Work Halloween Party

Friday was our work Halloween party. In the five Halloween's that I saw at the F&B, this was the only year that I actaully dressed up. My entire department dressed up together and it was fantastic.

The original plan was for my manager Jason to dress up as Snow White and the seven regular employees would be the 7 dwarfs. However, the costume that he purchased did not fit properly. So, he came as the magic mirror. But his roomie, Morgan, came in as Snow White and Craig (one of the attorneys) came as prince charming.

Thought I would share a few photos.

The whole Snow White group

Just the dwarfs

The coverage department at work

The two greatest dwarfs - Sleepy and Happy

We had a great day at work. So long as you were dressed up, you got free breakfast and lunch. It was awesome.

What were your costumes?

50 Free Photocards from Shutterfly

Shutterfly is giving away 50 free photocards to bloggers.

Go here and enter your blog infomation to get started.

Romance

Christopher is rarely very romantic. He has planned a few good surprises and done some pretty amazing things, but those are very rare. He has trouble talking about his feelings and just in general doesn't show emotion very often at all. But there are times that he does or says the cutest things that are romantic in that moment and he never even knows it.

For example, last night we were having a conversation about all the crime currently going on in Columbia. (seriously, I am terrified to leave the house after dark) He reminded me that if anything ever happened to me that he would be up here so fast and with a whole train of people. He said that the person who hurt me better hope that the police caught them first. Now, as terrible as this sounds, I found this to be romantic. It just shows that he loves me and how protective he is of me. He checked with me to make sure that my pistol was loaded beside my bed too.

Yesterday I was dreading going into work (one of these days, I will actually post about what is going on there, it is just such a long story). Before I went into work, I asked him to say something to keep a smile on my face and start work in a good mood. He laughed and said that he couldn't do that on the stop, but all he got was an "I love you". To me, "I love you's" are the greatest. Simple and sweet.

Earlier this week we were talking about rumors going on at work about sexual harrassment and certain people at work who are creepers. He makes little comments like "he better not be looking at your butt" and "he better not be asking you those types of questions" and often offers to come up here to make sure no one is messing with me.

He often does little things too. Like when he goes into the gas station to get a soda or cigs, he will come out with candy or a juice that I like (even when I tell him I didn't want anything) He always just smiles and says I might want it later

He talks a lot of smack about not cleaning, doing laundry or dishes. Yet, somehow, every weekend that I am coming down, the house is all picked up and dusted (not sure that he vacuums) and his laundry all caught up so I don't have to do it.

He always still opens doors for me.

He still tells me goodnight every night.

If I have been at his house, he always walks me to my car.

There are times that he went to buy himself a new gun and came back with one for me.

He reminds me that he still thinks I am beautiful, even on the days that I look like poo.

On days that I am not in a good mood, he reminds me how few months I have left here.

He lets me watch shows when we are together that he would never, ever want to watch.

He compliments my cooking and has even told me certain things I do better than his grandma.

More than one of his co-workers has told me how Chris talks about me at work and actually says nice things to the guys.

Although, not really directed at me, I always smile when I see how well he takes care of the puppies. The boy is going to be a great father.

Ah, I love that boy. Time for class. Tomorrow is dress up day for Halloween at work. There will be tons of pictures.

I was Tagged

Posting twice in one day doesn't happen very often for me these days, but I have some free time, so I thought I would knock out a survey. Mallory at Day in the Life ... of the Thompsons tagged in in her survey.

{1}: If you could be in any tv show when you were a kid what would it be?


I definately think that I could have fit right in 7th Heaven. They had a mix of personalities and kids just like my family. Life was always crazy and someone was always around. Sounds like my house! I basically grew up with the girls on the show. So sad that is is no longer on.

I also loved watching Boy Meets World. My cousin had a neighbor that looked just like Sean. I was a weird kid and could have been friends with Topanga and dated Sean.

I'm sure that there are others, but that is all I got right now


{2}: What has been your favorite Christmas gift as a child?

