My $1 Find

On Saturday I went out to the Summit Hill Neighbrhood garage sales with my friends Megan and Amanda and this is what I picked up for $1...

It's a Christmas tree topper!!! Our next Lady Balsam won't be naked on top anymore!

I thought it was perfect and it was actually my only purchase of the day. Amanda and Megan hit the motherload and filled up Amanda's van. They are seriously pros when it comes to garage sales.

I didn't realize it was in black and white when I took the first picture but I thought it looked pretty neat so I'm sharing it with you:)

One more Christmas DIY Project

Okay, I know Christmas was almost a month ago but we finally brought our tree out last night. Lady Balsam has been sitting, naked undecorated in our house since the day after Christmas but we just haven't had the time to take her out. Or we have just been really lazy. And truthfully it's probably the latter.

I did find a neat way to keep her memory alive though thanks to my favorite inspiration website Pinterest. I had Joe use his chainsaw to cut me off a piece of her trunk.

Then I took a permanent marker and went to work. It says "Our 1st Christmas Tree 2011"

And of course I put her name on the other side, "Lady Balsam"

I still need Joe to drill a little hole at the top so I can put a red ribbon through it to hang on our tree next year but it's already packed away in the Christmas box and put back downstairs. I'll get to that later:) Now, we'll always have a piece of our first Christmas tree together...literally.

Celebrating Christmas (Again...)

The sounds of my nephews playing, my sister's giggling, Mom cooking in the kitchen and stories being told by the men filled my ears this weekend. It was so enjoyable to be surrounded by my family all under one roof this weekend that it was hard to leave yesterday afternoon. Friday night everyone arrived - Mel, Nick, Andrea, Ted, Devin, Brody, Dan, Joe and myself. Of course the boys were excited that Crazy Uncle Joe was there, however, he ended up being sick all weekend and slept most of the time. My poor husband! He's still feeling under the weather but braved the elements for meals and opening gifts with the family. Devin told him that he was "Sick and Boring Uncle Joe" the whole time...haha.

We usually go sledding out on the hill but this year with the lack of snow we ended up going bowling. My brother has a wicked curve and beat us all although my Dad was right behind him. We all had a lot of fun and I hope it becomes a little family tradition. Next year, I'll bring my own ball!

We opened gifts, ate a ton of delicious food, played games and simply enjoyed being together. It has become one of my favorite weekends of the whole year. I'm a big family person if you couldn't tell. Before we headed out, Joe and I met his Mom at Bearaboo Coffee Shop where Kate now works. It was nice to catch up on the latest in the Shelerud household and see Kate hard at work.

Before I leave you with pictures from over the weekend, I have to let you all know. I start school today...well technically tomorrow because I have Mondays off. My syllabus for one class already is requiring me to read eight chapters and prepare for a quiz next Wednesday. That's ONE class and I have four others!!! If I don't post daily like I have been for the past many months, please forgive me. I'm going to try to find time to share new recipes, DIY projects and the latest in our life but I think it's going to get a little busy. I just can't believe I'm a "real" nursing student now, I've been waiting for this day since I started my first classes two years ago!! You can find me in the library from now on:)

Christmas 2011

What a wonderful weekend back home for Christmas! Joe and I headed up Friday afternoon and guess what they had up there....SNOW! We left a brown, snowless ground here at the house to find ourselves having a White Christmas and it was perfect.

We stayed with Joe's parents this year and were able to catch up with friends Friday night. Saturday we spent the majority of the day at my parent's house eating tons of food and even a game of "Hershey Kiss Lemonade Pong". Haha. That evening we went to his grandparents in Cromwell and went to the Christmas Eve service at their church.

Then at the Walli's...

Sunday we started with opening gifts at Joe's house, everyone got lots of goodies, then we made our way to the Shelerud Christmas at Joe's grandparent's house. We opened gifts and I even got in on a few games of Smear. If you know how to play the card game...then you are "in". We took a walk through Bentleyville and then Joe and I headed to my house to see my parents and Sadie.

Monday Joe and I spent some time at Spirit Mountain to get our ski legs working again because we leave for Colorado tomorrow!!! We fly out early tomorrow morning and celebrate New Year's in Glenwood Springs. We have plans to spend time on the slopes at both Breckenridge and Vail and Joe is about to burst with excitement. Every five minutes he goes..."I'm so excited for our trip!!" Seriously...every five minutes.

I will not be bringing my computer with, hey! I'm on vacation!!! so I won't post again until 2012! I wish you all a Happy New Year and may it be a year of blessings to you and your family!

On the 10th day of Christmas...(and 11th & 12th)

My true love gave to me...

