Ohhh Christmas Tree...

After little convincing this morning I was finally able to talk Chap into getting our first REAL Christmas Tree! I didn't think he was too excited about it till I came downstairs to find him in his lumberjack hat singing 'Oh Christmas Tree'. Turns out that while I was getting ready he was exploring the world wide web for an actual Christmas Tree Farm (rather than the silly Christmas Tree stand I was going to try and buy from). Anyway, this farm turned out to be really neat! They had campfires, marshmellows roasting, and hayrides. It was my first experience picking out a real tree, and the fact that we got to cut it down ourselves made it tons of fun!

Brodey enjoyed himself also, while he was hunting for something, we doubt it was for the perfect Christmas Tree.

Here she is...isn't she a beaut?!

A boy, his dog, and a tree...doesn't get much better than that.


We had an excellent day at the tree farm and I hope we can make it annual tradition =) Now, on to the decorating...

Thankfulness

With my birthday being so close to Thanksgiving it usually makes me that much MORE aware and thankful for my wonderful family and amazing friends (yes, the presents do help a little. =) Once again, this year I feel such gratitude for the amazing people I have in my life!

Since we usually have off from school on my b-day, this year was quite a treat to actually be in school for the first time since I can remember! My amazing and sweet class made me feel so special; seriously, the cards and gifts were a little overwhelming. Bigger than Christmas. They were so cute. The girls even planned a little surprise party having their moms bring in cupcakes and brownies and having the entire cafeteria sing ‘Happy Birthday’! After the red from embarrassment went away, I realized that there should definitely be a place on the fourth grade report card where I can give these girls credit for ‘event planning’. Really, this is a great skill that will benefit the girls later on in life =)

My parents also sent me a beautiful bouquet of fall flowers! They still looked great even after I shared half the bouquet with the party planners in my class =)

That evening lots of friends joined me for dinner at Thursday’s. It was so great having everyone there, I will use any excuse to get together with friends =) Love you all!!

...and thank you for my yummy cake Chap, Mike and I both enjoyed it =)

I guess I should say my b-day actually started Monday night when Chap got a little excited and gave me my b-day present early (if you think I am bad at surprises, you should see this guy!) For his b-day last month, our wonderful friends gave him a gift card to buy an IPod, so he decided to share this gift with me getting us both the new Nano 8GB IPod. Even though we are a little tardy with this great concept we are super excited to finally own IPods!! We had a little dance party in the living room Monday night (separately of course listening to different songs…thanks again Justin!)

I was also able to get the awesome Nike + sports kit which is the device that plugs into your IPod and hooks into your shoe to measure distance, and calories. I am pumped about this!! I got a small workout in after the yummy turkey dinner yesterday =)


Needless to say, we both have LOTS to be thankful for! Thank you for everyone’s support and love ALL year round. We are lucky to have such caring people in our lives! This includes my new (and old) blogging friends! Your messages, words of encouragement, and fun readings are always highlights in my day =) Love!!

Ahoy for a Goodner Boy!

This weekend, we hosted a baby shower for our good friends, Matt and Mimi. It was a fun shower to set up for because the home was absolutely gorgeous (right on the lake!) The soon to be mom and dad got lots of fantastic gifts for baby Goodner!

Mom, Dad, and hosts

Matt wrote a VERY sweet letter to Mimi which I framed with a picture of Baby Goodner. One of my favorite frames so far...thanks again for the idea Jamie, it's always a hit!

Favors: white chocolate covered pretzels drizzled in blue. While they were delicious, we decided this is probably the LAST time we'll make these incredibley messy and time consuming treats... but they sure did look cute in that sailboat!

The Goodner's pulled through with another yummy catering performance!

Erica's flower arrangements are always beautiful!
Opening the MANY great gifts...just to give you an idea, they got two strollers at this shower!

How proud is that daddy?

Evidence: Yes...Chap, along with the other guys, did remove themselves from the football game downstairs to offer SOME assistance =)


What a wonderful celebration of the soon to be parents! This brings us one step closer to welcoming baby boy Goodner into this world. He is going to be a VERY loved little boy with amazingly fun and loving parents! We are anxious to meet him and support his parents through this incredible journey!

Ouchie?

While Chap and I were sitting in the movies Saturday night watching Changeling (very good by the way) I felt a fairly significant pop in my stomach followed by a very sharp shooting pain in the same location. My initial thought was, ‘Wow, is that’s what it feels like to be pregnant??’ So my hopeful self went through the next two days with this pain thinking maybe, just maybe it was a good sign. Since I despise going to the doctor, especially the girl, doctor I made up every excuse not to get it checked out. After three days of pain and worry, I changed my mind.

Deciding this probably wasn’t normal I made an appointment to visit the girl doctor yesterday. After the poking, the prodding, an ultrasound, and some meaningless chatter I learned that I have cysts on my left ovary that are rupturing. The doctor says there isn’t much that can be done for this other than BC pills. She also said that I am these are not the harmful cysts that require surgery, so I am very grateful for that! My lesson learned: GO TO THE DOCTOR!!! Save yourself an ulcer and get it checked out!! While I am very fortunate this is nothing major, I might not be as lucky next time and it’s best to know about the ouchie than to ignore the ouchie!

A Big Belated Halloween Post

Yes, this is a belated Halloween post due to my ‘stolen’ camera (not really stolen at all, instead hanging out in the SUPER secret hiding spot I put it in, my school bag.) So, upon finding the MIA camera, I somehow lost my camera chord…again. In order to get these pictures I got to visit CVS, download to the CD, then transfer to my computer. I love losing things.

Nonetheless, here are the much awaited Halloween pictures (post from this past weekend will follow shortly). As always, I was HUGE this year. In case you are wondering what that means, it’s very literal. Chap loves creating Halloween costumes that make me enormous. Seriously, I can hardly fit through doors and rarely can I actually sit down. Meanwhile, Mr. Halloween is usually very sporty and cute (see evidence below).

This year we went to Todd and Tammy’s. Here they are passing out candy to the kids (yes, there were kids that cried. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of the vampire couple…but they looked very real!)

Here are Shelly and Mike a.k.a Ed McMahon and Misty Pruitt (Misty just won ‘Publisher’s Clearing House’ at the most inopportune time, but she is just thrilled!)

Here is Juno & Bleeker…need I say more?? Juno (Mimi) is actually pregnant (but married), so this couldn’t have been a more perfect costume.

Warning: The following costume is slightly offensive, however, please keep in mind that Chap actually tried to convince me to do this last year (only a few months after the death of Steve Erwin.) Yes, I am the stingray. Awful, I know. Please Note: my hugeness

I was able to scrounge up a few exhibits of my giant costumes. Unfortunately, the only one I can’t seem to find is the FISHERMAN AND BOBBER. Visualize: Chap in fisherman’s attire, holding a fishing pole with fishing line that is attached to me—the bobber. I was ginormously round with a hula hoop to create the global effect, XXXL white sweatshirt sewed to XXXL red sweatpants. End Scene.



Here is our first Halloween together. I was a pregnant redneck (huge) while Chap was my mullet redneck husband. Notice the bruises on my arms.

And finally, the year that Chap got to be a darling tennis player and I got to pose as the huge tennis ball AND tennis net (that would be a shower curtain rod I’m wearing as a belt.)

So, now you have the Rollings’ historical huge Halloween timeline. Ladies, if anyone is tired of wearing the comfortable/cute Halloween costumes just give me a call! I'd be happy to share some of my husand's 'big ideas' with you! =)