Thanksgiving Weekend

This past 4-day weekend was probably one of the most productive ones I've had in a really long time! My mom, Bob and Taylor all came over for Thanksgiving dinner, along with my mom's friend Melanie and her son. Melanie and I are also friends from work as well so it was really cool :) Dingo wanted to take a nap...on top of Bob and I captured the photo:

I also spent some time catching up on work-work. That part wasn't fun but I did end up spending a few hours on Saturday prepping for my Instructional Designer interview I have at eBay on Tuesday. It just so happens that my preparation for the interview can also act as my final project for one of my classes at school - I love killing two birds with one stone! I put together a rather large portfolio of my work and ideas so that I can give it to the interviewers on Tuesday. I feel really prepared and I'm really hoping I can get the job because this is what I've been working for the past 2 years really :) Here is a glimpse at my preparation:

And finally, today. I put up our minimal Christmas decorations. I haven't been in the mood to put up the entire Christmas tree the past 2 years because I don't really feel it's necessary. I'll start putting it up again when there are kids around to actually enjoy it. For now though, we at least have our mini-tree and our Christmas table - as usual. This year I made it a bit different and more colorful. The two bright cones are ones I actually made out of felt - they turned out cute!

And on Friday we will be flying out to Florida to visit Ramin's family and my Grandma! Should be fun times! :)

First Major Snow

We had our first major snow storm of the year last night and it's supposed to last into today and tomorrow and probably the rest of the week. It's actually really pretty and I'm glad I don't have to go out driving around today :) The dogs (Belle and Dingo) also had some fun playing in it as well...they were almost covered in it cause it is so deep. Chris, Ramin and I all helped in breaking out our snow blower and getting the driveway and sidewalks cleared. It's a lot of work when you have a corner lot house!  Anyway we had fun and now we're nice and cozy inside :)

Birthday

My birthday was this past week. I'm now the big 29 - Oye!! I don't even feel that old AT ALL! One more year and I will be 30! Holy cow it's unreal.

Anyway, my birthday week was good but boy was it BUSY! I really worked a lot this week AND I got to spend a lot of great times with friends and family too. On my actual birthday-day our friends Jenn and Matt came over to our house and we watched the Jazz game (they won of course) and later that night my mom and Taylor came over and we all had brownies and ice cream!

On Saturday night our friends Tanner and KayDee took Ramin and I out to dinner for my birthday as well - Chris came along too since he likes to hang out with us. And then we all watched the Jazz game and then played a game we have called Ticket to Ride. It was a good night.

Here is a picture of the birthday cards I received from everyone.

The weekend BEFORE my birthday I wanted to rearrange my entire crafting area because it was just not working. Then I remembered that Chris had told me that him and Ramin were having a hard time figuring out what to get me for my birthday. I had the perfect solution! I told them I'd like a new craft table and a chair because I was sitting on a metal fold-up chair before and my back would always hurt after an hour of crafting. SOOOO...we all hopped in the car and went to Ikea and Office Max. We came back with an AWESOME new craft room setup! I got 3 new tables, 4 new shelves and an amazing chair to sit and work in. It was a very good investment and it is actually my birthday/Christmas gift from both Chris and Ramin - VERY useful because I have lots of projects going on simultaneously right now. I'm really excited to have it and I absolutely LOVE it!

 

And then my mom got me a really nice purple sweater that I picked a while ago when we went shopping. The family also me this really cool drink container for parties - it is HUGE and heavy and awesome!

My friend Jenn got me some really neat glass purple goblets. I would have taken a picture of them but they are currently in the dishwasher :P

So that was my birthday in a nutshell - I felt very loved and special and I appreciate everything I got :)

This weekend my mom went to her very first craft fair where she was a participant and she ended up selling quite a few of her handmade items! Chris and I decided to visit her at the fair this morning and took this picture of her at her booth:

She's really loving making her pillows, pillow cases and handbags so I think she will continue doing these craft fairs :)

There is the mid-November update! I will update more as I have the opportunity.  :)