12 Days of Christmas Challenge- Day 12

Day 12: Show us your decorations (indoor/outdoor) 

  Unfortunately, my house does not have any decorations...
My family's house is busy being redone, so there is no room for decorations
My new place with my Sweeter has not been moved into, so there are no decorations...
When I do have a place and it is mine {and my Sweeter's} I will go to the ends of all ends to decorate!I am so excited and I can't wait to decorate for each and every holiday!

Life is Beautiful

“Things are beautiful if you love them.” 

― Jean Anouilh

I got this thought in my inbox yesterday and it has taken me forever to digest it.

Have you ever noticed that when you see something or someone for the first time you immediately look at its outer beauty?
{If you don't, you are lying to yourself ;-) So don't and be honest with yourself and me!}

As time continues and you see that thing or spend time with that person more and more you develop a deeper opinion of it-- you can appreciate its inner beauty {or not}.  It either turns into a good experience or a bad experience.

Now....have you noticed that if it is a good experience you see more and more beauty and if it is a bad experience you see less and less beauty?

Why is that?

"Things are beautiful if you love them."

This quote could not say it better! 

Wow! 

555 Photography

If it is something or someone you love, all you can see is beauty, inside and out.

If it isn't, all you see is hurt, pain, sadness, and those aren't beautiful traits...

I am so grateful for my life and I, fortunately, can see a lot of beauty in it and in what and who I surround myself with.

 My life is made more beautiful because of:

my Family

my Friends

my Health

my Independence

my Compassion for People

What makes your life more beautiful? 

What do you think about this quote??

12 Days of Christmas Challenge- Day 11

Day 11: New Year Resolutions 

 I know that this is only for the first half of the year...My Resolution:I want to be a bride...not a bridezilla! ;-)
so I wrote this post last week and this is what I wrote:
"And I want to make sure that I am debt free before I get married{which will not be hard...I may ever have this checked off the list before 2010 is over!}" I would like to let you all know that I am officially debt free! Woohoo!! now to change that after Christmas Shopping this weekend.... :-/ha!  I hope you all have a great weekend!

Another Birthday!!

Guess what today is...it is Thumbs Up Thursday!  
{fortunately, today is definitely Two Thumbs Up worthy!}

I am listening to Christmas Music

Sipping a White Chocolate Peppermint Mocha

Nibbling on a Pumpkin Spice Scone

And wishing my beautiful Alpha Gamm Little Sis and dear friend the happiest of Birthdays!

She was my first Little as a collegiate member.

She was and is a wonderful asset to our Chapter!

She is:

Amazing

I think this was our first Big/Little picture!

Kind

The night I presented her to the Greek Community

Loving

The beautiful paddle she made me once she initiated!

Fun

Formal 2006!

Positive

A protest in SF--One of many..

Genuine

Initiation 2007 (not hers..)

 Beautiful

NPC Awards Night

 Happy

Her 21st birthday!

Supportive

Glitz n Glam

 Generous

The Cement Slides in the Castro

 A Great Friend

My Senior Tea (2009)

 Special

One of my Favorite Restaurants in SF!

 My Favorite!

Isn't she a Beauty!?

Happy Happy Birthday, Little!

I can't wait to celebrate with you tonight!!

xoxo

12 Days of Christmas Challenge- Day10

Day 10: Favorite Christmas Songs/Caroles 

 Sleigh Ride - Debbie Gibson{well, I love all versions-this is the one I know}

Happy December 1st!

On a side note:

As you know, Sweeter will be coming home soon

{Please keep in mind OPSEC...loose lips sinks ships!!! Thank you for understanding.}

 Upon his return I will be on hiatus from the blogging world

For at least a week, enjoying his return 

{and by "enjoying" I mean smothering him with kisses}

 I do not want my little blog to be left unattended...

I would love to have some help with some guest posts 

from each and every one of you

Please let me know if you are interested in guest posting!

First come first serve! ;-)

 Day 9: Favorite Recipe

So, I got a little over zealous and I posted this post a few days ago!
What can I say?? I love the recipe!!

 

1. Do you like to listen to Christmas music?
Does a woman love shoes?!

2. Are you one of those people who get all their shopping done early,

or do you do most of it in December?
Both...my problem is: I get too excited and I can't wait to give gifts..so I should wait so I'm not tempted to give gifts early!

3. Do you set a budget on how much you spend on each person?
That depends on the person.
Usually, I just look for something that I think the person will like and if it's too expensive, then I will look for it discounted somewhere else.

4. Do you send out Christmas cards?
My family does.
And I plan to next year ;-)

5. Do you enjoy this holiday season or does it stress you out?
Both... :-) I love the holidays!
This year, however, I am stressed out
{for reasons to come}

Visit Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday

What I'M loving
{in any and all order!}

*I'm loving that it is December 1st
*I'm loving that phones are on on the ship for the rest of the deployment
{Yay for more phone calls!}
*I'm loving that I have had a productive day so far
*I'm loving that I turned my day around and can now smell the roses
*I'm loving my good hair day
*I'm loving my Safeway Sammie

Book Review and a New Book

 Happy Happy December to Everyone!

