Hairs Got Cut

I think Buttercup approves! 

Much love,
The (shorter-haired) Woman With 4 First Names

 And, PS - I swear I'm not a ghost...color and my skin just are at odds.  Buttercups rosy cheeks and red-button nose really stand out in this picture!  Just call her Rudolf...but don't actually because name calling isn't very nice.

Gifts From the Heart

Mustang and I put a $25 limit on Christmas spending on each other.  The main reason being because we continue to participate in Advent Conspiracy through our church.  Advent Conspiracy (http://ac.wcrossing.org/default.aspx?page=3684) challenges people to...Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, Love All...confused?  It boils down to re-thinking the way you do Christmas in order to focus on worshipping Jesus, prioritizing spending time and making memories over spending money on gifts and releasing extra dollars to others in the world who are in need.  One of AC's purposes...to solve the water crisis our world is in...from the website: "more people die each year from drinking dirty water than from the world’s hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes combined".  Ultimately, a small single paragraph trying to explain all that is Advent Conspiracy can not do the job nor is it the intention of this post...but our participating in Advent Conspiracy means less dollars available to spend on gifts for each other...and the purpose of this post is to talk about what Mustang and I did with the $25 we had to spend.

Let's start with me...because ladies first, right?  As in...let's start with what I 'purchased' for Mustang.

I fretted and I hummed and I hawed...what, WHAT do I get him???  After hemming and hawing and fretting, I decided on a multi-dimensional approach.  Mustang had four things to open last night when we exchanged gifts.

• While casually shopping frantically searching at Target for something fun and inexpensive I ran across a golf score counter thingy.  It helps you keep track of you strokes and putts...but not mother dogs.

• The second gift was a coupon for a date night for January totally planned by ME...stay tuned in January to learn the details. 

• The third gift...well the third gift speaks for itself:

•  The fourth gift was a framed picture collage from 2011 for Mustang to add to his desk collection at work.

And what did I get for Christmas...well a picture says a thousand words, right?

Do you know? 

Can you guess? 

Stumped?

Inside this very unassuming box was 52 cards...that's right 52 pre-written cards from Mustang to ME.  There was an additional card on top of the box (sorry I did not capture my pictures correctly)...so in total 53 cards...for me...ME.  One for our Christmas gift exchange night and the rest...one card for each week of the next year.  Some weeks I get to pick which day I want to open the card...other weeks I have specific days that I must open the card...January 1st is a specified day week...I'm guessing February 6th and/or 14th might be specified day weeks, as well as July 18th...but I have not checked to see how many are specified days.

I, also, was the lucky recipient of 2 additional beads for my charm bracelet.  Hallmark $7 each...gotta love a steal.



Don't worry folks...Buttercup was there and having a blast eating the wrapping paper that her own gifts were wrapped in.  She didn't quite get the whole unwrapping thing but loved her gifts once they were OUT.

Merry Christmas!

~The Woman With 4 First Names

Fa La La La La...

We decked our halls! 

Okay...2 posts in one day I know after such a long dry spell...crazy!  But as I'm sitting here trying to keep the house quiet to allow Buttercup some good rest (she's been a bit 'off' this last week) I just can't help myself!

So...we decked our halls!!  Christmas decorating is going to be a time of good cheer and grand memories in our house I just know it.  Mustang and I LOVE IT.  It's 'slap-your-momma' fun!  (Sorry insider joke for those that get Mustang's southern humor). 

It starts by pulling out our fake Christmas tree.  It took awhile to convince me to go fake, but ultimately I have no sense of smell so why deal with the additional mess that a real tree makes when I can't smell it? 

The fluffing begins...

It's all about your light strategy people...you have to layer the lights in.

Buttercup was VERY interested in the whole process.

Leave it to Mustang to pull out the Baby Bjorn so Buttercup could be in on the action...

Mustang...your head is shinning...

