cleaning house and monopoly

So, it's Saturday here once again. Marco worked until mid afternoon today, so i found myself with plenty of time to get the house in order. I took down the Christmas decorations and packed them up for another year. did laundry, which seems like a never ending task, cleaned bathrooms, vacuumed.... you know the regular Saturday chores. I opened the windows and got a nice fresh breeze going thru.... it was probably in the 60's, very pleasant.

Last night Marco and I had some friends over for dinner and games. It was fun! We broke out the juicer and had some fresh juice.... and played Monopoly. Now, I haven't played monopoly in YEARS, and when i did play... when i was like 9 years old, we didn't play by the real rules.... i don't think that before last night i ever made it thru an entire game, and i certainly never used the houses or the hotels. Well, I lost, and it was pretty pathetic. I had negative $92, and the other girl won with $10,000+ dollars. I guess this just means that I'm going to have to practice so that I don't suck so horribly bad next time!!

no, i'm not pregnant....

but i do have exciting news!! Marco and I got an offer on the house!! If everything goes smoothly we'll be closing Jan 22nd. We're looking forward to being in Washington, and most especailly being close to the family again. We've missed them so much! We'll keep you all posted as things progress. Happy Holidays!

I am Legend

So I'm not one for scary movies.... not that i get nightmares or anything bad. but sometimes i let my imagination run wild... especially when i'm at home alone and it's night.... i think too much. but anyway. Marco and I went and saw I am Legend last night. a little scary, but good. not as scary as i thought it was going to be. not saying that i didn't jump multiple times (half of those times because marco poked me)

i'd rather be.... suntanning!!

seriously. we had record breaking weather today (at least according to a guy i work with... but i didn't verify it) apparently the previous high was 74degrees, but today, December 11, 2007, when it should be hat and scarf weather, it's swim suit weather at a whopping 80degrees!! it almost makes me want to break out the grill and have watermelon, but that's just wrong. we should be having stew and hot chocolate. it's like a washington summer. I got a text from TJ (my brother, who happens to live in the " 'burg") and he said it was -3 degrees!!

a little somethin'-somethin'

So, nothing really exciting is happening right now, but i haven't posted in 2 weeks, so i figure i should drop a little somethin'-somethin' even if it really isn't much of anything.

The past couple weeks have been pretty uneventful. Marco and I have been Christmas shopping. Marco washed the car (yesterday, the weather was in the 70's once again!!) I started going to the gym across the street from my office. I go to a pilates class every thursday after work. We've both been a little sick the past few days. I'm making sugar cookies this afternoon. I cleaned up the green room, and I think i'm going to turn it into my "studio". Set up all my painting stuff and start painting again. Maybe i'll take a pic of that when i get finished.

Well i'm kind of grasping at straws..... happy holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving......'tis the season!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!
I have so many things to be Thankful for this year, as I do every year. It seems as though things keep getting better, and better and I'm so grateful for that. I'm thankful for the many good things in my life, and as well as the struggles and the bad things... they make the good things just that much better. I'm grateful for my wonderful husband, my amazing family... everyone of them is a blessing to me. I'm thankful for my job and the joy i get from it. I'm so thankful for my church and for the guiding strength that it is in my life. I'm thankful for this opportunity that I have had to be in Raleigh and the amazing people that I've met here. I'm thankful for my cute little house and the warmth that it's four walls contains. I'm thankful for this time of year and the excuse that I have to look upon my life and realize how much is so amazing. So to all my friends and family.... thank you for being so wonderful.... and to the great Lord on High, thank you for blessing my life.

This being "the season" a family tradition of the Meynders has always been to decorate for Christmas Thanksgiving weekend. This is one tradition that I want to continue with my newly formed little family. So this weekend after Turkey day and doing a little shopping on Black Friday. Marco and I got out the boxes of Christmas Decorations (all 2 of them) and festivized the house.

Here is the mantle, you can't really tell but the candles are red. We've had a couple fires already this season and i love it... it is so warm and cozy.

It is my goal to get new ornaments for the tree each year. This year I got some snowflakes in red, gold, and silver. I love them... they are so sparkly!!

Here is the tree.... and it is SO fake. But it's ok cause it only cost $25 dollars. My sister and I bought it a few years ago when she lived here with me. I think it's kinda pretty. it is definately not evenly decorated, so if you're a fan of balance don't look too closely.

Along with getting a new Ornament each year I also want to start a "village". We don't have enough to call it a village yet... maybe a backyard. We've got a treehouse, a winter garden, and this years addition is a guy ice fishing. Once we get to the point where we've got a villiage, I want to give it a proper name. but that will be a while so I've got time to think.....

The last thing we did was put garland and lights up the banister of the stairs. this is a really blurry pic... sorry about that. but i love it, not the pic, but the garland. it's all so festive.

