloween at work, so we made this lego piece which he wore around his neck hanging over his stomach:

Cardboard box, bottoms of red Solo cups, hot glue, red spray paint. I thought this was quite funny. :)

I have the materials bought and ready to go for about 5 other craft projects, so I'll blog about those once I get around to them.

Happy crafting!