saying "bye" to 2013 & a memory jar!

At the end of the year, I always feel like "thank God 20__ is over!"  I'm not sure why...looking back on it, I can't pick out one year that was the worst year ever...but if often feels that way.  Maybe I am just always bummed that the holidays are over and that I have to go back to school...

Anyway, I wanted to TRY and remember a few wonderful things that happened in 2013!

- I was able to stop working part-time and focus on school!
- I was shown a ridiculous amount of love at all pre-wedding festivities (i.e., my shower & bachelorette party)
- I watched as my older brother graduated!
- WE GOT MARRIED! :)
- I watched one of the best friends I have ever had marry her perfect guy!
- I became an aunt for the second time to a precious baby girl!
- We went to Punta Cana for 10 days!

Overall, it was a year filled with A LOT of love, laughter, and happiness, and I am so grateful for all the blessings we received!  I know I forgot a lot, though, so for 2014, Dan and I will be keeping track of our blessings!

Yesterday, I made a "blessings" / memories jar.  I painted a mason jar and added some stickers and ribbon!

cut up paper so that we can easily write down our blessings!

I was pretty happy with how it turned out for it being a quick craft with supplies I already had!  Beginning tomorrow, we will write down good things that happen, things that make us happy, and any other blessings that come our way.  At the end of 2014, we will be able to remember all of the wonderful things that happened, and maybe we won't be cursing the previous year for no reason at all ;)

Christmas Recap!

I hope you all had a FABULOUS holiday!  I always enjoy being back in Normal and getting the chance to catch up with many of the people that I love.  We headed back up north last Friday and stayed until the next Saturday!  It was our longest trip home in awhile!

While there, I was able to see the lovely Sara and her beautiful daughter, Cecelia!  We didn't take any pictures...very unlike us.  Guess that means that I need to go home again soon to cuddle that sweet girl some more!

I was also able to catch up with some beautiful friends from high school.  My friend, Jordan, joined the Navy earlier this year, so I was ecstatic to learn she would be back in town for the holidays!  It is always lovely to catch up with people that I don't get the chance to see very often!

The rest of my time was spent with family!  Every Christmas Eve we all go to my grandpa's and then to midnight mass.

Christmas morning was spent at my parents' house, opening gifts and playing with my brother's girlfriend's adorable little boy!  We then went to lunch at Dan's mom's house, and we finished the day with dinner at his dad's!  It was a BUSY day, but it was full of laughter, and I have to admit, I got some good stuff!  (clothes, a new GPS, a curl secrete!  (that actually works!  I was shocked!), necklaces, bracelets, scarves, etc).

Our final celebration was on Friday with my immediate family.  Parents, my brothers, and all significant others/children.  It was a fun time!  Brenna Bug was so excited to see/open the gifts.  Yes, I know she is only 5.5 months, but seriously, if you could have seen her eyes widen!  She would then proceed to shove the gift to her mouth ;) but she also ripped the paper with her hands.  Aunt Trisha was super impressed ;)

funny faces with Ms Aidan!

Our precious Brenna Bug!

Can you tell that I love these girls a bit?

All of us!

I hope your celebrations were filled with as much love and laughter as mine were!

that time I was supposed to get my master's

I don't know if I have mentioned it ;) but I am currently a full-time graduate student.  I am in a dual degree program to become a school psychologist.  This semester, I completed my requirements for my Master's of Science in Clinical Child and School Psychology.  After classes this spring and summer, and a year of working full-time as an intern, I will complete the requirements for my Specialist in School Psychology (SSP).

With the dual degree program, there are two opportunities to walk at graduation.  One was last weekend, for the MS.  The next chance is at the end of internship year, which will be in May 2015.  I figured after a year of internship, I would have no desire to walk.  Internship year won't feel like school, with the exception of finishing up my thesis.  I will be working in a school, doing what I will be doing after I graduate for good.  So I wanted to walk this month.  I wanted my family there.  I wanted the pictures.  Graduate degrees are not common in my family.  In fact, besides my grandmother who earned a master's, I'm not sure anyone has a graduate degree.  Even though I am not all the way done, I wanted to celebrate reaching this milestone.

Then the snow came.

And it wasn't a TON.  But the roads were bad enough that my brothers couldn't drive the 2+ hrs at 5am on Sat morning to make it.  After looking at the road conditions, I decided I probably shouldn't even drive the typical 30 min to campus for graduation.  When idot says that 270 is "snow or ice covered" at 6:30am, I know that means people are sliding off the road or in the ditch.  I guess with most of my family not being there anyway, it felt pointless to risk it.  

