FLASHBACK FRIDAY

So I'm sitting upstairs wrapped in my Wizard of Oz Snuggie, watching Criminal Minds, thinking to myself,

"Shoot, I've seen this one."

"Hmmm...I haven't done a Flashback Friday post in a while."

and, "Dang I wish it wasn't snowing so I could go to the gym."

(I HATE driving in the snow.)

(Also, I have a new best friend, his name is GYM. We have fun together. Sometimes we dance together, sometimes he watches me try to lift weights probably laughing to himself how ridiculous I look and sometimes it's running while listening to tunes we enjoy.)

So, after my thoughts I came downstairs to blog.

What better way to sort out my thoughts than in my blog.

So...I have a few things I would like to share for FLASHBACK FRIDAY.

So much has happened this year it's crazy.

Let's look back on last Christmas shall we?

This is us at Michael's Grandma's
house last year.
Pierre, the pup you see, died
shortly after Grandma Rose did.
He couldn't live without her.

Michael in his sweet footie jammies I got him
last year trying to help me up after
crashing and buring off the papasan chair.
It was a laugh!

Us opening presents on Christmas Eve.
(we're impatient)

It's crazy how different the atmosphere will be this year.

We will be spending it with less people.

We won't be opening as many presents.

(let's face it, playing SANTA to everyone last year was fun but we can't keep affording that)

I can't believe it is only 8 days away!

Ok now for the second part of my FLASHBACK FRIDAY.

At my Hanks family Christmas party, my grandma gets gifts for everyone.

Usually for the married couples (+ us) she gets them a loaf of homemade bread and homemade jam. (YUMMMMM!)

This year she still got us the jam (YUMMMMM!) but in place of the bread was this:

This is my Grandma and Grandpa when they were 19 and dating.

Tryin to remember the year...I believe 1941?

(family, correct me if I'm wrong)

How cool of a gift is that?!

My favorite things. Photos with loved ones and memories.

Especially loved ones that are no longer with us.

This is such a treasure to have and I can't wait to someday show it to my grandchildren.

I also can't wait for some of the pictures of Michael and I to be such treasures to our grandkids one day.

xoxoAneciaG

Christmas Pictures!

I don't know if you know this about me, but I love to take pictures.

No, I don't want to be a photographer and do it for a living...

I just love taking pictures and the thought of them being looked at for years to come and the memories that come with them!

So here are a few of my Christmas decorations I just felt like sharin!

Yup, the whole 'ornaments in a bowl centerpiece'

Now who doesn't LOVE the sight of presents
under the tree?!

 xoxoAneciaG

Hope to see pics of everyone's Christmas Spirit!

Christmas Parties!

This weekend was SUCH a busy one!

On Saturday we had the Hanks Family Christmas party.

Always been one of my favorite traditions!

We do a big dinner, pinatas and Santa!

Sooooo fun!

I got to hold new baby Laura!

I hope Santa gets us what we asked for -
a delayed gift - a honeymoon lol

Me n Cody!

Playing an INTENSE game of Lightning!

This is me calling JJ a cheater.
Let me explain...

JJ AND Michael got out like 5 turns ago k...

Well I may have talked some smack saying I was in longer than JJ.

So, he got back in line.

Fast forward a few turns, he gets me out.

CHEATER!

You cannot come back in once you've been out!

I would have WON that game I'm sure of it!

It was me, JJ (the cheater) and Sean left.

Grrrrrrr.....JJ better watch out!

Now onto Sunday.

The GLEED Family Christmas party.

My grandparents were kind enough to let me bring Tony and Michael's nephew with us.

They even made him a goodie bag so he could sit on Santa's lap too.

He got the first BINGO!

This is him digging through his goodie bag
he got from Santa!

Car and goodies from his goodie bag!

Playin with the airplane he got!

He was gettin pretty good at it!

My dad read a story about Gifts for Christ.

We wrote our gifts for Christ on these papers..

..which ended up being Jesus' straw for his bed!

I was lucky enough to get to keep
this "sculpture" my grandparents
made. It was delicious!

Oh how I love this time of year for all the family time we get!

I hope everyone spends quality time with their families this Christmas season!

xoxoAneciaG

MerryChristmas!
(P.S I have a TON more pictures on my Facebook page! Go check em out!)

One of THOSE days...

We all have THOSE days right?!

Pleeeaasse say it's not just me.

You know, those days where NOTHING goes right and you wanna yell, "I QUIT!"

Yeah. Say hello to my day today.

It was ROTTEN!

(Well, and it's not even over! It's barely 4:30...ugh)

Things that made this day rotten include,

-getting my monthly visit :(

-lights that won't stay up making my window look ghetto

-running late for work which by the way was the morning shift on my DAY OFF

-more than one unhappy costumer

-saying HI! to someone and having them not even give me a glance. RUDE!

