Thankful Much?

I know that you Blog or Facebook frequenters out there have seen a lot on this theme but what is Thanksgiving without a gratitude shout out?

I would have to say this is one of my favorite songs right now and so fitting for Thanksgiving!  Who doesn't want to spend Thanksgiving at HOME with family and friends.



At the beginning of this month I really wanted to write a letter to everyone I was grateful for,letting them know just how much I appreciated them all.  A LOFTY goal to say the least.  I may still pull it off but I am pretty doubtful.  For you readers today I thought I would do some quick "Thank You" notes Jimmy Fallon style.  Here is my rendition. 

Thank You, Poli-Sci teacher...for teaching me right out of EVER thinking of politics as a career path.

Thank You, wine...for making me feel sophisticated WHILE intoxicated.

Thank You, Heather...one of my best buddies in the whole world and calamitous partner in crime.  Someone I can always say "It could always be worse" to and be proven wrong every time.

Thank You, neighbors....for leaving your Halloween decorations out all through November...making me feel just a little less bad about not decorating much for this so neglected holiday.

Thank You, Days of Our Lives...for entertaining me while I work each day and for giving me just one more embarrassing skeleton in my closet.

Thank You, full time school/part time work/full time mom/entrepreneur status...for reminding me each and everyday that doing things backwards is REALLY REALLY hard!

Thank You, sweater weather....for hiding those five pounds that I keep "swearing" I am going to take off.

Thank You, kid kin-x and blocks...for gracing my floor with your presence each and every day.

Thank You, laundry pile....for providing a place for my kids to hide while playing hide and seek and a bed for my doggy fit for a king.

Thank You, hats...I have gotten a lot of use out of you the last few weeks.  I promise I will give you a break...soon(ish)

Thank You, scarves...for keeping me on my toes.  I have yet to figure out just how to wear you, but I will.  I am always up for a challenge.

Thank You, "Because" and "Actually"...the two favorite big words that come out of "B's" little mouth.  You help her get away with so much..for that she is grateful.

Thank You, inappropriately early Christmas music...for hitting the radio while we are still coming out of our Halloween candy comma. 

In all seriousness I truly am grateful for so much.  I am so incredibly blessed with an amazing family, kids, hubby, friends.  I have so much....life is good.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope it is a great one for all of you.

Fab Find Friday

Sometimes I think that I might just have the best job in the world.  As the Marketing Director for an Architectural Firm, there are certainly days when I want to pull my hair out - usually when we are trying to meet crazy deadlines on proposals or explaining fact-based info. to the creative minded (herding cats I tell ya).  But, then there are days that I get paid to play!  Some of the research that I have to do, I would gladly do for free!  My Fab Find today is one of those things.

Have you heard of Houzz.com?  If not, jump over now:

HOUZZ

Serious!  Don't wait.  You need to see what you've been missing.

They describe their site as "Home Design, Decorating and Remodeling Ideas and Inspiration (Kitchen and Bathroom Design)". The best way for me to describe this site is to say that it's a combination of all things good on Pinterest, Google Images and HGTV's site. 

You can search over 800,000 designer photos and save them to your own design ideas books.  The site is super user friendly letting you search by styles, spaces, products and key words.  There's lots of great professional articles and comments by other users.  And, the collection of photos is truly astounding!

Here's a peek at some of the photos in my idea books that I am using as inspiration on our new home remodel project (oh, yeah, that's STILL very much happening):

 

Traditional Dining Room design by Chicago Photographer Cynthia Lynn Photography
 

Contemporary Kitchen design by Chicago Design-build Airoom Architects-Builders-Remodelers
 

Contemporary Kids design by San Francisco Media And Blogs Lucy McLintic
 

Contemporary Living Room design by Austin Architect Cornerstone Architects
 

Contemporary Living Room design by Vancouver Interior Designer Claudia Leccacorvi
 

Eclectic Bedroom design

 

Can I just say that I am absolutely in LOVE with that first photo?!  I'm moving into that house....in my dreams!

 

Check out Houzz.  It's a fun fab find!

 

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ENOUGH Already....and Facebook Factoids

At this point you have to Google Election Results 2012...it is old news.  Here in Utah however (the Angry red state) it is still headline news....on Facebook at least. 

What got me started on the subject of Facebook(ers) Newsworthy facts?  This picture I saw posted today. 

Original Source of this image: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2012/

With this comment below it: "I am in no position to speak anything about american politics, and don't know too much about it... but I do know enough...enough to know that (and correct me if I'm wrong) I'm pretty sure this means Romney should have won! ?!?
Obama (blue)
Romney (Red)
~ Jenny (Proud Canadian) ;)"

It would be interesting to see how many times this image WITH this message will be circulated on Facebook without anyone (especially the one who posted it) even taking the time to look at the link to the actual map (with its accurate explanation) right below it.

