Good-bye 2010...............

First thing's first..............

Happy Birthday, Trevor!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 18th Birthday, Trevor!!!!!

I REALLY canNOT believe Trev is 18. I feel so old.

Now, to 2010............

I honestly canNOT believe the year is over. This is insane to me.

2010 has been an interesting year, for sure. So interesting that I can't really put into words how I feel about seeing it go.

I've learned alot, that's for sure. I've grown and changed, and yet stayed the same (it's a cliche for a reason!).

Quick review, shall we?.................

I went to St. Jude and gained some serious perspective.

I mailed my heart to Minne-friggin-sota and it didn't go so well.

I met Taylor Swift, Colbie Caillat, Tim McGraw, Little Big Town, Brooks & Dunn, Brad Paisley, and Lady Antebellum, plus a whole lot of lesser known people.

My brother has some scary things happen, but we all got through it and he's doing well.

I was there for the INSANE grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

I had some struggles with two close friends (also coworkers).

I attempted to play softball.

I had my first-ever Bloggy Weekend!!!

I turned 27.

I went on my first cruise!

I also set some goals for the last 2 1/2 months of the year. Now comes the time to review and confess.......

1) Complete the Couch 2 5K program - Um, no. I'm currently working on the J25K program, instead of the C25K. This Fall/Holiday Season was just way too insane. I'm still making progress, but I'm not completed.

2) Keep losing weight - I have!! I officially get weighed and measured in a week, so I don't know HOW much. However, I do know I weigh less than I did 2 1/2 months ago.

3) Reorganize - Still working on it! Again, the holidays aren't necessarily the best time to be doing a whole bunch of cleaning/reorganizing, but I've made MAJOR strides. My interns spent weeks teasing me because everytime they walked into my office, something was different. I'll call it a success-in-progress.

4) Be ok doing things alone - Also a work in progress, but I have taken a few opportunities to do things by myself. I'm gradually becoming more and more comfortable with it.

5) Volunteer at church - A big ole CHECK!!!!! I'm so excited by the things I've done in the past couple months. I even volunteered for something that didn't quite work out, but I'll count that as effort made. This Christmas, I did a lot of volunteering and loved it!

6) Stop thinking about men - That's right. I'm swearing off men for the rest of the year. As in, I'm done trying to flirt or "hang out" or over-analyzing every word, text, FB chat, etc, etc, etc. I'm done posting about The Guy or Fun Distraction or any other guy that comes my way. I'm done talking about them. I'm done whining about being single. Done, done, done. For the rest of 2010, I'm embracing the single and putting all thoughts/actions regarding the opposite sex out of my head. This may mean that on January 1st, you'll be getting a 50,000 word post about all of the above...... so, enjoy the two and a half month break :).

So, I left my explanation of #6 up there and I'm not making any confessions, just yet.

Marianne spent two and a half hours on the phone with me about this very thing, just a couple nights ago, lol.

Gina and I have had a couple powwows, too.

A couple of my "IRL" friends were my accountibility partners and cheered me on.

So, there is a post coming.

Until then, have a safe and Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

Candlelight Processional at EPCOT (12/6/10)

Through some awesomeness at work, I was able to get an invite to EPCOT's Candlelight Processional. My mom, Jeff, Ninny, and I chose to go a Monday night showing when Susan Lucci was reading (All My Children is a long-standing tradition in our family). Each night, they have different celebrities read the Christmas story, while local high school choirs and volunteers sing. My step-sister Megan sings there every year with her choir, but none of the choices we had included a night she was singing.

Out of all the times I've been to Disney and out of all the things I've done there, I'd never been to Candlelight. We were all really excited!!! However, it was extremely cold. As in, frigid. As in, Central Florida was under a hard freeze warning.

Ninny all bundled up.

Love this life-sized Gingerbread House....

Time for the show......

See these heaters at their feet? I'm telling you, it was FREEZING.

Love the ASL.....

So gorgeous..........

Susan Lucci did a great job reading out of Luke 2....... perfectly dramatic and full of wonder (I'm sure her years in soaps had nothing to do with it, lol).

Ninny and I even more bundled up.....

Mom and I.......

Thanksgiving Weekend: ICE!

We are turning ICE! into a tradition, of sorts, lol. The night before Megan and Bryan headed back home, we headed back to Orlando to Gaylord Palms.

This year's theme is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and it really was the best, yet! Previously, there hasn't been a set theme..... just fun scenes. However, the event led you through the whole story...... so much fun and just a perfect way to carry you through the wonderland.

All bundled up!!!!

A premonition into the next 20-30 minutes?

"Gecka...... I COLD!!!!"

Being stupid......

The slides were awesome, this year. We took Lydia down the kiddie slide. Only, about a 1/4 of the way down, she got stuck and was trying to turn around to crawl back up to me. At that point, she started sliding down again............ "Gecka, Gecka, Gecka!!!!!!!!"

We all went down the slides a couple times. By this point, Lydia was going, "No slide, no slide...... I COLD!!!!"

We decided to make it a quick run through of the rest of the event, because the poor baby's teeth were chattering (we bundled her up really well, I promise) and hugging her under our jackets wasn't working.

Mom, Lydia, and Jeff

My favorite part, every year...... the glass-like Nativity Scene.

Megan and Bryan

Trevor, Megan, me, and Megan

Happy about finding Rudolph (and much warmer!)

Not quite a fan of being stuck up there, but we couldn't pass up this photo op!

The Atrium...........

Thanksgiving Weekend: Holidays at Universal

Over Thanksgiving, Trevor's other sister and her husband stayed with us, from Buffalo. Megan is Mike's daughter from his first marriage............ we had a lot of fun with Megan and Bryan.

Since they were in town, we decided to make some fun happen. After stuffing ourselves with food, shopping ourselves silly on Black Friday, and crying over a Gator loss, we hopped in the car and headed to Orlando.

LOL...... Lydia hiked up her dress to try to get her seat belt.

Bryan and Megan don't catch very many waves in Buffalo.

Trevor and Megan in front of Mike's favorite car.

Traditional Universal shot...........

Lydia has NO clue who The Simpsons are, but she didn't care..... she still wanted to hug, kiss, and high-five, lol.

Cheeseball!!

Jeff and Lydia looking at the ducks.

Funny story alert:

So, Lydia sees this Frosty the Snowman and goes crazy for it. We asked the couple that had won it from playing games if we could take some pictures of her with it. (to be continued).....

..... Did you catch that? Yep, we ended up with Frosty, lol. About ten minutes after the Frosty photo op, the couple found us. They were flying back home and didn't really want to take it on a plane. They asked if we drove here and then gave Frosty to Lydia, to keep. Who says you can't get stuff with your good looks, lol?

The mandatory shark picture.....

"Dooby Doo!!!!!"

Lydia may not have known who The Simpsons are, but she looooovvvvveeesssss Dora. Not quite as much as Elmo and the Gang, but she does love her some Dora........

After we were done with Universal Studios, we walked over to Islands of Adventure.

Lydia and "Trebor"

She wasn't quite sure of Spiderman (awesome ride, btw).....

Lydia and Lauren

This picture accurately depicts Bryan's feelings on our paparazzi tendencies, lol.

The main event for us was Harry Potter land. No one but me had seen it, so everyone had a lot of fun trying everything out! The ride..... amazing!!!

We all obviously thought she was focusing on the castle, lol.

My first Butterbeer!!!!!........ Yum!!