Cat's out of the bag! My Secret Santa?? Shanna!

The "Evil Eight", as Dusty donned us, held a Secret Santa exchange, 

and the wonderful Shanna drew my name.  

We used Draw Names to facilitate all the secret'ness, 

and to complete our Wish Lists.  Here was mine:  

"I dig arrows, lip gloss, rad Etsy goods, and my latest obsession: subway art".

what you see below, 

my gift from Shanna,

made me squeal.

seriously.

see for yourself! 

I betcha you would've squealed too! 

one of my very, very, VERY favorite quotes.
and nooo!  It wasn't in my house yet!
I am so thrilled that it is now.

this is where the squealing started,
just look at those!! aren't they darling??!
I am particularly partial to that bracelet.
Love, at first sight.

seriously, did I score, or did I score!!?  Check it against the wish list:  Check.  Check.  Check.  CHECK.  Shanna, you nailed my ENTIRE "Wish List" and I would have chosen every single thing myself, I just loved it all!  [The ELF gloss is awesome too, if you haven't tried it, get yourself some next time you are at Target.  I forgot how much I love the consistency of it!] Thank you Shanna, so much!!  I literally have worn the bracelet every single day since opening it.  For Reals?  Yep.  Just verified.  It's on my wrist, right now. Thank you, again, mama!  I love it, love you, and love all of these girls that I've been so fortunate to get to know over the past year.  You guuurls.. you be the bomb.  Love you.

via
don't worry, I haven't had some transformation this past month.
I didn't realllly go run.  ;)

Well dang, it feels good to be back, back blogging!!  I'm not totally sure why and when I lost the urge in December, but I did indeed lose the urge to blog.  We were busy.   Holiday parties, T's birthday party, then flu hit the household, and then I just wanted to do.. nothing.   Nothing, except for hang out, and have 100% attention on the real time, real life interactions around me.  And, bottom line is, the waking hours I have to spend with Rhett and Tristen are very very few.  That reality + anything extra in the mix = Not enough time, and there was a lot of extra in the mix in December.  And so I quit blogging for a bit.  It was a needed break, but I've missed the outlet that blogging gives me, and I need somewhere to put the two thousand and three photos I took over the recent holiday!!  [don't worry, pinky swear, I won't put them all on here.  Just highlights.]

and there is another thing.. something that I highly doubt anyone really cares about, but I need to say, for me:

It's been harder and harder for me to be a contributing part of the blog community.  I've had some changes at work, and the demands on my desk have resulted in no time to sneak in blog reads here and there during the day.  Which, if I'm being honest - I shouldn't have been doing, anyway.  :)  Between no more blog reading during the day + no computers during family hours + squeezing my own blogging into a new, smaller time slot .. I am not keeping up on blog reading/commenting/community.  And rather than letting the guilt keep growing on my shoulders, I just need to put it out there, to all the girls that I truly consider friends and I enjoy reading and keeping up with, that I'm sorry I'm not coming by as often, I love you, and though it'll be sporadic, I'll be by, cause I miss reading/seeing what you are up to!  There. Phew!  Sometimes, even if you know no one really cares, and even if you feel a little stupid for saying it, sometimes, just saying it, feels good. :)

Now!  I have some major post catching up to do!  Which will happen over the next week or so.. Tristen's Amazing Birthday Race post is still pending [it was a TOTAL SUCCESS], and there are lots of holiday recaps that I want to make sure are documented forever.   I'll be intermixing the posts with real time stuff too, cause one of my favorite things is browsing through my posts and smiling at all the memories.  I don't want to leave anything out. :)