When someone can Google the results of the election (popular and electoral vote results) in the same amount of time they can log in to Facebook.  How are people still posting and re-posting this kind of stuff???  Sadly enough many people also believe it....I personally have corrected three people this week that believed that Romney won the popular vote. 

Craziness I tell you.....and this is one week after the election.  My fellow Utahn's and Facebook junkies can vouch for the absolute insanity that blew up all over Facebook on election night.  

I think the only thing I saw worth while on Facebook during the elections was this:

While I can not promise I will be pulling the plug on my Facebook account anytime soon, I can tell you with certainty that it will never replace NPR as my news source.  ;)

A Story

I can't believe that October has come and gone already!
Would it sound weird to say that I'm still wanting an extra summer day?  Serious. 
I saw Christmas decorations out at stores a few days ago.  I am NOT ready for that!

Speaking of decorations, check out my killer Halloween decorations (score!):

 

Jody thinks the story behind its' acquisition belongs on reality TV....a Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.  Haha.  I still think I just wasn't explaining things to her right.   At least she didn't liken it to Honey Boo Boo! 

Tell me what you think.  Here's the story:

When we moved into our new home and met our next door neighbor, she told me how Halloween was her absolute very favorite holiday and she goes "all out" with spooky decorations and a big neighborhood soup party before trick-or-treating every year.  I told her that I love Halloween, too, but she just went right on with how much it really means to her.  It is HER deal.....keep in mind that was in April.  We heard about the Halloween decorations at least once a month after that.

So, toward the end of September when I was deciding if I should decorate my window boxes "spooky" or just keep it "fall-esque", the hubby and I started thinking about how we wanted to decorate our new house.  We both have fun at Halloween and wanted to have some cool decorations.  We pulled out our old decorations and discovered that we must have a box buried under building supplies somewhere, because we couldn't find my sweet Halloween wreath (I WILL have it up next year) and some of our standbys.  We decided that we would have to buy something this year and looked at this great boutique by our house.

While we were there we saw some really neat spiders and decided that it would be fun and easy to build on an arachnophobia theme each year.  Just when we were deciding between a large brown recluse and something with a neon stripe, it occurred to me that maybe we should keep things tame because I had noticed that the neighbors' house wasn't looking as decked out as I was thinking it would.  She had put up some life-sized ghouls and ghosts and a spider on her front porch.  But, it was far from what we had expected (it was quite the let down).  I told the hubby that maybe we should wait to see if she was going to put anything more up, because I did not want to steal her thunder.  He thought I was crazy, but obliged.  We put a few purple lights and leaf garland up and waited.

Here comes my Real Housewives moment.  Jody and I just happened to be talking to each other on the day and time that I decided that waiting to see if my neighbor was going to put up more decorations was absolutely ridiculous.  It went something like this:  Who cares, right?  She doesn't own Halloween....I can love Halloween, too.....And, we can decorate our house however we like....it would be crazy for us to NOT decorate because we thought her decorations were just okay.....AND, hey why can't I have a cool Halloween house?  In fact, I'm going to buy the really awesome spider that is on a motion detector and lunges downward when someone walks by!....Oh, I can decorate cool alright!

The price of the spider on a motion detector held me back and I ended up leaving the boutique without anything.....again. 

At this moment I feel like I have to say that I was very sick and so very tired.  That's my excuse for even going there with the Halloween decorations.  :)

I let that spider lie and moved on.....until we saw this beauty:

When Jody and I took the girls to Gardners Village we saw it for sale at Celebrations (GREAT store!).  I was sure its' price would keep me from it, but not only did it fit into our Halloween budget, it was 25% off!  THEN, I found the huge web at another store just before we left.  It was up the next day!

I have absolutely loved that the house looks really decorated and it's only two things!  We put it over the top with lots of spider webs through the front yard, a few smaller spiders and a black crow stuck in the web.  Haha.  I liked that touch by the husband.

I agreed with Jody and thought I had to have been having some sort of RH moment when I started talking about neighbors and decorations.  That would be so "Keeping up with the Jones", right?  And, truly once I got a little sleep I laughed thinking that I would think our neighbor would even care about it one way or the other.........

Yeah, you guessed it.  We are pretty sure that our little arachnid house peeved our neighbor.  She would not say a word about our big spider.  Even when her daughter kept telling her how cool it was.  Tight lipped.  Oh, boy. 

So, now we will have to decide if we build on it next year, or wait to see what the neighbor does.  :)

ANYWHO, Halloween was great.  Always is!  We hit our friend's annual chili party and then went trick-or-treating with new friends......including the woman we bought our new house from!  CRAZY!  I'll have to blog on that next week. 

 

M was Cinderella, C was a lion and I was a lion tamer.

 



The husband was....well....hot?  haha.  He really WAS hot.  He had planned a great spooky costume for Utah fall weather.  Then, we broke records at 75 degrees.  UGH!

I have to point out that the black mark on my little lions face is some of hubby's makeup.  NOT a bruise. 

Hope you guys had fun, too! 
What do you think about my Spider story?

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