My Christmas Wish....

Behold the ALMIGHTY Christmas present!

The NorthFace APex Bionex jacket in Chili Pepper.... 

I know I know.. again I am planning way to much to already know what I want, but again since we are on Dave Ramsey.. We don't just get to buy stuff!

Well I got an email today telling me my jacket was on sale!!!

So it caused me to blog about it.. then it caused me to think about what else I want..

* A new water bottle.. kelly got this really cool one --camelbac style.

Then I want this for our bathroom.. we are always in need of storage...ALWAYS!

* Clothes.. i feel like i always need clothes!

* I am getting to the point that I may need a new Ipod.. i have the 1st generation Shuffle.. and with our marathon coming up I know that I need one that will be able to have more than 4-5 hours of music, sadly though I WOULDN'T GET IT IN TIME!!!

* Camera.. I noticed this weekend how BIG mine is. kelly got it like 3-4 years ago and it is HUGE in comparisson to others that would actually be able to fit in a pocket!

* New Black boots.. mine our very sad & beyond the point of polishing

*  A disney charm-- I got one when we went, but one day at work we had a tornado and I was outside.. so i had to run as fast as i could in the wind and rain.. and when I finally made it inside--mickey was nolonger with me.. :(

* Paint for out 2 guest bedrooms-wonder if Santa would actually do the painting too??

* Printer for our computer

Ok, I will stop now! I just had to write about my coat!!

OH and we got our Christmas cards today!! they are sooo cute!

a rockstar wedding

Wedding weekend!


Kathryn Ann got married this weekend, so it was a very busy weekend!

So busy in fact that I totally forgot to post for last weeks red writing contest.. DANG IT!!!

It all started Thursday night. I took Friday off 1. Because we had the bridesmaid brunch on Friday afternoon & 2.Cause I needed to run 15 miles at some point during the weekend and figured that would be the best time to do it since Saturday I would be running around CRAZY!

Thursday night I stayed with Kathryn in Fayetteville. Me, Kabs, Stephanie, & Shores all stayed up talking for a while then determined we best get to bed, we had a long day ahead of us. I got to sleep in the spare room… I LOVE the spare room! I loved it even more for the fact that I could turn the fan on high, open a window get an even colder breeze, and have uninterrupted sleep. Now I love my husband dearly & I love my pup like a child, but every once in a while it is nice to sleep without a puppy on your head or a RLS (restless leg syndrome) husband to keep you awake.

Got up on Friday at 7am to run my 15 miles..and BOY was it FLIPPIN cold & rainy!! So I pulled out my trusty new Asics tights from sports basement and set off for a winter adventure. As I ran through the first neighborhood nears Kabs house I was sacred to death by some “roofers” there was a BIG storm a while back and a lot of houses in Fville had hail damage. Well these “roofers” we just chilling in their creeper pedophile van, probably cause no normal person would be out working, let alone running in that weather on Friday, and they leaned out the van & stared me down. I am telling you it creeped me out. Needless to say from that point on I decided I need mace & that I was not leaving the confines of the familiar neighborhood. So let me tell you 14 miles (I ran out of time) can get boring running around the same neighborhood over and over again!!

After the run I got ready real quick at met everyone at the luncheon. I CAN NOT explain to you how good this lunch was!! First of all the woman that held the lunch for us was amazing! She was so sweet and such a great hostess that we didn’t want to leave.. Seriously we stayed for 3 hours!! The Food was amazing. I still need to find the recipe. It was roasted vegetables with goat cheese and chicken cacciatore.

 

Christy is the cute brunette with the pixie cut! She was an amazing hostess!

stephanie, me, kathryn, andrea, & leah

We came back to F-ville for a few hours to chill and change before the rehearsal. Here are some pictures from it..
It was soo very cold on Friday night, and the groomsmen kept jacking up the walk in so we had to do it 2 or 3 times with us standing outside until they could get it right.. It makes me wonder if they were doing it on purpose!
We then went to dinner at Fred's Hickory Inn!! I love Fred's it is absolutely amazing! I have been going there since I was little! I branched out and ordered the smoked sirloin, and it was well worth it. I 100% forgot this whole time that I was supposed to make a toast.. I know that is hard to believe because I plan soo much, but i totally forgot that I was supposed to one.. so it was a from the hip one, which of course made me tear up a little thinking back to all the mess & trouble we use to get in to!!

at cooper chapel

I worked hard on that boquet

 

kathryn & scarlett (her step mom-who i adore!)

 

our gifts!

