Library, Christmas survey, and catching up

Recently, I've been under the weather a bit so it seems like everything is taking a little longer. The Mr. and I recently sold a car and we'll hopefully be bringing a new one this weekend.

I also had a pretty big exam this morning so I've been at the library quite a bit, and the Mr. went on a work trip this week and was gone from Sunday till Tuesday.  I swear we haven't had a normal, non-busy week in a long time.  I REALLY am looking forward to a Thanksgiving break next week.

Unrelated to either of those, I stepped on a piece of glass yesterday in the kitchen. It was very unexpected. It bled a surprising amount, but my foot is just fine. Lesson learned: sweep the kitchen a little better!

ALSO! I'm doing a Christmas Survey! I copied it Em at Then Along Came the Boy. You should check her blog out!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate?  Hot chocolate, with marshmallows!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps them.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white?  Colored lights are the way to go. White lights are only for ceilings!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.

5. When do you put your decorations up? Any time after Thanksgiving is acceptable.

colorful books at the library!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Homemade fudge! Also those molassess cookies and the crinkle cookies. I’d have to agree with em here: Mom makes them all the best! I also like roasted yams with marshmallows. Yum.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? Getting a real puppy, after two years of “stuffed animal” puppies! (It was difficult to convince me that a stuffed animal “counted” as a “real dog”. )

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? What are you trying to say???

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Right now I only have a handful of ornaments, but I’d prefer to have lights, garland, beads, and anything pretty.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it on the weekends, hate it when I have to travel somewhere far in a blizzard.

12. Can you ice skate? Yep; it’s been awhile though!

13. Do you remember your favorite gift?  Oh gosh- Well, it’s pretty hard to have a better present than a puppy!

my second edit on those BRIGHT books. :)

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Relaxing with family/friends, taking a break from the usual daily “hustle and bustle”

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?  See the answer to #6.

16. What is your favorite Holiday tradition? Eating the answers to #6. :)

17. What tops your tree? I have nothing for the top of the tree, right now. A star is usually nice, though.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Giving. This year I seem to be behind in that realm!

19. Candy Canes: Yum or Yuck? Yum!

20. Favorite Christmas show? A Christmas Story

21. Saddest Christmas Song?  No time for sad Christmas songs!

22. What is your favorite Christmas song?  Carol of the Bells, on the piano

Weekend Walk

Hello, everyone!  I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!  It was gorgeous here both Saturday and Sunday... I couldn't have asked for any better weather for the weekend.  The sun was out, it was 65-70*, slight breeze...verrrry nice weather. 

On Saturday, the Mr. and I walked to the library to get our cards and check out some books. It was a rather forest-y walk there, which was nice to enjoy.  The only downside was that there was no sidewalk the entire way there, so I'm not sure if it would be feasible to walk there when it's wintertime and snowy.  There was a nature-type expo going on at the library, which included naturalists from the area, a local photographer/journalist for the capital region newspaper, wildlife experts, and the local boyscouts.  Everyone wanted us to take their calender of events, and it was pretty fun hearing everyone so excited about their neck of the woods. Which, as it turns out, is also our neck of the woods, now, too. :)  So, we'll have to look through several pages of events, and pick out a few things that look fun and interesting to us.  Some of the events were stargazing, cutting out invasive species (which we could use as an ingredient in pesto), and several hikes through the area. 

Anywho, after we visited the library, we trekked on over to the YMCA to check the place out and look at their rates.  We're also pretty interested in continuing with a martial arts program (taekwondo and/or hapkido, preferably).  There are a few dojangs around the area, and the Y's martial arts program looks decent.  For now, though, our apartment complex has a basic workout area [2 treadmills, 1 elliptical, 1 bike, multipurpose weight machine] which should be able to get us through the warm months.   After the Y, we ate lunch on the balcony and did some necessary paperwork, before heading out for a walk which ended up with carrying groceries back from the store. We rested up a bit, and went out again, since it was so nice, and played Frisbee.  I had worn the pedometer on Saturday, and it said we walked 5.4 miles. HOLY COW! Cardio= walking, strength training= carrying groceries back from the store, short burst activity=frisbee.  Needless to say, I slept well that night.

this is what it looked like for most of our walk to the library

we also saw this on our way to the library

At the library- I'm not really sure who this book is trying to appeal to. But it looked weird enough, so I took a picture of it.

Sunday, even though it's {obviously} more recent than Saturday, kind of eludes me.  I know we went for two walks and ended up buying some seeds {basil, green onion, yellow squash, green peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, snapdragons} and pots to put them in. The pedometer said we walked 3.3 miles on Sunday, by the end of the day.  I think being out in the sun made me more tired than usual, since it has been almost constantly rainy here.  It's turned everything green pretty fast!  Looks like things will either get 'greener' or 'soggier'- the forecast for the week is:

Mon-  Showers

Tues-  T-Showers
Wed-  Rain
Thurs- Few Showers
Fri- Partly Cloudy

We saw that plant a bunch of times on our walk.

could it be wild rhubarb or something else?

white, flowering tree.



I was surprised how well these pictures came out, btw.  I snapped these with the Mr.'s camera on his phone, and they turned out surprisingly well, if not as good as my camera. Happy Monday!