{goodbye 2008...}

i cannot believe that the end of 2008 is here already. it seems like the year was just starting not that long ago. i guess it is true what they say about time flying when you get older. this year has been an interesting ride. lots of new adventures and lots of getting back to normal. both of which feel great!

so first things first...a list of firsts for me this year...(in no particular order)

...the first time i ate lunch by myself, i know it seems trivial, but i have never eaten out alone, it was only mcd's, but still

...my first trip to arizona - loved every second of it; gorgeous scenery, an enormous connection to sean, warm!


...my first hike - next time i should know that starting with the grand canyon may have been a little ambitious for a newbie like me, but i survived and even enjoyed it (and i didn't have to have my foot amputated :) )


...i bought my first new car! it's a nissan pathfinder and i bought it all by myself and it's my very first brand new car, and i <3 it!

...my first trip to cedar point, which coincides with my first camping trip in a camper and my first camping trip with shawn's family; super great time!



...my first thanksgiving at the house without sean...i decided this year that i wanted to have thanksgiving back here at the house and so the whole fam-damily was here, the carabines, the partos, and the grimes' came for dessert...it was awesome


...my first stab at geocaching (with shawn of course) and i love it soooo much! it is so much fun! i look forward to doing it more in the future

...my first time to go to the cramer reunion, my mom's family's annual reunion in wva; this is not technically the first time i have attended the reunion, but it is the first time i remember. it was a lot of fun, and it was good to have my good buddy shawn with me.


...my first trip to boston. not all it was cracked up to be, but it was a week away from home and that is always fun.


...also my first trip to salem, loved salem! such a fun place.


..my first visit to historic coney island, lots of surprises here, both good and bad, shawn and leah and i went for a long weekend, we had a great time. it was my first time to a sideshow and my first time seeing a burlseque show, it was so much fun! coney island itself left a little to be desired though...



...i completed my first year of teaching! woo hoo! it was a great year, i loved my students from my first full year, now i look at them as big first graders and they look so old!


...my first HonFest; every year Baltimore has a big festival in Hampden, to honor the baltimore hon, most fun was convincing courtney to get some "hon hair"!


...my first drink out of a fishbowl!! well it was not technically a fishbowl, but it was a giant flaming volcano bowl of alcohol, this is one i was waiting for! :)


...my first visit to assateague island, shawn and i jaunted over there during one of our weekends in ocean city and it was so neat! the wild horses were so cool and it was a gorgeous day to be out there


...my first time trying some new craft endeavors outside the paper crafting arena. as you may remember, the last few months i was working on an online class with an artist that i love and i have been trying my hand at a few new things, shawn's mom even bought me a sewing machine for christmas!


...my first christmas morning at home with a new family. the grimes' all spent the night on christmas eve and amber made us all breakfast on christmas morning and we sat in front of the beautiful tree and fireplace and opened our gifts, it was so nice. it was the first time there were more than two people in this house on christmas morn :)

...my first year without sean, there has been goodness and sadness and lots of in between, but i am glad to say that i have made it through and was happy to celebrate his life (as i do quite frequently) with family and friends in east hampton in april for the unveiling of his memorial bench...such a special time and place



well as much as i was looking to expand this list into the "normal" things that happened this year, my "firsts" list is pretty all-encompassing and, boy, i did a lot of things this year, a lot of new things! i am so excited for this next year and all of the new fabulous adventures it will bring. last year was all about survival and making it through, it feels so good to come out on top of that heap and be so excited about life again. that got a little preachy i guess, but every word of it is true. so on to bright and sunny days...

