hard times...

Well, today I was laid off. I'm a little freaked out, and don't know what the future holds, but I know that God has a plan. Please pray for me during this time of "unknown" that I will find a new job quickly, be able to pay my bills on time, and have enough money to eat and pay rent! :)

Matthew 11:28
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."

happy birthday olya!

Today is my dear friend (and co-worker) Olya's birthday!
Its her 3rd anniversary of turning 25! hahaha! :)
Nah, she's a young 28!
Happy Birthday Olya!
I hope you have a fun weekend celebrating!
I LOVE YOU!

Olya with her birthday dessert yesterday
(yummy tiramisu)lunch at Boston's for her bday today

christmas with the girlies

so much fun...

Tonight was girl's night with my co-workers.
We all got together at Connie's house and had a very nice home-cooked dinner (pasta) that she and her husband made for us. It was so tasty! Thanks Connie, for serving mine without the shrimp! :) I love you for that! After dinner, we got out all the craft stuff and we each made our own snowflake Christmas ornament. It was lots of fun, but messy with beads flying everywhere! (there were a few spills, hahaha!) After our crafts were mostly done, we took a break and did our gift exchange. I got some super cute bracelets!Then we had some SUPER YUMMY fondue!
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

It was a very fun night with the girls, I hope we get together like this more often! I love girl time!!

hanging the bulbs

Oh, I just love Christmas lights on all the houses! Its so fun to drive up and down the streets and see how everyone decorated! Lights are one of my favorite things...especially fireworks and city lights! Anyway, this weekend I decided to get some lights put up on my house since this is the first year I'm in a house instead of an apartment. I didn't put up that many, but at least its something! :) Oh, and its not as easy as it looks. I guess it would help if I had a ladder that was taller, but still...this is a man's work!! haha :) I also put up my faux Christmas tree...yes that's right, no real Christmas tree this year. I just couldn't justify spending the money on a tree that will die in a couple weeks, when I could save the money and put it towards a flight to see my family! (love you guys!) So here's my faux tree all decorated traditional style with all my sentimental ornaments from childhood.Then last night, my cousin Cathy invited me over for an amazing turkey dinner she made. After we scarfed all our food, we went (my cousin Cathy and her three kids) to drive through the neighborhoods in Rancho to see all the Christmas lights that everyone decorated their houses with. I'm glad we went early in the month, before all the crowds. We were also able to drive through, so that was nice. Oh, and Annie had fun on her first Christmas lights outing :) She nearly jumped out of the window at least 10 times she was so excited! (her shirt says "Santa's Little Helper", she's so cute!)After the lights, we went back to Cathy's house and Paige was having fun making Annie a princess...She didn't enjoy it so much, hahaha! :)Well, that's it for now...I hope you're having fun doing all the holiday decorating and enjoying all the Christmas festivities too! Tis the season to be jolly!! :)

Matlock Christmas Party

Tonight was our office Christmas party. We had a good time. We all congregated at Liz's house and it actually made for a super fun night. Our dinner was catered and we sat around big tables that were in the living room (the furniture was all cleared out). It was nice chatting with everyone over dinner, and then came time for the $5 gift exchange where I ended up with a cinnamon smelly candle...mmmmmmmmmthe gift exchange was fun because we played the game where you can steal from each other. There were some interesting gifts for sure! (We also received company shirts from Tom, and the girl's sweaters are very soft and comfy!)

I just love when everyone gets together. We don't have to do anything spectacular, just being together is nice.

Me and LizMe and DeannaMe and OlyaMe and ConnieThanks, Tom and Judi, for a fun night celebrating Christmas together! I love working for Matlock Associates and hope to continue more in the future.PS...Here's a picture of Deanna's hairless cat - pretty scary if you ask me!

christmas memories, 2007

stockings by the fire
continuing dad's tradition...
hanging santa on the door-bell
gingerbread house contest
walking the christmas lights
the infamous christmas eve pictures
sweet sammy opening presents
silly benji wearing grammy's glasses
crazy zack in his christmas stockings
the family photo...yes, we're crazy
just a few of my favorite memories/photos from christmas last year...
i'm looking forward to the next time we all will be together again!
i hope you all have a special christmas this year and take advantage of every moment with the ones you love!!!