Saturday Morning....
Long story short kabs was getting extensions for the wedding.. well she dyed her hair the week prior and they didn't match.. So at 9 am Saturday morning Kabs ask if Leah and I had to make an emergency stop to Sally's Beauty supply. The only problem was that we had both just gotten out of the shower, were not close to being ready.. and had to be at the brunch at 10:30! The lunch was super fancy too, so it is not like we could stroll up all matted hair!
so Leah & I had to book it to get to the brunch on time.. funny story though (you would need to know leah to really get it) I drove Leah's car so she could finish her makeup. Well leah drives a new mercedees, which would get looks in itself, but to make it worse. leah is cute too. Well on the way to the brunch I am hitting about 90 and this guy in a Land Rover keeps trying to get next to us.. Leah and I both roll our eyes and make some comment about it is WAY to early to be hitting on us and to leave us alone! Well by this time he practically leaning out of his car.. and leah exhasperated rolls down her window & is like what dude.. He screams back---Your hood up up!
WOW! We laughed so hard cause we were just soo annoyed this guy was hitting on us before noon on a saturday!
After the brunch we had to run up to the hotel and deal with the hair crisis..and other things!

nikki iorned

while leah did hair!

 

nancy did my hair..been going to her since i was 16!

Then comes the fun part!!!

leah, andrea & I

we are so cute!

dance party usa

 

ladies and gentleman..the guy that is like a father to me.. Neff Basore-doing the worm??

 

Mrs. Carlson & Mr. Bradley

We had so much fun at the wedding.. I was wao happy for kathryn and loved hanging out with all of our old frineds, eating great food, & most importanly getting my hot husband on the dance floor! A direct quote, "I googled dance moves before we came tonight,"

Oh geez!

Think can't buy me love...need i say more?

food for thought....christmas style

We are in the 4th week of the 12 weeks of Christmas and unfortunatly with all the wedding festivites last week I didn't get to participate.. so now lets get serious about the food!

Gifts
This year I want to give food as gifts. I love to cook & create so I figure do the most senable thing.. cook, create, save money and give it as gifts!
this will include:
*Peanut butter balls

*Homemade Carmel corn

*Cake balls

& Pecan Brittle

                                         

I think I could make more, but I haven't decided what all i may add to the baskets..which leads me to ask my fellow bloggers where can I get some cute rubbermaid type of containers to give to my family?

Appitizers:
Cheese dip in a bread bowl
spinach dip
Cheese ball
sausage stars
 

REAL FOOD:
We normally have the traditionsl Christmas dinner with turkey. mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, & all the normal stuff. Except we have 5 cup salad and I love love 5 cup salad!
1 cup pineapples
1 cup mandarin oranges
1 cup sour cream
1 cup pecans
1 cup mini marshmallow

Last year we had 4 dinners... man was that tough on the waist line.. this year thankfully we only have 2 this year!

pictures and such

i love how she displays her produce, so i had to take a picture!

What the heck is this thing???

i'll post pictures of out pumpkins, IF we ever have time to carve them!

Races & Places

Well we got back from our race on Sunday, just in time for life groups with our church.
First let me start with Friday, we got in to KC just in time to stop by the expo. Which for those of you who do not know the expo is the place where a bunch of businesses come and bring there running stuff to sell you while you are all excited and in the moment..
Well, it worked! Kelly threw his, “please babe can we buy this, it will be a great souvenir” on me and I caved like a house of cards. So we are now the owners of matching KC shirts!

 

After that we headed to Shores’ house to eat dinner, which I may add is some of the best pizza I have had in a VERY long time.. a place called Murry’s maybe? Then began our pre-race ritual, which if we were giving credit our I would say Kelly learned from Bobby & I comply too!

1. Pin the bib to the shirt

2. Attach the chip to the shoe

3. Lay out every stitch of clothes out that you plan on wearing the next morning

4. lay out-in order of the way it will be prepared-breakfast for the following morning

5. set alarm

6. lay down for bed

7. check alarm again, just to be sure

Like I said in previous blogs, we had to run 5 prior to the race, so the alarm went off at 4am and out the door we went. We ran our 5 & I swear to you the temperature was about 45-50 degrees. We finished up met up with Shores and went to pick up C.C. Andrea’s friend from college.

We got to the Crown Plaza center with plenty of time, thanks to my OCD friend, but by the time we got down to the starting line I SWEAR to you the temp had dropped to about 30-35 degrees. Then on top of that it was raining. So I grabbed the volunteers from the food tables and pleaded my case for garbage backs! I wish I would have gotten a picture of the 4 of us standing at the start line shivering covered in trash bags!!!

Kelly and I met up with the 2:20 pace group. We had decided that we weren’t going to try to set any PR’s with our time since we had to run 5 prior to the race. Kelly & I both did good and stayed with the pace group until mile 8 or so, then we both felt pretty good and picked up the pace. We crossed the finish line together on this one!

