Blog Clog

Whoa.

Major Blog Clog.

I am so behind in my blogging! As are many of you...I'm sure.

Darn Holidays.

But between all the...

Packing

Saying Goodbyes

Driving Across the Country

Christmas Fun

There hasn't been a spec of time for my favorite hobby. (Can blogging be considered a hobby?) I have so many things I want to share, so many stories, and SO many pictures...but they will all have to wait a bit longer. I'm heading out of town tomorrow for a bridal shower I helped plan. Can't WAIT!

So hang tight, and I'll be in touch soon!!! Hope you're all having a FAB week!!

Alive and kickin

We are indeed alive on this Christmas Eve. Barely.

3 days of driving.

6 fast food restaurant stops.

1 Nicholas Sparks Book.

24 cookies baked with love for the road.

13 states traveled through.

2 pit stops to see friends and family in D.C. and St. Louis.

1 nasty cold.

And we finally arrived to our final destination. Late yesterday afternoon. We unpacked, showered, and went out to catch up with old friends.

Good times.

I am exhausted. And sick. And I took a 3 hour nap today...after sleeping in until 11. Ugh. Just call me Lazy-Pants.

I hope you all are having a very, merry Christmas. I promise to play catch up once the hullabaloo of the holidays has blown over.

Merry Christmas!!!!

Memoir Monday: Big News Style

The time has finally arrived.

Everything has fallen into its proper place, and it is now safe to reveal the Ruby News.

And to put all assumptions to rest ASAP...I'm not pregnant.

But it is a huge change, and our lives are going to be completely different in just a few days. We are moving. And we're gonna go right ahead and click those ruby red heels to get us all the way back to KANSAS!!!!!!! That's right. We are moving back HOME!!!

It all still feels very surreal. And the past few months have been bombarded with questions, decisions, lots of prayer, job searches, and breakdowns. But the Good Lord pulled through like he does every.single.time and is now putting us back right where we belong: Home.

Originally, it was just going to be me moving back for awhile. This was a very tough decision with an extremely complicated explanation. But I was going to move back, live with my parents, and student teach back home...while Mr. Ruby stayed here and continued to look for jobs. And long distance isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world.

But in an unexpected blink-of-an-eye-whirlwind, Mr. Ruby was flown home, interviewed, returned back, and offered a job with an amazing company...all in the span of 3 days. And that was it. Just like that, our prayers had been answered beyond what we could have ever expected. And now, we are moving.

Now, of course this is exciting and what we have always wanted and desired. It's so hard to believe that everything has fallen into place. (Makes me feel guilty for ever losing faith...).

But right alongside, tagging along with all this excitement and giddiness is a deep sadness. We are leaving behind three of the best years of our entire lives. We are leaving behind the best friends we have ever made. We are leaving behind a little piece of our hearts.

I'm truly dealing with a heap of emotions, and until I sort them all out, I'm not ready to blog about them.

So for now, I will simply give thanks and celebrate that we were given the wonderful opportunity to move back home.

So here's to exciting changes to come in 2011. Cheers!!!

Taken the night we received the good news!

Our little comedian

Tiddles. Shittles. Buddy. Little Buddy Poo-Poo. Sam.

These are just a few of the names we use for our little Miniature Dachshund Samson.

When we first got him as a puppy, it took him 6 months to learn his real name. And once he learned it, we confused him even more by adding nicknames.

You see, Samson is our "special boy". He's just a few colors short of a Crayola box, as evidenced by his constant blank stare.

Poor Thing.

This I why I have to share this video. It's SHORT, I promise. But it's perfect because everything about it highlights his personality: silly, sweet, confused, and just plain "special". He discovered that the knob on a chest in our living room makes noise when he hits it with his head.

Oh Sammy.

Enjoy and HAPPY FRIDAY!!! :)

P.S. I'm so sorry I keep postponing the Ruby news...it's just that life keeps getting in the way and CHANGING. So just stay tuned!!! ;)

WILW

This Wednesday is a particularly happy one. So, I figured it would be best to celebrate this jolly hump day with a WILW with Jamie! Be sure to play along and tell us what YOU are loving this Wednesday!!!

