Holidays

Ha ha ok so I put up my Christmas tree today. It’s the earliest I’ve ever done it but I was just feeling the vibe. My soul has been craving that cozy, old fashioned, childhood Christmas feeling. Peace on earth, goodwill to men seems really hard to find this year so I’m making it inside my house. I started with a new candle warmer that looks like it belongs in a Christmas village and went from there.

It’s been a drizzly, cloudy, lovely fall day. My mom and sister and I went to buy our poinsettias this morning. We get them from a place out near the freeway that I don’t know if many people know about. They sell them every year so I assume they make some money off of them. I hope so. Going into the greenhouse filled with poinsettias is one of my favorite things. It’s so hard to decide. So I basically don’t. I knew I wanted a big red one, but then I got 3 smaller ones in different colors as well. They just make me happy.  

When I got home and got my new plants in their place, I just made up my mind to decorate. I’ve still got the Fall/Thanksgiving decorations out (all 4 of them ha ha) and put out the Christmas stuff too. It just seemed like the perfect day with the drizzle outside. 

I’m still not quite ready for Christmas music, that can come later. But I’ve got some cozy going on now, at least. I also made lasagne soup for dinner and have a baked potato soup planned for tomorrow. What I really need now is the smell of wassail in my house. Pretty sure I have a wax melt that flavor. I’ll have to get it out. 

Anyway I have all next week off work and I’m looking forward to it. Thanksgiving week is probably my most favorite time of the year. 

Sitting in the Sun

It’s Sunday and I’m sitting in my favorite place to be on a Sunday early afternoon: my library. The tree outside my window is a mixture of green and yellow and the tree next to it has already dropped all its leaves so the sun is coming inside. My plants are loving it and I’m eating it up as well. I’m trying to absorb all I can. I don’t get seasonal depression, but I definitely feel it sometimes that I’m not getting all the light I probably should be, as I go from home to office to home again in the dark. 

I’ve seen a few people with Christmas decorations already up and one of the radio stations is playing Christmas music 24/7. It’s still a little early for me for that, but I’m actually feeling quite positive about the holidays this year. I’m looking forward to them. If this stays with me, I’ll probably even put up my Christmas tree this year. I have this week for work and then I’m on vacation the entire week of Thanksgiving and am looking forward to it for sure. 

I’ve got 5 books left to read to meet my reading goal (and 2 books to read the # of books for the goal) and I’m feeling pretty good about it. There are 7 weeks left in the year and I’m halfway done with a book that counts towards the 5. The goal started out pretty fun, and I’ve been pretty happy with the books I’ve read because of it, but it has made me feel a few times that I couldn’t read what I wanted to, or that I had to read something else to stay on track. So I’m playing around with the idea for next year that I read one of the old classics or massive historical-fiction tomes sitting on my shelf and leave it at that. Just have a free for all and not really care what I read. Sometimes that makes me more adventurous, sometimes not. I’ll see what I feel like as 2024 gets closer. This year I found a new non-fiction writer that I want to read more of for sure. 

Time Change Blues

Last weekend I talked my mom and sisters into not being productive at home and we went shopping. I honestly could have gone, got what I needed, and been back home before we even left, but what's the fun in that. As it was, we got to a busy shopping center in the middle of the day and had lots of traffic and people to deal with. But it was still fun. I just wanted to get out. It was a warm day and the sun was shining and I really enjoyed it. 

Then my mom reminded me it was daylight savings. I didn't really notice it on Sunday. I was just home doing my thing and it got dark when it got dark. Monday, we all went to my niece's high school play and I definitely noticed that it was almost dark when I left my house at 5:30. I have to get used to driving in the dark again, I guess. 

Today, it's just dark because clouds. I had to get up for an early meeting online and and I've been able to work from home with the window open a bit to hear the rain. It's so nice, even if it is chilly. How many is too many cups of cocoa? 

The holiday season will be in full swing before I know it. I'm trying to balance everything and enjoy the fall and have gratitude for so many good things in my life, but also be aware of things I can do around me. I can't truly help most of the world problems right now, though I've given some money to a few causes, but I can make a difference where I am. 