{holiday daily: day 10}

well, today was quite a special day! bert and leah and shawn and i were supposed to go to new york city this weekend for some christmas fun, but money is crunched and we really couldn't find a good deal on hotels so we decided we would stay home and do some fun things locally. amber is staying with us this weekend and so she tagged along with us, which was fun.

we decided last night that it would be really fun to go to amazing glaze and paint some pottery! this is something that i LOVE to do and i know that bert and leah are also big fans. shawn and amber have never been before, so that was exciting. we all had a great time. here we are all working hard...












after we were finished at amazing glaze, it was snowing! i mean, like really snowing! at first i thought it was just some flurries, but it really lasted for a while. there was no accumulation, but it was cold enough that it stayed on the grass for a while. after our painting, we headed to friday's for dinner.





the original plan included driving around after dark to look at christmas lights, but when we found out it was snowing, and we were full from eating, we decided we would go home and watch a holiday movie and sit in front of the fire :) so we came home and played some wii mini golf and watched superbad. i know, i know, it's not a holiday movie, but it was a unanimous vote :)

after superbad, bert headed home, shawn headed off to bed, and it was just us girls. leah was going to leave, but amber and i convinced her to stay and watch p.s. i love you. this was a movie that i have wanted to see for some time, but hesitated, because i wasn't sure if i could handle watching it or not. the story is that a woman's husband dies and then she receives letters from him for about a year afterward guiding her to new things in her life. well, after the emotional upheaval i experienced after watching catch and release after sean passed away, i was not sure i was in for another. but man, oh man, this movie was great! it was a total chick flick so to any of the boys reading this: you probably won't like it. but the three of us loved it!

after the movie, we were all (well at least leah and i) looking for a little reminder of our dear dear sean, so i pulled out the stack of videos i have that i thought he might be on. things like our wedding reception and a new years eve in deep creek. it was fun to watch them and fill amber in on what was going on, but we didn't see a lot of sean. it was fun to reminisce and it was a nice way to end the day.

well today was a busy, but awesome, day.

{holiday daily: day 9}

today was another great day. work was, well, work. then this evening, i had a few girlfriends over for our first crafting night. this is something i decided i wanted to do on our munny night. we had so much fun that evening working alongside each other and inspiring one another and bouncing ideas around, that i thought it would be a great idea to have one of these kinds of nights every month, or as often as possible. so i invited the girls over to bring along any of the goody projects they are currently working on and we would have drinks and spend time together crafting. our first night was a lot of fun! amber, leah, jackie, and mitra all brought over some projects and we spent a few hours in front of the fire creating away while shawn kept the drinks flowing!

i was able to start and finish the button tree i have been wanting to make (i will have to add pictures later) and it turned out so cute! but it took a lot longer than i thought it would! i was also able to finish one of my christmas gifts for someone special! i love the idea of having a mostly handmade christmas, i just hope that everyone that is getting handmade goody for christmas enjoys it!

{holiday daily: day 8}

well today was a nice day. i decided to take a mental health day from work and spend the day tidying the house and crafting. for my class with elsie, she was hosting an online video chat all day. well there were some technical difficulties with that, but it was fun to join in and catch a peek here and there. it was very inspiring. this whole class has been very inspiring, i am going to be very very sad when it is over in a few weeks. it has definitely been something new and exciting for me.

anyway, most of what i worked on was christmas gifts, so, sorry, no pictures! i don't want any peeking!

this evening shawn had nicholas' christmas photo shoot. that was a lot of fun, and a bit of a challenge. getting and keeping a two year old interested in sitting still and smiling is really hard! but i think we did a pretty good job and nick's pictures turned out pretty good. here is a little sample of the goodness...

{holiday daily: day 7}

tonight was our usual wednesday night dinner in dundalk. shawn had dinner at his grandmothers and mom and i went to squires for dinner. after dinner, we all watched the tree lighting in rockefeller center on tv. it was nice to watch something christmasy on tv and since i won't be able to see the tree in person this year, this is as good as it gets :) another normal evening, nothing spectacular.

{holiday daily: day 6}

today was another work day and i was determined to come home and get my holiday garland finished, which i did!

here are the pictures of the finished product...










and here are pictures of my inspiration for this project. the initial idea came from a project prompt for my craft class with elsie. this is what her's looks like, so cute!


and from that i found this...and instantly fell in love.

so after a few days of hand-sewing and collecting supplies, my adorable holiday garland is complete! i love it hanging on my wall and am excited to try and make some more garlands for the house.

{holiday daily: day 5}

today was back to work, the dreaded time from now until the last day of school before holiday vacation. yay! nothing too special today. shawn and i met at the house after work and i worked a little on my holiday garland (which i will post pictures of when i am finished) and then we met bert and leah at red robin for dinner. always a lot of fun.

