It's the most wonderful time...

Hello there. I woke up early with the dogs and then have taken the afternoon to be lazy. I have to remind myself that we have absolutely nothing planned the rest of the day and I really love that feeling. Matt set up our wifi at home because soon I will be working from home! It will be an adjustment but I am pretty excited about it. Work provided us with lap tops and soon cell phones to keep up with our clients. Working from home actually saves our organization money and let's us have more flexibility and thankfully keep our jobs at least for the next year that is. I definitely still have a long day at work every once in a while but I have truly enjoyed all of experiences (even the not so pleasant ones) with kids and their families because I know I am gaining alot from each encounter. So I find myself cozy and at home, currently on my lap top on the couch while Home Alone plays in the background, and a meal cooking in the crock pot. I love this time of year when all the good holiday movies come on. I have added a few to the list over the years but for the most part my favorites are the ones I've been watching for years.

Thanksgiving; Planes, trains and automobiles. If you have not see it, please rent it. Classic Steve Martin and John Candy. Love it.

Christmas; Scrooged -Bill Murray, maybe not so traditional but hilarious and sweet. Definitely How the Grinch stole Christmas (the cartoon). Home for the Holidays -Robert Downy Jr. and Holly Hunter, dysfunctional family makes for a great comedy. Another family with a lot going on but still the underlying idea is about love; Family Stone.

I am not a big candy eater, I like gum and reesee's peant butter cups, but around this time of year I love candy canes, plain. simple. peppermint candy canes. The grocery store by our house had fifteen kinds but no peppermint, thankfully Target had some :)

I put up our christmas lights on our porch and windows for the outside and love them. I don't want to rush and get a tree but when we do get it I know I will love decorating it, especially since my wonderful aunt Tracy hand made us a beautiful tree skirt for our wedding present, it's going to look great under our tree!

And if you've ever been around me during christmas you already know this but; my abosolute favorite christmas music is by the Carpenters and Amy Grant and then I like the really old stuff by Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, all the stuff my grandma likes to hum along to.. warms my heart as she would say.

I hope you are all having a chance to enjoy your traditions, start new ones or whatever it is you chose to do...

there's something about the air

so work has been going well, busy but good. there is something kind of odd going around with all of our families, some things seem to be extra chaotic and we can't decide if it's the weather, this time of year, or perhaps too much dairy. i don't know what that means, i just had to add a third thing on the list for some reason. i took off work early today because i had a sinus head ache, and this was my first one ever, so i have much more sympathy for people who say they have a sinus head ache, i now understand. and later in the evening my boss called me asking where one of my clients lived, i told him and said "why, are you meeting up with them?" which this never happens in a normal situation so i instantly knew that something had gone wrong. he said "yes, SRS was called and we have to go over there now, i will tell you all about it tomorrow". so, this obviously is not good news and this has been a very chaotic family since the beginning (July). however it did make me wonder, if i was at work would this same thing have happened? i had called this mother five times in the morning from 9-noon because i knew they had a scheduled meeting tonight and i wanted to confirm a meeting with them for tomorrow, however mom never answered and never returned my calls (which is unusual for this family). i was on my drive to pick matthew up from work because his car wouldn't start this morning. his car is fine, just hates the cold weather and we were leaving at the same time so it was just easier to take him then wonder if he caught the bus, etc.
so, i let myself burden myself with this families issue for a few minutes. wondering if i could have done anything different. then i stopped myself, and reminded myself not to feel burdened or internalize any of the negative things i see and hear every day (there are lots of good things i see too) but when you feel compassion and empathy for families it is also easy to drown yourself in their problems too. i take myself back and remember that i can only help people who want help, and even then i can only do so much. their burdens are not there for me to carry. i know that it is all worth it at the end of the day even if i only help 2 out of ten, at least those two were helped, right?
i also know that things happen for a reason. and whatever happens with this family (i obviously don't know the whole story yet) but there could be an issue of the mother losing custody of her kids and as sad as that is, it might be something that saves this family.
i want to continue to help, to be energized to help those that want it, and know that my part is my part and the rest is up to them.
i continue to work from a place of goodness, to try and see the bigger picture more often. i know that even a little is better than nothing, and i'll strive for a lot...

do you love recess?

