Ok ...... this lack of blogging has gone on long enough!

Sometimes I take too long of a break from blogging and it makes it very hard to hop back in the blogging saddle again. Seems like even though I am busy, and lots of stuff if happening I keep thinking....well is it really blog-worthy?  My friends, family and industry peeps are inquiring about an update so I here I go...... December is over but some definitely noteworthy things occurred so I will try to do a little recap!
Christmas - it was wonderful, I was way more organized and  prepared from a card sending, cookie making, shopping point of view this year largely because I took a great class from Aby Garvey at Simplify 101. I made a great Christmas binder that kept my holiday to-do's, lists, recipes and holiday stuff in order and accessible. I would highly reccommend Aby's classes on organization she has them going on her website year round check them out! Christmas did feel like it happened all at once though, even though Alyssa got done with class at NAU on 12/10 she was unable to come home from Flagstaff until the 20th due to an extended practice schedule with the NAU dance team. They are attending UDA College Cheerleading and Dance National Competition in January and had a short break 12/20-1/2 for the holidays so they could prepare. Mike had also had a crazy month of travel for work and was literally only in town on weekends, two of which he didn't feel so well on in December so we were doing much of our family shopping and planning over the phone, he finally finished traveling on the 19th! Michael was done with school on the 19th as well so Christmas hoopla officially started the weekend of the 19th! We made a mad dash to finish up and wrap all the presents and 6 days later the holiday was upon us!  Next up in my recap is the Dancing with the Stars Live tour show that my mom and I attended...... WOW was it fun.  My mom and I both really enjoy watching the Dancing with the Stars program during the viewing season and we had attended the live tour show together last year too but this years show blew last year's away!To start off with we had AMAZING seats, we could see perfectly, some of the dancers even ran out down the aisles near us, and the choregraphy was so much better than last year, the numbers were all way over the top, with great costumes. All my favorite professional dancers from the show were there, as well as some of my fav stars from this season, i especially liked seeing  Lacy Schwimmer and Lance Bass do some of my favorite numbers from the season. Mom and I may be making this a yearly event! The next season of Dancing with the Stars starts Monday, March 9th can't wait! As I mentioned in my uber-short 12/29 blog post I also did a fun Scrapbooking Segment on the Channel 12 Arizona Midday show. I have had the fun of appearing on channel 12 all through 2008 as their local scrapbooking expert, I really enjoy doing it, and the folks at Channel 12 a super nice.  My after Christmas segment was on not being overwhelmed by your Christmas photos. My favorite project was a little 6 x 6 book that was filled with simple pages showing my christmas card photos for the last 18 years, my family and friends have all enjoyed looking at it, and it is now a permanent part of our christmas decor. I am looking forward to getting it out again next year and adding the next picture! I used a super cute Album from American Crafts, all I had to do was slide in my mini pages, the page sleeves were already part of the book! We also had the pleasure of having some company over the holidays. Mike's sister Janet and her daughter Theresa stayed with us from the 30th -Jan 6th. It had been a few years since Janet had been to Arizona and we thrilled to have her back.  We watched movies, played bocci ball and croquet, as well as Apples to Apples! We went shopping and enjoyed some fabulous dinners out! Janet and Mike both enjoy Mountain Biking so they took a bike ride in Usuary Park that Janet really enjoyed. A few days later we all hiked up the trail to the Wind Cave at Usuary Park before coming home to watch the Cardinals play football. The photo at the right is proof that I actually went hiking, I am not the out-doorsy type but I have to admit I enjoyed the workout! I think Mike could convince me to go again, I do wish there were bathrooms at the top though, I drank lots of water on the way up and it seems like a long way down! The photo at the top of this blog post was also taken the day of the hike it is a great shot of what the desert looks like this time of year in my part of Arizona. We were all sad to see Janet and Theresa go because that signaled the end of the holidays, back to school for Michael and back to work and work travel for Mike, and work for me as well. The first week of January whizzed by, I had not really been on my computer much over the holidays and I had some work to attend to immediately,so I am sad to admit that I am just now taking down my holiday decorations, I am doing a little every day with high hopes that they will be officially stored away until next year by the end of this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing ALyssa and some of her dance  team buddies tomorrow, they are driving down from Flagstaff so they can hop on a plane to Orlando Thursday morning to attend the UDA  College Cheer and Dance Competition they have been prepping for, it will be fun having a houseful of girls for a night!  Ok my recap is done.... I am going to make a concerted effort to blog regularly going forward.

Comments

[Paulette Sarsfield]

So sweet of you to share Tena...sounds Busy but Fun...someday I'll come visit & we can do that hike together!!! Are you going to CHA this year? Can't wait to see you at Inspired! Happy day & thanks for sharing :o)

[mietwagen]

Sehr gute Seite. Ich habe es zu den Favoriten.