'Tis the Season

In case you were wondering, or stressing, Christmas is in approximately five days. Can you believe it? I cannot. Where, oh where, has December gone? It has been a wonderful, but pretty busy past few weeks. Doing what? Well, I'm so glad you asked.

Originally I thought I had five Christmas parties to attend, however, somehow I miscounted (math was never my strong subject) and I ended up having seven to attend. Seven Christmas parties. Let's just say that when I left my last one last night I was almost giddy. I have participated in five White Elephant gift exchanges and next time I see the White Elephant himself, I may not be very nice. Last night, however, I brought home by far the most practical gift yet, a plunger. I've been needing one for my new apartment, but just have yet to purchase one. Now I can cross that off the list!

Honestly, that many parties is just the nature of being on a church staff and working in student ministry. The parties are endless! Typically I think I have about four or five, so I'm going to go ahead and consider this year a record. Let's hope it won't be beat or I may have to file for bankruptcy on White Elephant gifts alone.

One party in particular was a tacky sweater party and that was really fun. However, I decided to make it a tacky outfit instead. And boy was I tacky. I'm pretty sure I was wearing a very large shirt that fit me like a dress. Not to mention the decade it was from. Let me tell you, it was a treasure. I actually showed up wearing a belt, but was convinced later on to take off the belt because that made it all the tackier. Although they told me I could wear that in public with the belt, I assure you, you will only see me wearing it on very special, tacky occasions.

Take a look for yourself.

Me and the roomies. In all our tackiness.

Lindsey rocked her sweater. I was actually really jealous. Everywhere she went, she glowed.

Girls! (Notice the belt!)

And the belt is forever gone. I promise, there is a figure under there somewhere.

The maroon crew.

Really not sure what was going on here. How about the elf?

My first gift in this exchange was the "As Seen on TV" Pasta Boat. Unfortunately, it was stolen.

That night we also made Ginger Bread houses. Up until this point in my life, I'd never made one. At least not to my knowledge.

It was quite the messy experience.

I don't do sticky very well.

I'm pretty sure JT is laughing hysterically here. We had WAY too much fun!

What a tacky looking group.

Our final product. We did not win.

Since we just moved into our apartment two months ago, not only do we not have it all decorated and done, but we are seriously lacking in the Christmas decor. With that said, our neighbor below us gave us this Christmas tree and I was so thankful! It was very nice of her. It's our very own little Charlie Brown tree.

We may not have a lot of Christmas decorations, but the little we do have, I absolutely adore.

Thank you, Mom, for my precious little nativity. And thank you, Round Top Collection.

Mini-Christmas Tree!

Besides the tree, this is my favorite part of our decorations. Our Christmas cards! I'm really bad about checking the mail every day, but it makes it so much sweeter when I do retrieve it and have a stack of cards just waiting to be opened. A lot of ladies on twitter told me to just hang ribbon and it has been perfect! I love it!

When I'm sitting on my couch at night, this is my view. It's very warm and the Christmas tree makes my heart so happy. It really is the little things, folks.

Five more day, friends. Five more days. Merry Christmas!

Oh, The Discipline!

Before I signed up for this Sprint Triathlon (please note that it is indeed a SPRINT Triathlon, not an Olympic or Ironman, there's a big difference), I was at Bible study talking to some folks about it, mulling over whether or not I should register, when Greg mentioned that I should do it, simply because I'd blog about it. Honestly, in the next few months I'm not sure how much I will actually blog about, and not for lack of material, but more so because my time from here on out will be spent training for said Triathlon.

I've never trained for anything even remotely close to this before, so I can imagine that come January, it is going to take over my life. Stink, it's not even January and I can't sleep well at night unless I've gotten in my run for the day.

In case you were wondering, I'm not the athletic type.

I may appear to have played sports growing up, and while I have the height to do it, I chose music over every other sport.

That, my friends, is why I'm obsessive over it.

Can I do it? Yes. Can I finish it? Yes. Will I win it? Probably not. Is my goal to win? No. My goal is to finish. And finish well.

In order to finish well, however, I need to be prepared.

