New Years Eve

I've been in a bit of a fashion funk since last week.  I think it's all activity leading up Christmas, being sick and then being off work.  I lack structure and I need that.  I'm also going to attempt to give up unnecessary shopping for the next few months to see if I can do it and while it's necessary, that has me a little blue too.   I've literally run out of space in my closet and I need to start wearing what's in there before bringing more into the collection, thus leading up to the self imposed shopping ban.

Today's outfit is something colorful since it's dismal outside and lots of layers because we're going over to my brother's for New Year's Eve tonight and his house is always cold. The sweater is really really really old.  I've always liked it and it's made it through several closet purges because I just can't seem to bring myself to give it away.  I decided that if I didn't wear it soon, there's really no point in keeping it.  After looking at today's photos, I'm glad I kept it.  

Smiles!
Lori

Wright State Basketball and The Gap

 

I went shopping on Friday while Kira was at the gym and wound up at the Gap. I love the Gap. I love the Gap's sales. I especially love the fact that I got these capris for under $20. Even better, the capris match more than a few things I already own. The bad thing....I've run out of space in my closet. The saleslady at the Gap was attempting to be helpful and recommended a closet purge. I laughed. That is so not happening! I adopted a one in one out policy when I spent three days back in May cleaning my closet. That policy lasted, oh say maybe 2 weeks, and that's being generous.

 

We went to a Wright State University basketball game this afternoon with my mother-in-law and wound up on the Jumbo-tron.  That's the first time that's ever happened to us.  Of course, we waved like idiots.  Kira promptly told us that she's been on the Jumbo-tron before, with daycare, at a Dayton Dragon's game.  She was less than impressed with the event.  We didn't let her burst our bubble! 

As you can see, the snow is not melting.  I declared winter over and winter is not listening.

Smiles!
Lori

Upgrade

Dave gave me a fancy, new camera for Birthmas specifically to upgrade my blog photos from the iPhone camera.  Birthmas is when you want a big gift for Christmas, but it's more than what you'd ordinarily spend, so you combine birthday gifts and Christmas gifts to get a nicer Christmas gift.  Thus, the evolution of Birthmas.

I've been playing with the camera all week, but haven't felt well enough to do too much with it.  Yesterday, I went to the camera store and the nice people showed me how to set the timer since the instruction book doesn't have a lot of information in it.   The camera folks weren't surprised by that fact either, which has me a bit worried since I have no idea what I'm doing.  Dave got the thing connected to the tripod last night and I ran around setting the timer, running in front of the camera and taking stupid photos for fun.  Just for laughs, I've included a few of my practice shots in this post.

The camera is a "smart" camera, which means it has a built in Wi-Fi connection, which Dave specifically got me so I could upload pictures straight to my Skydrive.  However, the camera is way smarter than me and I can't figure out how to get it to connect to the server.  I could look in the instruction book, but that will prove pointless.  So, my auto uploads will have to wait until the hubby has time to see what I'm doing wrong.  I'm at least proud of myself that I got the things to upload to the computer.  Baby steps......

 Kira's not this tall.  She's standing on a step stool.

These are my practice shots.  It is super hard to run past the tripod without knocking it over and pose before the timer goes off. I'm surprised I didn't break a limb last night.

Smiles!
Lori

Sleep Running

About 1 a.m. this morning, Dave and I were awakened to the sound of claws running across the wall.  I jumped out of bed, turned the light on and ran to check on Misha.  She has epilepsy and has been known to have grand mal epileptic seizures in the middle of the night.  With her age (she's 15), a seizure could kill her, so I was really frightened until I saw what was going on.  Misha was sleep running, and she was doing a pretty fast sleep run at that.  I gently walked away, shut off the lights and climbed back into bed.   She was probably dreaming of chasing bunnies, which is one of her favorite things to do!

I'm finally starting to feel better after four days.  I am starving, which I'm taking as a good sign, but I don't want to push it.  Kira's at the gym at an all day gymnastic's camp, so I think I'm going to kick back and read a book.  Hope you have a great Friday too!

Smiles!
Lori

Still Not Feeling Well

This bug that has hit our house is unpleasant.  I was up all night last night and Dave took pity on me and got me some medicine. I dragged my pillow and blankets out to the recliner and found some rest there.  I'm a bit of a zombie today. 

We went to Kira's daycare this morning to pick up one of her friends (who is a boy) who is spending the day playing video games with Kira.  The two of them concocted this play date by themselves.  It's super cute. 

Happy Birthday to my darling husband.  I'm sure you didn't want to spend today dealing with a play date, but thanks for being a trooper!