I wish you all warm thoughts of hot chocolate, warm blankets, blazing fires, and someone snuggly!

Right before my vacation I finished my book, Cutting for Stone.

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I thought this book was awesome!

Abraham Verghese really makes his readers feel like they are in the story too.

There was so much detail that you could smell what the characters were smelling, taste what they were tasting, and feel the emotions they were feeling.

It was truly a great book and there are some pretty edge of your seat twists!

I definitely recommend it!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I am moving on to another book.

So far it reminds me a little of The Alchemist.

This book was recently given to me in an effort to help me learn not to take things so personally.

The Four Agreements written by Don Miguel Ruiz is a book that "offer(s) a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love" {the back cover :-D}. 

Image

 After that little snippet, I am sure you are all thinking "Man, this girl is craz-Y! What is with her and her weird books!?" 

Yeah I know, I am pretty much preaching to the choir...

I just love these kinds of books.

The books that are

Inspiring

Uplifting

Happy

Guiding

Thought Provoking

I truly believe that the more of these that I read, the more I will learn about life, love, who I am and why I am the way that I am.

What are the Four Agreements, you might ask

1. Be impeccable with your word

2. Don't take anything personally

3. Don't make assumptions

4. Always do your best

These seem easy..huh?!

More to come on what I learn! 

I hope you all enjoy your Hump Day! 

Italia- Venezia

I went to Italia in the summer of 2008. I studied Art, Music and Culture in Firenze for a month.  

From now on, my adventures were mainly shared with my two roommates: Jodi and Stephanie, people in my program, Bev or random people we met along the way!

Now on to my Firenze adventures--a lot of site seeing, staying up late, and wine! How to travel in Europe when you are 20!

I have decided that I will take you along my journey based on the places I went :-)

Venezia

Venezia is my favorite city in Italia. Hands down.

How gorgeous is the San Marcos Duomo? 

I remember a lot of people told me that Venezia was dirty and gross and so I was a little apprehensive about going there. We arrived on a beautiful blue sky and sunny day and I was captivated by every part of this beautiful city!

Sure, all of the pigeons were a little gross....sure you don't want to swim in the water...

...the architecture, and food, the culture, the people all made up for it!

Ick...all of the pigeons! ;-)

We took a tour of Palais des Doges

Inside  Palais des Doges is the Ponte dei Sospiri {the bridge of signs}
The Ponte dei Sospiri is the bridge that the prisoners crossed from their cells to the execution chamber, or to be hung and this is when/where they had their last glimpse of sunlight and their last breath of fresh air.
The guide told us that if the prisoner committed a very terrible crime, that they would have a sack over their head so they weren't allowed the privileged of seeing sunlight on their way to execution

This is a cell that is in Palais des Doges.
The prisoners were fed bread and wine for every meal. 
The bread to sustain them and the wine for the nutrition! 
Very interesting! 

This picture {below} is my absolute favorite picture of my entire trip. No people in the way...nothing...simply beautiful, peaceful, calm, wonderful.

A picture taken from the Ponte Rialto! 

Ponte Rialto is where all of the little street vendors are in Venezia. They sell everything from clothing, to blown glass, and masks.

I bought a beautiful mask here...well two, one for me and one for my Friendoodle! Now for a masquerade party!

The beautiful Ponte Rialto at night!

Look at that moon! wow!

San Giorgio Maggiore Island

All of the boats getting ready for Il Redentore.

This picture is of the Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore. The church was built to honor the end of the plague in Venezia. Every year the Venetians celebrate the end of the plague during the 3rd weekend in July. They build a Ponte Votivo {a temporary bridge} from Piazza San Marco to Chiesa del Santissimo Redentore.  The Bishop from Venezia blesses the bridge as he crosses it. And then he gives a speech thanking God and the Virgin Mary for saving the people from the plague.

There is the Bishop! ;-)

The Bishop crosses the bridge first to bless it and then everyone else crosses it and listens to his speech.

Most people have boats, so they go into the water because once the sun goes down, a firework show begins! This was the best firework show I have ever seen! It seemed to have gone one for hours! It was amazing!

Everyone was cheering, singing and having a merry time!

On Sunday, we went to Mass at San Marco and we heard the Bishop give the service. It was so special! I won't ever forget it!

I wish that I had taken the boat to Isola Murano. We bought Murano glass from Ponte Rialto anyway, so it wasn't the end of the world. It would have been nice to see a tour!

You must go on a Gondola ride! It was fabulous!! The Gallerie dell'Accademia was beautiful {pre-19th century art}and the Guggenheim museum was really neat too!

And definitely buy a mask--you won't get one like it anywhere else! I promise you that!

I would recommend going to Venezia when it is the Redentore because it is such an magical experience. Beware that there are thousands of people there to celebrate and so it will be busy...it will also be worth it!

Until next time, Buon Giorno