Thanksgiving Turkey & Black Friday Fun

I didn't realize how busy I was until I got four whole days off and almost didn't know what to do with myself! Almost...

Thanksgiving this year was definitely successful! 

On Wednesday night, my husband and I drove up to my parent's house in Big Bear. We had dinner and wine with them and eventually talked them into going out to one of the local bars for karaoke. It was such a blast and I even ran into a few friends that I haven't seen in a while. And no- that video of our "love shack" performance will never see the light of day! 

On Thursday, we kicked off the day with some dinner prep. My aunt and uncle, my husbands family, and several family friends joined us at my parents house. We had a horse shoe tournament (because no Big Bear trip is complete without one), saddled up the horse (Babe) and rode her around the yard, and enjoyed lots of good conversation! To top it all off, Everything on the table that night was beyond delicious! We did have to leave early in the evening though because the mountains do this thing where they try to kill me by wrecking my lung function!  We drove back down the mountain ready for some Black Friday shopping. Our first stop was a clothing store, and I was totally stoked on a store wide 75% off high! That is... Until I had gathered my loot and walked toward the end of the line.. And kept walking.. And walking. And walking. After seeing that the line was also moving incredibly slow, I decided that I wasn't that dedicated to the discount cardigans and cut my wardrobe losses as we surrendered and left that store. Target proved to be more successful as we were able to get our price slashed tv sound bar and get out in record time. We also went by walmart but it was a waste land of unwanted cheap crap by the time we got there. Next year, we'll be going into Black Friday battle more prepared- if we do go at all. 

On Friday we took some time to chill out and finally went out and got a Christmas tree and lights so I don't have to feel like the grinch when December comes. 

On Saturday we went out to breakfast with my parents and some friends at a cool little place with an old west theme. That afternoon we walked down to our town's "winter fest". It was a super cute little festival where they blocked off the streets downtown and had food trucks, a little ice skating rink, and a little sledding hill built out of straw bales and man made snow.  Later we had a date night at Victoria Gardens and saw 'Horrible Bosses 2'. 

That brings us to today, Sunday Funday! This morning, my horse, Babe, was brought down to her new boarding place. Lucky for me, it's only five minutes from my house, so I'm excited to finally be able to get some good riding time in! Babe wasn't too sure about the sheep and turkeys and ponies at the ranch next door, but other than that she seemed happy with her new home! 

Needless to say, I had a lot to be thankful for this weekend. Most people consider it a great feat to simply survive an evening with family and in-laws. Well, I'm happy to say that I didn't just survive, I had a great time with them! 

My dad giving my husband his expert turkey carving advice

How many guys does it take to carve a turkey?

How many pies is too many pies?

The limit does not exist

I really wouldn't mind stealing my dad's car

Or Tom's...

Our cute little tree! 

I even made an ornament that has flower petals from my bridal bouquet and lace from our wedding table decorations inside! It's probably the first Pinterest thing that I've done that actually worked out! 

Winter fest Sledding hill

Awesome light bottles that we got at winter fest-next to our selenite crystal that my was a wedding gift from my husbands grandparents that live in Sedona. 

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving weekend! 

My life according to my iPhone photo gallery

Okay so it's been a quarter of a year since my last post. Oops!

I've written so many drafts that I meant to post but my blogging kind of went to the back burner once I started school. I was going to start posting about my experience as a student nurse, but figured that I would be better off creating a different ️blog for those sort of posts. So keep an eye out for my first post to www.thenursesprocess.blogspot.com

Until then, here are a few photos I dug up from my gallery:

Over Veterans Day weekend we went camping at Carlsbad Beach. Although we usually do something fun every weekend since we're both off then, this trip in particular was so incredibly relaxing. There's just something that's almost contradictively therapeutic about camping at the beach. Sand ends up taking over your tent at some point and everything always ends up getting damp and cold and just thinking of those things right now makes me irritated. But falling asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing and waking up to some of the most incredible views always makes up for it.

A quick update...

I went into this blogging thing with the goal of posting at least 3 times a week. What really happened was a couple of posts within a couple of months and 15 half assed drafts staring me down. 

I'd like to think I have some excuse for totally failing at my somewhat too ambitious goal, though. So I'll let you know what's been going on and you can decide for yourself! 

Since my last post I finally had my wedding ( it was everything I'd hoped for! Pictures to come..), went on a honeymoon cruise, moved into a new house with my new husband, got accepted into a nursing program, had my new car totalled :'( , went on a road trip to Arizona, and now here I am, furiously searching for a new car and preparing for my upcoming school semester. 

