Christmas Time is Here

Well, the coughing/gagging has subsided, the decorations are mostly completed, school is OVER,...vacationing can now commence! Reed and I (and when I say Reed and I, I mean Reed) have been working hard trimming the tree and rigging up the lights in a lame attempt to add some holiday cheer to our new home. We don't have enough decorations to satisfy even Mr. Scrooge, but our tree looks great, and I feel better knowing that we should hopefully have enough time and money next Christmas to create a winter wonderland that the Grinch can't even shake a stick at.

Tree # 6 in the life of Reed and Jennifer Seamons...

Above is our Christmas ornament of choice for 2008. Our first house! It's actually the first meaningful ornament that has ever graced our tree, besides the ones my mom gave me that commemorated my years growing up.

The piano I am supposed to play more often. Is that a cobweb over there on the left??

Holiday Cheer!

I like to post pictures with each of my blog entries, but this one is about the past few weeks, which pretty much consist of me coughing so hard I nearly gagged, and stressful attempts to close out yet another grooling semester at the UofA with good grades. Therefore, there will be no pictures documenting that holiday cheer! You can thank me later. Re good grades: Reed and I both get a big fat check mark in that department. Wahoo!! Stay tuned for more...about Christmas, not gagging.

Turkey Time!!!

...SEAMONS FAMILY...

I know this is soooo late, but I now have the pictures I need to document our Thanksgiving frolics. We had our first Thanksgiving in our first real home, (the apartment being some sort of edifice to get our feet wet) and cooked our first turkey. It turned out perfectly. I was so proud. We had Reed's family over and they completed our feast by supplying all the side dishes to compliment our beast. Hey...a rhyme! I know it's a fowl, not a beast, but then I couldn't make my rhyme.

The next night, we had my family over and cooked another holiday bird. It of course turned

out perfectly too. Best not cook another turkey again lest it tastes horrible...or we burn down the house. Either scenario would ruin the good memory I have in my head of our beautiful birds.

Turkey-talk aside, we all had a great time, and I can't wait for Christmas...which is in less than a week in lou of this procrastination blog.

Ain't he handsome?! The guy with the knife

is pretty hot too!!

How To Relieve Stress 101...

Well, it's been about a month since my last entry. That of course means it's time to type something. We have been so busy moving, entertaining family and organizing that I haven't had much time to breathe let alone blog. However, we do have everything organized and have gotten used to the fact that we will never have as much money in savings as we used to. Sigh! I would just like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all those kind-hearted (out of their mind) individuals who drove clear across town or state to help us move into our-for now-oversized house. We truly appreciate your efforts. You should all come again when I am less stressed and yelley...that means I yelled a lot. Never fear though...I have figured out that in those moments of stress and yelliness...all I have to do is blast a Journey CD, and I am instantly transformed (for the better).
Another alternative stress reliever was the first Halloween in our new home. Not only was this our first Halloween in our new home, but our first trick-or-treater opportunity. An opportunity that proved not so opportunistic. Why is that you say?...our door bell only rang twice. TWICE! We bought 2 huge bags of candy and only handed out 6/18ths of it. Oh well...stress reliever #3: eating lots of candy! I wanted to document our Halloween enthusiasm with a picture of us and our first trick-or-treater, but I thought that might ruin any opportunity of friendship with this new neighbor...oh, and scar the poor girl for life.
For those of you who have been asking to see pictures of the inside of our house...I'll get to that when I'm done with stress reliever #3...and lots of exercising.

JOURNEY to Phoenix

Yesterday, my husband took me to Phoenix to see Journey in concert. It was the final piece to my birthday present in August. I must say, I was not a true Journey fan, but loved a few of their songs. Now, I can confidently claim obssession with the band. That was an awesome concert and I will be doing THAT again in the near future. Their new lead singer, Arnel Pineda is gorgeous. He is a tremendous singer and a perfect addition to this legendary group. What a night! I bought a Journey T-shirt, we had great seats, and we saw ourselves on the big projector 3 times. I could not thank my husband enough for such an awesome gift. Way to go Hun. You nailed it this year. (Not that all the other years weren't filled with good memories.) Anyhoo...here are some moments from one of the greatest events of my life thus far:

This is the best picture I could get of most of the band members. You have to realize that this lead singer was all over the place...very into his music...so it was hard to get a clear picture.

The following picture is of me and Reed during intermission. Is that a Bob Marley shirt he's wearing...to my Journey concert???

Anyway, this was such a good experience for me. I only hope I will be able to hear clearly again sometime in the near future.

DON'T STOP BELIEVING!

House Hunting Complete!

We bought a house!!! We will actually be investing our money into something that will be ours free and clear someday. It feels good to be an investor. I highly recommend it. The only scary/sad element is that we are so far away from civilization and life as we knew it and loved it for almost 6 years (longer for me). I thought I would show off our new house in lou of my excitement... Here she is. It's hard to hold back the tears.

We'll have to spruce the back up a smidge...vines?

This is the view from our backyard, or sideyard. Not sure. Our realtor took these for us.

I think there is a Pampered Chef/Open House party in my house's future...for sure!!!

Grandma's Birthday!!!

A few weeks ago, my family got together to celebrate my Grandma's 78th birthday. Some family members were in town that we don't usually see much of and it was so nice to spend some time with them. As you can see, we have a large family, but as most of you don't know...there are 12 people missing from this photo. TWELVE! They were otherwise engaged...BUMS! So if you do the math, that means there are 43 of us all together: 1 grandma, 4 kids and their spouses, 16 grandchildren (9 of whom are married), and 9 great-grand children=43 + 1 on the way.

We had so much fun together. My grandma performed some of our family's best known poems, and we ate until "unbuttoning your pants" capacity. The best part: I managed to come away un-ill. The last 2 times a Willis or Blair family gathering occurred, I became deathly ill. WHAT!!!

The next photos are of me and my sister, my grandma and my mom. Do we look related, cuz I'm not sure? I think I look like my mom, but most people tell me I'm the spitting image of my dad.

This is my friend Storey. That's right...her parents named her after the simile for book. I would have gone with Haiku or Limerick...maybe even Prose, but it's not my kid. Isn't she cute though? Her parents say she loves to make faces. This is one of her more unique faces. Her future has Comedian written all over it...or Librarian. Get it...Storey. Hee-hee.