BUT! Instead of focusing on all things negative...

You know that quote:

"Every day may not be good but there's something good in every day."

OR

"It's up to you to find beauty in the ugliest of days."

Well, I attempted.

Here's the beauty in my ugly day:

Mt Dew, you save my life some days

Found M&Ms in my purse.
CHOCOLATE!!

Wore my FAVE shirt!
Isn't it cute?!
And did I mention..
$4.00 Kohl's clearance rack!
That's right!

My pups were SOOO happy to see me!

Other beauty-ful things in my day that I don't have pictures for include:

-My mom's neighbor stopping in to my work and talkin for a few minutes just to see how I was. Even though she had a to-do list a mile long!

-Reader's Digest (They have the BEST jokes!)

-Listening to Christmas music! =] Including one of my FAVES Garth's "Santa looked a lot like Daddy"

Such a good song!

Oh and you must hear Destiny's Child's Christmas Album. SoOoO good! An Oldie but goodie!

-Going to Zumba tonight. Zumba always is so fun and makes me feel so good!

Hope nobody has to go through THOSE kind of days but when you do, remember all the little things that make you smile!

xoxoAneciaG

Gettin in the Christmas Spirit!

I have to admit it's taken me a while to get in the Christmas spirit.

I just BARELY put our tree up yesterday the 5th.

That's crazy to me!

Usually it's up the day after Thanksgiving!

BUT we had a great night puttin it up!

Michael, Tony and I put it up while listening to some Country Christmas tunes!

It was pretty fun!

We got the whole house decorated pretty quick!

puttin the topper on!

our cute little tree!

lit

puttin up the garland

I made this

My FAVORITE countdown!

more countdowns and a nativity

puttin up outside lights for the first time

my FAVORITE nativity.
we used to rearrange this probably
100 times before Christmas

Most of my decorations are a little outdated cuz they were hand-me-downs but I love them all!

Hope everyone else is gettin in the Christmas spirit!

xoxoAneciaG

DAY 30

Wow last one!

Started this on November 1st and finishing on December 4th...

not too bad I guess!

DAY 30: A DREAM FOR THE FUTURE

One of my biggest dreams for the future is to have a family.

I want kids that can talk to me about anything and be themselves around me and even consider me a friend.

I want Michael and I to love each other just as much in the future as we do now. I know there will be many trials, so what I'm hoping is that we can overcome those trials with ease.

I would also really love to figure out what I want to do with my life.

I have no idea if I want to go to school, and for what.

I have no idea if I want to find a career, and in what.

Or if I want to make being a stay-at-home-mom work.

That would be amazing.

I also have a dream to one day make a difference.

Don't know how yet but I hope to one day do that.

I also would love to complete everythig on my bucket list!

xoxoAneciaG

DAY 29

DAY 29: HOPES, DREAMS AND PLANS

for the next 365 days

Well...I hope the wedding turns out to be a dream come true.

I hope the planning goes smoothly and I get everything done the way I envision it.

I would really really really love if we could be newlyweds in our home. Together. Alone. Everyone getting my drift?

For as long as we have lived together we have only had maybe 6 months total to ourselves. Meaning, we have had to clean up after and extra person sometimes 2. We have had to feel an extra person sometimes 2. I would love if we could just be newlyweds starting our life together in our home and only having to worry about ourselves.

I love love Michael's nephew so I would keep that part for sure!

Even the cleaning up after him.

Sometimes we call him Tornado.

I hope that within the next year we get more control financially.

We are doing ok now, we just get behind sometimes.

Please tell me we're not the only ones.

I hope that we spend a lot of time together doing the random things we do.

For example we are having a "slumber party" in the living room tonight and crashing on the floor in there.

We plan on playing a lot of mario kart wii (that's right girls I came and took it back from your house when you weren't home)

and we want to watch a lot of king of queens.

I hope that within the next year by becoming completely financially stable we can start planning for kids.

I don't think I will have one or get pregnant within the year (at least I don't want to yet) but it would be fun to start really considering it and planning for it. Redoing some bedrooms to be more baby friendly who knows.

Also in this next year I would love to spoil Michael somehow.

He always makes sure I am taken care of and other people in our lives are taken care of before himself.

He deserves something amazing.

I plan on having the best wedding ever and the best first year of marriage ever.

I'm hoping we can figure something super fun out for a honeymoon.

We won't be able to afford anything like Mexico or a cruise but it would be so cool to road trip to Vegas or somethin.

We have never been on a trip just the two of us so I look forward to whatever it is we do.

I hope that is enough for one year and I hope I accomplish it all!

xoxoAneciaG