This post was more of a way to feel guilt about not keeping up with my blog, and it sort of worked. I have so many ideas and topics to write about and I can't wait to get back on track! 

James Tang Photography 

Horseback riding in Mexico

Bye bye Corolla, thanks for keeping my husband safe! 

Sedona is always so gorgeous

Discontentment and growth

Writing for personal enjoyment is hard. I am a very deadline-driven girl. I thrive on making the most out of those last precious seconds before something is due. Without a deadline, I have time to stare at my writing. My last article sat there as a sad, unfinished draft for about a week before I could bring myself to put the finishing touches on and consider it worthy enough to hit the publish button and release it into cyberspace. I still find myself rereading things and editing punctuation and moving words around, but I guess that's how we make improvements. I had viewed imperfection as a curse until recently. If I didn't see imperfection, I would have no reason correct mistakes and make an effort to improve. Imagine if you learned the alphabet as a child and was like 'well that's a pretty impressive array of knowledge, I'll stop here'. The world would be a muddy experience of mediocracy. Instead of being content with our astonishing knowledge of the ABCs, we became curious about reading. We were frustrated by the fact that our parents could look at a page of all of these letters and make sense of it. And so through disappointment and anger at our shortcomings, we flourish.

That isn't where things stop, though.  

Flowers, farmers markets, and the love of my life

Today was a hectic day that was filled with lots of deck painting, farmer's marketing (I iust turned that into a verb, deal with it), and picking out flowers for my wedding. I realize that there is nothing 'hectic' sounding about strolling through farmers markets and painting and flower browsing, but I assure you, they were very difficult tasks that are not to be taken lightly! I was also able to check out my ceremony location again, and it was so beautiful! I couldn't be happier with my choice. For those of you who don't know me, my ceremony will be taking place in an adorable little gazebo next to the shore of Big Bear Lake. 

The grass could use a little TLC, but other than that, it's a gorgeous location! 

I feel a little weird talking so much about the wedding preparation without introducing my better half! So often I see brides and family and friends get caught up in the details of the the day instead of reason behind it. Although I've had my moments, I feel like I've been much less of a bridezilla than the average gal going through premarital stress. You should feel comfortable and beautiful in your dress but what's more important is who is wearing it, and if it's the right man that she's going to meet at the end of the aisle. I've worked hard to create a day that will encompass the beauty of our relationship, and reflect our own personalities and styles. But at the end of the day, the cake is just a cake, the flowers are going to wither away, and that one vendor that shows up 2 hours too late makes for a great story in the long run. The most important thing that is left after a wedding is your new marriage. It sounds like something that shouldn't even have to be said but I feel like a lot of people are so blinded by the shiny engagement rings and fancy bridal showers and beautiful tiered cakes that  they end up marrying the wrong person. 

Okay, rant over. I swear! I didn't even introduce my fiancé ( which was originally the entire point of this article, oops!) and I don't want to throw in a half assed blurb about him, so I'll deliver my promise in my next post. For now, I'll leave you with a sickeningly adorable photo of us. 

        Did I mention he's a total cutie??

Introduction

Congratulations! You've managed to stumble across my brand new blog. You've even decided to read the post with (hopefully) the least interesting title, so I must admit that I'm a little flattered. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to tell you lovely readers about myself or my reason for this blog, so I'll go all out and give you a little bit of both.

Firstly, my name is Allison M. And that suspicious M is soon to turn into an H! (In precisely 24 days, 3 hours, and 12 minutes, but hey, who's counting?) I'm a full time student and am currently pursuing my dream career(s). I'm a lover of nature and horses and science and reading and writing and painting and music and being around friends and family. 

Starting a blog always seemed like a good idea, but with the hell of a semester that I recently conquered, it's safe to say that I haven't had much spare time to sit and gather coherent thoughts. I love reading and writing, but I've been feeling like my literary skills have been puton the back burner lately. I decided to start this blog to get back in touch with my passion for writing and to be able to document some of my life happenings. I also believe that blogging can help you to  better understand yourself and the world around you. My posts will most likely be dedicated to my random thoughts, my adventures as a nursing major , and anything else that I feel like putting my two cents in on. I hope to eventually have a central theme for this blog, but in the meantime if you find my ramblings to be amusing, please feel free to follow me!