There are so many reasons why I'm excited about this challenge. First off, I don't challenge myself near enough. If I'm not challenging myself to grow whether it be mentally, spiritually or physically, am I really changing, or am I just continuing to stay the same?

Secondly, I have a goal to do this race and to finish well and I'm really looking forward to accomplishing that goal. I know that crossing that finish line will be so sweet.

Thirdly, I am looking forward to some self-discipline. Quite frankly, this does not come naturally to me. It's something I have to really work at, and now I have no excuse but to be disciplined.

What will this look like? For me, it will be less time on facebook, twitter, blogging, TV, sleeping, going to bed earlier, waking up earlier, eating healthier and so on a so forth. A little balance can be a very good thing.

I've heard before that those that train for a marathon or half-marathon often are built up spiritually as well, because of said discipline, and if that's the truth, sign me up! Although no discipline is fun at the time, it is only for our good.

Here's the deal, if a contestant on Biggest Loser can run a marathon after being obese, I can certainly finish a 500 meter swim, a 12.5 mile bike ride and a 3.1 mile run. It's doable, but how well I do is determined by my training and self-discipline.

Already, not even two weeks into it, I can see how much I'm going to have to die to myself and my selfish ways in order to do this, and although it sounds weird, I'm already looking forward to it.

Although I don't see this being the start of something new, or the catalyst to being a triathlete, I want to change. I want to grow. To grow and change we need to be challenged. Let's all challenge ourselves in something this coming year. Maybe it will be reading a book a month. Maybe it will be memorizing scripture. Maybe it will be going to bed earlier. I'm personally challenging myself to all of those.

Who knows, by April 9th, I may be a completely different person.

It's amazing what one goal will do to you. Or how one goal can change you.

Scarves: The Winter Accessory

Confession: I am a hoarder.

Okay, so I’m not the girl that has piles and piles of trash everywhere that can’t move without stepping on an old cheeto, but there is a certain pile in my room that keeps growing.

I never considered myself a collector of items until recently. And by recently I mean last year.

When I moved to Claire’s house, I realized that there was a certain pile in my room that was uncontrollable and it was really stressing me out. I try to be organized, and this pile was far from it.

That was my pile of scarves.

And it kept growing, and growing, and growing.

One day I was at IKEA and found this nifty holder with a bunch of holes in it.

Sometimes I find things like that at IKEA and have not a fat clue what it could be used for, but this day was different. Immediately, each and every scarf I own came flooding to mind and I purchased it right away. Duh, it was made to be my scarf organizer!

It goes without saying that the minute I got home, I loaded that bad boy up and hung it on our laundry room door so that each scarf was accessible to not only me, but to my roommates as well.

I don’t know if Claire misses me now that I’m gone, but I’m certain she misses my scarves.

I’m partly ashamed and yet partly proud of my scarf collection. It’s pretty ridiculous.

But do you know the joy a scarf brings? During our frigid winter months here in Houston, I like to consider the scarf the perfect accessory. It keeps you warm. It’s cute. It’s removable if you get to warm, it’s colorful and so on and so forth.

With that said, I now present to you my scarf collection.

I know you’re judging me right now, but I just really need you to love me in this moment.

I don’t think I’ve spent more than $10 on a scarf. I find them cheap, cheap, cheap. It’s the way to go.

Anyone, and I repeat, anyone, can rock the scarf.

I dare you to try it.

It will do your neck some good.

While we're at it, I'll go ahead a be a bit more vain to show you my necklace holder. It was an old piece I found in my parent's garage, and then painted it black. I love it! But really, what's better than your necklaces being so nicely organized? There's no time for tangled necklaces in my life. There are more to be had, but I won't show you those.


Need a scarf? Need a necklace? Lindsee's Accessories are here for you.

A Weekend of Giving Thanks

It’s been a week since Thanksgiving and I still have a very thankful heart. Can’t we have a thankful attitude all year long? I suspect that if we don’t, we’ll get really crabby. And I don’t like to be around crabby people. Nor do I like to be crabby myself.