My most favorite thing about decorating for Christmas is putting out the Nativity Set.  It was my favorite thing to do growing up and it remains at the top of the list now as an adult.  I can't wait for Buttercup to be old enough to help but just being able to point out baby Jesus to her and have a tid-bit of how it might be in years to come made my heart sing (off-key probably but still it SANG!).

And no sooner had it begun and we were done.  The tree was up and decorated and beautiful and the Nativity Set was placed in its home for this Christmas season. 

Merry Christmas!!
~ The Woman With 4 First Names

The External Processor and The Worry-Wart

Which one of those would you like to be?  Which one of those do you think I am?  Which one of those do you think Mustang is?  Are we both both of them?

My husband is an EXTERNAL PROCESSOR.  Capital E, capital X, capital TERNAL PROCESSOR! 

I am a WORRY-WART.  Capital W, capital O, capital RRY-WART!

Whoow!  Feels good to dump that out!

I grew up in a town of 300ish people.  I was so afraid of being kid-napped that I wouldn't even walk from our house to our garage (maybe 50 feet) by myself after dark.  My parents might have gone a little overboard on stranger danger with me.  I also have an over-active imagination...and for some reason have never 'day-dreamed/fantasized' about good and lovely things happening, but instead imagine and live out the worst of the worst in my head.

Mustang has no filter, he says what is on his mind (oh boy does he!).  He needs to wrap his head around situations.  He needs to tell people about what he's dealing with - the good, the bad and the frustrating.  He needs to vent...to me.  He needs loving input...from me.  He needs validation...from me.  He needs ME to listen and to hear him.

Did I mention that I'm a worry-wart (capital W and all that jazz)?  I have yet to learn how to be there for my husband and support him and hear him and love him through the bad and the frustrating without becoming paralyzed by my worry.

So where is the balance?  I have NO IDEA.  And that's okay for me right now.  I'm looking towards 2012 as a time of less worry, more supporting and in general a year of hope and faith.  The church I go to just did a sermon on hope and, as I was reminded last night, it was AMAZING!

I am so little in God's grand plan and I want to make it so that He can use ME, use MUSTANG, use BUTTERCUP in HIS STORY.  There is no reason to worry when you know you are under His Grace.  But those are easy words to write and HARD words to live out.  My prayer for 2012 is that I grow in this area...that I grow BIG in this area.

Much Love,
~The Woman With 4 First Names

Santa's Eyebrows

Through a random happenstance of me wanting to get Buttercup a headband with an over-sized flower for Easter we ended up in the store at the mall that was right next to where the Easter Bunny was set-up.  The store owner informed us that the mall has an Easter Bunny (and a Santa at Christmas-time) to provide parents with the opportunity to get a snap-shot of their kid(s) with their own camera.  Meaning there is no 'professional' photographer therefore you don't have to deal with that side of things if you would just prefer to get a snap-shot yourself.  As you can see Easter went great...and don't you love Buttercup's headband?

With things going so well with the Easter Bunny, Mustang and I decided to head on over to get a picture of Buttercup with Santa.  Now I was very interested to see how Buttercup would do.  She is her Daddy's daughter and is not afraid of anyone so I knew that I had to be prepared for a melt-down moment but I didn't really know if it would happen with Buttercup (aka Miss Social Butterfly).  We approached Santa...her arm tightened around mine.  I passed her over to Santa's waiting ams...and...

She did great!  She wasn't loving Santa but no melt-down, we snapped a few shots and then headed over to Gingerbread land for a family photo opportunity.

After looking through the pictures, Mustang wanted to see if we could get one more "really good one of Buttercup and Santa".  So, we went in for round 2...

...and this time the eyebrows were just too much for the poor girl to take.  I know Buttercup they would've scared me too! 

As we were leaving I turned and saw this sign...

...not the greatest picture of either of us, but how could I pass that up?  Because I do in fact love my little Buttercup!

Sorry for the long absence and Merry almost Christmas!
~The Woman With 4 First Names