1). I'm LOVING that my pre-clinicals are over (even though I'm really going to miss the teacher and kiddos) and that my host teacher got me a plug-in coffee mug warmer. "Perfect for grading papers" she said!

2). I'm LOVING that Friday is my last day of work. I begin student teaching in January. Woo-Hoo!!!!

3). I'm LOVING that my cousin is having a baby GIRL! Congratulations!!! (Although we could really use some boys in the family...)

4). I'm LOVING the Candy Cane Hershey Kisses. A very serious problem.

source

5). I'm LOVING Swiss Miss Sweet Sensibles (Diet Hot Chocolate). To counterbalance the Hershey Kisses in number four, of course.

source

6). I'm LOVING pomegranates. I cut my first one last week. SO delicious!!!

7). I'm LOVING the ornaments we made at our friends' ornament-making party. (And I'm LOVING that we're stealing this idea as a tradition for our family!!!)

My little monogrammed star - in K-State colors of course. ;)

My gingerbreadman - Yes, I am aware it looks like a 7 year old made it.

Mr. Ruby's peace sign ornament - we teased him all night for this...

Our friend's little Pete the Penguin. Isn't he ADORABLE?!?!

Not your typical Monday

Monday is by far the worst day of the week.

Hence the reason for Case of the Mondays and Sunday Night Blues.

And yesterday began like every other Monday: feverishly catching up on all the chores I got behind on over the weekend. Unloading the dishwasher. Washing 3 loads of laundry. Cleaning up the weekend clutter.

When all of a sudden, the doorbell rang.

I didn't think much of it because our neighbors ring the doorbell all the time (bringing us banana bread, spaghetti, or to give the pups treats etc.)

I opened the door, and much to my surprise, my dear friend stood there with a big smile and an even bigger "HELLO!"

She drove an hour to work only to be told she wasn't cleared to work because of a virus she had last week.

Big bummer, right?

So...she decided to come hang out with me until I had to go to work. And by hang out with me, I mean we chatted while I worked on some housework. Boo.

Well after about 20 minutes, my phone rings and I see it's MY work. I screen the call because...well...I was "working" on more important things.

I hesitantly check my message: "Hi Mrs. Ruby, I'm not sure if you are aware, but the schools are closed today due to flooding." (I begin to panic because this usually means we have to go in early) "Well, we called all of the staff and no one could come in early, so I just wanted to let you know that you don't have to go to your site today. So enjoy your day off work!"

No WAY!

So, the whole day we felt like we were playing hookie from school or had called in sick to work.

We spent the day:

Eating. Umm, yeah, so this is the Cheesecake Factory's "lunch size" Santa Fe Chicken Salad. So delicious. And I could only eat about 1/4 of it.

Girl Talks. About work, life, marriage, babies, and friendship!

What we do best. Shopping!!! What can I say? Tis the season...

Cuddling with the pups. I think this may have been the pup's favorite Monday of their entire lives.

Napping. We tried to watch Charlie St. Cloud, but both ended up snoozing for a couple of hours.

Best Monday of my entire life.

Memoir Monday

Wow.

I feel like this weekend really was part of my life's memoir.

It was one to remember.

But unfortunately, I have to save some of the details for later...for when I reveal a bit of Ruby news.

Bummer.

But what would a Memoir Monday post be without some pictures from the weekend? So, of course I have a few!

The weekend: MORE Christmas festivities. Ornament making. The best friends in the entire world. Laughter. Hot Chocolate. Rum Punch. The common trend of way too much food during the holidays. Feeling proud that one of MY friends is a talented opera singer. Tearing up during her concert...multiple times.

New Tradition. I went to my very first ornament-making party. And I totally think I'm going to make this a new Ruby tradition. It was SO much fun!!!

Even the boys played. Yep. The boys worked on clove oranges...with bows!

Final Product. My sweet husband made this. Ok, he really just stuck the cloves into the orange in a swirly pattern, and then my friend's aunt tied the bow...but still.

Hot Chocolate Station. Who knew hot chocolate could be served so many ways. Delicious!!!

