What I'm Loving Wednesday!

I'm loving/loved seeing Black Swan!

Saw it last night and it was so intense. If you are into psychological thrillers I would definitely recommend it.

I'm loving that we are getting our house appraised this week so we  can move forward with our refinance. We chose a 15 year loan so we can knock some major principle off, which will help us down the road when we choose to sell.

I'm loving Netflix!

Hubs and I have been watching Netflix through our Wii and we have been having fun spending time together and watching hub's favorite (and my new favorite) show, 24. We are on season 3 so far!

What are you loving this week?

What's your sign?

Saw a few different funny/cool/exciting things in the news recently.

Verizon is getting the iPhone 4! I'm mostly just happy for Verizon, because I'm a loyal Verizon customer and I thought Apple was pretty lame for only using AT&T, but I might be too chicken to try the iPhone. I LOVE my CrackBlackberry. Anyone else made the switch to an iPhone from a different type of smart phone? I wouldn't want to pay full price for the iPhone (my contract isn't up for awhile) and then turns out I don't like it.

 

Apparently, all the zodiac signs have changed because of the tilt of the earth and I'm no longer a Virgo, but now a Leo. I feel a little betrayed for some reason. I've always been a Virgo and now they (whoever "they" are) go and change the whole sign chart.  Go here to check out if your sign has changed as well. Let me say, I've never believed for a second in astrology, but I thought it was kinda crazy how they can just up and change it.

The beautiful (and future princess) Kate Middleton attended a wedding this past weekend and now people are calling it a scandal because of, get this, what she wore to the wedding. There was the whole conversation about whether or not it was ok she wore black to a wedding, whether she was even wearing a bra, and, *gasp*, a plunging neckline! I think she looked gorgeous, as always.

Got to love crazy new stories.

Top Two Tuesday: Strange Addictions

1. I am ADDICTED to the Gems game on my Blackberry!

The only problem is that hubs is addicted too! We take turns playing levels and we are both pretty good at it. If one of us is every bored, you will find us playing this game.

2. Multi-tasking the computer and television

I'm doing this right now! My attention span has become so short that sometimes I will get antsy if I'm watching TV without being on my laptop at the same time.  Its so bad. I play on the computer (mostly blog reading) and listen to the TV. I can watch a whole episode of a show without even looking at it too much. This is just proof that our society is too "wired." We depend on technology so much that we can't focus on one thing, which is, I believe, the cause of my strange addiction.

Share your strange addictions over at Taylor's blog!

1-1-11

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Wishing you the happiest of New Years from the Oakes family

Goodbye 2010: A Year in Review

Wow, can you believe this year is over already?

Its been a good year for the Oakes family this year. After all, we started our family in April of this year.

We welcomed a new member to the family in June:

Started looking for a new home in July, only to decide to stay in our current home. Yes we are full of drama around here.

In October we did a major decluttering of our home in our (then) effort to sell our house. We might have decided to call the whole thing off, but let me tell you, decluttering is something you will never regret.

And then before we knew it Christmas was here! Our first married Christmas, and let me tell you, hubs blew it out of the park in the present department:

Sorry bad quality. Its actually my right hand I wear it on, my Mac flipped it backwards when I took the pic

He knew I loved the Princess Diana/Kate ring and I'm in love with this princess inspired ring.

And so tonight we will watch our Gamecocks play in the Chick-Fil-A bowl and then ring in 2011 with the family. Can't wait!

What was the best part about your 2010??

See you next year!

Quote of the Day

Last night, among my other usual internet surfing, I ended up doing a little New Year's Resolutions research. My "research" consisted of going to good-ole-google and typing in "how to find something you're passionate about." Yes, I'm clearly having a little trouble dealing with my resolutions this year.

But I found this great quote:

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it" -Julia Child

So I've determined that finding a passion can be as easy (or not) as choosing a topic, activity, whatever, and becoming interested in it. Learn all you can about it, become a self professed amateur-professional.

Sounds easy, right? I'm telling myself that anyway.

What are you passionate about? How did you become so?

Top Two Tuesday: New Year's Resolutions

These resolutions have been something I've been giving a lot of thought to. Its the same every year for me (and I'm sure I'm not alone); you have these great ideas and plans that sound so wonderful but are just downright hard to pull off and stick to. This year I'm hoping to complete a few goals that are on a bigger scale and more of a "whole year" goal, rather than a "right now" goal.


1. Find something I'm passionate about

For years I've always struggled with never really having a hobby. There are things I like to do of course, but I've always put more of my time and energy into my friends, school, work, whatever; and less time on something that I enjoy just for me. I'm thinking it maybe could be photography (I've been eying all of the DSLR cameras out there) or who knows what else. I've always been so jealous of my husband -his "thing" is fishing. He goes to the lake whenever he can and he will tell you he isn't the best at it but it just makes him happy. Its my goal to try some new things this year and find something that I can do every once and awhile that will bring me joy.

2. Making a point of remembering birthdays

This past year was a doozie in this department for me. I've got 8 new nieces and nephews, and countless new in-laws whose birthdays passed without me having any clue. Its not such a big deal for the adults, but I would really like to remember to send a card or small gift anytime one of the kids has a birthday.

What are your resolutions this year? Go on over to Taylor's blog to share your top two!