I had several great Christmas presents from Santa. I would have to say that my favorite would have been my Barbie Dream Car. My sister and I were driving it around the living room before even opening the rest of our presents. Apparently they don't make the car in a corvette anymore. Bummer

{3}: What actress would you want to play you if your life was a movie?

I like Julia Roberts and Reece Witherspoon - either one could play me and I'd be happy. Both have great spunky and outgoing personalities.


{4}: What decade fad do you wish would come back?

I think that this question would be more easily answered if it asked which decade fad I wish would disappear again. Like mullets and off the shoulder shirts with sports bras hangin out

{5}:What song describes your life?

There are many great songs about how I feel about certain people in my life. But right now, all I got is stress. is there a song that talks about that?


{6}: What was your favorite subject in school?

When I was in grade school, I really loved English, Math and Science. Even in lower level college, I loved my chemistry and criminology classes. So far in law school, my favorites have been any class with Professor Scott (which were my writing classes), torts, secured transactions and my criminal classes. Yes, I am a nerd


{7}: If you could have a dream job for a day what would it be?

I would love to play the role of a socialite for a day. Go shopping, get my hair and nails done, hang out with friends, and host a big party that night. Sounds like a good day to me, except I don't want to get arrested. Seems like most of them do anymore


{8}: If you could be any animal, what would you be and why?

A house pet. One of my dad's employees has said that if he came back in a second like that he would want to come back as a Gabel pet. We treat our pets better than most people treat their kids. Spoiled little things

Now it is your turn to play along. I tag

1. Tyler at Rants, Raves, Ridiculous

2. Maggie at College - The Final Year

3. Mrs. G at My Life in the Making

4. Jenni at Story of My Life the Blog

5. Sass at His Lil' Sassafras

6. Amanda at Laughing in a Beautiful World

OK, well, I think I am done. I need to get back to reading for tomorrow. Hope that you all enjoyed. Play along even if you weren't tagged.

Weekend Recap - M-I-Z

Well, the weekend started off pretty rough for me. I had a terrible day at work on Friday. I was totally unhapy most of the day. My manager at work was out and I was left to deal with everything. Normally it isn't a big deal because nothing major happens. Friday was different. I was stuck dealing with employee issues. Not fun at all. Hopefully the issue gets fixed this week. I refuse to spend my next 9 months in Columbia miserable. I have enough stress with school and wedding planning and soon bar prep to be stressing out at work.

Luckily for me, after complaining to Maggie via texts when I got home, she decided to bring dinner over. We had Panera (so yummy, and so bad for you) and watched mostly wedding shows. Friday night TLC is great. We talked for a while too. She is such a good listener! I was happy that she came over. Chris still wasn't feeling too great and he was resting.

Saturday morning, I was up bright and early like usual. I picked up some around the house, started laundry and worked some on outlining. I cannot beleive it is almost November. Not too long before finals start. Yikes!!! Speaking of, I need to email the secretary who handles 2 finals in a day. I'm making myself a reminder in my phone right now. Maggie came to pick me up just after lunch. We headed to the new Marshalls in Columbia. The place was still packed and a lot of the clothes were picked over. Neither of us bought anything. Maybe better luck next time. We then did other shopping, some in preparation for our Halloween customes for Friday. Soooo excited about those. I also got an outfit to wear to a wedding in 2 weeks. I didn't have much winter weather dresses/wedding attire Guess it was finally time to get some. I'm very excited about it. I'll be sure to post pictures after the wedding (That is, if I can get Chris to take pictures that day).

I headed back home early afternoon. I did a little more homework. Then all my attention was focused on the TV. In case you hadn't heard, it was Mizzou's homecoming. It was the best game I have seen in years. It started in the morning. People started flooding the Quad at 3:30. Of course, I stayed at home and watched on EPSN. Mizzou beat the record for the most people at Gameday with 18,000. 

