Z Sisterz Update - 12.5.2011

Hi all. So I was hoping you would allow me a slight deviation from the "normal" sister post.  My update includes a few more pictures than usual, mostly because this is the only time I ever update our blog, so I feel an obligation to include just a little extra.  

Also, all of you should join instagram on your iPhones and let me follow you and/or follow me.  I post a lot of photos.  Annee and CZ already bit the bullet.  My username is rachelzf.  Do it! 

Now, on to the rest of the show!  

Rachel

Last Week:

• Ordered the table clothes for the ward party after much discussion amongst the old ladies.  In the end, a great Cyber Monday sale meant ordering fabric clothes was the same price as plastic and red can be used for many holidays.  In case you're curious, this is my decor inspiration. 
• Did laundry, put lights on the tree and decorations around the house (fireplace DVD included), finished an ethics exam for Virginia that I've been meaning to take FOREVER.
  
  
• Got a lot of the tiny nagging to-dos crossed off my list at work.  Thank goodness!  Also, Steve got an email from an recruiter at Intuit inviting him to explore career opportunities.  Wouldn't that be hilarious?!
• VTing meetup at McDonalds.  Their hot chocolate is actually quite good.
• Wednesday Ken put up the lights and garland outside our apartment.  I met with the decoration ladies for 2 hours at the church to plan.
• Wednesday we got some disappointing news about the job Ken is waiting to start.  The bid protest will not be resolved until March.  What do we do now?
• Thursday I FINALLY moved my iPhone onto PwC's network and ditched my blackberry for good.  
• Did not eat a single treat or carb all week.  Rough.  
• Walked/ran 1 mile each day per Darin's challenge (Run 1 mile per day each day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Surprisingly hard!). Sometimes this meant bundling up for an 11pm stroll.
• Last possible visit to Anthropologie for price adjustment refunds.  Did some light Christmas shopping with Ken around the mall.  All his Christmas dreams came trust at the See's cart.  Bought poinsettias at Home Depot for the house.  Watched the BYU game.
• Crashed the other ward's xmas party to scope out their decor.  They took down all the overhead wires we were planning to use for the lights and lanterns we want to string overhead!!!  Ahh how annoying!  More work for us now.
• The Hot Chocolate race turned out to be quite a disaster due to poor organization which you can read about here. 
• On Sunday I was super depressed because I never got a shipping notification about the paper lanterns I ordered from a store in CA.  This meant they would not arrive in time for the party and there was no plan B.  So I slept all afternoon.
• CZ came to pick up her couch, it was mostly nice for her to come visit.  I convinced her to get more Christmas decor.  Your holidays are only as good as you actively make them!!  
• We moved the rocking chair and white chair over to the spot where the couch was.  Ken says our apartment has much better feng shui and he's right.  It's sad to see the couch go but really for the best.  Gotta go visit CZ's place now.
  

  

  Before & After-ish.  Still gotta tweak the area.

• Sunday night we went to the Stake music concert and the First Presidency message.  It was very lovely.  A small group of kids sang a Christmas song, they must be in DC's equivalent of the group my friends were in (Los Angeles Children's Chorus) because those kids sounded amazing.  It made me really want to go to a children's chorus Christmas concert.  Nothing quite like that sound.
  

  

  Christmas Devotional matching outfits.  Yesss.

This Week:

• Craft the cranberry topiaries I've been meaning to complete.
  
  
• Finally sew up the Christmas light wreath I started forever ago.  In my defense, I'm out of thread.
• RS Christmas dinner on Tuesday night. (Although today is actually Tuesday and I feel so sick and blah that I think I'll pass on this tonight.  Plus I can't eat any cookies soooo what's the point)
• I'm working on a new project at work which requires me to send work to our processing center in India.  Wednesday, I have a call with them at 7:30am.  Yeeeaahh....
• Thursday is the Mobile Discovery event at work where I can learn all about the international opportunities I'll never actually get to do.  Cool.
• Thursday night is major go-time at the chapel.  The 75 red paper lanterns have arrived safely  !!  Crisis averted!  Can I have my Sunday back?
• Friday is a client meeting in Baltimore.  On the way home I think I'll stop at the floral wholesale place to buy carnations.  I want to make a couple carnation wreaths for the Christmas party.  Or maybe this will get cut from the list.
• Friday is the PwC Xmas party.  Exciting!
• Saturday = go time.  Ward party.  I hope we don't disappoint!
• Our Christmas cards should arrive on Saturday.  Remember how I started that process in September?  Yeah, me too. 
  