Cortney Carlson

bib number: 6681

age: 27

gender: F

location: Bentonville, AR

overall place: 2647 out of 4487

division place: 366 out of 664

gender place: 1290 out of 2715

time: 2:15:22

pace: 10:20

3.3m: 36:29

Robert Carlson

bib number: 6682

age: 27

gender: M

location: Bentonville, AR

overall place: 2644 out of 4487

division place: 272 out of 350

gender place: 1356 out of 1772

time: 2:15:21

pace: 10:20

3.3m: 36:27


So we finished the race and waited for Shores and C.C. Andrea crossed at 2:20ish & C.C. crossed at 2:45-2:50 ish.. which really isn’t bad considering prior to the race C.C. had only ran 9 miles on a long run, & the girls knee started hurting her at about mile 5 so she had some random stranger (CC said she looked very nice and approachable) go to the gas station and but her Advil!! She then proceeded to take all 4 that came in a package and continue on her way!! Tough girl she is!!!

 C.C., Andrea, me, & Kelly

After that we took a couple of pictures until my lips turned purple and Kelly began to worry. So we headed back for Shores’ apt… after a much needed nap we decided to go to dinner on the Plaza. Other than a Chief’s game Kelly had never been, but even then he never really saw Kansas City. He loved it! Shores’ had to work Saturday night bless her heart, so we ate Dinner at Houston’s without her, but it was SO good. I had pecan glazed chicken and he had the veggie plate and we split ½ & ½ , it was amazing!

 

 

So Sunday we made it back in time for Life Groups. We got our book for our study group and teacher Kelly gave us homework!! We had to take the quiz to see what Love Language we spoke.. There are 5:

*Words of Affirmation

*Gifts

*Acts of service

*Physical touch

*Quality Time

I took the quiz and I was “bi-lingual” so I have two main love languages.. which sounds a little high maintenance to me!! Sorry KELLY!!! The questions were a little tough though, cause it would ask you which you would rather have.. a night alone with your spouse or help cleaning the house.. which is not exactly fair, because I have nights alone a lot with my husband…and I love them, which lead me to pick the help cleaning house one.. Because I don’t get that one as much!! 

I am excited to see what Kelly is, which is why I am not posting what I was! I am afraid he may read this and it could skew his answers!! Stay tuned though and I will post on Nov. 2nd what we both are!

Goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come

Tonight we leave for KC to spend a fun filled weekend with shores. We are planning on leaving promptly at 3pm in order to make it to the expo.. The expo that my precious husband has geeked out on! He is so excited about it, all week I have heard, “maybe I’ll see something at the expo.” We are planning on meeting Andrea for dinner and getting to bed early. The race starts at 7am, but Kelly and I will be bright eyed at 5am ready to do our 5 prior to the race! I hope it works out as well as I want it to, I would hate to do badly! It is supposed to be FREEZING on Saturday morning!


I wanted running tights and a new sports bra, due to the fact that mine has left me with battle scars. Well I went on this Fabulous site and found some wonderful deals… So wonderful in fact that I almost don’t want to post it in fear that my bargains will be snatched up, but I have a giving heart so I will share!
Sportsbasement.com

They have amazing customer service too! The tights that I ordered for the race this weekend were out of stock, but they didn’t realize until after I placed my order. This sweet girl from there called me and walked me through all the other styles. The ones I wanted were more expensive than the original ones I purchased, so she told me she would honor the price that I paid and get them out to me that night! I was very impressed with them!

Well we are off to run in the Waddell & Reed race in KC. Please say prayers that we are injury free!

Learning to become a wife…

Yesterday I had to run at lunch because I had to go to young wives that night.
Well it was cold and rainy and I did not want to go.. but I was forced to by my own competitive spirit. I was so concerned that I would not run & Kelly would and I would be behind in my miles.. So I ran, I ran quickly too just to get it over with. I ran at work around the JBH track which has two hills and I had to run those 3 times! So I finished my 3 in 26:30 and that is pretty fast for me. ( Needless to say since Kelly knew what I ran in he HAS TO beat my time so he ran it in 23..show off! I knew I should have deleted my time!!)

Well Young Wives started at 6:30 and it was a PJ party! What is young wives you may ask? Well our church has a group of married women varying from 50-20 years of marital experience and they shower us with wisdom and knowledge of what they have learned over the years. It is wonderful! I love going, not only for the education that it brings to my marriage, but there is always really good food, and you get to really talk to other women about my age and get to know them better.

The PJ party was a huge success they did a great job blankets, pillows, hot chocolate, & best of all… We had breakfast for dinner! That is one of my favorite things to do is have breakfast for dinner. Waffles, breakfast casserole, and fruit…I ate way too much!

