Now that I can laugh about it, here's what my tree looked like the morning after we put it up. I literally walked out of my room thinking, "Oooh, I'm gonna look at my tree!" Looked, half asleep, and was completely confused because I didn't see it. But no, it was there, just laying on the floor. So there I am laying on the soaking wet floor screwing the sucker back in. Mike goes and lays back down, I gather my stuff for the shower, as I walk back into the room, there it goes again. I ran to try to catch it. No go. So that time Mike tightened the screws and tied it to the ceiling. This left me late for work, no shower and with a couple of my favorite ornaments broken. I knew Mike wouldn't be able to do anything b/c he had people coming over early to do drywall until he had to go to work so it would be there waiting for me when I got home.

But alas, Mom to the Rescue! She came over and we had to cut the trunk and level it off and redecorate. It sure was a pain, but she looks perty again. In case you're wondering we put fishing line around it just in case...

This is my boss' new puppy. A ten week-old Chesapeake Retriever, Black lab mix. So squishable. I think he's going to be our shop dog if his temperament holds out and so far, so good. Pretty exciting to me. I miss being around dogs, and well, look how cute he is!

Here he is, stealing a stuffed animal and running off with it. Really gotta watch this little guy.

I had today, Saturday, off. Amazing. Honestly, no idea the last time I had a Saturday off that I didn't ask for. There was no way I was going to let it go to waste, either. So Mom came over and we went shopping, picked up a tree, and decorated my tiny living room (about the only room I can). It was a super nice day. Don't worry I have A LOT of pictures.

First up, the tree. I love my tree and all of the decorations. I may just do a post on ornaments sometime too, and so should other people. Anyone else up for it?

This is the garland that I knitted. Me likey mucho. I like to think it adds a touch of sophistication to our oh so unsophisticated home (at the moment). Oh, and that's also one of my favorite ornaments. Isn't she just adorable?
The windowsill with our stockings. Someday maybe I'll have a fireplace to hang them on...

Bell garland and beautiful M & N ornaments (thanks Holly!) And if you look in the background...yes it really is laughable. Drywall goes up tomorrow, I think!!!!Believe in the Magic sign #2. Yes I do. And no, I didn't buy both of them by myself.Finally, my little peace basket that's right next to the door.This is what I will sit and enjoy each night. Sitting with the lights of the christmas tree is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Sigh.

With this whole, new computer business, I'm having to transfer all my old stuff onto the new one. I've found myself going through a lot of the pictures I haven't looked at in quite some time. Case in point, pictures from Claire and Clint's wedding. I picked out a couple of my faves. Although, there were a lot more, I kept it to a minimum. What a great day it was for the two C's. I don't know if they know just how good of a time the rest of us had.

I walked into the kitchen tonight to find this:
I immediately started laughing really hard and said where's my camera. Obviously we have no counterspace (or countertops for that matter) and you have to set things where you can. Gotta say though, this was not my doing. I generally keep my food out of the sawdust. :)

Type, type, typing away from my new laptop. I've got to say, its pretty awesome sitting on the couch and doing this. Yeehaw. So here it is.

Its so pretty (and no I didn't choose it for only that reason). It was affordable with great memory and hard drive space and hello, I get to pay it off in six months. This is the link I got it from http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157061 And thankfully I definitely got it cheaper than that on Black Friday.

Another thing that's awesome is that it came with a card reader so now that my little camera no longer works and the cord for my old camera is still MIA, I can upload pictures no problem!! I think I'll be tinkering around on this and the internet a lot more. Oh and it has Window's 7 too! I have new and current technology. Yay to having my very own, fully functioning computer!!

So yesterday I sent out a text that said, "Happiness is driving to work on a brisk day with a hot chai latte, blaring music, and the knowledge that you're going to spend the day making candy at work." So here it is (if I only had brought a camera instead of just having my phone). The candy we made:

Boiling hot mag-ma (think austin powers) of corn syrup, sugar and water.

Once it hits 302 degrees exactly (hard crack temp) you pour it onto a buttered marble slab. Wait for it to cool the tiniest bit, and then pick the damn stuff up with your bare fingers, cut some off with scissors and then cut it into bite size pieces, all the while letting out little (and sometimes big) yelps of pain.

You drop it into powdered sugar (oh and don't forget to coat your poor little fingers in the powdered sugar before you grab onto the candy to cut it up, it really does help), dust it off, and then voila!

You get glass candy. We did this process 23 times yesterday. With 21 different flavors. Oh, and let me add, be careful not to breathe in the fumes when you add the flavoring. Some of it quite literally will take your breath away, make you cough, burn your nose, and make your eyes water (clove especially).

All in all it was a good time and fun to learn a new process. I'd do it at home if I had a marble surface, although, I'm sure there's another way to do it. But I would definitely not do it on this scale. However, here, I'd choose to do it over pricing items and doing inventory any day.

