Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone! I thought about sending out cute little Christmas cards like my sisters did, but 1. Gabe and I are so good looking we didn't want other people to be jealous (I'm kidding..kind of :)) 2. I was to lazy and never did anything in time. So the 2nd one is more accurate. But we do want to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to everyone. We drove to Dallas last night and then the rest of the way to my in-laws today. Normally it is an okay drive to Gabe's sisters in Dallas it's just five hours. It took us over 6. Right as we were leaving Gabe said he wasn't feeling well. Of course in my wisdom I said lets go home and drive it all the next day. Of course men don't listen and he said he was fine. Just when we were far enough away that turning back didn't make since, we had to pull the car over so Gabe could throw up on the side of the highway. Let me premise with the fact that I had been sick all week so I wasn't feeling up to driving, and driving at night on highways is a fear on mine. So with a sick husband I had to suck up my pounding head and fears and drive the rest of the way stopping at various restaurants and pull offs for Gabe. We finally made it and both had a horrible nights rest keeping each other up with our different aliments. But we made it to Tyler today and we are both feeling better. It is great to be with family. I will miss being with my parents and siblings this year, but it is always a wonderful time here with the Eyerlys. I am lucking to have 2 wonderful families. I'm sure this week will be filled with a lot of fun, food, and video games (for the boys).
I hope everyone gets to all their destinations this Christmas safely! Yay for Christmas and Yay for the True reason we celebrate Christmas; Christ. I am so grateful for the blessings in my life that come from the Savior.

More Elfs

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Dance Dance

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Dance Dance

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The Gambler in Me

Last night we had an appreciation dinner for the Rec Center at Mr Gattis, it's like Chuckie Cheese, but for grown ups too. Well they gave us all like five tokens, I used all of mine on that light game; where the light goes around and you have to stop it right in front of you in the bonus thing. I was always so close, just one off. Plus I have won this game before, so knowing that it could be done, I just couldn't stop. Five tokens is like nothing, luckily I have a husband who enjoys games more than me and he bought a whole pocket full of tokens. Boy did that light game make me mad, I was so close eventually I just had to walk away. I found a new game I might like even better. A ball spins around a wheel and you have to guess what color it is going to end on. If you guess right you get a large amount of tickets, the smaller the color section the more tickets. I did pretty well. In all I think I ended up with a little over a thousand tickets. It was fun, and I got some sweet, cheap prizes that I could of bought at a dollar store. But it was worth it! I'm just glad we don't gamble because Gabe and I would probably be broke.

The Perfect Tree

Gabe won't let us do anything Christmas related until after Thanksgiving, so last night we went out and found our Christmas Tree. Jonathan, Casi, and Chris Talbert came along for the festivities. I got out all my Christmas decorations and we decorated the tree and drank hot chocolate. It was just like a little Christmas movie. I can't believe it is already Christmas time. Here are a few of my favorite Holiday things.
1. Celebrating Christs birth
2. Spending time with Friends and Family
3. Christmas Movies (I love all the cheesy ones especially)
4. Christmas Music (Yeah for my James Taylor Christmas CD)
5. Christmas Candy and Treats
6. How nice and giving everyone is around Christmas

No more Turkey or Jello

Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Mine was very good. Gabe and I stayed here and had two families over for dinner the Ripplingers and Talberts. It was so nice to just relax and not have much to do. I made my first turkey. It only took about 4 calls to my mom in the process. In the end I think it came out pretty good. Gabe has been eating it for the last four day so I guess its good. Everyone brought so much delicious food, I think I was full before I had even tried every thing. We had a ton of turkey left, a whole bowl of jello and a whole pan of another kind of jello salad. Gabe has done a good job in finishing it all off though. I haven't had to cook for a while(not that I cook ever though) but at least I know Gabe has had food to eat. We went to the Texas Tech game on Saturday, thank goodness we won. It made sitting in the cold wind worth it. Now its back to normal life. It was nice sleeping in and lounging around, but I guess I'm ready to be productive again I still wish I could sleep in though.