Well, there you go. Christmas decor at the Munoz's. Enjoy the season everyone!!

short week!!

so being that it is thanksgiving this week, it's going to be a short work week.... which i'm kind of excited about. i'm not sure if the excitement is really because i only have to work 3 days, or if it's because i am really ridicoulously tired right now and want to sleep. who knows, but anyway yipee for thanksgiving.

as i mentioned in my last blog the Wake County Library Booksale was this weekend, and on-my-goodness!!!! it was so amazing. i spent close to 2 hours there and could have probably spent more time, but my box was getting heavy. If wherever i move to doesn't have a Library booksale, maybe i'll just have to fly back every year for the Wake county one!! I really got some good stuff. I got "Atonement" and another one by the same author called "Saturday" ... "me talk pretty one day"... "white oleander"... 4 or 5 by Jodi Picoult... and a bunch of others that i'm not remembering right now. but it was great.

one other note about this weekend.... i made some soup. and oh man it was good! i'll call it creamy crab and vegetable soup. It had crab (obviously), celery, onion, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and yucca. Marco introduced me to Yucca, it's kind of like a potato, except a little more firm when cooked, and its got some sweetness to it. anyway i'm really excited for lunch today cause i get leftover soup.... Mmmm Mmmm Good!

...life is like a burrito, a well contained mess....

so it's friday once again. i love fridays (and not just because every other one i get a check). it's a short day at work, i only have to work till 3 which is oh-so-nice. i love that you have your morning, and then after lunch i've only got 2 hours left!! every once in a while i do lunch with the girls (today we went to PF Changs.... candied walnut shrimp.... Mmmm Mmmm Good).
this friday is extra good cause i get to look forward to the Wake County Library Book sale tomorrow!! I'm so excited. Hard covers are going to be $2 and soft bound books are only going to be 50 cents!! I'm thinking about checking out some children's books. The only children's book i have right now is a little dutch book i got in holland. the title translates to "everybody poops" it's kinda cute. an educational potty training book.
I'm also excited cause earlier this week i got a gym membership and i'm going to use it tomorrow. i'm so excited about the gym, they've got a cardio-theater. a big dark room with a bunch of cardio equipment that plays a different movie every day. they've also got a pool!!


today on my way to work i could really tell that it was fall ( i didn't really notice it yesterday cause it was yet again an 80 degree day). the leaves are changing colors and it's so pretty. there are ton's of yellow, red and orange trees.... but there are also some that are a deeper red color, almost purple. then there are still some that are green.... it's so beautiful. it's one thing that i'm going to miss when we move away from here.
speaking of moving... here is a little update on that subject. we are still on the market. we've had a few showings the past week, but i haven't heard anything serious. which is ok. i'm kind of at the point where i'm content with whatever happens. moving.... staying..... i really like my job, and a guy was just hired to be our office manager which is really nice. i feel more productive with him there. i'm not consistently asking for work, which is something that i hate doing. plus i moved my"desk" so i now have an "L" in the corner. it may sound like a little thing but it feels so much nicer, and i feel much more organized. yay for organization!! so anyway... back to the subject of moving. i'm ok with staying for now.... it would be really nice if Marco and I could be back with the family for christmas, but the most important thing is that I will be with him.

ok well that's kind of a long blog.... a little of everything, nothing too special. have a great weekend everyone!!

Lunch Break Thursday.

i don't really have much to say, but i haven't posted a new blog in over a week, so here goes....

it's november... yipee!! the cooler weather is here, i turned on the heat in the house yesterday. although i looked at the forecast and it's supposed to get up into the high 70's again next week.

Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away... i'm really excited for that. i'm sad that i won't be in washington for it, casue it is one of my most favorite "family" holiday's. we do the whole turkey day with the family thursday and then friday (in the past) we've made chocolates (we're looking for a new tradition) and then saturday we decorate for christmas. this is my favorite time of year... after halloween thru the beginning of january. i've already started to listen to christmas music... albeit sporadically.

i've been thinking about making gingerbread houses... i kind of want to make a real one this year... not one of the ones made out of graham crackers. i remember when we were kids we went over to the alcorn's house and my dad did a real gingerbread house. it was so cool. i looked up some ideas online and they talked about using gum as shingles, and melting down jolly ranchers to use as stained glass windows. so many cool ideas out there.

i'm currently reading this book.... it's called "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield.... it's pretty good so far. it's sucked me in and i keep reading it, which is more that i can say for "Shadow of the Moon" by M.M Kaye.... i still have about 150 pages left in that book, and i'm finding it difficult to suck it up and just finish it... it has over 700 pages so i have made progress, but i'm just not done yet. i'm also dabbling in "one hundred and one days" and "the color of water" they are both ok, my go-to books when i don't want to read one of the others...

other stuff going on.... the house is still on the market. we had a showing on monday and they liked it, all except for the crack in the drive way... so we'll see what happens. things are going really well at work. i'm working on a whole myriad of projects... not that one is a whole lot different from the others, but i'm doing a lot for a bunch of different companies that we draw for, so that's cool. today i'm working on some redlines, and then i'll draw some new elevations. i'm not sure if it's work that is going so much better or the fact that i'm still getting up at the same time that i did before the time changed... or an hour earlier, however you like to look at it. so i have more time in the morning to get ready and have breakfast.... it's nice. maybe that's why i feel better about work lately.

anyway... speaking of work, i'd better get back to it. lunch is now officially over.

Marco's Work

So, Marco has done a lot of work for some friends of ours... he's painted what seems like every room in their house, put in new countertops in bathrooms, new light fixtures, drywalled and painted the garage, did some painting outside and most recently some concrete work. here are some pics of what he did.this is the little boy's bedroom.... yellow on top and blue on the bottom

here are the stairs with the living off to the left. i like the little plant shelf on the left side of the stairs

here is the little concrete pad for the garbage can.... i think it's so cute!!

and here is the nice big patio.... enough space for the furniture and the grill!!