Grizzly Game

For Valentine's Day this year I got Scott 2 tickets to the Memphis Grizzlies. They played the NYC Knicks on March 9, just after NYC made a major trade and we went to the game.

We had a great time, and since I have realized that I enjoy NBA games...when I'm actually there. The TV still doesn't do it for me.

I would also like to just take  second and congratulate myself on getting such great seats. Ideally they could have been on the corner, but our view was not obstructed at all.

The half-time show was rather interesting. This man rolled around acrobatically in this hoop. He never fell or touched the ground!

Memphis ended up winning by one point with 0.5 seconds left to go. It was nuts!

We're still working on taking self-portraits.

Lesson learned

Today I ventured out to Home Depot. It was my day off, and on such days I dont change out of my sweats or bother with makeup (unless I have "public" things planned). On these no-makeup days I also don't bother with my glasses. I figure if I can't see my appearance that clearly, neither can y'all (you know- I can't see you, you can't see me?)

Anyways, I went to HD to get some rope for a little project I decided to do(pictures to come). I always find they have the worst customer service and I don't like to ask for help there anyway (especially when it's for a crafty thing and not a "manly" thing)so each time someone asked if I needed help I said no thank you. (how lucky am i that this particular ay their service ending up bring over-the-top...) How hard can it be to find rope?! I scanned (squinted at) each aisle sign and none said rope, chain or anything similar. I circled the store 2 times. Finally, when asked for the fiftieth time if I heeded help I asked where the rope was. Can we please note that she gave me the wrong aisle #.

The lesson learned: don't go to Home Depot and expect to be independent without your glasses.

In the end I got my rope. And ran out of rope, so I'll have to venture back. At least I know where the rope is now. And I'm really happy with my project.

Rewind: Christmas 2010

This Christmas, due to work schedules and lack of money tree in our backyard (maybe if we only had a backyard...) we stayed in Collierville for Christmas. I'll say it was not nearly as bad as I expected, but given the choice I would not be without family again. It was particularly difficult because everyone (minus 4 people and us) were at my house in Edmonton for Christmas. That's almost the entire family and not to mention Jordan's first Christmas home since his mission. Oh well, there's always next year.

Scott and I sent out our Christmas card again this year. We used Shutterfly and really did get the 50 free cards for blogging about it! I thought it might end up being a scam...

Sorry the pictures is so small and again, blurry. I had to take if off the Shutterfly website and they didn't allow anything bigger. When I take the time to print screen it, or take a picture of our leftover ones I'll post a better shot. But lets be honest, anyone that reads my blog got one anyways. You already know what it looks like!

I was surprised that they didn't limit the quality of the free cards. Christmas 2009 we just used photo paper and it wasn't my favorite. This year we selected the card stock and it looked/felt  much better. Thank you Jay Brooksby for taking our pictures!! We love them :)

On to the actual Christmas Festivities...

Christmas Eve Scott and I went to Kroger and bought about 15 large Hershey chocolate bars. We ate dinner (pizza maybe, I really can't remember) and then headed out to deliver the bars anonymously in the "less fortunate" parts of town. Since I was the designated runner (don't know how that happened) I got to decide which parts were safe and which weren't. Scott and I have very different opinions regarding what is safe and what is not, so I did nix a couple of the streets we ventured down.

After our deliveries were done we came back home and hooked up the web cam. We skyped with my family during their traditional Christmas FHE, talked about our Christmas service projects (ours being the chocolate bars) and opening our Christmas Eve gift- pajamas, of course! I have to say that my PJ's this year are among some my favorite ones to date, or at least of the ones I remember. And I've been getting them for 23 years now. They're that nice.

Scott and I exchanged our Christmas Eve gifts (we get one for each other every year) and headed off to bed.

Christmas morning we woke up around 9 and went back to the web cam again. We opened presents along with everyone else and then ate our Christmas breakfast- Orange Juice (Simply Orange, the best kind), chocolate milk and sticky buns. There may have been more but I forget...that's what I get for waiting so long to blog.

Christmas afternoon we hung out at home, skyped with David and Cyndie in Oregon and then headed out for a movie. It's Christmas tradition in my opinion. We saw "Little Fockers" which was good, but didn't meet either of our expectations.

For Christmas dinner we had pork tenderloin (that was great, if I do say so my self), potatoes and a vegetable of some sort. I can't remember dessert. Must have been good.