Carpet Disaster

Last night after a long day at work--then teaching 2 hours of aerobics, followed by grocery shopping at 3 different stores for all our Thanksgiving needs I came home expecting to to relax for a few hours before having to go to bed. Before I sat down I decided I would just vacuum the living room really quick so I could relax in a nice clean house. I went into our spare room got the vacuum and wheeled it into the living room and began to vacuum away. Aren't vacuums suppose to clean the mess instead of make more of a mess? I noticed all these bluish black spots on the carpet, a trail all the way from the spare room. Don't know exactly what it is but something got sucked up in the vacuum and was leaking all over the floor. I think maybe a pen, don't know. Of course I start freaking out and Gabe is trying to calm me down. Water is not working to get it out nor another cleaner we had. I found some carpet upholstery cleaner, and luckily that and a lot of scrubbing did the trick. So instead of relaxing I spent the next hour and half scrubbing my carpet by hand. What a night. I think I got most of it out, but now I know I am going to drive Gabe crazy constantly asking him if he can still see the spots. I probably will always be glancing down wandering if I missed one. Lets just say Gabe and I both ate ice cream for dinner, no way I was going to expend the energy and cook. I guess I'll be putting a new vacuum on my Christmas list, unless Gabe can fix it ( Christmas it is!).

What a bad Football weekend!

Well Saturday morning I woke up all excited for the day Saturday night I went to bed not so excited. Two games played both ending in dissapointment. The Cougars held on to a ray of hope for the first half but then it just slipped further and further away. And my Texas Tech Red Raiders never really had a chance. I like football and its fun to be wrapped up in excitment in a game or a season, when we lose, I'm sad, but life goes on. There are those who can't let it go though. I understand it is your team or whatever but why must we bad mouth coaches, players, or whoever. No one is perfect and someone has to lose. I wish it wasn't my teams but life goes on and there is always next year Right? I'll still be a Cougar and Raider fan no matter what!

More Pictures from Utah

A few more pictures from my trip. My parents are renting a house in Ceder Hills and it was such a beautiful area. Right up by the mountains. I do miss the beautiful mountain every now and then, just not the snow that comes down this time of year. I still have about an inch on Preston. It is going to be so weird to one day look up at him. One of the reasons why we went to Utah was for Gabe's brother, Wade's wedding to our now sister in law Kelly. It was a beautiful ceremony and reception and Kelly is wonderful and they seem really happy. We wish them best. I just love the Salt Lake Temple it is so beautiful and when I think about all the saints who worked for so long and hard to build it I am in awe on how they accomplished it. I already miss my family and wish I lived around them so I could see them more often.

A few weeks ago, I was able to go out and spend a week in Utah before I started my new job. It was so much fun. I hadn't seen my mom or little brother in over a year. I had soo much fun with my family, especially my adorable twin nephews Jordan and Parker. We got to spend some time downtown Salt Lake which really fun, and it was so beautiful with all the fall colors. I have a cute video of Jordan and Parker playing with a ball!

A Sad Day

It was a few weeks ago, but Gabe and I went to the TCU game. It was fun even though it was a horrible game. We had a great time with family and Algot. We got to celebrate Isabelle's birthday. We have the cutest nieces and nephews. And Gabe is so fun to watch with the kids.

Happy Belated Halloween

I haven't updated in a while and I have a lot of pictures and fun things to share. I will do some back tracking later on this week.

I love Halloween and Gabe and I had a great one this year. We both dressed in our costumes to work at the Rec center. I was Hannah Montana and Gabe was Billy Ray Cyrus. It was fun. That night we had a party at our house and some of our friends also dressed up. We played games, including bobbing for apple in a bucket with dry ice. And then we watched a movie with a projector on our wall. It was lots of fun, but I ate way too much candy and snacks. The only sad thing is we didnt get many trick or treaters. I need to start thinking about what I am going to be next year. If you have any suggestions let me know.

Practice What you Preach

Everyone who knows me knows I love to exercise, and I work in the fitness and wellness industry, but I am progressively declining in my eating habits. I don't eat enough of the good foods, and way too much junk. I try to justify it with the phrase "I'll burn it off when I work out later", but I know I need to be eating healthier not for weight purposes but for overall health and prevention reasons. Its so hard to eat good with lack of time and funds, to buy and prepare healthy foods. This Sunday I am giving a lesson in church about Healthy Eating Habits, so what better time to make a change in my own habits. A great website that I love, is www.mypyramid.gov . Now this is my tax dollars going to good use. It is all free too. There is a My pyramid plan, you type in your info and it tells you how much you need of everything. There is the menu plan where you type in your info then search for the foods you will eat and it subtracts it from what you need. And also a tracker where you can find what you already ate to see how well you are doing. It is really great you can even print off sheets to right it down and track it that way. There is also a great section for kids.

