Until Next Time...

SAYONARA to the Christmas clutter!  The next time I dig this stuff out, I'll be settled in a new home in my warm, sunny, beautiful hometown in Arizona surrounded by beautiful mountains and desert.  ahhhhhh....  I wasn't just excited for the new year to begin, I was ELATED!!!   After living away from home for 10 years, we're finally moving back to AZ this summer and we couldn't be more excited.  It's taking all of my willpower not to pack up the whole house, along with the Christmas crap, and load up a moving truck right now!!  {aaaakkk}

...but anyway...I can't get myself too worked up...I need to exercise control.  I do have six months left to enjoy the most beautiful place in the world.

My baby...my pride and joy...my beautiful Advent Calendar...being packed away into storage.  On account of the crazy toddler living amongst us, I can't really use the pockets, but it was fun to hang this up and admire it for a few weeks.  It has been my MOST fun project so far!  {you really should make one...}

Do you really have to go back into storage?  Yes, little friend, you do.  Because if we see you all of the time, we'll get bored of you.  {sigh}  We never want to get bored of you.

Until next time, my little lovey...

Down, down, down it all goes.  Did I mention that I had everything down, cleaned up, and back to normal BEFORE the New Year even struck?!  It's not that I didn't enjoy having Christmas splendor all around me...but I have been SO ready for 2011 to end and I thought that maybe I could speed up time a little bit by un-decorating quickly.  

Do you know what it's like to clean / un-decorate, and organize a fairly large space with a baby chimpanzee running around creating chaos and confusion?  I can honestly say that I do.  I do know what that is like.  

You can almost feel her chaotic energy through all of the debris.

I don't even have to tell you what's going on here.  You can see it.  She's challenging me here.  Can you believe that?!  Can you see that on her face?!  Blatantly challenging me.  

But then she turns on that whole 'cute face' garbage and I just cuddle and love on her like some kind of gullible fool.  I am her fool! 

 {but oh how I love, love, love that little precious, face with snot and dried food on it! kissykissykissy}

ahhhh.....normal again.  Feels good.  And what could be better to offset the horrifically depressing winter blahs than a precious little lemon tree?!  It's precious!!!  

  {cute story about this...}  So last year I was hunting and hunting for a dwarf lemon tree, but to no avail.  I began my hunt too late in the season {rats!} and couldn't stand the thought of paying $75 for the tree plus shipping from like Georgia or somewhere down that way.  Anyhoo--my BFF Kadie has this really cool, supernatural power of finding the most random, specific objects at yard sales...and after hearing me blab on and on about how bad I want to find a dwarf lemon tree, she finds THIS LITTLE BABY....at a yard sale....for $1.00.  {WHA'?!}  I told you.  supernatural.

You CAN buy happiness - and for me it was a $1.00 lemon tree!  I wake up in the morning, look at my precious little lemon tree (it's fake, but don't tell my kids...) and feel joy, energy, and excitement coursing through my veins! Okay, it's not that dramatic, but I sure do feel joyful and happy when I look at it.  Even a little bit sunny....

And now, with not even a shred of Christmas left behind, I feel renewed hope that I can get through this winter without going insane.  Light is visible through the end of my long tunnel, and I'm so happy about that!

...and....I know what you're thinking, and yes - I moved all of Brooke's toys and junk over to a different space so as to keep my living room as bare as humanly possible.  I LOVE it.  Clean, bright, and no clutter.  yesssssss.