Happy New Year's!!

Well, here are the pictures from New Years. (you'll have to wait for pictures from Christmas since they are on my parent's camera.) We decided not to do the traditional New Year's Eve activities of hanging out and playing games all night while eating delicious appetizer and snacky foods all night. So we did something different and went out to eat. We dined at the Green Gateau, where I swear they served raspberry topping instead of raspberry vinaigrette on my salad. Otherwise, the food was enjoyable.

Victory and I then headed to the blockbuster downtown to see if we could find a Doris Day movie to watch. And just so you know, the only blockbuster in town that is supposed to have old movies, doesn't even have one Doris Day movie. We ended up watching a Kerry Grant movie, "War Bride". Funny.

We still had an hour or so to kill so we played Guestures. All I can say is, "Wow!" The two times my family has played that game in the last year, my dad has been the star of the show. It's quite hilarious to watch him frantically act out the words. The last time we played, one of the words was fire hydrant. What did my dad do? He lifted up his leg like a dog. Hilarious. This year, it was hurdles. That was so funny that Stephanie went into a laughing fit-to the point we were afraid she would go into pre-term labor.

And for the crowning event of the evening, my dad and Jeff did a balloon drop. They used the holes in the walls from our wedding to string a huge bag of balloons. It was an awesome New Year’s Eve.

Ice Skating!!

To start off the Christmas break Victory and I went Ice Skating. There was a very enchanting, small, outdoor ice rink in Omaha that looked like it belonged in the North Pole. It was a cold evening but it was worth it. Afterwards we took a walk along a beautifully lit path. As we were walking a horse pulled carriage drove by on the brick road. It was just like the movies! I loved it!

And if you observe that I'm looking a little chunky in the picture it's only becasue I have several layers on top, Victory's under armor (which wasn't terribly too big), t-shirt, a hoody and then my coat and scarf . I also have three layers on the bottom as well, a pair of long johns, sweat pants and then my jeans. I can't quite remember, I may even have three pairs of socks on to. I like to stay warm what can I say? And I did, all except my face. By the time we finished ice skating my face was frozen and I could barely move my mouth to speak.

Thought that this was neat...

Day of Faith: Personal Quests for a Purpose - 3. Rachel Esplin from Harvard Hillel on Vimeo.

I love Christmas Breaks!

Sorry for taking a break. I really didn't want to have to do too much with the computer during the Christmas break....which by the way was wonderful! I could use a break like that every four months. It was a sad sad day today when I had to wake up before seven to get ready to go to work. But I also know that I am very lucky because I know there a lot of people who didnt' get to have such a long break without having to work at all for a week and a half.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that the Haines are still a live and sadly getting back to everday life. We'll post some pictures of Christmas and New Year's later. We hope you were able to enjoy the holidays!

Schoooool's......out.......for WINTER!

I figured that even though Alissa just wrote on here and today school got cancelled (LPS anyway), I've got time this morning so I can write a little something. Because of the bad ice storm last night I got a call at 6am this morning telling me that Lincoln public schools is closed so my last day as a mentor was officially yesterday. I don't know if I get paid for today but I hope so. The worse part about it was that I couldn't go back to sleep after the phone call. Poor Alissa, since it is the last day of finals week the university sent an email out that they weren't going to close so she had to go to work. So while Alissa continues to work until just before christmas, I'm beginning my three weeks off until I start my student teaching on January 12th. Then till May I'll be teaching the whole time without getting paid a cent for it. We'll be living off of sugar momma so in case I don't say it enough, Alissa I am very grateful for your working to support us! You do so much! Thank you! Hopefully it won't be too much longer and we can get to the point where you don't need to work.

So after Alissa found out I had the day off, I offered to make her waffles for breakfast but she said no, so while she was in the shower I decided I'd get to work scraping her car for her. It took me about a half an hour to get the inch thick ice off of the windows enough to see for driving. Then I drove her to work so that she didn't have to park and walk on the ice. Down below are pictures of my car still covered (on the right) and then Alissa's car Molly as a finished product from the scraping.

Last night was fun making cookies and decorating them. Doesn't everyone agree that the cookies on the left look better?! Come on, the blue buttons, green pants, and red hair?! Brilliant! I think the goatee provides more personality.

PS. I figured we better not leave out the picture I took of Alissa. Hope you love it.

Christmas Cookies

Victory and I are doing an advant calendar this year and hopefully the tradition will continue. Anyway, we didn't just put candy in the calendar but we occasionally put in activities. Yesterday's activity was to make cookies. So we made sugar cookies! After I saw Victory's first cookie that he made I was kinda of nervous for his taste in decorating cookies but he quickly improved and I think out did me. What do you think? Oh, by the way, his christmas tree has a go-tee. As well as his little man. Silly husband of mine. <3

It's beginning to look a lot like Christams....

I'm starting to feel like a slacker because I haven't posted for two weeks now. Victory and I are just hanging out and enjoying life. We hit the six month mark at the end of November. Yay for us! We appropriately celebrated by going to a friend's wedding reception where we remembered our special day.

I just have to make a special note, that last weekend we went roller skating. I love roller skating, I always have. There is nothing like gliding by with the wind in your hair. MMMmm I love it! And I love that I have a wonderful husband who is such a great sport about it. I had a past boyfriend who came with me but sat on the bench the whole time claiming to have weak ankles. Can we say "WHIMP"? (I guess that wasn't very nice...I'll give him credit of even coming with me.) However, that experience made truly appreciate having a husband who will enjoy this favorite pastime with me.

Here are some pictures of Victory and I's first Christmas Tree Shopping.

This is us in the car before we ventured out to the tree farm. I'm super excited. I love getting Christmas trees!

Me amongst all the lynched trees. We were to big of whimps to go out in the woods to cut down our own. So we bought a pre-cut tree.

Our tree fits in the trunk of my car! Oh Little tree, oh Little tree!

Note to self: Never string popcorn and cranberries ever again unless you've got plenty of helpers. We were stringing popocorn and craberries for what seemed like hours...oh wait it was hours and hours!

I'm excited for the Christmas season, I hope you are all enjoying the festivities of the season as well!