I know it all sounds great in theory but actually doing it is the hard part. But think about how much you (I'm really telling myself this) surf the net each day; just spend 30 min and plan out the next day or week. I need to change my habits now especially before the holiday season when temptations grow stronger. So if anyone would like to join me, we can all share recipes and healthy tips (because I need help)! Here's to a Change for a Healthier Life!

Election Annoyances

I have had the opportunity to watch a lot of news the past 6 months, because at my job I have TVs all around, and the older generation doesn't seem to want to vary too much besides fox news or CNN. I am so tired of the election, it makes me not want to vote at all, I will though because I know it is important. Why is it all about what the other guy does wrong or won't do, or who he once meet 30 years ago. The answer to the question What will you do about the economy? is well so and so has no experience, they voted against such and such bill. They basically would suck at being President. I'm not a genius but that didn't answer the question at all. Everyone says thats Politics, but I just which kindness, respect, and over all positiveness ( if that is even a word) was more a part of our government, our citizens, our daily lives.

One other huge frustration of mine is the lack of respect for our President. I am not a political scholar, I don't know a lot about the in's and out's of the government. But I do believe that as an American Citizen I should respect the President of this country. That doesn't mean I have to agree with everything he says or does. But the lack of respect so many people have for the President disgusts me sometimes. I'm sure when the Founding Fathers wrote the amendments, freedom of speech and press, they could have never imagined what limits people would push that to one day.
I love the 13th article of Faith, I wish that these principles where more evident in the world around us.

"We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. "

YEAH!!

I got a new job today!! I will be the Fitness and Wellness Coordinator at the Texas Tech Rec Center. I love working with the older people, but this job will be more challenging, more fun, more money and more interaction with people my own age. I am so excited because this means I also get to go to Utah for a week before I start. I am just really nervous about telling my boss I am leaving. I'm having anxiety over it. I hate disappointing people or feeling like I let someone down. So I guess I just have to suck it up and do it. I'm scared though!

A Creative Idea

I have been wanting to display our Europe pictures on this big wall above our couch and just hadn't found a great way to do it. Picture frames are expensive and I didn't want the wall to have a lot of thick wood frames on it. So I went to walmart and looked around and came up with a cheap idea that I think turned out pretty neat. I bought mirror tiles. They were like 9 dollars for 6 and I bought little jewels from the scrap booking department. I used double sided tape and just put 3 pictures on each tile leaving mirror space and placed the little jewels in the corners. This way I can always change out the pictures and it looks very modern on the wall. Again I would like to thank HGTV for my creative ispiration.

Rain Rain and More Rain

Well even though we live in Lubbock far away from the gulf coast we are still getting a lot of the hurricane rain. Yesterday it poured all day long, and Lubbock doesn't have any drainage system in the roads or anywhere so all the streets were flooded, and some closed and even some houses have received flood damage. Our house is fine but our car smell because water is somehow soaking the backseat floors. The Mayor declared a state of emergency last night and all the school where cancelled for today even Texas Tech. Hopefully I gave Gabe enough chores to do to keep him busy. The roads seemed to be okay this morning, but they say more rain is on the way. My in laws live in southeast Texas and they say that everything is shut down in preparation for the Hurricane. I pray for all those people out there, I would hate to leave my home and not know what I would be coming back to. It seems like Hurricanes are happining more often, after one hits another one is forming. I would love to live by the beach, but I don't know if I could deal with knowing that hurricane could come and wipe away my home. I guess any where you live you are in danger from some natural disaster whether it be a hurricane, tornado, earthquake. You never know these days. It is definately a good reminder that the scriptures are true and that theys are the last days and I need to prepare and heed the counsel of the Prophets and get my food storage and 72 hour kits ready. I'm totally lost when it comes to that. I'm not sure if I even know what goes in the 72 hour kit. I guess I should have paid more attention in Relief Society. If anyone has any good suggestions let me know.

Gabe's true Beauty

I found this website on a friends blog where you can upload your photo and find out what celebrities you like. I was pretty excited when I looked like some pretty women. So I decided to see who Gabe looked, maybe Brad Pitt, Freddie Prince Jr, David Beckham. Nope some old guy with a double chin. I LOVE YOU Gabe you don't look like him.......... a lot anyway.