It was a nice little Christmas, and our first Christmas just the two of us. But I like a big family Christmas, it's all I've ever known (we've NEVER gone just the Biggs family at Christmas. NEVER.) and it's just not the same. And next year we'll be in Edmonton. Or so I keep telling myself!

(I've really got to get better at taking pictures...)

Like It?

This is a wreath I did on a whim a few months ago. Its made from pages out of a book.

What do you think? Like it?

I used this tutorial (http://livingwithlindsay.com/2009/11/librarians-please-avert-your-eyes.html). I like how hers is not so perfect looking, but as I noted in the last post I'm too OCD to fold and roll the paper haphazardly. One day I'll try another and just throw caution to the wind!

I think paper balls (paper pom poms?) would be super cute made from vintage children's books in a nursery. One day...

Rewind: Thanksgiving 2010 Part II

Since mum and dad were here over Thanksgiving we had to take the chance to eat Turkey. We joined the Wingert's, Moore's and Brooksby's for a Thanksgiving gathering at Jerome and Jewly's. We ate fried turkey (a first) and lots of other yummy thanksgiving desserts. 

Sorry, no picture. I felt I should at least document the holiday for prosperity. 

Rewind: Thanksgiving 2010

For (USA) Thanksgiving this year mum and dad flew down for about 10 days. We spend majority of the time shopping (I think I went to every safe mall in the Memphis area), ate out at awesome restaurants (we all know I love a good meal out) and mum even convinced me to put up my Christmas trees.

I wasn't going to do put them up because I didn't have/afford the decorations I wanted, and didn't have the time to make the ones I thought would be good for just this year. Mum had to keep reminding me that whatever decorations we used this year did not have to be my "forever decorations", so finally off to Walmart we went and about $100 later we had my trees decorated.

Before they left they did all of our Christmas shopping so that we would have full trees leading up to Christmas and a full morning on Christmas. I never thought I'd see so many presents under our trees!!

Don't mind the blurry photo. All the photos I had with the lights on were not exactly clear....

Here we have all the presents!

Can I just say that putting up Christmas trees is such a pain! Fluffing all the branches, stringing all the lights. I'm too much of a perfectionist do handle that. If it wasn't for mum we wouldn't have had them this year :)

.

I even got really ambitious and did my mantle.

Thanks for coming out guys! We always love it when you're here.

Christmas Card Time!

As you may or may not know, the Hale Family Christmas Card came from Shutterfly last year. This year I figured we would do another Christmas card, for no other reason than I suppose that's what people do. (Actually, nobody in my family but we won't count that!) Since we liked how our card turned out last year we thought we might as well use Shutterfly again this year. Not to mention they are affordable. In fact, Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards right now!!

I'm having trouble narrowing down my favorites for this year. I don't want anything that looks like traditional Christmas- I'm over  the standard red and green right now- but there are too many to choose from! Here are the cards that made my short list from both the Christmas Card category and the Holiday Card category: (I provided images for only 3...the rest of the short list is below. All images came from and can be found on Shutterfly.com)

Fa la la card

Mod Ornament card

Snowflake Rainbow

1. Fa LaLa Christmas Card
2. Air Mail Wishes
3. Kaleidoscope Stars Christmas Card
4. Mod Ornaments
5. Retro Love Holiday Card
6. Warm Wishes Christmas Card
7. Joy in Color Christmas Card
8. Peace and Joy Christmas Card
9. Mod Sparkles Holiday Card
10. Snowflake Rainbow Christmas Card
11. Holiday Confetti Christmas Card
12. Wishes Whirl Christmas Card
13. Holiday Lights Holiday Card
14. Vintage Merry Christmas Card

Not much of a short list, I know. I've never been one to quickly decide when design is on the table. And when the "public" eye will be viewing my selection for the next year. (Who am I kidding, more like a week, maybe, after it arrives in the mail). Each design is so different, funky and fun that I can't choose! I love that they have such unique Christmas designs in out of the ordinary colors and patterns.

Do you have favorites? Which card on my "short" list would you choose? I won't tell you what I decide, or I might as well not even send the card, y'all could just envision me and Scott in place of the stock photo. So give me your feedback, and hold your horses because you won't know the answer until it arrives in a mailbox near you.

Head on over to Shutterfly and choose a card for yourself. I'll wait for it to arrive in my mailbox!