I put on the gown and hood for a few pictures, anyway...because, damn it, I earned that hood!

Not walking doesn't take away the accomplishment, but it was a huge bummer to miss out on the experience.  Guess this lady will be coming back after working for a year to walk for my SSP.  I NEED the family pictures with me holding the little folder thing.  Fingers crossed there isn't snow to ruin my day in May 2015!

Christmas Crafts!

It's Christmas break, y'all!  I am SO relieved to have a month off of school, and I have some big plans to do a whole lotta NOTHING!  I will catch you up on the end of the semester...and the disappointment of what was supposed to be a graduation today, but for now, I thought I would share a few Christmas crafts that I have done recently :)

First up - Personalized Ornaments!

I made these for the nieces and nephew.  I wanted to get them all a personalized ornament because it is such a fun keepsake, but then I saw this on pinterest and thought it would mean even more if I made them!  All you need are some clear plastic ornaments, letter stickers, red and green spray paint, and glitter spray paint.

Put the stickers on the ornament, then spray paint it the base color.  When that dries, do another coat with the glitter paint.  After that all dries (I actually waited a couple days), peel the stickers off, and ta-da!  Personalized ornaments :)

Next, I made a reversible block decor.  Please excuse my lack of step-by-step pictures.  Apparently I don't have the crafting blog, picture-taking stuff down yet.

I started with a 2x4 that I had Dan cut down into 7 pieces.  2 were about 4.5 in, 2 were about 5.5 in, and 2 were about 7in.  The last piece was just cut to be long enough for the 2 smaller squares to sit on.  Then, I stained the blocks so that they had a finished look on the edges that wouldn't be covered with the decorations.  After the stain dried, I cut pieces of scrapbook paper a smidgen (that's a pretty precise measurement) smaller than each block, and modge podged them on.  Specifically, I did a layer of MP, stuck the scrapbook paper on, did another layer of MP, and after that dried, did a final layer of MP.  That covered the Thanksgiving side of things!  Then I flipped the blocks over and followed the same steps for the Christmas side! 

I also put one layer of MP on the sides of each block so that they had the same glossy finish.  Things started to come together here!  I bought some letters from Michaels to hot glue on to each side, as well as some stickers for the smaller block.  (The stickers needed another layer of MP...apparently they didn't really feel like sticking to dry MP.)

I was so excited with how it turned out!  I didn't get to display the Thanksgiving side this year, but the Christmas side makes me smile each time I see it on my mantel! 

Has anyone else been feeling crafty?  Find any quick, easy, and cute crafts on pinterest?

Christmas Traditions!

Christmas is my FAVORITE!  I have a feeling I am not the only one.  ;)  My wonderful memories from my childhood probably give me this warm and cozy feeling that I have whenever I think of Christmas.

Here are a few of the things I remember happening EVERY year, when I was a kid!

- our cousin came and stayed with us after Thanksgiving to help decorate our house for Christmas

- decorating sugar cookies with my grandma the week before -- this is probably my favorite!  Her kitchen would be FULL of countless types of cookies, and my brothers and I spread sugar cookies out all over the table to decorate with every color sprinkle you can think of.  We lost my grandmother over 11 years ago.  For the past few years, I have taken on the sugar cookie challenge solo.  It's not nearly as fun, but it does make my heart happy to remember those special moments with her!

- spending Christmas Eve at my grandparents' house -- opening 2 gifts!  one from whichever cousin chose my name for the gift exchange, and one from my grandparents

- going to church with the whole family

- driving back to Normal, having a competition to see which sibling saw the most decorated houses on their side of the car ;)

- waking up at roughly 4am and ALWAYS convincing Josh (the  youngest) that it was HIS turn to wake up mom and dad.  They always acted mad, but years later, we discovered they would be awake laughing at us arguing about who should wake them!  (one year, we used the dogs paw to scratch at their door to wake them up! -- we were SO excited!)

- getting lottery tickets in our stockings!

- spending the entire day in our pjs watching movies

Now that none of us live at home, 2 of us are married, and my brothers both have kids, Christmas has changed a lot.  It is fun making "new" traditions.  I can barely wait for Dan and I to have little ones to begin some Cleinmark Family traditions :)