
Upon dumping my little box of “tart” conversation hearts on the counter, my eyes quickly glanced over all the messages.
“Drama Queen”
“Holla”
“JK”
“Tweet me“
(I will never understand Twitter….)
What has this world come to?
There were some classics:
“My girl”
“Love ya”
“Love him”
“CHICKS RULE!”
Our condo went on the market on February 4th. In preparation, and a lot of help from my mother’s great eye, we staged it to sell!
Goal: Make it look spacious, dreamy and RICH!
My mom’s words were, “You’re trying to sell a dream…”
I kept that in mind.
Before:
December 2007

With the request of several readers, I got to remake a smaller version of the Make Up Brush Roll Up, since I forgot how I made it the first time.
Lovely readers, here is the tutorial. Keep in mind you can make this as large or small as you like!
Email me with questions!

The best 6:44 seconds use of my time today…and hopefully in days to come. I will be visiting this video often…
Where has the time gone?
Rick and I started packing books and movies in November and disassembled our book shelf before Thanksgiving.
Granted, we don’t even know where we are moving until MARCH 18th, but we need to sell our condo and so we’ve prepared to put it on the market in February.
There are boxes everywhere, annoying us, and begging to be filled.
Got my craft on last night.
I’ve been wanting a brush holder for traveling purposes, for ages.
(The ziploc bags are a nightmare!)
I’m too cheap to buy the holder I really want, so
I finally, with some left over apron fabric, I attempted my first pattern free project.
90 minutes later, this is how it turned out.
(And it fits nicely in my travel cosmetic tote.)
Mission accomplished!
My friend Jill, from my church, wanted to make gingerbread houses this year.
She claims that her attempt last year was a total flop, and that she didn’t get past getting the walls up.
I invited her over for an afternoon of gingerbread baking and assembling.
Her house was awesome, fully decked out with Necco wafers , gumdrops, etc.
I had no intentions of doing a gingerbread house this year. I am all sugared out already and didn’t want to mess with it.
But I was happy to help her and get to know her better!
…hit our car…
Boo-hoo.
We were minding our own business, heading east bound on I-94 towards Kenosha, WI from Rochester, MN. Dusk had just past and it was now dark enough so that the only light around was in the field of the car’s headlights. I had just drifted off to sleep when I heard Rick let out a frustrated and startling yell!
I jumped from my slumber just in time to see a deer prancing from the median right into our grill!
When a deer decides it wants to dash across the interstate at the exact moment a car is passing by there is absolutely no chance of missing it. No brakes. No swerving. No speeding up. Just one fine collision resulting in a mangled car and an equally mangled doe.
Long story short, our car was towed to a local body shop and we stayed in a local dive of a motel that night. We then discovered that there were no car rental options or easy access to an airport from our remote deer-infested location.
So the next morning, the Highlander was towed 120 miles to Milwaukee, WI to another body shop for a full repair, somewhere where we could fly into in a few weeks to retrieve our poor little car.
The state trooper that arrived to help us off the interstate informed us that the area has at least 5-6 deer strikes per night in that area for a straight 3 weeks this time of year. We were lucky enough to be one of them!
We had to cancel our last interview for the trip in NY, we spent a few extra days with the nieces and nephews in Kenosha, and we flew home that weekend.
The car is still in Wisconsin. With an estimated $8000 worth of damage, we hope they’ve made enough progress that it doesn’t look like this anymore!
It’s that time when 4th year medical students across the US of A are on the move!
They are flying across the country to interview for a spot in their favorite residency program! A lot will drive to these interviews too.
Rick started interviewing on November 12th. He managed to schedule 8 interviews in 3 weeks, in one trip! Driving!
Because he drove, our expenses were cut back significantly.
We were also blessed that almost all of his invitations included dinner with the Residents the evening prior to his interview AND a free hotel room.
Our biggest cost was gas.
Whip-di-do, right?
See more of their portraits HERE.
THRILLER!
On Wednesday, we gathered together as dance lovers, to learn Michael Jackson’s Thriller for the upcoming Stake Harvest Dance.
Meet the Dancers:
Chase & Missy
… Sort of!
Some of you may know Matt & Shari: 
“they created the very first show to air on HGTV, the ever popular room by room. They hold the record for the longest running decorating show of their genre in TV history, 14 years and over 350 episodes. They developed the highest rated prime time decorating special on HGTV called “Christmas – room by room style”. More than a dozen additional specials were developed. Available in over 90 million homes, they have taught literally millions their detailed process of step by step decorating, improving the lives of many.” read more…
My mom ‘n me:
The first thing my mom asked, before she came out:
“Do you guys have a Christmas Tree Shops!?”
“Uh, ya, Don’t you just love a bargain, mom!?” read more…
Arriving the day after we finished our trip with Rick’s family, my mother finally made it just in time for Foliage.
Needless to say, I was excited.
I was happy that a member of my family finally made it out to see us!
Monday in Montreal:
Sites were incredible.
1,500 miles
7-9 people
in a 12 passenger van
4 states
in 7 days!
Rick and I drove this passenger van from Burlington VT to Bahston MA.
We picked up his family near the airport and headed downtown to walk the Freedom Trail.
Last week, four Young Women from Church were invited over to my house to learn how to bake an apple pie.
I made one that afternoon, to serve them while the pie they made would be baking in the oven.
We had an hour to put together our pie. They did awesome.
I was so impressed with the way it turned out.
It was delicious! read more…



















