to say this weekend was a busy one would be a massive understatement.  friday ran into saturday, saturday ran into today, and now i'm left feeling a bit weary.

i went home for the weekend without the hubs, and for good reason.  friday night was spent with two out of the three of my best friends from high school.  my friend hope was leaving for nicaragua yesterday morning and i desperately needed to see her one more time before she left for four months.  i have to say, this was my absolute favorite part of the weekend.  it's amazing to me that although we don't see each other very often, and we don't really talk much outside of our reunions, we settle into such comfortable conversation.  we painted our nails, reminisced and caught up into the wee hours of the morning, and it was wonderful.

saturday was spent olive-gardening (bet you didn't know that was a verb) with my ma and the older of my two brothers.  we filled up on unlimited soup and salad and carbo-loaded on breadsticks to gear up for some shopping, and some animal-visiting at the humane shelter.  then i made them they happily volunteered to join in on the SOS action.

normally, i'm not all about kitties, but this one looked identical to an awesome cat we used to have.  seriously eerie.

then, in the evening, i met up with two of my college roommates.  it was paige's birthday and we ate mexican and went to see a sketch comedy show at shadowbox cabaret with a couple other friends of hers.  fun was had, but i was starting to feel a little ragged from all of the running around, so i took off halfway through the show to make it home to my pjams.

oh haiiiii birthday girl

getting out of bed this morning was, in one word, rough.  but up it was, to finish up my young life small group lesson and then head to my friend crystal's baby shower.  she is the third of my three high school best friends, the lone soldier that was unable to join us on friday night.  and who can blame her?  girlfriend has had a little bun cooking in the oven for about 8 months now and we didn't hang until 11pm.  she looked beautiful and the party was uber cute.  unfortunately, a) i forgot to take a pic of the gift i made for baby noble (which i was quite proud of, btw), and b) i had to cut out before it really even started to get back to fort wayne to lead small group.

loved it.

whew!  did you catch all of that?  at the end of the weekend, i'm a bit frustrated.  i hate that, although i got to spend a bit of time with everyone, i didn't really get to give all of myself to anyone.  time was given, but when there's so much focus on just surviving the weekend's demands, how much quality can really be expected from that time?  and where was my sabbath day?  bear with me this week, guys.  there's about a 72% chance that posts will be getting shorter and grumpier as the week goes on.

i apologize in advance, you know, just in case.  do you get really grumpy if you don't have a day of rest, or do you thrive on the go, go, go?

that's right.  i was spoiled for Christmas.  on top of numerous other things, the hubs, my in-laws and my bonus check all pitched in to get me what i've been patiently awaiting for a long, long time.



meet my Pentax K-x.  she obviously needs a name, and i haven't come up with one yet, but i am now accepting suggestions.  my initial thought is louann.



the hubs, doing what he does best (call of duty).

 


i can't believe how good our 5-month-old puppy is with our friends' baby, emmett.  at one point, titan snuggled up to the little guy and laid his head in his lap.



eric was making him laugh.  precious.





it's painfully obvious how much these two love each other.

 there is no better way to end a monday than with good friends and family in our happy little home.


last night was our sunday school christmas party and, yup, you guessed, it was tacky-christmas-sweater themed.  our sunday school class is filled with an amazing group of people and i love them all.  we always have such a great time when we get together.

this might be one for the christmas cards...

check out the intense blame-game going on here.  this game isn't for the meek.

there was also a white elephant exchange.  wifey managed to be the hero and seal the best prize for her hubs.  was it the functioning bread maker?  nah.  was it that statue of a basketball-playing santa?  nah.  there's only one prize eric had his eye on, and who could blame him?

ohhhh yeahhhhh.