Mizzou won the game too. We beat Oklahoma (the #1 rated team going into the game). It was a fantastic game too. At halftime, we weren't sure how the game was going to end. The stadium was sold out. I didn't go. I decided to stay in my house where it was warm and dry. But I still wore my Mizzou gold. I'm sure my neighbors think I'm crazy too from the amount of noise coming from my apartment. But we won, beating OU for the first time in over a decade. The kids flooded the field and it was a beautiful site.

The goal posts were walked downtown and cut up into pieces. Students were fighting for 1 inch sections of the post. Looking forward to watching the Nebraska game this weekend. Hopefully we can keep up with our undefeated record.

Despite all the excitement, there were two murders in Columbia this weekend. It makes me extremely terrified to leave my house at night. I just don't understand, I guess. One was a robbery with a shooting. The other was a 55 year old homeless man who lived on the side of the interstate. What in the world did that person do to deserve that? Who knows.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I got up and immediatly started laundry. I also did some other cleaning and homework. I had lunch with Maggie at Hu Hot! It was amazing. I saw several people from work there. Apparently it was the place to go. After lunch, Maggie, Claudia and I started working on our Halloween costumes for work. We are really pumped about them. I'll make sure to post pictures over the weekend. Friday is dress up day. Good thing my class got cancelled so I don't have to go to class looking crazy.

Hope that you all had a great weekend.

Celebrating another anniversary

I woke up this morning thinking about Chris's mom. This time last year, I was sitting in the hospital in Sedalia. Chris's mom was undergoing surgery to remove cancer from one of her breasts. We were all pretty tired, but I remember just sitting there holding Chris's hand the whole time and watching the TV screen looking for Cheryl's number to pop up to let us know how the surgery was going. Chris was really worried becuase he lost his grandfather to cancer. The other TV was on talking about a girl that had been missing who come to find out was killed by her 15 year old neighbor. We were able to leave the hospital shortly after lunch time. Cheryl took it all very well. When we got to the house, she ate lunch and went to bed. She did sleep most of the day, but didn't complain too much about the pain.

The docs ran a test on her tumor and it is only 6% likely to return. She went through 6 weeks of radiation. I hope that she never has to go through that again. She was fortunate that the doctors caught it early enough. This just speaks highly about the importance of getting yearly mamograms. It can save your life.

So today we celebrate Cheryl being cancer free for one year! I love you Cheryl!

5 Question Friday

I love Fridays and I couldn't be more thankful that it is finally here this week. I hope this day turns out to be better than yesterday for sure. I had an emergency phone call yesterday at lunch. Christopher got injured at work then I had a stressful afternoon at work. I finally told one of the supervisors that I would deal with an issue today instead of yesterday becuase I couldn't focus.

Christopher got injured working on one of the crushing plants. He busted open his right thumb, chipping off part of the bone. He has 10 stitches and his thumb is in a splint. He was given some heavy duty pain meds and given orders of light duty for work for at least a week. I'm betting he goes stir crazy before that time. He is home, but in a lot of pain. I just wish that I could be there to take care of him. I just keep reminding myself just 9 more months in this town. And well, the drama at work, that is for a new post.

But I guess we should try to start the day off right. Time to play 5 Question Friday sponsored by My Little Life.

1. Who is the better cook, you or your spouse? Christopher isn't my spouse yet, but we would both agree that I am so the better cook. He never had to learn to cook, so he just doesn't do it. He helps out some when I am cooking dinner, but for the most part it is all me. He'd make frozen pizza or have take out if I didn't cook. Plus he loves my cooking, so I guess it works out
2. How often do you talk to your mom? Daily and on most days, more than once
3. Are you adventurous in the kitchen or stick to the recipe? I'm not overly adventurous but I don't always stick to recipes either. I hardly ever measure with actual measuring utensils. Those are over rated.. But we are also very traditional and Chris doesn't like much of his food messed with.