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Blank family tree - Roots

Celebrity Collage by MyHeritage

MyHeritage: Celebrity Collage - Family heritage - Family tree diagram

I still love him though

I sympathize with all mothers out there who have, had or will have a teenager who won't get out of bed in the morning. I don't have one my self, just a husband who in many ways still acts like one. I love Gabe to death and one of the things that most attracted me to him was his youthful personality. I didn't however know that I would be the mother figure every morning nagging him out of bed. And then checking back every 10 minutes to make sure he really did get out of bed. We are late almost every Sunday for Church, of course I contribute to this a lot of times, but every week I could probably get ready faster if I didn't have to drag Gabe out of bed. Its like pulling teeth getting this boy up. Yet this morning his alarm went off at 5:00 or so and he was up and out the door before I knew it. What you might ask got him up and out so early? Work? Chores (yeah right)? Making me breakfast in bed?( he did though make me breakfast later) No he woke up at 5 to go and play basketball with the missionaries. Basketball no problem, church, getting me to work on time well that's another story. He also wanted to make sure he was up in time to watch the Olympic Basketball game on T.V. Last Saturday he even got up early to watch a basketball game. Too bad they can't play basketball before church starts; we would never be late. Probably not the best way to start off the Sabbath though. I guess I'll have to result to the old tricks like throwing cold water on him, ripping the covers of him and tipping the over the mattress.

How old do I look?

I work with a lot of older people, and many times I hear that I look to young to work there, that I look like I am still in high school and when they find out that I am married I have to constantly remind them that I am 24. Just the other day I had my hair in braids and a lady told me I looked like I was 10. Now I am know that most people don't mean it to be rude. But come on I'm a grown women and don't need people telling me I look like a child all the time. Here are few crazy things people have said to me in the past. Some times people just need to think before they speak.

My sister Lindsay and I, Lachelle and Preston all went to a fast food place once, I think I was 19 or so. As we were looking over the counter at all the toppings to put on our burrito the girl at the counter ( who was probably 16) was like "Okay who brought you all here because I know none of you are old enough to drive."

My junior year or so at BYU yes college. I was walking to to one of my classes book bag and all on my back. Some guy came up behind me and asked me what High School I went to.

On the plane to Ohio to get married. Gabe and I sat in the emergency row and the Lady came up to me and said I'm sorry you have to be older than 15 to sit here. (This pretty much happens every time I fly)

Two summers ago Gabe and I lived in an apartment complex in Ohio. They had a club house with a pool table. My brother preston and I were playing some pool, not being loud at all. The office lady came up to me and very rudely said. "Excuse me where are your parents, they need to be with you to be in here." I was like I live here with my husband. Then to try and cover it up she was like oh you look so young I'm sorry. I get that all the time too. (yeah right)

There have been many other stories too, but I can't really think of them at the moment. I know my sisters get it too and have some great stories of their own. Every one at work is always telling me how cute and little and young I look. Sometimes it would just be nice to treated a little bit more grown up. I did just turn 24. Like they all say I guess I'll appreciate it when I get older.

One Year Older, Hopefully Wiser, Definately not Taller

Well Saturday was my Birthday and it was a lot of fun. I wish everyday was my birthday because Gabe does what I want to do. We went swimming in the morning which was fun and relaxing, then came home and picked up the house a little. We went out for dinner with a group of friends and then had everyone come back to our house for games. It was a lot of fun. The best part of the day was having all my friends and family call me. I loved talking to everyone especially all my friends that I don't see anymore. Here or some pictures of my fun day, minus me in a swim suite.














This is Gabe with a Fo-Hawk, Since it was my day I got to tell him how to wear his hair. It made me laugh.














We went to a restaurant called Zuchini's, it has a great salad bar. Clayton, Ashley, Jeff and Karris joined us!














I made my own Ice Cream Cake. We didn't have any candles so one big one did the trick. It had a cookie crust and an Oreo cream cheese chocolate layer in the middle. It was amazing. I should start a cake company.














The Cake was so frozen that a chunk of the knife broke off in the cake while Gabe was cutting it. We let him have that piece. He survived.













We all played games including Mario cart, and buzz word... The boys might of beat us girls in buzz word, but one day we will rematch them and win. I am studying the cards.













The Bakers are so fun!!














Taylor is my favorite. He is so much fun. The first time he came over after about one minute he asked to go somewhere else, but then we told him we had cookies and since then he loves our house.