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.