Presidential Barbie

So it’s only been about 2 years or less since I started following SharonSaysSo on Instagram, but I like her content and it’s one of the places I get my news from. She also does a paid book club that I’ve done 2 “semesters” of and have really enjoyed. I only do them when she picks books I’m interested in reading or meeting the author (online, of course). Anyway, I saw that she was coming to Utah to speak. My sister also follows her and texted me to see if I wanted to go. She was able to get us tickets and last night we drove down to UVU for the event. She’s a great speaker and I had an excellent time. I just love the idea that no matter what your political beliefs, everybody can get involved in making the government and communities in which we live better. That normal, everyday people can make a difference. That was the gist of her message last night. Anyway, well worth the trip down there on a “school” night and worth only getting 6 hours of sleep last night. :)

This is the only picture I took. She said she was dressed as Presidential Barbie, which is hilarious. 

Expensive Weekend

Well, life definitely happens when you least expect it. Last Friday night I noticed that my fridge was leaking something and then Saturday morning, there was definitely water on the floor underneath it. I decided Friday night I was probably just going to be getting a new fridge if that one was dying so I did some googling and scheduled a junk service to come pick up the old one. I wanted it gone to be able to clean up the floor. They came really quick on Saturday. I got up early to go get a cooler from my sister and my mom dropped off hers as well. After the fridge was taken, I spend some time mopping up water and cleaning my floor as well as organizing what was going in the coolers. I have already thrown away 2 garbage bags of stuff (all my condiments!) and I know I will be throwing out more. Luckily, my mom and neighbor took a few things I didn't want to lose.  

I went to look at fridges and ended up getting one at Lowes. Since I was there, I purchased a new garbage disposal. My old one stopped working a few weeks ago. And since I was there I also bought a new microwave as well. The one I have has been making weird noises when it goes on and I just decided to do it all now. On the plus side, all of my kitchen appliances are now new and they all match once again. 

My fridge gets delivered today and my microwave, tomorrow. I'm really grateful that things have worked out as well as they did and that it happened on the week I'm home. Fingers crossed that I measured correctly and everything fits. :)

Yesterday, my mom and sister and the twins went for a drive to see the autumn leaves. They've peaked in Logan canyon, but were still really beautiful. Tons of people were out doing the same thing. Of course, I didn't get any pictures of the red and orange leaves. LOL It was really nice to get out into the mountains for a bit though.

Back Home

After 2 work trips back to back and getting sick for the 2 days in between the trips, I’m so happy to be home. I still have one more work trip this month, but I’m going to enjoy being at home as much as possible. It’s only Thursday, but tonight I’m going to do my typical end of week routine with popcorn and a movie just to get all cozy.

I was just in Las Vegas for a conference, which was not so cozy. So many people! I had a good time with my coworkers and activities, but that most definitely is not my normal scene and I’m so thankful it’s not.

The Sphere was kind of cool, but I have to ask myself why it was needed in the first place? :)

I'm not completely ignorant of pop culture, so I had heard of Diplo but....yeah I'm not one of the cool kids. We had our consultants take us out to dinner and didn't go to the club until around 10:45 (the event was put on for us and was supposed to end at 11:00). We were just going to pop in for a minute. We ended up staying until 11:30, when it actually ended, and it turned out to be pretty fun. Clubs are most definitely not my thing and never have been.

Anyway, I am grateful for all the opportunities my company gives me and I work with great people. 

 

Fun Weekend

I started my weekend on Friday and took my nephew to Fan-X. He's starting his mission and we won't be able to go again for a couple years if everything goes according to current plan. This was my second year going with him and even though it always sounded like something to avoid for crowds, I have a good time. I'm not a cosplayer myself, but I do love seeing how creative everybody is. Plus, he has a good time with his costume. 

In a couple years, I'd like to go again and take some of my other family. Maybe I'll brave going on Saturday instead of Friday. This year, I got my geek satisfied when I found a Spy-X Family t-shirt to buy. Although funny thing is, I was wearing my Edward Gorey t-shirt and somebody stopped me to talk about it. Most people don't know who he is anymore, but he's a writer and artist and I've been to his house turned museum on Cape Cod.

When we got back to my house, we got busy watching Attack on Titan. We had about 13 episodes to finish season 4. Normally, I'm the person that says enough! so I can go to bed. But this time I made us stay up to 2 AM to finish them. LOL The funny thing is, we aren't done. There is still a 1 hour special to watch, plus another longer episode not yet out. I'll be watching those on my own to see how it ends. It definitely isn't my favorite anime, but we've had a lot of things to discuss over the course of 4 seasons. I have to say it has been a lot of fun.

And the primary program was on Sunday so that is over and I can relax about the songs now. I did make a few mistakes but not terrible ones and the hardest songs to play went off really well so there is that.

Next up, I still have some travel weeks coming up for work and in between I'm trying to enjoy the Autumn. The leaves are starting to change and the days are getting shorter. I'm loving it.