Santa's Elf. Had a ball making my gingerbread ornament. He turned out so cute!

We could sell these. Everyone's ornaments turned out so cute. And there was every crafty material and tool you could possibly use.

So crafty. Mr. Ruby working on his peace sign ornament. Very fitting.

The Finale. Check out some of the final ornaments. This was seriously SO much fun!!!

Proud. This girl can belt out a note or two. ;) She gave an INCREDIBLE Christmas concert last night. Sang some of my all-time faves: Give me Jesus, I'll be Home for Christmas, Carol of the Bells, Silent Night, Oh Holy Night. Love.

Even Prouder. My two very talented friends that put the rest of us to shame. A Graphic Designer and an Entertainer/Singer.

Coat Racks. Happy to be holding wives' purses and coats.

Encore. Seriously, my friend can outsing Christina, Mariah, and Celine.

Go ahead and share your weekend's memoir. I'd love to hear about it.

(News to come soon...promise).

Fill in the Blank

{Erin Nicole Photography via weheartit}

1. I wish Everyone that I loved lived in one place. Heck, I'd even settle for at least within a 100 mile radius. But at the current moment, there's a span of 1,600 miles of separation between family and friends and our Little Rhody Family. Boo :( .

2. Yesterday I surprisingly had an ok day at work. It's amazing how one kid being out can make all the difference... I also went through the majority of our house to fulfill the needs of my bi-annual "purging binge". There are now several very large boxes waiting to be taken to Goodwill. Oh. And I tried shepard's pie for the first time. Delicious! .

3. Today I will head to the mall, make a scrumptious greek wrap for lunch, head to work, and attend an ornament-making party this evening. Can't wait!!!

4. Tomorrow I will sleep in late, go through more of the house (yeah for more purging!), bake something Christmas-y, begin organizing my life for student-teaching, polish off our 6 dozen cookies (took exactly 1 week to eat 72!), attend our besties' CHRISTMAS PARTY!!! .

5. Maybe if there is time this weekend, I'll dig out my leopard Snuggie and watch Love Actually with the pups and hubs .

6. Someday I WILL be a successful teacher (hopefully third grade!) who goes to work every day with a purpose, and we will have two little ones running around finding ways to help their mama make fun of their daddy ;).

7. I love staying up late with Mr. Ruby dreaming of our future, laughing at how silly our wiener dog is, laughing at how needy and sensitive our cheagle is (yep, she's a Chihuahua-Beagle mix...how did THAT happen?!?!), people-watching, spontaneous dance/karaoke parties until 3 AM, spiced chai tea, chicken burritos, H&M, the Christmas cards we've received, road trips, Kansas, Rhode Island summers, our new love of collecting Christmas ornaments, and game nights .

You can play along too...just link up with Lauren!

HAPPY FRIDAY EVERYONE! Hope you have a very merry weekend! :)

Straight to the thighs

Promise you won't judge me if I tell you how many cookies Mr. Ruby and I have eaten this week?

No, I'm serious.

Well, out of 72 cookies from last weekend's cookie swap, we have just under half left.

And it's only Wednesday.

That's just disgusting. And gluttonous.

(I truly do blame most of it on my husband as he informed me he's taken 3 cookies for lunch each day and then eaten 3 after dinner.)

Ok, ok. I've been rather guilty as well. But I can't help it! It's Christmas. And I figure the holiday chubbies are in full force...so I might as well live it up. Right?

With that being said, I've received several requests to post the recipe I used for the swap. I'm going to be honest - I mixed a couple of different recipes from here and here.

Holiday Eggnog Drops

(Yields 6 Dozen)

Ingredients:

*1 1/4 cups white sugar * 2 egg yolks * 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon * 3/4 cup butter, softened * 1 tsp ground nutmeg * 1/2 cup eggnog * 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour * 1 tsp vanilla extract * 1 tsp baking powder *

• Preheat oven to 300 °

• Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

• Cream sugar and butter until light.

• Add eggnog, vanilla, and egg yolks. Beat at medium speed with mixer until smooth.

• Add flour mixture and beat at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix.

• Drop teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet 1 inch apart.