QUIT TIME- The lesson was good though we talked about quiet times- if we do them ourselves, if we do one with our husbands, if we do one with our children? THANKFULLY, I didn’t have to listen during the children part. But, they did bring up a really good point that I would have never thought about when it comes to having children. Kelly and I spend so much time together and we are able to give each other so much attention that when we do have kids it will be difficult for him to transition. I say him because usually when people have kids the mom becomes so focused on the child that they husband often falls to the background. I am very thankful to have this in my mind. Not that we are having kids right now, but I think that if I can remember that it will make the transition a better one.

BED TIME- Also, a topic that came up was bedtime. They mentioned something that made me think was how good it was for couples to go to bed at the same time. Shutting off the TV closing the door and just be together. Some of the ladies read a little bit before they go to bed, but either way having that alone time free of distractions is good to have. It makes me want to tell Kelly the only night it is not ok for mutual bedtime is Sunday and Monday.. I mean after all I am not a slave driver!!!

HABITS- This was one that we did last YW, but it was so good it still helps me. They talked about how each person brings in habits to the marriage, most of the time from their parents whether they be good or bad. It is then our job to communicate with each other about the things that bother us and what is the best compromise to fix them.. Here is mine..One of the ladies was talking about how annoyed she would get when her husband wouldn’t turn his shirts the right way. She hated having to turn them right side out to fold the. She was talking about how they would bicker about it… I had to pipe in on that one. I told her what I do, wash em’ however he took them off, then fold them however they come out of the dryer. That is how this girl does it. I figure if Kelly doesn’t care enough to take it off the right way, he won’t care enough the way they are folded. :) But it was also good to realize that he has emotional habits picked up as well. Which I wouldn’t have thought about that otherwise.

I thought I would share with ya’ll about what I learned yesterday!

Christmas as a Carlson

 Every year Julie gets us matching Christmas pants...

I am an only child... an only child whose parents got divorced when I was 6.. So pretty much all i can remember is 4 different Christmas'. Mom, Dad, Grandma & Papa, and Mema & Pepa Christmas. Christmas was never really the same or filled with any annual traditions though. Their was never any real rules or a set way of doing things, it was just whatever fit in the schedule or worked best for the majority.... Oh but that beautiful Saturday on the 15th of April it all changed.... we are now entering....CHRISTMAS WITH THE CARLSON'S.

Let me just tell you that I could not have married in to a better family. Hands down, the best family. I thank God daily for blessing me with the Carlson's.
Now, having said that..I was not prepared for what was awaiting me that first Christmas. Kelly's mom has always been able to have all her (3) kids home for the holidays. Well this was one of those years where Christmas was on a Saturday, so there wasn't much time off, and Kelly's mom had just gone through to become a flight attendant, and she was stationed out of Houston. Bobby & Julie (my inlaws) are from AZ, Kurt and Kaylee (bro & sis-inlaw) live in Searcy, AR and go to HARDING UNIVERSITY, then we were in Dallas. So we all wanted to be with Bobby and Julie so to Houston we flew, by a Boeing 737 instead of the 8 tiny reindeer.
Well, the 4 carlson kids got to the airport by around 4 or 5, and B & J weren't due in until 11 or 12am, so then began the debacle of getting us home. We find this CRAZY cabbie guy who agrees to take us to our hotel. I will spare you all the conversations that we had with the cabbie, EXCEPT when the ONLY "attraction" he could point out to us was the triple X book-stores.
Next morning was Christmas Eve, we all spent the day at the Mall, in carlson style- doing Christmas shopping!! Finished it up with a Christmas Eve dinner at non other than.... The CheeseCake Factory!
We get back to the hotel with our stockings hung by the chimney with care, we we heard such a clatter, we all sprang to the room to see what was the matter.
Well Julie was called in to fly!! On Christmas morning.  So we improvised and opened our Christmas presents at 11 pm Christmas Eve.

The stocking is my Carlson stocking!

The tide to go, well we are just messy

the high five is because kelly & i are "team carlson"

and that... that is happy kaylee

The next morning we all decided that without her there we would rather just head home.. so we headed off to Dallas...
But, by the time we got home, it was dinner time and we realized that on our first Christmas together we didn't have any food in the house! We then proceeded to drive around Dallas for an hour only to settle on the only sensible choice for Christmas dinner.... IHOP other wise known as The International House of Pancakes! i can still remember what we ordered.. I got the the happy face pancakes with chocolate chips, and Kelly- the denver omelet.

Needless to say 4 year later we have had much better luck on being together and we are getting more and more traditions, but I will never forget my first Christmas as a Carlson