4. Is your second toe longer than your big toe? Yup - I was told when I was younger that it meant I was a leader . . . or intelligent. Ah, I don't remember, it was some good trait that I have :)

5. Do you dress up for Halloween? (Bonus question: What will you be this year?) I haven't dressed up in a few years, but I will be dressing up this year. My department at work is dressing up at Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. My manager Jason is dressing up as Snow White, another manager is being the old lady which and an attorney is being prince charming. The 7 part timers in my department are being the dwarfs. It was a perfect fit for us. I am Happy and I just ordered my beard

Hope you all have a great weekend. Don't forget to play along

Weekend Recap

I had a wonderful and busy weekend. I had class Friday morning, then headed straight to work. My boss was off leaving me the leading lady. (I will be this role again this week while my boss is out Thursday and Friday for Mizzou Homecoming). Work has been pretty much caught up. Despite having a huge docket week, we still managed to get everything done. I love the people that I work with and am glad our department works so well together. By noon, we had essentially ran ourselves out of work. We had to leave a little for the people working til 5. So just after noon, I left work. We dropped Maggie's car at my apartment in the garage (it was closer than taking it to her apartment). We loaded up all her stuff (we had such a full car for just a weekend), got koolaide and juice and hit the road. We got food before hitting the highway so we wouldn't have to stop in the next town. Maggie napped part of the trip, but it was a good drive. 63 highway is beautiful this time of year. We listened to the radio, sang along to Glee soundtracks and visited most of the way down there. We stopped in Willow Springs once we reached Howell County. We had stopped to pick up one of the puppies so Chris didn't have to bring both. Boy were the dogs happy to see us. We played outside for a bit. Chris showed Maggie the crushing plants running and Maggie got to hear the rumble of the dump truck motor that I talk about. We ended up with both puppies in my car sharing our two front seats (I believe more and more every day that I need a bigger car).

When we got to my mom's house, no one else was there. We took the opportunity to unload a few things, let the rest of the doggies outside and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. My mom was the first to come back. We started getting a few things ready for dinner. Chris came by when he got off work. My brother and his wife were next to show up. They had been in town for a few days to buy a house (which they did), so we decided we would have a semi-family dinner. My sister came by for a few minutes just to let me see the new baby. She didn't stay for dinner though. Here are a few pictures of the new baby.

After dinner the rest of us sat around and visited. The house my brother bought is actually owned by a relative of Chris's and is just down the road from where he lived when he was younger. It always feels so nice to be home. Maggie and I crashed early. It had been a long, tiring day.

Saturday morning, I was woke up at 3:30 by Dozer who wanted to go outside. Boy was it chilly then. Luckily he was ready to go back to sleep when we got back in. We slept in til about 6:30. I got up fed the pups, took a shower and was ready to start the day. We left the house around 9 and headed to town. Us girls (Maggie, my mom and myself) did a little shopping. My brother then took us to show us the house. It looks really nice. We had lunch with my grandmother. I took my car to a shop to have new speakers put in. Depsite knowing that I will be getting a new car in less than a year, I was not about to suffer through the next year with one busted speaker. It was driving me nuts. After lunch we did a little more shopping. Once we got back to Pomona. Maggie and I were up at my house. Chris's dad, step mom and cousins were there. They had came to pick up our walnuts. That is a job that I will never do. It just isn't worth it for the money that you collect.

About 5 pm, Maggie and I headed back to the house to get ready for our double date. This was the weekend that Chris and I choose to celebrate out anniversary. We were all going out to dinner. One of Chris's cousins had a crush on Maggie and he was delighted when he was asked to join us for dinner. Here are a couple pictures prior to dinner.

We had a wonderful dinner at Colton's (and it made good leftovers for Sunday lunch). After dinner, we just went back to the house to hang out. We watched TV, played with Boots the puppy and visited. It was a nice relaxing evening. Dozer was super happy for me to get back to my mom's house though. He was ready for bed. Luckily Saturday night, he slept til 6:30. We got up and laid around for a bit. I got around, showered, and packed up my stuff. We had a little breakfast and visited with my family. My sister showed for a bit to let me see the baby again. We then headed up to visit with Christopher.