{holiday daily: day 4}

today was sort of an uneventful day. we needed much rest after our long day of candy-making yesterday, however, that was not coming this morning. we had a photo shoot with the tirschman family bright and early. it was a great shoot and we had a nice time. (you can see more about that shoot on shawn's blog here).

the afternoon consisted of napping and wrapped up with family dinner with the grimes and partos at cracker barrel.

{holiday daily: day 3}

today a long-time family christmas tradition continues...candy making at mom-mom's house. on this day every year my entire family gathers at my grandmothers to spend the day making our (secret) recipe family christmas candy. this candy is a huge hit with everyone i know and has been for years. people that we know wait patiently for this candy and hope that they will be one of the lucky receivers of a small batch for a christmas gift. it is an event that i look forward to every year and it is a huge bonding experience for our family and something that no one else i know does. this year shawn tagged along for the second year in a row and we were lucky enough to have amber come along to help. she was a hard worker and loved every minute of it! she has been a self-proclaimed "christmas candy lover" for many years and was excited to finally get the behind the scenes scoop on how it all came to be. here are some photos of our sugar and sweetness filled day...

{holiday daily: day 2}

on a day when most people are rushing out to the stores at god-awful hours of the morning, i have (mostly) opted out of that today. instead, i decided to devote the day to relaxing and crafting. shawn's sister, amber, did manage to get me out to target and michael's for a few things, but it was short lived. about mid-afternoon i met amber and shawn's mom and then stole amber away to come home with me to get some crafting done :)

it took us a little while to actually get to the crafting, eating had to happen first! pru and brian and brigid and alex ventured over to the proving grounds with the kiddos to visit the ordnance museum and check out all of the super cool tanks. so hunger had definitely settled in after checking out all of the tanks and our (mini)shopping extravaganza. alex and pru had suggested kfc for dinner, but i can't eat kfc. then amber suggested hickory dicks, our most favoritest fried chicken place. since it is at least a half hour away, i declined that suggestion. i lost this battle when shawn came home from work about five minutes later and when he heard about fried chicken and made the same suggestion amber did (i guess great minds really do think alike :) ) and it worked out nicely for us, because everyone LOVED the chicken. We enjoyed another nice "family" dinner around the table and got to the festivities.

amber and i had a few different things we were working on and the rest of the gang decided they were going to tackle rock band! now, i would have thought that alex would have been the one who rocked it, but that assumption would have been a little off. brigid grabbed the microphone and sang her little heart out.





it was a lot of fun to watch shawn and alex and brigid enjoy themselves so much. amber and i continued crafting while we all watched juno together, one of my new favorites.

while amber worked on another munny and some cute little felt purses,


i began working on my cute holiday garland.


i also finished a scrapbook page, my first in a while, i was inspired with all of this holiday goodness surrounding me to finally scrap all of my holiday pictures from last year.


we had a lot of fun and our crafting carried over into the wee hours of the morning. i have had so much fun with amber and our crafty endeavors lately, i am so glad we are getting to hang out and it reminds me a lot of the times we used to hang out when we were teenagers. i look forward to all of the times we will get to spend together in the future :)

as much fun as the last three days have been with all of our company, i am definitely going to miss having everyone around. we always have such a nice time when we are together and the kids are so much fun. i would be lying if i said that i didn't miss sean over the last few days, but i am very very happy that we can all still spend time together and make new memories...i think sean would be very pleased :) i hope that everyone has had a wonderful thanksgiving!

now it's time to get ready for christmas....... :)

{holiday daily: gobble gobble}

thursday, november 27

turkey day has come along once again. and this year i was ready to celebrate this holiday with the same zeal and enthusiasm i did a few years ago. last year, shawn and i refrained from celebrating thanksgiving. we had a nice quite dinner of fried chicken and a relaxing day of going to the movies and taking pictures downtown. we just weren't in the holiday spirit last year. this year, however, is much different. i wanted to open my home back up to the carabines and do thanksgiving right. so last night pru and brian and brigid and alex and david, emma, and grace showed up at the house to spend the next few days, just like it used to be. sure, things are a little different this year, and this is the first time any of them have been to the house since sean passed away, but, it is so nice to have them here and i hope they feel the same.

today was a great day of eating and catching up. the kids have been working on crafts and playing the wii and the adults have been scavenging through the black friday sale papers and chatting with one another.

the turkey was delicious and the meal went off without a hitch. for dessert, we fired up the chocolate fountain (yum-o) had an array of pies, including a few apple pies that jackie and i made together on monday. the carabines were here of course, the partos were all here, and the grimes clan came over to join us for dessert.

the wii was a big hit with the kids, especially david. mom mom even played along. everyone enjoyed some friendly competition and had a great time.

here are some photos from the day, not the best, but they will do...