Here's the fun little things we did at work yesterday :)

So driving to work today I noticed a pair of shoes on the side of the highway, not an uncommon sight. I ask, what is the deal with this? Where are they coming from? Are people throwing them out the window because they are of no use to them anymore? Am I supposed to equate them to a can on the side of the road(boo, if that's the case)? If that's not the case, how do people not notice a PAIR OF SHOES fly out their window, or even the cab of their truck. And if its a truck, why are you just throwing things that can easily fly out of it once you hit 55? Oh life's questions...

Like what we've done with the kitchen floor?? Jealous much? Mike was working in the basement on the heating vent and the cat's just didn't understand what was happening.

Here's what they saw:

Here's what Mike saw:

Aww, the joys of living in a construction zone, sidestepping literal holes in the floor...:)

A couple weeks ago I came out to my car to go to work and found my ENTIRE car covered in a gorgeous and ridiculously hard frost. I couldn't even scrape it off with my window scraper, leaving me to wait out my defrost (and be a little late for work). Annoying? Definitely. Pretty? Yes.

When and how did I become a cat lady????

Is it too late for me?? Sigh.

Bosslady said she wanted a Halloween display in the window using Sven, our one and only scandanavian moving (like 60 lb) mannequin. Perhaps a sheet over him like he's dead, she said. A bit gruesome?? Well here's what we came up with instead...

Sven has been found murdered, complete with evidence. In case you're wondering, no, we weren't afraid to use dated pop culture references as material.

Poor guy, death by kayak paddle. The worst way to go. Look at that pool of blood. Oh, and can you please note the fact that sven regularly wears a lime green turtleneck...

Murdered while trick or treating. Let that be a lesson, we thought, to kids walking by the window and seeing this.Are you wondering Hoo done it??

All evidence suggested it was Bosslady herself. Whoops.

It's apple season in these parts (well just about over, really) and this is what we did at work :


That would be ten or eleven 5lb bags of peeled and sliced apples. Yes, that's using just a knife and peeler. Or just a knife for Debbie. That was my last apple slicing day for the season. By the time I get back to work on Friday she'll have finished the rest. While my hands and back would hurt at the end of the day it was kind of nice just to stand there and chat the whole day. I'll kind of miss it.

Does anyone eat these only one at a time? I can't get away without having at least three in my mouth (I'm trying really hard to avoid the that's what she said comment...didn't work). Wait, maybe a better question I should have asked is, does anyone else eat these?

In case anyone's wondering. I made it through another applefest. Barely. With the shady (cold and rainy) weather came the people inside. It was busy and that's all I have to say about that. Now could you people go away for a little while? Ok. Thanks.

Also, Angie and Holly....We got the stains out of mike's jersey :) Shout! (the stainfighter)

So Mike and I were able to get away this weekend and head to good Ol' Eau Claire (thanks sister and kurt for letting us crash!) . My cousin was getting married and it was the perfect excuse to get back to that city that I sometimes really miss. We were able to squeeze quite a few things into the weekend too. We went out Friday night so Mike could meet up with a friend. How could I have not taken a picture or video?? Helium voice karoke to "I'm too sexy"???? Yeah, why didn't I have my camera with me? And Angie and Holly.....how could I have forgotten that I had my camera in my purse. So sad we didn't get at least one pic. Anyways, here's a few that I did.

It's my little Ally. Miss her muchos. It was nice to see she was just as excited to see me as I was her :)
This is Pugsley, Kurt's dog. He'd probably be ashamed if he knew I put this picture on here.

We did the ever imformative and a little underwhelming Leinenkugel's tour. Who wants to go on a beer tour when you don't even get to see the stuff being bottled? Hello. I so wanted to live my Laverne and Sherlie fantasy.

We even managed to head to the local "free zoo" that I didn't even know existed. (Black bear, cougars, capuchens, elk, bison, etc. wow) Check out the way that Lemur is sitting. I think he might have osteoporosis.

Mike pointing at his favorite bit. Black Bear poop.

On second thought, maybe this was his favorite. The cougars. Mike. We already have enough cats.

My beautiful cousins, Megan and Kasie. They stood up in the wedding.

And finally, Tola, the party man (he's not, and that wasn't even his beer).

Thanks Angie and Dave, Holly, and Heidi and Luke for meeting us for lunch and the packer game. I caught myself smiling for no reason while you were there with us. Thanks again. Miss you's already!

I have been waiting YEARS to have my very own space to do my scrapping. Years. Now, here it is. I have my own spot where I can work and not have to pick everything up, put it back and haul it into another room. Beyond excited about this. We were going to try and squeeze my twin size bed into this room but after much consideration we decided this was just going to be our office. When we finally made the decision, it was time to put up my new shelf and mike's new map.LOVE THIS SHELF. Oh, and yeah, I heart my ricky gervais picture in the middle. Imagine that. I've still got to fill the drawers and label the outsides, but already SO MUCH better.


I want to run right home and start making some things! Now I've just got to find a space for my sewing machine and all my knitting stuff....