Smiles!
Lori

Blizzard of 2012

 We are currently in the middle of a snowstorm and not just any snowstorm, it's officially a blizzard.  Hurray.  Dave and I have already shoveled the driveway once and we'll be doing it again in a little bit.  Kira and I have hair appointments, which haven't been canceled yet and yes, we are going.  We aren't that hearty of people, the hair salon is at the entrance to our subdivision, literally 2 blocks away.  We can walk home if we have to.

Merry Christmas

 Well, I went with the super dressed up option for church last night and then changed for the party at our house back into something warmer and more comfortable.  Dave and I don't go out much, so I have all these party dresses and so little opportunity to wear them, so I decided to take advantage of it last night!

 Here's Kira's stocking.  We had to put it on the kitchen table to keep it away from the dog.  There was a lot of candy in it and I didn't want it to end badly last night.

 Stockings were hung and small child was still not alseep and it was getting late.

 Here's what pre destruction looked like.  There's paper and gifts all over the place now.

 I caught what Dave had over the weekend and woke up for present opening and them promptly went back to bed until about 2:30.  Dave made me eat some soup and I started to feel a little human, so this is all I have in me today.  I didn't even put on shoes - sorry.  

Merry Christmas!
Smiles!
Lori

Christmas Eve

 Hi, and Merry Christmas Eve!  We've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off because we're hosting Christmas for Dave's family at our house tonight and of course, we wait until the last minute to finish everything. In our defense, some things, like the catered food, have to wait until the last minute and Dave's picking that up now.  I think we're ready, at least I hope we are because we're leaving for church in about 3 hours and then Dave's family will arrive after Mass.

This is my Christmas Eve errand outfit.  Warm, snuggly, and festive looking.  I'm cold, so I'm debating on whether I'm putting on my party dress for church tonight, or if I'll just throw on a pencil skirt and some heals with this ensemble (I'd tuck in the shirt first!)  I'll just have to see how I feel in a couple of hours.  Right now, being wrapped in a blanket is sounding kinda good.

 The dog awaits a milkbone.

 Kira grabbed the camera.  For some reason, using the flash doesn't work in the hall, so....

We did it again without the flash.  You can't see it from the picture, but the dog was snapping at me. Believe it or not, our herding dog was trying to herd me into the kitchen to get her milkbone.  That happens to me a lot around here!

Smiles!
Lori

When It Rains......

Sorry for the lack of postings this weekend. It's been a doozy of a couple of days. When I got home on Friday, Dave tells me that the internet and phone are down because the cable company upgraded our line for faster speed and they broke our phone/internet line. Great....just great. We have 3 Christmas gifts that aren't set up yet that have to be set up and require the internet. I am now a little freaked, but Dave usually figures this stuff out, so I wasn't too worried. Then, Friday night, Dave comes into our room carrying a giant plank of wood. Proceeds to tell me that he sat down on our couch, heard a crunch, went to look under the couch and discovered the frame split. Now, the couch is at least 10 years old, so not a huge deal, BUT, I've got people coming over Christmas Eve and now I have a broken couch. At this point, I went to bed.

Saturday comes and Dave was sleeping on the recliner because he said he didn't feel well. He moves back to our room and then the dog got sick. Really really sick. So, in the midst of dealing with that, I hear this horrific noise coming from our bedroom, run back to see what was amiss and Dave was getting sick. Really really sick. So I ran to get him a bucket and a cold cloth and just stood there like OMG, this has all just fallen apart today and I must now disinfect EVERYTHING.

So, Dave moves to the couch, Kira gets up, I keep the two of them separated, take her to guitar, go shopping for a new couch (didn't buy it yet, but have snaps to get Dave's approval), and then come home and Kira and I clean the carpets and literally disinfect everything we can think of. Then, I call the cable company, they can't remotely fix the problem and schedule someone to come out today to get us back online and get the phone working. We also had Nutcracker tickets for last night, so after a long long long day of dealing with issues, Kira and I got dressed up and headed for the Schuster Center in downtown Dayton. Funny thing is, I'm not a big fan of ballet, Dave wanted to go, Kira was mildly indifferent to the event and it's Kira and I attending. We did have a nice time, though.

So Sunday comes, internet and phone are back, Dave is back amongst the living, dog is doing ok, and we can set up the Christmas gifts that we need to today. Couch is still broken and something appears to be wrong with the microwave, but I think we're going to make it.

It's the little things that will drive you insane.



Friday's outfit.  Jacket is from J Crew, Shirts are Banana Republic and White and Black House Market, Jeans are Loft.

Today's outfit - Jacket and gingham shirt - J Crew, Jeans - Ann Taylor, Second Shirt - Old Navy, Pearls - Vintage.

Nutcracker outfit - Jacket - Ann Taylor, Dress - Talbots, Bracelet - J Crew, Necklace - QVC

Smiles!
Lori