It's Beginning to Feel a lot like Christmas

Besides starting to listen to christmas music and starting to decorate my house there are so many ways that I love to do to get into the Holiday spirit. One of the ways is looking at Christmas lights! Something that I had never done before was go to CDA and go on their big boat and look at all of the christmas lights and then go and visit Santa! Since Colin is an employee there, he got 2 free tickets! It was quit cold when were on the top deck, but it was so much fun and I look forward to doing it again in the years to come!

 

 

 Outside with some of the lights behind us

 This is the tallest animated tree in the world I think

 This isn't a very good picture but that is Santa and one of his elves

 Inside on our way back

:D



I'm starting school again in January!! Woo Hoo!! I'm so excited... but so not excited at the same time! Hahaha isn't that the story of my life! But I'm all registered and everything! I'm taking Intro to Business and Intro to Philosophy! It's going to be difficult but good :)

 



Time With the Strong Family :D

The day after Thanksgiving, after I got off of work, I met Colin at his house in Post Falls. From there we went to Mullan Idaho where his family has an amazing Bed and Breakfast! I got to meet Colin's brother and sister-in-law, Morgan and Tiffany, for the first time and I also got to meet Tiff's family! We had so much fun! We all hung out and played games and talked! We also had a baby shower for Tiff who is due in February with their first baby! It's a girl and they are so excited! Morgan is a little like a deer in the headlights though haha. Colin and I also took more cute pictures! We even thought ahead enough and matched hehe.

 



Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was very wonderful! We had about 22 people over which is not huge but not small for us either. I love spending time with my family! I am grateful for so much in my life right now! I am grateful for my job that provides a way for me to live away from home and be financially independent from my parents, I am grateful for my family and for all that they provide and do for me, I am grateful for the amazing friends that I have, I am grateful for the wonderful gospel and all of the amazing blessings that come along with it, and I am so grateful for my cute, sweet boyfriend who does so much for me and makes me laugh like I never have before and who I'm falling in love with! Thanks babe!

 



Service is Such a Blessing!

I'm sorry that this post is so long but it was such a wonderful experience that I had to write all about it!

 

My ward just got done doing this humungous service project. We had a thanksgiving and variety show for all of the elderly "shut ins" in our stake. I was on the planning commitee and it took a ton of work but was WELL worth it! Everyone in our ward went around in pairs and personally invited each person and found out what dietary needs they had and if they had any special mobility needs, so that we could figure out who had a car that could accomodate that need, because yes... we were picking every single person up and bringing them to the church.

I was in charge of the food aspect of it all. We were planning on feeding around 80 people and thankfully everyone in our ward was so helpful and willing to do whatever we asked them to. So I delegated each dish to several people so that no one person had to make a huge amount of a dish... Except for my mother, of course, who is a saint and volunteered to do ALL of the mashed potatoes! In the end we had a ton of leftovers and so we got a second thanksgiving meal the next day for munch and mingle after church!

I will do my best to put into words how wonderful and beneficial this was for EVERYONE that was invloved in it! First off, going and inviting these incredible people was so much fun! I love old people! All of the ones that I went to, who were all women, were so excited and happy to have someone there to talk to them and were looking forward to the dinner!

 

 

One of the ladies that we visited is named Celesta and she has become special to my heart. She wasn't healthy enough to make it the night of the dinner and thankfully the night of people were able to bring her, and others that weren't able to come, a plate with food on it! But when we first walked in to her trailer and started talking to her I just had the thought that I really want to come and visit this lady more often. Then as we were getting ready to leave we said "We'll get out of your hair" and she said "oh your not in my hair! I love having you here to talk with." and in my mind that just solidified the thought that I had had earlier! As we continued talking we talked about her dog and she said that her birthday is December 6th and that she wanted to get someone to get her a birthday present. Again, in my head, I was raising my hand and jumping up and down saying I can do it! I can do it!

The best part about this whole visit is that we found out that she hasn't been getting the sacrament, which isn't the best part, but we found that information out and were able to pass it on to her Bishop. And we were not the only ones that things like that happened to! It was so wonderful to hear all of the cool stories that everyone had!

 

The dinner was a little crazy but went so well and most importantly the elderly loved it!!