An online Christmas card since we didn't send any out this year. We're already planning our picture for next year:) haha 

With Christmas Eve tomorrow and the main event on Sunday I will be away from the computer and spending time with family. I'm hoping you get to do the same.

Happy Birthday Jesus!! and a Merry Christmas to you all!

Love, the Sheleruds

On the 9th day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me...

A whole house humidifier...and I am NOT joking!!!

Joe broke the rules though. We were only going to give the bowling balls as our gift to each other since we're heading to Colorado for a little trip next week so he clearly did not get the memo. He did phrase it as it was something for the both of us for the house and it wasn't a necessarily a Christmas gift. He said he didn't tell me about it because he thought it would be funny if he wrapped it up and gave it to me to open.

Well, I was definitely surprised. I tore off the wrapping paper and all I could see was that he ordered it from Amazon. Then I opened that box only to find another unlabeled box inside. The suspense was starting to get to me. When I opened final box my first words were... "I don't want a fricken humidifier! Now I know how my Mom felt when she got the frying pan!!!!!!" I'm serious...that's exactly what I said. You see, I'm not very good at saying the right thing sometimes. The first words out of my mouth when Joe asked me to marry him were "Are you serious?!". Clearly, I know the appropriate ways to respond.

In all seriousness though, this "gift" is much needed for our house. Every time we go to turn on/off a light switch, get off the couch or touch anything we get shocked. And sometimes those shocks hurt! The air in our house is very dry and Joe said this humidifier will work wonders for us! I can't wait for him to install it so I can actually have my hair not stand on end when I get up from the couch. And Joe, I hope you know I am going to tell people that my very first Christmas gift from you as your wife was a humidifier. :)

Lastly, I couldn't leave Swervo without getting my picture sitting at John Lennon's piano in my boss's office. It's true...this is the real deal! And I did tickle the ivories a bit too with an original tune of mine haha! Shh...don't tell the boss. No one is to go near it!



On the 8th day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me you...

A year in review from the Shelerud Couple:

January - Joe and I were back at it, hitting the books and spending most of our Saturdays in the library. Hello Spring Semester.

February - Celebrated my 25th birthday.Where's my wrinkle cream!? 

March - Knocked off several things on the "Wedding To Do List" such as invites, our registry, picked out flowers, lost my mind.

April - 3 Hole Punch took 3rd place in the league.

May - I was showered with three bridal showers in one weekend! Joe and I brought home a lot of goodies for the house that weekend:)

June - Joe and I both had our Bachelor/Bachelorette parties. I spent the day at the lake and Joe hit the golf course with the boys.

July - We tied the knot on July 23rd!!!

August - After the wedding we headed to Canada for our honeymoon and the Shelerudings blog began it's journey.

September - Enjoyed spending Labor Day weekend with family at the Shelerud Cabin. 

October - A month filled with a new sewing machine, a family wedding, Halloween and a whole lot of randomness.

November - I started my new job as a nursing assistant.

December - Joe was promoted to Senior Operation Engineer and we will be celebrating his 26th birthday on the 29th in Colorado!!

There you have it! 2011 proved to be a busy but wonderful year for Joe and I. We were blessed in many areas of our life and are grateful for everything!

In other news, the past two days I've been training in my replacement here at work. Tomorrow is my last day and it really hasn't hit me yet that when I walk out of here at 5:30pm, I won't be coming back as an employee. It's been a great three years...I was able to have my quarter-life crisis and figure out what I truly wanted to be when I grew up. I was able to plan our wedding, work on my pre-req's for the nursing program and even take a few more classes to lighten my load once I start. I've worked with three amazing ladies who I consider my friends and I can't wait to meet them for lunch once in awhile to catch up on life. I am sad to leave this place but looking forward to the next season in my life.

On the 7th day of Christmas...

My true love gave to me...

A Christmas Card DIY Project!!! Finally....my creative juices were flowing again! At least for five minutes.

Every year we get many Christmas cards from family and friends and we really don't have a good place to put them out on display for all to see. After cruising through my new favorite website a jolt of inspiration hit me like a train and I have this to show for it:

I had some silvery, snowflake ribbon, bought some clothespins and hung them up on our cupboards! I like it...no, I love it! Joe and Sadie liked it too:)

Look, I officially made the Shelerud Christmas card (bottom left corner of the picture)!

Then in all my homemakerness (five points to me for a made up word)...I made the traditional almond bark pretzels. Yum.

In more holiday news, Joe and I receieved our gifts to each other in the mail the other day. We're going to show the bowling alley who's boss with our new balls!!! That's what she said.

Joe: The bowling dominator!!

Me: The one who raises our handicap score!! haha

It's just so pretty...

In other news, I got an A in my Pathophysiology class. Booya!