{holiday daily}

well folks it has been a while, but i am back, and hopefully for quite a while this time. i have decided that after seeing this idea for a a december daily album i wanted to try one of my own. well, seeing as how i am so busy with all of the new crafty adventures i am trying i would be too busy to actually assemble an album right now and add to it daily, i am going to try to complete mine right here on my blog. instead of just completing a december daily, though, i wanted to extend mine and make it a "holiday daily" to include thanksgiving, since some of my most important christmas traditions occur before december actually gets here. so i am hoping that i will be able to keep up with this and post stories and projects and pictures and lots of holiday goodness to document this wonderful time of year, something new everyday. happy holidays!

{happy today}

today there are lots of things that i am happy about...

- took the day off work to get the house ready for thanksgiving

- woke up to the first real snow of the season! it snowed for about three minutes earlier this week, but that was all. this is actually quite a little squall and has actually covered the grass! i will try to post some pictures later on.

- my good buddy kevin is coming to look at my broken shower door today and *hopefully* be able to get it fixed by next week so i can move back in to my own bathroom!

- this weekend promises to be quite exciting. hoping to be able to get some crafty things completed and create! create! create! woke up with LOTS of great ideas this morning!

- saturday we are hosting MUNNY MADNESS with some friends. we will be creating our very own munny dolls which shawn and i have been wanting to do for a long time now...still not sure what i want to create, if you have any ideas, please send them my way before tomorrow!

- sunday we are going to take my little sister out and take some photos, then it is birthday dinner for my dear grandmother

well i hope that everyone has an inspired and fun weekend!

{so inspired}

i have been so inspired by the class i am taking with elsie flannigan! we are in week two of a six week time together and it is absolutely awesome! my weeks are generally too busy to work on any of the projects, but i was able to spend a lot of time on friday night working on last week's projects which included painting a new journal, creating some new journal entries, and creating a mini album - which i have only done once or twice before and never like this. i forgot to take pictures of my new journal which i love so i will have to post that later this week.

but for now, i can post the mini album pictures. this was a book i made to show some of the pictures of my sister jackie and i together when i visited her in san diego in february. enjoy!















this was so much fun to make and i can't wait to make more mini albums. i also can't wait to make more of the projects for this class.

in other news, this weekend was a blast! friday night shawn was home working on the nistico's pictures so i spent the evening cooped up in my scraproom listening to my favorite music and crafting away. it was so nice to spend that time, i haven't done that in a long time.

saturday shawn and his sister, amber, and myself ventured down to baltimore for the holiday heap craft show sponsored by charm city craft mafia. we had such a great time. there was so much eye candy, and it was so nice to see all of the different handmade goodies that each crafter had to offer. i got a few prints for my living room and a cute handmade purse and a few awesome cards to send to friends during the holiday season. after the show, we went to hampden for lunch at cafe hon which shawn and i have wanted to do for quite a while. it is such a great little place. after lunch we visited a fave store of ours atomic pop so we could each buy a munny to decorate at our munny decorating party this weekend. you can see the munny here...munny (i will have to update to include photos of the finished product after the decorating party).

sunday we had a photo shoot with zach and stacie and simon howes here at the house. we were shooting christmas pictures for them. we had so much fun with the three of them and the pictures turned out great! we are having so much fun with our recent shoots. particularly those involving the little ones (when did kids get so darn cute?!?!?) we concluded the weekend with our usual grimes/parto family dinner at outback steakhouse, which is always such a nice treat!

this week at school is american education week and i expect to have lots of visitors in and out of my classroom all week, joy of joys! wish me luck!