 

 The tables and decorations all set up!

 A quick story about the lady in the green with the hat... She is one of the ladies that I went and invited. When I found out she was there I ran out and said hi! She said to me, "I was looking for you but they told me you were in the kitchen." That made me so happy to know that she had wanted to see me and say hi!

 Watching Sister Whiting play the harp

 After most of the chaos in the kitchen has died down

 Thank you to all those that helped with the dishes! With my wrist I can only dry so many.

 A celebratory shot of whipped cream! Yes!

Yay for pie! Haha and I love Colin's face in this and John's face in the background!

 

After dinner was over we especially had a ton of leftover greenbean casserole... which I actually don't find that good. So, long story short, Colin and I took a whole casserole over to Celesta because turkey and greenbeans are her favorite food. And then I offered to give her dog a bath. So sometime in the next week I will be going over and giving her tiny dog a bath haha. It will be an adventure and I will try to make sure that I get pictures for it!

 

I am so grateful for the impact that this service project had on not only those we were serving but also those who helped serve! I am forever changed by this and I am eternally grateful!

 

 



Progression!

I had an appointment yesterday with my orthopaedic surgeon to check on my wrist and to get a new cast because my muscles are shrinking and the cast is loosening. Sooo when the cast got taken off and after I got the x-rays (I did better than last time) the nurse said that I could... WASH MY HANDS! I was so excited to get all of the nasty build up of dead skin off!

 

Here is a picture to compare the difference in size of my arms... It's not significant yet but it's deffinitely there!

 I know this is gross and I'm sorry but I just had to share it with everyone. After I took the tape off that was over my scar you could definitely see a difference. 

 It's all red because this was right after I spent about 10 minutes scrubbing and scrubbing and washing my arm as best as I could. It felt so great!

 It looks better here. It will continue to heal quite nicely!

 

 

After I was done scrubbing my doctor came in and pulled up the x-rays. He sat there for a moment very thoughtfully and then turned to me and asked me what my plans were (meaning with school and work) I said that I was working full time but that I will be going back to school in January. He continued to look very thoughtful and asked me what my job is... so I told him that I'm a receptionist. The thoughts that were going through my head were..."crap, did I overuse it? is something wrong? ahhh!!" But oh how wrong I was! He then looked at me and said(this is the best part)... "How would you feel about a splint instead of a cast?" All I could get out of my mouth was "Please!" He then proceeded to tell me that I need to treat it like a cast but I can take it off to wash my hands and put on lotion and to shower!!! As they were making my splint the lady told me that I can actually shower with it on!! I just have to take off the cloth sleeve and let it dry after I get out!! WOO HOO!!!

 

 Here it is!! My great vision of progression!

 

 

So Colin came over that night and I was in the kitchen putting away groceries so I just said come in when he knocked. He came into the kitchen and told me to go into my room... I knew he had a suprise for me so I thought he was going to set it up. So i went in my room and started walking over to my clock to turn off the radio... and screamed when I saw this chocolate bouquet of my favorite flowers (Calla Lilies and Roses) that Colin had made for me! :D  

 



Halloween!

There was a dance and a party that Colin and I went to on the Friday and Saturday before Halloween. We had two different costumes and it was so fun!

 

 We had footy pajamas and binkies...

 AND Colin's humongous plush bear that he already had!!

 In the car on the way to the dance!

 For my friend Jessie's party we were Jack Sparrow and Angelica from the 4th Pirates movie!

 

 Here are the "candycorn" cupcakes that I made and took to the party!

The wonderful cupcake stand that my wonderful daddy gave me!

 

 

On Halloween night Colin and I carved pumpkins and I got to give cute trick-or-treaters some candy (which I LOVE doing!!) and then we stopped by his co-workers party. We left the party and went to go and see the scary movie Sinister... but when we got there the ticket lady asked to see some i.d. and I left mine in my wallet, which was in my purse at Colin's house.... soooo we decided to go back to the party and laugh at/with all the drunk people! It was actually really fun! There was this couple there that were really sweet and they talked with us basically the whole night. But as they got more drunk they just got funnier and funnier!

The poor guy got so scared! ;-)