Anyway, I had a wonderful, long weekend of giving thanks with some of my very favorite people. I realize that because there are so many pictures and events, I should blog about each of them separately, but I just don’t have the energy, or willpower, to do that. So this is the unabridged version of my Thanksgiving week.

It all started Wednesday evening for my mom’s birthday! We celebrated that night as a family at a fun Mexican restaurant called Juan and Lefty’s. If anything, the name is just really fun to say! Actually, that day I had Mexican food twice. I had it for lunch as well with some college students that were back in town. But honestly, it’s only appropriate to eat Mexican twice before Thanksgiving. What else would you eat? After dinner we opened gifts at home. We got my mom a Shark. Have you heard of that? My mom is the queen of all things cleaning items, and more importantly, vacuums. Her Dyson is her prized possession. I’m not even exaggerating.

I actually hadn’t been feeling super great, so I administered drugs to myself a few nights in the form of NyQuil. Needless to say, I slept like a baby. I think my body needed it after a really busy previous week.

Our family of five.

We have a divided household.

I woke up Thanksgiving morning to a very quiet, empty apartment and although typically I wouldn’t like that, I actually really it. I took my time getting ready, watched the parade, cleaned a little bit, rested and was just still. It was SO great and unexpected!

After a quiet morning, I headed over our dear friends, the Snow’s house, where we would spend the rest of our afternoon stuffing our faces, laughing, talking, solving the world’s problems, watching football and just relaxing. We spend every holiday with them that we’re not in Colorado and it’s wonderful. It’s so great to have “family” away from family. The A&M and UT game was also a big highlight, especially since we have a divided household. We also watched the temperature drop from about 80 degrees to 40 degrees in a matter of hours, and we wonder why we’re all sick! It was a wonderful, wonderful day that I am so thankful for.

Our family with sweet Jessie, our Katrina friend. She's basically our sixth family member. We love her!

Kevyn and I planed our matching stripes. ; )

I am a lucky girl with two brother's like these ones!

The "Snow" sisters. Aren't they precious? And look at the precious pregnant bellies. I think they are so cute!

Friday I had a jam packed day as well. I met Jen for a Chinese food lunch, and then very sporadically, we hopped in the car and headed downtown to the Aquarium with her entire family. I had never been there so it was really fun! There is definitely a lot to gaze over. We didn’t eat there, but rather enjoyed the animals, creatures, rides, games and train rides. I consider them my second family, so it was so great.

Who knew Starfish could relax like this?

Grace had a lot of fun looking at everything!

She was so brave!

And scary!

I love this one of Jack.

Jen and I. We're intimidating at best.

Who's excited about the train ride?!

Getting pictures in the tunnel where you are surrounded by creatures is tough. This was the best we could do!

After some time, Grace really came to love the Carousel. She even rode it twice!

We clearly enjoyed our ride.

I came home an hour before some of my old girls were scheduled to come over for dinner, so I hightailed my rear to the HEB, bought some taco soup ingredients, then ran home to get ready for the company. Thankfully, I had already cleaned, so it wasn’t as stressful as I expected. I LOVED having them at my home for dinner. Need I even tell you that all we did was chat? For six hours! It was so great! They were there past midnight and I loved every minute of it. I don’t think we’ve ever had a better conversation than that night. God is working in each of them, and to hear the details of that makes my heart overflow with thankfulness. I love them!

Saturday was a pretty calm, but steady moving day. I had praise team rehearsal that morning, went to lunch with my parents at SmashBurger, came home and watched an episode of Biggest Loser (duh!) and then a bunch of us celebrated my roommate, Michaela’s, birthday a little early down by the Galleria that night. We started out the evening right by buying a few cupcakes to go from Sprinkles, ate dinner at Grand Luxe, and then finished our evening off at Starbucks sipping some hot coffee while enjoying our cupcakes. I’d consider it a very successful birthday celebration! Add the Christmas tree pictures and I’d consider it perfect. I think was made it even better was the fact that it was cold!

Sprinkles is a blessing. And a curse.

Michaela with the boys.