• Sprinkle lightly with nutmeg.

• Bake 20 – 23 minutes until bottoms turn light brown.

Eggnog Icing (

Yields about 1 ½ cups ):

*3 cups confectioners sugar * ¼ cup softened butter * 1/3 cup eggnog

• In small mixer bowl, beat confectioner’s sugar and butter until well blended.

• Gradually beat in eggnog until icing is smooth.

Warning: They are SUPER sweet but SUPER delish! Enjoy! :)

Ruby-isms

Life would not be quite as grand without the ability to laugh at my frequent encounters with Ruby-isms.

Now, I realize that I weekly discuss my sweet husband's quirks, silly ideas, and things that make me sigh and shake my head in disbelief. But to be completely honest, I have just as many idiosyncrasies (ok, more) than Mr. Ruby. And, I bet I could dig through the past three years of blogging and find well over 100 mortifying moments or things that "I couldn't make up if I tried".

What can I say? Self-deprecation is therapeutic.

So, why not therapute with a story.

Now, Mr. Ruby has been out of town since last Wednesday. So, I was beyond excited when he greeted me when I came home from work last night. We chatted for a couple of hours over a gourmet dinner of frozen pizza. So romantic. Then, we had about 3 cookies each from last weekend's cookie swap. We both have these rattling coughs and decided that we should get some sleep. But first, we wanted to watch Modern Family. Hysterical.

We got in bed, and I was beginning to drift off when Mr. Ruby said he had a traveling story.

I love traveling stories. I could write a book from all of my recruiting travels back in the day.

I perked right up.

Mr. R: So, some guy left his water bottle open in the luggage bin and water got all over the passengers.

Me: WHAT?!? I would have freaked out!

Mr. R: Tell me about it. Water was leaking out onto these sweet little ladies next to me and on the passengers in front of them. I just kept thinking, "that really sucks".

Me: Oh my goodness. I would have been livid. So just because some guy didn't close his water bottle?

Mr. R: Yep. And that guy was me.

Both: (Eruption of laughter)

So, apparently my husband caused an entire debacle on the plane. But, he was so intent on the book he was reading, he didn't notice that the flight attendant was cleaning up the water that had leaked and holding up the water bottle asking for someone to claim it.

Finally, he looked up and realized what was going on. And that the flight attendant was holding up his aluminum water bottle. The funniest part? I tease Mr. Ruby for taking this water bottle with him everywhere. And I'm not exaggerating. Everywhere.

Of course he apologized to everyone who received a suprise shower.

Luckily, they all forgave him. It's really hard not to. ;)

Memoir Monday: Christmas Spirit Style

Ho-Ho-Happy Monday.

Can't help it. I've been bitten by the jolly holiday spirit bug.

And this weekend was FULL of holiday cheer.

Check it out for yourself:

Pump up the jam. Saturday morning began with jolly tunes on my Pandora Christmas station.

It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas. Spent my morning baking 6 dozen cookies for a cookie swap.

Santa's Little Helper. Sienna decided she wanted to help (by sitting next to the heater).

Elf busy at work. That was me cutting, pasting, and putting together my cookie recipe cards.

Eggnog Drops. Welcome to my final product. A total experiment (with mixing of several recipes) turned into a success. These may not have won the prettiest cookie award, but they sure were DELICIOUS!

Cookie Swap. How can you NOT be in the holiday spirit at this point?

Good Luck. So much for watching my figure.

The Winners. The hostess had cute awards/prizes for the Choc-a-holic, Sugariest, Most Detail-Oriented, and Christmas Spirit. Too Cute!!!

The newlywed hostess. Thanks to this cookie swap hostess, we all now have AMAZING cookie recipes!!!

Mama-to-be. Leave it to me to want to do a cheesy huggy pic with fellow blogger Jen. I couldn't help it, her baby bump is TOO cute in person!!!

Mistletoe Kissies. Again, leave it to me to want to do a mistletoe pic. What? I thrive on cheese.

Classy. Can't go wrong with McDonald's.

What? We like fast food. Even in our nice holiday garbs.

How was YOUR weekend?!?! Feel free to play along in Memoir Monday.