  
  

 ANNEE

 Last Week:

• Took the entire week off from work!  I turned a job down on Monday because I just needed a day to recover.  On Friday, I simply forgot that I had scheduled myself to work a half day.  That was not my finest moment as a substitute teacher.  My friends at the school promise they will forgive me my first major blunder!  Anyway, that's how I accomplished not working at all last week!
• Honestly I should have a huge list of all the other amazing things I did.  But I just kind of don't.  There was some return to running.  There was quite a bit of work done on some Christmas presents.  There were two lunch days.  A shopping date.  A volunteer morning.  A doctor's appointment.  A shopping trip to enjoy my last hoorah with the Anthro 40% sale.  But that's kind of it.
• Saturday was nuts!  I thought it was going to be awesome and we were all going to be sleeping in and taking it easy.  But it was about as opposite to that as it could have been.  There were THREE service projects that all or parts of our family participated in.  There was food to prepare and bring to the church.  Presents to wrap.  Basketball practices.  Trips to the stores.  It was insane.  When I hit the pillow at 1am last night, I wondered if I could have been anymore tired.
• Sunday afternoon, as per my picture, Darin and I took the ladies to their first live performance of The Nutcracker.  It was delightful.  I hope it's a new tradition.

This week:

• Working Monday-Thursday.  It's going to be intense.
• GET A CHRISTMAS TREE.  Might not happen until Thursday.  That's real sad.  But, we do have all of our other decorations out and about, so the house is mostly festive.  I miss the tree though.
• Darin's in finals week.  That means he's gone totally nuts.  We're leaving him alone until next Monday.  Expect on Thursday night when I must insist he take his family to get a Christmas tree!
• Buy a Christmas present!  What's my plan?!!  Seriously.
• Host the Primary Teacher Appreciation Open House here at our house, next Sunday night.
• I'm tired already.  Whatever.

IE LI

Last Week:

• Stephen had his four-year-old check-up.  
• We finally got lights up on the Christmas tree.  We started decorating it with ornaments, but we still have more to do.
• We started our Christmas book advent.  The kids are loving it.
• I hung our stockings and our new mitten garland.  They look very sweet.
• I ran on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
• Got a quote from a fourth furnace salesman.  We're still not quite sure what to do about replacing our furnace.  But I'm sick of salesmen.
• Ward Christmas party.
• Sunday dinner with friends.

This Week:

• Relief Society Christmas party.
• Exercise.
• Work Christmas party.
• Steve's out of town until Friday.  I'll be plenty busy.

 SARAH

Last week(s):

• Made it up to the Anthro sale on Thursday - thanks to Mom for watching H&J for the day. Found a few good "transitional" pieces, and some great xmas gifts
• Got Christmas decor 75% up. Tree still needs lights & ornaments. Can't seem to get myself to put up the last few things, but it'd be nice to get the boxes out of the entry hall
• Brenden stayed home from school 4 days last week. I took him to the dr hoping for a strep diagnosis but he said it was just a cold. It was tenacious and by the end of the week he was so bored  he was begging to get back to school.
  
• Met Courtney's cute new baby Erin and heard her crazy unassisted-delivery story. I think she's going to blog about it this week. She is crazy. And kind of brave.
• Spoke to the YW in the ward about being a "working woman". Interesting lesson and hard to know exactly how to pitch it to them.
  

This week:

• Host one of the RS mini-Christmas dinners (rather than a big dinner at the church, they divide up the sisters to go to individual homes to have a more personal experience). I guess this will force me to finish putting Christmas stuff up.
  
• Major Christmas shopping week. I need to make some serious progress here. I have Kelsea coming twice a week for the month of December to help facilitate this.
• Sort through the maternity clothes. It's time to make some serious cuts in this collection. Speak up if there's something you remember caring about.
  
• Maybe I should do goodie plates for the neighbors this week? I've already given up on Christmas cards this year, so I think I can handle the goodies. Maybe next week.
• This doesn't sound like a very ambitious list. What else should I do?

CHRISTINE

Last Couple Weeks:

• Enjoyed Thanksgiving and all the surrounding activities with family.  Didn't so much enjoy working Black Friday but I guess it's an experience to have.  I was surprised how many people ended up showing up for our early hours and Black Friday deals, it definitely got pretty crazy in there. 
• Studied as much as I could in between the work and family time, but probably not nearly as much as I should've.  Took the first part of my CPA exam last Wednesday, now I'm just waiting to hear back on if I passed or not.  It's really hard to tell how anything went coming out of it.  
• Continued to not have a whole lot of work to do at the office.  I'm definitely taking full advantage of all the self-study trainings that PwC has to offer.  
• Had dinner with Melissa at the new Cafe Rio in Falls Church.  It's so close to my place, I'm thrilled about it.  
• Finally picked up my couch from Rachel and Ken's place (sorry!) and started somewhat furnishing our downstairs family room.  
• Had some friends over for dessert Sunday night with the roommates. 

This Week:

• Get on a better sleep schedule.
• Start studying for my next CPA exam.  
• Find time to get some sort of exercise. 
• Go to Utah Wednesday-Friday for a recruiting event.
• Come back to DC in time for our work Christmas party, I'm actually really excited for this.
• Spend Saturday in Philadelphia with friends seeing the sites and going to a concert that night. 

Ana is tending 2 sick kids this week so she gets a pass!