My sweet roommates! We've had some fun times together that may or may not include dance parties.

Happy, happy birthday!

This is what a guy does when the population of the evening is mainly girls.

Now for the Christmas Tree fun...

Lindsey and Molly! Pretty girls!

We took about 1897 pictures by the tree. Who knows what we're doing in any of them...

The next morning I was to be at church at 7:15 for praise team, and on top of that I had to pick up my friend Courtney on the way, so imagine my shock when I woke up at 6:40. I should have been leaving my house at 6:55. Never in my entire life have I rushed like I did that morning! Actually, I ended up finishing my make-up at church after our 8:15 service. How’s that for classy?

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. How many times can I use the term wonderful? A lot. It was that great! Now my mind is fully engaged on Christmas and I am so excited. Christmas music has been a staple in my life and I couldn’t be happier.

I hope you all had an equally fabulous Thanksgiving. Either way, I hope that you know how much Christ loves you and delights in you despite any circumstance. He is good!

And that, my sweet friends, is the longest Thanksgiving post ever. Thank you for staying with me until the end!

Target Tales

Confession: I've been to Target twice this week. It's easily my weakness. I try to avoid it as often as possible, but every now and then, I feel like we could all benefit from a little Target therapy.

My first trip to Target was on Monday evening after I attended my step aerobics class to get two very important items. NyQuil and some hangers. Now, I do realize Walmart has all of the above, but I try to avoid that store at all costs. Walmart was my only store of choice in college, and while I don't hate it, I'm just burned out by it. Plus, Target is closer. And prettier.

Anyway, after perusing the clothes aisles to make sure there weren't any deals I was missing out on, I went and grabbed my needed items, plus a few other things. In my basket was NyQuil, eye drops, face powder, a scarf (I really tried to resist that one!), and Q-tips. At that point I realized I was doing really good to get out of Target spending less than $50.

However, at the last minute, after she'd already scanned all my items, I realized I forgot my hangers! The hangers! The one thing I really needed and truly the only reason I came to Target. My cashier told me to run back and get them while she held my items so I did just that. Obviously, there was a line behind me, so she proceeded to check them out while I ran my quick errand.

Upon returning, she finished checking out a couple, then scanned my hangers and as she went to put them in my bag, she realized my bag was gone. I assumed maybe the guy ahead of me grabbed it on accident, so we both ran after him, but alas, he had nothing. We then proceeded to flag down every car driving past the entrance asking if they had a bag that didn't belong to them. It was a complete fail. No lady. No bag. No nothing. My bag was M.I.A. I felt so bad for my lady! She felt terrible also, I think mainly because she was afraid she'd be in trouble. Needless to say, I had to go and re-gather all my items. I did forget my eye drops the second time around, but at least I had my hangers! The best part is that she took 50% off my scarf. Score! It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Now fast forward to Wednesday. After work I needed to stop by Target to get my roommate, Michaela's, birthday gift. Why I didn't just get it on Monday evening is beyond me. I think I probably killed some brain cells at aerobics that made my brain malfunction. Instinctively, I always head to the clothes section. Yes. Again. Because you know, couldn't there be different deals from Monday to Wednesday? As I was walking around, there were two girls near me that were very clearly talking about me.

Here's how the conversation went down:

Girl #1: Wow, that girl is really tall.

Girl #2: I think it's because she's wearing boots.

(What you need to know is that I was indeed wearing boots, but they're practically flat.)

Girl #1: Yeah, but I don't think they're very high.

(At this point they walk past me and see that my boots aren't very high.)

Girl #2: Oh yeah, she is really tall.

I was laughing inside. Honestly, I would have loved to have joined in on the conversation with them. I could have told them how tall I really was.

I took that as my sign to grab the gift I need, leave promptly before spending too much money and take my long legs home to run.

Because, although this may be way off topic, I need y'all to know that as of last night, I have signed up to compete in a Sprint Triathlon in April. That's right. You're looking at the new triathlete.

I foresee many trips to Target in the future as it will provide many necessities for said triathlon.

Like a swim cap. And goggles. Lord, help me.