New Car!

Oh and my other big news is that we bought a NEW CAR!  One I have always wanted!  We started looking mid-December and even looked while we were up in Chicago.  I had it narrowed down to a Highlander or a Nissan Murano.  It had to be white with preferably tan leather interior.  I thought car shopping would be fun and easy.  It was Not. At. All.  I really couldn’t decide on what I wanted and things that were important to Brian (technology, updates) were not important to me and things that were important to me (Cuteness factor, price) were not as important to Brian.  We had been looking and I finally came across a Lexus RX330 online that was at a dealership nearby.  The mileage was higher then I wanted but the price was lower than we expected to spend.  We went and looked at it and drove it and before we even got out of the car, Brian had a little smirk on his face.  I asked what was so funny..he chuckled and said “I knew we would end up with one of these”.   He knows me all too well!  My parents have had one for a few years and I INSIST on driving it anytime they drive it down to Louisville or we go up to Chicago.  So…now I have one of my very own!  I am loving it.  It is cute and drives SO well in the snow and wet roads.  I have mentioned we moved kind to be kind of out in the country and bit and some all of the roads to get to our house are kind of steep and windy so I feel SO much safer driving the Lexus rather than my 2004 Toyota Solara.  AND we did hang on to the Toyota.  It such a great little car and gets great gas mileage and the dealer wasn’t’ going to give us much on our trade in so we decided to hang on to it for a while.  I have A LOT of emotional attachment to it as well so its temporary relief to not have to get rid of it though.  One day I will have to get over it though.  J

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

It’s been a few months since I posted (boy does that sound familiar!) so I have a lot to catch up on!  Our holiday season was HECTIC!  Nice, fun, sweet, but mostly hectic.  Thanksgiving started it off with my family (Mom, Dad, Sis, BIL, nephew) coming down to visit.  We had a great time!  It was so nice to have the whole family be able to stay under one roof for the first time ever.  Well, let me back up.  They have been driving down from Chicago to Louisville for years now but it has always been my parents staying with me (us once we got married) and my sister and BIL staying at a nearby hotel.  We went over to the In-Laws for Thanksgiving dinner and did our usual trip to Churchill Downs the day after.  Throwing our money to the wind and eating and drinking too much after drinking and eating too much the day before, go figure.

Soon after that we hosted TWO back to back Holiday parties.  Never. Again.  We had Brian’s entire school faculty over on Friday night.  I would guesstimate that there were about 60 people???  Yes. 60.  I don’t really know a lot of them and of course they all knew each other so I spent the evening kind of running around, then I would have nothing to do, then run around some more.  Saturday we had all of my friends and most of their spouses over plus some kiddos.  Approximately 15 people?  That was nice as well…low key.  The hardest part about hosting was the fact that we had only been in our house about 2-3 months and I was kind of a total spazz about making sure the house was decorated and put together beautifully.  Everyone GUSHED about the house though so that was nice to hear. 

After that we had a week or two of quietness before we headed to Chicago for the weekend before Christmas.  Continued on the eating and drinking too much campaign.  We took time out of the eating and drinking to visit the Goodwill by my parents’ house three times.  My husband is obsessed…it IS a pretty good Goodwill, I must say.  I can’t say much though, I came out with 5 tops and a jacket (who is this girl) and he bought 6 pair of pants all for about $60.  Good, quality stuff too! 

We came back on Christmas Eve and had my In-Laws over for dinner on Christmas Day.  It was my first cooking of Christmas dinner and it turned out GREAT if I do say so myself.  Made all the staples my husband requested…the broccoli casserole, corn casserole, etc,etc.  It was fairly easy too.  Granted it was only 4 of us but that’s ok. 

New Year’s…we hosted AGAIN!  Although this was only 3 couples and one of the couples kiddos.  It was very low key…played some Wii, sat around, and most were gone before midnight.  I will say it was nice to just sit on the couch with the hubs and a glass of champagne at midnight and finally take a breather!  2013 is sure to be another crazy year!