i went shopping on saturday with my mom and sister. it is always great having that girl time together to catch up, have fun, and grow closer. we were at an outlet store, which any sort of store/mall on a saturday is one of my least favorite things to do. i don't like all the crowds, all the hurrying, people not walking my speed, etc. but i managed to enjoy myself because of the company i was with, plus i really like people watching. i was in the little girls section of old navy looking for a cute top possibility for my niece. a mom and her daughter were slowly getting closer to me, and eventually pushed me out of the isle as i leaned into some clothes and made some weird noise that made only myself laugh as i walked away.. but before that the mom was looking at every single shirt and reading it to her daughter. the girl was around 9 or ten so i am pretty sure she could read all of these herself, which was kind of the funny part to me.
the mom -"ohhh i like recess (reading the shirt), amber! do YOU like recess??"
eight seconds later, the mom -"ohhh marshmellows, amber do YOU like marshmellows?"

you get the idea :)

It's about time....

I find myself sitting at home in front of the computer, after spending a few hours scanning photos and compiling our short but sweet video that we plan to show during our reception... that just so happens to be in a week!! One week from tonight we will be pre-wedding celebrating at our rehearsal dinner. I can not believe how quickly time has flown by! I am aware that come next Sunday I will say "woah... that night flew by I can't believe our wedding is already over!" All of this excitement leading up to the big day will perhaps make it seem even quicker. But I can tell you one thing, it is going to be one of the most fun, and most blessed day of my life. Matt and I have been through a lot together, some lows, and many many highs. I know that we deserve this day of celebration and we are going to live. it. up. Believe me. The next several days I am going to try and be present for EVERYTHING. Even a meeting at work that I am dreading going to, and would rather not be at, I am going to soak it up because then I feel like I will remember this time in my life even more. And the fun stuff will be even better.

I have been slacking on blogging, writing, creating, some cleaning... we have been consumed with wedding stuff! I know very soon we will have not one thing to do that relates to our wedding and I will have time for all these other things I have lost the time for. Until then, I embrace the seventh draft of the seating chart, the 200 or so candles that are left to buy, and soon the hours upon hours of cupcake decorating, because I am/will be spending that time with the people that I love. Family and friends coming together to help make our celebration even more special.

So I may be gone from here for a bit, but know that I have a ton on my mind that I would like to get on here, or at least on paper. I get these bursts of energy to write and write and write.. mostly when I am at work but some days even like now, I have a dozen things racing through my brain but at the very same time I feel content. So very content and peaceful. I am soaking up this week before the wedding, even now when Matt is off on his bachelor party weekend, and the next Saturday we spend together we will do so as Husband and Wife.

Have a great weekend!

One more...!

We spent just this last weekend having an excellent time at Kathleen and Charlie's wedding. Great toasts, lots of dancing, and a really good time!!

Weddings Galore!

We spent two weeks ago celebrating my good friend Ashleigh's wedding to her man Jesse. My mom and Steve were there, and Shan, Chris and Kestan too!! It was such a lovely wedding and we LOVED being apart of it.

9/9/09

I had a blast at my good friend Ashleigh's wedding this past weekend (pictures to follow soon). It was so fun celebrating with them, and it was kind of nice that it wasn't our wedding yet... mainly because this time is flying by already and I want to really make it last. My other good friend Kathleen is getting married this weekend and I am going to do a reading for it... let's hope I don't trip all up and down my words for that one, k? Once you find the partner you choose to spend your days with, whenever other people around you chose to do the same thing, and you can just tell it's a good decision for them... it just adds to the excitement. Most everything is set for the wedding, but there are a ton of little details that still need to be done. Like buying about 80 candles for all the holders we already have, figuring out center pieces or lack there of, buying Matt's suit (kind of a big deal, but it will work out), finishing gifts, cards, making sure all the technical stuff is taken care of, getting a marriage license.... and, you get the picture. Our weekends are filled up and now our week day evenings are quickly becoming busy, which truly... as much of a homebody as I am... I have enjoyed every busy, crazy, relaxing, fun part of this whole entire process. Regardless of how quickly time flies, th eonly thing I can do is take it all in, just be present with everything I am doing, especially anything wedding related :) and take lots of pictures. that will help. It's fun looking at the guest list and although we would have originally liked to invite every single family member ever, and old friends we care about but haven't seen in a while, I know it is going to be a day we never forget and almost all of our favorite people will be in that room with us.