Tom & I are officially engaged!

I'm going to be a Soran!

Tom and I were getting ready to take pictures for our Christmas cards on Friday night.  I was attempting to find the perfect outfit that looked somewhat slimming for the pics.  Tom was being the perfect boyfriend saying, "That looks great!" everytime I tried on a new shirt.  About 8 shirts later and my attitude going downhill with every shirt that was tossed on the ground, Tom left the room.  I thought to myself, "Uh oh, I better hurry because Tom is going to be out on pictures if I don't speed up this process and get a shirt real quick!"  He was gone for a couple minutes while I stared at my closet trying to magically make a perfect shirt appear.  Then he walked around the corner and said, "I think you should wear this."  My first thought before I looked at him was, "Oh great, what did he buy?" and I turned around to see a handsome boy grinning ear to ear holding an open ring box!  He got down on one knee and said, "Come here." so I knelt down by him and gave him a big hug.  He said, "Get up dummy, I got something to say!"  So I stood up, he took my hand and said some very romantic words, asked me to spend the rest of my life with him, and I said yes!  Guess what!?  After that, I didn't even care what shirt I was going to wear!

My ring!

My new stance for pictures.

We had an impromptu engagement party in Seattle on Friday night.

All our good friends showed up!

Tom and Tyson

Bolt & Marci.  Thanks Bolt for rounding up the troops!

Jason, Tom, Me, Steph

Pappe & Tom

Easton & Katie

Samralee, my stylist and Tom's sister, even drove up from Tacoma to celebrate with us!  She brought me a beautiful bouquet of all different white flowers wrapped in the cutest tissue paper.  She is a sweatheart!

Tidings of comfort and joy

On Saturday morning I was getting ready to take my dogs for a walk in the freezing cold weather.  I opened the door and there was a box with my name on it!  My dogs are crazy, so I pushed the box right inside the door with my foot so I could continue the walk before Champ decided to take himself.  By the time I got back inside all I could think of was how I was going to warm up again after being outside.  I left the box in the middle of the entry way floor and wrapped up in a blanket in front of the fireplace.  After about 10 times of yelling, "No!" at Champ, I realized there was probably food in the box, but not sure if everything was wrapped I didn't want to open it before Christmas.  So I moved the box to the countertop so Champ couldn't paw at it anymore.  (Instead he tried with all his might to jump high enough to get the box to fall, no such luck on his part.)  Later that evening I was talking to my sister-in-law, Julie and asked her if the present was wrapped  to see if I could open the box.  She said, "It's not your Christmas present, open it you weirdo."

Glad to know I could open it before Christmas, I grabbed scissors and opened the box, which was taped really well I might add.  Part of me felt like I should wait for Tom to come home, but, well, I didn't.

Now for the sappy part.  I was filled with excitement when I first opened the package.  The top was covered in all sorts of treats!  I kept pulling more and more out of the box, it seemed never ending.  Goodie mixes, chocolate covered pretzels, treats I don't even know the names for, socks, refills for my Scentsy candle, a Christmas cd of Julie's favorite holiday music, window stickers, a really cool scrapbook foldy book (official name?), and last but not least, a copy of the cookbook from my Grandma Andersen.  She used to give the grandkids a copy for their first Christmas as a married couple along with a box of goodies (much like the one Julie sent).  I never got a copy of it and now I have one thanks to Julie and her hard work of putting together a whole care package to help me get into the holiday spirit.  I spent awhile last night just looking through the book, it was weird to see my grandmas handwriting, I even have a couple recipes in there from 12 year old Marissa who cooked better than 24 year old Marissa!  I'm excited to use it and am thankful for the great Christmas present from Julie.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Tom is in Denver this week visiting customers.  As usual, I've locked myself in my house (that darned boogy-man is so scary) until he comes home.  There is this totally creepy guy who wanders around our neighborhood.  He is like a 50 year old, balding with long hair on the sides, wart covered weirdo.  He constantly stares at me when I see him and gives me the willies!  When Tom is home, it's no big deal, I still wander quickly into my house, but last night I RAN into my house as fast as I could.  He was again just staring at me and I wasn't going to risk being a rape/murder victim.  Then I got into my house and realized now the freak knows where I live!  So every time Champ jumped on the back of the couch (which is a no-no, but he does whatever he wants when Tom is out of town) and stared out the window into the dark trees, I freaked!  I was sure he was in my backyard watching me!!  So all my blinds are shut, all my doors are locked, and all the lights are on!

To keep my mind off the red jacket warty weirdo, I blog surfed last night and read a bunch of uplifting and fun blogs!

I came across this great blog of a family friend.  Her name is (or was) Ali Coon, all her sisters are super talented, and her blog was the only one I hadn't ever seen before!  So take a look at it for some great decorating ideas.  www.alittleuniqueinthecraftdepartment.blogspot.com
I put a link on my blog side bar in case you ever forget her blog address.  Love it!

Grandma = Thanksgiving = BaHumbug

This is my bahumbug post...if you are in happy spirits and loving life, don't read below beacuse it's just me ranting. 

I was asked what traditions my family had during Thanksgiving.  My first response was, "We do the normal, turkey dinner, say what we're thankful for, and oh yeah, we eat ham too."  The more I thought about it, I realized the thing I loved the most I won't get this year and frankly won't ever be the same. 

Two years ago we lost one of the greatest women, my grandma, to a stroke.  A couple months later we had Thanksgiving at our house with my parents and recently widowed grandfather.  We didn't even make it through the prayer without tears, my grandpa couldn't eat which was killing me, my mom wasn't even coping still at this point from the shock of losing her mother.  It was one of the hardest dinmers to get through, one of the longest days, and one of the times where I had to be the "all mighty woman who holds it together" when I didn't want to be.  We all express things in different ways and although we crack jokes at my mom for laying down like a child and bawling, that's all I want to do right now.  Hey, I've held it in for this long, I deserve at least that, right? 

I associate the smell of Thanksgiving with my grandmother.  So I should be thankful, right?  Instead I become emotionally unstable.  I get it, life after death, I'll see her again, blah blah.  What about right now?  What about folding those old lacey table cloths, the paper napkins folded in different shapes, and doing dishes together?  I long for the conversation, advice, and laughter.  We were lucky to have them at our house almost every year and I miss that.  Call me a brat, or a scrooge, or whatever, but it's just not the same.  Yes, I have a lot to be thankful for, and I guess I need to stop holding a grudge against whatever is out there for us, but I'm not over it yet. 

So even though I will grin through one more year, I'll wish it could have been like Thanksgiving used to be, which ruins it because I know it won't ever be the same. 

Ba Humbug.

In need of a post...

I'm sure something exciting and worth posting will come up soon in my very dull life, but here's something to tide you all over until that happens, because who knows, it may be a while!

Tom and a few good friends went to Notre Dame for the Husky football game a few weeks ago.  We just got around to uploading pics from the camera, so here are a few!

Dana Herberholz, Chris Murray, Troy Anderson, Tom, & Tyson O'Conner

We were winning almost the entire game!

Murray, Tyson, and Tom

Classic Tom picture.  When he was showing me the pictures he said, "Look they are wearing pink for breast cancer awareness!"  I'm sure that's why he took these pics, right?  Ha

The Colt's stadium, it's huge!