Maggie took a few pictures of Christopher and I for our anniversary.

The kissing shot is my favorite!!! It's my background on my phone and it makes me so happy to see if every day.

We got on the road around 3. Once we got back into town we picked up dinner and headed back to my house to watch a lifetime movie that was recorded on my dvr for a few weeks. Lifetime as been stepping it up on their movies. It was super intense. I definately recommend watching "Raising Ophelia". We did a little homework together and went to bed. We both had to be up early and at work by 7:30 am Monday morning.

It was a great weekend. It is always nice to be at home. Just 9 more months til I can move back for good. I'm so glad that Maggie came too. I feel like she has become such a natural member of my family.

Happy Anniversary

Today (well tonight actually) marks the anniversary of the day Chris and I started dating.

Chris and I had been friends for a few years before dating. We had even been on double dates before with other people. We talked in school. We actually both had little crushes on each other, but never spoke a word.

It wasn't until October 18, 2003 that everything came to light. It was the night of the homecoming dance in West Plains. My sister and I had opted not to go. We were out cruising town. (We are from a small town, so this is what we did for fun) Chris was also out cruising town. He was with his friend Anthony. We were on opposit routes. Chris and Anothony were leaving certain establishments when my sister and I were pulling in. Once while we were pulling into Sonic, my sister sees Anthony flip someone off. Stacie naturally thinks that it was directed at us. When we got back around to Auto Zone, Chris and Anthony had pulled over. My sister pulled in to give Anthony a piece of her mind. Come to find out, the gesture was not directed to us. We all talked for a few minutes and decided to hang out. They would ride around with us.

So, there I was sitting in the back of my sisters car, knowing that this was the moment. My heart was pounding not knowing if the person I wanted to get in the back of the car, would be getting in the back of the car with me. I was estactic when Chris jumped in the back with me. (I'm sure that I smiled the biggest smile) We hung out all night. Sometime during this time, we switched cars and were driving around in Chris's car. We had been dirt roading going all over the place. We stopped once at McDonalds for me a bathroom break (I have like the smallest bladder) I came back out from the bathroom. Chris was standing outside the car. I hopped on the hood of the car. He kissed me for the first time in that parking lot. For years, Chris and I would go back there and relive that moment.

The night went so fast. We had such a great time. When we were heading back to my sister's car, Chris leaned in to me, kissed me on the cheek, holding my hand and asked me if us hanging out was just that night or if he could call me the next day. I told him to call me the next day and he did. He has been calling me every day since. And now, here we are seven years later celebrating our last anniversary as an engaged couple.

It is hard to believe that we are here. We have been through so much over the years. We have dealt with good times, sad times, rough times and everything in between. We have been through 5 years of long distance while I go to school. We have been through the death of 4 grandparents. We have been to tons of weddings too. We have also seen tons of babies born. We have sort of been placed in the background while everyone has had their special moments. Next year will be our moment. For now though, we will celebrate one more year conquered together.

Christopher is everything that I could have ever asked for. He is so adorable and has the most amazing eyes. I get lost in those babies. He just makes me melt when he catches my eyes from across the room. He is so hard working. He will do anything to make sure that those most important to him are taking care of in any way possible. He is a family man. He loves his family and mine. He is always the helpful person. When someone needs something, they call him. He is amazing with kids and he will be a fantastic father when we decide we are ready to have our own. He is protective of me. He used to follow me home from any date I drove to so that he knew I made it back to my house. He checks me car every time that I leave town. He is always very cautious for everything me. He is amazingly supportative. He has been fantastic for me going to school. He has allowed me to follow my dreams. He is tough and doesn't show emotions easily. But in other ways, he is open and sharing with me. He is romantic in the best ways. He balances my craziness. He has his flaws, but he is the perfect match for me.

He loves me and I love him. I cannot wait to share the rest of my life with this fantastic person. Happy anniversary baby! Hope the next seven years turn out to be just as wonderful.

Here are a few pictures of our journey together