Category Archives: Word Up Yo

Time to get Festive!!

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First of all I’m sorry for being lazy… I haven’t posted anything in a while. Somehow between work and everything else I just let the blog slide. Then again family is more important than the blog!

I bet by now many of you have the holiday decorating done, your homes are filled with beautiful & festive decorations, and you’re just about ready for the holidays! Right? Well, I’m not. I just got out some of the decorations. There’s no tree and we can’t even decide if we are getting a real one or just throwing up the fake one this year!

You’re probably wondering what’s up with her! Well, here’s the deal. I have a beautiful daughter who just had a birthday and I hate to combine it with the holidays.

I’ve spent the last 15 years making sure that she had her special day. That meant that there were no holiday decorations up at her birthday party, her gifts are always wrapped in birthday paper, she is never shorted on gifts, and she has the same opportunities for a great birthday as all the other kids. It’s not her fault that her birthday is close to Christmas.

Now my baby is 15 years old. I’ve watched her grow and change into an incredibly smart, beautiful, and fun person that I’m very proud of. Sometimes I wonder where all the time has gone and if I missed something really important even though I’ve always been there.

Cait & Santa

She looks so happy visiting with Santa. Now she doesn’t believe in him (even though many of her gifts are from Santa) and I don’t think that I could get her to sit with Santa for a picture unless her life depended on it!

Cait

Isn’t she cute!! Why is it that when they’re younger they’re happy and willing to look at the camera and smile?

And now she’s grown up. Every day is a reminder of the the adult that she’s turning into and the little girl that she isn’t anymore.

Cait Now

Now if I were a good mom I’d have some of the cutest baby pictures ever of her here as well, but since that was way before digital cameras I have to pull out the scanner, plug it in, and scan them all! I’ll save that for another day!

Now that all the birthday fun has passed the festive holiday season can start! I love decorating and this year Cait is helping me get things done!

My Weekend Getaway

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This past weekend while many were out braving the Black Friday crowds running frantically from store to store to find that great deal that they can’t pass up I was spending a relaxing weekend at Crystal Mountain Resort in northern Michigan.

Now this shindig was a huge family event. We had a total of 12 people that all went up together! And …. we were all in one house too. Thankfully the house was huge, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, finished basement with foosball, ping pong, fireplace, and a large walkout deck. Of course there were all the other regular rooms like kitchen, dining & living rooms. It was a beautiful place and enough room for all of us to not be running into one another all the time.

I was really hoping that the slopes would be open because my daughter wanted to try snowboarding and I wanted to try downhill skiing (tumbling) again. I should mention that I haven’t skied in at least 15 years and I wasn’t all that great at it to begin with. Also… I hate the cold weather. But as most of you know Mother Nature is fickle and there was no snow and it wasn’t even cold enough for them to run the snow machines. With the snow that’s been falling all day today my guess is that this upcoming weekend the slopes will be open.

So instead of trying to kill myself we spent some quality time at the spa. Yes, I finally had some “me time”!! It was incredible and the only thing that could have made it better was if I was able to spend all day at the spa getting the massage, sitting in the outdoor hot tub, enjoying a facial, and sipping local organic tea in the meditation room (I did do that part)! The time that I was able to spend there was really nice! And I found the most awesome color of purple nail polish!

It was a great family shindig! We played card games, watched movies, and just hung out. Oh, I also found out that the husband greatly dislikes losing and my sister in law is awesome at Spoons! I’m glad that we went up north instead of braving the crazy shopping crowds! It was much more relaxing.

What did you do.. shop or relax?