office christmas cheer

So I decided to decorate my cubicle at work today...its not much, but it hits the spot! :) I just love Christmas time, all the pretty lights and decorations, the smells of evergreen and peppermint, the hot chocolate and cookies, smiles and laughs, and the spirit of giving....its a great time! I was hoping to bring some Christmas cheer to my office this month, so I put up some lights, a mini Christmas tree and my stocking (that my Grandma made when I was little). Already I'm more cheerful! I hope you have some fun decorating this time of year as much as I have...live a little, take some of that fun to the office too!
I hope you all have a great month celebrating and giving thanks to God for sending his precious Son to save us!
Love to you all!

Click on:

The Birth Of Jesus

for the story and scripture reference

foggy morning

Well the drive to work today was a bit unclear...that's right, we had fog! I actually like foggy weather, its nice having something different for a change! It makes it feel like fall/winter finally! I'm jealous of all you out there who have real seasons! I'm sure I wouldn't want it if I actually had to deal with all the snow and slush and stuff...but it would be nice to visit! I gotta get me up to the mountains soon and have some fun! Anyway, I digress...here's a couple pictures from my car window this morning on my way to work (enjoy!):

a 'mile'stone

Tonight my girl hit a big number....
100,000 miles
That's right, my car has now hit a huge 'mile'stone...100k is a lot of miles! I hope she has a few more years in her, I can't imagine having a car payment again - yuck! No, she's been good to me. No big expenses for the most part. Anyway, just thought I'd share the news with ya'll. Exciting huh? haha :)

gobble-gobble

Mmmmm, don't you just love Thanksgiving dinner? It's one of my favorite meals of the whole year! I think its funny that even though its one of my favorites, I only have it about once a year...why is that? I guess it makes it all that more special when you don't have it very often...you appreciate it more. Well, I appreciated it a great deal and I ate A TON!

My first Thanksgiving meal this year was in the office with my coworkers. We had our lunch on Tuesday, and we had a yummy potluck. Its always nice hanging out with everyone, I feel like we bond so much more when we do big group activities. We sat around the big tables, ate our turkey and mashed potatoes...and all the other yummy stuff, and chatted for a little over an hour. It was a nice long lunch visiting with everyone. I'm very thankful to be working at this office with such wonderful people!!(tom's christmas gift)I was very blessed to spend my Thanksgiving Day with family. I was a little depressed when I realized that I wasn't going to have my immediate family around this year for the holidays, but God still blessed me once again and I was able to spend time with family anyway.

First, I got to go visit my Grandparents and have lunch with them, and I invited my cousin Cathy to come with me. I'm so glad that we got to spend the afternoon with them, it was a very nice time! I love them dearly! Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for being so wonderful...and thank you for giving me such an amazing mom! You two have been great role models and I am so blessed to have such godly and wise grandparents. I love you so much!!!
Happy Thanksgiving...I give thanks for YOU! lunch at Mimi'sGrandma & MeGrandpa & CathyThen, my sweet cousin Christy invited me over to her house for Thanksgiving dinner this year, and it was fabulous! So much good food! However, she did make me try GREEN BEANS and SWEET POTATOES....so NOT my favorite! Green beans were actually the one vegetable I swore I would NEVER eat again in my life! I don't know how she convinced me to try them {she's good at that}. But I have to say that they didn't make me throw up...or gag for that matter! So I guess they weren't all bad! hahaha :) No seriously, they were ok, but I don't think I'll be eating them again anytime soon. Sorry, I just can't do it. I'll stick with my regular meat and potatoes! :) Anyway, the night was great...I had a ton of fun hanging out with everyone, and so did Annie. Well, Annie had fun attacking the other dogs {she might be a little thing, but she's a big bully!}. I hope you too had a very special day with family and friends!!
my second plate of food...
yeah, I ate WAY TOO MUCH!we didn't feel so good after all our pigging out!Me & Annie with Christy & Minnie
{our babies had on the cutest sweaters} Annie's Thanksgiving sweater...isn't it so adorable! :)